BANYAN TREE PROJECT - Gia đình Việt, Văn hóa Việt

On page 28 of Banyan Tree v6, we're introduced to the concept of số mệnh, which addresses the "human potential" and the outcome of the growth required to reach that potential. In America, the concept of "destiny" is the existence of an unavoidable outcome.

The idea of Manifest Destiny is that it was a God-given right for the US to expand its border to the Pacific. "Destiny" here mentions only the outcome, not the path. Số mệnh, on the other hand, does not ignore the uncertainty and effort required to reach that potential. Without proper etiquette and good values, our potential for happiness is stripped away.

This sounds obvious, but this distinction wasn't taught in our schools and helps us understand why certain values are taught to Vietnamese youth.

I recently read the 6th version of the BANYAN TREE project book. This book is very atypical compared to most of the books I've read in the past. It takes abstract ideas and requires deliberate effort to slow down and really imagine what the text is trying to convey. It took about 6 hours to read due to its complexity. Most of the pragmatic content is in the 1st chapter. The later chapters could use figures or tables to visually lay out the concepts using memorable imagery.

Chapter 1 breaks down well-known concepts like culture into their Vietnamese subdefinitions. The English word "culture" doesn't immediately account for different expressions of culture, such as tradition, useful culture, and harmful culture. The book draws parallels of these ideas with scientific theory (though some figures can highlight these parallels).

The latter chapters introduce a lot of Vietnamese cultural ideas and may not directly…