Start.
Cao Đài religion appeared when the Vietnamese society had to
undergo lots of great changes after thousands of years of strong Chinese
cultural influence. The first contact with Western civilization brought by the
French was overwhelming in every aspect. In a situation of struggle, half
wanting to hold on to tradition and half wanting to follow the new things, the
Vietnamese have spent a lot of time adapting to the new rhythm of life. Cao Đài
religion satisfied the Southern scholars by giving them both of these things.
Many authors have discussed these two aspects, so in this
article I would like to emphasize the new points.
The Supreme Being teaches about the custom of offering rice.
First, I would like to present this excerpt from Cao Đài
divine messages.
Monday, 27-12-1926 (lunar 23-11-Year of the Tiger).
JADE EMPEROR or THE CAO ĐÀI PREACHER IN THE SOUTH.
...
Mr Lê Văn Lịch wanted to ask
if he could offer rice to his late father.
The Supreme Being answered:
Yes, you could. (Laughing . . . )
If I can decide, I will teach
you not to make any offerings because the deceased never enjoy worldly things.
Don’t call it offerings, but
throw a party instead.
...
(Caodaist History II)
For a long time, there has
been an opinion that the deceased’s world is the same as that of the living. In
China and scores of Asian countries, it is believed that the divine realm also
has an administrative agency like the royal court and that souls also eat,
drink and possess wealth like subjects on earth.
Therefore, everyone tries
their best to build a large tomb, bringing with them as much money as possible.
On a death anniversary or funeral, the deceased are invited to enjoy food and
drink. Paper money, cardboard cars, and effigies of servants are burned to send
to them. This custom of burning votive paper has a profound influence in
Vietnam. The largest burning of votive paper in Vietnam in the early 20th
century was during the funeral of King Khải Định, when the Huế court burned the
entire Kiến Trung palace made of large paper and many of the king's belongings
such as the royal couplets, chariot and palanquin. (Excerpt from Wikipedia
2024).
Back to the holy words
mentioned above, Mr. Lê Văn Lịch, a Minh Sư monk who was later awarded the
title of Đầu Sư Ngọc Lịch Nguyệt in the Cao Đài religion, asked for permission
to offer food to his late father. As seen, the Supreme Being replied yes, but
further explained that the deceased cannot have earthly food. Thus, he should
use the word feast, meaning to invite living relatives. In conclusion, offering
rice is not a Cao Đài ritual, but an existing custom of the Vietnamese people.
However, the Supreme Being
only said very gently without rejecting it outright and added that He did not
come to correct the religion. He means past customs are acceptable, but we
Caodaists should clearly understand the meaning without blindly following
existing customs. This is an example of the Supreme Being's humility when
preaching that it may take us Caodaists hundreds of lifetimes to follow.
A death anniversary in the
South of Vietnam.
Perhaps, since the Supreme Being
spoke gently like a father teaching his children, today, we believers do not
see it as important and still offer rice according to old customs. Not only
that, those who are well-off offer larger meals on death anniversary days. They
even invite relatives, neighbors, colleagues, and local officials to attend,
drink and sing karaoke noisily for two or three days. Of course, people have
the right to do so if they have plenty of money because it is also useful in
social interactions. Nevertheless, Cao Đài followers should understand that
this is a real-life custom, not Cao Đài Exotericism, so it is of no benefit to
the soul.
The Buddha Mother teaches that rituals are only human fantasies.
Next, please view an excerpt from the holy words of Diêu Trì
Kim Mẫu (Jade Pond Mother), whom Cao Đài followers still affectionately call
Mother.
The seance in the Holy Temple, 9/1/Year of the Pig/
(31-1-1947). (After the Supreme Being left, the Budda Mother descended).
JADE POND MOTHER
...
God, Buddha and the Holy Spirit do not require any offerings.
Since you don't know how to show respect for divine beings, you temporarily use
ceremonies. However, ultimately you just show off and indulge in worldly
habits. You children know what religion is, so I don't say much. You’d better think about it. The
Immortals, Buddhas and Divine Beings only use a pure mind, faith and devotion,
which is a precious gift to offer”.
...
(Thánh Ngôn Sưu Tập III - Hiền Tài Nguyễn Văn Hồng - Đức Nguyên).
From the teachings of the Buddha Mother, several important
things can be deduced. First, Our Lady taught, "God, Buddha and the Holy
Spirit do not require any offerings." After all, rituals are created by us
humans, not forced by any divine beings. As we can see, each ethnic group has its
own rituals that reflect its ethnic character and it is impossible to say which
ritual is correct. In Cao Đài religion, although deities taught how to perform
some rituals, most of which are based on Vietnamese customs and traditions.
Most of rituals were compiled by the Caodaist Sacerdotal Council and then amended by divine
beings through seances.
His Holiness Hộ Pháp’s tomb.
All of these rituals are classified as Exotericism by His
Holiness Hộ Pháp. Cao Đài Exotericism is a collection of customs, beliefs and
culture of the Vietnamese Southerners with the help of the divine beings. It is
both a symbol of the Cao Đài community
and a metaphor for its doctrine, not the truth. Thus, if a fellow
believer performs exoteric practices differently than the Caodaist Sacerdotal
Council’s regulations, we should gently correct it and if they refuse, we
should happily ignore it. Just practicing a few movements incorrectly is not
enough to make us forget that our Teacher, Mother and other divine beings have
painstakingly taught that we should get along with our brothers.
Furthermore, the Caodaist Canonical Codes records, "If
any law is against human life, they (the Đầu Sư) can request that it be
abolished." Consequently, Exotericism is
not immutable, but can be amended depending on people's living conditions as
long as it has the approval of the Caodaist Sacerdotal Council. There is no
perfect law that does not need to be amended, including Heavenly Law. Surely we
still remember the holy words of Lục Nương Diêu Trì Cung (the Sixth Buddha Lady), "In the morning, I received the good news. Ngọc Hư is planning
to change the Dharma. All the Heavenly
Laws will be destroyed and the true Dharma will be amended." (Seance in Phạm Môn,
February 12, 1934, on December 29, Year of the Rooster).
To add a closer example, in the past, everyone had to kneel
the entire ceremony in the Holy Temple, but now they have been allowed to
change to sitting cross-legged. Currently, there have been no orders from the
Caodaist Sacerdotal Council allowing that, so in the Holy Houses, it depends on
the local administrators. However, obviously a mixture of kneeling and sitting
will not show enough dignity, so perhaps we followers will have to switch to
sitting sooner or later. This will help older believers or those with bone and
joint diseases have more opportunities to come to the Temple to worship. This
cannot be called an incorrect ritual, but just a transformation of the
Exotericism to suit living beings. In Esoteric Practice, believers still pay
homage to the Supreme Being.
Not to mention that now the religion has spread abroad,
cultural differences such as burning incense, worshiping on the first and
fifteenth day of the lunar month or chanting prayers in Vietnamese are waiting
for the Caodaist Sacerdotal Council to adjust to suit the activities of
European and American people. In America alone, many problems make it difficult
to evangelize. For example, for homosexuals, our Hoán Đàn ritual only mentions
men and women, not other genders. Could it be that at that time, those people sit still and
wait? In America, this is sexism and organizations that look down on gay people
will be boycotted.
Some Caodaist hardliners say, “Foreigners who want to
follow the Cao Đài religion must learn Vietnamese and follow Vietnamese customs
because the Vietnamese are the chosen ethnic group in this third period. We
don’t care whoever doesn't follow. Just let them follow evil!” I do not
think this argument sounds consistent with the Cao Đài’s policy of universal
salvation through Love and Justice at all!
Second, we mortals have gone to extremes in ritual without
even realizing it. As Our Lady taught, “Since you don't know how to show
respect for divine beings, you temporarily use ceremonies. However, ultimately
you just show off and indulge in worldly habits”. Temporary use implies
that we will change to something better if there is one. However, in reality,
lots of people abuse the ritual to show off for their own satisfaction.
According to worldly habits, offering much money and building
a bigger pagoda brings more blessings, so people
compete to perform more rituals than their fellow believers.
If my friend bows once, I bow ten times; if my friend visits one temple, I
visit ten temples; If he puts one coin into the merit box, I will put ten
coins. We do not know that it is impossible to quantify the Exotericism in the
way of counting money. Worshiping at one time with all your heart will have
more merit than worshiping at four times but just lip-syncing to the sutras,
hoping it will be done soon. Donating a can of rice that you personally gleaned
in the fields is still more precious than a ton of rice obtained by smuggling.
The Rat mudra of Caodaism.
And third, we usually make the wrong offerings. Our Lady
taught, “The Immortals, Buddhas and Divine Beings only use a pure mind,
faith and devotion, which is a precious gift to offer". Normally,
having performed the Rat mudra correctly, bowed the prescribed number of times,
recited enough divine names, and chanted enough sutras, we think we have
completed the task.
No, that’s not right. All the Exotericism is to help us calm
our minds, that is, not to think about other random things in real life. In
this way, we can show our sincere respect for them. Only by offering a calm
mind is the ceremony truly meaningful. If you make offerings while thinking
about how much you have to charge someone tomorrow or worrying about counting
whether the person kneeling next to you has given enough twelve nods, then your
mind is not pure.
In short, the divine beings need us to think gently, clearly
and honestly during rituals. In fact, our physical
actions do not bring any benefit to the spiritual world. Hence, don't consider
those rituals so important that you keep arguing that doing this is right and
doing that is wrong, but forget that the core of the ritual is to sincerely
offer your pure thoughts to the gods. In fact, there have been places (name
withheld) where believers argued about how to perform the ceremony and then got
too angry to go to the Temple anymore!
Not only that, but it must also be demonstrated in daily life
to be completely religious. There will be no merit if you fully worship and
perform correct Exotericism, but always viciously criticize others as
"heretics" or "evil followers". We have forgotten one
thing, Cao Đài teaches that the Devil is now the Great Immortal Golden Light
Envoy, a judge of the Long Hoa Judgement and has no less power than the Supreme
Being. Thus, strictly speaking, we must respect and be grateful to the people
we call "heretics" because they are Great Immortals, the examiners of
our morality exam.
The Eighth Buddha Lady teaches about women’s periods.
Next, please listen to the story of Giáo Sư Hương Hồ. Her
real name is Huỳnh Thị Hồ, daughter of Mrs. Đầu Sư Hương Thanh (Lâm Ngọc Thanh)
and Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Xây. Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Thơ (Đầu Sư Thái Thơ Thanh) is the next
husband of Ms. Lâm Ngọc Thanh.
The Temple of the Jade Pond Divine Mother, Tây Ninh Holy See.
One day Giáo Sư Hương Hồ did not worship at an seance. In the next seance,
when asked why, she replied that she had not dared to come because she had had
her period, which made her body dirty. The Eighth Buddha Lady gave her the
following poem:
Mortals’ bodies are
definitely dirty,
But menstruation never harms
your soul.
Love between men and women is
natural
Like duckweed multiplies well
in water.
The Creator is like an
excellent engineer,
Who forms all mortals’
bodies.
He never thinks poorly of what
he’s created.
Whether it’s pure or not
depends on your imagination.
* Bát Nương Diêu Trì Cung
(Đại Đạo Bí Sử - Hiền Tài Trần Văn Rạng)
Let me rewrite it in Vietnamese prose for better
comprehension. Of course, a human body is dirty, but that does not mean
menstruation is incompatible with the soul. The relationship between men and
women is a natural thing of heaven and earth. When they meet each other, they
combine like duckweed meets water. God is like a very good worker. It was He
who created the human body. Therefore, He does not criticize what He created.
In fact, purity or impurity are just what the worldly people think of.
This is a very radical viewpoint compared to the time when
the Cao Đài religion was just established. At that time, disrespect for women
was transmitted from China and deeply ingrained in the minds of the Vietnamese.
Women were not allowed to go to
school, to take exams to become mandarins, to inherit as much wealth as
brothers nor to learn heritage professions. And more blatantly, the whole
society believed that women were useless and dirty because they had their
periods. Ironically, those who advocate this, if they become king, will first
married as many women as possible, meaning they collect all the impurity of the
world as their own! Even today, Asian countries, often less civilized than
Western countries, still look down on women more than Europeans and Americans.
Returning to the poem of the Eighth Buddha Lady, this is an idea that fits very well with modern
science. Obviously, the human body, both male and female, is a perfect creation
of the Supreme Being. Today's science still does not fully understand the
functions of human organs. Women's menstruation is a sign of healthy activity
of the extremely sophisticated human reproductive system. Menstruation is not
dirty, only people who do not know how to keep it clean are dirty and
susceptible to disease.
The ISS, International Space Station.
Furthermore, scientifically speaking, cleanliness according
to ancient people's thinking today only has relative value. For example, on the
ISS space station, since it is not possible to store much water, people use
machines to filter wastewater and astronauts' urine for reuse. The water from
this purifier is even cleaner than drinking water in some places on the ground.
In short, it is impossible to judge the body's natural phenomena as clean or
dirty. We ourselves must keep our bodies clean so that activities such as
menstruation, sweating, blood circulation, etc. can take place smoothly.
The Eighth Buddha Lady teaches how to examine an issue
( 9/1/1952 ). Mediums: Thừa-Sử Phước, Luật-sự Nhung.
Participants:
Luật-Sự Tỹ, Du, Hưỡng.
THE EIGHTH BUDDHA LADY
..
“Whenever you need to learn
something, you must use all your intelligence to judge and consider all
possible reasons. After that, reflect on the reasons you have found. Then find
an immutable reason within that. Once you have clearly identified it, you must
find the question yourself to criticize the reason you have found. When you
clearly realize that it cannot be criticized anymore, then that argument is
correct."
…
(Luật Tam Thể - Hiền Tài Trần
Văn Rạng sưu tầm)
In this paragraph, the most notable word is the word trích điểm
(trích =
criticism, blame; điểm = careful examination).
It can be shortened to the point that the Eighth Buddha Lady teaches us to
examine an issue with logic. Then ask ourselves critical questions about the
arguments we have found. If our argument is not sound, it is considered invalid.
We have to find another argument and then continue to criticize until we cannot
criticize anymore. Then use that argument.
In fact, in the 50s, Her teachings were a great revolution in
education. Students at that time had to consider the contents of the Four Books
and Five Classics as absolutely correct. It is disrespectful to ancestors to
ask such
critical questions. It is satisfactory to mainly
memorize and repeat without any errors what you have been taught.
Now, nearly a century later, Her teachings are relevant to
the modern education. Western educators all agree that students must be taught
how to think critically. Armed with this way of thinking, people can be
creative and inventive. Now schools in the United States are leading this
movement. And my personal opinion is that Cao Đài followers really need this
way of studying. Studying the Dharma does not mean memorizing and understanding
all the scriptures. It requires further thinking at a high level to have
moments of enlightenment.
However, to follow the Eighth Buddha Lady's teachings,
especially when studying or preaching, it is necessary to have two
prerequisites. First, we Caodaists must learn how to reason to avoid fallacy,
which is giving a false argument to prove ourselves right. Fallacies are
unacceptable nowadays. Currently, most of our believers are not equipped with
the correct ways of reasoning, so people criticize us for only knowing
one-sided dogmas. Second, we must remain absolutely objective. That means when
criticizing ourselves, don't ignore any small mistakes.
To put it bluntly, we still have not been able to do what the
Eighth Lady taught above for a century. What we do best today is going around
praising ourselves and criticizing people who have different opinions than
ours. To be honest, those paths only lead to conflict, not enlightenment. Well,
we will perhaps have to wait a few hundred more years for the Thần Thông Nhơn
(Magic Race) to spread Caodaism for us!
Conclusion.
Thus, the divine beings not only teach philosophy but also
carefully teach us Cao Đài followers various issues such as religion (parts 1
and 2), science (part 3) and education (part 4). That is why we must read The
Collection of Divine Messages again and again and elevate our thinking. Please
also apply the Eighth Lady's learning style when reading scriptures. Moreover,
it is important to read scriptures of other religions to escape the village
well, where we look up and see that the sky is just a small rice sieve.
* Từ Chơn.
Sài Gòn June 11 2024.
