Ponder the Buddha's life.VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

 Today is the full moon day of the second lunar month, commemorating the death of Buddha Shakyamuni. 

The Blessed One passed away under a sa-la tree at age 80 (foreign Buddhist paintings)

"The history of Shakyamuni Buddha is the history of a human being who, through elaborate training, has become a perfect person, a saint in the world;" the greatest man born in this life " if you reuse the words of the Indian poet Tagore.

By his life, and by his teachings collected in the three sūtras, the Buddha declared to mankind that any human being, with his own effort, has being able to reach the highest peak of enlightenment and liberation, like the Buddha himself.

It can be said that there is no religion, no ideology that upholds people and believes in people like Buddhism. The great humanity of Buddhism is that.

Avoid all evil, do all good, cleanse the mind to become a saint, a perfect person, virtuous and wise, each of us has the ability and the duty to carry out that teaching. This is the message that the Buddha gave us, to each of us. That is the true meaning of human life, the true value of life. There can be no greater, more encouraging, life-giving meaning to our lives today.

We have long thought that the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, in its outline as well as its details, vividly expresses and communicates that teaching of the Buddha. Trusting in the Buddha, paying homage to him and reciting his name, mainly to study him in both virtues and intellect, even in all one. Anyone who is far from Buddha, but lives with virtue, according to the Buddha's teachings, is like living near Buddha. Whoever lives next to Buddha, but lives without virtue, is no different from the Buddha forever.

We Vietnamese Buddhists, although living 2,500 years ago from the time of the Buddha, but hold on to the belief that we still live alongside the Buddha so we live virtue, following the teachings of the eight paths. branch (Eightfold Path).

Living in this universe, being a human being is hard. The Buddha said: "To be made as difficult as a tickled turtle, every year, he will lift his head out of the sea once and find a way to enter his head into the small hole of a drifting log on the water. being blown away by the East, West, South, and North winds ".

To be made is as difficult as the one-eyed tortoise wants to burrow through the small hole of the log like that. In the  Sa yutta  V, the Buddha taught: "For example, monks, a man throws a log with a gap in the big sea. There is a blind tortoise there, once every hundred years. What do you think, bhikkhus. Does the turtle, once every hundred years, emerge once more, can it go into a tree with a hole in it? "

"The year when ten disasters may be possible, Bach The Ton, after a long time."

"I declare that even faster, bhikkhus, are blind tortillas, who emerge once every hundred years, able to burrow into a gaped log. Better than a fool, once He fell into a debauchery, to be a human again, because of that, because there was no practice, righteous action, good deeds, and merit, there, monks, there was only meat to eat. , and only the weak are eaten ... " 

"It is very difficult, monks, to be human. It is difficult to be so, bhikkhus, to be Tathagata appear in life, A-la-Han, righteous awareness, it is difficult." okay, monks, this is the Dharma, and this Law is preached by the Blessed One, illuminating the world. " 

Buddha appeared in life is such a difficult thing. The Dharma and the Law spread by the Buddha in life are also very difficult. We have three rare fortunes of being human, knowing the Buddha Shakyamuni and the Dharma, the Law taught by the Buddha, yet we don't know how to make the maximum of those three fortunes? We can again live unhappily, contrary to the Buddha's teaching, only to be attracted by the evil karma to other lower realms, more miserable than the human realm, and finally to strive to become a human again like a tortoise. eyes in the example of Buddha?

May all Buddhists ponder the lesson of the Buddha's history, about the picture of a turtle playing with its eyes in the ocean, the meaning of human life, the true value of life, and the present life. This reality of each of us, how to make that life truly peaceful, upward, beneficial to us, good for people, good for life, good for the Dao ". END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.11/3/2020.