The funeral of Thich Huyen Quang brought together Buddhists in Vietnam with apparently no reaction from the government. And I also saw video of a large gathering in Southern California. I think the funeral was held in Binh Dinh province, so that means after years of being held in isolation, his body was finally returned to his home monestery.

I don't know much about modern (20th Century) Buddhism in Vietnam. Is the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, founded in 1964 in southern Vietnam, only one of many Buddhism associations? Does it have a "political mission" perhaps because it was formed in the south? And is the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha the official government sanctioned Buddhist association?

From what I understand Buddhism has always flourished in Vietnam before during and after the war. It may have been watched, some associations like the UBCV controlled and people put in prison, but there was no Mao-like "great proletarian cultural revolution" fermented in among people in Vietnam. The downfall of socialist and communist government is in attempts to suppress religion because even in Marxist theory every action gets a reaction.

I am not as interested in the politics of Buddhism (or Catholicism or other religions) in Vietnam as much as I am in what and how most people turn to in order to get away from things like politics.

I think I am like lots of non-Vietnamese people who understand most about Vietnamese Buddhism because of zen Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh. But he is very unique, more of a cosmic citizen.

So I am floating in ignorance here. It is like how the Pope is the head of the Catholic church of the world (the Vatican historically defined the connection between church and state). But one doesn't learn anything about Catholic these days anywhere in the world people by studying the Pope. They might love him but that is just symbolic. Catholics, I think, embody contradiction.

The news writes about Thich Huyen Quang and I feel I know about him and Vietnam the way I know about the Pope and Catholics. And I know a lot more about Thich Nhat Hanh, and that helps me understand Vietnam the way Daniel and Philip Berrigan help me understand some modern Catholics in America.

But I don't have an understanding of the bigger picture of reality or deeper appreciation for how most Vietnamese in Vietnam or USA maintain faith and sanity in the crazy world. But it seems they do, and that why I want to understand -- because that is what I am trying to do.

The Vietnamese government neither encourages nor discourages any religion. They are more concerned with improving the country's economy.

My mother was Buddhist, when she married my father she converted to Catholicism. I'm Catholic.

An interesting factoid for those who are curious: amongst Vietnamese people in America, you can easily separate Buddhists from Catholics in how they name their children. Buddhist will generally give their children traditional Viet names like Minh, Tuan, Anh as legal names while Catholics choose American names for legal names (but they also give them unofficial Viet names). For example my legal name is Jonathan while my unofficial Viet name is Bao Long. 9 out of 10 Buddhist Viets born in America are given traditional Viet names.

"It's the drunk piano player-- you're so drunk you can't hit nothing. In fact, you're probably seeing double"

"I have two guns, one for each of you"

also another interesting factoid for those interested in Viet folks: There are two camps of Nguyens-- the ones who call themselves "Win" and the ones like me who call themselves "new-yen".

They call me John New-yen.

I gotta give it to the french: They didn't just butt raped vietnam, they did it with a grand master plan.

Step 1: Come in, kick the crap outta the men

Step 1.5: Rape the women

Step 2: Change the written form of the language

Step 3: Indoctrinate the vietnamese with the belief vietnamese features are ugly while french features are beautiful (taller noses, bigger eyes)

Step 4: This one seals the deal and is the most important; convert their religion.

wow, and I thought I was off topic.

Obviously you don't know shit about Vietnam history and culture.

The French stayed in Vietnam only 100 years, the Chinese stayed in Vietnam 1000 years and did 1000 times worse things to the Vietnamese population.

For your information, the French didn't change the writing, it was the Vietnamese who were sick of the archaic writing nom inspired by the Chinese characters who adopted the Quoc Ngu writing. Now go do your Chinese propaganda elsewhere.

A hundred years of human existence,
Prodigy and fate intertwined in conflicts,
Mulberry fields turned into open sea,
Enough's been seen to melt the heart.
Little wonder that beauty begets misery,
For Blue Heaven's jealous of exquisite glamour!

Everyone gets screwed over one way or another. The jewish zionists are screwing europe up for revenge. It'll never end.

Some people will find any reason to blame anyone for anything.
They're the usual pissers and moaners.

"Rise above" , it's the transcending human way to do things.

"Some kids piss their name in the snow. Chuck Norris can piss his name into concrete."