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DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE
- LIBERATION
- ACCORDING TO BUDDHISM II
By Nhat Quan
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In the
sutras the Buddha taught:
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All seawater
has only one taste, the taste of salt, all my teachings have
only one taste, the taste of liberation.
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According to
the purpose and principles of those who follow the Buddha,
enlightenment and liberation are the core. To be worthy of
that paramount purpose, you must practice as the Buddha
taught. You must first know what to liberate, and then find
a way to practice to be liberated. This is a very important
issue. Therefore, you must first understand the word
liberation clearly, according to Buddhist dictionaries, the
word liberation means:
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- Is to get
rid of the bondage of afflictions and get rid of the
confusing world of suffering;
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- Being out
of bondage in the three realms of desire, form, and
formless;
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- Is to end
the cause of birth and death samsara karma;
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- To not be
bound by attachments to the mind;
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- To achieve
liberation from the bondage of the mundane world, from the
domination of desires, to live in complete freedom;
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- Is freedom
from delusion and suffering, from rebirth in samsara and
attaining Nirvana
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- The mind
that is free from afflictions and other physical conditions
and attains Nirvana.
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- And
liberation is when the six organs of sense come into contact
with the unbound six dust or the six sense objects..
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Thus, the
ultimate goal of a Buddhist practitioner is to take
liberation as salvation. If you do not grasp the meaning of
liberation, it will be difficult for you to achieve your
goal on the path, liberation is what liberation is.
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By
definition, to be freed you must see the opposite of
bondage. Because you feel bound, you pray for liberation. In
the encirclement of afflictions, it is impossible to get out
by yourself, so you must rely on the teachings of the Buddha
to get rid of the afflictions. As defined above, to be
liberated means to open up, to untie, to be free. When
you're in a bind, you long to be open. Being in a very tight
confinement situation, you want to be free, to get out. So
when it comes to liberation, you are being surrounded, not
being free. Surrounded and forced is of course suffering. To
clarify, the meaning of liberation is to liberate the
suffering of human life.
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If you want
to be free from the suffering of human life, you have to
look closely and see clearly what is binding and causing you
suffering in order to seek liberation. Every time you pray,
you pray that the Buddha blesses you to be free from all
suffering and to remove all afflictions.
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Thus,
eliminating afflictions and ending suffering in this way is
due to the Buddha's blessing. But the truth is that the
Buddha cannot help you to be liberated. Moreover, there are
many people who think that to talk about liberation is to
say something very far and far away, that as ordinary people
you can never reach. Talking about liberation is talking
about Saints, not ordinary people. So when you say
cultivation for the purpose of liberation, you consider it
as something that will never happen, never come, and then
despise yourself and retreat, which is the disease of people
who do not have the will to progress.
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As defined,
you are in tight bondage, being freed from tight bondage is
called liberation. If you are not tied down, you are not
forced, then you do not seek liberation. Like a fish
surrounded by a net, there is no way out, it jumps up to get
out of the net, that is, it frees the net. If it's out of
the net, it doesn't need to jump. In the same way, if you
are already a saint, there is no affliction, no suffering,
then there is no need to say practice in order to be
liberated.
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The reason
why you say practice or seek liberation is that you are
afflicted with afflictions, bound by many evil and dark
thoughts that you have not yet conquered. So you have to
work hard to break all the ropes of afflictions, to jump to
a new horizon, which is called liberation. In the spirit of
Theravada, the A Ham Sutra has a story that Master Phu Lau
Na came to ask the Buddha:
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World-Honored One, please teach me the essential Dharma so
that I can go to a secluded place to practice.
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The Buddha
then taught:
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If the eye
sees form without chasing, not grasping, that is close to
Nirvana. Conversely, if the eye sees form and chases after
it, clinging to it is far from Nirvana. The ears hear the
sound, the nostrils smell, the body touches, and the mind is
predestined with the Dharma. If you don't chase, you don't
cling tightly to Nirvana, if you chase and cling tightly,
you'll be far from Nirvana.
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After
receiving the essential dharma, Master Phu Lau Na went to a
secluded place to practice. Within three months, he attained
Arahantship.
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Six organs
of sense contacting six dust or six sense objects without
chasing, without attachment, or clinging to it is
liberation. If you chase after it, if you cling to it, it's
a perversion. Perversion or being liberated is very simple,
without waiting for another life, but right in the present
moment, eyes see forms, ears hear sounds, noses smell odors,
tongues taste flavors, body touches, the mind is connected
with dharma objects, you are not chasing, not clinging,
right there you are liberated. Liberation is not a distant
thing, you can reach it, it is a reality. Right where you or
anyone can be liberated, anyone can do it. So when it comes
to the practice of liberation, it sounds far away, sublime,
but the truth is very close, very real. Conversely,
corruption is not uncommon. If the eye chases the form and
then clings to the form, the ear chases the sound and then
clings to the sound, etc., then you are a perverted person.
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Buddhists as
well as cultivators want to be liberated not a distant
matter, but a reality in daily life. If a person's six
organs of sense come into contact with six dust or six sense
objects without attachment, without pursuit, without being
attracted or bound by the six sense objects, that is
liberation. The truth is that you attach yourself to six
dust or six sense objects, which means you see it, you chase
it, cling to it, and then you lament and beg the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas for help. Buddha told you to let go, but you
held on too tight, stuck your hand in it, and then lamented
Buddha and Bodhisattva for not saving!
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Again,
attachment is called greed when the desire exceeds the need.
The senses bring pleasure but if you do not pursue, nurture,
or increase the desire to enjoy that pleasure, there is no
greed. When pursuit arises, then there is greed. For
example, eating and drinking need to be hygienic and
nutritious to nourish the body, there is no need to be fussy
about delicious and strange dishes. When you begin to like
to eat delicious food, you refuse to eat what is not to your
taste, seek strange, rare, superior, and excellent dishes,
then there is greed and pleasure of the tongue, of the
taste, of the eat binding.
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It is also
from the mouth that speech comes, and when speech is no
longer a means of expressing ideas to support the seeing,
hearing, knowing that you enjoy criticism, stabbing,
speaking to deceive, divide, cause hatred, no longer a word
of peace, then there is already bondage in the mouth, in the
word.
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When you no
longer see clothes just to cover the body but just want to
wear them beautifully, with really good products, with
high-class goods, with expensive brands, then there is greed
and attachment from the body. In regards to clothing, also,
when you no longer see a house, a place to stay is just a
means of sheltering from the sun and rain, but only dreaming
of luxurious, sophisticated, and modern houses, then you
have There is greed and attachment coming from the body,
related to dwelling.
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When the ear
is no longer a means to hear, to understand, to support the
seeing and to know, you just want to hear really beautiful,
smooth, and wonderful sounds like singing, music, wasting
precious time. If you indulge in stimulating, pleasurable
sounds for the ear sense, then you already have greed and
attachment to sound.
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When the eye
is not only a sense that helps you to perceive things, see
your space and position, and surrounding circumstances but
makes you run after beautiful images, beautiful appearance,
and majesty or elegant demeanor. Whether it is a beautiful
woman, a handsome man, or just an object, animal, nature,
flowers, grasslands, majestic mountains, your eyes are
always delighted to see, to be seen, to be seen just because
there is pleasure in a look Your view then has greed and
attachment coming from the form.
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When the
nose is not only necessary to breathe and maintain life, but
to immerse you in the pleasure of scents, find ways to
process and create all kinds of fragrances to mask the
stench. You are addicted and infatuated with fragrance, and
can fast, save money to buy expensive perfumes and oils.
Must have it to apply to the body to be satisfied. So you
were greedy and attached to the scent.
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When the
pleasure of sex intoxicates you, it must be satisfied by any
ways, any means, which can make you unjust, adulterous,
coercive, raped, or covet the husband or wife of another. So
you already have greed and attachment that comes from the
flesh, the body, and the touch.
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That is to
say, attachment comes from the five senses, form, sound,
smell, taste, and touch. If you take the time to look
closely, you will see that these five senses are closely
related. It is possible that as long as one sense is
pleasurable, all the other senses will also be delighted.
Quite subtle, hard to notice but still recognizable. When
the ears are too engrossed in enjoying beautiful, romantic,
and wonderful music or the eyes are contemplating a
beautiful picture, having a seductive image, or reading a
paragraph describing an attractive scene, it also arouses
sexual desire in the body. When you eat a delicious dish,
you want it to be presented beautifully, attractively, and
give off a strong, aromatic scent, otherwise, the food
cannot be completely delicious.
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In addition,
you also enjoy pleasure in the spirit, in the mind, in
thinking, in learning, in acquiring knowledge, and in
understanding, which entails the enjoyment of being praised,
flattered, and touched by fame honor, reputation,
self-worth, and the acceptance of others. These are also
invisible ropes that bind you to what is called Dharma, the
object of the sixth sense which is consciousness.
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Pleasure in
the spirit is also joy and happiness because of being loved,
respected, protected, cared for, cared for, served, visited,
reminded, not forgotten, not ignored, not drowned… Those are
also invisible strings that bind you because when you lack
those things, you are very miserable and pessimistic, bored
with life. This attachment is considered to be of the
emotional type, belonging to craving.
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All
attachments in the body or mind can make you angry, anger,
and reproachful once you do not satisfy your desire, as
desired, as expected. It was agreed that brought along anger
and delusion.
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Pleasure in
the spirit is not entertainment that makes the mind
comfortable, relaxed, stress-free, but complacent, satisfied
with yourself because you have tried, succeeded, and
completed the task, duty, or responsibility. Without that
satisfaction and complacency, the evildoer will never do
evil. There must be something interesting in doing evil to
motivate it, even if it is wrong. Torturing others, causing
others physical or mental pain, also brings pleasure to the
perpetrator. Likewise, there are those who torture their own
bodies or wallow in suffering. Feelings or sensations are
invisible strings that bind you.
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You have
realized the bondage of carrying this birth-and-death body.
The body is made up of the Five Great Aggregates and the
seven elements act as an obstacle you don't notice, you only
see the pleasure it brings. The five things that make up a
person are: form, feeling, perception, mental formations,
and consciousness, as well as six dust or six sense objects,
the objects of which the senses are: form, sound, smell,
taste, touch, and dharmas. The Buddha saw it as suffering,
as a karmic hindrance, but you see it in reverse, consider
it happy, beautiful, interesting, enjoyable, nurturing,
indulging in it, so that you become a human but like a
trapped animal.
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This body of
the Five Aggregates is bound by material needs you need to
be satisfied. Sure, there are necessities to sustain life,
but since you've crossed the line of need and sufficiency,
from that arise innumerable troubles, afflictions, and
pitiful things.
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Say it again
and again, but if you abuse your body, don't take care of it
properly, or force yourself to be ascetic, it's not right
either. The Buddha taught that it is the extreme path, which
should be avoided. The Buddha himself, after six years of
asceticism, received a bowl of milk from the cowherd Sujata
to restore his body to health, thereby continuing to
practice to have results, leading to Enlightenment.
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On the path
of cultivation, it is for the sake of liberation, so don't
be attached, don't fall in love with six sense objects. Not
being attached, not infatuated with the six sense objects is
the cause of liberation, there is no need to look for
anything else. No need to have magical powers, no need to
know the past and future, no need to have a bright aura to
be liberated. Demons or gods also have an aura, know the
past and future, but still cannot be liberated. The
liberation of Buddhism is very real, nothing dreamlike,
far-fetched, or difficult to understand.
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According to Mahayana Buddhism or Development Buddhism,
reaching the goal is to become a Buddha, attain the fruit of
Buddha, or even stop at Bodhisattva status, not becoming a
Buddha because of making a great vow to return to the world
to save people. Regardless of the fruition, Buddhas,
Bodhisattvas, or Arahants have really eradicated all
defilements, completely cut off cravings, and are no longer
bound by anything, completely free, completely fearless.
They have attained the so-called absolute freedom. To
achieve this absolute freedom, they had to work hard and
practice to free themselves from the chains of bondage.
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The ropes
that hang around the neck of a slave who must submit to
their master are none other than your own body, along with
your mind, with its almost never satisfied desires for
enjoyment almost endless. The ropes tighten the ties of
love, predestined relationships, animosity, and debt
repayment, from life to life, entangled by the vines of the
forest of passion and sensuality, which humans are like
apes, like monkeys, clinging, delighting in passing from
branch to branch, chasing after pleasure from one place to
another, from one realm to another, not knowing when to
stop. The buddhas and bodhisattvas have completely removed
these obscurations.
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Because
there are constraints, there is liberation, that is, going
beyond those constraints. The ropes are just a symbol of
being tied and chained. The ropes here are completely
invisible, and so is the bondage, no one is seen tying
anyone, who is tying whom, but they are extremely tight
ties!
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The rope
that binds your limbs or your body can be made of materials
that are iron, trees, hemp ropes, vines, or whatever it is
that can be destroyed, damaged, worn out, or disintegrated
with time. Due to nature or for some other reason, it is
cut, and thrown away and thus you are free from restraint,
from being tied down, free, at ease, liberated. This binding
therefore cannot be considered certain. In contrast, the
bondage without a rope, the invisible bondage, the hands and
feet, the body are not tied, but you can't be free, can't be
comfortable. It seems that you always feel that your heart
is entangled, busy, worried, anxious, losing food, and
losing sleep! It is because your mind has been bound by the
desire to enjoy material things, and wealth as well as the
desire to be successful, satisfied, have a career, have
fame, authority, and position, as well as the desire to be
loved. So you are always hoping, waiting, working, trying,
having to pursue, explore, accumulate, keep, calculate,
arrange, plan, project... That is forcing your body to have
to run east and west, walking up and down, enduring extreme
suffering, even hurting lives. Your mind is always busy day
and night, sometimes leading to distraction!
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As a human,
you also need food, clothing, shelter, and medicine to treat
illness and take care of your body, but if you don't stop at
the level of knowing enough, let the invisible strings of
the mind not Knowing enough becomes the bottomless pocket of
greed that dominates, it pulls you everywhere, and from
there, you can create countless evil karma.
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Out of
greed, you do not refuse unjust means, tricks, immoral,
shameless, or unscrupulous. This greed can also lead you to
evil actions such as killing people, harming people in all
ways, getting possessions, gaining positions, or even taking
lovers of others. Greed and craving push you to prison,
hell, and heavy retribution.
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To give up
unwholesome dharma is to give up the karma that leads to
bondage, to give up the binding cause, you are no longer
confined. So if you want to be liberated first, you already
know that six organs of sense that comes into contact with six
dust or six sense objects is bondage. Besides the six organs
of sense, you must also pay attention to:
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- Body,
mouth, and mind.
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Think good
thoughts, think bad, think about gain và loss. According to
those thoughts, if the mouth says good, the body does good,
or the mouth speaks badly, the body does bad. This is
creating good karma and bad karma. If thoughts stop, then
karma will cease. The end of creating karma not only
liberates the present life but also frees you from samsara
as well.
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Why does
Venerable One advise you to chant sutras, recite Buddha's
name, practice meditation, and walk in reciting the Buddha's
name?
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The purpose
of chanting and reciting the Buddha's name is to bind your
mind, chant for the mind, and focus on remembering the
sutras so you don't think wrongly. Likewise, sitting
meditation, or any other method, is to let go of all crazy
thoughts, that is a way to cut off the seeds of karma, and
untie you so that you are not bound in samsara. Without
creating karma, nothing can bind you.
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Patriarch
Doshin or Tao-Hsin (580-651) when he was a little monk at
the age of fourteen, met Patriarch Seng-Ts'an (?-606) with folded
hands and said:
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- Venerable
Master, please teach me the method of liberation.
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Patriarch
Seng-Ts'an looked straight in the face and asked:
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- Who binds
you?
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He panicked
and looked for something that bound him, and when he
couldn't find it, he said:
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- Venerable
Master, no one binds me.
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Patriarch
Seng-Ts'an says:
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- Don't bind
to ask for liberation?
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There he
attained enlightenment. He was enlightened where nothing
could bind him. There is no binding, ie no karma, no karma
is liberation. If you seek liberation, but continuously
create karma, you cannot be liberated. Liberation is the
real thing that is available, does not come from anywhere,
is not given to you by anyone, just because you cannot
control the wandering thoughts, sadness, love, anger, and
hate, etc., you create karma, and karma leads you to go in
samsara.
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According to
the Small Sutra on Ending Loving Kindness
(Culatanhasankhayasutta) of the Majjhima Nikaya:
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A person is
called enlightened and liberated when he lives contemplating
impermanence, lives contemplating separation from greed,
lives contemplating cessation, lives contemplating
renunciation in feelings, and is not attached to anything in
the world. Without defilements, he attains Nirvana. He knows
well that: Birth is over, the holy life has been
accomplished, what needs to be done has been done, and there
is no coming back to this life.
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In short,
So, to be liberated, to be truly free, you must first master
the six senses, no longer be bound by them, not enslave
them, not let them manipulate your body and mind. The six
senses are always yearning and demanding to be satisfied, if
not satisfied, anger and delusion arise, thereby creating
karma and receiving retribution. Just like that, suffer and
drift in samsara, in the six paths, and in the three realms.
Your mastery of the six senses is only the first step on the
path to liberation. That is keeping the virtue. Along with
keeping the precepts, you also have to practice meditation
and wisdom. Precepts, concentration, and wisdom are the
three basic practices in Buddhism.
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Real
liberation must have wisdom, which is a true recognition and
knowing, that is, having a right view of suffering, of
not-self, of impermanence, of the emptiness of all things,
of all things without any attachment where Name and Form. No
attachment to both good and evil, no attachment to yes and
no, permanent and intermittent, purity and impurity... That
means no attachment to the dharmas, no attachment to the
self, to the permanent, unchanging. In the end, it is also
from this I, that craving arises, lust, and causes
innumerable sins. If you don't get entangled in a single
word of attachment, you will be truly liberated.
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Liberation
is the attainment of absolute freedom, which is attained in
the mind. Even though the mind still relies on the physical
body as a means from which to reach liberation, the mind is
limitless, as vast as space, and has great potential. It is
impossible to think about, it cannot be expressed in words,
it cannot be seen with the eyes or heard with the ears, nor
can it be pointed with hands. Because this is the true mind,
the mind that does not distinguish between this and that
does not cause troubles, greed, hatred, and delusion, but it
is Initial form, or Original form, or Original face or
Buddha-nature like the footprints of a crow's foot in real
space difficult to find. See nothing but not nothing.
Liberation is like flapping wings and flying like a bird
into space. No that has. Yes but no. Form means No. No means
form.
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