The cowboy

Through the story named ‘The cowboy’ we see that there may be some Buddhists who are considered the same as the cowboy - they understand and talk about the Dharma correctly, but cannot practise it exactly. That is why these Buddhists remain to be unhappy...

In the sutra on questions of Millinda, there is a story that\r\nreads, “Normally, bhiksu named Na Tien came to a proficient master to ask for\r\nreligious matters. Then one day while both the master and the bhiksu were\r\nexchanging religious matters during their stroll in a forest, they suddenly saw\r\na cowboy together with his ox herd passing these two people. The master then\r\nasked Na Tien bhiksu, “Do you know the job of a cowboy?”\r\n\r\n

The bhiksu respectfully answered, “Yes, Sir. A cowboy must\r\nknow the total number of his herd -  that is how many calves, how\r\nmany old oxen, how many bulls, and how many cows, etc. He also knows how to\r\nmake the oxen grow faster and quickly give milk. Unfortunately, he cannot enjoy\r\nthe flavour of the milk from the cows he himself raises.”

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The master praised the bhiksu for his keen remarks. Then the\r\nlatter went on saying, “It is the same case of a person who perfectly masters\r\nthe Tripitaka sutra to the extent that he can preach it very well. But this\r\nperson does not enjoy the flavour of the Dharma and then practise it.\r\nSo, if compared to the case of a cowboy, he is just the same as a cowboy.”

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The master again praised the bhiksu and said, “You make the\r\nright points, but try not to be like such a pitiful cow boy.”

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Hearing that Na Tien bhiksuni suddenly realised that for a\r\nlong time she had just studied the Dharma in theory, not having practised it,\r\nand that is why she had not tasted its flavour. Now, after having been\r\nenlightened, Na Tien made up her mind performing her self-improvement much better.\r\nAs a result, she then could know by heart 5 sutras and 5 annotations in just\r\nafter 6 months. It should be noted that these two sets of books were both very\r\nthick. Moreover, she also mastered the interpretation of Buddhist laws and the\r\ndiscourses only within 6 months. Thanks to her outstanding intelligence, she\r\nattained Arahanthood not long afterwards.

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From the story of the cowboy, we all learn that there may be\r\na number of Buddhists who are like the case of a cowboy - being able to\r\nunderstand and preach the Dharma so well, but cannot practise it and that is\r\nwhy these Buddhists remain miserable.

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In reality, understanding and then preaching the Dharma is\r\nalready really a problem. If a person wants to understand it correctly, it\r\nneeds him enough time to study, practise and listen to the lectures of it. As\r\nfor being able to preach it well so as to convince listeners, it needs longer\r\nperiods of time spent on training. There are so many learned people who\r\nunderstand things very profoundly but preach the Dharma incoherently; as a\r\nresult, listeners feel difficult to understand it. At our pagoda, we have a\r\nweekly session for new monks to practise preaching. Reality shows that there\r\nare so many smart monks in their studies but become very puzzled in preaching.\r\nOn the contrary, there are many people who are gifted in speaking but then\r\npresent less profound contents.

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 Accordingly, understanding and preaching is already\r\ndifficult and practising what one says is a more difficult to do. These two\r\nmatters are totally different. According to Buddha, self-cultivation has three\r\nparts or steps – first, deeply listening to the Buddha’s teachings. Next is\r\nstudying those teachings profoundly. Finally, putting those teachings are into\r\npractice. But most of us only stop after the first two steps - the last one is\r\nusually omitted.

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It is like the case of a Buddhist preceptor who taught\r\nBuddhist novices at a pagoda. One day the preceptor was lecturing the harmful\r\neffects of anger. He said, “Anger is like fierce fire. It destroys human countenance,\r\nburns our intermost heart and cremates our merits. Anger causes miseries to\r\nboth the promoter and others - the lack of peace in present life and the\r\nbanishment to hell after death.” While the preceptor was lecturing, there were\r\ntwo very young novices who were chatting with each other passionately. The\r\npreceptor warned them the first time and they stopped their talk. But then they\r\nwent on with the chat. The perceptor warned them the second time but they still\r\ncontinued their chat. Then, after the preceptor’s third warning without any\r\nresults, he could no longer stand the insolence of the novices and shouted at\r\nthe stubborn boys and then drove them out of the classroom. From this story we\r\nsee that the preceptor was teaching the lesson on anger but he himself was not\r\nable to prevent him from being angry! And there was a well-known shaman who\r\ntaught Buddhists how to maintain a peaceful and happy family. This shaman had\r\ntwo brothers and the three of them entered monkhood at the same pagoda. But\r\nnone of these three monks agreed to talk with one another. We, accordingly, see\r\nthat these three shamen are like the case of the above-mentioned preceptor -\r\nthey taught people the methods of how to maintain a peaceful family while they\r\nthemselves could not practise what they had taught. It is their contradiction\r\nbetween the spoken content and application.  

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Well lecturing and consulting, they, themselves do not\r\ncomply with them. Then, those who have mastered and fluently told dharma but do\r\nnot successfully practiced or enjoyed the flavour of the Dharma are\r\njust in the same case of the pitiful cowboy.

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You all know that human bodies are impermanent or artificial\r\nafter the rule known as, ‘Anything with birth must follow death” or “Whatever\r\ncomes into physical form will, sooner or later, be destroyed.” And it should be\r\nnoted that death does not mean disappearance, but just a change in form.\r\nTherefore, a Buddhist must strongly believe that there are such rules as ‘The\r\ncause-and-effect rule’, ‘Samsara’ or ‘The rule of turning around the wheel of\r\nlife’ and ‘The 6 miserable paths. Those who believe in the rule named\r\n‘Cause-and-effect’ always try to accumulate good deeds because doing so, they\r\nmay enjoy merits. On the contrary with this, they will suffer from the three\r\nmiseries known as hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, and animals. Therefore, if all\r\nhuman beings understood the Dharma, had a strong faith in it, and lived by it\r\nthen everbody would surely live in peace on this earth.

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Even you know that human bodiies are impermanent or\r\nartificial and death is a natural thing, you - as a Buddhist  -  may\r\nbe deeply sad when one day a medical doctor tells you that you are attacked by\r\ncancer in the last period and that you won’t be able to live on after 6 more\r\nmonths, this shows that you have not enjoyed the flavour of Buddhist Dharma\r\nyet.  For everyday Buddhists say the prayer in which there is the\r\nsentence, “I wish I could know the day, the hour and even the second or moment\r\nwhen I pass away or leave this world.” But now, when the doctor gives a prior\r\nnotice of your death, you become fearful and gloomy! Those who are performing\r\ntheir cultivation ususally have the fear for unkown things for the fact that\r\nthey only have anxiety when they do not know what will happen to them.\r\nOtherwise, if they know their ‘departure from this globe’ in advance, they will\r\ncarefully prepare for it or are ready for it - nothing else for them to worry\r\nabout.

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Formerly, I made acquaintance with a person at Chon Duc Zen\r\nmonastery who had a wealthy air and a rosy complexion. The day before we still\r\nsat down and talked with each other merrily, but then the day after I\r\nwas astonished learning that he had passed away. I was so astonished that I\r\nasked his disciples about the bad news repeatedly, “Your master has already\r\npassed away, is that right?” 

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It is true that at the moment we come into this world, none\r\nof us can tell when we will leave this place for ever. That is why our ancients\r\nsaid in this judgement, “The time a human being comes into this world can be\r\npredicted, but his death time cannot.” That is - judging on the starting day of\r\na feotus, a medical doctor can predict when the birthday is, but none of us\r\nknows exactly the time of our death. There are people who think that they still\r\nlive on for a long time and so they do not prepare for their cultivation when\r\nbasing on their good health status. But then the impermanent moment happens and\r\nthese people cannot ‘turn their hands.’ We think that those who are performing\r\nthe Dharma should know the impermanence of this worldly life so as to perform\r\ntheir cultivation diligently so that when they learn that the death is close to\r\nthem, they may have peace of mind and smile to receive it as a normal thing of\r\na human life. Don’t apply the saying, “Only when people are ill, they pray to\r\nthe four cardinal gods, and when they feel sound and safe they do not want to\r\nspend any money on the incense sticks.” Normally, that is the psychology of\r\nmany people - only when they are in danger or close to their death, do they\r\nthink of praying to Buddha or self-cultivation. There are also people who are\r\nadvised to pray to Buddha, but phlegmatically reply that they do not have any\r\ntime for that. These people usually reply,  â€œDear master, I’m busy\r\ntaking care of my husband, my children, my grandchildren, or doing business ...\r\nno more time for praying to Buddha”, while they really have time for sleeping\r\nand resting, eating and drinking, talking nonsense or watching television, etc.\r\nWe ought to see what is necessary to do and what is not, for what can we take\r\nwith us when we die?  The anwer is nothing but good deeds performed\r\nby us thanks to our cultivation. Therefore, when you are advised to pray to\r\nBuddha but you ask for a delay - truly to say, only devils do that! Remember\r\nthat you can neither delay nor make any later appointment with the death - even\r\nyoung women who have just given birth or who are still very young with their\r\nbright future cannot deny the impermanence of life.

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Whether you have entered monkhood or you are still learning\r\nthe Dharma at home, you all know the basic truths named “The four marvellous truths”\r\nmeaning that life consists entirely of suffering, its source and how to stop\r\nit. All those who are born on this planet bring with them their karma (sins\r\ncreated in previous lives) and so their bodies have to suffer a lot of\r\nmiseries. But, why are we so miserable and why do we have our miserable body?\r\nAfter his successful self-cultivation, the Buddha realised that misery resulted\r\nfrom desire.Human desire has taken its source from infinitude. It is\r\ndesire that leads us to our karma and once we have created our karma, we have\r\nto pay if off  -  that is we have to be in samsara, meaning\r\n‘to turn around in the wheel of life’ and in the six miserable states known as\r\nbeing hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, animals, asuras, human beings  or\r\ncelestials. In the sutra named Dhammapada there is a teaching that reads,\r\n“Those who have less desire do not appear on this globe.” So, if we want to\r\ndestroy miseries, we should annihilate our desires.” Also, in the\r\nDhammapada sutra there is the sentence,”He who is able to dominate desires then\r\nhis miseries will become like a drop of water on a lotus leaf  -  water\r\ncannot stay on this kind of leaf.” As for those who have become monks or nuns,\r\nespecially those who are still young, they have been well taught the lesson\r\ncalled ‘The four marvellous truths”. They are also taught to be vigilant over\r\nthe pollution of concupiscence that leads to depravity because once a person\r\ncommits concupiscence; he can no longer be qualified to be a Buddhist. In\r\nreality there are many learned people who can preach very well but here and\r\nthere we learn that some of them have returned to the secular life. These\r\npeople know that desire is the source of all miseries but unfortunately they\r\ncannot control it themselves.

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Likewise, we normally become a Buddhist after having taken\r\nrefuge in the Trinity and practised the five commandments. But in reality, how\r\nmany Buddhists can really keep those commandments known as ‘no slaughtering, no\r\nstealing, no adultering, no telling lies, and no drinking alcohol’? He who can\r\nkeep all these commandments can live in the Dharma and enjoy its flavour.

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Some people even raise these questions, “Why do people who\r\nfollow the Pure land sect usually wish to be in the world of Amitabha Buddha\r\nafter death?” and, ”Why can we not make this world to be a pure land; instead,\r\nwe all want to be in the world of Amitabha Buddha?” These are good and ideal\r\nquestions. But do we know what ‘pure land’ means? Pure land means untamished\r\nworld, while ours is called ‘samsara’ or impure land. If we take a look at\r\nthe world around us, we will witness countless situations as slaughtering,\r\nstealing, adultering, telling lies, and drinking alcohol.  Let’s do a\r\ncalculation: suppose that there are 5 million people on this planet. If we want\r\nthis planet to be the pure land, we have to encourage at least more than 4 of\r\nthose 5 million people to keep them free from greediness, anger and delusion,\r\nand maintain the five commandments. And this is not an easy thing to do since\r\nadvising one million over five million people to maintain their commandments is\r\nalready a difficult thing to do.

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The Buddha taught us that there are so many worlds human\r\nbeings can stay in, such as the world of hell-dwellers, of hungry ghosts, of\r\nanimals, of asuras, of human beings and of celestials.  A person\r\npractices his cultivation in which of these worlds will return to such a world\r\nafter death. The Buddha’s world is known the Tranquil World. So, if you want to\r\nbe able to return to it, you must try your best to choose the sect called\r\nTranquility.

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Through this opportunity, I hope that you, as Buddhists,\r\nshould apply this maxim to yourselves, which is “Knowing and practising should\r\nbe performed unanimously.”  It means that we should put our knowledge\r\ninto practice, for if we just use our knowledge to preach then such knowledge\r\nwill not bring much benefit to us. Those who study the Dharma must apply the\r\nBuddha’s teachings into real life. Keep in mind the process known as\r\n‘Listening, thinking, and practising’ Applying this process completely and correctly\r\nwill surely bring benefits to everybody not only at present but also in the\r\nfuture.

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Nam mo Amitabha Buddha.

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Translated into English by Mr. Hoang Huan, layman.

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