Practice Like the Four Elements of the Four Elements. Urban people also often like to eat mushrooms. They often ask where mushrooms come from. And others might say they grow from the soil. Then they took the basket and went to the suburbs, thinking they could get the mushrooms growing on both sides of the road. But they kept walking, walking, up the hills and down the fields, but they couldn't find any mushrooms. The villagers had gone to get mushrooms earlier. They know where mushrooms grow, in which forests. Urban people only have experience seeing mushrooms on the dining table. They only heard that mushrooms grow on the ground and went looking for them, but couldn't find them. Practicing concentration (samadhi) is the same. We think it's easy to do. But when we meditate, our legs hurt, our back aches, we feel tired, hot and itchy. Then we feel discouraged, thinking that meditation is something far away, like something in the sky and in the clouds. I don't know what to do anymore and my mind is full of difficulties. But if we are guided, it may be easier. When first starting out, practicing meditation is difficult. Anything is difficult if we don't know how to do it. But if you practice, there will be changes. Anything useful is worth doing more than something useless. We are often afraid of striving—it is a habit, and we need to overcome it. Therefore, studying and practicing for a period of time is necessary. Just like opening a path through the jungle. At first it was difficult, encountering many obstacles and obstacles. But keep going back to work, clearing land, cutting down trees, moving mountain rocks, building roads, building bridges... gradually people will open the way. That is the same way as cultivating the mind. If you practice persistently, your mind will become luminous and radiant. The Buddha and his great disciples of the past were also ordinary people, but they cultivated themselves to progress to the levels of enlightenment. They can do it through practice and practice. What is Buddha's advice on practicing meditation?. Buddha taught us to practice like earth, practice like water, practice like wind, practice like fire. Practice like the “old things,” the things that make up us: The hard element of earth, the liquid element of water, the moving element of wind, the heat element of fire. If someone digs the soil, the soil doesn't feel bothered. It can withstand being plowed, plowed, and flooded. Rotten things can be buried in the soil. But the land is still indifferent and does not complain. Water can be frozen, or boiled, or used to wash dirty things, but it doesn't matter. Fire can be used to burn beautiful things, ugly things, fragrant things, dirty things. It's not bothersome either. When the wind blows, it blows away everything, the beautiful and the ugly, the useful and the useless. It pays no attention to those things. Buddha used this example. Our body is simply a combination of the four elements of earth, water, and heat. If we want to find 'someone' in there, we find nothing. It is just a collection of four elements. But all our lives we never understand that this pile of bodies is just those elements, never separated like that. We just think “This is me. This is my body."We always look at everything with a 'self', a 'self', a 'person', but never see that this body is just earth, water, wind, and fire. (Even when we look at a corpse disintegrating and rotting, we still don't realize that it's really just a pile of soil, water, wind, and fire). Buddha taught about this. Buddha taught about the four elements and four elements and hoped we would see that the body is just that, there is no 'one' inside that pile of bodies. Contemplate (consider) about these elements of the body to see that there is no 'one' or 'person' inside it, it is just earth, water, wind, fire. This is profound, isn't it? That is the profound thing that is being hidden—people look but few see it. We are only used to thinking about 'us', about 'our being', about 'my body' or 'someone else's'. (We just consider this body as a 'person', each person has a body, each body is a 'person'). If you still think about 'me' and 'my body' like that, it will be very difficult to practice meditation deeply. It does not see the truth and does not reach the truth, and therefore we cannot go beyond the appearance (pretense) of things. We are still stuck in worldly conventions; And being stuck in worldly conventions means still being stuck in the cycle of reincarnation: Having then losing, being born then dying, dying then being born, still suffering in the realm of ignorance and ignorance. What we want and wish for never happens the way we want, because we look at things in the wrong way. With such shackles of attachment (self-grasping, self-view), we are still very far from the path of realizing the Dharma. Let's get to work from now on. Only practicing according to the Dharma can help us overcome suffering. If we cannot overcome all suffering, we are still capable of overcoming some suffering right now, in the present. For example, if we practice, when someone curses us, we do not get angry, then we have overcome a kind of suffering (anger). If we are always angry, we have not transformed that suffering. When someone curses us, if we know how to reflect on the Dharma, we will see that it is only this body that is cursed. Yes, whoever curses just curses—actually they're just cursing a pile of dirt. One pile of dirt is cursing another pile of dirt. Water is cursing water. The wind is cursing the wind. Fire is cursing fire. There is no 'one' cursing 'anyone'. If we understand like that, we won't feel offended or react when we are scolded: perhaps they will think we are crazy. “That guy was scolded but didn't say anything. It probably doesn't feel!”. When someone dies, we don't feel despair, pain, or crying: perhaps they also think we are crazy and impudent. Let's practice to acknowledge and see what our 'self' really is. Let's practice to overcome the suffering of human life, it doesn't depend on what other people think of us. Whether or not we can overcome suffering depends on our state of mind.depends on whether we can practice our mental states or not. Don't be attached to what people say about you—if we can realize the truth for ourselves, we can live in peace and relaxation. Whenever you encounter difficulties, reflect (examine, consider, contemplate, remember) about the Dharma. Consider what our teachers have taught us. They teach us to let go, to exercise restraint and self-control, to put everything down; They taught us this to solve the difficulties we encounter in the process of practice. The Dharma we have heard and learned is used to handle and overcome difficulties in practice. What difficulties? Family? What difficulties do we have? About children, spouse, friends, or about work? These things sometimes cause headaches, right? Those are also difficulties in practice life. The teachings of the monks show us how to apply the Dharma to solve everyday difficulties. We are born as humans. We are responsible for living with a happy mind. We do everything in that responsible direction. When we encounter something difficult, we learn to endure. Doing righteous professional work (right livelihood) is a way of practicing the Dharma, practicing an ethical lifestyle. Living in such a happy and harmonious way is quite good. However, we often lose it. Don't lose it! If we go to a temple or monastery to practice, and then come home and fight or quarrel, that is a loss. Do you hear what I say clearly? If you practice like that, you will only lose and gain nothing. If you keep doing that, it means you don't see any of the Dharma—you don't get any benefit. Hope you understand this clearly.practice an ethical lifestyle. Living in such a happy and harmonious way is quite good. However, we often lose it. Don't lose it! If we go to a temple or monastery to practice, and then come home and fight or quarrel, that is a loss. Do you hear what I say clearly? If you practice like that, you will only lose and gain nothing. If you keep doing that, it means you don't see any of the Dharma—you don't get any benefit. Hope you understand this clearly.practice an ethical lifestyle. Living in such a happy and harmonious way is quite good. However, we often lose it. Don't lose it! If we go to a temple or monastery to practice, and then come home and fight or quarrel, that is a loss. Do you hear what I say clearly? If you practice like that, you will only lose and gain nothing. If you keep doing that, it means you don't see any of the Dharma—you don't get any benefit. Hope you understand this clearly.END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ). GOLDEN ZEN BUDDHIST MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.22/6/2024.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.