DHARMA IN EVERYDAY LIFE

By Nhat Quan

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You study Buddhism, practice Buddhism is to practice the path of enlightenment. And the path of enlightenment, of course, wisdom is the indispensable foundation. Whether you practice Buddhism as a monk or a layperson, you must open your eyes of wisdom. You should consider how much wisdom you have gained since the day you started practicing Buddhism until now.

Some people seem to be afraid when hearing about wisdom, so they often call themselves stupid monks or ordinary monks to express their humility. They rarely talk about enlightenment. If you have not been enlightened, you have not practiced Buddhism. Here, I am not talking about enlightenment, but only about wisdom. Because wisdom opens the door to ultimate enlightenment.

Remember what Buddha taught: a practitioner must be self-enlightened and enlighten others. Self-enlightenment is to open your own wisdom. Enlighten others is to using that wisdom to awaken and warn everyone to be enlightened together. Self-enlightenment is your job. Enlightening others is to help others. Helping others is compassion. Therefore, having enlightenment means having wisdom, then having compassion. If you are not enlightened and talk about compassion, it is just an empty name or just on the tip of your tongue.

Normally, the wish of a practitioner is to direct all human beings, so you have no right to think that you practice to enjoy peace alone. That is why the Buddha in the past advocated begging for alms to sow affinity with sentient beings. If you practice but have no connection with people, no exchange, then there is no connection; then your practice is not complete. And without connection, you cannot teach them, so the Buddha taught that monks must accept offerings from donors, so that people can form a relationship with them. Because of this affinity, you and people treat each other beautifully in the spirit of the path.

The spirit of compassion of Buddhism teaches you how to bring the light of morality to everyone, so that they know the truth, do not create suffering, and always move towards happiness. Your compassion cannot be just a word, but must be concretely expressed. To show compassion, you must practice charity:

- Giving money, giving Dharma, giving fearlessness.

You must bring wealth, or bring the Dharma you understand, or bring noble goodness to comfort the suffering. That is how you show compassion. Therefore, if there is a time when a donor gives money or material things to the monks and nuns, it is called offering, and the monks and nuns rely on the Buddha's teachings to guide the donor to practice, or give necessary advice, it is called giving Dharma. Giving Dharma is also a way to use your compassion to teach and remind people to practice. The more you teach, the better.

Of the three ways of giving, giving Dharma is the best. Suppose you have one hundred coins to give, if you give one coin to each person, it will be gone in one hundred people. You run out of money, and the other one hundred people will only spend it all in one go, so that person will not be free from poverty, nor will they be free from suffering. If you give the Dharma, even if it is the same Dharma session, then whether there are one hundred listeners, one thousand listeners, or more, you will give it all without missing anyone. Moreover, after listening to the Dharma, the listeners will be aware of what they will do to end suffering and poverty. Therefore, giving the Dharma is endless. When you study the Dharma, you must learn the endless, and when you do things with limits, you only do a small part; the root is giving the Dharma. If you want to give the Dharma, you must have learned, practiced, and have compassion. Therefore, compassion comes after wisdom. Those two things are not separate.

As a Buddhist, if you want to show compassion but do not have money to help the poor, then use your efforts to help. If you have money, go to the temple to make offerings; if you do not have money, then go to the temple to do meritorious deeds. If you have money, give money; if you do not have money, work hard to console or carry things, it is also giving. If you think that only giving alms requires money, you are wrong. Because giving alms is external wealth, and publishing alms is internal wealth, everyone can practice charity.

Therefore, if you only talk about compassion without mentioning its relationship to wisdom, it will be very incomplete. In the Compassion Sutra of the Southern tradition, the Buddha taught you to love and save all living beings, without distinction, without conditions, without limits. In this sutra, he did not discuss the close relationship between wisdom and compassion, but if you understand the law of dependent origination, the relationship, interdependence, interaction, and interexistence among all things, then the close relationship between compassion and wisdom becomes extremely clear. Because all living beings are related to each other like brothers and sisters, the suffering of living beings is no different from your own suffering. It can be said that compassion can be firmly established thanks to the foundation of wisdom, and wisdom can develop thanks to compassion. Without wisdom, compassion can be just a temporary emotion, and without compassion, wisdom can hardly be expressed, or if it is expressed, it can be deceitful.

In the act of saving sentient beings, compassionate people forget themselves, experience more of the Non-self, the nature of Emptiness, and develop more wisdom. When there is no longer any distinction between the savior and the saved, then they are completely liberated. Compassion and wisdom go together and are closely linked, because from the source of wisdom flows the stream of compassion; thanks to the stream of compassion, the tree of wisdom blossoms. Thus, in Buddhism, compassion and wisdom complement each other, depend on each other to exist, like the two sides of a hand, or the wings of a bird. The bird flies far, far away, until it can no longer see this side or the other side... If compassion is compared to a dove, wisdom is seen as the wings. Compassion without wisdom cannot fly. The correlation between compassion and wisdom is very close. So when doing anything, you must consider how much Compassion is present in this action and how much wisdom is involved. Sometimes, only having the enthusiasm for Compassion without the guidance of wisdom can also cause people to suffer. Here are some experiences and stories that show you that only having Compassion without the guidance of wisdom is a serious mistake:

1- Kindness

A Boy Scout had the kindness to help an old lady cross the street, but the old lady did not want to go and did not want to tell him for fear of making him sad. She gently told the boy:

- Thank you, you have something to do, go ahead, I will wait here for my grandson to come pick me up.

Your compassion is often misplaced like that! You just think of others.

2- Parents love their children

There was a young boy who had been deaf since childhood who was having a check-up with a doctor. The kind-hearted doctor happily informed his parents that he could cure him thanks to a new medical technique. The doctor asked the boy's parents to let him treat the boy. The treatment was successful. The boy was one of the fifteen percent of people whose hearing was restored by the new medical technique. Instead of being happy, he was very upset and angry with his parents and the kind doctor. He was not told anything during his check-up; no one asked him if he wanted to hear. Now he had to listen to all kinds of sounds that he thought meant nothing. He never wanted to hear them in the first place.

After reading this story, I realized that all along, you all thought everyone wanted to hear. You thought you were knowledgeable, so you arbitrarily decided for yourself without asking them. Your compassion without wisdom was once again misplaced. That compassion only brought suffering to others.

Besides compassion, wisdom is needed to do things, understanding also needs wisdom, for example:

1- Eating also requires wisdom

I have some friends who like to go to restaurants, luxury restaurants with all kinds of delicious and strange dishes, and of course, very expensive. But they do not really enjoy it because they are engrossed in chatting with their friends at the table.

Who can talk while the music is playing immortal melodies? If you talk at that time, you certainly cannot hear the music, not to mention you can be kicked out. Watching a show is the same; if you talk, how can you pay attention to the story? So why do you talk while eating?

If the meal is bad, you can talk to forget the badness of the food. But if the food is delicious and expensive, you should stop talking to enjoy the meal and get the value for your money. That is where wisdom lies.

Even when eating in silence, you rarely really enjoy it. Because while you are chewing this piece, you pay attention to another piece, sometimes not one but three or four other pieces: The piece you are chewing, the piece you are picking up, the piece in the bowl, the piece you will pick up.

With understanding to enjoy the taste of food, you must have wisdom and know how to live honestly; you should pay attention to the present moment and keep quiet. Only then will it be worth the money you spend on a five-star restaurant.

2- Not hearing clearly, lacking wisdom

The phone in the temple rang. On the other end of the line was a voice that seemed to have lost its composure:

- Is the Master there?

A Buddhist volunteer answered the phone and said:

- Sir, the Master is busy with Buddhist affairs outside and has not returned yet. Please call back in half an hour.

The voice on the other end of the line mumbled:

- Hmm. Um, he will die in thirty minutes.

About twenty minutes later, the abbot returned to the temple. The Buddhist who answered the phone was still standing there, his face pale and trembling. Some Buddhist volunteers surrounded him and asked if he was okay. He could not speak because he was scared and trembling. At that time, the abbot comforted him. When he regained his composure, he immediately said:

- Someone threatened to kill you!

It turned out that the abbot had previously visited a young man, the son of a Buddhist at the temple, because he was infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Now his condition was in a critical stage. The abbot had just visited him yesterday and was waiting for his partner to tell the Master the bad news. Therefore, when he heard the Buddhist who answered the phone, the abbot immediately knew what the phone call meant. It was not that the abbot would die in thirty minutes, but that the young man infected with AIDS would die in thirty minutes. The abbot knew that the Buddhist was in a crisis because he thought that someone was going to kill him in thirty minutes, so he immediately explained to the Buddhist. After hearing the abbot's explanation, the Buddhist slowly regained his composure.

The same story, but the listener who does not understand the situation, does not have wisdom, will have a different reaction, and the one who understands the situation, has wisdom, will have a different reaction.

3- Clever without Wisdom

Once upon a time, there was a king who was very upset with one of his high-ranking officials. Every time the court held a meeting, this official often presented his opinions endlessly, to the point that the king could not say anything. Moreover, the things he presented to the king were indifferent and very rude.

To find peace, the king often went out to walk in the royal garden after the court session. One day, while on a walk, the king met a group of children laughing happily with a middle-aged beggar sitting on the ground. They gave him a coin and asked him to catch wild chickens in the bushes for them. He opened his bag, took out a slingshot, and aimed at the bushes to shoot. He plucked each leaf accurately, and in no time, the bushes were transformed into wild chickens. The children gave him more money and pointed to another bush and told him to carve an elephant. In a flash, the shape of a wild elephant appeared clearly before the children's surprise and applause.

Then the king had an idea. So the king went to the middle-aged beggar and said:

- If you help me solve a small problem, after you succeed, I will give you a big reward.

After listening to the king, the middle-aged beggar agreed. For the first time in many years, the king had a chance to smile.

The next day, the king held court as usual, and no one in the court paid attention to the curtain behind the throne. The topic of discussion that day was to increase taxes. Before the king finished speaking, the quick-witted official immediately opened his mouth and talked without stopping. Every time he opened his mouth, a soft object was thrown into his mouth and went straight down his throat. He swallowed it and continued to talk. The incident continued like that. He kept talking and kept swallowing. Half an hour later, he felt his stomach was full. But he still did not stop talking. After a while, his face turned pale and he began to vomit. He held his stomach and covered his mouth with his hand, and ran to the toilet.

Then the king pulled the curtain so that all the mandarins could see the middle-aged beggar sitting behind the king with a slingshot and a bag of bullets placed next to him. The king burst out laughing when he learned that the mandarin had swallowed almost a whole bag of goat dung!

After returning home, the mandarin did not go to court for several weeks, and the king solved countless national affairs. When the talkative mandarin returned to court, he did not dare to open his mouth continuously during meetings like before. And every time he needed to speak, he covered his mouth with his hand.

Our country today is in great need of good dung throwers like the middle-aged beggar throwing dung in the story above, so that the great affairs of the country can be formed quickly.

4 - The talkative turtle lacks intelligence.

Perhaps you should learn to keep quiet from the beginning to avoid troubles that may occur later. I often tell the following story to Buddhists to help them understand the value of keeping silent.

There was a talkative turtle who lived in a lake high in the mountains. Every time he met his friends, he would come to the lake and start talking and talking, making them all bored. His friends thought that the turtle didn't breathe because he talked so much, or that he breathed through his ears because he never listened to anyone. He talked so much that everyone was afraid of him. When the rabbit saw him, he withdrew his head into the hole. When the bird saw him, he flew up to the treetops. When the fish saw him, they swam into the crevices of rocks so that they wouldn't have to listen to him talk for hours without being able to leave. So he was very lonely.

One day, the lake of the talkative turtle had the opportunity to welcome a pair of wild geese who came to spend the summer. They were very kind, so they let the turtle talk as long as he wanted. Besides, they didn't stay here long and didn't mind listening to the turtle talk for a long time. Therefore, the turtle liked the wild geese very much. He talked until the stars set, and the geese patiently listened.

Summer went. Autumn came. And the geese were about to return to their old home, the turtle began to complain and blame the cold of autumn for having made him lose his geese friends. He sighed:

If only I could go with you, it would be great, because here the snow will come, the lake will freeze, and it will be very boring. I am sorry that I cannot fly. And as for walking, I don't know when I will get there; I am a very slow turtle.

The kind geese listened to the turtle's lament and were moved, so they suggested:

- Friend turtle, don't complain anymore. We can take you with us if you keep a promise.

I promise. The turtle quickly replied, although he didn't know what promise to make. Then he continued:

- I am a turtle. I always keep my word. Just a few days ago, I promised the rabbit that I would keep quiet after telling him all the kinds of turtle shells... An hour after the turtle stopped talking, the geese interrupted and said:

- Promise to keep your mouth shut.

- Easy. I am a turtle; I am famous for keeping my mouth shut; I rarely open my mouth. I explained this to the fish recently and...

An hour after the turtle stopped talking, the geese interrupted and told him to bite the middle of the log, and promised never to open his mouth on the way. Then the geese each held one end of the log and flew up into the air.

The turtle hung on to the log. For the first time in his life, there was a flying turtle. The turtle flew higher and higher, and the mountains below him were now just tiny dots. Oh, how amazing! This was the first time the turtle had seen such a thing. He tried to record everything in his memory so that he could tell his friends about it later.

The goose and the turtle flew over the mountains and then to the plains. Safe and sound. They arrived at a school at the end of the school day. A boy saw something strange and shouted:

- A flying turtle! Look, a strange turtle is flying!

Unable to control himself, the turtle said:

- Who dares to say... strange... strange!

That was the turtle's last words because it had fallen to the ground and was crushed to pieces.

The turtle often talked, but because of his lack of wisdom, he did not know how to keep his mouth shut when necessary, so he died tragically. Likewise, if you do not learn to keep your mouth shut at the right time, you may suffer the same fate as the turtle.

In short, people often say:

- The clever die and the foolish also die.

A wise person is someone intelligent, quick-witted, wise, and clever, but not in the right place, is hated by others, like the mandarin who assisted the King, instead of being respected by the King, but because he relied on his cleverness, he was fed goat dung by the King.

You should remember, true Compassion is the virtue of loving people, but love without the guidance of wisdom will become:

- Too much compassion becomes ignorance.

If a practitioner lacks both wisdom and compassion, he is not worthy of being a practitioner. Yet there are many people who are eager to enter the monastery for their whole life, practicing until death. Thinking like that is not compassionate; not being compassionate but daring to accept debt from donors, that is cheating. That is unreasonable. Entering a retreat to practice to attain enlightenment is okay, but you also have to go out to teach; you cannot close your door for the rest of your life.

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