DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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In daily life and society, there are countless things you have to face. Therefore, anyone wanting to live a peaceful life tends to escape worries. One of the ways to escape from concern is to return to nature, the grass and trees in the fields, or to go to the Temple or Monastery to find peace of mind. Further, to escape from worries, some people have the heart to take refuge in the Three Jewels:

- I take refuge in the Buddha,

- I take refuge in the Dharma,

- I take refuge in the Sangha.

To become a Buddhist, to decide to orient your life towards a more spiritual life. In reality, taking refuge in the Three Jewels, and practicing the Dharma, in addition to bringing peace of mind in the present life, is also a good cause for future lives. You will become Bodhisattvas, and eventually Buddhas because your ultimate goal is Buddhahood. At the same time, at the moment of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, you have the seed of Buddhahood, a subtle mind, which is empty. That nature is the basis of all spiritual transformation. This is what makes the eradication of wrong views possible.

To live a life of ease, and to attain Buddhahood, you first need a spiritual community, you need to take refuge in the Sangha. To be truly a member of the Sangha in whom you take refuge requires the presence of the true Dharma in the mind of that monk. And the Dharma here means true cessation, nirvana, and the path to the truth. You become a member of the Sangha when you truly realize the stillness of mind within yourself.

Of course, in the beginning, as an object of refuge, the spiritual community, or the Sangha, or those related to you still have to learn more, those who are still practicing, but when they reach the stage where they no longer have to learn, that is when they become fully Enlightened.

From an initial idea of ​​wanting to live a peaceful and serene life to the future life of Buddhahood, it must be said that it is a journey of many challenges, in which the Heart Sutra at the end has the mantra:

- Gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi, svaha

Meaning:

- Go beyond, go beyond, go beyond to reach, go beyond completely, Enlightenment!

This is a process, similar to your life, which is also the meaning of your physical life. You are first

1- a teenager,

2- then a young man,

3- then you reach middle age and

4- later you are old.

So, gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha has to do with the mind rather than the body. It is about transforming the ordinary mind that you have now. You always want happiness and you always want to overcome suffering. But the seeds of suffering are within you. And the root source of all these problems is here. So you have to recognize and eradicate this source. It is possible in this very lifetime to gain some experience of this if you experiment seriously. And this experience will give you real confidence, a real sense of certainty that liberation is possible. You can liberate your mind.

For this ordinary mind to progress gradually to higher states, you have to cultivate a union of tranquility and insight. Thus you will see that the heart of the path to liberation is the practice of the Threefold Three Trainings:

- Morality,

- Meditation and

- Wisdom.

The cultivation of calm belongs to the training in meditation, while the cultivation of insight belongs to the higher training in wisdom. However, when you explain these in terms of the Bodhisattva practice, you present the path in terms of the six paramitas. Here the cultivation of calm and insight belong to the last two paramitas.

To cultivate calmness of mind and insight is to bring out and strengthen the faculties that are naturally present in your mind. If you observe closely your mental states, you will find that there is a quality in your mind that enables you to concentrate on the chosen object and to sustain attention. This is concentration, the basis of samatha and vipassana. You also can perceive and distinguish the different characteristics of the chosen object. This aspect of your mind is the faculty of intelligence or wisdom, the basis of insight. To have calmness of mind, you must develop these natural faculties, and you must perfect them.

Cultivating calmness of mind means developing the natural faculty that enables you to sustain attention to the chosen object. You have to make a dedicated effort, you have to be patient and enthusiastic in strengthening that particular quality of your mind. As you make yourself proficient and habitual with it, your mind is enhanced. The quality of mind that allows you to concentrate, to sustain attention, is a dependent phenomenon. The more you cultivate the causes and conditions that give rise to it, the more effective and dynamic it becomes. In actual practice, you must constantly apply the power of mindfulness as well as alertness. Alertness is the awareness that monitors or watches for any distractions or deficiencies in your quality of attention. You must eliminate the obstacles that disturb your cultivation of a calm mind. Therefore, you must establish the right conditions for the practice.

The prerequisite for Calm Meditation is the cultivation of calmness, there are four practices related to a calm mind:

1- Maintaining proper diet,

2- How to sleep, rest,

3- Restrain the senses, and

4- Acting in the world with careful self-awareness.

In the practice of tranquillity of mind, your main aim is to develop and enhance single-pointed attention. To achieve this result, your physical posture is essential.

Five faults, and five antidotes to counteract these faults. The five faults are:

1. Laziness,

2. Forgetting the object,

3. Being restless and lethargic,

4. Failure to apply the antidotes when restlessness and lethargy arise, and

5. Over-exertion.

There are five antidotes to these five faults.

1- For the first fault, laziness, Master Asanga has specified four methods:

- Confidence,

- Admiration

- Effort, and

- Maintenance

Confidence here refers to confidence in the benefits of meditation, because meditation makes your mind calm, and your body healthy, so it fulfills your wishes. This benefit arises from any deep Buddhist practice of concentration. Within the limits of human capacity, Buddhists cultivate calm with the ultimate aim of applying it to their understanding of the nature of reality. Without calm, insight cannot arise. And without insight, there is no liberation. Thus, Buddhist practitioners recognize the special benefit of calm. Reflecting on these benefits of meditation will foster confidence, a sense of admiration, trust, and effort in what you are trying to accomplish. Based on this confidence, you will feel a sense of importance and aspiration for your accomplishment as expected. This is the motivation that makes you eager to apply yourself to the cure of the fault of laziness.

2- For the second fault, forgetting the object of meditation.

- The main antidote is the cultivation of mindfulness.

3- For the third fault, agitation and laziness,

- The antidote is to be alert to the source of mindfulness.

4- The fourth fault, is failure to apply the necessary antidote when agitation and laziness arise.

- The antidote is cultivating the intention to apply them.

5- The fifth fault is an inappropriate application of effort or striving.

- At advanced levels, when mental stability is established, striving becomes counterproductive to maintaining this stability.

          So when you cultivate a calm mind in your practice, you can choose an external or internal object for meditation. But even if you take an external object, what you are concentrating on is not the physical thing, but rather a mental image of that physical thing. That mental image becomes the object of concentration. Among the internal objects, you can study to meditate on your body such as:

- The arteries and veins or the practitioner's energy is flowing within these arteries and veins.

Or:

- A more subtle object, you can choose your mind.

You can practice meditation in which you concentrate on the mind, taking the mind as the object of meditation. However, do not establish the feeling that it is a mere thought, a mere mental state, because that means self-perception independently. To do this kind of meditation, the cultivation of stillness with the mind itself as the object, you must first identify the object. That is, you must have some awareness of what the mind itself is. Knowing your mind itself is a challenge because in everyday experience your mind is dominated either by external stimuli or internal sensations. Either your mind is directed completely outward and takes the form of whatever comes into your field of experience, or else you experience your mind in the form of internal sensations. Either way, the true nature of the mind itself is obstructed. Meanwhile, the subtle flavor of the mind, its characteristic clarity and knowingness, is difficult to grasp. So you need to find a way to make sure that your concentration is not swept away by remembering past experiences, or by projecting thoughts about the future, such as predictions, hopes, etc. Instead of going back to the past, or projecting a future, you have to stay in the present.

You get so used to looking back and forth that when you try to stay in the present, you experience a kind of emptiness. Of course, this is not emptiness in the philosophical sense. It is a simple emptiness, and at first, it may be just a passing experience. Then, as you become familiar with this practice, you can gradually expand the moment when you experience this emptiness. Recognizing your mind so that you can take it as an object of meditation is not an intellectual process; it is a really important experience to have. Eventually, you will be able to experience the mind in this form of emptiness.

To facilitate the practice of calm abiding, you can meditate on an image of the Buddha. By taking an image of the Buddha as the object of meditation. This is easier than meditating on the mind and it has a special meaning for your practice. If you choose an image of the Buddha as an object of meditation, it is beneficial. This can be effective in making your mind more alert. Then imagine that this image is very radiant, like light. This prevents your mind from sinking into some form of distraction. This will protect your mind from being scattered.

Having chosen a suitable object, you cultivate calm abiding meditation by applying and maintaining mindfulness, in a non-distracted manner to develop one-pointedness. Mindfulness keeps your attention, not slipping out of focus. However, you have to monitor whether your attention is really on the object of meditation, or whether you are distracted or affected by mental distractions. Mindfulness plays this monitoring role; it is like a source of awareness that monitors whether mental agitation or laxity arises. So mindfulness means keeping your attention on the chosen object of meditation; mindfulness monitors how well you are practicing.

The hindrances that require such mindful monitoring are mental agitation and laxity. Agitation and laxity belong to the group of:

- Attachment and craving;

These factors tend to arise due to your long-standing habit of seeking interesting things. A major effect of agitation is a distraction from the object of meditation. It is a sign that your mental state is overstimulated. An antidote is to meditate on impermanence or universal suffering. This will have the immediate effect of reducing or eliminating agitation.

To be lax means that your mind is not grasping the object of meditation deeply or clearly. Your mind is dull or slack rather than uplifting. An antidote to lift your mind might be to reflect on the benefits of cultivating the spirit of Enlightenment or the benefits of cultivating the wisdom of understanding emptiness. Or you might reflect on the preciousness of human life and the opportunity it affords you. These considerations can stimulate a sense of joy that will dispel laziness.

For many beginners, it is possible to calm the mind through breath control. Breath control is very helpful in maintaining a calm mind. As an object of meditation, it is not as subtle as the mind, yet it is more subtle than meditating on an external physical object. Directing your attention to the breath can be a very effective way to develop calmness. You simply place your attention on each inhalation or exhalation. Keep your focus on the breath

In daily life, breath meditation can be extremely beneficial. If you find your mind in a state of agitation, you can lower the level of agitation simply by directing your attention to the breath and concentrating. This has an immediate effect.

At the same time, remember that breath meditation is a respite, a temporary relief. It does not address the underlying problems that give rise to emotional disturbances in the first place. A deeper approach, which brings lasting benefits, is to meditate on dependent origination and cultivate the wisdom of emptiness. You can reflect deeply on the benefits of the spirit of enlightenment or bodhicitta. Naturally, these will be more effective and powerful practices.

Based on tranquility, you can cultivate insight. When you practice insight, the mind is brighter than anything else, but it is because of the defilements that you become dull. It loses the radiance of the mind. This is like the sun being obscured by clouds. You should not think that the sun runs after the clouds! You should understand that it is the clouds that pass by that obscure the sun.

Only when the meditator understands this fact, that is, what comes from outside through the six sense doors is only temporary defilements that obscure the mind. And when its radiant rays cannot be revealed, then you can identify them more deeply, and easily eliminate them. Only when you have transformed your mind to help it attain its pure state, will the defilements be cleansed. In other words, the defilements will no longer invade your pure mind. Because the bridges connecting them to your mind have been actively closed by the six doors of the senses. Even though the mind still comes into contact with worldly concerns, those contacts are no different than water droplets rolling on a lotus leaf.

In short, In life outside of society, there is always chaos and confusion. If you do not have a pure mind and do not want to escape from samsara, then there will be no way to suppress desire. It is the longing for pleasure in the temporary reality that the Buddha called samsara. Attachment to samsara will also bind you to possessing a body within the limits of samsara. Therefore, the first important thing is that you find a peaceful mind. Only when the mind is peaceful will you be awakened and know the way to escape samsara.

It is difficult to be born into a situation where you can practice Buddhism, and even if you are born into such a situation, always remember in your heart that one's life is very short, and you should not waste time in vain. Only then can you avoid immediate desires for this world. Always think over and over in your heart that any action and its consequences cannot be deceived, and all such consequences in samsara are suffering. If you can do this, you can get rid of immediate desires, and look forward to a better life in the next life.

It is by repeatedly remembering this in your heart that the desire for happiness in the world of samsara will not arise even for a moment. Day and night, if at all times in your heart, the desire for liberation is born, then that is when a calm mind is present. When your calm mind is present, it is not difficult for liberation from samsara to be born. 

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