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Phap Hoa Pagoda
The bumpy, red-soil road led us through immense tea fields to Phap Hoa Pagoda, Di Linh district. The Pagoda is not far away from Di Linh’s downtown. After travelling a short distance from Di Linh market, we came to the turning to the pagoda. From distance, we saw its tole roof, surrounded by darkish blue canvas-tents. The unique feature of the pagoda is not its construction or architecture, because it is very poor, but its stretching green tea and coffees gardens. Though being located near the town, the path for walking meditation of Phap Hoa is still unconcretized, which looks as homely and sincere as the people here.
Our visit to the pagoda here in Di Linh district was inspired by the images of ethnicitu people walking in meditation around the tea fields and chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha under the instructions of nuns Minh Hien and Hue Duc, that are recorded in compact discs circulated among Buddhists. We are keen to learn more about this method of practice.
After the first three days in the Lunar New Year, Minh and I hired a car to travel southwards so as to take a flight back to Canada. On the way, we planned to drop by Phap Hoa Pagoda; with a modest funding left after the long charity trip. I had phoned to Phap Hoa and talked to nuns Minh Hien and Hue Duc. The esteemed nuns were eager to help me buy and prepare gifts in advance for people there. Therefore I did not have to bring anything with me except the money.
It was so sunny in Di Linh at noon. Our car stopped by the Pagoda, Abbess Minh Hien came out to welcome and take us inside. Here we saw so many people of ethnic minorities standing in nice silence with their hands kept in the shape of lotus flower bud to welcome us. We also lowered our heads and kept our hands in the shape of lotus flower bud to greet them in response. Abbess Minh Hien had earlier informed us that not many Buddhists would be able to come, since it was then Friday, when people were usually occupied and that the children were going to school. But we still felt deeply moved at the number of people present in the main hall. We saw that besides the small kids and old people, there were many women carrying their child on their side to the Pagoda to worship Buddha. They were all sitting in pure silence, eyeing the newly arriving visitors.
Phap Hoa Pagoda is in Di Linh district, Lam Dong province, located near Di Linh market. The Pagoda has a small main hall with a statue of the Original Master. In front of the main hall is a large place with a tole roof and B40 steel fence surrounded by dark blue tent, which can accommodate a few hundreds of Buddhists, who would sit there praying or eating. Under the tent is a small altar and a bronze Buddha statue. From that place, one can see the red-soil, bumpy road in front, and the immense tea and coffee fields at both sides of the road.
After greeting and inquiring after us caringly, Abbess Minh Hien instructed the practitioners to recite sutras and pray before lunch. The ethnicity Buddhists recited the sutra and made esoteric aspirations as instructed in a clear and pure manner before having lunch. Their lunch included rice and instant noodle; every four people shared one packet of instant noodle. They enjoyed their meal in silence.
After the meal, Abbess Minh Hien struck the bell as a signal for the Sangha to prepare for a walking meditation. Kids were standing first in the line, with wooden and metal bells in their hands. Following clear and skillful instructions of the nuns, the kids and the whole Sangha walked in meditation around the Hall in nice rhythm. Every step of the kids seemed attuned with music, and rhymed with the recitations in honor of Amitabha Buddha.
When the walk in meditation was over, the abbess invited all people over to receive presents. The presents were put in a corner of the roofed place, each included 10 kilograms of rice, 4 packs of MSG, 2 packs of salt, 2 packs of sugar, 2 bottles of soya sauce, 1 carton of instant noodle and confectionary for the kids, and 10,000 VND. Unlike previous places where I came to give presents, Phap Hoa Sangha was very quite; people gathered in a very nice manner, with no jostling at all. They moderately stood in the queue and waited nicely for their turn to receive the presents. This was the precious characteristic that I found here. Practicing Buddha’s teachings by people here, however poor they are, has developed their distinctive quality.
From the very first time that we met, the two Abbesses with simple and sincere faces and hospitable smiles gave me feelings of warm attachment, as if I had been their follower since long. Abbess Minh Hien came from Tien Giang, Abbess Hue Duc from Bac Lieu; both are now in their seventies. They came here in 1970 and built Phap Hoa Pagoda so as to practice Buddha’s teachings together. With karmic conditions, they have transformed ethnicity people here. Their former retreat pagoda now attracts hundreds of practitioners.
Buddhists who are practicing the Dharma of Pure Land in Phap Hoa Pagoda come from 4 hamlets, in 161 families, totaling 918 people from old to young age. Those present that day were members of the families who have taken Three Refuges and Five Precepts, and would attend the monthly ceremony of Bat Quan Trai (i.e. practicing of the Eight Precepts) in the Pagoda. I was told about this strength of the ethnic people: at every retreat or practicing occasion, the whole family would attend - husband, wife, and all children from the oldest to the youngest.
They are K’ho ethnicity, living in Gung Re commune, in Hang Lang area, Di Linh district, Lam Dong province. K’Sem, dharmic name Thien Hai, said that K’ho ethnicity had come here since very long time ago. In the French colonial time, two businessmen - one French and one Italian – came here, cleared the forest and turned this land into a coffee farm. Villagers worked on their farm. After 1975, these two businessmen fled back to their countries, leaving the farm behind to the local authority.
In the three months of summer retreat, the Abbess organizes a class for Buddha’s teachings every Saturday, and a day of Bat Quan Trai (the Eight Precepts) every Sunday, from 7 am to 3 pm. Participants to this Bat Quan Trai are offered with lunch by Ms. Cuc and her group in Duc Trong town. Lunch is served in many groups, which usually average from 80 to 100; each for 4 people. The food is too meager - each person’s food is worth 2,000-2,500 VND (or 17 US cents). Such lunch costs around 1,000,000 VND totally (or 63 USD), in which 500,000 vnd is spent on 100 kilogram of rice, and the remaining half on other, non-rice food for around 400 Buddhists. The expenditure for non-rice food is such small because part of the vegetable is offered by the market sellers who are friends of Ms. Cuc and her group.
The nun informed that every November and December, the harvest time for coffee, all the people here are busy collecting coffee as hired workers and therefore cannot gather at the pagoda for any practicing occasion.
I wish to offer you these rays of warm sunlight in early spring - the nice and solemn images of a Sangha of the ethnic people, among those the two Abbesses appear as Bodhisattva, who have brought here the Amrta, the sweet dew, to transfer grievances and sorrows. Friends from near are far alike are invited here to join hands for an even purer Sangha, so that more sources of compassion from everywhere can start to flow. The serene afternoon recitations will bring us to the land of eternity.
Early Spring of 2007 (Dinh Hoi – Year of the Pig)
Dieu Lien.
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