Sấm Giảng Khuyên Người Đời Tu Niệm: the opening forty-four lines

IBefore you read

The official scriptures of the faith are called the Sấm Giảng Thi Văn Giáo Lý (prophecies, sermons, poems and teachings), six books written by Đức Huỳnh Giáo Chủ, the founder of the faith, mostly in six-eight verse (lục bát) and seven-syllable verse, with the sixth book written in prose. The first book is Sấm Giảng Khuyên Người Đời Tu Niệm, Counsel to the People of the World to Practice and Pray, written in 1939 and 912 lines long. Followers usually call it simply the first book of the Sấm Giảng.

The title already says what the book is for. The Title section of the Church's annotated edition explains that the word Sấm 讖 means a forewarning about the course of the world, written in verse in the manner of the old Vietnamese prophetic poems, while the word Giảng means setting out the Buddhist teaching so that people understand how to practice. Put together, a Sấm Giảng is a book that both forewarns and teaches, to urge people to wake up early and practice. The last four words of the title, khuyên người đời tu niệm, counsel to the people of the world to practice and pray, are the purpose of the whole book.

Why these forty-four lines. The book has 912 lines, too long to give in full on one page. According to the Structure section of the annotated edition, the book falls into three parts: an introduction from line 1 to line 8, which speaks of the world in the Lower Era and of why the speaker has come down into the world, a main body from line 9 to line 826, which both urges practice and recounts a preaching journey across the six provinces of the old South, and a conclusion. The first forty-four lines cover the whole introduction and the first three sub-passages of the main body. Within that span the speaker introduces himself, says why he preaches, describes how people receive his preaching, and then stops with the line để rộng thì giờ nói chuyện chơn-tu, to leave ample time to speak of true practice. It is a complete unit of meaning, and it is also the passage followers know best, because everyone who opens the book reads it first.

The original text follows the Church's version exactly, including the hyphens between the syllables of compound words and the words spelled as they are pronounced in Southern Vietnamese. The column beside it is a plain paraphrase written by the library. The library does not try to interpret the forewarnings in the poem.

IIThe opening forty-four lines

IIILine by line commentary

The section below takes twelve key points in the forty-four lines and explains them in detail, keeping to the order of the poem. Most of the difficult words are explained according to the Notes of the annotated edition used within the faith, and the library says clearly when a reading is that edition's. Where the poem forewarns about the course of the world, the library only reports how the faith understands it and adds no guesses of its own.

IVThe Four Debts of Gratitude and practice at home

The first forty-four lines of the Sấm Giảng speak a great deal about the times and about the speaker, but what they aim to lead to is the practice of ordinary people. To understand what followers take the words of the Sấm Giảng home to do, one has to know the Four Debts of Gratitude (Tứ Ân) 四恩, the four debts that the book Cách Tu Hiền Và Sự Ăn Ở Của Một Người Bổn Đạo, How to Practice Goodness and How a Follower Should Live, lays down as the foundation of the way of being human.

That book opens its teaching section by dividing the Buddha's followers into two groups. The monastic group are the monks and nuns who have left their families and live in temples or hermitages. The lay group are the general public, people still bound by duties to family, homeland and compatriots and so not yet able to leave home, who nonetheless take refuge in the Buddha, keep a few precepts, read the scriptures and correct their character. The book then concludes that all members of the faith belong to the group of lay practitioners at home, following the principle học Phật tu nhân, study the Buddha's teaching and cultivate one's humanity.

The book goes on to cite an old saying that ten thousand scriptures all teach filial piety and righteousness first, and that to fulfill filial piety and righteousness there are four debts to be repaid, as Đức Phật Thầy Tây An often urged his disciples.

The Four Debts of Gratitude in light of the opening forty-four lines

Set the Four Debts of Gratitude beside the opening passage of the Sấm Giảng and the two fit together. Lines 11 and 12 reproach those who betray the bond of husband and wife and fail to keep loyalty and filial duty whole, which is to say they reproach neglect of the debt to parents and of duty within the home. Lines 29 and 30 reproach those who recite the Buddha's name while their hearts are crooked, which is repaying the debt to the Three Jewels with the mouth but not with the heart. Lines 27 and 28 speak of those nearby envying the one who does good, which is the debt to compatriots clouded by jealousy.

In other words, the disorder the opening passage describes is first of all disorder in the way of being human, and the repair lies right within each person's own house, field and neighborhood.

The words of Đức Thầy that members of the faith often quote to sum up this idea are Ta là cư sĩ canh điền, lo nghề cày cuốc cũng chuyên tu hành, I am a lay practitioner who tills the fields, tending to hoe and plough while devoted to practice. The lay practitioner farms, and the work of ploughing to feed the family is also part of practice.

VSimple worship

People who read the Sấm Giảng at home usually read it before an altar very different from the altars familiar from temples. There are no statues, no bells or wooden fish, no trays of festive food. This way of worship is set out in the Worship section (Thờ Phượng) of the book Cách Tu Hiền, and it runs in the same current as the line miệng thì niệm Phật lòng thì tà gian, the mouth recites the Buddha's name while the heart is crooked: what must be kept is the heart, not appearances.

From the red trần điều to the brown trần dà

The Worship section begins by observing that temples have created too many images, and advises the lay practitioner at home not to create more, but to worship simply so that faith turns toward the inner spirit rather than toward outward splendor. The section also makes clear that this is not a criticism of temples, that the way of worship in temples depends on the circumstances of the monks, and that members of the faith may still revere them.

The main object of worship is a plain piece of cloth. The Worship section relates that in earlier times members of the faith venerated the trần điều, a red cloth, a legacy left by Đức Phật Thầy Tây An. Later all members of the faith changed to the color dà, a brownish monastic color. The section gives the reason: dà is the color monks use to express detachment from the world, and because it is a blend of all colors it can symbolize the harmony of humankind, without distinction of race or individual. The cloth is called the trần dà.

The Worship section adds a few short instructions. Offerings to the Buddha should be only clean water, flowers and incense, and nothing else, so the Buddha altar has no meat dishes. Those who already have a Buddha statue at home may keep it. Those who live with people of another religion, or whose houses are too small for an altar, need only bow silently and recite the Buddha's name in their hearts at the time of worship. Apart from the Buddha, ancestors, grandparents and parents, and the heroes of the nation, one should not worship any deity whose origin one does not clearly know.

The Performing Rites section (Hành Lễ) goes a step further, advising followers to prostrate only before the Buddha, ancestors, grandparents and parents, and to only bow with joined hands to other living people, even their own teacher. That section also advises against relying on the rescue of deities and acting recklessly, and advises each person to examine the teachings with their own reason and not to accept any word on faith before asking about it thoroughly.

VIWhen and how followers read it

The Sấm Giảng is not chanted on a fixed liturgical schedule like the sutras in a temple. It is read, aloud or silently, at home or in a gathering, and many followers know long passages by heart. Six-eight verse has rhyme and rhythm, so it is remembered after a few hearings, and readers often intone it following the rhythm of the six-syllable and eight-syllable lines. The website of Hòa Hảo Buddhism still keeps recordings of the first book of the Sấm Giảng read part by part, so that those who cannot read can still listen.

Two times of worship each day

Reading the Sấm Giảng stands beside another practice with a clearer form, the daily worship of the lay practitioner at home. The common practice is two times a day, early morning and evening. The section Sự Cúng Lạy Của Người Cư Sĩ Tại Gia, published in the book Cách Tu Hiền on hoahao.org, describes the order as follows.

Before the ancestors' altar, the worshipper holds incense and bows three times, kneels with joined hands raised to the forehead and recites a prayer in Vietnamese verse, places the incense, then stands upright with joined hands and continues reciting, then prostrates four times. Before the Buddha altar, the worshipper recites the Refuge prayer (Quy Y), which opens with the invocation Nam-mô Ta-Bà Giáo-Chủ Bổn-Sư Thích-Ca Mâu-Ni Phật, homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, the root teacher and lord of this Saha world, recited three times, then takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha of the ten directions, then recites five prayers facing the Western direction: for the world, for the ancestors of nine generations and seven lineages, for parents living and departed, for all people, and for oneself to be freed from misfortune and to gain clarity of mind. Then the worshipper prostrates four times and bows three times, reciting Nam-Mô A-Di-Đà Phật, homage to Amitabha Buddha, at the center, and the names of Mahasthamaprapta and Avalokiteshvara on either side.

After that the worshipper goes out to the Thông Thiên altar in the yard, an altar to Heaven, and prays toward the four directions, taking the altar as the main direction. Facing the main direction the worshipper recites the Refuge prayer, and facing the other three the five prayers, prostrating four times toward each direction, while those who cannot prostrate bow three times. Prostrations may be made standing or kneeling according to one's strength. After worship, those who wish sit upright and recite the Buddha's name, as much or as little as they are able, and the section advises that in prayer and in reciting the Buddha's name one should recite only in the heart.

Differences from one household to another

Because everything takes place in private homes, practice varies with circumstances, and the book Cách Tu Hiền itself leaves room for that variation. In a cramped house there is only the Thông Thiên altar with a single incense burner. Those who live with people of another religion bow silently at the time of worship. Those working in the fields at the time of worship face west to pray and then bow toward the four directions, and those far from home pray in their hearts. At every meal, even if it is only rice with fish sauce and salt, members of the faith silently invite the ancestors of nine generations and seven lineages and their departed grandparents and parents to eat with them, as a sign of filial piety.

Vegetarian observance also follows each person's own measure. The section Sự Cúng Lạy lists the vegetarian days of the month as the 14th, 15th, 29th and 30th, or the 29th and the 1st in a short month, and at the new year the 29th, the 30th and the 1st day of Tết. Those who vow to do more follow their own hearts.

The library describes these practices as an observer. Actual practice may differ from one household or hamlet to another, and members of the faith are the ones best able to describe it.

VIICommon misunderstandings

Because it carries the word Sấm, prophecy, in its title, and because it is written in rustic language very close to everyday speech, this book is often misread in two opposite directions: either as a book of fortune telling, or as folk poetry without depth. Below are the points the library meets most often.

?Quick Questions

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