DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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          The Vietnamese have an adage composed by the common people, which is quite good and can be applied in all cases. That's the sentence:

- God of mouth harms your body.

The saying that the god of the mouth harms your body means that it is because of the mouth that speaks, that the body suffers calamities. This idiom you hear happens a lot. Usually, this sentence only applies to someone who often likes to talk or say, but that way of saying or saying it seems like you are the person worth talking about or you are the person who has always been the measure of the world. They think so, but when speaking due to impulse psychology instead of being a measure for people, they unexpectedly get scolded by people, throwing rotten eggs, throwing tomatoes... It should be considered that the sentence that God's mouth harms your body has two parts:

- God of the mouth

- Damage to the mortal body

First of all, let's talk about the god of the mouth. The mouth god is in the words of the world. But according to Buddhist teachings, it is called oral karma. Oral karma is one of the three karmic organs that are:

- Body, mouth, and mind karma.

Accomplished karma is the deliberate act of repeatedly creating body, mouth, and mind, the cause leading to retribution, both karma and retribution form the law of cause and effect, cyclical endlessly, taking you through samsara throughout the six realms. If you sow good karma, you will be born in the world:

- God, Human, Asula,

And if you create evil karma, you will fall into:

- Hell, hungry ghosts, animals.

Of the three karmas of body, mouth, and mind, the mouth part is the one that creates the most karma.

Buddha taught that of the ten human karmas, of which the mouth has taken up four, that is, nearly half. In the part of oral karma there are four which are:

1- Things do not say yes, things do say no,

2- Speaks cruelly,

3- Two-way tongue talk,

4- Speak eloquently.

But in daily life in addition to the above four things, the mouth also creates much more karma such as:

5- Eating sophisticatedly,

6- Criticize, comment on praise and criticism,

7- Declare everyone's fault,

8- Joking, mocking, teasing...

Words that come out of the mouth or such oral karma, sometimes harm the person involved. Many Mr. or mises get excited or say or write silly sentences, after speaking, people throw banana peels, rotten eggs, and tomatoes to eat and rest. Because it's all good and bad things that must go to hell, as well as offend, cause conflicts, hate and kill each other. Indeed, a Vietnamese writer mentioned a number of politicians who violated one or more of the seven cases above and had to bear the calamity, writing:

There is a Japanese female diplomat, who has an impulsive personality, saying things that harm her. This woman likes to make loose statements, touching many other country leaders, so she was forced to resign. After that, there was a minister in Europe who blurted out that this American president was a moron. After that, she had to apologize profusely, but the political future was considered deadlocked.

In the last week of June 2007, the Japanese Defense Minister suddenly became excited and declared:

- Two American atomic bombs dropped on Japan were needed.

So the Japanese people were angry and protested. Even if it was true, he shouldn't have said that. The victims of those two bombs are still alive, and an affected generation is still suffering, which is like pouring fuel on the fire. Being thrown rotten eggs is a sure thing.

The most serious and dangerous to many ordinary people, especially a Nigerian journalist, was inspired to praise the beauty of Miss beauty pageants in a country where civilization is still hanging out the door, and more of a joke with the Holy Prophet. This joke harmed more than 200 people. Many churches were burned, many people were injured, and disabled, and many buildings were destroyed in smoke, because of a joke. There was no mention of the joker himself, but he probably had a hard time hiding.

That is talking about current affairs today, and talking about the past, in Chinese literature, there is a mention of the reign of U Vuong, who was a lustful king, in this dynasty, there was a wind and fire station. This tower is very high, the use of this station is that if something happens to the king and the court, then light a fire on this high platform, all the vassals everywhere will bring troops to save the king.

King U Vuong had a queen named Bao Ty, from the day she entered the palace, she never smiled, even though the king did all sorts of things. One day, a minister showed a way to light a fire on the wind fire station to entertain the queen. The king obeyed his words, and setting fire to the fire station, was fun for the king, but for the vassals, it was thought that the king had a coup, so the vassals brought troops to the court to rescue the king. But when the great army returned to the court, they saw King U Vuong and Queen Bao Ty drinking wine and singing... And the king declared:

- I want to make the queen happy and light a fire without a coup d'etat...

Hearing the king say this, the vassals were very angry, but did not dare to say a word, and hurriedly withdrew their troops. To the surprise of thousands, tens of thousands of soldiers and generals flocked to, and then retreated, suddenly Queen Bao Ty burst into laughter.

But not long after, because of seeing the king's passion for wine…. So one of the vassals rebelled, at that time the king also let people light a fire on the fire station, but afraid that the king would cheat for fun, the vassal roads were not saved, finally, the reign of King U Vuong ended...

The reign of King U Vuong ended because of one sentence:

- I want to make the queen happy and light a fire, not a revolution...

And in the human world, in a certain village suddenly appeared a fierce tiger. The tiger kept coming into the village to catch chickens and pigs to eat, so the villagers agreed that everyone should be alarmed when they see a tiger and that everyone uses everything such as iron boxes, and instruments that can make sounds. Loud sound for the tiger to panic, and run away.

In the village, there was a young man who broke errands, one day he returned from the forest, reached the beginning of the village, and suddenly he thought of a way to have fun. So he ran and shouted:

- The tiger came to the village gate, the tiger chased me...

The whole village heard that no one told anyone, some people were bronze trays, some people were metal drums… the sounds reverberated throughout the village. When everyone ran to the place, they saw this young man sitting under an old tree in front of the village gate grinning… The whole village was upset and withdrew. And another time he also ran and shouted:

- The tiger returned to the village, the tiger chased me...

Because of fear of this man lying, the whole village did not respond, but this time it was true, and in the end, he was caught and eaten by a fierce tiger...

Through what we have just said, it is true that verbal karma from words creates bad consequences, harming the speaker and those involved. Vocational karma also affects the whole community, the whole society. Therefore, you should not speak maliciously, speak for your own pleasure, use harsh words to curse and insult others, if you have an evil mind, speak evil and then do evil. If body, mouth, and mind are evil, the day of going to hell is not far away. So you shouldn't curse people, don't say obscene words...

Don't talk nonsense, don't say more or less, listen to the story here and then tell it to others, but often when retelling, you often add a little bit to make the story you tell more attractive.

Thus, for those who often use cruel, harsh words, scold, curse... in their daily life, first of all, that person himself has shown a way of life lacking moral qualities, lacking civilized in speech, in communication and leads to low self-esteem, people around will gradually alienate them. Even more should not say jokes to people, no matter who that person is, they should not be used to make jokes and then bring disaster to the body.

In today's society, many people on social networks often use cruel, vulgar, and offensive words to others, which has also become a phenomenon. While they don't refer to anyone by name, this is something you should all avoid.

Not only writing bad words but even endorsing and supporting bad words are all dangerous. Because many times doing so, no one controls, no one advises, so in the long run, it will become a habit.

Buddhism calls this karma, but if it is karma, it will affect the life of the person himself and those around him. A bad word or bad language can lead to unpredictable consequences. So once again I would like to repeat, that bad speech also involves lying. There are many kinds of lies: lying for fun, lying for the purpose of deceiving, lying to show off, lying out of fear, lying for illicit gain...

Depending on the purpose of lying, creating different heavy and light karma. However, there are cases where lying for the purpose of saving or protecting the lives of others is not counted as oral karma.

You see from a wordplay, a bad word ... from the mouth are all fully in the eight categories according to the Buddha said, all lead to harm to themselves and those around them. Oral karma from the mouth is extremely related to the life of each person. If a good person always says good words and good ideas, their life is always happy and respected by everyone.

A person who always curses, speaks cruelly, lies, provokes, and disparages others sooner or later will be in trouble and make people not want to contact them. Therefore, in the human world, there are always words to each other by word of mouth:

- God of mouth harms your body

The purpose is to warn people to be careful when talking or playing. In Buddhism, oral karma is one of the heaviest karmas, because it leads to serious consequences, leads to brokenness, leads to extreme suffering, leads to all afflictions... Due to seeing the danger of words, so the venerable ones often encourage people to practice so as not to create verbal karma. …Because a word inadvertently can make you and others suffer and torment your whole life. To avoid mistakes, and bad habits from some bad friends, in the scriptures, there are four types of people you should avoid in daily life:

1- Those who often say the fault of others,

2- People who often talk about superstition, wrong views,

3- People with good mouth, bad belly. Ordinary people say that it is the Buddha's mouth, the mind of the snake.

4- Those who do little tell much.

From the mouth, you can know the mind and judge others, so that you have an appropriate behavior when dealing with them.

Although the wealth is much, the mouth that has been eaten for a long time will also run out. Virtue even though it is hard work to create many lives, due to the mouth creating karma, criticizing, saying bad words... it can be destroyed in a moment. Help people but get revenge, also because this mouth often tells gratitude, scolds, insults people, so there is a sentence:

- The god of his mouth harms your body,

Those who talk too much harm themselves.

Slipping your feet and trying to stand up.

The mouth that causes harm must pay for the karma.

This mouth is very harmful, eating is fussy, wanting to eat delicious and strange dishes for pleasure, both wasting money and bringing illness to the body. Because animals and plants are now produced because they want to make a profit, so they use a lot of chemicals, if you don't know how to abstain, incurable diseases will be brought into your body, make you miserable and suffer many people, have to worry about treatment, is natural. Therefore, the ancients also taught:

- Opening your mouth many words will drain your spirit and energy,

The warm-up tongue often talks right and wrong, more than losing, beautiful or ugly, praise and criticism...and then have to fight, insult each other and create a lot of pitiful things.

That is just to say briefly about the harmful things that often happen every day of the mouth. Because to satisfy your mouth you have created many sins. Therefore, the ancients also taught:

- Before you say that, you have to warm up your tongue seven times.

Turning your tongue seven times means that you have to think, think again, and be sure before you speak.

There is also a verse that says:

- A hundred years of life is nothing.

A precious word engraved in my heart.

Opening words must know right or wrong.

Right or wrong know to distinguish whether you are not wrong...

Another poem:

- A word that changes white to black,

That you chose the prison to enter

When your mind avoids noise

You have opened the door to heaven.

Keep the mind to meditate early, at noon

Is that you have avoided the prison scene

Wise people understand the reason

Choose the answer, choose the question

One who understands wisdom.

Give way to people one step wide and easy to walk.

Don't say anything about people's work.

It's your story, it's wise for you to know it

Bodhisattva Minh Dieu Hanh taught:

- Talk less about a story, recite more than one Buddha sentence, kill false thoughts, and your Dharma body will appear.

In the Dhammapada, the Buddha says:

- Even if you say a thousand words, But nothing is more beneficial than a meaningful sentence, then you will feel peaceful after hearing it.

Or:

- It's not because of talking a lot, it's about upholding the right Dharma.

One who hears little of the Wonderful Dharma, but fully perceives it,

The Dharma is not loose, is to uphold and uphold the Buddhadharma.

As a Buddhist, a word you say must help many people understand, peace, and benefit, you will not regret your words, and your merit and virtue are also boundless. But be very careful with your words. When you say things that make others suffer and sad, you will have to reap the same things. Creating merit for a lifetime, but just a word of evil or a joke said, is dissipated in a moment. Especially if you want to practice diligently and successfully, you must avoid dishonest things, because dishonest words take a lot of time in vain, but also create a lot of oral karma and unjust actions. Please always remember that:

- Hundred years of stone steles wear out,

Thousand years of words are still there.

In short, jokes, evil words, and criticisms are so harmful, so if there is a time in the human world, you always pass on the proverb to each other:

- God of mouth harms your body

In Buddhism, there is always an alarm, the heaviest of the karmas is verbal karma. So please take care of your mouth. In the way of practicing the mouth, in daily life you often treat each other, the mouth must always smile, when needed you must have an apology and should also have words of thanks. Must respect each other, use loving language, do not spare praise, spread good people, good deeds, good things, right to multiply the good examples to make life more beautiful. But be very careful with criticism, do not lie, but must speak the truth, do not lie, you will get a lot of fame. Do not speak falsely, but speak truthfully, which will be respected by many people. Do not say offensive words, but say harmonious words that will be supported by many people. Do not say harsh words, but only speak gentle and loving words, will have a noble life.

Those are the methods to practice for the mouth, very good, very useful, you need to follow, to reap many blessings, then your life and your family in the present are happy, peaceful, peace and future will be born in good realms according to your choice.

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