WHAT IS MIND? In the past, we often have an empty saying that: "I don't need to practice anything, I just need to cultivate the mind and it's enough." This saying sounds like it's true, but in reality, few people can do it like its true meaning. If we understood, we would have all become Buddhas and would no longer be present on this Earth. In fact, we have not understood the word tu, so how can we understand the meaning of the two words properly and enough. How to understand what the mind is, where the mind is, but quickly say: "I don't need to practice anything, I just need to cultivate the mind and that's enough". We have always thought that our mind is the heart and brain, so we often think: "I have not done anything against my moral conscience, if I don't steal, harm or kill people, I have cultivated my mind". But in reality, few people understand the true meaning of conscience and morality, understand the two sides of good and evil, right-wrong? If we really understand what it means to cultivate the mind, we will utter honest words: "I must practice cultivation to correct my sinful behavior and words every second, every minute." . Although we do not yet understand what the mind is and where the mind is, at least we know how to look at ourselves. When you know how to look at yourself, the next steps of feeling yourself, getting to know yourself, seeing yourself and being yourself will not be far away. (Not too far away means that our spiritual practice comes to the right and enough). First, look at yourself: That is, look at your own faults, not at the faults of others. Second, feel yourself: That is, feel the guilt you have created from countless lives up to now. Now I have to worry about repentance and practice to change my body and mind every second of every minute. Third, get to know yourself: That means finding out who you are, where you come from, Where do we go when we die and where do these samsaric sufferings come from and how do we get rid of samsara? Fourth, seeing yourself: That is, seeing all the sources of suffering from countless lifetimes up to now, all created by you and suffered by yourself, not related to anyone. Fifth, be yourself: That is, knowing that the Buddha is yourself, that you are the Buddha, then let go of desires and clear away ignorance to return to be a Buddha. When we become a Buddha, our cultivation of the mind will be completely completed. Now we look into our heart. When we understand our true heart clearly, then we know where to cultivate the mind and where to correct it? And if we don't understand what the mind is, where the mind is, then our practice will go nowhere and waste our whole life. Buddha said: "The Buddha mind and the mind of sentient beings are inherently one and the same." That is to say that the minds of the Buddhas and ours are equal, not high, not low, not small, not big. In short, Buddha's mind and our own mind are one and the same. I know you will ask: "If Buddha's mind and mine are one and the same, then why do you become Buddhas and we are sentient beings?". The Buddhas and us only have one delusion, enlightenment. That is, the Buddhas are enlightened, and we are still delusional. That's why the realm, the form of the Buddhas and the realm, our appearance is so far apart. But no matter how different the realm and form of the Buddhas and our realm and form, the mind of the Buddhas and our own mind are not the least bit different. If we talk about the true heart, then ordinary people like us cannot discuss it with our shallow minds or the limited language of the world. Why? Because our true nature has no form. Although it has no form, we can understand the mind to some extent through the things that appear to the mind. As long as we understand the transformation of the mind, we will be able to understand the nature of the true mind. Now let's briefly learn about the nature of gold, water and the universe. As long as we understand their nature, we will partly understand our true nature. I. Gold Gold is solid and shining, so we often use gold to make jewelry or items such as: Rings, necklaces, bracelets, Buddha statues, pictures, pots, vases, etc. … In short, we can use gold to create hundreds, thousands of different forms of jewelry and objects. But no matter how we use gold to create various appearances, the essence of gold remains unchanged. II. Water Water is wet, pure and fresh, so there is water everywhere. Without water, all sentient and unknowing beings in this universe would have no life to exist. Water has many different forms such as: When water enters the sea, it becomes a sea, when it goes out a river, it becomes a river, when it goes out a lake, it becomes a lake. It becomes a cloud when it rises into space, and when it falls, it becomes rain. In short, the form of water. Can't use astronomical numbers to count. But no matter how water is controlled and changed by conditions, the nature of water will not be changed. III. The universe The universe is a vast vastness that is as endless as immovable. The universe can transform into countless worlds large, small, pure, unclean, happy and suffering, and the universe always has its completion, destruction, eternity, revolving, eternal transformation. , life has no end. But no matter how those forms of completion, dissolution, and eternity may change, the nature of the universe remains unchanged. Through the three natures above, we see that the nature of the universe is immense and endless, even if we want to think, we can't discuss it. But there is one thing that we cannot expect, that is: Our mind is so big that it covers the whole universe and all things and species in this universe are created by our mind. In short, all that is as large as the universe, as small as a speck of dust, as dignified as the Buddha's realm, or as dark as hell, is created by the minds of the Buddhas and the minds of sentient beings. They only differ in that: The mind of the Buddhas creates the pure Buddha lands in the ten directions; and the mind of sentient beings creates the world of birth and death in the ten directions. But no matter how painful and dark the six samsaric self is created by our mind, our true nature of mind will not be changed. Through the above analysis, we have partly understood the nature of the true mind. Now how do we understand the ignorance that is clouding our mind? As long as we understand clearly, we will have the courage to let go of greed, hatred, and delusion to return to our true mind (Buddha nature). Now that we look into where the ignorance of gold, water and the universe comes from, we will understand where our ignorance comes from. Ignorance of gold: The essence of gold is bright, but gold is taken away by people to create many different forms of luxury, beauty, ugly, high and low. If someone uses a block of gold to cast into a Buddha image, that Buddha image will be placed in dignified places to worship and prostrate. But the same gold, if someone takes it to make a basin for bathing, it will be placed in dirty and stinky places. It is the same body made of gold, but why does it have such a different distinction between high and low? It is because its appearance is different. Who made its appearance different? It is because gold is controlled and arranged by people, so it has no right to self-control, only has to follow the changing conditions. Ignorance of water: The essence of water is wet, cool, and pure. But water is controlled by the dependent origination of earth, water, wind, and fire, and is controlled by all sentient beings and involuntarily. Turn it into various pure, unclean, sweet, salty, and rotten appearances. It is the same body of water, but why does it give birth to so many different, dirty, and rotten appearances? It is because water is controlled and controlled by fate, so it has no autonomy, just have to follow the fate of change. Ignorance of the universe: The essence of the universe is pure, blue and as if motionless. But why does the universe transform into so many different happy, peaceful, miserable, and damned worlds? Because the universe is controlled and controlled by the minds of sentient beings, and is subject to the laws of achievement, destruction, and destruction of all things, it has no autonomy and can only follow the conditions of change. If gold has autonomy, then gold only wants to create Buddha statues for people to admire and worship. Gold will not want to make pots and pans placed in dirty, smelly places. Water just wants to make pure ice and snow, pure morning dew, cool streams, and falling rain imbued with love everywhere, feeding all species. Water will not want to pollute, stagnate everywhere, killing sentient beings. The universe just wants to create pure Buddha lands in the ten directions. The universe will not want to create the six paths of samsara. Through the above transformations, we can see: Gold, water and the universe are all controlled by fate, so they have no autonomy, only have to follow the conditions of constant change. Now we have understood the ignorance of gold, water and the universe. So who are we being controlled by and what is the ignorance that is covering us? Dear friends! No one is a stranger but it is my consciousness that is controlling my true heart. (Consciousness that ordinary people call spirit or soul). As for the delusions of greed, hatred, and delusion of this temporary body, it is the ignorance that is covering the consciousness, making our consciousness unable to return to the incarnation with the true mind. Therefore, this temporary false body is our greatest enemy. Why? Because it has created six poisons to fascinate my consciousness, making my consciousness fall in love and never return. The six poisons are: greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, doubt, and evil view. Now we look into these six poisons to see how powerful they are that can fascinate our consciousness. Greed: Is the ambition of all kinds of endless, bottomless things. Hate: Is anger, harm, jealousy without end, without end. Si: Is delusion that does not know what is good and bad, right and wrong. Man: To consider one's self to be greater than Heaven, no one can compare. Even the Buddhas and sages we don't keep an eye on. Doubt: Is the evil mind, doubt. Even the words of the Buddhas and saints I do not believe, do not listen to, but slander. ˙ Evil view: It is wrong knowledge, wrong view (ie wrong thinking, wrong seeing). Because of wrong thinking and seeing wrong, we often draw leaves to find depth, scrutinize people's mistakes. Then create strange things to harm each other. Dear friends! All of us are more or less, all of us contain these six poisons, so we are present in the Saha world. Not only that, but we also accumulate them in our hearts into ice, into blocks. The pitiful thing is that we have filled them up without even realizing it. On the contrary, I thought I was a pure, noble and very intelligent person. Sometimes we encounter good knowledge and advice on spiritual practice that we don't know how to thank. On the contrary, we also get angry and scold and think that that person is thinking that we are evil, so we advise ourselves to practice. Not only that, but we also answer back to them: "Whoever is in evil needs to cultivate, and if I am not in evil, I don't need to practice at all." We answer like that, not the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Sangha, Are nuns and Buddhists all evil people? We are delusional, crazy until we run out of medicine. Those who do not feel guilty are the most guilty people in the world. Please don't get angry, as long as you patiently read this book, you will know if you have more or less guilt? Now we look into the false mind that we live with every day. As long as we understand where the real mind and the false mind differ, we will have enough wisdom and courage to let go of the false mind to return to our true mind. The false mind is the mind that comes from the body we are born with. Our body consists of six important parts called the six senses. Six senses are six parts: eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. Every day, we often use these six senses to contact the six objects, and then give birth to attachment to the six sense objects. The six worlds are six things that everyone in the world likes, that is: color, sound, smell, taste, touch and dharma. Color: It is in general all the beauty and ugliness of the world. Thanh: In general, all good and bad sounds. Fragrance: It is generally all scent, stinky. Taste: Generally all sweet, bitter, and spicy. Contact: In general, all the bodily pleasures of contact. Dharma: In general, all sentient and inanimate things. Every day, we often use our six senses to contact the six ceilings such as: Eyes see form; the ear hears sound; nose can smell aroma, tongue taste sweet and bitter; the body is in contact with soft, hard pleasures; The mind dreams and desires all kinds of dharmas. In a nutshell, the six senses are our body, and the six ceilings are all sentient and inanimate things in this world, which everyone in the world craves, likes, and enjoys. We all like to look at beauty, like to hear good sounds, like to smell strange scents, We like to taste sweet and delicious, like to enjoy pleasures, and to like things that are pleasing to us, so we suffer. If we knew how to use our true mind and wisdom to see things, we wouldn't have suffered but would have been a Buddha for a long time. What is the difference between the true mind and the false mind? The true mind has no greed, hatred, delusion and attachments, while the deluded mind has greed, hatred, delusion and attachments. If an enlightened person uses his true mind to look, he will see necklaces, rings, rings, and earrings as one of a kind. Because they are all made of gold, they no longer distinguish and attach. And those who are deluded using their mind to look will see a ring as a ring, and a ring as a ring. If someone comes to them and says: Rings and rings are the same, the deluded person will argue and lose to the end. They even fought until the very end. Therefore, the enlightened and the unenlightened have different views here. Above, we have only discussed a little bit of discrimination of the eye's attachment, which has already spawned fights. If we add the five attachments of ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, how bad are our attachments. That's why this world is full of disasters of war and killing each other endlessly. All of this is caused by our delusion, confusion and attachments. Now that we understand this temporary body is the source of creating a circle of ignorance to fascinate the consciousness, we must help the consciousness to break the ignorance to return to the true mind. In order to break ignorance, we must first learn about the power of consciousness and the mysterious power of the true mind. The true mind is the nature with the ability to change, and the consciousness is the subject with the ability to control inconceivable. True mind and consciousness are two but one, but one but two. The mind cannot leave the consciousness, and the consciousness cannot leave the mind. Why? Because the body without the subject will not be able to promote the Magical nature, and the subject without the nature will not be able to promote the ultimate power, so it is collectively called the mind. Our mind does not come, does not go, does not take, does not give up and is always present everywhere. As for coming or going, taking or leaving, it's all due to our consciousness changing. If the consciousness becomes an animal, then our mind will turn the consciousness into an animal body. If the consciousness becomes a human, the mind will transform the consciousness into a human body. If the consciousness becomes a Buddha, the mind will turn it into a Buddha body... In short, all changes of the mind are controlled by our consciousness, the mind has no autonomy, only following the consciousness. ceaseless transformation. But no matter how our consciousness controls the transformation of our mind, it cannot change the nature of the true mind. Therefore, in the Buddhist scriptures it says: "The mind is always shining when it is quiet, when it is quiet it is always shining". That is, the mind often gives birth to all dharmas, but the mind is always as if motionless, just as the mirror surface always radiates light reflecting all appearances, regardless. What comes, it appears, what goes, it disappears, depending on the conditions it shines and depending on the conditions, it sinks, but the mirror body is always as if motionless. Dear friends! Through the above analysis, we have partially understood our true mind, our false mind, and our ignorance. Now we must help the consciousness to break through ignorance to return to the true mind. In the Buddha's Sutra it says: "I was also a being in the past, now I have become a Buddha, and all sentient beings who are Buddhas will become." Why does Buddha insist on us like that? It is because the Buddha sees that all sentient beings have the seed of the Buddha-nature Amitabha, just like the other Buddhas. When we recite Amitabha Buddha, that is, our own Amitabha self-nature, and at the same time we also capture the divine power of the Buddhas of the ten directions. Therefore, the Pure Land is called the dual force method (two is two, force is divine power). That is, we must use our divine power to capture the divine power of the Buddhas of the ten directions. Buddha said the dual force is to make it easy for us to understand, but in fact the Pure Land dharma has only one great power of tolerance. Why? Because Buddha's mind and our own mind are one and the same. If not two, then why have dual force? This does not mean that we do not have the divine power of the Buddhas. Of course there is, because every single recitation of Amitabha I am reciting every day, All are direct communication with the wonderful mind of the Buddhas of the ten directions. The force is synergistic, the force is similar and supports each other. Supporting each other means: We must use the divine power from our true heart to rely on the divine power of the Buddhas of the ten directions. Why? It is because the veil of our ignorance is too deep, and our consciousness has only just been awakened, so we do not have enough divine power and wisdom to break ignorance. Therefore, we must rely on the divine power of Amitabha Buddha and the Buddhas of the ten directions for blessings. Dear friends! When we become Buddhas, we will have full metal body, wisdom and supernatural powers just like Amitabha Buddha. But the golden body, wisdom and supernatural powers that we have are not given by Amitabha Buddha, but all are achieved by our own mind. If we talk about the above, the Buddhas help us to have the body of a golden Buddha. Because without the Buddha's guidance, guidance and support, we are still suffering in the six samsara egos and cannot become Buddhas. As for the logic, the body of the golden Buddha is achieved by our own unified consciousness. Just like the body we have now. If the above is said, it is thanks to the new structure of the parents' blood. But in theory, the human body is inspired by our consciousness and karma. If inspiration comes from our consciousness and karma, how can our parents have the power to create human appearances for us? Our parents are only the helpers to nurture and help us have enough shape. It is the same when we become Buddhas. The body of the golden Buddha is transformed into by our unified consciousness, and the Buddhas are only the great parents who help us to achieve the body of the golden Buddha. Why are Buddhas great parents? and the parents who gave birth to me are the minor parents? It's because our parents only accomplished for us to have a false body, while the Buddhas accomplished for us to have the body of a golden Buddha. The false body can only last for one lifetime, while the golden Buddha body has eternal life. Therefore, the virtues of the Buddhas cannot be returned, but only engraved in our hearts forever, never forgetting in a lifetime. When I read this far, I know you will ask: "If the Buddha body and human body are both transformed by our mind. Then why does the human body suffer from sickness, old age and death, but the Buddha's body has eternal life, so what is the difference?" Dear friends! The Buddha's body and our human body differ only in our delusion, our enlightenment. That is, the human body that we have, because before we were born, our consciousness was confused and ran after false mind (ie, running after the mind), Therefore, our true mind must be predestined according to the divine consciousness to create a human body. When our Buddha body is accomplished, it is thanks to our consciousness that returns to become one with the Magical Mind, so our Buddha body will have full wisdom, miraculous powers, and live a long life. As for the human body that we have is caused by the temporary creation of the four great people, so we have no supernatural powers, no wisdom, but only delusion and perversion. The four elements are earth, water, wind and fire: In which, our flesh, bones, heart, liver, lungs... are made up of earth; blood is made up of water; breath is made up of wind; Warm body temperature is made up of fire. If these four things in our body are not balanced, disease will arise. That is, if there is a shortage of water in our body, we will have a fever. If the fire in the person is lacking, cold and flu are born. When the four elements remain, we live; when the four elements leave, we die. Therefore, the dead person first stops breathing (ie the wind has gone), then the blood stops (i.e. the water is gone), then the warmth disappears (i.e. the fire is gone) and finally only the rest of the hard and cold body is the earth. Soil is the last thing left because it takes time to disintegrate to return to dust. And if this earthly body is burned, it will quickly turn to dust. The dust body returns to dust, and all sentient and unwitting things in this world also return to dust in the end. Now we learn about magic. In fact, all of us are using some part of our magic every day without even realizing it. In each of us, everyone has a happy and sad past, everyone has times to go far away, going from one province to another, or leave one country to another to live or travel. For example, we leave Vietnam to live abroad. Although living abroad, but happy memories in Vietnam or places we have been through are still alive in our minds. As long as we think about it, in a split second the past stories, places, scenes, happy and sad emotions... all appear in front of our eyes. There are even things that have been going on for decades that we seem to be now. Why do we have that magical ability? It is because our mind is present everywhere. If our mind were not present everywhere, those emotions of joy and sorrow would never have been. The emotions we get when we remember the past, present or future are all because our mind is there. Thanks to the presence of the mind there, we can live again with the emotions of vibration, joy and sadness... It's just that we don't practice so we can't see the truth. In the Buddhist scriptures, it is said: "The Land of Ultimate Bliss, far from the Saha realm that we are in, is the land of ten thousand million Buddhas." If we use astronomical numbers to calculate its distance, there is no way to count it. This shows how far away the realm of Ultimate Bliss is from the world we know. Yet the Buddha said that: "All sentient beings need only have a single thought, and they will immediately reach the Land of Ultimate Bliss". It is hard to believe, but this is ten thousand times true because Buddha never told a lie. For example: Currently, we are in the US and try to create a thought of going back to Vietnam to visit family, then immediately we feel like we are in Vietnam, isn't that right? Even, My consciousness returned to Vietnam faster than a fingernail. It is the same when we are born again. In just one thought, my consciousness has reached the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Why does my consciousness have such magical power? It is because my mind has been present in the Land of Ultimate Bliss for a long time. It's just that my consciousness is still infatuated with lust, so I refuse to let go to fly to the West of Ultimate Bliss. When our consciousness is enlightened to practice and recite the Buddha's name, then we can fly back to the Buddha realm at any time. That is to say, even though my body is still here, my mind is already in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Wait until the karma of this body is paid off, then we will freely fly directly to the West of Ultimate Bliss to meet Amitabha Buddha and achieve the Buddha body. And now, even if I wanted to leave this temporary body and fly back to Ultimate Bliss, I wouldn't be able to. Why? Because my karma is still too much, so I have to practice here to pay my karma. When we have finished paying off our karma, then we will be taken by the Buddha to the place to receive us and take us to Ultimate Bliss. The meaning of paying off karma here is to say that we have to pay off the karma of this sambhogakaya (our present body), not the karma that we have created from beginningless kalpas up to now. Please don't misunderstand.HET=NAM MO BON SU THICH CA MAU NI PHAT.( 3 LANs . . AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.24/7/2022. It's not about paying off the karma that we've created from beginningless eons to the present. Please don't misunderstand.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.24/7/2022.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.