Domestic

Is Tran Tam a Buddhist Monk?

Update: 04/04/2015
Question: My husband committed himself to Triratna. He has recently followed as Monk Tran Tam’s discipline. I want to ask whether Tran Tam is a Buddhist monk?
 

Is Tran Tam a Buddhist Monk?

 

Monk Tran Tam is not a Buddhist Monk, because:

\r\n\r\n

1. Tran Tam used to learn Indian Masters’s\r\ndoctrine in Himalayas and he was taught the “Qin Yin” method by them (Ms Ching\r\nHai also studied the same method in Himalayas but no one could verify these\r\ninformation). Back to US (Monk Tran Tam is a Vietnamese living in US) he got\r\nmarried not long after and kept practising Qin Yin method. Tran Tam didn’t\r\nneither commit to Triratna with any Buddhist Monk, nor embrace Buddhist\r\nprecepts. He was just self-cultivated, self-shaved and he dressed himself as a Monk.

2. Appearance: sometimes clean-shaven head, sometimes\r\nfull-haired head; Costume: sometimes in Theravada robes, sometimes Mahayana\r\nrobes, sometimes Tibetan robes and sometimes even in plain clothes. The\r\ncostume’s colour: sometimes red, sometimes yellow, sometimes white and\r\nsometimes indigo-blue… (His outfit is similar to Ms Ching Hai’s outfit which is\r\ndiversed in style and colour)

3. Quan Yin method propagated by Tran Tam focused on the help\r\nof God. Asking God for grace in order to set free (the method of cultivation\r\nand propagation is also the same with Ms Ching Hai’s method).

\r\n\r\n

Buddhism don’t ask Buddhists to beg for God’s grace. The\r\nworld ‘God’ does not exist in Buddha’s tenet. Buddha often said: “We infect\r\nourselves; we purify ourselves”. “No one could give us happiness or\r\nenlightenment”

 

As a result, we can say for sure that Tran Tam is not a\r\nBuddhist monk. His doctrine, his practice and his propagation are duplicated\r\nfrom Ms Ching Hai.

\r\n\r\n

A Buddhist who commits himself to Triratna won’t commit to\r\noutsider doctrines. A Buddhist should not believe in God. It is a\r\nmisunderstanding that monk Tran Tam is a Buddhist monk; therefore, some\r\nBuddhists went to Cambodia to learn his doctrine. (Tran Tam propagates his\r\nmethod at his branch in Cambodia)

There are people who dress like Buddhist monks or nuns but\r\nthey are actually not. A Buddhist who takes refuge in the Three Jewels has his\r\nown Master. Therefore, if he wants to learn someone else’s discipline, he\r\nshould ask his Master for advice in order to have a good understanding. Don’t\r\narbitrarily follow anyone which easily causes superstition, or loses money\r\nwithout reason.

Minh Tam

Translated into English by Thai Nhuoc Don.

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