|
The moral and religious life of most Vietnamese people is governed by a complex mixture of Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist philosophical teachings interwoven with ancestor worship and ancient, animistic practices. Incompatibilities are reconciled on a practical level into a single, functioning belief system whereby a family may maintain an ancestral altar in their home, consult the village guardian spirit and take offerings to the Buddhist pagoda.
It is estimated that up to two-thirds of the Vietnamese population consider themselves Buddhist. The Buddha preached that existence is a cycle of perpetual reincarnation in which actions in one life determines one?s position in the next, but that it is possible to break free by following certain precepts, central to which are non-violence and compassion. The teachings of Confucius provide a guiding set of moral and ethical principles, an ideology for the state?s rulers and subjects onto which ritualistic practices have been grafted. The communist party was able to tap into those elements of the Confucian tradition that suited that new classless, socialist society: conformity, duty and the denial of personal interest for the common good. Today, however, Confucian ideals are seriously threatened by the invasion of materialism and individual ambition.
|
;
About Me;
