Faith and Wisdom

That evening, after the temple bell had fallen silent, Thanh sat alone on a worn, polished wooden bench behind the monk's quarters. The chirping of crickets began to hum in the banana garden. He reached for a sip of cool tea, his eyes gazing at the darkening sky.

Fifteen years ago, Thanh first came to the temple solely because his father had passed away. The sound of funeral horns, his mother’s wailing, and the absolute bewilderment of a twenty-year-old young man who had never contemplated death. After the meal offering ceremony, the abbot required the whole family to take refuge so he could fulfill his duties. Thanh knelt and recited "Namo Amitabha Buddha" without understanding a single word.

After that, every death anniversary of his father, the family would visit the temple. Thanh gradually grew accustomed to the scent of incense, the steady chanting of sutras, and the stories of cause and effect the monk would tell. He began reading sutras on his own, but to memorize them, not to understand. Just seeing the word "Buddha" made him believe; just hearing "karmic retribution" made him fear. That faith became the only raft helping him cross the ocean of his fear of death.

One evening, sitting in his rented room after a tiring day of work, Thanh opened the old, dog-eared "Lotus Sutra." The dense characters swam before his eyes. Suddenly, a question surfaced in his mind: "Why do I believe in this? Have I ever verified this?"

He began to question himself. Every teaching of the Buddha, every lesson the monk explained, he would ask: "Is this reasonable? Does it match reality?" He started seeking books on philosophy, science, and history to compare. There were nights he stayed awake until three or four in the morning just to dissect a single line of scripture.

"I believe this, I believe that," Thanh once said to the monk during a dharma inquiry.

The monk looked at him, his gaze stern yet warm: "I don't need you to believe. I don't want you to believe. Following Buddhism while just believing is not Buddhism. I want you to doubt, I want you to analyze it thoroughly, and only then follow Buddhism."

Those words poured over Thanh like a bucket of cold water. He was stunned, then slowly began to understand.

From that day on, Thanh started to "discard" his blind faith. He re-read the sutras from the beginning, but this time, every chapter and verse had to "pass" the scrutiny of reason. He came to the temple no longer to "pray," but to "discuss" and "ask until he truly understood." He discovered that when he could comprehend a teaching of the Buddha, the joy from that was a thousand times greater than when he had simply "believed."

One afternoon, also sitting on this same wooden bench, a young woman came to the temple with swollen, puffy eyes. She was sobbing uncontrollably because she had just been left by her lover. Thanh looked at her and saw an image of his former self. He approached, sat down, and spoke gently:

"Are you here because of sadness and suffering?"

The young woman nodded, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"A long time ago, I also came here because of pain. But now, I come here because of wisdom. Would you like to know the difference?"

The young woman looked at Thanh, her eyes filled with curiosity and doubt. And Thanh began to tell her the journey from "faith" to "wisdom" – that Buddhism is not a place to escape pain, but a path to understand the true nature of suffering, and from there, to transcend it through one's own wisdom.

Outside in the garden, the cicadas had replaced the crickets. The moon rose, casting its gentle light upon the faces of two people sitting on the wooden bench amidst the silent banana garden.

Meaning of the Story

The story reminds us that when coming to Buddhism, the starting point may be faith (tín ngưỡng), but the destination must be wisdom (trí ngưỡng). Buddhism is a path of wisdom, a path one "comes to see," not "comes to believe." Every teaching of the Buddha needs to be reasoned, analyzed, and verified with intellect, not accepted blindly. Only when faith is transformed into wisdom do we truly step onto the path of liberation that the Buddha has shown.

Compiled from a dharma talk by Venerable Thích Chân Quang.