Chua Duoc Su

The suffering and obstacles that are healed are mainly due to the mind, not the body, so understanding the nature of the mind is extremely important. The natural nature of the mind is pure, in the sense that it is not identical with the faults of the mind, with the confused delusions and obstacles. From the Buddhist point of view, all the faults of your mind, which are due to selfishness, ignorance, anger, greed, guilt, and other confused thoughts, are only temporary, not permanent. And since the cause of your suffering, the confused delusions and obstacles, is temporary, the suffering is also temporary.

The mind is also empty and pure in terms of its true existence, or its separate existence, that is, it is not dependent on anything else outside. This quality of mind, also known as Buddha nature, allows you to be completely free from all suffering, including illness and its causes, and at the same time attain any happiness you desire, including the ultimate happiness of enlightenment. Since the mind has this full potential, you do not need to feel hopeless or depressed for any reason or anything. Because you know for sure, no one is forever burdened with problems. You have the wonderful freedom to develop your mind in any way you want. It is simply a matter of finding the right way to use the potential of your mind.

To be able to find a peaceful state of mind for yourself, the Venerables encourage you to realize that body and mind are two different phenomena:

- The mind is defined as the part that is clear and aware of objects. Just as images appear in a mirror, objects also appear clearly in the mind, and the mind can recognize them.

- The body is material, but the mind is formless, without color or shape. The body disintegrates after death, but the mind continues from one life to the next.

You often hear about people in the East as well as the West who have the ability to remember past lives or foresee the future, not only their own but also those of others. Some people are born with this ability, while others develop it through practice. Some people can remember lives that were hundreds or even thousands of years ago. The point here is that, although many people do not believe in past and future lives, not believing in them does not mean that they did not exist. Meanwhile, many of you recognize that you have had past lives because you remember them very clearly, as if you recall things you did yesterday. You realize that rebirth is real because your minds are capable of seeing past and future lives.

Knowledge of the nature of the mind is a much more vast and important subject than knowledge of the nature of phenomena outside the mind. And if you do not understand the nature of the mind, there is no way you can understand correctly the nature of other mental phenomena. And even in the worldly aspect, it is only through understanding the mind that you can understand and determine exactly how phenomena outside the mind exist.

In general, developing an understanding of the mind is the practical solution to your problems. You must first identify the source of your problems, because only then will you be able to put an end to them and ensure that they do not arise again. You must also recognize the problems in their entirety, because if you only recognize a part of them, your concept of liberation will be limited, so first you must:

1- Transform the Mind

Transforming, treating the mind is essential, because otherwise your problems, which have no beginning, will never end. You can use medicine or other external means to transform or cure a disease, but the disease will return if you do not treat the mind. If you do not treat the mind, there is always the risk that you will create the cause of the disease again, and you will repeat the actions that previously caused your body to be sick. And then you will have the same disease in future lives, or even in this life.

Curing illness by means other than the mind is not the best solution because the cause of illness is not external. Germs, or demons, can act as external conditions that you often call the cause of illness, but the illness itself has no external cause. However, Westerners often think that the external conditions that cause a certain illness are the cause of the illness. But the cause of illness is not external, but it is in the mind, or you can say it is the mind itself.

Suffering, obstacles, illness are all created by the mind of selfishness, ignorance, anger, greed, other defilements, and by the unwholesome actions that arise from these unwholesome thoughts. Your unwholesome thoughts and actions leave imprints that form seeds in the mind, and those seeds manifest as illness or other problems. Those seeds also create conditions for delusions and unwholesome actions to continue to arise. A physical sign must have a physical cause, but the physical cause arises from an internal cause, which is the seeds left in your mind by unwholesome thoughts and actions. To fully understand suffering and hindrances, you must understand this internal cause, which is the real cause of suffering and also creates the physical conditions that give rise to suffering. If you ignore the internal cause of suffering, you will not truly be free of suffering. You must study the development of hindrances and suffering and realize that the cause of suffering is in the mind. Once you realize this, you will naturally understand that the freedom from suffering, hindrances, and illness must begin in the mind.

What the venerable ones teach you is not only consistent with the Buddhist teachings but also consistent with your own life experiences. Research shows that your happiness is very much related to your daily behavior and your ability to maintain a positive mind. For example, in his book The Uncommon Wisdom, author Fritjof Capra interviewed renowned doctors and psychologists about the causes of cancer. Based on their research, they concluded that diseases, sufferings, and obstacles all originate from negative, pessimistic attitudes and can be cured or brought about by developing positive, optimistic attitudes. This scientific view is moving closer to the Buddha's teachings.

Every problem is a specific creation of the mind. If the cause of a problem is present in the mind, then that problem will manifest, unless you purify that cause. If the internal cause of a problem is present, then the external conditions related to that problem will also exist, because they are created from the internal cause. In other words, external obstacles arise from internal obstacles. Even the external conditions of a problem of suffering and unhappiness are created by your mind. External factors become conditions of a problem because there is an internal cause in your mind. If there were no internal cause, even though external factors were present, they could not become conditions of suffering and unhappiness, or illness. If there were no internal obstacles, there would be no external obstacles.

As I have said before, the source of your troubles lies in your mind. You must recognize and distinguish between the right ways of thinking, which bring happiness, and the wrong ways of thinking, which bring suffering. Some ways of thinking give rise to problems, and others do not. In other words, happiness and unhappiness come from your mind. Your mind creates your life.

2- Practice Is Medicine

External medicines can be used to cure a physical illness, whereas internal medicine should be used to cure the cause of the illness and ensure that the illness never recurs, and bring happiness to one's life. So internal medicine is a practice. Practice is using your mind, your positive attitudes, to cure yourself. And this definition is not limited to curing a particular illness, but applies more broadly, including curing all problems and their causes. Illness and all other problems of suffering and unrest are created by the negative seeds that exist in the mind, so the removal of the causes of the troubles must also be done from the mind. Practice is simply the name of everything you do with the mind, and it is the best cure because it has no side effects and brings many benefits

Studying is the key to curing suffering, because suffering as well as happiness come from the mind. Studying is the only way to extinguish the cause of suffering and create the cause of happiness, so it is called:

- A good mind gives birth to happiness.

External means cannot do that. Only your mind can do it. If you only use medicine or just use a simple visualization method, it may cure a disease, but it is not enough to cure the mind. Apart from studying, there is no other way to cure the disease along with its cause.

When you study in a calm state, your positive and kind attitudes will become the internal medicine to cure the mind and solve the cause of all problems. When you develop good qualities of the mind, the cure will be successful. Such thoughts will bring peace and cure the disease; whereas, such thoughts will bring disturbance and harm. Illness and all other problems in your life are caused by unhealthy minds. An unhealthy mind means any mental activity that disturbs you and makes you unhappy, and an unhealthy body arises from an unhealthy mind.

Practicing not only cures illness but also brings great peace to the mind. The nature of positive thoughts is to make you feel comfortable and at ease. The best positive thoughts are loving-kindness and compassion. Loving-kindness is the wish for others to have happiness and the causes of happiness; great compassion is taking responsibility for bringing happiness and the causes of happiness to others. Compassion is the wish for others to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Great compassion is taking responsibility for freeing others from suffering and the causes of suffering. The generation of these benevolent attitudes has the power to cure illness.

A good, kind heart is the best doctor. The power to bring happiness to people is the strongest because it comes from generating compassion for all sentient beings, regardless of race, nationality, religion, or kinship. You need to have compassion for all sentient beings; everyone wants to be happy and does not want to suffer. You need to develop not only the compassion that wishes to free all sentient beings from suffering, but also the great compassion that takes responsibility for doing so yourself. This will bring about a powerful and thorough healing.

A loving-kindness and a compassionate heart are both peaceful and wholesome, completely different from the nature of anger, ignorance, greed, pride, or jealousy. Although a compassionate person will genuinely care for others and feel unbearable when you see someone suffering, the core nature of their mind is still peaceful. On the other hand, a mind that arises from ill will, wanting to harm others, cannot be at peace; it is like a sharp thorn piercing your heart. Desire also has its pain; you feel tied down, squeezed, and it is very painful to be separated from the object of your desire. Desire also clouds your mind, creating a wall between you and reality. When you are attached to someone, or even just an animal, you cannot see the reality of that person's suffering or generate compassion from your heart, because desire has clouded your mind. Desire fills your mind, leaving no room for compassion to arise. Even when you help that person, you always expect something in return. You don't help just because the person is sick or in danger, but with the expectation of being repaid in some way in the future

When your mind is filled with craving, it is difficult to generate compassion. If you think carefully, you will see that when your mind is filled with intense craving, you are only concerned with what you want. Your main purpose is your happiness. Even if you help others, it is only because you want to get something in return. Your mind is confused and obscured. You cannot see that the person you are intensely attached to is at least as important as you; you cannot love and sincerely help them. Whereas, if you use great compassion to guide your mind, you will be able to resolve your problems of suffering and unrest, as well as those of others. Thus, the positive thought of compassion will not only help you recover from illness but also bring you peace, happiness, and contentment. It will enable you to enjoy a happy and relaxed life. It will also bring peace and happiness to your family and friends, those around you. Because you do not have evil thoughts directed towards them, people or even animals who come into contact with you will feel happy. When you have kindness and compassion, your main concern will always be to avoid harming others, and this in itself is the ultimate happiness. A compassionate person has the strongest capacity to bring happiness to others. A compassionate person can certainly bring happiness to others simply by their presence.

Every time you practice and cultivate compassion for all sentient beings, you will accumulate immeasurable merit, because it is the cause of all success and happiness. Every time you practice wholesome actions for the benefit of all sentient beings, you will put an end to the obstacles of suffering at their root.

Developing compassion also helps you build wisdom, especially the wisdom that realizes, on the level of practice, the ultimate nature of the self, of the mind, and of all other phenomena. This wisdom gradually thins out the clouds that temporarily obscure your mind, until your mind is obvious and pure. It also frees your mind from ignorance, anger, greed, and all other disturbing thoughts. It frees your mind from these disturbing thoughts and even their seeds. All obscurations, even the most subtle ones, are completely purified by this wisdom.

With the full development of wisdom and compassion, your mind will be completely free from all obscurations, from the grossest to the subtlest. By doing so, you will not only gain happiness in this life, but also attain omniscience or all-knowing. An omniscient mind can directly see the past, present, and future. You can see the minds of all sentient beings and know the method to free them from their problems and bring them happiness, including the ultimate happiness of complete enlightenment.

Your understanding is very limited at present. Even to know your health condition, you have to rely on doctors, machines, blood tests, and so on. Even in the small area of medical treatment, you cannot understand the problems of others, their causes, and the appropriate treatments. Your understanding is very limited, and so is your ability to help others. Your ability to see the future is also very limited. You cannot predict what will happen next year, next month, next week, or even tomorrow, let alone the events of the next life!

Your physical, verbal, and mental capacities are limited because of the mental obscurations. However, when you free your mental continuum from these gross and subtle obscurations, there is nothing to limit your capacities. Not only will your mind be happy and peaceful in the present, but it will also be able to directly perceive all past, present, and future, and pervade everywhere. Your mind will have instant access to any object you think of, without any hindrance. When your mind is fully enlightened, meaning free from all gross and subtle obscurations, you will be completely free from the gross mind and the gross body. At that moment, you will not be limited by anything. This is the ultimate freedom. Just as when the sun rises, its light is instantly reflected everywhere. In the same way, because all the gross and subtle obscurations have been removed, the fully enlightened mind naturally pervades everywhere. Whenever your virtuous seed reaches maturity, the omniscient mind immediately manifests in a form appropriate to your level of mind. If your mind is pure, the omniscient mind will manifest in a pure form to guide you; if your mind is not pure, it will manifest in an impure form. Because the omniscient mind sees the complete existence at every moment, when the virtuous seed matures in your mind, the omniscient mind immediately manifests to guide you from one happiness to another, until the supreme happiness of complete enlightenment. This is the meaning of perfect power.

In short, to have happiness in the present, you must not only rely on wealth and fame but also cultivate a virtuous mind. Although you cannot do anything in this world without wealth and fame, the motivation to create happiness and help others is compassion. For example, you may have wealth, fame, and knowledge, but that does not mean you are happy and will use your knowledge to help others. Wealth, fame, knowledge, and power can become obstacles if you do not have compassion. Even if you know how to help others and you have the power to do so, you may not help others, even when they ask you to. On the contrary, a compassionate person is always ready to help when asked for help.

It is a good and kind heart that helps you perfect your wisdom and power. A good heart urges you to develop a mind for the benefit of others. You need to develop and perfect a compassionate heart, as well as develop compassion for the benefit of all sentient beings, so that you can further develop all other good qualities. Only when you have perfected compassion along with knowledge and power can you truly help others.

Therefore, when you know how to transform this mind, it is the root treatment for all suffering, and you can create happiness in the present.

The good mind gives birth to happiness, which is true, but whether or not you are truly happy must come from yourself, from your mind. A happy life will be achieved through the practice of transforming your stingy mind through positive thoughts, which basically means through your wisdom and compassion. Suffering and obstacles will no longer exist when you know how to create a loving mind, a compassionate mind, because through this creation, you will always live peacefully and happily.