The universe is an altar

… The altar of Buddhism-conscious people is the universe. If people know clearly and apply it fully to their life, they will have an immeasurable love for the universe.

Question:

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Answer:

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The four big four great debts of gratitude include the\r\ndebts we owe our parents, our Masters who teach us dharma, the Triple Gems and\r\nall the sentient beings. Mother is the person who gave birth to us and raised\r\nus while father teaches and trains us. The debts we owe to our parents are so\r\ngreat that all of us, their children must remember and repay.

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Thirdly is the debt we owe to the Three Jewels: Buddha,\r\nDharma, and Monks. Buddha has renounced his palace life, beautiful wife, and\r\nhis obedient son to find the way to deliverance from sufferings. After\r\nattaining enlightenment he showed it to sentient beings; Therefore, we should\r\nbe grateful to him.

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Buddha had spread the dharma, which is the way to lead us to\r\nthe happiness and enlightenment. By learning the Buddha’s teaching, people can\r\nrecognize the evil and the good, truth or falsehood. People rely on Buddha\r\ndharma to escape the danger and reach the happy land. That is the reason why\r\npeople should see it as a favor.

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Monks are the people who leave their homes to be involved in\r\ndevotional life in Buddhists temples, and saints and sages.  They\r\nabandon their relatives and life pleasures to practice and lead a religious\r\nlife on the base of Buddha dharma. After that, they propagate what they attain\r\nand teach us to practice to reach peace, contentment and enlightenment. Buddha\r\npassed away a long time ago, and Dharma was written in a variety of languages\r\nsuch as Sanskrit, Chinese,…Although it was translated into Vietnamese, readers\r\nare still confused about Buddhism terms and maybe they cannot completely\r\nunderstand the deep meaning of Dharma. People cannot know the right way to lead\r\na religious life if there are not any monks who can explain and teach it to\r\nthem. That is the reason why people should  express their gratitude\r\nto Buddhist monks and nuns.

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The fourth is the favor we owe to the sentient beings which\r\nis meaningful. As usual, people have a wrong thinking that they have the rights\r\nto enjoy what they have gained without any helps from others. They also think\r\nthat everybody will take care of the problem by themselves without annoying the\r\nothers. However, on the deeper thoughts, these things above cannot exist\r\nseparately from others but they are strongly attached to others. For example,\r\nclothes we are putting on are made by the workers who plant cotton tree and\r\nraise silkworms and they must go though many other production steps. Other\r\nexamples are that we will not have food to survive if the farmers do not\r\ncultivate crops, we will die if there is no effort of other people to make\r\nhouses, vehicles, daily appliances, medicine… All things in life are formed and\r\nexisted by their relations and they lean on each other without separation. We\r\ncannot have all the comforts if there are no workers and farmers and we cannot\r\nown a good life if there is no martyrs who laid down their lives for the\r\nmotherland. For this reason, we should be thankful to them.

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In addition, not only human but also the animals do us a\r\nfavor. Cattle provide traction to cultivate food crops; earthworms make the\r\nsoil a better place for plants; dogs keep the house safe from burglars; cats\r\nkill  mice, which contributes to preserving agricultural production;\r\nthe

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Cocks crow to announce a new day; silkworms provide silk… so\r\nwe must be grateful to them. Also, the food we have daily comes from plants,\r\nvegetation, beans, rice…; for this reason, we must be grateful to them. Even\r\nthe inanimate things such as soil, stones, water, air… are also helpful. They\r\nprovide us with shelter; facilitate the travel … in which water and air are\r\nindispensable for living creatures’ survival.

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The brilliant intelligence of Buddha helps us understand all\r\nthe close relationships of things in the universe, making our mind clear, and\r\nopen to all living beings in harmony with the nature. Obviously, we are deeply\r\nindebted to all things, although they are as small as grains of sand or even\r\nthey are in immaterial form as nil. All things in the universe help us fully\r\ngrow second by second. Discerning people know clearly that: “All things are one\r\nand one is all things”. On full consideration, we are indebted to all people\r\nand all things because our body and our current life are the debts of gratitude\r\nwe owe all of them. They are not only worship the Buddha, their ancestors,\r\nrespect their parents but also hold human beings in veneration. “Prostrate to\r\nthe Buddha first”, because all people will be Buddha in the future. They are\r\neven thankful to the animals, plants, soil… That is the reason why the altar of\r\nthe Buddhism-conscious people is the universe. If we are acutely aware of it\r\nand have a full practice, our love towards all living beings and things will be\r\nimmense and our heart will be wide open.

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The Three lower realms of existence are: Hell, Devils, and\r\nAnimals. In all realms, the living beings in Hell must endure the utmost\r\nsufferings because of harsh penalty for countless lives. Next are the Devils,\r\nwhich always suffering the hunger and thirst and the last one is the Animals\r\nwhich kill each other and   are killed by human. Living beings\r\ninTriple-thousand great-thousand worlds have different figures, lifestyle\r\nand residence, but at the point of view of the law of Cause and Effect, they\r\nhad a close relationship. There is no living being, even the smallest living\r\nbeings, which is not our relative in the past life. We are beholden to them all\r\nand It’s advisable that we lead a religious life with our spreading love for\r\nsaving and protecting living beings that currently are in the Three lower\r\nrealms of existence.

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Thich Minh Thanh

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Translated into English by Nguyen Phuong Trinh.