{"id":826,"date":"2026-07-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/minhlydao.org.vn\/en\/?page_id=826"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T00:00:00","slug":"five-branches-of-the-great-way","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/huyencong.minhlydao.org.vn\/index.php\/en\/doctrine\/sermons\/five-branches-of-the-great-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The Five Branches of the Great Way"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE FIVE BRANCHES OF THE GREAT WAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sermon delivered on the occasion of the inauguration of the renovated Minh Thien Dao Temple (Thanh An Tu), Binh Duong province, 1\u20133 November 1966, by Nguyen Minh Thien, Dinh Phap of Minh Ly Dao.<\/em><\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking on behalf of Tam Tong Mieu at the invitation of the temple’s chairman, the author addresses the requested topic, “The Five Branches of the Great Way,” beginning with a discussion of what “Great Way” (Dai Dao) means.<\/p>\n

What is the Great Way?<\/em> Drawing on chapter 25 of the Tao Te Ching (“There is a thing formlessly complete, born before Heaven and Earth\u2026 I do not know its name; I style it the Dao, and, forced to give it a name, I call it Great”), the author explains the Dao as the formless, all-pervading first cause of Heaven, Earth, and all beings, which, once expressed outwardly, is called “Duc” (Virtue\/Power) \u2014 not the ordinary sense of moral virtue, but the “Supreme Virtue” that is coextensive with the Dao itself, containing every virtue without remainder. He cites Western translators of Lao Tzu (Pierre Salet, Dr. Wieger) and Glasenapp’s comparison to the Hindu Brahman\/Brahma, showing that Confucianism’s “Heaven\/Supreme God,” Buddhism’s “Dharma\/Dharmakaya,” and Taoism’s “Dao\/Duc” all point to the same single root, though under different names \u2014 and that, by natural law, all things that issue from this root must eventually return to it, just as a seed grows into a plant that in the end produces new seed identical to the first. He quotes the Chau Dich Huyen Nghia (Taoist Book of Changes commentary of Minh Ly Dao) on the four virtues of the Kien (Heaven) hexagram \u2014 Nguyen, Hanh, Loi, Trinh \u2014 noting that the final stage, Trinh, “brings all to completion, restoring the good seed exactly as before,” meaning that all transformation (bien dich) ultimately returns to the changeless (bat dich). Buddhism and Taoism call the cycle of transformation “the six paths of reincarnation”; the aim of religious practice is to escape this cycle and reach permanent abiding \u2014 the state of Immortals and Buddhas.<\/p>\n

Two opposite directions within the Great Way.<\/em> The Dao has a “forward,” changeable aspect that drags human life through constant turmoil, and a “reverse,” unchanging aspect that brings peace and happiness. The forward path follows the natural current of Creation, rising and falling amid hardship; the reverse path runs against that current, leading to the tranquility of Nirvana. He quotes the Chau Dich Huyen Nghia lamenting the decline of true transmission of the Book of Changes amid the turmoil of the Zhou dynasty, and Lao Tzu’s teaching of Wu Wei as a “turning back” of the stirring impulse (the Two Modes, Yin-Yang) to its root, the Supreme Ultimate. Citing a Buddhist commentary translated by Minh Thien himself, he explains that worldly pleasure is itself a form of suffering, being impermanent and arising only from the temporary combination of causes and conditions; the Buddha therefore taught only the Truth of Suffering, not a “Truth of Pleasure.” Suffering arises from Ignorance (Vo Minh), the opposite of Buddha-nature; extinguishing Ignorance and manifesting Buddha-nature is called “Illuminating the Mind and Seeing One’s Nature,” the realization of Nirvana \u2014 quoting Chan master Shenhui’s verse that “Nirvana, being unborn, gives rise to Prajna; Prajna, being free of [the sixty-two] false views, perceives Nirvana.”<\/p>\n

Cultivation must follow the law of evolution.<\/em> Attaining Prajna wisdom requires sustained effort, not overnight results; hence the Great Way, though one, is divided into graded levels of practice suited to different capacities \u2014 as Buddhism has its Three Vehicles and Five Teachings. He illustrates this graduated approach with the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son from the Lotus Sutra: a son who left his wealthy father as a child, wandered in poverty for decades, and by chance came begging at his father’s mansion without recognizing him; the father, recognizing his son but seeing him overwhelmed and fearful at the sight of his own wealth and status, does not reveal the relationship at once. Instead he has the son hired anonymously to shovel dung, gradually promotes him to steward over many years as trust grows, and only on his deathbed reveals to the assembled household that this laborer is in truth his own son and heir. The father represents the Tathagata; the son represents sentient beings, whom the Buddha likewise guides gradually, through skillful means (upaya) suited to their capacity, rather than all at once \u2014 hence one must not cling rigidly to any single “skillful means” while losing sight of the single underlying Great Way it serves.<\/p>\n

The Five Branches of the Great Way.<\/em> The author identifies five branches, each corresponding to a stage of dealing with suffering, like five rungs of a single ladder or five grades of a single school, all serving the same ultimate goal of liberation:<\/p>\n