Two Dharma Affairs on One Day in Taiwan.

On April 3rd, 2016, Senior Venerable Thich Chan Tinh had Dharma talk to good men and believing women at Cianjhen Town, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

 In simple and sincere speech, Venerable said: “Talking about property, people usually think about owning things like money, houses, etc. However, creating material life is just one part of life. It is a lack to individual and society if we just focus on material life,  underestimating the act of  fulfilling spiritual life. The unbalance between material and spiritual lives leads to social crisis, the decadence of manners and personalities, lifestyles with only enjoying. Furthermore, richness in materials is temporary, fragilem which ishard to find but easy to lose.

  Therefore, beside the desire to enrich material life, people also needs to enrich spiritual life. In Angutara Nikaya, The Buddha introduced a method of gaining properties, which is called “Sabtadhana”. “To all Bhiksus! There are seven types of property, what are those? Faith, Observance of the commandments, Shame for self, Shame for others, Listening instruction, Wisdom, and Renunciation. The major disciple, who had trust in the enlightenment of Tathagata, which is called “Faith”. He gave up on killing, stealing, getting drunk… which is called “Observance of the commandments”, He felt embarrassed by his body, his mouth, his mind, which is called “Shame for self”. He scared of his body, his mouth, his mind doing, saying cruel things or thinking about it, which is called “Shame for others”. He listened and preserved what he listened to, he treasured ascetic, religious life; he recited sutras many times, he focused on observation; he gained Right Understanding, which is called “Listening instruction”.  He gave up on “greediness”, he favored abandoning, sharing, which is called “Renunciation”. He acknowledged Utpadanirodha, which leads to attaining the highest of abandon pains, which is called “Wisdom”.

These are seven kinds of wealth called no “poverty”, which does not go along with the act of paying back by blood and tears; but there is no existence of ambitions, plans, hatred, worries and fears. It means enriching with happiness, peaceful and steadiness. No matter how life changes; it creates the wealthiest personin the world.

Therefore, â€œSeven Holy Properties” are very precious ones, which ensure a wealthy life to someone, from this life to the next life.

At the end, The Senior Venerable led Buddhists to commit themselves to the Triratna and taught them dignity, directed them to practice on Triratna.

In the evening of that day, he had a lecture to good men and believing women at Jiading Qu, city, Taiwan.

He talked on â€˜The detachment of children of Buddha”. Detachment meant eliminating what we owned, our habits and what linked to us in a long time. That is hard and not everyone can do that. However, if we failed to  eliminate, we will never have peaceful, steady and happy life.

Detachment is the spirit of causal beginning, which means no clinging, no owning anything. Self and it belongings are just tools that we borrowed temporally to gain our goals. Because of Avidya (ignorance) and the shortcoming of intelligent insight, we use the debasement instead of truth and we lean on equipment. Living and creating happiness in life, we started from borrowing things, and cannot live without it. However, we must remember those things are just temporary and it will fade away. Therefore, practicing on detachment means that we are praticing to eliminate attachment, rapacity and desire, in order to have a peaceful life.

At the end of the lecture, the Senior Venerable organized the ceremony of Triratna refuge and instructed them some dignity.

 Below are the photos from the event:

Lecture at Cianjhen Town, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.