DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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First of all, try to understand the meaning of the proverb:

- Good causes produce good results

This saying is intended to remind people to be honest and not to do dishonest things. Once you have the kindness to help people in times of trouble or difficulty, then when you encounter an unfortunate situation, people will help you in return. Even if that person doesn't help you, someone else will help you. It is true that when you show kindness, you do not expect people to reciprocate. Because the book of Confucianism has a sentence:

- Help people without needing to repay the favor.

If you help someone but still ask for something in return, that's doing a favor with a scheming intention. According to the law of cause and effect, if there is a cause, sooner or later there will be a result.

Living in life, if you are too selfish, you only think about everything for yourself, no matter who dies, even if you see people suffering endlessly, moaning and writhing before your eyes, you will not have the slightest bit of compassion. If so, you are truly cruel and without any humanity. You should know that life is impermanent, one day it changes tomorrow, it changes all the time, and at times you will not encounter hardship and suffering. Who knows, maybe in the future you will suffer more than others. Thinking like that, today, you should treat everyone kindly and gently, then tomorrow, when you are in trouble, no one will leave you.

Therefore, you should try to open your heart and do good to help people according to your abilities and circumstances. If that's the case, then there's nothing more precious than that. You make everyone happy, which means you're happy too. So the saying:

- Good causes produce good results.

Even though there are a few short words, it still awakens and reminds you a lot in life of mutual support and solidarity. If you create good deeds, you will surely reap good results.

Thus, being considered benevolent is when you know how to treat people kindly and compassionately, and are willing to help others wholeheartedly, without self-interest. The meaning of the phrase benevolence in this proverb can be understood as your attitude:

- Kind, nice, quick.

If you live with or treat people with love like a bowl full of water, as people often say:

- Sell distant brothers to buy near neighbors.

Then people will treat you the same way. If so, good things will come to you sooner or later. If grandparents and parents live kindly and mercifully, their children will also be blessed. Happiness here is not the material benefits brought by others, you just sit back and enjoy it, happiness is the good things for yourself, your family, and society. However, you should not simply understand that if you do someone a favor, that person will repay you fairly and pragmatically:

- Rice paper away, biscuits back.

The beauty of the traditional morality of the people is:

- Help people but don't expect them to return the favor.

Because of the attitude of doing favors but not expecting to be thanked in return, in real life, many people have sown good causes and received good results, and are passed down to this day as the first Director of the Hilton Hotel group. The story is:

That night was very late, an elderly foreign couple came to a hotel in a tourist area and asked to rent a room. The receptionist, a young man, politely replied:

- Sorry, our hotel is full, there is no room left.

But when he saw the tired and disappointed appearance of the two guests, the receptionist said:

- However, let me think about it...

Of course, he didn't want them to continue to have to knock on every hotel door that seemed to be full of people in town, and then end up having to sit somewhere on the side of the road all night. So, he led those two guests to a small but neat and clean room and said:

- This is not a good room, but right now I can only do so much.

The next day, when two guests came to pay, the receptionist refused:

- No need, because it's just my room, let you borrow it for the night. I wish you good luck on your journey.

It turned out that the receptionist did not sleep all night but sat working at the counter. Two guests were deeply touched. Once they were gone, the receptionist continued to busy himself with his work and forgot all about it.

Unexpectedly, one day, he received a plane ticket and an invitation to work in New York City. It turned out that the old couple was a billionaire. After returning to New York City, they decided to buy a luxury hotel for business and invited the kind receptionist to be the manager with the firm belief that he would do a very good job.

That is the legendary story of the first director of the world's leading Hilton hotel chain. It reminds you that:

- If you know how to love your fellow human beings, if people treat each other with sincerity, you can find a way to do anything...

However, in life, it is not always the case that if you sow good causes, you will receive good things, but sometimes the opposite is true. Many good people fall into poor and unlucky situations; while selfish and cruel people live full and luxurious lives.

In fact, things that go against the law of cause and effect exist at all times. That conflict comes from the fact that in society, bad people still exist. They join together to form dark forces that act strangely and harm good people. The law often does not punish them promptly or does not handle them sufficiently to protect the rights of the majority of good and gentle people. For good to overcome evil, you need to have many conditions and the first condition is to be determined to eliminate bad and evil. Encourage and promote beauty and goodness within each person, each family, and throughout society.

In the tendency to sow good causes and produce good results, you should not understand that being gentle only means patiently enduring, turning a blind eye to bad things and evil; or being gentle, and kind, not harming anyone, but having a deeper and broader understanding: Benevolent means towards good things; actively fight against evil; is the view of life:

- You are for everyone, everyone is for you; is solidarity to help each other.

The above proverb is part of a system of proverbs that educates people to live upward, toward goodness, do good, and avoid evil. If people are honest, society will be good. To achieve that, you must cultivate yourself and practice moral thinking on the basis of human kindness and responsibility. Therefore, you must have a correct and clear awareness of the good, the bad, and the morality in life to help you perfect your personality. Many good people will create the strength to repel bad things in the community and in society.

Buddhists, you should know that the Law of Cause and Effect is a universal truth. It forms and is latent in all things, no object escapes cause and effect. Because of understanding the theorem of cause and effect, since ancient times, our ancestors have skillfully applied it and expressed it in life in a sublimated and good direction from individuals to families and society. Due to the experience of following life's sufferings and joys, our ancestors left behind a precious treasure of immortal folk songs and proverbs in dealing with the world, governing the country, cultivating oneself, cultivating the family, and doing good in the direction of life good cause and effect.

With the above proverb, you see that ancient virtue has taught you to live accordingly:

- Morality, humanity, loyalty.

You have to warn yourself, don't do wrong things, and suffer bad consequences. And more than that, there must be a high sense of responsibility in dealing with people. Understanding this, you should create good causes for yourself so that you will enjoy good retributions. That's what you need to pay attention to.

Some people, because of love for their children and grandchildren, kill living things and animals, so that their children and grandchildren can enjoy delicious food, but no one can replace you with that retribution. So, it's best to listen to Buddha's teachings take care of yourself do good karma, so that your life has a peaceful and liberating direction. That is knowing how to love yourself until you give up close your eyes and walk away, no one will follow you. Suffering or happiness is brought on by you. You go to hell to suffer, no child or grandchild will come to replace your suffering. Understanding that each of you should take care of yourself first. That way you should create many good things. Try to be vegetarian and recite Buddha's name to keep the precepts and practice. That is how you wisely invest in happiness and blessings for yourself in this life as well as in the future.

In the tendency to sow good causes to get good results, depending on each person following each religion, your mental preparation is different. This also depends on your outlook on life and whether each person's karma is heavy or light, leading to a different spiritual life. For those who practice Buddhism, depending on each person's level of practice and awareness, there are different preparations. In general, if any Buddhist, when still healthy, knows a little about practicing:

- Fasting, reciting Buddha's name, giving alms, reciting sutras, worshiping, and believing in the Three Jewels, for these people, they have prepared and arranged the day of their departure very thoughtfully.

So you have chosen a solid, guaranteed direction. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about death. As for those who practice high and profound Dharma, death is meaningless to them. Because birth and death are just an illusion, like flowers and spots in space, there is nothing to worry about or fear. They see death as a joke, an illusion. Those are true practitioners who have realized the truth.

As for gossip, if you know how to practice, you will never pay attention to it. Whoever says right or wrong will just ignore it, no need to bother thinking about it. Because thinking about it will only bring more sadness.

In short, the proverb:

- Good causes produce good results.

Is to encourage you to live according to kindness. That is a positive way of dealing with things, even though sometimes the negative is temporarily overwhelming, and honest people are at a loss.

In life, you often talk about cause and effect, meaning cause and effect is that you sow the wind and reap the storm. If you are kind, you will find good things. How you treat people around you will bring about a corresponding result like this:

- If you are kind and always ready to help others, your life will be well compensated, and good things will come to you.

It is understandable and very legitimate that when you act kindly with relatives, aunts, and friends... people will sympathize with you and will be willing to help you when needed.

Please pray for all those who know how to sow good causes to receive good things, and at the same time, look ahead to the possibilities of complicated developments to avoid disappointment and pessimism. Each of you not only needs to sow good causes but also must persevere in spreading them so that everyone knows how to sow good causes so that they can have good results in the future.

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