DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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You often hear in life people say jokingly or seriously:

- Please give me the word peace

Peace, that voice is so gentle, so familiar, and sometimes so strange! Everything comes from the heart. Just let your heart calm down, sit quietly, be gentle, and you will find a sense of peace again. Please join me in singing: See you one day

- Calm the mind, a moment of peace when meditating

Peace... where does it come from when enlightened in monastic life

When space stops flowing, not chasing time

Silence in this moment of enlightenment lasts

Before attaining enlightenment, I wish my mind were peaceful.

A happy mind when I understand the principles of meditation

How much hardship is piled on the small shoulders of humans

From here, let go lightly

And the mind has realized when worldly fate falls.

Peaceful thoughts, living a pure life of practice

Bringing love everywhere, giving to humanity

Life has many karmic obstacles, thousands of ways of compassion

Dedicate yourself to human life.

Dawn is hidden in the mist when the night is about to end

Looking at the horizon, waiting for this moment of awakening

Oh, world, oh people, please practice and study quickly

And bring love to erase all grudges

If tomorrow we return, let's meet in the Western Paradise...

This afternoon, a peaceful moment when reciting the Amitabha Buddha

The bell's beat, the gong rings with the soul's song

Tell everyone to stop, try to cultivate a pure mind

Make your mind always bright, beautiful in life

When you achieve enlightenment, you will have fulfilled your love.

The bell's gentle sound when your mind is immersed

The wandering mind has become bright in the Zen door

Makes us peaceful

The practitioner is liberated, going to build love.

The mind is vast, directing the mind to all worlds.

Wishing for humanity to live happily forever

Life has a hundred thousand obstacles; the path of compassion has a thousand methods

Save human life.

Oh, people, please practice when you have met the golden path!

Then, when you are determined to practice, forget all sorrows

Tomorrow, love will bloom in a thousand directions

That is when we have a way to the West

The moonlight is harmonious, sentient beings, Buddha, and our hearts

Dawn is hidden in the mist when the night is about to end

Looking at the horizon, waiting for enlightenment at this moment

Oh, world, people, please practice quickly

And bring love to erase all grudges

If tomorrow we return, let's meet in the West ...

Oh, world, people, please practice quickly

And bring love to erase all grudges

If tomorrow we return, let's meet in the West ...

Almost all of you, everyone want to have peace and purity of soul in your life. You also want to be happy to forget your troubles, hardships, and worries. You also want to enjoy moments of inner peace and freedom from worries and troubles.

So what is peace?

It is a state of inner silence and tranquility, along with a feeling of freedom. Once you are free from thoughts and worries, there is no worry, stress, or fear. Moments like this are not uncommon. You have all experienced these moments, such as when:

- You are absorbed in some interesting work, or an activity that you love, such as when you watch a good movie or an interesting TV show.

Or when:

- You are with someone you love, or when reading a good book, or when lying on the white sand along the beach.

Or when:

- You go to the temple to listen to sermons, chant sutras, meditate, etc.,

You may experience some states of mental calm. At this time, your mind becomes more peaceful because you have fewer thoughts and worries. Even when you are in deep sleep, not aware of your thoughts, you are in a state of inner peace.

These and similar activities can also help your mind to escape from thoughts and worries. And that brings a few brief moments of mental peace.

The question is how to bring more inner peace into your daily life and, more importantly, how to experience it when you are facing difficulties. To answer this question, let me tell you a story:

- A person saw an old man bending over to look for something in the garden, and asked: What are you looking for?

The old man replied:

- I am looking for a needle; I just dropped it.

So the stranger immediately looked for the old man but still could not find it, so he asked again:

- Where did you drop the needle?

The old man said:

- I dropped it in the house, but it was too dark in the house, so I came out here to look for it!

The above story is a metaphor for the needle that the old man kept looking for but could not find, which is Happiness. The story in the philosophy of the Vedas talks about looking for Happiness but in the wrong place. Like the old man in the above story, everyone wants to be happy and seeks happiness and thinks that happiness is in flashy, brilliant places, always adorning happiness with halos and fame. So you always mistakenly think that when you have enough fame, position, and money, you will be happy, but in reality, nothing is enough. You may feel satisfied and full at this moment, but at another moment you will feel lacking, you want more, more, ... In other words, those things will only make you Happy for a short time because as long as you think Happiness comes from the material world, in your heart, there is still a deep imprint of happiness attached to material things, you will never have Happiness. Like the legendary purple-eyed actress Elizabeth Taylor when she received the world's largest diamond given by Richard Burton, she was ecstatic with happiness because in her heart she always thought that owning a precious diamond meant Happiness, but in a short time, that happiness gradually faded because she wanted more diamonds.

If you are like Elizabeth Taylor, then all your life you are busy looking for happiness somewhere without knowing that happiness is right next to you, right in your soul. Therefore, as long as your soul is truly peaceful, you are a happy person. Therefore, to achieve Happiness, first of all, you must have a peaceful mind; do not let your mind be agitated, which means you must realize that the material world outside is just an illusion, do not try to chase it, but be satisfied with what you have. And always take time to listen, to feel the emotions within you, to let your soul calm down, and escape from the negative thoughts in your current life.

Then you will experience the taste of Peace, the Tranquility of the soul, and realize that true Happiness is always available deep within each of you. At that time, happiness comes when the mind is peaceful, and please confirm:

- Happiness comes from within, not from the outside.

Everyone can create peace for themselves by doing so in daily life. To do so, you must eliminate your hot temper, do not let yourself get angry easily over small things, or insult others if they say something that does not please you. Furthermore, you should not use violence. On the contrary, you must always handle things calmly and kindly. When faced with insults and humiliation, you should just be calm like a calm lake. To be able to be calm like a calm lake, the key is to let go of all attachments and give up all emotions and desires. Therefore, you must learn how to let go of your ego.

In the human world, the reason why there are so many quarrels and why your mind is restless and restless is because you care too much about your ego. Only after you have fully understood the meaning of life will you have a mind as pure and clear as a calm lake.

The happiness that success brings is like a sudden wave after the tide comes; it will eventually disappear. Therefore, for you, the highest and happiest state is to truly take everything lightly. If you think carefully, being calm like a calm lake will be the highest state in life. Have a calm mind, not affected by joy or sadness. When you are insulted, you will not get angry; when you encounter problems, you will not be afraid. When faced with serious ups and downs, when faced with extreme joy and sadness, you still remain calm and accept them calmly.

Accepting everything calmly is also a manifestation of wisdom. In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sima Yi commanded 150,000 soldiers to attack Nhai Dinh. Meanwhile, Zhuge Liang defended Nhai Dinh with only 2,500 soldiers. But Zhuge Liang was not afraid. With two children standing beside him, he sat on the high tower in the city playing the zither as if nothing had happened. The peaceful music made Sima Yi tremble and leave. The spirit of Zhuge Liang is commendable:

- Not afraid when Mount Tai collapses before your eyes,

- Not afraid when lightning strikes near

This cannot be achieved by an ordinary person. You are caught up in the very fast pace of life in the 21st century, even in this small mountain town in the highlands, compared to big cities like Los Angeles…. Every day from the time you wake up to get ready to leave the house to go to work, or to do some work in the house, most of you are very rushed, very fast. Whether you want it or not, you have to join the traffic, in your car, or on public transport:

- Rushing and rushing.

At work with colleagues, and work is always busy and stressful. Then get on the bus during rush hour. When returning home, alone or with loved ones, in family and with friends, eating a meal together... You will have many different experiences and feelings in each role and moment of the day. And the question is:

- What do you expect and what do you need most for each day of your life?

- Can you think of concepts like luck or happiness?

The answer about happiness is probably not wrong if the concept of happiness is not just about enjoying material things or material values. Because if that is the case, are you working hard and not enjoying material values such as delicious food, beautiful clothes... not happy?

The concept of happiness here is understood as the achievement of your spiritual values and goals for your life. And so the words in the group of positive words are considered shades of happiness, such as:

- Joy, serenity, optimism, excitement, love... can all be chosen by you for your roles in different moments.

But to have happiness as a life goal for all of you, and for the whole world, there is an important factor that Obama emphasized and mentioned many times in his speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009. That is Peace with the idea that Peace starts from within you and me. If you want a peaceful world, you must first start with inner peace in each of you. That is why the Venerable Ones often teach:

- Peaceful mind, peaceful world.

Inner peace refers to the peaceful state of the spirit, with full understanding, to keep each person strong in the face of instability or stress. Peace of mind is the health of the soul and is the opposite of anxiety and stress. Peace of mind is associated with happiness. You cannot be happy every day, every hour, or even every minute of the present without this peace of mind. Every morning when you wake up, you hear the birds chirping from the branches on the porch, look up at the sky that has just turned pink, or see a newly opened flower bud still wet with night dew… and step out into the street to hear a greeting, look up to greet a familiar, bright smile. Surely you will feel the beauty of life from the entities that exist.

How many times have you been angry because someone didn't do their job? Your child didn't behave because your lover or friend didn't do what you expected, or didn't keep an agreement. How many times have you been upset when someone doesn't do things the way you're used to doing them? Or when a carefully laid plan doesn't work out the way you hoped. This kind of anger and frustration happens to you all the time and is part of the human experience.

One thing that irritates you is someone talking while you're watching a movie. Or someone cutting you off while you're driving. Or someone in the house is not washing the dishes after eating. You have a lot of these little annoyances.

And it's not easy to find peace when you're upset or angry. Let me tell you a little secret to finding peace of mind:

- The glass broke.

Achaan, a Thai meditation master, pointed to a stemmed glass and said:

- For me, this glass is broken. I love it, I drink water from it. It holds my water well; sometimes it reflects the sunlight with many patterns. If I tap the side of the glass, it rings beautifully. But when I put it on the shelf, the wind blows it off my shoulder, or my elbow hits it, and it falls to the floor and shatters. When I understand that the glass is broken, every moment with the glass is precious.

You see, the cause of your stress, anger, and frustration is that things do not turn out the way you want or plan. Think about how many times this has been true for you? And so the solution is simple:

- You expect things to go wrong no matter how carefully you plan. Things will turn out differently from what you hoped or planned whenever a surprise arises, and you accept it.

So when the beautiful cup you bought one day inevitably breaks, you may be upset. But you will not be upset if you look at the cup as if it were damaged from the moment you bought it. You know it will break one day, so from the beginning, see it as broken. Be a person who transcends time, or a person who has a vision beyond time, and see the future of the cup, from this moment until it inevitably breaks.

And when it breaks, you will not be upset or sad. Because it is already broken from the day you have it. And you will realize that every moment you have is precious, through which thoughts like:

- Think that your child makes mistakes; all children do. And don't be too upset when they make mistakes, when they don't do what they should, because they have to make mistakes.

- Think that your lover or your partner is not perfect

- Think that your friend is sometimes not as good as you think.

- Thinking that things sometimes don't work out

- Thinking that people are sometimes rude

- Thinking that your co-workers sometimes don't follow through with plans

- Thinking that your roommate sometimes doesn't wash the dishes or pick up the clothes...

Thinking like that and accepting it, when you learn to accept it, you will have peace of mind. Of course, that is a pleasant surprise. To do this, you have to practice and make it a habit, and always enjoy it in any situation. First, you need to learn how to have moments of inner peace in your daily life. Then, you can recognize these moments whenever you encounter difficulties and troubles; this is the time when you need the most for inner peace and tranquility.

You can transform the state of inner peace into a natural habit, but to do this, you need to have special training through mindfulness exercises such as meditation and other methods. Here are some simple techniques that can help:

- Reduce the amount of time you spend reading newspapers and watching TV news.

- Stay away from negative conversations and negative people.

- Don't hold grudges, but instead learn to let go and forgive. Holding grudges will harm you and cause insomnia.

- Don't be jealous of others. Jealousy means you lower your self-esteem and consider yourself inferior to others. This again causes a lack of inner peace.

- Accept what you cannot change. This saves you time, energy, and worries.

- Every day, you are faced with many unpleasant things, frustrations, and situations that are beyond your control. If you can change them, that's great, but you can't always do that. You have to learn to get used to these things and accept them happily.

- Learn to be more patient and tolerant, and generous towards people and situations.

- Don't be too greedy and take everything too seriously. Practice detachment both emotionally and mentally. Try to look at your life and everyone with a little detachment and a little attachment. Detachment is not indifference, lack of concern, and coldness, but it is an ability to think and judge fairly and realistically. Don't worry if you fail and continue to fail in showing detachment. Just try to practice it.

- Let the past go. Forget the past and focus on the present moment. There is no need to evoke unpleasant memories and bury yourself in them.

- Practice some concentration techniques. This will help you get rid of unpleasant thoughts and worries. These things have robbed you of peace of mind.

- Learn to meditate. Even a few minutes a day can change your life.

Ultimately, inner peace will lead to peace in the outer world. By creating peace in the inner world, you bring it to the outer world, and it can affect many other people around you.

Sometimes when I look at the stream flowing from the mountain to the ocean, I find the quality of the stream admirable: It seems to be indifferent to fame and wealth, to throw away personal interests, and to stand apart from worldly success! Someone once said:

- Honesty is truth, peace is luck.

I think that true tranquility is a mind as calm as a calm lake. The trivial things in life are born of unnecessary desires. The human mind is covered with dust, burdened by the temptations of the material world. In the chaos of this world, a calm mind exists simultaneously with a wild mind.

You often become frustrated when you encounter difficulties, and you feel pain and hurt. Because you endure when you are insulted, you get angry when you are deceived, and you are afraid when you face the test of life and death. It shows that your concentration is not enough, and you have not perfected yourself through cultivation. An enlightened being is not confused by worldly trivialities, he is not afraid when he encounters difficulties, he does not panic when he faces danger; he faces insults with a smile, he faces deception with compassion. In any situation, he remains calm like a calm lake.

Lao Tzu said:

- The greatest compassion is like water.

Confucius said:

- A wise man is like water, a good man is like a mountain.

You can learn a lot from the profound nature of water. When your mind in cultivation can be as calm as a calm lake, it shows that you are on the way to perfection. When calm as a still lake, the mind attains purity, when calm as a still lake, your spiritual position is high and divine, when calm as a still lake, a stream of compassion radiates to all living beings in the universe, when calm as a still lake, a pure and radiant lotus will bloom in your mind.

In short, when you keep your mind peaceful, happiness will surely come. Thus, to find your mind peaceful in an uncertain world, it is not difficult when you know how to use your time and how to behave with people around you. Especially in times of uncertainty, how can you have peace of mind instead of anxiety and confusion. To deal with this situation, you must always keep your mind peaceful and not need to compare or be jealous of anyone.

To integrate into society, you can care a little about the people and circumstances around you, and then you should be happy; it does not matter whether anyone else is taller, prettier, or uglier than you, happy or unhappy. That does not matter to you. To keep your mind peaceful to have happiness in the present, you must wholeheartedly get along with everyone and be happy and joyful because life is within you. In this way, you will know how to solve the deadlocks in life, how to improve life, so happiness can be found within yourself. There is no greed, jealousy because everyone is your friend or partner, you always have good feelings for them. Then people can easily sympathize and share with you. You can share true love and positive thoughts with everyone because you have a spiritual life within yourself. This is what you should contemplate and practice in this modern age.

Sincerely wish you a peaceful day in the midst of the flow of people or stress with work pressure, wherever you are and whatever you do.

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