DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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Being happy to see people doing good deeds, according to Buddhism, is called rejoicing. You are happy with people who do good deeds and receive blessings called:

- Good fortune rejoice.

It means that you consider the joy of sentient beings as your joy, the suffering of sentient beings as your suffering.

The opposite of the bodhisattva's mind is the mind of sentient beings. The minds of sentient beings are often greedy, jealous, and envious, so it can easily lead to many unjust family members, so people slaughter and kill each other. Therefore, if there is rejoicing, you should only rejoice with good deeds, beneficial in the present and in the future. You should not be happy with evil deeds, having the character of harming people and animals. When you see them kill a creature, you do not have the courage to dissuade them, you should not agree. Buddha taught:

- Those who intentionally kill or incite others to kill are equally guilty.

It is also a sin to be happy to see other people kill because the heart of joy is a deliberate mind, the crime will become when you have a deliberate mind. Therefore, the mind that rejoices with the good deeds of others helps you to transform the habit of jealousy and envy. Your mind is no longer jealous, and vindictive, and has no killing mind.

Therefore, being happy with other people's good deeds, helps you to open your heart to love, so that your mind is peaceful and happy, without giving rise to evil thoughts, thus not committing crimes.

The question is raised, how is it called rejoice?

When you can't do it or are not yet able to do it but are often happy because of other people's good deeds, it's called rejoicing. You have a happy heart, always be happy, because envy, jealousy, win or lose will no longer have the opportunity to develop! You will live peacefully without enmity among hostile people; Among hostile people, you live without enmity. To be happy for the good deeds, and the success of others is to sincerely share with others the happiness and consolation, as you have done yourself. Buddha taught:

- People who have a heart of rejoicing with the good deeds of others not only always be happy, but also receive blessings from good hearts as the other person did!

So in daily life, the venerable ones also encourage you to choose a joy every day so that you don't feel lonely, and life has more meaning. That is, you have to actively find for yourself at least one joy for a day alive, if anyone cares to find it, there will be. That is not difficult. Joy does not have a small or large size, and does not depend on any material condition at all! A day in which you have no joy at all will probably be empty and sad in all the activities of life,

Rejoicing is essential to cultivating loving-kindness, connecting love, and dispelling the evil mind that causes bad karma without requiring any expense! So every day you should cultivate the mind of rejoicing, to bring true joy to you and to everyone.

All monastics as well as lay people, once they develop the mind to practice, they want to reduce suffering and be happy, reach the path of no-self, and enter the true Buddha nature. Going a little further, after you give up this world, if you are not liberated, you will be reborn in a good land, return to this world, be a better person, meet a master, and meet the true Dharma.

However, rejoicing is also divided into two types: Rejoicing with evil deeds and rejoicing with good deeds. Rejoicing in good deeds results in blessings, rejoicing in evil deeds results in rejoicing in evil karma. Indeed, people who do evil things that you are happy with, have received evil minds, later you will do evil like them, and you will certainly receive suffering retribution. So Universal Worthy Bodhisattva clearly said, if you have to be happy, you should be happy with the Sravakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and tathagatas so that on the path of cultivation for eternity, you will all have companions practices are Tathagatas, Bodhisattvas, and sages.

There are many simple ways of rejoicing to bring joy to you, to others… For example, rejoicing with the good and good deeds of others, so that you can have joy. Such as giving people joy so that you have fun. Or, keep your mind at peace before the life of fame and madness, to enjoy life...

Everyone who practices Buddhism knows that giving or charity is a good practice that brings many benefits to themselves, their families, and society. However, not everyone can perform this good dharma if they think that only money and possessions can give alms. Some people are very poor, and they are unable to meet the basic needs of life such as food, clothing, shelter, and medicine, sometimes still in debt, so how can they have a chance to give alms? share or help others.

The Buddha pointed out that, even if there is no money to give, to help others with material things, those who want to practice the dharma of giving can still give other things, that is, giving dharma and fearless giving:

- Dharma giving is to give others knowledge, life experience, and profession; share, and guide others to understand and practice the Dharma to get peace of mind, happiness, achievement of moral values, spiritual values, a righteous life, and upward direction.

- Giving without fear, helping others overcome insecurities, worries, and sorrows, such as comforting, caring, sharing, protecting, and helping in many forms. It is possible through your strength, your knowledge, your compassion, and your wisdom.

However, there are still people in very pitiful circumstances, not only they are poor in material things but also poor in knowledge, poor in intelligence, poor in courage, it is also difficult for them to practice dharma and fearlessly give alms. With boundless compassion, the Buddha taught those in that situation to still have the blessings of generosity, through which when King Bimbisara offered a bamboo garden, the Buddha taught him a verse as follows: :

- Those who often give alms, can stop being greedy

Those who are patient, are free from anger

Those who often do good, are far away from stupidity

Those who have enough of these three virtues, quickly attain Nirvana

If there is a poor person, there is nothing to give

When they see people giving alms, they are filled with joy

That happy reward is equal to the one who gives alms.

Giving and doing good deeds must come from the mind, the things that give alms are just a means to help cultivate and repair the mind. Therefore, it is necessary to have the mind of giving before performing alms-giving activities. If you give without sincerely giving, there is no merit. The purpose of giving is to let go of greed, narrow-mindedness, and selfishness in order to have a spirit of selflessness and altruism while cultivating and developing compassion. But if you give alms, and do charitable activities for your own benefit, because you want to flaunt your prestige, promote your name, and build your reputation, you will not accomplish the dharma of giving, or accomplish very little, even if you have done so. spend a lot of money and a lot of effort.

Because Buddhism focuses on the mind, those who are too poor still have the opportunity to give alms, that is to open their hearts, that is to have a compassionate mind, a generous mind, wanting to share and help others even though you don't have the conditions. Buddha taught:

- When you see other people giving alms, making offerings, doing good deeds, even though you do not have the conditions to do such things, you still have merit and blessings if your mind rejoices, that is, rejoices with the giver. If you are happy in giving alms, seeing people in need being helped will make your heart happy. Seeing others doing good, your heart will be happy. What is even more special is that the blessings of those who have a heart of rejoicing in others' giving are equal to those who do alms.

It should be noted that you must really have a happy heart, happy when you see others doing alms and when you see people in need being helped. When you truly rejoice in the generosity of others, you will develop benevolence, and compassion, and let go of greed, narrow-mindedness, and selfishness. In fact, there are many people who know how to advise others to give alms, do meritorious deeds, and understand the benefits of giving, but they themselves rarely give up their money and possessions to practice giving.

In the Forty-Two Chapter Sutra, the Buddha said:

- Seeing people doing alms, you immediately rejoice and support their noble deeds, even if you yourself do not have money to give alms, you will also receive great blessings.

Therefore, some of you think that you spend time and effort even though you have the ability to materialize, and the other person spends money, so both will have blessings. If you have a sincere heart of giving to help others, you will surely have merit. But if you think like that, then you still have the heart to regret the money, just putting in the effort is enough, your giving will not have much merit, because you still have a meager mind, craving for possessions.

Someone asked:

- Why do you only rejoice and support giving, but you have great blessings?

- Why does your rejoicing mind have the same reward as giving?

Thus, for those who still have the mind to measure and calculate, and the selfish mind, this may not seem fair. The Buddha explained this in the Forty-Two Chapter Sutta as follows:

- For example, the fire of a torch, several hundred thousand people use torches to share and take for cooking or lighting. Many people get fire but the original torch remains the same.

Genuinely giving and honestly joyfully supporting and willingly giving are actions that come from goodwill, so merit and blessings are great. The mind is the main thing, not the action, the right act of giving is just an expression of the right mind. Whether the form of giving really helps the giver and the recipient depends on their mind. So in the Forty-Two Chapter Sutras, the Buddha identified:

- A person who gives and a person who does not give, but rejoices, are equal in merit.

Because those who give alms give up their greed, and those who rejoice, let go of jealousy, the blessings are equal.

The Buddha also affirmed that to find happiness, to find peace in this ordinary life, it is necessary to have the power of rejoicing. In the Ekottara-Nikaya Sutta, a monk came and asked the Buddha:

- World-Honored One, how can a faithful person in this life practice peace and happiness?

Buddha replied:

- Bhikkhus, there is a person whose thoughts are pure in the morning, his speech pure, his body and actions pure. That person has a peaceful and happy morning.

Monks, at noon there was a person who had a good thought, spoke good words with his mouth, and acted well in his body. That person has a peaceful and happy afternoon.

Monks, there is a person who thinks good thoughts in the evening, speaks good words with his mouth and does good deeds with his body. That person has a peaceful and happy afternoon.

Cultivation is to practice each thought. You must be rejoicing, considering everyone and you as one. Because enlightenment is Buddha, Buddha is enlightenment. Buddha and ordinary people only differ in enlightenment or non-enlightenment. If your mind is enlightened, then there is Buddha. Enlightenment often opens the door of the Six Paramitas, often passes three Asankhya or Asankhyeya kalpas, and everywhere, benefits sentient beings as much as dust. Expand your blessings, gain six magical powers, and complete Buddhahood in a lifetime. Even if it is suffering in hell such as a Cauldron of boiling oil, glaciers hear enlightenment and turn into a forest of incense. Sentient beings who drink boiling copper water and swallow hot iron balls upon hearing enlightenment are all born in the Pure Land.

In this moment of reality, if you are confused, jealous, and selfish, but after listening to the Buddha's teachings, the Venerable Ones encourage you, and you are determined to do it immediately, then you will be partially enlightened and liberated from that part. This is called enlightenment in every thought. That's why the Buddha always reminded you:

- If you want to know later, if you will be free, safe, happy, or not, in this ordinary life, look at your actions.

Seeing others happy, secure, and more talented than you, if you still have jealousy and envy, surely your cultivation will not work. Sitting in meditation, chanting, and reciting the Buddha's name, but not wiping away the envy and greed, it is the sign of sitting in meditation, chanting, and reciting the Buddha's name, not the mind sitting in meditation, chanting, or reciting the Buddha's name.

As a Buddhist, you must practice seriously, so even if you practice little, there will be many results. As for practicing cultivation like an ascetic without being able to give up jealousy, greed, and selfishness, it is not even as good as those who seem to play, always happy, forgiving, compassionate, and tolerant...

In the Agama Sutra, there is a passage that says:

- One day, Reverence Ananda went for alms with the Buddha. While passing through a forest, seeing a monk sleeping, the Buddha smiled. Going for a while to the city, I saw a monk sitting in meditation very dignified, the Buddha frowned. Reverence Ananda was very surprised, so he said:

- World-Honored One, why is it that a monk is sleeping in a forest while the Blessed One is smiling, while a monk is sitting very solemnly in a city while the Blessed One frowns?"

Buddha replied:

- A monk in the forest, although sleeping, then wakes up, and immediately meditates. As for the bhikkhu in the city, after he had released his meditation, he would make his mind run around.

If you see others being safe and happy, you should be happy, but if you have jealousy and selfishness, it's a disease and you'll have to suffer bad retribution. In the Maha Ratnakuta Sutra, the chapter predicted by Manjushri, the Buddha taught:

- Sariputra, when a bodhisattva sees a person benefited, his heart is filled with rejoicing and happiness, and there are four benefits:

1- You often generate this mind and your life benefits.

2- Children, brothers, and parents are united.

3- Where there is wealth, kings and mandarins, bandits, water, and fire cannot invade.

4- Which country you were born in, all your treasures and children are complete, and the king is not even jealous, let alone someone else.

Therefore, rejoicing in the good deeds of others helps you gradually relearn the habit of sharing and helping, thus gradually transforming the habit of jealousy and envy. That way, you don't harm anyone. Talking about the blessings of rejoicing, the story tells:

In the Buddha's time in the world, there was a little girl beggar, who was happy with good deeds to help many people during the summer retreat of the monks. Thanks to that, she reflected on her poor life, probably due to many lives not knowing how to do good deeds, so now she has to beg and suffer like that. After thinking like that, she generated faith, vowing that on that day, if she asked for anything, she would spend it all to make offerings to the monks. That day, she only asked for two coins and used that money to buy a bag of salt, asking the cook in the temple to divide it equally among everyone.

That beggar girl, thanks to the good thought of rejoicing and delighting in the good deeds of others, knows how to return to contemplation and enlighten herself, so she clearly knows the root cause of poverty is not knowing how to give and make offerings, help, and share. Since then, she has developed faith and faith in the Three Jewels and turned to the Buddhadharma to learn the path of sages and saints, willingly helping the unfortunate and suffering, or offering to true practitioners with her sincere heart...

Thanks to that, after a while, she was adopted by a kind mandarin, sent to school, and became very knowledgeable. And her life as a beggar and poverty was also transformed from there. Due to her cleverness and beauty, she was finally chosen by the king to be the queen. With immeasurable, boundless blessings, and even more conditions, she has since actively helped people settle down and live happily in the spirit of the Buddha's teachings.

With joy when she saw others doing good deeds, plus sincerity, she was later made queen. When she became Queen, she believed in cause and effect even more deeply. So she advised the king to help seed farmers, finance farmers to grow crops, help the unfortunate, build temples, and open schools. Encourage everyone to actively increase production with their hands and brains, advise the rich to share, help the poor, and encourage the entire people to turn to the Three Jewels and keep the five precepts. Thanks to that, from the top kings and mandarins to the poor people all live in peace and happiness, in the spirit of sharing joy and suffering, solidarity, love, and help for each other.

Happiness according to the good deeds of others helps you to be aware that life is dependent on each other, you should have the responsibility, the duty to love, protect and share with each other humanity in life.

Being aware that the life of all species is important and noble, so you must know how to plant merit, to stabilize your family life to have enough food, enough clothing, and a leisurely life. Thanks to that, in the family, people know how to respect the people above and give way to the people below. Live filial piety with grandparents, parents, brothers, and sisters in agreement, and live happily together.

In short, on the path of cultivation, you have to do two things, first of all, you must generate joy, which is to be happy with everything that happens to you, good or bad. You need to build a joyful mind on that basis in order to practice with good results. Happiness is very important on the spiritual path. When the speaker is not right, you are also happy because you look further. Maybe they say it's not right in this life, but it's true in the previous life through which you discovered your previous career's karma still exists, so it shows up on your body and speech. As ordinary people say:

- Cold water cannot stir the slurry.

But if the water is cold, it causes a slurry, because there is already a slurry in the water. So when someone says bad things about you, maybe not in this life, but because of the remaining karma in the previous life. Thinking like that, you should be happy to be the best.

Second, practice rejoicing according to Bodhisattva Universal Worthy, seeing that others can do it, cultivate it, or see others being respected, you will all generate a heart of joy for them, not be envious. According to Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, build a joyful mind, and firmly rejoice, your life will often meet good friends, far away from bad friends. In other words, evil friends can no longer come to you and you will not fall into the three evil paths. At the same time, you always meet good teachers and friends, sublimate your morality, achieve Universal Virtue, and proceed to Unsurpassed Bodhi.

You must always have rejoiced for everyone, if you are not liberated, then after death, the power of rejoicing will push you to good realms.

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