THE BEGINNING OF THE BUDDHA AND THEIR PRACTICE.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

Based on the life of the Buddha, we can understand the basic aspects of meditation and how to behave as a French practitioner. Although many people just view the Buddha's life as a historical story, life can give us some excitement, but they do not overcome that common vision. 

Yet, the life of the Buddha is a symbol of each and every one of us. If we analyze His biography and meditate on it, we can see how it consists of teachings and patterns for us to follow.

When born, the Buddha was a prince of ancient India. At that time, Indian society had four main classes. Of course the highest class was the Brahmin class (the clergy). The second class is the ruling class and the soldiers; The Buddha belongs to this second class. 

His life is a model for us, it sends to the practitioners a very important message. The Buddha was born as a normal person and appeared in that way. He is not a god or someone like that. Instead, he is an ordinary human being who, through his practice, becomes a particular being. First of all, he appears as an unenlightened person, which is very important.

Right now we are also ordinary men and women. If the Buddha is always a special being, born of "enlightened," then his biography will not be special! Then his biography would not be meaningful because ordinary beings like us would forever be stuck in the position of an ordinary being; I will never attain enlightenment. 

So the Buddha appeared in the world, was born Siddharta Guatama. He lived purposefully as a model for us to follow. 

Siddhartha not only appeared as a human, he also acted as a normal Prince. He ate, slept, got an education, and got married. At that time in India, a prince had thousands of spouses.

Prince Siddhartha's royal life is full of worldly pleasures.There are elephants and games. Dancers and wine are always ready to serve. His family is very wealthy, so all the truth is splendid, luxurious. Even the flowers were changed hour by day so that the prince never saw the flowers wither and wither. The world that Prince Siddhartha knows is lovely, splendid and beautiful. 

Nevertheless, one day Prince Siddhartha was amazed at how the things changed. He never knew that a flower was forced to wither. How can a vibrant and lively flower become wrinkled and leave to pieces? Such a fact made him dizzy. Then the prince began to wonder how much he did not know and how the world outside his palace?

Lord Siddhartha, father of Siddhartha, became anxious.Siddhartha wanted to travel outside the palace, where he had never been before. As a child, a prophet had given the Prince a model that Siddhartha would either become the Great One or become a great saint. Of course, his father wanted Siddhartha to become a Holy King. Like so many others, his father was motivated by greed and power. 

Finally, the King allowed Siddhartha to visit outside the palace. The court ordered everyone to clean the streets, make the city beautiful and hide all the ugly scenes.Everyone follows the instructions of the King.

Prince Siddhartha departed the palace and for the first time began to see some things. Even though people tried to hide the ugly scenes, an old man appeared. When seeing this old Siddhartha, he was amazed. The first time he met a hair loss head, old and ugly. 

Desperately, Siddhartha begged his car driver Sanna. He asked why this man had that kind of look? Finally Sanna explains that this is called old age, after being born, living for a long time, will go to old age. 

Once again Siddhartha was stunned, he asked, "What if they lived a long time?" Sanna was forced to explain that we would die. Siddhartha felt pain and returned to the palace, thinking about what to see.

After a few days the Prince and Sanna went out. This time the Prince saw a corpse, it was pale and cold like a stone. He could not imagine that only the dead body was alive on the ground. He asked Sanna whether this would happen to everyone. However, Siddhartha was not satisfied. 

"Does this even happen to me, Prince?" He continued to ask. Sanna must explain that all people, the King, the Queen, the ministers, even the highest ones, face death.In the same way, by leaving the palace, Siddhartha discovered that birth and illness also existed.

After seeing the birth, old age, illness, death, Siddhartha thought deeply. You see that being a king is not a good thing. "One day I will be king, the next day I will be like a cold stone, burned to ashes. Clinging to our position does not mean anything. " 

Siddhartha realized that he had to find a way out of birth, old age, sickness and death. 

The prince felt that as a king he could give money to the poor, provide housing for everyone and give him medicine. But he was not a good king if he could not free his people from the suffering of old, sick, and dead. 

So Siddhartha escaped from the imperial palace, determined to find a way to end the suffering of the world.After doing so, after many years of practice and search, he became a Buddha, fully clarified the truth about the world. 

The Buddha represents each one of us here. We may not have a great castle, but we have our own "palace", our own mind-set with ideas and ego. We may not have horses and elephants, but we have bicycles and cars. I have my own "Kingdom", my own "Queen" and everything else.

Most of us never dare step outside our "palace". We try to deny illness and death. Even the society does. If I ask all of the people here to write a will, they can agree to the request. 

But if I ask the boys to do that, people will be upset and think that this is unacceptable. There is so much ignorance here, are adults always dying before young people? An eleven-year-old boy can die before a ninety-year-old man.

We approach death in every moment, in every breath. As we age, wrinkles are much more. But ignorance, I still deny the death. So, if you are a disciple of the Buddha's teachings, you do not have to go to temples and chant mantras - what you have to do is get out of your "palace".Get out of it, of course, metaphorically. 

Admit that death is there, do not deny it. One day, even me (Khyentse Rinpoche) was just "history," leaving only a few pictures and tapes. Families can put your name on an altar and pay homage, but you can be a bird somewhere and do not know that death is still going on.

The essence of Buddhism is to understand life. You should understand its true meaning. We often nod and we agree that life is impermanent. But we still think that death happens to others, not to us. 

Sometimes people are informed about what Buddhists say about life and death. They can say that we always bring bad news. It is not bad news or pessimism, it is true. We can not deny the truth, we must meditate on it.Otherwise, we will be stunned and disappointed. Later on we will suffer even more if we refute it now.

Life is precious. If you want to live long life, you can drink ginseng. But we will die. So now we must enjoy life and live it properly. If you have an hour to live, then eat good food and drink your ginseng. Right now we should know how to enjoy life because it is impermanent. 

Everything we do in life is worth celebrating, whether it is returning home safely or eating without dying from choking. We should praise life in every moment and do not waste it, because our life is impermanent. 

So what do we do when we escape our "palace"? I sat up straight, breathing and meditating.

Singing can inspire and create devotion while meditating.It's like when someone wants to say that they love someone, he can hold the guitar and sing. It makes the mood a bit more romantic and more emotional. It is as if singing makes the atmosphere of meditation denser and can benefit our practice. 

We need wisdom from others. We need a teacher who knows the truth and can help us out of suffering. Just like a mentally-minded mother and prevent her baby from touching hot iron. A devout child will listen to his mother, but if the child is not devout, he may touch hot iron and get burned. 

The Buddha knows that hatred burns us, passion burns us, ignorance burns us. We are like children who should be given the wisdom of the Buddha not to be consumed by these afflictions. Some of us are stubborn and affected by them. 

The realization of the nature of the mind is inexplicable in words that can only be achieved through meditation. We should develop compassion and avoid anger. 

It is the cause of great joy that causes people to work hard, especially to create this Dharma Center. This is not because it is my French center. It is because the teachings of the Buddha are precious and profound. 

Even if one of His teachings falls into someone's ear, it is beneficial; It is similar to how one sees a Buddha statue. 

These circumstances are the basis for the practice of Dharma. They leave a trace and a connection with the individual. The giving of the Fa to everyone has a lot of merit. 

The accumulation of merit does not necessarily mean that you have to offer a butterfly or give a generous gift to the poor. The best virtue is to give yourself and others the opportunity to listen and practice the Dharma. 

Unfortunately, very few people give this Dharma gift; This gift is the only source of Enlightenment, it uproots all things in samsara.

I do not exclude that the people who set up a French center are the full-fledged Bodhisattvas. I exclude ten or twenty people together. There may be some imperfections and lack of harmony. 

However, no one is depressed. We are here to be perfect, so do not expect to be perfect. Also do not get caught up in the feelings of anger, jealousy and the rest of the people; Do not be embarrassed if others criticize or say no good about something. 

It's like a pretty girl going down the street with an ugly boyfriend, other men jealous that a pretty girl like her goes with such an ugly person. This is how the human mind judges others, but we should not fall into that pattern.

We have to do what is necessary and make room for people to learn about the Fa. Even non-human beings, spirits, dragons, etc. Also get benefit from this. So, rejoice! We can use some ginseng.END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.10/11/2018.