DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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In daily life, you have to face many stressful problems, and stress is always a barrier that makes it difficult for you to do your work. In the rush, you can pass by moments like this:

- Maybe because the family of nine or ten people lives, while there is only one toilet, so you have to rush each other all morning.

- Maybe because you like to sleep late, so you only have enough time to drive to the bus stop, or share a car with other friends.

- And many other problems

These urgent needs can take up a lot of quiet time in your morning, rob you of the private moments of your routine, and push you into a workday full of rush and anxiety. Therefore, there are times when you feel confused, as if driving a car without brakes, running desperately, and praying to God to get through dangerous turns. You are always rushing to get somewhere, always busy like a firefighter, dealing with emergencies, anticipating what will happen next, and rushing to meet deadlines. Such a hurried pace makes you lose control of yourself, numbs you to work. And such daily work never ends.

If you observe that busyness, you will see that it is like an anesthetic that numbs you from feeling the present moment. Meanwhile, the time of the day ahead can give you many other heavy responsibilities, such as:

- Running an organization,

- Communicating in the marketplace….

And you may have certain jobs to complete, such as healing a broken heart or a damaged bridge. So many times, you also lament at the end of the day:

- What happened? I just went through a day of work, and I don't know anything about it!

Meanwhile, if you know the saying:

- Don't let work take away your peace of mind

And know that applying the movement of the universe in the first days of a new year, as well as in the early morning, will make things different. If there is a time when you hope for a new year to be as positive as possible, the beginning of a new day is similar. A new day at dawn is a whole vitality that awakens after a night of rest. This vitality urges you to slow down, to relax even for a moment before you start all the work in a new day. At that time, it's just you and you, so be kind to yourself in some simple way. You can stop everything and live right now, and here. Knowing how to stop and be aware of the privacy of morning habits means experiencing who you are in the stillness of dawn. And right here, in the morning, you will start everything in a new day.

Because every morning always brings most of you quiet moments before starting a new day, the time that nature gives you to feel the pulse of life and contemplate a working day in twenty-four hours. In the quiet of the early morning, you naturally feel very relaxed. Only in that moment, you can let your life be clear, such as:

- Take a shower, change clothes,

- Sit down and sip a cup of tea, then go to work …

All of those things are simple, quiet, gentle, and refreshing habits. You are alone in those moments, no matter how short, just you and life.

Knowing how to welcome the privacy of morning habits is an encouragement for you to accept the invitation of the morning to prolong the quiet moment and let the gentle space shine into life. You can think of morning routines as a daily practice, a crucial time for peaceful contemplation, like the dawn.

In Zen life, at 4:00 every morning, in Buddhist temples all over the world, in the Buddhist shrines, the lamps and incense on the altar are always lit. Tea is offered, a new day begins:

- Some people practice with a session of the Shurangama Sutra in the morning,

- Some people practice meditation.

- Some people recite the Heart Sutra,

- Japanese Zen masters start their day at 4 am, meditating and having breakfast quietly over their bowls.

Whether you choose to meditate every morning, or recite Buddha's name, or drink a cup of coffee mindfully, or start the day with gentle activities, with the intention of enjoying life, these are perfect acts of kindness.

Knowing how to joyfully welcome the privacy of your morning routine, you begin the day with a basic confidence:

- That you are completely comfortable with being yourself.

A morning with such quiet routines can make you feel genuine, simple, quietly awake, and refreshed. It is privacy that you cherish. You are content with who you are for a brief moment, completely confident in yourself. You don't have to rush through those quiet moments, nor do you have to rush through your breakfast or worry about anything.

If you don't know how to practice staying in the dawn, then even if you meditate, of course, you will face the same restless mind that you sit and observe:

- The mind doesn't stop thinking,

- The mind wants to go somewhere else,

- The mind is restless and wants to be entertained.

But if you know how to practice the quiet of a dawn, you will bring your attention back to the present moment. When you are mindful of the restless mind, you can be awake. When you meditate, you can easily take note of the haste and restlessness, and remind yourself to let go of everything to be present in the present moment gently. Just by mindfully observing the speed, you can say that you are stepping on the brake of time, in the moment you notice where you are. Only then will you know your restlessness. You will see that you are the creator of that speed, not the victim of an uncontrollable task. There are many ways to help you notice and slow down:

- Practice mindfulness in idle moments,

- Be open and kind to yourself, and even cultivate the art of conversation.

- Take a sip of water, or offer it to someone else,

- Stop to take a deep breath, and smile at your own haste.

These can help you effectively slow down your work. By repeating these behaviors, you will discover that your work is not uncontrollable. Doing so means that you are fully equipped with brakes to slow you down, a horn to warn others, lights to guide you, and mirrors to check. Gradually, you discover that instead of being reckless, even under pressure in your daily work, you can still have the courage to overcome any deadlock, as long as you know where you are and what to do.

Some of you can take note and slow down your work. Observing and slowing down your haste helps you:

- Filter impulsiveness and harm from clarity,

- Filter panic from confidence.

As you learn to stop more and more in the midst of the hustle and bustle, you are more likely to complete the work and not fall victim to haste than you are truly with the virtues:

- Carefulness rather than haste to get things done,

- Clear dialogue rather than rushing to express your opinion,

- Effective preparation rather than thoughtless habits.

With these qualities, even in the midst of the hustle and bustle of work and speed, you can develop the self-reliance to rely more and more on yourself. Observing and slowing down your work does not mean you are running away from reality, but you are being mindful in the hustle and bustle of work situations. Even when the pressures of work are high, you can still stop and be mindful in that moment, so that it can wake you up rather than lull you to sleep.

Studying Buddhism is to awaken you, which also means adjusting your personality from ordinary to Saint, from a sentient being to a Buddha. That is the path that the Buddha has gone through, the Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas are practicing, and you are starting that journey to reach Buddhahood.

The difference between Buddha and sentient beings is that Buddha is enlightened, while sentient beings are deluded; while everyone's seven-element material body, six senses, and six objects are also the same. Therefore, between you and Buddha, between Pure Land and Saha is the same, no difference. And also because of not understanding, you think that having enough money and position is happiness. Therefore, many people always seek wealth, beauty, fame, food, and sleep, but if you do not have them, you will suffer; Buddha calls that ignorance.

Buddha or Arhat, whether in heaven or hell, their mind remains the same and unmoving, meaning that the circumstances are different, but the mind does not change. Thanks to the Buddha's completely pure and unwavering mind, he transformed the Avici Hell into the Pure Land. That is the process that the Buddha experienced and achieved, and the Bodhisattvas and Saints are practicing.

Following the Buddha's footsteps, you see what causes the haste, anxiety, fear, and suffering. In today's terms, it is pressure or stress in life. Many times, you see rich countries like America, but the people there feel that life is too tight and too heavy. While the poorest people are nowhere near as poor as the poor in Mexico or Vietnam, they are very peaceful and liberated; in other words, they have understood the teachings of Buddhism and can apply them in life. On a day, they earn only one or two thousand pesos or a few tens of thousands of Vietnamese dollars. Or in India, a janitor earns about 1 USD a day but can support his family and live in peace. It is clear that their status and money are at the lowest level in society, but they are not pressured in life.

Why are you pressured in life? Buddha taught that you are pressured in life because you have too much:

- Greed, anger, ignorance.

Because of ignorance's guidance, that is, wrong decisions that guide your greed, you will end up in suffering, the root of which is the ten things that bind you, which are:

- Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, self-view, extreme views, wrong views, attachment to views, attachment to precepts and prohibitions.

Buddhist practitioners must break the bondage and first need to break the greedy mind. Indeed, the solid prison is built by your greed. You suffer because of greed, and are pressured in life because of greed. Those who are greedy for fame, wealth, and love, the more greedy, the more suffering. In the sutras, it is recorded that once the Buddha and the Holy Ones met a plantation owner who had lost his cow. He ran to find the cows until he lost his appetite and sleep. Therefore, Buddha said:

- The Bhikkhus are happier because they do not have plantations, do not have property, so they are not bound by it.

The reality of life shows that business people are in decline, in debt, bankrupt, and even imprisoned. This tragedy comes from ignorance and greed. Because of too much greed, you become confused and make wrong decisions. Greed and ignorance interact with each other. Some people ask friends for help because their debts are piled up to their heads. You are not in debt, but you want to be a billionaire to show off to the world, so you borrow up to your heads, with no room to breathe. Because you do not pay the debt, the creditor is looking for you, so you have to hide. You live under such heavy pressure, but how can you escape? Maybe the creditor cannot find you, cannot collect the debt, but the hell of the soul, the hell of the conscience is more frightening, from this life to the next, when it fills the mind, how can you live peacefully? That's why Buddha said:

- Hell is very solid.

That means:

- Layers on top of each other.

Indeed, at first you have no debt, then a little, until you have a lot. At first, no one hates you. Then a few people hate you, and soon many people boycott you. How can you live? Such a miserable life is a hell created by your own greed, and you go there yourself and live in it. Somewhere on Facebook, there is a record of a Mexican man who fishes a few fish a day, but can support his family and live comfortably. He does not practice religion, but eats one meal a day; on days when he has no money, he eats one meal every two days. You may be scared when you hear that, but for Mexicans, they only need one or two tortillas to put red beans in and still live peacefully; clearly, they are not pressured in life.

You see some scary drivers in Vietnam. The light is red, but some people still drive and cross it. Perhaps these people are under pressure in life, pressure at work, forgetting their lives, forgetting their families. You feel sorry for them. Perhaps these people have difficulties in life, so they need work and ignore the red light, meaning they ignore accidents that can kill or injure, but they do not think about how many people in their families will be affected by the accidents.

Remember, in 1975 and 1976, there was a shortage of means, but people still lived. But now, with all the means, they are still under pressure. Buddhists should think and know how to stop, why, and in the past, when they did not have much money, they could live. To reduce the pressure in your life, the best way is to apply the Buddha's teachings, do not do what is beyond your means, or you will suffer, and it will bind you forever.

Buddha taught that the ten things that bind you, that block you from seeing clearly, you must remove them yourself. One of the bonds is greed that blinds your eyes and darkens your mind. The origin of ignorance is greed. There are many things in greed, but when you put them together, there are three basic things. If you cut off one, you will lighten it. The three kinds of greed are:

- Greed for fame,

- Greed for profit, and

- Greed for love.

If you are obsessed with fame, you will be bound by fame, making you think you must have fame, and when you have fame, you will think you must have profit, and the next urge is love. That is the process of you drowning in this life.

Indeed, when you are young, you always think about fame. There are two kinds of fame:

- False fame and

- Real fame.

You should avoid false fame because chasing after false fame and embracing fake fame will not get you anything. If you want to have real fame, you must train yourself to have knowledge and morality. Therefore, Zen Master Wu-de said:

- In the midst of life, the mind is pure and clean,

The principle is like that. Your living environment is like water in a vase; you are the flower. If you want the water in the vase not to rot, you must always check the flowers. Likewise, if you want the common living environment not to disturb you, you must constantly purify your body and mind, change your temperament, constantly examine yourself, correct bad habits and shortcomings, eliminate worries, and then you can absorb the essence of nature.

Just put aside delusions, get rid of distracting thoughts, and then you will be calm wherever you are. The reflection of calm water is the image of a calm mind. A calm mind is one mind is not disturbed by mental factors such as anger, jealousy, fear, and anxiety. Just imagine a still lake on the mountain, reflecting the clouds and the mountain peaks so clearly that you can take pictures of the clouds and the mountain peaks when you point the lens at the lake.

If your mind is calm, you can also reflect the truth honestly, without haste, without distorting the truth. However, this requires a wise master to be able to train a good disciple, and for ordinary people, it is impossible to guide you. Once you have created good habits, your life will have rules and direction. But remember not to let work take away the peace of mind, the importance of self-control, and your health, both physical and mental, is important. The attitude of sharing and giving, and at the same time finding the answer to the question of what a good and happy life is, will not be difficult.

Life will also become meaningless if you cannot find the quality and meaning of the present moment. Living happily is a skill that needs to be practiced, and this skill comes from meditation and the positive response of each individual in work and life. Meditation will definitely bring you results and significant changes.

Mindfulness contributes to the stable development of the world. Therefore, you need to create for yourself a calm, leisurely environment, listen to each other more, and care more about the community to develop a meaningful living environment for yourself and everyone on a normal day. For example, today is a normal Saturday. If so, it means you are happy, enjoying a peaceful weekend. A normal day is a day that is not unusual; the mind is not disturbed by anything. You do not need to do anything big on a normal day. Just wake up early, meditate for a few minutes, quietly burn an incense stick, ring the bell three times, and then read a short sutra. Or you can skip the meditation time, sleep a little longer, then bow to Buddha or go for a walk in the park to exercise in the morning. Yet many of you keep looking for days that are called extraordinary, even abnormal, and then return tired and stressed. At that time, the body and mind cannot sleep peacefully, struggling, worried, and uneasy. Many times. It seems that most of the days are like that, work, life worries, children, spouses, everything seems to want to sweep you into the whirlpool of life, forgetting the simple happiness of a normal day like today.

So, it is said that extraordinary or unusual is both suffering, and normal is true happiness. The happiness of doing nothing, not wanting to become anything, nor needing to become anything, but having meaning for you to be you, fully in every moment in the present. You wash dishes in peace, cook mindfully, go to the market in peace, and talk in awareness. What could be more wonderful than that!

A day without a rush is as peaceful as the dawn, and a normal day is a happy day. A person is happy because that person is a happy person. Yes, in this moment, a happy person is a normal person with a peaceful state of mind, like that!

All of you should try to do this, when you open your eyes every morning, in the morning sunlight, smile and thank life for giving you another new day. Then you will see another meaningful day coming to you, even though there are many unexpected things that do not go as expected. But if you know that you are living to experience those things, both happy and sad, then you will be very grateful to life.

In short, when you are a learned person living in a modern, fast-paced, vibrant, and challenging society, you are no longer unfamiliar with the terms stress and fatigue. These things come naturally with the pressure of work, study, exams, and life goals that you cannot avoid. The development of society requires workers to think and work to the point of exhaustion, while students are caught up in the whirlpool of a huge amount of knowledge, so stress and fatigue will knock on your door immediately. Rushing and fatigue occurring frequently have extremely serious effects on health and reduce the quality of life. Stress and fatigue will seriously reduce work efficiency, memory loss, increase the risk of errors at work and in exams, and reduce academic results. More seriously, if not resolved, stress and fatigue will exhaust you both mentally and physically, causing anxiety, loss of concentration, loss of attention, loss of confidence, loss of motivation to work and study, leading to feelings of disappointment, depression, and illness. Thus, success is difficult to achieve if you are always in a state of rush, stress, anxiety, and fatigue. Therefore, when there are signs of stress and fatigue, learn how to relieve them by relaxing, resting, and increasing exercise... Work pressure, study pressure, high work intensity, worries, and calculations cause the mind to be exhausted, leading to loss of appetite and sleep, nervous disorders, and exhaustion of both mind and body.

Therefore, a healthy mind will give you a strong spirit, peace of mind, a powerful motivation, and clear intelligence to work and study. Fatigue happens to anyone when they are always facing the risk of being overloaded in work, study, and business relationships. The problem is what each individual must do to relieve it by learning how to relax, rest, strengthen the body, and at the same time solve their mental illness with the principle:

- Keep the mind calm, full of vitality, and bright as the morning sun.

- Do not let work take away the peace of mind.

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