At that time, the period of President Thiệu, about one to two months after submitting the application to the Home Affairs Department, the decree was signed by Prime Minister Trần Thiện Khiêm, allowing articles and sutras to be widely printed, and the Dharma practice to be disseminated (according to the current law of decree).
It is up to a Sangha Chief to choose His most effective Dharma subject. At that time, I sat and thought carefully: When a leader guides the way for all practicing, he must consider the lives of everyone of every class in order to be efficacious.
Therefore, in this period, I used “the Buddha Dharma without leaving the secular world to be enlightened.” With this, Tao practitioners could be either monks and nuns, who renounce their families, or laypersons, who stay in their families, providing that, being in the form of richness, they are not attached to that rich form; having either good or bad reputation, they do not sulk.
Although Form-Hearing-Odor-Taste-Touch-Dharma makes one angry, one’s personality does not arise to hatred. That is the one who is able to practice the Dharma. On the contrary, if a Tao practitioner who keeps a vegetarian diet all year round (or any other fixed form) becomes hateful once their individuality and personal character is touched, acting immorally and wrongly, contradicting Buddhism principles, then that practitioner is not practicing the Dharma. Therefore, using Form-Hearing-Odor-Taste-Touch-Dharma without impregnation will make Tao practitioners conduct their Dharma practice more easily.
Otherwise, in this period, practicing the Dharma also meant renouncing the family. This renunciation is also really good. However, this requirement is contrary to the point: There are some who are unable to renounce their families. In this period, when people must work to earn their living, people must live with people. Therefore, in order to bring knowledge to Tao practitioners, let them sit in meditation regularly. That is why I have brought up the principle and objective of the Dharma Constitution.
This is the decree document granted by the government (the former Republic of Vietnam) to the Dharma Constitution Vietnamese Buddhism Association.
The decree was signed on August 02, 1971.
Reverend Sangha Chief Tịnh Vương (sitting on the chair) granting the teachings at the Dharma Precious Place of Bình Định, Qui Nhơn, 1970.
The principle and objective of the Dharma Constitution involve three main points for Tao practitioners.
The first is to build virtue in oneself. After having virtue, listen to the doctrine: that is, the doctrine of Buddha. Without virtue, in listening to the doctrine and perceiving the doctrine, that is the doctrine of the devil. A wise person with virtue is morally wise. And wisdom without virtue is the wisdom of the devil. That is why the essential need in Buddhism is virtue.
Therefore, the primary and main basis is virtue, so it needs to be built first; the doctrine is built after that. Then, the practitioner in meditative sitting is able to enter meditation in order to clearly comprehend in thousands of ways, depending on each level of progression.
While not having the decree yet, I had been executing the Tao Dharma since 1967, sometimes wandering from one place to another. I had sown the (Tao Dharma) cause from Bình-Định, having a large number of followers there, to Đà-Nẵng, then to Huế.
Right after the decree in February 1971, I called all Tao practitioners who I had trained to come and build the Dharma Constitution. We also had the Executive Committee with its sufficient levels, the Editing Poem Committee for dissemination, and the Ceremony Committee to pray for peace or good fortune to those wishing for it.
I have brought the practicing Dharma way to everyone according to their preferences; I do not force other people to endure my own preferences with my statute. This is the main objective of the Dharma Constitution, which our members have found enjoyable.
Having the decree from 1971 until 1975, at that time, I saw the situation… I voluntarily assimilated with everyone to temporarily disband the Dharma Association because I could not firmly guide the Four Followers.[3]
Today, seeing a peaceful opportunity, I would like to tell the history of the Dharma Constitution so that everyone can understand it. For those who are practicing a Dharma subject but do not really understand what the subject is or what the way of the subject’s practice is, then how can they cultivate it? When one has entered a subject, the knowledge of that subject must become one’s specialization in order for him or her to make progress in the practice.
This year, I am tired. I have reached the old age of 74. My voice is thus not as clear as before, but my guidance is more rigid, with results that are many times greater than before. This is because Buddhism is not old; the truth doesn't get old. Therefore, all of the Four Followers who have faith just follow exactly the guidance to practice.
I use the same Supreme Principles of the Buddha. The ‘same Principles’ means that, wherever I stumbled, I must teach the followers to avoid that stumble. That is called the same Principles.
I say hello to the Four Followers: I wish for you to generate the Bodhi Mind and Vow, the great vow following the Bodhisattva conduct, to use Form-Hearing-Odor-Taste-Touch-Dharma without impregnation. That is the path of the Bodhisattva conduct, the highest rank among all other Dharma Subjects.
Dear Four Followers and all true Buddhist disciples! Someone asks, “What is the Dharma Constitution?” I would like to answer this question with the following explanation:
Each ONE coming into the world, even appearing, opening Dharmas from HIS seeing[4], all of THEM have the Buddha Nature.
The Buddha nature, which is the essence of good nature, not erroneous passion, inherently natural suchness, all-round understanding—that is the Tathagata[5]. However, because of the Constitution, that is the Consciousness Mind, which builds up the ring of desires of obscure ignorance, hiding the Buddha nature, one becomes an insanely confused person.
If there is no Constitution, like a vehicle with a coordinated engine, it is running smoothly. If the engine is choked in any part, then it naturally jerks. The Dharma Constitution path is the same as this.
I use means to help all Four Followers to practice the Dharma corresponding to the current period and to their circumstances. Only by being in concord is the Tao practitioner able to cultivate. Therefore, the religion that I have used is the Dharma Constitution, meaning the Tathagata Constitution.
When the Constitution is completely eliminated, that is the obscure ignorance being completely crushed, the enlightenment of the original truth is then restored. Here, the restoration of the original truth may be the Tathagata for the Tao practitioner, who has entered the path of enlightenment at present; that is THE DHARMA CONSTITUTION VIETNAMESE BUDDHISM.
The Dharma Constitution’s opinion is that each human takes the Tathagata Constitution as their root. Each human is the essence of nature of the Tathagata. But, in the cause of the Consciousness Constitution that has formed the path of birth and death, demolishment is then necessary in practicing the Dharma…
The first is to demolish the obscure ignorance, that is, to demolish doubt attachments, dissolving the mind to gain “self-seeing our own nature to become aware of nature.” At that time, the “being capable of seeing the nature with one’s bright mind” is achieved. Once one is clearly aware of one’s nature, the obscure ignorance is also gradually eliminated, and the Constitution is therefore destroyed. One’s Constitution, when dissolving, naturally returns to the essence of nature, which is called the Tathagata. Therefore, the root of this Dharma Constitution is taking the Tathagata Constitution as its direction. This path is called the Dharma Constitution.
The Dharma Constitution came into the world from 1971 until 1975, not having many years, then ending! The Dharma Constitution’s members—the Four Followers—could be up to three thousand people (three thousand Tao practitioners). One can see that the Dharma Constitution developed very quickly.
Because the Dharma Constitution uses “Form-Hearing-Odor-Taste-Touch-Dharma without impregnation” and “the unification of Tao and Life,” Tao practitioners of the Dharma Constitution can practice either at home, being laypersons, or at a temple, renouncing the family and becoming monks or nuns, providing that they enter “Form-Hearing-Odor-Taste-Touch-Dharma without impregnation.” In life, a male Tao practitioner knows how to fulfill his obligation of being a husband, a father; for a female Tao practitioner, she knows how to fulfill her obligation of being a wife, a mother.
That is the practicing path of the Dharma Constitution: Using the Buddha Dharma without leaving the secular world to be enlightened, NOT using the renunciation of the secular world to be enlightened—staying in the secular world to be enlightened, living together with all to be awakened, not avoiding the secular world. Definitely not!
For that reason, there are two ways of practicing the Dharma. From the present position, there are two paths: THE PATH OF DHARMA FLOWER and THE PATH OF DHARMA CONSTITUTION. The path of Dharma Flower is leaving the family and avoiding love, whereas the path of Dharma Constitution is staying with the family without pollution.
[3] The Four Followers means The Four kinds of Followers, those are Tao Believers, Wealthy Followers, Dharma Protectors, and Attendants.
[4] ONE opening Dharmas from HIS seeing is to save His disciple, making this disciple readily know and see the Buddha.
[5] Tathagata is called Như Lai in Vietnamese –which means Returning Suchness.