Chua Duoc Su

- Dream magical dreams, and when you dream, believe it will come true. In a dream, what you see will foretell future scenarios. (James Allen)

And:

- Your requests are not always met, but if you don't express your wishes, you will never get anything. (Franklyn Broude)

First, you must be clear about what you want. This is very important. Every success begins with dreams and ambitions. Once you understand what you want, it will be easier for you to get it. You can't get what you want if you don't know what it is. A lot of you don't quite understand what you want, and sometimes what they want is far from what they deserve. So, first of all, you need to understand what you want. Second, consider whether you deserve it. Third, you must have faith that you will achieve it. And finally, you have to have the courage to show it.

Express your dreams by writing down your wishes. Of course, this will take a long time, possibly several hours, even days to complete. But if you really want to get more than you want, take some time to do it. When you do, write down what you need to be, as specific as possible. This will help you be more specific about what you want. It helps you reach deeper into your subconscious and create a link between the true desires that come from the heart. The point here is not whether you think about the possibility of dreams, but whether you like them or not. Once you understand that, you have to use all the abilities, or methods, to accomplish what you need to do.

The best way to accomplish this task is to find a quiet place, close your eyes, and relax letting go of negative thoughts. All you need to do is control your dreams. Hold on to your goal as if someone was trying to take it away from you. All you have to do now is take action to achieve that goal. It's not an easy job, but nothing in this world automatically comes easy. So perseverance will be your companion on the way to achieving your dreams.

That means don't learn to blame. Don't learn to complain. Don't be sulky or hostile. Do not seek excuses. Maturity is a gift and this gift always appears in the process of striving for it.

In today's society, there are many people who have successfully practiced questioning skills and thereby achieved their dreams. They have overcome many difficulties and always know how to decide their own fate. Understanding the relationship between giving and receiving, they have formed their own dreams, and at the same time devoted themselves to life and people with all their enthusiasm. And the secret to their success is that they can always do whatever they see fit.

To accomplish this task in the best way, you can close your eyes while taking deep breaths to relax. Then slowly sketch in your mind images and ideas of what you really care about and desire in the following areas, such as:

01- Love marriage.

02- Family & friends relationship.

03- House and living space.

04- Furniture and other fixed assets.

05- Clothes, jewelry...

06- Fame and career.

07- Financial guarantee.

08- Health and fitness.

09- Spiritual and personal maturity.

10- Dedication to the community. etc.

Once you have visualized and sketched images of what you want, open your eyes and record them, in as much detail as possible. This is the entire goal that you want to achieve in life. Some goals require practice, study, and preparation. Others require you to persist in your efforts for a long time. But there are also some goals you can absolutely achieve right now. Once you have completely achieved the goals listed, you are the happiest person in the world. The word happiness is mentioned here, in the spirit, I just mentioned above, the word happiness is defined:

- Happiness is what you dream, vow to do, the way you want to do it, and your way of life.

- Happiness is the result of the good dreams you have made that bring joy to you and to others

Living happily is living a happy, comfortable life, everything is always as you want it to be. But in order to be happy, in addition to what you already have from your fulfilled dreams, you also need to have or achieve peace. Peace both matter and spirit. For humans, the matter is your body. Your parents gave birth to you with a complete body and every day the body is free from disease and pain, then it is your blessing to have a good and healthy body. The spirit is the mind. The mind that is not polluted by fulfilled dreams, through which evil desires, no thoughts of greed, hatred, jealousy, harming others, a mind free of afflictions and worries, is what is real peace of mind.

Everyone in life wants to live a peaceful and happy life. Happiness by the usual definition is Getting What You Want in Life. Depending on the situation and living environment, the happiness needs of each person are different. As a person born and raised in a slow-moving country, the wish is different from the desire of a person born and raised in a country with a developed and rich civilization.

When a child was young, his dream was to always be protected by his loving parents. Being a child of a poor family who can have a full meal every day, have healthy clothes, and be lucky enough to go to school with books is their happiness.

If you grow up a little, someone notices, suits your eyes, you love people and people love you, that is the overflowing happiness of youth.

Reaching adulthood, having a solid career, abundant money, a house, a car, having a husband or wife, and having obedient children is the happiness of a successful person.

There is another kind of happiness. It is happiness to have power in hand. You are so passionate about this happiness that you can sacrifice other happiness such as family happiness, money, wife, and children to buy the positions they want.

When old age has good health, wealth, filial children... that is happiness! For life in a fully materialized civilized society, please do not discuss.

That is speaking according to worldly society. In Buddhism, the word happiness is also divided into two types.

1- One is happiness that depends on external conditions such as position, money, house, car, spouse, and children. This kind of happiness will not be sustainable because you yourself will change, let alone things outside the body. The experience of the ancients often said:

- In this life, no one is rich for three generations, no one is poor for three generations.

This shows you that the house, the car, and the money will never be yours forever. Health and beauty will over time decay and become weak. The love between husband and wife or children is also not as stable as you would like. Sometimes it's not people who change, but you yourself. So happiness based on external conditions will not be guaranteed because sooner or later it will disappear, to replace disappointment, boredom, and suffering. In general, this kind of happiness is caused by many conditions, so it is impermanent, sometimes it is, sometimes it is not, so if you consider it to be illusory happiness or fake happiness, there is nothing wrong!

In fact, as human beings, everyone has a need for happiness, but happiness is difficult to obtain but easy to lose, leaving only suffering and sadness.

2- Another kind of happiness is happiness that comes from your own life values, from practicing, keeping the precepts, and keeping your mind clean every day. In other words, you perfect your personality, giving you a meaningful life.

What is a meaningful life?

It is a life that always feels happy and joyful. That happiness is always with you and does not lose over time. To have it you need to practice according to the Buddha's teachings. You must always keep the three karmas pure. Those three karmas are:

- Thoughts, words, and actions.

Keeping the three pure karma is daily you must keep the precepts:

- The precept about the body is not to conspire, accomplice, or kill yourself or people. In a couple's love, live honestly and faithfully, and do not deceive, be greedy, or rob other people's property. Don't drink and be addicted to drugs to avoid making your mind crazy

- Precepts on words are not to say offensive words to hurt others, not to put things to harm others, and not to slander, or scold others.

- The mind must be cheerful and open, without anger or jealousy, that is keeping the precepts of mind.

Keeping virtue pure, you do not hurt yourself and others, and you have a peaceful and happy mood. This is your true happiness.

Buddha taught that in order to do these things, you must always keep mindfulness in your practice. Mindfulness is the clear understanding of every single thing, every thought... that happens in the body, mind, or surroundings without you having any judgment or attachment to that understanding. Due to mindfulness, your mind does not run around and does not think indiscriminately, creating a constant stream of karma that makes you bear the afflictions. Living in mindfulness is living in understanding and happiness.

In the Four Noble Truths, the Buddha mentioned four truths that are obvious to human beings: The Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering, the Noble Truth of Cessation of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Path leading to the Cessation of Suffering

- The Noble Truth of Suffering shows that people born in this world cannot escape suffering under any circumstances. The rich, the nobility, the people with status or power, the middle-class people who have enough to eat and clothe, or the poor, the poorest in society... Having a body means suffering.

- The Noble Truth of the Cause of Suffering is the cause of suffering. The root of suffering is greed, hatred, and delusion.

- The Noble Truth of Cessation of Suffering is to eliminate the causes of suffering. If you get rid of the cause of suffering, you will be free of suffering. End of suffering means you live in the state of Nirvana. Nirvana is a peaceful state without creating karma, which can be called in worldly terms happiness. This happiness is the result of the practice of Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom. That is, you keep the precepts of daily living for purity. If your body and mind are pure, you have concentration. If your mind is calm, your thinking will be clearer, that is wisdom.

- The Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering, are applied methods to practice freedom from suffering. When you practice diligently, and your mind rests in a state of deep silence, you are truly happy.

This happiness does not depend on any conditions, but on the practice of self-improvement of your personality, that is, in every passing moment, you perfect the three karmas of mind, speech, and active motion. The results of the three pure karmas make your mind light and peaceful. The state where not a single thought of happiness or sadness arises is not suffering. In the sutras, this state is called the unborn state, Nirvana. You temporarily call the state of true happiness compared with illusory happiness.

Buddhism is a religion of compassion and wisdom. You practice to reach the goal of liberation from suffering and enlightenment, that is, becoming a Buddha. Although you do not know when you will be completely free from suffering and liberation, you cannot say how long it will take you to become a Buddha. But anyway, it is the dream or initial vow, the ideal that you pursue from now on and for many lives in the future. That said, it is not easy to achieve the goal in just five or ten lifetimes. But when you have a dream, you will achieve it, if you practice, you will have a day of achievement, if you go, you will come. When you come, you have achieved what you dreamed of.

Following the example of the masters and patriarchs, you cannot wait until you are fully enlightened to help others. In this present life, if you have mastered something through your study and practice, you should also share it with everyone to help everyone have an authentic happy life like you. Turning back to the pages of the Buddha's history, you see that the Buddha through six long years of ascetic practice in the forest and for 49 days and nights sitting in meditation under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha was completely enlightened, became a Great Enlightened One, and attained enlightenment attain the state of Nirvana in the life of the world. But he did not stop there, he continued to save sentient beings. After 49 years of teaching sentient beings, he saved many people from suffering and led a peaceful life, even though he struggled with a life of hardship and suffering. The Buddha led many disciples to attain Arahantship and escape from the cycle of birth and death right in life like him. And they represented him to teach sentient beings everywhere. When he was 80 years old, he peacefully entered samadhi and passed away in the sala forest in Kushinagar city, then his enlightenment was truly complete.

Everyone wants to achieve their dreams, want to be happy, and of course, more or less everyone is happy. Happiness comes to each person depending on the living environment and life concept, so the happiness of one person is not the same as the happiness of the other. But there is one similarity, which becomes a common denominator, that happiness is impermanent, that happiness does not stay with you forever but it will go away, and will give you suffering, and affliction. That happiness you call illusory happiness, because you do not create by your own practice efforts, you do not return to yourself, your own mind, you do not wash away the defilements caused by greed, hatred, and delusion. so you just rely on external facts.

As a Buddhist student, with the Buddha's contemplation method, you know that the phenomenal world never stands still, you can recognize three imprints of this phenomenal world:

- Impermanence, Suffering, and Non-Self.

You need to think carefully and penetrate these three seals to change your perception. Awareness of Suffering, awareness of the method to end suffering clearly, to heal yourself. You will not be attached to feelings of suffering or happiness. If you want to attain the state of neither happiness nor suffering, you can apply the method of Cessation, Concentration, or Wisdom by gathering the six organs of sense, not allowing the six dust or six sense objects to attract you to cause your mind to waver by living in Righteousness. Living in Mindfulness is always keeping the knowledge of the object, observing the object inside or outside the body as it appears with a mind that does not judge, does not compare, and does not add or subtract notions or prejudices of self. Only then will the mind be quiet and not be disturbed by the waves of the world.

When the mind is completely still, you will automatically feel comfortable, gentle joy will arise from that. The more you practice, the stronger your concentration will be. The stronger the concentration, the more wisdom will arise. As a result, you will have a strong magnetic field like the immeasurable quartet of magnetism: love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.

You are intuitive, super-intuitive, and know things beyond space and time. You have a fearless argument, speak fluently, at the right time, with the right word. You will be creative, invent, and invent things that you have never known before... You collectively call these things spiritual wisdom or wisdom.

Understanding beyond the phenomenal world is the goal of your Buddhist practice. Reaching this point is achieving your highest dream, your own true happiness. If it's true, it won't change. If you want to do that, then just start to realize your dreams, from the lowest to the highest, from benefiting yourself to spreading to your neighbors. That's why you use the word Happiness Without Words or True Happiness to refer to the unchanging happy and peaceful state of mind of a Buddhist practitioner. Illusory Happiness or Fake Happiness refers to the state of joy, and excitement, but quickly changing and disappearing of those who do not know how to practice and only rely on worldly phenomena to have happiness.

In short, in life, anyone who has a dream is a person with a direction, and someone with a direction will sooner or later achieve it. The moments of day and hours of accomplishment are the happiest moments of your life. On the worldly side, perhaps you will stop at the threshold of temporary happiness, but it is different for you who have cultivated. You have learned to know that happiness has both illusory and real sides, but you are a lay person of course you cannot live to let go of everything. You also need a loved one to support and comfort you when your spirits are down. You also need money for houses and cars, which are necessary for everyday life. You enjoy this happiness, but you don't cling to it, don't be greedy to embrace it, because you know that they don't last forever with you, one day these things will fly without wings go, then you don't feel too miserable.

In the spirit of not being greedy and attached, Buddhists use wisdom to understand beyond the phenomenal world which is the goal of Buddhist practitioners. Reaching this point is achieving the highest dream, your own true happiness.