Published for free distribution

Dai Dang Monastery

6326 Camino Del Rey
Bonsall, CA 92003

First Edition-Spring 2021

Vietnamese American Buddhist Meditation Congregation

BEGINNING BUDDHISM

Most Venerable Thich Thanh Tu

P1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
...TKN Aug7, 2021
Chapter 1. Who Was The Buddha?.......................11
Chapter 2. What is Buddhism?..............................13
Chapter 3. The Teachings of the Buddha..............19
Chapter 4. Three Refuges............................1.........61
Chapter 5. Five Precepts.........................................67
Chapter 6. Going to Temple....................................73
Chapter 7. Repentance............................................81
Chapter 8. Offering to the Three Gems.................87
Chapter 9. Three Poisons........................................93
Chapter 10. Compassion.................................. 103
Chapter 11. Sins and Good Deeds........................... 107
Chapter 12. Karma and Its Results................ 113
Chapter 13. Practice the Way in Any Circumstance 119
Chapter 14. Buddhism Saves the Living, not the Dead 127
Chapter 15. Fundamental Practices for the Laity 135
Chapter 16. Bodhisattvas are Afraid of Causes,

Common People Dread Results 143

Chapter 17. Lotus Flowersin a Muddy Lake 151
Chapter 18. Essence of Buddhism: Emancipation 159
Chapter 19. The Concept of “Be”

in the Mahayana Buddhism 175

Chapter 20. Learning Buddhism 187

P2
Beginning Buddhism

Chapter 21. To Lose Everything is to Gain Everything 195

Chapter 22. Are Buddhist Views Pessimistic?....... 207
Chapter 23. Emptiness and True Void................... 215
Chapter 24. Introspection is our Main Responsibility .. 221
Chapter 25. Practicing Buddhism 237
P3
Beginning Buddhism

PREFACE
Beginning Buddhism is the collection of Dharma talks by
Most Venerable Thich Thanh Tu, founder of the Vietnamese
Truc Lam (Bamboo Forest) Zen School. Some monks, nuns
and laypeople transcribed them, and with the Master’s
permission, had them published and distributed for free.
Some talks were translated into English for foreign
practitioners. Each booklet had about five to seven sermons
and was printed in Vietnamese or bilingual Vietnamese-
English.
Now the Vietnamese American Congregation of Zen
Buddhism has asked Thay Kien Nhu to translate and
rearrange them in graded order to help those who make the
acquaintance with Buddhism for the first time. He also
unified the use of technical terms as past translators did out
of their free will without any guidance.

We highly appreciate Ms Paula Flam Siebert for her time

and energy to support Dai Dang Monastery from the teething
period. She is one of those who whole-heartedly supported
the establishment of Dai Dang. Besides her full time job she
spent time to tutor the monks and nuns at Dai Dang who
were preparing for their citizenship test. She also spent most
of her free time to edit this book. Our sincere thanks go to
Ms Nancy Kreile who helped with proofreading and editing
and to Si Phan for the layout and printing. We also
congratulate the American practitioners in the English
Meditation Class on Sunday, who gave inspirations to the
monks and nuns at Dai Dang. Some of them even formed
one more group to practice on Thursday morning namely

P4
Beginning Buddhism
David Alley, Ben Talley, Howard King, Virginia & Scott
Tessmann, Dan & Mary Mc Andrew, etc. Some of them
even joined us in the early morning sitting meditation and
evening sitting: Howard, Anita, Kenny and Sonia.
Last but not least, this book could not have come into being
without our generous benefactors who contributed to the
printing. Although we have tried our best, shortcomings are
unavoidable. We welcome our readers’ comments so that
this book will be better in the second edition.
Namo Shakya Muni Buddha.
Thich Tue Giac, President
Vietnamese American Buddhist Meditation Congregation
Abbot, Truc Lam Dai Dang Monastery

P5 & 6
Beginning Buddhism

These 2 pages are intentionally left BLANK.

P7
Beginning Buddhism

FOREWORD
This book is intended for beginners. Although the first steps
of any effort always look so simple, they are indeed
important. If the first steps are wrong, any subsequent steps
will certainly follow suit. Therefore, precautions in this
endeavor should be taken by beginners of the Buddha’s Way
as well as those who are responsible for the spreading of the
Buddha’s Dharma. A good practitioner has to completely
perceive the Buddha’s Way in order to practice it correctly.
With this in mind, we do not hesitate to point out to
beginners any morally wrong practices in today’s Buddhism.
In doing so we do not mean to expose our faults to criticism,
but we rather hope to rebuild a true and healthy Buddhism,
which reconciles with the present and the future.
We are living in an era of scientific advances; therefore, we
are obliged to disseminate the Dharma scientifically. The
Teaching in its substance is the truth which is explained very
logically by the Buddha. No one should alter its course and
benefit from it and make outsiders misconstrue the truth of
Buddhism.
If the readers observe that we are strongly critical of some
superstitious manners and activities hiding under the name
of Buddhism in this manual, it is due to our devotion to
promote a more pure Buddhism. Our goal is to explain and
point out any wrong doings in Buddhism in order to purify
it and provide beginners the right steps as a good start.
We are completely responsible for what we said and accept
with humbleness should anyone be dissatisfied or put blame

P8
Beginning Buddhism

on us. May all sentient beings be healthy, happy, peaceful,

and liberated.
Respectfully, Thich Thanh Tu

P9 & 10
Beginning Buddhism

BLANK
P11
Beginning Buddhism

Chapter 1. WHO WAS THE BUDDHA?

The word Buddha means the “Awakened One”. More
than 2500 years ago, in the North Central city of
Kapilavastu, a prince was bom in the palace of king
Suddhodana. He was given the name Siddhartha. When
grown up, while visiting the four gates of the palace, he met
four messengers: an old person, a sick one, a corpse, and a
religious person. It smote his heart to see the first three and
he was inspired by the fourth one. Therefore, he decided to
leave the luxurious life of the palace to go into the forest in
search of a path out of the cycle of birth and death. After 11
years of practices including 6 years as an ascetic and 49 days
of meditation under the Bodhi tree, he obtained complete
enlightenment. Since then he has been called Shakyamuni
Buddha.
After enlightenment the Buddha saw clearly the original
causes which carried human beings along the cycle of birth
and death. He also understood completely the way out of this
cycle. In other words, he knew the causes and effects of
suffering and its solution, the way to emancipation. He knew
clearly how all things come into being and are destroyed.
With this wisdom of Sarvathajana, or omniscience, he taught
others how to be liberated.
The Buddha’s solution to the suffering from the continual
involvement in the cycle of birth and death is the teaching of
Interdependent Origination. Looking at these 12 steps, we
see that ignorance is the initial element of the cycle. To
eliminate ignorance is to be free from the cycle of birth and
death. When the initial element remains, the branches keep

P12
Beginning Buddhism
on developing. When the initial element is eliminated, the
branches stop growing.
What is ignorance that it has such a powerful capacity?
Ignorance is false perception, a lack of awareness of the true
nature of things or true essence of existence. We are often
mistaken, and yet will not admit that we do not know what
is true or false in life. On the contrary the Buddha could
recognize what is right or wrong, so he was called “The
Awakened One.” When he became enlightened, not only
was he freed from the cycle of birth and death, but he also
was able to develop wonderful means which are beyond
human understanding. This state is called “inconceivable
liberation”.

The Buddha was a real person, not a myth or a legend. We

can learn about his genuine enlightenment through his
teachings in the Tripitakas. At this time he also introduced
the achievements and vows of other Buddhas in the ten
directions.

P13
Beginning Buddhism

Chapter 2. WHAT IS BUDDHISM?

Introduction
All sentient creatures are submerged in the miserable ocean
of birth and death. Buddhism is like a ship coming out to
rescue them. Human beings are roaming in the dark forest of
illusion. Buddhism is like a torch illuminating the way out.
A ship can only save those who are willing to catch and
climb onto it. The torch is only helpful to those who have the
desire to get out of the dark. A ship or a torch will be useless
if the one who is drowning does not want to be rescued, or
the one who is lost in the dark never wishes to get out of it.
In the same manner, Buddhism will be of no use if sentient
beings are satisfied with their miserable lives and painful
deaths and blindly adhere to their harmful illusions.
That is the reason why Buddhism has existed in this world
over 2500 years. Still, there are so many people wondering
what it is about and why it is here. Only those who have a
chance to know it and practice it correctly benefit from it
immeasurably. As an old saying goes, “Buddha cpuld only
help someone who wishes to be self-improved”.

Definition
Practically, Buddhism is a path that leads human beings back
to their awakened nature. Spiritually, Buddhism reveals to
sentient beings that they all possess the Buddha-nature, and
therefore can be enlightened.
Anyone who has ever been traveling and living away from
their country, has sometimes wished and dreamed of
returning to their homeland. They might need some

P14
Beginning Buddhism