SUTRA Kien Chanh. The doctrine of reincarnation was taught by the Buddha in many Sutras. The following Sutra is one. In the content of this sutra, the Buddha used many examples and evidences to prove a part of that doctrine. I heard this: At one time the Buddha was staying at the Vihara Ky Hoan([1]) in the city of La-cross-kid([2]). At that time, near noon, the Buddha, with five hundred monks, a thousand Bodhisattvas and Upasakas, who were raising food offerings, went out of La-gue-ki, and suddenly saw a great tree. The name of the tree is Cam Huong, a large tree with a large root, lush branches and leaves, beautiful red and pink fruits, containing a sweet and fragrant taste, around the base of the tree is clean and flat. The Buddha wanted to stop here, all his followers obeyed, then took the stone as a seat for him, then the crowd sat around the Buddha. Among the disciples of the Buddha, there was a monk named Kien Chanh, who had just entered the path to practice. so the teacher often doubted that: "The Buddha often taught that there are future lives, but from animals to humans, after death, no one has come back to report the event." The master immediately presented those doubts to the Buddha. By the way, the Buddha only taught for his disciples to understand clearly by the following examples, proving as follows: - The root of this great feeling comes from a seed and the conditions of earth, water, wind, and fire that become great. , the canopy can cover some people as much as this. If you trace back while there are seeds, you will not see any branches, flowers, flowers, or fruits. But thanks to meeting the conditions of the four elements ([3]), the new seed sprouts, sprouts branches, bears fruit, and gradually becomes a large tree, whose leaves cover a large area of ​​land. In the beginning, it was just a seed, then the seed gave birth, the sprout produced branches, the branch produced leaves, the leaves produced flowers, the flowers produced fruit, so it goes through many new stages of transformation into a great tree of life. Thus, the tree of longevity and the seed are neither one nor the other, having a name but not a permanent name([4]). Now that it has become a tree of great longevity, is it possible to gather all those flowers, fruits, branches, leaves, stems, and roots together to make the same seed? + The disciples replied: Impossible. They have changed, they can't go back to the way they were. Seeds become sprouts, branches, etc., each day they degenerate, the more they are born, the more they change. Although they do not perish, they cannot return to the same seed. - The problem of birth and death is similar. Consciousness ([5]) is the dharma of dependent origination, that dharma is delusion (ignorance). Due to ignorance arises craving. Ignorance is similar to a seed. Although the seed is small, it grows into a long-life tree; ignorance though subtle, invisible that creates other predestined phenomena. These predestined phenomena are all caused by the mind. Due to ignorance arises action, practice gives birth to consciousness, consciousness gives birth to nama-rupa, name-and-form is born of the six-entry, six-entry birth of contact, the birth of contact, birth of craving, the birth of craving, the birth of grasping, the birth of being born, the birth of birth old age and death. , together are twelve causes and conditions as the basis for this body. If you have a body, you must be old and die one day. Upon death, depending on the karma done, the consciousness will be led to be reborn into a new body, also have parents, also have the birth of six emotions ([6]), also cause pollution, also experience suffering and joy, according to custom, but nothing is the same as before. Knowledge has not returned the same, how to know the past. Therefore, people only conform to new knowledge in the present that thinks that knowledge is real, is permanent, and then accepts that knowledge. Due to stubbornness, they do not know that: "There is a previous life, there is a next life, it is because the consciousness changes according to the karma that exists". Consciousness has changed, having parents act as auxiliary conditions to give birth to a new body, then being bound by the six emotions, pollution, suffering and joy, customs that cannot return to the old body, old habits, knowledge old, old life; similar to the tree of longevity cannot return to the seed of the previous day. After listening to the Buddha's instructions, the monk Kien Chanh got up from his seat, knelt down in front of the Buddha, and said: "World Honored One, the disciples' doubts have not been cleared. Now, it is time for the disciple to show his ignorance, to ask the Blessed One for guidance. Ever since he was a child, he has met dead people a lot; or parents, brothers, spouses, grandparents; or friends in love; or enemies are resenting each other, but after death, their consciousness does not have anyone to return to report, who is suffering, who is happy. Why? What is hindered by the consciousness that they do not return to inform the living? May the Blessed One analyze and explain to help our disciples eliminate doubts and see the truth." - Hey Male-stilts! That consciousness has no form, when it changes, it is present depending on the karma. If a person does many good deeds, when he dies, his blessed consciousness will switch to another life, and he will not be able to return to report the news, let alone the wicked one. Why is that? - For example, an engineer cooks liquefied stone to find tin, and then casts tin into tools. So can those tools turn into stone? + Yes no. – Consciousness transforms into an intermediate body ([7]), similar to stone filtered into tin; the bardo body changes to live another body, similar to the tin that has been cast into a tool. So, when the body has changed and disappeared, how can it return to the old body? Those who practice the five virtues (five precepts) are reborn as human beings; they will have parents and will be bound by six things. That is: first, staying in the bardo cannot return to the old life; second, bound in the womb; third, while being painfully suppressed, forget the past; fourth, when falling to the birthplace, the old knowledge is forgotten, new knowledge arises; fifth, born and then immediately attached to sex, because of attachment, the old knowledge was interrupted; sixth, gradually grow up, live by new knowledge, not remember old knowledge. - Disciples! For example, there is a businessman who travels around the four directions and encounters all kinds of hardships and joys. When I remember what happened in this county, in a certain village in the east, he no longer remembers what happened in the other three directions. In the samsara, too, in this life, doing actions are created, and then born in another life, having taken another body, new knowledge is born, so old knowledge cannot be present. Because of the six consciousnesses that block and bind, if you don't remember your previous life, how can there be news! Or like a potter who bakes earth to make utensils, due to the heat of the fire, the piece of earth becomes a tile. So can we turn that tile into a lump of earth? + Yes, it is not possible. – Or like a long-life tree being cut down, people sawed it… made into hundreds of types of utensils. If someone wants to assemble the sawed wooden boards and all the objects that have been formed, can it be made into the same old tree? + Yes, no. Or like a craftsman who turns sand pink, then turned white like water. So can we turn that white into sand? + Yes, no. - The same is true of birth and death. People who have not yet understood the morality, have not yet had a vision ([8]), when they die, their consciousness changes according to karma to receive another body. Therefore, their previous knowledge is now hidden in the womb, in new knowledge, in new habits, so it is impossible to know anything about the previous life. Or like water stored in a round bottle, the water is round, if water is poured through a square bottle, the water is square. Depending on the container, the water changes its shape according to its large and small, square and round shape. The same is true of the matter of birth and death. The mind does not have a fixed state, only depending on good and bad actions that receive the body of retribution. That sambhogakaya is faced with black-and-white, long-short, suffering-pleasure, good-bad, all of which are currents that change according to karma. As in this life, our minds have created many illegal things, so when we die, we will be reborn as an animal, suffering, and losing our freedom. So, how can I remember my previous life and come back to report it! - Or like a worm born in the ground, without calling, without wings; But when the weather is right, it turns into a tick and stays on the tree all day long. So can we tell that tick to become a worm to inform other worms that are on the ground? + Yes, no. The cult has changed from yin (earth) to live on yang qi, the body changes gradually until the day of death or is eaten by birds, but cannot return to the cult's body. - The same is true of birth and death. This body is dead, the consciousness changes to live a new body, which is covered by the warm year ([9]); any knowledge, any custom changes according to the new environment; until the day of decay, old age and death, but cannot return to the old body with old knowledge to inform people. Or like a piece of raw meat left for a long time to become stinky, giving birth to maggots. So is it possible to make it fresh meat? + Yes, no. - The same is true of birth and death. Worldly people do evil with their bodies, speak evil with their mouths, and think evilly in their minds; When they die, their consciousness transforms into hell or an animal. When in that new realm, seeing and knowing will be different from the previous life, being bound by the net of sin, and forgetting all the old stories; so I can't come back and tell people about it. Or like a moonless night, everything is in darkness, suppose out of hundreds of thousands of people, there is one person who looks into that dark night and can clearly distinguish the colors blue, yellow, red, white, Black of the things are okay? + Even if millions of people look into the dark night, they can't see anything, let alone distinguish the five colors clearly. - If someone holds a torch to illuminate it and tells it to look. So is it visible? + Visible. If a fool does not carry a torch into a dark place, the further away he goes, the darker it becomes. So, does he want to see those five colors? + The fool turned his back to the light and went into the dark; he was far away from the light, so he couldn't see color. - Disciples! The same is true of sentient beings in the dark stream of samsara. From humans to animals, they have lived a body full of ignorance, have no morals, do not understand the origin of body and mind, do not have wisdom eye([10]) but are anxious to know the spiritual consciousness through On the other hand, being born in the stream of samsara and returning to report the news is like being in the dark and wanting to see the five colors clearly. On the contrary, if anyone knows how to study the Sutras, uphold the Law, practice the thirty-seven products of the Bodhi Way, keep their mind pure; This is a person who is like a torchbearer who clearly sees the five colors. Those who follow the Buddha's teachings can clearly know the stream of birth and death and the good or bad realms that the consciousness has passed. Besides, those who do not understand well the body and mind, resist the abandonment of the Law and Law, follow the mundane, arbitrarily let go, destroy the true Dharma, the mind does not believe and practice the Buddha's Dharma; This is a man who, like a torch-thrower, goes into the dark, and the darker he goes, the darker he sees nothing. - Disciples! Don't follow the mind of ignorance and affliction and doubt the true and pure morality. If you follow that foolish mind, it will be difficult for you to escape from the evil realms of torment and torment. I have intentionally led, explained clearly; So, believe in and serve, never forget. - Disciples! People with flesh-and-blood eyes should only see things in the present, but cannot see where they come from and where they will go after old age and death, and what body they will receive. Why is that? -Because each time of life and death, consciousness changes according to twelve causes and conditions, but in the twelve causes and conditions, ignorance (ignorance) is the main and dark nature, so a transformation is difficult to remember old things. Like dyeing a white cloth into blue, yellow, red and purple colors; the cloth cannot be white again. The same is true of birth and death. The mind cannot be fixed, it is affected by karma and changes constantly. Moreover, in the mind of sentient beings in a lifetime, always thinking about all dharmas, always remembering to think a lot about good and bad things, whenever new thoughts arise, old thoughts disappear, only stupidity (ignorance). ) is often present in the stream of birth and death. If anyone wants to understand the origin of birth and death (samsara), then diligently cultivating body and mind, thinking about the origin of all things, penetrating purity (meditation) can be enlightened like an awakened sleep. . - Disciples! Consciousness is poisoned by ignorance in doing good and evil, so when it dies, it is reborn with different bodies. If you do not create good or evil, you will not receive another body, just like when fire meets wood, it remains, and when the wood is burned, the fire will disappear. Consciousness is not attached to good and bad deeds, there is no more form of rebirth. Or like a dirty mirror that can't see anything. In the same way, the mirror of the mind is blocked by uncleanness, changes in birth and death, is led by misfortune and disaster, is full of horrors, so it cannot see anything in the previous life. Like a cloudy pond, even if there are catfish in the pond, they can't see it. Likewise, in the chaos of samsara, being covered by all sorrows and worries, when one reincarnates in another life, one forgets all of the previous life. Like a person who closes his eyes in the dark, seeing nothing at all. In the same way, people walking in the dark night of birth and death, drifting along the stream of blessings, have to endure joys and sorrows, and cannot remember the past lives. - Disciples! I use the pure wisdom eye to see clearly that all sentient beings passing through birth and death in the three realms are like seeing a thread of either green or gold in a lapis lazuli pearl. Or as clear water can see the bottom and see all species of water. The Buddha saw living and dying living beings in the five paths ([11]) like a person standing next to a large bridge clearly seeing all the passengers passing on the bridge. Or like standing on a high mountain, seeing all four directions near and far. With transcendental wisdom, The Buddha saw the birth and death of all beings similarly. You, if you follow My instructions, you will know birth and death for thousands of eons. By practicing the thirty-seven essential dharmas, namely: the four foundations of mindfulness, the four Right Efforts, the four Satisfactions, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of Enlightenment, and the eight Noble Paths, to eradicate the defilement of the mind itself. , to end the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion, to cut off all doubts, to open up wisdom like the Buddhas, to be able to know everything about the past and the future. - Disciples! People in the world do good or bad things, and after death, they all have corresponding retribution. Even so, no one knows; because there are not three kinds of pure eye([12]), and is being obstructed by the six senses([13]), looking with the eyes of flesh, keep doing evil, unclean things, drowning in stupid places delusion, changing according to the stream of birth and death, obstructed by the body, should leave the old work, passionate about new things, but do not know the retribution corresponding to the action. In fact, in life there is the reception of blessings, there is the acceptance of calamities, either good or bad. That is the guarantee of the notification (retribution) of past actions. Those who are born out of ignorance, are bound by doubt, without the slightest bit of pure conduct but want to know the deeds of the previous life and the corresponding retribution, are like those who have no hands but want to write, those who have no eyes that want to see. This is the reason that the Buddha appeared in the world to teach the Sutras to open people's minds. Those who want to know clearly and change cause and effect for themselves in the stream of birth and death should follow the Buddha's teachings and practice the right Dharma, adjust their mind, practice meditation, and cultivate wisdom. desired result. - Disciples! Consciousness has a name (name) but has no form, it depends on the four physical elements and good and evil deeds. When he was born, his body was small, his six senses were incomplete, his knowledge was shallow, his understanding was narrow. When they grow up, the six senses are rich, the mind and consciousness practice the things of craving every day more and more; On the day of weakness and old age, the four great wear and tear, the six states of love decline, the mind is no longer lucid. Only in a present life that changes frequently, the latter is not the same as before, the knowledge of youth is almost forgotten when old age comes, let alone many separate lives, warm pregnancy, sheltered, deluded conduct, have not yet reached the moral standards, but want to know after death, come back and report back. That desire is like a needle threader in the dark, a fire seeker in water. Therefore, disciples, diligently practice the precepts, thinking deeply about the origin: Where does birth and death come from and where will it go? What causes the reciprocity? What is the cause of birth and death? Thinking carefully about the selflessness of things, all doubts are immediately resolved. When the Buddha finished preaching this Sutra, five hundred bhikkhus and Upasakas all attained the Path of Enlightenment ([14]), and all the bodhisattvas attained the Samadhi ([15]), the great assembly of stood up and circumambulated the Buddha three times and bowed to him close to the ground; After that, follow the Buddha back to the Vihara. Note: [1] Ky Hoan (Anàtapindika): also known as Ky Vien, Ky Vien Vihara, Ky Tho Level Lonely Member, ie the garden of Prince Ky Da and Mr. Level alone. [2] La-browsing-period (Ràjagrha): also known as La-viet, La-browsing, La-browsing-kiss-cala, ie the city of Vuong Xa of Ma Kiet Da. [3] The four elements: are the four substances, Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind (teeth, liquid, hot and vapor) that are always present throughout the world. [4] That is, the name does not last forever. [5] Divine Consciousness: The magical mind of sentient beings, inconceivable. Usually called the Soul - but Buddhism does not call it so. [6] Six love (six senses): are six roots (six roots). The old translation. [7] Bardo body: Also called bardo body. Is the body in the transition after death and before pale, also full year warm. [8] Dao Eye: is the Heavenly Eye. the view is not obstructed by the practice, [9] Warm year (five warm): Also known as the five aggregates. Consists of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. These are the five elements that shape the individual. [10] Wisdom eye: Wisdom-eye-by-practice that is. It is one of the five eyes: the eye of flesh, the eye of heaven, the eye of wisdom, the eye of the Dharma, and the eye of the Buddha. [11] Five Paths (Five Beasts): Also known as Five Paths, Five Evil Beasts. These are the five evil paths: hell, hungry ghosts, animals, Humans and Gods (Asuras are classified as gods) [12] Three Pure Eyes (Three Pure Eyes): Three kinds of eyes or three things that see and look pure. These are the Heavenly Eye, the Wisdom Eye, and the Dharma Eye. [13] Six senses (six faculties): Eye faculty, Ear faculty, Male organ, tongue faculty, Body faculty, and Mind faculty (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind) [14] See the Way: See the path clearly leads to Nirvana. It is one of the three Daos: The Way of Seeing, Cultivating the Way, and the Unlearned Way. [15] Real rotten tam tam: right concentration no longer rots. ears, nose, tongue, body and mind) [14] View of the Way: See clearly the path leading to Nirvana. It is one of the three Daos: The Way of Seeing, Cultivating the Way, and the Unlearned Way. [15] Real rotten tam tam: right concentration no longer rots. ears, nose, tongue, body and mind) [14] See the Way: See clearly the path leading to Nirvana. It is one of the three Daos: The Way of Seeing, Cultivating the Way, and the Unlearned Way. [15] Real rotten tam tam: right concentration no longer rots.END= NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).WORLD VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST ORDER=BUDDHIST DHARMA WHEEL ZEN BUDDHIST MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.21/3/2023.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THE WOMEN OF THE SAKYA CLAN CHAN TANH.