Impermanence in trịnh công sơn ca

Background of the Study 1 Statement of the Research Problem and Research Questions 5 Theoretical Perspective and Mode of Inquiry 6 Overview of the Chapter 6 CHAPTER 2: IMPERMANENCE IN DI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS & CULTURES OF ENGLISH SPEAKING

Ha Noi, 2020

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA NGÔN NGỮ VÀ VĂN HOÁ CÁC NƯỚC NÓI TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

VÔ THƯỜNG TRONG TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN CA

Giảng viên hướng dẫn: Phùng Hà Thanh, Ph.D Sinh viên: Nguyễn Thị Huyền Linh

Khóa: QH2016.F1.E29

HÀ NỘI – 2020

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Nguyễn Thị Huyền Linh, 16E29, being a candidate for the degree

of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the

library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or

reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

Background of the Study 1

Statement of the Research Problem and Research Questions 5

Theoretical Perspective and Mode of Inquiry 6

Overview of the Chapter 6

CHAPTER 2: IMPERMANENCE IN DIFFERENT TRADITIONS OF

THOUGHT

Brief Review of Impermanence in Different Traditions of Thought 8

Impermanence in Mainstream Buddhism 10

Eastern Classic Zen-inspired Poetry: A Naturalistic

Aesthetic of Impermanence

Zen: Pointing Directly at the Mind 14

The Nature and Zen’s Impermanence Aesthetics in Eastern Poetry 17

Wang Wei’s Tang Poetry: No Worth Grieving over a Flower Falling 19

Matsuo Basho’s Haikus: Impermanence of a very Moment 21

CHAPTER 3: IMPERMANENCE IN TRỊNH CÔNG SƠN CA Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Cultural and Socio-political

Background: Existentialism and Buddhism 24

Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Humanistic Impermanence:

An Aesthetic of Love 25

From the Distance of Meditation: Delicate,

Transient, Unfulfilled, Beautiful, and Tolerant Love 25

Impermanence of Love through the Poetics of Space and Time 27

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION 34

To Phương Anh, the most wonderful companion I have ever had in my life Indeed You have opened up to me a part of that “vast area” with both your Buddhist knowledge and your caring patience

To my dearest friends who keep telling me that I will be good no matter how the result might turn to be To Nhi, who is always there sharing silly warm stuff to cheer me up To Hiệp, the kindest man who never interrupts my

grumpy rantings in our talks

To Thành, for the gray days that I have you beside Always

I want to say thanks to my father who often “accidentally” turns some Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs on by his speaker, to my mother for a ton of her caring questions

And to the Impermanence I might encounter in this life

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ABSTRACT

This paper explores the nuance of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca

as a distinctive aesthetic defining the composer’s contribution to the

Vietnamese culture It touches upon Impermanence, the changing and

undetermined nature of things, as addressed in various traditions of thought and focuses on Impermanence in Buddhism, where the problem is tackled most radically and comprehensively as a central issue To provide points of

comparison and contrast for the characterization of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, the study describes Impermanence in Zen, Zen poetry, Wang Wei’s Tang poems and Matsuo Basho’s haikus Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s

Impermanence is found to resonate the subtlety of Buddhist Zen and Western Existentialism harmoniously combined It is centered on human love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence is thus an aesthetic of love Trịnh Công Sơn Ca builds up a Zen atmosphere of love covered with a distinctive ambience of sorrow and despair From a meditative distance, love is delicate, transient, unfulfilled, beautiful and tolerant The poetics of space and time also

contributes to the formation of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of

Impermanence

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Though it was such a huge inspiration to me when Trịnh Công Sơn, on his 80th birthday, was honored by Google search engine homepage with a

temporary logo (also known as Google Doodle), my very primitive idea about carrying out a research project on this influential Vietnamese artist started

forming earlier It was sketched in my head from my younger days enjoying, with all delight and confusion, Dad’s CDs filled with the melancholic melodies

of Hạ Trắng (White Summer), Ngẫu Nhiên (Fortuitous), Tuổi Đời Mênh Mông (Beautiful Vast Age), etc every night at 8 or late 10 pm I struggled to figure out the meanings of those pieces of “music as poetry” (Vo, n.d)

Since the dawn of his musical career, Trịnh Công Sơn has composed over 600 songs In collaboration with Khánh Ly, during the 1960s and 1970s, Trịnh Công Sơn started what can be called “the Trịnh Công Sơn phenomenon,”

a term used by Schafer (2007) to denote the widespread influence of Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs in Vietnam until present The songs written during this golden decade feature three main topics, love, humanity and anti-war, and a distinguished tone of poetic lyrics They not only proved their ability to sway the South but also became popular in the North and even beyond Vietnam’s boundaries Trần Tiến, a well-known romantic musician in the 1990s, when retelling his story of “southward career expansion,” admitted that in the

eventful 60s, the whole Southern society was dominated by the only name of Trịnh Công Sơn and Khánh Ly, a perfect match appearing as an unbreakable wall in the contemporaneous music scene to any newcomers like him Till this day, the enchantment of Trịnh Công Sơn’s song has never vanished from

Vietnam’s musical life His legacy has become, as his close friend Hoàng Phủ Ngọc Tường (2013) commented, “something called the Trịnh Công Sơn

culture.” Trịnh Công Sơn’s musical legacy has become part of the collective memory of the Vietnamese, from which many younger people like me grow up

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I think John Schafer was right when regarding Trịnh Công Sơn as a

“phenomenon” during the late 20th century Vietnam’s history of music saw him as a famous figure during the in-war and post-war time with works of art making a sensation among the public Noteworthily, as Schafer wrote with an eye to the historical background surrounding the composer’s life, it was Trịnh Công Sơn’s anti-war songs that made the predominant contribution to his

exceptional popularity, despite the undeniable attraction of his early love songs and humanity songs later Trịnh Công Sơn was regarded as a “Vietnamese Bob Dylan” for such bitter and strong lyrics:

Một ngàn năm nô lệ giặc Tàu Một trăm năm đô hộ giặc Tây Hai mươi năm nội chiến từng ngày Gia tài của mẹ, để lại cho con Gia tài của mẹ, là nước Việt buồn (Throughout one thousand years enslaved by the Chinese One hundred years dominated by the French Twenty years of a civil war struggling day by day What has mother got left for her kids?

What mother’s got left: a mournful Vietnam.)

- Gia tài của mẹ (What’s mother got left), my translation- The North got upset with Trịnh Công Sơn’s depicting the war as a civil war The South suppressed anti-war songs It’s worth considering that in the period of 1954 -1975, anti-war music in Vietnam was also marked with other names such as Phạm Duy, Trần Long Ẩn and Tôn Thất Lập Some of their songs were considered even sharper and more terribly depressing:

Em hỏi anh, em hỏi anh bao giờ trở lại Xin trả lời, xin trả lời mai mốt anh về

Anh trở lại có thể bằng chiến thắng Pleime, Hay Đức Cơ, Đồng Xoài, Bình Giã, Anh trở về anh trở về hàng cây nghiêng ngả Anh trở về, có khi là hòm gỗ cài hoa, Anh trở về trên chiếc băng ca Trên trực thăng sơn màu tang trắng

(You asked me when I’d be back

I reply that day would be not so far Perhaps from the triumph in Pleime And Đức Cơ, Đồng Xoài, Bình Giã

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I would walk along the falling tree lines

Or perhaps I’d be back in the flower-pinned casket

On a brancard delivered by the helicopter painted in white.)

- Kỷ vật cho em (Memento for you) – Phạm Duy, my translation - Due to the Southern government’s fear that those sorts of sentimental lyrics might sway and discourage the army in wartime, all the songs expressing

“wartime sorrow” were banned in the South of Vietnam That explains why they are not well known in the current stream of music and how many young people, including me, are unfamiliar with the notion of Trịnh Công Sơn as an anti-war music writer Trịnh Công Sơn’s most popular songs today, to name just a few: Diễm Xưa (Diễm of the Past – this song was introduced in Japan in the 1970s and immediately made a big hit), Đóa Hoa Vô Thường (The Flower

of Impermanence), Một Cõi Đi Về (The Land of Come and Go), etc., are not anti-war songs Thus, I argue that while the anti-war songs might have been essential in initiating the Trịnh Công Sơn phenomenon, they are not the answer

to the extraordinary endurance of Sơn’s popularity in Vietnam For me, the credit goes to his love and humanity songs

Love and life in Trịnh Công Sơn’s songs usually comes with despair and non-fulfillment, yet the audience resort to them when they encounter problems and/or want to savor a kind of contemplative beauty (Bửu Ý, 2003) It is in the atmosphere of many teahouses in cities around Vietnam that the vitality of his songs simmers like a subtle but long-lasting charm I recognize that Trịnh Công Sơn is not only a part of the Vietnamese culture but also a culture by himself The songs create a particular atmosphere that resembles a space of Zen To capture what Sơn’s songs about love and humanity are centered around, I think

“impermanence” (vô thường) is a helpful word The author himself has used the word several times in his songs

Một chút vô thường theo từng phút cao giờ sâu (Faint impermanence rises with each passing minute) Đóa Hoa Vô Thường (The Evanescent Flower, translated by Gibbs,

2013)

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Em đi bỏ lại con đường

Bờ xa cỏ dại vô thường nhớ em (The road you left behind Impermanence unknown to you)

Em Đi Bỏ Lại Con Đường (The Road You Left Behind, translated in

Nguyễn, n.d) Impermanence refers to the idea that nothing in life stays forever

“Anything could happen in the path of life” – the subtlety of Impermanence breathes with the fresh musical and poetic patterns of the songs The delicate sense of change is depicted by sharp contrasts throughout the passage of time, evoking a sense of lament:

Mười năm xưa đứng bên bờ giậu Ðường xanh hoa muối bay rì rào

Có người lòng như khăn mới thêu

Mười năm sau áo bay đường chiều Bàn chân trong phố xa lạ nhiều

Có người lòng như nắng qua đèo

(Ten years ago near the hedge Salt-flowers sough on the road Heart’s bright like new handkerchief Ten years later on same town Walk and dress flies so strange Heart seems sunshine over hill)

Có Một Dòng Sông Đã Qua Đời (A River Has Passed Away, translated

by Nguyễn, n.d) Impermanence carries a Buddhist sense Buddhism has been influential

in Vietnam for more than a thousand years Particularly, during the 1960s and 1970s, as the governments of South Vietnam suppressed Buddhism, Buddhist movements emerged and gained traction for their activism In Vietnam,

Buddhism has always maintained a space between engagement and reclusion Sơn must have been exposed to Buddhism and received its influence His

works of art, are, however, not mere illustrations of existing ideas of

Impermanence in Buddhism In this thesis, I will argue that they demonstrate distinctive senses of Impermanence

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Statement of the Research Problem and Research Questions

This study explores how Trịnh Công Sơn Ca presents distinctive senses

of Impermanence In other words, it aims to characterize Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s distinctive aesthetic of Impermanence

The letter “i” is capitalized to emphasize that the study looks at

Impermanence as a system of ideas and practices shaped by particular

historical conditions rather than impermanence as a general noun pointing to the property of not existing for indefinitely long durations I use the term

“Trịnh Công Sơn Ca” to refer to not only his over 600 songs but also the cultural practices related to them “Trịnh Công Sơn Ca” is distinguished from

“Nhạc Trịnh” (Trịnh’s Music) in its explicit attention to the songs and their lyrics The term also suggests that the songs hang together and open up a cultural space Within the constraints of this study, I focus on the lyrics of the songs rather than the setup of and interactions within Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s communities However, I will invoke any cultural practices and events that I find helpful to our understanding of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca

To figure in distinctive senses of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca,

it is also necessary to see how Impermanence has been featured in different traditions of thought I will also need to provide points of comparison and contrast Therefore, my thesis seeks to answer these questions:

 How is Impermanence characterized in different traditions of thought?

 How is Impermanence portrayed in Zen-inspired poetry?

 Are there distinctive senses of Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca? What are they? How are they presented?

Particularly, this thesis argues that Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of Impermanence presents a peculiar humanistic tendency, which differs from the naturalistic aesthetic of Impermanence characteristic of middle-aged Zen poetry in China and Japan Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s peculiar humanistic

Impermanence, however, resembles Zen aesthetic as it also goes with a

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meditative space and the contemplation of transience and imperfection Trịnh Công Sơn Ca proposes a meditative practice that treats the Impermanence of love with gentleness and mercy

Theoretical Perspective and Mode of Inquiry

This study views Trịnh Công Sơn Ca as a cultural phenomenon The songs and their related cultural events and practices are placed on the same plane of ontology, meaning that they all can be read as text My textual analysis

of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca relies on strategies of contextualization, comparison and contrast, as can been seen my formulation of research questions 1 and 2 to help address the research problem

I embrace my subjectivity as a resource For my inquiry, I have been immersed in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca To characterize it, however, I will only bring into view a selection of verses that I perceive as best in helping me see the distinctiveness of Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s Impermanence How persuasive my characterization will be depends on the interactions that it will facilitate rather than an objective selection of texts This study is by no means to examine the whole system of Trịnh Công Sơn Sơn’s songs

Overview of the Chapters

Chapter 2 briefly reviews Impermanence as a philosophical problem and

an aesthetic inspiration in different traditions of thought The review gives an emphasis on Impermanence in mainstream Buddhism and in Zen, a particular school of Buddhism that pays paramount attention to Impermanence and the beauty it carries To provide points of comparison and contrast, this chapter discusses the invocation of Impermanence in Zen poetry

Chapter 3 is devoted to understanding Impermanence in Trịnh Công Sơn

Ca, particularly his aesthetic of love It describes how Buddhism and

Existentialism were part of Trịnh Công Sơn’s nurturing environments I will then argue that Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s aesthetic of Impermanence presents a peculiar humanistic tendency, which differs from the naturalistic aesthetic of

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Impermanence characteristic of middle-aged Zen poetry in China and Japan as portrayed in the previous chapter Trịnh Công Sơn Ca’s peculiar humanistic Impermanence, however, resembles Zen aesthetic as it also goes with a

meditative space and the contemplation of transience and imperfection

Chapter 4 wraps up the thesis by summarizing its development and reviewing its limitations

Western ancient philosophies, Hinduism, Buddhism and the late-coming wave

of Existentialism in the early 20th It focuses on Impermanence in Buddhism since only in the realm of Buddhism is Impermanence tackled radically and treated as a central issue I will then examine Impermanence in Zen, a

particular form of Buddhism that has inspired significant traditions of art To offer points of comparison and contrast for my later analysis of Impermanence

in Trịnh Công Sơn Ca, the chapter takes notes on how Impermanence in Wang Wei’s poems and Matsuo Basho’s haikus is centered on the nature and

meditation from/on the nature

Brief Review of Impermanence in Various Traditions of Thought

Impermanence is addressed in a variety of philosophies and cultures Denying the perpetuity of things and dissuading humans from resisting to change, the concept exists in many languages mostly in the negative form:

“Inconstantia” in Latin: In- (not) + constantia (constant), “Impermanence” in English, “Anicca” in Buddhist Pali: a- (non-; im-) + nicca (permanence), and “

無常” in Chinese: 無 (not) + 常 (certainty) The Dictionary of Chinese

Buddhist Terms (Hodous & Soothill, 1937) defines Wu Chang as following:

“Not a moment is permanent, but passes through the stages of birth, stay, change and death.”

Impermanence in the West was first seen in Greek philosophy

Heraclitus’s classic aphorism “Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers” marked the first footprint of the concept to be taken into consideration By stating that “Life is Flux”, the most influential Pre-socratic philosopher suggests the constancy of changes (Graham, 2019) He infers that changing is the condition of any existence: without the non-stop flow of water,

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there would be no river to exist; and people, put inside that flow, would find it impossible to encounter anything (in its perfectly same state) twice Adopting Heraclitus’s idea, some later philosophers developed it into the notion of

“becoming” in the dualistic relation with “being” In the middle age, the West was dominated by Christianity—a religion that did not provide any place for Impermanence The flourish of modernism was characterized by the quest for certainty and universal truths With the peak of the discovery of “quark”, the development of natural sciences influencing the whole world after that tended

to promote the absolute and forget Impermanence Not until the rising wave of Existentialism in the 20th century did people start to get back to focus more on the transience of things Impermanence in Existentialism is expressed through the concept of “nothingness.” Assuming that “I “am” not anything but must

“make myself be” through my choice” (Crowell, 2017), Existentialism

encourages individuals actively create their own identity to “make themselves be” in the absurdity of the world Seemingly, “time” is always in a hurry Each moment going by can never show up again The time passing is the time being lost For that reason, people should make use of their limited time to live and enjoy life

In Eastern traditions, Impermanence is the core concept of two big religions In Buddhism, it is best known as one collar in the Three Marks of Existence which things rely on and find it impossible to escape from: Dukkha (suffering), Anicca (Impermanence), and Anatta (non-self) Called Anitya in Hinduism, Impermanence asserts that nothing lasts forever However,

Hinduism assumes that the impermanence of the world is meant to be an opportunity to reach what is permanent, an eternal soul (Atman) Despite sharing the idea that things are transient, these two philosophies have opposite ideas on whether or not there is a permanent soul While Impermanence in Hinduism is just a background to enhance the absolute of the persona, in Buddhism, it is regarded as a universal rule without exception In agreement with the Anatta doctrine, Buddhist Impermanence assumes that all things, including human, have neither self nor unchanging substance (Chah, 2005)

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Later, Buddhism gradually gained a great position in Asian countries to help spread the notion of Impermanence widely over the East

Impermanence in Mainstream Buddhism

Impermanence (known as Anicca in Buddhist doctrines), which assumes everything is the object of change and alteration, is one of the most

fundamental statements that build the cornerstone of Buddhist philosophy: the Triangle of the Three Marks of Existence (ti-lakkhana) Ti-lakkhana is

composed of Anicca (The impermanence of changing), Dukka (the suffering or non-satisfactoriness) and Anatta (non-self) Nothing in the world, either good

or bad, can remain forever Human have no self, but they are just equally one creature of the world People come into this world to suffer until they reach the Nirvana, and if they could not, the triangle would continue in circulation Therefore, these three basic facts of the Existence, two by two, reciprocally elucidate and support each other; and not until the complexity of the Triangle is thoroughly comprehended can people understand their existence as it should

be

Anicca (in Pali) is the official Buddhist term of Impermanence in the essential doctrine of Buddhism, the first and foremost of the Triangle

(Gnanarama, 2000), and perceived as the natural feature of every aspect of

existence The theory acknowledges change or impermanence as the inherent

characteristic of objects, whether animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic, beautiful or ugly Nothing stays the same forever Things are changing with or without human recognition Accepting this principle implies that our

knowledge of the world cannot be put in absolute terms

Suppose yourself gazing on a gorgeous sunset The whole western heavens are glowing with roseate hues; but you are aware that within half an hour all these glorious tints will have faded away into a dull ashen gray You see them even now melting away before your eyes, although your eyes cannot place before you the conclusion which your reason draws And what conclusion is that? That conclusion is that you never, even for the shortest time that can be named or conceived, see any abiding color, any color which truly is (Thera, 2006, para.8)

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In line with the Buddhist doctrine on Impermanence, human beings are usually depicted as an ignorant creature trying desperately to perceive the world and pack it into the permanent truths but never succeeding in doing it There is a gap between the instant state of things and our perception of it

Ajahn Chah, an influential Thai teacher of Buddhism, respected in his own country as a man of great wisdom and internationally known as instrumental in establishing Theravada Buddhism in the West, connects Impermanence with

“uncertainty,” emphasizing the incapability and impracticality of human

pursuing absolute truths (Chah, 2005, p.45)

It should be noted that human beings are included in the things of the world Below is a traditional rhyme (translated from Pali) often recited in

Theravada Buddhist funerals It reminds us that in the face of Impermanence, humans and all other things of this material worldly world are equal

Impermanent are all component things, They arise and cease, that is their nature:

They come into being and pass away, Release from them is bliss supreme

(Thera, 2013, para.3)

As things continuously arise and disappear, every effort for absolute truths leads to agony or a sense of desperation, which, I think, somehow

parallels with the “existential angst” of human in the face of the

meaninglessness (“absurd world”) described in Western existential philosophy However, while the object of the “angst” lies in the individual person,

encouraging their self-expressing effort to produce the meaning for their own life, the suffering (Dukkha) initiated with the fact of Impermanence in

Buddhism naturally guides them to the path of “abandoning, relinquishing, releasing, letting go” (Gethin, 1998, p.74)

Characterized as the “nature of all component things”, Anicca is

considered not only the center of Buddhist thoughts but the most radically handled Impermanence system of thought The thoroughness of Anicca lies in the way it is interpreted and illustrated by its sub- and co-concepts Let us take

“time” as an instance

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One considerable difference that separates Buddhist Impermanence and that in Western Pre-socratic philosophy is the act of time Generally speaking, time is so important a factor to matter since it is the only frame of reference with which Impermanence appears: a transformation only occurs by comparing

a state to another in at two different points of time In the Western tradition of thought exemplified by Heraclitus, in line with the concept of “flux” and the well-known saying “No man ever steps into the same river twice,” the passage

of time was shaped as a linear flow of water moving constantly and acting as a measure of change Contrary to the perception of time as moving on a

straightforward path, time in Buddhism is more nonlinear and organic

Buddhism sees the universe operating in a circle of no end and no beginning and hence inseparable from the belief of transmigration—“samsara” (luân hồi) Viewed as a “wheel or round of existence, [which] means going round and round from one place to another in a circle, like a potter's wheel, or the wheel

of a water mill” (Rinpoche, 1998, p.61), samsara describes the succession of conditions that all beings in the cosmos submit to: birth - staying - changing (or decay) - death (or vanishing) and back to rebirth According to the Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism, this notion of birth - death - rebirth and “cyclic

existence” dates back from no later than 800 BCE (Keown, 2004) The Tibetan Wheel of Samsara (Figure 1) stands for what is understood as Impermanence of Life (Sopa, 1984) It represents the rule of changing states in life of all

component things, five realms (Gods, Humans, Animals, Hell and Pretas), and twelve types of human beings a man could turn to in his next life All of them fit inside a “weightless (therefore will turn around forever) wheel” grabbed and held by a powerful demon dictating the whole world His name is Anicca the Impermanence

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Figure 1: The Tibetan Wheel of Samsara (Tibetan Wheel of Life:

mapping our dilemma and its solutions, n.d)

Unlike a flow with a source and a destination, time is possible through endless reincarnations Accordingly, Buddhism accentuates the cycle of

suffering caused by the transience of life To escape suffering, mainstream Buddhism offers the path of “gradual enlightenment”/“cultivation” along which one enters Buddhahood through step-by-step practice This process can be contrasted with the path of “sudden enlightenment,” which will be discussed in the section about Zen

Eastern Classic Zen-inspired Poetry: A Naturalistic Aesthetic of

Impermanence

Pre-modern East Asia has witnessed the flourish and prosperity of

various arts, particular poetry inspired by Zen Some strands of Zen-inspired poetry feature Impermanence as a key theme Wang Wei (Vương Duy, 701 - 761), Dōgen Zenji (Đạo Nguyên Hi Huyền, 1200 - 1253) and Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694) are among distinguished and significant authors whose legacies have attracted academic endeavors to study Impermanence Though these

From my knowledge, Zen poetry in premodern Vietnam has not

presented any significant author who commented on Impermanence My

analysis pays attention to the poetry of Wang Wei and Matsuo Basho since their works perfectly illustrate the naturalistic Zen aesthetic of Impermanence Wang Wei is designated as the “Buddha of poetry” of China under Tang

dynasty (Stepien, 2014, p.208) while Basho laid the groundwork contribution

in the rise of haiku and is considered the greatest haiku master Their difference

in the attitude to Impermanence also indicates a shift of approach from the Chinese Zen to Japanese Zen

Zen: Pointing Directly at the Mind

Up to now, the precise time at which and the precise path along which Buddhism came from India to China remains debated However, without any doubt, China is among the first centers of Buddhism from which Buddhism was popularized in other Eastern Buddhist centers such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam China was also the cradle of many sub-schools of Buddhism Among these sub-schools, Zen (also called 禪 - Chán in Chinese, 禅 - Zen in Japanese and Thiền in Vietnamese) is a combination of Buddhism and Taoism Zen took root

in China under the Tang dynasty and then spread out to other East and

Southeast Asian countries, forming various sub-schools In its early days before

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being considered as a school or branch of philosophy, Chinese primitive Zen was a current of thought vehemently attempting to withstand the tendency of nationalizing and privatizing the ownership of Buddhist truth of traditions (Cole, 2009).The creation of Zen is considered a resistant effort towards the theorizing tendency of Buddhism, which overrates the role of dogma and

books In practice, Zen pupils follow the only teaching that “there is nothing to

be taught” and the greatest dogma that “dogma is useless” (Hoover, 1977, p.2);

as a results, the influence of intellectualism extracted from mere doctrines, sutras as well as other rituals is extremely minimized and de-emphasized in Zen teaching and practice If one practices the Zen principle of depreciating theorism and encouraging mind release, the way Zen forms, the atmosphere Zen builds, the realm Zen opens remains a subtle essence that is not to be

captured by simple definitions but to be felt and expressed through a process of meditation and interpretation

Regarding the purpose of Buddhist learning, Hoover (1997) refers to a conversation of Bodhidharma and the Emperor WuZong of Tang

- I have built many temples I have copied the sacred Sutras I have led many to the Buddha What is my merit? What reward have I earned?

- None whatsoever, your Majesty

- Then what is the most important goal of teaching Buddhism?

- Vast emptiness

(Hoover, 1977, p.4) Using “emptiness” with a reference to Nirvana (the realm of the escape), Bodhidharma’s answer seems to make such an abstract notion (Nirvana) in Buddhism more tangible and perceptible, and at the same time deconcretize it,

as its only illustration appears even more confusing Upholding “vast

emptiness,” Zen Buddhism emphasizes the embeddedness and harmonious engagement of Taoist philosophy, especially the Wu Wei idea (無爲), which means

“doing nothing,” “effortless effort,” or “the action of no action”, inside the core doctrinal background of Zen, as famously stated in the Heart Sutra: “Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form” (as cited in Barnhill, 2000, p.173) It is

believed that all the objects observed, perceived, and defined by humans, even

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their own mind, are not themselves in front of our eyes but just a state of

“being” comprising certain numeral interactions (Emptiness) Those

interactions, or “interbeing” in Thích Nhất Hạnh’s words, intermingle with each other to build up every single “thing” we call “reality” (which is a false assumption since there exists no such “reality”)

I liked the word “togetherness,” but I finally came up with the word

“interbeing.” The verb “to be” can be misleading, because we cannot be

by ourselves, alone “To be” is always to “inter-be.” If we combine the prefix “inter” with the verb “to be,” we have a new verb, “inter-be.” To inter-be and the action of interbeing reflects reality more accurately We inter-are with one another and with all life (Thích Nhất Hạnh, 2017, p.2)

The influence of Wu Wei on Zen Impermanence and Emptiness can also

be seen in the practice of focusing on observing and feeling nature instead of intervening in the way things are The prerequisite principles widely accepted among Zennists are best conveyed in the following “sacred lines” of

Bodhidharma:

Special transmission outside the doctrinal teaching

No dependence on letters or words, Pointing directly at the Mind in anyone of us And seeing into one’s nature, whereby one attains Buddhahood

(as cited in Munsterberg, 1993, p.2) The underlying principle of “Pointing directly at the Mind” concentrates

on the inner peace of the meditator rather than gravitating towards the doctrine

of suffering and Nirvana It resembles Taoist advocating of “unity and

simplicity” inside thoughts The Wu Wei attitude borrowed from Taoism has significantly changed and shaped Zen Impermanence

More than just an effort to distribute the Buddhist truth of traditions in various expressible and aesthetic forms and thus make them accessible to the public, Zen conveys a discourse of world perception and appreciation It could

be compared to a path of acquiring any skills: after giving your “mindfulness” into it and nurturing your attitude about it, someday the moment of

“enlightenment” would come, bringing you the authentic truism about its

nature