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Long Khanh Temple - The Future of Vietnamese Culture
In the great family of four generations—“tứ đại đồng đường”—if there is practice and love, happiness will be present; on the contrary, the absence of practice and love leads to oppression, suppression, and divorce. Today, the small nuclear family has replaced the old structure, causing the divorce rate in many Western countries, such as the Netherlands, to exceed 50%, with some people divorcing seven or eight times. Lacking the support of the extended family and a refuge for children—the fish pond, the guava tree, the grandparents’ house—when parents quarrel, children must lock themselves in the bathroom to escape the noise, making it easy to fall into drugs, gangs, and crime.
The key to happiness and stability lies in two basic “families”:
- The blood family with parents, grandparents, and siblings, where the body and material life are nourished.
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The spiritual family—Buddha, Bodhisattvas, ancestral teachers, root teachers—which is the source of ethical and spiritual life.
When the generations of parents and children lack true communication, applying the method of harmony and consensus (tác pháp yết ma)—listening deeply, synthesizing opinions, and making decisions together—will restore understanding, responsibility, and love among members.
In the context of globalization, if we only pursue individual freedom and material consumption—motorbikes, luxury cars, violent movies—true happiness will continue to be threatened. The future Vietnamese culture needs to cultivate contentment, consume less, nurture both blood and spiritual families, preserve identity, and cherish the connection with ancestors through a simple ancestral altar. Only when freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility and the practice of mindfulness will family and society be stable, and children will not become “hungry ghosts” wandering in search of love and understanding.