lay—regardless of their intellectual disparities, practice
a composite form of Buddhism that runs the gamut of
popular Buddhist practices in other East Asian coun-
tries. Although most clergy and educated lay Buddhists
maintain that Vietnamese Buddhism is predominantly
Chan with elements of Pure Land and TANTRA, Chan
elements actually figure very little, if at all, in the prac-
tice of most Vietnamese Buddhists.
Vietnamese Buddhist practices can be conveniently
outlined under two major headings: those that are lim-
ited to the clergy and those that involve lay participa-
tion. The first group of practices includes ritual
ordinations, religious disciplines, monastic rituals, ac-
cession ceremonies, and summer retreats. The second
group consists of religious observances and rituals that
occur on a regular or occasional basis.
Occasional observances include celebrating the vía
day of buddhas and bodhisattvas (i.e., their birthday
or awakening day) and commemorative rituals relat-
ing to S ́akyamuni Buddha (his birthday, his enlight-
enment, and his decease), taking the Bodhisattva pre-
cepts, taking the eight precepts (bát quan trai), partic-
ipating in prayer services for peace (câ`u an) and for
rebirth in AMITABHA’s Pure Land (câ`u siêu), engaging
in repentance, and freeing captured animals. Among
these practices, praying for peace for the country and
the world can be an individual or communal act. Re-
pentance is a liturgy that takes place in the evening
twice a month at the full moon and new moon. It con-
sists of, among other things, the recitation of the names
of 108 buddhas and bowing each time a buddha’s name
is recited. Freeing captured animals (phóng sinh) is one
of the ways to accumulate merit (phu,ó,c), an essential
element of Vietnamese Buddhist practice. It is fair to
say that most Vietnamese Buddhists are more con-
cerned with accumulating merit than with cultivating
wisdom. The most common forms of merit-making
are contributing to the printing of Buddhist books, to
the building and upkeep of temples, and to the sup-
port of monks and nuns.
Also included in this category of special practices
are ceremonies and festivals that incorporate elements
of folk beliefs, such as the New Year festival (Tê ́t) and
the Ullambana festival celebrating filial piety and
commemorating past ancestors. These festivals and
various death rituals involve the widest participation
of the populace, including those who are only nomi-
nal Buddhists.
The most essential regular practice is daily chanting,
which consists of three intervals of service performed
at dawn, noon, and dusk. This practice includes chant-
ing sutras, reciting MANTRAs and DHARANIs and bud-
dhas’ names, and circumambulation. A number of the
principal Mahayana sutras have been translated into
Vietnamese, but not every sutra is chanted. In most
cases, only devotional sutras or chapters from them are
chanted. The three most chanted sutras are the HEART
SUTRA, LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMAPUNDARIKA-SUTRA),
and Amitabha Sutra.
Meditation is also an integral part of the Buddhist
program of practice in Vietnam, and tends to include
sitting quietly contemplating the magnificence of
Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land or mentally reciting the
names of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Most monks,
nuns, and a number of laypeople sit in meditation oc-
casionally, only a few regularly, but not every Viet-
namese monastic is an adept in meditation.See also:Chan School; Festivals and Calendrical Ritu-
als; Ghost Festival; Merit and Merit-Making; PureVIETNAM
A monk sounds a bell at a Buddhist temple at My The in the
Mekong Delta area of Vietnam. © Tim Page/Corbis. Reproduced
by permission.