HARMONY BUDDHISM

DỤNG KINH-QUYỀN

Hỡi ôi! Trời đất mấy muôn trùng,

Muốn dụng kinh-quyền đạt hiếu trung.

Ngặt nỗi thân phàm vương-vấn nạn,

Trường thi chưa mở trống chưa thùng.

Trống chưa thùng sĩ-tử vẫn chờ trông,

Mong ngóng mau mau thấy mặt rồng.

Bảng-hổ danh đề tên chí-sĩ,

Đem tài thao-lược giúp non sông.

Giúp non-sông trong lúc chịu gian-truân,

Thảm-lệ tràn tuôn mãi chẳng ngừng.

Mịt mịt mờ mờ mưa gió đạn,

Phong-trần đày-đọa mấy mươi xuân.

Mấy mươi xuân vắng chúa, trông hoài,

Thân gởi nơi người nợ chẳng vay.

Trời đất lẽ nào không xét đến,

Để cho dân Việt khổ lâu dài.

Khổ lâu dài nay sắp mãn hay chưa,

Cầu nguyện Phật trời gội móc mưa.

Kíp mở Long-Hoa xây máy tạo,

Cho dân Hồng-Lạc thọ ân thừa.

Thọ ân thừa mà được cảnh nhàn an,

Trăm họ đầu đê trước Thánh-Hoàng.

Nguyện giữ cang-thường gìn Phật-đạo,

Giao-hòa mãi mãi với lân-bang.

Với lân bang sẽ dứt mối thâm thù,

Trên dưới một lòng chí nguyện tu.

Chẳng dám trễ-bê đường đạo-đức,

Đặng mong chẳng vướng cảnh ao-tù.

Cảnh ao-tù giờ vẫn phải còn mang,

Nặng triệu trên đầu héo ruột gan.

Chí dốc thoát-ly vòng xích tỏa,

Cầu trên Thánh-chúa vững ngai vàng.

Chúa vững ngai vàng sãi mới yên,

Rời ngay cảnh tục trở về tiên.

Chẳng còn tham-luyến nơi trần-thế,

Vì cả thế-gian hết não phiền.

Bạc-liêu, năm Nhâm-Ngũ (1942)

Top

OF RULES VS NON-RULES

Alas! myriad situations present a big matrix,

I want to use principles and flexibility to succeed.

When my lay body should be at multiple risks,

The testing arena is yet to open with drumbeats.

Until the drum beats, candidates keep waiting,

With a desire to see the Dragon appearing.

The honorary board lists the noble fighters,

Who apply their talents in their country’s favor.

Helping the country which incurs horrid sufferings,

My sad tears don’t cease streaking.

A blitz dazzles with a downpour of bullets,

Through so many springs I have been helpless.

I yearn for the king who has so long been absent,

Though I have lodged, I don’t owe to any person.

Heaven and Earth should have considered when,

When the Vietnamese will not suffer at lengths.

Lengthy sufferings are going to expire, aren’t they?

I pray for Lord Buddha to give His grace.

Launch the Long Hoa as timely as Heaven augurs,

For the Hong Lac race to share its surplus.

Surplus sharing includes peace and leisure,

All the masses prostrate to the Sacred Emperor.

Vow to keep Confucian and Buddhist ethos,

For ever get along with your neighboring states.

With your neighboring states, over is the feud,

People from all strata strive for a common good.

Daren’t procrastinate in practicing the Tao,

So that you may not be bogged down.

Bogged down do you still stand,

Your head is too heavy and your guts hang.

Resolve to escape from the red siege,

Pray for our Sacred King to sustain His seat.

Only if He sustains His seat, this monk feels calm,

Immediately leaves the world for his fairy realm.

He by no means clings to the world,

‘Cause the whole of it has no longer suffered .

Bac Lieu, 1942

1  經權 Kinh Quyền (Dictionary Nguyen Quoc Hung) The method of acting according to circumstances to optimize the achievement of one’s goal, that is, maximize the outcome of one’s performance at the minimum cost, at all levels, personal and social. In this case, Lord Master intended his mission to be carried out in such a way that He could help the ordinary people practice what He taught as they think fit, according to their country situations in which they must learn how to patiently wait for their time to act.

2 In Vietnamese and east Asian cultures, the Dragon designates the Emperor, as this legendary monster represents a complete personality or entity.

3.-Long Hoa Gathering is the name of the Great Gathering of Saints presided over by Lord Maitreya Buddha (Phật Di Lặc) who got fully enlightened under the Tree called Long Hoa, that’s why the Great Gathering is named after this tree. The Great Gathering has a lot of metaphysical implications for Buddhism and Buddhists in terms of its scriptural and mystical importance and related far-reaching effect either on the evolution of the universe. In Buddhism, it demarcates the end of the Lower Age wherein the world finds itself and the beginning of the Upper Age, the completion of the full cycle of evolution. Many prophesies in different religions point to the same direction under which all sentient beings have to go through a renewal process or screening by the Creator, whose names differ from from religion to religion, the Jade Emperor in East Asian countries, or Sinitic cultures, God in Western philosophies and Christianity, Allah in Islam, for example.