INSTINCT AND RATIONALISATION
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Intuition and rationalisation – a topic of psychology. Today we discuss this topic to assess our mind and soul, assess ourselves to understand what we should not do, what we must do, and be aware of what we have to try to develop and promote.
Instinct is natural for human beings, we don’t need to learn to use our instinct. However, we must learn about rationalisation or factual reasoning in order to know what we must do, and what we must not do.
The instinct of all species are naturally programed automatically, but they are not entirely the same. Human beings aren’t controlled by instinct much, but animals live and survive by their instinct because they do not understand rationalisation. They eat, sleep and do everything according to their instinct, they do not think. Therefore, their instinct is better than human beings.
For example , a hungry dog will eat the food immediately when we feed him. If another dog come to eat the same portion, they will start fighting with each other. Even when the two dogs are playing happily, if we only give them one piece of a bone, they will fight over this one piece of bone. That is the natural instinct of animals.
However, as human beings, we should not and must not behave that way. Although we feel hungry, and there are a lot of food available, we still must consider if the food is enough for other people before starting, and evern consider if we need to eat less or stop in order to leave more food for others. We do so because we don’t live on instinct, we think rationally. However, it is not easy, we must learn to how to control our thoughts in order to think rationally effectively. Therefore, there are many philosophers, scientists and masters, who had been honored as legends of all times because of their rationalisation.
Unlike human beings, animals are controlled by instinct, even they kill their own species. Some species kill themselves in a certain season during the year. It is because it has been naturally programmed in the their brain and they must follow. Human beings do not act like that. It’s not easy for a human being to die as there are many challenges and difficulties before death.
So, there are two factors, which always control life of a human being. They are instinct and rationalisation (could be referred in this document as factual reasonion in some cases). Natural instinct urges us do what has been programmed in our brain, but what we are taught advise us not to live by our natural instinct. These two things sometimes can be the same… sometimes can be different.
So, would the love of parents for children be instinct or rationalisation? It is actually both instinct and rationalisation. Parents always love their children naturally, this is instinct. But parents also need to learn how to love and teach their children well so that they would become successful and good people for society. This part is controlled by our thinking/reasoning.
What about the love of children for parents? Is it instinct or reasoning? Deep down, our love for our parents is natural instinct. However, if we have to make effort trying to love them, that would require thinking, rationalisation. As for the love of parents for children, seven out of ten parts would be natural instinct, and the remaining three parts would be because of reasoning. On the contrary, as for the love of children for their parents, three parts would be natural instinct, and the remaining seven parts would be because of reasoning.
During childhood, a child would always call out for “Mum or Dad” when they encounter any problem. Parents are their refuge, their love and their protection from the time they were born. That refuge become instinct because they must depend on their parents. Through many years, that natural instinct turns into love. But when the child grows up and can solve problems on their own, they don’t need to rely on their parents anymore. And the love for their parents would become less and less. When they are a teenager, they can argue with their parents about everything to get what they want. Hence, the love of children for parents is not a strong instinct.
If there is not a good education system to teach children about their duties and obligations with their parents, they will easily forget this important duty. If we do forget our obligation with our parents, we will live no different to an animal life. A beast will forget its parents when it leaves the herd. Human beings have ethics, knowledge, and know how to reason with themselves, therefore we often force ourselves to love our parents in all circumstances. It is called filial piety. We must learn and practise hard to use it effectively. Whichever belongs to instinct, it would come naturally and we don’t need to learn and train.
What about the love of a married couple? Is this instinct or reasoning? It is actually instinct, however, it requires ethic in order for it to be a successful and happy marriage. A man meets a woman and they love each other. Why? There are two reasons. One is due to the natural attraction between men and women. It is instinctively programmed for all species in the universe. The second reason is the karma factor. In this life, there are so many men and women, but we could have feeling and love only a very few. This is becuase of karma, the relationships between these men and women from their previous lives.
Thus, some elements of instinct are controlled by karma. Biologists or psychologisst would define that “instinct is a biological programming”, but Buddhism defines that “instinct is the combination of both biological programming and past karma”. Rationalisation does not depend on both biological programming and past karma. Rationalisation depend on moral and educational foundation.
The life of a human being always has both instinct and rationalisation. For example, a young man loved a young woman and wanted to marry her, but his parents did not approve of the marriage. They thought that because she came from a criminal family, and if he married this woman, the family reputation would be damaged. In addition, he was a lot older than this young woman, his education background was also much more higher than hers, they were afraid that the marriage would not be happy and successful at all. Their children, if any, would not grow up in a good environment.
In the scenario above, the parents only thought of the family reputation, what others would think of them, and the bloodline of their grandchildren… That was rationalisation. The love of the young man was instinct, which based on both biological programming and past karma. This young man was struggling to choose between the love of his life, and the disapproval of his parents for all of the right reasons.
All of us always face with these two factors in life: instinct and rationalisation. One part of instinct is past karma. According to Buddhism, karma is causality. It is always fair, and not many people can change it. In order to change it, we must practise Buddha’s teachings, the Dharma, which would help change our past karma. Therefore, the more we study about our spiritual beliefs, and religious practice, it would not simply be only a struggle between instinct and rationalisation; it is actually the fight between living the existing karma and or changing to good karma to have a better life. It is really difficult to achieve this.
Human beings live by their instinct, meaning they also live in accordance with their past karma.
From the time we are born until we grow up, we would have many relationships such as family relationship, friend relationship, colleague relationship… Friend relationship is not as binding as family relationship, but we’d rather being with our friends than staying at home with our parents. Sometimes, we disobey our parents’ advice, but listen to our friends’ instead. Talking or playing with them is fun: natural instinct.
Living instinctively always makes people feel comfortable and happy, but the consequences are often virtual or cannot be foreseen. Therefore, we must resist that temptation and live with our conscious mind. This could though make us tired, frustrated and annoyed. If we choose fun and temptation, it is like we are riding a bike downhill. We do not need to try hard, the bike just run faster and faster, and the sensational feeling about it will make us happy. On the contrary, if we try to ride a bike uphill, we must use a lot of energy, we can easily get tired. However, when we reach the top, the feeling would be incredible, the view from the top would be spectacular.
All of us, either living a religious life or not, need to choose one way to live: either live a fun/enjoyable life without worrying about consequences; or live a life with a conscious mind to gain good outcomes and results. This is a constant struggle throughout everyone’s life, even throughout many next lives. Whoever can win over their natural instinct to live a holy life would become Saints. Whoever surrenders to instinct will be re-born in animal realms, or human realms but live a poor and miserable life.
If we want to win over ourselves, then understanding Buddha’s teachings is just the beginning. The important thing is strong willpower to practise, being resilient and the main secret is your own blessing. Thanks to the power of blessings, we could overcome many obstacles, avoid committing many sins to live a pure and moral life. Do not ever think that we are so talented and strong and would be able to overcome every temptation!
We have read articles from the press, which wrote about a woman who taught her children: “Listen to your heart, you would make less mistakes.” Listening to our heart means that we act with our emotion, by instincts. We would do whatever we like to do. Many people think this is a fashionable and popular lifestyle. They do not know that this lifestyle would bring them into the deep hole of abyss. Only those, who can win over their heart to live wisely, can have a truely moral life.
Is this true that those, who live wisely, are really unsentimental?
Let’s discuss one example, where a child wanted to go out with his friend. His mother picked up a nice outfit for him and gave him some money as well. When his father asked: “Who do you go out with?” – “I am going out with ….” – “So, what time will you be home, and where is the place?” When the child told his father about the place, his father was disapproving of the situation: “No, that place is very dangerous… and the group you are hanging out with does not seem to have ethical behaviours.” The result was that the parents got into a fight over the disagreement.
In the example above, the mother really spoilt the child as she was emotional and soft. As for the father, because he did not want the child to hang out with this group of friends, he was strong, rational but some would call him being insensitive, and unsentimental.
Is the above statement true? Actually not. In fact, rational people are wise and they live morally. Morality always contain both compassion and wisdom factors. These people are very reasonable; they care and dedicate their life for others. In many cases, those who live by their instincts, actually are unsentimental people. They just live for themselves and play their own rules. They do not pay attention to what other people feel. They are comfortable with their bad habits, and do not pay attention or care about what other people think about them.
A wise person would never have such behaviour. Even when they are with friends and family, they still treat others considerately, dedicatedly. They always know the way to show their affection reasonably. Therefore, if someone thinks that wise people are unsentimental, that is wrong. Wise people also treat others reasonably and that is called “rationalisation”.
One time, I met a very respectable school teacher from long time ago. I hugged him, respectfully. Did I act with my instinct or by rationalisation? In fact, in this case, a hug was more than many words. I wanted to show him my emotion and respect for him without using any words. Because I am a Buddhism monk, I can only express respect and compassion for my old teacher that way. However, without that hug, it seemed lacking something, and by thiking and reasoning, it had helped me have the right reaction and treatment towards my old teacher.
Therefore, we must be very careful and subtle to balance between instinct and reasoning, between emotions and reasoning, between accepting karma and changing karma. Although we will have fun and lots of enjoyment when we live by instincts, but the consequences will be unpredictable and very alarming. When we live rationally and reasonably, though being tired as we have to fight with ourselves internally, but the consequences will be much better. For example, a pupil would always want to play instead of learning, however, with help from the parents and teachers, he/she would learn, well-educated and become a good person for the society. Most children prefer playing than learning. So, parents should teach them the way to control and discipline themselves to win over all temptation. However, there is always a mystery factor, blessing. This factor normally will shape a child’s personality. A child who have lots of blessings from his/her past lives i.e. he/she did a lot of good deeds, will be studious; and vice versa.
When does a child become an adult?
When we behave and live rationally, we have become an adult. From ten to twenty years of age is the period of transition from an kid’s life to an adult life (from instinct to rationalisation). Those, who can control their instinct in their early age, are called early maturing. However, there are those, who are 50 years, but they still live by their instincts. In contrast, there are many who are only 15, 16 years old, especially those who live a religious life from the early age. In a moral environment, they study about Buddha’s teachings and pray every day. As the result, they can win over any temptations very quickly to live a holy and useful life. Buddhists must respect monks regardless of their age. Although a monk is young, he/she can overcome instinct confidently. We could say that some young monks are a lot of mature than Buddhists.
Similarly, though we all practise Buddhism, everyone is still different from one another. The ability of each person to live by their instinct or by rationalisation is completely different. This factor often is a deciding factor if a person can practise Buddha’s teachings well or not; and is respectable or not. It is also the deciding factor if someone can change their karma. In addition to the effort of their will, their strength and their determination, the blessing and merits of each person is also the secret factor which would help them be more disciplined and win over their instinct. We must do lots of good deeds, help a lot of other people in order to create lots of blessings and merits for themselves.
There are many ways to create merits and blessings, but the most important ones are to pay homage and pray to Buddha; and to be forgiving with others. The first one is frequent bowing to Buddha, which will help create lots of blessings and merits, which later on will help us overcome bad habits and live more wisely. The second one is to live for others. Selfishness is one of the element of human being instinct while selflessness is an element of reasoning. If we can live in harmony and have compassion for others, we would always have the strength to overcome our own instinct/emotion. We must practise doing good deeds, creating more merits and blessings; we also must practise overcoming our own instinct, improve our ability to use rationalisation to live more responsibly and wisely.
We know that instinct is biological and together with the past karma, these two factors could impact our life strongly. These elements could influence us on doing things that we should not be doing. Therefore, it will always be difficult to choose between instinct and rationalisation. We can only rely on the accumulated blessings, and paying homage to Buddha over many years and even lives would help us overcome our own instinct to live a moral life.
Religion also has two elements: instinct and reasoning.
An mythological aspect of religion is instinct. We heard a lot of fairy stories, divas, miracles, and many people have believed in these stories and then become followers of a religion. For example, we may have heard about people with terminal illness, who then were cured by just following a religion; or we have heard about a Saint, who flew from the above down to earth to perform miracles to cure people’s illness. In many cases, we do not carefully consider these stories, and just blindly believe in it. We, at first, had not believed it these stories; however, because more and more people talked about the same stories, it has had become more believable.
Once a Buddhist told us about the secret of her business success. Right after the war, she started her business by making and selling her own cigarettes. She couldn’t sell many because it was not a reputable brand. She thought of a tactic. She asked five of her friends to help pretending to be interested buyers. The five friends went to a cigarette shop and asked for her cigarette brand. The shop owner could not sell any because they did not store that brand. The friends left the shop. When she went pass the shop, the shop owner ended up asking her to supply her brand cigarette. Her business started blooming from that time onwards.
This story is a great lesson for all of us in life and in religion. When there are 10 or 20 people lined up to tell us about one mystery religion, we should be cautious and careful. We could be trapped by someone who attempts to conquer our faith and belief… similar to the cigarette story from the Buddhist mentioned above.
Most religions have exploited fairy stories, miracles, and stories about different Saints and Gods because faith does not require people to consider carefully. People often do not need to think to become a follower, just their belief. However, all religions always have two elements, which are again instinct and rationalisation. Mythological aspect belongs to instinct. Moral aspect such as teaching people to love each other, not killing each other, not stealing… belongs to rationalisation.
Even Buddhism also has a many mystery stories, especially in the Mahayana system; the Lotus Sutra is a typical example.
The introduction of Pham Tua Sutra starts with the line: Buddha was meditating on a lotus in the middle of nowhere; and between his eyebrows launched a bright light which lightening both 10 directions of the physical world and 10 directions of the spiritual world, Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realms and even A Ti hell.
The Dieu Am Sutra mentioned: “Dieu Am Bodhisattva from solemn Tịnh Quang world came to this mundane world to listen to the Lotus Sutra, but no one knew about it. However, due to the subliminal power of Buddha, Dieu Am Bodhisattva became visible to everyone.” This is a myth. From the beginning to the end of the Lotus Sutra, it is full of myth. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra belongs to mythology, instinct, doesn’t it? However, when we think about it more carefully, those myth details has hidden some moral teachings and they extremely difficult to understand.
But why did our ancestor monks hide moral teachings in myths? It was because they wanted to use them to convey messages about morality. They had hoped that human beings will believe in and follow Buddhism by believing in these myths first. Someday, when the mystery is unraveled, everything would be translated into moral principles. And this is the rationalisation element in the Lotus (Phap Hoa) Sutra.
There have been many mythical stories from the ancient times, but they did not hide any moral teachings. Lotus Sutra is an exception and it is full of mysteries. The image of Buddha, who was deeply in meditation, sitting on a lotus in the middle of nowhere means that we should not have to rely on any thinking, belief, or any prejudiced judgment to find the path to enlightenment.
For example, some would argue that morality comes from oriental traditions. Others would argue that morality bases from Western traditions. These people already have a prejudiced thinking and belief. And when we are already prejudiced towards someone or beliefs, we will not be able to see the real truth. Therefore, if anyone wants to see the real truth, they must not rely on anything, absolutely nothing; like Buddha who was enlighted in the middle of nowhere. The image might be just a myth, but hiding inside the image is the message about morality.
Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realm is the realm for all beings who have perfect morality. A Ty hell is the lowest level of hell, where the most sinful beings would be punished. Thus, the image of the bight light between Buddha’s eyebrows lighting to Sac Cuu Kinh heaven realms is a symbol of extremely good things. The image of the bright light between Buddha’s eyebrows was shining across the ten directions of the spiritual world indicates the highest level of blessing and the lowest level for sins.
It also means that all Buddhists must understand clearly about blessings and sins. This is the first fundamental truth that we all must know. In this world, there are many things claimed to be the truth. However, the most important truth that we must know is blessings, sins and karma, the law of Cause and Effect.
The greatness of the Lotus Sutra is that it conveys moral teachings through countless mythical stories. Therefore, if when we chant the Lotus Sutra but we do not understand the deep meaning of the Sutra, we would still act with our own instinct, and we would believe in myths forever. But if we can understand moral teachings of those myths, we would be able to become more ethical and a true Lotus Sutra practitioners.
Let’s remember this: every religion has two elements, which are myth and morality. Myths are beautiful, poetic and create faith in people. Morality will encourage kindness in all human beings. Science is the extreme and the ultimate outcome of analysis, rationalisation. The more advance science is, the more insensitive, unsentimental it can be. For example, with science, 1 plus 1 equals 2, 2 plus 2 equals 4; nothing is in between. Science is rationalisation, factual reasoning… it helps the human race advance further.
Religion in the future will need to be the same, follows the rationalisation path. Because, if we don’t, and just belief only will not help the human race advance. The true value of mankind is living by rationalisation.
Maybe, at first, our belief in a religion results from our belief in myths. But later, we must find the way to build the rationalisation element into religions.
If all religions developed and promoted more of moral aspects and limit its belief in mythology, a wonderful thing would happen: all religions would be more similar, have mutual solidarity, and this world would soon be peaceful. The history of human beings has witnessed many catastrophic wars, and one of the causes is due to differences in religious beliefs.
Understanding this principle, each of us must become the messengers to bring the message about peace to everyone around the world. Let’s meet lots of people from other countries, and other religions to objectively share with them that:
“Every religion has two aspects: mythology and morality. The mythical stories with Gods, Saints that made us stay away from each other. But the moral aspect of all religions is very similar. All it wants is for people to love one another, not to steal, not to kill one another…”
Moral principles are always strangely the same. But traditionally, we still often think that we need to have many myths in order to develop a religion. We don’t know that different beliefs make human beings stay away from each other. Today is the twenty-first century, a new millennium, human civilization has advanced so much. Therefore, religions have to develop more and more moral elements to build and maintain a peaceful world. Building a peaceful world is the ultimate goal, the dream, is the common ideal of all humanity. Any religion must not turn away from this dream.
To make this peaceful world dream come true, each of us must treat each other with respect, with compassion and objectively share with everyone around the world that: Between the two elements: rationalisation and mythology of a religion, if we can focus on the rationalisation component to further develop moral principles, human beings will gradually unite with one another.
On the occasion of this Christmas, some of our Catholic friends displayed the two very unique Alexandrine from Catholicism:
“Glory to God in the highest
Peace on earth to moral men”
The first sentence: “Glory to God in the highest” is a mythological belief. Every person, every religion has a God to worship, and we should respect that. The second sentence: “Peace on earth to moral men” relates to moral aspect. Only moral men can have a peaceful and happy life. It’s fair, and it’s also the law of karma. We can conclude that moral aspect of all religion is the same.
So whoever just wants to live by instinct, and always lives with their ego, their mind will generate numerous unkind/evil thoughts. At first, they will be proud of themselves. Later, they will become greedy, selfish, jealous and behave as they like, … The evil mind will push them further into the path of committing sins. And according to the law of karma, who sows the wind will reap the storm. They will be punished, and will never have a happy life.
Therefore, to have a peaceful world, everyone must live well with one another. We must get rid of ego, and live a selfless life. Having a selfless mindset is to live a moral life, also is the quality of a Saint. All enlightened Saints have pure mind, are selfless, and have boundless compassion for all beings. We often worship them as Arhat, Bodhisattva, and Buddha.
Let’s remember that when talking about ego, and when we live with our ego, it means we live by human instinct. That will not lead to a good life as we would be committing a lot of sins and have bad karma. Only those, who live a moral life, would live happily and peacefully in this world.
However, to live morally, we must practise Buddha’s teachings, we must practise the Dharma harder and harder, especially mediate to calm and purify our minds. Only a pure mind would lead us to a selfless life, because a chaotic mind will make the ego arise easily.
As the result, if you are a true disciple of Buddha, you must practise meditation diligently. We also must remember that meditation helps calm and purify our mind; to be selfless and to get rid of ego could take millions of years. When we embark on this journey, we must not limit the time. Those who think they will be enlightened quickly will never succeed. Vice versa, those who are always humble, practise quietly will achieve unexpected results. And all of us must try our best to practise, and to purify our mind in meditation.
How can we build a common morality foundation for the society?
Nowsaday, people like to live a life full of enjoyment and be known and popular about it. Be very careful as that is the indication of ego, stubbornness, and pride. A quiet, modest and harmony life will lead to compassion and peace for this world. This is also a common morality of all religions and humanity.
Looking at morality from a different angle, music is also an important education channel. Because music can easily influence any human beings… it relates to emotion, it touches our heart and soul… Thus, if music has the right message about morality, we are more inclined to accept the message.
Besides the positive impact onto human beings, music can also have negative impacts and make people lose their morality. There are many songs with mushy feeble lyrics… Some lyrics even contain extreme excitement. Unfortunately, nowadays, this kind of music is very popular across the globe. According to the statistics, this kind of negative impact music accounts for about 99.9 % in India, and about 85 % in Vietnam. During the war,we have many beautiful songs such as “Vam Co Dong”, “Truong Son Dong Truong Son Tay” which are about the love of a couple, but also the love for our nation. These songs also are the call for people to unite to defeat our enemy as well as develop our country. But now, love music begins to develop strongly and spread quickly around the world.
On the internet, peopple view and listen to many love songs. Songs that are about love between parents and children, or love for the country have less amount of views and downloads. Why is that so? Because love/intimacy belongs to instinct, and therefore, those songs attract more people. Only very few rational people seek to listen to nobleminded types of song.
We have just re-united my music teacher, who taught me 40 years ago. He gifted us a poem titled: “The willow tree and you“:
“The green willow tree was in front of the alley
Waiting for the morning sun
You often went there
Enjoyed the comming autumn. “
” The willow tree gave shade to life
Noon was full of sunshine
You gave me fulcrum
In a panic life.
Your beauty was as a willow branch
Slender and humility
Loving life as breathing
With a big heart “
It sounds wonderful, and it contains the message about the impermanence principle in Buddhism.
- Time passed day by day No beauty is sustainable “
- The root of the willow was broken Where had you been?”
But despite of the impermanence, but the author did not forget… The last part of the poem is:
” Despite not pass by the old alley
My heart still imagine
Your image next to the willow
Which looks very nobleminded “
Firstly, it sounds like a love poem, but in fact, simply the author is only a loyalty man. He had loved this girl, however, as he got older, the willow tree also got older (representing impermanence meaning) his love for her still remains. The noble moral qualities of the ancient artist is admiring.
Nowadays, many famous songs in the world such as “Million Roses” of Russia, though it has such good tune that many Russians are proud of it much than their own national anthem, but the song is really just about a romantic relationship. The lyric is about an artist who fell in love with a singer. He knew that she loved roses, so, he sold his house to buy a million of roses to give her as present.
The scenario in this “Million Roses” song is unrealistic. If we had done that in reality, it would be such a waste, and the consequence would that we would be penniless. We should use that money to help poor people, help renovate temples… and many other good deeds to create blessings and gain respect from others. This shows the wisdom of people who believe in karma and living by rationalisation.
We hope that in the future, some song composers will rewrite the lyrics of “Million Roses” or “Serenade ” (Franz Schubert) for us to enjoy the beautiful sound of music with lyrics filled with morality, compassion and our devotion to a noble spiritual life.
We must award “Hero” for our brave soldiers, who protected our country during the wars.
In the history of our nation, there has been many soldiers who sacrified their lives for our Fatherland. We have to understand that all human beings naturally love their own life. That is just human instinct. But, many brave men dared to sacrifice their lives for the freedom of the nation. That means they had very strong wills. They are our national heroes. They lived by rationalisation, not by their intuition. We must remember that those, who live by intellectual reasoning (rationalisation) always live a moral life and will have everyone’s admiration. Those, who only live by their intuition, will never have a great life, just ordinary/average. Therefore, we must follow the example of our heroes, who would do anything because of our country. We must practise the Dharma to change our mind and soul towards living by
rationalisation, not by intuition. Only by doing that we would become useful people and be able to change our karma.
Why Hung Dao Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan was canonized by our country?
Tran Quoc Tuan was the son of An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu. In the Trans family, An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu was the first parentage. Tran Thai Tong, Tran Thanh Tong, Tran Nhan Tong were the second parentage. Because of the first parentage, An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu could not become King. An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu resented about this very much. Before he died, he had told Tran Quoc Tuan to overtake the throne whenever there was opportunity.
Later, King Tran gave Tran Hung Dao the power to lead the whole country military force. We know that whoever had this power, could overtake the throne easily. At that time, Tran Hung Dao (Hung Dao Vuong) asked his 6 children: The opportunity has come, should we take this opportunity to overtake the throne?” – Five sons disagreed. Only Hung Nhuong Vuong Tran Quoc Tang wanted his father to overtake the throne.
Immediately right after his son’s response, Tran Hung Dao requested his troop to have his own son beheaded. He firmly advised the remaining five sons that no one was ever allowed to even think about the overtaking the throne. He told them that they must be loyal to the country, to the King, and must ignore their grandfather’s (An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu) last words.
Because Tran Quoc Tuan was such a great and loyal man, he had lead the the military of Dai Viet to defeat the Mongol 3 times, and had become a Saint of our country. Most of the people would have different thinking, mostly for themselves whenever there is a chance.
For example, a man gave his friend some of gold and said: “I trust you. I can not keep these gold by myself. Please, keep them safe and give them to my son if something happens to me!”
The friend said: “Don’t be worry… it will be safe with me!”
Later, the man was missing. His son came to see the friend and said: “My father said that he had asked you to keep some gold for me. Now, I need them. Please give them back to me!”
What would you do in this situation?
Most people in that situation would have taken the advantage of this opportunity to keep all the gold to themselves. In the story about Tran Hung Dao before, though the opportunity was presented to overtake the throne, he adamantly refused to take such action. The whole country now worship him as a Saint because of that heroic action.
Life has many opportunities for us to enjoy and live by instinct. But, let’s remember the example of Hung Dao Vuong Quoc Tuan Tran and let’s refuse to do anything against morality; let’s live ethically, and live by rationalisation.
Although our soul always will be urged and controlled by two factors intuition and rationalisation, from now on, we should be willing to live a moral life to overcome the natural tendency of human instincts, emotions and the past karma.
Reasoning or Rationalisation is not dry, it’s the balance, clarity to control our feeling/emotion. In contrast, living by intuition is not wise at all, and is not in accordance with Buddha’s teachings. There are many people, who do not know the differences between intuition and rationalisation, and as the result, they have been bound by many cycles of reincarnation.
All Buddhists must have to live in accordance with Buddha’s teachings, to live a moral life, to practise the Dharma and to treat others appropriately. To do that, every day, we must pray to Buddha that: “Dear Buddha, I pray that you help me to understand and differentiate between intuition and rationalisation, and always wish to choose rationalisation in any situation.”
If we already live by rationalisation, now it is our duty to help others to be able to do the same thing: to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad, between intuition and rationalization; and they must always choose the right one. Only by doing it right, we could be in places where all the Saint are. Only from this wonderful and heavenly place, we would be able to see that this world is a beautiful realm, filled with love; and all will be enlightened.
NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA
