What is special about the "righteous path" in Con Son?

Three gates at the special national relic Con Son

Many visitors to the Con Son - Kiep Bac spring festival in 2023 were impressed with the scenery at the Con Son special national relic site, especially the road from the gate leading to Con Son pagoda, about 100m long and 10m wide. On both sides of the road are rows of ancient pine trees, hundreds of years old, standing upright, with rough, moldy trunks but the canopy above is still green. "I have been to many relics but I have seen very few pagodas with a path leading to it as beautiful as the one at Con Son pagoda," commented Mr. Nguyen Van Lieu from Bac Ninh, who came to the Con Son - Kiep Bac spring festival.

After the three-door gate is the "right path" leading to Con Son Pagoda.

But perhaps not many people understand the special meaning of the above road. According to Dr. Le Duy Manh, the road that impresses visitors is called "the most correct path". According to the layout of Buddhism, in front of every ancient pagoda there must be a three-door gate, followed by the most correct path, the bell tower and then the pagoda.

The two sides of the "righteous path" planted dozens of pine trees that are hundreds of years old.

Tam quan is explained as follows: tam means 3, quan means door. Tam quan is a door with 3 paths. According to Buddhist philosophy, if standing outside the tam quan, one has 84,000 paths to Buddhism. But through tam quan, there are only 3 paths, including: trung quan (the big door in the middle), gia quan and khong quan (the small doors on both sides).

Tourists walking on the "right path"

The Middle Way is the most legitimate path to Buddhism. The false path is “emptiness is form”, the empty path is “form is emptiness”, that is, there is still “form, form is emptiness” - a relative concept, implicitly referring to those who do not understand anything about Buddhist teachings, and are still ignorant. So when choosing to enter the Middle Way, people have chosen the legitimate path to find Buddha, forcing them to put aside all worries. This is a very philosophical category. “To put it simply, the Three Gates attract 84,000 paths to Buddha, the problem is which door they will choose to enter before continuing to the most correct path”.

After completing the "first main path", visitors will pass the bell tower before entering the courtyard of Con Son Pagoda.

Nhat means only, chinh means right, dao means path. Nhat chinh dao is understood as the only right path to Buddhism. According to Buddhist concept, when coming to Buddha, one must go through a path. If one does not go through that path but goes straight to the Buddha temple, it has no meaning.

After going through the “right path”, you will reach the bell tower. According to Buddhist philosophy, when people pass through here and hear the bell, they will wake up from their dream and enter the realm of enlightenment. Passing through the bell tower and entering the temple yard means entering the world of Buddha. “According to Buddhist scriptures, the sound of the bell helps people’s minds to be pure and dispel worries,” Dr. Manh emphasized.

On the upper floor, there is a bell weighing 1.2 tons, 1.8m high, 1.2m in diameter, cast in 2019 according to the bell model dating from the Tran Dynasty.

As for why only pine trees are planted on both sides of the “most righteous path” of Con Son Pagoda and not other trees, Dr. Le Duy Manh explained: “In the six highest understandings of Buddhism, the highest understanding is the understanding of the end of suffering. The ancients planted pine trees on both sides of this path to remind each person who comes to the Buddha's door to have some understanding of Buddhist teachings, to know how to eliminate ignorance, darkness, greed, anger, and delusion before entering the pagoda.”

According to Buddhist philosophy, when you enter the temple yard, you enter the world of Buddha.

Simply put, when coming to Buddha, each person needs to know how to put aside all worries, overcome difficulties and challenges in life, unite to live a good life, follow the religion, know how to love and be loved.

TIEN MANH - TIEN HUY

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