Monday, 12/04/2023
Posts
Unintentional Dharma Speaking
Update: 03/09/2014
Every scientific idea was invented based on the knowledge of\r\nthe composition of creatures in nature such as planes, submarines coming from\r\nthe inspiration by birds and fish. By sophisticated perception of all beings,\r\nwe can find the universal truth, which called unintentional dharma is speaking,\r\nunintentional dharma listening. It is the cause that Buddhas of the ten\r\ndirections appear with their long broad tongue forms.
\r\n\r\nWhat is the dharma? In this topic, dharma is understood as\r\nphenomenons, languages, thoughts, actions, space, and time and so on. Generally\r\nspeaking, it is every manifestation of tangibility, intangibility, activation,\r\nnon-activation. Sometimes when we look at a lazy river, a towering hill,\r\noverflowing waves, the sound of a flute or the murmuring of a stream, we feel\r\nlike the nature is trying to say something, like laughters or the happy and sad\r\nstates of mind. To a poet, a writer, a musician or an artist, the nature is a\r\nconfident friend. To a critical scientist, the nature is a place for discoveries.\r\nNewton saw a falling apple and invented the law of universal gravitation. Sakyamuni\r\nused the world law to interpret supramundane dharmas.
\r\n\r\n“When you reach the top, in front of you will be an\r\nabyss. The higher you are, the deeper the abyss is.†Many times of\r\nmountain climbing have me realize that sometimes in life, I have placed too\r\nmuch importance on fame and glory which is similar to climbing a high mountain\r\nwithout fastening the safety belt. Impermanence leads everything to dissolving\r\ninto the abyss. Everything in this world is temporary and relative. Nothing\r\nlasts forever, in happiness there is grief, in good fortune there is\r\naffliction, sometimes things are united, and sometimes things are\r\ndisintegrated. Depending on the opportunity that this factor is hidden or\r\ndisplayed. Double includes single; single means unintegrated. Let’s try to\r\nreach the top and be pleased with taking the risks that connect with it, we\r\nwill be self-happy.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“A clear pond will soon become a stagnant pondâ€. Away-giving\r\nmakes water clear. The Galilee and the Death Sea are examples. The Galilee\r\nflows water away hence it is clear and its aquatic creatures live healthily.\r\nWhile the Death Sea itself contains still water which leads to high salinity\r\nand no animals or plants can live in. Tolerant life is only meaningful with\r\nsacrifice and dedication to humanity. Buddha taught: “Blessings and sufferings\r\nare created by the mindâ€, Bringing love to miserable people, bringing warmth to\r\nhungry and cold people and bringing peace to war zones will make happiness\r\nreturn to your soul. Affluence we enjoy today is due to the blessings we did to\r\nthe less fortunate in our past lives that is the way to assure a good life in\r\nthe future. As a Buddhist, we are to believe in karma and samsara. Maudgalyayana’s\r\nmother was so selfish that she went to the Hell after dying, where rice became\r\nfire when being put in her mouth. Death is just a change of life. The Buddha\r\npassed away more than two thousand years ago; yet humankind still worship him\r\nas he had left in this world a priceless treasure. We are eternally grateful\r\nfor his compassion and his smile that can dispel our suffering.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n“To get lost in one way is to know one more wayâ€. I\r\nhave a habit of riding my bike on the streets when I am sad. Sometimes I do not\r\nknow my way back, I get scared and confused but eventually I can always find a\r\nway home; thanks to that I know one more street. Interestingly, mistakes in\r\nlife make us realize and gather more experience. An optimist always looks at\r\nthe positive side of things. Rather than getting frustrated, they calmly\r\ncorrect their mistakes and better themselves. Peace and stumble sometimes are\r\nonly one footstep apart. Some people when reaching the climax of their\r\nsuffering would come to the Buddha as a chance to change themselves and truly,\r\nthey are enlightened. Buddha’s sutra about mistakes leaves a lesson for\r\ngenerations to learn. Ananda has problem from Matanga, so the Buddha preached\r\nSuramgama Sutra. From that we can subdue the benefit of mistakes, failures and shortcomings.\r\nWe should not be too strict with ourselves or become obsessed with our\r\nmistakes; instead we should just try to correct them and recover from them.\r\nSome people would be austere themselves because of their own mistakes and later\r\ncommit suicide. Billionaires who suffer losses in their business would jump off\r\nthe building to kill themselves. They fail to take a look at themselves,\r\ndespites those failures they are still far more fortunate than many others.
\r\n\r\n“There is something useful in rubbishâ€. Life is full\r\nof defects and insufficiency makes people feel inferior complex. If we pick up\r\nthe debris, we can build a happy house. A cracked vase leaks water to flourish\r\nthe flowers. Many billionaires live on feces and garbage, which are considered\r\nuseless but can be beneficial if used wisely.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBuddha taught: “I have already become Buddha; you are to\r\nbecome future Buddhasâ€. Each of us has a seed of enlightenment. We should not\r\nbe so discouraged that we should not remind ourselves “I will not be defeated†and\r\nreach up to make ourselves and life more beautiful. People who are already more\r\nfortunate than others should sympathize and help the unfortunate and the\r\nhandicapped so that they can find a light in life. There are disable people but\r\nthey are not useless; somes are the disabled and useless; but some healthy to\r\nbe useless. Happiness is trying to better yourself, not because you have an\r\nextra arm or a pair of legs. Happiness is by them but they still aimlessly look\r\nfor the key to happiness, not knowing they are already holding it in their\r\nhand.
\r\n\r\n“Every creation comes from deprivation.†Science\r\ncreated plenty of means just to satisfy human’s needs. Sometimes wealth and\r\naffluence can lead to dependence, laziness, arrogance, depravity. History of\r\nhumankind has evolved thanks to creative labor and as a response to human’s\r\nneeds; therefore, science progresses. The Buddha before his renunciation was\r\nknown as the noble crown prince - Siddhartha who understood the misery when\r\nbeing in throne and feeling deprived. He left the palace to the forest\r\npractising austerity in order to seek the truth. In Buddhism, deprivation is\r\nunderstood as cultivation. One who gives up the material life will find\r\nrichness in their soul. Desire and lust are the sources of suffering.Knowing\r\nhow to feel satisfied and be content with material conditions is a way to\r\ndevelop the spiritual life. That “I was crying when I did not have shoes\r\nto wear until I saw someone with no feet to wear them†is a truth of Buddhism.
\r\n\r\n“A tree growing well in good soil is ordinary but\r\ngrowing in a desert is extraordinary.†Only harshness can harden a sharp\r\nsword, just like callused skin areas have good stamina because it has\r\ngone throughmuch pain. It is hardship that makes a person become extraordinary.\r\nRunning away from hardship will lead to nothing. We need to be grateful for the\r\nhardship that makes us more matured. The Sunrise will forever be behind the\r\nwall if it keeps pulling back from challenges. It is the obstacles that honor\r\nthe victor. Buddha found right path after having spent 6 years in austerity.\r\nAnybody knowing him could not refrain from shedding tears. We should try to\r\novercome obstacles in life and follow His example.
\r\n\r\nAnybody having experienced hardship knows to cherish\r\neverything in life, to sympathize and share the pains of others. Honest men and\r\nBodhisattvas carried out their holy missions and save others from pain and\r\ndanger all because they had experienced countless sufferings themselves.
\r\n\r\n“Only when swimming against the stream, the dirt\r\nwashes away from it.†Many more experiences will be summarized this thanks\r\nto our own observation and thinking when we observe and hear beings. Let’s\r\ncherish everything that nature gives us as they are our intelligent friends.\r\nDon’t ignore anything in front of us. Discovering the universe is also\r\ndiscovering us. All beings do not exist independently, they assist and affect\r\nto each other. Looking at the clouds flowing quietly in the sky I can see\r\nmyself, I can see you and I can see the broad, endless universe as well as\r\nBuddhas residing on those clouds. All of us existing in this world stay among\r\nourselves just like those clouds dissolving in endless nothingness.
\r\n\r\nTranslated into English by Doan Thanh Truc.
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