B

Amitabha Buddha

In life, the matter of life and death is the most frightening problem of man. Many people just saw that and died. When living in insecurity, at death panic, not prepared at all. Everyone must go the same way, can't help it. So, with regards to life and death, what should we do?

Around July last year, I had a predestined relationship to return home. Standing in front of the sister's house just passed away, I sense the flow of birth and death impermanence, it is both cold and intense. Just the day my sisters were young, she took my hand to school, encouraged me to study. She told me about the temples, the full moon days of worship, the abbot was there like that ... At one time, she got married, I didn't know where I was. By nearly 40 years, when I returned to visit my hometown, she passed away. Her cottage is still here, the poor grandchildren are still there, only all the surroundings have changed. There are changes going up, there are changes going down. This depends on the grace of each person. Therefore, we want to build for a bright future, we must know how to cultivate good people. As a result, it is the eternal law.

So is our spiritual practice. Change happens not just daily but every minute. Those who do not promptly adapt to that change will be crushed by the law of impermanence and cannot rebuild. In the organization of our religious activities, too, if we do not evolve, do not change, we will be impermanent and rob the precious youth, the whole career of practice. As a series of over fifty yogis, some progress, some lie idly in one place, others withdraw. From the time of being a novice trainee to being ordained, ordained, progressing as a yogi in the monastery, there must be a process of change. If someone who is not smart will not keep up with them, he will be crushed and cultivated for nothing. It is because they are easy to forget, forget, let go of the lung, do not actively study, in the end time rob everything.

Practice does not go forward, just lying there is synonymous with regression then. This is a bad thing to avoid. Last year I was still in good health, a good appearance, the practice could progress a little. This year is sick, health is not good anymore, definitely the story of austerities is in decline. If you do not rise up, do not adapt in time, you will lose the monastic life. Should know the practice if not enlist, gradually over the days, it is a scary thing.

Recently, Dao Tan also stood in the morning and swept the yard, leaving 9 o'clock. Someone said why go so fast? Hurry up! 80 years, there's less left. However, one thing we don't rest assured in is that no one can arrange his life. 80 years, 50 years, 30 years or someone just in a very short time has gone. For those who are prepared and arranged, the matter of life and death is not worth mentioning. But we have not set up, have not been active, life and death is still a dark path ahead, not knowing what will happen?

Buddha has clearly taught us his steps, we can decide. Just because we don't decide. The Venerable Master taught: "If we now master all the awareness, not being dragged by it, that is a good sign that tells us the path ahead is clear. If you keep following the thoughts, unable to control, then the road ahead will be endless darkness, not knowing where to drag us? Remember, the power of karma is terrifying, it leads us to darkness and it is difficult to overcome.

Many Buddhists, before coming to the ashram, have prepared many times, periodically staying at the monastery for a month. But only a week, the phone reported at home to have to rush. He ran in dear:

- Now people launch the road, they reimburse their houses. She could not solve the problem, urging me to go home quickly.

I told:

- I planned to become a monk at the temple, but I still have to worry about leaving the house to escape.

- No teacher, here I am passive rather than returning. When not yet on the phone, peace, according to the teacher. Now that I have heard the phone call, I feel uncomfortable in my heart. Teacher let me go home only three times, I will come up.

I smile:

- What to say three meals, if three meals that people have not reimbursed, he calculated?

- Please, please stay.

- That's all, friends about going home, when finished, then up.

The compensation is not a meal a day. Indeed, two months has not been successful, so he telephones to apologize to me. Apparently he had signed a contract with the "Impermanent Company". Just because a thought arises is drifted, never know. We should know the concept of chanting together to create energy, it has a great charisma. Karma also comes from that, if a practitioner does not carefully reserve this flow of energy, he will be unable to resist it.

You are still young, not much involved in karmic conditions, so your mind is still light. The elderly, the family is not known how much karma entice reeling. The Patriarchs taught us to use the Bat-elegant sword to cut it, but it remains intact. Because break one, it goes another, so on and on.

The Venerable Master taught that we must clean up the three actions of greed, hatred and delusion. We also vow to try our best. However, putting down greed and hatred can be done relatively, but infatuation is endless. Learning Mahayana, we see as long as completed Buddhism will shake off all crazy delusion. To the Bo-slapped prime still a little saved or to go into the life of sentient beings. As long as pure completely new delusion, members into Buddhism.

In the sutta says tu tu tu countless new lives into Buddha. Each countless lives we have, how much time we don't know, how persistent the practice needs to be. Our internal illness has lost two-thirds of its countless lives. This body really hurts, never leave it alone. Headache to toothache, stomach ache, leg pain, can't eat, can't sleep, etc. Keep busy with illness. There are people living not a peaceful, healthy month. Tell your body that we really can not master it. That is not to mention the hindrances of the mind. Crazy vision makes the mind unhappy, makes us keep living in the darkness of darkness, creating endless karma, and taking endless results. It is true that they live in constant agony.

There are months when I feel healthy, not sick. Having a happy life, having fun with the masses, having fun teaching classes, having fun working, chanting, meditating happily. But that time did not last much. That day, I saw you guys cutting ornamental plants. I went out to take a walk with my stick. So I had pain in my leg, I had to pack medicine, I had to go on a walk. Obviously this body is nothing safe, guaranteed. Yet we keep on misleading that it is good, true, ours, so we suffer all the time.

Practicing is to make the clear mind aware that this body and mind is not real, don't let the karma practice lead you to follow it. From the cause of karma pushes us to life, entangled in human suffering. A suffering that without the teachings of the Buddha taught and saved, it is difficult for anyone to escape. Many Buddhists confided, when we were poor we had to suffer, until there was food to eat, so the suffering was more. Why? Because I followed him so I forgot my whole family, I forgot myself. Damaged children, playboy. He himself did not have moments of peace because of calculation, because of busy work, because of tiredness ... Now looking back, the money became meaningless, did not bring any peace to life. So want to give up all, but then the predestined ties are tangled, not want to give up immediately. Therefore suffering. Such circumstances and people in this life are not few. We are fully fortunate to be ordained monks and nuns, living in a monastery very calmly, all conditions are good conditions, so we must awaken to try to cultivate.

It can be said that illness and predestinations take up countless lives first. Buddha said tu tu tu countless countless enlightenment, and we cultivate four, five, six, seven ... countless lifetimes, do not know if it can be successful? So right here has the opportunity to wake up, realize how true it is with so much affliction, sometimes that cross cuts the source of delusion. On the contrary, if not awake, then keep rolling in samsara depression, do not know when to ever get out.

In the past, the Bodhisattva Siddhartha also had moments of impotence. Why? Because of the pressure of the court, parents, and children, he eventually decided to become a monk. If the Buddha is not insistent, this cannot be done. And we left the house at the temple for a meal, found the tight fitting time unbearable, and immediately called the family members to tell us to go home. Practice like that until you become a Buddha. The Blessed One once lived in the ascetic forest, eating one bean, one sesame seed, the body extremely exhausted, leaving only skin and bones, a chain of bones and eyes like two deep pits. But the mind is extraordinarily strong, determined not to back down. Such misery and hardship, but never thinking of the servants in the old days, the delicacies of strange things, the enjoyment of happiness in the court. He focused only on how to solve the great life-and-death problem to save sentient beings. Thanks to such a main focus, the practice time is shortened. Yet World Religion claims to undergo three countless lifetimes of his practice to attain the fullness of Bodhi.

We nowadays have a thin and weak mind, do not focus primarily on spiritual practice, prefer to follow external conditions, then we do not know when this will be done. In the old days, the princess Da-du-da-la gave the mind to make seven lotus offerings to the past Buddha. On the way to the Buddha, she met a young man who also made offerings to Buddha. Once met in devotion to the Three Jewels, so that the relationship became husband and wife to 500 generations. That young man was the precursor of Shakyamuni Buddha. Towards the end of his life, before he attained the supreme Dharma, the Buddha, he also met Da-du again to pay off that debt. It is scary! The case is that we now let go of all kinds of things, we don't know how long we will still roll in samsara?

Many monks say so much that they let go of the lung. Seeing everyone loved them all, and then they saw that everyone hated them. Curious! Like a ghost. So how do tu? Tu means correction. That's all. Knowing yourself letting go, insecure then try to remind the mind, diligence. Must remember the karma once surrounded, can not fight back. Now that he has not yet prepared for a strong force, no one will help tomorrow. Misery or happiness is due to you, not anyone else. Running outside, they were dragged into a haunted house. If you stop, you will be destined to live in a real place.

Through examples, events ahead, giving us lessons to learn. In the old days, the Venerable taught: "Whether we can cut it or not is because of you guys, whether it's okay or not because of you guys. We brothers and sisters live and practice in conditions that are much more favorable than the Buddhists outside. Thanks to the precepts of preservation, fraternal reminders and protectors, our spiritual life is relatively safe. Buddhists or worldly people can not afford it, so it is difficult for them to elaborate a lot of practice than monks and nuns. It is said: "First cultivate the house, the second tu market, the third tu temple". We are monks in the monastery is already classy, ​​but also found it difficult. So, try hard, don't be lazy, let go of the lung.

Due to karma, due to poor practice, I cannot progress. Intellect is not sharp, create all kinds of things. In fact, shaving the head, wearing dyed clothes, living in the Sangha ranks is not the main thing for a monk. However, all of these forms are just a means to hone, bring us into order and remind ourselves to always remember "I am a monk." Thanks to that, the mind restrained unbridled abandon. If one mistakenly recognizes this form, the value of a cultivator is wrong. Because the true meaning of cultivation is in mind. We have the habit of following and getting entangled in the external form so the inner work is stagnant, unable to solve our own big problem.

After receiving the Su-gia-ta women's milk bowl, Bo-slapped Si-reached-ta resolutely abandon asceticism and choose the path of the Middle Way. He immediately spread the grass under the Bodhi tree, and then took the oath: "At this seat, if the witness of the Supreme Bodhi Bodhisattva result cannot be witnessed, even though the flesh is broken, we will not leave this place." The time of enjoying the five desires at the palace was too full, the Crown Prince was bored so he put in the ascetic forest. Over the years, six years saw no significant results, he also gave up. Thus both the path of enjoyment and asceticism do not bring enlightenment, eternal bliss. Until sitting under the Bodhi root, with meditation and wisdom, he attained Buddhahood.

By the night of 49, suddenly he saw all the life and death, all the events, the immediate phenomenon, the natural eye. Until the end of gonorrhea take advantage. Buddha saw himself, saw people, all beings, the life and death from countless lifetimes, birth and death here, what to do, up and down how, clearly see as a small object in the palm. True wisdom brightened, He proclaimed the attainment of the Supreme Bodhi Bodhisattva, no longer mistaken for the world. He said the old house was locked in there, now we break all the rafters, cut the skewer, nothing left to rebuild that house. That means the Buddha attained enlightenment thoroughly, the problem of life and death is no longer binding. He became a Buddha and came to sentient beings with the wisdom and compassion of an enlightened being.

The middle way does not allow us to live on one side. Eat not too good, not too bad, just moderate. Going to the market twice a week is enough, not every meal will take the basket to the market, it takes time. Cook from morning to noon, but eat a little is all. Speaking of eclectic, how to eat, sleep to know enough, focusing time and effort on the practice. Enough sleep, eat just enough, walk just enough, think enough. For what? To own yourself. What is too far away. Between the two extremes - losing, over - losing, loving - hating, prosperous - thinking ... we have to wake up and adjust the middle way. To enter into and develop the wonderful wisdom of each of us, cultivate successfully. Therefore, we must know the important meaning of the middle path, so that there is a balance between the two sides of misery.
The Venerable taught, "Can't eat, can't sleep because of delusion. Now let go of all delusions, eat well, sleep well ”. Arrange everything in a timely manner, not sticking to one side, not getting stuck in the other and safe in the middle. Thus the mind will unfold, the path of enlightenment is opened. Skillful cultivators live a peaceful life and die well. Do not let the fainting breath in time, call this son and his grandchildren to arrange the work. The present moment is not safe, do not say the next minute, what the road before chaotic darkness, insecurity at all.

In the sutta, the mentally chaotic person when his eyes saw the sky roared, dark clouds came. Next is the howl, the roar of fierce, terrifying animals. Because I was so afraid, I ran my head, finally saw that the bush was about to sneak into the shelter, I suspected that when I came in, I realized that I was wearing a horn and transferred to another life. Karmic retribution falls on evil paths like that. This karma is not temporary, but due to the accumulation from before, to the last minute, the mental condition of the people is insecure and unstable so they go into such a dark place. For those with elaborate concentration, the mind is always calm and sees everything normal. It rained normally, the wind blew normally, passersby were normal, and peacefully walked, then the devil chased them?

Normally we cannot build up a calm, peaceful, calm mood, until the end, how can we peacefully walk on the path of light. This point is the point that brothers and sisters must prepare, it will surely come to us. Then the people around me cannot help, sometimes they even busier. They loved them so they cried, they screamed and disturbed our feet. All these things are useless, making people lose interest, hard to go, hard to liberate happily. So the teachers often advised you Buddhists, when relatives are about to die, to visit to remember the Bat-elegant concept, to calm fears, don't cry. Because that will entice, will provoke to make people attachment, desire to live fear of death, not mastered and born frightened. Since then, we have seen storms, lightning, chasing wild animals, insecure spirit, falling into misery.

Thich Ma-ha-nam, a prince remaining in the court of the Thich family in Ca-Pi-la-defense. Due to the national leadership, the heavy work pressure, he did not study much. One day he submitted to the Buddha his mood and asked:

- White World Religion! You are so busy with hundreds of thousands of jobs, suddenly where will you die?

Buddha says:

- He kept looking at the old tree, he knew, when the branch was tilted, the fall will fall there. Checking his daily mindfulness, he would know where he went after he died. If the mind is heavy about the yard, then hell, greed, hungry ghosts, delusion, then lost in the animals.

So every day, we apply meticulously so that the secret, the wisdom present money. If you want to be calm, you must be calm, have to wake up, let go of all the thoughts of gasoline. Magazine just aroused, awake, not rushed, immediately peaceful. Do not be deluded delusion is intended. Determined, the wisdom of Bat-elegant promoted, obviously. At the same time we continue to contemplate scenes, to the food, clothing, houses, money, fraternity ... try to master. Arousing property does not follow, arousing affection does not involve, arousing the interest of real estate. In short, anything is peaceful to start, that is, to be able to.

In concentration, there is something called right concentration, which is very deep. The deeper the concentration is, the greater wisdom will develop. We have inherent intellect but predestined to wobble. The ancients compared wisdom as a lamp before the wind. If there is no shield, the lamp is wobbly. Also, if we are staggered by the whirring phenomena around us, there is no intention, like a light in front of the wind, that cannot focus light. Thanks to the shield, there are means of protection around the light. The means are gender. Buddhists have 5 precepts, keep healthy, but you 250 precepts and 348 preceptors. So oversized! However, no matter how many precepts must be kept, because it is a barrier that protects and protects the strength of the strong cultivator. Since then new wisdom appears.
The Venerable Master taught that cultivators must master the concepts. What recitation? I sit here and think about things in the kitchen, thinking about the street, thinking about my hometown, my hometown ... Now I think that I have to stop and give up. We know it is not true, just a delusion, not worth running after. And also well aware that the same concept led us to go into samsara, creating immense karma. Therefore, the concept that arises to give up, that is still. If the first thought arises I have not given up yet, the second recitation must be abandoned. Mindfulness of your head lost, but the second thought must regain the upper hand. Once mastered is a time to promote the capacity, so gradually will get used.

In the monastery there is a work program in the morning, sometimes working in the afternoon. Monks and nuns in every activity, how to promote their own mastery in all times at all times. Only then can we be happy when we live and when we die. But she still opened her eyes to see the clock, said the beautiful watch wanted to bring it to her temple, hung somewhere forever, no one could touch it. So how to master, how to be safe? Saying so we are not bored cynical life. The clock we use, but whoever uses it. Its function is to know the time, not to decorate beautifully. Know the time to cultivate, not to criticize the choice of beautiful and ugly. The teacher taught me three hours when I woke up to cultivate. The use of watches is only about that much. Also, hanging it anywhere is fine, don't be mindful of anything else.

We have spent so much time with sorrow than losing, losing small responsibilities. It was too bad, I had already lost two-thirds of the time of countless second lives. So these three countless lives go on expanding. Seeing beauty follow, losing two thirds. Seeing the benefits of tuberculosis, losing two-thirds. Seeing the taste followed, losing two thirds. Sometimes just a simple smell like the smell of soy sauce in the countryside only, also washed away a lifetime. Eat well, also drift, eat not delicious also drift. Delicious, he likes to eat all the time, if not good, he will want to cause trouble with the kitchen. Cause because of a cup of soy sauce, what else could it be so shut up. Shut your mouth and hold a bunch of afflictions in your stomach. Finally, the solution in this nostril is empty, if the cell recognizes the taste will die, see how? Any other flavors? As long as you chew and swallow, then become familiar, there's no need to choose. Practice mastering such techniques to overcome the habits you've accumulated before. The Buddha taught to recite the body, knowing that this body is temporarily fake, we eat food outside to feed ourselves, have health and practice. Do not fall in love with it and forget your career.

Back to the issue of Buddhists, the family of the husband, the children, the property, the career, everything is predestined. Being in the cycle of birth and birth has this, so there is that. As the twelve conditions that form humans, from ignorance to birth - old - sick - death. If we break one, all the others can be broken. In the endless sadness of life, now choose one, resolutely breaking. Breaking this does not mean burning a house or beating a car ... But you can use your alertness, which will promote wisdom, lead a peaceful and happy life.

As if you were using a car, now someone says you need a car, you can get one. It is the owner who is not attached to property. The same goes for other things. Venerable preached: The four elder's wives are money, affection, fame, karma. When he died, the other women did not follow, only her career vow to follow. Such legal entities, there is one should have that. This one loses, the other loses. Only true mind remains forever. However, with sentient beings, the karma leads in the three realms of the six paths. With the witness, they received and lived with a true heart without birth, without dying, happily leaving when the conditions disintegrated.

The renunciate has no family, thus reducing a tie-tied attachment, having more spiritual time. Without a family, there's no home, no career, no children, how light. Around that time lo focused on cultivating wisdom. The wisdom of enlightenment is enlightened. Yet someone removed and then wanted to tie it back, really don't know what to say? We try to get rid of things out of trouble, things, external connections. Calmly disassemble, wisely disassemble, persistently disassemble, don't give up halfway. Injustice!

Chanting, meditating is just the means. Read the scriptures, listen to lecture tapes, all of them are also means. If your heart is not open, then these means are of no use. It is just a support for you alone, don't take that as a standard for elaborate practice. We ourselves have to untie and open our hearts, to master everything in order to be liberated.

What is the story of His mother Maud-continuous-receiving the rice bowl of the supreme magical offering to her, when she ate it and turned it into fire into charcoal? Because she has not opened her heart.