DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

CULTIVATE MERIT IS CULTIVATE THE MIND
By Nhất Quán

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         The phrase cultivates bless is to cultivate the mind or to put it another way, those who want to cultivate the merit first must cultivate the mind. Or to say the opposite of cultivating the mind is practicing merit because the more you cultivate the mind, the mind becomes more gentle and good, the more peace and happiness you feel.
          Most people in modern society, everyone always worries about their health status. The reason for this situation, usually due to their confusion, impatience, anxiety, and insecurity. Buddha taught that if you want to get rid of this state, you must cultivate yourself first. Self-cultivation is cultivate blessing, so in order to cultivate oneself first, it is necessary for cultivating the mind. Therefore, Buddha pointed out the important method for cultivating self and nurturing self-nature.
         In the relationship between cultivating oneself and doing good deeds, the first thing is to know, to have the knowledge, the practice is practical. In the cultivate has to practice, in the practice has the cultivated. So-called the cultivation and practice of union, these two actions like the palm and back of the hand.
        According to the Buddhist conception, living in the world, all affliction and melancholy are born of the mind. So, the Buddha proposed the rules of conduct that are the supreme wisdom that teaches people how to deal with distractions from the outside world that affect their inner self world.
         Understand and practicing the Buddha's teaching will make our body always healthy, and will have a peaceful mind. The essence of the Buddha's teaching lies in the fact that the mind is the master, the cultivator, and the practice must be unity. In this teaching, every sin or blessing lies in the heart of everyone, and if someone wants to cultivate the merit, they must first know how to cultivate the mind; Thereby requiring each practitioner and the practice to be united. By promoting inner cultivation and balance of good deed, people can eliminate their own desires and thoughts defilement. From there, people will achieve the harmonious functioning of society which we call the practicing of conscience in the realities of life. This is the way to guide people, applying basic ethical knowledge to daily life behaviors; Using the wisdom of practice replace of own desires, it is possible to eliminate the low desires of the mind  
          Only when you eliminate evil desire and lust in your inner world will you be considered a person who cultivates blessings. With this kind heart, you can help other people in the community, in society, that's why the ancients often taught:
          - Cultivate yourself, control your family, rule the country, make the world peace. 
        You cultivate yourself, then the blessing will be born, with conditional of blessing can solve problems in the reality of society. Indeed, it is only when controlling your mind that it is possible to subdue the body and mind others, once you have subdued the human mind, then you can save society. And, so only when you eliminate the malice and the lust of your inner world will you be able to solve the problem in social reality. The Buddha's teaching affirms that:
          - Dharma Buddha is not separate from the world.
This is to determine that, your cultivation is essential for real life. So, in order to be blessed, you have to: 
          - Making virtue, establishing merit, making a speech, establishing virtue    
        Establishing virtue, establishing merit, establish conduct, and establish goals is to establish a path of cultivating, accumulation of merit, and the fruit ... is the highest realm where the ancients achieved their human values. Buddha used his whole life to perform the highest value of human life. Before the Buddha entered nirvana, among his disciples, reverence Ananda asked Buddha for advice. The Buddha said with confidence and optimism that:
          - What I need to teach, I have already taught it.
          From the Buddha's teaching in the Sutra, the disciples had to take the Dharma as their refugee, until the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, that sentence became a sentence:
          - After Tathagata passed away, all of you must take the teachings and precepts as teachers.
          The highest level of merit is cultivating the mind and nourish self-nature, keeping inner peace. In this way, no matter what you face, you must not be in a hurry and worry but have to keep the inner peace in yourself
          - No disorder, no worry, no hurry nor slow. Although all things change, but not so that you lost your self-master.  
           Therefore Buddha taught::
          - Practicing blessed not only knows alms-giving, offer, volunteer work, but also cultivates the body and mind.
The origin of good or evil is in your mind, if in busy life you can not leave a peaceful corner for the mind, that deep defilement and worries will make you tired, and the difficulty in behaving with those around you. Therefore Buddhism supposes that those who want to cultivate merit have to serene the mind. If you want to serene the mind, you need to get rid of the impatience, and first, you have to realize:
          - For all resentful emotions just need to follow nature, do not need to pay too much attention to them, the natural mind and body will be generous, and you can master yourself. 
          According to the interpretation of the experience in the practice, the narrow-heart people only limit their lives in a small space, often taciturn, less happy. Meanwhile, people with a generous heart, their world will be more generous than other people. That is why The Most Venerable supposes that in order to be open-minded, they must first understand the simplicity, similar to the natural conception that Buddhism often mentions. Simple to accomplish great things, or backward to advance; That means condescending to everything to practice your great aspirations.
          A human life, at most it is only a hundred years going quickly, why do people pursue things like the clouds flying, in fact, that is a burden that makes their body and mind tired?
          That is because inwardly their mind lack a simple human attitude. They are bound in the network of money, status, and achievements, so they become entangled with the consequences of suffering. As a person who cultivates merit and blesses, you should enjoy a simple mind and pursue a simple life. Therefore, you should soon wake up:   
          - One is that just by realizing the nature of the mind, the nature of that mind is honesty. The highest point in people's minds is conscience. Then you can be diligent every day, and reach the realm of sages, Bodhisattvas, or Buddhas.     
          The second is cultivating and practice unity. That means you know the beginning of your action; This action is the result of understanding, should be consistent with the scope of morality. That is, you are correcting and adjusting yourself to suit the honest path. Therefore, understanding and action will merge. In other words, cultivating and practice unity.
       In the Eightfold Paths, from the Right View to the Right concentration of Buddhism, Everything is also to say that sincerity is the essence of the mind; everyone wishes to return to the original sincerity mind, that is, it's inherent position is sincerity. Here, you simply keep your integrity, because the mind of the person from the beginning was honest.
          In this world there are only two things, one is true and two are false. The pursuit of sincerity must certainly be honest, the pursuit of deception will certain be artificial. Between real and fake, it shows not only your attitude towards people but also your self-awareness. To judge a person's mental state is good or not, the simplest standard is that:
          - In wealthy terms, do what a rich person should do
        - In poor conditions, do what a poor person should do, not a leisurely person should do what you should do.
          - In the case of tribulation, work should be done by the victims. So, in the  philosophy of the religion of the ancients taught:
          - The Gentleman is usually in the religion, understanding the destiny,  knowing enough and keeping the ordinary; So, no matter where you are, depending on your circumstances and living peacefully, everything comes naturally to you.
          That is to say, regardless of the circumstances, whether rich, poor, convenient, adversity you can keep the mind free, equanimity. You can find joy in your soul and can keep a strong interior. By doing this, you can be considered to cultivate the bless and have a healthy soul. If you want to attain such a state of mind and spirit, then you must go through two words: Cultivate and practice.
          The reason, there are so many people who do not feel happy in current; one of the main reasons is that the vast majority of people do not understand what cultivate and practice is; So, they do not care to take care of their mind.
          The mind is the touch instrument of happiness, and the state of a healthy and good mind is the direct source of happiness. Many of us are unaware of the operating mechanism of mind and completely ambiguous about the relationship between mind and the real life of society. Therefore, they just left the garden of mind year-round wild grasses to grow. This is like cutting yourself off the connection between you and happiness that already has existed in nature.
          So, talking about cultivating and creating merit, what do we do end up with?
          The answer: The most important thing is to cultivate the mind of man.
        Someone said that it is easy to know and to do is difficult. Understanding logic is easy, but the practice is very difficult. Someone said that knowing is difficult, doing is easy. It is very difficult to comprehend morality, practice is easier. Actually, understanding morality is important, but it is even more important to put it into practice. Therefore, in order to have a good and abundant life of virtue, you must first know how to cultivate the mind and nourishment  self-nature every day in this rule:
          - Living in your life you must have cultivated mind, and know-how to nourish the self-nature.
          Don't be lazy about yourself, like flowing water, bring away the duckweed; Under the circumstances, do not know how to strive, and then later you have to regret it. Therefore, firstly you must practice:
          1. Patience
          Patience can nourish virtue
          Everyone's life will encounter unfavorable, unsatisfactory things, at that time you definitely need to be patient. Because from the past until now, the person who can do great things, must be the person of a great will, the person who has a great temperament has patience. Patience are not weak, soft, or run away but patience here is a kind of accumulative type of good energy. People with patience will usually not make mistakes that are temporarily caused.  
          2. Goodness
          Goodness produce merit
         Intelligence is a kind of gift from Heaven, while goodness is the kind of morality of your choice. Goodness is the best kind of morality of the worldly person. The goodness may not get you everything you wish,  but it will help you always stay inner peaceful mind.
          3. Joy
          Joy can nourish the beauty
        The joy, cheerful, vivacious mood is the secret of longevity of people. The best way to maintain your youth, youthful is always kept for yourself an inner joy and comfort. Man is not because of old but stopped playing with fun, but because of play with fun but not old. Smiling is the best way to make people beautiful, the simplest and quickest way to connect people together.
          4. Gentle
          Gentle can nourish the mind!
         Why are there middle-aged people with kindness, and gentle face while others have violent faces, full of resentment? People with a ferocious face, because in their hearts are always filled with hatred, anger; Meanwhile, those who have a kind and gentle face, because they are always compassionate, maintain a loving heart for everyone in the world. Because the human marks are the produce of the mind, and the marks of the human according to the mind changes, so when the mind is beautiful, the appearance of the person will also be beautiful.
           5. Loving
           Loving can nourish action
         The one who is filled with love, most of his movement are also filled with love. A person who is always in the heart comparison, calculating, no matter what time is often faced with problems difficulties.    
          6. Sincere
          Sincere can nourish self-nature.
          Sincerity is the most important principle in making friends. Anyone want to be treated honestly by others. So, be honest with others first, and you will get the same thing. A person who is sincere and gentle, the human marks are also presentable, beautiful; Their eyes also radiate brightly.
          7. Hard work
          Hard work can prosper!
          The ancients said:
          - Richness is due to heaven, the small rich is due diligence.
         The implication is that a diligent and industrious person will be helped by Heaven, to make up for it. There are people who make money right away spending all, but some people still maintain their financial ability. That's because hard work to be able to get rich, save can keep the money.
          8. Tolerance
          Tolerance can work great!
         A person who understands tolerance is the mind certainly vast. These people always do not compare, calculate to details, nor will it be because they gain a small benefit but rejoice. People who always calculate the details will definitely live very tired. People with a tolerance mind, who know the value of tolerance, taking a step back is taking a step forward; Take a step back is a wide sea, hight sky; Giving on will get more friends.
          When you know to practice these eight principles, all inhibitions, and feelings are no longer in your mind, and your body will then be at comfortably. However, in life, the conflicts, and contradictory can suddenly take place completely unexpected and unprepared, so, you may lose control, but you should remember the ancients saying:
          - When anger lost wisdom.
         Therefore, if you do not control your anger, likely you will probably have bad words or wrong decisions that hurt others and yourself. So, if you encounter such a case, you must remember the sentence:
          - Want to do the great things, you need to have calm.
        So, on the path of cultivating the merit, when you encounter something that can cause anger, the first thing you should do it stop all thoughts, and take a deep breath. Do not do anything in hurry, because you may regret it later.
         In short, in life, everyone must face unhappy things, anger, and annoying things. However, life is your own, how you use your attitude to treat life, life also returns to you as well. So, your own life, by your own decision, good or bad only different from one thought.
          A person know to cultivates merit is a truly intelligent person who will never be angry with others, he can control his emotion and easily let go of his anger quickly.
          As human beings, you have to know how to look at your own true life, instead of finding the fault of others, you should find your own fault. As one who knows the upper direction, and in a good direction, cultivates the merit should seek your tolerance. Having so does not make your lives going to the dead end. As you know, tolerance also contains a very profound law of cause and effect. So, when you are lenient with others, you are also seeding the blessing for yourself later. 
          People who cultivate hatred, only take grief for themselves. When other people beat you, even if you fight back, do you think your pain will go away? Or else someone hurt you, you hurt them too, can your wound heal? Therefore, there is nothing equal like you to be tolerant, let go so that the mind is gentle and has a strong value of happiness. When you know how to think like that, then you are a cultivator. Cultivating the mind is cultivating the merit, or want to cultivate merit, first, you must cultivate the mind.
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