Specificity of Mahayana Buddhism in Vietnamese Intracultural Religious Communication

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.201215.351How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Thien Buddhism, intracultural religious communication, Nirvana, Mahayana, Theravada, liberation, contemplation

Abstract

The article analyzes the specificity of Mahayana Buddhism (Thien Buddhism) in Vietnamese culture in the context of intracultural religious communication. It reveals its origins and discusses the reasons for its becoming more popular than Theravada Buddhism and no less important than Confucianism, Taoism, and Catholicism. The concept of liberation and its features in the Vietnamese Mahayana tradition are examined. The reinterpretation of the notion of nirvana, its inseparability from the life of a particular person here and now (“the nirvana without [reaching] the peak” – Apratis thitanirvana) is analyzed based on the research literature. A reference to the humanistic ideal of a bodhisattva is made. The authors draw the conclusion that the renewal of Mahayana Buddhism aimed at its adaptation and development brought new vital force and attractiveness to this doctrine, due to which, regardless of the decline in popularity of this trend in India, it gained powerful development in various countries of the world, including those in the Far East and Vietnam. Development of Mahayana Buddhism in Vietnam significantly contributes to the spiritual treasury of the Vietnamese nation, along with Confucianism, Taoism, and Christian confessions. In accordance with the author’s position without spiritual culture, intracultural religious communication, long-term progressive development of the country is impossible.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sergei Nizhnikov
AU  - Le Thi Hong Phuong
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/12/18
TI  - Specificity of Mahayana Buddhism in Vietnamese Intracultural Religious Communication
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Education, Language, Art and Inter-cultural Communication (ICELAIC 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 310
EP  - 314
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.201215.351
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.201215.351
ID  - Nizhnikov2020
ER  -