T has the capacity to give us temporary happiness in this life. When a job is capable of bringing happiness to me, doing it is just a wise attitude. Therefore, one should practice the metaphor for others. Although our mercy is mixed with bondage, it is still beneficial. Whether religious or non-religious, love is still important.

To demonstrate how love has a strong influence on our happiness, let's look at a common example. Sometimes we find a couple who are very poor in material things, but their lives seem very happy. Between them seems to be very interested in mind. When considering the basis of the relationship between the couple, we realize that their happiness is based on love. A couple can have all the material comforts they desire, but if there is no foundation for love for one another, they have disgust, bad relationships and many suffering. center.

If there is no love between people, then it is certain that trouble will happen. By our experience, one can also see that this applies not only to the relationship between husband and wife, but also between family members, friends and even nations. For example, if a group of people live together in a community, and love one another, then they will enjoy happiness. But if they do not love each other at all, many problems will arise. Emotions of anger or jealousy will arise, sometimes leading to hostility.

If man never has anger, then there is no basis for fighting struggles. The Buddha taught that if we do not practice the metaphor for one another, studying the Fa does not work well. The practice of metta is therefore the vow of all Buddhists. Each religion has different vows or oaths, and in the two suttas and tantras there are also many vows of different qualifications. However, Mahayana Buddhism has three major vows: the first vow is the practice of compassion; The second vow is to work for the benefit and welfare of others; And the third vow is Buddhist refuge. Anyone who holds these three prayers in a pure way is a very holy man and a true Buddhist.

To say "Buddhism" is to say the attitude and behavior of a person, not about his dress or manner of dress. The difference between a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist is not a dress or a dress; It is the attitude or motivation within the mind.

Buddhists of different denominations and countries often wear different clothes, one in red, one in white or gold depending on the customs and circumstances of their country of origin. We can not just look at the shirt outside and tell someone to be a Buddhist. We can not tell anyone who is a Buddhist or not a Buddhist just because of their food or eating habits. Tibetan Buddhists ate Tibetan food, Indian Buddhists ate Indian food, and Western Buddhists ate something special for their western lifestyle or climate.

Buddhism is defined by the way one thinks and acts. But whether they are Buddhist or not Buddhist, it is very important that everyone is in love. Mind from nourishing spiritual growth and being the source of all happiness. 

Once we have seen the benefits and potential of the metaphor, we should try to develop and practice the metaphor. Although we do not currently have the ability to practice the full cetasikas, one should also try to attain the metaphor and gradually increase the level or scope of our practice. If one does not have any compassion, one should cultivate the mind by considering the benefits that the metaphor can bring, and the detrimental effects of not cultivating that good mood.

There are two types of love. One type is very intense but limited for a while, while the other is intense but lasts much longer. This type of second love has many advantages over the first one. It is more balanced, and therefore more durable.

A typical example of this kind of love is the mother's love for her. The warmth of motherhood often lasts throughout her life. The first kind of love, on the other hand, can only last for a short period of time - just a few years, months or weeks. After this type of love fades, conflict will arise and mutual distress

delivery will start.

Therefore, it is important to have long-lasting, strong, and lasting love. If love in us is intense without persistence then it will not last. Just like a heavy rain can make a lot of rivers and streams in a while. These lines can have a very strong influence in a short time, but the effect is unstable and will descend when the rain stops, so too, if we do not have persistent love, their correlations I with others will be insecure, as the initial love between a couple soon subsided. Love in us must be persistent as a river always present and persist.

PRACTICAL LOVE IS SPECIAL 

The practice of special love is practiced in the Mahayana tradition. The practice is to generate love for all beings and to love others more than themselves, not selfish or clinging.

For people unfamiliar with France and the Mahayana tradition, it may be difficult to understand this second aspect of love. However, anyone who is familiar with the Mahayana tradition or possesses positive tendencies influenced by past life, will easily accept these teachings and generate love for all sentient beings.

If we want to reach the state of complete awareness of Buddhahood in this life, then we need to enter the Mahayana tradition. It is impossible to attain full enlightenment if one does not lean on Mahayana or the Great Vehicle.

Those who follow the Hinayana tradition or the Small Vehicle can attain liberation, free from the sufferings of samsara through pure practice, but they can not reach full enlightenment without entering the Mahayana tradition. and do great things.

It is extremely beneficial to penetrate the Mahayana tradition, so we should direct our efforts and efforts on that goal.

Now that we have the precious human body and also met the Mahayana tradition, we have the opportunity to step onto the Mahayana path.

If we do not cultivate the precious Mahāyāna as loving-kindness - and do not practice these teachings, then we have lost a very rare opportunity. If a precious gem I throw away because I do not know the value of it, I lost my chance to benefit myself. Also, if you have met the Mahayana teachings without the opportunity to benefit yourself, then maybe you will regret later not to take advantage of opportunities, and when the regret is too late .

If we have encountered circumstances and time is convenient, the senses are sharp and sharp, but ignore this opportunity not to practice the Dhamma, later in life, though we are looking forward to seeing the teachings. and want to practice, also no chance anymore. Then we may be too old; Then we can be deeply regretted for not taking the opportunity while we still have the ability.

So right now, one should strive to practice Dharma, otherwise soon the opportunity to do it will disappear.

Having the opportunity to enter the Mahayana tradition and practice the Mahayana way of life is a great privilege. Once upon a time, a learned scholar of the Kadampa dictated that he would like to have divine powers in flight, or would like to follow the masters of the sciences, he replied that in his past lives he had gods. The air can fly in the air and see many things human eyes can not see. But the next time he said, if he was practicing Mahayana at that time, then the situation would be different, he no longer suffer suffering in the cycle of birth and death.

He then explained how fortunate he was when he met the Mahayana teachings and Mahayana masters in the present life. He preferred to study Mahayana teachings rather than to pursue contempt and so on, since only the Mahayana teachings gave him the opportunity to attain full enlightenment in this life. When it comes to omniscience, nature will have innumerable possibilities as flying over nothing, without the need for effort. For these reasons, the scholar concludes that Mahāyāna teachings are the most victorious.

One of Mahāyāna's primary practices is to develop a focus on the great pleasurable by directing our attention to beings. Practice and attain mental concentration by using intimacy as the object of meditation, the most successful meditation technique in Mahayana. We can use the experience of Shakyamuni to prove it.

When Sakyamuni was about to reach full enlightenment, many devils used various weapons to kill him. Legend has it that thousands of demons came to harm you to prevent you from attaining enlightenment. When the demons tried to disturb him, the Buddha developed the immutable force of compassion, so even though he tried his best to destroy the evil, he could not do the Buddha's meditative meditation. 

The weapons, monsters, and so on that the evil used to fight the Buddha was transformed into a flower by focusing his concentration on the heart. When evil sees no harm to the Buddha by these means, they try to disturb his force by transforming beautiful women.

But even if they are transformed into attractive forms, evil can not stop the Buddha's meditation.

Thanks to the power of meditation on the metta, the Buddha attained enlightenment on the full moon day of the fourth month, in Tibetan calendar (lunar calendar). If we can practice the metaphor purely, even though at the beginning our concentration is not as good as the concentration of the Buddha, we will certainly have beneficial consequences, and Finally, we will reach the immovable mind as the Buddha. 

EIGHT BENEFITS OF PRACTICE

FROM TÂM

There are eight benefits of the practice of compassion. The first benefit is, the person who practices the metaphor will have powerful merit. It is better to give birth to all sentient beings than to giving food. This is because the practice of pure heart will help us quickly achieve enlightenment. Taking food for the sake of sentient beings may have the temporary benefit of reducing their hunger, but this benefit lasts only a few hours and they also need food. But as soon as we reach enlightenment through the virtue of lovingkindness we will have the skillful skill to lead all suffering beings to the state of enlightenment as we do. Thus the metta has the ultimate benefit of bringing virtuous power.

The second benefit is that, if the metaphor is practiced honestly, the compassionate person is loved by human beings and gods. The reason for action ( or kamma)  often results in the same result as the cause. When we sow seeds of compassion, according to the law of karma, we will receive compassionate fruits.

The third benefit of the practice of compassion is that we are protected by human beings and gods from obstacles to our health, our lives, and so on. The fourth is through the practice of metta that our mind is always calm calm. The fifth benefit of practicing the metaphor is that our bodies will have soft comfort.

The sixth benefit is, if anyone tries

Practitioners with mental health drugs or weapons, they will fail because poison gas will not work. If the concentration of the mind from the place is very strong, then others can not harm it. The seventh benefit due to the practice of metta is that we will be reborn as a god in the higher heavenly heavens.

Finally, the eighth benefit of practicing the metaphor is that, in the future, anyone who sees or contacts the practitioner of the metaphor will find that it is pleasant and compelling. Again, through the practice of compassion, all our wishes will be fulfilled.

If we continue to practice the metaphor by loving other than ourselves, we will develop a compassionate mind for all sentient beings. To develop this great compassion, one must practice compassion according to the tradition of the great masters.

If we do not rely on a method as the Mahayana tradition teaches, then we can not be justified innocently of compassion for all sentient beings.

So first of all we have to know and try to practice a method of developing a metaphor that we can obtain the benefits of doing the practice.

There are three methods to achieve the realization of the metaphor. The first is the benefit arising from the love of beings. The second is to see the faults of selfishness, and the third is to remember the kindness of sentient beings.

THE BENEFITS OF LOVE 

CHARMING

If we seriously observe these three methods of reasoning, then inevitably one will attain the realization of the metaphor.

We should start with the first method: see the benefits arising from loving beings. It is not always possible to see all the benefits of loving love without studying the Fa, for example learning about the eight benefits mentioned above.

For example, we should consider the effects that the Buddha created when he practiced compassion.

Long ago, when Buddha Sakyamuni Buddha had not attained enlightenment, he was also a good fellow in all respects. But by contact with the Mahayana teachings, and especially by the practice of metta, he finally came to full enlightenment. The most important thing is to first practice the metaphor by observing how the Buddha loves others. If you want to know more about how the Buddha practiced loving kindness, we should read some of the narrative of his life. Below gives an example.

In one of the past lives of the Buddha, he was reborn as a king named Pemachen. During the reign of King Pemachen, his people suffered severe epidemics. The disease is terrible to the newly infected people are dead right away, the doctor is not cured. The result of the pandemic spreading in the Pemachen kingdom was that within a month there were thousands of deaths. King Pemachen saw that if he did not quickly find a cure, most of his subjects would surely have died.

The king convenes a conference of physicians and instructs them to make new efforts to find medication. Despite their best efforts, doctors still can not find any remedies. But there is a physician who said that in the past, this disease was cured by the essence of a rare fish, Rohita. The doctor said that the fish was only in his hometown, in a very distant sea, and for many years he tried to find it but could not. So now he believes that the fish was extinct.

After hearing this, the king returned to the palace and thought very wiggle.

The king argued that if the outbreak continued, both his subjects and his subjects would die and if he could no longer serve the people, it would be useless to retain this body. He decided to die to benefit the people by regenerating that rare fish to save the people from the epidemic. After generating a strong desire to profit, he demanded a physician who had earlier sought out Rohita's rare fish, and instructed him to return to that remote area and begin the search again.

The physician said that after years of searching he could not see any Rohita fish, and despite finding out, one was not enough to cure all. But the king insisted that the physician go immediately, and restart his search. The king also advised the doctor that if he found one, there would be more children.

That night, after his departure, King Pemachen died and was reborn as he wished, to make a rare fish that was medicinal, Rohita. Soon afterwards, the physician who began the hunt again, was surprised to see what he had been looking for years ago. The doctor rushed to produce a life-saving drug that was threatened by countless people.

When the physician kills the fish, it immediately regenerates fish as a drug to be used to benefit many people. In this way, the love of Pemachen has benefited countless beings.

King Pemachen was able to let go of the body, first as the body and then later in the body of the fish, because the king considered others more important than himself. This is accomplished by the power of compassion.

The consequence of the action of King Pemachen finally brought the king to the Buddha, full enlightenment. We should also think so, that if we practice the metaphor truthfully, we will have the same consequence of attaining enlightenment. We should make the decision to love others more than ourselves, and when we leave the meditation on the metaphor, let us maintain that love in our minds.

THE DIFFICULT OF THE SELF 

TRUONG THAN

The second method for generating the realization of the metaphor is to clearly see the fault and detriment of selfishness. From innumerable past lives, we have only ourselves, only for the sake of our own well-being, who desire to accomplish this. So, for so many incarnations we have attempted to be happy by endure all of this hardship to other hardships, but what has actually benefited us? Rather than being happy with self-esteem, this attitude only results in sustained suffering and rebirth in samsara. All the suffering that arises in our lives comes from self-love psychology; It is that attitude that is the foundation of all suffering in us. If you do this skillfully, you will see that it is not wrong.

It is very important to know that suffering depends on the mind. Without feeling there is no suffering.

The nature of feeling is the mind. Because the feeling does not exist outside but only in the mind, suffering also comes from the mind that arises. 

For those who have attained liberation such as Buddhas and Arhats (those who have defeated the enemy are defiled negativity), there is no longer suffering experience with them. Although these enlightened beings have encountered adversities and severe suffering conditions, they still do not experience suffering. The liberators do not experience the pain, because suffering is completely dependent on the mind, but in their minds the roots of suffering have been removed.

Many meditators have lived most of their lives with little physical and food comforts, yet their minds are still very happy. Milarepa, for example, is as green as a leaf because of having to eat whole grains because there is no other food. However, his mind was still so blessed that he developed an inner bliss that was not dependent on the outside.

These examples show that true happiness comes from the mind. When we consider that all meditators develop true inner bliss, we can easily accept the claim that the root of suffering is the mind that loves itself. If we have not studied and meditated on the Mahayana teachings for the benefit of the Mahayana practice, it is very difficult to accept that statement. We should realize that our beloved mind is the source of all suffering for us, and vigorously vow that from here until after enlightenment we will love others more than ourselves. my body.

In conclusion, one should strive for the arising of the knowledge that from the time of the beginning to the present day we have received nothing but suffering which is the result of thoughts that are always attached to the self. Although I have made every effort to love myself, I am still reborn in the samsara that I have not chosen.

Next we should think that now, after being exposed to the Mahayana teachings, if we practically practice the metaphor, we will eventually attain enlightenment - a state in which we no longer experience suffering. pain.

When thinking like that, arise a positive feeling towards achieving the goal of enlightenment, then we should concentrate on meditating on the subject. This is called mind meditation.

Meditation means sticking our minds in the most specialized way on a good subject. Regardless of the object of insight, it is important that we create a positive feeling about that object. In the case of compassion, to get inspired we should consider the benefits of meditation.

The way of meditating on the metaphor is different from meditation on impermanence or emptiness, and it is essential to recognize that difference.

When meditating on impermanence, impermanence is the object and the mind is the subject. We should try to maintain our full concentration on impermanence, not to lose sight of that object, to concentrate on the object in the most specialized way. In Buddha statue as well. The Buddha image is the object of meditation, while the mind is the subject. We need to try not to forget the object of meditation and try to keep our minds fixed on objects as long as possible.

On the contrary, when meditating on metta, one should try to turn our minds into the nature of love. Thanks to the concentration of meditation, the subject mind becomes integrated with its object as the metta, with the result that there is no gap between the two minds. In this way we should try to completely dissolve our loving heart instead of loving others other than ourselves. This is a fundamental point, so the difference between these two types of insight should be understood. If we know how to meditate, using the correct method, our meditation becomes very effective.

If one listens to a doctrine and does not properly meditate on the subject, then our practice will be difficult and the consequences of our meditation will be limited.

We can practice righteousness right now, that of course depends on ourselves; But it is very important to practice love for others by developing equal love for you, the enemy and the stranger.

When cultivating love for the enemy, one should consider that the enemy is not permanently hostile, that relationship often changes. A person whom I consider to be an enemy can later become a compassionate friend. Just as an enemy can become a friend or even a spouse, a friend can also transform into an enemy. When you have seen such cases of change in the throne - you are enemies and enemies are friends - then we should try to generate love equality for all beings. If we can generate love for our enemies, it is easy to generate love for our friends and strangers.

REMEMBER THE LIFE OF OTHER PEOPLE

The third way to develop the realization of the metaphor is to remember the kindness of others. We should consider that we have lived through their kindness. There are countless examples of how hard others have benefited us.

For example, the food we eat has come to us through the kindness of others: the hard work of the farmer, the processor and distributor. Clothes and houses we use are made by the heavy work of many people. Our education, our medication and even our ability to travel there by road, by train or by air, all of these benefits are brought about by the kindness of others.

Even animals are very good to me, giving me a lot of benefits. For example, cows give milk and sheep for wool. Many animals have lost their lives to give us food. If not for other beings, our lives will be extremely difficult - whether we survived or not.

As in the present life, we receive much kindness from other beings, in the same way in our previous lives. From beginningless times, all beings have played the role of mother, forgetting to love us care. Just by observing our mother's kindness at present, the suffering that she has to endure, her mother's loving care for us, we can also understand that all beings - has played our mother in many past lives - was kind to us unexpectedly.

Even if it is difficult to recognize all beings as their mothers, one should also think that they are very good in their past lives. Every being has many times been friends and benefactors.

In short, one should remember and contemplate the kindness of other beings around us in this life. We should also remember that kindness that has benefited us in our previous lives. When one remembers the kindness of others, one should develop compassion for all sentient beings.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.THE MIND OF ENLIGHTENMENT.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN LOTUS MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.30/9/2017.