The Beginner's Guide to Zen Buddhism by Jean Smith

Author:Jean Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780307421821
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-18T05:00:00+00:00

The land now known as Vietnam, a finger-shaped country in Indochina along the South China Sea, has been subject to incursions of many sorts throughout its history. Writing, literature, political practices, religion, and armies came, entered, and conquered—for a while. In the southern part of the country, the Indian influence, including Theravada Buddhism, was pervasive until the fifteenth century, when powerful northern people, heavily affected by Chinese culture, began to dominate it.

The Chinese influence in northern Vietnam had begun in ancient times, when that area was considered little more than a Chinese province. During the Tang dynasty in China (581–907), rulers united China and promoted throughout their country and their empire a form of Buddhism/Confucianism that was widespread in Vietnam until that country achieved independence in the tenth century. Although several Chinese schools of Buddhism took hold in Vietnam, Thien—Vietnam’s version of Ch’an—has been the strongest. Despite protracted civil conflict and disastrous wars involving France and the United States, Vietnamese Buddhism has waned but has not been extinguished. Today an estimated 80 percent of the population is Buddhist.

The Thien monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who lives in exile in France, has gained worldwide attention as an advocate of “engaged Buddhism” (see chapter 9) and has become a model of social action for Zen Buddhists.

CHINA TO KOREA

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.