ANIMAL, HUMAN AND SAINT

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

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In terms of karma and virtue, there are three forms of beings: Animal,
Human and Saint.
"Animal" is a lower tier than human, "Human" is ourselves, and "Saints" are
holy people. When we compare these three forms of beings, we know that we will
take the path of Saint, not the path of Animal.
There are number of criterias to clearly identify the difference between
"Animal", "Human" and "Saint". Based on these criterias, we will see the danger
very clearly. If we're not careful, we will be easily reborn into the Animal realm.
Looking at a couple aspects, we see that animals usually live by an instinct that is
programmed in their brains. For example, salmons and sardines start living their
lives in the riverbed. After the eggs hatch, they swim out to the sea. But one day,
they follow a call from their sub-consciousness and swim back to the riverbed
where they were born to spawn and die there.
The first standard requirement to differentiate between Animal,
Human, and Saint.
For example: dogs. We do not know the real reason, but their instinct is to
be loyal to their owners, even if the owner is abnormal. There's a story about a
vicious dog. Its owner was a drinker. He did not care or love the dog. He only
raised the dog because he used the dog to herd the sheep. But one day, he went
away, and the dog wandered thousands of miles to search for him even though
there was nothing special about him. He was just a gambler and a drunkard. But
the dog is pre-programmed to be loyal to its master, so it just acted out of
instinct.
Monkeys are programmed to imitate, especially human actions. Humans
also imitate, but the imitation of monkeys is very primitive, because it's an instinct
that is pre-programmed in their brains. The instinct of Bees is to find honey to
make nests. That is also an available instinctual program.
That is about "Animal".
However, there are intelligent exotic animals. But most animals behave
instinctually by the pre-installed program based on their karma. For example,
tigers are strong, agile, fierce and cunning, because they have evil karma. But,
they also have some blessings which makes everybody fear them.
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Or the snakes with a long body, no arms, no legs, a head with fangs and
venom. They do not need to bite anyone but they make us scared when we see
them. Why? This is because in a past life, they wanted other people to be afraid
of them. They thought that being strong and fierce would make them winners.
They wanted to show their powers. Unfortunately, they did not know that making
people fear them caused them to be reborn as snakes so that people would fear
them.
Or dogs who are instinctually loyal, and to become a dog has multiple
reasons. One reason could be that a person committed a sinful act and was reborn
as an animal. But because he is a loyal person, he is reborn as a dog with loyal
instincts to pay for his bad karma. And at the same time, he retains his loyalty
value so someday he will be reborn as a good human again.
Or domesticated horses who always enjoy having someone riding on their
back. But wild forest horses don't like this. Domesticated horses like to be ridden
by humans. This is because of a debt in the past. They are those who were in
debt, but they did not have money to pay. And, they blurted out, "I can't pay your
debt in this life, I pray that in my next life I will be a horse or a cow so I can slave
for you as payment." Because of this saying, they are reborn to be wise and loyal
horses, and they're very excited to be ridden to pay off the old karma. So the
domesticated horse enjoys it when its owner rides on its back.
That is about animal instincts. The instincts are based on past karma. And
it is not just created by nature.
For human beings, we are based on two factors: a natural factor, and an
environmental and educational factor. What is a natural factor? That is the good
or bad personality or character available when we are born. Intuitive people can
look at a baby and tell if the baby will have a good or mean personality, a good
temper or hot temper, intelligent or stupid. They even know if the child will later
succeed or not. Natural factor means that the program has been pre-installed in the
baby. But, a human has more freedom than an animal. We can think and choose
what to do or say during our lifetime.
The second factor is environmental and educational. If we live with many
good people, they will create good impressions and a good environment which
will ingrain in our mind, and we will gradually be transformed and will follow a
better path in life.
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For example, a naughty and stubborn child was born in a good family, and
lives with gentle people who talk and behave gracefully. If his scale of badness
was at a ten, it would gradually shrink to a four. So, our living environment and
education has a strong influence. But to be reborn in a good or bad environment
depends on the karma of the past.
In the past life, a gentle family was bullied over disputed lands. Suddenly, a
thug protected them, and they didn't lose their lands. That family has owed him
since then. After maybe ten lives, the thug was reborn into that family. Everyone
in that family is very kind, but the child is a rascal. Since everyone in the family is
gentle and tender, the childs mischievous personality slowly reduced by six from
ten. The remaining four gives strangers an impression that he is rascal compared
to the rest of the people in the family, but they do not know that his bad
personality has been reduced by more than half.
Or a gentle person was born into a violent family, living with bad people.
His perfect ten personality was slowly reduced by six, because he was born in a
violent and troubled family, and he will gradually become a bad person. The
reason why? This is because in a past life, he owed this family. So, he must be
reborn and live with them to pay back the debt, etc. ...
Just like us, when we practice the Buddha's teachings, we try to create much
merit, purify our mind through meditation, recite Buddhism sutras and pay respect
to our Saints, and accumulate good deeds, so we will be reborn in heaven after
death. Because we've just been reborn in heaven, our mind is not as pure as those
who been in heaven for a long time. For those who have been in heaven for a
while they have a pure mind, and can know each other just by initiating a thought.
So, no one thinks about anything bad, and we should keep our mind pure like them
while living here on earth.
Because of this second factor, many educators and many sages appear in
this life hoping to transform humans to become holy. Without education, people
will gradually become evil. This's very dangerous. So, we must be grateful for
the saints who appeared and created a good environment for us to live in.
If each of us acknowledge the truth about life, be truthful with ourselves and
with each other, we must recognize that we have made a lot of mistakes.
However, we are joining a sacred festival, living in Buddha's arms, and share a
warm and loving atmosphere, we should let go or forget about our guilts. We just
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want to love everybody, be mindful on Buddha and do not be annoyed with the
crowds, hardships, poor sleep conditions, and windy environment. What do we do
if someone sleeping next to us puts his/her legs on us when he/she is sleeping?
Normally we would get annoyed, but in this sacred festival, well be more patient.
We would lift those legs and not wake up the sleeper or move somewhere else
where we can find quietness and continue to rest. And when we are not angry,
we'll feel love, happiness and serenity.
In an ethical environment, we love one another, not hate one another, life is
peaceful and serene. This environment will increase happiness in our hearts,
helping us to mature in Dhamma. If we're in another environment, such as on a
train, we will be afraid of being robbed, and so we can't feel peaceful and happy.
But in a religious environment it is different. We are more patient because we have
dharma and Buddhas teaching and protection, so we can continue to cultivate.
So, a good environment is very beneficial. Thanks to the Buddhas dharma
we have stopped many wrong doings, and created peaceful cultivation
environments. This promises us that after death we won't be reborn in a miserable
place. If we aren't reborn into an extremely happy realm, we will certainly be
reborn into good living realms where we can be satisfied with our cultivation.
Thus, we need to grateful Buddhas, nuns and monks...
So, what's our duty? That is: we have to create an ethical environment for
future generations.
Currently, we are living in an ethical environment due to the work of many
regions around us. When we go home, back to our villages, we also have to create
such an environment for the children. We vowed to love all beings following
Buddha's teachings. So, we will love our neighbor's children as our children. And
we will try to set ethical and moral examples for children to imitate. We will help
them to live in the aura of the Buddha and becoming good people. By doing this,
we will create a good environment for the children, and our merit will be great.
So, we say that "Animals" live on instinct. "Humans" live half on instinct
and half on education. What about the Saints?
Saint means that he can control his soul, not living on natural instinct.
However, there are four levels of sainthood in Buddhism. The first is Srota-

Apanna, the second is Sakrdagamin, the third is Anagamin, and the last is Arhat.
Buddhas and Arhats are no longer governed by reincarnation.
For each of the four levels of Saints, the higher the level, the more powerful
the supernatural ability. All Saints have a pure soul and they are capable of
controlling themselves not to do wrong, and to not live on instincts. The first level
of Sainthood, Srota-Apanna, is the hardest to reach. Why is that? It is because at
this level, the Saints are aware of goods and bads. Because of past karma, they
must struggle with their circumstances and with themselves extremely hard.
Although Srota-Apanna goes through hardship and struggles, they have great souls
to start with, and are gentle. Srota-Apanna does not have supernatural powers as
we think but has mindfully followed Buddha's teachings, cultivation and
enlightenment. Those who have not reached Srota-Apanna level, can switch paths
often. They can be easily persuaded by either good or bad people, and they follow
a good path if they are persuaded by good people or bad path if they are persuaded
by bad people. Saints who reach Srota-Apanna level are different than laymen,
although they are not very powerful, they cannot be persuaded to follow anything
other than ethical and good deeds.
We have distinguished that "Animals" are driven by instincts, "Humans" are
driven by both instincts, educational and environmental, and "Saints" are driven by
self-governed power and wisdom.

The second standard is desires and feelings.

"Animals" live on instinct. They act and behave as they feel like it, and do
not think about right or wrong. For example, except for well trained dogs, dogs eat
whatever people give them. Stray or wild dogs often bite each other to protect
their food. They do anything to satisfy their desire without thinking. Humans
think, evaluate and contemplate our actions. We evaluate our actions based on the
law, ethics, morals, responsibilities, circumstances, and sins or merits.
For
example, when there is food on the table, Animals will dive right in and eat, but
humans will consider how many people will need to eat, or we can eat it or who
can not. We always consider thoroughly before we commit our actions.
Or when it comes to affection or reproduction, animals mate wildly, except
those that are programmed to be loyal. The males and females will live together
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for their entire life. This is also determined by their karma. But most animals act
and behave on instinct. So, after testing DNA of some species such as apes and
monkeys, scientists discovered that their children haven't got the same DNA. It
means they mate with many different males or females.
Humans are different. We are bound by law, morals and ethics. So, we
have to consider our actions before enjoying the desire of flesh and not just
following our instinct. That is the difference between "Human" and "Animal".
The Saints don't have any pleasure and desires. Based on pleasure and
desire, we know whether we're going to be reborn in the Animal realms or
Saint realms. For those who are inclined to enjoy pleasure and fulfill their
desires, we know that they're going to be reborn in the Animal realms, even if
they have many blessing. For example, they have a lot of money, and they use it
to do anything which makes them happy and pleased. Because they had money
and they enjoy life the way they desire, they are heading towards the Animal
path. They are planting the seed of becoming an animal because only animals
enjoy life despite consequences. For those who always think carefully about the
consequences of their actions and what they should or should not do, they will
continue to be reborn in Human realms after death.
For those who forgo pleasure and desires, but instead focus on cultivation
and practice religious life, they will be on the path of sainthood. We are judging
this based on their pattern of behavior. The things that people enjoy, or animals
incline to, the Saints feel trapped or restricted. This is a very strange difference!
Just look at this, we will know if a person has the wisdom to cultivate or not.
Those who enjoy life with a strong heart will enjoy all joy despite the
consequences. Lets make up a game to find out. Those who have strong desire
for pleasure will gravitate towards it and well know that they will head towards
the Animal realms. If we invite them to attend a party, they will agree without
thinking or considering. They are going towards the "Animal" path. But if they
think about it or consider it before accepting the invitation, they are heading
towards the Human realms. Because Humans think and evaluate before we make
a decision. And those who refuse to enjoy casual pleasure and spend more time in
cultivation in Buddha's arms, or consider everything carefully before doing; they
are going toward the "Saint" path.

The third standard of judgment is based on tame and vicious.

For animals, we roughly divide them into two types: tame and vicious. The
tame animals, like oxen, rabbits and birds eat grass, vegetables, and small insects.
The vicious animals, like tigers, panthers, and lions, violently hunt for prey. They
rip their prey violently apart. Its very painfully to look at.
But animals are programmed to follow their instinct. There is not much we
can do. The tame animals, which don't harm any other creatures, once they pay
off their karma, will be reborn to the Human realm.
Humans are similar. Some are gentle, and some are cruel. Many people are
very cruel, they can hit, kill, harm or deceive others. But there are also people
who always love, serve, help others. In this world of animals, the cruel beasts are
always cruel, the gentle beasts are always gentle. But humans are both gentle and
cruel, sometimes we are gentle and sometimes we are cruel. A gentle person can
also become a cruel person. This makes lots of people surprised when choosing a
mate or lover.
For example, a guy feel in love with a gentle, cute girl, and got married with
her. After they got married, he found out that the sweet woman was actually mean
and cruel. If the husband questions her, she would say, I had to be nice then in
order to be married to you. Or a girl got married with a gentle and brave
husband. After a few years, he became a playboy... People can change easily.
But, it's very easy to change from good to bad, and it's very difficult to change
from bad to good. That is the reason why humans tend to fall to the Animal
realms more often than to the Saint realms.
People say that: "Nature changes, but human nature can't." We've advised
bad people to change to be good many times, but they haven't changed. So we
have concluded that its difficult to change people. But the truth is that it's very
easily to change a good person into bad person. And this has created tragedies in
marriage and family life. At the beginning of a marriage, people live happily with
each other. But after a while, we gradually change because we have to earn a
living, so we stay away from cultivation and practicing dharma, and slowly change
for the worse, day after day. It is very sad indeed. But if we were exposed to
Buddhism dharma, we could cultivate and develop a sustainable happy life.

We can see that the tameness/gentleness or cruelness/viciousness in animals

is designed and programmed in their instinct. Humans are both gentle and cruel.
Saints are holy and because they are holy, they are Saints. It is taught in
Buddhism sutras that there are four levels of meditation. Those who can reach the
first level of meditation will completely forgo all bad thoughts from their minds.
It's very difficult to achieve this, so whoever can successfully reach the first level
of meditation, they are the greatest.
There's no law in the world of animals, they only live on instinct. For
example, a female cheetah will hunt for food and raise her newborns
affectionately. But when the newborns are fully grown up and can hunt for
themselves, the mother cheetah will chase them away from her territory. They
must leave and begin a new life by themselves and eventually lose the sense of
their mother and child relationship. That's determined by instinct and not by law.
Humans have ethical and moral standards and we can refrain from doing
wrong. For those who cannot refrain themselves from doing wrong, we create
laws to handle them. If all humans had high moral and ethical standards, we
would not need the law.
For example, when we have a Buddhist festival at Phat Quang Pagoda, we
have a rule: each person should not take more than three lunches. Why? Because
when people take too much food, they cannot eat it all, and then others cannot get
any food. Or when coming into the Buddha hall, everyone must keep their
footwear in their own bags to avoid being stolen. Because our society still has
greedy people, we must have rules.
Or in foreign countries, they have rules: parents mustn't hit their children.
How can we teach the children well if we can't punish them when they do wrong?
But, there is the reason for this. There're many parents that hit their children with
rage and cruelty and cause death or disability. So, that rule is very reasonable.
When people are less ethical, we need to set more laws.
Or long ago, people trusted each other and loaned money to one another
without entering into a contract or without the intervention of law. But nowadays,
both sides have to sign the contract and involve the law. In early societies, there
was very little law because people lived morally and ethically. These days the law
has become more complicated because people have become less ethical and moral.
To the point where, mostly in western countries, people are afraid to help others in
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an accident. This is because the victim could turn around and sue the rescuer for
causing them more pain or causing the accident, and the law will punish them.
Therefore, the only help they can do is to contact the emergency responders. In
many cases, when the ambulance arrives, the victims are already dead. The victims
could still be alive if they were helped right away. Sometimes kindness is not
appreciated but betrayed, therefore, good people are afraid to reach out and so
leave it all to the law.
We can see that the world of animals just rely on instincts. Human society
has both ethics and law. The world of the saint in the heavens does not need law,
because they live by morals and ethics. The saints know how to do the right thing.
During Buddha's era, for the 13 years of teaching Buddha Dharma, many people
were enlightened without having any rules for monks. Nowadays, monks and
nuns must follow 250 rules. Why do they have to follow so many rules? It is
because too many of them have done wrong. For example, one of the rules is No
sexual conduct. At the beginning, this rule did not exist. This happened when a
married man become a monk. His wife cried and told him that she needs a child to
inherit the family line before he could become a monk. He agreed with his wife.
When the Buddha asked him the reason why, he said that Buddha did not have a
rule against having children, thats why he had one child with his wife. So, from
that day, Buddha created a rule that monks cannot have children.
Many people asked us why do some monks smoke? Buddha did not set
this rule because there was no tobacco in his time. Today, the circumstance has
changed, life has changed, and we need to add more rules to justify our current
situation.
Lets look at desires and pleasure. If we like to enjoy life, enjoy the desire
of our flesh, we know that we will be reborn in Animal realms or Human realms,
and there is no other way. Only those who forgo of all pleasure and desires will
become saints. Maybe they are not saints at the moment, but in their hearts and
mind they are already looking forward to letting go of all pleasures and fleshy
desires, and that will take them towards the sainthood path. Just look inside your
heart and mind and you'll know the path of your rebirth.
We need to be aware that worldly pleasures are temporary, impermanence,
attachment, suffering ... Because we think that it is pleasure, but the truth behind it
is only suffering, and we must let go of it to be happy, and we need to recognize it
in order to let it go. For those who let go of it will go toward the path of
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sainthood. Those who think this life is about happiness and must enjoy it are in
danger. They walk a thin line between the animal and human realms. They can
easily fall into Animal realms when they use up their blessings. As soon as we sin,
we will be reborn into the animal realm. If today we curse someone, and
tomorrow we get greedy or selfish, we continue to create bad karma. But when we
realize that worldly desires and pleasure is temporary, impermanence, and
meaningless, it is then we know we are leaving all these behind and heading to the
sainthood realm. This is admirable!
But to fully understand this is not easy. For example, to a young adult who
has just grown up and wants to fall in love and get married, we advise them Do
not fall in love. Become a monk They will be shocked and cannot understand.
Because to this person, love is wonderful, marriage is happiness, and everyone
should have a family. When we tell them otherwise, it is very difficult for them to
accept.
And for those who think that love, marriage, and family life is a burden, and
suffering, and they are happy to accept that cultivation is blessing, love is a trap
and love religious life, they already have the seed of sainthood in mind. Those
who got married and experienced life suffering when they got old is a different
case. They will continue to love and get married when they are reborn in the next
life. They will never escape the cycle of reincarnation.
So, the body that we obtained today is temporary and not guaranteed,
because it is a vessel for contemplation, struggling, and a mixture of animal
instinct and sainthood. The animal instinct part wants to enjoy life, being vicious,
selfish and dominating. The sainthood part believes in Buddhism dharma, loving,
wanting to help others, and sometimes feels bored with this temporary lifeso our
mind is partly animal and partly saint.
Understand that we do not want to be human for too long, we must try our
best to step up to the path of sainthood. We must escape the human realms with its
many sufferings, hesitations, and insecurities which can take us into the animal
realms when we can't bridle our instinct. Many good people are born in animal
realms because they once lost control and made mistakes because of their instincts.
So animals are pitiful because we know that some humans have just been born as
animals.

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The realms of Animal, Human and Saint

The saint realms are higher. The animal realms are lower. The human realm
is in the middle. It is easier for the middle realm to fall down than to go up.
Therefore, there are more humans becoming animals than becoming saints. Being
a human, we should know that over 80% will fall into animal realms and about
20% wants to become saints. Therefore, we must try our best to escape human life
and become saints, although it's really difficult.
Everyone came here to attend the ceremony and listen to the Buddha's
teachings, even though the food and drink is not delicious, resting space is
crampled, and everything is not as comfortable as at home. But we want to be
here to show our love for our religion and that means we are trying to go toward
the path of saints. But in contrary, if we only love the beautiful scenery, we are
afraid of the crowd, fear the lack of amenities and do not want to come, that means
we are letting part of us fall down into the animal realm.
Many older Buddhists try to come here to attend Pagoda ceremony despite
the lack of everything. An old lady prayed to come here one more time before
death, and her children helped her finish that wish. On the way home, she died as
her wish. We know that she will be reborn in a good realm with that wish. So
young people, we must try more to control the enjoyment instinct in each of us.
Actually, going to the pagoda is not the only way to become a saint.
Becoming a saint is getting rid of all life desires, selfishness, greed, hatred, anger,
and always trying to love and help people. That is the way to step up the path of
sainthood. To become a saint is very difficult, because going up is hard, falling
down is much easier. We must know this to always try our best.
These are the character of saints which we should follow:
First, live a pure life without enjoyment.
When we still want to enjoy life, we are still living as an ordinary human
being, so we must not focus on the worldly desires but purify our body and soul,
and follow Buddha's teachings such as the life of monks. It's easy to say but it's
difficult to practice, but we must try our best.
Second, do not conduct evil acts.

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What is evil? The wicked are those who like to make others suffer, and feel
happy when others suffer. A saint has never said something which makes others
sad, or has made anyone suffer. So, a saint has never harmed anyone.
Third, have compassion, be generous, and love all people.
For example, during the ceremony days in our Pagoda, there are many
people, so space is always crowded, but we still feel pleased and happy. It is
because we love people in every circumstance. Those who feel so will be reborn
in peace realms, such as heaven, after death.
Fourth, help others.
Saints help others with anything they can such as looking for a job,
rebuilding dilapidated houses, offering rice for the poor..., even small things like
picking up a sandal for someone although they can do it by themselves. They're
ready to do any useful thing for anyone if they can.
Those who have seeds of saint in their mind always help people when they
can. Though they have lots of money, they don't spend it on enjoying life, because
they will share it with others. The more money they have, the more useful things
they want to do. Those who have a lot of money but they only want to enjoy life
alone won't be able to become saints. Most of us may not be rich, but we should
help anyone we can help with all sincerity, from the bottom of our hearts.
There is a very touching story about the tsunami in Japan. Many families
had to live with the lack of food and drink and shelter. The Japanese government
sent a lot of food and drink to them. People had to line up waiting to receive the
relief items. There was an orphan who stood at the end of the line. An aid worker
brought her up to the front of the line, but she refused. She thought that everybody
there was in need of food and drink immediately, so she didn't want to be the first
person that received it. What a touching action!
Although she was still a young child, she already intended to help others.
This story has deeply moved the whole world. Those who always want to help
others with anything will be reborn in good realms or heaven after death.
Fifth, do not be selfish and jealous.

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A human often feels very jealous when someone is better than them. In our
Pagoda, we have some dogs. When a dog is near us, it will chase the others dogs
away if they come close to us. Because of this characteristic, it's very difficult for
them to reborn as human. As for us, if we feel jealous when someone is better, we
will easily fall into animal realms. Those who feel happy when others reach their
goals or make a great achievements: they are becoming saints one day. This is a
very difficult thing, because there will be many losers who will amuse us, and
there will be many winners who make us envious. So, we need to change our
mind to help more inferior people than us, and feeling happy for those who live
better than us. That is the characteristic of the saints.
An in order to become a saint, we must praise the saints, especially Buddha,
to have merit to be a saint. The most important thing is to share stories about the
life of the Buddha, the Arahant, and the Zen masters. We must praise our hero, the
saints in our history or humanity. We should read books which teaches about
famous people or history books to know about the great men and women, and tell
our children or our friends about them. Those who do this are sowing the seeds of
the sainthood.
For example, why do we glorify Tran Hung Dao to be a saint? Because he
was the greatest general who led troops and defeated the Nguyen dynasty, which
was the most powerful military in the world at the time. With this power, he could
have taken revenge to regain his throne which belonged to his father - An Sinh
Vuong Tran Lieu, but Tran Thu Do stole the throne for Tran Canh who was his
uncle. However, he didn't do so. That means he had no ambition to be king, he
did everything for his country and people. He refused the throne, fame and fortune
to practice meditation. Our nation will worship him as a saint forever.
Besides sharing our saints stories, we have to support those who are living
a sainthood life. Who are the saint like people? They are monks or the Buddhists,
who are living a life following the path of Buddha - living without enjoyment but
contributing to the goodness of the society. We support them, so that means we're
sowing the seed of the saint.
Another important thing is that we must avoid gossiping about good people
and hating good people mistakenly. There's nothing more scary than thinking,
talking and embellishing hurtful stories about good people. Those who conduct
this act will bear a very serious and scary karma. We have witnessed a woman
who often told others that a friend of hers was a whore. After a short time, she
14

herself had to live with many men as a real whore. She realized what she had done
and was regretful, but it was too late.
You should not only refrain from defaming others but you should also be
careful about anything others tell you. Be careful with your mouth and your
ears. Don't believe bad things which we hear from others, because it can make
us lose faith easily.
Some people say negative things about monks or nuns to make other people
lose faith, become doubtful, and stop cultivating and return to enjoying life.
Instead of practicing meditation diligently, they spend time on enjoying life, and
their merits are lost gradually. Those who use mouth to defame good people
will create very serious sins. So, we must be careful with our mouth, and don't
believe bad words, because we will also be able to create sins.
Another good thing is that we should try to advise others to live a moral life
following the saint monks. And the important thing is to practice meditation
diligently. Although we're at Pagoda or at home, we need to practice meditation
diligently. Despite the pain in our feet, we have to try to practice meditation,
because it's the only way to become a saint, so do not be lazy about it.
Life passes by very fast. Spring has just passed yet another has already
come. Someone we met today may be gone tomorrow. Life is temporary,
everything is very fragile and impermanent. So, we have to try to practice
meditation diligently every day to be able to step up to the path of sainthood.
Namo Shakyamuni Buddha.

15

BOUNDLESS HOMAGE TO BUDDHA

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

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"Boundless homage to Buddha" is an old topic, but it is very basic and very
important.
Those, who are going to follow Buddhism, must build up the foundation and
understand the basics, especially about paying homage to Buddha. If we do not
have reverence for Buddha, we would not be blessed, so it would be easy to have
the wrong view about Buddhism, leading to superstition, even heresy. And in
order to have the solid foundation we must build up the great reverence for the
Buddha. Therefore, though the topic is very old, it is never enough even if we
discuss about it again and again.
Reverence, fear, or love that rules human beings cannot be defined
adequately in words. We often say we love someone, so really "What is love? It
is difficult to describe love accurately and thoroughly. But we would realise that
when we love someone, we would miss them when we are away from them; we
would be happy when we see them and we always want to help them. In general,
we want to do whatever that brings happiness to the person we love. So, if we
behave like that, it is love but we cannot define the feeling adequately.
Similarly, respect or reverence cannot be defined either. We could only rely
on our expression to know who we would respect. When you meet someone, your
emotions rise up; or you want to bow to them, these are the signs of respect.
All cultures in the world would have the same view about this matter. When
facing a respectable person, we all want to bow and kneel down in front of them.
No matter where we live in this world, we would always act like that. Never would
we say "How are you?" when we meet a respectable person. We only say so with
our friends in this informal way. As for the person we respect, we just want to
bow, kneel and pay respect to Him. This happens in any culture in the world.
Why is that? Because when we bow, we appear to be shorter than the
person, we want to show him that we are very ordinary while He is truly great. We

take a bow in order to express what could not be expressed in words. It happens
exactly the same in any language, in any country. Everyone is similar in this way,
in their sub-consciousness. It means, everyone in any culture would bow in front
of someone, if they respect the person.
Another expression for the people we respect is that we want to listen to
them and take their advice because there are many valuable things that we could
learn from them. No one would respect an ignorant person. We only respect
people who are much more superior than us. We would respect those people, who
have compassion for all beings, and highly intelligent. We would want to listen to
every word they say, we would want to learn everything from them.
Besides, we also would always want to follow their advice, because our
actions would benefit others. So often when they give us advice or teach us, we
would always obey and would never argue back.
To sum up, there are four signs of respect o reverence:
- The first sign is that we feel emotional, but light and happy when seeing
them.
- The second sign is that we always want to lower our heads, kneel down,
and bow to them. It is an expression saying that we are too insignificant comparing
with them.
- The third sign is that we want to be taught by them.
- The fourth sign is that we want to obey and follow their teachings.
The four signs above demonstrate our reverence for someone. When we
meet a respectable person, and these signs displays, it means definitely we have
respect for that person, without any questions.

Who will we have reverence for? Normally, the one we respect must be
better than us on two aspects: talent and ethics. These two qualities must far
surpass us.
For example, when we were a Grade-5 student, we met a Doctor, we would
respect the Doctor immediately, because we knew their education was much better
than ours. When driving on the road, seeing a victim of an accident, we stopped to
take them to the hospital i.e. we were good people. But, also in that same case, not
only another person did the same thing like we did, but they also contacted the
victims family to offer help and support. We just took them to the hospital and we
thought that we were good enough, but when we saw the other persons great
behaviour, we fell what we did was nothing compared to their actions. If we
compared our morality with theirs, they were much better than us. That was why
we should respect them.
Or when we were together with our friends, we often enjoyed playing
games, drinking and playing cards, just for a little bit of fun. But if we knew about
someone, who was living an extremely pure life, and never would engage in
ordinary things, without doubt, we would respect them. Their ethics and pureness
would be beyond our level.
We should respect those people who possess two qualities: talent and ethics.
However, deep down, we would have more respect for ethical people. The great
Goethe, from Germany, once said: "Facing a great mind, I bow. But facing a great
heart, I kneel down."
For those with great mind, we respect and bow, and that would be sufficient.
But for those who are compassionate, who spread their love to all beings on Earth;
who always would be pure, we would be willing to kneel down to pay respect.
Therefore, for those two types of people, those who is talented and those who is
moral, it is quite clear that deep down in our mind and heart, we would always
have more respect for the ethical and pure people.
4

That is why everyone pays homage to monks. In life, even though we are
wealthy, have high education degree, or are well-known in the society, we still pay
homage to monks even though they are quite ordinary. Some even may just have
finished Year 12, or grew up from a poor family. However, when meeting them,
we still pay homage to them, and consider them to be greater than we are, and we
would bow to them.
Why is that? Because they are much more ethical than us and they practise
the Dharma more than us. They might not have the degree and education like we
did, but we still have reverence for them enormously, simply because they are
more ethical and pure than us. It is quite natural really. Nothing or no one actually
forces us to behave like that. The fact that we respect monks is very natural and
normal. When we meet someone who is greater, and more ethical than us, even
though they might not have the same skills, and talent like we do, we still respect
them more than others.
On the other hand, if we can comprehend the differences or the gaps
between our ethical level and others, our respect for them would be even more.
For example, for a person, who did not understand much about music, then he
would not fully appreciate when he met someone who has a Doctorate degree in
music. But we would admire the Professional immediately because we do know a
little bit about music. And because the music area is so complicated and extensive,
that is why we would admire those who were trained professionally in this area.
As for people, who were not aware of the knowledge gap between them and the
professionals, it would be hard for them to admire the professionals and appreciate
the opportunity.
Or a person who just started learning about Buddhism and not yet
comprehend its principles and prayers, they would not be able to fully admire a
true spiritual practitioner with twenty years of experience. Yet if they have
practiced and understood the severe hardship of cultivation, they would view and

perceive things differently. Because they would have understood that each
moment of the practice was each moment of attempting to offload greed, hatred
and delusion from the mind; each moment of sitting in meditation was each
moment of back fatigue, leg pain, and many strenuous things. Because they
understand Buddhism principles in depth, they would naturally respect those who
have practised for a long time. The respect derived simply of the fact that they
understand the knowledge gap between them and those with extensive
experiences.
So, to be able to respect someone, we would need to understand their
wisdom and greatness; otherwise, we would not be able to appreciate the
differences, then we would not be able to truly respect them. We should focus on
the word "understand".
Again, to be able to respect someone, we must understand and appreciate
their greatness. If we did not understand them and appreciate their greatness, we
would not be able to respect them fully. Therefore, we must be knowledgeable and
be wise. Foolish people will not respect anyone else since they do not know about
the differences between them and others. If they meet good people they do not
know how good these people are and if they meet bad people they do not know
how bad these people are either. Maybe they are grateful only if someone give
them money or treat them kindly. When we have wisdom, though he does not give
us money, or even does not teach us anything, we still respect them because we
understand how great they are.
Therefore, we ourselves must be wise and be ethical to be able to respect
someone else. This is really not easy. And to pay homage to Buddha, we must
have strong ethics and be highly intelligent. Those with low morality would never
truly, fully have reverence for Him. They might pay homage Him just because of
their superstition or fear. We must be highly intelligent to pay homage to Buddha
without any questions and boundless.

So with two people who are equally intelligent, would they respect each
other? As we have said before, to respect someone, we must realise how great the
other person is. What happens if they are just as good as we are? For example in
the case of two doctors or two pop stars? Would they respect each other? It is
common that they envy or hate each other. Or in the case that two monks who
have the same sublime morality, would they respect each other? Or as for the two
superior Buddhist monks with sixty years of cultivation in Buddhism, would they
respect each other? The answer is Yes!
We now should be able to understand the difference in the above examples.
Same talent, people would not respect and even would be jealous of each other.
But people with the same level of morality would respect each other. Therefore,
we must understand one key thing that only ethical people would be able to respect
someone else. Without ethics, it is hard to respect someone, and it is easy to be
jealous of others. We know that respect is a noble quality of human being. That is
the reason why our ancestors, long time ago, tried hard to educate children to
respect adults in order for them to cultivate ethics. If a child did not respect any
adults, he would become useless or even become a threat to the society and the
enemy of himself when he grew up. It is true that the worst enemy in our life is
ourselves, because without ethics, we would not understand others greatness and
would not be able to respect them.
We just did a very brief analysis about respect and yet we can appreciate
how important and essential to have respect for others. The education for our
children from an early age becomes extremely important. Understanding this
prerequisite, we can ensure that our family would be provided with the appropriate
education, as well as a leader can direct the country towards a specific culture or
religion. If we do not educate children to respect adults, their future, the country
future would not look good. Learning about politeness, obedience, being humble

would be valuable lessons of life for every child. Particularly in Buddhism, we are
still kids, so we need to learn more and more about Respect and Reverence.
Now, lets talk about the cause and effect factors of respect. In our
analysis, we find that moral people would always respect those who are better than
them. Why would the two Venerable at the same rank pay homage to each other?
Because they both think that the other is better than them. A virtuous person would
always feel that he/she is not as good as the other; hence, the two Venerable would
easily have reverence for each other. If only one of those Venerable felt inferior to
others, then only one of them were ethical, not both.
Therefore, naturally, ethical people have respect for others; and unethical
people do not. We should consider this matter when assessing our soul and mind.
If we have respected others since growing up, then we became ethical people. You
should assess if you still respect your teachers; or does your respect for parents
remain unchanged, when you are getting older? If you ran into your teacher, would
you still say hello to them or you would think they were just the village teachers
who taught us 5th grade, now we were in college so we could ignore and look
down on them. As Buddhists, we must not behave like that. We are forever
indebted to our parents for their giving birth to us and to our teachers for their
teaching, we must, therefore, respect and love them all our life.
When reading the article about Good People Good Deeds in the newspaper,
would we respect those people mentioned in the paper? If so, we are ethical. If not,
try to practice Dharma more and more because that means we have not yet
acquired ethics. And without ethics, we, surely would likely to do bad deeds and
would have a miserable afterlife. Therefore, knowing if we have respect for
someone or not, would help us assess our ethics. It is quite simple but very
sufficient.
There are a lot of people, who have high social position, who would never
respect anyone, because they think they have power hence others should praise
8

and respect them instead. We must realise that they are bad people. Only when
they ignore their power and position and respect others, then we can say that they
have ethics. They could currently be a President, a Prime Minister, or a General
Secretary of a country, but only when we know that they are have ethics, we then
would believe that they shall take the country development to the next level.
However, if they do not have ethics, and they abuse their power, we would know
that whatever they do would not benefit the country.
According to the Law of Cause and Effect, if we respect someone for one of
their great qualities, we would likely get the same result. If you respected a
dedicated teacher, you could become a good teacher later on. If you respected a
scientist, its would be also very likely that you became one. Or if you respected a
musical talent, you would likely to have the same talent later in life. Furthermore,
those who have admiration and respect for others with compassion, calmness and
ethics, it could contribute towards building up great personality and morality for
them later on. Our soul would be improved day by day, we would gradually
become more ethical, and generous. That is the result of the Cause and Effect Law.
We should always assess ourselves and whatever we are lack of, we should
respect others who have that quality and are better than us.
"Escape from The Suffering Cycle" is the story about a secretary who lived
in a temple but he was very ugly. His master asked him to be remorseful to the
Medicine Buddha. He kept bowing to the Medicine Buddha and at the same time
admired the beauty of Buddhas appearance. In his afterlife, he became monk
Ngoc Lam with a very beautiful face. What he did to achieve this result was that
while he was repenting in front of Buddha, he just focused on paying homage to
Him, nothing else.
However, those who thoroughly understand Buddhism would not care about
ordinary things; they would just pray for superior things. That is when we show
our deep reverence towards Buddha and admire all of his superior qualities. Keep
9

doing that would help us gradually acquire such qualities. Even in this miserable
world, if we honored a Saint, or a true Master of spiritual enlightenment, our
personality could be improved day by day. Our soul and mind could be more
tolerant, be more gentle, less angry, more compassionate, and do more good deeds
and understand Scripture thoroughly. We could slowly acquire these qualities
naturally.
We mention this to you today, to remind you that you must pay homage to
Buddha before adopting Buddhism. That is the seed, the basic merit for you to
achieve enlightenment later on. If we do not pay homage to Buddha, we would
never succeed in cultivation and would never achieve holy quality. Our practice
without holy qualities is like planting a tree without the seed. Without these great
qualities, we are just narrow-minded, selfish people and will be forever in
reincarnation.
To escape from the endless cycle of birth and death, we must acquire great
qualities. We could only achieve that from our hard cultivation. However, it is
fundamentally important and essential that we must pay homage to Buddha. Those
who worshipped Buddha in a former life would easily practise in the following life
because the qualities have always been there. And even more fortunate for those
who met Buddha in their previous life, they would become an Honorable Monk in
their afterlife. Their tremendous homage for Buddha had helped them succeed in
their cultivation journey.
We do not know if we would be fortunate enough in this life to meet a real
Buddha, so lets sow those seeds. Now that Buddha entered Nirvana, so who
should we worship?
It would be a bit awkward to say that Buddha is here, in this temple,
because it is just a statue. However, when looking at Buddha statue, we would be
able to visualise the appearance of Buddha when He was on earth. So, this is

10

where we worship Buddha and this is where we would bow our heads to pay the
absolute reverence to Him.
But one would argue that it is just a statue, so it is difficult to pay homage to
Buddha. Nothing could be compared to the moment when we kneeled before Him.
If Buddha was really sitting here right now, it was certain we could not do
anything and could not think of anything else but Buddha. We could abandon
everything and wanted to follow Him. And at that time with profound reverence
for Him, we just wanted to listen to every word of His teachings. Nowadays,
because our reverence for Him become less and less, we sometimes walked by the
statue without showing respect to Him.
Those, who consider Buddha statue the real Buddha, would bow their head
everytime they walk by, such people are blessed. Due to their great reverence to
Buddha, they would get a lot of blessing. Unfortunately, due to the nature of our
ordinary life, even though Buddha is there, we would not be able to pay homage to
Him completely, we always are too busy with our daily chores and routines.
Therefore, paying homage to the real Buddha is worth much more than
when we do the same to a Buddha statue. If you had an opportunity to meet a real
Buddha, a bow in front of Him would have been worth a million bows compared
to when you did the same in front of a Buddha statue. Thus, having born in
Buddhas time was an incomparable fortune. We were unlucky to be born 2500
years after this time, because we have no opportunity to show our great reverence
to Him. It is a great misfortune for us now, which could not be expressed in words.
But today, let's make up this misfortune by understanding the following
things:
Although Buddha entered Nirvana, He always thought of all beings. He
would always be at our side to protect and bless us whenever we think of Him.
Therefore, we should pay the absolute reverence to Buddha regardless if He is here

11

in person, or in a statue form. Whenever seeing a Buddha statue, we should think

that Buddha is living amongst us. He sits there smiling at us as the greatest Father,
the greatest Master, and his compassion and love would never stop. If we would
always think so, our reverence for Him would gradually rise up and we would
have great blessing. This could be the compensation for our time, which is not
Buddhas time.
You would be able to have the most noble quality, if your reverence for
Buddha would never change regardless what people would tell you about Buddha .
In contrast, those who have not yet achieved the above would be affected by
others sayings about Buddha. They then would eventually lose their reverence for
Buddha.
Therefore, it is not good that we would adopt Buddhism just to follow our
ancestors routines without knowledge of Buddhism. If there was someone who
knew about your lack of understanding about Buddhism, they would be able to
convince you to follow other religion. And because of our limited knowledge
about Buddhism, we would easily follow the others advice. For those, who would
easily gave up their religion, it means they did not have noble qualities. Only
those, who possessed noble qualities, they would always pay homage to Buddha,
regardless. If you would only think of your own benefits when adopting a religion,
you would be just an ordinary person.
This is a story happened during Buddhas time. There was an Anathapindika
who offered and served the Three Precious Ones fervently. He always had
tremendous reverence for Buddha and did many good deeds. However, due to his
bad karma, from previous lives, he had suffered from two disastrous events in his
life. The first disaster was that someone borrowed his money and did not return.
The second disaster was worse than the first one. A huge amount of gold that he
buried near the river was washed away by a flood. Hence, he became poorer and
poorer.

12

A Goddess, taking refuge at his residence, was upset because of his

negligence and that he saved everything for Buddha and the monks. One night she
appeared and said bad words about Buddha. She said that because he followed
Buddha, it resulted in these disasters for him and he would continuously have bad
luck. But it was unfortunate for her that he had became Scrotapannas, so his
reverence for the Buddha would never be changed. She was asked to leave and had
to find other places to stay (that story was mentioned in the Dhammapada with
title "When the Goddess regrets").
Those, who have saintly qualities, always have reverence for the Buddha
without doubt. However, to be able to achieve these saintly qualities we must first
start honoring Buddha extremely and infinitely. We would be able to achieve good
qualities later on in our life.
All of us, who are sitting here today, probably are thinking that we are all
ordinary and insignificant people. We believe in Buddha and we want to escape
from the ordinary human condition full of hatred and delusion. We do not want to
be kept in the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, we desire to become a saint someday.
But to convert an ordinary person to a saint, we need to build up our reverence for
Buddha, the greatest Master, the greatest Saint of all times. This is an extremely
important factor which would determine whether or not we would succeed in our
cultivation path.
However, if we do not understand the greatness of Buddha, it is quite
difficult to have the enormous reverence for Him. When we come to a temple, we
worship and pray to Him, it does not necessary mean that we have the deep
reverence for Him yet. That may be due to our superstitious beliefs; therefore, we
would just pray for our own benefits. Those, who profoundly pay homage to Him,
must always remember, understand and practice His teachings.
So, to be able to worship Buddha, we must understand His merits and
wisdom. Without comprehending the above, we are all just superstitious. To do
13

that, we have to learn, listen to and practice His teachings, and always assess
ourselves and our progress. Buddhism is the religion of reality; it means you must
experience it to believe it; it is not about, you hear about it, then you expect to
believe it. When we ourselves experience magical things in Buddhism, we would
gradually understand more about Buddha. The more we understand about Buddha,
the more blessing we would have.
I have to stress again that we have to understand about Buddha in order to
pay homage to Him, to help our cultivation. Those, who could not fully pay
homage to Buddha yet, would always be ordinary. We make a comparison
between two people, one gives a few dollars to a poor person and one sacrifices
himself for everyone. Who should we pay homage to? Obviously, the second one.
And our Buddha is that person. His countless number of lifetimes were full of
compassion and equanimity. In His countless number of lifetimes, He always
sacrificed His lives for all beings. So He must be The One we should all believe in
and pay homage to infinitely.
If we have ever helped a person in danger, they would never forget and
appreciate it very much. It could be a patient who needed a heart surgery; or a
seriously ill baby; or a sick elderly. If we have helped so many people, that was
great, and we could be considered to be respectable people. But it is nothing
comparing to The One who has sacrificed His lives for all beings. Such person is
extremely holy.
Our Buddha is The One. In a countless number of His lifetimes, He had
been the embodiment of the animals or human beings, sometimes a poor man,
sometimes a king. Of whatever he had embodied, He had always been tolerant and
had lived for all beings. A saint with an infinite number of lives like that is worth
everyones absolute reverence. Our reverence for Him should never change and
never end.

14

Lets assess ourselves. We would still care for the people around us but
sometimes it could be just superficial. Sometimes we even was not aware when
our mother was sick or our neighbors have been miserable. For those, who cared
deeply for others, they would be aware of any situations about anyone. They
would be willing to help those in need. We should always respect them. We could
be selfish, and when our ego was high, we became opportunistic and manipulative.
We only wanted to friend with those that could be benefit us; the rest we could just
ignore. In deed, this world still is full of miserable lives.
Our Buddha is completely the opposite. Throughout His countless lives,
from being an ordinary person to being a Saint, all beings resigned in His heart; He
always loved, understood and took great care of all beings. Because all beings
karma was so bad, He vowed to influence and help all beings in His countless
lives. That greatest merit could not be expressed adequately in words.
All of us are still very ordinary, we still have anger, bigotry and hatred.
Even though we may not have followed Buddha in our previous lives, Buddha
would never abandon us if we regret, repent and cultivate. Buddha would always
guide us through each of our obstacles resulting from our bad karma in many lives.
And those who have had affinity with Buddha in so many generations, and had
done may good deeds, Buddha would always be at their side to guide them
through life. For Buddha and the Sages, their love for all beings is unconditional
and boundless.
Lets image a scenario occurred in India more than 2500 years ago. You
were then an Indian peasant living in Buddhas time. On your way to the field, you
met a monk, who was holding a bowl and was coming from the opposite direction,
whose glory shined and his face was very beautiful. His posture was like a great
and powerful leader. He walked leisurely on barefoot on the rough village road.
Because you did not know he was Buddha, you passed by him without greeting
and acknowledging him. However, when you fell over, he came to help you stand

15

up, you would have felt the love from him. That love was more passionate than the
love of a mother for her son. His love, His compassion for all beings spread across
the whole universe. We can only use your imagination to feel this because His
love could not be described adequately and accurately in words.
How about us? Even though we really love someone, our love for them
usually is not completely selfless. Because of our egos, we really love ourselves.
When you can comprehend the concept of being selfless, you would be able to pay
homage more and more to Buddha, for His boundless devoted love for all beings.
In addition, Buddha could thoroughly understand all things that are
happening around, even each individual person. Therefore, each and any of His
action is absolutely incredible to help all beings. With ordinary people like us, our
general understanding is poor, therefore we could not completely satisfy ourselves
and each other. But Buddha is different. He understands how human beings mind
works, he understands all about the past, future, actions and habits of all beings.
He even could recongnise the hatred, ignorance and selfness of each individual.
Moreover, he could also know about the vows we have taken, the good deeds we
did, and the mistakes we made. Therefore, He always provides direction to us on
our cultivation path. He is forever the perfect protection for all beings.
In our life, nothing is happier than when we meet a person who could love
and also understands us completely. Sometimes, the love and sympathy given was
just as little, but we still felt happy. It is luckier if we met a philosophical soul
mate, who would know about our strengths and weaknesses to help us improve
ourselves. When we made a mistake, our soul mate would be able to give us
advice and help us move on with life. We would love them very much and respect
them as well.
And in deed, Buddha is worth millions of times. Buddha understands us
deeply, and helps protect us against bad karma. That is why, even though we have
caused many sins in life, and while others did not forgive us, Buddha would
16

willingly tolerate our sins. He would listen to each word of our repentance and
would sympathsize for us. Each time we bow to Buddha, we understand that
Buddha accepts all, forgives all, loves all, and always gives us a chance to correct
our mistakes.
Buddhas love for us had always existed, from thousands of years ago.
When Buddha was still living on earth, a man , who made a mistake, was very
remorseful and he bowed to Buddha: The Blessed One, I am a theft, a murder full
of sins, but please be merciful to forgive and help me. Buddha did not punish the
man, and he would never punish anyone. He always was merciful and taught us to
be better. Buddhas forgiveness, merci and love for beings is thousand times more
precious than when we were with a soulmate. He is the only one. So regardless
how long we would be on our kneel in front of Buddha, and how many times we
bow to him, it would never be enough.
Buddha is aware of not only this world, but also others. His attention also
covers all, and absolutely everything from everywhere; from hell to heaven, from
the lowest level of heaven to the highest level of heaven. Thus, even the King of
Heaven still had to consider himself just a disciple of Buddha.
All kings were usually terribly busy to run a country, or a world in this
scenario. In fact, kings were not usually happy, whether they rule the human
beings world or they rule heavens. We should also question a kings integrity, if he
had time to think about himself. Running and managing a family is difficult, let
alone running a country, a world. So a truly great king would have no time to think
about himself.
Lets consider the current times, and our own leaders. Their schedule is
always full i.e. meeting other countries Prime Minister. They would be exhausted
even though they kept smiling and interacting happily with other guests. Why was
that? It was because during the day, he would take care of the diplomatic matters,

17

and during the night time, he would take care of all of issues for his country.
Please remember, to lead a country, you must be extremely hard working.
And Buddha already knew that. He knew how busy a king would be. The
bigger and the more powerful the country/the world is, the busier the king would
be. In our world, our leaders would be much busier because of the complexity in
this society. As for Buddha, He knew all, absolutely all, from past lives to future
lives. He already knew these things very well.
However, Buddha was not the God who created this world. There was no
such thing. Things happened for many reasons. Buddha would never use his power
to interfere into human beings lives. That would just make things more
complicated, and it could potentially cause issues that human beings could become
less independent, and could not manage their own lives. This is the key difference
between Buddhism and other religions.
For example, when we were about to take a business trip, we went to a
fortuneteller to get a lucky charm. The fortuneteller called for support from the
spiritual world. We got the charm and we carried with us during the trip.
Everything went smoothly during our trip. The lucky charm was working for us
well. This is a type of psychic, which we in reality preferred to use to interfere
with our daily lives, which sometimes work out very well for us.
However, this is very dangerous thing to do.
Firstly, we would rely on the lucky charm, thinking good things will come
to us. With that thought in mind, we would not bother doing good deeds, help
others. The disciples of a fortuneteller or a master in Tantric Buddhism often use
lucky charms to intervene lives. They rarely believe in the law of cause and effect,
so they do not care much about doing good deeds; neither cultivating ethical
principles because they always rely on supernatural world to help intervene lives.
This reliance would not help them in this live or their future lives.

18

Secondly, we would be forever in debt with the spirits who lived in spiritual
world, who helped us. It could be hundreds or thousands of spirits that we would
be debt with, but we would not be aware of that. When asking for a lucky charm,
we would only know that we paid the fortuneteller for the charm, but we would
not know about the fact that it would involve many spirits in the spiritual world.
These spirits would not be as ethical and kind. In future lives, we would have to
pay back the debt to these spirits, and that could bring a lot of difficulties and
challenges in our lives.
Thirdly, we would also be in debt with all others, who were influenced by
the spirits, to agree and help us while doing business with us. If we could not pay
the debt in this life, then we would have to do so in other lives.
So, the intervention of spirits from the spiritual world to our lives would
only create disasters and create much more debts in your life as well as gradually
make you lose your ethics. It is difficult to explain, however, we must understand
that abusing powers, abusing help from spiritual world would not do any good for
us. Therefore, Buddha would never use His power carelessly. He teaches and
blesses us to do good deeds. When we are miserable, He would use powers to
support u because He could tell if in the future we would be able to good deeds.
All Buddhists must remember: we must do good deeds in return to those praying
and help we asked from Buddha.
For example, when we prayed to Buddha, and asked for help to sell our
house quickly. If Buddha granted the wish, we could sell the house quickly. What
we must do then? We must do good deeds to create more blessings for ourselves,
to repay for that praying. Remember that we should not abuse our blessings. Many
people wonder why they could not enjoy the result of their good deeds. That was
because they asked for many things many times from Buddha, so for each of the
praying, they must do good deeds to earn that blessing.

19

Therefore, Buddha would rarely want to use His power to intervene lives,
because He would want us to earn our own blessings. We must understand this
principles to understand the greatness of Buddha. Sometimes we may find that
Buddha does not respond to all of our praying immediately. It is just because He
wants us to be educated, to be able to deal with challenges ourselves in order to
live better.
Going through misery and suffering only would help us improve and
become a better person.
The same is for Buddha. Buddha would want us to be challenged, to be
educated and to cultivate. If we just lived in happiness all the times, it would be
difficult for us to be matured and be a good human being. Therefore, it is quite
common for people who were brought up in rich, wealthy family without too much
difficulty and challenges would not become good person. Those, who always have
to face challenges in life, would always have compassion and sympathy for other
human beings, and would always want to share with others.
In the recent Vu Lan ceremony (this ceremony is held annually on the 15th
of the 7th month of the lunar calendar. The main objective of this festival is for the
people to express their gratefulness and appreciation to their parents) we discussed
the topic of "Our love and gratefulness for Mother Earth" we talked about how the
Earth was formed and how beings came about to live on Earth. By now, we would
be able to understand the law of cause and effect and it would help us avoid the
misunderstanding that life was created by God.
Buddha is extremely powerful. However, He would never want to show off
His power. We pay homage to Him, not because of his power, but because of his
selflessness, and his ability to reach the highest level of meditation. Those, who
have egos and always want to show off themselves, would be quite ordinary.

20

Respectable people really consider themselves nothing, in comparison with

others. Why? It is because Buddha or Arahat after being in full meditation, they
would not think of themselves any more, but would think of the whole universe
and all beings. We could never be like that because we still have our egos full of
ignorance, selfishness and jealousy...
A saint would be selfless, and he would have the greatest compassion and
wisdom. He would love all, know all, and influence all. However, because He
loves all beings, he would not use his power to influence lives. If He did so, it
would have causes a lot of problems for beings.
A selfless saint like that would never show off their love, but would love all
beings immensely.
A selfless saint like that would never show off that he knows all, but he
actually knows all events, from the past, current, the future.
A selfless saint would never say he has the power to influence everything.
He would not want to use the power in that way, as it would cause a lot of issues
for beings.
These are the people who we should pay homage to.
"Star Trek is an American scientific film, which was about a spaceship
from Earth and it was hijacked when passing through a planet. These hijackers did
it just to help their princess to live another day because their planet was too
crowded to have a place for her to live, even though their technology was so
advanced and they were able to feed everyone on that planet. They could produce
the elixir to help their resident become immortal. That was why their planet could
not accommodate the growth of its population. Nobody died, nobody left, just
more and more residents.
So the question is: Is it good for human beings when our scientist
announced that they found a medicine which could help human being stay forever

21

young? It is probably good. However, the Earth would be the same as the other
planet in Star Trek movie. Human beings would have to fight for a place to live.
Therefore, sometimes, we thought of a good idea, but it may have bad impacts
later on.
So, using magical power to help people satisfy their desire really would
cause issues and troubles for the people themselves later on. Many people often
wish that they would stay young forever. But they would definitely change their
mind later on. If we always stayed young, it would be very awkward later in life,
as our children would get older and they would not be able to respect us, as we did
not age at all. So it is quite natural that we wish we would be normal again.
Again, throughout the stories and examples above, it is proven that
sometimes something seem good, but it can cause a lot of issues and troubles. So it
is best to comply with the law of cause and effect. Saints can do absolutely
anything but they would never take advantages of their powerful abilities.
We should also consider another aspect, when we pray to Buddha, please
remember not to pray for ourselves, but for all beings. We should pray that we
have compassion to all living beings. Or we should pray that we would be modest,
considerate and would live in harmony with all friends and family members; as
well as respect and listen to advices from older people. We should pray that to
Buddha for it and He would be able to grant us our wish, to help other living
beings.
Saints would not show off the fact that they do not make mistakes, even a
small one, and they are so pure. A saint might be in a human form, but His mind
covers all being living in the whole universe. Buddha would never say an
unnecessary word, would never have an unnecessary gesture, would never have an
unnecessary eye contact, and would never have an unnecessary smile. He
completely is able to control himself.

22

For example, we often are not aware of our movement or reactions. That
means we are not able to control ourselves completely. Buddha is totally different.
He would sit at the right place at the first time; he would put His hands onto the
right place at the first time. When He looks at someone, His eyes are full of
compassion without any redundant expression. When He smiles, it means the big
deal. Also, He never said superfluous word. Each of His word is worth saying and
listening to. Although Buddha does not seem to have a sense of humour, He rarely
talks or smiles but all beings around Him would always be filled with joy and
always be happy with His immense compassion for us.
Ordinary people like us, probably would never be able to appreciate fully
Buddhas greatness. Since we cannot fully appreciate Buddha and his impacts on
all beings, we sometimes do not pay homage to Him wholly; therefore, we did not
help educate more and more people about Buddhism. The truth is if without
Buddhas guidance and direction in life, human beings would have been filled
with ignorance, hatred, stupidity and stayed in the cycle or rebirth forever.
Amongst all of the Rulers who have appeared on the Earth, only Buddha is
the absolute greatest. We are so proud to say this without any hesitation. Even the
United Nations has chosen His birthday as the day of Culture and Religion around
the world, known as the VESAK day. They did not choose other Rulers birthdays.
From the past to current times, we could say that there was no other
Leaders/Masters as great and perfect as Buddha. His perfection was not only
expressed in the appearance but also resulted from the royal family with great
virtue, supreme wisdom, and magical powers. All of these qualities created an
extremely great Leader and Master, Buddha.
However, there were many other Rulers who were very modest. They knew
that they were not perfect so they had referred to a Greater One, who we often
referred to as God. These modest Rulers considered themselves as just executor or
the servant for God. These Rulers were commended and an example was Jesus

23

Christ. He was so modest that he said He helped and taught human beings on
behalf of God.
We do not really know if God was really living in the Heaven or Saint was
really living amongst us, but if they still have egos, they would still be quite
ordinary and their intelligence would still be very limited. Buddha was born on
Earth. He achieved the highest level of cultivation; he was selfless and lived a
flawless live. He was perfect in every way, and there would not be enough words
to describe His perfection. We would be extremely lucky to be His disciples. We
should always treasure this happiness from this life, bring with us to our afterlives,
and vow to follow Him all the times to a successful cultivation .
Recently, there have been some Rulers claiming to be the best, but His
people and His own life was very unstable and always was in trouble. They often
used tricks to to entice, seduce other human beings to follow them, even though
they knew they are were not capable at all. It would be an evil thing to claim that
you were great at what you do, but in fact you were not. This sin could cause us to
be reborn in hell, and we would not be able to escape. We all must be very careful
about this.
Buddha already taught us about the Law of Cause and Effect; Buddha also
taught us about compassion and how compassion is the foundation to build a
world of peace and happiness. Today, the world is full of troubles; wars and death
were the result from the fact that people committed sins, people were devious and
did not love one another. If people loved each other; if people were
compassionate; if people stopped committing sin; if people were afraid of the law
of cause and effect as Buddha warned, this world would have been filled with
peace, purity and joy.
Nowadays, so many world leaders have discussed how to build a peaceful
world. But due to lack of compassion and education about the law of cause and
effect, family separation, pains and suffering would still exist in this world.
24

Currently, there are many powerful forces that want to rule the world. They
quietly and secretly create weapons of mass destruction. They always wish to find
an absolute power to rule the whole world. The do not know that when they go
against the law of cause and effect, it means they go against nature and it would
result in bad consequences. Even if a country was so powerful, and could evade
other countries, chaos and internal wars would still exist, peace would never be
achieved. It would never last long.
Only compassion and ethics are eternal values for people, and world leaders
should look for those values in order to find a solution that benefit all human
beings. They should not look for personal power. We must remember it. If we
once would be blessed to become a leader, we should try our best to contribute
towards building a world full of peace and happiness as per Buddhas teaching.
Meditation is the most important thing. The world today is full of chaos so
meditation is the precious remedy. In ancient times, people were not stressed or
rushed into making decision, as it took time to gather information. If you wanted
to know about something, you had to investigate it for days, months, even years
and that was very normal. You had to use horses or boats to travel, therefore
travelling to find information took a lot of time. Nowadays, people just need to use
the internet i.e. Google to know everything. Digital technology connects the world,
therefore everything is so close and everything could be processed very quickly.
So we thought that with the current advanced technology, we would have a
lot of spare time. Instead of meeting someone in person, a phone call would help
us do that. It only takes two hours to fly from the North to the South of Vietnam.
We then often think that because of technology, we would have much more spare
time and our living standard is come higher. Is it really true?
We have to keep in mind that, the more advanced technology we have, the
faster pace our life would be, the busier we are, and the more stressful we would
become. Fast pace of life requires us to use lots of brain power, so people would
25

need to mediate more and more. Meditation helps us balance our psychology and
and relax our mind. In other words, we need to purify our mentality. Let me
explain this concept in more details. Meditation will help us to get rid of the
unnecessary thoughts, help us purify our mind. An ordinary person would be full
of hatred, greediness and stupidity. Meditation helps our mind to get rid of our
egos, remove evil thoughts to purify our minds.
As Buddha said: "There is no class when our blood colour is the same red,
and there is no class when the taste of our tears is the same. Lives are worth the
same, all sufferings are the same, too. That is equality. Buddha teaches us equality
so that we can treat all creatures the same, we can treat other human beings in the
most appropriate and satisfactory way. Although in deed, human being are
different in their own way i.e. different merits, different appearance, and different
mind ... but Buddha brings us together to live in harmony and with compassion.
Despite our differences, we are always equal in reincarnation, and in this
temporary life we are the great believer in our great Father, Buddha. Thanks to
Buddha, people can live in harmony.
Therefore, Buddhas teachings are so great that we would never be able to
measure and express in words.
Like the sound of the waves of the sea,
I commenced using beautiful words,
From the immemorial to the future,
To praise Buddhas countless blessings.
The more we understand about Buddha, the more reverence we have for
Him. Our praise for Him cannot be expressed in words. In this world, there is no
other who is greater than Him. He guided us through life to understand the truth
i.e. the suffering of human beings lives. We should not ignore His teachings, and
we should share them with others throughout our life, whenever we can.

26

It is quite unfortunate for us if we do not fully appreciate and do not wholly

pay homage to Buddha. Let's consider and try to understand to have the enormous
respect for Buddha.
The more we understand about Buddha, the more we would pay homage to
him.
The more we pay homage to Buddha, the wiser and ethical we would
become.
The wiser and ethical we are, the more successful we would be in
cultivation.
The more successfully we cultivate, the more we understand about Buddha.
The more we understand about Buddha, the more and more reverence we
would have for Buddha.
The more reverence we have for Buddha, the more improvement we would
make to our ethics.
The more ethical we are, the more successful we would be in cultivation.
The more successfully we cultivate, the more we understand about
Buddha
Due to the above rotation, we must pay homage Buddha wholly and
completely, and everything else will fall into this cycle.
Having said all that, only Buddha can understand other Buddhas. Even
Arahats cannot totally understand Buddhas, let alone ordinary people like us. So
we should only try and try to understand Buddha and appreciate Him as much as
we can. We do not hope to understand completely about Buddha, even if our
understanding is still limited, it would still help us enormously in our life.
So, we must educate and train ourselves to pay homage to Buddha, and
always have that reverence in mind. Everyday we have to bow to Buddha and

27

remind us to earnestly worship Him until the moment we feel that we would
sacrifice everything for Buddha. That would be when we would have the absolute
reverence for Buddha. When we are at that stage, we would be able to spread it
around. Others would be able to have the same level of reverence for Buddha like
we do. If only we, all of us here, pay homage to Buddha, not others, that would not
be enough. Only when others are touched because of the way we live and pay
homage to Buddha, and they would join us to bow to Buddha, it means we have
the unequivocally reverence for Him.
We once said that everything in life is just temporary. We could not keep
everything with us forever when we live. Thing comes and goes. And when we
die, we could not bring everything with us, either.
So, the only thing we can always have with us, life or death, is our
unequivocally reverence for Buddha. In life, we can lose everyone e.g. reputation
or assets, but not our absolute reverence for Buddha. As long as we keep paying
homage to Buddha, we would have everything. With that thinking in mind, we
would not be afraid of losing anything. And with that in mind, we would live
generously and in harmony with others; there is nothing to fear and nothing to
lose; because we already have everything with our unequivocally reverence for
Buddha.
Since we have the unequivocally reverence for Buddha, we would be able to
live in harmony with others; we love our country; we love all beings around the
world even though we do not know everything. Unlike other religion, they would
teach you to only have love and pay homage to their Gods. Our reverence for
Buddha would always accompany and support us in our life. The more and more
we pay homage to Buddha, the more we love our country and our people. That is
the true and unequivocally reverence for Buddha, no limitation and without any
skepticism.

28

Moreover, Buddha mentioned about many other Buddhas in Buddhism, so

we can believe and have hopes. He did not mention that He was the only one.
Buddha praised other Buddhas and His Arahant disciples. This does not fall into
the concept of polytheistic or monotheistic religion. Why is that? Because in
polytheism, they worship many Gods, each of them has different character, power
and personality e.g. God, who has power to destroy; God who has power to create
lives; God who has power to make rain; God who has power to bring sunshine,
etc.
Buddhism is very different in that regard. Although there are many Buddhas
and and Bodhisattvas, in fact, all of Them is just One. All would have the same
character, the same quality, and They all are selflessness and compassionate, and
their love would cover all beings in the universe.
We should, by now, understand that, in addition to Buddhas invaluable
teachings, Buddha is also the respectable Father protecting us from suffering,
comforting us when we are miserable, and guiding us on our cultivation path.
Buddha always support and save our soul from ignorance, hatred, greed and sin.
We are grateful for Buddhas guidance, and our appreciation cannot be expressed
in words.
Everyday, we should kneel in front of Buddha with our most reverence for
Him. If we can do so, we would be able to have more blessings. The more
blessings we have, the less bad karma for us would be. We would have committed
sins in our past lives, and we could only lessen our bad karma, only when we can
do more good deeds in this life; and only when we pay homage to Buddha and
kneel in front of Buddha everyday.
And when we are blessed, our life would become more pleasant. We would
be more knowledgeable to be aware of our mistakes, errors as well as the wrong
and the right. With that intelligence, we would be able to know what is the right
thing to do. We would be respected by others. Our advice for others would be
29

appreciated. We could also easily control our mind and emotion. Regardless of
what we do, we would also head towards Buddha to practise Dharma. Once we
have the unequivocally reverence for Buddha, no evil spirits would be able to
influence us. Therefore, our reverence for Buddha would be the most important
factor in helping us strengthen our minds and improve our cultivation.
Please remember that: Having boundless homage for Buddha is the most
basic but important obligation in cultivation. We must do everything in our
power to understand Buddhism principles and have reverence for Buddha
boundlessly and infinitely. Only when we achieve that level of understanding
about Buddha and having the boundless homage for Him, we would not care about
life or death. And only when we achieve the above, we would be able to love all
beings, love our country unconditionally and infinitely.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha

30

DO NOT WAIT

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
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www.vidaothieng.com

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year, I like to talk about the topic
"Do not wait..." This was the title of the article posted on Tuoi Tre newspaper
(The Youth). The article was very interesting and its contents align to some of the
moral values and principles in Buddhism, therefore, I like to reference this article
throughout our discussion today.
The original article stated:
Do not wait until receiving a smile from someone then smile back.
Do not wait until being loved by someone then love them back.
Do not wait until being lonely then acknowledge the value of love.
Do not wait until having a very satisfying job and then start to dedicate to
your work.
Do not wait until having a lot then share a bit.
Do not wait until having fallen down then recall the advice.
Do not wait until having plenty of time then practise Buddhism.
Do not wait until making others upset then apologise.
Do not wait at all because you never know how long the wait will be".
1. Do not wait until receiving a smile from someone then smile back
Running into a person who is our relative, surely we say hello and smile at
them. But if we did not much about that person, we easily passed them without
paying too much attention. This is the common situation when two people met at
the first or the second times but they knew only little about each other. This
statement warns us that in our lives, do not keep our hearts cold, or be lack of
courtesy or lack of kindness ... typically proven by the attitude we showed when
passing each other without smiling or saying Hello.
This statement also warns us we should not live being very narrowminded. Why? Because a smile does not cost anything, and on the contrary, it
makes people we meet realise that there are many people who are nice and willing
to love others around us and thus they feel warm and they would love their lives
more. A smile makes people who are sad feel better. If we meet a person and they
smile at us first then it was our loss and there was no other explanation for that.
So, when we meet a stranger in a temple, on a street or on a bus ... even we
dont know them, we should smile at them. This gesture would make the icy
atmosphere break and would bring the friendship closer. Just a smile, we could
2

bring joy to our lives. Like a Swallow, although it cannot create spring but its
presence indicates the signal of Spring is coming.
Although a smile could not change the whole world as people would still
continue to be cruel, selfish, and narrow-minded, however, the smile would still
somehow warm up this world. When we could comprehend that philosophy, we
could realise the value of being good and doing many good things and loving
others. In our lives, we should always be friendly to others, even just simply as
giving them a big warm smile. So the lesson from this is that: "Let always be
proactive in being friendly and kind to others".
If we waited for others to greet us first, then we responded out of politeness,
it just meant that we were taught a How to be polite lesson by them. After that
we would feel embarrassed because of out impoliteness. Obviously that is our loss
and acknowledging this is still good. Otherwise, if in this situation, we arrogantly
turned away because we think they are strangers, then we were very rude.
For example, there was a time when we were in a hurry and passed a person,
and after about ten-step away from each other, we suddenly turned around because
we realised that they looked familiar then we both started smiling and greeting.
Though we were slow but it was still good. If we did not do that, we were really
arrogant then. This could show that we may not have morality. And we do hope
that all of us, being Buddhists, who are sitting here today, and who were taught to
love all sentient beings. We all may be slow in our actions, and response, but we
would never lose our cordial smiles.
So, sometimes we might regret not having smiled at someone right after we
met them. A smile could simply make others judge who we are and how moral,
friendly, compassionate we are. Please do assess our own behaviour and learn
from our mistakes.
2. Do not wait until being loved then love back
The second statement refers a bit deeper into morality. This particularly
criticises people who are selfish and passive.
For example, at school, we always keep our distance from others; or in
temples we always appear calm and keep a distance from others, we do not want to
show emotion to anyone. Or, similarly we do the same thing at work... These
people with this behaviour should be criticised because they were waiting for
someone to love them first before they respond. It also indicated that these people
are less moral and they have not yet comprehend Buddhism principles. Buddha
3

always teaches us to love all beings with no conditions and to not demand love in
return.
When we are in a temple with presence of Buddha, respectful monks and
nuns, even the trees and the grass also blend in with the atmosphere, we could feel
the love amongst us and we can easily respond to this loving atmosphere because
we believe the people, who are in the same temple with us, that they would hold
the same belief. Because of our confidence in this environment, we could easily
express our love and be friendly to others.
However, when we are in different places such as schools or workplace, and
because we do not know the others yet, we would keep the distance, and do not
show our emotion, or would not be friendly with others, then we are very much
ordinary. It also simply meant that we only react or respond when others do so.
Many people have that mentality, and that mentality is not appropriate for
Buddhism principles.
Buddhism principles advise us that We should love others without the
expectation of being loved. Even when we loved others, we helped them, but they
betrayed us, we would still be happy. It was because we were prepared for all
circumstances, not because of our expectation of receiving their love back.
So, for those who have the expectation that if we loved others, they would
love us back, then it was to be considered very commercial. For example, at
workplace, people would be friendly with their boss, their colleagues, and their
employees to enable their work progress smoothly. Though such action is still
considered good and well, but it still does not completely align with Buddhism
principles, because it was done with a purpose. And if someday we meet a person,
who was jealous of us for some reasons, then we would be very annoying,
sometimes we even consider revenge.
So when we are at work or at any places, let ourselves be open to love
everyone and let prepare for all sorts of situations i.e. have the mentality that
amongst those we love there are good people treating us well and also there are
bad people who envy us and sometimes they could victimise us, harm us, or
defame us. Having predicted those bad situations, we would be still able to accept
those circumstances and it also because that is life.
Although life is unfair like that but the Buddha also teaches us to love others
no matter what and our love for others should always be there in our hearts. So
when we meet someone, we should always be open and proactive, not waiting for
4

them to do so because the later can be considered to be selfish, and that is not one
of the true Buddhists characteristics.
For example, in the workplace, if we only treated others kindly because they
were kind to us, it was not really good. This thinking and attitude is not allowed in
our temple. It would mean that there would be different groups of nuns, and
monks, there would be division in the community, and we are not
united. Therefore, a person who is going to be a monk or a nun is not allowed to
even have that thought or take any similar sorts of action. They must love all
people even these people have not yet understood them. However, loving others do
not mean you must express explicitly your love to them. Your love to them can be
shown by your caring for them and your support, being there when needed. That
attitude shows our enthusiasm, proactiveness and considerateness.
"Do not wait until being loved then love back." What does this statement
remind us? It is quite simple. If these people, who lived next door to each other
over a long period of time, and they still had not fully understood or appreciate
each other. One day one of these people left. Leaving in this scenario has many
meanings. It could simply mean that one of them left to live else where, or more
than that, one of them left this world. It was then the other just realised his socalled neighbour was a lovely person. Because of his narrow-mindedness, he was
not proactive in providing his love to his neighbour. He missed the neighbour
when the neighbour already left. He would have no further chances to do good
deeds for his neighbour or to show his appreciation towards his neighbour.
If in our previous lives, when we loved someone, then it would be easier to
do the same in this life. On the contrary, if we were not proactive in doing so, it
would take time. It is in deed karma law, because if in this life we do good deeds
for someone then we would naturally love them in our next life and we would help
each other in cultivating the Dharma.
Sometimes, there would be people that are not willing to love us
first. They wait for us and we wait for them. But if unfortunately he would pass
away and we had thought he was a good person because he would not upset us or
would have never said bad words to us, it was too late for us to acknowledge his
greatness. Therefore, it would be best that we should not care about how good or
bad these people are, whether or not they love us, we should love them first. This
is also consistent with Buddhas teachings. We are Buddhists so we must practice
these teachings.

3. Do not wait until being lonely then acknowledge the value of love
In this ordinary life, we always fight against each other, get angry with each
other and blame others, which lead to broken relationship. It is very easy to blame,
defame and betray people. The retribution for those bad deeds is to live a lonely
life.
We have met so many people like that. When surrounded by family and
friends, they blamed others, or were angry with someone, or looked down on
others. When they realised what they did, everyone had already left. Those who
could understand them also stayed far away from them. There would be no one
that would love them; no one wanted to see them because of their negative
attitude. The retribution for not appreciating value of people relationship is to live
a lonely life.
During Tet holiday period, we often think about one thousand years ago. At
that time, our society was not as crowded. There was quite a long distance between
resident places in city areas. In rural areas this distance was a lot longer. If a father
asked his child to ask for some salt from the next door neighbour, it would have
took the child an hour to walk to the neighbour house and bring the salt back. And
we often heard people say "Have fun in the New Year," which has been a norm
since. But what forms happiness or having fun? We often heard people say "the
more the merrier", the principle is quite simple really. We should remember that:
the more people around us, the happier we should be. Although Tet has come and
spring is in the air, but if we were alone by ourselves, it would be really sad. We
would then think of other places where other family would have each other and
enjoy their time together and yet here we are, alone! We should then realised the
misery of being lonely because we could not enjoy and be happy like others.
We also often think about how our ancestors celebrated Tet holiday,
thousands of years ago, while they lived so far away from each other. There were
only few people back then. And because we only feel happy if there are many
people around us, but at that time there were only a few residents in a town.
During Tet holiday, they would go from house to house to greet and wish each
other best wishes for the New Year. However, if they left someone at home, then
that person would be really sad. So, sometimes, others happiness could be
someone elses sadness.
Today, the fact that you all are here during this New Year festival, and bring
joy, happiness to our temple. We should be enjoying our time together. However,
when you are here enjoying this atmosphere, people at home would miss you and
6

there would be less happiness around your place because of your absence. People
relationships and love are always on our mind. And we have realised that natures
take its cause, human beings should be together, and not to be lonely, otherwise
we would not exist.
A long time ago, when human beings started to reside on Earth, there were
very few residents here and there. There were places that people came and left as
they were only alone. However, over time, fortunately human beings started
realising that they could form a group, then became a minority group, and finally
declared a nation. So we only exist if we learn to live together, and that means we
must support each other. We must count on others. Mother nature forces human
beings to live together. Only when someone achieved the highest level in
cultivation, we could survive on our own. However, living alone is not the
objective of Buddhism. The objective of Buddhism is to continuously improve
ourselves to teach and help other human beings.
Again the above just simply means that it is very natural that human beings
must learn to live together. However, there are people who underestimate the
importance of this principle, because they could not comprehend the importance
and meaning of being with others and relationship between people. They always
look for flaws in others. They do not value the importance of love and being loved,
so the result in the end is that they are isolated from others. Only when they were
in that situation, they would realise how difficult life could be without others.
When they realised that problem, that everything they would want to do would
become more difficult, they could not rely on anyone as there would be no one
around, they would become more and more de-motivated in their life.
If we are loved, naturally we would feel happy and thus we would stay
young for a long time. We would notice that there are two kinds of people: The
first kind consists of those who are destined to interact with many people; they
always love and help others. They would do anything to benefits all beings
throughout their life. They would not think bad, or blame others. Everyone would
want to be around these people as they always find something good in others.
They would always look radiant because they would always feel happy about life.
When it is their time, there would be a lot of people come to say good bye and
celebrate their lives. That means they would live and die happily. The second kind
consists of those who living solitary lives. These people would always look old
and worried when we see them. So if somehow we were pushed into that lonely

life, the loneliness would make us become weaker and when we die, we would die
in loneliness, sadness and in a unhealthy way.
On the 5th day of Lunar New Year, we will preach "Spring and Age". This
topic would remind us: "Do not wait until we fall into a lonely life then
acknowledge the value of relationship with other people. Then we wish if we had
not blamed, accused, spoken harshly about others or been arrogant but had been
modest, and had appreciated people's relationship, perhaps we would have been
living a happy life".
There have been many people leaving Vietnam for another country. In a
foreign country, the opportunity to speak Vietnamese is rare. In fact, they had just
arrived at a new country, they could not speak that country's language yet. As the
result, they could not communicate effectively with the native, so they felt lonely
in the new land. Only when they could communicate effectively with others, they
would feel more welcomed and less lonely. Once, we talked to an American. One
of the Buddhists asked if he wanted a drink. The Buddhist brought the American a
glass of water but he could not talk to him because the Buddhist did not
understand English. It is quite simple really, we should learn to know a foreign
language to actively overcome the language barrier so that we become less solitary
and love people more easily.
So the saying "do not wait until being lonely then understand the value of
love" is very meaningful and valuable. When we still have the opportunity to love,
and to be with others, let cherish those relationships, do not let our love for them
fade away. We should love people more and more. If our love for others increases
from time to time, we have been living right. Otherwise, it is such a pity.
4. Do not wait until having a very satisfying job and then start to
dedicate to your work
This statement is very interesting. And this mentality is quite common
actually. So what is the purpose of having a job? What is the purpose of working?
To define what a job is, we should analyse and compare the meanings of having a
job vs. working.
For example, a man is gathering woods. Is it a job? Yes, it is. However,
another example includes a man who was bringing bricks to help building a house,
but later on, he was the person ruining the place; Or, someone was building a pile
of sand then waiting for the ocean waves come to destroy it. Were these really
jobs? No, they were games not jobs. All of the above were physical acts, but only
8

one of them could be called a job while others were called games. It is be cause
when you are doing something that contribute towards human being lives, then it
is a job.
In this world there are many jobs for us. Everyone often chooses a suitable
profession. But in this article, the author reminds us not to think and act like that
Do not wait until having a very satisfying job and then start to dedicate to your
work. Why so? Because the point of choosing a job that we are satisfied with,
even though it may still contribute towards human lives, we did this job to satisfy
our needs, not for others. Our selfishness still exists.
So, those who understand the meaning of "labour" or "job" would agree on
the fact that "Doing a job means to contribute to human life to benefit others." We
chop wood and cook, then we and our family would have things to eat. In a
temple, if we collect rubbish, we ourselves and many Buddhist would have the
clean place to live. Maybe even we are directors of a company, we are the rich, but
when being at a temple we are guests, we should help by getting drinks for others
or do anything as long as it benefits other people. If we think that "we just explain
the Buddhism doctrine to people, but we do not know how to interact with them",
then it means we just think for ourselves, not for other people.
We should do anything as long as it makes sense, valuable and contribute to
human beings lives. It could be because we were doing many works that we did
not like, but those acts helped others, our blessings were increased and sooner or
later we would get a more satisfying job. For example, there was a graduate
chemical engineer and he had not yet had a job. This person applied for an
engineer position in a company. The company representative said that they had
enough chemical engineers but lack of security guards. This person thought "now
that there were not chemical positions available, I should work as a security guard
to support my family and this job should also contribute to the society." And this
person did his job happily and with dedication. And thanks to his dedication and
his support to other people to fulfill their duties, his blessings had been increased.
Later, that company had created more jobs to grow, and it needed more chemical
engineers. At that time the director remembered that security guy who had
majored in chemistry then assigned a suitable engineer job to him.
Or another example, there was a student, who studied music at music
school, dreamt of becoming a musical star. But at that time the opportunity was
not available, and only a carpenter position was available for him. This person was
too arrogant to work as a carpenter. He waited for the singer position so that he
9

could proudly stand in front of any audiences and to be a star. Since he did not
accept the carpenter position and he had no chance to become a singer yet, in the
end, he had no work to do, which means he contributed nothing to life.
The concept of work is very subtle. Because we work hard or even suffer
from work as long as it benefits our lives and others, our merit would increase. As
a result, someday we would have a satisfying job to do. It would be great when we
do a job which is not normally our area of expertise; or not to our linking, however
we would still dedicate to complete the assigned duties. Thanks to our dedication,
then would have gained a lot of experiences which would be advantageous when
we apply for new jobs in the future.
Long time ago when our country just finished war and gained
Independence, our family just did farming work. We had to dig, planted rice and
peanuts, gathered firewood, watered sugar canes ... These kinds of work did not
seem appropriate for us at the time, as we were school academics, we should have
studied all day instead of being out there working on farm tasks. But at that time,
that was the circumstance and everyone had to do things, anything, to support their
family. We loved our family so we were dedicated to complete the task. Later our
family circumstance became better, we went back to school then later became a
monk. Now looking back on those days, we are grateful for those difficult times,
working under a bright, strong sunshine, or those days when we were alone in the
field keeping birds from eating our rice, or those nights when we were alone in the
forest burning wood into charcoal We worked very hard. Surprisingly, thanks
to all the hard work during those difficult times, we now could be brave to face
any difficulties or challenges in life.
Therefore, when we got in the temple we were no longer afraid of anything
and we could do anything even if it is hard or dangerous. We are grateful for doing
any work, even it the work is not ideal for us at that time, but it would help us a lot
to our cultivation of the Dharma. In our temple, when our masters went to the rice
field to harvest, we would help them too. Another time, we needed to build a
bridge to connect two temples. It was winter and there was a stream flowing hard
between the two temples. My master assigned this job to us. To build the bridge
we must have dived into the deep stream to place concrete posts at the bottom of
the stream. It was during winter, and the water was icy cold. We burnt the pile of
hay leaves then we take turns jumping into the water digging holes for these posts.
Everyone took turn to jump into the cold water to work, then rest, and then work
again. By helping each other, and doing it together, we completed the tasks
10

successfully. We were pleased when we did that work as it help train us how to
behave and act during difficult times. We continue gaining blessings for our work.
If we joined the temple, and we did not participate into doing those difficult and
challenging work, then we would not gain blessings, and if we would wait for
better tasks, it does not show our dedication to cultivation at all.
This statement Do not wait until having a very satisfying job and then start
to dedicate to your work is really meaningful. Sometimes when we get a job
which was not what we quite expect, it is just meant to be, it could be the
opportunity for us to train ourselves to be better. So we should and would do
anything as long as it helps and benefits others.
5. Do not wait until having a lot then share a bit
That means do not wait till being rich then start to do charity and help
others.
This is also common mentality of people who have to work very hard to
earn their living. For example, our daily rate is 70,000VND, which we worked so
hard for, of course, there are other people who have blessings and their job get
paid daily rate of 500,000VND. We would then think that we were poor because
our daily rate was less than the other. And when our neighbour was sick and asked
for some money to buy the medicine, we would hesitate to give them the money as
we worked so hard for it. This scenario is very common. When considering the
hard work we did, naturally we did not want to share to others. On the contrary,
the rich people would give out the money without any hesitation. However
because they were rich and they could afford to give out money to help, they
would still not gain as much blessings. That is the reason why there is a saying that
the rich would not gain as much blessings when giving out to help others, as
when the poor do the same thing.
When the poor gave out their money to help others, it means they sacrificed
their earnings after a long hard labour day for other people. Because of their
kindness and their scarification, they would gain a great deal of blessings and good
retribution. Someone would ask But their contribution was less than mine. Each
time they only contributed 100,000VND, 200,000VND, or 500,000VND; but I
contributed 10 million VND, but my children and I would not be as lucky as his."
Why is that? That is because it did not take much of an effort for rich people to
give out to help. Moreover, they spend more than they give, while the poor give
more than they spend so they will get a lot of blessings.

11

Please remember "Do not wait until having a lot then share a bit because
giving alms when rich has less blessings when poor. For example, when we
travelled by train from the North to the South, and it was lunch time; and at that
moment, we caught a person sitting across us watching us having our sandwich,
but they quickly turned away. We were aware that they did not have anything to
eat, or had any money to buy any food. However, we hesitated to share with them
because we were wondering "Should we share the sandwich that was already
bitten with them? And when we realised, it was already too late. Later when the
train arrived at the station, all got off the train, and seeing that they were exhausted
from their hunger, we regretted not sharing our food with them. We wished we had
shared with them and thus the sadness would torment us for the rest of our life.
Sometimes it could just be a small thing which can torment us for the rest of
our life. As opportunities and time have passed, we had no chances to correct our
actions. In this world when we have a chance to support or share something with
others, do not hesitate to do that. Let love spread all over this world, so that we can
peacefully continue living with no secret regrets or worries at all.
Sometimes having done something wrong, we would remember that until
the day we die. Maybe when we were about to pass away, we would feel satisfied
with most of things we did, we were proud of our family and children, but were
still regretted that 30 years ago on the train we did not share our sandwich with a
hungry passenger. As the result, we did not have a peaceful passing away.
Therefore, do not hesitate to try our best to help others.
In fact, there are many ways of blessings being calculated, either by
physical materials and/or thoughts. The blessing formula of cause-and-effect law
is very complicated. For now, let just simplify it by referring to two factors in the
following example. If we gave a poor person 10,000VND, which we worked very
hard to earn that amount of money, however, with our scarification and our
thoughts of poor people, we would get a lot of blessings we cause. However, if
when we gave the poor person 100,000VND, which we could easily earn this
money, then our blessing would not be as significant.
However though, by referring to the above, we did not mean to do it
irresponsibly, which means we give out to others everything we have. By doing it,
we were about to make a mistake. For instance, after a husband passed away, his
wife and children would inherit all his assets. When he was still alive, he had full
ownership of his assets, but it also implied that some of the assets belong to his
wife and his children. The ownership just did not show clearly. When he was
12

alive, he owned the house; and when and he passed away, the value of the house
would be divided into two parts: one for the wife, and another for the children.
That was why when the husband was alive, his wife and children already owned a
part of the house, but the ownership was implicit, and hidden
Similarly, how about our money? Who does it belong to? Be very careful
with this, because all of the money maybe does not belong to us. Although we
often are the people who make final decision on the spending, it does not mean
that all of the money belongs to only us. Likewise, the prime minister could decide
on how to spend the national budget, but the money does not belong to him. If he
made wrong decisions, he would commit a sin, quite a bad one. Therefore, even if
we are the head of the family and keep the money, but do not think it is our
money, as it belongs to the whole family.
So, giving out or donate without thinking carefully means we are making a
mistake. Although this statement advises us to always be willing to help others, we
should still be very careful and cautious when making a decision. We must
remember that: we should give out and create blessings within its defined
boundary, but do not do it irresponsibly.
6. Do not wait until having fallen down then recall the advice
This statement is very interesting. For example, when a girl introduced her
boyfriend to her parents, they advised her that "What a guy! He looks too tough.
You would suffer in this relationship. You should end it" She did not listen to their
advice because she thought that their love was stronger than anything and she
loved him deeply. No matter how many times her parents told her off, she still
married him; but she also divorced him a year later. When it happened, she
thought her parents were right. Similarly, when parents advised their son "You
should be a teacher", but the son replied "No, I like to do business. I want to be a
businessman". The parents kept advising him "You personality is not suitable to
do business. If you still proceed, you would not be successful and would get into
bankruptcy. Teaching is more stable, less earnings but ethical." He did not listen to
his parents and carried on doing his business. Five years later, he was in debt to the
bank and almost was jailed. When it happened, he thought his parents were wise in
their advice. Being eager to win when we were young, we always subjectively
thought that we were right and thus did not listen to other people's advice. Only
when the failure happened, we recalled the advice.
This statement just simply reminds us that: Never underestimate other
peoples advice. Obviously we could not always agree with their advice.
13

Sometimes they also advise bad things due to their negative thoughts or due to
their lacking of experiences or knowledge. We should not, therefore, always rely
totally on other peoples advice.
However, do not disregard those advices, especially when we are very
young. No matter how smart we are, we were young so we still make the mistake.
The mistake is being arrogant and aggressive about everything. We believed that
we were right about everything, and everything is beautiful and possible in this
world. Those who have passed their youth would understand about this. Young
people would not possibly be aware of this, because they so believe they were
right, so they ignored other peoples advice. This is our weakness. Those who have
passed their youth would understand that only very few things, out of many things
we thought of doing while we were young, which could be done successfully.
When we were getting older, we then advise the others from our learnings and our
failure.
When we were robbed, ripped off, or negligent in doing something, we
would acknowledge how useful the advice was; but then, it was too late. These
advices from others often from their past experiences that they learnt all their lives,
some even from a very challenging and hard times in their lives, not simply just
words. For example, our parents advise us: "When you get to know someone, you
should consider the way the person treats his family to assess how good they are".
When someone was kind to us, we would consider them to be our friend.
However, if we looked into it, he/she only was kind to us, but not kind to his/her
own family, then he/she was not a good person. Ignoring that, we still progressed
with getting into the relationship with this person. We have ignored the advice
from our parents. We made a mistake. The person we thought we knew could turn
out to be someone else and that mistake could make us go to jail one day.
When it happened, we remembered the valuable advice we received from
others. It is advised that if one, who is not kind to their families, is not kind to
others too. One who does not go to a pagoda, maybe, one is not good. And do not
yet think one who does not attentively listen to a sermon is a good person either ...
So, let us be calm, listen to and appreciate the advice even when we need to think
about those advices before making final decision. It is up to us but never disregard
the advice.

14

7. Do not wait until having plenty of time then start to practise

Buddhism
(Since the original meaning of this statement is not clear, we have modified
it a bit and emphasised more on the cultivation of Buddhism).
There are Buddhists who are too busy with their lives so they almost forget
to cultivate. We have advised them to spend more time on cultivation but they
always have excuses for their laziness and the delays.
We know a provincial Chairman who knows how to best utilise his time to
both cultivate properly and for his work. He has been always busy, working all
year around, even on Saturday and Sunday, almost with no time to spare. He is a
very dedicated and ethical man with integrity. So we might think that with his
busy work schedule, he would not be able to study Buddhism principles and
cultivate. But it was not true. Every morning, he would practice basic qigong at
least two hundred times, listen to a short sermon and then go to work. So, when a
Buddhist says he is too busy to cultivate, we would tell the story of this provincial
Chairman as the role model for others to follow. Even though he was so busy, he
still takes the time to practice, doing research and exercise to remain being
healthy.
So we should never complain that we have little time. The point is how to
best arrange time and use it wisely so we have time to cultivate. We must start
right now. Because Buddhas teachings are the light to help us not only to get rid
of the darkness of ignorance, but also help us to escape from the heat, torment of
sorrow. Buddhas teachings are spiritual food to help us escape from lacking of
wisdom as well. Buddhas teachings are sacred. We rely on these principles and
we feel protected by them. If we miss out on listening to these teachings on one
day, we would not feel right.
And if everyday, we are able to listen to the teachings and practice it, then
every day we would be getting closer to Buddha, our lives are getting more
peaceful and would be a lot happier.
So, never leave Buddhism. We should always make time for it. No matter
how busy we are, we must constantly worship Buddha and meditate. The day we
worship Buddha and meditate is the day we are purifying our bodies and minds,
getting closer to better things. The more good deeds we do, the more blessings we
would gain, and that means we are getting one step closer to noble fruition. If we
delay or miss a day of listening to Buddhas teachings and practicing them, it will
15

be the day that ignorance and sin have the opportunity to destroy our souls a little
more. So do we want to come to the light of the Dharma or to let ignorance destroy
our souls? Or do we want to let Dharma purify our mind or let affliction fills up in
our mind. It is our decision. Therefore, we have no choice but have to force
ourselves. Each of us must force ourselves not to be forgotten to learn about
Buddhas teachings and practice them everyday so that the teachings are instilled
into us. We would make progress and become better every day.
There are some things we put off can cause us some disadvantages, but if
we delay in practising Buddhism principles, the disadvantages are too big.
Once, Buddha accompanied the Sanghas left the monastery for food. They
went along the path surrounded by the field to get into town. There were many
farmers plowing in the field in early morning. There was a farmer digging and
when he saw Buddha and the Sanghas, he left his hoe, bowed to pay homage to
Buddha. Thinking about something, he picked up his hoe and continued his work.
Seeing this, Buddha stopped and told the Sanghas that this farmer also had the
same thought throughout his past one hundred lives "I will wait until I finish
hoeing the field, then I will practise Buddhism". But when he completed, he then
thought, "I will wait until I finish the harvest, then I will practise Buddhism". And
when he was done with the harvest, he thought, "I will wait until my son is grown
up and takes my place in ploughing the field, then I will practise Buddhism". He
continued his thinking like this; it took him a long time to be with Dharma; though
many lives later, he met Buddha and Sacred Ones. So, we should not put off
practicing Buddhism teachings. There are some things we put off can cause us
some disadvantages but for Buddhism and cultivation, one day we put off means
we must wait 1000 lives. The cause of hesitation and delay in cultivation will
become the effect of one thousand times of wait, hesitation and delay.
8. Do not wait until making others upset then apologise
Do we make this mistake at all? Of course, we have upset our family and
friends many times in life. Although we knew about these mistakes and apologised
for those mistakes, our feelings were still wounded. A father had a bad-tempered
son. He told his son that "When you are angry about something, hammer a nail
onto the railing". The son listed to his father, so everyone time he was angry; he
hammered a nail onto the railing of the house. Later on, seeing the jagged nails on
the railing, the son thought of his temper and how bad it was, demonstrated by
those nails and he began to be fear of his bad temper and became more patient.
Then the father told his son "When you can control yourself, take a nail out". The
16

son did as per his fathers advice for several years and eventually removed all the
nails. Finally, the father said "Look at the railing". The son obeyed and he saw the
holes of his nails jagged on the railing.
Similarly, although we realised the mistakes and apologised, there still left
wounds in our and others souls. So it is best not to upset each other, not to live
carelessly, not to talk without thinking and consideration and hurt people's
feelings. Because when we found out those who suffered from our actions and
sadly left us, we would regret. We should not wait until that time; we should
always consider our actions to prevent us from making those mistakes, hurting
others. Please be very careful!
Having said all that, when we knew about our mistake and apologised for it,
it was actually quite acceptable. There are people who do not even admit and
apologise for their mistake until the day they leave this world to live another life
but like animals. Those who make others sad and continue living without any
regrets would live like an animal life in their next life. Why do you think we were
born human beings? That is because we know how to apologise for our mistake
when we hurt others. So we would return in our next life as human beings to
redeem our mistakes. That is a difference between human beings and animals.
For example, a father gave his house to his son, however, his son was a
profligate person. He lived a careless life, and spent money recklessly. When he
returned home, his parents had died and the house had been damaged by heavy
rain. He regretted so much for his actions then. Due to his regret, when he passed
away, he was not reborn as an animal. When he died, Yama King allowed him to
be reborn as an human being, but also made him vow: Let vow what you will do
in your next incarnation to compensate for all of the errors and mistakes you
made". He replied "Sir, to redeem my errors, I vow to serve, respect my parents
and rebuild many houses. So in his next life, he only have basic level of eduation,
became an apprentice in building industry. He served his parents all his life time
and he did not own any houses because he had not yet paid for his errors, mistakes
made in his past life. Karma law is simple like that and quite reasonable.
There was also another story like this, but these people were undisturbed
about their mistakes and errors, and instead of felt sorry and made redemption,
they did nothing; as the result, their next life was born to be an animal.
Therefore, the fact that we acknowledge and apologise for our mistakes is
quite acceptable even though it is late. Like the lyrics of a song we wrote, "men
wander from place to place in rain and return late ... So, it is best that one must
17

practise, prepare and have the courage to consider everything before doing or
saying anything to avoid hurting others. Again, even when we apologised for those
mistakes, they still left wounds in others heart and soul. We had better not make
any mistakes so we do not have to make apologies.
9. Do not wait at all because you never know how long the wait will be
There are many things in life that should not be delayed but require us to
hurry up and start the actions immediately.
Why? Firstly, opportunities do not always come back. Like the sandwich
story above, we ate the sandwich while the other person was hungry and we
hesitated to invite them to join us. We could not meet them again so we missed the
redemption. In fact, we should have invited them at that time. Secondly, time goes
by quickly. If hesitating, we are wasting a very precious thing, which is time. We
should be quick, determined, knowledgeable and persistent.
But the truth is, not everyone has enough willpower and is intellectual to
decide quickly what to do and what not to do.
Only people who have lot blessings will have intelligence, will power and
be capable of knowing what to do now and what not to do. Where do these
blessings come from? Firstly, we must regularly worship and pay respect to all
Buddhas, we then would be able to judge clearly what should be done and what
should not be done. Secondly, we must have genuine compassion for other human
beings. Thirdly, we must support and help others, and meditate. Due to our
practice in worshipping Buddhas, our compassion, our help for others and
meditation, naturally we would be blessed and we would be clear in our mind to
take appropriate actions without any delay.
"Do Not Wait" reminds each of us to be decisive, be quick, and be accurate
in assessing everything to start the work without any hesitation. Do not miss the
chance. However, in another aspect of life from intellectual and ethical
perspectives, there are things that we must wait and must not be impatient. If we
did things in a rush and without thinking carefully about our decision, it would
easily lead to us making mistakes.
Some people are anxiously waiting all day long
Which make us love them more and more.
Wives are waiting for their husbands
Farmers are waiting in the rice field.
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Waiting the water rises up to row the boats to the dock

Waiting for the dawn for birds to come and sing
Spring comes with lots of flowers
People love people like brotherhood.

Some people are anxiously waiting all day long

Just to make more mistakes
Hesitated, hesitated and wondering
After people pass away then we regretted.
Life has many painful paths
But time passes so quickly
Religion is not far away
Try to cultivate the Dharma and stop waiting.
Spring has come already
Wish all of us always be happy at a peaceful place.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha

19

EMOTION

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

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Emotion is an active action of our soul that is so fundamentally essential for

everbody. From a fetus in the mothers womb to a newborn baby, everyone knows
how to love, hate or fear. When we grows up, emotion always exists in our mind.
Even if we just sitting quietly doing nothing, though we think that we have nothing
on our mind, indeed, there are a lot of emotional thoughts that are going through
and controlling our mind.
What are those types of emotion: compassion or hatred? Where do they
lead us? How should we love and hate appropriately to be blessed and to achieve
full enlightenment?
Emotion is an different affective state in our conscious mind such as love,
hatred, liking, boredom, anger, desire, wish, hope, respect, contempt, fear... and a
lot of other different states of feelings that we have already experienced in our life.
For example, when we meet someone who is kind, and does a lot of charity
work, we would naturally have respect for the person.
On the contrary, when we meet someone who often speaks inappropriate
language, does bad things, and always is proud of himself, we would naturally
dislike this person.
Or, when we meet a fierce, angry looking person, who speaks rudely,
bahave violently, we would naturally feel fearful of this person.
In other cases, when we meet a person whose intention is to undermine our
country, undermine Buddhism, the feeling of hatred would invade our mind
natrually.
Or in relationship, one would miss their loved ones when they are away.
We are always experiencing these types of emotion like these above
examples daily in our life.
Instead of spending time on walking in the park, or playing game, or
enjoying other entertainment activities... we wanted to even travel long distance to
visit different pagodas and listen to different seminars and lectures about the
Dharma in Buddhism. Because we love and respect the Three Jewels, we refused
to enjoy some entertaiment activities in order to spend more time to understand

and learn about Buddhism. When we love one thing, naturally, we will hate
another.
There are two aspects of emotion: love and hate. As mentioned above,
when we love and respect the Three Jewels, certainly, we would hate something
else. We feel that these types of entertainment activities are such a waste of time,
hence our action tends towards other things and in this example, our interest is
about Buddhism. This is when emotion is controlling our mind.
During Spring, Tet (Lunar New Year Holiday), when we came to a temple
and witness all the monks greet and wish each other best things for the new year,
we felt affectionate. This state is yet to be classified as Emotion, but an emotion
will come naturally later. And that is our compassion and respect to these people,
who live a noble religious life. Then, we will like to listen more and more about
the Dharma. Though we dont know if the preach about the Dharma is interesting
or not, but because of our respect for Buddhism, we still want to listen. We give up
time of enjoying normal and ordinary life style activities to spend more time to
learn more about Buddhism. It is because we believe that we can take refuge to
Buddhism as it can help us understand the Truth and we can live better and be a
better person. And then naturally, happiness (an emotional state) will be in our
mind and spread to everyone else.
Emotion always has two opposite sides, typically: love and hate, hatred and
forgiveness, respect and contempt... One is referred to as an attraction state and
the other is pushing state. The feelings such as love, respect, like, expectation are
attraction states of emotion that drive us towards being close to the others. When
we love someone, we would want to see him and want to be close to him. When
we respect someone, we would want to listen and learn from him. This is the
attraction side of emotion. In contrast, the other opposite state will drive us away
from other people. The emotions such as hatred, boredom, contempt... belongs this
pushing state.
Emotion always exists in our mind, quietly, but it strongly controls our
mind, our behaviours, and therefore, creating the differences in the society.
Without emotion, this world will end, and nothing will exist. We could say that
one of main causes to create this chaotic society, the whirl of life is emotion.
Simply, we like nice and fashionable clothes, and because of this liking, we
want to earn more money to buy these clothes. When we like something, we are
3

motivated to do to achieve the goal. Or when we see that the path leading to our
village is so dirty and muddy and we are really annoyed about this. This
annoyed feeling strongly motivates us to do the right thing by helping clean up
the road. Sometimes, hatred also helps make us do the right thing, a good deed.
Both love and hate feelings drive us to do something. Because of
different emotions, causing different behaviours and actions, diversity exists in
life, in society. By now, we must know that we only do something because of
either love or hate emotions. Without these main two types of emotion, we would
not take any actions.
What is the first and basic emotion of an human being? It is the greed to
live and the fear to die. When we are just a fetus in our mothers womb, this
emotion already controls us. Although we could not recognise our parents right
after being born, the survival instinct always exists in our mind. When we are
hungry or fearful, we always cry, this is a signal to our parent that they should feed
or protect us. The survival instinct is a important motivation, which forces us to do
thing to survive or to maintain our life. Even when we are older, we always have
the desire to live longer, and the fear of dying. This emotion is fundamentally
basic but very intense.
I like to tell you a humorous story:
A man who often went to the church and prayed that he wished to go heaven
when he died. One time when he was praying, God appearred, smiled and softly
said that: "Your wish have come true. You can now follow me to heaven.
Immediately, he was terrified and responded quickly: No, I am sorry that I
cannot follow God. I still have my familly, my house, my farm, and my wealth.
Nobody can take care them if I leave so I cannot go to heaven with you. I will
follow you next time. Since then, he had never prayed the same thing again, as he
was afraid that God may come back and take him to heaven.
Similarly, when someone always faithfully prayed: Namo Amitabha
Buddha with sincerity and wanted to be reborn in Buddhas land. However, when
Amitabha Buddha appearred to take them to that land, they were terrified and
immediately refused to follow Amitabha with many different excuses: their
family, the businesses, etc. In fact, in theory, we want to follow Buddha and be
reborn in heaven, however, in reality, we always have strong desire to live longer
and extremely fear of death. Therefore, when Amitabha Buddha appeared to take
4

us to heaven or to Buddhas land, we know that it is the time to leave everything

behind forever: to die. The emotion of Greed to Live and Fear to Die is always
strong in the mind of any human beings.
Even a genuine Buddhist, who understand clearly the Dhrama, though is
not afraid of death, he/she is still not courageous enough to end their life, when
asked.
This fundamentally basic emotion compels us to do everything to survive
and maintain our lifestyle. And then, karma and human instinct creates
relationship between men and women; get married; and have children to maintain
the human race. The love between a man and a woman is an extremely intense
emotion. Thus, many artists have composed a lot of love poems, love songs. These
songs and poems are very popular. In contrast, there are not many songs and
poems which praise love for family, humanity, environment, world peace and
children.
Only few noble people can overcome this type of basic emotion to write
songs about other different matters in the society, not about the romantic
relationship between men and women.
Until much later I have written a poem
But it is not to praise love
As love is just the image of twilight
Though pleasant but will fall into the darkness of night
As mentioned above, the love relationship between men and women is very
intense, except for same gender relationship i.e. gay or lesbian. This exception also
has its own karma.
A love relationship between a man and a woman has never occurred without
problems. Why? Because the essence of this emotion is selfishness. Asian people
has an closed and private culture of life, so we are quite certain that their love
relationship is selfish. Similarly, although Westerners have an open and relaxed
culture and their relationship can be very easy-going, it is still selfish. Selfishness
will always lead to the unexpected actions such as anger, blame, anxiousness,
anguish, betrayal, jealousy, which are very common in a relationship...
We once met an American man who was divorced. Someone asked him:
Would you get married again? He said that he was afraid of marriage, just a
5

thought about it made him feel that he had entered a fiery furnace. He was
exhausted by jealousy, blame, anger, quarrels... and he was very happy to be free
from his marriage. However, one year later, he got married again. We cannot
understand! The love relationship between a man and a woman is always
extremely intense. It makes us tired but it also attracts and motivates us strongly.
Thus, we still can fall in love with someone else again, even though we just have
been freed from it.
Apart from love/romantic relationship, we also have the greed for higher
social status, power, honour and fortune. We need money because money can
make our life better. Money allows us to do anything we want. The love for money
is also an extremely intense emotion. Because of money, we have to strive and
compete to survive. Sometimes we even conspire to kill someone just for a small
of amount of money. Romantic relationship and love for money always make us
exhausted, and more to that, we actually commit so many sins to have them.
After many years of observing and analysing human emotions, some
philosophers had drawn a conclusion that: "All of chaos, disturbance and sins are
derived from human emotions". They concluded: it is very obvious that all
different types of love or relationship will cause tiredness, separation, selfishness,
fights... The like of partying, entertaining, money, power and lust are always the
root causes for all evil acts, and make people lose their principles and morality.
Therefore, throughout many years of the human race history, some philosophers
had often advised that we should terminate all human emotions to achieve a
peaceful life. It means that we do not love or hate , we should have a pure and
clam mind.
Is the above conclusion correct? Actually, it is not! If someone thinks the
above is correct, then he/she is not a true Buddhist. Most of us are confused about
this conclusion. At first, we immediately accepted the above argument to stop
love, stop hate to have a peaceful life but that is wrong.
In fact, Buddhism has never taught us to terminate all human emotions. A
large number of people have misunderstood the meaning of Emptiness in
Buddhism. Often people thing Emptiness means to feel nothing and to do nothing.
This is the misunderstanding about Buddhism. In fact, Buddhism teaches us about
the the Noble Eightfold Path.

Those, who just started learning about Buddhism, would not be able to
understand what the Noble Eightfold Path is. The longer they learn and practise
Buddhism, they would understand more about this path. Only when they are
enlightened, they can comprehend completely the Noble Eightfold Path. It is
actually the essence of Buddhism.
We often misunderstand that Emptiness in Buddhism means stop
thinking. It is totally wrong. It means we must thing rightly. Buddhism never
taught us that we do not do anything to avoid creating bad karma. Buddha had
taught us that we should do good things and act rightly to create blessings and
merits; we must not do bad things, act wrongly, and create bad karma. Buddha
also never taught us that we do not love anybody. Buddha actually taught us that
we should love or hate rightly, so that our life will be happy and peaceful, our
blessings would grow day by day, and we would be able to achieve enlightenment.
If our mind is controlled by the wrong emotion, we cannot be freed from the
cycle of birth, life and death. If we do not respect someone, who deserves to have
our respect, we would not have any blessing. If we are not strict with someone
who needs to be disciplined, we also would not have any blessing. For example, if
we met a great teacher who was so exemplary and dedicated his life to build up his
knowledge and to teach students, but we did not show any respect for this person,
then we would not have any bleesing and we always would be a mediocre person.
Similarly, if we disregarded a monk who was virtuous and wise; had the ability
preach Buddhism Dharma; practised meditation diligently; and did a lot to develop
Buddhism, we also would not have blessing, merits and we would not be respected
by others, as the result. If we took any of these disrespectful acts, we would never
be able to achieve high level status in the society, and would not be respected by
others.
Though it is not the same, but the same principle is applied to discipline
someone. If someone behaved badly, but we did not strictly discipline him/her, we
also would not be blessed. For example, if one of our friends, who were
irresponsible for his family, his actions, but because of our friendship with him, we
did not call out his mistakes, and did not advise him to be better, then we would
not be blessed later in life, or even future lives.
Therefore, we must act rightly. If we act wrongly, we would always be in
the cycle of birth, life and death, and never be freed.
7

We absolutely have to respect and pay homage to Buddha. We also must

have the absolute respect for true monks. We have to have compassion for all
other fellow Buddhists. We have to support and help those, who are less fortunate.
We have to be strict to teach those who are mean and unkind. However, we have
to be tolerant with them, show our compassion and forgiveness. The right emotion
will make our life better. Through cycle of birth, life and death, we will gradually
achieve the absolute compassion for all beings, no matter in whatever existence
they may be. This is a sign of the enlightenment.
It is a completely wrong thinking that Buddhism advises us to be
emotionless i.e. no love, no hatred. The right emotion will help us be stronger and
be calm. The wrong emotion will make us anxious and worried. Lets think about
this: whenever we dislike someone, we would keep thinking about this person, the
feeling of hatred keeps staying in our mind, in our heart, we would not be able to
sleep that means we have the wrong emotion. In contrary, when we like
someone, have compassion for that person, our mind is filled with happiness, we
feel better, stronger, healthier and sleep better it means we have the right
emotion
A Buddhist visited Phat Quang Pagoda and told us that: "Dear Master, I
love to listen your teaching on the tape records. I cannot sleep well without
listening to it. This liking is a type of emotion. This emtion helps this Buddhist
sleep well. Indeed, it is certainly the right emotion of love.
However, if someone said that: "Dear Master, I admire and love this singer.
I miss her day and night, so much that I cannot sleep". This love make his mind
unstable and disturbed. It is the wrong type of emotion. This type will take us into
the cycle of birth, life and death.
According to morality principle, the right and basic emotion is love the
good and hate the evil. We must act rightly before even thinking about
enlightenment. Again, we must behave and act rightly. Whoever badmouths about
us, we should ignore. Buddha has clearly taught us that "Cease to do evil, learn to
do good deeds, and purify the mind". Buddha distinguished clearly between the
good and the evil. It is not at all ambiguous. Therefore, fundamentally, the first
basic level of emotion is to love the good and hate the evil.
The second level of emotion is that we have to respect those, who do good
deeds and have compassion for those who commit sins. We should never hate the
8

bad guys. If we have that thought, we are wrong. We must not hate or stay away
from bad people. We SHOULD have compassion for them. Compassion in this
case has a great meaning. It means that even we know about their sins, we should
find a way to help them to turn back, be a better person, and learn to do good
deeds.
The third level of emotion is that we have to be passionate about doing good
deeds, and would never do anything bad.
If we can follow these steps, we will build on the basic and the right
emotion and make us stronger.
Lets list a few right types of emotion:
To respect elders and to love children.
Children are too young to take care of themselves, so we have to love and
care for them. Elders dedicate their life to work hard to serve the society, so we
have to respect them.
To have filial piety to our parents; to respect our teachers; to love friends,
brothers and sisters.
Many charity organisations usually give presents to high ethical and role
model students to encourage ethical behaviours at school.
To be strict with bad people; to influence and enforce further disciplines
on them to make them better, and do not give in.
Strictness means differently in different context and environment. For
example, in a pagoda, a Master sometimes is strict with his disciples by being
silent towards his disciples, or scolding at some of them. The Master only teaches
the disciples, who are obedient; but he will be silent with those, who are obstinate
and do not listen. These disciples will understand the meaning of silence. In
society, strictness of the law can be the punishment by money, imprisonment, even
sentence to death. The law has to be enforced strictly to keep the stability and
safety of the society. In a family, if parents are not strict with their children, they
will become disobedient, uneducated and turn into bad people. In a pagoda, if a
master is not strict with his disciples, they will be spoilt and do not concentrate on
practicing the Dharma and meditation. At school, if teachers are not strict with
9

their students, they will be disobedient, and do not concentrate on their studies. So
strictness is required to be at different levels in different circumstances.
Being strict with someone bad is the right emotion, with the right intention
to influence them to be better. If we are not strict with childrens, they will be
become disobedient and spoilt. Western culture usually does not approve parents
to spank their children for punishment, therefore the parents are not too strict with
their children. This is one of the main cause of children being spoilt. In contrast,
Asian parents can be very strict with their children so Asian children are more
obedient, which helps make the society more stable.
Completely stay away from untruthfulness.
There are many aspects of untruthfulness. It could be in relationship,
money, business, even in reputation We must not do anything deceitful. With
those, who are not truthful, we must be strict with them, influence them to avoid
doing deceitful things.
Be honest.
Life is never peaceful if people betray one another.
Under many King dynasties, people have to be loyal to their king to ensure
the stability and safety of their country. If people fought against their king, the
country would be in chaos. Nowadays, we have to loyal to our country and if we
fought against our own government, it was disloyalty, and it would create chaos.
Some would argue that: this government is so wrong and corrupted so I have to
fight against this political regime. Actually, we did not know that these thoughts,
and as the result, these actions have been influenced by other foreign
organisations. Intelligence agencies of foreign countries have influenced some
corrupted Vietnamese to write articles, reports, and posts that false or misleading
information onto the internet. Their aim is to make people panic and lose faith in
our government. So they can incite people to rise in rebellion and consequently to
overthrow our government.
In a series of Colour Revolution occurred in the Central and Eastern Europe
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Governments were overthrown because its
people were incited to rise in rebellion. These people were trapped by different
country intelligence agencies. They became disloyal to their own country. In any
centuries, under any government, loyalty is always treasured and praised. Loyalty
of residents of any country can help stabilize and protect for that country.
10

Loyalty is also a main factor for any business/commercial organisations.

Many agencies or companies are growing very well but if only one good employee
was disloyal, he quitted his job to work for other company that offerred a higher
salary, it would cause disturbance and chaos within this company. Many other
people could lose thier jobs if a company collapsed. The employer could be
bankrupt. The main reason was due to an individuals disloyalty. However, if the
company wanted to keep this employee, it had to offer a higher salary. It became
the competition between the two organisations, which also would not lead to a
better outcome.
Therefore, loyalty is extremely important. Loyal employees would always
think that the company gives them opportunities to develop their career goals, to
earn money for their family; they have worked in company for a long period of
time; and they do not quit jobs even if there is another higher salary offer. This
would help the company and also the society to be more stable. Salary is important
in life, but loyalty is much more important. Lets ask ourselves questions: are we
completely loyal to our Master, to our employer or to our country? If we have
that loyalty in our mind, in our heart, we would always have blessings, as this is
the right type of emotion.
To love our country.
Many people thinks that Buddhism is a religion of infinite compassion, a
religion without any borders. Why do we just limit our love for our country? The
love for our country though is small but practical. Buddhism is a practical religion.
Someone had asked Buddha what the Dharma was. Buddha advised that the
Dharma is logical and practical, and you must experience it to understand it. The
practice of the Dharma means come to experience and to understand; it does
not mean just listen to believe".
Firstly, the Dharma is practical. Before we love all living beings, first and
foremost, we must love our country. We live together under one political regime,
one legal system. We share one economic system. In addition, we speak one
language, we have one cultural system, one magnanimous history... So we have to
unite, we must love our country, love our compatriots and also to love all beings...
It does not mean that we love our country so we actually invade other
countries. The viewpoint of Buddhism is that we love our country so we develop
and build our country stronger. It is the foundation to contribute towards world
peace. We do not love our country illiberally and selfishly. It must be the right
11

emotion. The love, which is greater than the love of our own country, is the love
for all living beings.
To respect national heros/heroines, great men/women, and outstanding
leaders.
Thoughout history, many great people had sacrificed their lives for their
countries and the human race. They were talented but also were very modest. They
were determined to do good things and were willing to sacrifice their lives for the
community. We have to respect them. If we cannot do that, we are just as trivial
and unethical.
To have gratitude.
We always must have the deepest gratitude to all help and support that we
received from others. We must never forget those who have helped and supported
us. Though we might never see these people again, we must remember and repay
by helping everyone else. Please do remember this!
To love the nature, plants, moon, stars, clouds, water....
Why should we love the nature? To compose poems or to make
music? It is the right type of emotion. There are some people who live modestly,
ethically so they would appreciate little things such as bright shining
moonlight birds singing We know that these people always have the right
emotion. However, there are people who drinks and thinks that is romantic, then it
is completely wrong. We love nature but we must love it the right way.
To treasure artwork.
Again, this is another type of the right emotion. Those who are wise and
ethical will love the selective artworks. They do not like chaos. They feel
appreciative when they listen to a beautiful song or read a beautiful poem. They
also will admire beautiful architecture. Those, who are less intellectual, often
compose songs with meaningless lyrics or poems. They do not love the art
truthfully. It is not the right emotion.
To be courageous to face challenges and difficulties.
We have to be brave to overcome challenges and difficult situations in our
life. Do not be a coward; or do not fear of these types of circumstances. It is the
right emotion.
12

To have compassion for all types of suffering of human beings.

We must have compassion for all types of suffering. We must be kind
hearted, and must not ignore these situations.
"Spring does not come to those, who are indifferent.
Absence of joy when we turn away from the suffering.
Shadow of an orphaned child.
Dedicated monks in their brown robes.
Life always has the thirst for love".
Please remember, we must have sympathy and compassion for those who
are less fortunate than us.
Be happy for other peoples success.
Even when we fail in life, we should be delighted and happy with other
peoples success with all our heart. If we can do that, we can overcome our own
self, have blessings, and deserve to be successful later on in life. If we are jealous
of someones success, we are annoyed with it, we will become mediocre people
and never be successful in life. For example, even if we lived in a poorly
structured and broken cottage, we should still be happy for the neighbour, who just
built up a beautiful house. If we sincerely and genuinely were happy for them, our
living situation would be improved later on. However, if we did the opposite, our
life would never be better because of jealousy.
Be happy when our loved ones come home.
In our family, when any of family members i.e. father or mother or brother
or sister comes home, we must welcome them graciously and sincerely. Do not
greet just for the sake of it. If we do not care about others, we are selfish and
indifferent. Or if someone from our pagoda comes home, even he/she was just
away for one day, we still must greet them warmly and inquiry graciously about
their health. In addition, we also must farewell them in similar manner. By doing
that, our family member will feel warm, safe and not anxious even they are far
away from home.
We have discussed about the right types of emotion. They are right because
they make our life more meaningful; we will have more blessing and our mind will
be peaceful and stronger. When we have these right emotions, our mind will be
13

strong and will not be controled by ghosts. Ghosts can control our mind when our
mind is weak and we are indebted to them from the past life. Why would our
mind be weak? Because we have the wrong types of emotions: we love and hate
wrongly. When we have the right mindset, the right emotion, our mind will be
stronger and nothing can control us.
Emotion in Buddhism.
We have discussed many different types of emotion in a human being life.
Now lets talk about emotion in Buddhism. The first fundamentally basic emotion
is to have the absolute and boundless respect for Buddha:
"Buddha is the magic light
Is the love spreading all over the world
Is the early morning for birds singing
Is the beautiful cloud flying across the sky
Is the river flowing everywhere
Is the big mountain towering vastly
We will devote completely
To respect and love you immensely
Our heart will be eternally faithful
Though there will be changes and everything can disapprear".
If we follow and practise Buddhism, but we do not have this right emotion,
it is like a house without a roof, or a tree without its root or a person without a
heart.
There are two types of emotion in Buddhism: Have boundless and absolute
respect for Buddha; and always have boundless compassion for all beings.
There are other types such as:
Forever be faithful and devote to the Dharma.
It means we must practise the Dharma properly and diligently. Eventually, it
will be in our mind, and it will lead us to live a better life.
Be afraid to make even small mistakes.
In Majjhima Nikaya, a Buddhist scripture, the second of the five Nikayas,
Buddha had taught clearly us that: "We must see the danger in every small
14

mistake". Buddhist laymen/laywomen (Upasaka/Upasika) are allowed to make

small mistakes but monks must be afraid of all mistakes, even a small one.
Respect all true Saints but be strict with all impostors.
We should not mistakenly think that we have to respect all monks, all
religious practitioners. That would be wrong. We must not easily accept who they
are as it will lead to the fact that many people will become monks for wrong
reasons. Some people abuse the situation by becoming monks to get the attention,
support and help from others. They become monks to live an easy life and also
have respect from others. We must only respect those who truly want to become
monks, who live a virtuous religious life and practise Buddhism rightly.
Love to meditate to reach the deep concentration level; and be ashamed of
chaotic mind.
When our mind is chaotic and we cannot keep it calm, we must be ashamed
of it. When we can achieve the deep meditation state, and when we can keep our
mind free from false thoughts of greed, hatred and stupidity, we should feel happy
about it. We must not be proud of it though, but must have the passion for
meditation.
Devote ourselves to help others.
Those, who follow Buddhism but live passively and selfishly, and do not
help others, are lack of this important emotion. Those, who devote themselves to
help others, but are worried about if they are bored or not, then this is still not the
right emotion. Only those, who forget about themselves, and devote everything for
others, then always turn back to live a quiet life, and their mind is always calm,
then this is the right emotion.
The right and true emotion in our life and in Buddhism will make our life be
better, more useful, our merit and virtue will gradually increase. It will also help us
practise Buddha's teachings diligently, and gradually we can achieve
enlightenment. We can only achieve this stage, if we have the right and true
emotion. Those who are selfish and indifferent will gradually lose their blessing
and never be able to have good karma, and never be able to reach Buddhahood.
The last emotion, but also the most especial and important one, is the
religious belief.
15

The religious belief is a special kind of emotion. We accept and love our
religion leaders and our religious doctrine. This emotion is very intense. It could
be extreme. There have been many cases in the world, when someone became a
suicide bomber to prove the point. They believe that their action is to serve and to
devote for their religion. Their love for their religion is so intense and extreme that
they are willing to die for their religion. This extermely intense emotion makes the
whole world fearful and terified, and the law had to give in.
But why the love for religion is extermely intense? Because the doctrine of
these religions always dignify their religious leaders. These religions promise them
a lot of good things. These religions promise its followers that they will have a
happy and wonderful life after death if they serve for their religion. These
promises are beyond their imagination. They absolutely believe these promises. So
their love for religion becomes so extermely intense that they are willing to die for
it. And the law had to give in and allowed freedom of religious beliefs.
However, majority of current religions in the world are superstitious and
obsolete. If we read carefully some other religion doctrines, we will see that many
doctrines are vague, mystical, and absolutely unreasonable. Despite of that,
millions of people still still believe in them. The law had to give in for these
extreme religions. As the result, these religions still can continue building up and
attract more followers to grow and develop further their wrong doctrines, wrong
beliefs.
The give in of the law is not an advancement, but is the surrender of science
and reasoning. In the future, some days, when science is so advanced, human
civilization is so far progressed, the society is more intellectual, scientists and
sociologists will consider carefully every religious doctrines and filter them
through the system properly. Whichever religious doctrines that are true,
reasonable, advanced and scientically correct, we must treasure them. We must get
it of those doctrines, which are wrong and misleading. Only by doing this, the
human race can always have true beliefs.
In the next few centuries, human beings should not have to accept false
beliefs and have wrong emotion. It is the responsibility of us and other world
leaders during this present time. However, nobody can do that today because a
large number of people have believed in the wrong religions. Reasoning still lose
to intuition and emotion. Religion is imposed on many newborn children when
they are so little and have no knowledge of anything.
16

In the future, the world will somehow filter all religion beliefs and assess
carefully all religious doctrines. So, as we are true Buddhists, we should head
towards isright direction. We have to encourage our relatives or our friends to do
the same regardless what religions they are following right now. We should advise
them that you should not wallow in the current religious beliefs, you should
escape from these emotions and assess your religion carefully and objectively. We
should select a true religion to follow and and improve our practice.
Once, someone asked us that Should I worship other Gods and Saints?
We answered that "No, you should not do that. Their souls already had
transmigrated. Buddha had stated very clearly that No God will exist eternally.
All living beings, gods and devils have to transmigrate at some point in time.
Buddha also taught that We should not worship Devil either as they cannot exist
eternally in their temple. These souls would have transmigrated long time ago but
we would never know about that. If we continue doing these actions, we would not
earn any blessings. We should only worship the Saints, who had chieved
enlightenment as they have escaped from the cycle of birth, life and death. They
will forever be with us, listen to our prayers and grant us their blessings.
In Buddhism, even there are some people who have enormous respect for
their Masters, however, when they are given feedback about their practice to help
them improve, they would feel hurt, then annoyed and protest immediately.
Human beings emotion can be awfully strong. Only those, whose mind are pure,
calm and wise, can distinguish between emotion and reasoning in order to keep
their respect and their belief stable and strong. It also means that they are able to
escape from their own personal emotion to accept the truth.
To that, our heart are not useless
But we must know to differentiate between right and wrong
Wrong emotion makes our lives suffering
Right emotion makes our future lives happy.
We are confined to love and hate
To our anxiety and agitation
We live in dreams controlled our emotions
Our dreams are like a haze.
According to Buddha's teachings, we must have compassion for all beings
With the great love without any boundary
17

The infinite compassion spreads all over the world

We have serenity as the sound of the pagoda bell in the afternoon
And everyday in the yard with full of sunlight
Life is still happy as a holy gift
For someone who loves songs of meditation
It is very quiet but resounding through the three worlds.
NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA

18

EVERYONE THINKS THEY ARE RIGHT

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
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www.vidaothieng.com

It is subjective to think that everything we say, every thoughts we have are

accurate and precise. In other words, we could say these people are opinionated
and prejudiced. It means that we only judge things based on our own beliefs or
feelings without consulting others; or having no constructive discussion to really
find the truth. It is actually a seriously bad issue of human being. (We will refer as
the issue throughout this discussion).
For example, we believed that chilli is delicious; in fact, a few newspapers
had also helped confirm our belief that eating chili is good for eyes and could
improve your appetite. Later, if anyone or any newspaper took the opposite view,
we would insist that those views are wrong. We only relied on our own
experiences and did not consider other people or experts opinions. We were
biased towards only one side of the truth, because we did not understand that
human body is so different from one to another and it reacts differently to all food
and medication.
People around the world would always have different views, ideas and
perceptions. Sometimes to protect their own opinion, people would take it to the
extreme and that could lead to killing each other. Being subjective is actually a
very basic weakness of human being. It obscures the inherent truth and makes us
take the wrong path and cannot find The Truth.
Therefore, one of fourteen Buddhas teachings is: our most dangerous
enemy in life are ourselves. How insightful this pinciple is! We allow our ego in
determining everything we do; we always think what we do and think are right,
while others are absolutely wrong. If all people had this same thought, this world
would have become more and more chaotic, human race would fight against each
other forever.
The reason why people argue with each other is simple: people always think
they are right. We discuss this topic today, just so when we are about to argue with
others, please remember todays discussion, to consider if our argument is too
subjective or not. For example, there were two Buddhists talking to each other on a
bus. One said his pagoda was the best, while the other said the opposite. In fact,
their discussion was quite ordinary, but because they both had to defend their own
opinion and took it to the extreme. This led to a fight and both of them ended up
being injured and being taken to the hospital. This bad result was due to their bias
towards their own opion, and being extremely defensive.
2

We all more or less have this issue. Sometimes we are right, and more often
we are wrong, but the point is we always think that we are right. Rarely, due to
luck, we would be right, but more often our thinking are wrong, and that could
lead to disaster.
In this world, who is the one absolutely right? It is Buddha, and only Him.
Those, who have not yet enlightened as Buddha, would still be wrong, though
those wrongs could be very subtle. How about us? We are wrong all the times, but
we always think we are right, and that is why we have done and are still doing a
lot of bad things, and committing sins.
This issue is different from person to person. For example, when someone
knew that we thought about going to a temple to practise the Dharma, but we
hesitated because it would take a lot of time. They advised us not to think like
that.. Their advice was that: even though we may lose one hour now, but in
exchange, we would gain fifty more hours of happiness later inlife, therefore, we
should not think it is a waste of time to practise the Dharma. This advice was
reasonable so we suppressed our thought. That indicated that when listening to
others, we realised that our thinking was wrong, and we was willing to accept
others advice. When we could react to others advice like this scenario above, it
means our issue is not too bad.
Otherwise, we might have responded as below:
- "Well, nowhere is better than home. Only evil people need to practise
the Dharma. I neither harm anyone, nor kill anyone, nor steal from anyone so I
do not need to practise. "
Then someone else advised:
- "Dont think you have not committed sins. You must go to a temple to
learn more about morality; Dharma could help you realise a lot of interesting
and beautiful things that you have never known before."
The advice was right but due to being defensive about own opinion abd
being prejudiced, we had responded:
- "No! Ive never broken the law thus far. I fulfill my responsibilities as a
father, a husband at home. I dont fight with my neighbours. I always finish my
3

work and do nothing wrong. I do not need anything better. Life's good enough
for me. "
They still continued advising us that:
- "That is not good enough because you will sooner or later be old, sick then
die. You are always in the cycle of birth and death so you must practice the
Dharma to become better. "
But we still were adamant that:
- "I take one day at a time and life is too perfect for me...".
The second scenario showed that we were persistently arguing back; we did
not listen to other persons advice; our issue was quite bad. We know that
everyone has their own opinion but how strongly each persons perceptive attitude
or being prejudiced towards an advice is different from one to another. But how do
we know if we are perceptive or subjective and how bad is this? Those, who
persistenly argue back and forth to defend their opnion, are quite bad. Sometimes,
to the extreme, this prejudiced and opinionated attitude could lead to violence
result, even worse, someone would get killed in order to defend their viewpoints.
There is no cure for those people. Some of our Buddhists are in the same category,
too. Although, we have tried to advise them many times, they still instisted on
their viewpoints. We could not go on forever so we stopped giving them advice.
For these people, they only realise and regret only when they have bad karma.
If we are perceptive to others advices, not too arrogrant and opinionated,
when others give us advices, we would be more willingly to accept those
guidance, especially when the person giving those guidance is our Master. Being
the Master, he is certainly so much better than us in a lot of things, so his advice
will help us avoid suffering and disaster later on.
Those, who are too prejudiced and stubborn, will refuse to listen to their
friends advice, even their Masters. In Buddhism, Masters are at the highest rank
because Buddha already entered Nirvana, only our Masters directly teach and
guide us to practise Buddhas teachings. Masters, who have achieved in the
highest rank in the religion, are present in our lives. When we do not listen to their
advice us, we would not be able to resolve that issue, because we would never
learn. And only when bad karma happens to us, and only when there is no other
4

way out, then we realise that we were wrong and too prejudiced; we regreted and
would become less egoistic. That is the only way to realise about our issue of
being too prejudiced and subjective in everything. The bigger our ego, the worse
our issue is. When we do have less ego, we are less prejudiced and subjective and
more likely to accept others ideas and advices.
A Buddhist once told us about his brother, who left Buddhism for another
religion. Later on, his life was more and more miserable. He was so miserable that
he could not realise and accept his mistake, he continued to torment his family. His
younger brother had told him that "How did you live during those miserable days?
You left Buddhism for another religion; the longer you follow it, the more
miserable you are. You should think about it again". Then the older brother said
nothing. Before that time, he had been too stubborn and would have been very
defensive about his belief. He was subjective in assessing the situation, he was
very intolerant and extremely stubborn. If you are persistently prejudiced about
everything and would argue about everything, you could only realise about your
sickness only when there is no way out. For those, who are perceptive, who know
when to accep others advice, could avoid many disasters later on in life.
Sometimes an opinion is just merely an opinion. For example, we
suggested that: "We will go to Vung Tau province and its quicker to get there by
going via Ba Ria route". Another friend said: "Not good. It would be easier to go
through Long Hai then Phuoc Tinh route." So there were two different opinions
and we argued a bit. Opinions like these do not cause any problems because these
happens quite often in our life.
But the worst fear is when someones opinion is defended based on their
religious beliefs. It is very terrifying when opinions are underpinned by a religion.
That is, when we were already taught about a religion, and when we believed in its
teachings and its Master completely, and we had the absolute reverence for them;
then it would be very difficult to get rid of our prejudiced opnions. If we
considered that we were right in believing in wrong religion and its doctrines, it
would be difficult to make us believe in others and be more perceptive. Our
prejudice would be the worst. If that belief urged us to use violence to harm others
and force them to have the same belief with us, we would certainly obey and do
so. We then would become bloodthirsty terrorists without having fear and guilt,
and that is when innocent people would get killed. This is very petrifying indeed.

Currently, around the world, what makes politicians, sociologists concerned

is religious war. Often war is caused by economic problems. They would fight for
cultivated land, rivers, or canals. There were times tribes fighting for water
because they could not survive without it. People could also fight for farmland,
forests for hunting. Those were often the causes of economic wars.
When all countries already had a developed economy and also had the
ambition to become more powerful with larger population, larger land, they would
invade other countries here and there to expand their territories. This main reason
had caused countless bloody wars. But today, threats of war in the world are
religious beliefs. What makes us most surprised is that in this modern century with
more and more advanced technologies being available for mankind, people are still
blindly and crazily believe in wrong religions leading to killing other human
beings. All are because of egos and prejudiced beliefs.
When someone is prejudiced, and always believe that they are right, their
ego is actually very big. And their ego becomes bigger and bigger over the time.
So, is it easier for people with big ego to practise the Dharma? It is certainly
difficult for those people. Why is that so, and how come is it difficult? One of the
sign is the difficulty to reach high level of concentration in meditation. When the
ego is big, it means many parts of the brain are working hard constantly, they
would not be able to stop thinking about their ownself. Big ego could cause a lot
of issues in life.
We would not be able to discuss all issues and sickness caused by ego, but
we must know that all parts of our brain are usually very stressful. If the language
part of our brain develops quickly, we tend to talk constantly; if the emotion part
of our brain develops quickly, we tend to be more emotional and get angry easily;
if the pride part of our brain develops quickly, we would be very arrogant, and so
on Again when our ego is big, it pushes our brain cells to work harder and
harder, it would make us too difficult to reach concentration when meditating.
When we are able to concentrate, calm our mind, we would feel no physical pain.
Therefore, those with big ego, would find meditation tormenting, whereas those
with less ego find it easier to concentrate when meditating and the meditation time
is the time of peace and happiness.
Therefore, the bigger our ego, the more prejudiced and subjective we are;
and as the result, the more difficult to practise the Dharma successfully. In
6

Western countries, many couples get divorced easily because their egos are too
big, and too defensive of their own personal opinion. We often see a lot of news
articles about famous happy couples. However, we also would find that one day
the papers would disclose the news that they have disvorced wihout disclosing any
reasons. Only those involved knew the details.
Once, we saw a movie about a big storm, having drown a ship and killed
many people. The male character was a fisherman who boarded the ship. Before
leaving, he asked his wife to take their son to visit him because this couple had
divorced. When his wife and his son came, he embraced the son very dearly. He
then invited them to eat at a restaurant. He said: "We have this meal today because
of our old days. His wife answered immediately: "Our old days were hell." That
implied they lived a very stressful life before divorcing. The time, the husband
considered happy, was the time the wife considered miserable like living in hell
because they were constantly arguing. We could tell that the wife was the main
reason of many of their arguments. Why do people easily argue with each other?
Just simply due to their habit of being overly protective of their personal opinion.
Recently, a Master, who just came back from the United States, told us that
there is a strange culture called liberalism over there. One can only be questioned
that whether they like or dislike something; And if what you like doesnt break the
law, no one could do anything about it, evern if it is a crazy thing. So this
liberalism itself has created a culture, which is destroying human morality
graduall to protect and defend their personal opinions.
Last summer, we had four children from the United State attended some
courses at our temple. One morning, when everyone was doing morning exercise,
only one child did not join the group. We asked him why then he replied: "Master,
I dont want to" because he thought it was very normal to state what he liked and
disliked. As in the United States, if he does not want to do something and it is not
against the law, no one can force him because that is a violation of the law. We
were a bit surprised, since we thought it was just the education system, but did not
expect it to be a culture over there. We just said, "No, you must do what your
teachers, your parents tell you to, because what you want to do at this age is not
always wise and right. We found that he was confused and we were not sure if he
understood what we were saying. We asked our monks to take care of him and
remind him about ethics, and to live for others not for himself.

We realise that liberalism that promotes and protects every personal

opinion is really terrible. As the result, peoples ego becomes bigger and bigger.
And because of ego, people will be so prejudiced and narrowminded that they
would protect their own opinion until the end, even the result would be to divorce
their husbands/wives.
Just like those men, who are addicted to smoking cigarettes, often say that
"Id rather leave my wife than giving up cigarettes." The statement is too cruel.
Similarly, in Western culture, they said they would rather abandon their
husbands/wives than abandon their personal beliefs and desires. Even though we
find it terrible and unacceptable, they consider it an acceptable culture, and even
worse, this culture exists across half of the globe. It is truly terrible.
Thanks to these true stories, we realise the great value of Buddhism. The
prayer Living in harmony" was translated from "Forest of oxens horns" talking
about three Arhants having lived with each other in harmony. They said, "I do not
live for myself but for our brothers". Those three Arhants were the three princes of
the family of Sakya. They left home together, enlightened together and dwelt in
the woods together. They were destined to be together, from many previous lives.
That saying "I do not live for myself but for our brothers" is the great Buddhism
doctrine. The greatest Buddhisms moral is around the moral of being selfless.
These morals are completely the opposite of liberalism in the Western world. We
should remember about this difference and should be very careful and cautious in
everything we do in our life.
Asian culture tends towards controling selves and limit personal freedom.
When we were children, we had to obey our parents, our teachers and any adults.
It is the Asian culture that teaches us to control our own ego to help build a stable,
and stronger community. It would be so great when you can control your ego.
People would respect each other; people would respect and listen to others
viewpoints; we all live in harmony, and care for each other.
Between Asian culture and Western culture, and between the traditional
morality of the Asian and liberalism of the Western, we could easily realise that
these are two opposite directions. Western culture is to promote self awareness,
and ego leading to devision in communities. They only cooperate towards a
specific benefit, but not because of love and care. In contrast, Asian culture helps
us learn to control our ego since we were still an infant, so that we must listen to
8

others and must not act to benefit our own needs. We must think about others, and
only that would help stabilise and improve our community.
However, if a Western person challenged: "It is cruel not to allow the child
to do what he wants", how should we respond? According to the Western culture,
allowing children to do what they want is compassionate and humane because
children are too young to know everything so we have to pamper them. However,
according to Asian viewpoint, whether they like or not we should force them to
obey the grown-ups advices. The Westerners would consider that such action is
cruel. So how should we respond?
The answer is: "Now, between adults and kids who are wiser and who would
know to love and to protect the others? Certainly the adults would be more
knowledgable and would know how to protect their children. Therefore, it is right
that children must listen to and obey adults advices. So, which one would we
choose, an adults opinion or a childs opinion? If we chose the adults opnion,
would we also accept the childs? Obviously not! Therefore, children must listen
to adults advices.
Yet they mentioned cases that adults abuse children, therefore if those
children just listened to adultss advices obediently but blindly, they would be
easily persecuted. Well, speaking of these scenarios, they are only the minority. It
is quite obvious that majority of adults, e.g family members, would always love
and care for their children.
Hence, the question is should we develop law and regulation based on the
majority or the minority? Why would we build and develop a different culture
belief just to control the minority? And why should we let this culture destroy
other great things around? Is it right or wrong? We could say that Asian culture
has helped families live in harmony and the culture is sustainable. When everyone
must comply with the cultural rules and order, and they must restrain from
protecting their own personal opinion, then naturally community life will be better.
In Western countries, when the relationship of a married couple gets into
trouble, they would seek help from Marriage Counselling Service. This
consultancy service is extremely expensive. Each consulting hour would cost
hundreds of dollars. A counselor would often ask: "What did you two disagree
with?". The wife would say: "I like to go shopping or go to the cinema in my spare
time," but her husband would say: "I dont want that. I want my family to do more
9

excercises to fit and be healthier. Shopping wastes a lot of money and to sitting
just makes us easily to get fatter. Im obese so I like taking exercise. " If they could
not come to an agreement or a compromise, they would end up with divorce. They
would continue seeing the Marriage Counselor, and the advice often would be :
"Well, now, each of you should give in a bit. This week, go to a gym and the
following week, go to the cinema. You two should try to put up with each other a
bit more to help maintain harmony within the family. Think about your children
and if you want your kids to suffer from this disaster. Think about the family and
be reasonable about your personal needs versus the overall family needs. These
people would then pay a few hundred dollars for this service.
However, we do not have this issue in Vietnam. It is because loving, caring
for others, and being compromised to reach a good outcome is in our blood.
Having said that, we still have those people who always want more of everything
for themselves. For example, a husband may be a bit more demanding than the
wife in a family situation. The wife and the kid would obey him completely,
hoping one day with their love to him, he would think about his behaviour and
would change to be less demanding. At the surface, some would argue that it is
miserable to live like that, in accordance with Asian culture. However, lets think
about it more, because of the tolerance, and the compromise to reach a good
outcome, to help maintain family happiness, it is actually a big advantage.
Similarly, if we just want to say anything, do anything when we just joined
Buddhism, it would not work. Why is that so? Because everyone would leave this
pagoda for other places, as everyone would want to do everything to their liking.
As Buddhas disciples, when we practise together, and if everyone insists on
keeping their own opinion, then the cult, the brotherhood would not develop
further and last long. So we must learn to live in harmony. If there is any issue or
if any issue gets bigger and more complicated, we should ask for support from our
Master.
Now, lets discuss about Arguments. There are two types of arguments.
If the conversation becomes rude, we would call it a quarrel, a fight. If the
conversation is more intellectual and about knowledge and different viewpoints,
we would call it a debate. In either situation, everyone wants to have their say and
have their voices heard. However, in a fight, one would say on top of another, and
do not wait for the other to stop saying before one begins. In a fight, it is
10

considered that whoever is louder would be heard and would be right. No one
would want to stop in a flight. On a contrary, when it is a debate, one would speak
after another finishes. Each person takes their turn to state their viewpoints and
also to tackle the others opinions.
Have any of you witness a fight? Initially, they would just say loudly, then
they would scream. They would speak on top of the others. Their voice would
become so husky, and eventually no one would understand what they said. No one
gives in or tries to reach a compromise.
Before the situation gets worse, both sides just want to express their own
opinions. When the fight begins, they become defensive, and just want to prove
that they are innocent, while the other is guilty. No one wants to reach a
compromise. The repercussion of these fights could be severe i.e. ending up with
violence and imprisonment. When intellectual people engage in a debate,
sometimes they would discover something new, or reach a conclusion. It is
because the conversation was in order: one would speak after another, not on top
of each other.
Any trial in a court room would be exactly like that. A public prosecutor
would accuse the defendant, whom would be defended by a lawyer. Both sides are
allowed to object the others sayings at any time by standing up to say:
"Objection!". However, the judge would still be in control, and it is up to him to
allow the interruption to continue or not. The judge must ensure all viewpoints are
heard.
In a court, the judge is the key and the most important person, who gives the
final verdict. Although sometimes the wrong verdicts are given, we must still
obey. We then have to follow the process to appeal. It is the law. In court, people
are not allowed to speak at the same time. People take turn, everything must be in
order.
If we are an outsider of a discussion or a fight, we would notice that nobody
cares about their sayings, or the others. All they care about is their own reasons,
their own benefits in the situation. Even when we try to reason with them, noone
would listen. The rootcase of the issue is that everyone has the urge to win over
the other. It is called arrogance, and aggressiveness. However, the bottom line is
that: in this life, we want to find The Truth. That is the goal of religious
followers.
11

So, our goal is to find The Truth. When two people argue: are they trying
to find The Truth or just to satisfy their egos. The later is completely wrong.
Because of the wrong objective, they keep arguing back and forth, leading to
hatred and suffering later on. If from the beginning, we determined that our goal
was to find The Truth, we would not have to argue or fight with anyone, we
would also not take anything personal or would not have hatred.
We discussed this subject today to always remind ourselves that: as a
Buddhist, how to behave when we get into an argument or debate. In reality, there
are many things that we would need to get involved and would need to discuss
about. However, now that we practise the Dharma, we must not use aggressive
words, and we must not have aggressive behaviours any more. Life would always
present us with challenges and situations where we would easily get involved in
debates, arguments over small and ordinary events. We must assess what the true
motive is in each situation: Is it to find the truth, or is it just our ego? Try not to
get into the arguement that just talk, back and forth, as it would easily become just
purely a fight and the goal is to win and get victory.
Today, together we shall change our behaviour in these situations. When we
sense that the situation getting worse, we should firstly stop and pray to Buddha:
"Buddha, please help us to find the truth." That is the first step. The second step is
to ask ourselves: "Are we seeking love and harmony or revenge?" and then we
would pray to Buddha help us find love and harmony. The third step is to ask
ourselves if we just want to satisfy our ego or find the selflessness. Then we
should pray to Buddha help us to be selfless.
After calming our mind, we should find ourselves not really interested in
neither victory, nor revenge, nor ego but The Truth, harmony, compassion, love
and selfless morality. And then, naturally, we would alsways smile and do not
want to involve in any argument. Imagine, if the other person wanted to continue
arguing while you were trying to stop, they must have felt embarrassed. However,
the embarassing result was rather better than the people involved ended up in
hatred.
We have been verbally abused via phone many times, and we were really
sad. However, we did not respond to those abusive language. Many people have
been pleasantly surprised after listening to our seminar. They then visited our
temple, and asked to take refuge in Triple Gems and had been given a Buddhist
12

title. However, it was sad that deep down from their heart and mind, they were
jealous of us. This sounded very strange. They were jealous of their own Master.
Therefore, when they were not satisfied with their Master, they turned to attack us
immediately. There were already a few cases like this happened to us.
Later on, when we write stories about Buddhas life, we would analyse in
depth about Devadattas case. It was very similar. The secret psychology of
Devadatta was gradually developed, from the beginning when he first adopted
Buddhism, and in the end he turned completely against Buddha. It started from the
first day he paid homage to Buddha for taking refuge, to the day he wanted
Buddhas position. The result was really due to his selfishness and jealousy which
were too deep in his heart and soul, therefore, even when he was Buddhas
disciple, he still envied of Him. In reality, there are many people like Devadatta.
We ourselves have encountered many cases like this. We were really sad about
life, and were somewhat startled by different natures and thinking of human being.
Today we ccould be all sweet and caring, but tomorrow we could be full of hatred
and bitterness.
One day, we were having dinner at our company, returned from Hanoi, a
long trip. At that time, there was a woman came to buy our discs (record of our
seminars) but we all felt that she was not really normal. First, she said: "I am an
advocate of Master Thich Chan Quang and has helped sell a lot of discs." Then
she began to preach to everyone in the company. She preached continuously. We
asked our disciples to ask her to stop so everyone could finish dinner. She left but
came back instantly, then she said: "I want to let you all know that Master Thich
Chan Quang is only at the age of my son." It indicated that although she liked
listening to the seminars, she always wanted to show everyone that that she was
better than us. This behaviour was due to her ego and jealousy. It is sad, but this
behaviour still exists everywhere.
There were many disciples, who learned about Buddhism teachings and
took refuge in Triple Gems but still had such comment: "That Master is only good
at preaching. For other things he is not as good as me, such as event organisation,
business management and life experiences." So what, really? For a Buddhism
ceremony, with more than ten thousands of Buddhists, and guests from all around
the country, we need more than just one person to make sure the event was
organised perfectly. Eventhough, we are the Master of the temple, but we need all
support from our monks and a lot of Buddhists for such big ceremonies. No one
13

can do it alone. So we should never be too proud. We must thank Buddha, and our
disciples as with their kindness and devotion to help us with those ceremonies. It is
all about team work. No one can do anything alone.
However, there are many people like that in life. They learn about
Buddhism teachings, but they still have to find something which makes them
better than us. Even the elderly woman, mentioned above, had to state that our
Masters age was just at her childrens age, and that made her feel good.
We would find that, those people that are so prejudiced and subjective to the
point of being agressive and arrogant, will suffer from bad karma. At that time,
their ego would be promoted further and all their blessing would disappear. Some
people could suffer from brain damage, leading to mental illness. This mental
illness forced the brain to work so hard, non stop. In western countries, they use
medicines to control how the brain should be functioning. If there is no
intervention, the brain could be severely damanged, and not curable. Those braindamanged patients would not be able to function normally and their intelligence
become less and less. Sometimes, no western medicines could be used to cure any
more. If we know how treat these patients by creating more blessings for them, it
may be curable. But please remember that, those people lost their blessings when
they only cared about their ego, their stubbornness, and intolerance. If they still
have blessings, and if their family and friends could help creating more blessings
for them and slowly they could recover from their illness. If they do not have
enough blessings to be able to use those blessings that others have helped creating,
then they would not be able to recover. Life like this is really miserable and sad.
Please keep in mind that before you get into any arguments, take a moment
to pray to Buddha to help you escape from your own ego, from being too
aggressive in winning; and we only want to find The Truth and harmony.
Whenever there is a conversation, a discussion, please remember Buddhas
teachings and pray the above prayers, so we can avoid making mistakes,
commiting sins, and not being opinionated or prejudiced. The praying also would
help us easily to accept others viewpoints.
When we were at school, we were also considered the best student of our
class. Our good friend was considered the best in his class. Although we do not
remember the content completely, when we were talking about the society and its
own issues, our friend would accept some meaningful and useful information from
14

us. We respect our friend very much, because he was so intellgivent, but yet he is
not arrogant and agrressive. It is not easy at all to behave like that.
In our life, there would be many occasions like the above example. It is
important: Not to be belligerent; Not to be prejudiced; Willing to accept others
advice and information when it is right. Eventually, we would be less stubborn,
less prejudiced, less subjective in assessing any situations, and making less
mistakes. The less sin and mistake we makes, the less bad karma we would be
sufferring from.
Only Buddha is absolutely right in this world. And of course there is only
one Buddha and the rest are just ordinary human beings. We have been discussing
about what is right and what is wrong? Who could find the truth? We have been
discussing also about it is wrong to think that our viewpoints are always right. So
when would we start having the right thinking?
The first condition: Do not believe that we are right at all.
The second condition: Do not think too hard. This just means we should not
think too hard and too much, because the more thinking the more complicated
things would get into our mind. All of our thinking are usually wrong. So the
wisest thing is to do meditation to calm our mind and soul.
The third condition: Paying homage to Buddha, because we know Buddha
is absolutely right.
The fourth condition: Love all beings. Because of our love and care for all
beings, we would not be hungry for victory and do not want to be better than other
people. Whoever we love, we would just want them to be better than us.
And finally, we must respect others. Respecting other human beings means
we would be willing to listen to them, and would be willing to accept what is right
and what is wrong.
We pay homage to Buddha, because He is always absolutely precise, and
because of our reverence for Buddha, we would be blessed, and we would be able
to realise and understand The Truth. When we do not think too hard, we should
be able to calm our mind, and think clearly and objectively. When we meditate,
the mind would be calm, we should be able to get rid of all the greed, the ego to
15

assess if we were right or wrong. You often would be having the right thinking
after meditation. Obviously, we could not be as precise as Buddha but almost,
because those thinkings were derived from our calm and selfless mind. If we were
wrong, we would be able to realise immediately. Those people would always have
the right mindset. They would always find that their mind are always empty,
therefore it is always calm and selfless. This helps with their assessment on all the
things they see, therefore, whatever they say would be mostly accurate. We could
say that those people have confidence.
The similarity of both confidence and subjectivity is that: both types would
always consider that they are right. In deed, those two types of people are actually
quite different. The difference here is that the subjective people are often wrong
but always think that they are right; whereas the confident ones are often right and
they are quite certain about that. But how do we distinguish between subjectivity
and self-confidence? What are the rationale for those different behaviours? The
most accurate answer is: The only aspect we should use to consider if one is
subjective or confident is ones ethics.
The confident people are the ones who practise the Dharma ethics so they
are always kind, modest, calm and their confidence would derive from their
blessings, and from many years of cultivation. On the contrary, the subjective
people would always insist that they are right because of their greed for victory,
and their ego.
There is one more difference between those two types. The confident ones
would always have ethics in their thinking and assessment and The Truth would
give them the strength to live on. Since they do not waste their energy in satisfying
their ego, their success would be because of their cultivation, their ethics and their
blessings, which have been accummulated from many past lives. Because of their
strong moral foundation, they would always have the kindness and the strength to
succeed in whatever they do. With the right mindset, it always allows them to be
patient, and to have the strength to overcome all sort of challenges and obstacles;
they would never give up.
On the contrary, subjective people insist that they are right but the cause
was from their ego, not The Truth. Therefore, the further they go, the bigger the
ego, so they become more arrogant, aggressive, create more bad karma and
ultimately they would fail and suffer.
16

"Everyone thinks theyre right" topic is just one of the very basic moral
themes. By referring this topic today, we hope that everyone would be more
perceptive and think more objectively about everything, to be less arrogant, less
prejudiced and create less bad karma. One day, we would be able escape from the
ordinary thoughts in order to think calmly and objectively, and at that time we
would be able to understand The Truth. As the result, we would be able to live
together in harmony, and be able to build a world full of joy, happiness and
holiness.

Namo Sakya muni Buddha.

17

FIGHTING FOR EXISTENCE

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

Most religions in the world endorse a fundamental belief in being a good person and
living a virtuous life. However, upon deeper examination, Buddhism taught us faith
based on wisdom and the governing law of karma.
When taking refuge in the Three Jewels of Buddhism - the Buddha, the Sangka and
the Drahma - Buddhists must conduct their lives according to Five Precepts, with the first
two underscore as:
The vow to not intentionally kill or harm any sentient being.
The vow to not covet or steal another persons property.
These basic principles speak volumes of our humanity while conveying a deep
respect for life and property in our ecosystem.
Therefore, today we are going to discuss some crucial ethical issues concerning the
topic of Fighting for Existence, based on the above principles. The struggle for existence
unveiled an astoundingly distasteful picture of life: In order to live, we must kill and
consume other living organism in our environment.
Introspectively, we know that life is fueled by the energy of other lives. Simply put,
in order to live, we have to consume lives of others, such as those of fish, poultry and
cattle. Inevitably, we are forced into the position of being exterminators of the sea and
land habitats of fish, chickens, cows, etc.
This is true even in the case of vegetarians, who may say that I dont eat meat, I only
eat vegetables. Vegetables also have life - the botanical life of plants. All of this leads to
the same dilemma of sacrificing other living organisms in order to sustain our own lives.
This is indeed a cruel law of nature! Our presence on Earth inevitably means that we
are being swept away by a brutal reality - the annihilation of other lives in order to preserve
our own.
Supposedly, prior to being born into this world, we were asked the question: In
order to be born and survive in this world, you must kill other living beings. Will you
consent to this? We would probably give a definitive No! for an answer. We do not
want to be born into this world where we have to kill in order to survive.
Regrettably, this momentous question was never posed to us. We mistakenly went
for a joy ride and took in the scenic beauty on Earth. It was only after birth that we
recognized the ill-fated dilemma into which we had gotten ourselves.
During our lifespan, have we ever calculated the countless number of lives that were
sacrificed on our behalf? The mountains of shrimp, beheaded fish, or slashed-throat
chickens which we consumed?
Inevitably, the joy ride that we took turned into a bloodshed battle of flesh. As we
faced the horrific truth, our conscience quivered at the despicable picture of unmerciful
killing of other sentient beings for our sole benefit.

True indeed! All species in the animal kingdom are subjected to the same principle of
Survival of the Fittest big fish eat small fish as part of lifes rudimentary operation.
An innocent bird frolicking on drew-dripping branches chirping an early morning
carol depicts a picture of a peaceful and enchanting life. Such freedom may be coveted by
all. In actuality, the bird is not as carefree and lighthearted as we may think. It is constantly
hunting for its next meal in the form of a burrowing worm hidden under a blanket of
leaves bidding on ephemeral peace. These tireless peckers with their devious eyes
skillfully strip the leaves, searching for their helpless victims in order to snatch and
swallow alive the defenseless creatures.
Such is the bitter sorrow nature of life, a masquerade filled with brilliant sun,
evergreen trees and lustrous rice patties; charmed by the chorus of dogs barking and
roosters crowing. Ironically, a scene of beauty which stirs our heart conceals the most
vicious battles of killing and destruction among all species.
The shocking truth is that If life is inherently based on killing, then what choices do
we have?
Unconscionably, human beings have inflicted the most damage to the Earths
ecosystem. Despite our deceivingly delicate appearance - fragile strength compared to
tigers, miniature in size compared to elephants - human beings undoubtedly serve as the
masterminds behind all destructive forces on Earth.
There is no other species on Earth that can be held accountable for more blatant
thievery from nature than the Homo sapiens. For example, some animals eat only the
leaves or fruits of certain trees, extracting the nectar or pollen and leaving the trees intact.
Conversely, human beings will not only strip all fruits and flowers from Mother Nature,
but they will go on to chop down branches and trunks for their furniture and finally uproot
the remaining trees for their firewood.
Our exploitation of trees does not end in food sources, herbal medicines, combustible
materials, or fertilization, but extends to using wood extensively in decoration. We derive
pleasure from creating columns, cellars, tables, chairs, beds, rafters, houses, etc. out of
wood. We shape wood into exotic sculptures used in landscaping; luxurious armchairs for
living-rooms; lifelike statues in buildings and giant planters along sidewalks and things of
the like.
This seemingly innocent act of robbing from nature, however, is sounding off an
alarming bell - one that may lead to the extinction of our species.
Throughout history, archeologists have excavated giant dinosaur bones and fossils.
There were some so huge in size that its tail could be in one corner of a building and its
head in the other. Some of these fossils were aerospace creatures; some were land
inhabitants; some were sea dwellers. The herbivores could swallow a few trees for each
meal, and the carnivores could consume a few tons of meat. Eventually, their existence

became a liability to Mother Nature. With immeasurable destruction, the dinosaurs were
abolished from lifes equation in a mysterious Heavenly intervention.
Scientists concluded that an asteroid had hit the Earth, destroying all giant
inhabitants, shrouding the atmosphere with dust clouds and immersing the Earth in bitter,
cold ice. This was the first world ending! If the law of karma is not the author, then who is?
Karmic force is evidenced in the vicious cycle of kill or be killed. The dinosaurs
undoubtedly became extinct due to their massive destruction of the forests and their coinhabitants.
Today, human behavior indisputably bears remarkable resemblance to that of the
dinosaurs, in our greedy acts of emptying the fish from the sea, evicting animals that live in
the jungles and destroying their habitats, wiping out the birds from the sky, and stripping
the trees from forests. Unknowingly, we are following the dinosaurs fatal footsteps in
triggering a possible second Heavenly intervention based on our cocktail soup of
destruction.
Speculations of the world ending are circulating like wildfire on the Internet. Of
particular interest is the prediction from the Maya, an advanced ancient civilization, who
were known for their highly developed art, architecture, mathematical and astronomical
systems. Distinctive was their development of the primeval calendar. Through mysterious
calculation of solar and lunar evolution, they were able to measure the days and nights
from antiquity to modern time. However, inexplicably, their calendar ended in 2012.
According to the Maya, this marked a second world ending.
The heads of anthropologists and scientists alike are spinning with the inability to
explain the abrupt ending of this timetable. Panic spreads by the gloomy picture of
humanity on the verge of a strike - what if indeed a second world ending is near?
Well, if a doctor knows that a patient is dying, the doctor may advise that patient to
go home and enjoy all the savory pleasures possible. Such is a natural human reaction
toward a shortened life verdict! Similar to the death row scenario: before being executed,
the inmate is provided a lavish last meal. Despite two opposing states of mind competing
on the same stage of consciousness - one is from the pleasure of eating and the other is
from the menacing ticking clock of death - the sensory pleasures often wither under the
weight of ominous providence.
Today, with our lucid minds and intact mental faculties, neither as a terminally ill
patient nor as a death row inmate, what should we do if the end of the world is near?
Everyone must find his or her own answer in this regard.
In fighting for existence, the most vicious animals and acts of killing accumulate the
largest account of negative karma. There was a recent showing of Animal Kingdom on
The Discovery Channel, where a pack of lions was resting peacefully in the forest.
Suddenly, a herd of zebras went galloping by and the lions immediately dashed after them

- seizing and capturing an ill-fated victim to be killed and eaten. While the lions were
enjoying the zebras blood bath and celebrating their victorious feast, from afar a group of
surviving zebras quietly swallowed streams of rolling tears for their unfortunate
companion. Yet, this heart-wrenching scenario cannot be altered since the origin of time
due to Natures order of food chain. Neither a life of a zebra nor a buffalo can be preserved
by stopping a tiger or a lion from their genetic programming of hunting and killing.
The eternal cycle of prey and predators, therefore, is a severe karmic fate
enshrouding Earth inhabitants in an epidemic offense that is nonchalantly accepted by all;
especially with humans on the top of the food chain.
Today, due to our heightened sense of awareness toward karmic force and a growing
feeling of moral responsibility, we must collectively reject this heartless way of life which
leads to our ominous fate. Nature is often brutal in its struggle to survive. The perpetual
cycle of kill or be killed creates insurmountable negative karma, which will accelerate the
second world ending. We must search for greater self-cultivation and a noble existence;
one that does not depend on the cost of other lives.
We must live in a way that builds lives versus destroying lives. We must cease all
negative deeds, beautify the Earth and turn it into a Pure Land.
In our poignant journey for self-quest we learn that there are severe repercussions for
taking other sentient beings lives. With each passing day and each animal that we
consume, we accumulate a larger account of negative karma. Eventually, the astronomical
killing will prevent us from being born into higher realms. We will inevitably be trapped to
be born into a creature that is lower on the food chain - one that is subjected to be eaten by
other predators.
The carnivore pleasure perpetuates the cycle of eat and be eaten. To avoid being
slaughtered as a chicken, duck, fish or pig in our next lives, we must simply stop being
their predators in this life. There is no exemption from this law of karma.
Our aim is to propel forward - to be reborn again as a human being or even higher:
on a celestial realm among the Saints. In order to achieve that, we must be determined to
change the direction of our lives by actively building our positive karma account and
contributing to the ecological system. We must make a conscientious effort in our daily
lives to contribute to the lives of those around us and to the Earth as a whole system. This
is an imperative law of survival!
With the luminous wisdom and the guiding torch from the Buddha and the Sangha,
we must refuse to live our lives as one long cemetery of others. Buddhists must make a
commitment to stop the slaughtering of other creatures to use their flesh and blood as
transfusion for our own lives.
Part of the self-cultivation principle is to commit to three worldly goals:
1. To bring peace and happiness to our fellow human beings.

2. To bring peace and happiness to all other Earthly creatures.

3. To protect and preserve the ecosystem.
Those are the three basic building blocks of the pathway to enlightenment.
People who live their lives in reckless abandonment and who have no volitions other
than self-indulgence and worldly pleasures, day after day their good karma account will
become depleted. They will inevitably be reborn in the realm of Hell or Hungry Ghost.
Similarly, those who live their lives based on the pleasure principle and revel in
sensory pleasures while pledging ignorance toward the suffering of others - they will
undoubtedly be reborn into the animal realm.
On the other hand, people who are meat eaters but make conscientious daily efforts
to benefit their fellow human beings can greatly diminish the karmic costs of eating meat.
Their good deeds and positive contribution to society can lessen the impact of consuming
other lives.
True indeed, it is hard for many people to change their eating habits and to become
pure vegetarians. If they recognize the fact that their lives are conditional on the lives of
others and are actively trying to compensate by benefitting their community and society at
large, their negative karma resulting from killing can be reduced.
The worst case scenario belongs to those who are both carnivorous and live a
hedonistic lifestyle. They accumulate bad deeds by pledging ignorance, wasting resources
and pounding on self-indulgence. Undoubtedly, they will be reborn into the animal realm
as fish, chickens or hogs in order to be slaughtered by others to pay their karmic debts.
Thus, the combination of eating meat, living a pleasurable life, being social loafers and
dismissing the needs of others will warrant a self-crucifying sentence in the rebirthing
cycle.
Inevitably, we must stop being blindsided by the way others lead their lives or we
will volunteer to have our throat slashed by others in subsequent births. In pursuing our
endless efforts to become a noble and virtuous person - one who has prestige and is highly
trusted by others - we must commit ourselves to hard work and eternal contributions to
society.
Discerningly, when we leave this life, we can become incarnated human beings or
we can enter a higher spiritual world. This will guarantee that we will not reincarnate as an
animal or go to the Hungry Ghosts realm.
Good karma begins with a more selective daily food menu; one which minimizes
killing and lessens adverse karmic pileups. The practice of self-restraint from eating animal
products and the renouncing of worldly pleasures serves as a way to generate positive
karma and to contribute to the ecosystem. There are three safe food sources that do not
lead to negative repercussions.

One is rice. Rice grows naturally to produce its grains before wilting back to the
Earth. There is no existential dilemma involving growing and eating rice. On the contrary,
by growing lustrous rice paddies, farmers earn countless good fortunes for providing
nutritious food to others and for equalizing and fertilizing the Earths system.
Second are fruits. Trees naturally bear flowers, then fruits. There is no wound
inflicted on the ecosystem by taking fruits from trees. Fruit gardens naturally provide a
green roof and soothing hand from Nature, which cools and regulates the Earth climate.
Uneaten fruits will eventually fall to the ground when ripened and fertilize the soil.
Therefore, a gardener collects good karma by contributing to healthy food supplies and
improving the ecosystem.
Third is milk.
Dairy cows are kept apart. When we use their milk, we neither kill the cows nor vie
with calves for milk. So, the fact that we use milk doesnt harm any beings life.
Fourth are eggs. Hens begin to lay eggs from the age of six to seven months.
Unfertilized eggs can serve as a natural channel of food supply from Mother Earth to us,
similar to fruits on the trees.
On the other hand, contrary to conventional belief, honey is not part of the natural
food chain reserved for us. Honey serves as a national heritage to bees - it is life
preserving energy. The field bees work painstakingly to bring back droplets of nectar,
which serve as their energy storehouse for the chilly winter. The whole bee colony works
diligently to make honey - using their tiny wings as fans to cool and thicken the nectar creating but a few pints of honey. The market price for honey is neither commensurate to
the intense labor of the bees, nor the cost of their lives resulting when people hijack their
beehives, not to mention the bees role in pollination. Smoking up a whole beehive as a
menacing act of eviction, just to take one or two liters of honey, the financial resource that
humans gain is inestimable to the loss of the bees natural resources and the collective crop
benefits on Earth. Consequentially, the karmic price for harvesting honey is high.
An example of this karmic chain of action/reaction would be a person that has been
living a righteous life with mindful daily conducts; he would not steal even the smallest
egg. Yet he cries in agony when his entire household was suddenly cleaned out by
intruders. Karmic justice is under cross-examination in this scenario. In essence, this
person may have, in this life or a past life, hijacked a beehive to harvest honey.
Consequentially, the law of nature disrobed all of his possessions in this lifetime as a
karmic act of repayment.
What about people who are vegetarians? Is eating vegetables seen as a life destroying act, due to the interruption of the natural flow of life? If vegetarians continue to
re-channel the energy derived from eating greens into building the community at large
then eating greens is seen as only a small infraction in life.

In the cases of fish stranded on land, an animals accidental death, or animals that
have died in the aftermath of fighting, their meat may be consumed without repercussion
due to their unintentional deaths and our not wanting to waste any natural resources.
Life equation entails the inescapable daily fight for existence. Unfortunately, fighting
for existence does not just happen over our daily caloric intake; there have been war
outbreaks everywhere on Earth since antiquity. Aggressive outbursts, terminal disputes
and unconquerable colonization, using everything from missiles to nuclear weapons - all
of which is based on humans greed to seize land, aerospace, natural resources, etc., in a
perpetual and futile effort of fighting for existence.
An early historic example of human greed is Mongolia, a country located north of
China. Although Mongolians were skilled in martial arts and strong in physique, they were
isolated in the lonely desert. Coveting the endlessly lustrous rice paddies, rampant valleys
of horses and royal lifestyle of the Chinese, the Mongolians decided to invade China.
Thus, a bloodshed calamity, devastating loss of life, inexorable grief and human
lamentation were written into history!
In modern days, the same nature of fighting for existence is illustrated in business, as
well as in properties and land warfare, by people forming manipulative schemes to
sabotage each other. These actions not only violate the civil rights of others, but they also
serve as an infraction on the Buddhists precepts of not stealing and not being greedy.
Another form of mental defilement that threatens our national morale stems from the
burgeoning casinos along the countrys border. Some countries in the world legalize
gambling due to the high rolling stake of income. However, gambling is the cause of one
of the most devastating social demoralizations of our time. Wherever there is gambling,
there are lost minds and injured souls of young men and women. These people cash in all
of their values in life. They will not cease to sell anything they can get their hands on,
including their own conscience. The casino has a way of deceptively luring people into the
trap of winning money by laying out the initial bait of victory, which may be followed by
people making subsequent trips until they have been cleaned out of their money.
Buddhists have the ethical responsibility to protect and preserve our national morale
in the fight against the social transgression of gambling. Thus it is important to know: how
does gambling addiction occur?
In gambling, people hope to obtain great wealth without the conventional effort of
laboring for their fruits. The casinos are not known for fair practices. In the initial winning
stage, when the Lady of Luck is smiling at them, the elated and invincible state of mind
will erase all grooves of consciousness. The unnerving adrenaline of competitiveness and
insidious greed gradually cooks up the sinister pressure to keep winning. When the cycle
of losing begins, blind hope continues to lead them to a downward spiral of loss while at
the same time plunging them deeper into the muddy water of illicit activities. Greed and

addiction are ravenously eating up their conscience during their endless schemes to find
money for gambling, and they utterly discount their loved ones pain and suffering.
Illicit money obtained from gambling, based on chances or based on cheating, is no
different than money obtained by stealing. No one has struck gold in gambling. Our
ancestors taught us that, Gambling is the uncle of poverty. Gambling addicts are not
only gambling with their lifetime possessions, reputation, and relationships but also their
good karma in their inevitable act of stealing from others.
Aside from social diseases like gambling, another catastrophic deed that contributed
to our collective negative karma is the deforestation on Earth. The forests serve as the
lungs of the Earth. In the Stone Ages, we relied on wood only to build fires and cook food.
Now, in the modern age of gas and electric stoves, lumber is hardly required for survival
purposes.
Instead, lumber is now used to build extravagant estates with elegant antique
furniture and exquisite statues derived from centuries-old trees. Sometimes, the feet of
these gigantic and majestic trees were made into seating arrangements for stylish gardens.
People do not seem to realize that when they use wood to unnecessarily and
extensively decorate for their own sense of self-aggrandizement, they are gambling with
life on Earth and placing the ecosystem in need of resuscitation. Undoubtedly, life on Earth
has been viciously shortened through these massive robberies.
The need for wood and ongoing deforestation indeed poses an unnerving dilemma
when human greed continues to intrude on the Earths atmosphere and natural cycle of
breathing.
Buddhists must demonstrate our collective effort to stop further deforestation and
unnecessary consumption of wood. We must protect the lungs and longevity of Earth.
Another example of robbing lives stems from employers forcing heavy labor on their
employees. These employers - driven by greedy desires - force underpaid labor on their
helpless employees, causing undue lamentation and resentment in society.
People who hold advantageous positions in life must remember to treat their
subordinates with loving kindness, since this will contribute to their positive karma. Using
compassion and understanding, employers must treat their employees with respect and
kindness, as well as distributing payment commensurate to the work. It is then that
employees can live comfortably without any disgruntled side effects at work.
When applying Buddhist principles to social practice, there will be no deprivation for
either party when employers foster the principles of equality and justice to employees.
Essentially, employers can reduce the daily stress and promote their employees sense of
freedom in life.

True Buddhist employers will not exploit their employees who are powerless in their
hands either through heavy-handed management and/or by robbing their fruits of labor.
Equal pay for equal work is one example of Buddhist equality; another is providing loving
kindness toward people in subordinate positions, those whose lives are dependent on us.
Unequivocally, the most striking feature in Buddhism is Love and Compassion.
Everybody wants to love and be loved by someone. If this love is upheld as a sacred duty
in relationships between parents and children, teachers and students, employers and
employees, law enforcers and citizens, and heads of State and people, the world will
become a peaceful place and humanity a joyful union.
Ordinary people, whether in leadership positions or not, must learn to love all
sentient beings in their environment - including a tree branch or the grass they encounter
on the road. This simple lesson in life is the pathway to Sainthood.
Due to our devotion to loving others, it is guaranteed that when we leave this world,
we will be reborn into a higher realm on the Buddha Land. Simply stated, if we live our
lives in loving kindness, we are guaranteed to be reborn into an afterlife of loving kindness.
If we live our lives full of hate and envy, we are guaranteed to be reborn into a hateful and
warlike afterworld.
Consequentially, the logical principle is that we must learn to unconditionally love all
sentient beings - familiars and strangers, all the way down to vegetative lives.
Those who hold worldly responsibilities toward other beings such as parents to
children, teachers to students and government officers to citizens must honor and perform
their duties in a sacred way. By practicing the art of unconditional love toward one another
daily, their good karma multiplies. Upon leaving this world, these government officers,
employers, teachers and parents can be reborn into a blissful realm that is full of serenity
and love.
Just by cultivating and nourishing a loving mind, we are fertilizing good deeds in all
beings in a collective goal of spreading love in our cosmic world. The fruits of compassion
can be passed on indefinitely to build an infinitely loving world, where all the hatred and
evil bones are removed for the culmination of world peace. Right here in this life, a person
who has such collective devotion to world peace can be guaranteed to exist as a social host
of peace and love, without waiting for the afterlife.
In further exploration of life, sadly enough, our society also serves as host to many
people who are ensnared within the despicable cycle of addiction. The traps of addiction
cycles in modern society are seemingly endless: nicotine, gambling, sex, online gaming,
shopping, etc.
The addiction ratio increases astronomically due to a plethora of temptations that
promise to deliver worldly pleasures. The ratio of addictive males tends to outweigh
addictive females. Regardless of gender, the addicted person shares a common

denomination of egocentrism. Self-indulgence becomes the daily mantra, which overrides

all of their relationships, social obligations and working commitments. The addicted
person then becomes a burden and a liability to society. Their sole focus is on survival and
their self-gratification instincts. They can ultimately resort to robbing or killing for
individual gain in their ruthless fighting for existence, unfettered by their loved ones pain
or the larger societys needs.
Addiction requires a neurophysiologic treatment approach. The addicted person must
have the willful intention to change and to adopt a pro-social role. Self-awareness, coupled
with the determination to overcome sensory gratification, is the only hope to compensate
for past mistakes. Addiction blindsides the mind. The process of sobriety often involves
multiple cycles of relapse, with a very narrow escape path to freedom and cleanliness.
In essence, we have touched on a few topics relating to fighting for existence.
Killing for the purpose of self-preservation is engrained in our genetic programming. The
act of killing for self-preservation, of which all of us are guilty to a certain degree,
undoubtedly creates our collective negative karmic fate.
However, with deep-rooted understanding of karma and a righteous way of life, we
must, united, choose to live under the principle of utilitarianism, which bases all of our
actions to benefit the greatest good. Every single meal that we consume and every action
that we take in life must be examined to determine whether it brings happiness and peace
in totality.
Instead of taking lives and destroying the Earths ecosystem, we can replant trees in
the forest, return fish to the sea, release birds to the sky, show a vested interest in family
life and moreover, the well being of people in our cosmic world. In a concerted effort to
benefit the greatest number of people, we can lessen the karmic debts that we owe from
other sentient beings who sacrificed their lives so that we may live.
Even knowing that lifes equation is solely based on self- preservation, we must
never cease asking ourselves existential questions: Why are we here on Earth? What
should we do to not waste our lives?
If fighting for existence brings a countless number of karmic debts, we must
reprioritize our lives and head toward the right pathway to lessen karmic debts and not
blindly go with the universal flow.
Today, sitting under the equanimity light of the Buddha, we must mindfully choose
the right pathway in life. We must make a daily vow: To not harm lives and to benefit all
other sentient beings.
Not only that, we must recognize that the final goal in life is to achieve
enlightenment. No matter how we want to save and preserve lives, nothing escapes the
impermanent nature of life. Everything in this world including ourselves, our loved ones,
our beloved pets, and our beneficiaries all without exception will dissolve in perpetuity.

We can only take comfort in knowing that we put forward the best effort to love all people
in our lives.
The final goal in life is ultimately still self-deliverance and obtaining the Infinitely
Enlightened Mind.
How do we even begin to fathom the Infinitely Enlightened Mind? The only thing
that we know is that this self-enlightenment method delivered a prince to Buddhahood.
Along with all of His disciples, who had reached Sainthood, they left the three realms of
suffering (The Immaterial World, The Fine Material World and the Sensual World) and
escaped the turning wheel of reincarnation to Nirvana.
Unmistakably, this is a Buddhists final destination. We must travel with a clear
sense of direction, never floundering in life or being ignorant of our destiny. Consider a
simple illustration: a medical student learns to take vital signs; check the heartbeat, review
the test results and then write a prescription for the patient. Clearly, being a doctor means
having the ability to diagnose and treat patients. When we have such clear vision as the
medical student who wants to become a doctor, we can magnetically pursue our lifetime
goal.
After having a definitive headlight turn on in life, we can make an unswerving plan
to follow it.
Self-enlightenment is a vague and unfathomable concept to laymen. Therefore, it is
hard for many people to pursue it. The majority of Buddhists cannot grasp this concept.
Due to ego obstruction and limited self-knowledge, most people quit long before their
journey begins.
This is indeed an arduous and grueling lifetime goal when we do not have a deeprooted understanding of the mind-awakening process and the method to self-deliverance.
How do we begin to know the spectrum involved in spiritual development and reach the
highest evolution of consciousness?
There are two different types of people in the process of reaching selfenlightenment. The first type has neither a grass-root spiritual understanding nor a vested
interest in pursuing its development. Due to a lack of mental discipline, their distorted and
beguiled outlook on life is centered on worldly pleasures and self-indulgence. Their
underdeveloped spiritual insight and ego obstruction serve as deterrents in their pathway to
enlightenment.
The second type is the person who has planted deep-rooted seeds of self-awakening
in multiple lives. Regardless of the wind of time and topographical changes on Earth, they
continue to follow the Buddha and His Disciples teaching. They persevere and keep their
faith strong. Even not fully understanding how the process works, the minute they devote
wholeheartedly to the final goal of self-enlightenment, they have already planted a
countless number of good deeds on the way there.

If the question is ever presented to us about enlightenment, we can confidently say:

We were born on this Earth in order to achieve self-deliverance.
This is indeed a definitive answer.
If a second question is posed to us: What is self-deliverance? We can answer: We
do not know yet! and accept the mockery of Why would you want to travel in uncharted
waters? Why would you choose unknown territory as your lifes goal?
We can let people know that, In spite of not fully grasping the process of selfenlightenment, we devote our lives to pursue it in lieu of worldly opinion. People may ask
why we would want to do that. The answer lies in our belief in the infinite Wisdom and
Compassion of the Buddha. He was a human being, born into wealth and nobility. Over a
countless number of lives, with immeasurable effort in self-deliverance, He became the
Ultimate Being. The Buddha left behind a profound and legendary field of Knowledge
and Truth, which cracked the dawn on humanity and turned on the lighthouse of Wisdom
for the carnal world. Many people who followed His footsteps also attained extraordinary
Sainthood. Therefore, even though we may not fully comprehend the whole concept of
self-deliverance, we can see that there is a human trail to attain Sainthood.
This is a spiritual roadmap that enables us to overcome our ephemeral and worldly
self to achieve the highest seat of evolution with an Infinitely Immaculate Mind. This is an
indescribable mental disciplinary process, yet worthy for endless pursuit. We wish
individuals would join in, and understand this ultimate self-responsibility in transforming
all suffering and unveiling the guiding light in their lives.
Buddhists must mobilize people to believe in and humble themselves to the Buddha,
and show them the right pathway in their lives - just like the one that we have chosen in
our own lives.
This self-awakening pathway encompasses multiple thorny roads in a progressive
evolution of the mind.
The first thing that we have to do in this self-realization process is recognize that we
must live a fruitful life - one that benefits all others in our daily interactions. We will be
able to develop large accounts of good karma stretching over our lifespan and flowing in
our karma reservoir.
When we have accumulated a large account of good deeds, we wish for them not to
turn into Earthly possessions, but to turn into the energy or optimistic force that transcends
our mind to a profound state of self-enlightenment.
People who do not understand this formula like to reap the fruits of wealth or selfindulgence such as large houses, cars, fame and personal profit when they have
accumulated good karma in life. True Buddhists do not seek worldly possessions. We
prefer to convert all of our accumulated good deeds into a colossally positive energy in
meditation practice.

Indeed, the second thing that we have to do in this self-realization process is

diligently practice meditation according to what the Buddha prescribed. As we sit in a
lotus position, with straight posture and both hands placed on our folded and open feet, we
close our eyes and purify our minds and we become aware of our breathing - leading our
minds to perfect One-Pointedness.
To achieve One-Pointedness is not an easy task. However, due to our accumulated
good deeds which fortify our positive energy field, we are better equipped to achieve this
tranquil and perfect state of mind.
In sum, the way to attain self-enlightenment is not easy. However, by devoting our
lives to benefit others and doing good deeds, we can penetrate deep levels of selfignorance and reach our highest spiritual development. This is our lifetime destiny.
Today, in a social analysis of lifes endless struggles, we recognize that nature is
often brutal in its struggle to survive. We must vow to live a simple, non-violent life,
which is solely devoted to being good and doing good deeds for others. We must attribute
all of our good fortune and good energy to consolidate our inner self-development
and our goal of enlightenment.
For the upcoming Fourth Lunar Moon, we will dedicate ourselves to the
Commemoration of the Birth of the Buddha. Together, we will meet at the temples to pay
tribute and to deeply reflect on our indebtedness to His deliverance of ultimate
Compassion, Wisdom and Knowledge to the world.
We discuss the Buddha Dhrama and make the following commitments:
To live a profitable life, to benefit the greatest number of people despite the
hardship of survival.
To commit to the well-being of the larger community, our country, and the
collective world.
To attribute all of our good deeds and life positive forces to mindful selfdeliverance.
Only through meditation and daily accumulation of good deeds can we attain the
highest goal in enlightenment.

Namo Shakya Muni Buddha.

FRAGILE HAPPINESS

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
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Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

People usually ask the following questions: What is the purpose of this
life? the worst answer is that: We must survive to avoid death, it means that this
person could do anything, even evil things, as long as they could live. This belief
is very dangerous. However, if the mindset is not too average, and we have
knowledge and good values, and we would not accept the above belief, our
purpose in life is to find happiness.
What is happiness and who will have happiness? Well, the purpose must
be : to live a meaningful life. It means not only we live to find happiness, but also
we must choose to live a deserving and noble life. If we just focus on our own
happiness, our life may be better, but that is not meaningful. Thus, as Buddhism
disciples, lets promise ourselves, promise to each other and promise to the
Sakyamuni Buddha that we will live with the aim to find happiness for others. It is
the noble objective that would make our life more meaningful.
However, happiness is in various shapes and forms.
In discussing the happiness, we would not discuss the eternal happiness at
Nirvana because that is too ideal, we would focus on the happiness that is close
and ordinary in our lives.
We know that the happiness is fragile because our life is always filled with
mixture of cheerfulness and sadness. Since we were born then grew up, no one
dares to confirm that their whole life have been filled with happiness.
Sometimes we would meet someone who had good fortune and have always
been happy and successful in everything they do, as if they had never suffered
from pain or sadness. However, in exploring further, we knew that they also
encountered unpleasant events, frustration throughout their live. Birth and death
events are unavoidable. Even for those, who were greatly blessed, could not be
excluded from the sadness of losing someone they love.
However, that is the case of people who have a lot of blessings; most of our
normal lives are in mixture state of happiness and sadness every single day.
Today, we may feel happy, but tomorrow we could fell depressed; or we are joyful
in the morning, but the sadness may be filled our soul in the evening; or as falling
a peaceful sleep, we could get a nightmare in the early morning; this time, we fell
healthy and cheerful but the serious disease could be rushed down in the next
month; you could be successful now but you could face failure one day.
We have to admit that happiness in this world is very fragile. It is quite
simple really. For example, when being hungry, we feel sad; and we are happy
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again as being full; it is quite obvious. We experience these feelings at least three
times a day; it means the sad and happy feelings change constantly. One other
example, we have just been praised and that made us happy although we did not
know that if that was sincere, we still held on to the comments; however, when we
were defamed or misunderstood by others, we felt depressed. The happiness and
the sadness just comes and goes.
In this world, the greatest and most meaningful happiness towards all of us
is to be loved. To be loved is happiness. The meaning of love is quite considerable.
We will be suffering pain even we would die if we are loved by no one.
In theory, we have three types of people: good, bad, and moderate people.
The bad one always tries to receive a lot from others but give away just
little.
Happiness is to be loved. This type would know about this concept, but they
would not do it. They would never know how to share their love with others or do
not know how to make others happy. They only cared about their own happiness
and asked for happiness from others. They gave away nothing. Their parents or
siblings must love them more and more, never enough. When being married, they
would ask their spouse to love and sacrifice for them. When they were with their
friends, they would not treat their friends with kindness and generosity, and they
would be angry with their friends if they were not satisfied with the relationship.
This type is very bad type because they only care about themselves, their interests
would be above everyone else's.
The moderate type always consider before they offer their love to
others. They always want something in return.
This type of people would treat the others more equally. They would always
take notice how much sentiment they have received, they would respond with the
same affection. For example, if you gave me a present worth about 20,000VND on
my birthday; you would be received another present back with the same value, or
at most close to 20,000VND, no more no less. When being praised by the other,
they would praise the other, in return. If someone smiled at them, they would
respond similarly; if there was no smile given, they would turn their back and
never responded with a smile.
The third kind of person is a good one. A good person would love others
immensely regardless of the situation and what or how much they would
receive in return.
3

Parents would love their child unlimitedly in spite of their child's

negligence; or a friend who knows that his friend having no compassionate and not
benevolent, as well as not aware of karma law, and never giving alms..but he
would commit himself to love his friend with no returns, no matter what. This
person would always wish their friends would understand more about Buddhism,
live a happy and meaningful life, live for others but demand no return. This person
is the one who would always smile first, or give out his hand when seeing other
before he knows who the others were. This person always give but do not take,
always love even though others treat him badly, always love to live a meaningful
life even though life is unfair.
It is very difficult though to find the fourth and the fifth kinds of
person.
The fourth kind of person is the one that loving others in spite of the fact
that he doesnt know them, or they having little affection to him.
This kind of person is prepared to be a saint. For example, this person would
help his neighbours when they had troubles in spite of the fact that these
neighbours were indifferent, or did not know who he was, however, his heart was
full of love and affection for others, hence his action. This type of person would
think about how to be compassionate and benevolent, praying in front of Buddha
every day, placing an oath to love all creatures. This prayer is reminded to him
daily. This kind of person usually does charity work as they love help people that
they dont know anything about.
The fifth kind of person is actually a saint. This kind would deeply love
others relentlessly in spite of the fact that others hate him, or feel hatred towards
him, or speak badly about him or even plotting attempt to harm or killing him. For
example: when hearing one speaking ill of him such as he was thick-skinned, and
had a limp this person would just smile, and would not get furious towards the
others but being compassionate towards the bad person. As he knows that the
person who was speaking ill of others would have bad karma. These bad people
are also human being, and need to be loved. Only so, he can overcome the
bitterness and let the affection always shines.

Buddhism always emphasises on love because it has the power that makes
people happy. But why is it said that happiness in this world is fragile? The reason
of that fragility is because our love could not last long due to the fact that we do
4

not know how to self-improve and live peacefully by ignoring selfishness, greed,
and jealousy. It is very easy for us to be upset and hate each other. For example,
when we treat people well, they will love us back. But sometimes we forget or
make mistake, it will be very easy for them to hate us. Or maybe because of past
lives incarnations that make people resent and hate us.
One more thing we need to know that is our love is not usually strong and
stable. The more we are happy when we are loved, the more we are upset and
miserable when we are despised. Human beings are very emotional. Love is not
material and tangible like food or water but if we do not have them, we would die.
Without love or emotions, we could not survive, even some could commit suicide
because of this very reason. It is also because since we were born, we needed love
to nurture us and help us grow up.
It is the same with a monk. When we are deep in religious meditation, we
feel happy, but when our soul is troubled again, we are very upset and concerned.
Why? Because a stable and strong soul would not be impacted in religious
meditation, however, it can be sometimes become unstable for some unknown
reasons. So, happiness of practicing meditation is also fragile and unstable. Only
those who have lots of blessings and practised Buddhism throughout many lives
would have a strong and unstable soul.
Similarly, when we did a good deed, we would be happy, but if we did an
evil or sinful thing, we would be sad. For example, we helped reconcile two
people who used to hate each other. We asked them to sit and talk cordially,
analyse clearly the issue for them. After listening to our analysis, they knew that
they misunderstood each other and the issue was not that serious, they would
forget about the issue and reconciled with each other. Our help then was a good
deed. Our heart would be happy because we just did a good thing.
But when we were at home, if anyone said something bad to did something
that makes us angry, or upset, we could say back harshly. However, after that we
would feel terrible because we did not say the right things, and those words made
people feel painful and we ourselves feel sadness, regretful, and restless. The
feeling still was with us until we remorsed with Buddha, we would feel slightly
better but the wound would still be in our mind. Therefore, being a Buddhism
deciple, we should try to do a lot of good deeds, avoid making mistakes or
committing sins. Although we might not be able to make life perfect for others, we
must not hurt others at all.

However, there are many strange things in Buddhism though, for example,
there are some moral principles that can be very difficult to comprehend. But when
we could understand its meanings, we feel very happy. For some people this joy
can last a very long time because they understand that Buddhism principles are
real, and those principles actually work in our life. There would be no word to
describe how joyful it is if you can comprehend Buddhism principles and actually
apply it in your life and it works.
For example, there is a verse: "Material things can be just immaterial;
immaterial thing can just be just as material". The first part of the phase means
that even when we have something material, it could be nothing. The second part
of the phase has an opposite meaning, which we may have nothing, but it could be
material. It is hard to explain its meanings properly here and it is hard to
comprehend as well. We then started questioning why it says what it says. When
we could not find the answers, we would keep thinking about it. We then
eventually realise its meaning. This joy can last throughout our life.
We always look out for pleasures and happiness and never wish for troubles
or worries. But our happiness usually does not last as long as we would like it to.
For example, after being full from eating, we would be hungry again; many
couples would end up in divorce despite the fact that they vowed to be together
forever; a cosy home was destroyed due to hurricanes or tsunami; bankruptcy
happened to a popular company. When everything went smoothly, we usually
would be optimistic, but only one bad event could ruin the happiness.
According to Karma Law, happiness depends on blessings. The more
blessing we have, the more stable our happiness would be, and the less
blessing we have, the more fragile our happiness would be. Indeed, if we tried
to continue doing good deeds and for a long time, our happiness would last long
and very stable even when we had challenges in live. That is karma law. If we
helped someone and even though he was ungrateful, and even worse he would
harm us, however, if we persisted to help him, we then did a very good heed..
Therefore, our happiness would become more stable and last longer.
For example, if we were a director of an organisation, we would meet a lot
of people, some even did bad things to us because of their jealousy. However, they
would fail and the question was why they failed so easily. It was because we
persistently did good deeds throughout many lives regardless of the conditions and
in any situations, which helped us earn a lot of blessings for ourselves.

On the contrary, if we did not create a lot of blessings by not doing a lot of
good deeds, our current live happiness could be very fragile and unstable. For
examples, we often gave out rice and food to poor people, however, over time they
would publicly criticised us because we did not give out clothing as well. When
we knew about that, we became upset and stopped our good deed by stopping
giving out rice and food. So we were not persistent in doing good deeds.
Therefore, in our future lives, we could be wealthy and living a comfortable life,
but that happy life could not last long and we could become poor again.
It is important to understand this principle. We should be open-minded and
be more understanding. We should ignore bad things that happened to us which
were caused by others, and should keep helping them. If we do so wholeheartedly,
we would help improving and strengthen our happiness in our future lives.
So, when we comprehend the above principle and karma law, we would
realise that nothing last forever. Because our happiness relies on how much
blessings we have, if we understand that rule, we would be less painful when our
happiness ends. So if we lost everything, or we lost someone we loved, we would
then understand that we did not do enough good deeds in our previous lives so our
happiness did not last long. We would then be more accepting about the sad fact
and move on to rebuild our live again.
We must love all existing creatures, must continue doing good deeds in
our life to earn more blessing in order to be strong in this life.
Why do we have to do all of the above? The question is: what does our life
depend on?

Depending on our standing position on the ground? The ground

is unstable.

one day.

Depending on our parents love? Our parents will pass away

Depending on our money? It is absolutely unstable because we

can lose all one day

Depending on our husband or wife? It is not guaranteed

because they can betray us at any time.
We realised that what we have in our live are so unstable and could not be
taken for granted. Karma law directs events in our life. We sometimes were so
clouded in our thinking so we kept holding on to everything. Only very few people
7

knew that life is short, life is fragile. We should consider the fact that we are
nothing and nothing is ours.
Nothing is permanent. Therefore, if we want to be strong in this life, we
have to continue doing good deeds. When we do good deeds, it help unstable
things naturally become more stable. Stability is created from our accumulated
blessings and good deeds instead of wisdom. Finally, it is blessings that would
make our life stable and happy.
When understanding that happiness is unstable and fragile, it is easy to
come and go, we should love all people around us because their happiness is also
fragile and short lived. We therefore have to respect, preserve and appreciate every
little of happiness, every bit of fun that we have at this moment. To do this, we
should have a good will and an affectionate heart.
However, the question is how to not create unhappiness to others, or stop
making people happy. Firstly, we should know what happiness means to other so
that we can respect and preserve them. Because we did not understand that we
could break it easily by accident. It could be simple like we ran into someone who
was holding his favourite cup of tea. Because we only were care about getting our
job done, and we were not careful about our surroundings, hence we caused the
accident unintentionally. We then made the other person unhappy.
So when people are living peacefully and happily, we should not barge into
their lives. We must be always aware of this because we often do not pay enough
attention to it. When we fought with someone or said bad things, we caused
unhappiness to others; they would become emotional, then their lives could be
very unstable. When we picked up a quarrel with somebody, it meant that we had
taken their peace away; the peace was their fragile happiness. Just like a peaceful
country, when the war happened it caused extreme unhappiness because of deaths,
family separation, collapsed economy then people experienced the fear and were
miserable. So when the country is peaceful people shall make best effort to keep
their happy and peaceful life.
For example, when two people are a relationship, we should not speak ill of
them or try to separate them. In the case of Mr. A and Mr. B, they had a very good
relationship, so we should not gossip or speak ill of either of them. If we did, they
would not ask for clarification and simply accepted what we said. As a result they
no longer liked each other as before, even hated each other. Our actions made
others unhappy. So, if someone out there is happy because of our love to them,
8

please do not stop giving your love, please continue treasure and keep it last as
long as you can never stop loving.
So when you practise Buddhism, and you follow a Master, please always try
to respect him, even you no longer have any more compliments for him. Maybe
the Master has not yet successfully completed his practise, but he has been very
patient, and trying to do his best, so it would be very good for his followers to
learn from him. Sometimes if we knew or heard bad things about this Master, we
should ignore and should not bother him with this nonsense. Only when this
Master clearly went against Buddhism principles we should take actions to stop
these wrong practice.
This is another example. If you knew someone who had their own way of
adapting Buddhism principles, then you should only provide more advice to the
person in order to help them be better, and earn more blessings. You should not
criticise how they practised their Buddhism. We should only advise him to do
more good deeds. So we only provided additional help and did not impact their
happiness and peace. Or, if you knew someone practise mediation really well, you
should encouraging the person to do it better i.e. try to hear or follow your breaths,
if you need help, pray with Buddha and remorse your sins By doing that, you
were helping the person to be better at practicing Buddhism.
It is very important to recognise that criticism makes others feel insecure.
Therefore, we should be very careful when speaking up. When we criticised
someone, we would make him/her sad or bothered for the whole day or the whole
month or even for a longer period of time. The sadness could be so strong that they
would remember it for the rest of their life; except for those who were successful
in mediation. A wise person would ask himself Is this wrong that I was
criticised? If after trying and he would find no answers, he would accept the
criticism and move on. If he found the criticism was correct, he would then take
actions to correct the mistake. In an opposite way, an unwise person would first
feel sad, then would think about it later. Therefore, we should be subtle, and
careful in talking about others because we could easily make other people sad, and
as the result, we have bad karma.
Our ancestors used to say: God who punishes should avoid the meal time.
This means the god also knows how to keep happiness for other people. He has the
heart to care for human being, but we are, human being ourselves, do not often
think about keeping others happy. When other people are happy, we should respect
and help maintain it; simple as if you knew someone was in deep sleep, you should
9

not be careless and make too much noise; if you needed to do some work, you
should be gentle in moving around, avoid to wake the other person from their
peaceful sleep... Please always remind ourselves that we should always keep
happiness for others, even from a simple thing.
We know for the fact that happiness can be very simple, we should be
considerate to keep the simple happiness. Please keep making others smile, keep
caring for others, and keep others happy... Please continue doing that because
happiness is fragile, once it is gone, it is hard to get it back.
Please keep in mind that keeping happiness for others means you earn
blessing but if you help increase others' happiness, your blessing will be much
more.
For example, our neighbour family was normally quite safe and sound. They
went to work during the day, when they were at home, they watched television
with the family. When it was a holiday time, they went to see their friends and
family. They lived a very ordinary life. Although they lived quite happily, but not
entirely satisfactorily. We would ask ourselves how can we make them even
happier? Would money be the answer? Probably not. They may need to know
more about Buddhism principles. Money can only help for a limited period of
time, but when you know about Buddhism principles, your life would be much
more fulfilling. Happiness is not absolute without Buddhism because without
Buddhism happiness could come and go within just a short period of time, very
fragile.
It is very common that everybody lives normally, and has not yet been
exposed to Buddhism. When it is convenient for others, we should introduce them
to Buddhism and its principles, help them to understand and practise, where
possible. Only Buddhism could help us be strong in life. When we lived without
believing in Buddhism, it was like we had no direction and no purpose to live our
life.
Therefore, as a Buddhist, with the good will wanting help and wish for
others happiness, we should know when it is the best time to introduce others to
Buddhism. After a period of time getting to know more about Buddhism, they may
subsequently go to temple and pray to Buddha by themselves. They would then
feel more happy and joyful. They recognise that even though their life is peaceful
for now, but it is so much better if they have spiritual support from somewhere, it
would increase their happiness. By doing the above, we not only keep others
happy, but also we respect and help increase their happiness.
10

It is important to understand that we should avoid criticising others,

when they are happy. For example, someone was so happy about their new car,
and then we said: this car looks beautiful but it is not that expensive. This would
make others upset and immediately would be very unhappy. But if we would have
said: this car is not that flash but is a good one, and you should be careful when
driving, and always follow Traffic Rules. So the later helped the other person feel
that we cared about them, and advised them about safety, to avoid unnecessary
accidents. They would feel that we cared about their happiness.
We have been discussing a lot so far, we now must realise that we should
try to live a meaningful life, so that other people feel happy when they are around
us, not the coldness. We must be the person who live a meaningful life, who know
how to make others happy and even increase happiness for everyone.
On the contrary though, there are cases that we must do the opposite. There
are people out there that are happy, but they are not safe, and we must take actions
to stop it from progressing further. We should not encourage these types of
behaviour, and we must stop these behaviours because we knew that the
consequences would not be good. These kinds of happiness can eventually make
people be sinful and suffering later on. For example, some people would go to
night clubs, involve in gambling and socialise with bad people, we then must stop
them from doing it further because their current happiness would make them
suffer later on.
However, in the interest of making people happy, in reality, we could only
help those moderate people, and not really bad people. Why? Because for those
selfish people, happiness would be easily lost. They are always frustrated,
annoyed, jealous, and want to have all for themselves. When they knew about our
love, they would want us to love them only, nobody else. It was because of their
narrow-mindedness and selfishness. If they knew that we favoured someone else,
they would be very annoyed and feel uncomfortable. This is not at all acceptable.
Buddhists must love all beings, and help everyone. For selfish people, happiness
often comes and goes quickly and even our love would only help maintain it for a
very short period of time. Therefore, we must not to live selfishly, always love
others regardless. Our happiness would last longer.
However, above all, happiness in meditation is the true joy without any
conditions. For other happiness, we would have to try hard to find them. Only the
joy of meditation is always there in our mind, and we sometimes forget about it.
We reached this happiness, we could then overcome our sins, overcome worthless
11

hopes and dreams. When we let go, we would find ourselves satisfied and happy.
It means the less our ego is, the bigger our happiness is.
Meditation is a true and sustainable happiness.

Namo Sakya Muni Buddha.

12

IF ONLY WE KNEW...

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

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www.vidaothieng.com

If we had known that love is blue

If we had known that every party would end
..
If he knew that I was getting married tomorrow,
Would he be sad?....

The lyrics above are from an old but very popular love song and poem,
expressing sorrow beginning with If we had known and If he knew. Today, we
will discuss about this topic If only we knew... but in a different way. We are
going to convey Buddhism philosophies with the hope of eliminating grief.
There is a Vietnamese saying: A frog sits at the bottom of the well, which
means he could only see the sky via the top of the well, hence, he always thinks
that the sky is just as small. The frog likes water, and it comes and goes from one
well to another. The only way he could get out of a well was for someone to take
the water, when he could take the opportunity to clutch onto the bucket of water.
Sometimes, though, he would think that he was trapped, so he jumped back to the
well again.
The frog in the well was like a prisoner. It did not die but had little food to
eat. It did not have freedom. He viewed the sky, which was only as big as the top
of the well. When someone intelligent put himself into the similar situation, he
would realise that: What he knew would only be so limited, like the fog viewed
the sky from the bottom of the well. As time goes by, he would consider the sky
and the universe to be as small as such a well. Then, he would think that he was
the king of the world because the world is so small.
Because of that narrow-mindedness, our ancestors had criticised: Those,
who lock themselves in their prejudices are their own prisoners. They do not know
that there are countless things beyond their knowledge.
Such people are subjective, prejudiced, and biased. They think that what
they see and know is everything. They would look down on everyone else. This
could be called a sickness of being arrogant, subjective, narrow-minded, and shortsighted. They did not know that they have been confining themselves to their own
prejudices. Nobody can stand these peoples behaviours. What they knew was so
limited but they considered themselves talented. As a result, they showed
2

arrogance and criticised people for not understanding and not praising them. They
usually failed but still blindly thought that they were excellent. For that, they
continued to experience failure and misery.
The analogy of the saying A frog sits at the bottom of the well indicates a
weakness in our ethical standards.
Arrogance means one would consider oneself superior to others. Indeed,
some are more intelligent than others, but wise ones would not be arrogant about
that. This is the difference.
Usually, people would likely be arrogant when they have had achieved
some successes, but they were not as wise, and they had low morale. This has
caused failure for many others. For Buddhists, this behaviour would cause very
bad karma. Though it is not as serious as murder or robbery, arrogance could
destroy your blessings gradually. A Buddhist once said: I dont break any rules
but only drink alcohol, which I think, is the least important. When you already
started having a bad habit, it is just a matter of time before you would start onto
the other bad habits because arrogance is the cause, the motive urging you to do
so.
Why are people arrogant?
It is because they have achieved some successes. It is human nature. For
example, if a student could solve a challenging math problem, he had a delusion
that he was very intelligent. However, it did not mean that he could solve other
difficult math problems. Let us discuss another example. An employee had an idea
to help his company overcome an internal issue: sell more products and increase
revenue. Because he had been praised, he became too proud of his achievement,
then became arrogant and had a delusion that he was very intelligent. There are
many real life examples like that. Even with a Buddhist, when he discussed with
non-Buddhists, and he could convince the others and make them respect
Buddhism, the Buddhist became so proud about this achievement. When someone
has achieved something in life, it is quite easy to feel proud and sometimes too
proud leading to being arrogant.
Peoples perceptions about themselves like the above examples indicate that
they are unintelligent, and they made a serious mistake. Actually, anyone can
make that mistake easily. However, we, Buddhists, who have learnt about
Buddhas teachings; we should know the right and the wrong; though we may be
successful or excel others, we must be modest and consider our achievements,
3

even ourselves as nothing. If we could do that, we would live this life in harmony.
And if we could do lots of good deeds, we should keep our mind pure and calm.
We should love all beings, and we should respect everyone. We should not look
down on others when we have had some successes in whatever we do. If we think
highly of ourselves, we would easily make the same mistake of criticising others
and looking down on them. We must also remind ourselves, and others so that we
all are aware of the importance of having high morale, being modest in life, and as
the result, everything is equally important.
Another bad point of arrogance is that it forms a habit of criticising other
people. When we displayed such behaviour, we should know that we were
dominated by arrogance and ego. The need to criticise someone comes from a
psychological thinking: recognising others weak points means we are better than
they are. It is a weird one, and it is like a formula stuck in our mind: when we see
other peoples weakness, we will feel good. In fact, that feeling is wrong and very
dangerous.
For example, seeing a girl with long smooth silky hair and good make-up
on, we would think that she is attractive. However, someone else might say: Her
hairstyle does not look nice. They made that criticism because they thought that
they had more assessment skill than others. Let us discuss another example. After
attending a seminar on a social issue, someone asked for our opinions, and we
would not hesitate to do so. When saying so, we thought ourselves that we had
assessed accurately the seminar, and could point out someone elses weaknesses;
that would make the listeners think that we were good. This caused a delusion that
we were actually better than others. In reality, would our presentation be as good?
It might not be, but we would always try to find others weaknesses to attack and
criticise.
In these scenarios, we did not have to spend any effort to improve ourselves
at all, we could do that by just pointing out others weaknesses. This behaviour has
caused a very bad habit in human behaviours, which has led to demoralisation.
Could we like someone who had criticised us? It would be a challenge! Criticism
separates humans. When we were about to say something bad about other, the
relationship would be damaged. The arrogance in us would be stronger and
obvious than ever.
Arrogance causes bad criticism and vice versa.

This sickness is very contagious. When we came to a place and only heard
bad criticism, we would already know the nature of most of the people here. This
sickness would also pass on from one generation to another. This is a very bad
habit and it would cause people lose their blessings.
Each region has its own custom, which passes from one generation to
another. There were places where there lived only farmers. However, these
farmers were very knowledgeable about politics and political leaders. They always
liked to discuss political related topics. This habit has passed onto other
generations, and because of that, their children grew up and wanted to learn more
and more to become leaders.
On the contrary, when we arrived at a place, where we only heard bad
criticism about everything and everyone, we would realise that other generations
in this place would probably have that bad habit as well. They were losing their
blessings
All of us should know Newtons saying: What we know is only a drop of
water, what we dont know is an ocean. He was extremely intelligent. Only wise
and intelligent people can clearly think that they do not know all. Therefore, they
would try harder to learn more and more to fill in their knowledge gaps. However,
an arrogant person would not do so, as he would not know what he does not know.
Similarly, it is also different from one person to another when they pay
homage to Buddha. Every Buddhist pays homage to Buddha, but those, who are
knowledgeable about Buddhism, and appreciate the greatness of Buddha, they
would bow to Buddha, with the utmost respect attitude, with all of their heart and
soul. Those that could not appreciate Buddhas greatness, they only pay homage to
Buddha because everyone else does so.
The wise ones clearly realise that they do not know all, while the ignorant
ones are self-satisfied, opinionated, conservative, and imprisoning themselves in
their limited knowledge and achievements, which, to them, are the truth.
Here is another example. About seventy years ago, people used to like to
listen to traditional music, as modern music from western countries had not yet
been available in Vietnam. Nowadays, this modern music is everywhere. Its
rhythm is new and different, which attracts millions of people around the world.
Those, who still played traditional music, had become less influential in the
market. However, they did not accept new music style, and did not want to learn
the new thing, and a better thing. They still believed traditional music is the best.
5

Recently, we noticed that many music composers had adapted western music style,
mixing it with traditional music style. Some of the new songs were great. It was
because the artist knew how to combine the best of the two musical styles and
create the new and different tunes. Those artists were the one, who were not
conservative and arrogant, who were willing to learn new thing and embrace it.
Similarly, in Buddhism, if a Master had been so successful, over forty or
fifty years ago, but he would not change because he believed that he would be still
successful with the same old preach. Think again! Forty years ago, peoples
knowledge was limited, there was not also many Masters like today. However,
forty years later, the number of great monks, great Masters had increased
dramatically. Many have learnt new things and have a lot of knowledge. We must
not be so narrow-minded, and we must not so focus on the past successes because
life is changing every day; nothing is limited, and nothing lasts forever.
When we follow Buddhism, we must be open-minded. There are many jobs
in the society, and nobody is good at everything. Similarly, there are many
different aspects of Buddhism that no one would know everything about it. We
must be modest. Our achievement is just the beginning, a stepping stone for our
future. It is not the end. We should hope for more and more knowledgeable and
greater people help promote Buddhism further.
We must understand that the Dharma is boundless, what we know is
nothing. Buddha had said: I have written so many, like leaves in the forest; but
what I preached is just like a pile of leaves in my hand. Therefore, as an average
ordinary human being, we know nothing. Indeed, modest people are not arrogant
and do not badly criticize anyone. They would provide constructive criticism with
modesty, and would not do anything else bad to satisfy their ego. This is one of the
most important ethical standards, which we must learn and practise to improve
ourselves.
There are meditators who have attained the highest level of meditation.
They are able to control their thoughts to empty and calm their mind. At that level,
they feel peaceful and happy. Though with that achievement, they would never be
too proud as that is nothing. The Dharma is boundless, what they attained is
immaterial. We all have to try harder and harder. According to the Thevaradin
doctrines, successful meditators would have eliminated the Five Fetters, which
would help create a virtuous and relaxed mind, though they have not attained The
First Dhyana.
6

For example, when someone asked about meditation and our answer was: I
have been able to control my mind when meditating. That was a subjective
statement. When we are still controlled by all the factors around us, still feel happy
and sad according to our personal feeling, we then have not yet achieved anything
in meditation. We have not eliminated the Five Fetters yet, therefore arrogance
could still arise and control our behaviours.
Buddha had left the human world; no one would be able to remind us on
how well or how bad we have progressed on the cultivation path. Therefore, if we
kept thinking that we have progressed well, and became too proud of it, naturally
we would be going backwards. Even indeed, we had achieved something, that was
still nothing. We must pray to Buddha that we would always be modest and would
always be nothing. When comprehending this principle, we should always be selfconscious, we must not be arrogant to criticise or bad mouth anyone else.

Nowadays, the Internet is so popular and information is available

everywhere. Many people take advantage of the Internet and email to abuse others
online. That is so sad! In the olden days, when someone badly criticised someone
else, it would have been just between a couple of people. Nowadays, with the
Internet, the world would know about these criticisms within minutes. This would
cause very bad karma, but not everyone knows that.
In contrast, if we praised someone properly on the internet, many people
around the world would know about it, that means we have created many
blessings. Once we read an article online that badly criticised a monk. This article
was written by another monk. The writer knew that before becoming a monk, he
used to be a boatman. The language in the article was very disrespectful: He was
just a poor boatman who couldnt earn enough to support his family.
It was really sad. A boatman did nothing wrong. He did his job properly,
transporting people from one place to another. That was a genuine job. Nothing
was wrong with that. From a boatman, he became a monk, and then a famous
Venerable.
We all have heard the fairy tale story of Cinderella. Cinderella was a poor
girl who was ill-treated by her step-mother and step-sisters, but she still lived
happily ever after with the handsome Prince. Though that is a fairy tale story, it
has some similarities with the boatman story above. Though the boatman was
poor, he came from a low income earning family. He left his job, followed
7

Buddha, learnt and practised the Dharma, and then became the great Venerable.
We should have admired him when hearing about that story. Why criticized his
poor past? That was cruel. If anyone of us had agreed with the writers criticism
about the boatman, or even felt happy when hearing the story, we should have
known that our mind still had cruelty.
When hearing a person criticises another and we are happy, we are cruel.
Only when hearing such sayings and we feel unhappy about it, we are ethical.
Criticism separates Buddhism and that separation accidentally provides
opportunities to other anti-Buddhism powerful force. Please never think that
Buddhism is safe and protected. Please never think that if we harm no one, no one
will harm us. There is no such thing! There are many powerful forces trying to
demote Buddhism. We always say: The world needs love. Yet, in reality, there are
so many cruel acts that harm so many people. Please remember that a cruel person
would always have great excuse for his act.
For example, an extreme Muslim would think that they killed people on
behalf of God. For God is something so supreme while killing is extremely
inhumane and evil, therefore, using that excuse is not acceptable at all. However,
this is a true reality. Human would always use something great to cover or brand
for their evil acts. Nowadays, there are many powerful political forces in the
world, and its leaders always talk about peace, democracy and human rights but
their acts and behaviours have been nothing but like saboteurs and terrorists.
This situation already exists in Buddhism. We must be cautious and careful.
Many of them would use compassion to cover up their evil acts. We must ignore
the excuses, the rationale of Why, and focus more on the actions. We should
consider ourselves as nothing, and should try harder and harder to practise
Buddhism. Never should we think that we represent Buddhism.
When someone claimed that they were representatives of Buddhism or
Patriarchs, we knew there was something wrong. They were doing something evil,
but using Buddhism to cover up their acts. Only those who are modest, who often
do not say much, but do a lot, especially do not criticise anyone, would truly be
great and kind-hearted ones.
Therefore, if we mistakenly criticised someone, we must be on our knees,
and remorse in front of Buddha. Even when we only thought about a criticism, we
should remorse immediately. Though we had not spoken out to criticise anyone,
but we knew that our mind was not yet pure and calm. Criticism indicates
8

arrogance and evil. Criticising someone is a sin, so we must be ashamed for this
act, and we must remorse with Buddha. If we could practise not to criticise
anyone, even only just a thought, gradually, we could be better, our mind could be
calmer, and we would have less sin.
If only we knew that when criticising someone, we would act like them, we
would not dare to criticise anyone anymore.
I used to hate football. It was only because I did not understand why
everyone has to fight for one ball, then it made people miserable or happy... it was
strange. When a famous football player came to our temple, and asked to take
refuge to Buddha, I then had understood about football in a different way. This
football player was very kind and very ethical. Looking at him playing with a ball
skilfully in front of the yard, I understood why playing football was not a bad and
strange thing.
We might have teased someone with speech impediment, but later on we
probably had the same issues ourselves. There are many other examples about
these bad criticisms. Therefore, we must be cautious of our words and actions; and
never criticise anyone.

If only we knew that criticism reinforced arrogance and jealousy in our

heart and soul, and that our soul would be miserable and destroyed afterwards,
we would be so afraid and would not dare to criticise anyone anymore.
Every time we criticised someone, a bit of our soul would be destroyed. If
we spent the whole life criticising everyone else, we would lose our soul, and
would become unethical. However, if we were careful in our thoughts, our sayings
and knew to comment or provide constructive feedback to help others, our heart
and souls would improve gradually.

If only we knew that each praise would help soften and purify our heart
and soul, and also offload our ego and increase our blessing, we would never
hesitate to commend anyone.
Our compliments would help us think and improve so we could be like other
great people. We must try to find good things about others and praise them for
that.
9

Some may ask: Dont you see anything good about them? Why couldnt
we see any good points to praise? That was because we were that frog, which sits
at the bottom of the well, and could not see anything. Everyone has something
good in them, even bad people. However, those good things are so few that we
neglect to see them.
So what has blinded our eyes? Selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and
cruelty have blinded our eyes. Therefore, although people have strengths, we still
would not be able to see those clearly, but just the weaknesses. Unable to see
others strengths and greatness indicates that evil is still in our soul. When we
could not see good things in our family and friends, we knew that our soul was not
pure, and vice versa. Good and kind-hearted people would be able to see others
strengths, but they also able to realise their own weaknesses easily.
A truly genuine Buddhist have vowed to live in harmony with others,
therefore, he/she would be able to see others strength to praise. When we praise
someone, each praise would help soften and purify our heart and soul, and also
offload our ego and increase our blessing; gradually their strengths would become
ours. For example, we praised someones singing voice and gradually we would
have a good voice. We praised someones good nature, then we would learn to be
less critical and less cruel with others. We praised someones mercy, and we learn
to be more merciful to others. We praised someones intelligence and wisdom, and
we would learn and practise to improve our knowledge.
That is why we must pay homage to Buddha and often bow in front of
Buddha, as it would help with our blessings.
Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would become more compassionate.
Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would become wiser.
Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would be enlightened.

We only need to be compassionate, be kind and love all beings from our
heart and soul, like Buddhas teachings, we would be successful in our cultivation
path later on. I must stress that paying homage to Buddha is the most basic but the
most important thing of all in Buddhism. We should remember that compliments
are wonderful presents that we can give to everyone and do not cost us anything.
We should never be modest in giving out compliments to others.
10

If only we knew that genuinely and sincerely wishing the best for others
would create more blessing, we would want to do that more and more.
Wishing others for the better is only just the beginning. Sometimes, the wish
is just a social obligation between two people, but its nature somehow forms the
relationship between people. For example, on New Year day, we always wish each
other a Happy New Year, or we often say: Wish you good health and wealth.
Though it is only the habit and the social obligation to do so, if we could be more
sincere in our wishes, it might become true for others, and for ourselves as well.
This is another example. Seeing a good but poor person, we felt for him and
wished: Wish that you would have health, and would be wealthy. We wished the
best for them genuinely. When Buddha heard our wish and prayer and understood
our true feeling, He would sympathise for us. We would not know if any of our
wish would become true. But lets be positive, be happy for each other. With
karma, the law of case and effect, good things will happen to good people.
Genuine and sincere wishes would help create more blessing for us. However,
remember those wishes or prayers must be truthful and genuine.

If only we knew that it was not easy to control our thoughts, we would be
so cautious and practise meditation more and more to control our mind.
Human being is controlled by their ego. For the academics, they often think
that they are right, because thats all they have in control. And their ego relies on
that. Sometimes we criticise a person and sometimes praise another. It is quite
natural. It is free. We often are controlled by our own assessment and often think
that we are right. However, we must remember that nothing is absolutely right and
nothing last forever. Buddha had said: Never trust yourself until you become an
Arhat.
We are not Arhats, so never trust your assessment completely. Often what
we see is only about 10% right. However, we often use that 10% to represent
everything else. We should not judge one country based on the minority.
Similarly, we should not judge other religion based on our own assessment. We
are only ordinary human begins. We are not intelligent enough to assess anything
correctly. Only when we could become an Arhat, we would be able to be more
accurate in our assessment.

11

Therefore, we must mediate to purify our mind, and our soul. Meditation
practitioners are often more precise as they often try not to think about anything.
As a result, naturally, their assessment is often accurate. That is wisdom. Wise
people could see how the law of cause and effect controls everything else. They
would be able to identify who good or bad people were without any trouble. Their
mind are calm and pure, therefore, they could assess others very accurately,
including their nature. They are no doubt intelligent people. We should not trust
our assessment completely when our mind is still messy with thoughts. That means
we are not wise enough. Only when we think of nothing, our soul is calm and pure,
our assessment could be more accurate then. That is also wisdom.

If only we knew that those sublime principles that we had been taught
might not be right; and the truth could just be quite obvious and ordinary.
This sounds very strange. There is a Buddhism teaching: Bodhisattvas see
everything nothingness: the earth, money, wife and children, houses, etc., while
we see the opposite. That teaching is conceptual and sublime, we must be careful
in understanding what it really means... Let us discuss another saying: Human
and Saint is the same. It could not be possible. We have always thought that
human was ordinary, while Saint was someone so noble and have attained
enlightenment. How could they be the same? Again, we must be careful in
interpreting this principle.

Another simple example is math. We all know the basic starts with 1+1= 2.
Anything without the basic must be carefully assessed. Do not just accept any
principle without understanding thoroughly about its context. The above principle
must be understood within the right context. It based on ethical standard. It also
based on kindness, compassion, and modesty. It was not about how we lived
freely, without being considerate of everything else, without any respect to anyone
else.
Once, a Buddhist did not greet me. She has been a Buddhist for quite a long
time, therefore her behaviour surprised me. When asked, she explained: Dear
Master, I see that we are just the same, so I dont see the need greet you. I did not
know what to say. Her response was completely wrong. Likewise, if someone
asked: Why dont you bow to Buddha? and if the answer was: There is no need
to do that. That was a big mistake, a big delusion.
12

So what would be ethical?

For example, we were rich. One day, we drove pass a poor old woman, who
was sitting in front of a house. We stopped and brought a basket of fruit to see the
old woman. We asked thoughtfully: Why are you sitting outside alone, under the
bright sun? She replied: I come to visit my child but I dont have the key to his
house, so Im waiting here until they come home from work. - Please have some
fruits while you are waiting. Then we continued our journey. Somebody asked:
Why do you have to be polite to the poor? We replied: The rich and the poor
are the same. Is this saying right or wrong? It is right, because it is ethical.
When we could treat others well, regardless of their class or family circumstances,
that behaviour is right. In contrast, if a poor person said the same thing about the
rich and the poor, then it would be wrong. Because, in the later scenario, the poor
considered themselves the same as the rich, which implied that they were wealthy,
and that was not the truth.
It is even worse, if we compared ourselves with Buddha. That would be so
wrong. Buddha is the most Honoured One. Buddha considered himself as all
beings because he had achieved the highest level of enlightenment. Buddhas
blessing is boundless, we could not describe it in words. His compassion covers
every single living being on earth. We, ordinary human beings, are full of greed,
hatred, jealousy, and miseries, therefore, we are nothing compared to Buddha.
We must learn about Buddhas teachings carefully, and we must understand
those principles correctly and practise it in reality. Do not be confused between
any sublime sayings and some sayings, which may be quite ordinary but actually
originate from ethical standards. Some other Masters out there might have taught
their disciples wrongly. The principles are not wrong, the way in which those
principles were interpreted and understood were wrong, hence, the teaching was
wrong. We must be cautious and careful in our learning journey.
If only we knew that others weaknesses actually were the lessons for us,
we would be grateful and would not criticise.
When we saw someone, whose face was half covered with black skin, and
we said That woman looks like a ghost, that was not wise and cruel. We should
have felt for the woman, this was bad karma for her. In her past lives, she might
have criticised other peoples appearances badly. We must know that others
weaknesses are like lessons for us. We must be aware, as the result, and must not
13

criticise their bad points. We must take the opportunity to learn and improve
ourselves. Some people are selfish, and always competitive, but they actually
struggle to win in anything. We must learn from that and avoid those people. Such
people would be very miserable later in their life or in future incarnations.
What we sow is what we reap; that is the warning, we must be aware and
careful in what we do and say. When we want to be competitive with others, just
remember about the ugly woman, in the example above, and try to get rid of the
greed and hatred in our head. Or, when we met someone, who often was hottempered with others, we must remind ourselves not to behave in the same way.
Or, when we knew someone , who did not progress well at school, we must remind
ourselves that perhaps, in their past lives, though they were intelligent, and
progressed very well at school, but they did not share with others, therefore, in this
life, they suffered the consequence. When we understand how karma works, we
would be scared, afraid of having bad behaviours. We must take every opportunity
in life to learn, to improve, to live in harmony and share with others. We must vow
that: If I know anything useful, I will share all with others.
In general, humans have many weaknesses, and we must be grateful that we
could understand the weaknesses and learn to avoid them. And it is because we
have compassion for all beings, we would not criticise anyone. If there is love,
there will be no criticism.
Our parents also have many weaknesses. No one is perfect. But we would
never criticise them as we have the absolute compassion for them. True love and
compassion will stop criticism. If criticising someone is so easy for any of us, we
know that we do not have any compassion for anyone, or anything.
Therefore, I always remind all Buddhists:
- Firstly, love each other.
- Secondly, never criticise.
Criticism is the signal of jealousy and hatred, and they are not in any
Buddhism principles. When we love other people, we will appreciate peoples
weaknesses and miseries. Their weaknesses are lessons for us. We know that
because we understand karma, the law of cause and effect, and we are grateful to
know about the weaknesses, so we can avoid and could learn to be better.

14

If only we knew that peoples strengths were good examples for us, we
would not dare to be jealous but would be so grateful.
For example, there was a devoted Buddhist, though he was so busy with
work and famiily, but everyday he always visited the temple, paid homage to
Buddha, prayed with other monks. Though he was poor, and could not contribute
much financially, but he always helped with the temple chores. Cleaning could be
seen as petty and dirty kind of task, and not everyone likes to do this task. Those
people, who do not care about the task itself, but would do it anyway regardless,
are kind and have high ethical standards. We must respect these people and learn
from them.
If we were jealous of those compliments to good people and started
criticising them, and showed off what we did for the temple, that would be very
narrow-minded. When we are competitive and jealous of others compliments, it is
unfortunate for us, because we would not be able to appreciate the greatness, even
from a small deed.
When we heard others compliments, we often asked ourselves: we also
contributed, but why there was no much of acknowledgement for us. That was
jealousy and competitiveness. These feelings would prevent us from improving
and being successful in our cultivation journey. Or, when someone with great
knowledge of Buddhas teachings, are willing to explain to others these teachings,
these principles, and help them practise more and more, but we felt uncomfortable
about it. We did not see him as a good example to learn from, but envied him, it
was unfortunate for us, as we would never be able to comprehend Buddhism and
would never be successful in our cultivation.
We must know that other peoples strengths are examples for us to learn
from, and we must be grateful wholeheartedly.
We must be grateful to those hard-working cleaners, to people who
understand Buddhism principles deeply, and to those who could mediate everyday.
Meditation is hard work. We must sit still to train our mind to be calm and pure.
When we had no one to help with mediation, but we tried harder and harder
everyday to practise, that showed our desire to learn and improve, and that is a true
Buddhas disciple. We must learn from these good people and their strengths. We
must not criticise or bad mouth about them, or else we would get bad karma.

15

If only we knew that other peoples strengths are examples for us to

embrace and learn for our whole life, we would be very grateful.
How many good people are there in the world? If we make efforts and have
compassion for others, we will be able to realise that other people have many
strengths, which we can learn from. The more we see other peoples strengths, the
more grateful we would be for that. Therefore, we must be modest, we must
consider ourselves as nothing because there are many better and greater people
than us, whom we must respect and learn from.
Those, who could do this well, would be able attain the higher level of
Enlightenment. When we know someones great strengths, we would want to be
good, to be the same. When we just see someones badness, we would be getting
worse. Therefore, everyday, we must assess our mind of what we see in other
people: good or bad. Nothing can measure our mind and our soul. However, it
could be judged by hatred, compassion, and ethical standard.
If only we knew that A year care, one minute ruin, we would never be
too proud of our achievement and never consider ourselves to be the best.
Though we could have been so careful, and though we could have lived in
accordance with our ethical standards, we could still make mistake any time in
life. For example, before becoming a monk, a man had lived a great life. But after
becoming a monk, he was lovesick. He confided to his Master: I know I am a
good person, but I dont understand why now Im lovesick just right after I took
refuge in Buddha. I know well that this is leading nowhere, but I still miss and love
her. The Master asked: Have you ever criticised anyone? The man answered:
Yes, I used to criticise my friends when they flirted with girls. I said: You are
not old enough to do that. I dont love anyone. Now, as a monk, I have fallen in
love with someone. This is the result of having bad karma what goes around
comes around.
None of these mistakes is random. They are the result of either good or bad
karma. These are ruled by the law of Cause and Effect. Only one mistake in the
past could last every long and could come back to any time, either this life or
future life. Therefore, as a true Buddhist, though we have lived a great live, though
our ethical standard is very high, we must not be too proud and arrogant about
our achievement, and we must not criticise other people. We must not think that
because we have followed Buddhism for a long time, hence we are better than
16

others. If we did say so, we would have to pay back some time either in this life, or
in other life.
If only we knew that childrens manners could be easily impacted if they
heard too many criticisms, we would not criticize other people in front of them.
When hearing criticisms, children would learn from those bad criticisms;
they would have similar behaviours to those bad criticisms, therefore their manner
would be badly impacted. We must not criticize other people in front of them,
because it would spoil children faster. I once talked about teaching children: We
should try to praise good examples of adults and great people to nurture
childrens soulW.
Parents should read good books and articles about good people and good
deeds, and then retell them to their children. For example, a poor old man kept
repairing many roads; or a poor person raised orphans, etc... Loving our children,
we should tell such great things to them. Apart from providing them with food,
clothes, education, we should also give our children examples of real life heroes to
nurture their mind and their souls, especially to help with their personalities and
manners later on. Never criticise anyone in front of them. Criticisms will enter
their mind and spoil our children rapidly. In the future, we would not understand
why our children have been educated carefully but become such a different person.
We would never know it is because we have raised them with so many criticisms
about other people. That would be our failure.

If only we knew that forgiveness and education would be harder but

would leave fewer bad consequences than hatred.
If we abandoned someone, who made a mistake, or punished the person
severely, the consequences could be worse that we forgave or we were patient to
re-educate the person. It would be so much easier to put a criminal in prison.
However, re-educating and re-training these criminals would be a much better
strategy than putting them in prison because prison is the source of many crimes.
Bad environment would bring bad influences on these criminals.

A good government would have to be very patient with protesters. A good

government would not just sentence them to death, or would have a conspiracy to
get rid of them. A good government would act in accordance with international
17

law. Though it would be harder, but it would not have bad consequences in the
future.
It is similar in Buddhism. Educating a person is really hard. Sometimes we
have to be strict; sometimes we have to be patient and tolerant. The goal is for the
person to realise his or her own mistakes and to reform without hatred. We must
not abandon them.
Abandoning these sinful people usually causes bad consequences for their
family and the society. Some parents did abandon their children, who were so
spoilt, while they still had opportunities to educate them. However, some parents
were so patient to spend five, ten and even twenty years educating their spoilt
children, and finally their children were awaken and lived a good life.
To achieve such results, we have to work harder and harder, and it would
help us pay off the debt from the past incarnations. Why would we have a
disobedient and spoilt child in our family? It is because in our past lives, we had
harmed other people with our bad behaviours. In this life, he/she had come back as
our child for us to pay off the past life debt. If we abandoned the child, eventually
he/she would have come back to haunt us because it would not yet be over.
Therefore, educating someone patiently and having compassion for someone could
be a very hard thing to do, but it would have good return. Compassion and love
could change many things, we must always apply it in real life.

If only we knew that forgiveness and weakness are completely different,

though on the surface it sounded the same, we would have to be very careful.
For example, a robber was captured as he robbed someone for money. He
was a spoilt child. If the parents were weak, they would offer a bribe to some
officials to get him out of any punishment. That is weakness, not love, not
forgiveness. If they indeed loved their son, they would attempt to some other ways
to educate their son. The son may still be in prison, but they would need to find
ways to educate him and make him realise his own faults so that he would reform.
If they bribed someone for their son to get out of prison, he would behave the
same repeatedly, may be even worse than the first few times.
In the 13th century, the Islamic troops invaded India. At that time, Buddhism
in India was flourishing. In Nalanda, there was a very well-known Buddhism
University with over 10,000 excellent monks. It was not easy to gather 10,000
18

monks back then. To be accepted at this University, they had to be very

outstanding. But it took only 150 soldiers to kill all the monks. The university was
flooded with blood.
Why were there only 150 soldiers but they able to kill 10,000 monks? Why
did the monks do nothing; why didnt they defend themselves, did not put up a
fight but let themselves be killed? Because they thought they were right. They
were confused between weakness and forgiveness. These two things are
completely different. Their choice to die was not forgiveness but weakness. That
way of death was not good, because after their death, Buddhism would be in
danger, as there were no talent left. We would die for the good to live; we would
die for the country; we would die for the country independence and wealth; we
would die for Buddhism to stand firm and be flourishing; we would die to nurture
others morals. These are meaningful deaths and sacrifices. We are Buddhists; we
must understand the differences between forgiveness and weakness.

If only we knew that after we had achieved the ability to calm our mind, to
be modest and to have compassion, we also must prepare to educate others, and
to prevent evils.
We must be kind and compassionate, but must not be lazy or coward.
Compassion and kindness are so different from laziness and cowardice. Many
people said: I am practising Buddhism principles, so I actually do not need to do
anything else. or I am a Buddhist now, I would be OK with whatever others to
do me. We often are mistaken that being kind and being compassionate means
doing nothing and not standing up for others and ourselves. Be very cautious!
Because it could be cowardice and laziness. It is a very common mistake.
Some Buddhists, at first, were still angry and arrogant. However, over time,
if we often came to the temple listening to sermons about modesty, kindness,
compassion, forgiveness, we could be improved. When we have attained such
qualities, we must continue practising to equip ourselves with bravery, diligence,
and the spirit to confront challenges. We must dedicate effort to time to help
others, to educate others and to prevent evils.
If we met someone, who did not believe in karma, we must be patient to
convince him/her. We must live a good life to set a good example and must be
patient to educate him about karma, and how the cause and effect law works. Or, if
we knew someone plotted to set explosive to destroy our temple, we must inform
19

the police, and helped to find the bad people. We must not leave the pagoda,
because we were worried that our life would be in danger. That would be
cowardice.

We must know that if we did not have enough compassion but just reacted
to anything, we would be so wrong. If we were compassionate, but still were
weak and behaved cowardly, that would be even worse.
When we did not take action to prevent the good from the bad, though we
had the compassion for all beings, we were still wrong. When we did not have
compassion for anyone, but behaved badly, that would be even worse. Hence, the
challenges for all Buddhists are: we must be compassionate, but at the same time,
we must also be decisive and brave.
When we first learnt about Buddhism, we were often taught of being
compassionate and being kind to all beings. That is correct, but not enough.
Compassion must come with determination and courage. The problem is that when
our compassion is not enough but we hurriedly believe that we are determined and
brave, therefore we often make mistakes and can easily get into quarrel and
displease others. We must have enough compassion first and foremost.

Some Buddhists have the bad habit of badmouthing other Buddhists, but
they did not do anything to harm other religions. This is one of the reasons why
Buddhism is at risk of being attacked by other religions. We must know that many
other religions have plotted conspiracies to destroy Buddhism, using Buddhism
disciples. They pretended to follow Buddhism, become its disciple, but just to
criticise, speak ill of others and many other bad behaviours with the purpose of
causing disunity and division amongst Buddhists. They organised demonstration to
show off their power. They are not Buddhists; they are outsiders.
The following is a true event. In the old days, Buddhism was the national
religion in Thailand. The government wanted to show their clemency by allowing
other religions to develop. They did not know that 30 years later, those religions
had driven Buddhism away from 5 provinces in Thailand. They had planted spies
in the authority to hold essential positions, overthrown the authority, and put the
Royal Family under control, etc. Vietnam would also be threatened if Buddhism in
Thailand, Laos and Cambodia do not remain a national religion. We will not be
20

able to come here for Dharma preach. The conception of religion tolerance will
drive people away from pagodas and hence, Buddhism will be eventually
weakening, then diminish.

If only we knew that it was not right if we just accepted any religion. We
must choose the right religion.
Being parents, we must not allow our children to choose their own religion.
We must not be irresponsible in this matter; we must choose the best religion for
our children. Similarly, a leader of a country must not be so forgiving or tolerant,
that allows any religions to develop and grow without any governance. The leader
must find the right religion for its countries, its citizens. In many cases, tolerance
and forgiving is actually being weak and loose, not being in control. To find the
truth, it requires a lot of hard work, even sacrifice.

If only we knew that gold and gem are precious and need to be protected.
Buddhism is millions times more precious, therefore, we must protect Buddhism
until the end.
Would we show off to everyone that we had a big diamond? Absolutely not!
We would lock it carefully. However, even with such carefulness, but with greed,
others could still find a way to steal it. We must protect anything that is valuable.
Buddhism is much more precious than anything, but our awareness to
protect Buddhism is still so weak. Though we practise, but we have not cared
enough about protecting Buddhism. This is a weakness of Buddhism for thousands
of years. That was why 150 soldiers were able to kill all 10,000 monks in the story
mentioned above. We are lack of understanding the importance of protecting
Buddhism. Protecting good things, protecting the truth, and protecting justice are
our duties and obligations.
Since we took refuge in the Buddha and learnt the Dharma, we have learnt
that Buddhism is the Truth, which can save millions of people from misery. We
must think about how to protect and preserve Buddhism forever, so that no one
can destroy Buddhism, so that there is no division in Buddhism, so that no one will
bomb pagodas and kill monks. All of us must start thinking about this.
For example, a father advised his son: This is the heirloom passed on from
many generations in our family. Our ancestors fought the enemies to protect our
21

country. After the victory, the King had awarded our ancestor a precious wine
glass and this gem bracelet. Our brothers kept the glass, but we were allowed to
keep this bracelet. You must take care of this bracelet, not only because of its
value, but also it represents our familys glory and reputation.
We now know that Buddhism could save this world; it could make this
world become more peaceful and happy; and it could make people love each other,
lead people to enlightenment and deliverance from rebirths; then we must try our
best to protect Buddhism.

From now on, we must assess ourselves carefully. Though we have been
paying homage to Buddha, respecting all monks, practising the Dharma, but if we
have not yet had the awareness and the willingness to protect Buddhism, we are
still lack of a very important part of this religion. We must ask ourselves what we
must do to protect Buddhism, to unite all Buddhists, to eliminate criticism, so that
no one can penetrate and destroy Buddhism. What must we do to prevent the day
when other people attack Buddhism with bombs and guns?
Buddhism is becoming weaker; therefore, it often does not dare to fight
back. Hence, we must be strong enough to protect ourselves. Where the
government is strong, we must ask the government to protect Buddhism. Where
the government is not strong, Buddhism must learn to protect itself with any
measures and any means. Everyone must stand up for ourselves, for our religion.
We, true Buddhists, must not be coward and weak. Those, who know martial art,
must teach others to defend themselves and protect others.

If only we knew that subjectiveness is the biggest weakness, and we

mistakenly thought that we were safe forever, then we were actually preparing
for our own failure in the future.
We often mistakenly believe that Buddhism is strong, because there are a
huge number of Buddhists. In fact, Buddhism is slowly becoming weaker. If we
subjectively think so, we actually started contributing towards destroying
Buddhism. Subjectiveness always comes with prejudice and wrong judgement. If
there were many Buddhists have the same subjective thought, the religion could
decline very quickly.

22

It is the same with cultivation. It would be wrong to think that: if we have

practised regularly and improved ourselves slowly, blessings would eventually
come. Regardless of how hard we have tried to practise the Dharma, we must not
think that we have done well in cultivation. It is because with that thinking in
mind, we often would be subjective in our thinking, and assessment, which would
lead to wrong judgement and failure. Similarly, no one is indispensable in any
corporate organisation; no position would last forever.
Never be subjective and never be prejudice about anything because it just
ruins our own blessings. Those, who are modest and always want to learn more
and improve, will continue progressing higher and be better. Their willingness to
try harder and practise harder would help them to be successful in life. Those, who
think that they are already at the top, would eventually go downhill. Therefore, the
wise always sees themselves at the foot of the hill, but the fool always sees
themselves at the top and they will start to roll down naturally.
For all of the above examples and scenarios, we must now realise that we
must not be subjective and prejudiced about anything. The truth is something
boundless, and is never enough as the more we search for it and learn about it, the
more truth we would find. Likewise, we must try harder, try many ways to
promote and protect Buddhism. The more we do to protect Buddhism, the better...
It would never be enough. It is like we are building layers and layers of protection
for this precious and holy religion.
Thus, we must understand the Dharma is boundless and would never be
enough. If anyone or any Masters think that they have understood everything in
the Dharma, we know that in the end they will fail due to this weakness. Please
remember today sermon!
It is impossible to list everything here, so to finish off with the following
conclusion:

If only we knew that Saints never rested but were never busy, we would
pay homage to them and learn from them.
Why is that so? It is because they love all beings and will do anything for
the benefits of all beings. When they teach the Dharma, or do any good deed...
those are for others, not for themselves. They would never waste a small moment.
They would always do something useful for the world and beings. It may be a
23

small happiness for one person or for many people, all for the sake of others. And
they would never associate themselves with all the things they have done.
Therefore, they would never see themselves busy. Due to great effort ain
meditation, their mind is so calm have full of compassion for others.
Now that we understand Bodhisattvas compassionate mind, we would vow
to lead the same life. We are not Bodhisattvas, but we could imitate them slowly,
one step at a time. We vow to devote our whole life for others, for Buddhism, for
all beings. We vow to never live for ourselves, never waste a minute, and never
enjoy ourselves. We vow to be very diligent, dedicated and to work harder for
others.

Namo Sakya Muni Buddha!

24

INSTINCT AND RATIONALISATION

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

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www.vidaothieng.com

Intuition and rationalisation - a topic of psychology. Today we

discuss this topic to assess our mind and soul, assess ourselves to
understand what we should not do, what we must do, and be aware of what
we have to try to develop and promote.
Instinct is natural for human beings, we don't need to learn to use our
instinct. However, we must learn about rationalisation or factual reasoning
in order to know what we must do, and what we must not do.
The instinct of all species are naturally programed automatically, but
they are not entirely the same. Human beings aren't controlled by instinct
much, but animals live and survive by their instinct because they do not
understand rationalisation. They eat, sleep and do everything according to
their instinct, they do not think. Therefore, their instinct is better than
human beings.
For example , a hungry dog will eat the food immediately when we feed
him. If another dog come to eat the same portion, they will start fighting
with each other. Even when the two dogs are playing happily, if we only give
them one piece of a bone, they will fight over this one piece of bone. That is
the natural instinct of animals.
However, as human beings, we should not and must not behave that
way. Although we feel hungry, and there are a lot of food available, we still
must consider if the food is enough for other people before starting, and
evern consider if we need to eat less or stop in order to leave more food for
others. We do so because we don't live on instinct, we think rationally.
However, it is not easy, we must learn to how to control our thoughts in
order to think rationally effectively. Therefore, there are many philosophers,
scientists and masters, who had been honored as legends of all times
because of their rationalisation.
Unlike human beings, animals are controlled by instinct, even they kill
their own species. Some species kill themselves in a certain season during
the year. It is because it has been naturally programmed in the their brain
and they must follow. Human beings do not act like that. It's not easy for a
human being to die as there are many challenges and difficulties before
death.
2

So, there are two factors, which always control life of a human being.
They are instinct and rationalisation (could be referred in this document as
factual reasonion in some cases). Natural instinct urges us do what has been
programmed in our brain, but what we are taught advise us not to live by
our natural instinct. These two things sometimes can be the same
sometimes can be different.
So, would the love of parents for children be instinct or rationalisation?
It is actually both instinct and rationalisation. Parents always love their
children naturally, this is instinct. But parents also need to learn how to love
and teach their children well so that they would become successful and good
people for society. This part is controlled by our thinking/reasoning.
What about the love of children for parents? Is it instinct or reasoning?
Deep down, our love for our parents is natural instinct. However, if we have
to make effort trying to love them, that would require thinking,
rationalisation. As for the love of parents for children, seven out of ten parts
would be natural instinct, and the remaining three parts would be because
of reasoning. On the contrary, as for the love of children for their parents,
three parts would be natural instinct, and the remaining seven parts would
be because of reasoning.
During childhood, a child would always call out for "Mum or Dad"
when they encounter any problem. Parents are their refuge, their love and
their protection from the time they were born. That refuge become instinct
because they must depend on their parents. Through many years, that
natural instinct turns into love. But when the child grows up and can solve
problems on their own, they don't need to rely on their parents anymore.
And the love for their parents would become less and less. When they are a
teenager, they can argue with their parents about everything to get what
they want. Hence, the love of children for parents is not a strong instinct.
If there is not a good education system to teach children about their
duties and obligations with their parents, they will easily forget this
important duty. If we do forget our obligation with our parents, we will live
no different to an animal life. A beast will forget its parents when it leaves
the herd. Human beings have ethics, knowledge, and know how to reason
3

with themselves, therefore we often force ourselves to love our parents in all
circumstances. It is called filial piety. We must learn and practise hard to
use it effectively. Whichever belongs to instinct, it would come naturally and
we don't need to learn and train.
What about the love of a married couple? Is this instinct or reasoning?
It is actually instinct, however, it requires ethic in order for it to be a
successful and happy marriage. A man meets a woman and they love each
other. Why? There are two reasons. One is due to the natural attraction
between men and women. It is instinctively programmed for all species in
the universe. The second reason is the karma factor. In this life, there are so
many men and women, but we could have feeling and love only a very few.
This is becuase of karma, the relationships between these men and women
from their previous lives.
Thus, some elements of instinct are controlled by karma. Biologists or
psychologisst would define that "instinct is a biological programming", but
Buddhism defines that "instinct is the combination of both biological
programming and past karma". Rationalisation does not depend on both
biological programming and past karma. Rationalisation depend on moral
and educational foundation.
The life of a human being always has both instinct and rationalisation.
For example, a young man loved a young woman and wanted to marry her,
but his parents did not approve of the marriage. They thought that because
she came from a criminal family, and if he married this woman, the family
reputation would be damaged. In addition, he was a lot older than this
young woman, his education background was also much more higher than
hers, they were afraid that the marriage would not be happy and successful
at all. Their children, if any, would not grow up in a good environment.
In the scenario above, the parents only thought of the family
reputation, what others would think of them, and the bloodline of their
grandchildren... That was rationalisation. The love of the young man was
instinct, which based on both biological programming and past karma. This
young man was struggling to choose between the love of his life, and the
disapproval of his parents for all of the right reasons.
4

All of us always face with these two factors in life: instinct and
rationalisation. One part of instinct is past karma. According to Buddhism,
karma is causality. It is always fair, and not many people can change it. In
order to change it, we must practise Buddha's teachings, the Dharma, which
would help change our past karma. Therefore, the more we study about our
spiritual beliefs, and religious practice, it would not simply be only a
struggle between instinct and rationalisation; it is actually the fight between
living the existing karma and or changing to good karma to have a better
life. It is really difficult to achieve this.

Human beings live by their instinct, meaning they also live in

accordance with their past karma.
From the time we are born until we grow up, we would have many
relationships such as family relationship, friend relationship, colleague
relationship... Friend relationship is not as binding as family relationship,
but we'd rather being with our friends than staying at home with our
parents. Sometimes, we disobey our parents' advice, but listen to our friends
instead. Talking or playing with them is fun: natural instinct.
Living instinctively always makes people feel comfortable and happy,
but the consequences are often virtual or cannot be foreseen. Therefore, we
must resist that temptation and live with our conscious mind. This could
though make us tired, frustrated and annoyed. If we choose fun and
temptation, it is like we are riding a bike downhill. We do not need to try
hard, the bike just run faster and faster, and the sensational feeling about it
will make us happy. On the contrary, if we try to ride a bike uphill, we must
use a lot of energy, we can easily get tired. However, when we reach the top,
the feeling would be incredible, the view from the top would be spectacular.
All of us, either living a religious life or not, need to choose one way to
live: either live a fun/enjoyable life without worrying about consequences; or
live a life with a conscious mind to gain good outcomes and results. This is a
constant struggle throughout everyones life, even throughout many next
lives. Whoever can win over their natural instinct to live a holy life would
5

become Saints. Whoever surrenders to instinct will be re-born in animal

realms, or human realms but live a poor and miserable life.
If we want to win over ourselves, then understanding Buddha's
teachings is just the beginning. The important thing is strong willpower to
practise, being resilient and the main secret is your own blessing. Thanks to
the power of blessings, we could overcome many obstacles, avoid
committing many sins to live a pure and moral life. Do not ever think that
we are so talented and strong and would be able to overcome every
temptation!
We have read articles from the press, which wrote about a woman who
taught her children: "Listen to your heart, you would make less mistakes."
Listening to our heart means that we act with our emotion, by instincts. We
would do whatever we like to do. Many people think this is a fashionable
and popular lifestyle. They do not know that this lifestyle would bring them
into the deep hole of abyss. Only those, who can win over their heart to live
wisely, can have a truely moral life.
Is this true that those, who live wisely, are really unsentimental?
Lets discuss one example, where a child wanted to go out with his
friend. His mother picked up a nice outfit for him and gave him some money
as well. When his father asked: Who do you go out with? I am going out
with . So, what time will you be home, and where is the place? When
the child told his father about the place, his father was disapproving of the
situation: No, that place is very dangerous and the group you are hanging
out with does not seem to have ethical behaviours. The result was that the
parents got into a fight over the disagreement.
In the example above, the mother really spoilt the child as she was
emotional and soft. As for the father, because he did not want the child to
hang out with this group of friends, he was strong, rational but some would
call him being insensitive, and unsentimental.
Is the above statement true? Actually not. In fact, rational people are
wise and they live morally. Morality always contain both compassion and
wisdom factors. These people are very reasonable; they care and dedicate
their life for others. In many cases, those who live by their instincts, actually
6

are unsentimental people. They just live for themselves and play their own
rules. They do not pay attention to what other people feel. They are
comfortable with their bad habits, and do not pay attention or care about
what other people think about them.
A wise person would never have such behaviour. Even when they are
with friends and family, they still treat others considerately, dedicatedly.
They always know the way to show their affection reasonably. Therefore, if
someone thinks that wise people are unsentimental, that is wrong. Wise
people also treat others reasonably and that is called "rationalisation".
One time, I met a very respectable school teacher from long time ago. I
hugged him, respectfully. Did I act with my instinct or by rationalisation? In
fact, in this case, a hug was more than many words. I wanted to show him
my emotion and respect for him without using any words. Because I am a
Buddhism monk, I can only express respect and compassion for my old
teacher that way. However, without that hug, it seemed lacking something,
and by thiking and reasoning, it had helped me have the right reaction and
treatment towards my old teacher.
Therefore, we must be very careful and subtle to balance between
instinct and reasoning, between emotions and reasoning, between accepting
karma and changing karma. Although we will have fun and lots of
enjoyment when we live by instincts, but the consequences will be
unpredictable and very alarming. When we live rationally and reasonably,
though being tired as we have to fight with ourselves internally, but the
consequences will be much better. For example, a pupil would always want
to play instead of learning, however, with help from the parents and
teachers, he/she would learn, well-educated and become a good person for
the society. Most children prefer playing than learning. So, parents should
teach them the way to control and discipline themselves to win over all
temptation. However, there is always a mystery factor, blessing. This factor
normally will shape a childs personality. A child who have lots of blessings
from his/her past lives i.e. he/she did a lot of good deeds, will be studious;
and vice versa.
When does a child become an adult?
7

When we behave and live rationally, we have become an adult. From

ten to twenty years of age is the period of transition from an kids life to an
adult life (from instinct to rationalisation). Those, who can control their
instinct in their early age, are called early maturing. However, there are
those, who are 50 years, but they still live by their instincts. In contrast,
there are many who are only 15, 16 years old, especially those who live a
religious life from the early age. In a moral environment, they study about
Buddha's teachings and pray every day. As the result, they can win over any
temptations very quickly to live a holy and useful life. Buddhists must
respect monks regardless of their age. Although a monk is young, he/she can
overcome instinct confidently. We could say that some young monks are a
lot of mature than Buddhists.
Similarly, though we all practise Buddhism, everyone is still different
from one another. The ability of each person to live by their instinct or by
rationalisation is completely different. This factor often is a deciding factor if
a person can practise Buddha's teachings well or not; and is respectable or
not. It is also the deciding factor if someone can change their karma. In
addition to the effort of their will, their strength and their determination,
the blessing and merits of each person is also the secret factor which would
help them be more disciplined and win over their instinct. We must do lots
of good deeds, help a lot of other people in order to create lots of blessings
and merits for themselves.
There are many ways to create merits and blessings, but the most
important ones are to pay homage and pray to Buddha; and to be forgiving
with others. The first one is frequent bowing to Buddha, which will help
create lots of blessings and merits, which later on will help us overcome bad
habits and live more wisely. The second one is to live for others. Selfishness
is one of the element of human being instinct while selflessness is an
element of reasoning. If we can live in harmony and have compassion for
others, we would always have the strength to overcome our own
instinct/emotion. We must practise doing good deeds, creating more merits
and blessings; we also must practise overcoming our own instinct, improve
our ability to use rationalisation to live more responsibly and wisely.
8

We know that instinct is biological and together with the past karma,
these two factors could impact our life strongly. These elements could
influence us on doing things that we should not be doing. Therefore, it will
always be difficult to choose between instinct and rationalisation. We can
only rely on the accumulated blessings, and paying homage to Buddha over
many years and even lives would help us overcome our own instinct to live a
moral life.
Religion also has two elements: instinct and reasoning.
An mythological aspect of religion is instinct. We heard a lot of fairy
stories, divas, miracles, and many people have believed in these stories and
then become followers of a religion. For example, we may have heard about
people with terminal illness, who then were cured by just following a
religion; or we have heard about a Saint, who flew from the above down to
earth to perform miracles to cure peoples illness. In many cases, we do not
carefully consider these stories, and just blindly believe in it. We, at first,
had not believed it these stories; however, because more and more people
talked about the same stories, it has had become more believable.
Once a Buddhist told us about the secret of her business success. Right
after the war, she started her business by making and selling her own
cigarettes. She couldn't sell many because it was not a reputable brand. She
thought of a tactic. She asked five of her friends to help pretending to be
interested buyers. The five friends went to a cigarette shop and asked for her
cigarette brand. The shop owner could not sell any because they did not
store that brand. The friends left the shop. When she went pass the shop,
the shop owner ended up asking her to supply her brand cigarette. Her
business started blooming from that time onwards.
This story is a great lesson for all of us in life and in religion. When
there are 10 or 20 people lined up to tell us about one mystery religion, we
should be cautious and careful. We could be trapped by someone who
attempts to conquer our faith and belief... similar to the cigarette story from
the Buddhist mentioned above.
Most religions have exploited fairy stories, miracles, and stories about
different Saints and Gods because faith does not require people to consider
9

carefully. People often do not need to think to become a follower, just their
belief. However, all religions always have two elements, which are again
instinct and rationalisation. Mythological aspect belongs to instinct. Moral
aspect such as teaching people to love each other, not killing each other, not
stealing... belongs to rationalisation.
Even Buddhism also has a many mystery stories, especially in the
Mahayana system; the Lotus Sutra is a typical example.
The introduction of Pham Tua Sutra starts with the line: Buddha was
meditating on a lotus in the middle of nowhere; and between his eyebrows
launched a bright light which lightening both 10 directions of the physical
world and 10 directions of the spiritual world, Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realms and
even A Ti hell.
The Dieu Am Sutra mentioned: "Dieu Am Bodhisattva from solemn
Tnh Quang world came to this mundane world to listen to the Lotus Sutra,
but no one knew about it. However, due to the subliminal power of Buddha,
Dieu Am Bodhisattva became visible to everyone." This is a myth. From the
beginning to the end of the Lotus Sutra, it is full of myth. Therefore, the
Lotus Sutra belongs to mythology, instinct, doesnt it? However, when we
think about it more carefully, those myth details has hidden some moral
teachings and they extremely difficult to understand.
But why did our ancestor monks hide moral teachings in myths? It was
because they wanted to use them to convey messages about morality. They
had hoped that human beings will believe in and follow Buddhism by
believing in these myths first. Someday, when the mystery is unraveled,
everything would be translated into moral principles. And this is the
rationalisation element in the Lotus (Phap Hoa) Sutra.
There have been many mythical stories from the ancient times, but
they did not hide any moral teachings. Lotus Sutra is an exception and it is
full of mysteries. The image of Buddha, who was deeply in meditation,
sitting on a lotus in the middle of nowhere means that we should not have
to rely on any thinking, belief, or any prejudiced judgment to find the path
to enlightenment.
10

For example, some would argue that morality comes from oriental
traditions. Others would argue that morality bases from Western traditions.
These people already have a prejudiced thinking and belief. And when we
are already prejudiced towards someone or beliefs, we will not be able to see
the real truth. Therefore, if anyone wants to see the real truth, they must not
rely on anything, absolutely nothing; like Buddha who was enlighted in the
middle of nowhere. The image might be just a myth, but hiding inside the
image is the message about morality.
Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realm is the realm for all beings who have perfect
morality. A Ty hell is the lowest level of hell, where the most sinful beings
would be punished. Thus, the image of the bight light between Buddha's
eyebrows lighting to Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realms is a symbol of extremely
good things. The image of the bright light between Buddha's eyebrows was
shining across the ten directions of the spiritual world indicates the highest
level of blessing and the lowest level for sins.
It also means that all Buddhists must understand clearly about
blessings and sins. This is the first fundamental truth that we all must know.
In this world, there are many things claimed to be the truth. However, the
most important truth that we must know is blessings, sins and karma, the
law of Cause and Effect.
The greatness of the Lotus Sutra is that it conveys moral teachings
through countless mythical stories. Therefore, if when we chant the Lotus
Sutra but we do not understand the deep meaning of the Sutra, we would
still act with our own instinct, and we would believe in myths forever. But if
we can understand moral teachings of those myths, we would be able to
become more ethical and a true Lotus Sutra practitioners.
Let's remember this: every religion has two elements, which are myth
and morality. Myths are beautiful, poetic and create faith in people. Morality
will encourage kindness in all human beings. Science is the extreme and the
ultimate outcome of analysis, rationalisation. The more advance science is,
the more insensitive, unsentimental it can be. For example, with science, 1
plus 1 equals 2, 2 plus 2 equals 4; nothing is in between. Science is
rationalisation, factual reasoning it helps the human race advance further.
11

Religion in the future will need to be the same, follows the

rationalisation path. Because, if we dont, and just belief only will not help
the human race advance. The true value of mankind is living by
rationalisation.
Maybe, at first, our belief in a religion results from our belief in myths.
But later, we must find the way to build the rationalisation element into
religions.
If all religions developed and promoted more of moral aspects and
limit its belief in mythology, a wonderful thing would happen: all religions
would be more similar, have mutual solidarity, and this world would soon be
peaceful. The history of human beings has witnessed many catastrophic
wars, and one of the causes is due to differences in religious beliefs.
Understanding this principle, each of us must become the messengers
to bring the message about peace to everyone around the world. Let's meet
lots of people from other countries, and other religions to objectively share
with them that:
"Every religion has two aspects: mythology and morality. The mythical
stories with Gods, Saints that made us stay away from each other. But the
moral aspect of all religions is very similar. All it wants is for people to love
one another, not to steal, not to kill one another...
Moral principles are always strangely the same. But traditionally, we
still often think that we need to have many myths in order to develop a
religion. We don't know that different beliefs make human beings stay away
from each other. Today is the twenty-first century, a new millennium,
human civilization has advanced so much. Therefore, religions have to
develop more and more moral elements to build and maintain a peaceful
world. Building a peaceful world is the ultimate goal, the dream, is the
common ideal of all humanity. Any religion must not turn away from this
dream.
To make this peaceful world dream come true, each of us must treat
each other with respect, with compassion and objectively share with
everyone around the world that: Between the two elements: rationalisation
and mythology of a religion, if we can focus on the rationalisation component
12

to further develop moral principles, human beings will gradually unite with
one another.
On the occasion of this Christmas, some of our Catholic friends
displayed the two very unique Alexandrine from Catholicism:
"Glory to God in the highest
Peace on earth to moral men"
The first sentence: "Glory to God in the highest" is a mythological belief.
Every person, every religion has a God to worship, and we should respect
that. The second sentence: "Peace on earth to moral men" relates to moral
aspect. Only moral men can have a peaceful and happy life. It's fair, and it's
also the law of karma. We can conclude that moral aspect of all religion is
the same.
So whoever just wants to live by instinct, and always lives with their
ego, their mind will generate numerous unkind/evil thoughts. At first, they
will be proud of themselves. Later, they will become greedy, selfish, jealous
and behave as they like, ... The evil mind will push them further into the
path of committing sins. And according to the law of karma, who sows the
wind will reap the storm. They will be punished, and will never have a happy
life.
Therefore, to have a peaceful world, everyone must live well with one
another. We must get rid of ego, and live a selfless life. Having a selfless
mindset is to live a moral life, also is the quality of a Saint. All enlightened
Saints have pure mind, are selfless, and have boundless compassion for all
beings. We often worship them as Arhat, Bodhisattva, and Buddha.
Lets remember that when talking about ego, and when we live with
our ego, it means we live by human instinct. That will not lead to a good life
as we would be committing a lot of sins and have bad karma. Only those,
who live a moral life, would live happily and peacefully in this world.
However, to live morally, we must practise Buddhas teachings, we must
practise the Dharma harder and harder, especially mediate to calm and
purify our minds. Only a pure mind would lead us to a selfless life, because a
chaotic mind will make the ego arise easily.
13

As the result, if you are a true disciple of Buddha, you must practise
meditation diligently. We also must remember that meditation helps calm
and purify our mind; to be selfless and to get rid of ego could take millions
of years. When we embark on this journey, we must not limit the time.
Those who think they will be enlightened quickly will never succeed. Vice
versa, those who are always humble, practise quietly will achieve unexpected
results. And all of us must try our best to practise, and to purify our mind in
meditation.
How can we build a common morality foundation for the society
?
Nowsaday, people like to live a life full of enjoyment and be known and
popular about it. Be very careful as that is the indication of ego,
stubbornness, and pride. A quiet, modest and harmony life will lead to
compassion and peace for this world. This is also a common morality of all
religions and humanity.
Looking at morality from a different angle, music is also an important
education channel. Because music can easily influence any human beings
it relates to emotion, it touches our heart and soul Thus, if music has the
right message about morality, we are more inclined to accept the message.
Besides the positive impact onto human beings, music can also have
negative impacts and make people lose their morality. There are many songs
with mushy feeble lyrics Some lyrics even contain extreme excitement.
Unfortunately, nowadays, this kind of music is very popular across the
globe. According to the statistics, this kind of negative impact music
accounts for about 99.9 % in India, and about 85 % in Vietnam. During the
war,we have many beautiful songs such as "Vam Co Dong", "Truong Son
Dong Truong Son Tay" which are about the love of a couple, but also the
love for our nation. These songs also are the call for people to unite to defeat
our enemy as well as develop our country. But now, love music begins to
develop strongly and spread quickly around the world.
On the internet, peopple view and listen to many love songs. Songs
that are about love between parents and children, or love for the country
have less amount of views and downloads. Why is that so? Because
14

love/intimacy belongs to instinct, and therefore, those songs attract more

people. Only very few rational people seek to listen to nobleminded types of
song.
We have just re-united my music teacher, who taught me 40 years ago.
He gifted us a poem titled: "The willow tree and you":
"The green willow tree was in front of the alley
Waiting for the morning sun
You often went there
Enjoyed the comming autumn. "
" The willow tree gave shade to life
Noon was full of sunshine
You gave me fulcrum
In a panic life.
Your beauty was as a willow branch
Slender and humility
Loving life as breathing
With a big heart "
It sounds wonderful, and it contains the message about the
impermanence principle in Buddhism.
" Time passed day by day
No beauty is sustainable "
" The root of the willow was broken
Where had you been?"
But despite of the impermanence, but the author did not forget... The
last part of the poem is:
" Despite not pass by the old alley
My heart still imagine
Your image next to the willow
Which looks very nobleminded "
15

Firstly, it sounds like a love poem, but in fact, simply the author is only
a loyalty man. He had loved this girl, however, as he got older, the willow
tree also got older (representing impermanence meaning) his love for her
still remains. The noble moral qualities of the ancient artist is admiring.
Nowadays, many famous songs in the world such as "Million Roses" of
Russia, though it has such good tune that many Russians are proud of it
much than their own national anthem, but the song is really just about a
romantic relationship. The lyric is about an artist who fell in love with a
singer. He knew that she loved roses, so, he sold his house to buy a million
of roses to give her as present.
The scenario in this Million Roses song is unrealistic. If we had done
that in reality, it would be such a waste, and the consequence would that we
would be penniless. We should use that money to help poor people, help
renovate temples and many other good deeds to create blessings and gain
respect from others. This shows the wisdom of people who believe in karma
and living by rationalisation.
We hope that in the future, some song composers will rewrite the
lyrics of "Million Roses" or "Serenade " (Franz Schubert) for us to enjoy the
beautiful sound of music with lyrics filled with morality, compassion and
our devotion to a noble spiritual life.
We must award "Hero" for our brave soldiers, who protected our
country during the wars.
In the history of our nation, there has been many soldiers who sacrified
their lives for our Fatherland. We have to understand that all human beings
naturally love their own life. That is just human instinct. But, many brave
men dared to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the nation. That means
they had very strong wills. They are our national heroes. They lived by
rationalisation, not by their intuition. We must remember that those, who
live by intellectual reasoning (rationalisation) always live a moral life and
will have everyones admiration. Those, who only live by their intuition, will
never have a great life, just ordinary/average. Therefore, we must follow the
example of our heroes, who would do anything because of our country. We
must practise the Dharma to change our mind and soul towards living by
16

rationalisation, not by intuition. Only by doing that we would become useful

people and be able to change our karma.

Why Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan was canonized by our
country?
Tran Quoc Tuan was the son of An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu. In the Trans
family, An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu was the first parentage. Tran Thai Tong,
Tran Thanh Tong, Tran Nhan Tong were the second parentage. Because of
the first parentage, An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu could not become King. An
Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu resented about this very much. Before he died, he had
told Tran Quoc Tuan to overtake the throne whenever there was
opportunity.
Later, King Tran gave Tran Hung Dao the power to lead the whole
country military force. We know that whoever had this power, could
overtake the throne easily. At that time, Tran Hung Dao (Hung Dao Vuong)
asked his 6 children: The opportunity has come, should we take this
opportunity to overtake the throne? Five sons disagreed. Only Hung
Nhuong Vuong Tran Quoc Tang wanted his father to overtake the throne.
Immediately right after his sons response, Tran Hung Dao requested his
troop to have his own son beheaded. He firmly advised the remaining five
sons that no one was ever allowed to even think about the overtaking the
throne. He told them that they must be loyal to the country, to the King,
and must ignore their grandfathers (An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu) last words.
Because Tran Quoc Tuan was such a great and loyal man, he had lead
the the military of Dai Viet to defeat the Mongol 3 times, and had become a
Saint of our country. Most of the people would have different thinking,
mostly for themselves whenever there is a chance.
For example, a man gave his friend some of gold and said: "I trust you. I
can not keep these gold by myself. Please, keep them safe and give them to my
son if something happens to me!"
The friend said: Dont be worry it will be safe with me!

17

Later, the man was missing. His son came to see the friend and said: "My
father said that he had asked you to keep some gold for me. Now, I need them.
Please give them back to me!"
What would you do in this situation?
Most people in that situation would have taken the advantage of this
opportunity to keep all the gold to themselves. In the story about Tran Hung
Dao before, though the opportunity was presented to overtake the throne,
he adamantly refused to take such action. The whole country now worship
him as a Saint because of that heroic action.
Life has many opportunities for us to enjoy and live by instinct. But,
let's remember the example of Hung Dao Vuong Quoc Tuan Tran and lets
refuse to do anything against morality; lets live ethically, and live by
rationalisation.
Although our soul always will be urged and controlled by two factors
intuition and rationalisation, from now on, we should be willing to live a
moral life to overcome the natural tendency of human instincts, emotions
and the past karma.
Reasoning or Rationalisation is not dry, it's the balance, clarity to
control our feeling/emotion. In contrast, living by intuition is not wise at all,
and is not in accordance with Buddha's teachings. There are many people,
who do not know the differences between intuition and rationalisation, and
as the result, they have been bound by many cycles of reincarnation.
All Buddhists must have to live in accordance with Buddha's teachings,
to live a moral life, to practise the Dharma and to treat others appropriately.
To do that, every day, we must pray to Buddha that: Dear Buddha, I pray
that you help me to understand and differentiate between intuition and
rationalisation, and always wish to choose rationalisation in any situation.
If we already live by rationalisation, now it is our duty to help others to
be able to do the same thing: to be able to distinguish between the good and
the bad, between intuition and rationalization; and they must always choose
the right one. Only by doing it right, we could be in places where all the
Saint are. Only from this wonderful and heavenly place, we would be able to
18

see that this world is a beautiful realm, filled with love; and all will be
enlightened.

NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA

19

ITS LIKE WALKING IN THE FOG

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

On this occasion, Xa Loi Ceremony, we would like to remind everyone the

advice of To Quy Son which was about having good friends during religious
practice lifetime, which is like going walking in the fog.
Lets discuss briefly about relics. What are relics? When burned the dead
with thousand degrees of hot flames ... everything will become ashes. But there
had been cases, bones were not burned to ashes, but they were crystallized into
solid particles. These are very hard and some also have sparkle colour like gems,
which are called relics. In some other cases, the bones did not turn into hard
granules that sparkle but become condensed; we call it a relic. Or sometimes bones
become pure white, and they are also very valuable.
According to Physics, when bones are burnt with such high temperature,
they will melt completely and would not turn into the relics. This is still a mystery
to all scientists, but Buddhism has a clear explanation for this. Up to now, the most
beautiful relics have been the relics of Buddha and Honourable Monks. There are
the differences between relics of Buddha and monks and the relics of Buddha are
also different from the relics of Arhats. The relics of Arhats are different from the
relics of Saints. The relics of Saints are different from the relics of Honourable
Monks. The relics of Honourable Monks are different from the relics of good
people, who have many blessings.
When burning relics of Buddha, they glistens like diamonds. The places
where they are located will become the sacred places because they are protected
by Gods and Saints. The relics of Arhats are less sparkle than the relics of Buddha.
The relics of monks are less sparkle even more. They are hard and have white
colour.
Closer to our times, Monk Thai Hu is an Honourable Monk, who had been
teaching others about Buddhism very well and he was a Saint. After his cremation,
his bones turned into hundreds of sparkling relics. There are many people,
including Buddhists, after cremation, their bones also become relics. Of course,
their relics sparkled just a little. Thus, the higher level of sainthood is, the more
sparkling the relics are. We can say that the burnt bones of those who are saints
will become into relics, but the burnt bones become into relics cannot prove that
person was a saint. Please keep this in mind, this is one-way theorem, no inverse
theorem. Relics only indicate that the person had practised well Buddhism, but
does not indicate that the person had been a Saint.
2

There was a story relating to this topic:

At the meditation conference, there was a monk, who was the host of
the conference, but also had attained enlightenment. There was another
monk, who could mediate very well and could mediate over two or three
days. People wanted to know what level of Sainthood that the monk had
achieved, so they informed the host about this monk. The host asked that
monk a meditation question but he could not answer. He then meditated
quietly and stopped breathing in meditation. After cremation, his body
turned into glittering relics. The host knocked on the jar containing the
monks ashes and said: "Instead of becoming relics, you should have had
answered correctly when I asked you about meditation". What did he mean?
The host implied that the monk had not achieved enlightenment although his
bones were burnt and turned into relics.
People, who practise Buddha's teachings well, will have their bones turned
into relics after cremation, but it does not mean that they have been enlightened.
We need to understand this difference.
There were monks, who had practised Buddha's teachings excellently, their
relics scattered around the world, but mainly in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos,
Vietnam, Cambodia...In China, most Saint Monks had their body remained in
temples, they were rarely cremated. Those, who had attained enlightenment, could
have their body remain intact after death such as Zen Master Minh An, who had
his body remained intact for over ten years. In Vietnam, we also have a few Zen
Masters, who had achieved the same result. The common thing is their relics.
These relics indicated that their religious and cultivation life had been very special.
Currently, many tourists who come to Thailand, Burma ...are invited to buy
relics. These tourists like relics, so they often come to these countries to buy relics.
Gradually, the origination of these relics becomes unclear.
We now discuss to understand why in some cases, bodies are not burnt
completely, but turn into relics. The secret is that when someone practised
Buddhism well, they were kind, meditated well and lived a virtuous life... their
blessings blended into their bones, creating strange substances in it. When these
bodies were burned, the bones should have been burnt completely into ashes, but
due to this strange substance, these bones just melt and turned into relics.

Therefore, the bones of Saint Monks often turned into sparkling crystals, after their
bodies are burnt. We call it relics.
There are those, who knew that after death, their burnt bones would turn
into relics. And they did not want to leave any relics on earth such as Zen Master
Pho Hoa, who lived during the same period with Zen Master Lam Te ( Lam Te
was the name of a temple and the town ). When Zen Master Lam Te came here to
teach Buddha's teachings, he met Zen Master Pho Hoa who had stayed here, and
who always seemed crazy. But Zen Master Lam Te knew that he had achieved
enlightenment.
When Zen Master Pho Hoa knew about his death, he went to the market and
said, "Tomorrow I will die at the East gate of the market." The next day, people
saw him carrying the coffin away, they ran after him to the East gate. He said,
"Well, tomorrow I will die at the West gate". The next day, people went to the
West gate to see him die. He said, "Tomorrow, I will die at the North gate". When
people went to the North gate, he said, "Tomorrow, I will die at the South gate."
By this time, people began to think he told lie and they did not come anymore.
When no one followed, Zen Master Pho Hoa carried a coffin, opened the lid and
then got inside. A few people saw and shouted out to call others. They waited a
long time but they didn't see him come out. They decided to open the coffin lid
and thinking that it was just one of his joke. When the lid was opened, there was
nothing inside, they just heard the sound: knock! knock! knock! Then the echoes
stopped. This was a case of a Saint Monk, who did not want to leave anything left
behind after death.
Back to "relics" topic, we know that relics are the result of bones being melt,
not burnt. We also know relics of different Saints are also different, depending on
their level of enlightenment. A person, who has practised the Dharma well also
could achieve this. However, having relics after cremation does not guarantee
anything. Many people think that anyone, who has practised the Dharma well,
after death, they would be reborn in the Amitabha Buddha realm. This is not
certain. Or if we conclude that the person has enlightened, it would not also not
correct. We need to understand the theory, which is: The enlightened person will
have their bones turn into relics, after cremation, not vice versa.
We also must not have hasty conclusions about death. When we heard
someone say: "I will die in three days," and indeed, he died after three days, we
still cannot conclude if he was enlightened. But, the enlightened person often is
4

able to know when they would die. Venerable Phuoc Hue, who lived in Nha
Trang, said: "I was born on Vesak day. So, in the next celebration ceremony of
Buddha's birthday I will die then." On April the 8th, lunar calendar, he said:
Today is the 8th of April, why didnt we celebrate Buddha's birthday? ". The
Monks at Hai Duc Buddha academy - Nha Trang immediately answered: "Dear
Venerable, we will celebrate on the 15th of April, lunar calendar, in alignment with
international celebration of Buddhas birthday." He then said: "Alright then! I will
wait until that day to die." Everybody thought he was kidding, but during that day,
until full moon, when he started to see the flag and the banners pulled up, he died.
Those, who are enlightened, are able to know about their death and could
determine the date and time, at any time.
Those, who follow Confucianism, also could know about the date and time
of their death. They live strictly in accordance with the ethical standards. They
always keep their words and live a virtuous life. They often say "Live with
compassion". One person asked Confucius: "Dear teacher, can you use one word
to describe your entire doctrine?" Confucius answered "Compassion/Love". That
is to love all beings, it's very similar to the meaning of compassion in Buddhism.
Another man asked: "Dear Teacher, can you explain further the meaning of
Compassion?" Confucius answered: "Do not do something for others, which you
do not want for yourself. Only do for others, what you would want to do for
yourself. Help others achieve what you yourself can achieve. Confucius defined
so, and many people practised this doctrine during their lives. They live ethically,
and always follow strictly their disciplines, therefore, they are able to know about
their death beforehand. Many Confucians died a serene death. They even had
visited their friends before dying in peace.
One time, Uncle Nhu Sanh (Hoa Hao Buddhists ) told us that everybody in
his family was able to know about their death beforehand. And maybe, he would
also be able to do the same. He told us about a soldier, who once said "I will die
next week". He invited everyone to a party. After a week, he died as predicted. In
fact, it is not difficult to understand according to karma, the law of cause and
effect. Whoever lives well with others, commit no sin, will have many blessings.
And they would be able to predict their death.
So, the enlightened Saints are able to predict their death. However, it is not
true that whoever could predict their death is a Saint, but they may just be good
human beings. This theorem is similar to the topic of relics, which we
mentioned above. We must understand these differences and do not be mistaken.
5

It is difficult to prove the true origin of relics, which we are worshiping

here. However, we hope that they are true relics of Buddha and other Saint Monks.
With this faith, we also show our reverence and pray that: with the power of relics,
with our practice and cultivation, with our reverence for relics, praying there
would be many blessings for us, and praying for our country to always have peace.
Now, lets talk about the essay of Master Quy Son Linh Huu (He stayed at
Linh Son mountain. So, he was called Quy Son Zen Master). All monks and nuns
must learn Quy Son Canh Sach book. This book is about warnings and
encouragement. He has written this long book about life to warn and encourage
other monks. It was considered as a masterpiece in Buddhism literature. This essay
is very long, we only extract one sentence here, and its meaning is: a monk, who
has the opportunity to work closely with a Saint, would gradually be affected by
the Saint. It is like walking in the fog: though, the outfits would not be wet, but
gradually, the fog would absorb into their body.
In short, he advised all the monks that they must look out for a true Saint, a
true Master to refuge, and do not rely totally on the karma. He forced us to fight
with karma to look for a Saint Master to refuge. It could be done in two ways:
finding either a true Saint Monk or a genuine Buddhist, who has practised
Buddha's teachings seriously and correctly. If they could not find the right Masters
or Buddhists, their religious life would be wasted. Why? Because we always
would be influenced by bad things. Therefore, if we want to become a Saint Monk,
we must look for Saint Monks, Great Master or great Buddhist disciples to refuge
and learn from them.
But, what we could learn is actually from the Masters heart and mind,
because the mind is the secret religious treasure. But, how can we learn from their
mind? In fact, this is very special, as such, Master Quy Son had said: "its like
walking in the fog". Though our mind is invisible, formless, but it always spreads
its influence around. Therefore, when we are close to a kind-hearted person,
though he does not say anything, our mind could be influenced. Similarly, when
we are close to an evil person, even if he says and does nothing, evil spirit would
still be able to influence our mind.
That is the reason why some parents, who are very classy, very intellectual,
but their children are not. Because of being so busy, they have a babysitter look
after their children. The nanny is from a different background, who has no sense of
morality and has no knowledge about different classes in the society. The children
6

grow up but their mentality has been influenced by the babysitter, not their
parents. Therefore, their behaviour and how they talk could also be completely
different. When these parents shared with us the story, we simply answered: It was
because your children has been influenced by somebody else, who does not have
the knowledge and the mind like you. Though your children was not aware of that
influence, but over time, the influence becomes more and more powerful. Master
Quy Son had reminded us to choose wisely and to be close to Saints and other
genuinely good human beings, to refuge and to learn from. This is extremely
important.
There are two types of good people and two types of bad people.
About good people: the first type is a good person, but who is not strong
enough, therefore, he/she could easily be influenced and impacted by other bad
people. The second type is quite different to the first one. Their mind is stronger
and more stable. Therefore, this type of good people is not afraid of being close to
other bad people. Not only they are not influenced by these bad guys, but also they
could influence and change these bad people to become better, and gradually
become good people. This is what we need. We must try to become this type of
good person.
Those great people, who are not influenced by the bad and in fact transform
the others into good human being, are truly the Master of others. Why should they
be the Master of everyone else? Because first and foremost they can control
themselves. If they become a monk, they would become a Saint Monk. If they do
not become a monk, they would become a great Buddhist who can provide the
shelter for their fellows. The 2nd type of good people are quite rare in real life.
Most of us are also good people, but our greatness is not yet strong and could not
be permanent because if we were close to a bad person, we could also become one.
If we were close to someone who was selfish and greedy, we could be influenced
easily and became exactly like them. We would always think that everyone is
always worried about themselves, therefore, if we do not take care of ourselves,
we would lose. Because of that thinking, we would always be selfish and we
would only care about ourselves. That was the bad influence on us.
What did Buddha teach us?
Living amongst those who are full of hatred,
but we do not hate anyone;
7

Living amongst those who are always angry,

But we are not angry with anyone.
To have that personality and possess that great qualities, we must be an
outstanding human being who could become the Master. Those, who could live
amongst evils, but are not influenced at all, and still keep their compassion, could
be the Master for all others to rely on.
Even with monks, when they live in a strict religious environment i.e. within
a temple, they could learn from each other. However, sometimes, they do need to
live separately in different environments, and that is when their ethics are
challenged. Ethics of a religious person really is challenged when they live alone,
away from the other monks. Would they still be able to maintain their ethical
standard? Would they still be able to cultivate properly? Or they would ignore all
the religious rules and live the way they like it. For these types of monks, their
ethics are not strong. Their cultivation journey would be very difficult. On the
contrary, those, who could maintain their cultivation practice, would become a true
Master, as they could control and manage themselves appropriately. They are not
easily influenced by any evil factors.
Talking about being good, we must know that it is not permanent; it is
actually very fragile. If we do not strengthen it regularly, practice more, do more
good things, we would gradually lose these great qualities and become bad people.
If we were close to bad people, the result would be even worse. There are groups,
whose members are very good, because they influence each other to be good, to be
better. But there are groups whose members are very competitive and aggressive
..., because they influence each other badly.
Now that we know that there are two types of good person: one can be
easily be influenced and changed by the bad things; the other type is a stronger,
stable and could not be impacted by any bad things. Those are the true Masters.
Let us all assess ourselves Which type of person are we?
There are also two types of bad people. The first type is someone, who was
bad at first, but then could be changed into a good person. There are people, who
did not understand about the religion at first, but eventually become better after
going to temples, meeting good people and start realizing their mistakes. For
example, when someone came to a temple and at first he/she did not pay attention
to anyone else during meal time. When he saw others take care of each other, he
8

realized how rude he was with everyone; he regretted of his action. He then
changed to become a better person, who was caring, forgiving and compassionate
to others. These people are not completely bad, as they could be influenced and be
better.
The second type is the worst and the evil type. They never change and they
spread bad things to others. Even a good person, who is close to them for a long
time can be impacted. These types of people often exist in gang or currently in
Hell.
How about us? Maybe, we think we are not so bad because we are trying
our best to practise the Dharma. But, though we are not bad, we could be
influenced by bad things, because we are not as good as a Saint. Therefore, do not
think that we will always be a good person. We can be influenced by bad things
when exposed. And vice versa. Therefore, we should assess ourselves as We are
good people, but do not feel insecure and unconfident that we are not good
enough.
We must listen to Zen Master Quy Son's advice. We must choose a good
person to be close to, so that we could learn good things from them. However, be
aware that we will encounter many obstacles along the way.
Firstly, we often like to be close to whom we have past karma with. We
often do not like those who does not have any past karma with us. Its karma law.
For example, we heard from others that there was a good monk in a pagoda, and
we went to meet him. Because we and that monk did not have good karma from
the past, after the first meeting, we did not like to see him again. This is actually
quite common. But what is really the reason? Because the monk and us did not
have any past karma at all. In the past, he had not help us with anything, therefore,
when we met, there was nothing to tie us together. We could not be close to him,
even though he was a really good monk. This is a difficulty and an obstacle that
prevents us from being close to good people. We often are influenced by past
karma, and do not follow our own rationale thinking.
At this very moment, you are listening to our lecture. There would be some
people who are not really fond of us. This is again because of karma. Between us
and those people, there was no past karma to connect us together. So, they would
think our lecture is boring. But those who had good karma with us would think our
lecture is very useful. Past karma always influence our feelings.
9

However, if we always follow the karma, and our destination, we would not
able to change our fate. To change the karma, we must follow our ancestors
teachings (Tos teachings) i.e. listening to good peoples advices and do not get
influenced by karma. What does this mean? For example, we had good karma with
a lot of people, who became our friend. But they liked drinking. Because they
were our friend, we often hung out with them. When someone advised us to go to
a temple to listen to Buddhas teaching, we used excuses to avoid having to go. By
doing that, we could not change our fate. Our life continued to be close with
drinking friends.
What does changing fate mean? We must use our willpower to consider
and decide everything. In the example above, because of the past karma between
us and our drinking friend, we liked to go out with them. But because we listened
to others advice, we stopped hanging out with them, and went to the temple to
learn about Buddhas teaching instead. That is called changing fate. What we
did was in accordance with Zen Master Quy Son's advice. Though it is just a
beginning. We must our use our willpower to decide everything in life. If we let
personal feelings and preferences control us, we would always live a life, which
was just the same as our past life.
What really is past karma? One person asked us: "Dear Master, I want to get
married as I am really in love with this girl. However, after listening to your
seminar, I am now in two minds about marriage. I dont know what to do. Please
give me one advice." We replied: "It is simple, let ask the monks "Why did you
leave your love ones to live a religious life?"
Please remember when we decide anything based on our feelings and
emotions, which is controlled by karma. If our decisions are in accordance with
Buddhas Dharma, it means we are following the logical and rational path.
Therefore, with the story mentioned above, the fact that the person even thought
about becoming a monk instead of getting married, that was the sign of wanting to
change his fate. After deciding to follow Buddhism path, the person vowed: "Life
is impermanent, all feelings of love are fragile, and nothing is lasting forever. I
now vow to follow Buddhas path. Remember, anywhere you are, my heart always
wish you to go towards the path of Buddhism."
We have told a story about a beautiful courtesan in Phap Cu Dharma. When
she met Buddha, she was enlightened and became the first level Saint. Then, she
vowed to offer food for five monks. Until one day, one monk felt in love with her
10

and got really love sick. When she died, Buddha composed a poem which was
about the fact that beauty was nothing.
We had just discussed that poem in one of the seminars, a person
complained to us: love is too fragile, she promised to love me, but now she no
longer loves me. We advised him: "That is quite right. Nothing in this life is longlasting. That is the truth. Only a religious life is sustainable. So, we must use
willpower to follow Buddhism to change our past karma. If we always follow our
feelings and emotions, we would let it control ourselves, we would never be able
to change our past karma". In this life, there are people, whom we have good
feelings with. They may be the ones whom we had good past karma with.
Therefore, we should not always follow our emotion, we must use willpower to
choose good person to take refuge and rely on. That's the first obstacle.
The second obstacle is that we do not always know who is a good person.
Many people are very good at first, but later they turn out to be very bad. So, if we
always have doubts about others, how could we ever find a good person to learn
from and to be close with? In fact, it is very difficult and challenging to find a
really good person. We must pray that Buddha helps us find a good person so we
can rely on and learn from. Buddha will bless us and guide us to find the right one
rather than totally rely on our limited knowledge.
And even when we know a good Master, a good group of people, it is still a
challenge to make acquaintance with them. For example, the Master did not pay
much attention to us, members of the group did not give us an opportunity to share
our stories and be close to them. It is probably because we were not meant to be
with this group. Then it would be the time we must be directive and take control of
the situation i.e we must take action to change our fate. We should participate in
all activities which are taken place within the temple. The more we do, the more
we can be close to the Master and learn from Him. Eventually, the connection with
the Master would be stronger.
Similarly, with this group of people, we should participate in any activities,
which they organise. The more we do, the more we are close to them. Again, we
build a stronger connection with them. Good people would never be always
available for us all to meet. It is important and essential that we try our best to find
good people, to be close to them, even when they do not have any past karma with
us. What we did is just to follow Tos advices. All of this is like walk in the fog,
11

though we do not get soak, but over time we would feel and absorb the coldness
and the wet.
What should we learn from good people? We need to learn how to live
properly, learn how to speak, behave properly and how they run their work every
day. We need to pay attention to how they treat everyone else. For example, we
see a monk, who share his meal with others, we know that is a selfless person who
always care for others first and worry about himself later. Then, we should think
how we could apply the same thing in our life. It could be simple as: should we
choose a good seat when going to a seminar? Or should we get the reward, or
should the others deserve it better. We must always consider, and assess if we care
for others at all, or we just care and take everything good to ourselves.
The key is that we must want to change, and we must want to learn. Those,
who do not want to learn, would never be able to see these valuable lessons and
learn from them. These people would see good gesture as silly actions. These
people would never be able to become good people. Therefore, we must learn how
to behave, how to live properly from our teachers, our Masters and friends.
For example, during a meal, we spilled a cup of soup onto someone else by
accident. We were waiting for an angry face but instead the other person just
smiled and even apologized that they did not see the path properly, they accepted
their mistake. Their attitude made us think for a long time. They showed their
forgiveness and ethics just in a very small action.
We need to assess ourselves to confirm if we have any good qualities or not.
Good behaviours from others are good lessons for us to perfect ourselves, it is
better than reading many good books. However, in order to realize this, we must
accept that we are not good enough yet and we want to continue learning and
perfecting ourselves. If we thought that these good actions are in fact stupid, we
would never be able to learn and improve ourselves. When we want to learn, we
would be able to see the greatness in even a small action; and by learning these
small things day by day, over time, we would be able to improve and perfect
ourselves.
Or there was a person, who was arranging a beautiful vase of flowers. She
called for our help. When the Master walked by and asked: "Who made this
beautiful vase of flowers?" She laughed and said: "Its her work, Master" The
Master nodded and praised. Witnessing this, we realised the other person did not
12

take the glory, but passed on to us. We must consider this gesture. We must admire
this gesture. These people will be reborn in good realm where there would always
be compassion and forgiveness. If we remained competitive, even just a little
thing, we would never be able to reborn in a good realm.
When we are close to good people, the more we learn from them the better
we will becomes. This is such a wonderful thing. But, the greatest thing is that we
can learn many things from a Saint Monk for our whole life but it would never be
enough. If someone yelled at our master, but he only clasped his hands, bowed his
head, smiled and did not say anything back, we would never be able to understand
why. It would take many lives of cultivation, and practice of the Dharma to
understand his actions and his silence in this example.
Please do not think that we would completely understand a Saint. They
possess great qualities that we would never be able to understand. We are just dust
and sand in this earth. It is like when we look at a mountain, though we could see
the top, but we would never know what is on top of the mountain. When we learn
from a Saint, even just a little bit, we must not be proud and arrogant about the
achievement. When someone asked you: "Who is your Master?" And we
responded: "I am a disciple of Venerable ..." - "Oh! You must be great." Actually
it is not true. Why? Again, it is because we would never be able to learn
everything from the Master, as he already possesses holy qualities. We could only
learn as much as we can from our Master, but would never be able to completely
understand Him and be like Him.
In Buddhism, mediation is a great example. If we are in an environment
where our teacher and brothers meditate regularly than we are fated to have great
blessings. When we see people sitting in silent mediation, with peaceful minds,
we are naturally motivated to meditate. As our mind begins to clear and be at
peace, our state of mind shifts to a different state. A person who meditates is very
different in comparison with someone who does not meditate
There are three steps to studying Buddhism:

The first step is to understand the Buddhist doctrines

The second step is the application of the Buddhist doctrines in

life

The third step is to achieve a peaceful mind through

meditation.
13

To understand the Buddhist doctrines is truly difficult. Through many life

times, even hundreds of life times, we can come to understand only little by little.
The application of the doctrines in life is also very difficult. The teacher has
taught us: Do not become angry, if someone abuses you, you should ignore
them. The meaning is simple to understand. But when we are confronted with
such scenarios, our immediate reaction is to be angry. As such, although the
meanings of the doctrines can be quickly understood, it is the application of the
doctrines that is easily forgotten and challenging. So, between understanding and
the application of the Buddhist doctrines the two are still very far apart. The
Buddhist doctrines may be of little difficulty to understand, but it is the application
of the Buddhist doctrines in life that will be a thousand times harder. Therefore, if
we are able to apply the Buddhist doctrines in our everyday lives, our accumulated
blessings become greater.
When we begin to understand the Buddhist doctrines, our good will is still
very small. To understand the Buddhist doctrines, to be able to study the Buddhist
doctrines is a blessing. That is why, after we receive Buddhas teachings, we often
say: I pray this good will, is shared amongst all living beings, to fulfil Buddhas
teachings. If we do not have good will, than how will we be able to share to
others? By listening to the prayers wholeheartedly the more blessings will be
received. Why is that? Because in order to preach Buddhas doctrines well, many
criterions need to be met:

It is dependent on Buddhas blessings onto us. Not just anyone

can preach the Buddhist doctrines;

It is thanks to the Masters many years of teachings;

It is thanks to all the Masters who have written detailed books

for us to read, study and practise;

It is thanks to the many brothers who guide, support, and

remind us to practice Buddhas teachings.

It is thanks to the listeners utmost attention. When the

listeners are tentative the preacher will be energised to deliver more
engaging verses. If the listeners are distracted or fidgety than the preacher
will lose the strength behind their words.
It is important to remember that when we listen to the Master preaching
about the Buddhist doctrines, we must always listen wholeheartedly and
attentively. The ability to listen to these doctrines is only one part, it is the
14

application of the Buddhist doctrines in our everyday lives that will contribute to
our blessings by a thousand times.
We should dedicate every second, every minute of our life to reflect on
ourselves. We should think about whether we have lived according to Buddhas
doctrine or not. Reflecting on our words and behaviours to ensure we have lived
according to Buddhas doctrine. Every minute, every second should be compared
against Buddhas doctrine to self-regulate and change to align with those
principles. If we can do this, we will have boundless blessings.
However, despite having boundless blessings, if we cannot practise
meditation, we have not really a genuine Buddhist. To be able to meditate and
cleanse our mind of impurities, is to be able to follow Buddha. If you are unable
to achieve this, it means you are uncertain where you will end up. I repeat: There
are three steps to studying Buddhism; understand the Buddhist doctrines;
application of the Buddhist doctrines in life; and achieve a peaceful mind through
meditation. Lets remember this carefully.
If we are able to come across these examples of meditation in our life time,
we have been very blessed. For example, when we attend temple, hearing
everyone chanting prayers creates an atmosphere of inner warmth, happiness, and
our faith increases. That is why we must practise meditation. When we attend a
temple, chanting prayers and application of the Buddhist doctrines is the
foundation to living a moral life, but we must practise meditation as well. There is
no other way. When we have achieved the inner peace through meditation, when
we leave our physical body, we will be reborn in holy realms. In this place,
everyones minds are so pure that their influence on each other is very strong.
Living in the Holy realms, we are able to improve and progress quickly until we
attain the highest level of enlightenment.
Conversely, a person who lives sinfully will be reborn in hell or as hungryghosts. All beings born into this world are greedy, with little morals. The
interactions they have with each other increases the severity, making it very
difficult to escape; and in a way, it is similar to living in a prison. In other words,
if there are one thousand people in the prison, there may be twenty to thirty people
who have been sentenced unfairly, which means the remaining people are true
sinners who have very impure minds. Those impure minds influence each other in
their words and interactions with each other, creating deeper sins. That is why,
prisoners in jail often find it difficult to reform because they are influenced by so
many like-minded criminals.
15

For this reason, every country in the world must have a new education
policy which must be more sophisticated, more powerful to ensure that the
prisoners are not affected by each other's negative mentalities. This will lift their
spirits and help them be better when they leave prison. This is a very challenging
thing to do, and requires lots of time but it is essential for todays society. We hope
that every nation in the world will care about this. However, uniting for a good
cause is different to building relationships for personal gains.
What does it mean to build relationships for personal gains? When we
attend a temple, we see people whom we perceive as good, so we befriend them.
But when we befriend them to form a gang with the purpose to protect each
others selfish objectives or to benefit only each other, then that is not making
friends to learn good virtues. This action will create division amongst the
community. Therefore, we must only be to close to be good friends, and do not let
it become a trigger causing division within the community. However, human
feelings are very complicated. We want to be close to good people, then over time,
we want to build up power to protect our own benefits. We must understand To's
teachings clearly to not to make mistakes in our cultivation path.
In the family, parents need to teach children how to exercise good judgment
when making friends. As parents, we should know who our children are friends
with in our absence, who their peers are at school, and not just the children who
come over to play. We should get to know our childrens friends because being
close to good people is like walking in the fog. Of course, in this modern day and
age, with internet technology it is difficult for parents to keep track of everyone,
whom our children are befriending.
That is why, as parents, we need to have some awareness of technology to
manage how our children use it. We love them but we must be strict to teach them.
We dont need to make them fear us and avoid us, or spoil them. Being
strict but loving, will help them stay away from bad friends.
Back to the story of To Quy Son. He's a disciple of To Ba Truong, who was
a famous Zen master with the following saying: If you do nothing in a day, then
eat nothing in that day. Do nothing in this saying does not mean not go
working. The saying actually means, if we do nothing to serve our community for
that day, the food we eat on that day is a debt.

16

At first, Mr Linh Huu, with a pure mind, followed his teacher. One night, he
lit a fire for his teacher heating. They sat together and said nothing because their
mind was very pure, there was nothing much to say. When the fire began to go
out, his teacher asked, "Can you see if there is still a flame?" Mr Linh Huu
answered, "Dear Master, the fire is out". His teacher looked through the embers
took out a stick of coal and said, You said there was no flame, then what is this?".
Immediately at that time, Mr Linh Huu became enlightened. Enlightenment is
when our mind reaches a different state of change. Enlightenment cannot be
explained and can only be understood when we are enlightened.
Once reaching enlightenment, Mr Linh Huu became very reputable with the
masses. One day, a feng shui master came to visit To Ba Truong and said:
- I go to many places, and I see that Quy Son mountain is a very beautiful
place. If there is a temple or pagoda there, it will attract 1500 followers.
To Ba Truong asked him: "You see if I can go there or not?"
The Feng shui master replied, "No, that mountain is the mountain of meat,
You're a person of bones. If you go there, you cannot attract more than 500
followers".
- So, can you advise, who, from my disciples, would be able to achieve this?
After looking at everybody, he said Mr Linh Huu was suitable to go to Quy
Son mountain.
To Ba Truong let Mr Linh Huu reside at Quy Son mountain to build a
temple with no monetary possessions. Quy Son mountain was only a forest at that
time. Mr Linh Huu made a tent and ate fruit to live. One day, he met a tiger on his
way, then he said: If I am destined to open ashrams and teach Buddha's doctrines
here, then go away, do not to live here anymore. But if you dont think I cant do
that, then eat me now. Then he continued walking towards the tiger without any
hesitation, but it ran away.
After that, woodcutters who frequented the forest to collect wood did not
encounter those wild animals (tigers, leopards, foxes, bears,...) any more. So, they
went further up the mountain and met a respectful monk. They came to greet and
asked about Buddhas doctrines. Mr Linh Huu told them about Buddhism, and
they wholeheartedly accepted his words. This event spread very quickly and far,
17

many people came to meet him and built a temple for him. It was not long before
he had gathered 1500 disciples, and the Quy Nguong sect was established. Mr Quy
Son had a very good disciple who was Mr Nguong Son. Thus, the two names
combined formed the Quy Nguong sect that was one of the largest sects in China,
which has all but disappeared in modern times.
Mr Quy Son was not only enlightened but he was also gifted with words. He
has written books "Quy Son Canh Sach" for monks to encourage them try their
best to live a good religious life. Life is impermanent. If anyone, who left their
family to follow Buddhas path, but would not try to live a good religious life, they
would have committed really bad sins. Besides, the monks must be grateful to
Three Jewels, To and Buddhists. Those words are very touching. Many monks
shed tears when reading the book and tried hard to practise. Therefore, To Quy
Son merit is immeasurable.
One of the things he wanted to remind us is "being close to good people is
like walking in the fog". So, society should try to increase the number of good
people to protect good things. If there are more and more bad people, bad things
will definitely increase.
So, who is responsible to increase the number of good people in society?
It is the responsibility of all government leaders of a country. The
government must outlines the strategies and tactics to build and develop further
ethics in society. This must focus on many aspects of the society e.g. what is the
way to teach ethics at school? what is the way to build a best cultural
neighborhood? how must people apply moral example of Uncle Ho Chi Minh to
their life? how does the National Army Force support religions to teach morality to
believers? ... The national leader must always find a way to improve, promote and
protect good things in society.
It is the responsibility of all parents. Parents must teach their children to be
better.
It is the responsibility of all monks and nuns. Monks and nuns must help all
believers to perfect their moral.
It is the responsibility of all Buddhists. All Buddhists must try to perfect
themselves, remind others to be better to increase good things in this life. All of us
must prevent bad things from spreading further. Because when bad things
18

increase, good things will not exist, and the world would become a place of
darkness and sufferings.
In fact, many good people with good conscience around the world are trying
to increase good things in life. But, there are websites, which contain bad content
all over the internet, are destroying the younger generation. We cannot control
this. While we are trying to build good things in the community, these websites are
trying to do the opposite. So, the battle on the internet is a new frontier that we
must be very careful today. It is an alarming time. We must understand the virtual
world on the internet in order to protect our children.
Another thing is that we must fight back the spread of the evil. The spread
will appear on two aspects: the first is public opinion, and the second is whispering
amongst everybody. The spread on public opinion can easily influence our
children. We must be aware of this to teach our children what is right and what is
wrong.
We also need to be aware of those, who use a more subtle way to spread bad
things such as whispering from one to another. Remember that only when we are
close to a good person, and only when we are really strong in our belief in good
things, we then have enough strength and power to influence bad people. Do not
try to influence bad people before we achieve that level of greatness. Everybody
must try the best to become a great person.
In the past, we often thought that we were not good enough, but also not bad
either. We now must understand that we must practise to the level when we can
spread further our greatness and we would not be impacted by bad things.
Whoever is close to us, would be influenced and become better. By doing this, we
are the real gems, which bring good things to this life. When we leave this world,
we certainly will be reborn in holy realms.
We have to understand one more thing: Maybe we cannot learn all good
virtues all at once, however, by being close to good people, their invisible
greatness will go into our sub-consciousness and our mind will be better gradually.
This is very invaluable. Again, we must look for good people and be close to them.
Grateful for the great merit of our ancestors,
So we could be immersed in the sea of ethics.
Though this realm is dark and chaos,
19

Moral doctrines help sorrows disappear.

As fog covers everywhere,
Despite not being wet but will absorb.
Looking for a holy person,
To learn from them and become perfect.

Namo Shakyamuni Buddha.

20

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO BENEFIT

FROM ALL OUR BLESSINGS

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

It is not possible to benefit from all our blessingsThis statement has been passed down from our Patriarchs, Highly
Honored Monks to the present generation. Today, we will thoroughly
disseminate this statement to ascertain its meaning. Once we gain
understanding of this statement, we will be able to avoid many mistakes in
our life and our application/practice will be more seamless.
What is blessing that it can determine our fate? Why is this person kind
and gentle but poor and suffering? Why is that person cruel but wealthy?
In reality there are many ironies. There are some people who can be hot
tempered and brash but at the same time are so generous and caring. These
people, in their next life, will remain hot tempered and brash but wealthy.
On the contrary, those who are nice but rarely do charity or perform good
deeds will remain poor. They neither harm nor help anybody.
Therefore, it is quite complicated and difficult to use blessing to
measure a person. Only if you were enlightened, and you could see people's
true nature and karma throughout their past lives, you will find that blessing
influences on people's karma in an extremely mysterious way. Let's take a
look at Major-General Le Ma Luong example - Hero of the Vietnamese
Peoples Army who has just become a Buddhist today who talks about his
fierce battles, among which there was one battle where all but 17 soldiers
from a platoon of 150 remained alive. Even when a grenade exploded right in
front of him but did not kill him, he still managed to survive with just one
eye and shrapnel scars on his body; he did not understand why it could be
so. It is believed that people like Major-General Le, are people of great fate.
People of great fate are those who, in their previous lives, regularly ate
vegetarian, avoided taking life and helped others. That is why in this
lifetime, they are blessed with great fate. They are able to walk in the path
of danger and remain unharmed. Over the past few days Luong has stayed in
the temple , eating vegetarian food. We have advised him to try practising
eating vegetables because he is getting old. He has promised to try when he
returns home. This means he has not eaten vegetarian previously. However,
it is almost certain that a person of great fate such as he must have been a
vegetarian in his previous life. This is a truth.

Therefore as Buddhist practitioners if we often eat vegetarian food, in

our next life we will not die in vain full of regrets. It is difficult to rationalise
this because the answer lies within our past lives. It is often said in war that
it is the bomb shrapnel that avoids us but we cannot avoid it. This is entirely
based on the good deeds of our past life.
In fact, a person's fate is determined by the amount of blessings/good
deeds accumulated from their past lives, and in battle it is the person who
has more accumulated blessings who will always be the victor. We need to
understand that the law of karma is a totally different concept from what is
just and unjust. In our present life, our winnings and achievements are
dependent on the blessings we inherited from our past lives; similarly the
blessings and good deeds we accumulate in our present lifetime will dictate
our blessings for our future.
Our Patriarch in his teachings of: It is not possible to enjoy all our
blessings, explains everyone living has inherited some blessings from their
previous life. Some inherit more blessing than others that is why there are
people who are very wealthy, healthy, and physically attractive as opposed to
those who are less fortunate (e.g. sickly, poor, deformed etc).
In saying this, some would question "how do we know how much or little
blessings has been accumulated?
The key answer to this mysterious question is to assess whether we
currently lack or are in excess of blessing/good fortune. For example, if you
want to buy a motorbike at the price of twenty million dong and at that time
you have one hundred million dong available, we can safely assume that you
can afford the motorbike without any concern. This indicates your fortune is
in excess.
However, if you only had ten million dong at the time but you are
confident that you can buy it, then by some means you are able to raise the
funds to buy the motorbike, this also means that you have excess
blessing/good fortune.
Another example is someone who is wanting to build a house costing
more than a billion dong but they have only saved just three hundred
million dong. Through their certainty and confidence in the project they

commence construction, and find that at each phase of construction funds

become available or circumstances will turn in their favor in order to
complete construction without delay/issues.
The meaning behind these examples lie within our spiritual and self
belief that it is meant to be, therefore we will have a sense of peaceful
calmness and confidence to proceed although we may not have the means to
initially. This strong internal self-assurance is a clear indicator that you have
adequate blessings.
When there are instances when you want to do something but feel
worried, unease and have to rely on somebody else to do it, you should cease
that plan because your internal spiritual self is telling you that your blessings
or good fortune is insufficient. If you persist to go ahead, it is most likely to
fail. So when you feel that you dont have enough blessing or good fortune to
move forward consider looking for another way, stop or pause to rethink,
and reconsider your goals to avoid wasting your blessings. This will be a
safer option.
In addition, when you are being praised or recognized by others, you
will naturally feel happy but as long as you remain modest about it, then this
is fine. However, if a feeling of self-importance emerges, your blessing will
near its limit. It is important to always remember that when we achieve
something but feel arrogant about it, it means your blessing or good fortune
has reached its limit, which means you will descend down the path of
failure.
Using another example from Major-General Le, who has delivered
thousands of speeches about his military career and has had many
newspaper articles and songs written praising him. One could question
whether his blessings has run out? In truth, when asked, he does not know
but when I was sitting in front of him, looking into his eyes, I did not see any
indication of arrogance and I knew that his blessing was still strong.
Whenever he mentioned his comrades, he would cry inconsolably often
losing his voice. This showed that his heart was full of compassion, love and
lacking self importance. This is a clear indicator that his blessing and good
fortune is abundant.

Similarly, let assume that you are very wealthy, wherever you go people
admired and respect you. This makes you happy and is not considered
dangerous but if a haughty pride emerges in your mind, be prepared for
your blessings to disappear. Our Masters can see through this easily while
ordinary people like us cannot; but the instincts in our spiritual mind and
self can help guide us to recognize the availability of our blessings as well as
the danger of haughtiness.
The story of National Adviser Ngo Dat is an excellent example of the
dangers of a haughty and arrogant mind. He was a genuine monk. When he
was an apprentice monk, he was able preach so charismatically that even the
elderly monks held him in high regard. He was a person of extraordinary
wisdom. When he grew up, the King invited him to the capital and honored
him as National Adviser Teacher to the King. He was revered and
respected by the whole kingdom. This denotes that his blessings was in
immense abundance.
As a gift the King made a flat wooden bed of special sandalwood for him.
The bed produced a pervasive scent in his room. One day, when sitting on
that bed, a feeling of pride arose in his mind and later, he felt seriously sick.
This story is mentioned in the Tu Bi Thuy Sam book and has regularly
been told by elder monks to remind their students about the danger of a
haughty mind.
Therefore, when we are gifted with a privilege we must be careful to
remain modest, otherwise, that privilege will eventually be lost. For
example, a Buddhist practitioner committed to perform Buddhist
responsibilities. He made great efforts in fundraising as well as offered a lot
of money and food to the temple. He created a strong impression on others.
But later he became too proud and thought that he was the most efficient
follower; the temple would not be able to achieve so much without him.
Later a chain of events occurred that made him leave the temple, which
meant that he could not continue to be a devoted Buddhist there anymore.
This symbolised his blessings had expired.
In summary, for those people rich in blessings, everything favorable comes
effortlessly. For those lacking in blessings, we should be much more modest.
If we knowingly abuse our limited blessings than we must be prepared for

bad karma. The ordinary person often commits this sin. These sinful
circumstances often occur when we have to play dirty tricks to acquire our
goal or we have to compete or fight over others to obtain what we want.
In life, there are so many things for us to fight for: money, power, honor,
love, etc. For example, in a family dispute over a deceases estate, relatives
will often play tricks, or persuade others with sweet words and provide big
promises in order to gain the assets. These examples are demonstrations of
intentional greed and abuse of ones blessings. The people mentioned above
will have severe karma to repay because their actions have influenced
outcomes which were not achieved through their good deeds or blessings.
In the above, we have discussed examples of exceeding ones blessings
intentionally, but what about instances of when one exceeds ones blessings
unintentionally? The following example aims to help us understand these
instances. There is an apprentice monk who serves his teacher very
diligently. His teacher is a Honoured Monk, so wherever he goes, he is
warmly welcomed and respected. Being his travel companion and
apprentice, the monk benefits from his teachers blessings: eating the same
food, traveling in the same care. Therefore, the monk is said to be
unintentionally benefiting from unearned blessings.
In the event the monk comes to realise that he is unintentionally
benefiting from unearned blessings, he must committed himself to the
teachings of Buddha, practise living the teachings of Buddha, serve his
teacher more diligently, and appreciate all those around him in order to
compensate for the blessings that he has benefited unintentionally. If he
relies on his relationship with his teacher to feel self-important, arrogant
and starts to look down upon others than he will quickly lose his blessings
and will not be success in his Buddhism practice.
Alternatively, a descendant of the royal family, who often boasts about
their lineage to everyone they meet, has actually already benefited from all
their blessings. But he was still trying to live on the merits of their former
social standings. This is called living on past glory. As a result, because
they have utilised both inherited blessings and benefited from unearned
blessings, their children will live in poverty to re-balance the karma.
For that reason, Honorable Monks often teach us to never overuse our
blessings but always consider ourselves inferior to others and joyfully help

others to maintain our blessings longer. If we have an origin of royalty, we

should live simply and modestly. Should someone ask us about that origin,
we should reply that things were long time ago, and now we are just
commoners trying to live usefully and do good deeds. By doing this, we
avoid the sin of relying on our lineage to over benefit on blessings.
We have many kinds of blessing, among them is the blessing of blood
line or family. Why does that blood line often produce talented descendants
while their ancestors were of ordinary status? For example, their ancestors
were just farmers, who then became businessman, who became landlords
and then their next of kin became powerful. Let review the case of King Le
Thai To: his father was just a landlord but he came to be a king - King Le
Thai To. In this example, his blood line accumulated many blessings and
good fortunes for their next of kin to prosper for many generations. The Ly
Dynasty was foretold they would rule for only 8 generations.
Therefore, inherited blessings from our ancestors are predestined to be
up and down within a certain period. Why is this so? The explanation
depends on whether our ancestors lived moral and ethical lives, that will
bear them children with great virtue. But how do we live morally and
ethically?
First, you must have a pure intent, meaning you live to be kind and
humane. They think about achieving great things for the betterment of
mankind and do not think of their individual needs. Most importantly, when
attending a temple, they never pray for their individual benefit instead they
pray for all of humanity. These people have great virtue and often deities
will reincarnate into the family blood line because they can read the pure
intent of these people.
The important point here is the intent. Anyone with selfless intent, will
have children or grandchildren who will be significantly successful. For this
reason anyone wanting their next of kin to succeed and be outstanding
characters, must live morally and ethically virtuous lives. Remember when
praying, you should pray for the world, for our nation, for humanity and not
for ourselves.
Also, value every life, be modest, live in harmony with others. If you are
able to live following these guidelines, deities will choose to be reincarnated

into your blood line. Alternatively, you could be reborn in to another family
and bring about glory to that family.
But how many generations will deities be born in to the family? This all
depends on how much or how little virtue you have. If you have great virtue,
gods will be born and reborn in to your family for ten, twenty or even thirty
generations. These families will produce eminent heroes who perform
extraordinary things. If their blessings are modest, their family will succeed
for approximately three generations and then go down.
The amount or strength of our blessings are dependent on our
application and practise of Buddhas teachings to truly improve ourselves,
thoroughly believe, eliminate selfishness, greed, anger and ignorance; open
ourselves to love and compassion for all people and other living creatures.
The more compassionate we become the more virtue we accumulate, which
will in turn benefit our next of kin for many generations. Buddha taught us
to open our heart to love all beings. Therefore, we should pray earnestly to
be able to fulfill this compassion whenever we kneel down in front of
Buddha.
Every time we meditate to achieve peace in our minds, we should
imagine our compassion is covering all beings. If we can do that, we will
accomplish great virtue for ourselves. This virtuous charisma will be
bountiful and our descendants will benefit from many great achievements in
their lifetime.
What about those monks who achieve great morality and virtue but
have no children? They will have talented followers and their doctrines will
definitely be succeeded and developed. However, only very genuine
practitioners and believers of Buddhas teachings will accumulate virtue.
Superficial or false practices, and pretending that you are genuine will be
unsuccessful in accumulating blessings. For example, if a person often visits
temples but his mind is still full of selfishness, dishonesty and he pretends to
be gentle and virtuous with a hope that other people respect her. Such
person will not have morality.
Continuing on, let us discuss the blessings of the nation. What does it
mean to create blessing for a nation of people?
There are two ways this can be done. Firstly, it is dependent on the
virtue of the nations ancestors. Secondly, it is dependent on the blessings of

the present day occupants. We believe that our ancestors, from the King
Duong Vuong, Lac Long Quan, King Hung to many other generations of
heroes etc, lived virtuously and accumulated a great amount of blessings.
However, it is the present day occupants ability to live moral and virtuous
lives that will mandate the blessing of the nation. If each person practices
good deeds or perform charitable acts, then the blessings to its people will
also increase. It is this blessing (not trickery or civil unrest) that will
encourage the nation to become wealthy and prosperous.
Seeing our children live in a rich and prosperous country, we ought to
teach them to perform good deeds, to be compassionate, to love and help
each other, and from a young age to teach our children to practice
conscience in their hearts to become learned behaviour. We must teach
them to rid themselves of selfishness, aggression, envy etc...we can do this
by reminding them daily to not live selfishly, to consider how the impact of
your actions will affect others, to treat your friends equally and fairly. We
ought to repeat this over and over to carve it into their hearts to fight
against selfish tendencies that could have transferred with them from their
previous lives.
If all Vietnamese children are taught this virtuous way of living, they will
all succeed in their adult lives. Which will mean our country Vietnam and all
its children will be prosperous. In contrast, if the children cannot learn to
live a moral and virtuous way of life, than they will fail in their endeavours
and if they fail as individuals the nation as whole will fail.
For this reason, if we want our children to live in prosperity and for our
country to be equal with other countries, to help other developing countries,
and contribute to world peace; we must teach our children very carefully.
We must shape their morals, enable their voice, teach them how to present
themselves, never allow them to lie, to speak in an disrespectful manner. We
must teach them to be courteous, to respect each other, to live decently and
selflessly. It is our responsibility to continuously educate them. If the
Vietnamese people all raise their children to live in this moral and virtuous
way, then thirty years later, these children in their adult lives will succeed
and our nation will be peaceful and prosperous.

We will explore how one should live when they have succeeded and
have been blessed? For example, if we are attractive, earn money effortlessly,
lead a comfortable life etc we can assume that we have been blessed.
The two different personalities are: a good person who knows they have
been blessed will often fear that they will lose their blessings, however a bad
person who knows they have been blessed will over-indulge in their
blessings.
So when a wealthy person enjoys their lives by in a wasteful way, it is
clear that this person is blessed but is a bad person. Alternatively, if we live
a comfortable life but fear we will lose our blessings, than we should actively
perform charity, help other people, live modestly and simplistically. We
should not be wasteful of money, be thankful for every grain of rice we eat,
and be conscious of every drop of water. We too do not use much of
electricity for our nation is short of electricity. We also limit ourselves in
traveling by car or motorbike minding that gasoline pollutes the air. In our
daily hygiene, we do not use a lot of soap or detergent. We would rather our
body or clothes being a little dirty than killing rivers with detergent. If we
leave the rivers around us dirty and smelly keeping our body and clothes
clean and scented , we will be severely guilty.
Why are all of the rivers in large cities filthy? Because the city-dwellers
use too much soap and detergent. They poison the waterways by dumping
tons of detergent into the rivers and drainage system every year. They look
fresh with sparkling hair and velvety clothes but they live on the black and
nasty channels and rivers. The whiter they are, the blacker the rivers
become.
People, who have great blessing, are good natured, and economical
towards themselves but are always willing to help and share their money
with other people. On the other hand, those who are blessed but are illnatured will know how to self indulge. Relying on their money, they use the
resources around them wastefully. These people withhold life from others
and seize all social facilities for themselves. They destroy not only their own
lifetime but also the whole planet.
For these reasons, as Buddhist practitioners we must try to deeply
understand karma. Although we are blessed, we must be frugal, consider our

water sources, the air quality, of the many people around them and poor
homeless people. We must endeavor to live sparingly and where possible,
provide help to others. We accumulate blessings daily but how does this
compare to Bodhisattvas?
The blessing of Bodhisattvas is immense. They are not worried by
material things and are only concerned about extending their blessings. In
our minds, ten years of charitable deeds and good will is sufficient
accumulation of blessings because our knowledge is limited, and our intent
is limited. However, to Bodhisattvas, ten years is insignificant . They pray for
all beings for not just ten years but for ten million lifetimes. Their eternal
good deeds are immeasurable, their wisdom is boundless and their virtue
never-ending.
As mortal beings, with mortal hearts, our limited wisdom allows us to
create the illusion of self-righteousness. Believing that we have performed a
few good deeds we cant help but boast about it to others, this is inadvisable
since Bodhisattvas performs countless good deeds and never talk about it.
Nevertheless, if we are too afraid of losing our blessings, we can
unintentionally become selfish. For example, on the death anniversary of a
mans father, his friend comes with some offerings, but he rejects and says:
Thank you for your kindness but I cannot receive your gifts because I am
afraid that my father will lose his blessing if I accept them. In this situation,
to be afraid of losing one's blessing is selfish because we do not open our
heart to accept loving sentiments from others.
If we are State Officials, people will often try to take advantage of this by
trying to offer bribes, in this instance we ought to reject them. Rejection out
of probity is the right course of action, however in sentimental relationships,
we should accept kindness of others and share it with those around us.
For example, if a Buddhist give offerings but we reject all the offerings
out of anxiety of losing our blessings, how would the Buddhist feel? That is
why all Buddhist offerings will be accepted but for not individual use.
Instead the monks will manage the offerings, and work out carefully how
they will be utilised, or distributed, and we will seek consultation for
important matters.

Many people have come to the temple to help preparing for the holy and
sacred Vesak with the participation of more than ten thousand people
absorbing themselves in warmest atmosphere. Some give rice, vegetables,
others offer blankets to make the ceremony successful. A solemn
ceremony in the fully sacred atmosphere like this will help reinforce and
enhance everyone's spiritual mind. Therefore, we accept your offerings
because we are not afraid of blessing deficiency because all of the offerings
will be presents to all of us and more importantly we dedicate to our Fully
Beloved Buddha.
When we come here with all our heart, contributing towards the
ceremonys success, we do not live for ourselves anymore because if we live
for ourselves, we will preferably stay home. All of us have come here from all
over the country to pack in the midst of mountain full of frost and
mosquitoes, eating meagerly without a bit of facilities because of the fact
that we are all Buddhas devotee, and have the same desire for Enlightment.
Tomorrow, in the Flower-Offering Ceremony, each of us will hold a flower
coming to Buddhas Statue in the main hall and offer the flower with all our
reverence and noblest prayers to our Fully Beloved Buddha.
We do not benefit from all of our blessings, but we should not be
afraid of deficiency. In life, if we live modestly and kindly to others, we
should consider that as happiness; we should not afraid of running out of
blessings, otherwise we can become selfish.
We should be carefully spend money, protect our reputation and
modestly accept compliments from others. We should utilise these
privileges to help others, not for our own benefits. Whatever we do in life,
we should devote towards Supreme Bodhi.
In summary, when we are determined to go on the way to Supreme
Bodhi, always keep in mind how much or little blessing we have, and we are
bound in the cycle of rebirth i.e. past lives and next lives. Sometimes, we are
born in celestial realms to be a Devalaya, thanks to abundant blessings.
However, with little blessing, we have to be reborn in this earthly world and
have to work and fight for fame and wealth. Those who know common sense
will try to create blessings to return to the heavenly world. Those who are
ignorant will generate evil karmas to be reborn as animals or even fall in
Hell without knowing when to come back.

The cycle of rebirth is filled with bitterness and hardship whereas the
Enlightenment is really the most peaceful and tranquil destination for us to
stop wandering forever. Therefore, we have to devote all our heart to the
ideal of Enlightment by all means. We have to initiate Supreme Bodhi mind.
We are not allowed to enjoy the blessings we have, but have to spend all
on mediation. We have to live economically, simply, always treat people
kindly and spend most of our time on meditation. Every day, we sit crosslegged collecting mind, observing the whole body, seeing that this body is
temporary and the breath is coming in and out, gradually our mind will go
into pure tranquility and clear awareness. This ensures that we are going on
the spiritual way leading to Deliverance and Enlightment.
NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA

IT IS STILL NOT ENOUGH

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

According to Vietnamese custom, Tet (Lunar New Year) means happiness

and good luck. During Tet period, people often do meaningful things. We often
visit each other, express our appreciation and compassion for each other. Another
common thing we do is to visit temples, pagodas to pay homage to Buddha and
pray for a better New Year. These two routines are very meaningful to Vietnamese
people. However, there are many Vietnamese people, who do not understand the
true meaning of Tet. They often use the occasion as an excuse to party, gamble
and enjoy themselves. After Tet finishes, they return to work and other ordinary
routines. They often think that is enough to enjoy life.
It is still not enough! is a statement to remind us every day that whenever
we do something for others; or we rush to complete any work, and often think that
should be enough then it is the wrong thinking. It is really still not enough. It
means we are not wise. People who are intelligent would never feel enough with
what they have done, and achieved.
Often when we achieve a few things in life, we would feel satisfied and
think that it should be enough. Whenever we feel satisfied and over confident
about our achievement, we would start losing our blessings, we would start going
backwards in life. That is karma, the law of cause and effect that governs all
beings. Only Gods and Saints, who completely comprehend Buddhism, and
diligently practice the Dharma, are not influenced by ego, and being selfless in
order to be successful in their practice to achieve enlightenment.
Normally we would go to a temple once a month. However, when someone
asks about our religion, we would firmly say that: We are true Buddhists. How
can we be true Buddhists when we only go to a temple once a month? Having such
thought means we are very unwise. We mistakenly think that visiting a temple
once a month is enough to be a true Buddhist. There are many people have similar
thinking or perception that they do not need to follow any region, as long as they
do good deeds.
Well, is this enough to be a good person if we neither harm anyone, nor
break any law, and sometimes help who are in need? Thats not enough at all. We
would still continue doing bad things and commit sins by our bad thoughts and our
greed, ignorance, and eventually would destroy all our merits and blessings. Our
ego, the thought of thats good enough prevents us from improving ourselves,
and being better.
In reality, there are lots of people, who understand well some of Buddhist
doctrines, but think that they are so good and really feel satisfied with themselves.
That is a big mistake. Only when you become an Arhant, then you can completely
eliminate ego and the self. Being an Anagami is still not powerful enough to
2

eliminate ego, because of thousands of past lives and past sins. Buddha always had
reminded everyone to get rid of self-satisfaction and ego to improve self. When
Buddha criticized an Anagami about this problem, he had to leave the human
world to live in other world within 7 levels of heaven; it took a few thousand years
before he could achieve the Arhanthood. It was just because of ego, and selfsatisfaction. Again Buddha had always reminded us not to be self-satisfied with
our achievement.

During Tet holiday, visiting temples to pay homage to Buddha, to learn the
Dharma and to pray is always a good thing. However, do not think that is enough,
and no further good deed is needed. This thinking is a mistake. Learning about the
Dharma is to help us improve ourselves, we must also practice diligently and do
more and more good deeds throughout the year; and do not to think that it is
enough.
Once an Abbot, who is from the West of Vietnam, asked me: Dear Master,
I have just became an Abbot for this temple and I know that in Buddhism, we do
not pray to the stars to minimize bad luck, and increase good luck in life.
However, many Buddhists have believed in this ritual routines for over many
years. They keep asking me to perform these prayers for them. I dont know what
to do I do not want to upset them; but also do not want to be superstitious. I
replied: "Well, you should still hold a big festival on the 8 th of January (lunar
calendar). However, rather than doing stars worshipping ceremony, you pray for
happiness and peace; as well as vow to do good deeds for others and the country .
There are three factors in this prayer:

First, we pray for everyone who is enrolled.

Second, we pray for all beings. When someones name is called

out, they should be on their knees, pray for the peace of the country, pray
for its prosperity and good weather for our crops

Third, everyone, who attends the ceremony, should pray for

world peace, no war, no killing. ..
All Buddhists should solemnly to pray and vow:

To improve ourselves, overcome our mistakes, selfishness,

greed, and cowardice...

To do more good deeds and help others.

To help more and more people to learn about Buddhism and

the Dharma.
3


each year.

To help convince at least ten people to take refuge in Buddhism

So, each year instead of doing a star worshiping ceremony, we should pray
for everyone to be happy; pray that our country and the world will always be
peaceful. And after the ceremony, we invite all the Buddhist to attend a Buddhist
vegetarian banquet with music and singing. This way we can be happy, still enjoy
the atmosphere of Tet Holiday, but do good deeds for many others.
But there are others who would say: "I am not superstitious, so I wont
worship any stars. Well, that is good, but still not enough. Why? It is because any
Buddhist will always want to be blessed by Buddha in the New Year, therefore,
they always would like to do the praying on the 8 th of January, Lunar Calendar.
We cannot ignore this important custom of Buddhism.
We are advised to do one hundred bows to Buddha every day. After doing
that, we feel better and think that we already are a true Buddhas disciple. Well,
not really. To achieve that, we have to accumulate our blessings and merits over
hundreds and thousands of lives.
Similarly, when mediating, we should imagine that our compassion covers
the entire universe, and imagine that we are compassionate beings. Again, do not
think that is enough. Dont make that mistake. It is like when someone listens to
the Prajna in Buddhism, which states: "Form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form", and then consider that he/she already
understands the whole Prajna. Thinking like that is so wrong. Prajna is not that
simple to comprehend. To fully comprehend Prajna, one must achieve
enlightenment and do millions of good deeds like Bodhisattva, and have to
consider oneself as nothing. After finishing mediation, and when ones mind is so
peaceful, calm and pure without any delusions, but still do not think that we
already achieve the highest level of meditation.
There are many things that we have achieved over time, however, those are
just the beginning do not think that we are so good already. Such selfsatisfaction, arrogance and pride will not help us learn more and improve
ourselves further. It could be worse that it would make us lose our blessings and
destroy our life.
When we meet someone, who think that they are better than others, and
always look down on others, we would know that they make that fundamental
mistake. This is true for both monks and normal people in reality.
When a religious practitioner, like an Abbot of temple, start comparing
himself with Buddha, he makes that important mistake, falls into that trap of ego
4

and being self-centered. In Buddhism, compassion and kindness are the most
noble factors; nothing to do with ego, arrogance and self-centeredness. We should
be very aware and careful of this.
This is a simple example, when visting a temple, we saw a poor man. He
was thin, pale and poorly dressed, while we dressed very fashionably. While
having a meal with other Buddhists and monks, by coincidence we sat at the same
table with this poor person. This was completely different with our normal life,
where we often dined with wealthy and rich people. Someone saw and asked us to
move table, however, we responded politely, preferring to stay at the same table.
That behaviours demonstrated that we were ethical; we considered and respected
everyone equally. All Buddhists are the same, no differences in wealth and class.
The above also means moral/ethic. It is because our thinking is that when
coming to a temple, we are all Buddhists, we are all Buddhas disciples, there is no
difference in class, wealth, therefore everyone is treated the same. Whatever
happens outside the temple, in our ordinary life, must be forgotten. Inside the
temple, we are all the same in that regard.
However, if we consider ourselves the same as Buddha, or our ancestors,
that is not moral anymore, but is arrogance, ego and pride. One arrogance, ego and
pride exists in our mind and soul, it will influence our behaviours, which will lead
us to do more wrong things, and commit sins.
Ordinary people is less likely to suffer from being arrogant or being mental
(this is the extreme) than religious practitioners. Student is an example. There are
many outstanding students in real life, but they are not all mental. They follow the
grades as prescribed by the education system. There are different levels in
education system to allow students to learn gradually; each grade has different
levels of difficulties. Therefore, even if someone is outstanding at Grade 6, they
still need to learn other Grades. The system helps student mental stability in that
sense. The highest degree in education is PHD or Doctorate. A true PHD or
Doctorate degree holder will also see themselves as still do not have enough
knowledge about everything in the universe. Those, who keeps telling others about
their achievement, are definitely influenced by their ego and pride.
So what is the top level of education? Is this when you are awarded the
prestigious Nobel prize? No, not really because after achieving the prize, they
cannot progress further. The Writer Association has commented that: most of the
writers after receiving Nobel Prize have stopped writing. It is because after
receiving the prize, they become so popular, famous, therefore they consider
themselves the best, the top of the class, they no longer look for self-improvement.
5

However, those cases are rare. Generally, common peoples psychology is table,
which different from religious people.
During Buddha's time, religious people were not arrogant or complacent
because Buddha clearly defined different the levels of meditation (four levels) as
well as four different levels of enlightenment. So when someone reached a
particular level, they knew that there were more levels and they had to keep
learning and practicing, keeping them from suffering from arrogance and
complacency until they became an Arhant. At this level, they were free from
arrogance and ego.
Today, because Buddha does not live in this human world to assess and
advise us which level we are at, we have to ask our masters. And the fact is that
our masters cannot be comparable with Buddha, they could easily assess wrongly
and make us think we are at a very high level, hence, it is easy for us to be
arrogant, proud about our achievement.
In Buddha's time, when someone could meditate well, Buddha said "you
havent yet reached the first level as your mind is not yet completely pure". Today,
just when we can meditate for longer than usual, and we feel our mind is peaceful
then we believe we attain enlightenment. It is not correct. Buddha said that the first
level of meditation is when our mind is entirely pure and we have the perfect
morality. The Buddhist scriptures clearly stated: "Being free from desire, being
free from incorrect Dharma and this is just the first level of mediation. So we
must understand that how difficult and holy the second, the third or the fourth
level of meditation would be. There are many people, who have mistakenly
criticise the Fourth Level of Meditation. These people will never be able to
meditate and become true Buddhas disciples. They clearly do not understand
about meditation at all, therefore though not yet attain the first level of mediation,
they already criticized the other levels. Therefore, within the religions itself, there
are people who can become mental quite easily as they think they already reach
the top of practicing the Dharma. Only Buddha can accurately assess our
meditation or enlightenment level. No one else can.
Therefore any Buddhists must be careful and consider carefully what our
Masters tell us. We can respect our masters but stay alert and always consider
what our Masters say and advise. If he causes us to think we already reach high
level of practice, then be careful and consider carefully those advices. These
advices may badly impact our life.
The right path is: Boundless reverence for Buddha is a must, Nikyas from
Buddhas time is the foundation and Mahayana is the reference". We'll start with
the most basic: our absolute reverence for Buddha. When we kneel down in front
6

of Buddha, we must think Buddha is so holy and is bigger than the whole universe,
whereas we are nothing but dust. The longer we practise the Dharma, the more
insignificant we consider ourselves. That is the most fundamental and very
important basic rule that cannot be changed. Dont just look for other holy
principles; start with the basic first.
Therefore, whoever can remember the saying "It is still not enough!" will
save their own life in many events/occasions. This sounds unrealistic but it is true.
Because when we recite this sayings over and over again, then naturally we will be
blessed by many Saints and Gods. For example, when someone compliments us,
we must tell ourselves: "What we did is still not enough". We should tell ourselves
that again and again and good luck will come for us. That is because we practise
this saying many times, to improve ourselves, to make sure we do more and more
good things. As the result, our blessings are accumulated, and when needed, Saints
and Gods will bless and save us from bad luck. It is though a simple saying, but
very powerful.
Or, for example, when someone said something bad about us, because we
had practised the Dharma, we would still be calm, and would have no hatred for
this person. Though we have displayed good behaviours, we must not be proud
and still must keep reminding ourselves of the saying: It is still not enough! When
we meditate, we must wish for these people to be better, learn the Dharma and
improve themselves, then that would be just enough. This is extremely difficult to
do, in deed. Though we were not angry at them, however, deep down, we may still
do not like these people. This would take years of practice of purify our mind and
soul so hatred will no longer exit.
This is another example. One day we met a poor person, who was begging
for help. Feeling sorry for them, we gave all our money to them and accepted the
risk that we had none left for any emergency cases. We felt great doing that. Often
we would have exchanged to smaller notes and gave small changes to this poor
person; but in this case we just gave everything to him. Though that was a
courageous and great behaviour, that is still not enough. We only helped them
financially, we had not yet made them aware of Buddhism and the Dharma. We
must help them understand why they had a miserable and poor life, what they did
the past to have this poor life; and more importantly what they must do to change
their karma to have a better life. We could have said to the poor person as well as
gave them the money: Wish you all the best wish you always have compassion
for others, and believe in karma. We can only hope that they would think about
our saying, and start believing in karma and it may change their life.
7

Believing in karma means that we believe it Doing good deeds will bring
good luck, and committing sins will be punished; What goes around comes
around; therefore we must all have compassion and help others; and that
would help improve our life and make it better.
Sometimes, we cannot help others often, but always remember to remind the
others about moral principles. When we have more time and can afford to do
more, we should do more good deeds for others, help others to have jobs to
maintain their financial stability. These good things will last for a long time.
However, helping others financially is not enough. We always must remember to
teach others about moral principles.
Another example is about brave soldiers. Even though, they were so brave
and were willing to scarify their lives for their own country, but that was still not
enough. Because it was just during the war. When the war was ended, and during
peacetime, if these soldiers became government officials, he had to always have
compassion and help other residents, then he was truly a patriot. Fighting for the
country alone is not enough to be a true patriot.
In fact, to be a true patriot you must have the four characteristics below:

Firstly, we must have compassion for all people living in this

country. Only having the compassion for family members or just a nearby
neighborhood is not enough.

Secondly, we must love this country wholeheartedly, because

our ancestors had fought for it; many soldiers and national heroes had
fought to protect it and kept it beautiful thus far

Thirdly, we must love our beautiful traditions and customs. For

instance, for Tet occasion, we must think about our grandparents, show our
gratitude towards them and wish others luck. We value our families. We
respect our Masters.

Fourthly, one thing that is so easy to forget is that we must

have compassion for our country leaders. In the ancient times, this was said
very clearly, "Being loyal to the king and love the country. However, now,
under the democracy, this factor is often forgotten, losing a significant part
of patriotism.
Also it would not be enough if only our family had taken refuge in the
Triple Gem, while the others hadnt. We should help them take refuge also or our
reverence for Buddha, our compassion and our love for Buddhism are still not
enough.

We must help many people understand Buddhism. Anyone we meet, we

must help them know about Buddhism like us or even better than. However, it is
still not enough. If we feel that we have practised Buddhism well, we must do
more, and even would consider to become a monk. Only then that is just enough!
Nowadays, people around the world are free to choose their own religions.
The reverence from people for their religions, their Gods are so strong that the
world leaders must respect and agree that everyone has their own right to follow
the religion of their choice. However, that is not enough. Many people think that
our civilization is so advanced already, but it is not as advanced as we think. The
world is still very chaotic and has a lot of flaws; people have many false beliefs.
Perhaps, only a few more hundreds year later, the human race can be more
advanced in their thinking.
Besides, the freedom of religions also has its own mistake. People who are
in charge, must find the right religion for the world to follow. When there is
freedom to choose any religion, people will choose different ones. Since there are
so many different religions, all of them cannot be right together. There is only one
true principle, one truth.
There are many different religions around the world. Many of them are very
extreme and they allow their followers to kill other people. If the world leaders
allow people to choose the wrong religion, committing crimes and sins, then they
allow people to make their own decision whether be good or be bad. Should this
still be the way?
The law prohibits anyone from burglary; providing wrong evidence;
corruption, killings, etc, however it does not prohibit people to choose the wrong
religion. Therefore, freedom in this sense is a mistake. The human race must
further advance over the next hundreds or thousands of years in order to have the
right religion.
If someone asked us: Which religion is the right one for the human race?
We all should answer: It is Buddhism because we are Buddhas disciples. If
someone asked other religious practitioners, they would have answered that it
should be their religion. If we use a voting system, whichever religions have more
followers will win. And sometimes it does not mean that a religion which has
more followers than others, is the right one for the human race.
For any election, if only relying on the total vote, the chosen leaders might
not be the right one. There are many other factors that help a person to be a great
leader. Some has asked: Would it be enough if we scarify ourselves for
Buddhism, even death? Well, actually it is still not enough. Death does not help
9

protect and develop the country, and Buddhism. If you are not afraid of death, that
is a good thing; however, it is even better if we could dedicate our life to protect
our country and Buddhism.
Some also has asked: Why has Buddhism become weaker? Our answer
was: It is because our reverence for Buddha alone is not enough to keep it strong,
and help it develop further. A religion can only be stronger and stronger if its
followers have the absolute respect for its Master, and its religions. We, all
Buddhists, should always ask ourselves if we have the absolute respect for Buddha
yet?
To emphasize this point: To protect and build Buddhism to be a stronger
religion, we all must have the absolute and boundless reverence for Buddha.
Each time we bow in front of Buddha, we must wholeheartedly respect Buddha
and it should represent in each of our bow. If all Buddhists across the world, from
all temples around the world do so, we should have create compassion all around
the world. That is the fundamental factor that help Buddhism be stronger.
In contrast, if we do not have the absolute respect for Buddha, each of us
will still be strangers, each temple will be operated in its own way, not everyone
will have compassion for each other. Only when we are united, care for each other,
and more importantly, have the boundless respect for Buddha, we then can help
Buddhism to be stronger and develop further.
However, please be reminded that having only the respect for Buddha is
still not enough! We must also share our belief in Buddhism with others, and get
them to understand more about Buddhism and share the same belief in the religion,
then it is considered to be just enough.
When someone learns about Buddhism, only understanding its principle is
not enough, we must practise and apply those principles in real life correctly and
appropriately. We often say All Buddhists must have compassion for each other.
Though it sounds easy and it takes only 4 seconds to say these words, but it could
take the whole life to live these words correctly.
There is a huge difference between the time of study and the time of
practice. Studying takes less time than practice. What happens if a person spends a
lot of time learning but only a little time practicing? Well, then it is wrong and
insufficient. Learning the theory alone is not enough. However, there were many
people think and behave like that. They spend most of their life time to study and
obtain academic degrees. And we know that they have gone on the wrong paths.
There might be other objectives rather than the main objective of diligently
practicing Buddhism and the Dharma.
10

If we go against what Buddha had taught us Learn in 4 seconds, but

practise the whole life, then our path would be wrong, we cannot be enlightened
and can never be free of the reincarnation cycle.
Therefore, when learning about Buddhism, we must balance learning the
principles and practise these principles. If we have a degree, but no practice, then
it is no use and is wasteful. All Buddhism Schools must consider to balance about
learning the principles, the theory and the practice in real life. If all monks and
nuns only focus on learning the theories, the principles and ddo not practise, their
religious life will be impacted negatively. Examination or testing should also focus
on the practice, not just theory.
Practicing compassion in Buddhism is extremely hard. It means we must
love all beings. All beings means everyone and everything. It is not just our
immediate families, but also everyone else around us, and the whole 80million
people of Vietnam population; even spread to all 6 billion people around the
world; even further to all animals, all trees and other natural wonders We must
love everything in the universe.
It is still not enough! Only one of us have that compassion is not enough.
It must be from everyone. We must help create that awareness so all beings will
have compassion for each other. That is the true compassion in Buddhism.
However, it is extremely difficult to do. It could take someone thousands of lives
to be able to achieve this Bodhisattva virtue. Only then it is just enough.
According to international law, each religion has to respect the other,
however that is not enough. Because there always is one or two religions, which
want to dominate the world. These religions are willing to terrorize and kill other
human beings to achieve their objective. We must help them realise the wrong
objectives, and dispose of those wrong beliefs. We must help them to understand
the right moral principles, karma and do more good deeds.
While we respect and wholeheartedly devote for Buddhism. It is still not
enough. We must love our country as well. These two different types of love go
hand-in-hand and they complement each other.
Nowadays, some of the strongest economies in the world have the most
advanced technology laboratories. They create more and more advanced products,
sell those products around the world, help their country economies growth stronger
and stronger. Why do they keep getting stronger and stronger? Because anything
they produce and create is still not enough! Continuous improvement is always
in their mindset. For example, when an engineer has invented a new technology,
his director would commend him: "I praise you for your achievement, however,
11

we should continue improving it. So today I give you a patent in this field but I
need you to improve it further." Therefore, with that mindset, they are never
behind. They keep creating more and more advanced products and help their
country economies grow stronger. On the contrary, we often are so proud of our
own achievement, and do not improve ourselves, therefore we can continue being
behind these other strong countries.
The fact that we often go to the temple to practise alone is still not enough.
We have to help others realise and understand the importance of practice, and get
them to come along more often. We should continue helping more and more
people. Though we have compassion for others, we must also help these people to
have job, support each other to live and practise the religion diligently.
Many monks and nuns have asked us: "Currently, the rituals in many
temples are like six hundred years ago." Is it actually advancing and growing or
going backwards? Absolutely, going backward! Six hundred years ago, we had
those rituals and six hundred years later they still remain unchanged, while the
world has made a lot of progress. Now, the youngsters do not want to go to
temples to pray and chant, they want to do things more actively and engaged. So
Buddhism also needs improvements to attract and keep the youngsters interested.
For example, instead of the traditional chanting method, we could apply
contemporary music to some of the chanting or praying to keep people interested
and encourage people to come and visit temples more often.
Buddhism indeed needs to improve and evolutionalize some ritual routines.
Even when our Masters had been successful in those traditional ways, but we
cannot just accept the way it is. We must continuously improve to help Buddhism
grow and develop more and more. If we just accept the way it is, and do not thrive
for any improvement, then we forget the saying It is still not enough!
Spreading the Dharma further is the obligation of all Buddhists, not
just monks and nuns. Does this sound strange to you? Actually not. There are
obviously more Buddhists than monks and nuns. Therefore, the task of spreading
the Dharma must be done by all Buddhists. Monks and nuns will give the guidance
to ensure the path is correct. When you come to a temple to listen to the Dharma or
pay homage to Buddha, you have a mission to complete for Buddhism. That is to
help spread the Dharma further, make more and more people aware of the
Dharma. It would be wrong to think that going to temple to pray for your family
only. It is only just enough when we devote everything we have and all effort we
could to be the representative of Buddha, and as the result, we must spread the
Dharma and bring it to more and more people.
Therefore, there are three things that all Buddhists must always do:
12


First: Observe and look around you to identify who do not yet
know about Buddhism.

Second: Get acquainted with those people and introduce

Buddhism to them.

Third: And finally, influence them to agree to take refuge in

the Triple Gem.
Those are the three activities that we must always do. But it would be still
not enough." We must continue guiding and supporting those people until they
become the representatives of Buddha and bringing the Dharma to many others.
Then our mission will be completed.
If all Buddhists can do the above, how would the world turn out to be?
The human world now is very chaotic, where the good and the evil are
reincarnated together. Animals are reincarnated as humans. Ghosts from hell are
reincarnated as humans. Or Gods from heavens are reincarnated as humans. Fights
between the good and the evil are happening all the times.
Therefore, if each Buddhist is a true representative of Buddha, then the
human world will be a pure environment to teach Buddhism. All beings, who are
reincarnated as humans, will learn about Buddhism, will be saved and transformed
to be good beings. Possibly they come from bad places so they would have many
weaknesses, but because of the holy environment that was full of compassion,
which they were reborn into, they could not gotten worse; they could only improve
themselves and be better. At that time, the human world would be the intermediate
place to transform all beings into Saints.
Today, the human world could be either the intermediate place but it could
also be the deepest hole. Some are reincarnated to be better and some are reborn
into a worse life. The world is a mix of the good and the evil. However, if all
Buddhists make effort to save and transform others then this world will be the
place to help the evil become the good, ordinary people become Saints We must
not be proud about our achievement. We must keep trying to improve to complete
our obligations as a true Buddhist and always remember that it is still not
enough.
We must not think that Buddhism is now developing and is the dominant
religion in many places because with that thinking, one day Buddhism would
become weaker and weaker. We must not be proud and must remember that our
compassion and devotion for Buddhism will never be enough. Regardless of how
compassionate we are with Buddhism, with the Dharma, and Buddha; and
regardless how well we respect our religion, it would still be never enough.
13

"Buddhism is the endless ocean,

And we are just a drop in that ocean.
Although we try our whole lives,
Still we cannot see the vast sky.
The path though is very long,
My patience will last as long as that path."
Namo Shakya muni Buddha

14

JUST A THOUGHT

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Just a thought presents a profound moral principle in Buddhism. As the Buddha

once said We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think.
The phrase - just a thought sounds a little bit abstract and confused when it
crosses our minds. The content in this book mainly mentions the Self in other
word, the Ego - so that it is easy to be understood by the person who has several
basic concepts of Buddism, and the Buddhist who has been practicing in Dharma
for a long time.
What is the ego or the self?
We often hear the words ego, no-ego oregoless. So, what is Ego? In
dictionary, Ego means self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect, selfimportance and self-worth. Based on this definition, Ego is the Self including
myself, ourselves, themselves, and yourself. It is the Self that human being
naturally considers most important.
In daily life, we live in a rush, struggling for many things we desire, feeling
jealous of someones success, competing with our colleagues in every moment of
the working lives; just because we love ourselves, because of our selfimportance. In Buddhism, it is the self that leads us to stay in the endless cycle of
life birth, death, and rebirth. As an ordinary human being, we have been
committed many sins for our own Selves until now.
Come to the Buddhism, we will see a opposite concepts One has to live for
other people, not just lives for himself or herself and practice the Dharma to
overcome his or her ego, so that one can escape the endless circle of life.
The self in our lives.
In the world we are living, we encounter a lot of enemies. For some people, the
enemies clearly are the ones who want to harm or kill them. For the others, the
enemies are more general. Those are the war that killed and distroyed their lives
and families, the disease that is threatening their healths, or more closer the bad
and the hatred that presents in human beings. But acording to the Buddha Your
worst enemy is yourself. This is such an wisdest statement. Do you think so?
In the reality, some people say that they have no selves for their beloved ones. For
example, a man when he is in love, he often says to his girlfriend, or his wife I
love you more than myself or vice versa. The fact is with rare exceptions, no one
cannot do that. You propably firgure out the reason why. Because when in terrible
2

conditions, those who said loving us more than themselves are the ones who made
us suffer most. When madly in love, people are often blind; but when falling out of
love, common people eventually consider theirselves are more important than
anything else. So, if you are not sure that you can sacrifice for your beloved one,
please dont say those words above.
However, these are not completely all the cases. People who have high good
morals will worship something loftier than themselves.
For example, one Buddhist does see the Buddhas philosophy is the ideal of life.
He has boundless love for the Buddha and the Dharma so that he can sacrifice his
life for them. He does love Buddhism more than himself.
I will introduce to you one more example. In my country , during the war, many
soldiers had sacricefied their lives for the countrys independence, for peace.
Those noble man defenitely had an ideal in their hearts and the love for their
country.
We dont know if they had lived longer, they would have sacrificed every thing for
the others or not. But we do know that when our country need them most, they did
bring their own lives. Those men, our brothers, had no self (ves). They are always
in the hearts of Vietnamese people that are still allive and living peacefully today.
You can see if we have an ideal, a high moral value to live, like the soldiers
fighting to save other peoples lives, we will love and adore that ideal more than
ourselves. For the other kind of love that we have for our family, children, parents,
husband or wife, girlfriend or boyfriend, we can sacricfice our own benefits for
them, but not all, it is still us, the Self in that love. So what is the Self?

The SELF The Five Agrregates

According to the Buddha, a SELF is composed of Five Aggregates (kandhas):
form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and conciousness.
Form- Aggregate of Matter means shape or appearance of our bodies.
Feelings-Aggregate of Sensations: pleasant or unpleasant, happy or unhappy, joy
or suffering. These feelings, or sensations are not only in our mind, but also in our
body.
3

Perceptions or Aggregate of Perceptions: the image of visible objects, the sound,

the smell, the taste, the touching to tangible objects and the thoughts that are
stored in our minds.
Mental formations or Aggregate of Mental Formations is the hidden brain
function. It directs the very fast neuroactivities such as action, attention, will,
desire, determination, creativity, infering, analyzing, summarizing and
affectionating These activities is the root of the Self formation.
Consciousness- Aggregate of Consciousness: When we think, we aware that we
are thinking. When we see a visible object, we know that we are seeing. When we
hear the sound, we aware that we are hearing, and we characterize that what we
hear is good or bad (according to our point of view).
These five aggregates gather together as we consider a Self, a Soul or Ego.
This makes human beings misunderstand that there is a Self- a most important one
truly existing.
Analyzing the structure of Ego, we will see each of five aggregates is considered
the Self.

The body is a Self.

The body is a self. Your body is yourself.
For example, in a hot day there was somebody fanned you to make you cooler.
What did you feel? You probably had a good feeling and then be grateful for that
person.
In contrast, if you were in a conversation and someone suddenly hit you. You then
would be angry immediately, because he had touched your body which is
considered to be yourself. If the body was not yours, even people hit you, you
would not be angry with them. In this case, the one had touched both your body
and your feeling (you felt hurt) so that you were angry easily.
Imaging that a little girl hit your back then ran away. Although you were not in
pain, you were still mad due to your body being touched.
We always see the bodies are ourselves. We see the selves of ours are insulted
when they are hit, bitten, or kicked. Or, when our bodies are ugly, we suffer and
4

when they are beautiful, we feel happy ... all because we always regard our body
as ourselves.

The feeling is a Self.

We regard our feelings as ourselves. When someone insults us, we suffer.
Moreover, because of those injured feelings, we become angry with them.
Similarly, when someone compliments us, we feel happy and love for that one.
During our life, we have felt love for those who made us happy and felt hate for
those who made us miserable because we regard our feelings as ourselves.
One more example, there was someone 5 yards far away from us using their hands
to signal to hit us, then we got angry and wanted to fight back because we saw
ourselves were insulted and humiliated. In contrast, suddenly someone bows to us
even at a far distance, we still feel happy because our selves are being honored.
Although they have never touched our bodies, they touched our feelings which are
our egos.

The thought is a Self

One day we invited our friends to go to a temple and they refused. This was a very
simple thing, but we got angry with them because our invitation was not accepted.
However, if they said, "Thats a good idea," then we were very happy because our
idea was welcomed. The reason for that thing was that we consider our ideas our
selves. So if our ideas were not welcomed, we would feel uneasy.
People often like to take revenge on others when suffering. If in suffering there is
nothing for us to take revenge on, we feel depressed. For example, when our
houses were burnt down, we wanted to find the culprit to have hatred for them;
and if our houses were burnt accidentally, then we felt very sad because there was
nobody for us to hate. Therefore, when a tsunami killed a lot of people, human
beings felt very angry because there was none to take revenge on. This kind of
psychology is every strange.

Just a thought could change our lives.

5

Now we will have a look at the characteristics of what we call a Self. Lets see a
house first. A house is composed of many components such as floors, roofs,
columns, walls, doors, windows and we consider each of those components the
whole house. For that reason when a child broke our glass door with a stone, we
would not say "The boy broke my glass door, but "The boy broke my house". The
reason was that we regarded the glass door as the whole house. So is the Self! We
usually regard each of five aggregates a Self. However, due to our karma, each
human being has a different self which is made of different body, and different
mind.
A man with many blessings has a good self. He has good-looking appearance,
wisdom, nice house, good car... On the contrary, a man with fewer blessings has a
bad self. He has ugly appearance, less wisdom, thatched hut, bad cycle However
if a blessed man felt proud of what he owned, his blessings would be damaged.
Or if he felt proud of his house and said My house is the most beautiful one in
this town. On one hand, his house was not nicer, but on the other hand, his
thought of arrogance caused him to be ridiculous. Therefore, we should not show
off to other people, they could assess our personalities.
Similarly, there was a famous doctor whose talent was admired by so many
people. He felt very happy. And he thought that he was better than other doctors,
even the best. Actually, he didnt have to show off, everyone knew about him
well. But when he showed off, he became hoity-toity which destroyed his
blessings.
Or when we were good monks with impressing appearance, high knowledge, and
good preaching. Everyone knew about it and if our mind raised a thought of pride
about ourselves, then in next one or two years, we would have normal appearance,
normal wisdom and become mediocre.
So how do blessings ruin?
Showing off to other people is one of many factors that damage our blessings. For
example, we had a beautiful garden, so we always talked to everyone passing by
our garden, My garden is the most beautiful one in the town. No ones can be
compared with mine. Then in next one or two years, we would no longer possess
this garden or even our house. Maybe we had bad luck that we had to sell our
house. Finally, we became poor. The loss of blessings is terrible like that. Just
because of showing off our properties, we lost our blessings so that many bad
6

things would come to us.

Arrogance and modesty

Arrogance is another factor that damages our blessings too. For instance, we had
good selves, beautiful bodies, intellectual minds then we started a thought that we
were better than others. As a result, in next one or two years, we would have ugly
appearance, normal wisdom and became mediocre.
Now you see just a thought of arrogance does not make us better or more
respectable but it damages our blessings. However, it is difficult for us to avoid
this kind of thought because we usually discover our strengths before others. For
example, when looking in a mirror, we see we are beautiful while others do not.
Maybe it takes too much time for them to realize our beauty. Or a student solving
many difficult math exercises thinks he is good while it takes others two or three
years later to have the same thought. Because we usually discover our strengths
before others, we feel full of pent-up resentment. We think that others has been
underestimate our strengths. The thought that I am better than any one else has
been silently raising in our minds for a long time. These self-praises will ruin our
blessings. Now its about time for us to end it.
In contrast to arrogance is modesty. Modesty will help us increase our blessings.
For example, one had a beautiful house but he did not think it was great because
there were many buildings or castles much more beautiful than his house.
Therefore, if someone complimented us on our houses, we just said Thanks, but
our house is just normal and we truly thought that. Because of this thought, we
can own our house for a long time and we can make it more and more beautiful.
Also, if we never think we are good because there are a lot of people in this world
being better than us, we will have more blessings which help us to become better
and to have more good luck.
Please bear in mind that having good luck or bad luck is sometimes based on our
arrogance or modesty.
On Tet holidays we went to a temple, prayed to Buddha that we would have
successful business and good luck for the whole year. But after praying, we would
not do good deeds, would not change our bad seeds in us. As the result, our wishes
would not come true because it was not in accordance with the causality law.
7

Anyone who prays to Buddha, "Dear Buddha, please bless everyone to be happy
and to have good luck in their business and bless us to realize our shortcomings.
will has merits and runs his or her work smoothly. Because what he prays is the
good things for the others so that the good luck will return to him.
Our modesty helps us have good luck and our arrogance make us have bad luck as
the story below:
There was a family in which the wife was a smart woman. She was a person who
brought up the whole family. The husband used to be a healthy man and achieved
high results when in college. But unfortunately, all his work had ended in failures.
Upon hearing the story, we could predict the reason. That was because in the past
the husband achieved success then he had arrogance and looked down on others.
Owing to this reason his blessings were badly damaged, he could not do any great
things.
As understanding the law of cause and effect, we should show only modesty but
not arrogance. If someone compliments us, we should not think it is true but
always think that we are very normal. We should do good deeds day by day and
often pray to the Buddhas for our modesty, not just only reciting the Buddhas.
Doing that we will gradually have good luck.
Therefore, just a thought can make us better or worse but our selves remain
unchanged. Normally we think an arrogant person has big self and a humble one
has weak self. It is not correct. The truth is a thought of modesty can lift us to be
saints, whereas a thought of arrogance can make us to be more mediocre. That is
why anyone who can control their thought will be able to attain enlightenment,
while those who cannot will be led to a wrong way. So the way of thinking is very
important.

Get caution for our thoughts

We have to be careful about what we think in every thought. Here are some ideas
that we need to be careful about:
Thought of compassion is very important. We are now normal, not too wealthy,
too talented, or too much better than anyone else. We have not done any thing
great for the world. However, we do remember the Buddhas teaching of loving all
beings, and take a vow of this day by day. This will create a good seed that
8

probably nine or ten lifetimes after, we will become a talented king or leader who
so much loves his people. The law of cause and effect is so strange like that!
But not simply starting to have a thought of loving all beings and then we can
become a great leader in current life. We have to practice this in every moment of
our lives, and continuously in many lives. When we make a vow of loving all
beings, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will watch us in every moment to make sure
whether we have completely compassionate minds. If three years, five years, or
ten years later when our minds are imbued with compassion, the Buddhas will
bring difficulties and adversities to challenge us. For example, there are several
people hating us for no reason, or there are some miserable people coming to us
for our help. That is a challenging time for us to train our thought of loving beings.
In the first ten years of having compassion in mind, nothing happens to us. But in
the next ten years, we no longer live in peace. The Buddhas will bring many
obstacles to check if we can truly love or forgive others. There will be many
people asking for our help and there will be many people wanting to harm us. We
cannot stay reciting and praying to the Buddhas in peace anymore. We have to
take action and face every situation. Challenge after challenge, life after life, when
all the conditions have gathered, we will be born to be a great leader just because
of a thought which had been generated during nine or ten lifetimes before.
When practicing the Dharma, do not think that we are alone. The Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas always take care of us in each of our thoughts.
If one day, we ran a charity organization of one thousand members, so there were
many people praising us. Then we started thinking "I am so great! I am the key
people. Without me, this organization cannot achieve any success. Then the
Buddhas would get back all, and not assign anything to us. Gradually, bad luck
would come to us and we failed to do anything. Maybe when we were near death,
we had to be alone in a deserted house. If luckier we still had some blessings left,
we would end up in nicer place but no more glory.
We often think that we did everything, which makes us more and more arrogant
then our blessings gradually are ruined. Indeed, all things happening to us have
been arranged by the Buddhas in order to challenge us.
For example, recently our temple held a ceremony and a huge number of people
came to participate in. They slept all over the temple. There were twelve thousand
rice boxes and eight thousand loaves of bread being consumed. Many people
9

might think that our temple was very flourishing. In fact, the Buddhas arranged
each detail and assigned each person that made the ceremony succeed. And if we
thought it was due to our talent, to our good preaching that many people came to
our temple, we were very stupid and made a mistake.
The Buddhas have controlled the movement of events so that we can have good
conditions to continue practicing Dharma. Although everything is ruled by the
karma law, if we had wrong thoughts, our blessings would be ruined so we could
not be able to continue our practice. This is the lesson learnt from us.
Thus, if you were the person who brought up your family, you would think that
without you your family was unable to have all conditions to live well. Then you
forced everyone in your family to obey our orders. You should not do that. Please
note that without the whole family's blessings, you cannot earn money well. You
should keep this thing in mind so as to love and to respect your family more.
Our temple has about one hundred monks and nuns. Many people feel puzzled that
how our temple has enough food to feed all those brothers and sisters. The truth is
the Buddhas raise everyone and of course, it is based on our whole temples
blessings. If every monks and nuns attempts to practice Dharma diligently, thus
the temple has blessings of not being hungry. Our people usually recite Loi Khan
Nguyen (The prayers are mainly about compassion and modesty). After reciting
for a while, we realized that our blessings being increased. That is an evidence
showing that Buddhas do bless us.
Therefore, only stupid people are arrogant, while wise ones who understand the
causality law, the realms (of animal, human beings, hungry ghost, gods) will
never dare to be proud of themselves because they are afraid of losing their
blessings. The more people understand, the more cautious, careful, modest, and
respectful for others they are.

Thought of compassion
Living in this world, we have to practice loving all human beings. Sometimes the
presence of someone makes us work harder. The more people the harder we work.
But it is the assignment that the Buddhas give to us, so we have to accept and
fulfill it. We should be happy and deferential for all that come to us.
Do you remember the story of Peter Pan, the flying boy from Neverland?
10

When the night came, he often flew to an England family and played with three
children: Wendy-the oldest sister, John and Michael.
One night, he taught those kids how to fly then they flew all the way to Neverland
where there were pirates and orphans. After defeating the pirates, the kids
returned to their family in England. In addition to the lost three children, there
were also over ten kids. The parents of Wendy, John and Josh were worried
because they did not know how to earn enough money to take care of all of them.
But finally they decided to keep all the boys and girls whatever would happen.
Surprisingly, a kid took out of his pocket a lot of gold and jewels that they got from
the pirates after fighting against them.
You see, a minute ago, the parents did not know about that, they just accepted
bringing up those kids from their hearts which full of loving and compassion for
the children. As the law of karma, that gold was a reward for them. Do you agree
with me this is a very nice story?
Another example, if you unexpectedly had a relative coming to your house so as to
be convenient to go to hospital. In a few days later, though she had not yet
recovered from her disease, she ran out of money. What will you do in this
situation, helping or abandoning her?
Yes, we have to help her because this is the work that the Buddhas assigned to us.
If we refused this sacred mission of loving and helping people then gradually we
would get a lot of unhappiness. So anyone who appears in our life, we have to love
and to respect them. Those who behave like that will gain a great reward in the
future.
As for us, when old people came to our temple for staying there to practice
Dharma. Unless there were unaceptable conditions, we always welcomed all of
them and we knew that this was a mission, a challenge, a causal condition for us.
Or, when there are many Buddhists coming to our temple, apart from joy, we are
afraid that we cannot take enough care of everyone. Whoever comes to our temple
from far or near places, we always appreciate these visits and feel grateful to all of
them.

Practice in the Right Way

There are some people think that they practice Buddhism in order to be released
11

from life and to do that they must have pure mind, i.e. they should not care for
anything. Such people who cannot bring any benefit to others, become useless to
the world. Therefore, they will not be released from the living world. Those who
love and be kind to others, live responsibly can be liberated from the suffering of
life.
There was someone having complained to us, "I am working very hard and I know
this is owing to my karma. Anyway, I have to be kind to the world so that
someday I will be free from it then concentrate on practice for liberation." This
thought was right. While his work is still affecting many people, he cannot leave
them for his liberation purpose. The Buddhas want him to practice Right Action
and Right Livelihood, so he should accomplish these two tasks simultaneously.
Accomplishing Right Action means we do beneficence to others, and fulfill our
responsibility in work. Accomplishing Right Livelihood means we earn for our
familys living, in the right way.
The Buddhas know his wish to become a monk so that They rush him to do these
two things in order to prepare for him. Otherwise, the Buddhas would let him do
his business leisurely from year to year until the end of his life.
Please keep in mind that according to the order of the Eightfold Noble Paths, Right
Action is first then Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right
Concentration subsequently. We have to follow this order. Thats mean when we
are in the stage of Right Action, we make every effort to help people; when we are
in the stage of Right Livelihood, we try our best to work for raising our families.
This way we can follow Buddhism until our death.
Therefore, if you have a job to do and a family whose lives are still based on your
supports and you wish to be a monk or a nun, you should bring up our family as
well as help other people as your priority. When you finish everything and gather
enough good conditions, the Buddhas will let you be ordained as your wish.

The law of karma and the thought of gratefulness

The law of cause and effect is very fair and complicated. For example, one fixed a
broken road, later he would achieve blessings of travelling by convenient
transportation, that is, he may have a car later. There are many possibilities of
having a car. He is probably rich so that he is able to buy a car on his own, or there
12

is someone giving a car to him as a gift. The causality law is not just simple that if
we fix a road then cars appear in front of our houses like magic. Every thing just
goes normally under the principle of the karma law.
In case that someone gives us a car, we must be grateful to them. Despite having a
car is due to our good deeds, this is the person who brings good luck to us. This
thing happens in order to make us owe the benefactor a little bit because of our
causal conditions in our past lives.
Or when a person prays to the Buddhas, "Dear Buddhas, please bless me to build a
nice house this year so that our parents have a place to rest and practice as well as
we have a good place to worship the Buddhas. And that year, several good things
came, and he was able to build a nice house with help from many other people.
Although the fact that he built the house was due to his efforts, the blessing of the
Buddhas to him was completely true. The Buddhas had helped him to have good
luck in his business and there were many people come to help. They always
secretly bless and arrange everything for him.
However, there are two extremes that should be avoided:
+ The first extreme is that person just believes in superstition but not causality law.
He always believes and prays to gods whenever he faces difficulties in his life. If
he can overcome difficulties, he feels grateful to gods, otherwise he feels unhappy
and blaming.
We must do good, and then good returns to us; just like we must grow the apple
tree so that we can enjoy a delicious apple. We are the owner of our lives, we have
to do good deeds then gods can help us.
+ The second extreme is that person only considers the causality law. He thinks
that he has done good deeds in past lives, so now he receives good results. The
truth is surrounding people have helped him, and gods protected him too.
Although things follow by the law of cause and effect, the loving bond with the
surrounding people and the support from the Buddhas are also present.
Just stiffly seeing like I deserve to receive what I worked for, we are unable to
feel grateful to people who help us. This will lead to the damage of our current
blessings.
The good view the middle one is the combine of two extremes:
13

We realize that our current blessings come from the good deeds in the past lives;
and we treasure the supports of others and the Buddhas. If we have the middle
view, we can keep the right attitudes to build our lives more beautifully.
Just a thought of arrogance, would leave all merits.
Just a thought of modesty, would come all luck.
Just a thought of compassion, great things we can make.
And just a thought of gratefulness, good things we can keep.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

14

LOVE SEES NO FAULTS

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
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www.vidaothieng.com

"Love sees no faults" is a Vietnamese proverb, that had been passed on to

many generations; but we do not know its author. This proverb basically means
that when we like someone, you can easily accept their flaws; on contrary, when
you dislike someone, you can easily ignore their greatness. This proverb is short
but very profound and it was derived from many years of our ancestors life
experiences to conclude about human beings emotion and perception when
assessing and commenting about others.
Our assessment of someone often is not accurate because when assessing
someone, we are ruled by hearts rather than heads. Our feeling, either we like or
dislike someone, usually influences our perception and assessment about their
strengths or weaknesses. When we dislike someone, it is hard to notice their
strengths, but so easy to recognise their weaknesses and critise about those. In
contrast, when we love someone, their strengths will obscure their weaknesses.
As in the case of an aggressive and hot-tempered person, if we liked him, his
bad characteristics could become a strength. We would think that these
characteristics (aggressive and hot-tempered) could make the people around us be
more aware, have less quarrels with each other and therefore, it would help our
community become more peaceful. It is a great thing when we could see
positivism in negative things.
However, when we disliked someone, we would not be able to see their
strengths and positivism clearly, but their weakenesses would become much more
worse in our opinion. For example, for those who are quiet, calm and mature, we
would think they are silly and dull; for those who are aggressive and badtempered, we find them annoying. Therefore, it is so accurate when Buddhism
stated, the head is ruled by the heart i.e. when emotion involves, our judgment
and perception are not absolutely accurate.
In fact, all of the matters, challenges, issues in our lives, and all of the
principles that were taught by our ancestors, were completely covered in
Buddhism. We often thought that Buddhism was something so sublime and
impractical. In fact, the truth is that Buddhism is very profound and practical.
Buddha had said many times in Nikaya: "Buddhism is the Dharma, it means
practical, present, and boundless; people should come and see to believe in it".
These factors were used to define Dharma. Buddha had never defined Dharma, or
mentioned that Dharma had to be defined by anyone, or Dharma is something
sublime or mysterious. The true and practical doctrines preached or written in
2

Buddhism prayer books must be closely related to real life. To stress this point,
this is the most important and essential element of the true Dharma.
If we listened to someone preaching about any doctrines or read books about
principles that sounded so sublime, mysterious, impractical and did not have
anything with reality, it would be no longer the true Dharma. We use the word "no
longer" because it used to be the true Dharma, however, over time, these so-called
Dharma became irrelevant. This is a very strange thing.
About a thousand or even two thousand years ago, after Buddha passed away,
there were many materials written about Buddhism by our ancestors, these
principles were very practical at that time, but now, we need to reconsider again.
Many teachings, even practice methods are not suitable for the current life. In
addition, which was called the true Dharma has now become impractical.
Therefore, we must reform these doctrines make them more practical and useful
again; and we have to accept that what we think are practical today will not be
practical in five hundred years later. Someone will see the need to reform
Buddhism again to be useful, practical and relevant for that period of time. This is
a very important element of our Buddhists duty in preserving and promoting
Buddhism Dharma.
As for us, our cultivation journey is very basic and modest. We did not have
much of education, we have not yet been taught about Buddhism, even at a
primary level. When becoming monks, the first thing we did in the morning was to
do farming, and in the evening we had to read and pray. Our master taught us for
only a few years. That was really sad. Once we preached at a famous temple in a
city, we met many renowned Venerable. One sitting next to me asked: "Are you
Chan Quang? Yes, I am, sir. I replied. Then he continued asking: "What level
of Buddhism stury did you have?" I had to confess that I did not have any
Buddhism Certificate at all. He frowned, "What about academic certificate?" I
replied happily, "Yeah, I have a Bachelor Degree in English."
At first, I was a bit sad because I thought I was a monk but did not have much
chance to learn much about Buddhism. Nowadays, there are many religious
schools open to the public, so we are hoping that our next generations of monk
would have adequate education. Especially, when we learnt that Dharma is
practical", we realised that when we read books about Buddhism in the past, we
just scanned through the details, and did not think about those doctrines carefully
as we thought these were too sublime and impractical. A lot of Buddhism
3

disserations written by either Northern or Southern School was very profound but
impractical so we did not go into details and never read again, as we thought we
would have not been capable of understanding those principles.
It is absolutely true that "Dharma is practical," so we have to find really
what is practical and relevant. They must include the teachings that are very close
to our real life. The Buddhism teachings in Nikaya are Buddhas words, also stated
the same thing. Although the old writing style was a bit confusing, it is still very
practical and relevant now, even two thousand five hundred years had passed. This
is also why we must pay homage to Buddha. After Buddhas period of time, over a
few thoudsands of years, there had been so many disserations written, which now
has become outdated and not much meaningful to the present life. However, all
teachings and principles written by Buddha are not outdated at all. The proof is in
the Nikaya Doctrines which writing is very succint, concise and could explain all
matters in our life.
We ourselves did not expect that teaching Nikaya Doctrines could help
confirm the "practical" and relevant nature of the Dharma. Dharma is the truth,
and it was accepted and confirmed by Buddha. Therefore, it reflects not only in
what the Buddha has said, but also in all livings on earth.
For example, the proverb, "Do not judge the book by its cover", could be
called Dharma or even Love sees no faults. Today, we discuss this proverb and
the Dharma to refer to the following matters:
Firstly, we analyse the morals hidden behind these proverbs as it has the
same meaning with the statement "The head is ruled by the heart in Buddhism.
Secondly, we must emphasise that the key things in Buddhism are practicality and
relevance; it does not depend on time and we must see it, and experience it over
and over again. We must come and experience Buddhism, not just believing in it
spiritually. If we just believe in Buddhism, just because of our belief and trust in it,
then it is not truly genuine Buddhism. We must experience it by ourselves, in our
real ife. Intellectual people must accept this fact, this is a very basic and important
element of the Dharma. We emphasised this point because the Dharma covers all
matters in our real life, not just in books.
Life has so many things for us to assess.

First, we assess people. When we look at a person, there are many things
that would influence our judgement, which easily could make us have wrong
perception about them. So, which factor does really influence our judgement?
There many of them, but the number one factor is the appearance.
When looking at an attrative and beautiful person, even though we do not
know much about them, we still like them, and it is because of their blessings. The
outside appearance is the first factor influencing our judgement about someone. In
reality, despite the fact that we do not know if this person is good or bad, we
would assume that they are good people based on their attractiveness. There are
many real cases where beautiful and good-looking people are cruel. Is this the
reality? Yes, it is.We have watched many movies about this topic, but there are
also many real life scenarios. There are many people who did not have the blessing
of having a beautiful face, however, their ethics, their compassions for others are
commendable; and obviously there are a few people who are blessed to have both:
beauty and compassion.
Again, appearance plays an important role and it influences our perception
of other people. If our judgement is influenced by peoples appearance, it would
be quite difficult for us have a right judgement or conclusion about anyone. Ugly
looking people would not easily gain our compasion and trust, and vice versa. In
fact, this is controlled by karma. Karma could control our thoughts and our mind.
This is also the reason why a lot of companies employ good-looking, attractive
employees for Customer Service roles.
Relationship by blood is also another factor, which influences our judgement.
Because of family relationship, we would be always on the family side regardless;
and this was proven in a lot of trials at court. For example, there was a naughty,
spoilt young man, who drove into someone, caused them to die, because of his
carelessness. At the trial, all people felt hatred towards that man, but his parents
and his familiy members felt the opposite. Although the parents were aware that
their son was at fault, they still tried to hire the best lawyer to defend for him.
They could even be willing to take the blame on themselves for pampering their
son too much. Therefore, the relationship between family members could make
our judgement clouded and obscure. This is a very important factor, which could
lead our judgment towards being biased and wrong.
In a fight, or in an argument, we would be always on the family side, and
not on the strangers side. Or, when we heard an arguement between two people
5

who had different level of academick education, we often would lean towards
more the argument of the one who had a higher academic education. We could
often see the differences between the argument quite easily; one would be more
convincing than the others. For example, the statement the head is rules by the
heart or Love sees no faults would be more persuasive if it was expressed by an
educated Buddhist instead of a farmer.
Not only relationship by blood, but also wealth is another factor that would
influence our judgement and perception. As the saying goes, "Stronger by rice,
daring by money" (This is a Vietnamese proverb). It is very common in our
oridinary life. When someone states something, even though the statement is not
realistic, and sometimes even ridiculous, others would still admire them because of
their wealth, their position in the social hierarchy.
The truth is that it is blessing (good or bad karma) which secretly controls
everyones judgement. A person with lots of blessing always gains attention, care
and support from others and vice versa. When judging someone, our thinking and
our mind are influenced or controlled by his or her blessing. Their blessing would
encourage us to think positively about these people, although in reality, they are
not that good. Blessing protects people. The more blessing we have, the more
benefits we would have.
This also explains why there are so many evil people, which are not
punished by the law and even sometimes, they are protected by powerful polictics
force. A criminal who have committed a serious crime but with his/her blessing
from past lives, he/she would still receive clemency. On the contrary, a person
lacking of blessing could suffer from an injustice even just having committed a
petty crime. Life is full of unfair things and the difference in peoples blesshing is
really the cause of this unfairness. However, karma is fair, the law of cause and
effect is absolutely fair we reap what we have sown, it is just the matter of time.
Understanding this principle, Buddhist disciples must try our best to do more
good deeds in everything we do, in every thought we have, and in every seconds
of the day. Only blessing would help us purify our mind, only blessing would help
us in meditation and only blessing would help us have ability to go on the
Eightfold Noble Paths. Good people without blessing would not be able do great
things, while bad ones with lots of blessing could influence others, which could be
heading towards any direction.
6

For example, a non-Buddhist was talking to two of his friends. The poor one,
a Buddhist, advised him to follow Buddhism, and to practise the Dharma. In
contrast, the wealthy one advised him to enjoy life as life is too short. Because the
poor one did not have as much blessing as the wealthy one, his advice was not as
convincing as the other. The advice of the wealthy friend was a lot more
influencial in this case. It was difficult for the non-Buddhist to follow the poor
friends advice, although it is absolutely true. Hence, all Buddhist disciples must
have as much blessing as possible in order to promote and protect Buddhism.
In addition to the two above factors (relationship by blood and wealth), karma
is also another main factor that secretly rules peoples lives. It is not unreasonable
to say "Life is suffering, love is unfair and practising the Dharma is a source of
blessing". Life is a chain of events; it is about avoiding pains and miseries, and
seeking pleasure where possible; borrowing then again paying back. Life is so
short but because of beings ignorance, we have made countless errors, and have
created lots of bad karma. If in the past lives, the relationship between people were
harsh and even had a lot of tension, then in the current life, it would be hard to
gain each others compassion. And vice versa, if the relationship were great in the
past lives, it would be easier and natural to gain eath others trust and
consideration.
Even in this current life, if ten years ago, we argued or got into a fight with
someone else, despite how much remorse we have paid, it would be still difficult
for us to gain the other persons sympathy and compassion when we met the
person again because of bad karma. Although we did many good deeds and
received many compliments, they would still see us as someone not being genuine.
In contrast, if in the past, we treated someone good, created blessing, then in this
life, we would be supported and cared by others. Therefore, past events, either
good or bad, would influence our judgement one way or another.
Besides, the relationship by birthplace could also have influence on our
judgement or assessment of someone. Usually, people with the same homeland
would easily gain each others compassion. Homeland is somewhere that is really
close to us, therefore, whenever we meet someone from our homeland, we would
immediately like the person. Whatever the person may say, regardless of what
topic it was, we would still be interested in listening to it.

The last factor is the destiny, the fate based on karma. Events happened in the
past lives between people would definitely have influence on their judgement of
someone in the future lives.
Therefore, praise or criticism about someone are not entirely accurate. These
comments have already been influenced by many factors. Often, praise and
criticism are influenced by emotion, likes or dislikes. It applies to religion, too. If
we were a Buddhist, we would definitely defend another Buddhist, regardless of
the circumstance. Why is that so? Because we know and understand that
Buddhism is the only truth, therefore, we chose to follow it. Those who have not
fully understood Buddhism, their belief in Buddhism would not be strong, so they
could easily change their mind and influenced by others opnions about Buddhism.
Therefore, we must understand Buddhism completely, experience it to believe in
it, then follow it; not the other way around. If we did not have the wisdom to
distinguish between the right and the wrong, then we would easily abandon
Buddhism because of these criticism.
Once, we talked to an American (We already mentioned this story when we
preached the Vajra Sutra). He asked us: "What is the origin of all beings?".
According to his religion, God had created all. Buddhism does not say so. He said
that he liked other Buddhist teachings and thought that Buddhism is perfect. He
also had met many ethical and religious Buddhists. Nevertheless, the fundamental
difference between his religion and Buddhism in the origin of all beings made him
confused.
In fact, it is very difficult to talk about the origin of all beings. A simple
question about flowers could result in many answers about its origin. There have
been are many questions arisen about the origins of all beings. The satisfactory
answer for this big question was not easy to find, therefore human beings had
chose God as the creator of all things. Buddhism is different. With His perfect
power and wisdom, Buddha stated all events, and all beings are ruled and
governed by karma and destiny. And Buddhas statement had challenged the
Americans belief in his religion as he replied: "The statement has challenged my
belief in Christian.
We would always naturally defend our own belief, our own religion.
However, the rationale used in Buddhism bases on reasoning and logics.
Buddhism principles are also realistic, scientific and those teachings does not base
on any other beliefs or magical powers.
8

With other religions, people have adopted them since their infancy because
of their parents, and/or their ancestors, although they have not yet had time to
understand about the religion itself. A Switzerland lady once listened to Buddhism
preaching and had agreed then to follow Buddhism. She thought that it was quite
unfair that her parents baptised her without her agreement. Now she had grown up,
she should have the right to decide which religion to follow. Her right decision
also brings joy to all of us. We chose Buddhism, because it is the right path,
leading us to the truth and to everything else in this vast universe.
It is the common sense that we would often favour our own religion or the
religion that our parents had been following, without considering its doctrines.
Even our first impression when we met a monk would also influence our
assessment and consideration about that religion. If we met a very caring and kindhearted monk, we would naturally have good impression and great respect for this
religion.
Knowledge and personal prejudice would significantly impact our
assessment of a religion. If we only heard bad comments about some religions, we,
without much difficulties, would have made inaccurate assessment and judgment
about it. For example, if we did not know anything about Buddhism doctrines, but
only formed our assessment only by watching the "Lan and Diep" musical theatre
show, we then could make pessimistic assessment of this religion. From the love
story, we might think that following Buddhism was to escape from misery, and
from everyone else. It is absolutely not true. For that reason, our own personal
prejudice, knowledge, feeling and especially blessing would shape our view about
any religion. Thus, it is very challenging and difficulte to form an accurate view.
Similarly with the situation when commenting about a country or a nation,
the nationality is the most important factor. If you were a Vietnamese, surely, you
would love Vietnam, and its people, even if the country is still poor and its people
still have lots and lots of flaws.
There are many Vietnamese people, who just have been living overseas for
a short period of time, have said that Vietnam is an undeveloped country and
Vietnamese people were dull. These people were really awful and they had low
morals. Those, who have high ethical standards, would still remember and love
their home land, their origins, even though they already lived quite comfortably
else where. No matter what, we still have the Vietnamese blood in us, and we must
always love our homeland, our country, and our people.
9

It is quite common that we would make judgement about a country based on

someone we know from that country. For example, if we had a great French or
German friend, who were very nice and kind people, we would naturally like their
country.
Therefore, if we want people from other countries like Vietnam, like its
people, each of us must make an effort to improve our country. When seeing a
foreigner, each and every action of our behaviour, or our saying would influence
their perception of Vietnam and its people. Although there is no formality about
each of us being a representative of Vietnam, we must remember that in deed we
are. We must take care in each action, each behaviour, and in each word of our
saying when socialising with other foreigners. We must create good impression for
people from other country about Vietnam and its people.
When a foreigner travels or on a business trip to another country, everything
in that country is new to them. Therefore, how well he is treated in a foreign
country would definitely impact on how well he perceive that country. If he is
treated well, his perception and assessment about that country would be good, and
vice versa.
Another factor that would influence our view and perception about another
country is their politics. The perception could be totally wrong if we based only
our thinkin about the country polictical status. A country may be not as bad as it
being perceived because of the political competitions, being discussed in the
media.
Again, a very special thing, karma, silently rules our thinking about any
country. A Buddhist once told us about her story which was a bit surreal, but it
reflected what karma is all about. She is a Vietnamese; she was born and grew up
in Vietnam but if someone asked her what country in the world she liked best, her
answer was Egypt. She did not like other civilized countries like the U.S., Japan,
Germany, France, Russia, China, Hong Kong, Australia like many others She
herself did not know why. She loved only Egypt and Egyptian even though she did
not know much about the country and its people. She even did not have a
opportunity to read a book or visit the country, but she still loved Egypt and
Egyptian. Her daughter was a Buddhist as well. One night, she dreamt about what
happened some thousand years ago. At that time, both she and her mother were in
the palace of the King of Egypt. Her mother was a imperial concubine, the wife of
10

a Pharaoh and she was a maid, working in the palace. After her daughers dream,
only then the mother knew why she loved Egypt.
Now, lets discuss about about assessment of an art work or a musical
composer. Apart from the author's true talent, the audiences ability to enjoy his
work also plays an important role in the assessment. There are some musical songs
that only qualified people would be able enjoy and feel the greatness while others
would feel bored when listening to those. Personal feeling/mood is also an
influencing factor. Sometimes, when we first heard a song, it did not sound right,
we could not feel it. But the more we listed to it, we started feeling the song, and
its rhythm.
Have you ever seen an abstract painting? The paintings which easily makes
us confused about what the author was trying to convey to the audiences. Those
who understand and like abstract painting style are quite admirable, because we
could not really understand these paintings. In deed, these paintings could worthy
thousands or even millions of dollars.
Once, we met a Vietnamese artist. This artist was quite well known in
Vietnam and overseas as well. A lot of his paintings were sold abroad, and that
was why he was so rich. He mostly painted abstract paintings and only about
Buddhism. He said that Buddhism teachings gave him great inspiration. He gave
us the well-known magazine in which it displayed his works and talked about his
talent. We admired his talent and his arts, with great courtesy, but in deed, we
really did not understand these paintings at all.
A painting, or a musical song always intends to convey a message or a
moral value. The content is important but it is not the primary priority. The work
itself must be great and beautiful first, otherwise, it is hard to attract viewers, and
therefore it would be hard to convey its meanings. If the song had good lyrics but
bad rhythm, no one would want to sing that song. If a painting had a great message
but its presentation/display was terrible, it would not be able to attract viewers.
That is why we like to look at photographs. We have a friend, who is a
professional photograher, and one of his photograph has won a prize abroad. The
photo shows a girl with a crippled leg was sitting sadly against a tree, and the
background was a couple sitting happily on the bench. Well, each of us would
understanding the meaning of this photo differently. For this reason, we now
should understand that a photo, or a song, or any work of art attracts different
11

viewers, and these people have differrent level of knowledge and understanding. If
the content is too sublime, and not realistic and not easy to understand, it only
attracts a very limited number of viewers.
Authors themselves play an important role too. If the authors had depraved
life, most of their work would not be well-received and popular. Often, when we
dislike someone, we would then dislike their work, too.
Personal taste is also another influencing factor. A moral principle would be
rated highly if at first we can understand it and apply it to our ordinary life. When
we listened to a teacher, or a CD or read a book, if we could understand it, we
would consider that teacher, or that CD or that book good, and vice versa.
In some cases, we could either like or dislike someones sermon just
because of karma. Whether the sermon was good or bad, reasonable or
unreasonable, if between the teacher and us had good karma from past lives, it
would be likely that we would like the sermon. Or it could be also because of our
knowledge level about the topic which the sermon was addressing.
It is quite obvious that karma, past lives events, between a Master and his
disciples are really important in teaching/learning moral principles. If there is no
karma, whatsoever, between a Master and his disciple, the teacher/learner
relationship could not be formed; the disciple would have to look elsewhere, and
learn elsewhere.
Besides, other peoples comments about the religion also would impact us on
learning the Dhrama, too. If we learnt from a Master, who had received a lot of
good feedback and have many supporters, it would be easier for us to accept his
teaching. If when we were discussing about a sermon with a group of people, and
these people would comment greatly about it, we would not be able to say
anything else otherwise. Even if we thought that the sermon was not that good, we
would not say so. We reacted that way just because we were afraid that they would
think that our knowledge was so limited, and we could not understand the sermon.
Therefore, we must be very cautious when evaluating and when stating our
opinion about anything. Everything we see, everything we assess would not be as
objective as we thought. They all are influenced by other factors in our lives (we
have stated most of them from the beginning of this discussion paper). Only those,
who have incredible knowledge, the ability to attain the highest level of meditation
12

to have a pure mind and soul, could be accruate in their assessment and judgement
about others. Those, who are still selfish and narrow-minded, would often have
inaccurate assessment and judgement.
This is also one of the reason why fortune-tellers could tell what other
people think and could predict the future events. It is because their mind was pure
and stable. Only then, you could overcome your personal biased feelings and
judgement to assess things accurately.
Knowing about this principle now, lets consider all the events around us.
There are many criticisms, good or bad, around media, happening every day.
These comments are mostly based on personal judgement and perception.
We discuss this topic today, so that we are all aware, and should be
cautious in what we say, in our assessment and judgement about anything, or
about anyone. There is nothing asbsolute in this world, even when we see it with
our own eyes. Newspaper article is an example. These articles are often subjective,
and the content are mostly influenced by powerful policial forces. Even those
presidents, from democratic countries, would often also use his power to influence
the media, to shape the public opinion.
For example, if they wanted to invade another country, they would use the
media to gain the publics support. The purpose was for the public to gain hatred
about that country, so they would support the war, if that was to happen.
Therefore, what the public knew and heard about, was purely speculations, lies,
and personal tactics to fulfil political purpose.
We met a Vietnamese lady, who has been living aboard for a long time. She
expressed her dislike of Vietnam. She was proud of the country, where she was
currently residing in now and the residents because it is the law in her country that
the public has the right to know everything. When we questioned that: So, the
media is allowed to spread incorrect information, even lies? She was quiet then.
We did not know who she was and only later on knew that she held a quite
important position in a big overseas organisation.
We must understand that liberty and democracy does not mean the public
knows everything and everything is true. This world is not heaven, but full of
injustice. In fact, heaven still has injustice but just less than our world. In the
13

human world, the truth is always hidden. Intrigues, love, hatred and compassion of
human beings has caused many lies, nothing is really the truth.
We are so lucky to learn about Buddhism and it would be really great if we
meet a great Master. If the Master was not good, it would be likely that we would
be led to follow a wrong path. Therefore, we all have to worship Buddha, pray to
Buddha regularly that Buddha would help us go on the right path, so that we could
understand and practise the Dharma correctly.
Please be aware and keep in mind that the human world is a mixture of true
and false things, nothing is clear. Be careful with your assessment of anything
because what you see or hear is dominated by many factors, some could be very
powerful. There have been many terrible things created for evil purposes.
If a country, which specialised in the production of weapons, could not sell
their weaponary products because everywhere in the world was so peaceful, then
the question was: What would that country do?. Well, they must create wars. They
could form a government, then elected a leader and influenced the leader to create
war with other countries, so they could sell their weapons.
It is really sad because a human life is so short and fragile; and we cannot
control this. People would kill each other just because of money and their own
benefits. Blood must be shed, houses must be ruined and family must be separated
during war, just for weapons to be sold. When this painful truth is exposed, many
people just want to leave and never come back to this world, because no matter
how hard we tried, this world could not become heaven and we could not live
forever. We are always in the cycle or birth and death. We must cultivate harder,
we must practise the Dharma harder, so when we die, we could be in heaven or
reside in Buddhas world.
This is the feeling and the desire of many dedicated Buddhists, who deeply
understand the religion. Even Bodhisattvas with profound wisdom, great
compassion are always willing to help sentient beings, but never hope to reform
the world. This is the difference between ordinary people and Bodhisattvas.
Ordinary people know this world is full of evils and hard to improve, so they leave
and look for another peaceful place. Bodhisattvas know so and more but they
would do a lot of things to improve this world. Although there is not so much
hope, they still keep trying to mend, and to improve human beings souls.
Bodhisattvas had vowed to do so.
14

We should assess our own mind and soul. If we did not take action when
witnessing something bad, we would still be an average human being. Although
we has the knowledge to distinguish between the good and the bad, we still did not
take action, yet we had not achieved the kindness, and the compassion of a
Bodhisattva.
Because an average ordinary human being is dominated by selfishness,
greed and hatred, their thoughts and acts are often reactive, without much
consideration, and it often leads to quarrels and, to make the matter worse, it could
end up with violence. For example, two people, A and B did not agree with each
other. A told aother person, C, something about B; in the meantime, B also told C
something about A. C could assess A or Bs attitudes to find out who was actually
correct in this scenario. If A had negative attitude towards B, then As words were
not entirely correct. If B had positive attitude to A, then Bs words would have
more chance of being more reasonable and accurate.
If saying something when we are angry, these words often do not reflect the
reality correctly. There have been many Vietnamese who have been living aboard,
but they have tried to convince other people to fight against Vietnam. Their words
were provoked by their hatred, therefore, often it was not convincing enough for
others. In addition, they did not understand the fact that fighting against Vietnam
was fighting against their own compatriots, and more importantly was fighting
against Buddhism. Buddhism is the only religion, which tries to help people avoid
the cycle of rebirth and head toward liberation.
Throughout this discussion, we should clearly understand the enormous value
of Buddhism, as it leads all beings towards having pure mind without hatred and
selfishness, to assess all events accurately. Buddism is the only religion, amongst
many others in this world, which teaches human being to get rid of egosim, and
love all beings no matter what. Buddhism is the most humane and is the perfect
religion in the world. The Dharma teachings have educated all Buddhist monks"to
leave all personal emotions behind, pratise more and more of the Dharma, and to
love all beings. This is one of the greatest proof about the endless compassion of
Buddhism.
In "Four Noble Truths" or "Twelve Conditions, Buddha stated that personal
attachment was the cause of suffering. Buddha recommended people should have
overcome personal feelings, extinguished greed, hatred, ignorance and headed
towards liberation. Therefore, a genuine Buddhist monk would usually say the
15

right things. A true Master always keeps his mind pure and calm, so he can control
his feelings and assess things as the way they are. Also, his compassion would
cover all living beings. Why is that? Because when our mind is clear and pure, we
can easily realise the good or bad things in a person, and we would be able to
understand his or her nature.
Because of personal attachment, we used to assess someone improperly. Now
that our mind is clear, we realise that there are more bad people than good ones in
this world. It is really the truth, lets ask the question: how many good ones are
there amongs ten people? Probably, just two or three good people. Knowing that
this world contains bad more than good, we could easility become pessimistic,
frustrated and stressed. If we did not have compassion and love to forgive, we
would hate and avoid those bad people.
One of many great things of Buddhism is to keep our mind calm to assess
people properly, but still have enough compassion so that we do not hate people.
This principle hardly ever exists in other religions. In other religions, the followers
are often motivated by personal feelings, therefore, they would kill those who do
not not support or follow their religions. Only Buddhism is objective. Because
being objective and unbiased, Buddhism could understand and accept that there
are so many bad things existed in this world. Therefore, Buddhism encourages its
followers to have compassion and love, so there would be no hatred; but there
would be forgiveness, and we must ensure there are disciplines.
Now, we could say that Buddhism is the only religion in this world, of
which principles do not relate to personal feelings and attachment, and it is the
most loving and compassionate religion in the world.
There are two factors that would help us live well in this life: Ethics and
Wisdom. We could assess things accurately when there was no personal feeling
attached. We could forgive, and be tolerant and generous, when we have
compassion.
Because Buddhism is the most compassionate religion, its prayers contain
many holy vows, which would easily make people moved. The vow "I vow to save
all beings" is the best vow in all that no other religions would have.
Another aspect of Buddhism is its laziness. Sometimes, it was just about
dreaming about all the good things, but did nothing. When we prayed, we vowed
16

and promised many good things. However, when we finished praying, we did
nothing to keep those promises because we thought that praying was good enough,
we would have enough good blessing. We thought that would be enough for our
cultivation and practice of Buddhism. An example: we just finished vowing to
Buddha that: I vow to save all beings, but immediately after, we would ignore
all beings around us, even the next door neighbours. We could not care less if the
neighbour knew about Buddhism or not... This is a weakness of Buddhism, and
therefore of many monks.
Today, we must change this thinking and this behaviour. What we vowed to
Buddha like "I vow to save all beings", we must start taking actions to make the
promise become reality. We must teach others about Buddhism, help them realise
the true nature of a human life. All Buddhism disciples have an obligation to help
poor people and those who do not yet know about Buddhism. This is the right
strategy, the right plan and the big promise of Buddhism.
We have been focused only on helping other Buddhists, but not nonBuddhists. We helped those who came to the temple, who did praying regularly,
but we ignored those who did not know about Buddhism. The same Buddhists
were invited from one temple to another, had the same attention every time. There
are many others who do not know about Buddhism, especially the poor, and yet
we did not care for them. This is the big weakness of Buddhism, and now it is the
time to change. This responsibility is no longer just limited to only monks, but of
all Buddhists. From now on, we have to search in our area for poor people and
non-Buddhists, then help and guide them to learn about Buddhism. Because only
Buddhism can help all sentient beings understand karma, the cause and effect law.
Only Buddhism can help all beings understand what is the right thing to do.
If we did not help them, a bad religion could use money to entice them. That
religion could spend millions of Vietnamese Dong to achieve this objective. When
that religion taught someone the wrong thing, he/she would no longer worship and
respect their ancestors, but some other Gods. When you blindly followed a
religion, it would be easy to also blindly follow all of the instructions from this
religion, regardless if those were right or wrong. Many bad religions often are used
for political purpose. This is extremely dangerous to the security of our country, so
we all must be careful.
But why could such thing happen? It was because many Buddhists and monks
did not do anything for Buddhism. Everyday, we vowed to Buddha that we would
17

love all beings, but we soon broke that vow. We made so many vows, but we also
broke so many. We must change that thinking and behavious now.
We must discuss with all monks and other disciples on how best to guide
everyone else to Buddhism. We must take action quickly, as there is not much
time left. If we do not take any action soon, there would be many poor people,
who would follow other religions, because of money. It would be such a pity, if
they had to follow a wrong religion, did the wrong thing just because of a few
million Vietnam dong to live on. We must help those people, and help them to
keep the love for their country. We must try harder and harder.
On the other hand, Buddhist ourselves must be absolutely loyal and devoted
to Buddhism. We must become stronger and practise harder to keep oursleves
from being impacted or influenced by any political intrigues. We must understand
that any religion has to base on the population, so any political leaders would have
to care about this matter. In the ancient times, our Kings had never ingnored
Buddhism. Important positions in Buddhism were designated by the Kings
themselves. This was purely for one reason: to protect Buddhism from being
attacked by other bad religions.
Similarly, in China, for each dynasty, key positions in Buddhism were
designated by the King themselves. Even nowadays, all politicians always concern
about religions. Because Buddhism is always lack of strong disciplines, it easily
gets attacked by other religions. This is the worst weakness and disadvantage of
Buddhism. If there was an attack, Buddhists would easily be split up; and these
parties would fight with each other very fiercely.
Recently, we received a phone call from an unknown person. They said that
they would let us have a benefit, a priority. We were unconcerned about what they
offered, but we pretended to be trapped to find out what their real plan was. We
had known for sure that they had other motive, and we were right. After they
thought that we almost agreed to follow their plan, they gave us a condition that
we had to follow another religion. We were sad because they followed the wrong
path, against Buddhism, though they were a Buddhist themselves. We all must be
cautious of this.
Therefore, when we follow Buddhism, become Buddhas disciples, we must
also use our wisdom, intelligence to assess everything accurately. That is the first
requirement. The second requirement is to learn as much as we can about
18

Buddhism, in order to keep our belief strong, keep our mind and soul pure and
calm. We must not let our mind and soul being biased, being subjective. We must
always be calm, allow our mind to be pure. More importantly, we must often pay
homage to Buddha, help as many other people as possible, to create more blessing.
We must be ethical, and never allow ourselves to be subjective and proud that
we are right all the times. Wisdom only come to us, if we often pay homage to
Buddha; if we create good blessing; if we maintain our ethical standard; and if we
are not subjective and too proud about ourselves. This is very important. It is
because when our pride and arrogance arise, we often only accept our own
thinking and belief, our mind and thinking is then limited, and as the result, we
could not be wise and clear to assess everything else. Only those, who are careful
of what they think, always assess if they are right or wrong, after three years, they
would become wiser.
Those, who always think that they know it all, who always think that they
are right, would never improve, would never be wiser. This is the key of practising
to improve our wisdom and knowledge. Once we have wisdom and knowledge,
our assessment would be more accurate. Comprehending Buddhist teachings
would become easier. Those, who can be apply this principle, who can always
assess self to improve everyday, are really wise. Only ignorant ones always think
that they are right. This is although a very basic principle, but we all must
remember it.
Apart from having calm and pure mind, being unbiased towards others,
meditation could help us further improve our wisdom, however though, we should
be very modest about this achievement. Why? It is because there are many
prejudices which are so strong that even meditation could not help get rid of them
totally, and they secretly still control our mind. A meditative mind though has
been purified, but deep down, the mind could still be influenced by many ignorant
thoughts and motives, which as the result drive our thinking, assessment and
behaviour. It would lead to wrong thinking, wrong assessment on others.
Therefore, those, who mediate to purify thier mind successfully, should not be too
subjective and too proud. If we could always try to be modest, have pure mind,
and see ourselves being limited and know less than other, our knowledge and wise
would continue developing and improving.
In contrast, those, who have just attained the beggining level of meditation,
but already look down on others, their thinking and judgement would be ruled by
19

their own ignorance. This is why there are so many academics with advanced
degrees would still follow the wrong path. They relied solely on their own
knowledge. They became subjective. They always thought that they were right.
They did not worship Buddha. They did not help people and did not have strong
moral standard. In some countries like Japan, Switzerland, the United States ...
there are many bad religious sects, with a lot of followers being doctors,
professors...etc. Therefore, if we thought that someone was right, only based on
their academic degrees and level of education, we would be totally wrong. Having
wisdom to see through things and beyond the present is actually very different.
On the other hand, the luck of a religous learner is also important. It would
be very fortunate if we are to meet a truely genuine and great Master. This great
Master would be able to teach us the right things and we will improve our
knowledge and behave ethically in accordance with Buddhism teachings.
Otherwise, we could learn wrong things and eventually would do bad things to
others.
If we always think of other people, learn and live for others, we share with
others our knowledge, we would be blessed with more wisdom. However, when
sharing your knowledge with others, we must not be proud and show arrogant
attitude, showing off what we know to prove that we know more than others. If we
discused about some profound principles, it just simply meant that these principles
are profound, not us. We are just dust in this world. When we think that we are
great, our pride arises, our mind is clouded, and it would eventually destroy all our
blessing.
Some Buddhists, after learning about Buddhism teachings, would want to
eagerly explain these teachings to others because they want other to have the same
understanding about Buddhism as them. This is great because it would help
Buddhism be flourished. But please remember while teaching others, be very
modest. If you passed on the teachings to others as if you were the master, you
would be losing your blessing. So please be aware of that consequence, and be
careful.
To keep ourselves always be modest, the key thing is we must pay homage
to Buddha more often. Everyday, we should be on our knees, bow to Buddha, pray
to Buddha that we can overcome our prejudice, assess people and things
accurately and fairly, and our thoughts and behaviours would always be in
accordance with Buddhism teachings. If we do so everyday, then many lives after,
20

we could be an intelligent person, and could have the ability to assess people and
events accurately. Even in this life, it would help with improving your wisdom
later in life. We only need to honestly vow to Buddha every day or night and
Buddha will bless us.
We discussed this proverb today to advise you that be careful when you assess
anyone or anything. Besides, we also must be alert to other religions conspiracies
to split up Buddhism. Life if full of political motives and intrigues, so we should
take refuge in the Buddha. We have to pray to Buddha that we would have wisdom
to assess and judge people and all things around us accurately.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

21

MEANINGS OF THE MOONLIGHT

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Today, we are talking about meanings of Moon Festival (also known as MidAutumn Festival). The best thing about Moon Festival is the autumn weather.
Despite the rain season, those rainless nights held a beautiful moon in the sky.
The air of this season is usually fresher than summer. In summer, our vision is
limited due to cloudy sky. Meanwhile in the rain season especially during midautumn, the air is fresh and pleasant. We know this because we live in the
mountainous areas and the difference between these two seasons is so obvious.
Every day we step out the shelter and look towards the faraway Can Gio beach,
the peninsula appears unclear and remote during sunny season, but during the
rainless days of the rainy season, it appears so clear that we are able to see the
small white roofs How beautiful!
The moonlight of mid-autumn full moon is the most beautiful moonlight during
the whole year. Thus, the night is referred to as the joyous night, during which
people would enjoy the festival. If the night is clear, and we can see the most
beautiful moonlight of the year, under which the children enjoy playing, that is
the first meaning of the moonlight.
Secondly, from many years ago till now, the moonlight had always been
inspiration for human fine art. The moonlight overflows in poems, music, and
paintings. However, it varies depending on our individual feelings. It is also
possible to see the moonlight through the eyes of a Buddhist. However, firstly,
we should understand human beings feelings about moonlight.
For instance, children see the moon in the following lyrics: Moon as round as a
dish, floating without falling even a bit. As round as a dish without falling is
just how the children simply see the moon.
As for adults, they have been through bitterness, loneliness, pains and
sufferings, and experienced their lives a little bit differently. In their cold and
lonely nights, they would look up the sky and speak to the moon: In the moon
palace who would know, how love is like. They imagine there was a palace in
the moon which is called Chang-o palace or Change palace. It is where Change
lives. They have no idea if their beautiful Change could understand anything
happening down on earth. Things like human betrayal, they love then they hate,
being together then apart forever The world changes, people change, love also
changes.

It is hard to find someone so you can be protected by their love. Human

relationship is fragile and unstable. They may be nice to you not, but also can
turn on their back to us at any time by a random reason. That is why life is
unstable and constantly changing. Once we comprehend this, we should
always love with all your heart, and dont change and give up so easily.
Some poets described the moonlight in an exaggerating way like it is dodging
through the leaf crevice smoothly. The moonlight shines down on earth but was
described by this poet as a drop falls onto the veranda silently. It seemed like the
moonlight dropped onto this place to push away the darkness and stillness.
Through the eyes of a romantic poet, the moonlight becomes a drop falling
silently down to earth. The way those artists described the moonlight with their
feelings, with their whole souls by using their knowledge and rich vocabulary
makes the moonlight even more beautiful than ever.
In the song Duong xua loi cu (The Old Path) the composer described the
moonlight There was the path, wind in her hair. The sun was settling on the
path and the way she walked marked on the moonlit route. The moon was out
and the wind was blowing when a long-haired fair lady was passing by. Her
shadow marked on the moonlit way. These beautiful moonlight scenes always
the inspiration for humans fine arts.
There are many songs about the moon: The silver moonlight, there was a giant
banian-tree, there was Cuoi (Cuoi is an imaginary man who lives in the moon
with a banian-tree) from a childrens song. Your boat gently surfing on the
river, I hear the eternal sad moon illuminating the rivver from Boat and
Moon. Furthermore, from Under the Moon we swear, by the moon I wish
we would never be apart As we can see, those human feelings and love are
regularly attached to the moon.
However from science perspective, the Moon is defined is just another planet
which existed for millions and billons of years and there was no life on this
planet. When the astronauts arrived on the Moon surface, they looked back and
realized how beautiful the Earth is. The Earth is full of life with green and blue
colours. Meanwhile, the moon is just a place covered by rocks, sand and dust.
No living things exist. Yet, when we live on Earth with these gorgeous forests,
rivers, oceans and the entire mankind, we start dreaming of that distant
mysterious moon.

Especially in the past, when human science was still primitive, there was no
spaceship to reach the moon. The moon was always something attractive and
very mysterious to us all. Except the astronomers who can observe the moon
from a distance by their telescopes, the moon used to be an obscure mystery to
ancient people. In the dark nights, an orb of silver light flies across the sky and
dives into the western horizon. After that, the sun slowly emerges Those
days, the moon was still enigmatic and strange. Unlike the way we see the moon
now.
Vuong Duong Minh was an ancient man whose way of seeing the moon was
quite different. He was from a royal family. He was very intelligent in his early
age. One day, his father had him to serve tea for a guest. In the past, it was often
that people would find their muses of making poems when enjoying tea with a
companion. Those two old men suggested that each of them would make a poem
about the moon. (We should know that both of them were very knowledgeable).
While those men were thinking about their poems, Vuong Duong Minh standing
next to them started to sing his own poem. Here we stand looking at the sky;
the moon is way smaller than a mountain. But it is not true; it is iust because the
moon is far and the mountain is near. If human can see far, we might see the
moon is a lot bigger than any mountains. What a special man he was. He was
just a little boy but he was very wise. In China they say a small guy has the
eyes as big as the sky, he may be small but his vision as big as the sky. Vuong
Duong Minh is that kind of man.
The story about Vuong Duong Minh shows us a different way of seeing things
in our life. Vuong Duong Minhs perspective is similar to Einsteins. Einstein
gave many questions about cosmic physics without any advanced technical
supports. Only with pens, papers and a thirst for knowledge, he went from
equations to equations and opened a new era of physics for the whole of
mankind. He was one of the most famous scientists of the century. Great minds
think alike. Remember how Vuong Duong Minh from the past, a little boy in a
primitive era, could conclude that by distance the moon appeared smaller than it
was. With the-eyes-as-big-as-the-sky, a wise man is able to see the truth that the
moon size is much more enormous than any mountains in the world.
Vuong Duong Minhs great mind earns our respect. Afterwards the boy became
a huge philosopher of China. He reformed Confucianism and made it closer to
Buddhism. And through his own religion, he made both more practical. They
help people to be stronger in life, to find peace in their souls and they benefit
4

humankind. He increased the spiritual elements in Confucianism and made it

more emancipated like Buddhism. However, that kind of spiritual elements must
also be practical in today life. That means those who are enlightened must be
willing to help the others. That is the path set out by Vuong Duong Minh.
It is the same in our life, we hear a lot of things, but not everything we hear and
see is true. Hence, beside seeing things, we need to think about it in a more
rational way, not just only seeing things with narrow mind. For instance, when
we see a shabby man, we made an immediate judgment that he was poor just by
a look at those ragged outfits. This is very judgmental. A wise person would dig
a little deeper to see if that man is genuinely poor or not. If you see him, a
ragged man, coming to your house with a dignified attitude, decently drinking
tea, he may not come to borrow money at all. Should we be aware, those ragged
outfits may just be a cover of his identity.
On the other hand, even if someone, dressing up with fancy clothes or wearing a
tie, comes to your house, you must still consider him with the eyes of wisdom.
Dont take him as a gentle man so soon. He might just be a disguised robber
waiting for the right moment.
In addition, while searching for enlightenment at pagodas, we see and hear a lot.
Sometimes things seem pleasant, but sometimes they sound objectionable. The
point is not to make quick judgement because there may be unexpected truth
underneath. Therefore, rational thinking are crucial only if they are filled with
compassion. In other words, knowledge can only be obtained with love.
Now, we will see the moon through the eyes of Buddhism. It is not very
different from seeing through the eyes of authors, poets, or composers. There
were so many times the Buddha and the Arhats used the moon to discuss their
philosophies. Thus, the moon usually appears in many teachings. Here are some
points about this matter.
First, the question is: What does the moon symbolize?
When someone has got a beautiful face, we usually compare that face with a full
moon. In the past, the Arhats were praised by their facial beauty. Particularly the
Buddha and Ananda, their faces were praised as gorgeous as a bright full moon
in the night sky.
Through the eyes of Buddhism, the moon symbolizes the wholehearted
enlightenment and the completely calm mind.
5

There are some matters related to the image of a full moon. The full moon day
of lunar April is the Birthday of Buddha. Meanwhile in China, it is in the 8 th of
lunar April. It was told that in the 8th of lunar April (some year in the past, B.C),
a Chinese emperor saw beams of golden light shining in the west. The emperor
asked his priest about this phenomenon. The priest answered him:
- Today is the birthday of some Western saint.
- Does that saint have any concern to China?
- No, but a thousand years later his philosophy will arrive.
This story was engraved on a stone tablet. When Buddhism arrived in China, the
8th of lunar April was chosen to be the Birthday of Buddha for what the King
engraved on the stone tablet. However, according to Hinayana, the International
Buddhism chose the full moon day of lunar April instead.

The full moon day of lunar February is Nirvana Day (Buddhas Entry to Nirvana
Day). In the sutra of Great Decease, there is a paragraph about a Bodhisattvas
question for the Great Buddha: Why do you choose the eighths for other
festival days while choosing a full moon day to be Nirvana Day? The Buddha
responded Because the nature of Nirvana is as perfect as a full moon.
Therefore, a full moon in a night sky reminds us about the principle If you
have a wholeheartedly enlightened mind inside, you can reach the
enlightenment that is as absolute as a full moon.
The moon was also used when the Buddha praised Sariputra and
Mahamaudgalyayana. After they entered Nirvana, their sarira were brought to
the Buddha. The Bubbha had a long and moving sutra in public. He spoke his
mind frankly and honestly the absence of Sariputra and Mahamaudgalyayana
6

made this assembly a sky with millions of stars but no moon at all despite the
fact that there are many talented, admirable and moral Arhats in the assembly.
The Buddhas love towards his two disciples was enormous. Although he said
so, no one in the assembly felt jealous. This was because even the most junior
position of them was sotapatti, which means their minds are all calm enough to
overcome the feeling.
From this, we can see praising someone who passed away is morally right so
that the others feel calm, peaceful with those compliments. Therefore, we should
honor those who have gone. No one is perfect but who gets more favors than the
others is a blessing.
Although nowadays there is nothing much left of their influence and their traces
of intelligence, talents, and morality, the tremendous contribution of Sariputra
and Mahamaudgalyayana is unimaginable. Recently, a Buddhist named Nguyen
Dieu translated some books written by Nyanaponika Thera in Sri Lanka about
lives of Sariputra, Mahamaudgalyayana, Kasyapa, and Ananda But still they
cannot demonstrate how greater those Arhats were than the others.
The moon is usually compared with the sun. The sun symbolizes the extremely
bright mind. Thus, under the guide of an extremely bright mind, we become
doubtful and cautious; whereas under the guide of affection and
compassion like a full moon, we are always warm and trustful. For instance,
when a person is so talented, profound and intelligent and he even seems to be
able to see through your soul, you become defensive and cautious when he is
close. But with a person whose eyes are filled with love and kindness, you feel
safe and trust him no matter what happened in your life. Normally, we tend to
prefer the later. Sometimes, you even want to share your secrets because you
find him reliable.
The moon symbolizes compassion, affection and grace. This is the shelter of
life. We need intelligence to survive like this planet needs the sun to heat up, to
provide nourishment to plants and animals, and to keep life goes on and on
The sun is vital to our life and the moon is also essential to us. During the cold
dark nights of hatred, love is the light, the shelter, and the morality that keeps us
warm. The sun stands for intelligence whereas the moon stands for compassion
thanks to its graceful light.
We must aware that this world never has enough love. In a world of 7 billion
people, love is so little. People still treat each other with hatred, jealousy,
7

violence, humiliation, and revenge Rarely do they live with love and kindness
in their hearts. Hence, if only love and affection overflew this world, humans
could ease off the pains and sufferings, and eventually find their happiness.
Otherwise, the world keeps on drowning in pains. It is quite simple really. If
one day a suffering family is awakened by a lesson of love; not only the pains
disappear but the happiness also lights up their home atmosphere as they are
willing to give love. They love their family and the others. Despite the
unchanged poverty, they enjoy their life every single day.
Ladies and gentlemen, you happened to be here for a reason. It could be a
predestinated tie to be a Buddhist you have; more or less your mission may
mean to love people. During your mission, you will find your life happier and
more meaningful. It is because compassion mind makes yourself and everyone
around you happy.
Now, lets look at this matter in contrast. When you live with 2 people that do
not love you at all, it would be uncomfortable to dine or work together. You
would be cautious and alert in every move in order not to mess up with them.
For example, you stay up late tonight and you find yourself worrying if you
would bother them or not. Or for the tasty meal, you want to have an extra but
wonder whether they are scowling at you. Living with that so many worries will
exhaust you sooner or later. In the contrary, when you live with people who love
you, it will make your life easier. They do not scowl at you if you want to have
an extra when dining together. Whats more, they even share their own parts.
When you go the wrong way, they will be mad at you but never abandon or
leave you on your own.
Living with compassion and kindness makes everyone happy. If they are not, it
means your love and affection are not enough just yet. It is strange but true to
recognize how happy and peaceful life could be when you start loving everyone
around you. Some people do not understand it. They think meditating in some
dark corners, closing themselves on life or clearing their mind is the only way to
find peace. Yet it may not help and even end up raising your selfishness. All you
have to do is having a little faith and love. When someone criticizes you, there
are two ways to keep your mind peaceful: One is to keep your mind from
thinking and become a quiet and nice person. Another is to recognize your faults
with a generous heart. Often, he who is criticizing you truly loves you. The same
happens if there are times when you get mad at him.

It is love that makes people and yourself happy. In tough times, a man with
compassion and kindness will have the strength to get through whatever life
throws at him. Do parents, who love their children, easily give up and commit
suicide just because they have no money? No, I believe their love will lift them
up and motivate them to strive to a better life for their children.
In our life, difficulties and challenges are inevitable. Once we keep the faith and
love one another, we will have a strong and lasting will to make through it all.
We will be able to overcome everything and keep on benefiting people in
particular and the life in general. A man with no love is weak. He always runs
away or hides. But wherever he hides, trouble and pains still come. It is karma.
In short, what we fear and try to hide away will follow us wherever we go;
but if we confront them, and try to overcome we will success.
Similarly, when you are walking in the dark and see a ghost, if you run, he
would follow you. If only you turn around and face him, he would vanish. There
is a story about a lady saw a will-o-a-wisp (a ghost orb) on the way back to
town. Will-o-the-wisp is a ghostly light in the night. Scientifically, will-o-thewisp is just a phosphoric gas leaking from some bones underground when
contacting with air can spontaneously catch fire. Those who witnessed a will-othe-wisp do not think it that simple. That fire orb flies as if it has a conscious
mind. Sometimes it is near, sometimes it is far and sometimes it plays around us.
That is why we call it a ghost. It is not just some fire that flashes and then goes
out as the way science explains.
As the lady told, her lover was riding her back town when a bunch of will-othe-wisp started chasing them. She told her lover to stop and stepped closer to
those chasers. They all disappeared.
This shows us how strong her spirit is.
Difficulties in life should be dealt the same way. You run, they will follow. You
fight, they will leave. The point is where can we find the strength to make it?
The answer is compassion and kindness will help us stand sacrifices and
hardships, enable us to strive to benefit people around us, for Buddhism and for
all living beings.
Love can be shown in two different ways:
First, we always wish people prosperity. From this, we call for charity and
donations.
9

Second, we always wish people rich with compassion and love, morality, talent,
reaching to the ultimate beyond emotion and thinking, and enlightenment.
We have to keep it in mind that love must be with the urge that wealth and
love will be with everyone. Without the urge, love means nothing, love is
not real. It is also the way to question ourselves if we have love for everybody
around or not. Every night in meditation, we pray to the Buddha for loving the
living beings. If the urge is not formed, it means the prayers and the
compassion still in a stage of cultivating process. When the right time comes,
the urge eventually urges our minds. We wish people material and mental
prosperity. We wish everyone live in happiness, peace and joy. We wish them
morality, talent, always searching for the ultimate beyond emotion and thinking,
and enlightenment. The urge you have must be so. Let us look inside of us to
see if there is that urge yet.
Now we shall narrow down our topic. Let us talk about our daily environment
such as family, work place These are the places where we should share love
and affection. We should wish the best for each other, not the worst. When you
wish the worst for someone, somehow you want him to be bad. You think you
just reveal their dark sides but more than that, you turn out to be the one who
loves telling bad things about people. As a good person, when you see
someones weaknesses, you truly feel sorry for him with or without saying; or
when someone is good, you tend to praise and appreciate them. Because of the
real love you have, you accomplish a positive attitude to everyone. It is the urge
of wanting somebody to be good or bad that evaluates if you have compassion
mind or not.
There is one sad thing: Buddhism is in a severe division. What is the cause?
There are many causes, direct and indirect causes. The most obvious cause is
from our criticism and judgment towards several subjects. Some are serious like
different division or same division but different branches or same branch but
different pagodas. Or some are insignificant like disciples of this monk
conflicting with those of that monk That is just how humans are. That severe
division shows best when people start talking bad things about each other.
The moons meaning illuminates the principles of loving and many inner
values. Among those, there is one thing to remember: We must be careful with
our words. We had better only say kind words to encourage and to unite,
rather than to criticize each other.
10

There is another principle relating the moon. In Seng Chaos Chao Lun, Chao
wrote about the emptiness of everything:
Storms
destroy
mountain
without
Water
runs
without
Dust
bustles
without
Moon crosses the sky without walking

help.
flowing
flying

The moon in the hymn rises in the west and sets in the east. The moon does
cross the sky but Seng Chao wrote Moon crosses the sky without walking,
which is a contradiction. It is as astonishing as Water runs without flowing is.
There are two essential conditions to understand Seng Chaos deep principles.
First is to meditate to reach a clear mind (no ego state). Second is wisdom and
Einsteins Theory of Relativity. We talked about this in the discussion on the
Sutra of Wisdom. Here we only remind ourselves there is a particular principle
about the moon.
A Master once warned us: Many of our consciousness are false. When you say
the banks move because of the floating boat or when you are sitting on a train
and you see houses, trees and people are running backward. Looking at the
clouds passing by the moon, you feel like the moon is walking across. The fact
is only the clouds fly. The lesson is Sometimes we are affected by the
environment and our minds become deviant. A distorted consciousness disables
us from seeing the truth. For instance, when someone has got a big round of
applause, we assume he is good. And the opposite happens when someone is
most likely to be criticized. But we should beware. That is just what people say,
we do not know how they really are. However, in reality, what people say does
impact our thinking and awareness.
A westerner has to work hard to earn his/her livings: shopping, eating, paying
bills Everything needs money. It is assumed that life and happiness must be
based on money. One day, when he is tired, he recognizes that: money cannot
buy him happiness. Easterners know from the beginning that happiness is not
only material wealth but also mental. They work less harshly to have spare time
to nourish their souls.
Environment affects our perspective. Sometimes it makes our visions distorted.
Like happiness is based on money. In fact, it is not just money but other values
that count.
11

Another meaning of the moon is the peace. The moon represents the peace
because of the given feelings in a quiet full moon night.
The moon is the muse of art. Unexpectedly, the moon is also the inspiration of
moral principles.
From now on, when looking at the moon, we shall think of three things:
First
Second
Third is Peace.

is
is

Love.
Wisdom.

Today is the Mid-autumn festival, the festival for children. In a beautiful full
moon night with winds and singing crickets, it is such a great time for a gettogether. However, we have sad news. Nun Lieu Nghiem has just passed away.
This is the first Mid-autumn festival without her. For the remembrance of her,
we would like to talk further about emotional tie.
Emotional tie is created by sharing feelings, love and behaviors of humans
toward one another.
The more you share feelings, love and behaviors to one another, the tighter the
emotional tie is. The less love is given, the looser the tie is. If you always treat
someone nicely and kindly but he is a shallow man then he will never
appreciates. This emotional tie is not very tight. The tie depends on both sides.
In this life, your soul mates are the ones that listen when you talk, and enjoy
when you play music. The good things, which are not respected and appreciated,
are just a waste.
The same happens for Buddhism. Although it is said that Buddhism means no
sadness, no hatred, no anger but it is filled immensely with love and
compassion. Why? As we can see from the time of Buddha, the worship of bone
ash is considered as a ritual of expressing human feelings. After the Buddhas
entry to Nirvana, except the Buddhas sarira - the priceless treasure of Buddhism
they built a worship tower anywhere the Buddha was: the cave the Buddha sat,
the place the Buddha conquered a furious dragon, the place the Buddha washed
his feet, the place the Buddha bathed, the place the Buddha made miracles, the
place the Buddha fly to the sky and descend Even a hair of the Buddha is
worshipped with respect. Unfortunately, more or less those places were

12

damaged by the time. From the records, the Buddhism is told to be a religion
with love, faith, thoughtfulness and gratitude.
According the Rules of Impermanent, time wipes away anything, including
love. Nevertheless at some point, our emotional tie perhaps remains
eternal.
This is what we feel about the loss of nun Lieu Nghiem. It is the will of nature
which we cannot change. There are many people came and stayed with us. Then
they left, our thought about them lingered on and faded as the day passed.
Particularly with the absence of nun Lieu Nghiem, our thoughts and our love for
her will be eternally in our hearts.
Like how we are in gratitude for the great people who changed our world, it is
not only for a century or a period of time but for a lifetime. In Vietnam there are
heroes like Tran Hung Dao or Tran Nhan Tong They were men whose lives
were once dedicated to this country, and their spirits as well as their
contributions last forever.
Nonetheless, our life goal should not be the ones that make people remember us
forever. We have to keep on telling ourselves that we must live, love, sacrifice
and benefit humankind. The day we leave this world, it does not matter if we
will be eternally remembered or not. The only thing that matters is the life we
lived should, and must, be worthwhile as a human being.
I do not expect any remembrance after death, but the way people
remember me could be the measure of the meaning of my life.
Let us live the way that will leave no traces of wastefulness, jealousy and
cruelty. When we live with all our hearts, the emotional ties are created greatly.
I wish the best would come to your practices of Buddhism.
We also wish all brethrens and your families a happy Mid-autumn festival.
Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

13

PAST PATH AGAIN

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

It is absolutely not easy to be a genuinely good, honest human being in this

world but it is very easy to be bad. It is easier to react to others badly such as we
would involve in a fight, we would harm whoever had done bad things to us, and
we would also hate the person who does not like us. However, the consequence of
doing bad things is severe as it can lead us to be an animal in our next life, or to
make it worst, we'll go to hell when we die.
We always face the dissatisfaction in this ordinary life: bad people,
unfavourable situations seem always be ready to harm us. What's hard is how to
behave and/or react to those situations ethically. That's why we have saints living
amongst us to remind human beings now and then not to live their lives in the
wrong direction.
In fact, it is more accurate to say that there are not many saints in this
ordinary life, so it is inevitable that we always encounter unpleasant/unfavourable
things in our life.
Why aren't we satisfied? It is because we always have to think about how to
deal with each other; and also because every human being is greedy, competitive,
and manipulative in nature. It exists even in those who learn about the moral
principles. We would have thought that we understand the principles, however,
when we encounter difficulties in life, we react in a very human way: being
greedy, manipulative and competitive.
Therefore, it is a long journey between we understanding the principles and
we living the principles. This applies to everyone and we must understand the
above to help us manage difficult things in our live.
Because that's normal in life so Confucius made the following statement:
"It's difficult being human" - "Vi nhn nan". It is very difficult to live a life rightly.
It is like solving a difficult math problem.
For example, in this life, sometimes we meet good people who possess
saint's quality, then that brings us happiness. It helps us believe in our life, make
us less doubt others and as the result less thinking about how to deal with each
other. It means we feel relieved, and that leads to happiness.

It is miserable when we live with someone, but we always have doubts,

because we think that the person is bad, he/she is not honest with us, etc.
However, when we live with someone who makes us believe that he/she
lives honestly with us, he/she gives us his/her love; and if we make mistakes in
life, the person would forgive us, help us earnestly. That bring us happiness as we
are not bothered, we don't have to be prepared for bad things, so that is a relief.
On the other hand, if we live happily, then we also bring joy and happiness
to others around. If we are ethical, live in accordance with our principles, it means
we are not competitive and manipulative; then we also bring others joy and
happiness. If you understand the above principles, you have a choice to choose the
right attitude/manner, with which you live in a way that brings happiness to others.
We should not demand other to treat you right, but we must demand other to
treat everyone else right. When we treat someone right, we should not expect to
receive the same thing from the other. Because it means we are being selfish,
expecting something in return for our kindness. Being a Buddhist, if we
understand Buddhism principles, then when we treat someone right, we should not
expect the same thing in return, we must expect other to treat everyone else right.
When a disciple was needy , the teacher was willing to provide support.
However, the disciple hesitated: "I am just a student, who can't afford to contribute
anything, I can't just accept your help." The teacher responded: "If you are success
later in life, remember about the support I give you today, you should do the same
thing, help other people; it means you have repay your debt." The disciple
remembered the advice for the rest of his life. The disciple did not reunite with his
teacher, but he did just what his teach advised him to do: love and help others.
Life is imperfect, and is filled with cruelty and unpleasant events; so for
those, who just live a hidden life to avoid reality, then is that acceptable? The
answer is No because by doing that, three mistakes were made:
Firstly, it means you are a coward, and being a coward, you cant
achieve anything in life.

 Secondly, by avoiding living your life, you avoid doing good deeds
for other people; it also means you will eventually lose your blessing; and
you are not worthy.
Lastly, when you do not interact with other people, you cant
experience love or feel being loved, so you cant be compassionate.
Therefore, if you make the above mistakes, you cant become Bodhisattva.
It is wrong to think that it is one of Buddhism principle to avoid living your life
because the reality is unbearable.
Then what does it mean by saying we are leaving this life? It has a lot of
deep meanings. It is not easy at all to become the Bodhisattva as they must
experience many hard lives.
It is inevitable that we lived through many rough lives with many mistakes
had been made. And yet we still are making many mistakes in this current life.
However, when we comprehend completely Buddhism principles, we start
believing in karma, we start going to temple to pray, and we start paying respect to
all monks, then we start making progress in avoiding making mistakes.
Because of those many mistakes we made throughout our previous lives, it
is unavoidable that we now must pay it off or make amendment during our current
life. This is why our currently life somehow repeats what has already happened in
our previous lives, so that we can repay. In other words, the current life presents
the same problem/issue we encountered in the past lives, giving us the opportunity
to fix the mistake, or make things better. It is one of the karma principles. Even
Bodhisattvas must to go through the same journey to get to where they are. We
should not think that because we understand Buddhism principles, we can avoid
living our lives, avoid reality. Understanding Buddhism does not mean we dont
have to make amendment for past life mistakes. The analogy we can use in this
instance is that the student cant graduate unless he completes all the subjects
successfully; if he fails that subject, he must repeat it until pass mark is achieved.
For example, if we treat 3 people badly in our previous lives, in our future
lives, somehow we would encounter the same situation. However, we must choose
to do the right thing this time, to make up for what we did in the past lives. If we

continued doing bad things to these people, we cant really move on to better
things in our future lives because we havent paid off our debt, or in other words,
made it up for these people.
Or, if we stole money from someone in the past, then we must give to others
to repay our debt. Or when we were a landlord, we did not pay our worker as we
should have, then in our current life, we may become their servants or their
workers, so that we can pay off the debt owed to them.
Another common example includes when we verbally abused someone in
our past lives, in our future lives, we would be demanded to love others. It is not
simple that we just do the Remorse Chant in accordance with Buddhism principle,
then we are forgiven. We are NOT forgiven, we are just given sooner the
opportunity to fix the wrong things we did.
We must remember that the more we do the Remorse Chant, the quicker the
opportunity will come for us to do it right. Buddha will facilitate the situation in
which we learn our lesson and do the right thing.
We must make amendment for our past live mistakes in current or future
lives. We must remember that we made so many mistakes in the past, we must
repay and make it up somehow, NOT to avoid it.
If we lived selfishly in the past, we now must live for others, giving more
than taking. For example, if we all lived poorly and it was hard to earn cash to
afford food, rather than sharing with others, we selfishly just enjoyed the food
ourselves, it means we lived selfishly, just thinking about our own benefits. Then
in future lives, we must live for others, to make up for selfish things we did in the
past. Using the above analogy, it means we must re-take the test for this subject
until we successfully get the pass mark.
It is also a mistake to enjoy your life in a wasteful way because of our
wealth. We should be able to help others with the available money and power. It
means that in our future life, we must live a moderate, even a poorer life to make
up for waste. By doing that, we learned how to appreciate the money and power
we had but we abused it.

So for those who currently live your life wastefully, you must re-think about
the mistake being made. And for those who currently live poorly or moderately, be
reminded that this is the time you make up for the mistakes made in the past lives.
Or if we betrayed someone in the past lives, in this life we will encounter
situations where we must learn about loyalty. So how do we learn to be loyal? We
may face the person we betrayed in the past lives, and we must learn to be loyal
with those people to repay for our betrayal. However, if we dont have blessing,
we dont remorse and we dont make amendment, we may live a life like a dog so
we can learn the loyalty lesson in the animal form. It is unavoidable that we must
repay for our mistakes made in the past lives.
For those who understand Buddhism, we should make amendment willingly
for those mistakes to avoid karma. For example, if we betrayed someone, we then
should praying, and doing the Remorse Chant in front of Buddas to reduce the
level of severity, and vow to live loyally with others.
Again, because of our sincere remorse, we are presented with opportunities
to make amendment quickly. This is for those who genuinely want to make
amendment. For those who do not have the willingness to correct the mistake,
those will live an animal life in their future lives.
The same principle is applied in all of the above situations, we must repay
for our mistakes. Either we do the correction willingly, or we will be placed into
miserable situations.
So, what is the key message? The key message is that: we should not avoid
living our life, because we made many mistakes in our past lives, so we should
make repayment for those mistakes.
However, there are two ways of making repayment:
(1) - We return in future live being an intelligent and
knowledgeable human being, who is willing to make repayment when
opportunity presents itself, or
(2) - We return in the future, being forced to live a miserable live,
and to learn how to make repayment appropriately.

Which one would we choose? Option 1 is the obvious choice. However, do

we have a choice to employ Option 1 and how are we going to do that?
Well, the only way is to ensure we understand Buddhism principles, we
remorse in front of Budda, we respect everyone, that is the only way we can keep
our blessing. By doing that, we will be more willing and more genuine in making
repayment for those mistakes, not being forced to do so.
Budda gives us opportunity to make repayment willingly. We still can make
repayment without praying to Budda, but in an animal form.
It is our fortune that Buddhism is available anytime anywhere, without
restrictions, to us. Being a Buddhism follower, we learn to respect Buddas, we
learn the principles, we learn to do good deeds, we know how to pay respect to
others appropriately, so it means we have blessing. The learning helps us improve
ourselves, helps us return to future lives being a human being to live a better live,
making amendments to mistakes in the past willingly.
It is only when we completely make amendments to all of our mistakes, it
then can be said we can leave everything behind to progress with the convention
journey (becoming a monk). If we still need to make more amendment, then it is
not yet the time to leave everything to become a monk.
In fact, leaving our real life to become a monk does not mean we live an
easier life, we actually must live more responsibly. The longer the cultivation time
is, the more responsibility we have. Even the oldest Venerable, who is unable to
do much due to their age, but still needs to be present and available for
disciple/follower to learn from. We respect these Venerables not because we are
being polite, but because we fully want to learn and devote to Buddhism.
The monks live a busy like, sometimes even busier than people with family.
The monks need to take care of a lot of things that relate to the society problems,
which is different kind of responsibility with those with family.
While others must take care of their families because that is their
responsibility, the monks must take care of Venerables, organising activities for
the Buddhism Association without any reluctance.

While the monks live their happy lives, in a sense that they complete
activities for the associated Buddhism willingly and happily, but what they are
doing are actually the repayment they make for their mistakes in their past lives.
So, when we realise that we want to live our ordinary life to become a
monk, to avoid difficulties in life, we are considered to be coward, avoiding our
responsibility (like character Lan in the novel Tat Lua Long of author Nguyen
Cong Hoan).
Why? Again as mentioned above, we must face and deal with things in our
real life to make certain that we have made repayment for our past lives mistakes.
May I also remind you that if you recruit a disciple to become a monk, you should
not accept anyone who running away from living their life; but you should take on
the person who is willing to live more responsibly.
In fact because Venerables (Master) are benevolent, he/she accepts anyone
who comes asking for help and support. The ones who live a miserable live, so the
Master allows them to live in the temple to help improve their living condition.
However, they then become a monk and receive respect from others, which can
potentially mean that they lose their blessing. On the other hand, those who has the
potential to take on more responsibility and to practise Buddhism principles
competently, then the later should really become monks.
Again I must repeat that we must continue on living our life responsibly to
repay for mistakes made in the past lives appropriately. It is not about running
away from our complex life to live remotely somewhere else.
However, it is incorrect to think that by living remotely somewhere else
means that we are safe. We may face even more dangerous things i.e. predators.
Other people would abuse us verbally, but the tiger can attack and kill us. Other
people can cheat, but other predators can attack and hurt us. There are many things
that are worse than human beings.
Speaking of ghost, let me tell you a funny story.

There are a lot of sand beach in Binh Thuan province. Because of the need
to build more accommodations in the province, they needed to remove all the
graves from one of those sand beach for the construction. When they dig into the
sand, they saw some bones and a skull inside a grave, however, they cant touch
the skull. Because everytime they tried to remove the skull, it kept shaking by
itself. Many people tried but failed to remove it, as they were too scared. One of
the them was praying: Dear ghost, please go away so that we can build more
accommodations for other people. We promised to move you to somewhere
nicer. The skull was still shaking by itself. The man who prayed before was
frustrated and was about to touch the skull to remove it, then suddenly a iguana
jumped out of the skull and ran away. The next day, a headline appeared on a local
newspaper titled The innocent skull.
Let me also tell you another funny about an innocent ghost.
When returning to our temple from Saigon. We havent slept in our room
for a while. There was a hammock in our room. When we went to our bed, there
was some noise coming out from the hammock. We said Please leave us alone.
However, the noise was still continued to come from there, throughout the whole
night.
When we turned on the light, the noise was gone. When we turned off the
light, the noise was back. We were thinking this ghost was really daring, not really
respecting us as the monks. We were so tired that we fell asleep until dawn
without being bothered by the noise anymore. In the morning, we realised that the
noise was made by an animal, not a ghost. We were telling the ghost off
incorrectly.
It is confirmed that there are many different kinds of beings in this world,
one of those we are usually afraid of is ghost or spirit. There are different types of
spirits, and many of spirits require our help, it is deemed to be another repayment
we need to make.
We have been saying many times that it is not the end when dying, because
we still exist somewhere else, in different form. People with lots of blessing will
be OK, those without blessing, they need us to constantly praying for them
because they will become lost spirit.

Therefore, we must make repayment in this life. It means when we

appreciate more about Buddhism, we must think about others, even those who
have passed away, they need our help. We can help by praying for them. Please do
not forget this matter because if needed, they will contact us somehow to get our
attention to remind us.
It is said that it is difficult to be a good human being because according to
Buddha, this life is filled with ordinary people, and has less extraordinary people;
therefore it is unavoidable that we almost always encounter difficulties and
unpleasant things in life. However, despite life challenges, we must continue on
living like a pure lotus full of beautiful fragrance. Living amongst greediness, but
we are not greedy; living amongst hatred, we continue living without any
detestation.
Budda advised us so.
If someone is cruel to us, we must solemnly vow not to pay back
heartlessly, thats excellent quality of Budda. It is like a beautiful lotus is not at all
impacted by the filthy smell of the mud. In other words, we are not influenced by
evil or bad things in life.
However, cruelty is contagious. If we think that cruelty is the solution to
defeat evil, then our life has gone down the wrong path. It is hard not to be
heartless towards evil. However, thats what we must do if we want to make
amendment to our mistakes. We now must treat evil with kindness. Sometimes we
need to be skilful i.e. know when to press on, or back down to avoid making the
same mistakes again. Although we know evil existence, we are not disappointed,
wed rather live calmly and be true to ourselves. When we are disappointed, we
usually make mistakes, so do not allow ourselves to be disappointed in life. For
example, if someone harmed us, it is mistaken to feel disappointed immediately.
When that happens, we usually feel either we should harm the person back, or we
feel disappointed. It is the common mistake.
Being a Buddhist, the only attitude we should have towards these situations
is being compassionate, being kind, being calm, there is no other alternative. It

10

must be that way to get the solution to the problems that we could not solve in our
past lives.
From our past lives, we were being cruel to evil, if not, we felt dissatisfied
with life. However, we should not behave like that anymore; we must be calm,
optimistic, and compassionate towards evil and bad things in life. Only when we
were proved that we possess genuine compassion, we then can mediate properly.
Before that, even though we are knowledgeable about Buddhism and we live
ethically, it can just be the surface, which can be destroy and damaged easily.
For example, we learn about being compassionate and kind to others, so
when we meet the poor, we must use our wealth to help them. By doing that, it
indicates that we understand the Principle, however, it is not guaranteed that these
actions will last forever. For some reasons, we could then change to being less
kind to others. It is only when we can achieve the highest level of meditation;
those qualities will remain in our nature. Anyone can fall down into that easy path,
even for those who have been practising Buddhism principles for long time.
Why is that so? Because we havent achieved the highest level of mediation.
When we understand this point, we must always be on high alert, watching
ourselves. We should not be so proud about all the good deeds we did because we
can easily fall into our own trap.
We must always practise meditation. Because meditation helps us clear our
mind, retain calmness, remove greediness, and help us have pure thoughts so we
are not possessed or are not influenced by evil.
When we follow Buddhism principles and when we understand what the
real life is all about, we will not feel disappointed, or pessimistic; so despite of
many tricks, lies and dangers in life, we are still calm, happy, and encouraged to
learn and practise Buddhism. However, do not feel too proud of our achievement
just yet, because evil still exists somewhere in our nature.
Because we are easily distracted by evil, we must meditate continuously, its
the only way Budda advises us to do, no other way. When we deeply mediate, the
mediation power will help push hidden evil thoughts away from our mind. If we
dont mediate, we only see the surface, but not whats deeply inside our mind.

11

For example, when we attend our temples to pray and to learn about our
Buddas advices, we sometimes remember those principles and constantly remind
ourselves of them. Thats good learning. Even when we treat someone right, it is
still the outside only, it is not yet the guarantee that we are pure and genuine. Deep
inside our mind, evil things are accrued and hidden over many lives, only
meditation can help us reach deeply in our mind to understand what is really
inside. By doing that, we can fix the root causes of all mistakes made.
If compassion counteracts hatred, it only scratched the surface. For example,
if we get angry easily, then we learn to be more compassionate towards other to
reduce our anger, its only to fix the outside of the issue. Only when we
understand what the root cause of the anger is, then we can fix it completely.
However, it is not easy to mediate properly or achieve the highest level of
mediation. It is not the matte of hours, days to achieve it. When we practise with
other follower, it only indicates the encouragement and support between each of
the Association member. It is always encouraging to see all followers praying
together in front of our respectful Budda.
We should always carry that encouragement with us everywhere to continue
practise and cultivate. Therefore, it is not at all easy to achieve the highest level of
meditation, it requires a lot of hard work and practise.
We should not be discouraged because of these difficulties and challenges
throughout the cultivation journey. It requires us to continue practising over and
over again, even over many lives, and more importantly, it requires determination
in my mind.
We remind you that being Buddhist requires a lot of hard work and
determination. Over the past few months, we have been prepared to practise
Buddhism, to join other followers in harmony, to live in our holy temple, we will
have the power to continue our cultivation journey, but we must understand that it
is only the beginning for a bigger thing.
It also means that we must cultivate seriously, not just on the surface, but
take it to a deeper level because Buddhism has a lot of philosophical principles

12

that require thinking and exploring. Things that are easy usually do not have a lot
of values. Our first step is to believe in Buddha, we avoid evil, we do more good
deeds, it is the basic. To take it further, we need to be more determined, possess a
lot more knowledge, have a lot of blessing and are able to deeply mediate.
When we are completely prepared for the journey, again, dont forget
meditation because it is important. But dont be so ambitious because it is also a
sin. For example, when someone wants to become a monk because he/she likes to
be respected by others, so the true desire is a sin.
Knowing that, then we should practise and cultivate without being
ambitious about the outcome of our work, and not thinking about our ego. Without
our ego, we are able to love and respect others genuinely, not to be respected by
others because of our achievement.
The more we convent, we should think that we are nothing. Someone
already asked us Why do you teach to practise and to learn to be no one, but not
to be like Budda. It is strange. We answered Thats right, if we learnt to be no
one, then everybody will look up to us as Budda. If we learnt to be Budda, then
people will think that we are not sane.
We should convent in the way that we see ourselves as no one, only to think
that we can give our love and compassion to all beings in this world.
We always should try to be better, without being ambitious. Trying to be
better is different with being ambitious. They are two different things. We must
not think about our ego when we are trying to be better to avoid being ambitious;
and we must do more good deed, be compassionate for all beings, we must
meditate and continuously learn.
Please do remember not to be disappointed, discouraged because it is life is
like that. Life is imperfect, and ordinary, and life is bumpy, filled with tricks, lies
and competition. Amongst these imperfections, we must keep ourselves genuine
like Budda teaches us, to bring happiness to others, and for those around us do not
have to fear and doubt. And we bring happiness to others, who will bring it to
share with everyone else.

13

For us, we also need to know that it is a long journey, with a lot of
difficulties and challenges ahead, we must go back and make amendments for
mistakes/sin made in the past. And we must meditate to avoid our ego, to remove
unkind thoughts in our mind. We must try to be better, but not to be too ambitious.
Namo Sakiya Muni Budda

14

SNAKES AND DOVES

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

In the Bible wrote a story: "Once, Jesus sent his disciple down to earth to
teach human beings. He said: "I command you to live a life like sheep living
among wolves, be wise as snakes and be kind as doves." We completely agree
with this statement, so we like to discuss this statement in depth with you all
today.
In our life, we are usually prone to fall into two extremes. The first extreme
is to use our wisdom to deal with events in our lives and then lose our morals
gradually i.e. human being is naturally selfish so sometimes we use our wisdom to
harm or take advantage of others for our own benefits. The second extreme is to
live submissively and stupidly without being knowledgeable and always have to
obey others orders. This weakness often causes more harm to our own lives.
These are the two extreme cases that we all need to avoid. However though,
most of us fall into one of these two extremes. Those who are smart and strong are
easy to fall into the first extreme. Those who are not smart enough and are weak
would usually fall into the second extreme. They are easy to be taken advantage of
or affected by others.
For those newly graduates, they finished university, and were being exposed to
the new world in which they met many different kinds of people. In this society,
people must be wise to compete with each other because of the conception
"Compassion means Stupidity". It is perceived that compassionate people are
unwise and dull, as well as they are not brave enough to live on their own and
achieve any success. They worship wise and tough people and struggle for their
rights in life. So these young people s conception of life change accordingly and
this is really sad.
We live together in this world but we always fight and compete with each
other over own benefits, so life becomes worse and worse. Kindness or
compassion is one of the important elements of ethics, but in reality it is perceived
as cowardice and weakness. Clearly, this perception is completely wrong. If we
only consider one in many meanings of kindness and compassion and are being
narrow-minded, we will be led to having inaccurate judgment. To avoid falling
into the two extremes, we should be wise as snakes and kind as doves.
So what does "be wise as snakes and kind as doves" mean? And what is the
difference between being wise and being kind?
To understand "wisdom", we need to analyse three basic points.
2

First, we must analyse the past event, what has happened, and learn from
those experiences. For instance, since we made errors on the last exam, we scored
low points. So we worked harder for the next exam in order to achieve higher
score. Recognising and learning from our failure to live better is a mandatory
element of wisdom, too.
In addition to this, acknowledging others good points is also important to
help us develop and enhance our knowledge. Why are there so many people that
can be very persuasive? What they say could influence others. So if we recognise
their strengths, respect and learn from these influential people, we will gradually
improve ourselves. Now, that is wise.
The second point of wisdom is the ability to predict what will happen in the
future based on the present. This factor is extremely essential for everyone. We
would do everything for a better future. However, what did we learn from school?
We have learned many things that happened in the past e.g. known events and old
scientific inventions
The subject of "Futurism" started to gain interest in this current society.
Although it hasnt been applied to school curriculum yet but some education
experts have researched and wrote books about it. These experts are called
"Futurist". In our opinion, Futurism topics must be brought into schools from
primary level. This basically means we would practise predicting future events i.e.
what will happen, when and how. Why is that necessary? Upon graduation, we
face the future not the past. But we were only taught about the past, so it is
difficult to expect us to think forward about our future. For example, we graduated
from University of Economics, so when you had a job, the boss would always
require us to use our skill and knowledge to predict the future of the economy,
organise tasks and planning to deal with future events or possibilities. If you were
capable of doing those things, you were then suitable for the job.
Again, the ability to predict the future needs to be practised from an early
age. If we waited until we graduate from University to think about the future, it
would be too late and we could be caught off-guard. It can be from very simple
events. For example, when our brother was sick, then we guessed we would have
guests tomorrow. When the teacher assigned us too much homework, then we
would guess about the incoming test. We should try to guess what would happen
and how.

Initially, we would predict what could happen in a short time, later on, we
could predict what could happen in a long time. We could think about our personal
life, our family or further to social issues, security, national politics and the world.
We could try to predict about how the world would turn out to be in ten years
times; or in twenty years, how human beings would progress in technology and
what inventions would be available. Those who could predict those important and
big events would be very talented. They could base on the current findings to
predict the breakthrough and achievements in the future.
Have you ever heard about an invention against noise? It consisted of two
parts. The first part was to analyse the noises coming from the outside. The
analysis result will then be passed on to the second part, the processor. The
processor then created the outgoing noise by reversing the incoming one. Because
the two sound waves were opposite of each other, they destroyed each other, hence
the noise disappear. Thus, knowing the nature of sound, we knew then how to
eliminate noise.
At present, the world is worried about bush fires because bush/forest resource
is an invaluable asset of mankind. Maybe in ten or twenty years later, when
scientists discover about the nature of fire, they may be able to find an effective
and easy way to extinguish it. Have you ever thought about this?
The third element of wisdom is the ability to assess other people to
cooperate with at work. If you could make accurate assessment, you would reduce
the risk of failure and improve the success rate, and product good result. This
ability plays a very influential role in communication or selection of friends or
business partners. The difficulty is the ability to assess someone to decide if we
can trust them or not. Finding the right people for the jobs is a great challenge to
all leaders. We should not believe in those who never keep their words. For those
types of people, we should always be armed with strategy to deal with any
challenges.
Or for people who are malicious and selfish, then we should find a way to
leverage from their strengths but always be on alert with their potential malicious
acts. Assessing someone accurately is even really critical and beneficial in
marriage.
So from the above discussion, we can see that these three elements of wisdom
include learning from past experiences, the ability to predict the future, and the
4

ability to assess people accurately. These are three important factors that you need
to practise before entering into the real world full of challenges.
Now, we will talk about the three elements of kindness, or sometimes
throughout this discussion, I would refer to as leniency.
The first element is the calm reaction against unexpected things. Those who
can react like that could be patient and calm in any harsh conditions. If we could
be lenient in the situations where we were cheated or treated badly by someone, it
did not mean that we were a loser or we were stupid or coward. In fact, it showed
that we were strong enough to control ourselves.
If we are easy to lose temper and easily getting hatred of unsatisfying
things, we could not do great things. Once getting hatred, our mind and judgement
will be clouded, we would become more obscured hence it would lead to the
situation where we could make more errors.
The second element of leniency is about not attempting to harm others.
Sometimes it could be within our reach, but we would not do that.
The third element is about love. Our love for others shows our leniency or
simply humanity.
Amongst many other elements of leniency, these are three key elements.
So, these are the three elements of wisdom and the three elements of leniency
integrating in life as Jesus stated: "Be wise as snakes and be kind and gentle as
doves." We must live wisely but with compassion and we also must live
compassionately but being wise. Those two statements above are completely
different and do not contradict each other.
So what does it really mean when saying We must live wisely but with
compassion?
It basically means we would understand about others i.e. whether they are
bad, or good, however we still love and would be calm to deal with any situations
arisen. We could assess properly others and understand the situations, but we
would be calm and considerate and would not take advantage of other people. We
treat everyone equally and with compassion.
For example, we have two friends, one is better at things than others, we
would love them both equally, no distinction at all. As being Buddhists, we should
5

not discriminate between good and bad people or between smart and unintelligent
people. Why is that? Because our discrimination would make vulnerable people
sad and that discrimination would mean we committed a sin and we are at fault.
Non-discrimination is easy for us when we were still at school, but when we
grew up and entered into the real world, this became more challenging. Nothing to
discuss when meeting good people, but it is challenging when encountering bad
ones. They could harm or abuse us so treating them fairly and equally is a hard
thing to do. However, if you encounter those ones, please remember our
discussion today. This would help us to convert evil people to good ones in the
future. As Buddha once said: no flame can destroy flame, no hatred can destroy
hatred, only compassion can destroy hatred. Its the absolute truth. Compassion
does function in that way. Whoever does wrong or evil things, we should still be
generous and tolerant towards them.
Lets analyse the two situation: one is being that we resented and abandoned
those who treated us badly; and another one is being that we forgave those who
treated us badly. So which one would help these bad people return to being good?
The later it is. Because while we do not othem to change overnight, over time, they
would understand and realise what is right and wrong because of our tolerance,
consideration and love for them. By forgiving them and treating them with love,
we did not push them further into doing bad things.
So, what does it mean when saying we must live compassionately, but
being wise?
It basically means even though we knew about others taking advantage of
us, or doing bad things to us, we would not revenge at all. This showed our
compassion and wisdom. In this life, there are people who come to us only for
taking advantage of us. We can feel and recognise those situations because we can
rely on our wisdom. However, the most difficult part is knowing about the
situation very well but we do not feel resentment towards them. Sometimes we also
pretended to be taken advantage of but we could control the situation. We could
because we understood their thoughts and intention and used our wisdom to
control the situations. More importantly, it is a sign of wisdom, morality.
In "The Misery" novel, Victor Hugo told us the story of a man who was
suspected of stealing the offerings of a church. When the police asked the Father if
the man was stealing the offerings, the Father said No, he was not then the
Father asked the man why he did not take the silver spoon as it was a valuable
6

item. The story showed that the Father knew everything but still opened a way to
save the thief. Because of his kind action, the Father helped made the thief become
a different and better person.
The above approach reminded us about our ancestors. In the past, when our
troops defeated the Northern invaders, we were not proud of the victory at all, so
we proposed a ceasefire to the Chinese court in order to maintain a peaceful
relationship with China. Under the Ly Dynasty, our troops were so strong that we
won so many battles; we then occupied two provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi in
China. China was so angry that they challenged us to a battle on the bank of Nhu
Nguyet river. However, at that time China was still defeated. In spite of victory,
our ancestors still actively proposed to a ceasefire to China because of our peaceloving spirit, wisdom and sophistication. With our compassion, we were ready to
negotiate when the problems were resolvable without putting up a fight.
Another aspect is that we know how to gain other peoples compassion but
we do not take advantage of them. Even though we were capable of performing
and communicating with others, we would not take advantage of the situation, so
as the result, others will be very kind and loving us. That showed attitude of a
person who is compassionate and wise.
It is very common that when we gain someones trust and consideration, we
would take advantage of the situation for our own benefit. However, for someone
who is ethical, they will love and be kind to everyone and would not take
advantage of others. That is why they gain other peoples love and respect.
Because with them, they would use their wisdom to help others and bring more
benefits to others.
Why is that? Because according to the Cause and Effect rule, if we owed
others favour we would need to pay it back in some ways in other lives. This was
preached in "The concept of karma law." The reason for a person that could be the
leader of a country is that they did many and many good deeds in many lives.
Obviously, while they were doing good deeds, they would only think of benefits
for others and would love all people. If they did the good deeds but because of
fulfilling other purpose i.e. gaining other benefits, then these good deeds would be
still meaningless. Those two motives are completely different. We must do good
deeds without any conditions. Being ethical and doing good deeds would help us
gaining blessing.

For those who received favours from others will inevitably need to pay
others back in other lives. So there is only a profession can affect many lives.
Have you ever heard of "professional beggars"? Those beggars usually started a
day with a big breakfast then deformed feet with red drugs and bandages.
Afterwards, they dragged themselves into the crowd to beg for money and food.
They went back home in the afternoon, removed the bandages then took a bath and
went to the movies. They even could loan money for interest, or gambling, or
drinking. They do not understand karma law that receiving favour from others
would require some paybacks. In their later lives, they would be in a position that
everyone can order them to do things. They are called slaves. And for those who
always save every penny to help and save others only because of their compassion
will become leaders, or commanders in future lives. This is a very objective and
fair rule of karma law.
We love people but we should not indulge peoples bad habits. We love our
younger brother but if he did something wrong, we should teach or even can use
punishment where required until our brother could understand and change his
behaviour and become better person. It is love, but love with determination,
wisdom and compassion. Like so, in life, we must love everyone but it doesnt
mean we compromise and agree with bad and evil things. We could not change
everything but we should try our best to minimise bad things for this world.
Recently the American Reader magazine had an article titled "Prisons or
Resorts?". The reporter went to the prisons in the United States and found prison
life here is better than outside and much better standards than students life. The
prisoners here can play sports such as golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, softball.
Also they can go to the libraries and even the concert halls. They can communicate
with people outside quite comfortably. For those who were sentenced to life
imprisonment, each year they could have a party. They could invite their guests
from the outside if they wanted to. There are many things that could happen within
this prison that we would rather not tell you. Seeing this, the reporter wrote: people
outside work hard to pay tax but this tax is for the state to pamper those who
murder, rape, child abuse, every sin We now could see that the Americans made
serious mistake in treating prisoners. By creating a comfortable environment in
prison, they did not help criminals correct and learn from their mistakes. That is
the weakness of a big and complicated society. Now, lets talk about people
around us. We love them but we should determine not to pamper or compromise

their mistakes or sins. In fact, we must determine to address their mistakes and sins
by all means.
Another aspect of living compassionately and wisely is knowing the way to
use money and power to help and educate people. Having money and power does
not inherently mean you are guilty. The way to use money and powers is being
questioned here. If we use money and powers for good things then money and
power are put in good use; otherwise, they are bad things. If you are always
thinking for other people, then money, power in your hands will bring others lots
of benefits. In contrast, if the power and money held by an evil man, evil things
will spread and dominate this society.
Thus, basically an ethical man should not have personal ambitions. We
strongly recommend that all personal ambitions are sins. Only when we really
purify our mind, money and power in our hands will create good things for
society.
Once upon a time, King Ly Thai To - Ly Cong Uan was predicted to
become the king by his teacher Zen Master Van Hanh. When he grew up, some
other Zen Masters also had the same prediction. He lived in a temple since he was
a child. Because of this prediction, his teacher prevented him to be a monk but
forced him to compete for a government official position. He became a
commander, supervising the guards of the capital. When King Le Long Dinh died,
the country didnt have a leader, so the court elected King Ly Cong Uan, founder
of the Ly dynasty, took the title of Ly Thai To King.
King Ly was very reserved about his power. He always fulfilled his duties
even when only a few people predicted that he would be the king. However, when
the king died, the court elected him king, he accepted and this was entirely
satisfied everyone. The Ly dynasty led the Vietnamese civilization to glory. This
example shows us that when power and money come into the hands of a good and
ethical person, good things will inevitably happen.
A compassionate man will always have an attitude of meekness, harmony
and always living for others without any prejudice. We should always be willing to
fight for the rights and benefits of vulnerable people. We are very lenient but not
weak, our compassion will be the motivation to master our inner feelings.
However, compassion sometimes will lead to extreme. We are not sure how
it happened and to whom, but sometimes the xtreme did happen. In those cases,
9

they do not care what others say and do, they just consitnue pampering and
spoiling others. True and genuine morality is not really those sort of actions. A
truly moral person must be very clear about their thinking and actions, when
needing to fight, they will fight, when needing peace they will cooperate to
achieve peace. We will compromise our own benefits if peace is beneficial for
everyone. We will say tough words if that is what it takes. We will co-operate and
fight for the sake of everyone not for ourselves. That is the critial element of
compassion and wisdom.
Today, I also would like to talk about success and failure in life. Everyone
in this world wants to succeed. We learn, practise many things in order to be
successful and contribute towards the society. This is most peoples dream.
However, not everyone can achieve their dreams, and in fact, there are very few
people that do have their dream come true. Life is ups and downs. Some people
claim that their success is due to their talent, wisdom and sometimes a little
ruthlessness is needed. The poor always fail because they are weak and not
capable. Sometimes life has a look and think like that. In the Buddhism
philosophers eyes, these things appear in a completely different way. We try to
understand everything on the basis the law of cause and effect or karma law.
Success or failure is due to the cause of many things that happen across many
generations. Maybe you will disagree with this thinking. You may be thinking
without talent you would not succeed in life, especially in the competitive market
economy, fierce, only those who are very good, very skillful and talented can be
successful.
Let talk about a simple thing, wire. There are so many types of wire
produced and sole in the the market. Whoever has the knowledge about the
product and the ability to produce the wire with many superior features with cheap
costs and sell it with cheap price will take a lead in the market. But to do so, these
people must be talented and also sensitive about the market movements.
Therefore, the key factor for success is talent, but it also critically depends on the
law of cause and effect. A person, who in a previous life had earned many
blessings because of his/her many good deeds, would be more talented that the
person who did not have much of blessings because he/she did not do many good
deeds in their past lives. However, talent is a complicated thing. We will talk about
this in another occasion. We know that success or failure in our current live
depend on what we did in our previous lives so we should be calm in any event,
either a success or a failure. We should not be too proud when we are successful
10

and not depressed when we fail but we should firmly learn from our mistakes and
move on. Those, who are too proud about their current success, may not be
achievemnt more success greater in life.
As we strive to do something, let ensure that we put all of our effort to do
well, but do not put all our hope to it. If we did, we would be depressed if it failed.
So when trying to accomplish a goal, we should only expect about 70 percent for
the success and 30 percent for the failure. If it did not work as we expected, the
30-percent component will help us keep us calm, balanced. We should look into
those failed scenarios and learn from these mistakes. Only calmness and
concentration will help us move on and have another goal to reach. That is the
attitude of a very wise and virtuous man.
There have been many questions about big dream, success and failure:
Do we need to have a big dream or have a great idea of bringing the
benefits for mankind?
Why does the person with a big dream become upset, depressed, and
suffering or even lose their mind when failed?
And would we rather not have big dreams and not be ambitious so we
would not be suffering when failed?
Based on the above, does it mean that it is not wise to advise people to be
ambitious and have dream and working hard towards their goals? We would suffer
when we did not achieve our goals but only when these dreams were for our own
benefits. For example, when a person walked across the street, he saw many poor
and homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk then he dreams of becoming the
Prime Minister to provide houses and food for those needy people. Is it a good
dream? It is very good, in deed. But will he be able to become the Prime Minister?
We cannot be sure about that. Then he comlained that God did not help his dream
come true, about not letting him become the Prime Mister so that he could provide
houses and food for the homeless. Well, he would suffer from this disappointment
because his primary motivation is about having power and fame, his personal
ambition, not because of others needs.
Buddhism philosophy has stated very clearly that selfishness causes
suffering. Suffering only happens to selfish people, happiness would happen to
selfless ones. If we dreamt of being the Prime Minister to progress further in our
career and if there are only personal goals in this dream, we will suffer when we
11

could not achieve it. Those who wish to benefit everyones lives without any
selfishness will not suffer even when they fail. This is what I really meant.
One of the story in the "Collecting sand and stones" series advised us about
Zen Master Thich Nhat Sam, a monk and also a painter. Probably because of his
meditation strengh, it helped him paint very beautifully, but he would sell these
paintings with a very high price. Therefore, many people did not like him because
he was a monk but very greedy for money. One day, there was a girl asking him to
paint her portrait. When he told her about the price, the girl angrily shouted him at
him and told him that he was mean. Then she turned her back, took off her coat
and asked him to draw her skirt, because she wanted to humiliate him. However,
the Zen Master still stayed calm and drew a beautiful dress on her back.
After a while, he stopped drawing, then people realised the true three
purposes of his behaviour (i.e. selling his drawings with high price):
The first purpose was to build a tower for his teacher since he died long time
ago but there was not a tower for him. That was due to his devoted love to his
teacher;
The second purspose was to fix the damanged road near his temple; and
The last purpose was to build a warehouse to store food for the villagers
after floods.
When he accomplished those three goals, he gave up paintings to live in
seclusion. Until then, people could understand his behaviour and understand that
he was so tolerant and generous. So, the key thing is that we need to purify our
souls. Sometimes, people assessed us based on the outside i.e. our behaviour, our
work and judged that we are selfish. However, that is only the interim assessment
and we should not have to be concerned. The important point is that we live for
others, and thinking about others from the bottom of our hearts.
Buddhas has always praised meditation as a harmonious synthesis of wisdom
and morality. When our mind is calm and peaceful, we think clearly about
everything. When our mind is clear, we are able to assess the others behaviours,
and their nature hoslisticly. And also thank to meditation we also can practise to
predict our future in more details than those whose minds are not pure. Before
practising meditation, we could only see what the others did to usl, however with
the aid of meditation, we cleared our minds and could see things more clearly and
in a different way. Or, for some particular issues, we could not analyse or
12

understand why it was the way it was, now with meditation, it helped us
understand the issue and helped analysed it better. Therefore, for those who
practise meditation and are good at it, they could be better at seeing and predicting
future events than others.
Besides, for those whose minds are pure and calm, they are also very kind
and compassionate. Because of this quality, their selfishness is less and they are
sensitive and patient. So, meditation itself is a great combination of wisdom and
morality. We always wish you to practise mediation throughout your lives. This
era is the Information era so it easily makes us stressed. When our minds are weak,
it is difficult to understand and assess all information properly. To strengthen our
mind we must meditate.
The last thing we want to discuss today is that wise and moral people
always find that nothing is permanent in life. Right and wrong, good and evil are
only relative. What people consider true sometimes wrong; what they think wrong,
sometimes true. That is why we do not always judge and assess thing accurately.
However, those people, whose minds are calm and pure, could always and see
things from right to wrong, from good to evil right but they are not obstinate about
those things.
There was a government official called Tay Mon Bao who lived at Tan Hiep
District, where residents had the custom of sending beautiful girls on a raft floating
along the river each year to devote to God at seas. He was very surprised at this
tradition so he asked the elders to let him know when they had the ceremony so he
could see it for himself. When the ceremony occurred, he led the soldiers to the
ceremony and asked to see the bride's face. He then said the girl is too ugly for this
purpose. He commanded the fortune-teller to go down into the sea to inform God
that he should wait for a more beatiful girl. He ordered the soldiers to throw the
fortune-teller into the river in a very sincere and respectful way. But the fortuneteller did not return, then he asked the older men of the village who hold the
ceremony to do the same thing. Again, noone returned. He was about to ask some
more people to do the same thing, but the rest of the village bowed and begged
him not to do so. Since then, the village abandoned this superstitious belief and
cruel custom, thanks to Tay Mon Bao.
China has three people ruling the country, and the country was very stable
when it was under their administration. When King Tu San ruled, the country was
13

very flourishing because he was so smart that his people could not do anything to
deceive him. When King Tu Tiep ruled, people could not treat him badly because
he was so kind. And with King Tay Mon Bao, people was so scared of him as he
was very strick and he would punish those whose did evil things.
Those are the absolute attitudes that required to rule a country: Be wise as
Tu San, Be moral and kind as Tu Tien, And be courageous and strict as Tay
Mon Bao. Tay Mon Bao was wise but a bit brutal and yet still achieved the goal of
ruling a country and its residents. The characteristics of the three leaders we
mentioned above are similar to three elements in Buddhism Compassion-WisdomCourage. Tu Tien represents Compassion; Tu San represents Wisdom; and Tay
Mon Bao represents Courage.
So amongst those elements Compasion, Wisdom and Courage which one
would we choose? In fact, we would need all of them and depending on the
situations, we would need to decide which one is to be used.
I was asked: Master, we know that we should be ambitious and try to live
our dream, but how could we make those dreams come true?
My answer was that I could not answer your question in a few sentences.
This depends on what your dreams and ambitions are. There are many factors and
conditions that required to be. Different dreams would require different conditions.
But the most important thing is our abilities and again the level of our abilities
depend on our blessing that have been accummulated throughout our past lives and
current lives. And when we have no blessings we would not be able to succeed. I
definitely can confirm this condition.
So for those young Buddhists, you should start doing good deeds from now
on. We should help people even with little thing, even just simple as help a kid
walk across the street, or pick up an item fall on the street for an elderly person.
The second thing is we need to strengthen our mind. We need to be smart to
judge and assess everything properly and accurately. A strong mind is a result of
strong body and spirit. We need to do more exercise, practise martial arts to
maintain our physical stregth to help clear our midn and make it more powerful. If
we are successful at practising meditation, that power will be many times stronger.

14

This life is full of difficulties and temptations. Our mind must be strong
enough to resist those temptations and overcome those difficulties. From now on,
we must do more exercise, practise martial arts to strenthen our mind. When we
focus on doing something, our mind should be clear of all other things, and just
purely concentrate on one goal. When our mind is clear, pure and focused, it helps
us to focus, and enhance our ability to assess things properly.
And last but not least we must continue doing good deeds whenever we could,
even little by little because the very basic factor contibuting to success is blessing.
The more blessings being accumulated, the more chance we have in life to
succeed.
Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

15

STUBBORN BEINGS

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In the preface of Lotus Sutra, it is said that when the aura of Buddha
appeared, the assembly relied on the power and the aura of Buddha to see
countless realms of other Buddhas in the universe, in which Buddha and
Bodhisattva were preaching to sentient beings, drawing very beautiful pictures.
The aura of the Shakyamuni Buddha shocked all the realms it reached. Buddhas of
those realms sent their attendants to this Saha world to visit and pay homage to
Shakyamuni Buddha. Among those greetings, there was a question, "It is said that
beings of this Saha world are very stubborn. Is it difficult for you to teach them?"
What is stubbornness? Simply, it means these human beings are obstinate
and it is difficult to change them. Beings of this human world are very difficult and
stubborn to be converted and to be transformed. Therefore, we often wish our
monks and nuns all the best and have good health, so that they can devote their
entire life and effort into teaching human beings. We hope that their teach path in
the human world would be less challenging.
Normally, wishes reflect the opposite things. We wish each other good
health because of the fact that people in this world are often unhealthy. Similarly,
in the past, people wished for their king survive tens and thousands of years. But
as all other human, every king will die someday.
Today, we will list all types of stubbornness late on, so that each of us can
self-reflect to see if we fall into any category. If we do, then we should know that
we still have many shortfall, weaknesses. And that means we must remorse, we
must learn how to correct our manners and overcome our mistakes. If we do not
fall into any category, that means we have good blessings, good karma, and more
importantly we possess sublime quality of a human being. We would, therefore, be
successful in our cultivation path, and would become a true Buddha disciple.
However, not falling into any stubbornness category would be a difficult
thing to achieve. Even monks or nuns can have one or two characteristics, let alone
Buddhism followers, but we need to try hard to purify our mind, correct our
manner to become a better person, so that we will be able to achieve positive
results on our cultivation path to Buddhism.
Those who unfortunately fall in the category of stubborn beings will be
banished to the netherworld. At their time of judgment, their sins will make it very
difficult for them to achieve retribution, and as a result they will serve their
retribution for a long time. A cruel but wealthy man often uses money and his
influence to bully people. While this person still has their blessed fortunes, no one

can better him, but when the blessings are exhausted, he will be fallen into the
realms of misery for a very long time.
In life, there are many people complaining why their life is full of miseries,
from one misfortune to another, they want to escape the cycle but cannot. These
people should then consider that in any of their past lives, they were stubborn
beings who committed sins without repentance and changing their ways, so when
their retribution came they continue to complain about their fate.
The categories of "stubborn beings":
People who do not accept rationale even when it is objective
Person A told person B, "Living in this world we must love others,
especially miserable ones. Person B rebutted: "Who has the time to worry about
others, to live you must love yourself first and love your family first." Person A
said a moral thing but person Bs response demonstrates that they are very
opinionated.
During a meal, someone said: "Eating must be in moderation, overeating
one thing may cause cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure ... especially for the
elderly." When we are young, our bodies are healthy, so we can eat whatever we
want. But from the age of 30, we should be mindful of what we eat, even though
our bodies are still healthy. If we are inactive, we should not overeat, because it
can cause illnesses later on. This statement is logical and rationale, proven by
medical science.
Overeating will lead to the risk of accumulation of fat in hearts and livers so
the livers have to work harder to get rid of the fat, causing liver failure over time.
On the other hand, according to Buddhism, we have limited blessings in our
lifetime. Therefore, if we over indulge than we would run out of blessings quickly,
resulting in a shorter life, susceptible to diseases and suffering from miseries. So,
eating in moderation is in accordance with Buddhism and medical science.
Although we know the above is true and supported by medical science,
there are those who will still argue, "Well, we should eat whatever we want and
there is no need to hold ourselves back from indulging in food because our life is
too short and we are stupid if we dont enjoy as much as we can. The statement
life is too short and we are stupid if we dont enjoy as much as we can, is
irresponsible and very unwise. Or when people are addicted to gambling, we ask:
"Why do you gamble all day?" Their response is: "Oh, gambling is fun. We cannot
live forever, so why dont we enjoy our life?" Many people have the similar
3

thoughts, hence they pamper themselves and indulge their personal habits, living
very selfishly.
Some religions incite their followers to hate and commit terrorist bomb
attacks, killing innocent people, spreading fear... just to satisfy their anger.
Hearing this, some people remark: "Religions that advocate terrorism are evil
religions", but others still argue: When youre so angry you have to find a way to
release the anger.
Two sides betting on a football match. The losing side supporter broke the
television and shouted noisily. Seeing that, those around remarked "Its just a
game, it is not worth being angry about." Stubborn people would respond to that
comment: "who cares, thats what makes it fun."
Another example, person A told person B: "Youre so aggressive. You are
always argumentative and only choose to believe that your own view is right, and
when others disagree, you intimidate them with your aggression. Person B would
respond, "If we are too gentle, others will bully you."
The examples mentioned above demonstrate the first type of stubbornness
in human beings, and that is, they do not accept common sense. These types of
people are self-righteous, lack of wisdom and live however they wish. When they
live their life recklessly, they have created bad karma, therefore it is hard for them
to be reincarnated as a human being in the next life. We should realize that a life is
not eternal so we must accumulate blessings before we die. If we just enjoy life
because life is too short, our retribution will be very bad.
People who do not believe in cause and effect
It is said that one good turn deserves another. However, some people argue:
"I see a lot of people evil but still wealthy." These people have not fully
considered the situation and have passed judgment based on their own
conclusions. Its true that there are many evil people who are wealthy. But, their
fortune will not last long because of the law of karma. And for kind-hearted
people, they may appear poor now but surely their life will be enriched gradually
and to live a fulfilling life.
When we see successful people, we usually compliment them on their
success, "that person is blessed. Surely, he did a lot of good deeds in his previous
life." But, some people will disagree believing success was due to luck and timing,
and not received through blessings. Such people do not believe that we reap what
we have sown as well as the law of cause and effect which is fair and objective.
4

These people are pitiful because they are more susceptible to temptation. They
dont believe in the law of karma which is the foundation of morality, so they will
find it hard to overcome temptations of committing sins to benefit themselves.
One, who does not believe in the law of cause and effect, also will not
believe in reincarnation and thus, they do not hesitate to commit illegal acts or sins
against karma. Karma and human being thinking and behaviours do relate to one
another. When a Buddhist fears karma, they will naturally also fear to breaking the
law as well.
The law forbids murder, theft, smuggling, tax evasion ... because these acts
violate social conscience. In Vietnam, the law considers an observer to a crime
guilty if he or she does not come to the aid of a person in distress. For example, if
we saw someone fall from a building and we did not come to their aid then we
would be guilty of failing to provide aid and the police could arrest us. Buddhism
is similar to this. If we ignore those in great need then our first retribution will be
blindness and loss of hearing because we did nothing when our eyes saw others
suffering and our ears could hear their plea for help.
Therefore, those who do not believe in karma will not pay attention to good
and evil either in accordance with the common law and or any religions. It is easy
for them to ignore others in great need. These people are hazardous to humanity.
We are very fortunate to follow Buddhas teachings. Although we are not perfect,
we believe in karma i.e. we reap what we have sown. Therefore, we are selfaware, and conscious to self-regulate, therefore we rarely fall into this category of
temptation.
But what happens if we believe in karma when our neighbours do not?
Would we commit sin if we do not convince our neighbour to believe in karma?
Yes, of course. The law of Cause and Effect (karma) is inherently fair and
dominates everything in the universe. In fact, this law is not simple as we may
think but very scary. And this case is similar to the case that we do not find any
way to save someone from falling down into a river. The difference here is that
person fell down into a river and our neighbours are falling down into the ocean of
misery.
So, true Buddhists always worry about how to bring Buddhism to everyone
and at least, all the people around us have to believe in the karma law so that they
never do bad deeds but good ones and live a righteous life. We only feel easy
when were done with that.

When we didnt know about Buddhism, we usually went to our neighbours

for drinking, chatting and now when we know it we should still go to their
places but for helping them understand Buddhism and converting them. That is the
way we bring the Dharma to them and save them from committing sin that they
may do. Those who do not believe in karma are stubborn beings and if we dont
help others believe karma, we would be the same too. Otherwise, we will create
great blessing.
There are cases to be considered as "no sin, no blessing," and also many
cases "either sin or blessing". For example, when two friends meet but neither
insult nor help each other, then this case is "no sin, no blessing." However, when
we see someone falling down into a river and we ignore instead of saving them,
then this case is sin, otherwise, blessing. Like that, if we know about
Buddhism and the law of Cause and Effect, while our neighbours do not believe in
Buddhism and we do not help them understand what we know, then this case is
sin, otherwise, blessing. We have to be careful to differentiate between sin and
blessing.
People who do not wish to correct their manner
Those are people who did something wrong but did not take other peoples
advice to correct their characters and improve themselves. Those people are
stubborn and obstinate. For example, there was a cruel person, when asked: "Why
are you so cruel? You should be gentle to win others heart." then this person
responded in a phlegmatic manner: "No comment." Another case was that a person
who liked to show off. When other people talk to him: "Why are you not humble?
You always show off". He said, "No comment." Or when people told him, Why
are you so mean? Youre so rich but you dont do charity then he said, Its none
of your business.
Those kinds of people mentioned above definitely are stubborn beings. Just
because of their pride and stubbornness, they did not t take others advice although
those advices are true.
We should differentiate between pettiness and economy. Economy means
we spend money on the right things, while pettiness means we do not want to
spend money even on the right things. For example, when we ran out of fish sauce,
and our child asked money to buy some more, then we said, "No money for fish
sauce, we should use salty water instead." We should have spent money on fish
sauce but we didnt because of our pettiness. Or when our nephew complained to
us that his house was burnt down, when we responded: Poor you! I love you, but
6

I do not have any money with me this time, next time when your house is burnt, I
will give you some."
The truth is that we had the money, but we did not want to spend it, so we
didnt give it to our nephew. It is petty and greedy i.e. we hate to spend money
even on right thing. Seeing this, someone criticized us: "why are you so petty and
greedy? You should be more generous to help others." But our response was:
"Well, it helps make me wealthy while generosity doesnt." It is really the bad
manner to ignore others advice and we also do not want to fix it. These people are
very stubborn indeed.
Another example is that we were very talkative. When we were talking, no
one could interrupt us. Whenever other people were about to talk, we hastily
talked first because we were afraid they would talked too long and there would be
no time for us. Even when they didnt want to listen to us anymore, we would still
beg them: Wait a minute please! I still have something to say. Knowing our
disadvantage, someone took the courage to tell us: "Why do you talk so much, I'm
tired of hearing your voice". Although we knew that what they said was true, we
did not want to do anything about it, nor want to change.
Or we like to brag on and on. We know this is not good but we still thought
bragging is for fun. In this case, we know our flaw but we did not want to do
anything about it.
There has been cases where we were friend with a quiet person. He only
speaks up when necessary. We know that his manner is good but we did not want
to learn from him, to improve ourselves due to our stubbornness.
In this world, there are so many people better than us at many things but we
dont want to learn from them to improve ourselves. This is one of the
characteristics of a stubborn beings.
People who cannot comprehend enlightenment and liberation
There are many people, who just finish Year 12, but are keen on reading
more and more to improve their knowledge, even though they did not study
academically further. These people would only be able to attain general knowledge
about life, not necessarily religious beliefs i.e. enlightenment and liberation.
When we hear people say that: "Those who enter into Buddhism and attain
enlightenment will be released from ignorance, delusion and egotism," but we do
not care, then we should know that we are one of the stubborn beings. Because a
7

wise person hearing there is a method that helps people become wiser, he
immediately wants to find out about it to make sure whether that method exists.
Though we are knowledgeable but if we are not interested in liberation and
enlightenment, we would not have wisdom yet. We would only be able to know
about science, society, current affairs, movie/pop stars but not the religion that
can help people reduce their selfishness, achieve peaceful mind and have
compassion for other human beings. Then we must know that we are one of the
stubborn beings.
When someone talks about cultivation, we just listen to the conversation to
lessen our stress, but not totally are interested in. Life is full of worries and
hardships, and we must work to make money, communicate with other people,
fulfill our obligations ... Those things make us think over and over again, cause us
too much stress. Although we know the danger of stress, we only seek the method
to reduce stress but not the way to attain liberation and enlightenment. We are
knowledgeable but still stubborn.
Though we have knowledge, we still havent had wisdom yet. We only
possess general knowledge. We must correct our manner, character to help reduce
our selfishness, to have compassion and peaceful mind. From being
knowledgeable to being wise is not far away, however, we still do not want to try
and achieve higher level.
Hearing about a monk, who could mediate for consecutive seven days, but
we still did not care much! We did not even want to know how that person could
do that and what happened with him during that time. We must know that when a
person achieve the highest level of meditation, he could control his whole body
except breathing. In this state, he must have been very peaceful and happy. The
state was very special indeed. Yet, we were not curious about it, and then truly we
were a stubborn beings.
Human beings are dominated by ignorance, stupidity, egos and karma, and
we are attached to the endless cycle of birth and death, i.e. we were born in this
life, live for a period of time, die, then again after some time, then we were reborn
into different life. This is the never-ending cycle. Nevertheless, we would not be
able to remember what happened to us in our previous lives. Thats why many
people dont believe in the cycle or rebirth.
We say to ourselves many times: "After many years of trying to live, we
will die one day". It is the same path, same journey from one life to another: we
were born; when we were young; we went to school; when we grew up, we went
8

to work; and when we were old, we had to fight with sickness and old age, and in
the end, we died. This is a never-ending cycle of birth and death. It's very scary,
indeed!
Buddha once said: "The suffering of a camels carrying goods heavily
across the desert is not suffering. The suffering of a persons carrying luggage in
the long night is not suffering. The suffering of the cycle of rebirth i.e. to being
born, then die, and then reborn; and every time of rebirth, one has to struggle to
live and one is dominated by ignorance is real suffering."
This was a valuable teaching. So we should understand that to achieve
liberation from the cycle of rebirth is the ultimate goal. However, due to our
stubbornness, we do not believe in Buddhas teaching. We do not realise the
suffering of rebirth, therefore, we are not afraid of it. We are, therefore, a stubborn
being.
Or when we hear someone mention that: "That temple worshiped Buddha,
who was the crowned Prince of India but left home to become a monk, then finally
attained Buddhahood." However, we ignored the story, nor did not want to
progress further in understand why. We are really and truly a stubborn being. If we
were wise, we would be wondering: "How could someone dare give up the throne?
What the state of enlightenment is like, so many people treasure it too much?" Or
we wonder: "When one attains enlightenment, they will have supreme wisdom,
supernatural power and even they can end their life whenever they want. How
could they do that? As for stubborn beings, they do not really care any of the
above, nor they want to achieve higher level of their wisdom.
People who believe in Buddhism but are not eager to learn the doctrines
There was a Buddhist family. The father often told his son to light incense
on the altar of Buddha. The son did it and bowed to Buddha. When someone asked
him what his religion was, he replied: "My grandparents and parents are Buddhist,
so I am a Buddhist too". He only knew that but did not find out about Buddhism.
He drinks but does not do good deeds, not offer to the Triple Gems, not take
refuge in the Triple Gems and not practise the Dharma. This person also believed
in the Buddha, worship the Buddha, but was still a stubborn being.
Or we understand and know about karma, but just a little, so when someone
asked us what Buddhism was. We answered: "to be a good person and to live a
virtuous life." Although we were Buddhists and took refuge in the Three Jewels,
we only knew a little about Buddhism, therefore, we could not tell other much
about Buddhism. We were one of the stubborn beings.
9

Or when we were asked: "Does Buddhism mean Amitabha Buddha

recitation? If so, what time we do it? We replied, "We recite Buddha when we
have accidents." Because we briefly knew about Buddhism, our answers were very
limited and simple, and could not convey everything about Buddhism. It means
that even though we are Buddhist, but we did not learn its doctrines to improve
ourselves. We are still a stubborn being.
People who know some Buddhist doctrines but do not take time to
study/contemplate it, think it through and practise them
The term contemplate implies "Right Thoughts". Despite the fact that we
know about some Buddhist teachings, but we do not take time to contemplate and
study it thoroughly to fully understand and to apply them to our religious life, then
we are stubborn beings.
Compassion
Buddhism mentions about "compassion", meaning we must have
compassion for all beings. We know about this term but do not think about it nor
apply it to our life. We have love for our parents, our husband/wife, and our
children and if better, we also love our relatives and our neighbors. Now
Buddhism teaches us that we should love all beings. But what does loving all
sentiment beings mean? And How? Though we do not know the answers for
these questions, we still do not try to find out more about it. Is such love
reasonable?
Therefore, when Buddha teaches us that we must love all beings, we have to
learn about this kind of love and how to apply it to our life. When we clearly
understand about the meanings and how to apply, every day we should pray to
Buddha: Dear Buddha, please bless me so that I can love all beings in this life."
We should do it repeatedly then every time we meet someone, we tell ourselves to
try to have compassion for them. Although we have not helped them on anything
yet, we should try. We can do that only if we have practised Buddhism and have
lots of blessings, and therefore, we are not stubborn beings.
Many people, even monks, have learnt about compassion, however, they are
not really interested, and do not try to study it more and apply it in their life. Such
people are stubborn beings. This would result in causing Buddhism to become
weaker. Only when all Buddhists, both monks and lay people, have compassion
for all beings, then we would be able to help each other, and bring more benefits to
this life. Thus, it is compassion that makes Buddhism more powerful. In contrast,
those who are cold-hearted, and do not have compassion for others as well as do
10

not want to help others; even if they wish to practise Buddhism, it would be just
for themselves, not for others; therefore, Buddhism is not powerful.
We must remember that thinking creates the path and emotion creates the
strength to go on that path. For example, a person having vindictive hatred for
someone, would have the strength to take revenge. This person dares to bear any
sufferings and everything to fulfill his wishes. Because hatred or love is emotion,
it creates power for you to do anything. Therefore, when seeing anyone everyday,
either strange or already acquainted, we should always try to have compassion for
them. That means we do not waste our religious life because we have studied
Buddhist teachings and applied in to our life.
Humility
There was a saying: "Humble people must attain the stage of selflessness".
We must understand that before achieve the stage of selflessness, people must
practise being modest over and over again i.e. always have respect for everyone,
realise our own shortcomings and must be aware that there are many things that
we should learn from others, then practice them. So, if seeing anybody better than
us, we must not envy but praise and learn from them.
We ourselves sometimes do something useful or when people praise us
about what we did, we must think that: "This is nothing compared with other great
men in this world." Therefore, despite of doing many good deeds, we should not
allow ourselves to be satisfied or proud of what we have done. We should always
think like that to practise modesty; and once we achieve that, we would then
gradually be selfless. We must think carefully about this principle so that we can
instill it into ourselves then our mind would be filled with moral doctrines.
We knew that meditation means sitting still without thinking anything at all.
However, after two or three minutes of trying, we could not achieve this, we could
not stop our mind from thinking, and then we gave up. It means we are stubborn
beings.
We must understand that, when we just start meditation, we cannot
immediately stop our mind from thinking and wandering around. Our mind is so
used to thinking many unnecessary things, it is impossible to force it to stop right
away. We must make effort to mediate. At first, we will suffer from sitting in fulllotus position but later this suffering is gradually relieved. We have to stop
delusions arising while we are keeping track of our breath. We always must come
back to monitoring our breath. Practicing meditation is really hard since
meditation means fighting with ourselves and this is the most difficult battle.
11

Overcoming other obstacles is already difficult, but overcoming ourselves is

thousand times more difficult.
Lets talk about the story of Sir Ma To again. Once, he met a very good
hunter named Thach Cung. He asked Thach Cung: "You are good at shooting,
arent you?" - "Yes, I am." He continued: "How many birds can you kill with one
shot?" - "One shot kills only one bird, Sir." Ma To then said: "It's not good. I can
kill the whole flock of birds with just one shot." Thach Cung replied: "We should
not end the life of the whole flock of birds with just one shot". Although Thach
Cung was a hunter, he was a good person, he felt compassionate for other living
beings. Therefore, Sir Ma To said: "If you can say that statement, why dont you
turn round and shoot at yourself."
Sir Ma Tos statement made Thach Cung awakened then Thach Cung put
his bow down then made the vow to be a monk. This was a very strange event. A
hunter had causal condition to become a monk. Because of his personal
circumstance, he had to go hunting to feed his family but deep down from his
heart, he had compassion for other living beings. Realising Thach Cungs good
nature, Sir Ma To told him: "If you can say that statement, why dont you turn
round and shoot at yourself." Shooting yourself here means getting rid of bad
thoughts, and practise the Dharma.
In this life, to win a debate is not that difficult. We just need a little tactic to
convince the others. The most difficult part is to fight against our evil thoughts that
are dominating us from our past karma. That is thousand times more difficult.
What does fighting against ourselves really mean? When there is a
thought arising in our mind such as "We are the best in this world", then
immediately we have to contradict ourselves "You're the worst in this world".
Then if that thought turned to "If not the best, then I must be the second best or
third best in this world" then immediately we should say "Absolutely not! You're
the worst, not the second, third best at all" That is, we must criticise ourselves,
which is the most difficult thing we have to do and overcome. This is another
example relating to money. The first thought is What should I do to earn 1 or 2
billion VND?". The second one is "We are so greedy to think like that so we must
end that thought." The third one continues with "Only if we have a lot of money
then we can live a happy life." The fourth one is Do not wish a happy life with a
lot of money but wish that we live an ethical life"
We must fight against those kinds of thought every second of the day. This
is the biggest and the most difficult fight for those who wish to practise Buddhism
12

appropriately. We must be genuine and wanting to fight this battle. Although

initially, we would have plenty of dark thoughts, we would criticise ourselves back
and forth. At first, people may think we are crazy, but over time, we will improve,
good thoughts would come to our mind naturally. And when we win this battle
against ourselves, we would become saints.
Meditation is also the fight against own self. As mentioned above, the inner
fight in our mind between good and evil is to increase the good and eliminate the
evil. Meditation helps stop our bad thoughts completely so that our mind is
completely peaceful and attain the stage of emptiness without any delusion. Only
until then, our fight against ourselves really ends.
This is the true value of a genuine Buddhist. Our Buddha was enlightened
through meditation, so how can we, Buddhists, refuse to practice meditation?
There are many people stopping meditation because they cannot concentrate when
they first meditated. They are a kind of stubborn beings.
There are many people who have heard about Selflessness in Buddhism.
However, they were confused and found it strange, as in life, there should always
be differences amongst people. Those, who have lots of blessings, who are keen on
practicing, and who are knowledgeable, would be able to comprehend the
magnificence of Selflessness. These people would strive to practise towards
achieving to be selfless. These are true Buddhists. Those, who just hear about
Selflessness then ignore, would not be able to comprehend its meaning, and that is
a real pity.
One more thing, as Buddhists, we understand the karma law and realise that
we should do good deeds. But then we still feel puzzled when hearing that: We do
good deeds but not for our own benefits. What does that mean? It means we
should do good deeds because we have compassion for living beings but not for
our own benefits, or good results that we would receive later on in life. Though we
do not expect, we would still receive good results in the future because it is the
karma law. This is one of the most extraordinary doctrine in Buddhism that we
must study thoroughly and apply in our life.
However, there are many of us do not care about this doctrine. We most
likely act as a routine: Doing good deed. We are called stubborn sentiment beings.
Only if we take one additional step to learn more about it, and practise it, we
would be able to become true Buddhists.
People who practise the Dharma but do not strive hard enough to reach
the final stage of enlightenment
13

Those are people who also practice meditation but only practice when other
people do it, then when others finish meditation, they also do the same; when the
others eat or sleep, they eat or sleep too; when others dont meditate, they dont
too They always follow others so their mind, being passive and not proactive.
Therefore, their mind is sometimes peaceful, sometimes is not which makes them
feel discouraged. Eventually they do not want to make additional effort to practise
more to attain full enlightenment. Those people are stubborn beings at high level.
If we really want to be true Buddhas disciples, we must be determined to practise
well, and meditate well to reach the highest level of meditation, then reaching
towards full enlightenment.
Both monks and lay people could easily fall into this category i.e. they
practise the Dharma just like a routine and do not strive hard enough to make more
progress. Sometimes their Master would remind them: "You should make effort to
cultivate the Dharma diligently because this life is still a long way from being near
Buddha. This life is still full of sufferings. You all must try your best to cultivate to
attain enlightenment so that everyone can take refuge in you." They may only
follow the advice once, then fall back into the routine again. They are indeed very
stubborn.
Similarly, about chanting and praying to Buddha. Sometimes, we do say:
"Namo Amitabha Buddha", "Namo Kuan-yin Bodhisattva", "Namu Maitreya
Buddha" but often we do not say it with the utmost concentration and sincerely.
It is because we are still very lazy and stubborn as well.
When hearing other people say that: "Practicing the Dharma means chanting
the prayers", we then follow the advice, but that is all we do. That is not enough.
We must understand the prayers, the meanings. If we ignore these prayers
meanings, and just read it out loud, we are stubborn sentiment beings. We must
learn as much as we can about Buddhism, its doctrines, to understand how best to
apply into our life. Buddhism is so miraculous and boundless, therefore we try our
best to practise it.
There is another type of human beings who are superficial and also are
being classified as stubborn beings. These people do charity but only care about
material needs of poor people but not their spiritual needs. They do not care about
the underlying causes of the poverty to help the poor completely. We have to
understand that living beings are miserable due to lack of blessings and if they do
not know how to do good deeds, then they would not know about karma. They
would not live a moral life because nobody has taught them to do so. Therefore, if
we just help them with food and other material needs, the help is temporary and
14

very superficial. We must teach them to how to live ethically and do more good
deeds so that they can be free from poverty and sufferings.
This is one step further of being a true Buddhas disciple, but not everyone
would be willing to do. If someone reminds us about this, we would just provide
food and money to support them temporarily. We must aware of this because
maybe we fall into this category. Please try to avoid making this mistake.
People who practise the Dharma for years but still cannot completely
overcome their immoral mindset
Almost 80% of practitioners, both monks and lay Buddhists make this
mistake. We would be jealous of or speaking ill of, or harming anyone who is
better than us, despite many years of cultivation. Even people with more than forty
years of practising Buddhism still could not overcome this obstacle. These people
are also one type of "stubborn beings".
Jealousy
When jealousy still exists in our mind, we would still be miserable, and it is
easy to commit sins by speaking ill and criticising others. As the result, we create
bad karma. Even worse, in some cases, people might harm one another. Those
people would have terrible retribution in their next lives. However, even just
speaking ill of others also means we commit a very bad sin.
This immoral mindset is very strange. If we are not determined to correct
and destroy this kind of mind, we would not be released from it even after our
death. This is a warning to everyone, who wants to follow Buddhism. Whatever
and however we do, we must feel happy for those who are better than us. That is
one way of creating blessings, otherwise, we would be committing a serious sin.
The first thing for all Buddhas disciple to do is to wish everyone around
them to be better than themselves, then their jealousy would gradually leave them.
Even if we are one of the best, we must still sincerely pray to Buddha, wishing for
all others to practice and cultivate better than we do. We must pray sincerely like
that everyday to get rid of jealously. By doing that, we would not be "stubborn
beings" any more.
If we did not pray to Buddha for others to be better than us, jealously would
become stronger day by day without us noticing it. If we let it last very long, it is
harder to get rid of it, then it is a pity when we could not overcome immoral
mindset despite many years of practice.
15

This is the common mistake in Buddhism. There are monks even Venerable
ones who have been practicing Buddhism for a long time but still cannot overcome
this problem, which makes their religious life not perfect. All of us must be aware
of this.
Many Buddhists, who have taken refuge in the Triple Gems for a long time,
still only take care of themselves but not others. This is their selfishness and they
still are stubborn beings.
Impatience or anger also has the same effect. Although we have practised
for five years, we still could be angry with someone, who did not do the job
properly, for a long time. If so, we should know that our immoral mindset still
exists and we have not yet overcome it. After five years of practice and we still
commit this mistake, then it is bad. If after twenty years of practice, we still
commit this mistake, this is alarming. If after forty years of practice, we still
commit this mistake, then we are stubborn beings. We must try to overcome this
mistake in our practice.
As for true Buddhists, we are not allowed to hate, but must have love and
compassion for everyone. Even when we cannot convert them because they are
stubborn, we should not hate them, otherwise, we are stubborn too because we also
cannot overcome our immoral mindset.
Greed
Greed is also very bad. Often monks would not make this mistake because
when becoming a monk, they often feel relaxed and do not care about material and
reputation stuff for ourselves. But if they practice badly, they still make this
mistake. The root cause is the fact that they are not determined to destroy this
mindset, so it gradually grows up and becomes very dangerous.
On the other hand, a monk also has the need of money to take care of their
study and other personal matters. Thats why some temples allow their monks to
keep their own money. Everyone always has their personal needs, therefore, they
try to earn money; and the more they earn the more they become greedy without
even realizing it. This kind of mindset starts with a little thing but then it builds up
over time and become greed.
Due to that desire, our greed has a chance to control ourselves. Therefore,
even some of us have been practising Buddhism for more than thirty years, and
now even being a Venerable, we still are controlled by this greed. If we had that
mindset, we should know that we have committed that sin of: having practiced for
16

a long time but could not overcome the greed. This is a serious concern,
especially for those who hold the important roles in Buddhism Committees.
Especially, some religious leaders are very susceptible to this mistake as they
always worry about having enough money to feed and take care of his disciples.
Therefore, if they cannot control their mind properly, it will turn into a greedy
mind. A truly genuine monk never keeps money at all. If they have money, they
immediately find a way of using all money for any Buddhism related matter, so
that they can destroy their greed. They are a good examples for us.
We must be aware of these two scenarios:
First, as for the monks and nuns who are responsible for managing
the financial to look after the temples and all disciples, must always be
careful and be aware of greed.
Second, as a Buddhist disciple, though you are not responsible for
anything in Buddhism, you must be aware and learn to control this mindset.
If not, it will grow over time, even you have practiced the Dharma for a long
time, you would still be greedy, and you are a stubborn being.
We must be careful, in both cases. Therefore, it is best for monks not to
keep their own money. The Abbots, who love their disciples as their own children,
should take care of everything so that their disciples do not have to mind earning
money; therefore their greed have no chance to grow and develop further. All
monks and nuns must be alert about this.
As for all of us, laymen, ordinary people, because we need money for our
personal life, it is harder for us to be free from greed. Many people have asked us,
"As a layman, can we attain enlightenment?" Our response was: "You can attain
enlightenment, if you could live under the same condition of monks and nuns."
This is indeed very difficult.
It is an extremely important basic that monks and nuns must not be greedy
for money. This can only be achieved if monks and nuns are aware of greed,
practice well to get rid of it. As for laymen, who live an ordinary life, but practice
the Dharma, it is a lot harder to achieve due to personal circumstances. Therefore,
it is extremely difficult for a layman to attain enlightenment. Buddha once had
said: "Life of a layman is full of sufferings and attachments so it is hard for them to
achieve peaceful mind." Therefore, those who want to seek deliverance must leave
their ordinary life to become monk/nun.
Bigotry
17

Bigotry always makes us think that we are right all the times, which makes
us fall into the stubborn beings. Category. When we believe in something, we
would not take others advice even sometimes our Masters.
There are many aspects of bigotry; here we refer only to one aspect of it and
that is we always think we are right. Those, who always doubt their thought, are
wise and not dominated by bigotry. Having practiced Buddhism for years, we must
overcome this weakness, bigotry. Every time we think of something, we have to
assess it as carefully as possible, looking at it from different angles. We should
imagine there is someone who argues with us over our opinions. If they are
reasonable, we should accept their advice. Often it is very difficult to overcome
bigotry. Even though we have practiced the Dharma for many years, we could be
still bigoted and stubborn. So, among many kind of stubborn beings, bigots are the
most stubborn.
Or when we think we are wiser or more talented than others then we should
realize that we are stubborn beings.
Arrogance
Arrogance is a serious concern and it is easy to make this mistake. Many
people have practiced the Dharma for all their life but still have arrogance. Even
worse, there are many people who the more they practise the Dharma, the more
arrogant they become. First, it was just a little bit of pride, then became arrogant as
they progressed through their religious life. It was worse towards the end, when
they became Venerable until no one could stand them. Arrogance is our very
dangerous enemy and is the greatest obstacle to all religious practitioners.
Therefore, monks should be careful with it because arrogance can destroy
all merits and blessings that we have worked so hard to create. Young monks
should always be alert to this issue: arrogance. They should avoid the situation in
which that the more they cultivate, the more arrogant they become. No matter
what we cultivate, we have to ensure that the longer we cultivate, the more humbly
we behave and the more we forget about ourselves. If we secretly raise the thought
that we have cultivated longer than others, hold more important position than
others or have a higher academic degree than others then we must realise that we
fall into the trap: being arrogant.
Sometimes, seeing a younger monk, we may think this person started
practising after us. That thought means we are arrogant about ourselves. If this
kind of thought remained throughout our life, then no one would be able to bear
being around us, even then we become a Venerable. So, from the very beginning,
18

we must regularly warn us that though many people have started practising
Buddhism after us, they may actually have better qualities than us, therefore they
could become Saint one day; as for us, even though we started to cultivate earlier,
however, we have lots to learn, and still remain quite ordinary."
Ambition
Ambition is an enemy of all monks as we always want to succeed more than
others or stand out from a crowd. When we are driven by our ambition, then we
become stubborn beings. Those, who want to stand out from a crowd and wellknown to everyone, are very dangerous to Buddhism because it is easy for them to
do wrong things and manipulate to get what they want. As for monks, we should
not want anything for ourselves but for Buddhism. When we devote our life to
Buddhism and wish to love all livings then according to the law of Cause and
Effect, people will love us and we will stand out from a crowd, even if we do not
want that at all. We must behave and act like that in order to become true
Buddhas disciple.
People who do not have Supreme Bodhi Mind
People belong to this type of stubborn beings are often being born into
wealthy families, lots of blessings from their past lives, but do not want to learn
more about religions. Because they always think that their lives are good enough,
there would be no need to practise and improve themselves any more. Or, in some
cases, people know about religions, but are not interested in taking the next steps.
They do not want to think about enlightenment to help and transform other beings.
People who rely on their blessings, therefore, they have no respect for
monks
Many wealthy men secretly look down on monks. They are so proud of their
wealth that they have no respect for monks. Though monks are not wealthy, their
spirits are always high. Monks have enormous respect for Buddha, and they
always try their best to improve themselves and practise meditation. Therefore,
people, who look down on monks and nun, would be poor and illiterate in their
afterlives. They must understand that physical assets are impermanent, they could
come and go at any time. When a human being dies, they cannot take with them
their assets, except their sins and blessings.
People, who witness monks committing sins, then lose their faith in
Buddhism
19

If by accident, we saw a monk who had a quarrel with someone else, we

then lost faith in Buddhism, had no respect for Buddha, and then no longer came
to temples. Even worse, we told others bad things about Buddhism, about monks,
then others would eventually leave Buddhism. The truth is not all of the monks are
like that. There are many monks who are good examples to us. Anyone, who has
extreme views about Buddhism like this, would commit a serious sin.
When we meet this type of people, we should advise them not to mention
about what they witnessed repetitively, and they also should not lose their faith in
Buddhism, because everyone is uniquely different to each other. We must know
that there are so many religious people who are kind, righteous, holy, and they are
the ones for everyone to rely on.
People, who do not want to change to be better, due to their pride and bias
For example, we followed our Master because we thought that he could do
many wonderful things. However, our master used charms and did many wrong
things. After a while, we discovered that he was really bad. Knowing about the
situation, someone criticised us: Why did you follow that evil Master? We
responded arrogantly: It is none of your business.
Sometimes, because there were many people criticizing our master, we
defended him angrily I think hes good, thats why I follow him. Why did we
talk back like that? - Because we thought that good master creates good students.
And we didnt think that it was due to our pride, arrogant and bias, which would
bring retribution to us. Therefore, if by any chance we realize that we have
followed a bad Master and learnt about bad doctrines, do not be so proud, biased
to stay with the Master. We should have left him to avoid of being a stubborn
being.
We have listed various types of stubborn beings and more or less, we would
fall into one of the categories. It also means that we would have to pay back for a
long time, and could be from one life to another.
So all of us must try to overcome those mistakes and remorse in front of the
Buddha. We should pray to the Buddha: "Namo Shakyamuni Buddha, now that I
have learnt from my Master about many kinds of stubborn beings and I have
realized that I am one of these types. Now I remorse in front of Buddha for these
mistakes I have made. I pray to Buddha, please bless me with strength and
knowledge to overcome the same mistakes." That is, we must repent of our sins
over and over again, days, months in order to obtain more blessings and avoid
retribution. It would take a long time for us to be free from our sins, our debts
20

from our past lives, and this life. Only when we are free of these sins, our mind
would be peaceful, we would make the best effort to practise the Dharma
diligently to become a true Buddhist and bring many benefits to other living
beings.
However, for the above, it means we only did it for ourselves. How about
our friends, our family members and relatives? What about their sins and mistakes
because they also fall into one of these categories? We must be patient with them.
These types of people will not listen the first, or second times. We must be
compassionate, patient to help transform them. We must help them realize by
themselves, and they must be willing to change to be better.
We must never give up, even in our thought, even when the person is so evil
and so stubborn. Maybe sometimes, we would feel so helpless. But we must not
give up. We should vow to try to help them until the end and speak to ourselves:
maybe not now, but will be later." We should pray to Buddha for blessing us to
have enough strength, enough sincerity and compassion to save and transform
stubborn beings. If we can do so, we would have lots of blessings and have better
results later in life, or in other lives because we have brought enormous benefits to
them.
Today, we talked about a very painful and uncomfortable topic. However, if
we understand the topic today, when we understand our mind, our behaviours, we
would be stronger and be able to form the right thinking and head towards the
right direction:
That is we must be patient in helping others to be better, to learn more
about the Dharma, to perfect themselves, and together we all head towards the
ultimate spiritual goal.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha

21

THE CENTURY OF SPIRITUALITY

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
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www.vidaothieng.com

Buddhism has been a good companion through many ups and downs, joys
and sorrows of our country. The spiritual strength of Buddhism is a considerable
element in helping our nation regain our country independence as well as help
keep our borders safe. Moreover, Buddhism is a significant factor that helps
develop our country become a better and stronger nation.
Buddhism plays an important role in our lives. However, most of us do not
fully comprehend it. Many people join Buddhism only to pray for themselves,
therefore they have missed so many advantages of Buddhism. In fact, Buddhism
has lots of noble qualities, a great spiritual foundation which guide us through our
life, from basic to advanced level.
At a basic level, people must know to avoid doing bad deeds, try to do good
deeds and try to bring joy and happiness to other people around us. At a higher
level, Buddhism makes us realise that we have a great responsibility in life that
is patriotism. And above all, that is our love and compassion for all beings. But
that's not all. Buddhism also gives us the ultimate goal, and that is to achieve
enlightenment and selflessness, so that we would have boundless love to the entire
universe.
Perhaps many religions share the same and basic principle that is doing
more good deeds and avoid doing bad deeds. However, some religions stop at that
level, while with Buddhism, we would not be able to thoroughly understand
Buddhist doctrines even when we spend our whole life and many next lives to
study it.
Buddhist teachings are so immense, therefore, many academics or scientists
in the world have been convinced willingly. In the last century, the internationally
world-famous scientist Einstein, who lived in a Christian country, had boldly
stated that: in the future, any religion if wanted to exist, it must have both spiritual
truth and scientific knowledge. It must be able to unite humans and lead them to a
new civilization, full of peace. Then he concluded only Buddhism can do that. This
statement of Einstein shocked the world. Many academics, who believed in
Einstein, started exploring and learning more about Buddhism, and they were
totally convinced.
However, the method used to promote Buddhism has not been effective,
which has made many people not having chances to join Buddhism and understand
its enormous benefits. Many senior leaders of our country are very knowledgeable
2

about Buddhism, while management at the lower level do not, therefore they have
been treating Buddhism just like as other religions.
We would find that for the Northern part of our country, Buddhism indeed
has been a great companion. The local authority always look after the temples. For
example, when a temple wanted to hold a seminar, the local government officials
would invite a Master to deliver the lecture and surprisingly, at the end of the
lecture, they thanked the Master personally.
However, in the South, the local government keeps their distance from
Buddhism. But, thanks to the Souths fast development, it is easier to exchange
information, thus, Buddhism seems to be everywhere. In the far North, due to its
mountainous and hilly terrain, exchanging information has not been easy, so
Buddhism has not yet developed here, especially in the Northwest and Northeast.
In these remote areas, Buddhist temples lie scattered randomly; even some
provinces do not have any temples. And for places not having any temples, it is
lucky if they have any Buddhists reside in the area to promote Buddhism because
there are no monks or nuns living in these remote areas.
We have two way of attracting monks to live in these remote areas, and
form the Board of Trustees. One way is that we would need to invite monks from
other places. Another way is when someone become extremely religious, then they
would have to leave home to become monks to help preserve Buddhism. Please do
remember that preserving Buddhism contributes towards the protection of our
country.
We are nearly at the end of the 20th century and are entering the 21st
century and some sociologists have predicted that the 21st century will be the
century of Spirituality. The statement had surprised the world. However,
sociologists made this bold prediction based on many facts and evidences.
However, we always have thought that the 21st century would be the
century of science and technology. Why is that? - Because Hollywood have
produced so many scientific fiction films. Those movies are about people have
traveled into space, into distant planets in our galaxy in the 21st century. And even
on this earth, war happened between robots and human; as robots could think like
human, and were armed with powerful weapons. Those robots would kill all
people in the world to dominate the human race. In those movies, religions are not
mentioned because no one believes in them. Because nowadays science advances
so fast, people think that those who are good at science and technology will be the
3

winner. People firmly believe that the more advanced science is, the less people
would believe in God; people would only care about science and technology, with
the desire to dominate the world.
However, after carrying out many careful researches from many nations,
with different approaches, and beliefs, the social scientists finally concluded that
the 21st Century is the century of spirituality rather than science and technology,
which made us very surprised because spirituality and science are completely the
opposite. We say that because science always requires reasons, facts, not beliefs.
When scientists conclude anything, it must be repeatedly tested in many
laboratories, in theory as well as practice. For example, under certain pressure,
pure water boils at 100 Celsius degree no matter where it is done.
Based on reasons and facts, people will gradually be convinced by science.
Consequently, people eventually would lose faith in God. However, unexpectedly,
the result is exactly the opposite. Despite the fact that science advances more and
more, religious sentiments of the human race towards Gods have never changed. It
is like what the Great Uncle Ho once said Vietnam is one, all Vietnamese are
one. River can run dry, mountains can disappear, but this truth will never change.
After these social scientists have had visited many places, have witnessed
many customs and cultures, they have concluded that no matter how advanced
technologies have been invented, how mobile phones, cable TVs, very fast internet
become familiar to everybody, or even how people communicate via satellites to
find a ship in the sea or use remote control to manage weapons from far away,
regardless of how expert they are at using technologies, at the end of a day, they
still kneel down and pray to their God!
We always have thought that any nations, which have had advanced
technologies, would idolize science and technology, but instead, they still worship
God. At that time, the social scientists realised that that humans love and affection
for their God is natural instinct and irreplaceable.
When being novices in the temple, one day, we saw a young man who was
speaking to our master in the guest house. He was probably a soldier or an official
from the North. He often came to our temple to ask our master to pray for his late
daughter. He once told us a story:
We once were soldiers, he said. We fought against the American troops
on Truong Son trail. During the war, the U.S. army often bombed our troops very
4

fiercely. After each bomb attack, our team had only few members survived. Once
the enemy spotted us, we tried to hide in the ravines. It was really sad that one of
our best friends was killed.
We packed our bags and had a quick meal before moving to another place.
At dinner, we put aside a portion of the food and called out our friends name and
asked him to join us for dinner. Suddenly, a small bird from nowhere flew towards
us. We looked surprisingly at the bird then I told the bird, If you were our friend,
come and land on my arm. Then to our astonishment, the bird landed onto my
arm.
Right then, our whole team believed that the bird was our friend coming
back in the body of a bird to visit us. If the decease did not borrow a materialistic
body of a living creature, such as a bird or a butterfly, he would not be able to let
his friends know his presence.
Such phenomena do exist around us, so people believe that death is not the
end; it does not put an end to everything yet. For example, the high-ranking
official in a province dedicated his whole life for the benefit of his people. Thus,
many people loved and respected him. And when he passed away, deep in other
peoples soul, they thought he still existed in some other forms, not having left yet
because his good deeds were still helpful to many people. Since we believe that
death has not yet put an end to everything and especially for those who dedicated
the whole life for the benefit of others, they should be worshipped even after their
death. And thats why people have beliefs in God, in Spirits!
Such sentiments and beliefs exist deep in human souls as a natural instinct
without any reason. Of course, one day with more advanced science, people will
be able to explain spiritual matters in great details. And for now, when people have
not yet been able to explain these matters fully and clearly, they will continue to
live with their spiritual belief in their God, which will be passed from one
generation to another. Just like sayings or stories we heard from our ancestors,
these sayings/principles and beliefs will stay with us throughout our lives.
When we were children, we often heard our grandparents tell many stories,
then we remembered those for the rest of our lives. For example, this was one of
the story: in the old days, whoever spoke ill words when passing by a temple,
would get sick for weeks as the punishment. Their families had to bring fruits,
flowers and burnt incense to the temple, to remorse and pray for forgiveness, so
that person would get well again. Short stories like that shaped our perception of
5

God and spiritual beliefs at a very young age. And it is the same everywhere
around the world. From the tribes in remote areas to civilized countries, each
nation understands their God, and have spiritual beliefs in their own way.
It is obviously that people always have a belief in their spiritual world,
without any explanation, and no one can stop it, regardless how advanced science
and technology are or will be. Even police officers also rely on their spiritual
belief to help their job when it comes to dead-ends. For example, in a case where
investigation seemed to be stuck, the police officer started to pray for help from
the dead victim. And magically new clues were discovered, helping him find the
perpetrator.
There are so many cases like this happening around the world, forming a
spiritual world. Our feelings and beliefs in God establish belief systems, each of
which has different rationalizations.
A tribe in Africa has their own opinion about the afterlife, celestial beings,
or how to cast a spell on somebody. A tribe in Siberia has another idea about Gods
and a tribe in South America explains divine world and the afterlife in their own
way.
Thus, beliefs in God exist everywhere throughout the world, but we have no
one common explanation. Various rationalizations about them result in the
existence of different systems of beliefs, depending on the theorists. Whenever a
belief system improves and develops further, a new religion is created. So, a
religion could be formed from a belief system that was created by a religious
teacher, who was good at convincing, and influencing people.
However, it is not enough for people to believe in a religion if it just has its
theory and explanation. It must have proven results. It must bring benefits to
people to gain their trust and acceptance.
For example, in the old days, when someone fell sick, they cured themselves
with herbal medicine. And when the medicine failed to cure their illness, their
relatives had to bring them to a shaman (i.e. a witchdoctor). That shaman only
made ceremonial offerings and prayed but surprisingly the patient was well again.
As the result, people started to believe that praying could help overcome illness,
and they started believing in God!

Another example is that when people encountered a dangerous river, which

was renowned for many people had downed because of its dangerously strong
current, they were advised to bring gifts to the Sea-God and pray that they would
be safe when crossing the river. People took that advice, gave something to the
Sea-God and they had a safe trip across the river, indeed.
When such events kept occurring repeatedly, a belief system started forming
and gradually got stronger. And those belief systems continued to develop into
different religions. Nowadays, there are several main religions in the world such as
Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Orthodox
There are also a few well-known belief systems but did not turn to religions
such as Confucianism and Taoism. As for Taoism, followers have a proclivity to
enjoy attaining to celestial beings. Although these days Confucianism and Taoism
are not popular as they were before, they still exist and are popular in many places.
The belief in God grew over time and became many well-known religions.
We all may have a question: Why do religions exist?
We all may have believed that the reason religions exist is because human
just simply want to pray to God. Actually, it is not true. For example,
Zoroastrianism in India, their religious rituals are always very solemnly organized
with many sumptuous donations. Some other religions even go to the extreme and
scarify human beings life as a means of worshipping their God. The truth is that
religion is born to take care of human and for the benefits of human. Sometimes,
people even use religions and name of God to pursue their own personal goals and
for their own personal benefits. Though many people are on their knees, bow to
their Gods respectfully, but secretly from deep down, they pray to God for their
own personal benefits! So again, religions exist for the benefit of human beings.
This applies to all religions. Any religion must serve the needs of human
beings. If it was just for only God, whom cant be seen anywhere, then surely
sooner or later the religion would no longer exist.
In addition, because religions always promise to bring a better life to their
followers, people continue to believe in religions. What really is the promise? It
promises that if people follow the religion, it would bring people good health,
great wealth and great success. Even when they pass away, religions promise that
they would be brought to a very happy place surrounded by Saints and Goddesses.
That is the promise to human beings.
7

As you all know human beings are selfish in nature. We create religions to
worship God but in fact, the purpose is for our own benefits. That is human nature
selfish, greedy and always taking advantage of any situation, or anyone. People
may knee down in front of God, but the praying is for themselves, never for God.
That is the true human nature.
Now we must understand that people follow any religions, first and
foremost, for their own interests and benefits. If the religion does not bring benefit
to people, they would abandon that religion. As the result, religions must promise
people several things:

Firstly, when one follows a religion, there will be less suffering

and they will be happy.

Secondly, the religion promises its followers that they will

taught, and guided towards doing good deeds, avoid doing bad deeds.
These two dominant characteristics of a religion have attracted many people
to join and devote their lives towards the religion. Lets mention it in a different
way. Firstly, people will be blessed to be happier in this life, and even in their
afterlife. Secondly, they will be more ethical.
Lets mention again: all religions must promise two things for their
followers, if not, the religions would become useless. The first thing is that the
religion will teach people about ethics/morality. The second thing is when people
have ethics, the religion will bring them happiness. That means people will be
rewarded if they do good deeds, and vice versa, people will be punished for their
sins. If any religion does not have either of these two characteristics, that religion
would not last long.
For example, there was a religion, which only encouraged people to live an
enjoyable life, and not to worry about building up their ethics. The people of this
religion only needed to worship and pray to their God, then that would be enough.
The result would be, sooner or later that religion would come to an end, or even
worst, people of this religion may break the law. Because if the religion did not
teach its people about morality, and just live as they wish, then this religion was a
place full of crimes.
There are many religions that exist and last until today because they have
the two qualities mentioned above: firstly, the promise to help people live happier;

and secondly, it will teach people about morality. Without these two important
qualities, any religions or God are just nonsense.
Sometimes, people even dared deceiving their own God or even took
advantage of the situation for their benefit. They used the reputation of the religion
to attract the public and when they gained peoples trust, they engaged in bad
politics or did business for their own benefits. We call it to commercialize the
religion.
For example, someone built up a temple. Soon after, we heard a rumor that
we would get what we wished for if we prayed at this temple. We could win
lottery; we could win a business deal or easily passed an exam And there were
more and more stories like these. However, these were not facts, just stories. No
one knew if these lucky people existed. All we knew was that they kept collecting
monies from people, who believed in these stories, even worse, they asked for
certain amount of money from these people. Similarly, someone else whispered in
our ears that: This temple is very spiritual. Recently there was a child got
kidnapped, his parents came here to pray and he was rescued soon afterwards;
or: That boy was not doing well at school, but he often came here to pray; and his
studying now is improving day by day.
A strange thing is that a human being could easily trust someone. 80% of us
enjoy listening to gossips on a bus, in coffee shops or on the street making these
make-up stories about religion become more believable. However, the truth is
absolutely not like that. When we went to these places, we had to spend a lot of
money. Obviously, the name of the religion was betrayed and taken advantage of.
That is what evil people do for their own personal benefit.
During French colonialist wartime, in a province of Mekong delta, there was
a man who called himself the founder of a new religion. What he actually did was
using laser light technology to create images of tigers and dragons and spreading
the rumors that he had extraordinary power to train these sacred creatures to attract
peoples attention, then their trust. Anyone, who would suspect him, was stabbed
to death by his disciples. People, from the West regions, called his religion Lui
Religion (meaning stabbing). They dared using the cruelest method for their
personal gains.

In order to attract other people, one must have fate with others from many
past lives. Otherwise, if we attracted other peoples attention by manipulation or
cheat, only a few people would believe and follow us.
Thanks to good karma from past lives, some religious leaders attract a large
number of followers, but then change their career path from religion into politics.
Once entering politics their religious life would no longer be pure. Rarely have we
seen anybody deserve to be the National Buddhist Master. In Vietnam, we have
Master Van Hanh and Master Khuong Viet, they always upheld their valuable
disposition no matter how much power they had. Although being the Kings
teachers, they never abused their power for personal gains.
While some other religious leaders would use their power and resources to
support their politics career because they want to influence and be able to dictate
the country. Abusing the power of a religion to influence politics often happens in
many places around the world. This could endanger the country and its religions.
We wish that all religious leader would be able to focus only on teaching people
about ethics.
However, amongst the chaos of diversified religions, stands out Buddhism,
which doctrine is very logical, fair and brings priceless values to the society.
Firstly, Buddhism has karma law that is fair and objective.
Whoever bedevils others will suffer retribution to compensate their own
sins. Whoever makes others happy will enjoy good luck and great blessings. And
this justice does not depend on God because karma is a natural, logical, and fair
principle in the universe. Therefore, joining Buddhism, we seem to be positively
encouraged to avoid doing bad deeds, but to love and help others. More
importantly, our belief in Buddhism does not make us totally dependent on the
religion at all. This is a strange but wonderful thing.
We all have boundless homage for Buddha. Each day we could pray and
bow in front of Buddha for hundreds of times, but it does not mean we are totally
dependent on Him. Our boundless respect for Buddha is due to the fact that He had
left for the human race the most honorable doctrines, which had been passed on to
many generations without any prejudice. We respect and admire Buddha as he had
guided us all to a new world. Though being categorized as one of the spiritual
religion, Buddhism has its own distinctive characters, which are completely
different with other religions.
10

Secondly, Buddhism has the principle about having boundless

compassion.
Buddhism teaches us all to have boundless love and compassion, not only
for human beings but for all animals and things e.g. grass and trees. This is not in
any other religion teachings.
In ancient times, people used swords to fight with each other; today, people
use guns to shoot at each other, we all call for people to stop killing one another.
That is already a considerable progress. However, Buddhism teaches us not to
even kill animals. This is even more advanced thinking than any other religion.
And Buddhism doesnt stop there. It pushes further and calls on people to have the
compassion for things such as like plants and trees. We all are surprised about this
huge advancement, which outgrows all civilizations.
The more advanced civilized human beings become, the bigger our
compassion should be. Being Buddhas disciples, we must love all beings
unquestioningly.
Avatar, one of Hollywoods most famous movies, was screened in the
recent times, and it had earned substantial revenue of billions of dollars. The story
was about human beings lives in an era, which was so developed and advanced
that they exploited and destroyed all resources they owned. With advanced science
and technology, they then found a planet where life exists, with enormous amount
of natural valuable resources, which human beings from earth decided to invade
and steal these resources. During the invasion, they encountered an indigenous
tribe that possesses a supernatural ability to connect with nature. Avatar is a
touching story, which conveys a message that we have to live in accordance with
the law of nature; and we must love all beings, and all nature resources because
they are the cradle of life; they protect and help maintain life for human beings.
Only when we are in the 21st century, leading scientists from over the world
realise and make statement about we should have compassion for all beings, which
Buddha had mentioned over 2500 years ago.
Over 2500 years ago, many people did not believe in the kind of boundless
love Buddha had taught. Nowadays, many scientific evidences have proved Him
right and confirmed what Buddha said is true and worthy at all times: we must
love all beings, even grass and trees. How original is that! Buddhism is ahead of
its time and its master ideas continue to brighten human beings life forever.
11

Buddhism teaches us about the principle of selflessness.

Every living being has a concept of a self or an ego and believes it make one
different from others. Many people enjoy indulging their egos because they think
they would be admired for it. However, in Buddhism, the conception of Self is
considered a big delusion, which would lead to many mistakes and sufferings. A
big ego only instigates us to hurt, disrespect and fight with others, which only
leads to us committing lots of sins in our life.
Therefore, Buddhism has pointed out that only when our ego is eliminated,
we then could live in harmony and live a happy and enlightened life. Step by step,
Buddhist doctrine encourages us to get rid of our ego by either praying, practicing;
or by actions, by words or by any possible way until the time when we no longer
consider ourselves significant. Only then, we would be able to live a happy and
virtuous life.
We often mistakenly think that we would be happy and satisfied when we
did something extraordinary and so different in our life. For example, a young
teenager rode his motorbike at the maximum limit to attract peoples attention.
When he got what he wanted, he felt satisfied and was proud of his achievement,
which was the fact that everybody admired his talent. The real truth is that wise
and happy people often live a quiet life.
Buddhism had taught us this principle from thousands of years ago and
many Saints have continued their success by following this path.
We have heard stories, which have sad ending just because of big ego. For
example, history had witnessed many brilliant military Generals who fought off
many enemies to help protect their countries border, and became brilliant heroes.
However, during peaceful time, many had suddenly became a great threat for their
own regime. Why was that? That was the consequence of having a big ego, when
one kept counting his glorious victories and perceived himself so important that
his overbearing and arrogant manner got himself disliked, especially when the
King always feared that one day his throne would be taken over by someone else.
Understanding this principle, our greatest hero of all times, Uncle Ho, had
commented about this in one of his article Improving the Working Style under
the pen name XYZ. Uncle Ho pointed out the mistakes of many people, who
contributed significant during war times, but could not do the same during peace
12

times to help the country recover and develop further. He commented that the
overly proud thinking and mindset of these war heroes often makes them lose their
ethics, and as the result they could not contribute towards the development of the
country, even worse, it could make the country go backwards. They conveniently
forgot that though winning over the enemy is great, building the country to be
strong and better after war times is even more important.
Ego often causes us to be overly proud about our past victories, which could
become obstacles for us to grow and in some situations, it would be detrimental to
others. Therefore, Buddhism always reminds us to eliminate our ego.
Buddhism also teaches us to pray for others, not just ourselves; try not to
pray everything for our own personal gains. When praying about ourselves, try to
pray that Buddha would help to get rid of greed, selfishness and our own ego.
Meditation is also one of the ways to eliminate ego. Whoever accomplishes this
mediation level will most likely achieve the highest stage of Sainthood. In
Buddhism, there are four levels of Sainthood. The 1st level of Sainthood is
achieved after we have less ego. The more we practise on eliminating ego, the
higher the level of Sainthood we would achieve. When we completely get rid of
ego, we would achieve the highest level of Sainthood, which is Arhant.
Arhant eradicates Self completely. Though he might be normal like
everyone else, he does not have ego any more. He would see himself as servant for
all beings. His mind is pure, and he has compassion for all beings. He knows and
is aware of everything across the universe. Only an ordinary human being, because
ego still exists, would still want to differentiate between self and others; and as the
result would become greedy, competitive, selfish and is full of hatred.
We could only understand the difference between an ordinary human being
and a Saint, when we achieve that high level. This is a special doctrine of
Buddhism, which does not exist in other religions, because its beyond
everybodys normal state of mind. We should all try our best to practise to attain
selflessness.
Buddhism teaches us a profound meditation method.
Buddhism teaches us the way to practise meditation that helps becalm our
mind and overcome our own self to be better and greater. Buddhism is one of the
most important factors to protect our country. Throughout our great history, many
national heroes who possessed great qualities, had practised meditation e.g. the
13

Kings under Tran dynasties. or in the modern days it was our greatest hero,
Uncle Ho. When Uncle Ho was working in the Northern based army force, one of
his staff member took a picture of him while he was mediating inside a cave or
sometimes near a river stream. We do not know which level of meditation he had
attained, however, these pictures of him practising meditation do exist.
Buddhism gives us great moral examples
Speaking of Buddhas morality, so far, no one could find any flaws. As
written in the history, before achieving enlightenment, he had never committed
any sins, or made any mistakes. Even when he achieved the highest level of
enlightenment, either Saints or any other celestial beings still could not find any
flaws, even a small/minor one.
Buddha had never done anything mistakenly, even just small gestures e.g. a
glance, or a smile. None of his smile was senseless, none of his gaze was without a
reason, and none of his movement was without a purpose. In contrast, we could
just laugh uproariously all day long, look around aimlessly, or having gesture
wildly just for the sake of it, with no purpose. Any of Buddhas movements was
very relaxed and calm, and more importantly those movements always meant
something.
A strange thing was that wherever he wanted to go, Buddha had never have
to ask for directions at all. When a Buddhist came to invite Buddha to his place:
Dear Buddha, it would be our great honour to have you at our place for lunch
tomorrow, the person then would left without leaving his address. Buddha
accepted the invitation. The next day, Buddha led his disciples to the Buddhists
place without having to ask for direction.
After becoming an Enlightened One, Buddha wanted to help the five
brothers of Kieu Tran Nhu, who were hundreds of kilometers far away from Him.
However, Buddha came right to their residence without any troubles and taught
them the first well-known subject entitled Four Noble Truths. Buddha knew all of
the paths in the universe: human world, heaven or hell.
All Buddhism Saints, and all Buddhas disciples were noble and excellent,
too. Also, the Dharma, Buddhas teachings, which has been passed onto many
generations, conveys extremely high and spiritual values that Einstein, one of the
greatest scientists in the world, had praised that: Buddhism is a leading religion
for the human race and for science, now and forever.
14

Buddhism and Vietnam, our nation!

Our nation is very fortunate because our ancestors were very thoughtful and
wise to choose Buddhism as our national religion several thousand years ago.
However, whether or not our children would still have that privilege depends
completely on us. Will we practise, protect and promote Buddhism further or will
we let other bad religions to destroy Buddhism?
As for this matter, many locals from the North West of Vietnam have shared
with us their growing concern about different minority groups, which have their
own spiritual routines. It has not been completely united around this area of the
country. Our country has been unified, our legal system has been integrated, there
is only one national language, but the biggest worry here is that our belief system
hasnt been unified yet. We all must understand that this is our main concern.
Though spirituality is invisible but is very important. It is like the nerve
system inside our spinal cord, though it cannot be seen with naked eyes but is a
determining factor to human lives. If that nerve system is collapsed for any reason,
either we will die, or become completely disabled.
Similarly, spirituality is something that we cannot see but it stays deeply in
our mind, and it helps maintain the strength of our nation. Vietnam has been united
thanks to many soldiers and heroes, and everyone from the North to the South
across the country. However, we have not yet been able to unite our own peoples
religious belief. So, how could we do this?
We must think of uniting all peoples religious belief with the hope that all
ethnic minorities have the same point of view about religions. That is to ensure
that everyone have the same thinking: to have compassion for all beings, and to
unite as one; not having different beliefs or everyone lives and acts in their own
way. Meanwhile, many other foreign religions have been trying to convince our
own people to follow them. These minority groups are already fragile in their
belief systems, therefore, they could easily be influenced by other foreign
religions. This means it weakens our nation, our beliefs as the nation, and
endanger the security of our country.
As noted above, our ancestors had wisely chose Buddhism as the foundation
and the national religion from a few thousand years ago. If we do not use
Buddhism to unite our nations religions, then the national spirituality will be torn
into pieces and our country will become weaker. This is a serious concern!
15

Understanding this problem, we must support our Government in protecting

national spirituality and strengthening national unification as much as possible.
Here is a popular saying:
A strong and stable unification will bring glorious victories.
We call for national unification but what does unity means to each of us?
Please remember that: among various major components to shape unification,
uniting our religious belief is the most important thing.
We are an united nation on many aspects. It is because we share a common
language; because we have only one Party; because of our patriotism, our
legislative law system, and our monetary system; as well as because we have the
same belief in our ancestors, our origination and so on. But one more important
thing is that we must have one common religious belief, because it is the essential
and the most important link which constitutes the national cohesion.
Several years ago, a few villagers from Tay Nguyen province protested with
the local authority. Big crowd of people marched into the inner city of Buon Me
Thuot province to protest, which had caused a lot of damages. That costed the
local government greatly to settle the protest. Right after that event, we had held a
seminar to discuss about: The Brotherhood of Native Vietnamese and Ethnic
Minorities to remind us all about the compassion for many other ethnic groups
across Vietnam.
Knowing about the ethnic villagers nomadic farming routine, some native
Vietnamese bought many of their newly-ploughed lands. However, bad people
spread the news that the native Vietnamese people tried to invade the ethnic
villagers lands. From then on, people from minority groups often do not like to
associate with native Vietnamese. The lesson learnt from the protest in Buon Me
Thuot province was that we did not have the common spirituality and religious
beliefs, and as the result, overall it would weaken our nation security.
To have everyone living in harmony, solidarity, and sympathy in Vietnam,
the S-curved-shape country, we must have one national spirituality. But how do
we unite and have the same religious belief? Certainly, we should take it from
Buddhism, the religion that our ancestor had chosen thousands of years ago
Vietnam also has a unique belief in our origination: that is the belief in
Dragon and Fairy legend.
16

Some of you may know that Christianity is a religion based on Jewish

history. At that time, Jewish people were the slaves of the Egyptians. One day,
Moses came about and saw the suffering of the Jews; he felt the urge to free them
from slavery so he found a way to help them escape from the Egyptians. He
guided them through many huge desert in the Middle-East to get to a place called
Promise Land (Israel today). This story was written in the Old Testament and is
taught at every Christian church around the world.
Nonetheless, the history of their foundation cannot match ours. Why is our
interesting and glorious history so unpopular? Just because we are not good at
telling those stories, it does not mean that we are not proud of our ancestors
superiority and magnanimity, and the fact that we are the children of Dragonfather and Fairy-mother. But, from today, the world will learn about the
foundation of our country, a beautiful, poetic and wonderful history.
The story goes...
Once upon a time, in a distant land in the continent of Asia, existed a clan
that was ruled by an extremely beautiful fairy. Though she did not have an
ambition to be a leader, her extraordinary talent, knowledge, beauty and magical
power claimed substantial admiration from the tribal groups in the surrounding
regions, she was crowned Queen. Everybody often called her Au Co. C means a
beautiful lady, Au is her family name. However, nobody dared speaking of her
name because of their respect for her. She ruled a very large territory, starting
from the capital of North Vietnam (Bac Ninh province today) up to the central
highland area. Nobody knew her age as she was always young and beautiful and
did not age at all.
One day, from the North came a gentleman, named Lac Long Quan, and he
was both vigorous and skillful at performing supernatural powers. He heard about
her excellent, enviably fine reputation so he made his way to the land of her
sovereign with the hope of seeing her.
Since she was a powerful Queen, nobody dared proposing to her. And
because she was so sublime and her talent was so excellent, nobody could ever be
her life partner. Until the handsome, intelligent, sublime and highly honorable Lac
Long Quan visited her, they both fell in love at the first sight. She asked him where
he was from, and he replied:
- I came from the North, from a royal family, I am the Dragons son.
17

- What do you mean by Dragons son?

- My King-father owns and rules a large territory in the Northern area.
As he was not ambitious and does not care about power, he ceded the throne to
his older brother. He did not like to build any dynasty. So, my grand-father
had no choice but to divide the domain in two, one in the North, which
belonged to the older brother of my King-father and another in the South,
which belonged to my King-father. Not long ago, my King-father abdicated the
throne to me. However, I also do not care much about power and wealth, I like
travelling around the country. My Queen-mother is a female dragon, living in
a lake, named Dong Dinh. I am therefore the Dragons son. I am also able to
create rain.
Lady Au Co then asked him for help:
- There is a marsh in the Eastern part of my country. An orca currently
lives there. Could you please help defeat it?
Lac Long Quan set off for the marsh looking for that orca. The marsh,
where the violent orca occupied, is present-day West Lake in Hanoi. With his
supernatural powers, he was able to defeat the orca easily so that a peaceful life
was fully restored to all of the residents living around that area. His great success
counted as not only his offerings to get acquainted with Lady Au Co but also his
supernatural abilities. Soon after, Lady Au Co and Lac Long Quan got married.
However, there was a condition from Lady Au Co. She wanted him to stay back in
her country as she was familiar with matriarchy. Lac Long Quan agreed to the
condition. They had one hundred children. Because of the country development,
they had to part. Au Co took 50 children to the mountainous area. Lac Long Quan
led the other 50 children into the sea. However, later on, all one hundred children
united and together built up the country. The eldest son became the King, called
King Hung and our country at that time was called Van Lang.
King Hung was not an ordinary man. He inherited two sources of
supernatural powers, the first was from his Dragon father and the second was from
his Fairy mother. In the early beginnings of his dynasty he travelled across the
land to visit all the tribes, from Nghe An all over the northern territories.
Whenever he came across a new tribal community, he would introduce himself as
the King of Van Lang country, and would perform miracles. As a result of these
miracles, he won over the hearts of the people. You could say the foundation of
Vietnam was erected by King Hung, the first Kings supernatural power: the fact
18

that this supernatural being travelled from tribe to tribe, performing miracles to
conquer the peoples hearts was key to the unification of our beginning, Van Lang.
Vietnams historical unification is a beautiful legend, like a dream, but it is a
shame that we do not know how to tell it, we do not know how to share the truth.
Moreover, some of us dont believe and are even mocking our legendary lineage.
The truth is the founding of our country is very beautiful, and inside each of us lies
dormant our supernatural powers unbeknown to us.
In our warring history, we have fought back larger and stronger nations to
protect our sovereignty. Successful protection of our sovereignty is not by chance.
Although our race is small in stature, we have fought back our invaders and
quashed their ambitions of colonizing our country. How is this possible?
It is because we all have a common spiritual strength, running deep within
our soul. At times we do not even know that it is there, we do not even know the
source of this strength but it is this spiritual strength that has empowered our
nations people in such a way that the whole world has acknowledge us.
In the thirteenth century, Mongolian troops occupied a very large land mass
including the whole of Asia up to the Danube river (in Europe). After defeating
China, they campaigned to our country. However, the King and mandarins of the
Tran Dynasty a long with our people quashed the Mongolian aggressors
ambitions with three glorious feats of arms.
It is thanks to our Dragon father and Fairy mother origin that we have the
supernatural, spiritual strength to overcome our physical stature and excel.
It is the still the same today. Although our country is still a developing
nation, the Vietnamese people no matter where they study, always achieve
competitive academic rankings against their global peers. Have we ever
questioned where our intellectual acumen came from? It is from our Dragon
father and Fairy mother, and not by chance or coincidence, that we have the
spiritual strength that flows through the veins of all Vietnamese people.
Our ancestors chose Buddhism as a unifying faith for our people to move
forward. This spiritual faith coupled with our Dragon father and Fairy mothers
blood flowing through us, provides us with a complete pair of wings to excel us.

19

But why havent we taken off yet? Because our wings are still folded, we
have not flown.
Why are our wings of spiritual strength still folded in this century? Because
we have not spread our wings to fly.
Why havent we opened wide our wings to fly?

Firstly, our spiritual Dragon and Fairy inheritance has not yet been
truthfully propagated. Even our government and our department of culture and
education didnt take the initiation to emphasize this point for our people to feel
proud of our origin.

Secondly, Buddhism is not only a positive national spiritual strength

of our people and could also be the spiritual strength for all of the worlds nations
but we have not widely promoted this globally.
Nowadays, our wings are still unfolded; we are still unable to fly into the
world yet. One day, our wings of spirituality will be stretched out, a brilliant future
is awaiting us.
One day, when our younger generation learn our history of origin in their
hearts; when all 54 ethnic groups in our country to far-away islands; from major
cities to rural areas are saturated with the sublime Dharma, then certainly, the
prosperity of our country will grow so strong and so powerfully that our country
will be taken to a new-found horizon of civilization.
Gifted with such a national spirituality and such wings of spirituality, we
can set a stable patriotism up on that foundation of spirituality.
Gifted with such a national spirituality, we can develop a spiritual life
proportionate to current science and technology.
Gifted with such a national spirituality, we reshape our morality, fineness,
thoughtfulness and sagacity better and better.
And such a national spirituality will make everybody become one. We must
believe in such prospects.
In todays spiritual age, science still goes on its own way whereas
spirituality becomes a more and more preeminent and ongoing concern.
20

As for Vietnam, we have our own foundation of national spirituality its

the origin of Dragon-father and Fairy-mother that we have to introduce it to the
world. And from the spiritual strength of Buddhism and our national character, we
will make our country much more integrated, sympathetical, and developed, but
also to contribute to a cause of a new world peaceful, comfortable and blissful for
mankind.

Namo Sakya Muni Buddha.

21

THE MIRACLE

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

What is a miracle? It is not from any physical or biological principle. It

actually indicates extraordinary abilities of human beings, or it could be a message
from God, or Saint from the holy land.
For example, we use heat to boil water; that is physics. In principle, when
we heat the water up to 100 degrees, the water is boiled completely. However, if
someone just holds a pot of water, and after a while the water is completely boiled,
that is not physics; that could be considered as a miracle. Therefore, if we could
explain something based on physics principles, it would not be a miracle. On a
contrary, if we could not explain something by any scientific means, we could
consider it to be a miracle.
Similarly, a miracle could be something that does not have any biological
origin. A human being could only jump, at most, a meter to two meter height.
However, if someone could jump up into the sky, and could fly around and land
safely on the ground, this ability could not be explained by biology. Human body
is not structure in a way that allows human to fly. Human could only jump, but to
a limited height only. Human could not fly. We could consider this as miracle.
Sometimes a miracle is a manifestation of human being extraordinary
ability; or it could be a message from God or Saint. For example, in a village far
away, at the top of a mountain, every time there was full moon, everybody often
heard the sound of thunder, the sound of bells, the sound of whinnying horses,
voices, and laughter. People investigated several times but no one found out what
caused these noises. This was not normal. No one could explain why these events
happened. We thought that these were messages from Gods or Saints; or these
events were miracles.
Below are some extraordinary phenomena around the world.
In Bodhidharmas biography, they said He could walk on water. The Bible
of God also had the story about Jesus, who walked on water. These phenomena
were miracles. During many festivals in India or Malaysia, there are shamans,
wearing strange dresses, praying and dancing over the fire. They chant strange
incantations and walk on burning hot charcoal fire. They walk like a drunk person,
their feet step on hot burning coals but their feet aren't burned. We could not
explain these events by any physics or biology principles. Those are really
miracles.
Some people could even talk to ghosts or spirits of dead people. They are
still alive but they could talk to any spirits. We could not see them but some
2

people could see them clearly and know that how many ghosts are in the room, the
color of their dresses they were wearing and what they were talking about. We
may not believe this; we may not be sure if they tell the truth or not because we
could not see anything, or hear any conversation between them and the ghosts.
Sometimes these talented people spoke to our dead ancestors to pass on the
family secrets. For example, the person told us about a hidden package of gold,
buried under the ground. We believed in this message and dug the mentioned
areas, and we found the package of gold. Therefore, we believed that these people
could talk to ghosts. If they could not do so, they could not have known the secret
about the gold package to tell us. This is also a miracle.
Nowadays, there are some psychics, who could talk to the dead to find lost
graves of war heroes. This is also a miracle. Some people have a special ability to
see the past or the future of others without any means, just simply by their
extraordinary abilities. Fortunetellers also could perform this but they must use
something as the medium such as cards. They must learn and memorise the
combination of the cards, and what the cards are telling them. If they still have lots
of blessing, the cards will show the truth; and vice versa. Therefore, sometimes
these fortunetellers rely a lot on their luck as well. Not everything would be
accurate.
However, those, who are able to know about their past or future without any
means, any formulas, have already successfully cultivated and attained
enlightenment. This is also a miracle. They also could read others thoughts as
well. This is a type of psychic power. In Buddhism, it is called: "THA TM
THNG" (the ability to see the future). It is extremely superior, and is not as
simple as an ordinary psychic who could tell others thoughts.
For example, a psychic could tell if someone was so sad about their love
romance situation, because the sadness was too strong. He could just tell by
looking at the person. However, that was not THA TM THNG referred in
Buddhism. We will discuss about this superior power another day. We should
accept that in this case, the ability of psychics to read other peoples thoughts is
special and is a miracle.

Some people can cure sick people by very basic and simple means.
Typically, a qualified physician must use a variety of means to treat sick people,
they must possess great knowledge and experiences in medicine and have many
3

modern medical equipment. Even with Chinese medicine, the physician must be so
talented to find the right combination of Chinese herbs and other types of medicine
to help sick people. In Western countries, there are so many modern and advanced
technologies to help with the analysis to find out the root cause and resolution to
treat sick people. However, in the scenario whereby a sick person came to see
someone, who were well-known for cure people with very basic things such as by
just drinking a special glass of water, and the person got well afterwards, then it
was a miracle.

Sometimes, just a few herbal leaves could cure someone. It was very basic,
but could help sick people. In indicates to us that there is really a spiritual factor,
which influences on the healing and curing of sick people, not just only medicine.
Actually, either the physician cure someone by Chinese medicines or Western
medicines, there are always spiritual factors involved. All doctors had to go to a
medical University and learnt the same program to be qualified, but some treat
sick people so well and quick; but some do not. Those doctors, who could do well
in their profession, have a lot of blessing. Their blessing helps them treat patients
well and help them recover quickly. Therefore, if we want to recover quickly, we
must find a blessed doctor. On the contrary, those doctors, who do not do so well,
do not have enough blessing. As for those scenarios, where a person, who could
perform miracles to cure people by just looking at someone, or asking someone to
drink a special glass of water, are miracles.
We have heard so many stories about God appearing on earth. Nowadays,
some people still admit that they have seen God. Indeed, some Buddhists, who
have attained highest level of meditation to have pure mind, could actually see
Buddha. This is not an illusion or imagination, Buddha wants them to see him to
believe in the religion more and more. Today, science and technology develops so
quickly, people's lives are improving, therefore, not many people believe in any
religions.
During war times, there were many soldiers, who got lost in forests. Without
much help from others to find the way out, they prayed and prayed to God.
Suddenly, a small dimming light appeared and led them the way to escape from
the forest. This was really a miracle.
In fact, we remembered that, in this mountain, (Mount Dinh, Pht Quang
temple, in Ba Ria -Vung Tau province), there was a root of a tree with a shape that
4

looked like Buddha. A Buddhist sharpened it into a Buddha statue, and then we
put it on a stone to display in the yard. A strange thing happened afterwards. No
one was aware of a very small banana tree growing nearby. This banana tree
suddenly blossomed with beautiful flowers, which had lotus shape, and they were
the same height of the Buddha statue. Ordinarily, banana flowers would only
blossom at the top of the banana tree, not in the middle. In this case, the flowers
actually flourished right in the middle of the tree, at the same height as the Buddha
statue. No one could explain why. There was no biological reason to explain this
scenario. We believe it was a miracle.

The following story is originated from the North. It was long time ago.
There was a monk, who was looking after a pagoda in Ninh Binh province. Most
people in this province were Catholic and there was also a very famous church
made of stones. Though local people were Catholic, they often asked the monk to
bless their children. Some newborns of the people in this province often cried at
night but their parents did not know the reason why. They asked for help from the
monk. When he saw these children, he just patted them and said: "Don't tease this
child". The child not only stopped crying at night, but also grew up very healthy.
We did not know if this was magic or this was the monks blessing. He had the
power to make Saint to protect these children from bad spirits. This was a miracle.
Miracle always attracts lots and lots of people attention and admiration.
Anyone, who could show his/her supernatural power, will become famous and
have lots of peoples support. It is because everyone thinks that those, who have
supernatural power, who could perform a miracle, is much more superior than
anyone else. Those people have a lot of respect from others as well. They could
also attract many followers, disciples. Those followers hope that they would be
more lucky, and their fate would be improved and be better by following and
believing in this special person. They would also become healthier and richer.
We must remember there are two outcomes, resulting from the above. The
first outcome is the admiration of many people. The second one is the desire to use
magic to change lives. For example, we were poor, but when we heard about
someone who had supernatural power; we came and asked to become his disciple.
We also asked him to use his supernatural power to make us luckier in business,
etc... Or if there was a speculation that a Saint appeared somewhere up a mountain,
there would be lots of people to come to pay respect and they prayed for
themselves such as: becoming healthier, getting rid of drugs, winning lottery, etc...
5

almost everything! Therefore, there would be always these two outcomes:

admiration and changes. Without these outcomes, it would just be a magic
showbiz, performed by a magician.

David Copperfield, a well-known American magician, who had succeeded

in his magician career. He had made a plane and a train carriage disappeared; he
could walk through the Great Wall of China. All of the audiences stood in front of
the train carriage, covered by a huge sheet, while David stood outside of the
audience circle. He waved his hand once, the train carriage flew in the air, moving
side to side slowly. He waved his hand the second time, the sheet started moving
away from the train carriage. By the third wave, the train carriage had disappeared,
right in front of hundreds of people. Once, he had let a chainsaw cut his body.
These acts were performed in front of everyone, and these people could see the
scene from every angle and they could not detect anything.
No one could explain about these shows. They called it miracles. People
spent lots of money to watch these miracles but David Copperfields miracles
could not change their fate. Therefore, these are not really miracles. This is just a
great magician performing his acts. A real miracle would result in two outcomes.
The first outcome is that everyone would respect and worship; and the second
outcome is that the miracle would change peoples fate.

On the other hand, miracle could make people easily forget about karma: the
law of cause and effect. Why? According to the law of cause and effect, what must
you do to have good health? You must do more and more good deeds, help as
many people as possible, have compassion for others, and help the communities...
as well as do less bad deed such as cheating, and making others miserable...then
you could be blessed to have good health. Superstition is something like the
scenario when someone tells you to drink a glass of water to cure your sickness.
You could then easily forget about doing good deeds and create more blessings. It
also means you may no longer believe in the law of karma.
We mentioned above about the scenario where there was a remote mountain
area, sometimes we could hear music but there was no one or anything to make
these music sound. Hearing this, we had rushed to this area and started praying.
We should have focused on looking after our family, taking care of others, and
building a better place to live for everyone, but instead we came to this area to
6

pray, hoping that miracle would happen, hoping that when we came home,
everything would be OK. This is so against the law of Cause and Effect. Miracle
would attract many peoples attention and often make people forget about the
karma. We all must be careful about this.
Because of this, many religious leaders always oppose to believing in
miracles. There are many stories about miracle in Zen, such as the following story:
A magician met a monk who was waiting for a boat at the riverside. The
magician asked:
- What are you standing here for?
- I'm waiting for a boat to cross the river.
- How long have you been a monk?
- About fifty years
- Oh, You have spent fifty years but you can't cross the river? Look at me!
He shouted and flew across the river, then waving:
- Come here! Come here!
The Zen Master asked him.
- How long have you been cultivating?
- Just over thirty years.
- You spent 30 years to cross the river only. I just need to spend one cent to
cross the river.
We do not know if the story is true or not, but it is written to protest the use
of magic. The magician spent 30 years just to be able to fly across the river.
Meanwhile, the monk only needed one cent to cross the river by boat. This showed
the opposition of performing power, creating miracles from many religious
leaders. Because they know miracles and magic would make life unstable. When
people do not believe in karma anymore, they become dependent on magic and
miracles.
Another story about a Zen monk called Hue Trung who had lived a religious
life for 40 years and became a Saint. Although he never left the mountains, his
reputation gradually spread itself all around the country. The king invited him to
7

the palace to pay his homage and asked him to be a master of his country. One
day, a Tantric monk came and said that he was a Saint and he could tell other
peoples thoughts. The king invited Hue Trung to meet the Tantric monk. The king
wanted to know how good Hue Trung were, whom he had worshiped so much.
When the Tantric monk came, Hue Trung asked him : Tell me what I am
thinking now..." At that time, he thought about standing on a bridge and looking at
the river. The Tantric monk immediately said he was a master of a country, why
he was looking at the river? Hue Trung agreed and asked again: "Tell me where I
am now..." At that time, he thought he was in a fair with lots of people and the
dancing circus. The Tantric told: "You are the master of a country. Why do you go
to the fair?" Hue Trung nodded. The third time, he asked the Tantric monk tell
him the place he was in and stopped thinking. He has entered the highest level of
meditation, which allows him to have pure mind, no thoughts. The Tantric monk
tried his best but could not read anything. Hue Trung immediately said: "Evil!
You must leave right now!"
Hue Trung scolded at him because he could read the thoughts of others, but
didn't know the enlightenment of a Saint. When their mind is pure, it stops
thinking. The Tantric monk didn't know this, nor he didn't have the power of a
Saint, so Hue Trung called him Evil.
This is a story about another Zen Master, Dang An Phong. He was also a
Saint. One day, on the road traveling with his disciples, he saw many soldiers
fighting, blood shed everywhere. He felt compassionate for these people, he
thought: I must save these people and stop this! He flew over to the fighting field
and pointed down. When the soldiers saw a flying monk in the middle of nowhere
with solemn faces, they were terrified, stopped fighting and stampeding away
immediately. Then Master Dang An Phong returned to his temple and told his
disciples: "I showed off my power, I must not continue to live". In the law of
Buddhism, Buddha does not allow any disciple to show off their powers
indiscriminately. Master Dang An Phong had made that mistake, he was afraid that
people would depend on that, so he decided to stop living.
He stopped breathing in a handstand shape. He was quite cheeky himself.
Though he broke the rule of using power while he was still alive, he did just the
same when he decided to end his life: using power. His sister heard that her
brother used his power to end his own life, she muttered to herself about him being
cheeky... Then she shove the corpse down and took it for burial. The purpose of
this story was to oppose the use of power.
8

This is another story about Zen Master Van Mon. When he came to see Zen
Master Tran Ton Tuc, his legs were severely amputated. One day, he came to the
temple of a superior Zen master. This Zen master was a Saint, so he knew
everything in future. On that day, he said to his disciples, "The man who is
considered as the leader of my disciples is coming, please go and greet him". At
that same time, monk Vn Mn just walked through the door. Immediately, that
Zen master assigned him responsibility for managing his disciples, because he
knew monk Van Mon was enlightened.
One day, the Zen master told monk Van Mon and all of his disciples that:
"There is a person who is coming here to ask me if he should start the war or not. I
will not answer this question, so my life must end here". He wanted to avoid
answering questions about the war, so he died and left a note for the person. The
note said that they must promote monk Van Mon to take all responsibilities of the
temple. These were the Zen stories like these to warn people about the use of
psychic powers. The Saints are very reluctant to use these powers, because they
know human beings would rely on it. This would cause bad consequences.
This is the story about Zen master Van Hy. When he was alive, he went to
Wutai Mountain to see Bodhisattva Manjushri. Manjushri transformed into an old
man with a buffalo, but Zen master Van Hy did not know that. Later on, when he
already attained enlightenment, one day, when he was cooking porridge, the
smoke rose up and the image of Bodhisattva Manjushri appeared. He took a
tablespoon hovering around to clear the smoke. Bodhisattva Manjushri said, "I am
Manjushri", he replied "Does not matter!" This means that he does not like power.
A true and genuine Saint does not like to use power, miracle or anything unusual.
Someone had asked Confucius about the status of a soul after death: When
does a soul become a Saint? When does a soul become an evil? Confucius replied:
"I have not died yet, so I could not answer your questions." Actually, he knew the
answer, but he just did not want people to mention unusual things.
There are many people taking advantage of believing in miracles to do
wrong and superstitious things. In the past, Mr Long Chau Nguyen created a
religion and call himself a Master in That Son area. He had many disciples. At
night, they lit and disguised as dragons, tigers to bow down to him. In the murky
shadows, the tiger stood up and down in flashing lights, so people believed he was
really a Saint. However, there were some people who did not believe in this, and
he forced his disciples to stab them to death. At that time, in the West area, people
call this religion "a Stabbing Religion". Anyone, who did not believe in it, would
9

be killed. Some bad people have taken advantage of others belief in

miracles/powers to force them doing bad and evil acts.
Recently, we watched a movie about the statue of a Saint. Some time it
glowed and many people had come to pray on their knees. When the camera
turned toward the statue, it lightened up and everyone shouted "the Saint is
coming!" Actually, even a kid knows the light was emitted from the lamp inside
the statue. Someone switched it on and the statue lighted up. The statue was built
on a high platform, the lamp was mounted inside. Many people had knelt down
and worshiped earnestly in front of a statue, except the camera man, who stood
still all the times. He stood there witnessing many people knelt down, rejoiced,
cried out, but he himself did not show any emotion. If there was a really miracle,
he would have thrown the camera away and bowed in front of the statue first and
foremost. This indicated that he had been following a written script.
There are also many speculators, who claimed that they had seen Saints,
who appeared under the trees over one hundred years old. Then one person told to
another ten people, ten people told to another one hundred people, but no one
really knew if it was true or not. Human beings are often easy to convince.
We had to live in a hut, in a remote rural area, to cultivate and to practise
when we were still very poor. Our life was very normal, but some people in
Saigon reported that they saw us sitting on a rock for a few months and our body
shone with halos. Some people came to see us, but they were very surprised
because they saw us poor, sick and we looked nothing like Saints. They kept
staring at us... We thought they were just passers-by so we welcomed them
normally. Later on, someone told us about the speculation, we just laughed and
said we were only ordinary monks. Human beings are very easy to convince in
miracles or magic. Please remember whenever you hear about such things... we
must remember that others might just take advance of our belief and emotion to
convince us to do bad things.
There are also cases of someone, who had put some chemical or bad drugs
into the village well, and made many people sick. Then, they pretended to pray,
and gave out other medicines to the sick village people. They were cured and
got well afterwards. Since then, the whole village worshiped them. This was
clearly the case of taking advantages of others beliefs. Why would they do such
thing? Because these people do not have any moral standard. We must remember
this, so if something similar happens in the future, we would know the reason why
10

There are many honorable Buddhist monks in this life. If we are lucky to
meet any of them, we would be blessed with lots of luck and good things would
come to us eventually. These monks would bless us with good things such as
health, improvement in businesses. But when you asked, they would reply that
they were not involved in any of these things. These monks would deny anything
to do with magic, or supernatural power, because it would make people lose belief
in karma, and eventually lose their moral standards.
Therefore, good religion and bad religion is very different from each other.
One praises miracles, one totally oppose to miracles and only praises morality and
change bad karma into good karma. We must live well with others, loving and
helping people, then we would be happy.
So, from now on, if we hear anyone talking about miracles, we must say
"Sorry! I don't care". However, if we hear that there are great honourable monks
with very high moral standards, we must respect learn from them. We must only
learn about ethical principles. We must not follow the wrong path, and then to be
taken advantage of. We must be strong. We must be strong not to be enticed by
miracles, or supernatural powers. We must learn to become a true Buddhists. Only
doing this, our life would eventually be better.

In Buddhism, if a monk blessed someone with good things, they then were
very lucky. If the person came back and asked for more blessings, the monk would
not do so as he was afraid that this person would take advantage and rely on the
blessings totally. The monk would havesaid to the person that it was only the
coincident, he must go home and do more good things, love and help people, then
they would continue having more blessings. We, true Buddhist monks must never
take advantage of our power to promote our reputation and image. We always
must prove ourselves normal, such as the Japanese Zen master Bankei.
A Buddhist asked him:
- I heard you are an enlightened monk. You have magic power, don't you?
- What power are you talking about?
- My Master could write on a piece of paper, while he stands on this side of
the river, but the piece of paper was placed on the other side. Could you do the
same?
11

He just said this:

- Your evil Master could only do dark magic. What is really a miracle?
That is: we eat when we are hungry; we rest when we are tired.
It is strange, we could not understand this statement at all, as the saying is
quiet ordinary really. Maybe we must practise and cultivate for thirty years, then
we would be able to understand this.
Bang Lin Yun was also a Buddhists. When he was enlightened, he wrote a
poem to talk about his enlightenment. There was this statement: "Miracles means:
carrying water bucket and cutting firewood everyday." Another very strange
statement about miracle! Perhaps, only practice and cultivation for long time could
help us understand these statements.
"Crime Scene Investigation" is an American television drama series, which
talks about specialists investigate crime scenes to determine the cause of the crime
and find the criminals. As when a murder occurs, the investigation team comes to
take photos, get blood samples, hair samples.... at the scenes. Through the analysis
of the crime scenes, they eventually find out the criminal. This team has very
talented people. They use very sophisticated scientific method to help find out who
commit these crimes.
One day, the investigation team encountered a cult, which worships aliens.
They speculated that: "This world is a temporary world! (sound similar to
Buddhism) so, human have to take poison to die because a comet is passing the
earth." (At that time, there was the comet started passing by the earth). They
claimed that if a human being died when the comet passed by, the aliens living on
this comet would take our souls to a happy and heavenly place. Many people had
believed in this speculation, and took the poison to end their lives. When the
investigation team found out, many people were already dead. There was only a
girl still alive. They started to investigate and eventually found out about the cult.
They came to see the girl right at the time when she was about to take the poison.
They took her to the hospital and the girl survived.
The leader of the investigation team asked: "Why did you advise people to
take poison and you also want to do the same?" She said that she believed in aliens
who would take human's soul to another happy world; the earth is trivial,
temporary and full of miseries.

12

The leader said: "If the aliens are real, they would be wise enough to stay
away from human on this earth." His saying is though is short, but means so much.
It means that those, who have wisdom, would not intervene into this world full of
confusion, superstition, chaos, cruel, bad ambitions like this world. Only when we
got rid of cruelty, greed and hatred, perhaps others from different world would
come to socialise with us. For now, everything like this is only superstition.
In meditation, there are five obstacles on the path to enlightenment.
The first obstacle is the physical body. Cross-legged sitting posture is very
painful and very uncomfortable as we would always want to move and change the
position to make us more comfortable. It is very challenging and hard working to
sit still in that position for long time. We must overcome this first obstacle in
meditation.
The second obstacle is delusion. When we meditate, we must stop thinking.
However, it is hard to do so, our mind doesn't stop thinking naturally... We must
overcome this second obstacle in meditation.
The third obstacle is the presence of hallucinations. When we stop
thinking and could be still, we would be able to see the aura, hearing voices,
seeing future things ... The illusion is very special and very refreshing. It is indeed
a meditation obstacle. If we enter so deeply into hallucination, we would never be
enlightened and potentially would suffer from mental illness.
The fourth obstacle is magic power. A meditation practitioner, who could
overcome the first three obstacles, would have extraordinary power. They could
read other peoples mind, know the past, the future, and heal others. However, this
is the most challenging obstacle. If they abuse their supernatural power, they
would potentially and eventually do evil acts.
Even if we could overcome the fourth obstacle, we would still face the fifth
one, which is our ego. This means that even if our mind is extremely pure, and has
no delusion, but deep down, secretly, we still have a little pride. When we really
could get rid of our ego, we would be enlightened and become an Arhat.
We now should understand that one of the five hindrances on the path of
enlightenment is magic power. We must have a clear standpoint about miracles
and stand by our moral standard and beliefs.
When we come to Buddhism, we must only focus on morality, virtue, and
ethics. Do not focus on miracles although it is sure to happen at some point in
13

time. An Arhat has six types of magic power: flying, going under the ground,
transforming into thousands of shapes or forms, disappear from one place to
another. However, one of the most important powers is having the extreme ethical
standard (LAU TAN THONG). It means the ethical standard of an Arhat must be
perfect and absolute. Buddha calls it a power. I must say again: extremely perfect
and absolute ethic is the most wonderful power of all.
We all have heard about a brave soldier, who was arrested, tortured, beaten
violently, but he did not say anything. Even they amputated both of his legs, he
still did not say a word. This is really magical. His will, patriotism, and his love for
the country and for his teammates were so extraordinary. This is an example of
being extremely ethical, which is beyond our imagination.

In this scenario, a girl, whose mother married someone else, must live with
her stepfather. He always tortured and beat her up brutally. He did not let her eat
anything. Her mother had to hide the food and gave it to her secretly, or when he
was drunk. She was tortured like this for a long time but when she grew up, she
became rich, she still took care of him. Why did she do that? It is quite simple
really. She considered him as her father because he was her mother's husband.
We also may have heard about one person who have donated his blood for
fifteen times. When someone asked him why so many times, he answered: I am
healthy and there always is a need for blood donation, so I do it. Blood is very
precious, but he did it willingly without any hesitation. He indeed is very ethical.
Miracle could happen right in our normal life, not something so superstitious and
mystical. Love and compassion between beings could enable us doing anything,
sometimes could be beyond imagination
Arhat Sariputra is the leader of Buddhas Sangha, which was comprised of
thousands of credible monks and Arhats. Though he was complained and insulted
by others, when Buddha asked him about this, he did not explain anything; he just
said: "Dear Buddha! I always see myself as soil and dust, where people could step
on, even throw rubbish on to it, it would still be happy. I would do the same. I wish
I would always receive bad and dirty things and leave good things for this life. I
always think myself as Chien Da La, who could carry baskets and baskets of
manure to clean up, freshen up this life. After hearing his preach, everyone was
teary and emotional about it. After that, he went and apologised to the person who
14

complained and insulted him. His ethic could make the earth move. That is a
miracle, not the ability to fly into the sky or go under the ground.
While we are sitting here listening to Buddha's teachings, enjoying life in
peace and happiness; while we have a house to live in, have food to eat when
needed.... and while we live an enjoyable life, there are many soldiers, living in the
forest, regardless of raining or under the bright sunshine, they still had to practise,
be brave and strong to protect the border of our country. No one could fully
appreciate and understand fully about their sacrifices.

There are also people who compose poems and songs that lead people
towards the good and great things. We could consider it as miracle. Wars are
everywhere around the world. The song We are the world helps create
awareness amongst people about peace, compassion instead of hatred and killings.
These could be called miracles.

We must understand what a miracle is accurately. When we could

understand it correctly, we would be able to comprehend why Bang Long An said:
carrying water buckets and cutting firewood everyday are miracles. If we have not
yet agreed or understood completely this saying, it means our mind is full of greed,
hatred, and delusion. When we were doing these tasks, we wanted to finish them
quickly, so we could do something else more enjoyable. On the contrary, when a
Zen Master carries out these same tasks, their mind is completely focused on these
tasks, hoping what they are doing would help others. Their mind does not think
about anything else rather than focus on doing the tasks that could help others.

You know, raining is also a miracle. Why is that so? When it rains,
everywhere is wet and it could cause many accidents. However, with Zen Masters,
they see the rain very beautiful, sparkling. Why? It is because their mind just
focuses on looking at the rain, but nothing else; whereas, we look at the rain with
millions of thoughts going through our mind at the same time. The rain could
easily evoke memories of an ordinary persons past, expectations and create many
dreams. As for Zen Masters, each raindrop is beautiful in its own right. Those
raindrops are miracles from heaven.
15

Bright sunshine and the birds singing sound in the morning are also
miracles, when our mind is pure and focused. Anything could be seen as a miracle
if our mind is pure and focused, just as Bankei said: "When we are hungry we eat;
when we are tired we rest." He sees miracles in the ordinary things. Those who
always want to see unusual things will be enticed into superstition easily;
therefore, they could easily forget about the Dharma and karma.
As for us, when we are able to see miracles in just a floating log on the
river, it means we have awakened to the Dharma; we must not be influenced by
bad things. Only then, we could understand that everything around us is sacred,
magical, and the most magical thing we can do in this life is to love all beings.
That is the most wonderful miracle.
Actually, nowadays, there are many achievements of many talented
scientists in the world, which are also considered miracles. One of the big
achievements of all times is the invention of mobile phones... In the old days, no
one was able to imagine one day we could contact our loved ones from anywhere
in the world. In addition, we could travel from one place to another quite quickly.
Similarly, there are miracles in the movie industry, too. With advanced
technology, filmmakers can make epic scenes such as: the White House was
blown up, shredded to pieces, but in fact, there was no explosion at all. The scene
was created by very advanced technology. These advanced technology could also
be used to modify my preach on Buddhism. They could make the scene sounds
like we were teaching bad things, but indeed we were not. Modern technology can
do lots of things, both good and bad.
Many bad forces are currently taking advantage of modern technology to
manufacture deadly weapons. Instead of using technology to help many other
human beings, they use it for killings. Young people use the internet to access
depraved information, playing game... These things will eventually impact on their
morals, their thinking and their behaviour. This is the downside of advanced
technology.
The most horrific thing is kidnapping children and then sell their organs.
These gangs abduct healthy children, then harvest their hearts, kidneys, livers,
eyes to sell. There are wealthy patients who need organ transplant, who would be
willing to buy these things of from these Mafia gangsters. Technology could assist
16

doctor to cure people; however, these so-called help do not have any moral
standards at all. These are the acts of evils.

Any supernatural power, which cannot be used to help any beings, should
not be considered as good thing or a good miracle. We could pay hundreds of
dollars to see the famous Magician David Copperfield to perform, but it brings no
benefits to us, or to other beings. We spent the money, so we could not afford to
buy food for our family. We paid the money to see magic, but we did not gain any
more knowledge, did not expand our compassion for anyone else, then the magic
means nothing. What we did means nothing.
What must a miracle bring? At first, it must help people to have enough
food to eat; make people love each other more and more; and live morally. Life
does not need useless miracles, which do not bring any benefit for any beings.
If a person, who could perform magic, who could also remind people to love
and help each other, live morally, and meditate to eradicate the ego, it would be a
great thing. If we could learn to love others, help more and more people from
watching these performers, then it is a great thing. Miracles comes with ethics
would bring great things to life. If we learn nothing from these magicians, then we
do not need these types of magic in this life.
Although Zen master Dang An Phong violated a rule in Buddhism, but he
was appreciated because what he did prevented a war, which could have led to the
massacre of many human beings. We hope that those, who have supernatural
powers, will use them to bring peace and more compassion to this world.
If a miracle only bring personal benefits, that is a sin. A miracle is really
valuable only when it help people practise, cultivate, love and have compassion for
others, and to build a world with peace, happiness, prosperity, and morality ... On
the other hand, a miracle, which is used to promote self-benefits, it is indeed a sin
of selfishness. If the purpose to have power, to be able to perform magic to attract
people to promote self-image, that is an evil sin.
So, who cannot fly; cannot go underground, but what they say always help
people unite, help create more love and compassion amongst all beings, help get
rid of sins, selfishness, hatred, and jealousy... that is the miracle. They are ordinary
people who walk by their own feet, and have no supernatural power, whatsoever.
17

We all could do the same, too. We could help convince our neighbours to go
to a temple to pay homage to Buddha, to believe in karma, to have less hatred for
others. We could help others learn more and more about Buddhism. They learn
from us to become true Buddhists. If we could do all that, it means we are
performing magic; we are creating miracles.
However, to achieve these miracles, we must try harder, to the best of our
ability, to be able to do phenomenal things:
Living amongst people, who are full of jealousy, but we are not
jealous
Living amongst people, who are full of hatred, but we love all beings
Living amongst people, who are full of selfishness, but we live
unselfishly
Living amongst people, who just live for themselves, but we care for
all others
Only then, we perform miracles for this ordinary life, and we could
influence many other people. We help improve morality and bring better things
into this life. This is the miracle, which Buddha wants us, His disciples, to achieve.
We all wish for a wonderful miracle, which could bring all religions
together; which could help all religions find one common principle, common goal;
not to divide the human race. There are many religions in this world that just want
their religion to be number one. Some politicians have taken advantage of these
religions to attract the population, which had caused lots of pains and deaths for
humanity. The world needs a common belief. I am not saying that Buddhism will
become the only religion for the whole of humanity, but it should the choice of all
beings.
For all of those, who want to create miracle, please make everyone to have
one common belief. A miracle should help human get rid of ego, remove
selfishness, greed, and hatred. A miracle should not be used for ordinary
enjoyment because it is meaningless. It must help us improve morality, help us to
mediate to get rid of ego, and lead us towards the right direction of practising and
cultivating to become a Saint. That is the true miracle.
In Buddha's times, Buddha used his power many times to help his disciples
to practise meditation. There was a Bhikkhu, who was meditating, but could not
18

focus, his mind was full of thoughts, Buddha appeared and preached to the
Bhikkhu to help with his mediation, then gone. After listening to Buddha's
teachings, the Bhikkhu was able to focus, and meditate successfully to attain
enlightenment.
A very ordinary miracle that anybody can create is karma. Karma is the best
way to bring greatness into this life. When someone was terminally ill, no doctor
was able to treat this patient, he then sold everything he owned, and dedicated his
life to help others, to help promote morals, and Buddhism principles. After a
while, this person was getting better, and the illness was gone. That was a miracle
that no one was able to explain. However, it is indeed karma.
There was this young man, who was an orphan and very poor. With such
condition of life, most people would just try to survive day by day. However, this
person believed in karma, he always liked to help others. He was willing to do
anything, which would benefit others. He worked hard. He was loyal with all
employers. He was also very diligent and thoughtful.
Then the opportunity came. He was employed to be a helper of a jewelry
owner, who was very rich. The jewelry owner had only one daughter. After three
years, the owner was fond of this young man, and wanted his daughter to marry
this person. Yet, he did not know that his daughter also admired this young man,
who was hard working, kind hearted and were well-behaved. They then got
married and lived happily. This is a true story from Tay Ninh province. Though
this young man had become wealthy, he still lived very simply, still helped others
and still worked hard. He had children, then grandchildren, who all grew up and
became good citizens, due to his blessings. When he knew about Buddhism, he
leant about mediation and was able to achieve high level of meditation. This is a
miracle of karma.
With karma, we are able to create many miracles in this life. If we do good
deeds, though just one by one, miracle would happen. As mentioned above, the
path to enlightenment is actually meditation in Buddhism. As I mentioned before,
the fourth obstacle in meditation is magic and power. But only when our mind is
so pure, then a miracle would happen. We must mediate. We must not show off
any power, any magic, only then we could achieve high level of mediation.
Often people asks: how long will it take us to be enlightened? Time in this
context is meaningless. It could be many years; it could be many lives as well. We
must focus on the present time. It is important that we live the Dharma now, to
19

improve morality in every moment of life now. One day, a miracle would happen,
and we would be able to attain enlightenment. However, please remember, we
must not show off, must not be arrogant about our achievement.
It takes time (not exactly how long) to attain the highest level of mediation.
Even when we attain this level, we must not show off. We must be modest, like
the first days that we started learning about meditation. Life always has many
wonderful things that we have to cherish and appreciate.
The last thing we want to mention in this sermon is the following advice:
We all have friends from other religions. Please discuss with your friends
about the topic we discussed today: The Miracle and its true meanings. If
someone wants to show off any magic, or power, we must say the following:
Please remember that miracle will not happen when we give less, but want more
returns. It is actually superstition, not miracle. Miracle is only valuable when it
brings prosperity, happiness, moral and compassion to all beings. Miracle is a sin
if we use it for our own personal benefit.
We have a treasure of many miracles in this ordinary life, so let's cherish
those:
What is a miracle? That is when we do the extraordinary thing in life as the
result of love, morality and compassion.
What is a miracle? That is we eat when we are hungry; we rest when we are
tired.
What is a miracle? That is when we offer someone a glass of water, or when
we cook a meal for someone.
What is a miracle? That is when we donate blood to help others in
emergency.
What is a miracle? That is when we always have compassion for others
regardless of all sufferings and miseries.
Let's share the meanings of miracle with everyone, with our friends from
other religions. I wish you all could always have miracles in your life.

Namo Shakya muni Budha.

20

THE ONLY TRUTH

Everyone is trying to live right.
Really! It is true. If we did not try to live right, and always made mistakes
and committed sins, bad consequences would have happened. When we made
mistakes, others would look down on us, or even worse, we might have been
punished by law, leading us to a miserable live. And speaking of religious
beliefs, the law of Cause and Effect will always govern and direct our lives. The
retribution will come to us in many afterlives As ye sow, so shall ye reap.
Since no one wants to be punished by law, no one wants to have others
contempt, and more importantly, no one wants to be damned after death, all of
us want to live right. The word "Right" here implies morality. Since ancient
times, human beings have always worked hard to define this word. We could
refer the word Right as The Truth in plain language; or from the religion
perspective, we can refer to Morality Ethics However, since human
civilisation, The Truth has been something difficult to comprehend.
According to the research of scientists, human beings might have resided
on Earth over a million years ago. And during the early days, human being had
lived very basic lives. Even with intelligence and wisdom, at that time human
being still could not make significant improvement in lives. Over a few more
millions years, human beings still just dressed with loin cloths, hunted with
basic tools, ate fruit and lived very simply. This was proven by scientists around
the world.
However, accordingly Buddhism teaching, Buddha said that when human
beings resided on earth, the earth had already gone through many periods of
civilisation. There were times that men could build many magnificent temples,
but they were destroyed and disappeared. Then another civilisation was formed,
it was still collapsed and disappeared afterwards... And at this point in time, we
can only confirm and gather information about human civilisation since the time
when the Pyramids of Egypt were built in the desert. According to research, that
time was about 5000 years ago. Researches could only confirm that the oldest
civilisation of mankind was first formed in Egypt and Pyramids were the
masterpieces that mankind has ever created of all times. The secrets of Pyramids
1

had surprised and impressed the whole world. The special feature of Pyramids is that
if dividing its circumference by double its height, we shall get the pi number
(approximately 3.14).
And nowadays, when we already have space shuttles, submarines, and advanced
technology, we are still on the path to find The Truth, or the way of living right.
Modern technology has overwhelmed us all, spoiled us all, and that we can easily
forget about morality. It seems that the more advanced the technology is, the more
shallow and selfish human beings become. In ancient times, when technology was not
available or still very basic, our ancestors were compassionate and always lived in
harmony.
We discussed the topic of "The Only Truth" because there are many so-called
truths in life, and people all live differently because they all have different principles,
different thinking, and different theories about living.
For example, in Buddhism, we are willing to be vegetarian, live in harmony and
live with compassion; no stealing from others and no killing of all kinds ever. But in
another religion, it is acceptable to kill other people, who follow the opposite religion.
These people chose to follow their religion principles, and to them, that is The Truth.
Because of the differences in understand The Truth from person to person, from
country to country, the world has been self-divided and its division has caused human
beings to live in isolated groups.
We must know that there is one and Only Truth, which will be never wrong and
that is "People must love and care for one another". Even if we ask the whole world
about this truth, no one would ever argue back. It is because human beings have
hearts, and human beings have wisdom, therefore we must all love, support and care
for each other. That is the most perfect, absolute and everlasting truth.
However, besides this Truth, there are still so many other ones that humankind
has set for themselves, which only makes people have less love for each other, and
become more and more cruel to our own kind. There were many truths said, which
were completely the opposite to the Only Truth that People must love and care for
one another.
Today, let's discuss about The Truth so we all can appreciate about it, in
comparison to many other truths. When we comprehend the meaning and rationale of
The Truth (we also refer to as the principle throughout this book), we should apply it
2

to our lives to bring people together and revive the seed of love in every each
and everyone. We must always ensure that this principle is the basic in all of our
thinking, our actions, our behaviors so that this world could become better, so
that humankind would never forget this truth that People must love and care
for one another.
First of all, we must understand what The Truth is?
The Truth derives from all the facts, all the principles that govern
mankind and this world. No matter how civilized the society is, humankind is
still being governed by those principles. If we find these principles and abide
them, then naturally our life would be peaceful, happy and our soul would be
joyful, peaceful and free.
That is our goal.
We live based on many principles that we think they are right. Over many
years, we all have been searching for the right principles, the truth. However,
how do we show our love for someone? Normally, when we love or care for
someone, we would always show our compassion for them, and pamper them.
Most people behave like that, even monks. All Buddhists would feel the monks
care and compassion for them, when they visit the temple. That love is
unspoken.
However, in addition to the principle above, we also have another one,
and that is Spare the rod and Spoil the child. It means that when we love
someone, in addition to pampering them, we must also be strict in teaching and
providing guidance to them. So, really, which one is right? Which one is
wrong? As we can see, these two principles are completely contradictory to
each other. They both are actually correct; these principles were derived from
many and many years of our ancestors living experiences. However, it really
depends on the relationship and the situation to which you would apply one of
these principles appropriately.
Educating our children is the typical example. We always want our
children to grow up and become a good person, so even we love them so much,
we still need to be strict with them. We must know though how strict we should
be, so our children still feel our love and caring for them. It does not mean we
3

use violence in educating our children. The principle basically advises us to be

sensible when showing our love to others i.e. be strict when the others make mistakes.
mistakes. Our stringency sometimes is very necessary if it can help preventing others
others from making serious mistakes, or commit sins in their life.
The teacher-student relationship example is also similar to the above. A friend
sometimes needs to be frank with his friend to help the friend avoid making mistakes.
A teacher should be strict to help his students make more and more progress in their
learnings. Being compassionate and being strict with our loved ones at the same time
are very essential. We need to know when and how to apply these two principles
appropriately. If you only apply one principle, the consequence would not be good.
Again, it is The Truth in life, so we need to apply these principles in appropriate
situations to achieve good results.
The next example relates to one of our ancestors sayings (or it now has become
a principle in our live) "One good turn deserves another". I have to say this is the
Perfect Truth. It is so right. However, sometimes, in life, we still come across
someone, who is genuinely good, but still has a challenging life, even struggle to
manage his life. Therefore, many people start to lose their beliefs in the religion and
they object the law of Cause and Effect. They often wonder why there are people, who
are fierce, but still are very wealthy and enjoy an easy life; and why good people often
are so unlucky. Many people even believe that there is no such thing as Fairness in this
life, and their only belief is "Survival of the fittest."
We are Buddhists, so we must understand that all the events in our life happen
for a reason. Lucky or unlucky events in our life are dominated by our karma, which
has been accumulated throughout our countless past lives. Because of our ignorance,
we had been making so many mistakes and committing many sins in the past lives.
Therefore, when we met a good person, but he/she still struggled to live a happy life,
he/she was just repaying for their sins/mistakes from his/her past lives. That is the
law of Cause and Effect. And those, who live modestly and love others, would have
good outcome, if not in this life, it would be in their afterlives; because the law of
Cause and Effect is fair and objective. That is the perfect Truth; it is absolute and
universal, and all Buddhists must firmly believe in it. Therefore, we must live right,
love all kinds and help others.
However, there is another saying that is widely accepted as a Truth Pay a man
back with a same coin. It basically means that, how we treats someone will depend
4

who they are, and how they treat you. Therefore, this principle is somewhat
contradictory with the other principle One good turn deserves another, which
mentioned earlier. Whether we are being kind, or being strict, or being
or being cruel would depend on the situations and on the people and their
in these circumstances.
For example, a Buddhist, who usually went to temples to pray and ate
vegetarian, but he still was annoyed when things did not happen to the way he
liked it to. When asked, he responded that his ancestors taught him that Pay a
man back with a same coin. Because of his belief in this principle, he would
still be angry with unpleasant things in life, even would argue and fight until the
end. Some people could the old sayings as an excuse for their inappropriate
behaviour. They do not even analyse the situation to understand what is right,
what is wrong, and what is reasonable. They just apply the principle blindly,
without any consideration. This is really a disgrace.
There is another Truth that took scientists many years to figure out that:
The Earth is round and it revolves around the sun. This was accepted as an
obvious fact by human kind. Our grandparents and parents would teach us this
even before school age.
However, our ancestors, from millions of years ago, did not know this at
all .Human beings used to think the Earth was completely flat and was orbited
by the sun. Every morning, the sun came up from the ground through a hole,
and in the afternoon the sun went down to the ground through another hole.
Many people wanted to see those holes. They went to the East and only stopped
when facing the sea, hence our ancestors still kept forever thinking the earth
was flat and the sun revolved around the Earth. Until Magellan with his friends
took the trip around the world by watching the stars in the sky; and they took off
and returned to the original point of departure. This indicated that the earth is
round and this finding was accepted. It was a great result and there were many
hard working scientists involved to achieve it.
Human kind always wanted to find out our origin as well as how life
began. We spent countless times and enormous effort to find the information.
Yet today, it is still a big question to scientists. There are things which seem
simple, but we are still not able to determine what they actually are. The
scientists can only make theoretical assumptions without any specifics.
5

Religious people also have completely different perspectives. For those who worship
God, they believe that God has created the earth as well as everything else on the
earth. Many people also wondered: "Why did God create human beings?. And the
answer was: "God created men to have company, because he was lonely and sad". So
all human kinds surrendered to God, and did nothing as they thought that God would
determine their fate, they would not need to live responsibly and would not have to
strive to improve at all.
But if the above was true, then why God also created miseries such as diseases,
natural disasters, crimes, sins and wars. If God had created everything, why didnt He
create fairness amongst his children, but to let some rich, and others poor; some happy
and others miserable. Therefore, the principle that God created everything is not
reasonable and not yet accepted satisfactorily. Human beings are still looking for the
right answer.
Now lets talk about Buddhism and Buddhas answer to the question: "How did
life on the earth start?" Our Buddha had said that all things are predestined by many
Conditions. Conditions is the most reasonable answer but still not really clear.
During Buddhas time, when He said so, science was not yet advanced, human kind
still had not really figured out a thorough and detailed way about a lot of things.
If at that time, Buddha had said about the genes, cells, blood type A, B or O, no
one could have understood it. He had to give a concise and meaningful answer and
that was everything on earth was created and predestined by many conditions.
Different conditions formed different things. That statement will never be wrong but is
not really clear. Because of that, until today, people still have questions and still try to
find out about our origin. We hope that scientists will soon find the truth, and men will
soon realise what Buddha said is completely accurate.
And although we yet are not completely sure of our origin, we must believe that
our life will end one day. We do not know that time yet but surely that day will come.
There are many scenarios and some typical scenarios are as follows:
The first scenario is all when human beings on earth suddenly want to become
monks or nuns. If so, human beings would not be able increase its population, and
when we die, we would all go to heaven. The earth would have no human beings, just
animals. The animals would eventually be extinct. That day could come.
6

The second scenario is when terrorists get hold of nuclear weapons.

When they are angry, they will blow up everything and the earth will be
destroyed. So life ends.
The third scenario is when people destroy forests. When all the trees are
cut down, the earth would not be able to survive; the lives of thousands of
species will perish. Keep in mind that, a coconut tree, a mango tree is not
simply gives us their fruit but also help maintaining life on this planet. If the
forest is destroyed, life will surely end.
If none of the above happens, meaning not all people become monks or
nuns; people will not manufacture dangerous weapons to destroy each other;
people will help grow trees, build forests and protect forests; the earth will last
and human kind would not be extinct.
But there will come a time when the sun is run out of energy. The sun
will not shine forever. In the next few billion years, that day will come for sure.
However, before the sun stops shining, it blows up and projects heat down to
earth, as the result, the earth would be destroyed. Human kind would become
extinct. After that terrible day, the sun will collapse into a black hole, floating in
the universe.
Or we consider another principle about reincarnation i.e. this life is not
the only one. We had lived many previous lives and will live many lives after. It
is the fact but not everyone knows and believes in it. Fortunately, all Buddhists
absolutely believe in this principle. Although all over the world, there have been
many phenomena which had proved that reincarnation exists, it was not still
entirely convincing to all that there is an afterlife and many afterlives. Those
with wisdom, especially Buddhist monks would know that this life is really just
a temporary one.
We know that a human being can live until seventy years of age, on
average, if no accidents, no terminal illness etc For an ordinary person, he/she
just simply thinks that is a long time; there are many things that need to be
done, and there are many challenges in life that we need to encounter. However,
for a monk, that seventy-year period is just a like a moment in time.

If we talk to any monk or nun about their life, we would understand that they
live simply but very peacefully. Whatever they need to do, they would dedicate to
complete it. They live for the benefits of others not for themselves. They are not
greedy because they would realise that seventy-year period is short, it will be gone
quickly and they will be close to death very soon. Even when they appear now to be in
good health, death can be near and come at any time. Therefore, they would never ask
for anything that would benefit them only. We, on the other hand, are often worried
about our own benefits and enjoyment, and often forget about helping others, creating
more blessings; therefore, when we die, we would not know what our afterlife looks
like and where we would end up being.
Reincarnation governs all of us, and the law of Cause and Effect creates karma.
The law of Cause and Effect, which is very fair and objective, dominates us not only
in this life but also in countless afterlives. When we were born and being blessed with
beauty and wisdom, it was because of the law of Cause and Effect. Please remember
that all things happening to us are because of our karma, governed by the Law of
Cause and Effect. If we do good deeds, we will be blessed, and vice versa.
Although the Cause and Effect Law rules all the events in our live, it does not
create everything. We create all, we are the cause. How we treat others now will create
different outcomes for us later in life. How we compliment someone by accident, or
defame someone else on purpose, all of these actions will lead to different outcomes
for us later in life. We should compliment others sincerely for their beauty. Even we
are also beautiful, but when we see someone else who is even more beautiful, we
should sincerely express our adoration to her: "I have never seen anyone as beautiful
as you". We often then forget what we say or what we do during period of time, but
the law of Cause and Effect has magically recorded our actions, our sayings and
everything else; and the law will make it a hundredfold. Using the above example, the
result is that we would be complimented one hundred times like that in the future: if
we want to be beautiful in next life, we should sincerely praise others for their beauty.
However, the above is only one small cause of the many causes that would
create blessings for us. If we live kind to others, always love and help others, we will
earn more and more blessing. But some cannot wait until the afterlife for good
outcome; they want good and great things now. This is indeed very difficult because
causality is created from various causes from many past lives. The outcomes could not
be changed easily and instantly in this life, yet and it will take very long time. We
must do a lot of good deeds to gradually change the upcoming outcomes in our current
8

life. We must try to cultivate, must be compassionate, often worship Buddha,

and often give alms... We must always love other human beings, and treat them
all kindly. Why is that so? Because the law of Cause and Effect is very magical:
whoever loves and cares for other human beings, in their afterlives, they would
become a good and kind human being.
The law of Cause and Effect is fair and it objectively drives everything in
life. If we understand this law and how it works, we could be able to control our
own happiness or misery as easy as applying makeup. In another word, we
could control our own life if we understand and behave in accordance with the
law of Cause and Effect. It includes principles and truths that govern our life. If
we find the right truth, we would be able to lead our life towards peace, joy and
happiness at our own desire. This is an important aspect of The Truth.
A simple example is about when we first learnt mathematics. At first, all
we knew was the simple addition e.g. 5+5 = 10, not much else. However, that
was the most basic and right thing to learn first, we then could be able to resolve
a lot more complicated and advanced math. We all need to start from the most
basic concept, the right principle. Similarly, in our life, if we live kindly,
modestly with others, and continuously pay homage to Buddha, and though
these actions are basic, we are doing the right things. That would help us
gradually start understanding more about the law of Cause and Effect, about
both of its complication and its magical effects to human beings.
We should consider this fundamental principle: "Whatever makes us
miserable, will also make others miserable. For example, we surely would be
sad when being told off by someone. If the same happened to others, they surely
felt the same way. It is simple as that.
Lets consider another scenario. We did not let others know about our
own birthday, because we considered it to be insignificant and did not care
about it as much. As a Buddhist, we cared more about Buddhas birthday, which
is the 15th of April (full moon) in lunar calendar. Therefore, we did not do
anything on our birthday. However, when we got home from work, if we
received a bunch of flowers with a birthday card, it was a nice surprise, we
would be very happy, because it means someone did remembered our birthday
and cared about us. It would be the same effect if we did the same for others.
9

Again, we must learn to live and care for other human beings. For example, we
just got home from work, and we were very tired and exhausted from a long day. Our
child told us that the neighbour had injured himself and he was in so much pain. We
could have ignored what the child told us, because it was really not our business.
However, when we remembered the principle, mentioned above, we visited the
neighbour later on. That genuine caring behaviour would make the neighbour very
happy, in deed.
There is another principle "Love is an essential element of life. Without love,
this world will perish. Many people have asked: "How do we survive?" Normally, the
answer is that we need air to breathe, water to drink, clothes to wear, and houses to
stay. Only very few people responds that we need live love to survive in this world.
Lets consider this. A child would not be able to survive without his parents love after
he was born. That love helped nurture the child.
Everyone is the same in this regard. We all rely on someones loving us in life.
When we were born, we were protected by our parents love. At school, we were
taught and loved by our teachers and friends. As adults, we were loved by our own
family. At first, we only believe material is important, but emotion plays a major role
and it is extremely important. Elements like air, rice, water, clothes, and houses are
necessary, but insufficient. Without love, we would not be able to survive.
If the earth was attacked by aliens with a type of weapon that can destroy love,
feelings and emotions from human beings, after just three days, all would die. Luckily,
there is no such weapon exist. Love still is around us. Once we understand this
principle of love, we must love and care for each other to live right, in accordance
with The Truth. In temples, monks must love and care for each other, Buddhists must
love and cares for each other, so that Buddhism can continue to grow further. Those
are the basic principles.
There is a saying "Having a pure mind is the main path to enlightenment and
liberation". This is an original and very special principle of Buddhism. In the
Eightfold Noble Paths, Buddha has pointed out the last level is the precise
concentration. When one finishes this level, surely he will be enlightened and
liberated. Buddha achieved enlightenment by meditation and He taught meditation to
his disciples very carefully. Currently, a lot of Buddhists all over the world practice
meditation very hard every day and night in order to achieve calmness and pure mind
10

for enlightenment and liberation as Buddha taught. That is a simple principle

and it is eternal.
We have discussed earlier about: "Whatever makes us miserable, will also
make others miserable. Whatever brings us joy, will also bring others joy." So,
we understood that we should always make each other happy, not miserable.
But it is easy said than done. There was a saying: If I live in my own house,
eat my own meal, and do not involve with anyone, I would not make anyones
life miserable. Was it right? At first, we thought the saying was right, but it is
not really. This life is an extremely complex correlation. Everything in life
relates to each other in one way or another. Therefore, we cannot be certain that
we lived in isolation, and not relating to anything outside, or anyone else.
Because of this complex relation, it is very difficult to comprehend completely
Buddhas principle Do not make others miserable.
For example, while playing soccer, our son broke the neighbours
window, by accident. The neighbour got angry and insulted us, and such
behaviour was due to the fact that he did not follow Buddhism and understand
its teachings. However, because we understand Buddhism teachings and
because we remembered the principle Do not make others miserable, we
reacted to this bad behavior appropriately by offering apologies and asked to
pay for that window. Having said that, deep inside, we still felt annoyed because
of the neighbours insulting words. In reality, we fight within our inner self to
justify what is the right thing to do. It is not so easy at all. Being a human being,
we always face temptation to win and be better than others. If we ever want to
be kind to other human beings, and do not make others lives miserable, we
must learn to get rid of our greed and anger that exist deep within our heart and
soul. This truth is quite simple, but in deed, it is not easy at all to follow.
We could understand the principle "Do not make others miserable in a
different way, and that is Lets bring joy to others". That just mean, when
someone is angry with us is, we should not react in the same way, but to find a
way to remove the anger and bring joy to them. It is quite a difficult thing to do,
but it is a great thing to do. So now we are asked to bring joy to a lot more
people; and help the poor and the needy.
Therefore, we should make the start by reducing time spent on our
personal hobbies, and spending more time with others in the neighborhood.
11

There always are people out there that will be happy to see us, and that means we
bring joys to many other people. Well, it is not an easy thing to do, is it? Why should
we reduce our enjoyment time to be with others? With all being said, we should, by
now, realise that applying a right principle into our life is not easy at all.
As mentioned before, the law of Cause and Effect is very fair and objective, but
only Buddha could understand its principles and how it works in depth. Only with
Buddhas wisdom could comprehend the law, its principles and how it governs our
lives. As for us, being very ordinary human being, all we can do is to learn more and
more, cultivate more and more to gradually gain understanding about the law. Nobody
can claim that they know all about the law of Cause and Effect.
Back to the statement "Having a pure mind is the main path to enlightenment
and liberation; it sounds simply, but how could we achieve the state of having a pure
mind? Is it an easy thing to do? Well, we will have to go through so many stages of
cultivation, do many good deeds, in order to be able to reach the beginning of having a
pure mind. There are people that can achieve this level faster than others, and it is
because they already inherited immeasurable blessings, being accumulated over time
from previous lives. Because it is extremely difficult to have a pure mind state, we
would worship Buddha forever and would be never tired of doing so. Amongst these
teachings and these principles, the right and the wrong are mixed together. Principles
in life are not always right because they have been formed and shaped by both the
right and the wrong. Therefore, different people would have understood these
principles differently, which have led to human beings were not united as one. Even
Einstein, the greatest scientist of all times, admitted that, only 95% of his thinking and
explanation for Mathematics and Physics were wrong and only 5% of those were
right. And this 5% proportion really changed the world.
Therefore, we must not misunderstand the principle Lets bring joy to others,
the consequences would be very severe. Bringing joy to others does not mean we spoil
them. Bring joy to others is an obligation of being a human being. We bring joy to
each other but should never tolerate their sins or their bad behaviours. If we
misunderstand and misuse this principle, we would suffer from bad consequences later
in life.
When we discussed "Love is an essential element of life" principle above, we
must understand that the love mentioned in this principle is the love among people; it
is not a selfish romantic love with the desire to possess the other person. Love often
12

causes egoism easily. When we love someone, of course, we just want the
person for just ourselves. Due to this egoism, people could easily offend and
hurt others feelings. Therefore, if we misunderstand what love really means, it
could mean we make others miserable instead of making them happy.
We all know by now there are rights and wrongs mixed together in these
principles. If we are not wise and knowledgeable to distinguish the differences
between the rights and wrongs in these principles, we would behave badly and
would not be able to live morally; therefore, we would suffer from bad
consequences later in this life, or even in afterlives.
Misunderstanding the law of Cause and Effect would also bring bad
consequences. For example, we believe that if we bring offerings i.e. flowers to
Buddha, this would help us have a beautiful appearance in the afterlife. Is this
action right or wrong? The answer is that: the law of Cause and Effect is not
simple and exactly works like that. In the Sutra, Buddha did not mention about
this at all, this belief was based on the sayings and experiences of many monks.
Monks often think that if we decorated an altar of Buddha beautifully, we would
be rewarded later on, in some shape for form. This is true. However, it did not
yet completely reach the deep end of the truth that Buddha had said.
So, what has Buddha taught us to help us with having a beautiful
appearance? Buddha taught us about love and compassion. Those, who have
compassion for others will have beautiful appearance, evidenced by the
goddesses in heaven. They are extremely beautiful; and because of their love
and compassion for all beings, they were re-born to be goddesses in heaven.
Lets consider this further. In this life, beautiful people usually are more
favourable than others, because naturally they are more compassionate than
others. In addition, they are always loved and being cared for by others. They
had this outcome because in their previous lives, they did many good deeds, had
been compassionate and had loved all beings.
So, if we only dedicated flowers to Buddha, hoping that we would have
gain good outcome in life, but we do not have compassion, love and care for
others, then it is not enough. We could have achieved other good outcomes in
our after life, such as being born in a wealthy family, but we could not have
had beautiful appearance. Why is that so? Again, because beauty comes with
13

compassion, love and care. Therefore, even we continue dedicating offering to Buddha
to worship Buddha, we must know that the most important factors are compassion,
love and care for all beings.
Similarly, there are numerous methods of meditation out there, but not all
methods are correct. There are methods, which were created based on the personal
beliefs, not based entirely on moral standards. Therefore, these methods would not
benefit practitioners. Also, in Buddhism, nowadays, there are a lot of moral principles,
a lot of methods being taught. They are so called Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana
Buddhism, even though both religions worship the only Buddha.
Besides those, there are Zen, Tantra and Pure Land Buddhism religions as well.
Each method is said to be the best. And these rituals and practice are also different.
We do not know which method/practice is right. This really confused us. In addition to
that, each temple has its own ceremonies, and these are held are differently. Although
we might be familiar with this temples Sutra, we may not be able to do the same in
the other temple.
Monks also have different styles and different interpretation about Buddhism
principles, therefore, they preach to their disciples also differently. For example, there
are monks who are quite easy-going, gentle, and cheerful and their preaching style
usually makes us feel very comfortable. When we came to them for repentance:
"Master, I repent of my sin. I took refuge in the Triratna but I gambled a few days ago.
I promise I will never gamble again." The Master just smiled and said: "Well, thats
okay. Its good that you know your sin, you had the sensation feeling now about
gambling; remember to remind yourself to remind others not to gamble again." He
was very pleasant, which made us feel a little uneasy and unsure, so we went to other
Master, just to check for second opinion.
This time we met a strict master, always using his prayer beads. We came to
him for repentance of the same sin. His response was very different to the other
Master: "Go to kneel down in front of Buddha. Buddhists are not allowed to gamble.
You did a terrible thing. I feel ashamed if people know you are my disciple. Dont do
that again!
The two examples above demonstrated two different teaching styles and moral
interpretation; we do not know which style is the right way. Because of this difference,
Buddhism is split up, and heading towards different religious tendencies. Initially, we
14

worshipped one Buddha; we learnt about the Four Noble Truths, then we
believed in the law of Cause and Effect. However, over time, different ways of
teaching Buddhism were emerging, causing division in Buddhism principles
itself.
So, what is our responsibility for this matter? We must look for a
common factor in all Buddhism principles, to get rid of the division, to reunite
all beliefs. We should neither accept all, nor ignore all the things that we have
learnt so far. We have to clarify again and again to find the most common
principle of all times The Only Truth.
Firstly, all disciples of Buddha must pay homage to Buddha, regardless of
which Buddhism seminary we attend. If we do pay homage to Buddha, we are
not genuinely Buddhist. Regardless of how we cultivate, regardless of which
Master or which Buddhism seminary we learn from, the most common and the
most important factor is our homage to Buddha.
Secondly, we must have compassion for all beings. We could eat either
vegetarian food as the Mahayana or nutritious food as the Theravada, but we
still must have compassion and love for all beings. It is the most common and
the most important element in Buddhism teachings.
We must also cultivate and continuously practise to be modest, to live
selflessly, and to have forgiveness. We must cultivate with the right attitude, so
that we live and devote ourselves to everything and everyone else in life. That is
truly the most accurate principle and that is The Only Truth.
We should not care too much if there was a claim that their Buddhism
teaching is the right one. We should not argue, but we also should not believe it
immediately. We must consider it carefully though. It is now the right time to
find that common and Only Truth to re-unite all beliefs in this whole world. We
must have the goal to look for not only a common principle in Buddhism, but
also a common truth to influence all human beings to follow. That Truth must
make mankind re-united as one because human kind has been divided. Let's
start looking for the Only Truth based on the teachings of Buddhism.
Why based on Buddhism? It is because Buddhism is always the source of
truth that no other religion in the world can substitute. We do not blame other
15

religions, we respect them, however, unarguably Buddhism is still the greatest source
of truth. And now we all begin to find the Only Truth, the one and only for the
whole world, starting with Buddhism.
On the path of finding The Only Truth, all of us would face a terrible problem:
that is our own belief. We have been following the Masters teachings and cultivating
for so many years. Yet today, when we realised that we have been following the
wrong path, even though we felt disappointed and hurt, we still need to accept the fact,
and take time to correct this mistake. It is not easy at all to let go of a habit or a belief,
when we realise that they were wrong, because this action relates to our own emotion,
our own pride and our own ego. We must start looking for the right principle, The
Only Truth.
Therefore, we need to have courage and the focus to do so, no matter how
painful and disappointed we feel. We must fix the mistake find the best principles, The
Only Truth, to apply to our cultivation journey. It is also because that we would also
be mentoring many other people later in this life, not only just for ourselves.
Over many years, when we attended a temple, we had always prayed for
ourselves, not for others. Now that we understand Buddhism, and we also understand
that the core principle is compassion, from now on, we should do the opposite: pray
for others not for ourselves. It is not easy at all because of our ego and selfishness. For
example, no one would be willing to pray that: let us lose our cars, not others; or
Buddha, our kids are about to take an exam; please let them pass. If someone has to
fail, let it be our own kids, not the others. Really! No one would pray that willingly in
front of Buddha because it is unnatural, and it relates directly to our own emotions.
But we are Buddhists; we have taken refuge in the Triple Gems so we must do that.
We must pray for others not for ourselves. Being a Buddhist, we must live a life with
compassion, and it does not need to be obvious. We can pray for others quietly, no one
needs to know that. Now is the time for us to convert our thinking about how we live
compassionately, even though it is extremely difficult. If we find the most accurate
and the most fundamental truth, Buddhism will be able to unite, not being divided and
further develop.
Buddhism is really weakening because Buddhists ar avoiding the common
principle, The Truth we mentioned above. For example, Buddhism is the religion of
compassion, but we are becoming less and less compassionate; Buddhism is the
religion of paying homage to Buddha, but our reverence for Buddha has become less
16

and less. Those are just a few examples indicating to us that Buddhism becomes
weaker. We must not avoid following The Only Truth.
Also, we must not believe in those principles that relates to our own ego
and we must get rid of those principles that lead us to have passive attitudes.
The principles that make us work harder and motivate us to dedicate our
life for others would be the true ones. So when our Master says that his
Buddhism seminary is the most important one, it is not true. There is no such
thing as number one seminary to teach Buddhism, or which one is more
important than the others. Please remember that the most important and
fundamental principle belongs to the only one Buddhism religion. How we
cultivate is just different method that we would use to explore Buddhism
principles further, in depth to understand more about its most common
principle, The Only Truth, and to apply it appropriately.
Whoever made such claim about being number one would cause division
amongst disciples. We must be modest. All of the Buddhism seminaries out
there must collaborate and re-unite to work towards finding The Only Truth.
When there is division within the religion itself, there would also be conflict. As
an example, for the same question of "Why are these people suffering and the
others happy?" According to one religion, the answer was: "It is because of
God!" According to Buddhism, the answer was: "It is because of karma:
depending on blessings that had been accumulated for these people from their
past lives. These two answers are completely opposite, so one must be wrong,
the other must be right; which means one religion is wrong and the other is
right.
This is the weakness. Different religions teach their disciples different
things. These teachings are completely opposite to each other. All of which are
protected by the law stated and imposed by the United Nations to protect
freedom of religion, and Vietnam is no exception. That is, whichever religion
you believe in is your business; whether it is right not wrong, no Government
would interfere. Government only involves when there is a clear violation of the
law.
Actually, this is a very bad thing of the current human civilization. One
day in the future, when mankind civilization is more advanced, we would assess
17

all religions in the world and determine which one is right and which one is wrong.
Only religions which preach the right ethics would be allowed to continue. All other
religions must change themselves to follow the right one, and preach the right ethical
teachings back to their disciples.
Today, because religions are very powerful and have so many disciples, the law
must be compromised to protect all human beings freedom in believing and following
religions. But the law also allows people to believe in wrong religion, this would
create bad consequences to human beings in the future. This is the disadvantage of the
current human civilization. Maybe in the next five centuries, this will change. The law
would only protect religions which have teachings and ethical standards entirely
consistent with the law, and the opposite will be dismissed. Yet now, no one is dared
to change the law, but we should believe that in next five centuries this change would
come. Why? It is because mankind would never accept this flaw to last forever.
Similarly, this also relates to how we handle and manage different things in life.
Although we have a lot of different opinions, we must try to agree on one opinion to
progress further. For example, we wished to fix the road leading to the temple. We
asked for help from family and friends, but we all had different opinion on how to
finish the job. The discussion went on and on without reaching an agreement. If we all
just ignore our own voice, our own opinion, our own ego, we would be able to reach
an objective and reasonable agreement.
While looking for the right solution, and if our opinion was rejected by others,
we were hurt and annoyed, so our reaction was very defensive, which means the
discussion just went on and on. We did not have ego and were not selfish, we would
be able to accept others good idea happily. All Buddhists must have this positive
attitude and behaviour. Therefore, regardless whether it is Buddhism principles or just
simple events in our ordinary life, we must always try to get rid of our ego, prejudice
in order to live right with others. We then could find The Only Truth.
However, things are not really black or white; or completely right or completely
wrong. What about those that are half-right and a half-wrong; or mostly right; or
absolutely right? For example, we often perceive that that cruelty is bad while
kindness is good. Kindness is divided into several categories. Like when we went to a
temple to worship Buddha, we met a person for the first time. He did not know us
either but he gave us the broom and asked, "Please sweep this place for me." We did
as he requested. Later on, we found that he was one of our subordinate, but we were
18

not angry with him. In this case, we were kind to help other person, no matter
he/she was. Similarly, at work, we should also have a positive attitude and
tolerance behaviour towards our colleagues.
Lets consider another side of kindness. When the Master sent us to
collect firewood, someone else also asked us to carry some bags of soil. We
responded: "The Master asked to gather firewood already", but the other person
yelled back at you: "That is not important, carry some bags of soil for me now.
We did not respond nor follow his order either, which meant in this case, we
were not submissive. And when the other person scolded at us, we explained to
him why the Masters order was very important. We were assertive then. The
assertion does not mean we were not kind, but it indicated that we were strong
and decisive.
We must understand that kindness does not mean we have to obey
everyone. We should listen to others; we should be patient but sometimes we
should be decisive and not listen to everything that others say. Those behaviours
would be only acceptable in appropriate situations. The important thing is we
must assess the situation we are in in order to have the appropriate attitude.
Like any law of any country, an offender shall be punished but how
severe should he be punished? Not all offenders are sentenced to death. Yes,
may be in in some cases, they could be sentenced to death; but in other cases,
they would be sentenced to life imprisonment; or some could just receive the
warning. That is, depending on the seriousness and the severity of the offence,
the court or the judge will made the appropriate assessment and decision.
Likewise, many principles and truths in life are not just always wrong or
right, there are many in between. The key is that we must be wise and
intelligent enough to assess, make our own judgment and adjust accordingly.
We know that while we were searching for the right principle and the
Only Truth, we have come across many bad things but we still had to forgive
and forget because the reality is no one is perfect, everyone makes mistakes.
Lets assess ourselves. We all have made many mistakes too. If we could
not forgive others and vice versa, it would be very difficult for all of us to live
in harmony. Therefore, when we are aware of someone elses mistake and sin,
19

we should be able to sympathize and forgive them, as one day, we may be commit the
exact same thing.
But why can someone find The Only Truth, and not others? Its fate. Its the
destiny. And it is all because of karma from our past lives.
Firstly, we must be honest.
Secondly, when we teach someone, we must be dedicated completely and must
explain everything properly.
Thirdly, we must never be ethical, and never accept the wrongs although we
might have to suffer. For example, in one of our past lives, there was a kind-hearted
person who offered fifty gifts to the poor in our village. Someone knew that we also
were in need, so asked us if we want to be added to the list. We knew that our situation
was not as bad as the others, so we said no to that offer. If we had taken that gift,
someone else would have missed out and they would have suffered more than us. So,
we did not accept the wrong doings, we told the truth and were willing to suffer from
it. That was the core of the compassion, do not accept unethical thing. By doing that,
we had gain many blessings for our afterlives. That is also karma; the law of Cause
and Effect. On the contrary, if someone lied for their benefit, in their afterlives, they
would not be able to find the right Master to learn the right principles, The Only Truth,
and they would have suffered from these bad consequences.
We must believe in The Truth, and protect it. And despite the fact the truth
hurts, we must not ignore it.
We might have heard about Jesus Christs famous saying: "The truth sets us
free." The truth would help us get rid of miserable feeling and bring us happiness.
Why is that so? Because we knew that what we did was right and there would be no
bad consequences later. It is simple as the example of when we select a dish from a
table full of tasty dishes. We would know which dish is not tasty but healthy, and vice
versa and we must make the right selection to avoid suffering from bad health later
in life.
We have got acquainted with many people over the times, some are bad and
others are good. We should be aware of who s who and their personalities so that we
can make the appropriate decision when we have to do business with any of them,
either good or bad. If the person is good, we could be more flexible. If the person is
bad, we should find the way to educate them slowly. When we behave appropriately,
our life would become less complicated gradually. That is why the Truth would bring
20

us happiness. The Truth would calm our mind to help us deal with things in life
in the appropriate ways.
There is another deeply meaningful principle, and if we could
comprehend this principle, surely one day we would be liberated from the
suffering of samsara. This principle is called "Four Noble Truths". We often
hear people say: "All roads lead to Rome". So we interpreted that all kinds of
cultivation would finally lead to liberation. This is not true. The statement "All
roads lead to Rome" started from the following event: Once upon a time,
Roman Emperor Caesar brought his troops to fight everywhere. He occupied
many parts of the world, and whichever part he won over, he made a road
leading to the Roman capital. His purpose was to easily control all bases around
the world. That was the basis for the above statement.
If we understand the spiritual path to enlightenment is as simple as this
statement "All roads lead to Rome", we are completely superficial. If no matter
how you cultivate, you will achieve the same goal after all, then this goal is not
enlightenment, but only the three evil paths.
To conclude, from all of principles and truths in life, there is only Only
Truth really. Imagining a tree and this Only Truth is like the root. Although
there are many branches coming out from this root, there is still only one root.
Our duty is to find the root. When we find it, when we understand it, we would
find the right path to live and cultivate.
On the path to find this Only Truth, we must get rid of our pride and
prejudice to comprehend fully this fundamental truth that any religion or anyone
must accept it. And more importantly, this Only Truth should be the one that
would help all human beings re-unite, have compassion and care for each other
to make this world is a better place, another heaven to live in.
Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

21

The dual path of Meditation

and Pure Land cultivation

ON THE 7th JANUARY, 2007

AT BAO TINH PAGODA TUY HOA CITY PHU YEN PROVINCE

PHAP QUANG CULTURE COMPANY

T/Fax: (08) 38462646 - 38479599
Mobile: 0986.861338 - 0984.982229
Email: congtyphapquang@gmail.com.
thientonphatquang@gmail.com
Website: www.thientonphatquang.com
www.vidaothieng.com

On the occasion of the fifteen Lieu Quan practicing course, we can talk
about the subject of the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation
in memory of our founder.
Our founder was a Zen Master who was absolutely enlightened. We can
be sure that He professionally practiced meditation, while we now practice
Pure Land, specially recite the Amitbha Buddhas name, and get used to
performing rites of chanting. For that reason, we should connect His practice
with our practice so that the two practices can have a relation. We dont know
when the change of practices began, but we should carefully examine its
reason and its situation.
Today, we will find out:
- What is the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation?
- Why should we take the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land
cultivation?
- What did our founders mean when they set up the dual path of
Meditation and Pure Land cultivation?
- How can we carry out the founders purpose?
Firstly, we should study the background when Patriarch Lieu Quan
came from.
In our view, we can see that He lost His mother when He was five or
six years old. He abdicated when being twelve years old. His master died
when He was nineteen. He lost his father when He was twenty one. He
became lonely to seek for the way of cultivation until He met the most
Venerable Minh Hoang Tu Dung who handed down to Him a koan. He
practiced hard and then attained Enlightenment. Generally speaking, His
life of cultivation was full of hindrances which could never let Him down.
3

Although, He faced a lot of obstructions, He still kept His mind pure and
His character intact. He practiced meditation diligently until he was
enlightened.
In a view of Mahayana, we can see that in Phu Yen province, there
were good causal conditions to have many famous monks, and there appeared
a Bodhisattva who practiced hard till attained Enlightenment and left the
next generations His example of spiritual strength that has gone along with
our national Buddhism. Nowadays, thanks to the spiritual strength, we are to
spread His doctrine, follow his way, and have responsibility for protecting
our country and reassuring our people.
It was in 1662 in China, five years before our founder was born1, the
Manchu occupied all over China, and established the Qing dynasty. The
Manchu was in the East of Mongolia. Specially, Mongolia and Tibet were
fond of Lama Sect and Tantrism very much; therefore, the people in the
East and East North of China were the followers of Lamaism.
The third King of Manchu called Shunzhi was the first Emperor of the
Qing dynasty to rule over China. His Mongolian name was Eyebeer. In
1661, he abdicated and left his six-year-old son to be the Emperor, who
official name was Kangxi. The dynasty at that time was run by Oboi.
Although Kangxi Emperor was a child he had extraordinary talents. After he
was enthroned, he defeated Oboi and took back his power.
Qing dynasty had a faith in Tantrism, so Tantrist monks paid visits to its
mandarins very often. However, National Master Yulin2 had good causal
conditions with King Shunzhi and King Kangxi and then he became National
Master of the Qing dynasty.
At the time of the Buddha, the Sangha got up very early in the morning
1: He was born 1667
2: Died in 1676

to practice meditation. When it was dawning they could get out of their
meditation, took a walk, and then went to town to beg for food. About 10
A.M they finished their lunch, and came back the monastery, practiced
meditation, had conversations or gave people preaches. In the afternoon, they
continued to meditate until midnight. Their time of rest was very little.
After the Buddha entered into Nirvana, Buddhists in everywhere
worshiped His statues and relics with all due their respect. Monks got up
early to worship the Buddha with flowers and fragrant incense, after that
they practiced meditation. In the sunset, the venerable sat cross-legged in
higher positions to read the Buddhas saying what they had heard, while
novice monks sat around and repeated after them, while their hands were
clasped. It was unwritten then. They only kept Sutras in mind through word
of mouth. If a novice monk repeated the saying incorrectly, the venerable
reminded him and asked him say again. It is called repetition in verse of a
prose section. That was the beginning of chanting sutras. Its aim was to
remind the Buddhas disciples of His teachings. Thanks to the aim, the
Three Baskets of Sutras have been handed down to us.
When Buddhism came into China, the Sutras were printed or craved
by the Chinese; therefore, the precious Sutras could help monks who had
not yet learned by heart to chant together with the venerable. At that
time, activities of pagodas had changed. The Sangha practiced
meditation in the morning, and knelt down in front of the statue of the
Buddha to chant Sutras in the evening.
Although National Master Yulin was enlightened through his
practicing meditation, he had to harmonize with Tantrist monks when the
Qing dynasty wanted to reform religious life of monks. For that reason,
he combined all Zen School, Pure Land School, and Tantrism. He
5

compiled the Morning and Evening Recitation which was the official
rite for recitation ceremonies of pagodas. Every service, there were the
Heart of Prajna Paramita Sutra that contains a little meaning of Dhyana
(meditation) and harmonize with the Surangama Heart Mantra, and
the Great Compassion Mantra, and the Ten Small Mantras, and the
Amitabha Sutra and the Rebirth Mantra. The official rite is still applied
to Vietnamese pagodas nowadays. National Master Yulins reform was
opposed by many Chinese Zen Masters. Obeying the Kings order, the
mandarins must watch carefully monks religious life and attitude, and
then they reported the opposition to the King. National Master Yulin
wrote a severe document in order to strike back the opposition of the
pagodas.
From then on, all Chinese pagodas had to follow absolutely the
reform. They had to perform the Morning and Evening Recitation instead of
practicing meditation. Step by step, this activity becomes monks habit, and
then monks suppose that whenever they enter to a pagoda they must learn by
heart the Morning and Evening Recitation so that they can be called monks.
However, many Chinese Zen Masters felt dissatisfied with it then they left
China to go to the South of Vietnam, to Champa, to Chenla Kingdom, and
Thailand. They dared not to stay at the North, where the border between
Vietnam and China is very close, because they were afraid that the Qing
court would find them.
Then in Vietnam, the Lord Trinh ruled over the North, while the
Lord Nguyen ruling over the South. In that time, the activity in Vietnamese
pagodas still kept practicing meditation, and they had not yet influenced by
Master Yulins Morning and Evening Recitation at all.
6

The founder Lieu Quan entered into Hoi Ton pagoda when being
twelve years old, and he became the Venerable Te Viens disciple. He
practiced diligently meditation in order to attain enlightenment. After his
master, the venerable Te Vien died, he went to many places to study some
ways and he met with serious difficulties. He received ten precepts as a
novice monk from Venerable Thach Liem in 1695. In 1697, he received 250
precepts as a bhiksu from Venerable Tu Lam. His difficult life was not
completely noted. We can only see several common features such as he was
hungry, was scorned, and worked hard in pagodas.
In the South, the Lord Nguyen was very fond of Zen Master Minh
Chau Huong Hai, who followed the way of Truc Lam Zen School3
that belonged to the North. However, there was someone who spoke
ill that the Zen Master was a spy who worked for the Lord Trinh in the
North. The Lord Nguyen put Zen Master Minh Chau into prison
immediately. After being released, the Zen Master fled to the North with
the fifty Zen practitioners. He took with him the statue of the Buddha and
many sutra books. This event happened in Phu Xuan four years after the
founder abdicated, while he was living with his master.
The Lord Nguyen supposed that Truc Lam Zen School was reactionary
nature then he commanded to kill nine generations of monks of Truc Lam
Zen School. Consequently, all Truc Lam Zen Masters fled to the South, far
away from Champa, Chenla Kingdom, Khanh Hoa, Phu Xuan provinces.
Some of them left the monk- hood, while the others went up to mountains to
escape from the wanted of the Lord.
At that time, there was absence of Venerable; therefore, the Lord
Nguyen had to come to Binh Dinh province to ask Venerable Nguyen Thieu to

3: Bamboo Zen School

be the leader of the Sangha of the South Vietnamese Buddhism.

While the founder was then practicing hard, a rebellion happened in
Binh Dinh. A group of Chinese called themselves Linh Vuong rising in
revolt against the Lord Nguyen. After investigating, the investigators found
out that the group was the disciples of Zen Master Nguyen Thieu. The Lord
Nguyen had faced two times of rebellions, so he had doubts about the
Zen Master and then accused him of spying. For that reason, the Zen
Master had to take a boat for fleeing. He came to Bien Hoa and changed his
religious name to Sieu Bach; therefore, his stupa (tower) was really
worshiped in Dong Nai Province, not in Binh Dinh.
After that, the Lord Nguyen must invite Chinese Zen Masters to come to
the South, because he didnt have any Vietnamese famous monk to worship.
Among Chinese Zen Masters, Zen Master Minh Hoang Tu Dung who was a
disciple of Master Dai Xa Nhu Truong accepted the invitation. We need to
know that Master Dai Xa Nhu Truong was a disciple of National Master
Dao Man of Qing dynasty. When the Lord Nguyen had a Zen Master who
had a relationship with Qing dynasty, he felt very easy. Then the founder
Lieu Quan came to Zen Master Minh Hoang Tu Dung and asked him for
being his disciple. He was accepted, and then he ended his wandering, lonely
life. He was tirelessly to save and help people. The Lord Nguyen Phuc Chu
was very fond of him and invited him to come to his palace, but he refused
the Lords offer.
He died in 1742, four years after the Lord Nguyen Phuc Khoat
succeeded to the throne. When the Lord Nguyen Phuc Khoat died, Nguyen
Phuc Thuan was enthroned as the Lord, but he was controlled by mandarin
Truong Phuc Loan. In 1778, the Lord Trinh seized Phu Xuan imperial city.
The Lord Trinh was accompanied by famous mandarin Le Quy Don when
8

coming to South. At that time there appeared the Tay Son uprising. The Lord
Nguyen Phuc Thuan died in battle. Nguyen Phuc Anh succeeded to the
throne. When the Tay Son brothers divided, Nguyen Phuc Anh took the title
of Emperor under the reign name Gia Long, in 1802.
It was the time of Emperor Jianqing in China then, all pagodas in China
obeyed the order of National Master Yulin to practice the Morning and
Evening Recitation. King Gia Long wanted to follow exactly the Qings
example, so he applied the practice of Chinese pagodas to Vietnamese
pagodas.
In the old time, if there was a famous monk living in a pagoda, there
were many disciples gathered in that pagoda to study, so there was no enough
room for them, and the subjects were not adequate to them, too. Based on
their experience of cultivation, the Venerable taught his disciples what they
knew and what they practiced; therefore, the study was limited. Any pagoda
called itself the original Rinzai School which was more prominent than Soto
School, or Yunmen School, or Guiyang School. However, Buddhists have no
longer practiced meditation they are likely to practice Pure Land School
nowadays.
The Pure Land School has two features:
- Reciting the name of Amitbha Buddha, through which Buddhists can
be reborn in the Highest Joy world (Pure Land world).
- Developing the rites, through which Vietnamese monks can show
their talent for art.
When the Venerable changed their practice of meditation into chanting
sutras, they realized that the Pure Land School was easier to practice than
Zen School, anyone can get it. They thought that if they kept reciting the

name of Amitbha Buddha in their mind, and then their mind would be calm.
Specially, people were easy when they were given a word that if they
absolutely determined to recite Amitbha Buddhas name they would be reborn
in the Pure Land. People believed that the Pure Land was pure and solemn,
and if they went up there they could never worry about their life where
poverty and suffer were always existing.
In the first time, it seemed that the Pure Land School was easy for
everyone to practice. Actually, this School was for those who had good roots,
because only these people could be mindful of reciting Amitbha Buddhas
name every moment. People who had no good roots and were absence of
merit and had to manage everything in life could be hardly mindful of reciting
Amitbha Buddhas name. Furthermore, the promise of rebirth in the Pure
Land was not strong enough to persuade everyone to practice diligently
recitation of Amitbha Buddhas name.
However, chanting was the high culture then. Any incident happened in a
family, the members of the family would invite monks to come to their house
to chant and to perform a ceremony. The atmosphere in pagodas was bustling
thanks to chanting and musical instruments, so people felt like it so much.
Nowadays, although people enjoy music very much, they prefer modern
Rap, Rock and Disco to traditional music. Most of people, especially the
youth, wouldnt enjoy chanting and the sound of wooden bell any more.
In short, the followers of the Pure Land School only recite Amitbha
Buddhas name in order to be reborn in the Pure Land, and it is easy for
them to practice; whereas, there have been many famous Zen Masters
who have practiced meditation and attained Enlightenment. That is why
the followers of Zen School have still paid homage to the Zen Masters. As
a result, the two Schools have existed in the dual path for long; however,
10

such the dual path might always sow a seed of division. Zen followers
suppose that they are directly going on the way to Nirvana, while Pure
Land followers think that they will be soon reborn into the Highest Joy
world4. The two ways are so different that people wonder and question
what Buddhism is? This is the question that has penetrated into
peoples minds and the deep division has existed for long, too. The
founders have been tortured so much, because they never wanted to see
Buddhism being divided. They have tried hard to find a way to harmonize
the Zen School with the Pure Land School; therefore they could have
greatly encouraged all followers to practice the dual path of Meditation
and Pure Land cultivation.
Today, when we talk about the dual path of Meditation and Pure
Land cultivation, we really want to remind our people of the founders
saying: It was as if a tiger had its horns if the followers practice chanting
and meditation, or practice meditation and chanting at the same time.
The founders helped both meditated and chanting practitioners realize
that they need to take Meditation and Pure Land cultivation, instead of
having a hatred of each other. If we think that the two Schools are
completely different, we misunderstand our founders. In fact, there is a
close relationship between Zen School and Pure Land School.
Why did the founders widen and develop the dual path of Meditation
and Pure Land cultivation?
First of all, they didnt want followers with good roots to practice
meditation and followers without good roots to practice chanting. They really
wanted to associate the two Schools in harmony, and to improve the level
of cultivation of all followers in equal. For example, if a person has

11
4: Pure Land world

practiced meditation for long, but he has not got any achievement, the
founders would advise him to change meditating into chanting so that he
could improve his level of practice. If anyone practices meditation, but
erroneous thoughts always arise in mind, they should recite the Buddhas
name and confess to the Buddha that they have done many things wrong.
After that, they could come back to practice meditation. However, a person
pratices chanting very well, his mind can be peaceful in every sentence of
recitation of the Buddhas name, his morals are excellent, and then the
founders would advise him to practice meditation so that he can attain the
void of recitation, instead of keeping on the recitation which would become
obstacles of his religious life.
Second, the founders wanted Buddhism not to be divided because
of the two practices. Everyone who practices both meditation and
chanting follows exactly the founders advice. That one is deserving of
peoples worship.
Third, thanks to the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land
cultivation, Vietnamese Buddhism can be associated and grown strongly,
along with other religions which are spread rapidly. We must take a vow that we
will try our best to develop our Buddhism by helping people come into
Buddha-Dharma. This is the most important aim that we must determine to
fulfill.
In the time of the Buddha, the view of reciting the Buddhas name
so as to be reborn into the Heaven was absence. The Zen Masters always
tried to attain a stage of Arhat-hood such as Srotaapanna, Sakrdagamin,
Anagamin, and Arhat5. Far from the Buddhas time, monks have faced
difficulties to practice meditation, so they have relied on reciting the

12
5: Srota-panna:
One who has entered the stream of holy living
Sakrdgmin:
One who has attained the 2nd stage of the Noble Path
Angmin: One who has attained the 3rd stage of the Path
Arhat:
One who has attained the final stage of the Path.

Buddhas name to concentrate their mind. In order to enrich tastes of

religious life in pagodas, monks have created many ceremonies and
activities such as the rite of bringing relief to the needy, ceremonies of
praying for peace and of praying for rebirth in the Pure Land, and the
Morning and Evening Recitation, etc. ...
From then on, there is the sound of bell ringing in pagodas every
day, and in fact, the sound of bell penetrates into our peoples minds. Every
sunset and every early morning, the bell rings loudly and clearly,
resounding throughout the dark.
People are busy to live and to purchase the illusion of glory, when they
hear the sound of the bell they may suddenly feel moved to think that what
we have indulged in is real? Where we will be when we die? What we will
take with us when we die are only our spirits and merits; therefore, what
should we have done to bring good to life and to create merit? Would our
spirits have progressed?
Thank to the rites, pagodas have beneficial effects on people and help
their spirits progress. It is the Pure Land monks who create merits very much
by bringing good things to life and bringing Buddhism very close to our
people.
Later, the Venerable realized that anyone who believes in the method of
reciting the Buddhas name could try hard to practice. If he is the man of
superior character, living morally, giving his love to all his religious brothers
and all beings then when he recites the Buddhas name his mind is easy to
concentrate. The Venerable may ask such the person that you recite
diligently the Buddhas name, so do you know who is reciting?, my
mouth is doing, says the person. The Venerable continues when you die
how can your mouth recite?, the person says if so, my mind can. The
13

Venerable asks more then where is your mind?. The person is confused to
look for his mind, but he doesnt know where his mind is. So the venerable
advises him to find it through his recitation. When he find out where his
mind is, he was suddenly enlightened and then he becomes a Zen master. It
means that when the person is well-trained reciting, the Venerable used the
best way to open his mind in order that he can be enlightened.
Actually, the division between Zen School and Pure Land School is
not existed at all. The Venerable always improve the practice of Pure
Land followers through meditation.
Sometimes, Pure Land monks have causal conditions with Zen
School, so they are fond of meditation and come to a Zen Master to ask
for giving some teachings. Then the Zen Master would ask them what
have you practiced so far? They might say Before now, we have
practiced recitation of the Buddhas name; but now we can give it up to
practice meditation. If the master is clear-sighted, he would never let
them give up their expert practice that could help them raise their virtue
of religious life and cultivated blessing. The master would advise them
to practice both of meditation and recitation of the Buddhas name, and
then he would teach them that:
- Breath in namo Amitbha Buddha Breath out namo Amitbha
Buddha Or:
- Breath in and out namo Amitbha Buddha
- Breath out and in namo Amitbha Buddha
If a practitioner has to recite the name of Amitbha Buddha while he
has to control his breath, such the practitioner has no good roots. We are
always heard that this person has good roots while another doesnt.

14

Good roots are merits which people have created from their past life to
present life. The recitation of the name of Amitbha Buddha is one of the
factors which help us create much more merits. It means that if we create
more merits our good roots will be increased.
In case, a practitioner is well-trained to recite the Buddhas name and has
good roots, when he is asked who is reciting? who practice recitation?, at
the moment, he will be suddenly enlightened and give up his recitation. On
the other hand, if a person wants to practice meditation, but his root is not
good enough, he should recite the name of Amitbha Buddha and practice the
method of control of breath. This is the dual path of Meditation and Pure
Land cultivation.
On the occasion of talking about the dual path of Meditation and Pure
Land cultivation, Id like to tell the truth I received when I was accidently
on the plane with the Venerable, who is the leader of the Central Propagating
Department. The Venerable asked me to sit next to him, and throughout the
travel, he gave me some of remarkable teachings related to Pure Land School.
It was on Jan. 5th
The Venerable told me that he was born in Jan. 5th This year his
birthday was on the same day of the birthday of Amitbha Buddha in lunar
Nov. 17th. So he felt very happy.
He said that the Pure Land World of Amitbha Buddha is symbolized
the spiritual world, while this world of the Buddha is symbolized the
realistic world. The spiritual world is where people seek for happiness, and
beauty, and where there is no hatred or evil or sin. The realistic world where
we are living is full of hatred, of evil, of sin.
He added more information that Amitbha Buddhas birthday is lunar
15

Nov. 17th, and the day of the Buddhas enlightenment was lunar Dec. 8th.
It is twenty one days apart from the birthday of Amitbha Buddha to the day
of the Buddhas Enlightenment. The Venerable supposed that whether the
Patriarch wanted to send us some message? Why they set up the birthday of
Amitbha Buddha twenty one days before the Buddha attained
enlightenment? We dont know if our Buddhists can understand their
message.
According to the Venerable, if we try to find out the implication, we can
see that there is a strange connection between Meditation School and Pure
Land School. For example, Buddhists can enjoy celebrating the birthday of
Amitbha Buddha today, and then twenty one days later, they can enjoy
celebrating the day of the Buddhas Enlightenment.
The first implication is that when a person recites the name of
Amitbha Buddha, so as to attain rebirth in his Pure Land, but he doesnt
know that three weeks later he will suddenly attain Enlightenment. If the
Patriarch gave their disciples the implication then there is no longer division
between Meditation School and Pure Land School.
The second implication is that the Patriarch would like to connect
Meditation School with Pure Land School so that Buddhism could be never
divided any more. If we get the point of the second implication, we have the
important aim to fulfill in future.
When we breathe in, we recite Namo Amitbha Buddha. When we
breathe out, we also recite Namo Amitbha Buddha. Thanks to our recitation,
we can get blessing from the Buddha. If people only control their breath but
they dont recite Namo Amitbha Buddha, erroneous thoughts can appear in
their mind. When we are well-trained, we can give up recitation, and then we
16

suddenly realize that our body is impermanent. When we breathe in, we know
that this body is impermanent. When we breathe out, we know that this body
is impermanent.
At that time, only our knowing exists, while the recitation disappears. Thought is
no longer in our mind, but there comes wisdom along with breath only. Step by step,
the realization is increased so much that we just know the breath and impermanent
body. We dont follow the erroneous thoughts any more, but we continue to
overcome the five hindrances in order to enter the first stage of meditation, and then
we come into the spiritual world. We can see the Pure Land World being here, the
Spiritual World being here.
If novice practitioners only practice meditation but dont recite the
name of Buddha, the Patriarch would ask them to take Pure Land
cultivation by worshiping the Buddha instead of reciting the name of the
Buddha. Worshiping the Buddha must be harder than reciting the name of the
Buddha, because monks have to kneel down and stand up hundreds of times.
The importance is that they have to be aware of their sins they make
every day, and then they must repent our sins and ask the Buddhas
forgiveness. Moreover, they should always pay homage to Him with their
deep hearts, and take a vow to help all beings. When they worship the
Buddha more often than not, and create merits very much, and love their
religious brothers and all living beings, then their merit and their blessing
will be increased at the same time. As a result, their realization will be
increased, too. They no longer need to recite the Buddhas name, they just
control their breath, but they can destroy their erroneous thoughts and come
into deep meditation.
This is the association of the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land
cultivation.
17

This is the way that a person recites the Buddhas name while
practicing control of breath; and the other practices meditation while reciting
the Buddhas name.
One more thing is that we should remember the Amitbha Buddhas
birthday only twenty one days before the day of the Buddhas
Enlightenment. Instead of leaving this world, and finding the way to Pure
Land world, we can attain Enlightenment in this world all of a sudden, and at
that time we realize that this world is also the Pure Land world.
In Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, when the Buddha answered a question of
why this world was uneven, He pressed his toe down to the ground and then
the Earth turned into gold and He said that Its because you cant see
anything, certainly the Earth is the Pure Land world.
Because people are absence of wisdom to understand the doctrines, they
would think that the Buddha came into this Earth, where it was uneven
and impure, to help and transform very hard all living beings. Like this,
because we are not wise enough to understand the Buddhas teachings, we
might suppose that this person hates us, while the other discards us. If we
have wisdom then we will realize that those who hate or discard us are our
supporters. It is them who help us practice patient and modest conducts,
who we should consider as our good friends. When we realize how good
people are we can see this Earth being the Pure Land world.
So, according to our view, we can see how the world is. Another thing is
that our Patriarch would like to block the division of Buddhism.
At that time, when the Venerable developed the Pure Land, they gave
prominence to this School too much, while Zen practitioners had to clean
their mouths for three days if they slipped their tongue to recite the Amitbha
18

Buddhas name. It was unreasonable then.

The two Schools were biased to criticize mutually. Pure Land Masters
criticized Zen Masters for their knowing of true mind and Buddha nature,
and for their unknowing of the Three Baskets of Sutras; whereas, Zen
masters criticized Pure Land Masters for their learning. Knowing that
Buddhism was about to be divided because of extreme views, the Patriarch
had to develop the dual path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation in
order to block the division of Buddhism and to lay a firm foundation of
Buddhism which should be firmly connected and strongly developed.
When we realize how hard our Patriarch worked to develop the dual
path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation then we should follow
their example so as to help all schools of Buddhism be very close together.
If people come to a pagoda and have a feeling of coolness, then they
can know that the Sangha of this pagoda doesnt take good care of each
other. That is reason why Buddhism is easily weakened. The Sangha
should think that they are all siblings. We are monks and nuns who have
left home to enter into pagodas for the goal of emancipation, so we
should live together in a pagoda with our big love and great compassion.
Our big love in the pagoda can affect Buddhists who come to pagodas to
seek a warm atmosphere of the Sanghas love and compassion, before
they can listen to preaching. If we cant give our love to religious brothers
living together in the same pagoda how can we give our love to the
followers? And how can the Buddhists learn from us the lessons of love
and compassion so that they can apply those lessons to their daily life? We
are the monks and nuns who should show the great examples to our
Buddhists who always put their faith on our cultivation.
Although, we are in different Schools, we are still the children of the
19

same Father, our Buddha. Then we should take good care of each other and
love each other as much as our siblings. If we can do that, we can be sure that
our Buddhism will be never separated, but always connected closely. This is
the way that our Patriarch wanted us to carry out when they developed the
dual path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation.
If we want all Schools of Buddhism to be in harmony, we should note
that we never have a high opinion of any school. All Schools should be
based on the Eight- Fold Path that is the best guideline, and based on the
Three Studies of principle, meditation and wisdom6, which is the key
point, and based on the aim of attaining Enlightenment that is the ultimate
end.
Though Buddhism contains 84.000 gates of Dharma, the gate of the
Eight-Fold Path is the foundation, and the way to Enlightenment is the only
one. For this reason, we all base on the same foundation, and have the same
way to Enlightenment to reach to; therefore, we can never obey any
command to sow a seed of division between the Schools of Buddhism.
Because we are the disciples of the Buddha then we should give love to
each other. And because we are the children of the Fairy and the Dragon
then we should be always loyal to our country.
In the way to develop profession of faith, other religions have skill at
organization, they know well how to attract believers; whereas, we are
Buddhists we are indifferent to this. We dont care how many people can be
our followers this month whether the number of followers can be increased
next month. Buddhist doctrines always guide people to live together in
harmony; however, we have no skill at organization or underline
determination of developing profession of faith in Buddhism.

6 Tripitaka (three vehicles of learning)

20

Meanwhile, there are many bad people who sow the seeds of
division among the Schools of Buddhism or among pagodas; therefore, the
great Buddhist work is never completely carried out, and of course Buddhism
would be weaker and weaker. We should stop immediately anyone who speaks
ill of the Sangha. If we have no bad opinion of our people even though we are
pushed to do that, then we can win Maras power. Mara has always found any
way to seduce people and control peoples minds. When we determine to
follow our Buddhas teachings and keep the Sangha in harmony then there
is nobody who can divides our Buddhism. We need to have the strong faith
and the long-standing cultivation so that we can avoid arising bad thought in
us. In this point, we can realize that our behavior depends on how much our
practice would be. Only when we never feel hatred to others can we be the
Buddhas disciples, can we keep Buddhism close together. We hope that for
the sake of the development of Buddhism, the Sangha always keeps up spirit
so as not to be forced by bad groups to divide Buddhism.
Moreover, the management of a pagoda need to look mightily, and any
pagoda should have enough classrooms to serve a purpose of study of the
Sangha.
Monks and nuns should pay more attention to organization of
propagating Dharma. When people come into pagodas they should be given
our love, our care, and a warm atmosphere in pagodas so that they can have
good feelings of pleasure whenever they come to us.
People need principled and talented monks who can bring Dharma to
human beings, while the talented are rarely, so are the principled. The
principled and talented monks are really precious gems nowadays.
Therefore, if any good Buddhist can enter monk-hood, please do it in order
to serve the purpose of development Buddhism.
21

In practice, The Sangha should be never pleased with themselves.

Whenever we feel satisfied we are regressing. We need to find fault with
ourselves so as to perfect our practice. If we do that our characters of
religious life will be improved more and more.
Whoever you are, monks and nuns or Buddhists, you need to know how
to improve yourselves, and then you are the one who have the strong spirit.
Your knowledge of doctrines is also your strength to deal with other
religions. You can explain Buddhist doctrines to them and help them
understand more about our Buddhism. This is a way to make all religions
close together.
Today, in memory of our Patriarch, we should give a talk of the dual
path of Meditation and Pure Land cultivation. Thanks to our Patriarch,
our Buddhism has strongly developed for long, and could have firmly gone
throughout the time of French domination.
As a result of our Patriarchs effort, Vietnamese Buddhism has been
improved and pagodas have appeared everywhere, and then our children can
enjoy listening to the bell resounding all over the villages every early morning
and every evening. We cant express how much we are grateful to our
Patriarch but we can take the great vow that we will practice very hard to
maintain and develop our Buddhism and help our people live in the moral
principles and saintly life.
Namo the Master Buddha Sakyamuni.

22

UNKNOWN
One of the special characteristics of human beings which other living creatures can never
have is thirst for knowledge. We talk about UNKNOWN so that we can speak of KNOWING.
What does UNKNOWN mean? It is something we dont know. Because the meaning of
it is UNKNOWN we cant define what it is. If we are asked what does knowing mean?, we
can easily figure out, for the meaning of knowing is broad. Actually, now we talk about
UNKNOWN so that we can begin to aim at a higher sense of KNOWING.
Why do we enter into Buddhism by our free will? Because we know well that the way of
living in this religion is broad, generous, and noble. Whereas, the earth where we are living is
not eternal, and it would never bring us true happiness. Therefore, we prefer leading a
religious life to living in the unhappy world. When we live in the way of religion, we realize
that there are various principles that we have to learn for throughout our whole life.
If we are conscious that we do not know everything in life, this is the first step in our
practice that helps us improve our knowledge and increase our morality. If a person says that he
knows everything, it means that he does not know anything at all. He will regress later.
When we say the word UNKNOWN, we want to talk about a challenge to our knowledge,
wisdom and morality. Confucius once said that when we sense we dont know, this means we
know well. This sentence seems a little mysterious. The Buddha said simply that Everything
we know, we know as it is. This is wisdom.
We can define in short that To know what we dont know is the beginning of wisdom.
To admit what we dont know is the beginning of virtue.
If a person has the beginning of virtue, he can obtain the beginning of wisdom. We can be
sure that his life is progressing well, and his practice is right on the way to Enlightenment.
Because if there is the beginning of virtue, there is the beginning of wisdom.
If a person always shows his knowledge to everyone, we can be sure that he is a man of
arrogance and self-satisfaction.
As for virtue, this man is arrogant.
As for wisdom, this man is self-satisfied.
When a person is both arrogant and self-satisfied, he will never get knowledge and never
see the light of Enlightenment.
Unexpectedly, our attitude towards knowing and unknown is a big subject that can help us
consider whether we know something well or we dont know it at all. Maybe many of us have
1

no idea about it, and we try to find it out.

For example, if our teachers are unaware of a subject on which they are lecturing, they can
make a mistake when they give us lessons. It is terrible that our minds will be damaged.
Because they are teachers, they are subjective, and they consider themselves as persons of
knowledge.
Thats why any monk or nun should be always careful with arrogance, and selfsatisfaction. Although people have deep respect for us, we should still pay much attention to
self-control. If not, our minds will block out the knowledge of doctrines. Any one of us
practicing Buddhism can admit inside that we really dont know everything. It means that we
get already the good beginning. Then we will instruct our disciples a lesson of UNKNOWN
so that they will become the best preachers when they grow up and when they leave us to go
elsewhere to instruct lay followers later on.
Now we are discussing the subject of the UNKNOWN that contains the vital philosophy
which helps us to improve our minds, and to avoid making any mistakes.
We say UNKNOWN in order to imply that people always desire to learn and get more and
more knowledge. Why do people do that? It is the structure of psychology. The subject is
deeper and more complicated.
The Buddhisms saying is that human being is the accumulation of the five skandhas1 also
called the aggregate of the existence. The five skandhas include form, sensation, perception,
karma formation, and consciousness.
Form is a shape of person, the physical presence. Although a person is to go to heaven, his
form will keep its shape and go along with him.
Sensation is physical feeling.
Perception is the way of understanding or thinking about something.
Karma formation is the secret activities of intuitive cognition. It is deductibility, creation,
action, and control.
Consciousness is the knowing. It goes through the eyes it is called the conscious eye. It
goes through the ears, it is called the conscious ear.
Each of the skandhas wants to eat its own food every hour, and every day.
For example, this physique is the form. What is its the food? Its food is the food we eat,
the water we drink and the air we breathe every day.
What is the food for sensation? Its food is a feeling of joy, of sadness, of happiness, of
1

. Sanskrit

suffering. Normally, people think that we only need a feeling of joy and happiness. Actually,
the sensation also needs sadness and suffering. when there appears a feeling of sadness, there
seems a feeling of joy needed to arise. The sensation requires both of these feelings: happiness
and suffering. People always seek for happiness. But it may be bored if they only get happiness
for the whole life. Life is combined with happiness and suffering. So people should experience
sadness then they will need a sense of happiness.
For example, some people like the taste of chili. If their meal is lacking in chili, they would
not take a delicious meal. Similarily, bitter melon is bitter, but some people like its taste. Chili
and bitter melon may not seem tasty, but people still like them, because of the rich taste of bitter
and hot.
There is someone who is adored, pleased, and praised so long that one day he feels bored.
Then he flees away from home. He puts on old clothes to wander about the streets. He meets
someone else who does not respect him at all. He is insulted and scolded. But he feels joyful.
How odd is the psychology of people?
There is a movie that tells the story of a King who was always highly respected. Everyone
in his palace prostrated themselves at his feet. That happened day after day. Then he felt bored
and travelled incognito out of his palace. He disguised himself as a commoner to go somewhere
with his men.
Through out one month, he did not give audiences. He mingled with the masses. He was
scolded severely by others. Then he met a girl who did not know he was the highest noble, she
even severely reprimanded him. But he fell in love with her and took her to his palace, then
rising her a royal concubine.
This is only fiction, but it is seemingly appropriate with the sensation, and with the odd
psychology of people. When people are happy they need a little sadness in order to balance
their lives.
This is the food for sensation.
What is food for perception? It is erroneous thinking.
We think too much about something useless. This is the root of the cycle of birth and death.
If we keep our erroneous thinking being in our minds day by day, we will go on sinking into the
ocean of misery. The perception is very important. Therefore, our practice of Buddhas
teachings always begins at practicing perception. That means we must purify our thinking first.
When our thinking is pure we can see the door to Nirvana.
The deeper skandha is karma formation. This is intuitive cognition being secretly inside.
We can hardly see what its activity is. We can only see the perception. We know well when our

erroneous thinking is arising. Only people who attain the third stage of meditation can see
karma formation.
What is the food for the fourth skandha?
Its food is the need for creation, need for control, and need for action. People who are
prohibited from these needs can die, because the fourth skandha is hungry.
The last one is consciousness. Its food is knowledge. This skandha always want to get
information. We have to read newspapers, watch television, and have conversations with others
in order to get information. Those are the food for the last skandha. This skandha needs to be
delivered its food every day, if not, people can be uncomfortable. Only one who attains the
great power of spiritual development can ignore the food of this skandha.
If a monk lives in a forest, or in a cave, he practices the doctrines everyday without getting
any new information. Sometimes, he steps out and sees birds flying from this branch to that
branch, and listens to the soft murmur of the wind and of the brook. The activities of nature and
his practice are repeatedly, but his mind is never disturbed with outside. That means he attains
the great power of his spiritual development.
People in common want to get more and more information, and knowledge. Some tend to
study from high school to bachelors degree, then to masters, then to the doctoral degree. They
learn repeatedly. Their consciousness always wants to know something more and more. Only
when they get complete peace of mind, can they do anything else.
Knowing and UNKNOWN are related to knowledge that we need to obtain. Knowledge is
very important to mankind. At the beginning, mankind is advanced or un-advanced depending
on knowledge.
For example, a scientist wants to create a machine. He must obtain much knowledge, then
he deduces a formula from many data. Knowledge is consciousness. Creating and deducing are
the karma formation. Consciousness comes first, then there appears the karma formation. So we
need to have knowledge, then we can do anything we want.
Like that, our way of spiritual development must be right. If we do not know how to find
the right way, our striving for spiritual development will be wasted. The great matter for our
spiritual development is to know what is wrong or right. Therefore, the Buddha put the Right
View at the start of the Eightfold Path.
If a monk does not distinguish between right and wrong, he will attain nothing his whole
life of practice. He will even fall down into evil heterodoxy.
If a person is practicing Buddhist doctrines, but the more he practices the more greedy,
angry, and ignorant he becomes, and, his ego ever-increases, this means that he is leading a
4

wrong way of practice. It can be sure that he will go to hell after death.
Therefore, how to know the right way is very important for us. It helps us open the door to
Enlightenment.
However, we really do not know how to identify it. We do not know what is right or
wrong. If we know it well, it means that we have no need to learn more. We would only want to
supplement what we know.
Actually, we have to study more and more because we have a good sense of our
UNKNOWN. This very UNKNOWN makes us depend upon the instructions of our masters.
This is good luck. Good luck or bad luck in the present happens to us due to the consequences
of our past.
If our past had good causes, our present will get a beneficial effects, and we have good
luck. Then we will have a good teacher. Vice versa, if our past had bad causes, our present will
get harmful effects, and we will have bad luck. As a result, we will be instructed by a bad
teacher. Then our path of spiritual development will be wrong. The wrong way will go along
with us to the end of this life and even to the next life, because we do not know how to choose
the right master. We only hear a rumor that this is a good master, and we follow him. And we
are told that another is bad, then we avoid him.
This is the major subject.
Some people may ask us, How can we realize a good master and a kind-hearted friend so
that we can follow their advice in the practice of spiritual development? We can only say that
nobody knows. Human beings tend to be self-praising, if they are asked about themselves.
Whom can we trust? We had better ask the Buddha. This means that we must persistently kneel
down to worship the Buddha every day, to pray to see good people. If we keep on worshipping
and praying day after day, we will be blessed by the Buddha.
It is the beginning of our practice.
In the other aspect, UNKNOWN, knowing, and knowledge are related to many subjects of
living, of philosophy, of society, and of religion. The civilization of the world rises from
knowledge. Humankind goes on developing their minds with knowledge. The greatest scientists
are the ones who show us this.
The famous saying of the scientist Newton is what I know is only a drop of water. What
Ive not known yet is the ocean.1

. The original: I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been
only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother

Likewise, people now know much more about everything, however, what they know is
only a drop of water in the ocean. This is the matter of society and living.
As for the religious form, the word UNKNOWN contains a great meaning. Buddhism calls
it IGNORANCE. Because of ignorance, people are drifting into the cycle of birth and death.
Thats why we have to practice the doctrines in order to destroy ignorance. It means that we
must cultivate ourselves to wipe out the unknown, but it does not mean we know everything.
In Buddhism, the practice is not to obtain knowing, but the practice is to wipe out
unknown. If we go deep into the practice we can realize how thoughtful these sentences are.
Normally, people tend to say that practice is to obtain knowing. This thinking seems to be
unthoughtful. The Buddha said that practice is to destroy ignorance. Thanks to His sayings,
Buddhism is the best religion of many in the world.
Why do we say practice is to wipe out the unknown? And why do we suppose this phrase
is the greatest and most thoughful? Maybe each of us should ponder this question for ones own
life. We have no explanation for the Buddhas saying: Practice is to destroy ignorance, to
wipe out the unknown. It is not to get knowing.
In the Sutras, when an Arhant attained the truth, he realized that the stream of
transmigration was ended, then he destroyed ignorance. Thus, The End of The Stream of
Transmigration is something of knowing that can destroy ignorance. This state is of the Arhant
who attained the truth in reality, not in theory.
So, if a person tries hard to seek an explanation for The End of The Stream of
Transmigration, he can get the knowing of how to destroy ignorance one day. However, it
is just talk, a presumption of knowledge, or it is his consciousness. It is not the reality, not
his witness of the truth, because he does not practice to attain the truth at all.
For example, someone who is very skilful at speech can suggest an idea that when an
Arhant realizes The End of The Stream of Transmigration, he can see ignorance, then he can
destroy ignorance. However, this suggestion will never come true, because it is through practice
that we must try hard to achieve our own real realm. Our normal minds can never understand
how wonderful the moment appears when an Arhant attains the truth. In the final realm of
attaining the truth, it is called the destruction of ignorance. From a human to an Arhant, people
must experience many stages of attaining Realization. At each stage of attaining Realization, we
will get to a new realm, a new cognition that we have not known before.
After the Buddha preached to Kondanna and the first four disciples about The Middle Path
and The Four Noble Truths, it was the eldest Ashava Kondanna who immediately entered The
pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before
me.
6

Stream of Holy Living. The Sutras noted that Then the pure dharma-eye rose up in
Kondannas mind. He recognized that If anything had its beginning, it also had its ending. If
there was a rising, there was a cessation, too.
Throughout the Dharma of The Middle Path and The Four Noble Truths, The Buddha did
not mention this sentence yet. However, Kondanna recognized the law of birth and death when
he entered The Stream of Holy Living. And his achievement was approved by the Buddha, and
was noted in the Sutras. How amazing it is.
Thousands of years later, we are touched by the ancient story that the Buddha went back to
look for people from his past, who were his co-religionists and his protectors1, and became his
first disciples later on. For the Buddha, Kondanna and the four disciples were his intimate
friends, who had practiced austerity with him for six years. Only misunderstanding made them
leave the Buddha. But he never blamed them for their leaving. He knew well that one day, he
would help and guide them to liberation when their conditional causation came in time.
The Middle Path and The Four Noble Truths were the first two Dharma teachings that the
Buddha gave them right after he attained Enlightenment. It was the first reunion after they had
left the Buddha for quite a while. Their meeting was so touching.
Not only this story but also many others stories in the Sutras give us the lesson that any
Arhant who attained Enlightenment would always say the same thing: If anything had its
beginning, it also had its ending. If there was a rising, there was a cessation, too.
Nowadays, we should learn this sentence by heart. If a person can perceive the point of this
he can give a lecture on this issue very well. But how many people can really attain
Enlightenment?
This is a different way that we can perceive the point by perception well, and we can
lecture on it to other people, but we may have not witnessed the truth yet. Whereas, in the old
times, Kondanna could enter The Stream of Holy Living just after the Buddha gave him the
Dharma of The Four Noble Truths. Kondanna uttered his witness even though the Buddha
never mentioned it. Thus, when he realized the truth, his perception was changed and he saw
something that could destroy ignorance.
We shall not give an explanation for this question on which each of us should ponder
through our experiences in life.
Everyday, we keep on practicing, listening to the teachings, worshiping the Buddha, chanting
the Sutras, and meditating. We should keep the question in our hearts until we get enough
conditional causation and enough experience of practice. Then we will receive the right answer,
. Kondanna and the four disciples obeyed King Suddhodanas order to follow the Buddha in order to
take care of him. (Readers can find more details in the cartoon the White Peak vol. 9 and 10)

and we will become someone better than we are now.

When we come into Buddhism, both we in the Sangha and lay followers, we can instruct
others in Buddhist doctrines. For those people who have very little idea of Buddhism we should
only teach them about the law of cause and effect. Though this law is the most basic doctrine,
this is the highest doctrine in Buddhism.
It is the most basic doctrine because if people understand the law of cause and effect, they
can distinguish between right and wrong deeds. They will know how to avoid making evil
deeds and try to do good deeds in life. They will also know how to treat all beings and people
around them well. This is the way of human morality.
It is the highest doctrine because it reaches to the utmost. All Great Boddhisattvas and
Buddhas apply the law of cause and effect in transforming people, they do not apply their
super-natural powers at all. The Buddha did not transform beings into Arhants because of His
boundless love. But the Buddha had to carefully check their causes and effects accumulating in
many past lives before, then He would come to his decision.
If we want to direct people in another direction, we have to know what to do and we have
to be skilful to instruct them in making their new causality. It means that we find the best way
for them. They themselves can create their new causality. It is not the Boddhisattvas or the
Buddhas who would make it for them.
For example, if Boddhisattvas love beings and want to transform them, but those beings
have no idea what the Dharmas is, the Boddhisattvas will guide them to come to pagodas in
order that they themselves can worship the Buddha. Then their causality of Buddha-Dharma
would arise. Therefore, The Law Of Cause And Effect is the most basic doctrine and also the
highest doctrine.
This Law is very important and never ending. If our wisdom is at a low level, we can only
understand this Law superficially; Whereas, we can understand this Law more thoughtfully if
our wisdom is at a high level.
Through this Law, we can check if a person how much understands the doctrines. His
explanation of this Law being superficial or thoughtful shows his level of wisdom being lower
or higher.
Thus, the first step that people should practice is the understanding of The Law Of Cause
And Effect. This helps them keep away from UNKNOWN. If they do not know of this Law,
they will be led in a wrong way. They can never perceive what they do is wrong or right.
Maybe they always try to justify their evil-doing because they confuse evil doings and good
deeds.

For example, when a person is asked why he hurts another, he may say that because this
person is so bad, or has a fault, then he has to do that, etc... people always have justifications.
On the other hand, if people understand the Law, they will do good and treat others well,
despite others good or bad characters. They know if they treat others badly they will receive a
bad result later on, or they will receive exactly the same as what they did towards others. People
know well that due to their bad habits in the past, such as greed, anger, and ignorance, they
manifest their acts of violence in the present. Now, thanks to understanding of The Law Of
Cause And Effect, people will think twice about doing something because their doings towards
others will return to them in the same way.
Therefore, any Buddhist, especially a monk or a nun, who can apply Dharma for leading
people to the right way should thoroughly understand The Law Of Cause And Effect, and be
good in teaching the Law. If we have not become masters yet, and have not given a sermon to
mass audiences, we can only teach The Law Of Cause And Effect to any lay follower, then our
merits will accumulate more and more.
The Sutras have noted that anyone can instruct someone else in The Law Of Cause And
Effect, and then their merits will be countless. We help people regarding the faith of The Law in
order that they can avoid making mistakes and try to do good deeds; our merits will be
countless. This is such the most basic and highest doctrine.
However, someone would put the question: why people who believe in the Law still do
wrong? It is true. If someone who does not believe in the Law does wrong, we suppose that he
doesnt distinguish between right and wrong, then we can use the Law to help him avoid doing
that. But why do people who know the Law well still do wrong? This is another case. An
explanation for this question will be seen below.
The most awesomeness for us is UNKNOWN of doctrines, UNKNOWN of Dharma.
Because of UNKNOWN of doctrines, we are easily drowned in the sea of evils. We do not
know that there is the cycle of birth and death, and also there is Nirvana.
We have no supreme bodhi that is Enlightenment. We only indulge in dissipation and we
sink into degradation. We rarely tend towards good deeds. As a result, we will be reincarnated
in the form of animals in the next life.
As for merit, we should know that the greatest and most basic merit is to help people
understand Dharma. The life of the Sangha is to aim at principles that we have to spread Dharma
to everyone. If a monk considers that he has not yet given any doctrine to anyone since he entered
a life of a monk, then he should begin to fear indebted to people who have offered him many
things. Therefore, our responsibility for spreading the Dharma is so important that we have to
fulfill our duty as much as possible.
9

The Singapore monk Thitadhammo used to be a Protestant pastor. One day, he by chance
read Buddhist doctrines. He found out that Buddhism is the greatest religion, then he entered the
Sangha. He is now the member of the International Buddhist Conference. He was invited to
give lectures at the Buddhist Research Institution of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. His lectures
raised a lot of new issues that caused a big surprise for people, which may clash with many
usual ideas. His ideas can be summarized as follows:
We ought not to spend time chanting so much. Instead, we should spend more time doing
practical works beneficial to life, such as doing charity, and going to distant regions to spread
the dharma.
As soon as he said about reducing our time chanting, he encountered strong opposition.
Vietnamese Buddhism tends to chant as much as possible. The more time we chant Dharma,
the more merit we will get. Practically speaking, he wants to do good for people, he wants to
help people understand Dharma. From studying Protestantism to studying Buddhism, he has
had a lot of experience in proselytizing, which is the Protestant way. Pastors spend most of the
time preaching. However, when he shared his ideas with us, he was immediately opposed.
From then on, he may hesitate to speak out.
This is also a serious matter in Buddhism which we have to consider. Why do we gather
together every summer? And what for? Because we want to lessen UNKNOWN, because we
want to obtain more knowledge of Dharma, of the right direction, and because we want to bring
our knowledge to help people.
An abbot in a pagoda should create the conditions that will provide the Sangha a chance to
teach the Dharma and to rescue all beings. The abbot should not keep the Sangha from working
hard for everyone. If the Sangha cannot do Buddhist works, they wont be able to get merits.
They must take charge of Buddhist works as much as possible.
The abbot should not think that his disciples are too young to do Buddhist works. He must
assign tasks to his disciples as much as possible. Then he can see how much they accomplish
their tasks. The more Buddhist works they accomplish, the more their practice develops.
If an abbot is living in a small pagoda, he might suppose that there is no need to ask his
disciples to do Buddhist works. It may be a wrong thought. Every Buddhist work always needs
to be accomplished. And if it is well planned, it will be useful. For example, we can check some
regions where people have no idea about Buddhism, then we send our disciples to go there to
pay the people visits. The monks are in charge of the pagoda only to pay a visit to the people.
However, whenever they pay a them visit, they may give the people some words about the
teachings. Thats all.
If we can do that, even though it is only a little, we also repay a debt to our donors. Now if
10

we begin to spread Buddhist teachings to people living in areas near the pagoda, then five or ten
years later the people who are given Dharma will become protectors of the Buddha-Dharma
and supporters of the pagoda. If we try our best to do that, our Sangha all get merits.
We, the ones who can understand Dharma, should rescue and transform people who do not
know Buddhist doctrines yet. Because of unknown, they abandon themselves to a life of
pleasure. Our duty on the earth is to save their lives. It means that we should bring them the
understanding of Buddhist doctrines so that they themselves can wipe out unknown.
Because of UNKNOWN, we make every effort to practice, to cultivate ourselves more and
more, and to spread Dharma everywhere. We wish not only ourselves but also people all over
the world to get an understanding of Dharma, in order that the world be a peaceful and happy
planet where, nowadays, there appear many more evil geniuses than good geniuses.
Now in Vietnam we live in peace. It is because so many people shed their blood for the
country. We are living in a peaceful country and we have good time to practice the doctrines.
Because we live in peace, we do not realize that evils are creeping in everywhere and dominating
the world little by little. Therefore, we dont have the ideal that we have to rescue and transform
people by bringing good to spread all over the world. We only want to rescue ourselves by
chanting all day and night. Maybe we only spend very little time helping some people.
If we realize that the evils will conquer the good and invade the whole world one day, we
must immediately make the great vow to rescue all beings. If we are conscious that it may cause a
big problem for our people, then we should know that there is so much work that needs to be
done. We must take charge of stopping the evils from spreading everywherem not only in the
present life but in next many lives as well. It also means that we are helping sentient beings lessen
the unknown of Dharma.
How holy and insightful Buddhism is. Nevertheless, so many people in the world have not
known about this religion yet. Moreover, for private purposes, there are some kinds of powers
trying to obstruct the development of the Buddhism. It is so sad! They can hardly understand
that Buddhism is the truth that always leads people to the light, and to Enlightenment.
Only we here understand it. Although we know it well, we still do nothing for it. This is a
fault of both the Sangha and the lay followers. Now we have the good chance to be in the
Sangha, to be the Buddhas disciples, and to practice his teachings, we should think of this
world where so many people still do not know the truth of Buddhism.
We ought to pray to the Buddha that All of us take the great vow of developing Buddhism
all over the world. This vow must penetrate into our hearts, and we should try hard to make our
wish come true one day. If we have no vow or no wish, then the world goes on in dark
ignorance.
11

a
Now we should talk about knowing.
If human beings do not know about science, that means we do not have knowledge of it,
and we will be poor forever. If a building is built, it is thanks to humans knowledge of
building. And thanks to our knowledge, there are many things produced for us to use every day.
It is due to our knowledge that people can reach higher civilization and development. Then
we can alleviate poverty. Therefore, we support the application of science and technology to
living, including religious living, so that the Sangha can practice more effectively.
Of course, the witness of the truth has no need for the application of science and
technology at all, because it is invisible. The simpler we become, the easier we can obtain the
truth. On the other hand, both living and the preaching of doctrines need science and technology
so much more, because they are useful. This matter needs to be clearly understood. Some
people suppose that Enlightenment is very simple. That this depends on nothing. They refuse
the benefit that science and technology bring to living.
This is an extreme view.
The second extreme view is that people think of science as a symbol of advancement of
society. We should apply it in every aspect, and also in the practice of doctrines as much as
possible.
We should understand the Golden Mean as follows:
Science and technology help us reach higher civilization, so we highly appreciate them.
Whereas, Enlightenment is something very simple like the image of our Buddha walking
barefoot on all the pathways in ancient India to propagate his doctrines.
If we know the two sides well, we can apply the Golden Mean towards our spiritual
development. We can apply science and technology to what we need, and we should always
turn back to nature, to the moral life, to cultivate our minds.
If anyone goes to one side, we know that he has an extreme view. We should be careful
with the two extreme views, and also aim at the core of the matter.
Knowing science and technology is never unnecessary. Nowadays, people are increasingly
obtaining higher levels of knowledge. Commonly, a minimum level of education obtained by
people is graduation from high school. People can easily obtain basic knowledge of the world
through reading newspapers or watching television. Their various activities day after day
improve their knowledge.
We are the preachers, we can give people Dharma lectures, but if we say something in

12

opposition to advanced knowledge, our lectures may be not effective any more. People might
respect our life of virtue, but they still disregard our narrowness of views. Due to disrespect,
they cannot fully get the doctrines or believe in our way. On the other hand, if our words are
perfect, people will pay much attention from the beginning to the end, and they can have a deep
respect for us. As a result, they can get the doctrines effectively.
Peoples admiration or respect is common sense but it is also meant in reference to
religion. Why? Because if people consider preachers as intellectuals and virtuous monks, they
should think that Buddhism must be the noblest religion of which they should become
followers. That is why our Sangha should always find the best way in order to cultivate our
minds to witness the truth and also to get more knowledge outside.
Recently, we had a talk on the theme of Protecting The World Environment. That day,
lay followers were crowded in the hall. It seemed that people pay much attention to the matter.
Nowadays, the environment in the world is placed on the alert. We do not sense it has changed
because everything seems as usual.
However, anyone who has knowledge knows that the earth is going to fall into ruin. We
can see that in the North Pole, for living environment for seals, bears and the Inuit are changing.
Many icebergs have existed there for millions of years. Scientists hypothesized that the earth is
becoming hotter and hotter, and the icebergs there will melt in the next century. But they were
wrong, for the icebergs melted in 2008.
No one foresaw that in the Summer of 2008, the icebergs in the North Pole disappeared
completely. Only ice-drifts in the sea are left. The earth changes so quickly that we can hardly
imagine it. Its effects all over the world are extremely devastating. Water temperatures are faster
and faster, and agricultural lands are drying up. The next problem that can cause people much
worry is the problem of hunger. And war can easily break out when the world is short of food.
Many problems arise because of the changing climate in the world.
The negative effects must be known and the environment must be kept clean by all people
in the world. We are the Buddhas disciples who must have the sense of responsibility for the
environment. From now on, knowledge of the environment should be added to the Buddhist
view and to the disciples thought. In the pagodas, we should encourage our people to be
friendly to the environment. We ought to add this idea to our lectures when we teach our lay
followers.
We used to teach social morality and undertake charity for the people. Moreover, we have
fulfilled our duty to develop the Buddhist Association. Now we need more knowledge and
more concrete and prompt action about environmental protection. It is for the survival of the
earth. If we cannot understand this matter, the earth will disappear one day.

13

That is the reason why we have to take responsibility for protection of the living beings in
the world. It is now becoming a big issue in our knowledge. Whenever we meet lay followers
we should remind them about this. Every lay follower should also find out the best way to do
this effectively. We have to sense that this is the big problem in the world.
a
If we are unknown of something we may be short on it. The saying is that the truth
releases us. Thus, the more we understand the truth the closer we get liberation.
Like this, when the monk Kondanna witnessed the truth he knew that If anything had its
beginning, it also had its ending. If there was an arising, there was a cessation, too. That
meant he got very close to liberation. When he practiced more and more he also perceived
something new, and came closer to liberation. We can do that, too. If we take a step forward,
our minds by nature develop much more. Anything we know more we will reinforce a splendid
view on life.
For example, when people do not know the history of their country, we can be sure that they
do not love their country at all. If they do not love their country they cannot love humankind.
They may become selfish if they have no ideals in their lives. They only pay attention to their
homes. But we are not sure if they love their families or not.
Whereas, people who are patriotic love their country as much as their families. They treat
their families and others very well. Those people always have high ideals to live. They can live
more properly than people who have no ideals. Therefore, the first and most important thing in
life is that we should have patriotic ideals. Then we can have the rest.
Thus, to be the disciples of the Buddha, we have to be the true patriots first, then we have
ideals, then we can give our love to all humankind, and then we have the greatest respect for the
Buddha-Dharma. If not, we have only little respect for the Buddha-Dharma.
No matter if we are Sangha or are lay followers, we should have knowledge of our history,
so that we can have patriotic ideals. It is the basis of life that we should have ideals. It is a great
loss if a person has no ideals in his life. Anyone who does not love his country is to lose
something big inside.
To love our country, we should have knowledge of history that makes us happy or unhappy
due to the rise and the fall of our nation. We feel happy when our forefathers gained
independence. We feel sorry when our nation was dominated.
When we look back to history when our forefathers had built our nation and kept it from
falling into the hands of the invaders, we also can see how Buddhism has developed along with
our nation, and how our nation and Buddhism have been interlinked with each other. But there

14

was a time when Buddhism declined so dramatically, other religions could spread all over our
country. Nowadays, we should realize this and we should correct our mistakes as soon as
possible.
Perhaps we were also Buddhists in our past lives, but we took no responsibility to propagate
our Buddhism. Buddhism had developed along with our nation for a long time, but we have not
preserved it at all, and we have not tried to make it close to our people. We let people know
nothing of Buddhism. As a result, many clergymen of other religions came into our nation to
spread their beliefs.
If the Sangha in the past thousands of years had made their efforts to propagate Buddhism
around their pagodas, heterodoxy could not have spread all over our nation. Then wars would not
have lasted for hundreds of years.
If we suppose that the invaders were cruel to do that, we may make a mistake because it
was not true. It was the Sangha itself who did nothing to keep our nation safe by spreading
Buddhism. Perhaps, if our people developed an idea about Buddhism, then they might have
had a sense of nation. When the imperial powers wanted to invade other country, they sent
their clergymen to go there first to propagate. People outside of any religion would be led to
their path. While Buddhism has existed in our nation for over two thousand years, our people
have still not understood Buddhism well. Whose fault is that? It is ours. Because we have not
tried very hard to help our people know of the Buddha-Dharma, thus our nation was invaded.
a
Another matter of UNKNOWN is that if we know nothing about the affairs of the world,
we cannot love all beings. The world is very small nowadays. Anything that happens in this
country will affect the other country sooner or later. We just wrote a song called The Small
World in which we can see that Your nation has been hit by a flood, my soul is flooded with
tears. The war killed your people, my heart is bleeding. Because the world is small now, theres
no border, no racial features, no religion, no color that that can cause us any hatred. But these
are the very differences giving our world more diversity and multicolor beauty. We should love
each other, for the world is small.
When we have knowledge of the world we can love the whole world. Similarily, when we
know of our history we can love our nation. It is UNKNOWN that makes us indifferent. If we
have much experiences and knowledge in life, our hearts will open wide.
That is why we must wipe out unknown.
Even in our life, if we have no idea about problems that we have to solve, how can we find
a right way to solve them? For example, if there is a conflict between two monks, then they
come to the director of pagoda to ask for an arbitration. He does not have a clue about their
15

quarrel but just punishes them. However, their quarreling and punishment keep happening...
Why? Because the director has no good solution to solve that problem.
It should be considered whether the problem has arisen from two causes. Firstly, they may
have always picked their quarrels in their past lives. Secondly, in their present lives, they always
hold tightly onto their views. Each consider his view to be better than the others. While
Buddhism has no self, people who try to hold their views are egotists. Egotists can never reach
liberation. The more spiritual development they try to practice, the more trouble they cause for
someone else.
There is a family in which the father is ahigh ranking person in society while the mother is
a devoted Buddhist. However, all suffering in the home is caused by the mother who always
tries very hard to encourage her children and friends to practice spiritual development.
Everything and everyone in the house are arranged under her power. It seems improper but
nobody dares object because she is violent. Now the atmosphere of the family is so stressful and
conflict is happening more and more... But people in the home do not know how to find the best
way to solve this.
Here, we can see that the root of the matter is the mothers point of view. She tightly holds
onto her view. She thinks what she does is right and her people must obey her orders. This is a
kind of egoism or self. This kind of person can never get tranquillity in meditation. When we
meditate we have to let all thinking go.
If people can reach a stage of meditation they are never too stubborn. They are very nice
towards others, and they live peacefully. They know how to let their thinking go away so they
can easily concentrate on meditation. Whereas, people who always tightly hold onto their
views, they cannot concentrate on meditation. Whenever they try to meditate, their erroneous
thinking will arise from their minds. That is why they cannot go deep into meditation.
That is all. The point is there. If it comes from past lives, we can hardly correct it. We only
correct what is arising from the present life.
The advice for that family is that people in the home should repeatedly remind her to let
her thinking go. And they must tell her that her ideas are her ego that will make her more and
more selfish. She must be continually reminded of this until she herself can strike at the root of
her grasp.
Buddhism is a religion that has no self. If we cling to our ideas of what we think right and
we force people to follow us, we are falling down into egoism. This is not the teachings of the
Buddha. We must follow the note in the Kakacupama Sutra that I do not live by my heart, but I
live by my brothers hearts.
We worship the Buddha every day, we should take the vow that we try to let our thinking
16

go away, and that we do not hold it tightly any more. The root of sin is our view, our thinking.
If we could master that, everything can be smooth. There are such many cases that usually
happen in life, if we clearly understand the core of the matter, we will have a good way to solve
any problem effectively.
One more example, we might help the poor with money in order that they can have a fund
to open a small business. But they frequently fail in doing business, fail in holding onto the
small amount of capital, because they enjoy spending money. They live beyond their incomes.
Thus, our money seemed to have failed to help. It means that this problem is not solved well.
The core of the matter is that they have no merit.
Why do they live beyond their incomes? Because they do not cultivate their minds. They
want to live a pleasurable life, they do not accept their poor condition. And one more thing, they
do not want to do good deeds. The poorer we are the more good deeds we ought to do. Those
people make two mistakes. Firstly, they do not try hard to do good deeds even little by little.
Secondly, while they have no merit they live beyond their incomes. As a result, they can hardly
get any success in doing business or holding money that others give them.
We should remember that unknown will make us solve any problem in the wrong way,
make us guide others without full consideration, and make us teach others without thorough
understanding. If we have much knowledge and experiences of life and if we understand
thoroughly any matter, we will treat any question smoothly and appropriately.
It is in accordance with our karma and our wisdom that we can wipe out unknown or not.
The other matter of UNKNOWN is that we fail in judging peoples characters. We meet
people every day, we do not know if this person can be honest and kind-hearted or that person
can be dishonest and cruel. So we get into bad company and we might be harmed one day. We
should have made friends with good people, we have already missed a good chance. It is
because we cannot see through their character.
But, how we can know people? It is said by a Zen teacher that If our minds are as bright
as a clear mirror, anything that happens we can see its clue thoroughly, so we can settle it
appropriately. Thus, when our minds are bright and pure, we can correctly judge people.
Thanks to knowing, we can make friends with good people, and we can know how to lead
others to a life of religion.
If our minds have not been bright and pure enough we should be careful with every
thought, every deed, because we know something is still unknown to us. However, it is our very
UNKNOWN that we recognize is the beginning of wisdom and morality. Then we should try
hard to cultivate our spiritual development so that one day, our minds will be bright and pure to
solve correctly any problem.
17

a
If we want to do Buddhist works but we do not know how to hold a meeting or arrange time,
we cannot do things well for our society or the Buddhist Congregation. If we want to organize a
Summer Retreat in our pagoda, but do not know how to organize both the schedule for daily life
and a good program for spiritual development for monks and nuns in those three months, how can
the Summer Retreat be successful? Everything related to the Sanghas spiritual development such
as meditation, repentance, study of the teachings, etc... must be well prepared.
The best effectiveness of the Summer Retreat is that the Sanghas spiritual development
must be have increased after the end of this class. If the Sangha are more stable in their practice
and highly moral, then the Summer Retreat is successful. At the same time, as lay followers
come to give offerings to the Sangha, their minds are developed, too. They must completely put
their faith in the Three Refuges (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha).
In order to get success in organizing the Summer Retreat, we should pay much attention to
three things:
First, the Sangha must be supplied with adequate food, rest, and sleep.

Food is important. If the Sangha are not supplied with enough food, their health will be
broken, and then they cannot fully practice their spiritual development. Nowadays, we can
hardly follow the meal regulations of the Buddhas time. Because then the Sangha must go
around to beg for food, and they could not keep going for food all day, so they had to follow
meal regulations. The Sangha in that time were allowed to take only one meal at noon every
day. One more thing is that we need good sleep in order to be healthy to practice. It is the
formula. We will make a mistake if we think that our practice should be developed increasingly
in an austere life.
Second, study of the doctrines must be appropriate for the Sangha, and lecturers must be
good enough to teach the Sangha more effectively.

Lectures and lecturers must be well planned for the whole Summer Retreat. Abbots should
choose the effective doctrines for the Sanghas study, and must know excellent lecturers. In
order to be well prepared, the abbots and the instructors should carefully discuss the program
and consider who are the best lecturers. If the plans are well organized, in three months, the
Sangha can gain more knowledge and their wisdom will be increased.
Third, the Sanghas practice must be well organized in order that their spiritual
development will increase continuously. And that their minds will be clear to see their mistakes.
18

Practice, firstly, is to worship the Buddha every day. We have to show our deep respect for
the Buddha by our worship Him. If a whole day we only pay much attention to our practice
without worshipping the Buddha, we would be lost a half of our practice. We should think of
worshipping the Buddha as our happiness. If anyone who worships the Buddha does not feel
happy, it means that he does not know how to practice at all. Worshiping the Buddha is of the
great merit and the basic practice which we should accumulate every day. If we dont do that,
we dont have any accumulation of merit. Worshiping the Buddha with our deep respect is the
basic practice that we consider the first step of success in our practice.
Next, it is our chanting. We must choose a Sutra as short as possible, but the Sutra must be
meaningful and highly educational so that the Sangha can apply it to their lives every day.
Last is meditation. Our minds should be concentrated in pureness and tranquility. We have
to wipe out all wandering thoughts in order to get close to no self. Reciting the names of
Buddhas is good, too. When we repeat Buddhas names we are also mindful of the Buddhas.
For example we can recite glory to the Amitabha Buddha, or glory to the Master Sakya Muni
Buddha, or glory to the Bodhisattvas. This helps us think of the Buddhas all the time, and help
our minds become calmer and calmer. If we have deep respect for the Buddhas, we can practice
praying Buddhas names as the first step. We can receive a telepathy between the Buddhas and
us. It is intimacy of parent and child.
When our conditions come to fruition, we can practice in another way as the Buddha told
us: You should light your torch to go ahead. So we must check inside our minds if we have
fallen into bad habits such as greed, anger, and ignorance, or jealousy, hatred, selfishness from
which we must see clearly in order to get away. We must do that by ourselves, no one can do
that for us.
The organizational board and the instructors of the Summer Retreat must remind the
Sangha to check and control their thoughts every day. If monks or nuns could practice well and
reveal honestly to the Sangha, they can see their mistakes clearly. As a result, their spiritual
development will be developed.
In short, in order to successfully organize the Summer Retreat, we should aim at these two
targets:
The Sanghas spiritual development must increase.
The lay followers belief in Buddhism must be stronger and stronger.

If we need to, we must organize these criteria well:

19

First, the Sangha must be supplied with adequate food, rest, and sleep.
Second, study of the doctrines must be appropriate for the Sangha, and lecturers must be
good enough to teach the Sangha more effectively.
Third, the Sanghas practice must be well organized in order that their spiritual
development will increase continuously. And that their minds will be clear to see their mistakes.
a
Being aware of mistakes is knowing.
If people can see their mistakes, it means that their minds are so wise. They can become
good masters in the future. On the other hand, anyone who cannot acknowledge their faults
cannot become a good master.
For the whole three months of the Summer Retreat, the Sangha should be given more time
to practice meditation so that their minds can be purified to be aware of their mistakes. That is
all. However, their wisdom and spiritual development will be increased. The Devas and
Protectors of Dharma will witness spiritual development of the Sangha.
We call it knowledge when monks and nuns know how to organize anything well. And
they have the ability to predict what will happen first, and then next.
If we are able to hold a meeting, or a class, or undertake a task, and or anything else, we
can easily be in charge of undertaking social work, or the work of the Buddhist Association.
When we are assigned to Buddhist works, we can fulfill our duties well.
The subject of organization must be planned for the Sangha to study in the Summer
Retreat, because its necessary to improve the Sanghas working ability.
a
There is unknown of the law that is easily harmful to people.
There are so many things unknown in life. Some are to be pitied, others are to be blamed.
Thus, the unknown is both pitied and blamed.
When is the unknown to be pitied? When people cannot practice Buddhist doctrines. Then
they let themselves be driven to bad habits, they live in the world without having a good goal,
they do something without knowing so that it breaks the law. As a result of the unknown,
people suffer greatly.
When is the unknown to be blamed? When people can easily commit a sin and usually
relapse into their misdoings.
We, the disciples of the Buddha, should take a vow that for our whole life we should go

20

everywhere to help human beings wipe out unknown as the Buddha said that we must wipe out
ignorance.
It doesnt make sense if we know everything in the world. Actually, we cannot. Our
lifespan is limited. Our ability is limited, too. So we can only concentrate on basic knowledge.
We are the Sangha, we should only concentrate on the Dharma. Sometimes, we need something
else such as knowledge of science, of the world, and of the law, in order that we can instruct
people in the best way.
We cannot know everything in life. We should only rely on our knowledge we get from
practicing precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Only the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can know
everything in the universe. We have no time or ability to understand everything, because we
only live in worldly life. We can know something basic so as to practice and do right. We can
know how to increase merits so that our minds will be enlightened. Then the knowledge coming
from practicing precepts, concentration, and wisdom will appear. At that time we can wipe out
unknown, we can make matters of life clearer, our practice will be perfect, and we can instruct
people better.
Because people usually say that I dont know, this brings us to the subject of unknown
now. When we talk to someone, that person may say I dont know. That person may be a
saint, or may be a common person, even though the answer is the same.
How can we know that person is a saint?
It is when he or she answers honestly.
As the scientist Newton said: What I know is only a drop of water in the sea. What I dont
know is the whole vast sea. This was a great scientist and a saint.
As the philosopher Confucius said: To know what we dont know is the beginning of
knowing.
As the saying of Buddhism: To know what we dont know is the beginning of wisdom.
To admit what we dont know is the beginning of virtue.

How can we know that person is a common person?

It is when he or she answers in an irresponsible way.
For example, in a pagoda, if a monk asks his disciple: Where is your brother?. The
disciple answers: I dont know. This answer cannot be accepted, and the disciple is
blameworthy. Instead of answering that way, the disciple ought to say that Dear master, he
might have gone somewhere, Ill try to find him.

21

In many companies, their staff cannot be allowed to say I dont know. For example,
when a director asks his staff to outline a plan, then the staff says Its new, sir. I dont know.
His answer will have him fired. This answer shows that the staff can never contribute to the
development of that company.
If a person is assigned a task, he might say that Please give me more time, Ill try my best
to outline a plan as soon as possible. It means that the employee can contribute to the
development of that company.
Nowadays, the development of Buddhism needs the Sangha who should try hard to
contribute to Buddhist works. Because of the development of Buddhism, and because of our
spiritual development, we can never accept this sentence I dont know, which is said by
common people.
Unknown can be accepted in some cases. For example, if a revolutionary was arrested, he
would say I dont know even though he was tortured. It is because he wanted to protect his
comrades, or he wanted to keep his state secrets. This is acceptable.
In short, we should try to avoid this sentence as much as possible. Especially, since we are
leading the Buddhist life, we should always try to practice in order to wipe out unknown, as the
Buddha considered it as ignorance.
When we destroy unknown or ignorance we can easily make a great contribution to the
development of Buddhism.

NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA

22

WHAT THE TSUNAMI WANTED TO TELL US

We all feel the same pains and sufferings,

When our bodies are buried in the deep water.
We have been living in hatred for so long,
Now it is the time to have a change of heart.
To end the wrong we begin a new way,
All the boundaries s are just invisible.
The great planet is our homeland,
Now hand in hand we all love each other.
For the future, let us all sow the joy,
The trees cover all the mountains,
In the sky doves fly freely,
Along the country lanes, children come and go freely.
All boundaries would be broken down,
When the world suffers the same pain.
We will be no more hostile,
So let our love welcome the new spring.
So let our love welcome the new spring.

Today, we will discuss about the topic relating to Tsunami and Religion, as a
gift for all of us on this Tet Holiday (Lunar New Year in Vietnam). You all
must have heard about the tsunami happened recently. Lets remember this
event to really understand what the tsunami wanted to tell us.
What did the tsunami want to tell us?
Recently, West Indonesia experienced an underwater earthquake.
When the seafloor shook, a very powerful force was generated and spread
towards all directions. The velocity of this force could be compared to the
velocity of a rocket. So within just few minutes, the tsunami waves came and
swept away many houses and peoples out to the sea. Some people could
1

survive a few first wave, but the waves were too strong, in the end they all
gave up and died. After only a few minutes, the beach was totally deserted as
if nothing existed there before. And within a very short time, the sea of
Thailand, Sri Lanka... or even East Africa encountered the same situation. All
beaches were destroyed. The result was catastrophic and devastated.
In the past, as we did not have advanced technology, we were not
aware how fierce and powerful the nature could be. But now this tsunami was
the worst disaster that mankind has ever known. At first, the number of
casualties was about 300,000 people. However, one Indonesian official said
that it must have been up to 400,000 people. This touched the hearts of all
people around the world.
In 1945, when the USA dropped two atomic bombs onto Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, the number of casualties in Japan was not more than 300,000.
However, during World War II between the Nazis i.e. Germany, Italy, Japan
and the rest of the world, the death toll was up to several tens of millions
because the war lasted so many years. Clearly, humans kill humans is more
terrible than a natural disaster. The tsunami caused 400,000 casualties, which
is more than 300,000, but it still was nothing compared to the wars. The
Vietnam war caused a few millions of deaths; World War II caused a few
tens of millions; Particularly in the Soviet Union, during the second War, the
number of deaths was 20 million - what a huge number!
However, when the war ended and humankind commenced to enjoy
the time of peace, the nature became the force to threaten mankind. Today
people often say: "It is a small world." During our ancestors time, the Earth
seemed endless, because no one could reach its end. Nowadays, with
transportation facilities such as cars, trains, ships, planes and even rockets,
the Earth appears within our reach. Thanks to the mobile phone network,
people can even communicate with overseas ones only within the twinkling
of an eye. Therefore, the term of "very far away" is unlikely to exist and our
compassion for each other seems to fade away gradually.
In the past, when having said goodbye, we did not know when we
would meet again. A letter we sent took nearly a year to arrive at the
destination. Both the sender and the receiver were anxiously looking forward
to receiving it. However, today, there is no such thing. We just need to use
mobile phones, emails or chat online to communicate with each other.
Therefore, perhaps, the relationship between human being is not that deep,
2

and just superficial, completely different with our ancestors period of time.
Maybe in a few more years, it would be quite rare to hear the old songs with
lyrics such as: When I go away, my mother misses me dreadfully.... or "I
miss you very much," or "A sad day in Paris." The Earth will become much
smaller.
The recent tsunami, which was broadcasted around the world, was
being watched by billions of people. Many people cried and felt for the ones
who lost their love ones. It destroyed everything and left many dead bodies
with broken arms or legs lying about... The scenes were horrific!
"When a horse is sick, the whole stable refuses eating." (Vietnamese
proverb) - One dies, the rest will feel miserable. When our parents passed
away because of old age, we were sad but not miserable because a human
being cannot avoid birth, aging, sickness and death. When our relatives
passed away, we would miss them but accept the truth and as time goes by
our mourning for them would subside.
If someone, who has been living with us in the family, had died in this
event, we must have been extremely sad. In this disaster, the death toll was
around hundreds of thousands of people. The disaster had impacted so many
families; the mourning was unbearable. Many tourists became victims. Many
families had lost everyone to the disaster.
The worst case was those families whose only a few members were left
behind. When the parents died, how would the children survive? Even worst,
when these children were transferred to a Refugee Camps, evil people
kidnapped them and harvested their organs e.g. livers, hearts, to sell to others.
Teenage girls were raped one by one because there were not enough security
guards to protect them. Evil people did these evil acts when tsunami victims
needed love more than ever. We could not imagine there could be people
with cold hearts like animals. It seemed nature was not cruel enough that
people should cause more sufferings physically and mentally. It was terrible,
beyond our imagination!
Although the tsunami disaster had passed, its consequence dramatically
impacted everyone. People from all over the world, who had moral
conscience, had sympathy for all of the victims. Some countries sent rescue
forces, money, medical devices, and people to support the disaster areas.
Vietnam, though is a poor country, but the government also decided to
contribute 450,000 dollars, other countries contributed millions of dollars, for
3

example, Japan contributed 700 million dollars. The total amount of money
contributed was above ten billion and would have been used to rebuild the
cities as planned.
It seemed that the charity work for tsunami victims occurred everywhere
around the world. Our Buddhism temples also called for donations from all
Buddhists. Many artists and entertainers held many shows to donate to the
victims. It was true that the tsunami deprived humankind of many things but
it also taught us a valuable lesson.
Today, we will discuss about what lessons the tsunami has taught us.
The tsunami caused more than 300,000 deaths. Although those dead
people were not our relatives, they were sentient beings that deserved love.
Undoubtedly this tsunami helped us rethink, reunite and care for each other
more and more to live a better life.
Lets discuss this in more depth. Besides the sound of tsunami waves,
there are many things to think about.

The first thing is: life is impermanent and full of risks.

Actually, many accidents had happened to warn us about the
impermanence of life but we did not understand or we ignored. For example,
we met a friend and after saying goodbye to him, he had an accident and
passed away. The next-door neighbour, who had just talked to us, died due to
a stroke. There were people we had just seen and would never meet them
again because of the separation of life and death. Life is fragile, so we do not
know when death would come. We sit here today, but we do not know where
we would be tomorrow, alive or dead. Signs of impermanence appear
everywhere, but due to our ignorance, we still do not realise and accept them.
We must understand the fragility of life. Anything could happen to us, at
any time. No one is exempted from this. We must be prepared and learn to
leave as if we would die tomorrow. We must learn and accept this because
we would never know what would happen tomorrow.
Therefore, we should live as if we would die tomorrow. However,
what does it really mean? For example, our next-door neighbour was very
poor. We sympathised with them, so we reminded ourselves that someday we
4

would bring them some money and clothes. Unfortunately, for some reasons,
they died next day. Then we regretted not giving them money and clothes as
promised on the previous day. We always thought that life would last long so
we could do anything at any time that we wanted. That was why there were
many plans that we had not implemented yet. For instance, we thought we
would go to a temple one day; or we would chant prayers and listen to the
Dharma when we had free time If we were aware of the impermanence of
life, we would make efforts to always practise Buddhism and always be more
kind to other people.
With our relatives and friends, if we knew that one of them would die
tomorrow, how would we treat the person today? Normally, we would give
them the best of everything. However, because we did not know that because
life is so short, we kept behaving indifferently to our loved ones... not
knowing that they would leave us forever the next day. We did not prepare
for the situation that they or we may die tomorrow, so we were neglectful of
people around us. When unexpected things happened to our loved ones, we
would regret.
The tsunami told us that life is impermanent, full of risks. Therefore,
we live as if we would die tomorrow; we must have complete compassion for
all beings; we must treat others as if we would not see them anymore

The second thing the tsunami wanted to say was that indeed, the
Earth is very fragile.
We have drilled down inside the Earth so many times, and despite of
how deep we drilled we had never seen the end. Therefore, we thought that
the core of the Earth is very thick, stable and strong. So we did all sorts of
things on its surface... we built houses, buildings, cities.... We all live the way
we like it... and the Earth continues spinning.
But the truth is the ground is not that thick and not that strong and
stable. Scientists had proved that if we reduced the Earth size to an egg, then
its surface would be thinner than the eggs shell. The Earth contains lava
flows inside, hot and violent. The Earth we live in is actually very fragile. It
moves quite often. It is very easy to collapse and crack open. The recent
tsunami in Southern Asia part of the ocean was the result of the seafloor was
cracked. The movement of the Earth resulted in extremely huge waves
5

spreading towards every direction, which was disastrous. The event could be
simplified by the scenario whereby when we throw a stone into the water: the
bigger the stone, the bigger and stronger the waves.
Only one movement of the Earth under the sea was nothing compared
with the whole Earth but it still caused the deaths of more than 300,000
people. The Earth is very delicate. The only one thing that we thought it
could permanent is actually very fragile. So, if the Earth is that fragile, what
about all of things on its surface? Would those be permanent? Absolutely not.
The houses we all live in cannot exist forever because they stand on such
fragile ground as the Earth. Even what we own right now may not belong to
us forever, for example, love, property
Thats life. What we can see and touch does not exist forever. The
following is a true story. There was a Buddhist who went to the US to do
business. After a few years, she became very rich. She had owned 10 million
dollars, quite substantial wealth. Because she thought this amount was real
and more than enough, she became arrogant and treated everyone else badly.
She looked down on other people. What had changed her? It was the 10
million dollars. Whoever advised her to live a righteous life, she did not take
their advice because she relied on her wealth. She always thought that her 10
million dollars could cover everything for herself, her children, her
grandchildren and even her great-grandchildren.
It would have been true if she lived a virtuous life. However, no one
could imagine that five years later, she was penniless. She began to beg to
work from her former employees whom she looked down and treated badly.
What she thought could last forever was actually fragile. We could easily
understand that the consequence resulted from her way of living which
caused the loss of her blessings very quickly. There are many similar things
like this in our own life.

The third lesson was that: A natural disaster is very different from
a war.
A war has to have a winner and a loser when it ends. After countless of
bloody battles, the loser is always being accused of causing the war. There
was war that when it ended, the President of the country, which lost, was sent
to prison because his country was accused of owning weapons of mass
6

destruction. But when the weapons were not found, the president was then
accused of his dictatorship. There are many reasons to accuse the loser of and
that means the loser is always the responsible one for everything.
Human psychology is very strange, that is, during a period of suffering,
we always want to blame someone. Only hatred would help a human feel
better during suffering. For example, a family had a car stolen by a burglar. It
was the burglar, who should have been hated, but he had gone away, and no
one knew who he was. Therefore, everyone channeled their hatred to the
person, who forgot to close the door. Human beings always behave like that.
When in misery, they always need someone to hate, to blame and to channel
their anger and tension to. However, a natural disaster is a very different
thing because we could not blame anyone.
From a religion viewpoint, people believe that God had created
everything. If it was true, the recent tsunami must have been created by God.
Therefore, humans could hate God for doing that because God created the
tsunami, which killed more than 300,000 people. However, no one dared
hating God. Normally, after a trauma, human beings always find someone to
blame and hate. However, in this case, after the tsunami had taken many
lives, we did not have anyone to blame, this indeed caused a shock for
everyone.
According to Buddhism, we know this was because of karma. For other
religions, which believe in the theory that God created all, then their believers
were more disappointed than us. Why is that? Because they knew the one
who created the tsunami but they did not have the rights to hate or dare to
hate God. These people became disappointed, and lost hope in life. As the
result, the tsunami told us a strange thing that: We could not blame or hate
anyone after the tsunami disaster because if we do not believe in God, there
was no one else to blame; but even if we believe in God, we dare not hating
Him. This is a strange contradiction.

The tsunami also wanted to teach us another lesson: A disaster does

not differentiate any nations or any religions.
The recent tsunami disaster struck Indonesia, which is a country of
Islam; Thailand which is a country of Buddhism; India which is a country of
Hinduism; Sri Lanka which is a country of Buddhism; and Somalia which is
7

a country of Christianity (countries in East Africa are of Christianity because

they used to be Frances or Britains colonies). When a tsunami struck, all
religions collapsed, many countries were damaged and many people died.
Every human being is equal in disaster, suffering, and life.
This makes us remember an eternal truth that Buddha once said,
"There is no class when we all have the same red blood; there is no class
when we all have the same salty tears." Blood symbolizes life. Tears
symbolize pains and sufferings. There are two things, which are always the
same to all human beings: their life is worth the same and their suffering is as
bitter. Though we could be rich or poor, big or small... whatever religion we
follow, whatever country we are in, whatever nationality we are, we are
treated the same in life and suffering. Buddha had said about this principle
over thousands of years ago.
Buddha taught this principle with the compassion to all beings,
however, on the other hand, the tsunami taught the humankind in a horrific
way. If we listened carefully to the sound of tsunami waves
BangBang, we could perhaps hear the same sayings: "There is no
class when we all have the same red blood; there is no class when we all
have the same salty tears." Similarly, when we express our appreciation for
others, in Vietnamese it is Cam on, in English it is Thank you, in Chinese
it is Xiexie, in French it is Mercy. We use different languages but the
meaning is the same. Likewise, Buddha had said this in Indian and the
tsunami said with its own sounds, and expressed it in its own way.
Though Buddha had taught us many principles from thousands of years
ago, human being has forgotten those, therefore, there has always been
separation and differentiation within our own kind. Religions are to unite
human beings, not take them apart. We should not discriminate against each
other based on their religions, countries or classes. Because people often did
the opposite, mother nature repeated what Buddhas saying to advise all of us
not to do so. Why is that? Because human beings life should be valued and
treated the same way and their suffering should be sympathised in the same
way.
Despite many sayings, many reminders, human being still not do love
and have compassion for each other, until mother nature was so angry and
had used its power to remind us, but in a very disastrous way.

We must always remember that all human beings life and suffering are
equally the same. We must not discriminate; we must end all wars and we
must stop all the killings... It is time for us to love and help each other to
overcome difficulties and pains. The tsunami also alerted and warned people
not to be narrow-minded and intolerant. As for evil people who are so
ambitious and manipulative, you must understanding that everything is very
fragile and impermanent.
If one country wanted to rule the entire world then surely someday a
disaster would happen to itself. War would happen within its own country
and cause separation between its residents and it would lose. So what is the
most accurate truth? Powerful countries should help others not rule them.
This was what the tsunami wanted to say.
We have discussed what the tsunami wanted to tell us and now we will
discuss what the tsunami did.

So what did the tsunami do?

Through the eyes of ordinary human beings, we could see that the
tsunami had destroyed houses, roads, trees, parks, schools, hospitals, temples
... and it killed so many people. However, through the eyes of Saints,
actually, the tsunami did a very great thing, it removed all barriers between
all human beings, and especially it destroyed the faith in extremist
religions.
When people have all their faith in an extremist religion, they only
accept their religion, their teachers, and their God, and nothing else, which
separates everyone. They would be willing to kill other people who do not
follow the same religion as theirs. The tsunami had destroyed that invisible
wall. Now, after the disaster, they could see and understand other people
from other religions, and different countries that they did not care before.
They all now suffered from the same pain and sorrow.

Do you know now what the tsunami did? In the future, if someone asks
you if the tsunami destroyed everything, you should tell them it was just what
ordinary people saw, while Saints would see that the tsunami had removed
9

all barriers which prevented people from joining together, and making
everyone have compassion for each other again.
In one neighbouring area, the people had not cared about anyone else.
When all houses were badly damaged in a fire, all the people, who treated
each other unkindly, suddenly felt sympathy with each other. The fire burned
down everything they had. After the accident, they knew that they should
love and rely on each other to rebuild their houses and their life. The tsunami
had make people reunited in its own way. Therefore, the tsunami brought a
lot of benefit to human beings, not just the mourning.
On the other hand, the tsunami shook the faith in extremist religious
beliefs. The disaster has been a big challenge to these extreme believers.
Why? When following a religion, people hope to find the things that this
world does not give them. Because the world is full of hatred, people believe
in someone, a Supreme Saint, who would always love and protect them.
Why are you going to temples? To look for the compassion, right? We
go to temples with the hope that Buddha, the monks, nuns and fellow
Buddhists will love and care for us. And above all, that is the immense love
and compassion of Buddha for all of beings in the universe. Following
Buddhism, we seek love and protection, which is very hard to find in life.
There are many reasons why someone would follow a religion. Life is
full of suffering, bitterness, selfishness, jealousy, so people follow a religion
to feel loved and have the protection from God. But is it true that God really
love and protect them? When the tsunami struck, the faith in religion shook
because it seemed God did not love or protect them as people used to think
about their God. Even according their religion, God Himself has created the
tsunami waves. They used to think that God has created all, so now with the
tsunami they did not know what to say and their faith in religion began to
break.
When sufferings come, theocratic religion could not explain why they
failed to protect their followers. Most religions promised its followers that
God would love and protect those who follow it. Many people believed so
and they prayed to God every night but still were killed by the tsunami. When
people asked about that, their priests secretly assured them that, "God works
in a mysterious way. God punished people because they had not lived as per
his teachings and they did not have enough faith in Him."
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The answer was not right! For human beings, criminals are brought to
court for trial first, and depend on the seriousness of the crime committed, the
criminals would be sentenced accordingly... it could be just five or ten years
imprisonment; or it could be death sentence. Not everyone receives the same
sentencing for what they did.
Now, if we put these 300,000 tsunami victims on trial, amongst them,
there would be quite a few who had lived cruelly with others; but there would
be others who had never committed a crime in their life e.g. children
However, why did the tsunami kill them all? Was God too strict that He
punished men more harshly than men punished men? We should think about
this carefully.
Or there may be an alternative explanation. This was a reminder from
God to all human beings that all human beings should practise and cultivate
appropriately. If so, why did God have to impose such harsh punishment
onto us?
Or maybe it was that: God used that way to challenge humans faith in
Him. And clearly, after this tsunami disaster, no one would believe in
extremist religions any more. No explanation would be accepted.

So what is the Truth?

That is the belief in karma, the law of Cause and Effect. The tsunami
struck from Indonesia to Thailand, from Sri Lanka to East Africa all was due
to the karma of men. If anything, this event helped stress the importance and
the significance of karma. Why is that so? It is because karma let a human
being know about his/her own responsibilities. Human being had done a huge
amount of evil things over many lives and the recent tsunami was their
retribution. However, after death, each person went on different paths. For
many of those, who lived a great life, but had to pay for their past lives sins,
would have gone to heaven. However, many others, because of their bad
karma from many of their past lives, their souls would not able to be released
and reborn. On the other hand, many other souls would be able to reborn to
be human being again. As for the rest, the worst ones, would have gone down
to hell. We could now understand that though they suffered the same death,
they still went to different places after death due to their different karma.
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Only karma can explain why people had the same retribution but had
different realms after their death. Karma based on how we live our lives and
how much blessing we have. The tsunami undermined the belief in theocratic
religions but firmly confirmed the accuracy of the law of Cause and Effect.
We should convey what the tsunami wanted to say to everyone, especially
those extremists who foolishly believe in theocratic religions.
After this disaster, a new philosophic principle was born. It is that:
People should not be narrow-minded, and separate themselves from each
other because of different religions, different languages and different races
because human beings are treated equally in pain and sorrow. When we have
to suffer the same pain and sorrow, nothing else would matter. Therefore, the
most important thing is to unite all human beings and bring happiness to
them. This is a new philosophy.
Buddha's teaching: "We all have the same red blood and salty tears" is
an eternal truth. Human beings lives and pain are worth the same. Except for
a few people in power who want to dominate the world, most people just
want to live in peace, love and rely on each other. The Earth is inherently
small and fragile, so there is no reason for us to fight with each other. Let's
live together in harmony, kindness and build the heaven on Earth.
An American woman has once said, if she had the only wish, she
would wish for World Peace. After the tsunami disaster, people realise the
impermanence of life, so they do not want to create war. This world is too
small, how could we want to separate ourselves any longer.
Recently, there was an article titled "Its a very small world". What
does this really mean? When we do not see each other often, we naturally
could forget the other person. When we have the chance to meet again, we
often say It is a small world, but we never say The earth is round.
The article told a story about a swindler in prison. He was talking to
another fellow prisoner. Here was their conversation:
- "What brought you here? asked the fellow prisoner.
- "I cheated. said the swindler.
- "Are you any good?" asked the fellow prisoner.
- "Excellent, the best!" said the swindler.
- "So, tell me the most impressive one," the fellow prisoner said.
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The swindler began: I was in Austria and met a woman. Her name was
... I cheated her by telling her that I would set up a company for her and
sooner she would become a millionaire. At first, she followed my guidance
then offered me tens of thousands of dollars Then I left her for another
one... then another one... until I'm here. That was what I did.
The fellow prisoner heard the story then said coldly, "Well, I regret to
tell you that Im the husband of that woman."
What does that mean? The swindler had been caught and surprisingly
was put in prison, sharing the same cell with the victims husband. And with
more and more evidence were found, he must have got a heavier sentencing.
Moreover, he would always have felt uneasy as he had to share the same cell
with the victims husband.
We all must be kind to each other, so that when, by chance, we meet
again we would not have to be so uncomfortable and uneasy about it because
it is a small world.
When we realise that life is so fragile and short, everything else would
seem to be immaterial and not so important. When witnessing a horrific scene
of many bodies lying on the beach, people began wondering: "Where are
these peoples souls?" and "Where will we go after our death?"
Therefore, the new trend of the world today is to live a spiritual and
religious life. People spend more time in understanding religions, spirituals to
understand where we would go after death, heaven or hell, or just nowhere.
Besides, the belief in theocratic religions must also be assessed and
considered carefully. People must accept the fairness of karma, the law of
Cause and Effect. Only the law of Cause and Effect can explain everything
thoroughly. If we believed that one of the Gods had created all, then our
belief would be shaken. There is another important principle, that we all must
consider: A truly supreme being does not need to create all, but He must be
the greatest teacher who would teach and guide the human race towards the
only Truth.
Who could that be? It is Buddha. It is Him, who brought great
happiness and compassion to this world. Though our life may have lots of
happiness but our happiness is no fragile. This happiness could not be

13

compared with the feeling when we kneel down in front of Buddha with
boundless homage and respect for Him.
We must reconsider a few things. What we love most could also be the
worst, the disaster. In many countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, because of
many beautiful beaches, there was the need for tourism, and as the result
many resorts, nightclubs were built. The tsunami happened and swept away
all. This event has taught us one lesson: We must do good deeds, and avoid
committing evil sins. Even when we could do anything good, we must not
claim and be proud. It is because: what we do that benefits for others, would
also benefit for us.
Finally, what did the tsunami want to tell us?
It was the dream of a peaceful world without war and killings. In this world,
human would be treated equally, with no boundaries, no differences in
nationalities or race. Extremist and theocratic religions would not exist in this
world. This world would always be full of happiness, compassion and would
always be peaceful.

Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

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WHEN THE RICH MEDITATES

Back to the theme of todays discussion, we would like to talk about
MEDITATION.
We have heard that many people, especially businessmen, are looking for a
practical method to balance between their busy lives and their minds. There would be
nothing better than meditation, especially in the Buddhist tradition.
There are many ways to help us to balance the mind such us yoga, Tai Chi,
and meditation from various religious traditions. However, from our experience
Buddhist meditation has the technique to solve problems from their roots, thus helping
us to clear all of our worries, balance our minds, and live a better life. You will be able
to experience this on your own as you practice.
Although many intellectuals have a range of ideas about meditation, we still
would like to explain it a little so that people understand why we need to meditate.
The experience of humanity on earth is that people often win or lose to each
according to money or power. However, Buddhism explains that this is due to our that
is more or less blessing. People with greater blessings will be more advantaged in life
and become upper class.
What is a blessing? According to Buddhism, it is the result of our many good
actions from previous lives. This current life is not the only life. If from our many
previous lives, we did good deeds to help other people, we would have many blessings
in this life. We will have more advantages, luck and opportunities than some people.
Such advantages often can be seen in the following ways:
First: we have MONEY
Second: we have POWER, where we have a right to influence other people
according to our wishes.
Third: we have HEALTH
Fourth: we have BEAUTY
Fifth: we have INTELLIGENCE
Our blessing is often expressed in these 5 categories. There are some people
who have all 5 blessings, for example, people in this conference. However, there are
some people who can only have one or a few of these qualities, which is enough to
stand-out.
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We shall examine how a blessing will be measured.

Now we compare a human being and an animal. For example: seeing a fish
swimming underwater or a bird flying in the sky, we think they seem so leisurely. They
even seem to be better than us because we can not swim or fly as they are able to. This
is incorrect thinking, because both the flying bird and swimming fish are looking for
food, for which they spend most of their time searching.
So do people. There are some people who need to spend most of their lifetime
to search for food. However, there are some people who never care about how to find
food, as they always have enough food. In this case, we measure the blessing based on
finding food. How much time in life we spend searching for food tells us how the
degree of our blessing. For example, people with fewer blessings need to think how to
earn enough money to buy a meal each day. However, there are people who dont even
care about making money to buy food at all; they pay attention to other things. While
there are people who can buy food for a whole village with just one days pay, there are
others who struggle to supply enough food just for themselves. Therefore, a blessing
can be measured by how much time is spent finding food.
The whole world is the same. There are countries where many people find it
difficult to find daily food, and spend most of their time searching but do not have
enough, and still experience malnutrition.
Some families are not able to feed their children, thus the kids have bulging
bellies and small behinds, and small legs. Meanwhile in some societies, people have
enough food, even abundance, thus lose their blessing by wasting the surplus food they
have. Consequently, if we dont need to spend much of our time to worry about making
money to buy each meal, we are blessed.
The idea of BLESSING leads us to think of 2 matters:
The first matter: Blessing is the result of our good deeds which we had done
from our previous lives. We had helped many other people, thus we have to be
rewarded in this life. As blessing comes to us, we become valuable and are respected
by other people. No one with many blessings is despised unless that person is not
genuine. Normally, blessing confers respect. This is the first meaning of blessing.
The second meaning of blessing is more complicated. The blessed people
impact many other peoples lives. We dont count selfish people who would keep their
wealth just for themselves. Most blessed people are doing something for others and
affect many others lives in their communities. Therefore, their approach to living,
thinking, planning and decision-making will have an effect on many other peoples
lives. If so, such blessing is a responsibility and may become a burden or too much
pressure to be unable to enjoy anymore
2

In the first meaning, blessing offers us a pleasurable life where we are

respected, enjoy delicious food, wear beautiful clothes, have freedom to do what we
like while unblessed people are unable to. For example, when we see a beautiful shirt,
we are able to to buy it right away, while unblessed people are not able to do the same.
In the other hand, based on the second meaning, a blessing becomes the burden of
blessed people. It becomes our responsibility to our community, to our society.
For that reason, blessed people will be divided into 2 types which are based on
what the blessed people often think more, thus we can judge which way they will go. If
a blessed person often thinks of pleasurable life, we class him type A. If a blessed
person is often worried about his responsibility to the community because hes aware
that his lifestyle or decisions will impact many other peole, we class this person type B.
Once, an international school invited us to teach morals and ethics to its
students who are the kids of wealthy parents. The tuition was up to many thousands of
dollars each year. The students were always in good care.
When we asked the students their purpose of life, one replied: I study so that I
know how to live and enjoy life. It was such a wrong way of thinking. His life would
be ruined, he would make his parents and his own life suffered because he belonged
among type A which a blessed person mostly thinks of enjoying life.
We need type B people who consider their blessings a responsibility to the
people around them, not just a pleasurable life. Such noble people make us respect and
treasure them. For example, if a rich personexpresses impertinence, or may be
imperious, careless, hedonistic, we understand that he belongs to type A, his blessing
will become destructive to other people. However, a wealthy person is modest,
responsible to other people; we know he belongs to type B.
The world needs type B people. We do hope that the world has many of such
people. Please let the world be led by such people who have many blessings, love their
communities and live responsibly for their communities. The larger the number they
have a positive effect on, the bigger and bigger their souls become.
Although we have passed the 1st decade of the 21st century the world is still
experiecing misery, division, and economic crisis. Most human beings think that we
had become more civilized and more intelligent but what is the reality? Greece faces a
financial crisis, Israel encountered financial crisis, and today there was a report about
the Spainish financial crisis.
Meanwhile, some countries which faced the previous worlds economic crisis in
1997 which started in East Asia, have recovered at a fast pace. Some European
countries in the European Union (EU) are failing, if the International Monetary Fund
doesnt pour money in to save them, these countries would become very miserable.
3

What is the reason? Its because people dont understand the matter clearly.
For example, when the French government decided to increase 2- working years
to 62, instead 60 as usual, the whole French country took to the streets demonstrating.
They didnt agree with the new law that required retirement at 62 years of age, and
asked for retirement money so that they could travel. The government developing the
policy knew that most 60 year-old men were still very healthy and had much to offer.
Particularly, European 60 year old men had lots of strength. If they still went to work,
they could pay taxes for 2 more years while the government did not have to pay out 2
years of retirement money, thus saving the national budget a great amount of money.
However, the French did not agree, they wanted to enjoy life 2 years early, thus
taking to the streets to protest it. Watching this event we understood that the French
were not patriots. France would face worse upcoming events when its citizens didnt
love their country. However, its people did not realize this.
Hence, we should think in this civilized age, that people would understand
things correctly and act correctly. If so, the world would not have wars, division, or
crisis.
We shall figure out the reasons countries are experiecing economic crisis? Its
due to people in the American Congress. Why did these Senators cause their own
countrys economic crisis? Its because they needed the votes. In order to be elected,
these senators continued to campaign with policy or laws offering the citizens
privileges.
It would be so great and become a good example for others when a government
official serves his people well. However, the people serving in this area often have
more blessings than they deserve. We need to review through a Buddhist apporach in
order to realize the reasons.
For example, the blessings of citizens in a country might be less than what the
government have to serve them. The infrastructure, hospital and health care, retirement
plan and school system are all better and every public service to its citizens is reaching
better. Therefore, the people are spending more blessings than they deserve; they are
now in debt of 2 blessings, which they have to pay back. There will be a time that the
country runs out of its national budget due to excess spending beyond its income, thus
leading to a financial crisis.
What is the truth of the financial crisis? It is a failure of exercising the correct
laws and economics of the social system. The fact that not recognising how the extent
of blessings their citizens have but serving them more while might give politicians
fame and votes. The politicians will campaign to pass certain laws benefitting the
people to get elected. They might not think of the cost to the national budget of their
4

policies or law if passed. Their spending may be too high and the citizens may receive
more blessings than they should have.
Therefore, everything needs to be based on its KARMA and BLESSING
according to the law of causation so that the society will grow sustainably. If we want
human beings to progress, it doesnt mean we provide them with materials. Instead, we
need to help them develop their morals and ethics so that they are able to create their
own blessings. A blessed person will have luck and other peoples help in case we cant
help them.
When meeting wealthy families, we often advisee them not to worry too much
about patrimony for their children. They should care how their children create blessings
as soon as possible. Even when the parents leave them, the children will be able to
stand on their own feet to survive and have good life.
Only the childrens own blessing can help them master their lives, not the
money their parents leave behind. Without blessing, all the money can vanish, for
example, they can lose all money by one night gambling. However, if the children are
blessed, even though the parents did not leave any money, there would be other people
helping them succeed.
Believing in this law, we dont need to worry too much about taking lots of
money from other people. When we do business, we still earn a profit by taking other
peoples money even in a very honest manner.
Some people play tricks to take other peoples money. Then they save such
dirty money for their children. When the children spend such money they will lose
their blessing.
In the articles Buddhism and Societywe taught that dirty money produces bad
children.
The parents should remember this, particularly societys leaders. We need to
consider why children turn bad. What kind of money do we use to raise them?
If the money comes from the happiness, joy and smiles of many people, our
children will grow up as good people. In contrast, if the money comes from other
peoples pain, our children will turn bad. The cause and effect of money is very
frightening. Having money is not about joy, but reponsibility. People should know how
to use the money to create blessings, not sin.
Therefore, the first meaning of blessing is that a blessed person, who also has
intelligence, morals, a sense of right and wrong, would live more responsibily, not just
a joyful life. Understanding how much he can impact on other peoples lives will force
him to become a moral person and responsible for others.
5

The second meaning of a blessed person is how he will utilize his blessing to
either enjoy life spend all of his blessings or creatingmore and more blessings to
infinity?
Havent been asked this question, many people are spending their blessings to
enjoy life. However, after being asked and answering such question, people started to
save their blessings and create it more and more each day to infinity.
Buddha reminded us of this matter. In our uncountable circle of life and death,
we may be reborn in wealth in one lifehowever, will we be reborn into wealth in the
next life due to creating more blessings or in poverty because we had spent all of our
blessings? Buddha taught us this as well as the warning of the law of causation to help
people realize the matter of being blessed, thus enable them to create more blessings to
infinity.
It will be easier for us to understand when we discuss limited blessing. For
example, the more blessings we have, the wealthier we will be. If we have more
blessings, we will have power such us holding an important position in the government.
We then will have both power and wealth.
If we have much more blessings, our influence will be across borders at an
international level. Yet, this is still limited blessings, not the uncountable blessings.
What is the infinity of blessings? In Buddhism, it is the enlightenment. How is
blessing and enlightenment related? We mentioned earlier that blessings offer us
money, power, beauty, intelligence, and health. How can infinity of blessings turn to
the enlightenment?
Blessing is due to good deeds we have done in our previous lives, and manifests
in later lives through the 5 ways of money, power, health, beauty, and intelligence.
However, these 5 rewards are temporary, impermanent, thus ending some day. Money
cant be brought with us as we die. Power cant be carried over when death comes.
Beauty will fade as time passes. Health will be lost as we grow old. Intelligence will
be taken as we get old. If we look above these 5 things, we recognize that blessing
offers us happiness.
The purpose of our life is also happiness. The ideal of living is to bring
happiness to others. Therefore, happiness is greater than these 5 rewards.
Should people live in order to make more and more money? No, it is because
money cant buy happiness. Should people live to hold great power in their hands? No,
power cant buy happiness either. Happiness is above these things. This is also the
answer when we come to the Buddhas principles, to search for enlightenment.
6

If a much blessed person always loves other people, being forgivng, living for
other people, hes more blessed. The Buddha taught people how not to be bothered by
these 5 rewards, and helped them to look for the higher reward which is true happiness.
The true happiness is spiritual enlightenment due to our uncountable merits and virtues.
With limited merits and virtues, we can be successful in this life and fail in the
next life if we run out of blessings.
If a blessed person lives a moral life, keeps his heart, his purpose and lives
responsibly, his merits and virtues will be builded up more and more.Thus he can live
above the 5 rewards to find a greater thing happiness. The supreme happiness is
enlightenment.
The meaning of enlightenment is so outstanding that it is very difficult to attain.
It requires a person with much blessing to search for and live with great morals and
great understanding and wisdom.
If we meet a wealthy person who is satisfied with everything in life, he may not
understand the true happiness from deep down in his soul. Its because he doesnt have
enough awareness or morals as well as his blessings. Only people who have all
blessings, morals and awareness can understand the supreme happiness
enlightenment.
Where will our life be if we can rise above all 5 rewards to find true happiness?
Truly, people who have already felt happy but still balance their soul to search for
spiritual happiness are pearls of the world. These people who have already achieved a
standard and life balance of morality, responsibility, and tranqulity. Therefore, their
influence on life is always positive. On the contrary, blessed people who only pursue
pleasure in life become threats to others.
Due to all of the reasons mentioned, people acknowledge that their blessing
influences many other people; thus they should live very responsibly. To what extent
of should people take responsibility in lifey? Should it be moderate or infinite?
Many people assume that infinity is unimaginable. This is not right. Infinity
which we think is unimaginable is real and we should pursue it through our many lives.
It becomes our duty to search for ourselves and for the world the supreme, liberated and
infinite happiness.
We are people who have enough heart and mind as well as meet criteria to look
for such happiness. People who struggle to make enough for their living cannot talk
about supreme happiness or the enlightenment.
Therefore, enlightenment is only for people who have all blessings, awareness
and morals. These people dont want to enjoy their blessing merely through the 5
7

rewards mentioned earlier, but look for happiness which is over and better than these 5
rewards.
This is the message we would like to send to the world which we are fond of
and love. All of us must love each other, live responsibly for our planet, help each other
to do more good deeds, and search for the supreme happiness to the awaken spirit and
mind. Everything in this world is impermanent, born and destroyed.
For all these reasons, right now and right here we will talk about a method to
practice MEDITATION. Meditation is the path to attain supreme happiness, which is
not only for oneself, but for all people when our mind attains liberation, egolessness
and totalself-forgetfulness.
Egolessness is no-self. Everyone can feel there is a self inside. The modern
lifestyle and some people have created a culture of self where the self is all
important. People tend to become differentiated, have their own personalities,becoming
more selfish and isolated.
Looking back to older societies, people were afraid of being different. They
tended to behave and act in similarity to each other, even wearing the same styled shirt,
having the same hair style, or using the same vocabulary in speaking.
However, in these days, if a person dyed her hair blue, I may dye my hair
purple; a person wears a 2 sleeves shirt, I may put on a 1 sleeve shirt. Such actions help
to define our differentiation, which is our self. When the self is set way too high,
people tend to make each other suffer more and more.
We need to understand one thing that supreme happiness doesnt have a place
for self. We become everyone else. We dont speak, but love everyone. We dont need
to declare our life, but live for everyone. What we call the supreme happiness is the
enlightenment.
The ANZ Bank will be a representative for all of us to send this message to the
world:
People who are blessed or superior please understand that you can influence
many other peoples lives. Therefore, the more blessings you have, the more
responsibly you should live.
Everyone agrees that while we seek to live a responsible life for other people,
our mind is balanced and inclined to egolessness. We dont live for ourselves any more,
and this helps our blessings to become infinite. If there is a second or an hour we stop
to live for ourselves, our blessing will be decreased. If there is a second, a minute, an
hour we wish to live for everyone else, our blessings will be increased, from one life to
8

another, to the infinite. As a result, the infinite blessings turns to supreme happiness, or
enlightenment.
In order to live in such a noble wayand to keep our mind stable, balanced and
righteous, besides moments we are stressed and busy with work, we need to meditate
because meditation helps our mind be balanced.
Meditation helps us to reduce stress.
The truth is that people with much money will worry more because they are
afraid of losing money. Having money helps people not to worry about buying each
meal but instead make them worry about losing money. Most people who possess much
money will invest into a business or something. Sometimes when a person reaches his
own investment capacity, he will deposit his money into ANZ bank so that the money
will be continuosly invested. Depositing money into a bank is asking for another person
to invest the money because the bank will loan the money to someone else who has an
opportunity to invest and make more profit.
Therefore, the bank takes the burden from us because it co-ordinates and invests
our money to make more and more profit to pay us interest while keeping our money
safe.
When the return of our own investment is good, the bank manages our money
well, and lenders invest our money efficiently, the whole society will move forward,
having abundant food and clothing. We hope this thinking will become real, so that our
country will become more affluent and every citizen will have enough clothing and
food. Next, we can share our prosperity to other brother countries. We shall remember
there is no border to stop us doing good deeds.
We may be blessed to wear beautiful clothes, drive luxuious cars, and have
people beattentive to us as we speak. We feel these things are valuable and they make
us feel happy.
The truth is that we have many worries. If these worries add up with selfishness,
superficiality and meanness, they will destroy our brain much faster than they will do to
a peasant. The reason is because the peasant isnt tricky. He works hard on the land,
then goes home, eats and sleeps peacefully. He grows old but he doesnt become
forgetful. In contrasta blessed person has opportunities to do business, to consider
pluses and minuses. If the person is also selfish, tricky, alcuting constantly on winning
or losing then such a mind will destroy his brain quickly.
Somehow, if our mind is only filled up by good thoughts then our brain
becomes brighter, smarter, and happier. In contrast, if our brain contains bad, mean and
selfish thoughts these will destroy our own brain cells. Our brain cells will cause their
9

own sickness and gradually be destroyed sooner than the expected time, thus causing us
a miserable life.
While we are busy doing business or investing, we also spend much of our time
worrying for ourselves, families, relatives as well as pay taxes to the government.
Many matters we need to take care of and be responsible for may cause us
stress. Meditation can help us solve this problem. There would be nothing better if we
could not only be talented and successful businesspeople, paying attention to small
details, but also keeping our minds peaceful and happy. What would be better in life
then making lots of money, running a business successfully allwhile keeping our mind
peaceful? It would be difficult to attain these 3 things all together.
However, if we meditate, we can attain these 3 matters: money, a successful
business and a peaceful mind. There would be nothing more valuable than attaing
these 3 things. As a result, there will be a price to pay for attaining these 3 things at the
same time: we need to have morals and meditate. Our investment brings benefits to
many other people, our personal life also helps many people, and meditation is our
fellow-traveller in each day of our life. Therefore, we encourage each of our esteemed
guests to spend time to meditate regularly.
First, meditation saves our souls.
Second, meditation brings happiness to our families.
The fact that sometimes we are stressed from our business, we go home and
take the stress out on our families. We may yell at the husband and scold our children.
A home which is our most fundamental place for support will be filled with
yelling, being strained and scolding due to our stress from outside work. No matter how
our job will be, if we can keep our mind peaceful and we are not under high pressure
from work, we will not bring home any of our stress. We will not take the stress out on
our families thus destroying our last happy place.
In order to protect our happy home, our psychology must be stable. If so, we
need to meditate because it helps our mind become brighter to solve problems in our
work and life. Meditation helps us to forecast many things which others cant guess.
Theory is only one part of doing business while intuition also plays a very important
role.
For example, there will be a time when some people ask us to join them to
invest in a real estate plan. They will talk to us as if its a good deal, promise to make
much money, about how promising the land will become, etc. All of a sudden, we have
unhappy or anxious feelings inside. Who makes us feel this way? No one. There is no
10

other information; all information is only from the people who are asking us to join
them to invest.
However, we feel insecure and decide not to join them. Two years later it turns
out that the person who asked us to invest disappears. The investment is unsuccessful.
Therefore, our insecure feeling was right. This is our blessing and intuition.
Businessmen need such intuition.
We can predict about 70% of personality of a person who we would like to
cooperate with or not. Our intuition can help us to foretell if the person will deceive us
in the future. Right now the person may be a gentlemen and nice to everyone; however,
he can betray us when it comes to benefits. Therefore, due to our intuition, we are able
to decide at which level we should cooperate with this person; thus avoiding failure by
not joining the business.
Intuition in doing business is very important because it helps us think and
calculate less. Listening to a matter, we can guess how it will end right away. Meeting a
person, we can tell how the person is. Listening to a plan, we can predict how it will
turn out due to our intuition although we do not make any calculation at all. For a
businessman to possesses such precise intuition will be more valuable than gold, even
diamonds.
Where does the intuition or the insightcome from?
First, it is a result of meditation. Second, it comes from our blessing.
Meditation helps us not to become greedy. It is strange that we are doing business,
making profits, but we are not greedy. Most of people who are doing business are
greedy, especially trying to make high profits. However, meditation provides a strange
result. We are still doing business, looking for profits, but we dont become greedy
people. As a result of not being greedy, we can escape many traps.
Buddhism has said that intelligence will be covered by desires so that people
cant realize the underlying truth.
For example, if a person takes us to land where he plans many investing
options. At this moment if our greed arises, it will take over. We see nothing else but
great profits we will make if we decide to buy the land, build something, and then sell
it. We then decide to invest in this plan. This may result in a failed investment.
However, if we are not greedy as we follow Buddhism and meditate, no matter
how much profit they promise us, our decision will not be affected by our greed. When
our greed doesnt prevail our mind becomes brighter andwe will realize the plan is
incomplete. There will be unexpected risks in the future, which can make the plan fail.
Therefore, we withdraw the investment. It would not be surprising that our intuition is
11

correct. In this case, our desire which is our greed doesnt arise, thus our mind become
brighter so that we can judge the matter right away to figure out the result.
Meditation also offers us: if we dont have ill-will, we will not get angry at
anyone; we do not become greedy while still fulfilling our responsibility and
calculating profits or losses. We can still possess a qualification, and the dignity, talent
and high-rank of a businessperson but deep down in our souls, we are not greedy at all.
We will become a wonderful businessperson, pearls of the world. A person who makes
money but who is not greedy for money.
As the same, when we talk about a governer who holds power in his hands and
is not greedy for power. These people are pearls of the world. They are looking for
wisdom and knowledge but are not being self-important.
Buddhism offers us such thing, so does meditation. In conclusion, we must
meditate. Not only must we meditate but also the whole world needs to meditate.
However, in order for the world to listen and follow, we need to practice first.
Who are we? Why do we need to practice first, and then tell the world to
follow? Because we are blessed people and businessmen, who will influence many
other people, whose voices will be heard better by our communities. Our ancestors said
that whatever wealthy people said would have a certain power on others. Their words
would have more weight than others. This becomes a principle as well as the truth.
We do hope this world is peaceful, happy and loving of each other. It can
happen be like tbis when the whole world is filled by businessmen who are not greedy
for money, people who are not greedy for power, and intellectuals who are not selfimportant.
How can we have such wonderful people? Only when they know about
meditation.
How do they know about meditation? Because someone else askes them to
meditate.
Who can ask other people to meditate? They are wealthy and blessed people.
Why do such blessed and wealthy people agree to meditate? Because these
people realize clearly that: meditation will free our soul and our world.

Namo Sakya Muni Buddha.

12

WHO PRE-ARRANGED OUR FATE?

Divination has long appeared everywhere in the world, from East to
West. Even a sage once prophesied that the Tat Dat Da prince would become
enlightened when he was just 7 days old. In the naming ceremony, seven
Brahmins also said the Prince with his 32 good ministers would become a
king of all kings or a sublime enlightened person.
Muhammad, who was the leader of Islam, was also predicted to start a
world wide religious domination.
Predicting fate has become an attribute of humanity. People often
wonder about their life, so they go to a fortune teller. However, some people
have too much free time and money and do not know what to do so they visit
many fortune tellers and hear many different stories.
Besides, knowing about things in the future can also help us determine
whether our own fate is arranged or not. Our lives must be pre-arranged in
order for things in the future to be predicted. If they are not pre-arranged
then the future can not be known. For example, after listening to Buddha's
teachings, we'll have a meal before going home. Future things will happen,
and we can predict them. But, if we don't have a meal before going home,
the things in the future will change. Or, if we go home 30 minutes early, we'll
meet a person who will show us the way to earn lots of money, but we won't
meet that person if we go home later. So will our future change depending on
our decision in the present? Actually, our lives seem to have been prearranged and our fate regulates things in the future such as who we will meet,
and whether we will be rich or poor. Our fate seems to have been prearranged and humans always want to know about their life. That 's the reason
why many people look for fortune tellers.
There are many ways to predict the fate of a person such as palm
reading or physiognomy. Maybe a person born with curly hair is a clever
person. But if he changes his hairstyle, a fortuneteller may not be able to
predict and will now pay attention to the face or voice. Besides, fortunetelling
can be based on the time he was born or the cards which were selected to
predict his future, etc...

However, some people have intuition or special abilities and can

predict fate not based on palm reading, physiognomy, or cards. They just
keep their mind quiet to predict things in the future. They have special
abilities because they seriously practice Buddha's teachings, or they have
innate abilities as mascots such as dolphins or hyenas. The dolphin species
have very strong intuition. When they are reincarnated as humans they can
predict fate because of their strong intuition. Predicting fate helps reassure
people about the future and gradually they believe that all things in life are
arranged.
But, who pre-arranged the fate of humans? If we consider the physical
aspect, our parents themselves created our lives. They gave birth to us,
nurtured us, and taught us from childhood to adulthood. They sacrificed their
life to create our life, so they created our fate. Therefore, all people must be
bound to their parents.
Another factor that affects human fate is government. A good king
will help people live prosperously and happily. A cruel king will make
people suffer, become poor, and their fate will change for the worse.
Social environment affects fate too. Nowadays, the influence of the
Internet is growing day by day. The proliferation of bad news and the violent
online games have made students neglect studying. Online game addiction
can compel people into criminal lifestyles to get money to play games.
Though they may be young and still immature, they must all be arrested and
pay their debts. Those who live in an good environment and have a good
education will have a good life. So, their fate will develop in a good way.
Natural factors also affect the fate of man. If the weather is favorable,
there are lush crops, and the house is full of food and drink, then life is
prosperous. If weather is severe, crops fail, there is a shortage of food and
drink, then life will be difficult.
Thus, the fate of humans is affected by numerous physical factors.
However, if we consider basing it on beliefs, fate is dominated by mysterious
factors and has been determined or pre- arranged. Therefore, our fate can be
predicted.

There once was a civil servant who met an accident and died. A friend
of his told that he seemed to know that his death was imminent. Before going
to work, the civil servant gave his friend some papers and asked him keep
them in case he died. On the way to work, his car crashed into a truck and he
died. Thus, what in his mind made him think about his death? Considering
the social factors, the truck driver that hit the civil servant was drunk. If
another driver had driven that truck that day, the man would not have died
and his fate would have been changed. But why did he predict his own death.
This is really strange.
Lieu Nghiem was one of my disciples. Two weeks before she died in a
car accident, her dreams contained a lot of tombs, and one of them was her
own. If the driver had driven even 2 seconds slower, she would not have
died. But he drove faster and the accident happened. We see that everything
seems to have been arranged although there was an impact of many physical
factors. There was a spiritual element that secretly arranged her fate. Today,
we will talk about two topics: "Who pre-arranged our fate" and "How can we
change our fate?"
There are two schools of religious beliefs. One believes that divine
powers have pre-arranged our fate. The other believes that karma has prearraned our fate. We are Buddhists, so we believe that karma pre-arranged the
fate of every person. However, in fact, both views are correct.
Let us consider an example. In a committee, the chairman wants to
appoint a employee to be the head because he works hard and is responsible.
And that employee is promoted. Thus, his fate has been arranged by the
chairman. Is this right? It's correct. But his fate is also affected by the law
of karma. Why did the chairman choose him? Because he had done good
work. Therefore, karma also arranged his fate. Because he had blessings, he
was promoted. So, every time we get luck, we should do more blessings to
thank heaven and earth, and the universe. That employee must also do a
good job to thank the chairman. Thus, his fate was arranged by the chairman
and the law of karma.
Now, we talk about the concept of divine, the one who we call God,
who has arranged our fate. Since ancient times, mankind has believed that
God arranges things in this world. However, the concept of God has many
different trends. The first trend is the tendency of common folk. Then,
3

Taoism used it to create new trends. When the ground was dry, farmers often
prayed for rain. Suddenly, it rained and they believed that God had heard
their prayers. However, God only gives us rain. We must still work. We see
this in the conception of common folk. God impacts the destiny of man, but
man must decide his life. If it rains and we thank God, but we do not work
the farm and go right to bed, we will definitely be hungry. God just does
things we can not do ourselves, we must still make every effort to work. If
we don't make every effort, God can't help us.
In ancient times our ancestors lived together in harmony, with mutual
love, and they worked hard with reverence for God. Because good humans
treated each other well, God rewarded them and punished the evil men. God
was also a judge. Likewise with karma, too. Because our ancestors did not
know the law of karma, they believed everything had been pre-arranged by
God. But things are started from humans. When humans were deadlocked,
they prayed to God to help. They burned incense and offered sacrifices every
day. Taoism later changed the concept of God and he became a God that can
intervene deeply into people's lives. If he wants someone to die, they have to
die. If he wants someone to be poor, they have to be poor. All things are
bestowed by him. The concept of God made man worried about his fate.
However, all of this was communicated only through missionaries.
In one segment of a film it showed a race across the desert. A dying
man told his friend that God wanted him to die. His friend replied, "It is
God's will. But do you really want to die? Do you think your wife and
children are waiting for you at home?" He heard his friend and nodded
quietly. He then stood up to go forward and finally he was alive.
What is the problem here? The man always believed his ideas were
God's will. But God never said a word.
As Lao Tzu once said, "Why do the seasons change? Land doesn't say
anything. But why does the river flow? " He always thought about God
calmly. But people always think God imposses on their thoughts. In fact, no
one has heard God say anything. The man in the film believed that God
wanted him to die, but that was only his thoughts.
We do not deny that there is a God arranging our fate. Because in
Buddhism, the concept of "God " is real. The Buddha taught us there are
4

many heaven realms, each has a king to govern. But at the very high heavens
such as Huu Danh, Sac Cuou Canh, no one is a king because all are sublime
enlightened saints. So, they need no king to govern.
At the lower heavens as Pham Thien, Ba Muoi Ba, people are not
entirely ethical, they can make mistakes. So, they still need a king to limit
their mistakes.
In the human realm, the law, the police, and the army, are very
necessary because there're many cruel things which need a goverment to
govern. People need a manager to preserve social order. If not, society would
become chaos, and evil would harm good people.
In the old days, when people thought the strong would beat the weak,
looting often happened. Everyone had to learn martial arts to protect
themselves. Today, the State holds all the power and wields force to keep the
stability of our social life and allow people to live together peacefully.
When people treat each other well, authority of the king will be
reduced. So, in the heavens, people are purely good and they don't need a
king. The king in heaven is very busy, even things in the human realm are
arranged by the king in heaven.
Remember, we only need to live well, we do not need to beg. God will
arrange our things in a nice way and we will be supported. If people hate us,
and we beg God, it means we are doing the opposite of God's will. If we do
not follow God's will, consequences will be very bad because our fate is
dependent on God.
In Buddhistism there is a story. Once, Buddha was meditating in a
cave. Suddenly, a voice of a saint sang, Can That Ba. It's a love song with a
sentence: "I love you like an Arhat love Meditation." Buddha smiled and he
never smiled without good reason. Then, Buddha asked:
- Why do you have this song?
The saint bowed to Buddha 3 times and said:
- Buddha! This song was composed by me because I fell in love with a
fairy in heaven, but she did not love me. I found out her hobbies and I know
5

she loves glass Jewels, Buddha, and Arhat. I composed this song and married
her. Then, the saint said:
- Buddha! My father-in-law is here, he wants to bow to you but he
doesn't dare disturb you. So, he asked me to help him. Please, allow him to
visit you.
Buddha agreed. At that moment, King De Thich turned into a human
body and bowed before Buddha. Kings in heaven are a hundred thousand
times larger than humans. Buddha is in the form of human, so De Thich must
turn to human body too. He said:
- Buddha. I'm very busy, so I rarely have a chance to homage you.
Today, I passed by here and I wanted to visit you...
In fact, heavenly kings are very busy arranging the fate of human
beings, especially those who will be chosen as King, as president, or prime
minister ... They arrange everything by impacting people's minds so that they
unanimously support someone. It is God's will.
But behind the will, the will of the people and the will of God, the law
of karma has dominated all. It arranged what God wants to do. God also
made statutory fair Causation so it can not do wrong.
When our country was colonized by the Minh army, in the first decade
people were enslaved and many people opposed but failed. After Le Loi
made the Lam Son insurrection in Thanh Hoa, Nguyen Trai and his friends
went to find Le Loi. According to legend, one night at a temple, they heard
the Gods of the Temple say:
- I have just returned from Heaven, I heard that the Jade Emperor will
assign Le Loi and Le clan to rule Nam country. I was assigned to support
this person.
We do not know if it is right or wrong. But during the ten years of
resistance, Le Loi encountered numerous difficulties and hardships. One
time, Le Loi was chased and he hid in a bush. The Minh army used a dog to
find him. When they came to the bush where Le Loi was hiding, the dog
barked. Suddenly, a rabbit jumped out the bush and the dog ran after it. The
soldiers thought that maybe the dog just barked at rabbits, so they went away.
6

Fortunately, Le Loi escaped many times, overcoming all dangers to lead the
resistance and become the king, opening up a new dynasty for Nam country.
The Gods of Temple said that the Jade Emperor wanted him to supported Le
Loi. Nguyen Trai heard him say so, and he also wholeheartedly wanted Le
Loi to succeed.
During the fight, we thought that only humans fought each other.
Actually, God silently and secretly supported the resistance army. Though
the military forces of Ming were strong, their fate was arranged so that they
had to fail, and Le Loi's army would win. It was God's will, but behind it was
the law of karma. Why did God choose Le Loi? Because Le Loi's father was
a wealthy Dives in Lam Son, Thanh Hoa. For many lives, Le Loi's ancestors
lived lives of virtue. Le Loi, as well, created great merit in many lives. So,
he was born in the heavens, and he was chosen to be King in the human
realm.
Therefore, although God arranged things, karma governed it all
secretly. That is why Buddhist teachings often tell about the law of karma.
Other religions think everything is God's will. Both are correct, but the law
of karma is the origin. We say that God arranges everything but it is an
understatement. If we don't talk about God and karma we think everything is
human arranged. In fact, human fate is governed by the divine. But the
divine is governed by the law of karma. The law of karma is a principle, a
rule that governs all and dominates the human mind. Our fate is arranged so.
We often wonder why God choose this person, but not that person.
Because this person is good, and that person is bad? Or as in Christianity, the
priest who was chosen by God. Why did God choose this person, but did not
choose others? Buddhism explains that it is because of karma. This person
has good qualities, creating many merits, having many blessings. So, God
chose him. The other one was not chosen because they did not qualify.
One day, some nuns came to the Phat Quang pagoda to chat with us.
When talking about morality, we refer only to the teachings of Christianity,
not the Buddhist doctrines. All their questions are answered by the teachings
of God. They were surprised and asked, "You understand Christianity so
well. Why don't you become a priest?" We said, "It is the God's will."

Another time, we were invited to present their doctrines by a priest.

That day, there were only a few people: a few priests, a few nuns, a few
monks, some parishioners and the intellectuals. They asked some questions
about Buddhism and were only talking about Buddhism.
Once more, a priest and some youth Christian students took a visit to
the Dinh mountain and visited us. As a courtesy, they wanted to meet the
Abbot. After some questions, we knew the reason for visiting the temple was
because they wanted to ask about some Buddhist doctrines. But we told them
about the teachings of Jesus. The priest liked it very much and invited us to
teach laypeople.
We can see, in fact, the religions of the world have quite similar points.
If we are generous of heart, we will see the good points of each other to love.
We will have mutual respect, not derision, and we will not hate each other
and we will not create religious conflict. Those who cause religious conflict
are bad people who do wrong by their religion. In a true religion, it promotes
the unity of mankind, where human beings transcend all boundaries to love
one another.
We are correct when we say God or the law of karma arranges human
destiny, but the most important thing is human. Someone who lives well,
creating many blessings, will find that the law of karma will arrange their fate
in the direction of good. God will support him. Therefore, each person
decides how to live on their own and thus arranges their own fate. So, our
fate was pre-arranged but it is not completely rigid and can be changed.
Some fixed things can not be changed, but some can be changed.
Are the fate of monks fixed? In fact, those who are arranged to be a
monk will surely become a monk. Except for false monks who are monks for
only a few years or a few days. The sincere monks all have a fixed fate.
There are monks that before they were ordained, they wanted to
become doctors or engineers, but they could not pass the examinations. The
doors of worldly life were closed. They studied well for the test, but they did
something wrong and their points were not enough to pass. That confusion is
God's will. If they love someone, the marriage will not be successful. All the
doors of worldly life are closed and they can only become a monk.

That is the fixed karma of a monk. But becoming a good monk or a

bad monk is up to them. It's called personal willpower. The bad monk will
make their fate change. Therefore, becoming a good monk or a bad monk is
due to their own wills.
Likewise, whether we are born in a good or bad family has been prearranged. We can not choose who will be our parents. Indeed, we can only
choose to be parents by living well in our past lives. That is fixed karma, but
we will become good or bad depending on ourselves. Parents teach us many
things, but if we want to get even better, we have to try to learn. Becoming a
good or bad person depends on each individual person. There is fixed karma
and un-fixed karma. Fixed karma can not be changed, but our willpower can
still change our lives in the future.
For example, on the occasion of a death anniversary. Everyone comes
to hear Buddha's teachings and has a meal. It's the same fixed karma. But
then, some people apply Buddhist teachings to their life and became excellent
Buddhists. Some people are still selfish and greedy. Although we all come
here to hear Buddhist teachings, some change and some don't. Thus, in fixed
karma we always have un-fixed karma too because all living beings have
different wills.
Therefore, the will is a very important factor, it can change a person 's
life. But why do we make good decisions and have good ideas? Why do we
make wrong decisions and do wrong things? If we meet good friends and
have good teachers, we will make the right decisions in life. If we meet bad
people, they will incite us to do the wrong thing and we decide our life in the
wrong way.
A Buddhist family was once living happily. A friend gave the husband
some sex disks. He was curious and watched them. From that moment on,
his heart became agitated. His family could not satisfy him. So, he had sex
with another woman and his family was broken. In contrast, another family
always quarreled and fought with each other. Suddenly, someone gave them
the Dharma disk. They heard it many times and applied Buddha's teachings
to life. That family became happy and loving.
Thus, the impact factor of your friends or good advice is very
important. It can change our fate. Everything was pre-arranged by God and
9

karma, but we can change our fate. So a good friend or bad friend can do our
wills good or bad, and our fate will change. This is a very important factor.
That is why the Buddha did not use psychic powers to improve humans.
Throughout his life, he only taught morality to educate people. Buddha also
advised 60 Arhat - his first disciples: "Each one of you go to a different area,
but do not come along a path to bring the Dharma to improve humans."
At that time, the development of Buddhism was in conflict with
longstanding belief systems in the countries of India, like Brahmanism and
some pagan cults, especially Ni Kien Tu sect un-dressed. This sect had a
terrible conflict with Buddha. Today, when we learn about the history of
Buddhism we only know a very small part of the conflict. In fact, the
opposition to the Buddha and the Sangha was much larger, more than a
thousand times bigger.
Buddha did not use psychic powers to destroy those who were against
him. He did not use spiritual powers to win because he knew very well that
the human heart can only be changed by thought and by morality. Buddha
used ethics to teach people, helping them change individual cognitions.
When they have good ideas, they will decide the right path. Their fate will
change direction as well.
So, teaching ethics to people is very good, we can change the fate of
others and that is the greatest blessing. When we share food and money with
others we only have a temporary blessing. A few days later, they will be
hungry again. We can create jobs for them, but they can still become
unemployed or not have enough health to work at an old age. If we share
morality with them, they will live better in this life and the after life. So, we
can help them permanently and change their lives forever. Therefore, our
blessings will be great.
So, who pre-arranged our fate? That would be God and the law of
karma. But to have a good destiny, our will is essential. If our will wants us
to do good, we will have a good destiny. But how do we have good will? It
is because of education, good teachers, and good friends. So good teachers
and good friends are an important factor. We always need a good teacher or
a good friend to remind us and share with us good things to change our
hearts. We need them and the other person needs them too. If we want to
change our fate in a positive direction, other people also need to change their
10

fate like that too. If we think we know how to become a good person and we
strive to be a good person by ourselves, we are being selfish so we will not be
successful. Therefore, we must share good things with others to change our
fate together in a positive direction. No one is right to keep his own good
things. It's such in life.
To change our mind, we need to do four things:
_ We have to learn ethical standards.
_ We have to think about good things, and not think about bad things.
_ We have to order ourselves to do good things in a radical way. If we
are selfish, we must order ourselves to not be selfish. We have to improve
ourselves. As time passes, our evil mind will gradually reduce.
_ We must vow to Buddha that we will always improve ourselves
every day. If each day we all bowed to Buddha and we prayed for Buddha to
bless us to get rid of bad habits, after many years, we will change our mind
and change the line of karma in countless lifetimes.
For this will open up a new horizon for our fate, help ourselves to
change lives, and change our fate for the better. We are totally qualified to
do this because we know Buddha's doctrines are immense and infinite. We
have enough material to improve ourselves. Many people do not know
Buddha's doctrines, they are still living in the dark and do not know how to
light up their soul. We have countless lights of Buddhist teachings, let us
resolve to make our hearts purer every day. We're extremely happy, the
remaining problem is the determination.
Four things will help us to change hearts, and our fate as well. We
begin by resisting bad habits. When we vow to eradicate bad habits, we will
face them. For example, suppose we like to drink and so we vow to abstain
from alcohol. Buddha will then create situations to test our will. One day
our friends may invite us to drink alcohol. Even when circumstances are
favorable to drink we refuse and remain calm watching them drink without
craving. From there, we will get rid of our drinking habits and selfindulgence.

11

Or we are greedy and selfish. Now we vow to live more selflessly.

One day, our parents divide the inheritance into equal sections for all
members. Previously, we wanted to keep it all. But now we have vowed to
live without greed and selfishness. We will say to parents that "I already own
land. You can give your land to my brothers and sisters." Our hearts are now
relaxed and family tension will also subside. Family members will also be
happy because of our change.
When we have made the commitment to Buddha, Buddha will force us
to face situations like this to test our willpower. If we pass the tests, we will
gradually go up the path of saints. Our spirituality will move up one step, but
we will not know that. Buddha will constantly challenge us like that.
Or we feel that we can do just a little blessing. So, we pray that
Buddha will give us more opportunities for doing good. After vowing, we go
out and we will meet a person who needs help. According to our old habit,
we often ignore these situations for fear of trouble. Today, our conscience is
torn but morality eventually wins. We try to find the best way to help that
person. Of course, depending on our vow, big or small, Buddha will give us
appropriate situations to deal with. If we vow to live a life for all living
beings, not living for our life, Buddha will have more difficult challenges for
us. Remember, every word we vow, Buddha will give us the opportunity to
help us resist our bad habits.
Who arranged our fate? In terms of the physical aspect, our parents,
the environment, society, nature, and government are all factors that affect
our fate. In terms of the spiritual aspect, God has an impact on our lives. But
God's will is affected by the law of karma. And whether the karma is good or
bad depends on our will. Therefore, we must build good thoughts. So,
education is very important.
Remember, if we have good things, we must share them with everyone
to perfect our souls together. Ethics must be spread, Buddha's teachings must
be shared by every Buddhist. We change our mind by four methods: The
first is learning the correct teachings of Buddha. The second is changing our
soul by applying Buddha's teachings in life. The third is to order ourselves to
do good things, not bad things. The last is vowing before Buddha.

12

We must always remember that when we begin to pray before Buddha,

the challenges will come to us. Buddha will create adversity for us to
practice patience and live in peace. We will meet the poor and have
opportunities to help them. Buddha will bring temptation for us to cross. Our
lives will always have difficulties and challenges. And we must overcome
these challenges to go up the path of saints.
Why do we apply Buddha's teachings? To move from human to saint.
There are many different saints. Some will be born in heaven after death.
And the most sublime saints will no longer be dominated by samsara.

Namo Shakya Muni Buddha

13

YOULL GET WHAT YOU WANT

There is a French saying: Vouloir cest pouvoir (meaning youll get what
you want). However, according to the points of view from Buddhism, not
everything we want would become reality because of karma, the law of Cause and
Effect. It also depends on the amount of blessings we have accumulated from
many past lives.
Despite we would try really hard to achieve our goals and objectives, but if
we did not have enough blessings, it would be extremely challenging to make it
become reality. It is important that we must have enough blessings, not just our
wish. Everybody wants to be rich and respected, but in reality, how many people
are there who actually rich? Many people had a dream of becoming engineers or
doctors, but when they grew up, they encountered many obstacles, their study was
interrupted, and they had to choose a different path. That is life, nothing is
permanent! We often are never happy with what we got.
When our blessings are not enough, we hardly could control our choices.
Blessings determine changes in our life. For example, as a child, I wanted to
become a scientist. I wanted to make a plane with no wings, no smoke but it can
fly from planet to planet. I often looked at ranges of mountains and dreamed.
However, when I grew up, everything changed and I left my family to become a
monk.
Very often, we want one thing , but life turns out to be quite different; that is
because of karma. At one point in time, our life could change completely when our
blessings are enough. When I started to understand more about life, I thought that I
must set myself a direction, a career path, and that path must be great and
phenomenal. That path must bring happiness to many other human beings, the
society and the country because we all do not just live for our ourselves.
I kept thinking but everything was still a mess. The path was still unclear.
Suddenly, I came to learn about Buddhism. It was Buddhism that helped me
realise clearly: Real happiness doesnt lie in wealth but in the wisdom of
recognizing the burdens of greed, anger and ignorance, which cause our
sufferings. We can only enjoy real happiness when our mind is calm, relax and

peaceful. At that very moment of realising the truth, I determined to leave

everything to become a monk.
Therefore, Youll get what you want is not always true. However, there
are things which we want and we will be able to achieve at a point in time. For
example, some Buddhists often came to our pagoda and some of them often
wanted to try on the monk robes. They pretended to be a monk and took some
pictures. Those would likely to become monks and nuns at a point in time, because
it was an omen indicating that it was the time, they already might have enough
blessings.
Similarly, if a monk or a nun tried a non-monks outfit, it would mean that
their blessings of being a monk or a nun was about to end. They would stop living
their religious life at some time in the future. This sounds very strange, but a
similar situation had happened in real life.
My older brother became a monk at an early age. He was only accustomed
to the monks brown robe. One day, he was interested in an outfit of a normal
person i.e. just shirt and pant. He tried it on and looked at himself in the mirror. He
felt strange. Only then, for over ten years after that, he had to wear laymans
clothes, though he still lived at the pagoda and did all the things a monk did: eating
vegetarian food, practise all the principles, meditating, and working for the
pagoda. The situation did not allow him to wear a monks clothes again, but forced
him to wear a normal persons clothes as if he was a layman.
Others, who knew him very well, also knew that he was a true monk, a true
religious practitioner, very diligent and preached the Dharma really well. Because
he was the oldest monk, everyone called him Venerable though he looked
exactly like a layman with hair and laymans clothes. Later on, we knew about
the story and the cause of why he looked like an ordinary person. After ten years,
he was allowed to wear a monk clothes again. At that time, we were all very
afraid when reflecting about the case. It was fearful that it could be true Youll
get what you want because: What we sow is what we reap.
Under the Ly Dynasty, there was a Zen Master named Tu Dao Hanh, who
had attained Sainthood and had magical power. One day, he wanted to play a
prank on his fellow brothers for fun. He used his magical power to transform
himself into a tiger and caught his brothers, who were walking along the forest
path. His brothers, also had attained Sainthood, knew the prank and avoided the
2

path. They said: If you want to be a tiger, you will be a tiger. Immediately the
tiger turned back into Venerable Tu Dao Hanh.
Soon after, Venerable Tu Dao Hanh died comfortably. Just before leaving
the world, he said the last words to his brothers: Thirty years after my death, I
will be reborn to be a king. If you hear that the king is sick, please help him. It is
because of my karma.
Exactly as predicted, 30 years after Zen Master Tu Dao Hanh died, King Ly
Than Tong, who received the throne from King Ly Nhan Tong, suffered from a
strange illness: thick hair appeared from his head to toe, he scratched and roared
like a tiger for months. (History recorded this event but in a few words, as if to
avoid it.) Then the Court appealed for good doctors. Venerable Nguyen Minh
Khong agreed to cure the King. He used acupuncture and was able to cure the
Kings illness successfully. The King recovered. After the treatment, Venerable
Nguyen Minh Khong was inaugurated as the countrys Teacher. Later, King Ly
Than Tong died early.
As we see, because of a playful action, turning into a tiger, Venerable Tu
Dao Hanh had to pay retribution after 30 years. Because his blessings were still
great, he wasnt reborn as an animal but suffered from the sickness of changing
into a tiger, and then was healed. How fearful karma is! Obviously, want is one
thing and the reality is another, which totally depends on karma.
Now, we will discuss some examples about what we want and their related
consequences.
In most cases, we often do not get what we want. If the wish is selfish, we
may or may not accomplish it; sometimes it could take a long time, even a few
hundred incarnations. However, if the wish is for others benefits, it would become
the reality quite quickly.
For example, a few workers of a Charity Organisation knew about a lonely
old woman, who often got sick, but her children lived far away and could not see
and take care of her often. During Lunar New Year, she did not have enough food
to eat. Her house was in bad conditions. They sympathised for her, and wanted to
help her feel happy during the last few years of her life. They then called for
money contribution to buy good, to fix her house so that the old woman could feel
the love and the care from everyone.
3

So, what did these charity workers want? They just wanted the old woman
to enjoy the happiness of being cared for and being loved during a special
occasion, Lunar New Year holiday. They did not want her to feel left out. And the
law of Cause and Effect is fair and miraculous: our true and genuine wish for
others would have good return. In this case, their good thoughts and deeds would
enable them to be happy with their family. However though, it was only because
of the special occasion, after that, their lives were back to normal.
There is a very essential and important wish: wishing for all pagodas to be
prosperous and crowded, so that everyone has moral standards to live
accordingly. All Buddhist must work hard to make this wish become true. That is
the only way that we could do to help maintain and protect Buddhism forever, for
everyone to take shelter and cultivation. That is the true blessing for everyone in
this world.
Buddhism understands well about karma, therefore, Mahayanistic Doctrines
emphasize the great significance of karma. There is an absolute holy vow:
Vowing all beings to achieve Buddhahood. We want all beings to achieve
Buddhahood, what about ourselves?. We will also be able to achieve that, in one
of the future lives, because we have already planted the seed by kneeling in front
of Buddha and made the vow. That vow is now firmly fixed in our karma.
Certainly, in one of the future lives, we would be able to achieve Buddhahood.
If anyone has said that vow sincerely, their cultivation result will be perfect.
Karma will lead their thoughts, actions, decisions, and situations that would lead to
Buddhahood. In contrast, if anyone has said the vow insincerely, their cultivation
journey will be incomplete. Their cultivation path would encounter many
obstacles.
Hence, please, everyone, remember that every time we pay homage to
Buddha, we must say the greatest vow of all sincerely: Vow for all beings to
achieve Buddhahood. It takes only one time to pay homage to Buddha; it takes
only one time for us to make the vow in front of Buddha, karma will lead our lives
towards Buddhahood. Although in our further lives, even if we are bound by the
circle of life and death; even if our lives could be either poor or happy, the seed of
wanting to achieve Buddhahood has planted in our mind and The Dharma will
always be the guiding star in our life. When it is the right time, when we have
4

enough blessings, we could attain Buddhahood and help transform other beings.
Let all of us say that vow sincerely.
Some people wanted their child to become a monk or a nun. They confided
in me: Dear Master, I want my son to be a monk, but he still hesitates. That was
funny, not because the son hesitated, but because it meant the parent would be a
monk/nun in the next life. If we wanted others to live a monastic life, we ourselves
would live that same life, inevitably. That is karma: what we sow is what we reap.
Here is another scenario. A father always advised his son to study hard to
become a doctor, so that he could help people. When becoming a doctor, his son
was able to do much good karma. He made his son study as hard as he can.
Finally, the son became a doctor. And the consequence was that, in the next life,
the father became a doctor himself too, because he has always wanted it for his
son. Similarly, some parents wanted their children to become singers, though their
children could not sing well. As a result, the parents would be reborn to be singers
in their next life. We will get what we want, however, it always depends on our
karma, and many accumulated conditions after many lives. Those who wanted
their children to become monks/nuns, would have sowed the seed, however, to
successfully become a great monk, there are many other conditions, and many
blessings and more importantly, their own karma to make that happen.
In this life, even though if you are old and could not become a monk, you
can still help promote and protect Buddhism and support monks and nuns with the
best of your ability. Every day and night, you practise the Dharma diligently,
meditate and do a lot of good deeds. Those great things will accumulate and help
you later on. In the next life, as the result, karma would guide you to become a
monk early. As a monk or nun, you would have full blessings, be loved, your
pagoda would be well supported, and your work would progress well. That is
because you have sowed the seed: you had been practising diligently and done
many good deeds.
Therefore, between the want and the achievement, there is always a gap,
which would require us to do many good deeds, create many blessings to help with
our karma. We must always remember that: we must do good deeds, create many
blessings because our want and desire is not good enough. Though we say Youll
get what you want, but the path from just a thought to an action could be a very
long path, even from one live to many others. The path is long or short, smooth or
rough, it all depends on our karma.
5

Many old people only asked to become monks when their children had
already grown-up. After they have had a few years of cultivation, one of their son
came to visit the father and asked for his permission to marry someone: Dear
Father, its a little bit difficult to ask because now you are a monk, but the two
families have agreed for me and my fiance to get married. Please give us your
blessings. The father, who had been a monk for quite a few years, replied:
Thats great. Please be happy and have many children. The wedding should be
organised like this.... He planned the wedding as if he were still living a normal
life, not being a monk. That indicated in his mind, he always wanted his son to
have his own family. That wish formed his karma, and in his next life, he could
not become a monk early. He would have to get married first, then have children,
then if his blessings would be good enough, he would be able to become a monk.
Therefore, according to the Governing Rule in Buddhism, especially relating to
Bhikkhus, Buddha does not allow any Bhikkhus to do match-making. That is
because match-making would result in the karma in their future lives.
Many Buddhists had asked me: Dear Master, those two love each other,
are they good to be married to each other, are their ages suitable for each other?
I do not know much about this, so I replied: There is no such thing as suitable
age... maybe it is best for them to become a monk or a nun! I must say so, as I
wanted to avoid being a match-maker, to avoid the karma of marriage. Please, we
all must be careful about what we do and what we say.
Buddha has taught: A Bhikkhu must see the danger in every tiny
mistake. We must be aware and avoid every single mistake, even just a minor
one. A small mistake could result in very bad karma later on. In life, we want
many things for others, both good and bad. Therefore, we must be very cautious of
our thoughts. Once thoughts have formed, what we want for others will actually
become reality for ourselves, too. Actually, our wants for others are uncountable;
therefore we must be careful in every single thought.
A truly genuine teacher always wanted his students to progress well in his
study and become more mature. That want helped the teacher become more and
more knowledgeable. In the next incarnation, he would become a better person, a
more knowledgeable person. With his good karma, he could become a famous
scientist, a genius because he had always wanted others to be better than him.
However, if he was narrow-minded and self-fish, and just wanted to be better than
everyone, and his study, the result would totally be the opposite.
6

If we live for others benefits; if we always think for other; if we always

share with others what we know and always provide others instructions
thoroughly; and if we always want others to be better, more knowledgeable and
more successful, we would be able to have great returns, due to our good karma. In
our future lives, wherever we go, wherever we would be reborn to, we would be
able to learn great things, meet great people.
Or, when we pray for the world to be peaceful, pray for all beings to be safe
and happy sincerely from the bottom of our heart, as well as we live a pure life, eat
vegetarian food only, never kill any beings, it is certain that we would be reborn in
peaceful world, life after life. It is the sincerity in our mind, which would bring
good return for us. Though this world is not peaceful yet, its beings are not really
safe and happy, but our good karma will lead us to peaceful places.
Therefore, all of the praying in Buddhas teachings is not illusions. These
prayers help us plant good seeds. Bodhisattvas in Buddhism had written such
prayers to help all beings plant good seeds to get good returns.
Even some prayers, at first, sound quite unreasonable: Vow all sentient and
insentient beings in the universe to attain Buddhahood. Sentient beings are
beings with consciousness i.e. animals such as, dogs, cats, elephants... Insentient
beings are like plants, rock, sand, dust, etc. The vow at first sounded quite unreal,
but it had been passed on throughout many generations in Buddhism.
Though it is just a prayer, in fact, it challenges everyones wisdom. The
prayer is strange, somewhat unreasonable and utopian. It is extremely difficult for
a human being to become a Saint, let alone sentient and insentient beings also to
attain Buddhahood. The vow is extremely illusive.
However, lets thing about this: the prayer has been written into the Dharma
by Bodhisattvas and we have been chanting it every day, it cannot be just an
illusion. We might think it is unreasonable because of our own ignorance, which
prevent us from seeing the truth. Only Enlightened Saints can have super wisdom
would understand the prayer.
The prayer is a challenge for Zen, but today we will not discuss about this,
just karma.
7

The prayer is so noble Vow all sentient and insentient beings to attain
Buddhahood. That means the prayer has no discrimination, everything is treated
equally. If we sincerely vow all sentient and insentient beings to achieve
Buddhahood, in future, our enlightenment path would be perfect. This is the realm
of all Saints; therefore, it is beyond our limited understanding and awareness. Only
Saints can understand how plants and sand could be enlightened.
We should neither ask for explanation nor curious. The only way for us is to
try hard to practise and then we would be able to understand the greatness beyond
any words of that prayer, one day.
When I was a kid, I often got sick and often went to see the doctor. I was
surprised that most doctors were so healthy and very good looking too. It is still
true. According to karma, nothing is random. Good doctors are always in good
health because they have always wanted their patients to be healthy. Though they
may have created bad karma in their previous lives, but now as doctors, they have
gained much more blessings as they treat their patients well and always wish their
patients to recover quickly.
For some doctors, though in their past lives, they may have been a General,
who had killed many people at war, but this live, they became doctors to cure
many people. Why is that so? It is a secret of reincarnation cycle, or, we may say,
of Ksitigarbha Sutra. Although Ksitigarbha Sutra was not originated from India
but from China, the Sutra is excellent. When beings committed evil sins, they
would be reborn in hell after death. In hell, their spirits would be tortured and
imprisoned. However, Ksitigarbha Boddhisattva would be there to save and
transform them so that they could realise their sins, remorse, and change. When
they were reborn back to the human world, they would be good people, to do good
deeds, to compensate for their sins from the previous life. Indeed, there are
Boddhisattvas, who live in hell, to help and save sinful beings.
Some beings, for example Generals or Soliders, would not be reborn in hell
because their blessings of contributing to the country. However, they indeed had
committed an evil sin, regardless, killing other human being. Killing at
battlefields, though for a good cause, but still it is an evil sin. Therefore, when
these soldiers died, their spirits did not know where to go... Boddhisattvas would
come and help these spirits to understand their sin, help them remorse and vow to
help people and save lives in their next life, in compensation for their killing
8

karma. Therefore, these soldiers could become doctors in their next lives to help
save lives of others.
Sometimes, though their repentance may be sincere, their wish could not be
true until many years later. Because of the vow, they showed their interest in
medicine since young age. When they grew up, they devoted their life to help
other and cure diseases. However, they did not have good appearance because they
still had to pay for their bad karma of killing other human beings during war. The
law of Cause and Effect is very fair, objective, and miraculous: Rewards for good
deeds and punishment for evil sins. The more good deeds we do, the less bad
karma we would have. Ordinary people like us could never understand completely
its mystery.
Similarly, why would a builder never had his own house, though he could
build for many houses for many others? In the previous life, he may have burnt
and destroyed other peoples houses during the wars. Although the situation forced
him to destroy peoples houses, he still had to pay. In the invisible world, his soul
had no place to take shelter. Not knowing why, he went from pagoda to pagoda to
pay homage and asked about his sins. Feeling for the soul, the Buddhism Protector
in the pagoda educated him and showed him the cause. Realising his past sins, he
remorsed. With all his respect to Buddha, he vowed to be reborn a devoted builder
for his whole life, to pay for his sin from the past.
And when he was reborn, as a teenager, when walking pass a house being
built, he was interested in the job. He quitted school to assist the builders and
learned on the job. Then he became a builder, and a contractor, building many
houses. He had been accumulated blessings to create more and more good karma.
Until the end of his life, if he had paid off his debts from his past live, he would be
able to have a house of his own.
Sometimes we do the complete opposite to what we did in the previous life.
That is because in the invisible world, we were taught about the right, our sins and
our merits, the cause and effect and we realised that When doing good for others,
good thing will come to ourselves. Like the General, as a doctor, he wanted his
patients to be healthy, he himself would be the same, and his bad karma from the
past would be paid off gradually. The builder was a similar case. He wanted
people to have proper houses, so his past evil karma was paid off.

Youll get what you want does not mean what we want will always come
true. It means what we want for others will become true for us. This is the law of
Cause and Effect, which is objective and fair, but very difficult to comprehend.
That is why we should be very diligent and careful to eliminate evil thoughts and
selfish ideas about others, to help avoid bad karma.
Those, who always are kind, and always want good things for anyone they
meet, they have sowed a seed of attaining Sainthood for them in future lives.
Those, who spread their compassion to all, will certainly become a Saint when
their blessings are enough. Hence, when meeting and talking to other people, we
should always wish them to become good people and do many good deeds for
many others. Such thoughts will help us become a Saint later on, and we could
help educate and save other beings in the future.
If we have already taken refuge in the Dharma, and in Budda, we must
always promise ourselves to have compassion for our fellow monks and nuns,
wish them everyday improvement in their cultivation path. At the same time, we
must always provide the best possible facilities to support their life and their
cultivation journey. As a result, we ourselves will be diligent in our own practice
and our cultivation path would be less challenging. If we are selfish, jealous, and
unpleased to see others progress, we would not be able to practise well because of
bad karma.
Envying a well-preaching Master, or someone who could mediate well, will
not help our cultivation path. Because such evil thoughts and acts would destroy
our cultivation path. When the mind is not calm, and peaceful, when the mind does
not have much wisdom, we could never mediate, or preach well.
In contrast, rejoicing in others good deeds helps produce many blessings.
We must share their joy when they succeed in teaching or attain Sainthood. A
famous Dharma teacher can promote Buddhism. An Enlightened Master could
help create many blessings for other beings. Buddhism will last forever because
the right Dharma is still preserved and passed on through many generations, and
human beings still believe in Buddhism because there are many people who could
be enlightened. For the sake of such great benefits, let us always pray for others
good progress in their cultivation path in Buddhism, in reaching enlightenment
and promote Buddhism further. If we could always think so, we would be able to
be wiser and become Saint in our future lives.
10

It is very natural that the mind of an ordinary person is mixed with good and
evil thoughts. Due to ego, people tend to want bad things for others. Those who
learn about Buddhism can restrain bad thoughts and behaviours. Those who do not
learn about Buddhism are very likely to want bad things for others. For example,
in class, we were ranked in the fifth place, and we felt very uncomfortable and
jealous when our friends were ranked in the higher place. We wanted our friends
to be behind us. Because of such a jealous wish, we would continuously go down
no matter how hard we study.
There is a Vietnamese proverb about gambling, its meaning is: Gambling
is the father of poverty, which would lead to imprisonment. This saying has been
passed on from our ancestors throughout many generations. Gambling means
sowing the seed of poverty. Why is that?
A gambler has only one wish: he must win and the others have to lose. That
means he wants money from the others pockets. Fairly, the law of cause and
effect will make the others money remaining and cause him losing his money.
That is why we lose everything when gambling. Does anyone in the casino want
the others to take their money? Certainly No. That is why many investors like to
invest in opening casinos. They know well that no one can be rich from gambling
but only lose all their money. So where does the money go? It goes to the pockets
of casino owners. We must understand that going to casino means burning our
own money.
Many people want to be superior to others, and they even want to be
admired and served, even from the basic things. If such thoughts exist in our mind,
believe that we would become servants one day. Understanding this principle, we
should vow to be a servant, a provider and a dedicator for others.
We may be very rich, but when we visit a pagoda, we should integrate well
with others and try our best to help with the chores such as serving meals,
welcoming guests, or even cleaning the bathrooms. We should do whatever is
useful. When we want to serve others, take care of others, we have become a
strong dedicator. Later in life, we would be able to have others help us back,
though very uneasy but unavoidable because of the law of Cause and Effect.
Like a Prime Minister, wanting or not, he must be served. That is the law
and the principle we all must abide to. When dining, he has to sit with the right
posture. His food has to be tasted before he eats. There are guards and servants,
11

who always are available at hand. Cooking a meal for him is the effort from many
people: the buyers, the cooks, the quality examiners, and the guards... He may not
want it, but that is karma what he had planted in his past lives. He had taken care
of people so well in his past lives, and in this live, others have to serve him back.
There are things we do not want but have to accept because of the very fair and
objective law the law of Cause and Effect. However, we, Buddhists, must only
want to serve, because serving others is the most effective way of creating more
blessings, and serving others is the best offerings of all in Buddhism.
Here is another example. When someone thinks so badly about others, that
their past karma caused them to want a person to disappear from the world. Have
you ever been in such a situation? What do you want for the person whom you
hate? e.g. A stroke at midnight, a traffic accident, struck by lightning... the person
no longer exists. However, in reality, nothing has yet happened to the other person
yet, but you have already suffered due to your bad karma.
There are many reasons why someone would die at young age and one of
them could be because of bad karma. I repeated the question again: Have you ever
wanted someone to die? If the answer is yes, you must know that your mind is so
evil and sinful. Such evil thought is so dangerous because the karma will bring
back to you what you want for others.
Now, let us discuss another scenario: in a pagoda. All monks and nuns are
taken care of and taught by the same Master. The Master always wants everyone
to have compassion for each other and help each other with their cultivation path.
He wants to see his disciples to progress further and improve every day. He cannot
live forever to teach them, to protect and to promote Buddhism. Hence, he wants
his disciples to make great efforts in practice and then they can take over the most
important responsibility. However, though his intention is good, there still are bad
and good disciples. There is competition between he disciples. There is only one
pagoda so there could only be one leader, one Master.
By now, we should understand that evil mind always leads us to do bad
things. And as I have said, karma is very fair. Once we want the others to leave,
the people who really have to leave are actually us. If we always want our brothers
to live in harmony and practise diligently, whoever is the greatest disciple would
be able to become the Head. The rest should serve the new leader happily. Again,
karma is very precise and fair.
12

Therefore, it is very painful for me to know that my disciples are jealous of

each other, and are competitive with each other. When we wish something bad for
others, it will eventually happen to us. Please remember that! If we want someone
to be insulted, the same thing will happen to us. If we want others to be
imprisoned, the same thing will happen to us. If we want others to be expelled
from the pagoda, the same thing will happen to us.
Remember that bad and evil thoughts can spread very well and very fast. At
first, only one person has the thought, but then many others will know about that
thought and spread it on. It will spread very rapidly.
Usually, women tend to be jealous of each others appearance. They feel
uncomfortable and jealous to see someone more beautiful than them. They would
want the other person to get older and get ugly quickly. Again, they would suffer
with the same bad consequence: being old and ugly themselves. The lesson here is
that if you want to be younger and forever beautiful, always wish others the same
thing.
Today, we have discussed the topic Youll get what you want with the
hope that everyone can control their thoughts about others. What we want for
others, good or bad, all should come from our ethics. Those with great compassion
and high ethical standard will always think well for others, for peoples happiness,
because that is also their happiness. Though they are still bound by the cycle of
birth and death, their life would be better and better life after life, until Sainthood.
Those with anger, ignorance, selfishness, jealousy, cruelty and who always
want bad things for others will suffer. If we are that type of people, we will be
reborn in bad situations, and hard life will prevent us from enlightenment.
We must control our wants, our thoughts and be prudent when thinking or
wanting something for others. Some wishes are small, but some are quite big.
What are they really? For example, the want of two women, who want each other
to be old and ugly quickly, is small because there is no damage. However, the
want of people who participate in wars is completely different. This side always
wants the other side to be collapsed and destroyed early. Bad karma in this
situation will lead to very catastrophic consequences.
We know that a bombing incident will cause casualties and extreme
unhappiness. It actually proves an evil want from different powerful forces. Such
13

wants are extremely cruel and fierce, and the consequences are so catastrophic.
Wars, hence, will never end. Humans forever would suffer... broken homes,
orphaned children. Evil things like this keep going in circle: so until when would
the world be completely peaceful?
Now, if we want to make the world a peaceful place, let us together build a
generous and holy vow. A holy vow firstly must be a right one. School should be
the first cradle to nurture good, unselfish, and kind-hearted wishes. Teachers
should be the leaders of the good path and parents are the guides. If, from their
childhood, children could have unselfish wishes, the benefits later on would be so
great. If all children in the world can have such good wishes, this planet will soon
be a happy and peaceful heaven.
It is common that we could not guide our children to have completely pure
and holy wishes since their childhood. Therefore, when growing up, they would
want everything. Among their wishes, there would be many bad ones for other
beings, and deep down in their mind, there are still greed, anger, selfishness,
jealousy, etc.
Naturally, good people would have good thoughts and bad people would
have bad ones. However, if we try to meditate, try to be compassionate, try to keep
the mind pure to eliminate ego, our wishes would be holy ones gradually. We
would not harm other people. When our mind is so pure, our wishes could only be
good ones, which only would benefit for others. Knowing that someone is sick, we
would wish them well; knowing someone poor, we would wish them be wealthier;
knowing someone not have enough education, we wish them to go to school to
improve their education level; knowing someone not understand much about
religion, we wish them to understand Buddhism; knowing someone have bad
thoughts and intention, we would wish them to think differently and be a better
person... Since our mind is so pure and peaceful, bad thoughts have gone away, we
would only want other people to be happy, diligent and religious.
We must control our thoughts and our wishes well. Do not let bad thoughts
reside in our mind. If everyone can master his or her wishes and actions, the world
would be a better place. Humans would live in harmony, and there would be no
war, no killing, no hatred, no disgrace, etc. Everyone would have good karma.
When we start having bad thoughts in mind, we must be aware of them and
eliminate them quickly. Then pray to Buddha and remorse for such bad thoughts.
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At anytime those bad thoughts arise in our mind, please remember to remorse and
pray: Buddha, please help me always love all beings.
For the rest of our life, let us try to always have compassionated and
mediated mind. We must diligently meditate everyday, concentrate our minds
towards purity and peacefulness. Eventually, over a period of time, our mind
would always think of good things for others. We may not know the impacts, but
others would always feel comfortable, peaceful, and happy to be around us.
Genuinely good thoughts will always lead to good consequences and create
good relationship between beings. Once we understand the true meaning of
Youll get what you want, we must vow to ourselves that we will only want
good things for all beings. However, good thoughts only come from a mediated
and pure mind. Knowing this, we must be diligent in meditating, learning and
practising Buddhas teachings, doing countless good deeds for life, always
improving ourselves, and eliminating bad habits, etc. When we become wiser, be
more compassionate about everything and everyone, we would be always
unselfish and forgiving. When we could achieve that level, and if one wish could
become true, it would be the wish: Wish all beings, sentient and insentient, to
attain Buddhahood.
And now, let us all pray:
Wish the Dharma will be available everywhere
For the world to be peaceful;
Wish everybodys mind filled up
With Buddhas teachings

Namo Shakya muni Buddha.

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