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Serving
Students at
Santa Ana
College and
Santiago
Canyon College
VIETNAM
Religion
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Religion
55% Buddhism
majority (Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada Buddhism)
45% Other
including Christian (predominantly Roman Catholic), Taoism, Confucianism,
Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Islam, Hinduism, Muslim, Protestant, indigenous beliefs,
and animism minorities
The spiritual
life of the Vietnamese people has been shaped by four major religions:
Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity. These religions
have melded with popular Chinese beliefs and ancient Vietnamese animism
to form what is known as Tam Giao (or `Triple Religion').
Buddhism
Historically,
most Vietnamese have identified themselves with Buddhism, which originated
in what is now southern Nepal around 530 B.C. as an offshoot of Hinduism.
Its founder was Gautama, a prince who bridled at the formalism of Hinduism
as it was being interpreted by the priestly caste of Brahmans. Gautama
spent years meditating and wandering as an ascetic until he discovered
the path of enlightenment to nirvana, the world of endless serenity in
which one is freed from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. According
to Buddhist thought, human salvation lies in discovering the "four noble
truths"--that man is born to suffer in successive lives, that the cause
of this suffering is man's craving for earthly pleasures and possessions,
that the suffering ceases upon his deliverance from this craving, and that
he achieves this deliverance by following "the noble eightfold path."
The foundation
of the Buddhist concept of morality and right behavior, the eightfold path,
consists of right views, or sincerity in leading a religious life; right
intention, or honesty in judgment; right speech, or sincerity in speech;
right conduct, or sincerity in work; right livelihood, or sincerity in
making a living; right effort, or sincerity in aspiration; right mindfulness,
or sincerity in memory; and right concentration, or sincerity in meditation.
Buddhism
spread first from China to Vietnam's Red River Delta region in approximately
the second century A.D., and then from India to the southern Mekong Delta
area at some time between the third and the sixth centuries. The Chinese
version, Mahayana Buddhism, became the faith of most Vietnamese, whereas
the Indian version, Theravada (or Hinayana) Buddhism, was confined mostly
to the southern delta region. The doctrinal distinction between the two
consists of their differing views of Gautama Buddha: the Mahayana school
teaches that Gautama was only one of many "enlightened ones" manifesting
the fundamental divine power of the universe; the Theravada school teaches
that Gautama was the one-and-only enlightened one and the great teacher,
but that he was not divine. The Mahayana sect holds further that laypersons
can attain nirvana, whereas the Theravada school believes that only ordained
monks
and nuns
can do so.
Links
to More Information
Buddhism
in Vietnam
Eastern
Religions: Confucius
Who
is Confucius?
Buddhism
.
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