DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

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The phrase cultivate is wearing the Buddha's robe, according to the  Dharma Flower Sutra, or Lotus Sutra(saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra) there is a verse describing how we share the teaching with people. The verse is as follows:

- Great compassion to build a house

Robe harmony and patient

The emptiness dharmas (the silent nature of all phenomena) make seats

There, tell everyone

Housing here implied your mind. In great compassion, your mind embraces everything. Your love is so great that it can cover all human beings. Everyone in this world is your family. However, because there are so many types of people in this world, it is very difficult for you to get along with them. To be harmony with them, you must do as the verse in the Lotus Sutra teaches:

- You must wear a meek robe and patience.

So, the phrase cultivates is wear the Buddha's robes to mean that,  when you enter the path of cultivating, you must wear Buddha's robes. In other words, you have to practice the meek deed and patience. Therefore, for any young monks or nuns, when they renunciant their family who are ordained, they must wear a yellow robe. And any Buddhist Layman who has taken refuge in Three Gem has already taken the five precepts, they must wear a gray robe to worship Buddha. And when you wear the yellow robes or gray robe, you understand that it is a meek robe and patience. Indeed, do you see any monks or nuns who wear the yellow robe or Buddhist Layman who wear the gray robe that fights together in the temple? Not seen yet! Because when you already wear this yellow robe or gray robe, it always reminds you of the spirit of the patience and meekness and motivates you to try to live in accordance with this spirit.

I am sure of this because once I heard a Buddhist Layman recount, once or twice someone made him angry in the retreat. He wants to take off his gray robe to respond to the person who made him angry, but after thinking about putting on the gray robe was the patience and meek robe, so he no longer calculated more the gain or loss to him. Thus, the gray robe, however, is soft, simple but not only the physical robe that you wear on the outside, but it also reminds you to wear this meek robe and patience in your mind all the time.

With the meek and patience robe is the quality that always exists inside a Buddhist Layman; because there, there is Buddha-nature. You often forget your Buddha-nature and the way to return to Buddha-nature is to practice meek and patience deed. When others look at you, they look at behaviors and attitudes, which reveal a great deal about your inner self and your practice. Just as your body must have the clothing, your mind must also dress in harmony and patience robe. About the meaning of patience.

According to the common way of thinking of the world, patience is to endure adversity, unintentional things, to be at peace, to avoid disadvantage for yourself; Or endure to gain position and fame in life, etc. Patience in the above ways just to achieve your intentions; so, you always cherish resentment, affliction in your heart, wait until the opportunity you will take revenge. Thus, you have no peace, can not self-control, no benefits for yourself and others.  

According to the great master D. T. Suzuki explains the meaning of patience as follows:

Patience is not feeling frustrated when faced with bad things. Patience always treats anger, hatred, objection, obnoxiousness, dislike, toxicity, malevolence, malice, etc... Therefore, patience is defined as a release from an angry mind and excitement; At the same time forgive hurt and insult. 

According to the Vimalakirti Sutra, forbearance is the Pure Land of the Boddhisattva. The reason Boddhisattva has thirty-two solemn good marks is due to the practice of forbearance because forbearance will make the beauty harmonious, healthy body. Moreover, patience is one of the six pāramitā dharmas which is the practice for the attainment of the Boddhisattva path. Boddhisattva who has attained the dharma of paramitas such as Ksitigarbla Boddhisattva, Avalokitesvara Boddhisattva, Manjushri Boddhisattva, Samantabhadra Boddhisattva, Honourable Ananda, etc. These Boddhisattvas, after achieving Kshantiparamitand and making great vows to save sentient beings without end.

Practitioners of patience must practice on three aspects of body, speech, and mind. As a Buddhist Layman, when you are aware of this, then you should generate confidence, listen to the Buddha's teachings, observe the world, cultivate your body and mind. It is such, your present life can be peace and happiness, master sovereign, the future hopes to be born in a better realm, or life will have better conditions and cause.

Once you are aware of the truth, you will not complain about earth and heaven, once you have realized that your body and mind no longer create bad karma, then you and all sentient beings will live in tranquility, establishing the pure land right here in the human world. So from now on in your present life, develop your mind to practice one of the extraordinary methods taught by Buddha, that is forbearance deed.

As once said, when you practice forbearance deed, you must practice in three aspects: Body, speech, and mind patience.

How is called forbearance of the body?

To be considered body's forbearance means that you must control your body from three aspects: Not killing, no stealing, no committing adultery

1. Do not Kill

That is to tame yourself not to run after lusts, desires, just because of satisfaction for eating or because of the hatred, anger resentment that you kill the lives of all living creatures. In the Scriptures and Vinaya which teaches that from Buddhas, Saints, monks, and parents to small species as insects, kill them by yourself, or tell others to kill or see the killer of a creature who is happy with the killer, all are guilty of killing. Because all sentient beings have life, they also need life and are afraid of death, so you must not intentionally kill. According to the Ten Virtuous Sutra, the Buddha teaches that:

- All sentient beings because different thoughts should create different karma so that there is samsara in different realms.

Just because humans are wiser than other species, you can kill all beings to satisfy your own need, without mercy; or if out of anger you can kill others' live, there you will regret, repent, or evade legal punishment. To avoid regrets, a well as karmic retribution in the present and future, you should practice the forbearance to tame the body of not killing.

2. Do not steal

In your lifetime, at least a couple of times lost. The feelings of losing one's property, certainly not pleasant. So, you should not have the greed of steal one's property, even if it's a small object like a needle or a blade of grass. If because of greed to used power to steal, or sneak, or to use tricks to deceive, until not to do but to claim benefits, all belong to theft. The retribution of theft, if the misdemeanor is to lose faith in people, be despised, shunned. If serious crimes will go to jail. As a Buddhist Layman, you should practice mindfulness, all material possessions are temporary, unsustainable. In order not to lose human dignity, or to go to jail, when the greedy arises, you should remember the Buddha's teaching of patience training to tame craving.

3. No adultery

Every one of you wants to have a peaceful and happy family, everyone wants to protect and keep your family happy. Use your thoughts to know the minds of others, live a married life of faithful husband and wife, restrain yourself, do not lead to desire, lust, encroachment, and emotional division, the happiness of others. Presently avoids bad reputation and discord in the family, peaceful and happy life, not being divided by others. Therefore, you should practice forbearance, restraint, and desire for yourself to lead a peaceful, free life.

When you practice forbearance to tame the body without committing killing, stealing, and adultery,  your present life will be peaceful and happiness and master sovereign life; people confident, respect, and the future are good and beauty retribution. Therefore, you should follow the Buddha's teaching, often contemplate that:

- The human body is made up of four masses elements

The law of impermanent has been available from ancient time to the present,

Use a temporary fake body to live in life,

Cause no longer exist, you return to your old country

How is it orally patience?

That is, the practice of overcoming the words of ignorance, avoiding compliment or criticism is the cause of the debate about the things that do not say yes, or the true stories saying no, etc. Arousing anger, discord in the present life. Oral patience has four: Do not lie, do not exaggerate, do not speak disunite, do not speak cruelly.

1. Lie or false speech ie,  right say wrong, wrong say right. Seeing said not seeing, not seeing saying seeing; have knowledge say there is no knowledge, no knowledge, say is knowledge; good for bad, bad for good ... Mean lie, untrue, causing others to be confused, afraid.

In Buddhism, there is a great sin of lying to those who practice not enlightenment but boast that they are enlightened. If anyone commits this crime, they will fall into the evil cult and fall into the three miserable paths, very dangerous that is the animal realm, the hell realm, and the hungry ghost realm. So, you please practice saying the true words that come from being a compassionate mind and beneficial to everyone.

2. Speaking distorts the truth means use the florid word, elaborate, frivolous, not true, causing other people to change their minds, leading to a crazy mind, absent-mindedness, dreams, wrongdoing, etc. Be a Buddhist Layman, please practice saying true and right words out of compassion, benefiting for yourself and others.

3. Speaking with two tongues means saying words of separation, come to this person talking badly of the other person, come to the other person talking badly of this person, causing conflicts, dividing feelings of relatives and friends, leading to controversy and hatred; etc ... is a word of no benefit, distrust of people. Therefore, you need to practice, speak honestly so that people can trust and make friends with each other.

4. Cruel words mean words that are vulgar, abusive, and curse at others; Speak cruel words that make people ashamed and humiliated. This is due to anger mind leading to the alienation of everyone. Therefore, you should practice saying softly, easily heard, to win, to convert people. In order to accomplish the practice of the Four All-embracing Virtues, Buddha taught:

If you practice speech patience, mean you do not speak in the four wrong ways mentioned above. Thus, you have achieved the pure speech, the word that people trust, love to hear, and benefit words will bring joy, peace, and happiness to everyone; to be believed and respected by everyone; So, you have achieved in one of six rules of harmony that is the unity in communication.

Patience of Mentally

The patience of mentally there are three: Do not be greedy, do not be angry, do not be ignorant and evil view.

In the Three Karmas: Body, mouth, and mind, the karma of the mind is the most important. Because the body and the karma of the mouth create good or evil is the mind control. If the mind thinks of good things, then the body will create good karma; if the thought is not honest, then the body will create a dishonest. It is the same with the karma of the mouth. So, you need to practice the patience of mind, that is, tame the mind, not let the mind arising of evil thoughts as greed, hatred, and delusion are also known as three poisons; often contemplate the dharmas as impermanence, suffering, non-self, and not let consciously following the passion of the five sensual pleasures, leading the body and mouth to create unwholesome karma. In the Dhammapada Sutra, the Buddha taught that:

- Do no evil deeds,

Do good works,

Keep your mind pure,

Are the words the Buddha taught.

Let's meditate on the forbearance of the Buddha  

One time, the Buddha was giving a lecture, suddenly someone approached and spit in his face. Buddha nonchalantly wipes away and ask:

- Anything else? Do you want to ask anything else?

That person was truly surprised since he had not seen anyone spit on their face in spite of such calmness. Usually, an insulted person would get angry, responding violently; or, if the person who is a coward, will be afraid and begged for forgiveness. However, the Buddha was neither afraid nor humiliated nor anger, and asked again, leaving him not sure how to react.

Particularly for the disciple of Buddha, it is not so nonchalantly, The great disciple name is Ananda said:

- We can not be patient with such an event. We will give him a lesson so he never dares to do it later.

Buddha asked again

- What happened, He doesn't insult me that you need to give him a lesson? This person came from far away, he must have heard rumors and said bad things about me. They considered me as an inferior, atheist, poisoning sentient beings very dangerous, so he was angry and spit in my face. But he did not spit in my face, but in his heart, he wanted to spit at the idea that I was the wicked one.

Seeing his disciples listening, the Buddha explained:

- If you think carefully,  then it was he who spits in his mind, I absolutely did not participate in this. I still feel that this poor person still has many questions in his heart, so I just ask if there was anything else. Spitting in my face was a way to saying something, but I felt that the way of saying it was inappropriate then I asked him again.

In many cases, especially in a time of hatred, words are utterly helpless, and only actions can fully manifest one's feelings. Because he was so angry and unable to speak, he spits in my face. I knew him very well, so I ask him if he had anything else to say.

While that person was bewildered, listening to the Buddha's teachings, then Buddha continued:

- All of you have practiced with me for many years, knowing all too well about the virtue of patience and being angry with him, you are not yet a monk. 

Hearing these words, the strange man was ashamed to leave. At night, he could not sleep, in his heart tormented about what happened in the morning. He had never met a wonderful person like Buddha, so the more he thought, the more he was in complete crisis; How much knowledge from past to now has ever been turned upside down. Unable to bear it, the next morning, the strange man rushed back to the place where the Buddha preached, kneeling down at his feet. The Buddha then asked:

- What else do you have to say, so you came here such early? 

Yesterday you used a way of speaking that language can not express, today you kneel down and can not speak, that is, also use an act of expression the mind when language can not be expressed. So, obviously your language has a problem, so you can not say what you're thinking and want to say, right? 

When This man heard that, he raised his face and sobbed and said to the Buddha:

- Sir, please forgive all the sin I have done yesterday

Buddha smiled and replied:

- Do you want to apologize to the person who you spit in his face yesterday?

I am not that person. How much water of the Ganges river has flowed for thousands of years to date, today the water of the Ganges River is not the water of the Ganges River yesterday. Each person is like a river, the person you spit in his face is no longer here. I look like the person you spit in his face, but I'm not that person.

I can not forgive you, because right now I have nothing to resent you. Even You are the newcomer, you are not a person yesterday. The person today is gentle and the person yesterday is very fierce. The man yesterday spits in my face, and the person today knelt at my feet; Today you are a completely honest person.  

You are not a violent person, I was not a person of yesterday, so let's forget about yesterday's thing. Both of us, who spit on another person's faces, and who have been spat is no more. Now let's talk about something else.  

Through the teachings of Buddha, this man was very touched and asked to be a Buddhist disciple.

The Buddha is a great example of the virtue of patience that we all should follow. If you practice seriously, you need to be ashamed to remain angry with anyone. In my experience, patience is the ability to accept things as they are, instead of making things as you wish them to be. When you accept that, you have the ability to be patient with the mistake, failure, dissatisfaction, disappointments  ... Without giving up what you think is right. It can be said that patience is a significant force, nothing can hinder the power of patience. Regarding this power, a monk asked the Buddha:

- What is the strongest? What is the brightest

Buddha taught:

Forbearance is the strongest because it does not contain malevolence, so it increases peace. Forbearance is not evil, it is revered by all. The pollution mind has been eradicated, no longer defilement called the brightest. Means all things in the ten directions, from the beginningless yet heaven and earth until today, everything is visible, everything is known, everything is heard; achieve all kind the wisdom; such is called the brightest. And the Buddha showed out the following eight powers:

1. The power of children is Crying

2. The power of the women is indignation

3. The power of the thief is the weapon

4. The power of a king is the authority

5. The power of the foolish is overwhelming

6. The power of the wise is education

7. The power of a multi-writer is scrutinize

8. The power of the monks is patience

In order to have peace and joy, and liberation in your current life, as a Buddhist Layman, you should develop the mind to study Dharma, tame, subdue the three karmas: Bodies, the mouth, and the thoughts, apply the Buddha's teaching to life daily. According to the right view of Buddhism, your life, like all sentient beings is impermanent, temporary, fragile. The principle of awakening in the door of meditation states that:

 - Impermanent, old, sick, never make an appointment with you, the early morning is still there, but the evening is gone, suddenly passed away.

So, right now, you should develop the mind to practice to enjoy the taste of liberation dharma right now in your present life and future benefits. Firstly

- The first benefit of patience is to help you avoid all the negative effects of hatred and anger. Hatred and anger can make you behave foolishly and cause all sins. The hatred and anger also take away all your good idea. In hatred and anger, nobody can think of sympathy, forgiveness, or love for others. At that time you just only think about one thing is how to express your hatred and anger, turn it into a specific action, harm the person you are hatred, and anger with. Before you do that, you feel like being burned in the fire. So, there is a way to call it very imaginatively, that is the fire of anger.

The practice of patience helps you quell anger right from the moment it arises so that you can neutralize all its harmful effects. 

The second benefit of patience is to create a peaceful living environment around you. Because the practicing patience helps you to limit any opposition, contradiction, and conflict; at the same time resolving resentment, hatred, so of course all communication between you and those around you is no more stressful. On the other hand, when you have any conflicts that arise, all will be resolved in a peaceful way, minimizing all conflict between two sides.

Just like in the front yard of your house, if you are regularly clean,  There won't be much dirty garbage; Also the same, if your surrounding is constantly illuminated by the light of patience, there will not be much conflict, hatred, or resentment. Therefore, your life will definitely become more peaceful, and more harmonious.

- The third benefit of patience is to help you to train an endurance better, more durable. This world is called the world of patience, for the fact that you must continue to bear suffering, imperfection, as the indispensable component of life. In such a world, the best thing you can do is to train yourself to be able to endure, adapt to all suffering, instead of being angry or complaining about them. And the practicing patience can help you do that.

Patience is not a virtue that can be achieved in an isolated environment. When you have not been angry for many years, because no one makes you angry, that is not patience at all. Only in the face of challenging situations, evoking anger that you can overcome calmly is called patience. And more than that, it should be noted the factors that I mentioned in the previous section. That is: There is no anger, no hatred, and no evil intention.

As a Buddhist Layman, the first thing that needs to practice, you must be forbearance with your circumstance, your environment; Override your desires so that you and others have a free and peaceful life. In the current world, scientists, the authorities are trying in many ways to appeal to people to be aware of your thought and actions to limit the disaster of nature that are impacting complete destruction of your own environment, just because you live up to your own, desires and lust, you kill and destroy the lives of all beings mercilessly. It is your action that changes the circumstances, the natural environment if disasters happen to your life, it is also an inevitable rule, that is the cause and effect of your own present. So you should happily accept and do not complain.

Yourselves need to practice forbearance toward others, which is how we treat people in everyday life, from family to sociality. Moreover, in life open your heart to love and forgive others' wrongs. If you are cursed at, insulted, even beat ... You should learn the Buddha's patience, to use love to touch, do not resent, hatred because resentment and hatred cannot neutralize anger, sometimes while still refining the painting in the body, the resentment piled up, the injustice came many lives after many lives.   

Moreover, hatred and anger make people lose all their wisdom, leading to wrong actions, the body, and the mind is not self-control. In order to avoid regretting regrets about your action and thoughts when you are angry, you should develop your mind to practice the deed of gentle and forbearance to overcome your body and mind. In this way, the present life is peace and joy, the future will be free from anger and hatred, as the Buddha once overpower the No - Brain man, the drunken elephant ...  only with compassion and wisdom. The Buddha has considered the Devadatta is good knowledge because Devadatta helped the Buddha practice of forbearance to attain Buddhahood.

If in life, you have to accept the defilements and anger of others causing you. As a Buddhist layman, you should contemplate that, this is your bad karma in the past, be patient, and forgive, without resentment, to dispel defilements and hatred. Always remember what the Buddha said:

- Get gracious to pay resentment, then the resentment dissipates. Get resentment to pay resentment, the more resentment accumulates

You can do that, in the present, you can stop anger, stop arguing, understand others' faults, and relieve resentment in the future.

In Buddhism, patience does not weakness, raffish, but patience is a positive, discerning attitude led by wisdom. So, when you run into frustration-free failures, achieve success without arrogance, that's what patience means.

In happiness, in troubles, in moment ups or downs, you must keep your mind like earth. Likewise, just as on earth you can throw out anything, even though sour, sweet, clean, or dirty the ground is neither angry nor loving. From the Buddhist point of view, patience is the ability to remain calm, not get angry, not to react in a hurry when someone causes and humiliates, threatens, or even harm your life. When you are calm, you may have time to choose to behave wisely, not be manipulated, and act with your own anger. There is a story called:

- Do not take action when you are angry

The story is that the year after year, month after month, the season harvest came again. The king sent people to the localities to collect taxes. A certain fishing village had an old fisherman standing in a grumpy manner in front of a samurai swordsman who was tasked with collecting the money. The old man said:

- Honestly, I'm sorry this year the crop has failed again, the rain and the storm are constantly coming, I can't keep any money to pay you.

The fisherman has been indebted for several years, just like this, it was difficult to complete to collect the tax collection duties of the people. The angry Samurai, stripping his sword, intended to kill the fisherman to set an example for the villagers. The old man seems to worry, but with a bit of composure, said slowly:

- In my youth, I also learned material arts, my master taught: Do not do anything when angry.

Hearing the old fisherman's right words, the Samurai swordsman look at the old man for a while to probe, and slowly pulled his sword back into his sheath, then said:

- Your master must be a good person. My teacher also said these words, but I still can't do it forever, sometimes I get angry that it is difficult to control my mind. Today looks like you have a little luck, I have a one year term for you to repay new and old debts. If you lack a penny, it is difficult for you to peace your body.

The Samurai swordsman then left, collecting money from the remaining families, it was late at night by the time he got home. Because he didn't want to wake his sleeping wife, he sneaked into the house at the back door. Through the light of the lamp startled him, as he saw a stranger in samurai armor lying next to his wife. The jealousy broke out, his seft-esteem was violently outraged, in his anger he drew his sword and tried to kill both of them and would end himself. Suddenly the old afternoon fisherman's words echoed in his ear:

- Don't take action when you're angry

The fisherman word's give him a sense of whether or not to kill. So, he swung his sword in the air vent his anger. Hearing a strange sound, two were sleeping wake up and sitting up, at that time moment the Samurai swordsman realized that on the bed was his wife and mother-in-law. A moment horror, the samurai swordsman shouted:

- God, what's going on here! I almost killed both of you!

The wife confuses explain:

- Because you are away from home, late at night alone, I afraid of the crooks, so I ask my mother to stay with me, pretend to be a man in armor, to sleep together for me to be assured.

For a while, the cherry blossoms bloom again, the samurai swordsman has the opportunity to visit the fishing valley to collect taxes from the people. The samurai swordsman has not yet entered the courtyard, the old fisherman from the old day comes out to greet him and cheerfully invited the samurai swordsman to come to his house to pay the tax. The samurai swordsman looked at the old man for a moment, then said:

- Come on, you keep that money, the debt for several years previous is considered to paid!

In short, the gentle and patient conduct is the first virtue to be performed as a monk or a nun. It is also the number one practice of lay Buddhists. Wearing the gray robe is that you have accepted that you must practice gentle and patiently, keep your trustworthiness and respect above and below in order to overcome the difficult obstacles on the path.

When you have dressed in the Buddha's clothes, your heart must practice harmony, perseverance, and be different from others, meaning you never get angry, because of the bitter and sour experiences you have to go through. You also never waver about the compliments you receive. This heart is likened to Buddha's robe which is never defiled, because of any good and bad influences from outside. This means that when a Lay Buddhist has practiced and become a disciple of Buddha, you must uphold this strong decision, to spread this spirituality study everywhere and locations. 

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