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Vietnam's Buddhist Education system in Light of its heritage and Recent development

Ven. Dr. Minh Thành

Abstract: The valiant revival of Vietnam's Buddhist education system (VBES) since 1984 reflects remarkably well on the Vietnam Buddhist community's tradition and ability of self-sufficiency. But the VBES still finds itself lagging both the national and international education sectors in terms of the capacity, quality and modernity of its services. The author suggests the Vietnam Buddhist community would do well to further acknowledge its own contributions to both the nation and the world beyond, and, conversely, seek and embrace more opportunities for outside collaboration and investment aimed at accelerating the development of the VBES in line with both Vietnam's socio-economic goals and Buddhism's ideals.

Vietnam's Buddhist community, its Sangha, has inherited much from the history of the Buddhist education system in Vietnam. Of this heritage, the most prestigious examples are Van Hanh University (VHU), Hue Nghiem Higher School of Buddhist Studies (HNHSBS) and the historical achievements of their graduates, many of whom are now leaders of today's Vietnam Sangha.

In the minds of many of today's Sangha leaders, their days at VHU/HNHSBS remain a cherished memory and a source of pride they celebrate among their best experiences. In fact, it would not be too presumptuous to say that, in some ways at least, the former VHU may be seen as an ideal which today's Vietnam Buddhist University (VBU) is consciously striving to revive.

For almost a decade before the historic 1975, VHU provided facilities and faculties for several departments offering higher education in the natural and social sciences. VHU's students came from all over the South of Vietnam and were accepted without regard to social status, occupation, gender, ethnicity or race, or even their religious affiliation.

So significant were the roles of VHU and HNHSBS in the general education of Vietnam's peoples that it is even sometimes suggested that a commemorative study seminar should be held to recover artifacts and knowledge from VHU's past, similar to the seminars held recently to honor and learn from the glorious year over which the renowned Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc school[1] graced Vietnam's educational and cultural advancement before French invaders closed it down over a century ago.

We study our history not only to avoid its mistakes but also to help us envision the best ways to proceed. Or, as Confucius put it, "Study the past if you would divine the future."

After the Vietnam war, Vietnam Sangha, like the rest of Vietnam's, was left with few significant educational facilities or equipment of any kind and Buddhist education here went through almost a decade of stagnancy. Yet the Sangha’s educational services to Vietnamese Buddhists still managed to revive themselves and even to establish a flourishing Higher School of Buddhist Studies (HSBS) which became today's VBU.

The early successes of the HSBS inspired and supported the establishment of several other Buddhist schools throughout Vietnam, each providing basic or higher levels of spiritual, ethical, and academic study. And, over the next two decades, a robust, nationwide net of Buddhist educational institutions developed under the guidance of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha’s Committee for the Education of Monks and Nuns. Given the economic constraints at the time, that was far from an insignificant achievement. 

But many aspects of the Buddhist education system in Vietnam still lag the pace at which Vietnamese society has developed as its markets and trade have opened to the world. In particular, the technological and economic quality of its facilities, equipment and teaching resources remain sadly inadequate relative to both the rest of the nation's educational institutions and those of the world's more advanced nations.

Recent graduates of the Buddhist education system, including its most outstanding, have bitter-sweet memories of their years with the system. Most succeeded thanks mainly to their extra-ordinary devotion and spiritual strength. And many suggest Vietnam's Buddhist education system could still substantially benefit from greater investment, particularly in a core set of goals:

Instructors with more research or teaching experience or formal training in international standards,

Better screening of both entrants and graduates, based on criteria more open, stable and transparent, as well as more consistent with national and international standards, and last but certainly not least,

More capacious libraries, auditoriums, classrooms, laboratories, gymnasiums, dormitories that are better stocked and equipped – including some minimum of protection for students, faculty and staff from the increasingly frequent extremes of today's climate.

With these goals in mind, the first and most basic step would be to upgrade the qualifications and abilities of educators.

Fortunately, this step had already been taken, as long ago as 1992, when the Vietnam Sangha first began sponsoring the academic advancement of select monks and nuns abroad to upgrade their knowledge and teaching experience, first in India, China, Taiwan and other regional nations, and more recently, in Japan and North America. While there is still much to be done towards the goal of bringing the faculty of Vietnam's Buddhist education system up to speed with the rest of the world, many VBU instructors now hold internationally recognized doctorates and a clearly noticeable improvement in the quality of VBU's instructors has ensued[2].

The second objective, better screening of applications and examination of prospective graduates, is also a goal which the Sangha can likely achieve through its own efforts and collaboration with domestic and international educational authorities and institutions.

The third objective, however, to improve facilities, equipment and stocks of educational materials, probably cannot be sufficiently addressed through only the charity and devotion of the Sangha's nuns, monks, lay people and leaders.

Outside of the welcome educational resources accessible cheaply if somewhat inconsistently through the Internet, all these capital expenditures today require levels of investment well beyond the means of this nation's already generous donors.  In particular, modern classrooms, libraries, auditoriums, gymnasiums, dormitories, administrative office, books, computers, audio-visual equipment and aids are all in either very short supply or completely lacking at many, if not most, Buddhist educational institutions and few envision the Vietnam Sangha being able to provide these resources by itself in either the short or medium term.

Vietnam as a nation has done admirably seeking, gaining and distributing both domestic and foreign investment in the nation's education systems. But those investments are not generally available to the Việt Nam Buddhist Sangha, the unique representative of Việt Nam Sangha, which is granted relative autonomy from many Government programs, an autonomy it cherishes as a spiritual institution.

But the relative absence of domestic or foreign investment in Vietnam’s Buddhist education system also stems from the traditional Buddhist ideal: “start where you are”. The saying is generally interpreted to imply a cultivation of self-sufficiency and avoidance of relying upon or seeking help from others.

While starting to address one's deficiencies where they are, in one's self, remains an advisable path for both individuals and their community, the ideal of self-sufficiency can sometimes be extended to an extreme that can ultimately harm both individuals and their community. And, in an age in which “globalization” has become pervasive in not only communications and trade but also in business and education, an extreme ideal of self-sufficiency can quickly lead either individual or community to deprivations bordering on or even resulting in self-annihilation.

The Buddhist principle of interdependence is interestingly found in the saying, “No man is an island, entire of itself,” wrote by English metaphysical poet and preacher John Donne in the era Shakespeare. As a matter of fact, no layperson, no monk nor nun is completely self-sufficient. Even the ascetic monk or nun remains indebted to Buddhism's Triple Gems, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

The first two provide his or her spiritual guidance and further learning. Buddhist and other layfolk, Buddhist leaders and other monks and nuns, the Sangha as a whole, usually provides their sustenance in terms of food, clothing and shelter. Even in ancient times, rare indeed was the monk or nun who, for the majority of their devotional life, survived without the compassion and contributions, what we could call the “spiritual investments”, made in them by their Sangha or those outside it.

Today, as the United Nations' 2008 Vesak Day in Vietnam serves to further emphasize, neither Vietnamese Buddhist laypersons, nor monks, nor nuns, nor even the Vietnam Sangha itself is “an island, entire of itself”. Vietnam Sangha is, and likely always has been, both a contributor to and beneficiary of not only Vietnamese society as a whole but also the global Buddhist Sangha and the world community as a whole.

Vietnam Sangha and the education systems it has built over its long history in Vietnam have contributed unquestionably to the cultivation and maintenance of the stability, intellect and integrity of Vietnam's society.

Most notably, with Vietnam long lacking the sort of widespread, affordable psychological counseling more recently available to workers, executives, officials, families and even criminals in more advanced nations, Vietnam Sangha has long served a crucial role in promoting and maintaining the mental health, peacefulness and ethics of Vietnam's economic “human resources”.

The Vietnam Sangha should not be reticent to seek investment from the Vietnamese nation's community as a whole. The benefits would be mutual.

Vietnam Sangha has sent abroad some of its best and brightest thinkers and caregivers, to not only enrich the global Buddhist Sangha but the world as a whole. Often, members of the Vietnam Sangha have established both significant new Buddhist communities and Buddhist schools of thought in other nations.

Vietnam Sangha need not be reticent in seeking, accepting or disbursing investments from abroad. Such investments would ultimately benefit not only the overseas investors and the Vietnam Sangha but all of Vietnam and, most likely, again the world as a whole.

All this is in no way to suggest the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha indiscriminately accept donations or investments aimed at Buddhist education from anyone on any terms. Each investor and their proposed investment in the Sangha's educational system should be carefully considered in terms of how it would be consistent with both the goals of Vietnam's Buddhist education system and the nation's socio-economic development goals, over the short, medium and long term.

Further, today, the Vietnam Buddhist education system is relatively capable of meeting its own short-term needs, such as faculty development and basic education materials. Today's main concern is how to promote contributions and investment in longer term, capital expenditures, such as buildings, equipment and sufficient stocks of sufficiently advanced educational materials for higher learning.

Generally, short-term projects seeking quick or speculative profits should not be sought or accepted towards the listed development goals of Vietnam's Buddhist educational system – unless, of course, they can be feasibly expected to significantly strengthen or enriching the Sangha's ultimate intellectual, spiritual or ethical goals for Buddhist education.

But, just as the Sangha should not be reticent from seeking outside investment, it should also not be reticent from seeking outside help or consultation on how best to promote, contract and disburse such investments, whether from investment consultants or strategists, domestic or international, governmental or non-governmental. 

In the end, again, it must remain the priority of Vietnam Buddhist Sangha to judge each and every contribution offered or investment promoted for the Vietnam Buddhist educational system on its merits in terms of the same criteria the Sangha applies to itself, those of the Dharma and Buddhist ethics. That emphasized again, we can rightly assume the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha's leaders are capable of that task and Vietnamese Buddhist education thus deserves the favorable consideration of all donors and investors, nationwide and globally.

[1] The latter’s contributions were discussed and evaluated through the symposium that received and recorded many valuable articles and documents which otherwise had been lost forever.

[2] The corollary demand is to sketch out the VBU’s plan of operation in a way that allows the teaching staffs to update their skill of teaching as well as their academical knowledge periodically.