DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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A Buddhist told me. Master, I am so busy that I want to go to the temple to worship Buddha and visit you, but because I am so busy, I cannot go ... And many of you have many reasons ... because of this and that, in the end, you cannot go to the temple to visit the Master and worship Buddha. In daily life, following the flow of society, you are always worried about one thing after another, until at some point in your life when you feel tired, you give up everything.

As a Buddhist, you need to know when to do something and when not to do something. Knowing how to arrange like that, you will have free time. To have a leisurely life, first of all:

- You must know how to integrate

- How to arrange a time

- Know enough

1- Integration

As you know, the ocean is where many streams and rivers converge. There are streams because water from many places converges into streams, then the streams flow into rivers, and then from rivers flows into the ocean. Although it is simple, it speaks of a harmonious process of gathering, combining to flow out to the sea. The same is true in the lives of people in today's society. If you want to have a leisurely life, you also need to know how to listen, combine, and give in to each other, then live in peace. So when you come to everyone, for example:

- You know ten people with eleven different opinions, if you want to avoid arguments or disagreements, you must know how to listen, to choose good and correct opinions. First of all, you must have the patience to accept each person's temperament. Story:

There was an old man from the countryside who lived all his life on his farm in a remote mountainous area. Now he came to the city for the first time to visit his son.

One day he was taken by his son to see the streets of the city. He was surprised to hear a strange sound and was determined to find out. He went to the room behind a building and saw a baby girl playing a musical instrument. It turned out that the ear-piercing sounds of "o o, e e"... came from this instrument. When asked what kind of instrument it was, he was told it was a violin. From then on, he said, he never wanted to hear the sound of a violin again.

The next day, he heard in another corner of the street melodious sounds that caressed his old ears. The mountains and forests where he was born and raised did not have these sounds. He went to find the source of the sound. When he got there, he saw an old woman playing the violin. She was a musician and the song was called Sonata. Only then did he realize that he was wrong. The ear-piercing sounds he heard yesterday were not the fault of the violin or the girl. They were just unmastered musical sounds.

The same is true in the field of religion if someone is too ignorant and causes disputes over religion. Religion is not at fault, but if it is a fault, it is because of human ignorance that causes sin. Ignorance often lurks in beginners, like the baby girl who didn't know how to play the violin but used the violin, which is a typical example. The violinist represents the superior people who no longer have greed, anger, or ignorance; they bring to the world countless sweetnesses and fragrances of religion, any religion.

The story is not over yet...

On the third day, the old man from the countryside heard a wonderful sound at another street corner, far surpassing the violin of the violinist. What was that sound? Can you guess?

It was the sound of an orchestra. The music was sometimes gentle like a fresh waterfall in spring, sometimes like the sound of the wind rustling in the autumn forest, sometimes like the chirping of birds on the branches after a storm. Sometimes the music was beautiful and mysterious like the peace in a cave on a quiet winter night. The reason for such a wonderful sound was because the players were all famous musicians and because they knew what harmony was.

This story gives you a moral if each of you knows how to learn compassion through life, and if each of you develops compassion to accept, understand, and love everyone, then this life is very beautiful. Therefore, it is said:

- Harmony is to create the most stable and beautiful life!

2- Arrange time

A year has 365 days, each week has 7 days and each day has 24 hours, but there are people among you who feel that there is not enough time. Not enough time is because you do not have an arrangement, but if you know how to arrange, not only will there be enough but there will be more than enough time. The story is:

At a famous university in the United States, a teacher came up with a very unique teaching method. One day, he brought a jar and a bag of pebbles into his graduate class in social economics. The students were surprised to see him carefully put the pebbles into the jar one by one. When he could not put any pebbles more in, he asked:

- Is the jar full yet, students?

They all answered in unison:

- Yes, it is.

He laughed. Then he took out a bag of small pebbles from his bag and put the small pebbles into the gaps between the pebbles. Then he asked;

- Is the jar full now?

Knowing his trick, many students answered:

- Not yet.

They answered correctly because the teacher added sand while he shaking it, and the sand grains fell to the bottom of the jar, then he laughed and said:

- Is it full now?

- No, not necessarily!

That's right, the teacher slowly opened the water bottle and poured more water into the jar until the water reached the top of the jar. He turned to the students and asked:

- What did the experiment teach us?

A student quickly replied:

- No matter how busy we are, we can still add more work to our working day.

He continued:

- Not necessarily, if we want to put pebbles in the jar, we have to put them first. This is a lesson in priorities.

So what are considered pebbles in your jar? Are they the most important things in your life?

The most precious stone you put in the jar must be inner happiness. If you are not happy, you cannot make others happy. Knowing this, you should not neglect your happiness. A friend told me:

- When he was 14 years old, he took the Junior High School exam. Because he was studying for the exam, his parents and teachers advised him to stop playing soccer, the sport he loved to play every evening and on weekends. He needed to spend time on his studies first. Besides, the upcoming exam was very important. He took the advice and passed the exam. However, he was not happy because he had to study harder in the next two years to take the baccalaureate. Then again he was advised by his parents and teachers as before. Now instead of chasing after balls, he was told not to chase after girlfriends so that he would have time to study. And he would be satisfied when he passed the baccalaureate.

Once again he took the advice and succeeded. But he did not see any satisfaction, he only saw the four years of hard work ahead of him in college. As before, his mother and teachers advised him to study hard and stay away from parties and drinking to finish college. After finishing college, he began to doubt. He saw many of his friends who graduated working even harder. They tried to earn money to buy happiness, like a car. Having a car, they thought they would be happy if they had a beautiful wife. Having the wife they wanted, they still sought happiness, and they thought they had to buy a house to be happy. So they work hard to earn enough money to buy a house. Not yet, they have to have children and stay up late and wake up early to take care of them, their worries become more and more. Then they console themselves:

- Twenty years from now, when my children grow up, I will be free to enjoy happiness.

However, when the children are born, grow up and they fly around looking for their own happiness, while the parents are alone, working alone, waiting to enjoy happiness when they retire. Until they retire, or sometimes even before they retire, they start going to the temple. No wonder you see the temple is often crowded with elderly people. In front of the Buddha altar, they still pray to go to the Western Paradise to have eternal happiness.

3- Know enough

Whoever thinks that you will be happy, or have a leisurely life when they have this or that, is that person only living in a crazy dream. They only dream and never know what happiness is! The story goes like this:

There was an American businessman living in New York who was the president of a large import-export company. That year, he was getting old and his health was starting to decline. He wanted to go on vacation to a quiet place to relax. And, he chose a fishing village in Mexico, located right on the coast.

One fine morning. The sea breeze was cool. He was walking on the sand when the fishing boat just docked. The young fisherman saw a guest on the shore and quickly invited him:

- Would you like to buy some fresh fish? I just caught them?

Looking at the middle of the boat, there were only a few fish. The merchant saw that the fisherman looked friendly, so he stopped and asked in Mexican for fun:

- How long did it take you to catch all those fish?

 The fisherman

- Sir, today, I caught these five tunas in just a few hours.

The rich merchant asked again:

- Why don't you stay out at sea longer to catch more fish?

The fisherman said without thinking:

- I just need to catch enough fish to sell enough money for the market and for today's expenses.

The American asked again:

- But what will you do for the remaining half of the day?

The Mexican fisherman said:

- I wake up late, go fishing for a while, go home to play with my children and take a nap with Maria, my wife. Every afternoon I walk around the neighborhood, sip wine, and play guitar with friends. Sir, that's enough for me.

The American man looked at the fisherman with a bit of pity and said:

- From tomorrow onwards, try to spend more time fishing, then save money to buy a bigger boat. A bigger boat is more profitable. I can help you buy five or seven more boats, you will have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling to middlemen, you can take them straight to the food processing place to sell, and finally, you can open a canning factory, and then distribute them to consumers. You should also leave this small fishing village on the coast and go to Mexico City, then to Los Angeles, and finally to New York, where your career will develop more.

The fisherman asked again:

- But sir, how long will it take to have such a brilliant career?

The businessman replied:

- Only about 15 to 20 years!

The fisherman asked again:

- Sir, after 20 years of hard work like that, where will my life go?

The American businessman laughed happily and said to the Mexican:

- This is the best part. You wait for the right time to sell your company shares to the public and you will become very rich, you will have many millions.

The fisherman asked again:

- Sir, what will I do with all those millions?

The American said:

- Then you can retire. You can go back to live in a small fishing village, wake up late, catch some fish for fun, play with your children, take a nap with your wife, and in the afternoon go into the village, sip a glass of wine, and play guitar with your friends.

The Mexican fisherman patiently waited for the American merchant to finish speaking, then he quietly carried the five mackerels and hurried home to play with his children, in the afternoon, he had grilled mackerel to eat and drink with his friends.

Through this story, It teaches you two words: Knowing enough. In the two sutras: Forty-two Chapters and the Last Teaching, the Buddha talks about the virtue of knowing enough:

- Knowing enough is not desiring anything more.

In forty-two Chapters Sutra, the Buddha says:

- The richest person is the one who knows enough.

The Buddha also teaches:

- The person who does not know enough is rich but poor. The person who knows enough is poor but rich.

You often have really funny concepts about money. You often believe that having money will make you happier. But when you have money, you want more to make you happier! The strange thing is that everyone understands and knows that money cannot always buy happiness and leisure. But because your mind has been stuffed with the culture that is advertised everywhere:

- With money, you can buy anything.

So you believe that is true! However, being too poor is not a good thing. A life full of deprivation is a life of suffering. Having to run around every day to earn a living is torture, a torment. Sometimes, because you are too poor, you even sell your conscience in exchange for dirty money. Just because you want to have a happy day, some people have done that!

As you can see, there is nothing wrong with money itself! Just like there is nothing wrong with having a lot of assets, or working from morning to night. Everyone has to eat, live, and have the needs of life. The point here is that when you put money, fame, position, and material things above all else, you will forget the most important goal of your life, which is to be comfortable and at ease. Therefore, you must clean up the clutter and obstacles that block you from reaching your important goals in life such as:

- Health, family love, actively building a healthy and happy community...

Money, status, and fame can help you improve these important areas. But money is not as important as when you put your faith in what is the top priority in your life. How will you feel when you no longer have to worry about money?

Here I do not mean that anyone has too much money so they no longer have to worry about it. Most of you say:

- When I am rich, I will live differently from other rich people. I will know how to give alms, love people, and do more good deeds, unlike other rich people who are stingy with every penny. Right now, I just need to sacrifice and work hard for a few more years, and sooner or later I will succeed, making money like water!

If everyone waited until they were rich to give alms and do good deeds, this world would have collapsed! If everyone said they should wait until they retired to practice, this religion would not have existed for long. According to statistics from the US government in 2011, the richest people, in the top 20 percent, gave alms on average about 1.3 percent of their total income. Meanwhile, the poorest people, in the bottom 20 percent, gave alms 3.2 percent of their total income, almost double the amount the richest people gave.

Why do the rich give less than the poor? Many studies show that most rich people live in luxurious places, far away from the poor, so they do not have much empathy. On the contrary, poor people often live in environments close to those who suffer, so they are very sympathetic and often give alms and help. Another study shows that if rich people live in an area close to the poor, they give alms no less than the poor!

Is there anything wrong with getting rich? Of course, getting rich by illegal means is wrong. Most of you think that getting rich is wrong because you hear monks and nuns or in the scriptures teach that:

- Greed is the source of suffering. As long as you are still greedy, still attached to money and material things, you will still suffer.

That is why sometimes you are afraid of getting rich. Moreover, some people think that being too rich makes it difficult to practice because practicing requires a little asceticism. On the other hand, being too rich makes it easy to lament and give up after practicing a little asceticism!

In all the scriptures, the Buddha does not criticize wealth. On the contrary, you will find in some Buddhist scriptures that talk about wealth, and many properties due to charity. As in the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha taught that:

- … young men, some women or men give alms to monks or Brahmins, food and drink... bedding, houses, lamps. Because of that karma, that good deed, they have many properties.

The path to many small properties is to offer bedding, houses, lamps... Moreover, you also see many lay people, and Buddhists giving alms to pray for the blessing of being rich. If the Buddha said that was wrong, why did he encourage offerings, giving alms to be happy, and rich?

However, the Buddha's teachings on material wealth are not the same as the conventional economic concepts of today. According to Buddhism, you should not spend all your life seeking material wealth and comfort. Material wealth must be in harmony with spiritual and moral development. Because if material and spiritual are developed equally, lasting happiness will arise. As you see, some rich people do not know how to practice spirituality, cultivate virtue, and spend all day only worrying about making money and material comforts for life. They trample on all moral values. They cheat, embezzle, are dishonest, and use all means to get rich. But in reality, you sacrifice everything to accumulate money and material things like that, which does not bring you peace and true family happiness. As the Buddha once said:

- Knowing enough is true wealth, not having many assets.

Personal assets are not a measure of a person's wealth. Perhaps because you live in a materialistic society, those who have a lot of material things are considered rich. However, you should remember that:

- Every time your circumstances change, you will encounter new challenges and troubles.

For example, when you are poor, you have to worry and manage many things to have enough food and clothes. But when you are rich, your worries and management revolve around the problem of not being poor again, which means you have to get richer! And you have to worry about the safety of your assets and family. Likewise, when you do not have a job, you worry about running around submitting documents, filling out forms, and waiting for an interview call. But when you have a job, you have to deal with going to work on time, the amount of work at the office, whether the boss is easy-going, whether the co-workers are pleasant or not... etc. In general, every situation has its hardships. If you know how to accept and be content in any situation, peace and happiness will appear.

In short, if you want to have a leisurely life, although each of you has different wishes. The poor may define the happiness they desire differently than the middle class, which is to have little money. Thus, true happiness is not satisfying external material needs, but the satisfaction in your heart, you no longer feel deprived! Money can be the best means for you to recreate happiness, but if you want it to last, money is only temporary. Only when you know in your heart that you have enough of what you need and no longer desire more, then you are truly happy and leisurely.

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