ON EVOLUTION
TAM TONG MIEU — SERMON
Delivered on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, year Canh Tuat (1970)
NGUYEN MINH THIEN
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,
Fellow believers, brothers and sisters.
Today is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the feast day of the Heavenly Official Who Bestows Blessings.
Each year there are three great Origins (Nguon), of which this is one, called the feast of the Upper Origin. The fifteenth of the seventh month is called the Middle Origin, the feast of the Earthly Official Who Pardons Sin; the fifteenth of the tenth month is the Lower Origin, the feast of the Water Official Who Releases from Misfortune. Taoism calls these three — the Heavenly Official, the Earthly Official, and the Water Official — the Three Officials of the Register, meaning the three Officials who examine and record the merits and sins of the people of this world.
On the occasion of this great feast of the Heavenly Official Who Bestows Blessings, following our usual custom, I would like to offer a sermon on virtue, to remind fellow believers of the path of religious study and cultivation.
Today’s topic is: ON EVOLUTION.
I. INTRODUCTION
This is a vast subject, discussed everywhere across both East and West, though the manner of argument differs from place to place. The Immortals and Spirits, through spirit-writing, have also given brief teachings on this subject many times, yet it is difficult to explain fully within the scope of a single session of spirit-writing.
Now, without regard to my own shallow learning, I wish to discuss this question with my fellow believers, and, if possible, to help establish for Minh Ly Dao a firm foothold, a clear position, so that we may progress toward a more complete doctrine in time to come.
II. THE MAIN DISCUSSION
1. Defining the term “Evolution”
The word Tien (progress) means to advance forward — beginning poorly and later becoming skilled, beginning wicked and later becoming good, beginning on a low rung of the ladder and gradually climbing to a higher rung.
The word Hoa (transformation) refers to change and transformation — that is, not remaining fixed forever at one level. Whether one wishes it or not, everyone must advance forward; the only difference lies in whether one advances quickly or slowly, depending on the greater or lesser effort one applies to one’s own study and cultivation.
The opposite of evolution (tien hoa) is devolution (thoi hoa) — meaning that if one does not move forward, one must inevitably move backward. The Creator holds compassion for all sentient beings, as a mother loves her child; how, then, having given birth to them, could the Creator possibly allow them to go against the law of Evolution? Yet it cannot be avoided that some persons remain obstinate and rebellious, unwilling to heed the teaching of the Higher Powers. For this reason, they must suffer pain and hardship. These are but the rod and the whip — just as parents who love their children must nonetheless discipline them, so that they may reflect upon themselves, awaken, and turn back toward goodness.
Hence the book Minh Ly Chon Giai states: “Take suffering as your teacher” — meaning: accept suffering as a means of recognizing one’s own faults and turning back. It further states: “Only by striking one’s forehead does one realize one has bumped into something; only by stumbling does one realize one has fallen into a deep pit” — how, then, could we dare fail to be careful?
Western thought likewise holds: “La douleur, c’est notre maître” — meaning: suffering is our teacher.
The Buddhist scripture states: “The people of old passed through hardship, often encountering danger and difficulty, and only afterward came to enjoy long-lasting peace and ease. For it is only through difficulty that wisdom expands, only through hardship that one’s thinking becomes deep and thorough, and only then can misfortune be transformed into blessing, and worldly things transformed into the Way” (see the Precious Instructions of the Meditation Grove).
The book Minh Ly Chon Giai further adds: “The greater the conflagration of calamity blazes up, the more the fire of strife burns away the heart’s greed and hatred. The higher the flood waters rise, the more thoroughly they wash away impurity and filth — though this inevitably consumes those who fail to seek refuge in time… Thus, the more urgently worldly calamity presses in, the nearer its final resolution draws. It is only through suffering and lamentation that repentance and the plea for salvation arise in the heart. Though many deceptive schemes are laid out before us, above all the maze that bewilders the soul (causing a person’s spirit to become confused and lost), the foolish rush about in eager excitement, while the wise and discerning should hasten to escape from it.“
Thus, suffering is a vital condition for evolution — like a sharp point pressed into our body, spurring us onward to advance, especially for those who remain weak and irresolute, caught halfway along the path.
2. On what basis do we know that Evolution exists?
Evolution is a universal law governing all things, just as the law of Cause and Effect governs all things in Buddhism — it is by no means reserved solely for humankind. But within the scope of this single sermon, I cannot discuss this subject at length, so here I shall speak only of humankind, so that everyone may understand the path of progress and attend to their own self-cultivation. In general terms, this subject involves three levels, which I shall list here: a) Sensation, b) Perception, c) Intuition. (Each of these levels contains the word “giac” — awareness — though the meaning of this word differs from one level to the next; I ask you to take note of this.)
a) Sensation. Let me first explain the word “giac”:
Giac means to understand, to come to know something not previously known — this is called “giac.” But “giac” has many different degrees. Sensation (cam giac) is understanding by means of the five sense organs — the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and limbs — coming to understand through contact with the colors, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures of the natural objects outside our own body. Without these external objects, this kind of understanding, being externally derived, would not exist at all.
Sensation is a coarse, purely superficial form of understanding, and moreover, each sense organ understands in its own distinct way. The eye can only see, and cannot hear, smell, taste, or touch. The ear can only hear, and cannot see, smell, taste, or touch. The same holds true for the other sense organs. Each sense organ has its own separate function, and none can assist another. This kind of understanding is exceedingly limited. If the world knew only in this manner, would this understanding not be terribly impoverished?
In the book A Guide to the Study of the Way, His Highness Tran Hung Dao describes this state of affairs at length as follows (see the section on Life and the Posterior-Heaven Mind):
“Life is the existence of the human being. We too must come to understand what life is, in order to determine what to retain from it — what is genuine, and what is illusory.
Having entered into life, one must understand what life is, and to what end. One must consider carefully what one’s own human condition truly is. Life is a scene within the universe, comprising the condition of existence — that is, relationships and consciousness (consciousness will be discussed further below). Such is the human condition. Life is a stage upon which an undetermined drama unfolds, ever shifting and changing, vast and boundless.
Where do we live each day, here upon this earth, and what do we see? Is it not mountains, seas, deep forests, birds and beasts, gardens and fields, money, houses, and other people?”
This passage speaks only of the condition of existence, understanding merely the natural objects of the external world, and then declaring: “These things exist.” This is experience of the mere existence of things.
The particular characteristic of sensory perception of things is this: we become certain of the existence of the thing, yet at the same time we have not yet come to understand anything of its true nature. This understanding remains scattered and disconnected, as stated above: the eye only sees, the ear only hears, and so on.
Buddhist treatises state: the five sense organs are merely five patrolling scouts. There must be a central headquarters, like a central police station, to gather together the reports of these five scouts and organize them into a coherent system, before any proper judgment can be formed. Otherwise, this understanding remains scattered and fragmented — how could it be called sound and proper?
And who, then, is this central headquarters? This is precisely the next stage — Perception (tri giac), also called consciousness, mind-consciousness, intellect, or understanding (intelligence, entendement)…
b) Perception
Perception belongs to the faculty of Thought (Y), the sixth consciousness — hence Buddhism also calls it the sixth mental consciousness.
Mental consciousness governs the first five consciousnesses: the eye, ear, nose, mouth, and limbs. These first five consciousnesses go out into the world, investigating natural objects, and report back to mental consciousness. Only then does mental consciousness organize the various pieces of understanding (sensations) gathered by the first five consciousnesses into a coherent system, and, on this basis, form judgments of good and bad, virtuous and wicked, and so on. Beyond this function, mental consciousness understands only what occurs within one’s own being, called Dharma (Phap) — that is, matters occurring within oneself, having no outward visible form, such as thoughts, good and evil intentions, desires, advancement and retreat, and so on.
Though mental consciousness is capable of understanding matters both outside and within oneself, it has not yet come to understand the full truth — that is, true reality — because it is affected by many unwholesome influences, which cause mental consciousness at times to become confused and darkened.
Here, let us hear the explanation given by Duc Thanh Tran in the book A Guide to the Study of the Way:
“Life, under the direction of consciousness, is set into motion by consciousness, taking on a thousand different forms and a myriad conditions within the field of the mind, growing ever more strange and cunningly deceptive, causing the scenes of life to taste by turns salty, bland, sweet, and sour, causing some people in the world to weep while others laugh, bending what is round into what is square, turning hatred into love, and love back into hatred.
The external world so thoroughly manipulates the soul that life becomes a furnace of fire to burn us, a sea of water to drown us, an axe and a blade to hack, carve, and plane us, never at peace for even a single hour. The true value of life lies in feeling, yet the ultimate outcome of feeling is suffering.
Because a single unconscious thought arises, the mind becomes consciousness, which then creates conditions and generates karma. One ripple stirs, and ten thousand ripples follow — one wave arises, and ten thousand waves are set into motion by it. The question of birth and death is therefore a matter of the utmost importance. We must understand whether the arising thought is good or evil, for the chain of reincarnation will drive us either into darkness or out into the light…
Depending on the circumstance, mind-consciousness is also called mental consciousness, or emotional consciousness.
Now let us go one step deeper, to understand in broad outline the meaning of consciousness.
What is consciousness?
Consciousness is knowing, is discrimination. The knowing of consciousness has been constructed since beginningless time; there is no object that does not arise from consciousness, no event that does not originate from consciousness. This consciousness is exceedingly vast and deep, remarkably alive and active, easily set trembling and easily aroused.
Impressions and memories, carried across vast stretches of time and permeating through space, allow human beings to hear, see, and understand, from the realm of the spirits to the realm of humankind. This is called transmitted consciousness. This consciousness enters into the human body, combining with hereditary consciousness and acquired consciousness through habituation, so that the family of consciousness grows ever larger, day by day.
As for hereditary consciousness, we can never fully trace its origin. It follows the family lineage, flowing down through seven generations of ancestors and nine generations of descendants. The vital essence of father and mother that forms the human body is itself a drop of blood in which consciousness flows silently through the body. If this drop of blood arises from a pure and clear source, the resulting child will be born clever and intelligent. If it arises from a turbid and impure source, the child will become dull and foolish instead.
But it is not only these two streams of consciousness — of even greater consequence is the further stream of consciousness acquired through habituation, present within the animals and plants we consume. When we eat them and take them into our own bodies, the vital essence and cellular substance of these creatures mixes into the blood within our own body, so that the company of consciousness is enlisted ever more numerously, day by day — and the more numerous it grows, the stronger it becomes, until it may obstruct our own true nature, depriving it of its full freedom and vitality. By the time we discard this physical body, our true nature no longer possesses sufficient strength to stand independent…”
In summary, the activity of consciousness arises from thought (Y), and is therefore called mental consciousness. It is the single most dangerous and formidable agent, creating conditions and generating karma, causing us to fall into the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation. Yet when mental consciousness is illuminated and guided by one’s true nature, becoming clear and bright, it is then called Will (Y chi). Through Will, human beings study and put their learning into practice, and through experience, achieve great accomplishments — mental consciousness is therefore by no means entirely false and worthless; it too has its own genuine benefit. It is like a candidate sitting an examination, and life itself is the examination hall through which one advances toward evolution. Hence Buddhism also teaches: mental consciousness may cause us to fall into Hell, yet Will may equally lead us up to Heaven, to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. How, then, could we dare regard it lightly and fail to exercise caution?
Thus Thought (Y) has both an inferior aspect and a skillful aspect, both a wicked aspect and a virtuous aspect. Like a sharp knife, whether it serves for good or ill depends entirely on whether we ourselves know how to wield it properly.
Why does it possess this wicked aspect?
According to the Theravada branch of Buddhism, there are only six consciousnesses — those of the eye, ear, nose, mouth, limbs, and mind, as stated above. But according to the Mahayana branch, there are as many as eight consciousnesses — that is, in addition to the six mentioned above, there are two further consciousnesses: the Manas consciousness and the Alaya consciousness. The Manas consciousness is translated by Chinese scholars as the “root of thought” (y can); the Alaya consciousness is translated as the “storehouse consciousness” (ham tang thuc). The storehouse consciousness is the Tathagatagarbha (Nhu Lai Tang) combined together with the preceding seven consciousnesses.
The root of thought is the very root of mental consciousness, and so mental consciousness is influenced by this root of thought. The root of thought clings to the storehouse consciousness as the Self (Ban nga) — a selfish ego, which therefore loses much of its clarity. Hence the Buddha taught that cultivation requires the extinguishing of this selfish ego; once this is done, the preceding seven consciousnesses dissolve away, leaving only the Tathagatagarbha, which is True Reality, the True Self of all sentient beings.
Next, let me speak of Intuition — the direct understanding of this very True Reality, this True Self spoken of here.
c) Intuition
Mental consciousness, clinging to the Self, remains moreover caught within the realm of tangible, material things belonging to the Posterior-Heaven, and so has not yet attained complete goodness. On the other hand, it has not yet directly intuited its own True Reality — its True Self, its absolute spirit — and so remains projected outward, estranged from itself, cast out into the external world. It mistakenly imagines that the Principle lying deep within the inherent nature of things is something objective, external to itself.
Yet where could this Rational Nature (Ly Tanh) possibly go, that it should not be present everywhere? Confucian scholars say: “It is nowhere, and yet it is everywhere” — meaning: it exists nowhere in particular, and yet it exists everywhere. Rational Nature is like the fire hidden within a piece of flint. Wherever the hammer strikes, sparks fly forth there; once the striking ceases, the fire, too, is no longer seen. Whether it manifests or not depends entirely upon the effort applied by mental consciousness.
All things outside our own body possess no true substance in themselves; they belong entirely to mental consciousness. Whenever our mental consciousness thinks of them, they appear to exist; once we cease to think of them, they too vanish entirely, like an illusory dream.
We should therefore keep the mind pure and tranquil, free from deluded thought. Once deluded thought ceases, the mind attains the state of no-thought, and is no longer stirred by worldly sensation.
The Record of Manifesting the Lineage by Shenhui opens with these words:
No-thought is the fundamental tenet,
Non-action is the root and foundation.
True Emptiness is the substance,
Marvelous Existence is the function.
Vietnamese rendering:
No-thought is the ancestral tenet,
Non-action is the very root.
True emptiness is the fundamental substance,
Marvelous existence is its function.
Yet some may object: surely mind-consciousness cannot remain for long in this state of no-thought and no-feeling. As soon as we succeed in dispelling one image or object in order to reach no-thought, another object immediately arises to disturb us, creating new sensations and new images. If this is so, what certainty can there be in this state of no-thought? It seems merely a kind of liberation perpetually disturbed by the ordinary activity of human worldly life.
What, then, must be done? This is precisely the effort of non-action (vo tac, that is, vo vi) undertaken by the practitioner seeking liberation.
If one relies solely upon outward form, upon experience gained through action, remaining within the bounds of the Posterior-Heaven, the result too will remain merely Posterior-Heaven. One must cultivate a return from the Posterior-Heaven back to the Prior-Heaven — a transcendent effort, advancing toward True Emptiness, so as to attain Marvelous Existence, just as the four-line tenet of the Chan (Zen) school states above.
True Emptiness is that empty nature free of deluded thought, free of the false and illusory scenes that stand as intermediary obstructions — so that mental consciousness is transformed and becomes Rational Nature, the absolute spirit. Buddhism calls this nature True Emptiness, the Tathagatagarbha, the True Suchness, the Buddha-nature. This nature is utterly still and silent, hence the scripture states: “Utterly still, unmoving.”
Here it is said: True Emptiness is unmoving — but one should not mistake this for a lifeless, obstinate emptiness, like wood, like stone, like some senseless, unfeeling thing. True Emptiness means “empty,” yet not truly “empty” in that sense. The moment it is stirred into activity, it comes to understand all things throughout the world entirely — hence the scripture further states: “Once stirred, it thoroughly comprehends all affairs throughout the world” — this is Marvelous Existence, meaning: though called empty, it comprehends all things in a manner both mysterious and transcendent, beyond the ordinary — this is precisely the meaning of Intuition spoken of above, and hence it is called, together, True Emptiness yet Marvelous Existence.
How, then, does one attain Intuition (intuition spirituelle)?
Above, it was said that one must attain no-thought, no-feeling, and non-attachment to self. But this is only the first stage. One must go still deeper — into the practice of meditative concentration of the Chan school of Buddhism, or the practice of elixir cultivation of the Prior-Heaven Great Way — as the second stage, in order to attain complete liberation.
This is a most lofty and profound subject, requiring other sermons belonging to esoteric teaching, and is by no means a matter of ordinary knowledge.
A certain Western philosopher, in critiquing the theory of Hegel (Hac Tri Nhi) regarding the human being as absolute spirit, stated: “Do you not mean to lead us toward a still greater Kingdom of Heaven?” And this question is posed most decisively: if it can be answered, then Hegel’s theory holds true value; if it cannot be resolved, then the whole of his labor will collapse. The question here is one of rejoining a severed connection, of recovering what has been cast outward — or, to put it more simply, this is the final stretch of the road home. Only a tiny remaining distance separates mind-consciousness from completing its full cycle and returning to its own True Reality — yet this tiny remaining distance is precisely where every difficulty converges and condenses.
The meaning here is: mental consciousness is the projected self that has wandered loose into the outside world, and it must now be brought back to unite with True Reality, its own original substance. Or, to put it in Hegel’s terms: the antithesis unites with the thesis, and is restored to become the Prior-Heaven synthesis. Or, to put it yet another way: Yin and Yang, being and non-being, stand opposed to one another, yet unite to form the August Ultimate.
At this point, one reaches the ultimate destination of the path of religious practice — Heaven, the Land of Ultimate Bliss, Nirvana, the realm of neither birth nor death. Without reaching this point, one remains still within the worldly realm, subject to the cycle of birth, death, and reincarnation. I urge all fellow believers to strive diligently!
3. These three stages are continuous, not separate and discontinuous
What I wish to convey is this: the three levels mentioned above — Sensation, Perception, and Intuition — are linked continuously with one another, and it is difficult to divide them into sharply distinct stages with clear, easily recognizable boundaries.
Allow me to illustrate this principle with the example of a newborn infant.
At birth, the infant’s physical body is still immature, its organs not yet fully developed. Sensation begins only gradually — first coming to recognize the world outside its own body, such as color, light and darkness, coming to feel warmth and cold in its own body, hunger and thirst, and so on — and then, gradually, growing familiar with whatever surroundings it is exposed to, remembering them; gradually coming to recognize its mother feeding it, nursing it…
This is merely the period of Sensation — the infant is only beginning to practice seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and physical sensation; it does not yet possess mental consciousness capable of judging pleasant from unpleasant, love from hatred, deception, and so on. Hence the ancients often took the still-unsullied mind of a small child as an example, calling it “the mind of a newborn babe” (xich tu chi tam) — a mind that is gentle, kind, and joyful. Yet how could it possibly know who it is, or what its duties are? What Heaven has bestowed upon it is instinct alone, like a temporary light not yet far removed from Heaven, still under Heaven’s own direction and control — so it knows only the simplest matters, sufficient to preserve its own survival (instinct de conservation).
Passing into the period of Perception, the infant’s sensation has now advanced from the flesh into the soul, giving rise to mental consciousness as explained above — this is the stage of adolescence. A person must advance through many lifetimes, many incarnations, rising up from the lowest level, in order to attain this luminous, spiritual original nature spoken of here. Confucianism calls this Nature: “empty and numinous, never obscured.” Yet because this nature is unwittingly stained by outward defilement, though it always remains luminous within. It is like the sun obscured by clouds — the sun itself, in its own essential nature, never loses its brightness at all. Once the clouds have passed beyond the sun, the sun shines forth once more, illuminating everywhere.
In this second period, human beings remain caught within outward form, still harboring deluded longing for what is not their true self, because they have not yet perceived their own True Reality, their own original nature. They follow after sounds and forms. Hence the Buddha, in the Diamond Sutra, taught:
If one seeks to see Me through form,
Or to seek Me through sound,
Such a person walks a deviant path,
And cannot perceive the Tathagata.
Vietnamese rendering:
If one uses form and appearance to see Me,
Uses sound and voice to seek Me,
That person walks a deviant path,
And has not yet seen the Tathagata Buddha.
Yet why do temples nowadays make use of form (building temples, casting Buddha images) and make use of sound (rites, music, chanting scripture)?
This, too, is done in accordance with the varying levels and dispositions of the faithful, some lower and some higher — it cannot possibly be applied uniformly to everyone in the same manner. If I understand correctly, the term “deviant path” spoken of here is used specifically in contrast to the Diamond Sutra’s teaching of Formlessness (Khong tuong) — it is by no means intended to disparage other levels of practice.
I hope that each and every fellow believer will attend first to their own individual duty, rather than hastily praising or criticizing some other religious path different from our own, for this would be a most regrettable error. For religion ought to unite people, to bring them to love one another — yet, on the contrary, it so often brings about division, jealousy, and hatred instead. Hence Confucius said: “To attack strange and heterodox doctrines is truly harmful indeed” — meaning: to attack unfamiliar religious paths brings great harm!
The third period, Intuition, may be likened to a venerable elder. This is a person who has already experienced worldly affairs, and now devotes themselves to cultivating liberation, and so has forgotten all outward form, no longer clinging to distinctions of self and other. This level approaches that of the Sages, Worthies, Immortals, and Buddhas — no longer clinging to petty, trivial matters, keeping the heart genuinely empty, in order to seek Right Mindfulness. For Right Mindfulness arises of itself from the Void, belonging to the Prior-Heaven, and cannot be attained through the effort of the ordinary person, or through anyone’s own private intention.
Hence the Heart Sutra of Minh Ly Dao contains the line:
Only with no self and no dharma
Does wisdom open forth and cross over to the other shore.
“Self and dharma” refers to self and other, this and that, as discussed above. Only by setting aside both of these (the Twofold Emptiness) does wisdom arise, allowing one to reach the other shore — that is, the far shore of Buddhahood.
Is this not, then, an orderly, sequential process of evolution? If anyone tries to cultivate by skipping over the proper stages, it will prove exceedingly difficult to reach true success.
4. The theory of evolution according to each religious tradition
Each religious tradition, in discussing evolution, appears similar in outward form, yet differs in its essential, fundamental basis.
Buddhism, for instance, teaches that the True Reality of the human being is the Tathagatagarbha, the True Suchness of one’s original nature — which possesses no form at all, is infinitely luminous, and is neither born nor destroyed — so in what sense, then, could this be called “evolution”? It is merely that this nature becomes obscured by Ignorance, and Ignorance, on this basis, then manifests itself as this form or that form. And Ignorance itself is something that human beings unwittingly create for themselves.
Ignorance is an illusory scene, just as a person suffering an eye ailment sees sparks of fire floating in the empty sky. Once the eye ailment is cured — just as once mental consciousness is freed from deluded thought — the True Suchness of one’s original nature naturally manifests itself, with nothing added and nothing removed, so how could this properly be called evolution or devolution? Yet, considered carefully: if the original substance remains eternally abiding, while the human being, according to outward phenomena, rises and falls — is this not indeed advancement and decline?
Taoism, meanwhile, teaches that both people and things are born from the Dao.
The Tao Te Ching states: “The Dao gives birth to the One, the One gives birth to the Two, the Two give birth to the Three, and the Three give birth to the ten thousand things.“
The book Awakening to Reality (Ngo Chon Thien) states:
The Dao, from the Void, gives birth to the One Energy,
From the One Energy then arise Yin and Yang.
Yin and Yang unite again to form the Three Bodies.
The Three Bodies, multiplying, give rise to the spreading forth of the ten thousand things.
Vietnamese rendering:
The Dao, being empty, gives birth to the One energy,
From the One energy, Yin and Yang divide.
Yin and Yang unite, and the Three Bodies appear,
From the Three Bodies, the myriad things spread forth of themselves.
This verse from Awakening to Reality serves merely to clarify further the meaning of the line from the Tao Te Ching cited above, and states nothing beyond this.
The “One Energy” spoken of here refers to the Supreme Ultimate, and the Supreme Ultimate giving birth to the Two Modes is the natural law of Heaven and Earth. When the Supreme Ultimate is at rest, Yin is born; when the Supreme Ultimate is in motion, Yang is born. Yin and Yang unite together, and only then are the ten thousand things born.
If human beings follow this natural principle, then birth follows birth and transformation follows transformation without end, and so, day by day, one grows ever more distant from the Dao. Hence human beings must come to know where the Dao truly lies, and turn back toward their former root, their ancient throne.
Thus, in descending into this world, it is by no means a fault of our own doing. This occurs according to the law of Yin and Yang; we are sent down into this mortal realm to fulfill the duty entrusted to us by Heaven, and also to undergo study and training so as to return to our root and restore our origin, cultivating pure Yang, in order to return to the higher realm and become Immortals and Buddhas.
According to Buddhism, it is through humanity’s own unwitting failure that we descend; according to Taoism, humanity is born through the law of Yin and Yang. Though these two traditions differ in their account of birth and transformation, “unwitting failure” (that is, Ignorance) and the Yin aspect of the Supreme Ultimate are, in both cases, alike a portion of darkness and confusion. Human beings must free themselves entirely from this darkness and confusion — so regarding the effort of returning, there is, in truth, no real difference between the two.
Yet, according to the Taoist tradition, we may indeed speak of “evolution,” for it is we ourselves who break through the confusion of the law of Yin and Yang, turning back upstream to seek the clarity of the Dao — even though the Dao likewise lies latent within the heart of every person, it is only upon returning that a person comes to know this for themselves (conscience de soi).
Turning to Confucianism: its Founder likewise follows the theory that the Supreme Ultimate gives birth to the Two Modes, just as Taoism does. Yet regarding the cultivation of body and mind, Confucianism also distinguishes between the Nature endowed by Heaven’s Mandate and the Nature of material temperament, which likewise possess Yin and Yang, purity and turbidity — yet its effort toward evolution concerns chiefly the Way of Humanity: filial piety, brotherly respect, loyalty, faithfulness, propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame — with relatively little discussion of the loftier, transcendent, world-renouncing aspect.
Hence the disciple Zigong said: “The Master’s cultural teachings can indeed be heard and learned; but the Master’s discourse on Human Nature and the Way of Heaven cannot be heard and learned.“
Mencius likewise discussed the Four Beginnings — benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom — as already present within our own hearts, meaning: still latent, like a good seed. Each person must apply the effort of cultivation, genuinely fulfilling their duty, for this seed to develop vigorously, sprouting and putting forth new shoots.
Duc Thanh Tran explains Confucianism in the book A Guide to the Study of the Way, as follows:
“Confucianism, in matters of belief, holds the same understanding of the fundamental substance as Buddhism and Taoism. But regarding the affairs of human life in particular, Confucianism regards itself as bearing a weighty responsibility of humankind — to apply the Way to worldly life, guiding humanity toward a Great Commonwealth society.
Life should allow everyone to live and act in harmony with the principle of Heaven, finding joy in their daily duties, cultivating and refining body and mind, so as to advance and take up the responsibility of ordering the family and governing the state — so that each and every person fulfills their own duty completely. Let all treat one another with loving-kindness, maintain harmonious relations, and above all, let those in higher positions — the noble persons — understand Heaven’s Mandate and cultivate themselves accordingly, so as to become Worthies and Sages, participating together with Heaven and Earth in the work of nurturing and transformation.“
As for the Western schools of thought concerning evolution, there are many philosophers — Darwin, Balzac (Ba Lap Do), Kant (Khuong Duc), Hegel (Hac Tri Nhi), and others — but it is not possible to discuss all of these theories fully within the scope of a single sermon.
III. CONCLUSION
The value of religion lies precisely in evolution. If one enters religious life yet fails to attend diligently to study and cultivation, how would one differ at all from an ordinary person out in the world?
Even if we do not attain the full fruit of becoming an Immortal or a Buddha, we may still become a Sage or a Worthy — or, at the very least, become a decent and upright member of society.
In this present age, we have moreover the teaching and instruction of the Immortals and Buddhas — how precious a thing this truly is! Should we let this opportunity pass by, it would be a great loss indeed, for it is by no means easy to encounter such an opportunity a second time.
I offer my prayers and good wishes to all fellow believers for the new year, that you may enjoy a full year of peace, well-being, and continued evolution.
With utmost sincerity and faith.