Zen Master Chân ĐẠo Chánh ThỐng

As far as the matter is concerned it should be noticed that all the writings related to contemporary political issues were thrown away by the Master just as they had been composed which was revealed by himself in the Preface to the three-part version of the Thủy Nguyệt Tòng Sao Those works of mine in verse and prose alike that have been composed either unable to convey my true inspirations or related to contemporary political issues were thrown away. Nevertheless in addition to poems of ancient history that are definitely related to political issues some of his are discovered to have more or less dealt with that aspect. For instance in a couplet in parallelism dedicated to the District Chief Trạch Chi Ngô Đình Nhuận the Master writes If governance is made benevolent ... even the wildest beings may be tamed; If officials are promoted in terms of their own righteousness ... the source of their ambitions may be dried up. Reading it we may recognize the political view of Zen Master Chân Đạo. And this is nothing other than a traditional view that formerly became the guiding principle in the political system of Vietnam in the times of Lý Thường Kiệt and Trần Hưng Đạo. It was realized in the personality of the former that internally his mind is mild and brilliant; externally his appearance is plain and humane or formulated in a statement of the latter that for the nation to be constantly stabilized let the peoples strength not be exhausted. Generally speaking from the Masters view the education of Buddhism should not be limited to the Buddhas teachings alone but it should be developed into an all-round education as has ever been implemented in the educational tradition of Vietnam of which he himself was a typical student. It was from his training in such an education and his aspiration for serving the world with all his heart that Zen Master Chân Đạo apart from his activities within the Buddhist order tried to have a very close relationship with lay Buddhists of various social classes and even with those who were not Buddhist followers.