Spritual Vietnam

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One more thing about the Vietnamese language before I move on to my next topic: I have become recently aware that I am picking up what one might call a "street accent" of vietnamese. That is, The people whom I mostly talk to here belong to the lowest social and financial class. The few times I have spoken to the more educated vietnamese, such as large business owners and university students, I have had a very difficult time understanding them and vice-versa! They tell me that my vietnamese accent is very bad, and yet my lower class frends say that it is very good, and have no trouble understanding me!
I can only hope that the accents in the counryside will not be too different!

The following quote is from 'Le Bouddhisme au Vietnam' published in 1962. Here is a link to the full text: http://www.phatviet.com/pgvn/Buddhisminvietnam.htm

"In theory there are three main religions in Vietnam: Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism; but in fact there is only one, which is an amalgam of these three doctrines, each of which represents a particular aspect of the whole. This state of affairs makes it difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish three separate religious communities among the Vietnamese. There are perhaps some people who follow either Taoism or Buddhism but they are in a minority. The bulk of the popolation remains unprejudiced and is not interested in sectarian distinctions. A Buddhist family for example will visit Taoist temples and perform the rites belonging to the Confucian cult of ancestors."

Like the Vietnamese, I share many buddhist/anamist/taoist and even some confucian beliefs. It has been a wonderfully uplifting thing to be able to visit buddist/taoist temples again, and burn incense at the many shrines. These days in Vietnam, it seems that the most devout buddhists are found only among the older Vietnamese people, especially the old women. However you will still occasionally see the younger Vietnamese making fire offerings and lighting incense in front of their shops (probably seeking good fortune). Last night I met some older buddhist nuns at a temple and they simply could not stop giggling whenever they tried to speak to me! It was very cute... There many nuns here in Saigon (more than monks it seems) and all of them are very sweet, shy and soft spoken. It is truly a joy to be able to speak with them, even a little!

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