Front cover photo:
The Thunder Sound Drum Tower
A student-priest beats
the drum to commence a midnight mass.
(LIFE Magazine. New York City
Issue No 113.1 by the Programme of Joining Hands
for Free Caodai
Publications.
The
Caodai true ideology is so bright that humans are dazzled and then, what a pity to say, they do fancy that the Caodai
truth is just the light within their limited range of vision or within their
own lingering imagination.
SPIRITUAL POPE LÝ THÁI BẠCH
CONTENTS
FROM HEART TO
HEART
1. The historical background of a Caodai organ
2. A basic concept of ideology
2.1. What does
ideology mean?
2.2. Origins of
ideology
2.3. Ideology and
religion
3. Some
noteworthy details
4. Spiritual Pope
Lý’s sermon
5. A survey
of Spiritual Pope Lý’s sermon
5.1. Object
of the Caodai ideology
5.2. A
requisite quality
5.3. Two
closely correlative issues
5.4. The
value of true self-cultivators doing the Dao
5.5. God
personal versus God impersonal
5.6. The
heart field
5.7. The Path
of Bodhisattvas
5.8. The
Caodai administration system
5.9. Making a
temple versus making a priest
5.10. Form
versus content
5.11. Means
versus end
5.12. Limited
perception
5.13. The
absolute versus the relative
5.14.
Disproving divergence
5.15. A
metaphor
5.16. The
monistic language
5.17. The
bestowed luggage
5.18. Love
and protection
6. In lieu of a conclusion
APPENDIX 1:
God personal and God impersonal
APPENDIX 2:
The myth of twelve Caodai branches
FOR FURTHER READING
FROM
HEART TO HEART
The
Vietnam Organ for Universalising Caodai Teaching was set up by Caodai
God in Saigon in early 1965 spring. On Friday 04
February 1966, during an evocation at the Heaven Principle Seance (in district
3, Saigon ), Caodai God said, “This Organ is the last mechanism…” Within
a decade from its establishment through early 1975 spring, this last mechanism
of Caodaism was bestowed a series of key sermons on the dharma power, the Caodai humanism, and the Caodai ideology, etc., to
name a few. As part of Caodai priceless properties, these holy sermons are to
be studied thoroughly and translated into foreign languages so as to expound
Caodai teaching.
The
Caodai Ideology is a new title added to “A Series of Bilingual Vietnamese-English
Essays on Caodaism”, which is a modest contribution to available efforts to elucidate
Caodai teaching. While compiling these essays, I am so grateful to my highly
respectable senior teaching colleague Tô Mạnh Đoàn (1948-2017) for his
willingness to proofread my English manuscripts and sophisticatedly contribute
lots of lexical adjustments.
Since mid-2008 till now, title after
title, tens of thousands of copies have been placed in your hands, which is
thanks to the love for Master and for Caodaism of countless noble and generous
donors who have unceasingly and wholeheartedly supported the Programme of
Joining Hands for Free Caodai Publications. This sentiment of gratitude is
truly inexpressible!
I beg Master and Spiritual Pope Lý Thái Bạch
to bestow great favour upon my benefactors, their ancestors and relatives as
well.
Namo Caodai the
Immortal Mahabodhisattva Mahasattva.
Namo Caodai
Spiritual Pope Lý Thái Bạch.
HUỆ KHẢI
24 October 2017
