https://www.reddit.com/r/zenbuddhism/comments/1i9f8p8/on_trúc_lâm_school_in_vietnam/
created by AahanKotian on 25/01/2025 at 04:40 UTC
6 upvotes, 2 top-level comments (showing 2)
I have heard the Trúc Lâm (Bamboo Grove) school of Vietnam. It is apparently the only native Zen school in the country. For those of you who are familiar with this school, how would you say it is similar or different to other schools of Zen?
Comment by SentientLight at 25/01/2025 at 06:08 UTC*
10 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For what it’s worth, the Neo-Truc Lam is substantially different from the historical Truc Lam, where the former is a modernist school and practices a method similar to Silent Illumination, the historical school was syncretized with Esoterocism and Pure Land to a high degree, as well as Confucianism.
Comment by JundoCohen at 25/01/2025 at 06:00 UTC*
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
If you wish to dive deep, you may be interested in some books and papers ...
https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search%5C_detail.jsp?seq=700626[1][2]
1: https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search%5C_detail.jsp?seq=700626
2: https://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/DLMBS/en/search/search_detail.jsp?seq=700626
"The aim of this research paper is to re-investigate the foundation of Thiền Trúc Lâm School of Vietnamese Buddhism, and thus its philosophical and cultural significance as representing Vietnam “pure” Buddhism.1 This Thiền School is considered to be the “first serious effort to establish a Zen school in medieval Vietnam.”2 The Thiền Trúc Lâm School became a national symbol of Vietnamese independence as a response to Vietnamese de-Sinicization efforts. Amongst Vietnamese Buddhist scholars, there are two opposite attitudes regarding this Zen school. The first attitude is that most Vietnamese Buddhist scholars [inside Vietnam] regard this Zen school as a “pure Vietnamese” Zen school. For example, Le Manh That3 proposed that a Vietnamese ruler, “Trần Nhân Tông established a stream of Thiền Trúc Lâm Yên Tử which reflected pure Vietnameseness based on the doctrine of Cư trần lạc đạo,”4 a purely Vietnamese text.5 Likewise, Thich Phuoc Dat, another Vietnamese Buddhist scholar, stated that “the Thiền Trúc Lâm School carried one authentic color of the independence of people [the Vietnamese], sovereignty, because it had never relied on or incorporated influences from any Ch’an schools from China.”
The second attitude is that there is no “pure” Vietnamese Buddhism; but in fact, Vietnamese Buddhism is a unique cocktail version of blending and incorporation of other influences, predominately from China. This second attitude can be observed in the works of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, a Buddhist scholar [outside Vietnam], and founder of the Van Hanh Buddhist University in Saigon during the Vietnam/American War. He evaluated the Thiền Trúc Lâm School and considered it to be the “backbone for the independent foundation of Vietnamese Buddhism” even though it had welcomed some influences from Chinese Buddhism, Indian Buddhism, and Tibetan Buddhism; it still however, held for itself the “special characteristics” of independent Đại Việt.7
Yet, the dispute continues and there is no common or unanimous conclusion. ... "
ALSO ...
https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-6285-1-sample.pdf[3][4]
3: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-6285-1-sample.pdf
4: https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/pdfs/978-1-5275-6285-1-sample.pdf
Apart from a brief retreat I sat at their head monastery in Dalat, Vietnam, I have no personal experience. They seem like very nice folks.
I would advise you not to confuse the historical "Truc Lam" school with its current incarnation in Vietnam, which is really a different, much more recently recreated entity of the same name, in my understanding.