DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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According to the Medicine Buddha Sutra, while cultivating, Medicine Buddha made twelve vows. This is the second vow:

- I vow that in the future, when I attain Supreme Enlightenment, my body will be like lapis lazuli, clear inside and out, completely pure. With a brilliant halo, illuminating the ten directions, all sentient beings in the darkness will see my body and be at peace, and their wishes will be fulfilled.

Based on this vow, you will see that the first vow is difficult, but the second vow is even more difficult. The reason is that you must do everything. Manifest your body like lapis lazuli, clear inside and out, completely pure. With a brilliant halo, achieving a body of virtue and wisdom that is full of virtue. This represents the Buddha's Reward Body, which can save sentient beings from the sea of ​​suffering to the shore of peace, from the place of dissatisfaction to the place of satisfaction.

To be like this, you must be truly good, without mistakes, without blemishes, like lapis lazuli. To attain Buddhahood, you must cultivate perfect merit and wisdom. If merit and wisdom are still weak, you must initiate strong thoughts of cultivation, not make mistakes, especially not offend people around you. Even if you do not make mistakes, in life, there will inevitably be many people who understand you, and also many people who do not understand you. You must wholeheartedly strive to cultivate according to the Buddha's Reward Body to develop your Reward Body, and thanks to the Buddha, your mind will be pure.

In addition to the Reward Body and Dharma Body, you manifest boundless compassion for all living beings. The Medicine Buddha has manifested himself in all living beings, to save suffering and give joy, to guide all species out of the sea of ​​birth and death, to return to the Eternal, Immortal world. The Medicine Buddha has existed in the human world; he has a body of seven elements, like everyone else. The Buddha's birth body is called the Response Body. The Buddha's incarnation is absent from the world, but the influence on those with good roots makes them live according to the Medicine Buddha, speak and think according to the Medicine Buddha. That person is considered the Buddha's incarnation because they represent the image of the Medicine Buddha in the world and preach the Dharma to save sentient beings on behalf of the Medicine Buddha. Combining the Response Body and the Transformation Body is called the Response Body of the Buddha.

The Response Body of the Buddha in the human world is very important, as is the Dharma Body and Reward Body of the Buddha. Because that is the Buddha's means to save everyone. If there were no Response Body and Transformation Body of the Buddha, you would not be able to see the Dharma Body and Reward Body of the Buddha. He would also not be able to approach everyone to teach. To spread compassion to all beings in the world. Therefore, the Medicine Buddha must have hundreds of billions of incarnations. He also has countless means to guide sentient beings step by step out of birth and death. That is the work of teaching and saving sentient beings that the Buddha has done, the Bodhisattvas are doing, the Sravakas, Arhats, and you will do.

The wish of the Medicine Buddha is that if you can visualize His Sambhogakaya, your body will also change for the better, become pure. Depending on the level of your connection with the Buddha, and which part of your body you connect with the Buddha, you will have a good appearance. Understanding this idea, you will not see anything evil; just focus your mind on the Buddha by often admiring and bowing to the Buddha statue, thinking about the Sambhogakaya Buddha. After a long time, your good appearance will appear. To do so, you must understand the sentence:

- Focus your mind on the Medicine Buddha Lapis Lazuli, often admiring and bowing.

The meaning of this sentence is:

- You must cultivate wisdom, accumulate merit, and virtue according to the Buddha's teachings.

However, in terms of practice, you see that some people only like to do good deeds, sow the seeds of wealth and prosperity, but do not like to sow the seeds of wisdom. Because they think that sowing the seeds of wealth and prosperity is easier. The reason is that you only need to spend money to give alms, do charity work, and you will receive blessings. If you want to have wisdom, you must study, practice, cultivate knowledge, and diligently practice Literature, Thought, and Cultivation. This is more difficult.

Because of this perception, many of you only care about planting fields of merit so that in the present and future, you will have wealth and property, and a prosperous material life. According to the Dharma, such a concept is not complete. Because, as experiences in life show, there are differences between poor lives and rich and luxurious situations. Some people, perhaps in previous lives, have planted great meritorious causes and are rich in this life, even though they are not intelligent, not talented, and have no abilities. That person, thanks to opportunities and good fortune, has that meritorious cause, or has inherited the property left by their grandparents and parents, or has received help from others to become rich, which is also due to the meritorious cause. However, to keep a foundation, a career, to keep that property for a long time, one needs wisdom.

Without wisdom, one can have great meritorious causes; this case is not common. Most of you have the wisdom to have blessings, because with wisdom you know what causes to sow, what conditions to support to have the blessings you desire, and how to keep those blessings lasting. You are rich for a long time, not only because of blessings from previous lives or blessings in this life, but mainly because you have wisdom, know how to continue to sow causes, sow conditions so that the field of blessings will grow and flourish. For example, you know how to make offerings, give alms according to the Dharma to create blessings. Know how to study hard to improve, work diligently. Know how to preserve money, spend reasonably, not spend lavishly, calculate business cleverly to make money profitable, and do business legally to have a stable career...etc. If you do not have wisdom, how can you know how to create money effectively and legally, know how to get rich, and maintain that wealth?

Without wisdom, you will not know what causes, conditions to sow and what causes, conditions should not be sown. If you sow the seeds of bankruptcy, such as spending money wastefully, failing in business, losing money due to lack of experience and knowledge, lack of expertise, no plan, strategy, not grasping the current situation, not improving qualifications and skills to meet the needs of work in the new situation. Or you sow the seeds that affect and hinder wealth, such as gambling, drinking, smoking, debauchery, addiction, causing loss of money, illness, not being able to work, and having to spend a lot of money on medical expenses. Hanging out with bad friends, being deceived, having your property taken away, and being incited to do wrong will cause you to fall into financial loss, bankruptcy, and imprisonment.

If you have good fortune but not wisdom, you do not know how to do good deeds, so sometimes it turns into a disaster that you do not expect. For example, if you have a lot of money, you don't need to worry much, while at the same time you have a mind to enjoy and spend lavishly because you don't have to work hard to earn money, and it's easy to get money, so you don't know how to appreciate it. Having a lot of money can easily lead to bad habits if you don't know how to control yourself, don't often examine yourself, don't care about cultivating moral qualities, and often become dependent; your will and determination are dulled.

If you have blessings but don't have wisdom, you will be limited in many ways. When you encounter difficulties in life, such as difficulties in work, in communication, in the relationship between husband and wife, between parents and children, or between friends and colleagues. Such difficulties require you to have knowledge and understanding, work skills, situation handling skills, life skills, etc., then even if you have a lot of money, you still can't solve it, because not everything can be solved with money.

You have fewer blessings, but you have wisdom; you can still have peace and happiness if you live skillfully, practice skillfully, and have a positive outlook on life and lifestyle. However, if you want to have an ideal life, have many opportunities to practice and create more merits and blessings for yourself, want to develop yourself and benefit many people, benefit society, and sentient beings, you need to have both wisdom and blessings. If you only have one of the two, your ability is limited; life loses many values ​​and meanings. When you meet a hungry person on the road and you have no money in your pocket, nor food with you, then you cannot help that person overcome the suffering of hunger and thirst. You can use clever words to persuade others to help that person, or earn money or food yourself to help that person, but it takes a while. But if you have money in your pocket, you can buy food to help that person feel full immediately. While they are hungry and thirsty, in need of food and drink, you cannot advise them to study, practice, do good deeds, give alms to sow the seeds of wealth, so that in the future they will be happy and peaceful. You must help them feel full first, then advise them to study, work, practice, and do good deeds.

Without material conditions, you will be limited in practicing good deeds; it is difficult for you to fully and completely practice the methods of giving, including giving of money, giving of Dharma, and giving of fearlessness. You cannot make offerings, print scriptures, build temples, create statues, build monasteries, support the four requisites for monks and nuns to practice, support monks and nuns to propagate the Dharma, or create or contribute materially to charity programs, public works, or social security.

In Buddhism, it is often advised that you should equip yourself with enough wisdom and blessings, which are the provisions, the necessary luggage. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas all have enough wisdom and blessings, which is why they can widely save sentient beings.

The Buddha not only advised his disciples to take care of cultivating wisdom, but also advised his disciples to take care of cultivating blessings, which is cultivating both blessings and wisdom. Every day, the Buddha and his disciples went begging for alms, wanting to create good karma with sentient beings, wanting to create opportunities for sentient beings to plant fields of merit, and at the same time, preaching and converting them according to circumstances. You have the heart to make offerings to the Buddha and the Bhikkhus to create blessings for yourself, listening to the Dharma to develop wisdom, applying it to life to increase blessings, and have peace and happiness in the present and the future.

The Buddha taught the three subjects of Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom. He taught listening, thinking, and practicing to cultivate wisdom, teaching his ordained and lay disciples to take wisdom as their career. Besides, the Buddha also taught many sutras to help his disciples cultivate blessings. In the Anguttara Nikaya I, Chapter V, Sumanà, there is a recorded conversation between the Buddha and a princess named Sumanà, who asked the Buddha:

- If two disciples of the Buddha have true faith, purity, morality, and wisdom equal to each other, but one practices charity and the other does not. After their death, both of them are born in heaven or reborn in the human realm. Is there any difference between them?

The Buddha answered:

- There is a difference. That is, whether born in heaven or reborn in the human realm, the one who practices charity is still superior to the one who does not practice charity in terms of longevity, beauty, peace, and happiness.

The Buddha's teaching is also the explanation of why there is a phenomenon of two people doing the same job, one succeeds and the other fails, because they have different blessings and wisdom. Having the same professional qualifications and abilities, but whatever one person does, there are people who support and help them, while no matter how the other person calls, mobilizes, or asks for help, they will not receive an enthusiastic response. Therefore, cultivating both blessings and wisdom is a self-respecting measure to have a peaceful and happy life in the present and future, and to have many favorable and winning conditions in all activities. There should be no notion that one only needs to cultivate blessings or wisdom, because that means losing the opportunity to make life meaningful and useful, losing the opportunity to create a sustainable source of happiness for the present and the future.

If you really have the desire to become rich and live happily and peacefully in your present and future life, then from now on, quickly invest in the bank of blessings and wisdom. An extremely safe investment address, the interest rate is not only measured by ordinary material values ​​but also has the value of sublimating spiritual life.

Since the time of the Buddha, he has advised each individual to make an effort to perform meritorious deeds with enthusiasm and diligence to bring great benefits. You should remember that even a small act of kindness has a great impact on many people. It seems that the accumulation of meritorious values ​​in deeds, words, and thoughts of body, speech, and mind will create for you a fortune of merit to enjoy, and if there is surplus, your children and others will inherit it. This is the bank of merit that no one else has. Each individual can invest, no matter who you are, where you live, what you do, or what your income is. Depending on your ability to invest in useful deeds, you will have an interest in meritorious income for yourself. Obviously, meritorious deeds do not come naturally; it is the whole investment process of each individual in practicing a life of self-cultivation, living according to the Dharma, and doing useful things for life. Just like a garden, if you don't invest in taking care of it by sowing seeds, fertilizing, and doing other steps, you will never enjoy the sweet fragrance of good fruits.

Therefore, you must quickly invest in the Bank of Merit and Wisdom anytime, anywhere. As long as you are conscious and willing to diligently do good deeds, it will be effective immediately. By making efforts to practice the six Paramitas that the Buddha once recommended, anyone who wants to practice an introverted life and fulfill the Bodhisattva vow to save others and save lives can become the most useful investor in society. These are charity, keeping precepts, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom. Six ways to practice investing in Merit and Wisdom.

Giving is the most effective method that anyone living in this world can practice. Whether you are a person with a huge fortune or a poor person, you have the opportunity to practice that vow. There are three ways to give, to share suffering with others:

- Giving material wealth,

- Giving Dharma,

- Giving fearlessness.

Obviously, no one can do without some form of charity. Even if you are in a state of poverty or unemployment, you can still give charity, share the pain of poverty and loss of others who are worse off than you, or you can help with public works by giving charity, no matter how small, if you desire to do so. Even if you are completely unable to do so, you can still be useful to others and society by encouraging others to do good deeds with your words.

You who have knowledge and wisdom in a certain specialized field can also teach or guide others in cases where they have no money or are physically weak. In general, you who are in difficult circumstances can also practice Dharma charity, such as instructing people to listen to Dharma, or practice Dharma from a certain lecturer.

Another way to invest in the Bank of Merit and Wisdom is to demonstrate by practicing living according to the principles of precepts and rules established by the community, organization, and society. The minimum thing you need to realize is that when you live according to the Dharma, not only will you be at peace, but you will also influence others in a way that leads to peace and happiness. On the contrary, it will lead to suffering for yourself and lead to insecurity, even causing harm to others. The positive aspect of keeping the precepts is to serve everyone in the desire for everyone to be at peace. The more you show good deeds, the more you will elevate yourself and be able to serve others more effectively.

The third way to express your investment in merit and wisdom is to show the vow of patience. The positive aspect of patience in all environments and living conditions is to develop the virtue of generosity. You will no longer be angry or blame others when you are not satisfied with yourself. If you do not have the vow of patience, tolerance, or generosity in such situations, you will certainly cause suffering for yourself and others. Buddha once taught:

- One thought of anger will burn down the forest of merit.

Therefore, by practicing this investment method, you will have many blessings due to a peaceful mind, no longer having feelings of anger and hatred towards those who hurt, insult, or betray you, but also trying to help them. Above all, you are not mentally shaken by the joys and sorrows of dealing with others, but you only know how to be quiet and awake to make the right decisions that benefit yourself and others. This state of mind is the pinnacle of practicing patience, transforming compassion to bring happiness to people and world peace.

Diligence is a necessary and sufficient condition to create blessings. Diligence is to eliminate unwholesome things that have not yet arisen, do not let them arise, and even when they have arisen, resolutely abandon them. At the same time, diligence is to do wholesome things that have not yet arisen to make them manifest, and when they have arisen, to sublimate them. Importantly, you must strive to do meritorious deeds and cultivate wisdom, even if the smallest thing cannot be ignored, steadfastly serving your ideal and vows.

Meditation is an investment in both merit and wisdom, which is extremely important for you when you focus on cultivating liberation. You not only strive to practice Buddhist teachings but also know how to look at things with a calm mind and think about things correctly. The right decision to solve problems can bring about more public values ​​and accumulate more merit.

You must have wisdom, because with wisdom you will solve all problems. For example, when you meet someone who is suffering from addiction, out of pity, you give him a little money; it is a mistake. The important thing is that you must guide them to a drug rehabilitation school, and then that action will bring useful value to that person. It seems that wisdom is an important factor leading to human success.

By implementing such investment methods, you will cultivate a body of lapis lazuli and become a rich and happy person in this life and the next life, thanks to the accumulation and profit from the bank of merit. To renew yourself, to make your practice become practical, you should develop the mind to enter life by doing practical work through charity or studying. If you have extra money, it is easy to help others. But if you are in need and are willing to share half of your money with others, then you are not an ordinary person. The act of sharing food and clothes is a person with a noble Bodhisattva mind. Although it is so simple, not everyone can do it. While you are in need, in difficulty, your children are still hungry and ragged, you receive relief gifts, you should enjoy them all, but you can share half of them with someone in the same situation as you. It is not an easy thing to do.

Life has many aspects, sadness, love, anger, hate, suffering, joy, gain, loss, win, lose, and many difficulties are challenging life, along with many worries, fears, disappointments, always occupying the human soul. Be brave to overcome yourself; nothing is fixed, nothing is forever. You can achieve your dreams and aspirations for the future, as long as you are confident, compare yourself with great people, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas, you can overcome and reach the pinnacle of humanity, and live better with everyone. In this life, everyone dreams:

- The desire to grow up to contribute something to their family and others.

- The blind dream of seeing the truth of life;

- The orphan dreams of one day being embraced by his mother;

- The unemployed dream of having a job and

- The disabled dream of being able to walk normally like everyone else.

Everyone dreams of living in peace and happiness. But in fact, life does not make it easy for you to realize your dreams. If you do not have the will, a steadfast stance, and do not cultivate virtue and good karma, then your dreams will just be dreams. When you lack confidence in yourself, you will collapse before the changes of life. On the contrary, when you have a great personality, when you encounter difficulties and obstacles, you will not falter in the face of circumstances. You are always brave enough to find ways to solve them and patiently wait with a clear concept:

- All difficulties are just challenges for people.

You also have a cherished dream with boundless hopes to build your own faith. Difficulties and obstacles are just challenges on the journey to the pinnacle of joy, peace, and happiness. Disappointments, worries, fears, insecurities, and boredom always come to the weak, the feeble, and those who leave their lives to fate. You always feel inferior, wait for the help of gods or some powerful being, and then live your whole life in hatred and suffering. You do not know that everything that is good or bad, success or failure in life is created by you; no one has the right to arrange or decide your life. If you do not have enough faith, despair, run away from life by committing suicide, because you complain, blame fate, and then collapse in the storms of life.

In the darkness of ignorance, you look at the lapis lazuli body of the Medicine Buddha to guide your direction, which means lighting the torch of wisdom to overcome the difficulties and deadlocks of life; do not let life pass by in vain. You do not forever indulge in the past and be disappointed in the future, but you must live fully right here and now with all your sincerity and enthusiasm to renew your life. Everything will have no meaning and value when you accept your fate and let life follow the cruel flow of life.

You can also renew yourself with determination, courage, and will, and then you can turn your dreams into reality. With a tolerant heart full of love, willing to share with others when you are in need and in difficulty. You must learn from those who know how to make noble sacrifices, know how to share sincerely, and not ignore good deeds for your sake. Unlike the actions of Thanh De in the time of Buddha, when she received a bowl of rice from Venerable Maudgalyayana, she covered the bowl of rice to eat, because she was afraid that others would see and ask for it. Unfortunately, as soon as she picked up the rice and put it in her mouth, the rice suddenly turned into fire, unable to eat. That was the retribution from her greed, selfishness, and bad habits that she had cultivated for many lives, many lifetimes that she had to endure.

Compare the two stories of the past and present so that each of you can be aware of the responsibilities and duties of human life through the Buddha's teachings. Life in this world, from humans to all species and all things, must support and rely on each other. Nothing can exist and develop apart from the other. Buddhism teaches you to love, sympathize, and share in the spirit of selflessness and altruism. Do not lower your own value, but compare yourself with noble people, great people, or moral people who spend their whole life for the benefit of others. Never be discouraged when you can still do something until everything really ends, and you can no longer function.

Do not be too afraid or worried about the future, but right in the present moment, you must be calm and clear-headed in all matters. Who in this life has not tasted the taste of suffering? Suffering and happiness always go together; if you know how to grasp happiness, suffering will not exist. Try to learn and practice according to the Buddha's teachings, you will have a complete body, wisdom, and virtue, you will succeed, do not be afraid to face difficulties, adversities, and things that are not satisfactory, as expected. Difficulties, challenges are to train your will, endurance, to be more steadfast and mature:

- After the rain, the sky will be bright again.

The darkness will be dispelled when the sky is clear, and the rain stops when the sun appears.

Through the press and television, you see and hear many noble sacrifices to help people, save lives. The most impressive is the noble act of a poor woman whose husband died in the flood, leaving six young children, hungry and thirsty for many days, but she did not hesitate to share half of her meager gift with people in the same situation. A person who is willing to help people in trouble and difficulty, while their own situation is also difficult and lacking, is a truly good person. Good people, in any situation, no matter how difficult, are always willing to share and help those in need and miserable like themselves.

Bodhisattva always appears in every situation to help and save people from suffering. As a human being in this world, who has not made mistakes, fallen, or suffered, you should not feel inferior; leave your life to fate, and unintentionally kill the rest of your life. Get up after falling, know you are wrong, then try to repent, renew yourself. If you know you are wrong, then correct your mistakes; even the sages still make mistakes, let alone you, ordinary people, how can you not make mistakes. The important thing is whether you dare to give up bad habits to renew your life or not. If you firmly believe in your abilities, there is nothing you cannot do; you are only afraid of not having the courage, lacking the will, being discouraged, or giving up halfway.

In short, to have a lapis lazuli body, that is, a body of merit and wisdom like the Medicine Buddha, you must actually start to practice. While practicing, you do not discuss how to cultivate merit and wisdom, but usually, there are three types of giving:

- Giving of wealth, giving of Dharma, giving of fearlessness.

But the key is that the mind must be pure, not attached to the appearance of giving, should not often think about your kindness to others, have many good deeds for them, should not have the idea of ​​​​counting gratitude, but must do everything. Manifest a body as pure as lapis lazuli, clear inside and out, completely clean, radiant halo, achieve a body of merit and wisdom full of virtue, like that represents the Buddha's Reward Body, only then can it be capable of saving and educating sentient beings. If you want to practice the Bodhisattva path, save the world, you must be truly good, without mistakes, without blemishes, like lapis lazuli; You must practice perfect merit and wisdom, which are the two main things to achieve Buddhahood. Understanding this idea, you do not look at anything evil, just direct your mind towards Buddha by often admiring and bowing to Buddha statues, thinking about Buddha's Dharma Body, and after a long time, your good appearance will appear.

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