Chua Duoc Su

The purpose of Buddhism is not to teach you to follow the beliefs of Buddhism, but to help you become enlightened, to show you how to find peace and happiness, as well as to have the right perception without relying on blind faith. Also, here I encourage you to practice the right way if you can find the right, noble way without diminishing your own human dignity.

According to the source of the Buddhist teachings of liberation, maybe the answer to your human, psychological, and religious problems. Or it can suggest a clear direction for your thinking on religious and philosophical issues. Buddhism can also help you understand how to live and can find in this religion spiritual guidance for the needs of the modern world.

It can be said that the human source of Buddhism's teachings has given the human world a spiritual life, a new hope, a new direction, and its necessity for you to find and feel the value today as well as in the future. Indeed, this source of teachings responds to your noblest and deepest aspirations and can relieve the stresses of daily life and dealings with others. In addition, Buddhism suggests a meaningful life:

- When you are gentle, you will meet well

If you sow the wind, you must reap the storm.

These are not dogmas that lull people to sleep, but universal laws. Human society completely agrees with this rule, so that you must reap what you sow:

- The evil karma you cause is due to your greed, hatred, and delusion. This shortcoming can only be overcome by your own realization. Or:

- The blessings you are enjoying are created by good causes.

The happiness and suffering that you are enjoying in this world are not caused by outside influences but by your own actions, good or bad, good or bad. For this reason, Buddhism says:

- The present is the result of the past, and the future is the result of the present.

According to this teaching, cause, and effect play an important role in your life. In the circle of cause and effect, the first cause is invisible, for that cause has become the effect, and this effect in turn becomes the cause. Therefore, those of you who know how to orient your life to achieve the appropriate desire is a very important factors to help you advance not only in life but also at the peak of enlightenment and liberation.

Here are the four true elements that will help you move toward the pinnacle of life.

- The first is to have a legitimate wish.

- The second is diligence, long-term perseverance, and focus, single-mindedly on work.

- The third is to understand the principle of dependent origination of life.

- The fourth is to apply all factors, and all conditions to succeed

Diligence, enthusiasm, effort, persistence, everything will be good over time whether it is difficult or easy, before or after, sooner or later. On the contrary, laziness, dependence, lack of determination and will, lethargy, and excessive enjoyment are the causes leading to all failures in life. Positive, enthusiastic, contemplative, thoughtful, and industrious are the closest chances to success in all fields. When you have the right orientation and aspiration, then determination, perseverance, and effort, everything will be accomplished no matter how difficult it is.

In your life, when you are relentlessly diligent and have righteous aspirations, you will surely get what you want sooner or later. On the contrary, it will be a double-edged sword. If you are diligent and enthusiastic without knowing the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, you must watch out for falling into the pit of sin. Diligence in all good works to help you and the person perfect your personality, always living with an open heart for everyone, is worthy of praise. Eagerly engaged in evil deeds that harm people and animals is a lack of conscience that causes suffering to mankind, it is a reprehensible job.

Life orientation refers to your legitimate aspirations, and you have the right to dream to orient your life with a commitment to serving for the benefit of humanity, such as:

- People with disabilities are determined to grow up to become doctors to treat people with disabilities.

- A poor student determined to study well in order to grow up to become a teacher to guide other children.

- A young monk entered the temple when he was young, determined to learn and cultivate to attain the Way to help people live with love with a heart of understanding.

- A Buddhist is determined to practice becoming a Monk or Nun someday to transform sentient beings.

Those are legitimate aspirations; but without the right element of diligence, things will never be accomplished. At the same time, you must know how to plant good deeds and deeply believe in cause and effect, only then will you achieve your true aspiration to be a fragrance for life.

After orienting your life, and determining a firm stance, then you are determined to persevere in the direction you have outlined, knowing how to obey the predestined conditions, firmly grasp the predestined conditions, and create them:

- As a Buddhist monk, when he sets out to leave home, ie has determined the ideal, his stance is to be enlightened and liberated, to guide people later.

When you have determined a firm stance, the time of fast or slow achievement is no longer important, but you are only determined until the consummation.

Or:

- A Buddhist practicing the Way, when determined to study, not because of the long distance that does not come to the ashram, not because of the words that come in and out that you give up the religion, not because of obstacles that make you depressed...

From beginningless eons to the present, you have misunderstood and seen that you are wrong, leading to wrong actions that make you and others suffer. Now you make a great vow to persevere in your practice until you reach enlightenment and complete liberation. But because of the habit of bad habits, making you confused, arguing, deceiving, harming people, causing resentment, hatred, and so on, lasting from life to life without stopping.

That's why Prince Siddhartha had to accept to give up the palace of gold and jewels, a beautiful wife and good children, and the people of the world to go out to seek the truth. After six years of studying with many gurus, but unable to help the goal of enlightenment and liberation, the Crown Prince had to practice alone in an ascetic way, and in the end, he could not achieve the required goal but almost left his body in the deep forest. Bodhisatta Siddhartha still maintained his steadfast stance, he went to the Bodhi tree to make a vow:

- Even though my flesh and bones are broken, I still won't leave this place until I have attained enlightenment and liberation.

Thanks to his firm stance and iron will, the Bodhisatta finally discovered the truth right here in this form of the body without having to search far. Finally, he found the truth, no longer bound by the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. This shows you, if Prince Siddhartha does not have a life direction, no firm stance, it is certainly impossible to cross the sea of suffering and confusion. Thanks to that, today you know the morality of being a human being to live usefully for your family and society.

Further, if you want to be fully enlightened and liberated, then the Buddha shows you the method of ending life and death, through his enlightenment, the Buddha declared that:

- The highest morality can be achieved by cultivating great compassion.

- The ultimate happiness is the happiness that comes from the concentration of the soul.

- The ultimate truth is the truth demanded through understanding the causes of human suffering.

- The noblest religion is the religion that teaches only intellectual development, morality, and purity of mind.

- The greatest philosophy is one that presents a practical, possible way of life that is not based solely on dogma and belief.

In this spirit, Buddhism does not forbid any of you to read and study the teachings of another religion but does not allow you to be fanatical. Because when you are fanatical, you cannot allow yourself to be guided intellectually or even by the principle of scientific observation and analysis. Therefore, you who practice Buddhism should be a free person with an open mind and not depend on anyone for your spiritual development and always identify:

- Without worldly pleasures, your life still exists.

- Without relying on help from outside forces, you can still aim for the righteous.

- Without faith and loyalty, you cannot practice.

This is not a theory or a religion just to be believed but a holy and practical way of living. Buddhism also advises everyone not to become a slave to any foreign power, but to cultivate the potential that is hidden within yourself and use your own effort and wisdom to solve problems on your own topic.

Buddhism is a true religion that has qualities that are always relevant in the present and future world, which are:

- Intellectual, progressive, and reasonable.

It is a boon for anyone of you to study and experience the value of Buddhism in the modern world. Buddhism is recognized as science or more than science, more advanced than all advances in the spiritual field. It is one of the most effective means used for the maintenance of world peace, harmony, and understanding. Thereby, you see, for the first time in the history of the world emerged a revolution against the class system and brought equality to people. It was this same religion that first liberated women by encouraging them to practice the religion that gave them social equality. The guru Buddha declared that the doors to success and prosperity are open to all in all life situations through:

- High or low, holy or mortal,

Anyone who cares seeks and aspires to perfection. He did not force his disciples to enslave him or his teachings but gave them complete freedom of thought so that they could gain confidence. Not only that but the master also:

- Comforted the bereaved families of the deceased, and helped the neglected poor on the margins of society,

- To exalt the deceived lives,

- Clearing up those who have gone astray and sinful.

- He also encourages the weak,

- Unite the divided,

- Enlighten the ignorant,

- Unravel the mystics,

- Elevate the lowly, and glorify the noble.

That is why rich and poor, saints and sinners alike love Him. Brave or cruel kings, famous or unknown princes, generous or miserly bourgeois, haughty or humble scholars, the poor and needy, the oppressed, the working man lowly work, cruel murderers, prostitutes are despised... When listening to the wisdom and compassionate teachings of the Buddha, they all benefit and live peaceful and holy life.

His noble example is an inspiration to all. His full and radiant countenance really creates soothing sensations in the eyes of those who are sad. His message of peace and generosity is welcomed with joy and is of endless benefit to all who have the opportunity to hear and practice it. His iron will, profound wisdom, boundless compassion, selflessness, historical renunciation, complete purity, great personality, and exemplary methods of He are used to declare his teachings. All these factors inspire about one-fifth of the world's population today to welcome and worship him as a supreme teacher.

This noble teacher has sacrificed worldly pleasures, for the sake of mankind's end of suffering, the benefit of peace, and the search for the truth to show you the way to liberation from suffering. He visits the poor while kings visit him. 49 years after attaining enlightenment, he devoted his life to the enlightenment of lost sentient beings.

This master does not frighten anyone, nor is he feared by anyone. He is a perfect scientist in the field of life. He is a perfect psychologist who can analyze the true nature of the mind. His teachings are hailed as the only scientific religion. To great philosophers and unbiased thinkers, he was a master who understood conditioned things in their proper context. For the moralists, he has the highest code of discipline and the most perfect symbol. He was a perfect example of all the virtues he preached. To rationalists, he was the most generous-minded guru, properly aware of the controversial issues of man. For free thinkers, he is a teacher who always encourages people to think freely without relying on religious dogmas. To agnostics, he was a man of wisdom, understanding, and compassion.

His life is one of the bright examples for you to follow, and orient your life meaningfully. Without a doubt, he is one of the most convincing teachers. He never used coercion or intimidation as a means to the goal of education. He introduced a conscious way of life for you to be at peace without regard to religious labels.

In short, living in the world is less fun, but more painful, if you don't have a clear direction, don't know wisdom, don't know right and wrong, good and bad, and always orient your life in the right direction. If you are good or not good and firmly or not firmly standing your ground, what will really happen in your daily life? That is a real concern, given that in life everyone is busy looking for happiness, finding the truth, and living in a right, good, transparent way. But if you are without direction, without a bright mirror to guide the way, there will never be good results. Therefore, life orientation is important. The Buddha is a shining example, his teachings are unerring direction. Do not wait, but start practicing, all questions will be answered immediately.