Chua Duoc Su

In the Pali Canons, the Buddha often mentioned four types of people living in the world:

- Self-torture class, dedicated to self-torture.

- Class torturing people, dedicated to tormenting people.

- Rank both self-torture, dedicated to self-torment, both torturing people, and dedicated to tormenting others.

- Rank does not self-harm, does not focus on self-harm; neither do people suffer nor do they focus on hurting people.

There are four types of people above, everywhere, and in every country. Although the teachings are nearly two thousand and six hundred years old, they have passed through countless countries and undergone many changes. But when you reread the canon of the Buddha's teachings, you will be amazed and amused by the humorous spirit of the Buddha, a transcendent psychologist. Although the language of the world has changed, after nearly 26 centuries, the spirit and language that the Buddha used are still very new and worth searching for. You consider the four types of people that the Buddha alluded to, according to today's psychoanalytic science:

I- The first class is self-tormenting

* People in everyday life:

In the life of every human being, whether in the past or present, there is always joy, anger, love, and hate mixed together. Therefore, no one from birth to death has lived in peace and happiness without suffering once or vice versa. This is a law of human development. In other words, happiness or suffering is up to each person to feel.

If you always think you are miserable, you can never be happy. Because in your eyes, life is just a sea of suffering and you will always be stuck in that painful thought. This is the scariest way to self-harm.

The cause of suffering comes from the fact that some people always tell themselves to live this way or to live that way to please everyone. Following the wishes of others, while ignoring your own feelings, you are sure to come to a point where you will feel tired and exhausted. This is seen as a way of self-torture by some people.

Experts say that happiness or suffering comes from your thoughts. So you have to be content with reality and keep your mind at ease. This suffering also comes from the greed of some people. The greediest human being is not the greed of money or possessions, but the self-righteousness of yourself and forcing others to obey you.

For example, if your wife tells you all the time that you have to do this, that, or that your children have to listen to what your wife has to say, until, when faced with resistance from you or your children, your wife will feel uncomfortable. From there was born whining, nagging her husband and children. At this time, her mind will never be at peace, irritable, and sometimes create discord with those around her. Over time, she became a different person than before. This is like your wife buying poison to drink herself.

If you are stuck in a vicious circle, buying your own lanyard, first of all, you have to change your mind and be more loving. Of course, taking care of people is a good human quality, but to take care of people, you have to take care of yourself first. That is, to keep the spirit always happy, and comfortable and look at life more simply, not too heavy. Happiness or suffering comes from within the mind, not far away.

In the world, no one is perfect. Therefore, comparisons should not be made because all comparisons are lame. Be content with what you have. Do not desire too high so that the mind is always peaceful and serene.

All the goals that you strive for yourself, the efforts, the work you do... is not outside the desire towards happiness. However, sometimes you try so hard to find happiness inadvertently that you sink deeper into unhappiness, and the feeling of self-torture torments you. The following signs will indicate that you are hurting yourself.

1- Depends on the critics

Currently, the internet is popular, so people are free to add or remove opinions and criticize and condemn those they don't like. And willing to flatter those who pay them. So if you are a victim of this game, you should keep your mind calm and careful.

2- Can't stand being lonely

Your life is not always peaceful and happy with everyone. But you always want to be happy and find it difficult to accept loneliness.

Loneliness also does not mean being alone but locking yourself in with negative thoughts, doubts, and deadlocks in life. There are people who, even though they are with the person they love, are still extremely lonely. Simply because you do not find the same in your soul. But you should also remember that loneliness is just moments when you face yourself, to learn how to pick yourself up and find a solution.

3- Don't like yourself

When you were born, you were each created with different shapes and forms. Your body is a priceless gift that your parents gave and nurtured. So, why don't you respect yourself?

Many people spend a huge amount of money to refurbish their beauty by lengthening their legs, lifting their noses, or cutting their faces. There is no shame in your body being imperfect. This gift needs to be cherished and cared for more. You are most beautiful when you are yourself.

4- Do not accept reality

Why do you work all the time, but forever not rich? Why are you so beautiful that you can't find a rich man but have to marry a lowly civil servant? Why is that family rich while yours is poor?... When you feel unsatisfied with something, you angrily shout:

- Life is so unfair! Why am I doing my best and still not getting any incentives?

You should know that each person has a life, ability, fate, and arrangement. Life is like that, there are always injustices, but if you only see one-sidedly like that, you are not fair to your own life.

Life sometimes makes you unhappy, but also brings you happiness and smiles. There is a collision, there is unhappiness, there is resentment, you will understand happiness and know how to get it back. When you have experienced happiness, you will see how beautiful and worth living life is and you will no longer make yourself miserable.

* Cultivators of pagan religion

Is the type of person who carries a mental illness called self-torture. The ascetic practice of the ascetic does not lead to liberation but still clings to that asceticism. The Buddha called the precept of the forbidden. These ascetics set forth many of the monstrous precepts so recounted in the Pali Canon, brimming with witty humor, such as:

- Licking hands clean (doesn't wash hands),

- Going for alms, refusing to step forward,

- Do not accept food where there are standing dogs, flying flies,

- Do not accept food from the mouth of the pot, the mouth of the pan,

- Do not accept food at the doorstep, at the rice mill,

Perhaps those self-disciplined people think that the harder it is to keep the precepts, the more blessings they will get, so you are not surprised that in the Buddha's time there were people:

- To practice unethical conduct, that is to live like a dog or like an ox for a long time with the belief that because of that conduct after death they will be reborn in heaven.

Story: There is a practitioner of this type who came to the Blessed One and asked what the future fate of a perfect ascetic would be.

Buddha replied: Those who practice virtue in a perfect way will be born in the dog realm. If you practice virtuously with the belief that you will be born in heaven, then in the future there will be two possibilities:

- One is to be born as a dog if you practice virtue perfectly,

- The second is to be reborn in hell if you practice incompletely (being born in hell due to anger, because you think that thanks to good conduct you will be born in heaven, but in fact, it is not so).

You may think that practitioners are like the way a buffalo or a dog lives. This way of life was only present in those ancient primitive times, but what is it in today's civilization? But no, it still exists although in a slightly different form, although it does not have the hairs and horns to look like a buffalo like a dog, people today do more strange things than buffalo, greedily gnawing on prey more persistent than these creatures.

II- The second class of causing suffering to others:

These people love to cause suffering to people and animals. This class is not lacking in the world, past, and present. In Vietnam, during the Le dynasty, King Le Long Dinh, because of his insatiable passion for sex, contracted a disease that he could not sit. So every time he came to court, he could not sit but just lie down, so it was called "King Le lying in court". This King liked to let people put sugarcane on the monks' heads to peel the bark. Every time the knife fell, hitting the monks' heads and bleeding, the King laughed and laughed.

In addition, those who torment others must also include some people who practice evil occupations such as:

- Make a living as a butcher,

- Manufacture and trade in weapons,

- Trafficking in cigars, drugs...and much more

III- The third class of self-harm & others' suffering:

This is the type of person who has both diseases mentioned above.

According to the Kandaraha Sutra (Majjhima Nikaya 2, p.334) describing kings who made sacrifices to gods:

- There is a king who shaved off his hair and beard, put on coarse leather, oiled his whole body, scratched his back with a deer horn, and entered the lecture hall with his eldest wife and a brahmin priest. Then he lay down in the middle of the earth with a slice of grass.

The king lives with milk from the udder of a cow and has a calf of the same color, the first wife lives with milk from the second udder, and the sacrificial brahmin lives with the milk from the third udder. The milk from the fourth breast is used for the god of fire sacrifice. The calf lives with what is left of it, that is, there is nothing left. The king ordered the killing of countless bulls, cows, calves, goats, and sheep for sacrifice, and cut down countless trees to make places for sacrifices. The servants were afraid of being beaten with a stick, afraid of danger, so they didn't dare to say anything, so they just cried and did the work... That's a way of making themselves miserable and making others suffer.

Today in ordinary life, this third class is often seen in cases of unjust family gatherings such as:

Parents, spouses, and children... are not compatible but still have to live together, can't be apart because they need to make themselves miserable and make each other miserable. And through that when a man or a woman is jealous, it's terrible. That jealousy, maybe because of too much love, wanting to protect family happiness, or instinctively wanting to own a husband or wife.

When you have fallen into a state of jealousy, you always live in fear, and restlessness, and even make the other person suffer. Because of jealousy, women lose faith in their husbands, and because of jealousy, men lose faith in their wives, and marriage without trust cannot be happy. Instead of being at ease and living peacefully, then jealousy always doesn't let your mind be at peace. Day and night only thinking:

- What is your husband or wife doing, where is your wife or husband, are your wife or husband going with any woman or man?

Since then, creating a habit of suspicion, uncontrollable, because of controlling husband or wife, losing sleep and eating, is that worth it? Instead of being unreasonably jealous, it is best to worry about beauty, shopping is a better way to keep a husband or wife. If you spend your whole life being jealous, then what is happiness? People have not stolen your husband or wife, you have already made your husband or wife bored with you. Turned out:

- Loving each other is ten times as much as hating each other.

Anger also hurts you and others. If you are a person who is often angry, you bring that stupidity to hurt you and others. Forgive, not for others, but for yourself. Forgiveness is freeing yourself from anger and sadness in your heart.

The person who annoys you may be ecstatic because they know nothing! While you are sitting here, holding anger in your heart and then losing sleep and eating. Then you make yourself miserable, is it extremely stupid?

Instead of spending time resenting someone, take the time to care for the people who deserve your love. Smile and you will find life funny. And the foolish actions of others are also funny things.

Smile and you will see that life still has many people for you to love, life has many things for you to care about.

And finally, remember this:

- Except for yourself, no one can take away the joy and serenity in your soul.

Don't do anything when you're angry.

Buddha taught:

- Grief and suffering are created by craving and come into existence from love.

When suffering, you often blame external factors, blame circumstances: Because this person makes you miserable, that person makes you miserable, family situation, social situation, etc. But why is it that some people live in good circumstances but their minds are still suffering, while some people live in bad situations but their minds are still happy? In the same situation, people who are happy have less suffering, on the contrary, people who suffer more are happy less. From time immemorial until now, you have always sought to influence the world, and change circumstances, but no one has been completely happy and completely satisfied in this life.

The Buddha said, because of ignorance and affliction, you have to suffer. Because you are not wise, misperceive, not true about the dharmas, the nature of phenomena of things in life. You do not understand causality, from which arise the afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, pride, doubt, and wrong view, which lead to suffering. There is folk jokes that are worth pondering over:

- There was a rich man who went to celebrate his death anniversary at a close friend's house. After eating and drinking, seeing that the cakes are so delicious, he wanted to bring them home to eat again, but he was afraid that his friends would think he was a glutton. He then took some cakes and gave them to the servant, then winked, signaling the servant to bring them home for him. The servant did not understand what he meant, thought he had given it to him, and the servant ate it all. So angry, on the way home, the rich man went ahead, and the servant trailed behind. The rich man became angrier and angrier, knocking the servant's head and scolding:

- I'm not a prisoner that you escorted behind.

The servant heard his master's scolding and went up to go along with him. The rich man shouted again:

- You and I are not equal friends, but you dare to go on an equal footing with me?

The servant was so afraid that he quickly walked forward. The rich man kicked his ass again and scolded:

- Are you, my father, why are you walking in front of me?

The servant was confused, not knowing the right way to go, so he folded his arms and said:

- Can you teach me how to walk?

At this time, the fire in the rich man's heart flared up:

- Where's my cake?

Was the rich man's behavior like that because the servant did not go properly or because the servant ate his cake?

It is clear to everyone that the rich man was greedy for food and was born with hatred, so he acted like that.

A folk tale, but it's worth thinking about. Sometimes you don't see the source of the afflictions and sufferings in your mind such as anger, dissatisfaction, resentment, worry, sadness, etc. You keep blaming this and that, blaming this and that, you rarely see your responsibility. Because of greed, hatred, delusion, self-esteem or low self-esteem, self-love, selfishness, etc., you have an attitude, a way of behaving, a lifestyle that is not good or beautiful, or you make yourself miserable. , but you don't see it.

If you look at things, or look at others with a discriminating, jealous, envious mind, with a mind full of prejudice and anger, then you don't see the truth, and don't know, or understand what you're seeing. , listening, or in contact:

- If you look at other people with such a dirty mind, you see everyone as ugly and hateful, everyone makes mistakes, everyone is stupid even though they are actually cute, they have many lovely points, they have many good things for you to learn.

If you look at others with a mind:

- Greed for beauty when you see people beautiful so you fall in love,

- Greed for wealth when you see people rich, you like to be close

- With a selfish mind, favoring relatives and relatives, whoever is friends with you should you love and respect them, you will not see their bad.

Because you do not clearly see the nature of people and things, you have wrong thoughts and actions. Because you don't know who you are, don't know your mind, you have wrong thoughts and actions, causing suffering to you and others.

There are many people who complain because they are poor, so they suffer, but when they have the opportunity to rise up thanks to the help of others to become rich and well off, they also have no joy and happiness, even more miserable. Is it because of God? Is it by fate? All of them are not.

Because you don't understand your mind, because you don't see the source of your suffering, you blame others, blame gods, blame fate. When do you still have habits like:

- Pleasure, laziness, enjoyment, gambling, drinking, smoking, lust...

So no matter where you go, you are still poor and still miserable; Sooner or later you will also fall into a deadlock, and go bankrupt. At that time, to run away, defend yourself, or because you don't understand, you think that it is in heaven, in gods, in the year of age, in luck, in bad luck, in this and that...

IV- The fourth class does not torment oneself, does not make others suffer

These are the healthy people who do not have the mental illnesses mentioned above. You live without lust, pure roots, peaceful feeling... You will see attachment, and human lust as a dangerous disease, like a wound, like a burning pit, and will learn to live life rescue.

You practice guarding the senses, controlling the causes that cause craving, grief, compassion, and unwholesome states to arise. When you walk, stand, lie down, sit, wake up, sleep, speak, and be silent, you are all aware…” (Kandaraha Sutra). To accomplish mindfulness and awareness, you choose a quiet place to practice.

In short, of the four classes of people you often meet, the fourth we don't discuss, and the remaining three people, in life, everyone pursues happiness, fame, love ...., but most only know rush to earn money, fame and profit, because they think that these things can bring happiness. So, when you're young, you keep rushing to earn money despite tricks to compete for fame and gain, make yourself miserable, and make people miserable, then when you're old, you pour it all out to cure diseases. A lifetime of making money, earning fame, making profits, and sometimes just a few treatments, and it's all gone. Due to such a misleading goal setting, you have many actions that make you, your family and those around you suffer. Working hard to earn money consumes health, causes hatred, and anger; sad when they fail, live freely when they succeed… destroy the environment; killing living beings ... these things cause consequences when you get old, get sick, have an accident, have many obstacles in your mind...

Some people grow clean vegetables to eat, while vegetables sprayed with growth spray to sell until they have cancer, they still wonder why they eat clean vegetables and still get sick. The disease comes from the evil mind but from nowhere else. Illness is that you are paying for the evil karma you have caused. Illness is also caused by malice, an unsettled soul, an overworked body, anger, affliction, a lack of morality, and by lack of love for the life of all living beings.

The more developed the society, the more comfortable it is, thinking that people will be happier. But just look around you and see, you are jostling, doing bad things, harming each other just for the sake of fame, profit, money... That's because you don't understand the path of cause and effect. You haven't seen it yet, so you don't know fear. Therefore, the more suffering. And what you lack most now is the morality of being a human being, love, and forgiveness.

Only morality can balance material and spiritual, making you live happily and peacefully. That morality is that your daily actions do not hurt yourself or others.

You all have greed: greed for money, material things, fame, lust, greed for food, etc. Greed is an act of self-harm. Because of their greedy nature, few see their sins.

So you have to learn to have a clear view of everything, and from there you can practice every day. In fact, everything around you is still the same. Outside is still crowded, and traffic jams. Going to the office still makes you unhappy. Returning home, husband and children or wife and children go early or come back late, many things are frustrating...

But when you have a changed perspective, love, forgive and share more, it will make you not angry anymore, everything will be light, and your heart will be calm and peaceful.