Buddhism in the life of a Buddhist.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH. USAEven though they co-exist in a community and are under the influence of a certain social institution, Buddhists still have their own direction in life, the direction that comes from the desire to get out of the world. the bondage of what is most ignorant and filthy in every human being. All the different social institutions are intended to place individuals in existence in which conventional norms and standards are the measure of all human values, but Buddhists are the ones who always choose the teachings. of the Buddha as the main standard; The Buddha is symbolic of the highest value they must attain, and his teachings are direct instructions on the path to that value. There are many reasons for such a choice, but perhaps the most common one is that they see the true value of what the Buddha preached in their efforts to improve their own lives as well as those of the community. . This is not to say that Buddhists completely reject conventional values; they still admit them, but don't see it as an end. From life experience, Buddhism opens the door to absolute happiness, a happiness that is not founded by fleeting feelings of uncertainty in life or illusions of some attainment for oneself, but rather a Happiness is built on the constant efforts of each Buddhist on the path of purification of body and mind, the only path they believe can lead to a true, absolute and harmless happiness. Authenticity, for that is the happiness found in a realistic view of life; absolute, because it transcends the limits of dualistic notions of true human worth; and harmless because it is not their own happiness but that of all suffering beings. From the current state of human existence in general, with all its limitations in all the different spheres of life, such a conception of happiness could be considered utopian; However, for Buddhists there is no other choice. They don't want their lives to continue in the vicious cycle of human life: born, grow up, and then die with tasteless days spread in worries, sorrows, and ignorant demands. ever meet his own; they don't want to continue to wallow in the quagmire of ignorance, greed, hatred, which has engulfed their lives for so long; they do not want to obtain the happiness that comes from the blood and tears of others; they do not want to be beggars for every bit of peace of the giving crowd; they do not want to continue to be deceived by visions of a certain paradise to be achieved in the future, promised by so many dogmas and creeds in various social institutions. In the long night of life and death, they clearly know what lies behind so many ideals and goodwill that people still advertise day and night for the sole purpose of wanting to turn others into lifelong slaves for them. me. They don't want their lives to continue under such bad conditions. The only nourishment that can help them to survive on this earth is not the value of pre-determined models shallowly formed by narrow, ignorant minds that do not go beyond the necessities of food, but must be the true values ​​that come from the effort to unleash what is most precious and sacred hidden in every human being. At least, when they decided to choose Buddhism as the last way out from the accumulated sufferings of life, they found a mysterious door open enough to draw them in. The history of this religion recognizes the possibility of the kind of happiness they once wished for, and human history has demonstrated its value in possible developments; however, for them that is still not important, what is important is the real value they get when they start to step into Buddhism. The first value that any Buddhist can easily recognize through the teachings of the Buddha is absolute freedom in all decisions about one's own status. The Buddha is not a God to arrange their fate with judgments about heaven or hell, not a cardinal who can fascinate them with dogmas, not a political leader to manipulate them. pull them with false ideals; on the contrary, the Buddha was just someone who pointed out the path he himself took to achieve this happiness, and affirms that everyone can do the same. In this sense, the teachings of the Buddha are no longer dogma or creed that they must follow blindly as many people once thought, but have become rules, universal laws that directly govern a person's daily life and are verifiable in the course of life. Buddhists are always reminded that purity or impurity, happiness or suffering, is entirely up to them; only they can make them dirty or pure, miserable or happy. No visible or metaphysical force can interfere in their lives, not even the Buddha, unless they facilitate such intervention themselves. It can be said that this is the first and last freedom for those who decide to go on this path. The starting point is marked in the self, the final achievement is found in the self, and the whole process of achievement also takes place within the self. Their journey is not measured by the length of each kilometer, Nor is it measured by the days and nights that a traveler must spend during a journey. Absolute happiness is neither at the end of the road nor at the end of the day, but in the mind, in the very structure of the body and mind that is operating day and night of every Buddhist. If their minds continue to arise in the same conditions as they did before, they will never be able to find this happiness, but with real efforts to change it will manifest themselves. it; This forces Buddhists to make certain changes right on themselves. The process of these changes, in Buddhism, is called transformation, a complete transformation of one's own body and mind in order to attain true happiness. Absolute happiness is neither at the end of the road nor at the end of the day, but in the mind, in the very structure of the body and mind that is operating day and night of every Buddhist. If their minds continue to arise in the same conditions as they did before, they will never be able to find this happiness, but with real efforts to change it will manifest themselves. it; This forces Buddhists to make certain changes right on themselves. The process of these changes, in Buddhism, is called transformation, a complete transformation of one's own body and mind in order to attain true happiness. Absolute happiness is neither at the end of the road nor at the end of the day, but in the mind, in the very structure of the body and mind that is operating day and night of every Buddhist. If their minds continue to arise in the same conditions as they did before, they will never be able to find this happiness, but with real efforts to change it will manifest themselves. it; This forces Buddhists to make certain changes right on themselves. The process of these changes, in Buddhism, is called transformation, a complete transformation of one's own body and mind in order to attain true happiness. but with real change efforts they themselves will make it manifest; This forces Buddhists to make certain changes right on themselves. The process of these changes, in Buddhism, is called transformation, a complete transformation of one's own body and mind in order to attain true happiness. but with real change efforts they themselves will make it manifest; This forces Buddhists to make certain changes right on themselves. The process of these changes, in Buddhism, is called transformation, a complete transformation of one's own body and mind in order to attain true happiness. It can be said that he is based on the process of transformation of the body and mind, which is the foundation that determines the entire content of the Buddhadharma; or it can be said vice versa, Buddhism takes the human body and mind as the center for its entire developed content. This is the most important point for anyone who wants to approach Buddhism, because the true value of Buddhism is not found through the conventional achievements of the world, but through the process of transformation within oneself. every Buddhist. Prince Siddhartha's act of abandoning the palace to go on a quest for happiness stemmed from his own awareness of the fragile values ​​of human life; His search process is the days of fully exploiting all possible capacities of body and mind; and his ultimate achievement was the bursting of a transcendent wisdom, An intellect capable of helping him reach his chosen end is to show people to overcome the limitations of their human condition. Before the achievement of such a personality, Buddhists realize that, with the seemingly desperate existence of people on this earth, there is still a way that can help them get out of the darkness. darkness has long imprisoned them; at the same time realize that only the Buddhadharma can help them, not to help them escape the sufferings and unhappiness of life, but to help them have a correct view of all possible forms of the world. to have the courage to walk on the path to absolute happiness. Thus, the path that every Buddhist is going is also the route of Prince Siddhartha went in the past. That is the path of radical transformation of the body and mind in the inconceivable light of the Buddhadharma. Studying the Buddhadharma is an effort to turn the power of the Buddhadharma into one's own power so that a radical change can be made in the body and mind. Change from uncleanness to purity, from suffering to happiness, from unwholesome to good, from greed, hatred and delusion to non-greed, from hatred to non-delusion, from conceit to equality, from wrong view to right view, from nothingness. from precious to precious, from leisure to diligence, from distraction to concentration, from lack of mindfulness to mindfulness, from falsehood to reality, from affliction to liberation, from confusion to enlightenment, from from being to non-contamination, from conditioned to unconditioned, from birth and death to Nirvana, from theory to non-discrimination, from consciousness to wisdom, from rotten to non-reversible, from agitation to immobility, from from duality to non-dualism, from existence to emptiness, from wisdom to Prajna, from Transformation to Bao Chu, from birth to Thanh Van, That is the path of all Buddhists walking, the consistent path that begins with the desire to attain supreme enlightenment, which in Buddhism is called generating bodhichitta, to the attainment of enlightenment. To generate bodhicitta is to generate the mind of enlightenment, to generate enlightenment is to generate the mind to attain enlightenment, to generate the mind to attain enlightenment is to generate the mind to become a Buddha, because enlightenment is Buddha. A Buddhist who does not develop the mind to become a Buddha but still wants to become a Buddhist can only generate a false mind to become a Buddha. To start pretending to be a Buddha is not to put in the effort to study to become a Buddha, but rather likes to live in the illusion of petty acquisitions, momentary achievements gleaned from the Buddha's teachings, likes to think of himself as a Buddha, and likes to imitate. Buddha, likes others to worship him as Buddha. Therefore, in this world appear the crazy actions of so many people who just want to pretend to be Buddha: pretending to be a Buddha to go for alms, pretending to be a Buddha to preach the Dharma, pretending to be a Buddha to receive people, pretending to be a Buddha to help sentient beings, pretending to be a Buddha with compassion for others, pretending to be a Buddha to receive donations, using craving as Compassion, taking ambition as the Vow, using speech as love, taking bribes as profit, working together as partners, taking investment as giving, taking hatred as patience, taking tricks as Means, taking passion as meditation, taking education as wisdom, taking the hidden part as the fearless, taking the world power as the Ten Forces, taking the invasion of temples and monasteries as merit for building Buddhist statues. Not being enlightened is not believing that people can be enlightened, not believing in the great value of the Buddhadharma; that's why we seek to lower the Buddhadharma to the level of the worldly Dharma, look at the Buddhadharma through the eyes of speculators, borrow the Buddhadharma to seek fame, Borrowing the Buddhadharma to accumulate money, demanding the Buddha Dharma to satisfy the vile needs of people, adapting to worldly values, trying to cheat the Buddhadharma, distorting the Buddha's words and the words of the Patriarchs in order to save money. others do not see their false Buddha mind, breaking the sacred religious tradition of the Buddhas and Patriarchs in the minds of the followers with the intention of gaining personal cult. Therefore, generating the Bodhi mind is not only a sacred act of Buddhists to repay the favor of the Buddhas and Patriarchs with the wish to have enough energy to maintain the Buddha Dharma seed for the benefit. of all sentient beings at all times, but also an indispensable support in the path of a Buddhist. Thanks to the sincere desire to become a Buddha, Buddhists have enough courage and energy to overcome all obstacles and pitfalls of the world. A person who has developed the mind to become a Buddha can no longer be mesmerized by any worldly achievements. Any value, any achievement of the world cannot be compared with enlightenment, any great figure in the history of the world cannot be compared with a person who has become a Buddha. Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Alexander the Great have only shaken a small part of the world, but one person who becomes a Buddha shakes the whole earth, shakes countless countless ascetics the great celestial world; Only by becoming a Buddha can one be able to bring true peace to the world, to put an end to all seeds of war from the heart of man, to be eligible to restore the original human values. The journey of a Buddhist is often described in the scriptures as going through innumerable aeons of aeons, but strictly speaking in the spirit of Prajna, it is the immeasurable amount of ascetic merit that Buddhists must accumulate before attaining enlightenment. This is the most difficult and adventurous thing for those who go on this road. Once the goal is determined to be achieved only through the process of transformation of body and mind, there is no guarantee of absolute safety for the Buddhist during the journey. A solemn ceremony marks the decision to choose the Buddha, the path he has outlined and those who have achieved on that path as the refuge of their lives, once gone, if they do not make the most changes. certain concentration in body and mind that remains only in memory as one of countless other normal events that have been and are happening every day, then in this case, Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is unlikely to become a new value for Buddhists themselves. In Buddhism, this is not a case but has become almost the norm. In other words, any content of the Buddhadharma must be transformed into the nourishment that sustains the existence of Buddhists because only these nutrients can really create transformations in their bodies and minds. That is why every assessment of a Buddhist's achievements or failures must be based on his own process of transforming body and mind and not on any other condition. This helps us visualize the path that each Buddhist is walking. Any content of the Buddhadharma must be transformed into the nourishment that sustains the existence of Buddhists because only these nutrients can really create transformations in their body and mind. That is why all judgments about the achievements or failures of Buddhists must be based on their own process of transforming body and mind and not on any other conditions. This helps us visualize the path that each Buddhist is walking. Any content of the Buddhadharma must be transformed into the nourishment that sustains the existence of Buddhists because only these nutrients can really create transformations in their body and mind. That is why all judgments about the achievements or failures of Buddhists must be based on their own process of transforming body and mind and not on any other conditions. This helps us visualize the path that each Buddhist is walking. In the process of preserving and developing the entire teaching of the Buddha, the Patriarchs have made efforts to present and systematize all possible paths for all levels of knowledge of all sentient beings. on a unique path to Buddhahood. Thanks to that, Buddhists today inherit the two great literary treasures of Buddhism, the shravaka and the bodhisattva. In these two treasures Buddhists will find essential instructions for whatever journey they are taking, instructions on what to pack, on obstacles to encounter and how to overcome them by yourself. their available capabilities. Thus, the mission of Buddhists is to focus all possible energies to create transformations right in their own body and mind, not waiting for transformations from the community. They are not so ignorant that, Instead of having to have real transformations in yourself, you sit still and wait for others to change for you. For Buddhists there will never be such a transformation, because community is a simulated concept based on the existence of each individual that makes up that community; in other words, without the existence of individuals, there would be no existence of the so-called community. In that so-called community, each individual expresses his presence through the movements of language and behavior, but the movement of language and behavior of an individual is determined by his own behavior. the functioning of that individual's body and mind; As a result, it is the individual who determines the value of the community, not the other way around. From the above lesson we have enough intelligence to realize that the root of all phenomena in our daily life, and from there the community or the environment in which we exist, which is the functioning state of mind of each of us. There cannot be a truly peaceful community if the minds of each member that make up that community are stirred day and night by all kinds of impulses of greed, selfishness, bigotry, envy, hatred. There cannot be an intelligent, ethical community if the members are all uneducated, scoundrels. Even Buddhism is no exception to this rule, there is no truly pure Buddhist community, no matter what sacred title is assigned, if the members that make up that community are not pure. . This is not an idea, a concept, an opinion, a momentary perception caused by the agitation of certain kinds of ignorance and afflictions but a new consciousness founded on the real view of all existence in the phenomenal world which Buddhism calls the Dependent Principle start. It can be said that Dependent Origination is the basis for the Buddha to establish the entire content of his teachings; If there is no reason for Dependent Origination, then all other teachings on not-self, impermanence, suffering, emptiness, etc. will no longer be a rule but will then become dogmas and dogmas. Dependent origination is the principle of existence of all that Buddhists can perceive internally and externally; that is, there is no such thing as an independent arising, but all are dependent on the arising of others. In other words, there is no existence established by only one condition or not by no condition at all; if one has, the other has, If the other doesn't exist, then this doesn't. In the daily life of a Buddhist, Dependent Origination becomes the principle for all their perceptions and actions; with this principle, they get the first necessary baggage; it is the formation of a new consciousness of all that arises in oneself as well as in the world around; called new because it upsets all values, idols, ideals, and conventions that have long hindered them from having a correct view of themselves and the world. From this new consciousness, force them to re-evaluate the true personality of a person, not a personality that is conventionalized by the crowd, put on a certain label by the crowd, but a personality. as real, with all the energies, negative and positive, existing in it. In Buddhism, The negative energies are called hindrances because they hinder the path of the Buddhist, the positive energies are called the wholesome roots, i.e. those that are compatible with the path to liberation. From there, the Buddhadharma is divided into two broad categories: the first includes descriptions and instructions on obstacles and how to overcome them; The second category includes descriptions and indications of the wholesome roots that each Buddhist can develop as means to the ultimate goal. In the process of practice, these two contents are applied simultaneously, because obstacles cannot be overcome without the favorable powers; and vice versa, it is impossible to use these powers without overcoming obstacles. This shows the difficulty of the path Buddhists are walking, and explain why they have to accumulate immeasurable amounts of merit in order to achieve the final accomplishment. Take the example of greed, which is one of the main obstacles to overcome. If considered on the absolute level, greed is not decisive of its own because according to the theory of Dependent Origination, it is also a conditioned existence like many other existences; thus, just seeing its true nature as having no properties at all will no longer be influenced by it. The difficulty here, however, is that Buddhists can only see like this with the Basic Knowledge, or True Knowledge, which is the mind that reflects Emptiness or Reality, or Dharma-nature, or Equality, or As Like, or Truthfulness of all dharmas - a kind of knowledge that Buddhists cannot yet have if they are still under the influence of greed and many other obstacles, and have not been able to create the necessary and sufficient wholesome roots. As a result, in order to overcome this obstacle, Buddhists must employ other means indicated in the Buddhadharma, such as generosity, one of the means to combat the afflictions of greed because they are in opposition to each other. According to the theory of Dependent Origination, because there is greed, there is charity; because there is charity, there is greed; Therefore, in order to be able to practice giving without further creating conditions for greed to arise, Buddhists must abandon the kind of giving that is based on conventional values ​​of the world, i.e. giving with the mind of desire. acquired for oneself, but must practice giving right Buddha Dharma; means that a Buddhist gives alms without the mind asking for it, i.e. not seeing himself as a giver, having an act of giving, or someone receiving alms; in other words, it is called giving but is not giving in all its possible conceptions, so it is no longer a condition for the arising of greed, seen as its counterpart. However, because the Buddhadharma appeared to save all sentient beings, and the bases of sentient beings are different, in the Buddha Dharma we see other forms of giving; That is, for those sentient beings whose bodhichitta power is still too weak, who have only realized their own sufferings without seeing the sufferings of others, in this case they will give alms with an open mind. may there be merit that will enable them to be reborn in a certain heaven; For those who have made the Compassionate Vow, even though they still have the heart to seek blessings, but instead of wishing for himself, he vows to dedicate that merit to all suffering beings, or to the permanence of the Buddhist path. With the process of giving from low to high, from gross to subtle as above, the afflictions of greed will not have the conditions to arise as frequently and strongly as before, but their potential will gradually be weakened for the until completely annihilated in the minds of Buddhists. The above is just a reference to one of the countless actions that Buddhists must perform in the process of transforming body and mind. However, it is enough for us to realize how difficult the path of those who do not want to continue living in the wrong history of afflictions and ignorance. It was a long journey, almost beyond all conventional notions of time and space. Carrying on himself with so many obstacles of afflictions and knowledge accumulated from countless kalpas, with compassion and aspiration to achieve enlightenment to save sentient beings, the Buddhist wanders step by step through so many pitfalls. of life. There will not always be glory waiting for them, but there will be long journeys of sadness, tears, and despair. But no matter what, as long as the fire of Bodhicitta is still in the body and mind of Buddhists, whether it is burning brightly like the sun or just glimmering like a spark before the storms of life. , we still see them roaming on a long journey. If it is said that Nirvana is the final destination of Buddhism, then the path they are taking is a path not to come. Because their aspiration is not to find their own happiness.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=BUDDHIST DHARMA WHEEL GOLDEN MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.6/11/2021.