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The Living Zen Tradition - Tran Thai Tong
King Trần Thái Tông, who was also a Zen master at the Institute at Tại Nha, Chân Giáo Temple, often organized
- great inquiry (đại tham) – large, systematic gatherings where practitioners could question the teacher and vice versa
-
small inquiry (tiểu tham) – spontaneous exchanges lasting only a few minutes in the temple yard, kitchen, or vegetable garden
The responses were often in the form of Zen poetry, such as these two lines:
“Clouds arise on the Nhạc peak, all pure white.
Waters reach Tiêu Tương, a single shade of blue.”
expressing a state of transcendence and serenity, or:
“Spring rain does not distinguish high from low,
But spring branches—some are low, some are high.”
to indicate that the path of enlightenment is the same, but each person receives it according to their own conditions.
The Thảo Đường Zen school encouraged the use of poetry and koans. Trần Thái Tông composed more than forty koans following the three steps of presenting – contemplating – reciting, and also taught contemplation of the physical body through the poem Universal Teaching on the Physical Body with these four lines:
“The flavorless true person, flesh so red,
Red and white, skillfully deceiving each other.
Who knows when the clouds clear, the sky is bright,
The high mountain’s form appears clearly on the horizon.”
reminding us to contemplate the body as impermanent, non-self, and impure in order to touch Buddha-nature. In the Discourse on Mindfulness of the Body, the body is seen as the gateway to liberation; at the same time, the body—including the five aggregates and the five elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space)—is the object of mindfulness throughout the postures of standing, sitting, walking, and lying down, and even the three prostrations expand awareness of ancestors, descendants, and the cosmos right in the present moment.