Chua Duoc Su

Peace is the natural nature of the mind in every person. Peace has been there since the day you were born and it will continue to be there until your death. It's a great gift for you, but sometimes you think you don't have peace of mind, so you run to find it. When you search, there are many instructions from many different teachers, which makes you more confused, not knowing which method is right and which method is wrong.

Actually, it's not difficult at all. Like when you go to the temple, you can reach the temple from many differing directions. In the same way, usually, the methods of learning are different while practicing, but the endpoint is that they all help you stay in the mindfulness. The main point is that everyone needs to take to heart is not to get attached. Because the end all spiritual practices must be abandoned.

You should not confuse peace, tranquility with happiness. You see that when the mind has wisdom it observes the nature of happiness and suffering, that is peace and quiet. This you have because the wisdom that sees the truth of both happiness and suffering will no longer be attached to these states. Your mind will rise above happiness and suffering.

For those who see life and all its related thing as they really are, their main concern about this life is not vague speculation or wandering into imaginary wildernesses of futile imagination, but how to attain true happiness and freedom from suffering or unsatisfactoriness. Buddhism attaches great importance to reality. Lay Buddhists do not rely on supernatural abilities but on the contrary focus on experimenting for themselves.

In today's everyday life, people tend to be impatient, act immediately, do it right away and do everything in a hurry. That's why you don't have time to think, stop, ponder what you're doing. You tend to react with a disorder's habitual mind instead of acting calmly and with focus so you create more trouble. Any action without wisdom is destructive. Living intelligently means contemplating and seeing the right moment, the right opportunity, and the right situation to be able to act.

Remember, no matter what you do, still a body alone, you drift in the storm, in the ocean of samsara, drifting here and there according to karma, appearing here is in the form an animal or a human, over there like gods or hungry ghosts. You meet, then leave. Maybe you'll see each other again, but you won't recognize each other. So, it is difficult to find a sentient being who in the endless cycle of samsara is not yet your father, mother, brother, sister, child, daughter, or friend. It doesn't matter if karma goes up and karma goes down, but it is your attitude that there should be no distractions that are the problem that needs to be resolved.

Whether you love or hate someone is based on liking or disliking. You automatically categorize others according to your preconceptions. If they meet your ideals and seem to suit your taste, your mind immediately clings to them, but if they are of a kind that doesn't suit your taste, your mind starts to reject them.

In this way, your mind is always filled with love and hate. This means your compassion changes with the situation, and your feeling is impermanent. So worldly love is unstable, it can turn into hate. Love and hate are two extremes that can drown you in the flood of ambition and delusion. You should be careful with these two extremes. Ignorance is always ready to make you bring yourself suffering.

To avoid the two extremes, the Samyutta-Nikáya Sutra, in that Sutra someone asks the Buddha:

- How do you overcome the flood of ambition and delusion?

Meaning of his enlightenment. Buddha's answer is very simple:

- O Sage, without standing still, without haste, I am beyond the floodwaters of ambition and delusion

That person asking:

- Sir, How can you not stand still, do not rush, you overcome the floodwater of ambition and delusion?

Buddha replied:

- O Sage, when you stand still, you are sunk, when you rush, you are swept away. Therefore, O Sage, without standing still, without haste, I rise above the floodwaters of ambition and delusion.

Actually, practicing in everyday life is not an escape from reality, but on the contrary, it is a deeper perception of reality. And if you look deeply and very clearly, underneath that restless reality is a quiet, wise, and happy reality. That is what the reality is. And if you don't stop and don't rush, this stillness and insight will naturally manifest in its own time.

By being aware of the present moment. When you realize that you clinging to the concept of letting go, let it go. In that moment of letting go, you are free. You stop clinging to the idea of letting go of concern and paying attention to others. It is only in moments of complete freedom that equanimity is freed from both mental states of attachment and detachment. So, practicing in everyday life makes your life meaningful, especially:

1. Direction of life

To study is to aim for a higher goal, which is awareness. Concentration and rest are just factors that accompany awareness, the sole goal of which is to purity and transform your daily life.

2. Expanding the Soul

You should not try to block your mind so that it no longer knows anything, or turn you into an inanimate tree, wood, and stone. On the contrary, practicing will help you become more sensitive, more harmonious to changes in your emotions. You will understand yourself more clearly and accurately.

3. Nothing mysterious

Cultivation involves deeper levels of consciousness than your ordinary thoughts. So, there are some experiences in the practice that you just can't explain in words. But that doesn't mean that practice is something mysterious that can't be understood.

4. Developing awareness

The purpose of practice is to develop awareness. Knowing the future or reading the minds of others is not the purpose of meditation. Flying off the ground is not the goal of cultivation. The goal of practice is liberation.

5. Nothing dangerous

When you practice you can bring up your past problems or sufferings. Things that have been buried deep for so many months, and years, can be very scary. But discovering and learning about them will bring you huge benefits. The way to deal with danger is to be aware of its intensity, know where it lies, and know how to deal with it when it arises

If you practice correctly, the practice is a very slow and gentle process. Just practice slowly, progress and transformation will happen very naturally. Don't force anything. And later, when you're ready, under the guidance and insight of a capable teacher, you can speed up your progress by attending more serious retreats for more days. But in the early stages, you should practice for comfort. Practice slowly and patiently, everything will be fine.

6. Practice is for everyone

Practice is never a special method only for hermits, ascetics. It is a method that is directly related to problems in daily life and can be applied immediately to your own life. Practice is not for anyone, but for everyone.

7. Cultivation in reality

Practice means to seek reality. Practice is a method whose sole purpose is to get in touch with reality, to experience life as it really is, and to behave exactly with what you see. Practice is not a way for you to forget yourself and hide your problems. Practice is learning to look at yourself correctly, see what is really there and accept it. Only then can you transform them.

The purpose of a lay Buddhist is to remove greed, anger, and prejudice from his mind, which is also the aspiration of those who have an upper mind towards good. Remove the obstacles that block your compassion and love for those around you, for if those obstacles exist then any good deeds you do will be just an expression of your ego, and it will not bring any lasting benefit. Completely transforming your selfishness is an act of altruism, it is an exercise in being aware of what is present, whether it is something great or just a small thing as small as a grain of sand.

8. A Great transformation

Practice is not a quick fix for all diseases. While you may be able to see the changes from the start, the profound effects will take many years to come. Therefore, it requires persistent discipline and sometimes hard training. After a period of practice, you will get transformative results, but those results are often very subtle. They occur in the depths of the mind and manifest only after a long time. If you study with the intention of always expecting great immediate changes, you won't get even those very subtle transformations. Then you will be disappointed, give up and complain that the practice is not bringing any results.

Patience is the key to all problems. Please be patient. Even if you don't learn anything else through practice, you learn patience. And that is the most valuable lesson available to you. Therefore, in order to supplement, and have a good effect on spiritual practice in everyday life, you need to be serious in a few aspects:

* Keep Silent

Talking often distracts your attention and drains your energy. The energies that you preserve by remaining silent can be used to develop your awareness and mindfulness. Just like meditation, silence must be practiced naturally and comfortably. Learn to live each day with awareness in silence. If you keep silent, all activities, psychological and physical change in you will become very obvious. The silence of the language leads to the silence of the soul.

* Reduced Communication

Everyone will die from this life alone. So, learn to face that basic loneliness right now, make friends with it. With that understanding, your mind will become stable and peaceful. This ability can help you live in harmony with those around you. Once you can understand yourself, contact with the outside world becomes easier and more meaningful. Therefore you should not mix many other methods of practice, but you should focus your mind on the practice.

You should focus on practicing mindfulness in every moment, to easily control your monkey mind. If all your efforts are directed in one direction, your mind will become extremely intense and profound. Take it humble and slow down. Within the scope of your daily activities, keep yourself with a very alert mind, paying careful attention to your every movement. Maintaining mindfulness continuously for a while will help your practice deepen more and more deeply.

Mindful moment by moment concentration of mind will easily develop in the land of precepts(moral). Keeping the precepts is the foundation of meditation practice. The precept for lay Buddhists is basic moral rules. There are only five precepts.

* Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not commit adultery, Do not lie, and Do not use intoxicants to distract from mindfulness.

If you use precepts as the basis for all your actions, your mind will be peaceful, clear, and calm, and your mind will easily develop. Many people are afraid of the wrong actions, guilty, anxiety so much that they lose sleep. Being limited to the precepts at first, the precept is burdensome, but over time you will keep them in a lighter and more relaxed manner.

In fact, to practice precepts you have to start with wisdom. Usually, you say keep the precepts first. But in order for the observance of the precepts to be fully accomplished, you must have the wisdom to understand clearly what is involved in the precepts. To begin with, you must examine your body and your language, learn the process of Cause and Effect. As you observe your body and speech to see how you cause harm, you will begin to understand, control, and purify Cause and Effect. By doing so, the insecurities will be reduced, and the passion will be lighter. Your intuition will become sharper than before. Your thinking will become more precise, and gradually you will be able to directly touch the things around you as they really are, just like that, without judgment, free from delusions false.

A necessary thing the venerable ones often admonish:

While practicing in the midst of everyday life, you are often affected by many tendencies, which sometimes make your faith shaken. Remember, as a lay Buddhist, you can go to any temple that you are comfortable with, but you must focus on studying. Cultivate is not running a show, so you must have a deep faith, as the Buddha taught at the beginning of practice in the Kalama Sutra. The Buddha's Declaration of Faith teaches. Deer Kalamas:

* Do not believe in legends

* Do not rush to believe in tradition

* Do not be quick to believe what many people say or propagate

* Do not rush to believe in scriptures or books

* Do not believe in metaphysical reasoning

* Do not be quick to believe what is in line with your position

* Don't be in a hurry to believe what matches your preconceptions

* Do not be quick to believe what is supported by strength and authority

* Don't be quick to believe what is your guru says

But, gentlemen, when having you personally experienced and known clearly the following:

* These dharmas are good

* These dharmas are not guilty

* These dharmas are praised by the wise

* These dharmas, if accepted and implemented by everyone, will bring happiness and peace. Well then, gentlemen, try to practice to attain abide in happiness yourself!

When you personally experience and know the following:

* When no greed, no anger, and no delusion arise in someone's mind such arising is what brings happiness.

* When someone is not conquered by greed, hatred, and delusion, does not kill living things, does not take what is not given, does not lie, and encourages others to do the same. Thus, it is to bring happiness and peace to that person for a long time. So what do you think?

* Are these dharmas wholesome or unwholesome?

- Definitely good.

* Are these dharma criticized or not?

- Do not criticize

* Being rebuked by the wise or praised by the wise?

- Praised by the wise, World-Honored One!

* If implemented, accepted, does it lead to happiness or how?

- Done, accepted, they certainly lead to happiness and well-being.

What the Buddha taught if you accept it and practice it your whole life will be peaceful and happy. In the Sutra, Buddha not only advises you to believe what you have experienced yourself, but he also shows you things that you yourself have experienced and know very well. You all have experienced that whenever you act out of jealousy, pettiness, calculation, delusion... they are unwholesome and will bring suffering. And vice versa, any actions due to tolerance, forgiveness, wisdom, love ... will definitely bring you happiness.

The Buddha always advised you to have faith in the dharma and your practice. What actions are motivated by self-interest, greed, hatred, delusion will bring you suffering, and if you know how to try to practice forgiveness, generosity, openness ... you will definitely have happiness. That is what Buddha advised you to believe because you have all experienced and understood them very well.

Whether society or the surrounding life says that wealth will bring freedom, and even if some authority tells you that fame and profit will bring happiness... you don't have to believe it. See for yourself what you have experienced! What begins with clinging, grasping, petty will only bring dissatisfaction and suffering. And what begins with letting go, relaxation will lead you to freedom and happiness. Therefore, being a person of faith has seven characteristics:

1. Often has the mind to let go

2. Looking forward to meeting the Saint

3. Desire to hear the Wonderful Dharma

4. Often has a joyful mind

5. Less boasting

6. Not cunning

7. Clean place worthy of purity

Faith in Buddhism is the belief that leads to liberation. And this faith is placed in the Three Jewel, practicing according to the Eightfold Path, seeing the Four Noble Truths.

* To believe in the Buddha is to believe in his wisdom, but you can't just believe it, you have to experience it.

* Believing in the Dharma is clearly identifying clearly the three characteristics: impermanence, suffering, not-self or believing in the way to the cessation of suffering( the Eightfold Path)

* Believing in the Sangha is believing in the results of the path to the cessation of suffering, which is the fruit of Arahatship. The Sangha refers to the four holy fruits:

* Stream-entry, Once-Returner, Stage of non-returner, and Arahat results

Belief in kusala-dharma, faith means trust is placed in people or things that are good, but really good or not is another matter. As children trust their parents, teacher, to them these people are wonderful, or they believe in fairies, gentle fairies in the poetic fairy tales of children. Faith is the first foundation of good things. There are two types:

* Faith of the Saints:

As the faith of the Holy One, this faith is immovable and cannot be changed by anyone. There is only one kind of holy faith, which is righteous faith.

* Beliefs of ordinary people

As a faith of ordinary people, this faith is not yet firm, it is still shaken because it has not yet attained Nirvana. So it can be changed. There are two kinds of ordinary people's faith: Right faith and wrong faith.

a. Right faith of ordinary people: It is faith placed in kusala dharma or in the completely pure object.

1. Believing in karma

- Believing that: Due to the natural law, all things are created, not created by God nor by chance

- Believing that: The movement of dharmas is always changing, so they have the state of impermanent, change, and continuous birth and death.

Believe that: Beings are different, it is good and bad ... is created by karma. Like an ordinary person, through diligent practice attain sainthood, become a Saint. This result is due to practicing in a good way, which is the correct practice of the dharma. Sentient beings fall into misery due to the movement of evil and bad dharmas, sentient beings into the leisurely realm are due to the movement of kusala-dharma... not rewarded by God nor punished by God. It is that being that chooses and practices it.

2. Believe the results of karma

It is the result of each of the above actions. In the mental realm, the action of the mind produces a mental result. Easier to understand, believing in karma and believing in its effects is believing in Cause and Effect.

3. Believe in the return of karma

Is to believe that: Once you created unwholesome karma, you will receive the results of suffering, when you created good karma, you will receive happiness from that good deed.

So, if someone asks:

- Who creates karma?

You created karma yourself, but more precisely the mental factor Analysis

- Who benefits?

You also reap the fruit, more precisely is experienced by the mind.

Happiness or suffering you create yourselves and you are the recipient of that happiness or suffering. Happiness or suffering is not given or punished by any God or Creator.

4. Believe in Buddha's wisdom

Is to believe that: The Buddha is the one who is completely pure and has wisdom who understands all the dharma.

Right faith implies wise faith, discerning faith, and verified faith. If faith is without wisdom, just pure faith or a belief that has wisdom but is not verified, it is not called perfect righteous faith, although this type of belief is better than faith without wisdom.

b. Evil faith

Evil belief is a false belief, there are two types of false beliefs: Fanaticism and superstitions

- Fanaticism is the extreme belief in the wrong or evil character, but according to the heretic, it is a good theory or the ultimate character. Fanaticism is an extreme form of the wrong view. There are two types of superstition.

1. Believing in something completely unfounded

Like believing there is a self-ego, there is a creator, believing in burning paper money, paper house to help a relative in the underworld (hell) ... Believing in this baseless thing is based on rumor, like some people spread false news: Temple this inspiration, that temple shines...The purpose for stupid people come to make offerings, worship... This unfounded belief is classified as mental actions of delusion or wrong view.

2. Believing in falsehoods

Deviations are something that is not entirely wrong but not entirely right. Some Lay Buddhists believe in another power that can help them out of sưfering. Here, the divine power of Boddhisattvas or Buddhas is real, but it is not through worship or supplication that Boddhisattva and Buddha help, they only protect when you create good karma. If a person does evil deeds and causes suffering to others, but he prays to the Boddhisattvas, and Buddhas to protect him from this disaster, this will not happen.

Some Lay Buddhists also have similar thoughts, that is, without practicing precepts, concentration, wisdom, just almsgiving, and reciting Buddha's name is to be born in the Buddha-land. Of course, almsgiving, reciting the buddha's name is good, but it cannot lead to liberation without practicing precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Here is the deviation, here is the error. Faith, in this case, is faith without wisdom, in the aspect of right, and superstitions in the aspect of false belief. Faith without wisdom often leads to false faith.

First, temporarily put your faith in the Buddha as a journey, and eventually, you will have a firm confidence, based on experience, the liberating and purifying power of the dharma. Confidence in that teaching will bring you deep faith in the Buddha as your teacher, and from there you will accept the principles of practice that he taught to help you move forward on the path to enlightenment.

In short, to practice in everyday life is to practice right in your daily activities, sometimes looking at your mind, you only perceive active moods, such as the emotions associated with daily activities. But you tend to forget the peaceful moments in between those thoughts and emotions. Then you think you will never have peace of mind. That's because you never allow yourself to be at peace. You are so absorbed in fighting with yourself and your emotions that this struggle becomes second nature to you. Then you complain that your mind is not peaceful.

You can put all these complication ideas aside for a moment, so you see this peaceful nature of yours because you are so lucky to have it at hand instead of wandering around looking for it any other. Now you come back to yourself step by step. Because you can't find it anywhere else while it's right inside of you. That's probably why you often look for it and don't find it.

To do so, you need to understand that the Buddha's teaching in the Sutra includes what you can realize for yourself in your daily life experience; then from there, it will be a solid basis for you to put your faith in other aspects of the dharma, going beyond your ordinary experiences to open up insight. For an insight to function as liberating, it needs to be unfolded in the context of accurately grasping the vital truths about your place in the world and about the scope of liberation.

These truths were propagated by the Buddha from his profound understanding of human nature. To accept those truths with faith after careful consideration is to take the first step on a journey that transforms faith into wisdom, confidence into certainty, and leads to freedom from all pain, suffering in the midst of daily life.