DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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Nothing in life happens to you by accident. Many of you wonder why some people are born healthy, while others are disabled. Some are beautiful and handsome, some are ugly. Some people were born into a rich family, some people were born into a difficult and poor family. Growing up, there are people with talent but why are they struggling in life, there are ordinary people, but why do they have respectable assets… Is it random or is it luck?

For those of you who do not know the Buddhadharma, it is a difficult problem. But for those of you who understand the law of cause and effect, karma of Buddhism, there is nothing that happens in the world, in life called random or lucky. But everything you are, or you are facing, is created by you. So the Buddha said:

- What you said, what you did, who you met, all the time, and now are things that you will experience again in the near future or in the distant future.

A near future means happening right after you create in this life. A distant future means that what you create good or bad has not happened in this life, but it will happen in the next life. That being said, it means that whatever good or bad you are experiencing or facing in the present is the result you have created in your previous life. Therefore, if you want to have good results in the future, in the present you should live honestly, no matter what difficult situation you face, you will find the true secret of life. If you live a life of generosity, tolerance, and kindness to people, you will have blessings for thousands of lives.

In life, people who live with ambition have a dream that is a beautiful lifestyle, no one denies that. But passion alone is not enough, life needs more than that. Each profession has its own characteristics, some jobs need a lot of money, some jobs need health, and some jobs require good looks, but there are also jobs that don't need a lot of capital and still be successful.

In fact, many of you have to give up your passion, because circumstances and economic conditions do not allow you to do it. But that does not mean that in difficult circumstances, you do not have the right to dream, to surrender to fate. The detour is not the shortest route, but sometimes the fastest. Many people accept to do other jobs, temporarily while they have not fulfilled their dreams, to maintain their lives. When conditions and circumstances allow them to fulfill their dreams. And in fact, they succeeded.

So, what you need to do in this present moment is to determine your dream goals right now, and then choose for you the necessary equipment to be able to successfully conquer the path that you want to achieve. selected. According to the Venerable One guide, the equipment you need to achieve the goal you need is that you must have three types of mind:

- Direct simplicity

- Deep mind

- Bodhi Mind

With the three types of consciousness, live and perfect these three types of consciousness. Usually for those of you who haven't studied, these are just three types of mind. But for those of you who have studied Buddhism or are knowledgeable about the Buddhadharma, consider these three types of mind as the three noble types of mind, also known as the three types of Pure Land:

- Straight Heart Pure Land

- Deep Heart Pure Land

- Bodhi Mind Pure Land

Talking about the Pure Land, as you have heard or mentioned the pure lands of the Buddhas such as:

- Western Pure Land

- Oriental Pure Land

- Tusita Pure Land...

However, before you can speak and practice, or want to be born in the Pure Land of the Buddhas, you must have and know how to develop three types of mind: Direct Mind, Deep Mind, and Bodhicitta. When you have practiced these three minds well, it means that you have done:

- Straight Heart Pure Land

- Deep Heart Pure Land

- Bodhi Mind Pure Land

Because you are human in the human world, and you are the one who implements and creates the pure land, then this is the kind of pure land of Bodhisattvas in the human world. One must have the Bodhisattva's Pure Land in the human world to create the Buddha's Pure Land. The Buddha, out of love for sentient beings, gave some samples of Bodhisattvas' Pure Lands other than the Buddha's Pure Land. The Buddha world is completely safe, the world of Bodhisattvas is the world to teach living beings, so how sentient beings are, Bodhisattvas must also follow it to build the Pure Land, to teach sentient beings.

1- Straight-heart pure land

Initially, the Buddha taught the Bodhisattva to build a peaceful world by directing his mind. If you cultivate your mind righteously, without being crooked, and train your mind to the point of being completely upright and right, then the Bodhisattva's Pure Land will appear. With an upright mind, you know how to live honestly with your heart and with those around you. The reason that the Saha realm is suffering, is because the hearts of sentient beings are not upright, often deceiving each other until spiritual bankruptcy, and no one can trust each other. So if you want to build others, you have to build yourself first. Live in accordance with the truth without lying, then the peace of mind will appear by itself. The pre-existing spiritual context means that your heart is always at peace, showing work, and life is completely honest, surely you have nothing to worry about. On the contrary, lies, the more carefully concealed, the more intensely it comes to life in the mind. Making you unable to be pure and of course, the peaceful world is also out of your hands. Therefore, if you are dignified with an honest mind, without lying, you should listen to the criticisms of others and correct yourself. In other words, you should consider others as a mirror for you to look at. As you take others as your mirror and diligently improve your thoughts and actions, the clearer your enlightened nature becomes.

 

This righteous mind will guide your righteous and honest work, from which you will create a trust for those around you, then others will come to you with sincerity. Living around with honest friends, trouble can't happen. So you need to remember that just like your mind, it will be formed by you. Evil people cannot live with good people, naturally, there are strange conflicts that push them apart. Be honest with yourself first and the people around you will be honest with you. From there, a world of peace and love will open up for you and everyone. It is in those moments that a small piece of Pure Land in the heart of the vast Saha world appears for you to practice in peace. The upright Tu Tam sees you and others as they really are. Dare to live according to the truth is the foundation of Buddhist practice. On the other hand, those who live a life of lies will forever remain sentient beings, and of course, cannot step foot into the Pure Land of Right Mind.

2- Deep Heart Pure Land

When your deep mind is at peace in the honest world, you look outside and see people suffering from hunger and cold, start thinking of helping, begin to open the world of peace to others, and spread the love for everyone. That is, from the Pure Land of the Direct Mind to the Pure Land of the Deep Mind, the Buddha taught that the profound mind is the Pure Land of Bodhisattvas, especially the Bodhisattvas of the Human World. A deep heart or great compassion is the world of love formed after the world of honesty. This profound mind is the essence of the Buddha when he appeared in this life.

The Buddha extended his love to everyone, so he received the infinite affection of mankind towards him and considered him a good father forever. Following in the footsteps of the Buddha, you practice so that the flower of love first blooms in your mind's garden, and forms a restless determination to save all sentient beings. This love is expressed in specific actions and deeds such as:

- Raise other people's lives on par with yours,

- Transfer knowledge to others who understand like you, and

- Bring others happiness and peace like you.

Your genuine love for others affects people and is reciprocated with deep sympathy, thereby creating a loving and peaceful world that is the Pure Land of the Bodhisattvas of the Human World. Human World Bodhisattva wants to achieve perfect cultivation and must have your Pure Land. Staying in the Pure Land to do the work of teaching new beings will not fall into suffering. With that, even in a life full of pain and sorrow, the Bodhisattvas still have their own Pure Land to live in. Living with compassion, with love, you will surely create a peaceful and harmonious world.

Mr. Billionaire Anathapindika or layman Vimalakirti in the Vimalakirtinirdesa-Sutra represents persons with high compassion. He compassionately nurtured all the poor orphans in Vaishali City, so people with great compassion like him brought their wealth together and cooperated with him in charity work. And those he helped build wholeheartedly worked in return for the love that had filled them.

3- Pure land bodhicitta

Once you have created the world of love, you must have the Third Pure Land, the Bodhi Mind Pure Land. Bodhicitta is wisdom, the ability to discern clearly to act rightly to benefit oneself and others, so Bodhicitta is very important. Because where there is bodhicitta, there is love and honesty. Once the love that comes from bodhicitta is the true kind of love, without bodhicitta to guide you, you will fall into the false or limited kind of love. Because love is lust for love, then suffering, should not be loved.

Cultivators who start with compassion and help others with their wisdom will only flower on the steps of your practice and will not stumble. You must have an accurate view, depending on the nature of the practice of karma that leads living beings to step together on the path of Supreme Enlightenment. When you practice accomplishment at this stage, people will come to you with confidence and give you both wealth and life. So if you don't achieve, don't have insight, of course, don't know how to use it, don't know how to guide it, it's really painful. Therefore, the larger the career, the more discerning the leader is required. If you live alone, you can do whatever you want, but as a leader of the masses, how do you make people develop peace and happiness? So the question of asking for knowledge becomes important. No matter how loving and upright you are, not being wise enough will fail, causing you and others to suffer. That's why ordinary people say:

- Remember the old story, to know the new story.

Therefore, you should also look back at the time of the Buddha, in the city of Vaishali, the reason why it grew rich and strong was because people skillfully combined knowledgeable people, and mobilized other classes to build the Bodhi mind, practice the Bodhisattva Way. And those with high aspirations will come to the Bodhisattva of the Human World to seek wisdom development. As bodhicitta grows or wisdom develops, you will come to know the elements that makeup man and the human world. From there you can apply these formulas to sublimate life for life and society. From these important factors, you can say:

- Where there is Bodhicitta or wisdom, that place that develops a high life is the Pure Land model of the Bodhisattva of the Human World, or that is the Pure Land of the Human World.

So if you want to build a Pure Land like Shakyamuni Buddha, then you have to build the three basic Pure Lands of Bodhisattvas in the human world. That is to build people in society to have an honest heart, to have love, to have understanding, and to live together with understanding. Having love and honesty will easily harmonize and be happy. Therefore, the Buddha said, who has all three minds:

- Righteous mind

- Deep mind.

- Bodhi Mind

Will create the human world pure land of Human World Bodhisattva. Because he himself used these three minds to form a Three Jewels in the world right from the time of his first sermon at Deer Park.

Indeed, bodhicitta is the lucid mind or wisdom that the Buddha embodies. With a clear mind, the Buddha clearly saw the mood and needs of each person, so he could satisfy and solve all difficulties. And mobilized everything to be accomplished well and formed the Pure Land right in Deer Park. However, Sravaka's disciples who followed the Buddha did not see the peaceful world that was covering them but only saw them living together and begging for alms with the Buddha.

Dignified with a clear mind, the Buddha opened the world of love to everyone. Transmit Bodhicitta to them or in other words help people realize the truth as it is for the benefit of life. And the followers of the Buddha who abide in the Dharma live righteously and peacefully with each other. Thus, the model of the Three Jewels establishing a religion in Deer Park is the peaceful world, or the first Pure Land of the Human World that the Buddha built.

Accomplishing these three minds, the Buddha taught you to continue to develop the Pure Land of the Human World by combining the three minds with the six paramitas. Because if you do not base yourself on the three minds and practice the six paramitas, you will certainly not achieve the bodhisattva's dharma. Therefore, the three minds and the six paramitas cannot be separated. However, the application of the three minds and six paramitas is not a simple matter. As you know, the three minds and six paramitas are very easy to separate, but it is very difficult to combine the three minds and six paramitas to apply them in different places. Because it requires you to know how to synthesize to come to your own creation to practice the Bodhisattva path.

For example, giving alone is not good, because however giving on the basis of great compassion but lacking bodhicitta or perception, it is easy for people to take advantage of your kindness. So you have to combine generosity with the three minds. Because you give alms on the basis of love, it doesn't matter how big or small the gift is, but how wide or narrow your heart is. If you have really great compassion, salt will also become sweet. Therefore, the use of alms money must also be combined with the Bodhi Mind or the guiding wisdom. Otherwise, if you give generously, even if you have a storehouse, you will not be able to give enough. That means you have to see the right object and the right request to give and help. Practicing according to the Buddha's teachings the body, the mouth, the words, and the actions are based on the direction of wisdom.

Indeed, the Buddha used his wisdom to shine on life exactly, to see clearly how to ask and respond to the goal of developing people, not helping them to become harmful people. Therefore, the heart joins with the Bodhi Mind to see if it is worth giving, and what the recipients let them do, that is the important issue. For example, if you give someone a bowl of rice, in mindfulness they are full, but after a second thought, what happens when they are hungry? In other words, the bodhisattva uses bodhicitta, delving into the karma of the person being given alms to solve the problem of karma. So if you give alms without solving the karma of sentient beings, if you keep giving food, you are doing something useless.

You do not use the four minds to erase other people's karma, but giving is to make people's greed and karma increase, making people happier and more greedy. So the more you help people, the more greedy they become, to the point that you cannot protect them, then they will turn against you. Thus, you have created conditions for them to oppose you, but mistakenly think that you are leading them, unlike you in the world to destroy sentient beings, not to help sentient beings, but to lead each other to hell.

The Buddha used wisdom to give alms, so the followers of the Buddha heard the Dharma erasing their karma, their lives were happy, and they developed themselves even though the Buddha did not give it, but it was really giving a lot of treasures. For example, an old lady beggar cuts her hair and sells it for money to buy oil for the Buddha. Thanks to that blessing, she escaped the life of a beggar and became a queen because it was true to the Dharma offering. In fact, the beggar woman made offerings to the Buddha, but the Buddhas in the ten directions saw that Shakyamuni Buddha himself gave alms to the beggar, so that she could change her life like that.

In short, the Pure Land of the Human World is a kind of pure land built and practiced by Bodhisattvas in the human world. Human World Bodhisattva is you, a Buddhist who knows the teachings and practices the teachings of liberation. In this practice, always use bodhicitta, and it is not enough to practice generosity in the heart, it is necessary to use the direct mind, which is the heart of absolute integrity and equality. If you don't have the Direct Mind or the Tathagata Mind, and your mind is equal, then even if you practice for the rest of your life, you won't become a Buddha.

So, when you know how to combine the three minds in giving, mutually acting on each other, and others receive your generosity, they also develop the three minds themselves. In other words, to put your mind into the mind of others, to influence others to develop as your own mind, is to practice the bodhisattva's generosity. Thus, there was a time when Mr. Billionaire Anathapindika was able to show generosity in the form of three minds, and the poor people he raised and helped also developed the three minds, and became talented people to replace him as a manager of career management in the past. So today, in this world, as a Buddhist practicing the path of liberation, you can do the same. And everyone can do the same, then you have given everyone in this world the content of the Pure Land of the Human World.

Thus living with three minds is that you are creating and living in the pure land of the human world.

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