IT IS LIKE WALKING IN THE FOG
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On this occasion, Xa Loi Ceremony, we would like to remind everyone the advice of To Quy Son which was about having good friends during religious practice lifetime, which is like going walking in the fog.
Let’s discuss briefly about relics. What are relics? When burned the dead with thousand degrees of hot flames … everything will become ashes. But there had been cases, bones were not burned to ashes, but they were crystallized into solid particles. These are very hard and some also have sparkle colour like gems, which are called relics. In some other cases, the bones did not turn into hard granules that sparkle but become condensed; we call it a relic. Or sometimes bones become pure white, and they are also very valuable.
According to Physics, when bones are burnt with such high temperature, they will melt completely and would not turn into the relics. This is still a mystery to all scientists, but Buddhism has a clear explanation for this. Up to now, the most beautiful relics have been the relics of Buddha and Honourable Monks. There are the differences between relics of Buddha and monks and the relics of Buddha are also different from the relics of Arhats. The relics of Arhats are different from the relics of Saints. The relics of Saints are different from the relics of Honourable Monks. The relics of Honourable Monks are different from the relics of good people, who have many blessings.
When burning relics of Buddha, they glistens like diamonds. The places where they are located will become the sacred places because they are protected by Gods and Saints. The relics of Arhats are less sparkle than the relics of Buddha. The relics of monks are less sparkle even more. They are hard and have white colour.
Closer to our times, Monk Thai Hu is an Honourable Monk, who had been teaching others about Buddhism very well and he was a Saint. After his cremation, his bones turned into hundreds of sparkling relics. There are many people, including Buddhists, after cremation, their bones also become relics. Of course, their relics sparkled just a little. Thus, the higher level of sainthood is, the more sparkling the relics are. We can say that the burnt bones of those who are saints will become into relics, but the burnt bones become into relics cannot prove that person was a saint. Please keep this in mind, this is one-way theorem, no inverse theorem. Relics only indicate that the person had practised well Buddhism, but does not indicate that the person had been a Saint.
There was a story relating to this topic:
At the meditation conference, there was a monk, who was the host of the conference, but also had attained enlightenment. There was another monk, who could mediate very well and could mediate over two or three days. People wanted to know what level of Sainthood that the monk had achieved, so they informed the host about this monk. The host asked that monk a meditation question but he could not answer. He then meditated quietly and stopped breathing in meditation. After cremation, his body turned into glittering relics. The host knocked on the jar containing the monk’s ashes and said: “Instead of becoming relics, you should have had answered correctly when I asked you about meditation”. What did he mean? The host implied that the monk had not achieved enlightenment although his bones were burnt and turned into relics.
People, who practise Buddha’s teachings well, will have their bones turned into relics after cremation, but it does not mean that they have been enlightened. We need to understand this difference.
There were monks, who had practised Buddha’s teachings excellently, their relics scattered around the world, but mainly in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia…In China, most Saint Monks had their body remained in temples, they were rarely cremated. Those, who had attained enlightenment, could have their body remain intact after death such as Zen Master Minh An, who had his body remained intact for over ten years. In Vietnam, we also have a few Zen Masters, who had achieved the same result. The common thing is their relics. These relics indicated that their religious and cultivation life had been very special.
Currently, many tourists who come to Thailand, Burma …are invited to buy relics. These tourists like relics, so they often come to these countries to buy relics. Gradually, the origination of these relics becomes unclear.
We now discuss to understand why in some cases, bodies are not burnt completely, but turn into relics. The secret is that when someone practised Buddhism well, they were kind, meditated well and lived a virtuous life… their blessings blended into their bones, creating strange substances in it. When these bodies were burned, the bones should have been burnt completely into ashes, but due to this strange substance, these bones just melt and turned into relics.
Therefore, the bones of Saint Monks often turned into sparkling crystals, after their bodies are burnt. We call it relics.
There are those, who knew that after death, their burnt bones would turn into relics. And they did not want to leave any relics on earth such as Zen Master Pho Hoa, who lived during the same period with Zen Master Lam Te ( Lam Te was the name of a temple and the town ). When Zen Master Lam Te came here to teach Buddha’s teachings, he met Zen Master Pho Hoa who had stayed here, and who always seemed crazy. But Zen Master Lam Te knew that he had achieved enlightenment.
When Zen Master Pho Hoa knew about his death, he went to the market and said, “Tomorrow I will die at the East gate of the market.” The next day, people saw him carrying the coffin away, they ran after him to the East gate. He said, “Well, tomorrow I will die at the West gate”. The next day, people went to the West gate to see him die. He said, “Tomorrow, I will die at the North gate”. When people went to the North gate, he said, “Tomorrow, I will die at the South gate.” By this time, people began to think he told lie and they did not come anymore. When no one followed, Zen Master Pho Hoa carried a coffin, opened the lid and then got inside. A few people saw and shouted out to call others. They waited a long time but they didn’t see him come out. They decided to open the coffin lid and thinking that it was just one of his joke. When the lid was opened, there was nothing inside, they just heard the sound: knock! knock! knock! Then the echoes stopped. This was a case of a Saint Monk, who did not want to leave anything left behind after death.
Back to “relics” topic, we know that relics are the result of bones being melt, not burnt. We also know relics of different Saints are also different, depending on their level of enlightenment. A person, who has practised the Dharma well also could achieve this. However, having relics after cremation does not guarantee anything. Many people think that anyone, who has practised the Dharma well, after death, they would be reborn in the Amitabha Buddha realm. This is not certain. Or if we conclude that the person has enlightened, it would not also not correct. We need to understand the theory, which is: The enlightened person will have their bones turn into relics, after cremation, not vice versa.
We also must not have hasty conclusions about death. When we heard someone say: “I will die in three days,” and indeed, he died after three days, we still cannot conclude if he was enlightened. But, the enlightened person often is able to know when they would die. Venerable Phuoc Hue, who lived in Nha Trang, said: “I was born on Vesak day. So, in the next celebration ceremony of Buddha’s birthday I will die then.” On April the 8th, lunar calendar, he said:
“Today is the 8th of April, why didn’t we celebrate Buddha’s birthday? “. The
Monks at Hai Duc Buddha academy – Nha Trang immediately answered: “Dear Venerable, we will celebrate on the 15th of April, lunar calendar, in alignment with international celebration of Buddha’s birthday.” He then said: “Alright then! I will wait until that day to die.” Everybody thought he was kidding, but during that day, until full moon, when he started to see the flag and the banners pulled up, he died. Those, who are enlightened, are able to know about their death and could determine the date and time, at any time.
Those, who follow Confucianism, also could know about the date and time of their death. They live strictly in accordance with the ethical standards. They always keep their words and live a virtuous life. They often say “Live with compassion”. One person asked Confucius: “Dear teacher, can you use one word to describe your entire doctrine?” Confucius answered “Compassion/Love”. That is to love all beings, it’s very similar to the meaning of “compassion” in Buddhism.
Another man asked: “Dear Teacher, can you explain further the meaning of Compassion?” Confucius answered: “Do not do something for others, which you do not want for yourself. Only do for others, what you would want to do for yourself. Help others achieve what you yourself can achieve. Confucius defined so, and many people practised this doctrine during their lives. They live ethically, and always follow strictly their disciplines, therefore, they are able to know about their death beforehand. Many Confucians died a serene death. They even had visited their friends before dying in peace.
One time, Uncle Nhu Sanh (Hoa Hao Buddhists ) told us that everybody in his family was able to know about their death beforehand. And maybe, he would also be able to do the same. He told us about a soldier, who once said “I will die next week”. He invited everyone to a party. After a week, he died as predicted. In fact, it is not difficult to understand according to karma, the law of cause and effect. Whoever lives well with others, commit no sin, will have many blessings. And they would be able to predict their death.
So, the enlightened Saints are able to predict their death. However, it is not true that whoever could predict their death is a Saint, but they may just be good human beings. This theorem is similar to the topic of “relics”, which we mentioned above. We must understand these differences and do not be mistaken.
It is difficult to prove the true origin of relics, which we are worshiping here. However, we hope that they are true relics of Buddha and other Saint Monks. With this faith, we also show our reverence and pray that: with the power of relics, with our practice and cultivation, with our reverence for relics, praying there would be many blessings for us, and praying for our country to always have peace.
Now, let’s talk about the essay of Master Quy Son Linh Huu (He stayed at Linh Son mountain. So, he was called Quy Son Zen Master). All monks and nuns must learn Quy Son “Canh Sach” book. This book is about warnings and encouragement. He has written this long book about life to warn and encourage other monks. It was considered as a masterpiece in Buddhism literature. This essay is very long, we only extract one sentence here, and its meaning is: a monk, who has the opportunity to work closely with a Saint, would gradually be affected by the Saint. It is like walking in the fog: though, the outfits would not be wet, but gradually, the fog would absorb into their body.
In short, he advised all the monks that they must look out for a true Saint, a true Master to refuge, and do not rely totally on the karma. He forced us to fight with karma to look for a Saint Master to refuge. It could be done in two ways: finding either a true Saint Monk or a genuine Buddhist, who has practised Buddha’s teachings seriously and correctly. If they could not find the right Masters or Buddhists, their religious life would be wasted. Why? Because we always would be influenced by bad things. Therefore, if we want to become a Saint Monk, we must look for Saint Monks, Great Master or great Buddhist disciples to refuge and learn from them.
But, what we could learn is actually from the Master’s heart and mind, because the mind is the secret religious treasure. But, how can we learn from their mind? In fact, this is very special, as such, Master Quy Son had said: “it’s like walking in the fog”. Though our mind is invisible, formless, but it always spreads its influence around. Therefore, when we are close to a kind-hearted person, though he does not say anything, our mind could be influenced. Similarly, when we are close to an evil person, even if he says and does nothing, evil spirit would still be able to influence our mind.
That is the reason why some parents, who are very classy, very intellectual, but their children are not. Because of being so busy, they have a babysitter look after their children. The nanny is from a different background, who has no sense of morality and has no knowledge about different classes in the society. The children grow up but their mentality has been influenced by the babysitter, not their parents. Therefore, their behaviour and how they talk could also be completely different. When these parents shared with us the story, we simply answered: It was because your children has been influenced by somebody else, who does not have the knowledge and the mind like you. Though your children was not aware of that influence, but over time, the influence becomes more and more powerful.” Master
Quy Son had reminded us to choose wisely and to be close to Saints and other genuinely good human beings, to refuge and to learn from. This is extremely important.
There are two types of good people and two types of bad people.
About good people: the first type is a good person, but who is not strong enough, therefore, he/she could easily be influenced and impacted by other bad people. The second type is quite different to the first one. Their mind is stronger and more stable. Therefore, this type of good people is not afraid of being close to other bad people. Not only they are not influenced by these bad guys, but also they could influence and change these bad people to become better, and gradually become good people. This is what we need. We must try to become this type of good person.
Those great people, who are not influenced by the bad and in fact transform the others into good human being, are truly the Master of others. Why should they be the Master of everyone else? Because first and foremost they can control themselves. If they become a monk, they would become a Saint Monk. If they do not become a monk, they would become a great Buddhist who can provide the shelter for their fellows. The 2nd type of good people are quite rare in real life. Most of us are also good people, but our greatness is not yet strong and could not be permanent because if we were close to a bad person, we could also become one. If we were close to someone who was selfish and greedy, we could be influenced easily and became exactly like them. We would always think that everyone is always worried about themselves, therefore, if we do not take care of ourselves, we would lose. Because of that thinking, we would always be selfish and we would only care about ourselves. That was the bad influence on us.
What did Buddha teach us?
Living amongst those who are full of hatred, but we do not hate anyone;
Living amongst those who are always angry,
But we are not angry with anyone.
To have that personality and possess that great qualities, we must be an outstanding human being who could become the Master. Those, who could live amongst evils, but are not influenced at all, and still keep their compassion, could be the Master for all others to rely on.
Even with monks, when they live in a strict religious environment i.e. within a temple, they could learn from each other. However, sometimes, they do need to live separately in different environments, and that is when their ethics are challenged. Ethics of a religious person really is challenged when they live alone, away from the other monks. Would they still be able to maintain their ethical standard? Would they still be able to cultivate properly? Or they would ignore all the religious rules and live the way they like it. For these types of monks, their ethics are not strong. Their cultivation journey would be very difficult. On the contrary, those, who could maintain their cultivation practice, would become a true Master, as they could control and manage themselves appropriately. They are not easily influenced by any evil factors.
Talking about “being good”, we must know that it is not permanent; it is actually very fragile. If we do not strengthen it regularly, practice more, do more good things, we would gradually lose these great qualities and become bad people. If we were close to bad people, the result would be even worse. There are groups, whose members are very good, because they influence each other to be good, to be better. But there are groups whose members are very competitive and aggressive
…, because they influence each other badly.
Now that we know that there are two types of good person: one can be easily be influenced and changed by the bad things; the other type is a stronger, stable and could not be impacted by any bad things. Those are the true Masters.
Let us all assess ourselves… Which type of person are we?
There are also two types of bad people. The first type is someone, who was bad at first, but then could be changed into a good person. There are people, who did not understand about the religion at first, but eventually become better after going to temples, meeting good people and start realizing their mistakes. For example, when someone came to a temple and at first he/she did not pay attention to anyone else during meal time. When he saw others take care of each other, he realized how rude he was with everyone; he regretted of his action. He then changed to become a better person, who was caring, forgiving and compassionate to others. These people are not completely bad, as they could be influenced and be better.
The second type is the worst and the evil type. They never change and they spread bad things to others. Even a good person, who is close to them for a long time can be impacted. These types of people often exist in gang or currently in Hell.
How about us? Maybe, we think we are not so bad because we are trying our best to practise the Dharma. But, though we are not bad, we could be influenced by bad things, because we are not as good as a Saint. Therefore, do not think that we will always be a good person. We can be influenced by bad things when exposed. And vice versa. Therefore, we should assess ourselves as “We are good people”, but do not feel insecure and unconfident that we are not good enough.
We must listen to Zen Master Quy Son’s advice. We must choose a good person to be close to, so that we could learn good things from them. However, be aware that we will encounter many obstacles along the way.
Firstly, we often like to be close to whom we have past karma with. We often do not like those who does not have any past karma with us. It’s karma law.
For example, we heard from others that there was a good monk in a pagoda, and we went to meet him. Because we and that monk did not have good karma from the past, after the first meeting, we did not like to see him again. This is actually quite common. But what is really the reason? Because the monk and us did not have any past karma at all. In the past, he had not help us with anything, therefore, when we met, there was nothing to tie us together. We could not be close to him, even though he was a really good monk. This is a difficulty and an obstacle that prevents us from being close to good people. We often are influenced by past karma, and do not follow our own rationale thinking.
At this very moment, you are listening to our lecture. There would be some people who are not really fond of us. This is again because of karma. Between us and those people, there was no past karma to connect us together. So, they would think our lecture is boring. But those who had good karma with us would think our lecture is very useful. Past karma always influence our feelings.
However, if we always follow the karma, and our destination, we would not able to change our fate. To change the karma, we must follow our ancestor’s teachings (To’s teachings) i.e. listening to good people’s advices and do not get influenced by karma. What does this mean? For example, we had good karma with a lot of people, who became our friend. But they liked drinking. Because they were our friend, we often hung out with them. When someone advised us to go to a temple to listen to Buddha’s teaching, we used excuses to avoid having to go. By doing that, we could not change our fate. Our life continued to be close with drinking friends.
What does “changing fate” mean? We must use our willpower to consider and decide everything. In the example above, because of the past karma between us and our drinking friend, we liked to go out with them. But because we listened to other’s advice, we stopped hanging out with them, and went to the temple to learn about Buddha’s teaching instead. That is called “changing fate”. What we did was in accordance with Zen Master Quy Son’s advice. Though it is just a beginning. We must our use our willpower to decide everything in life. If we let personal feelings and preferences control us, we would always live a life, which was just the same as our past life.
What really is past karma? One person asked us: “Dear Master, I want to get married as I am really in love with this girl. However, after listening to your seminar, I am now in two minds about marriage. I don’t know what to do. Please give me one advice.” We replied: “It is simple, let ask the monks “Why did you leave your love ones to live a religious life?”
Please remember when we decide anything based on our feelings and emotions, which is controlled by karma. If our decisions are in accordance with
Buddha’s Dharma, it means we are following the logical and rational path.
Therefore, with the story mentioned above, the fact that the person even thought about becoming a monk instead of getting married, that was the sign of wanting to change his fate. After deciding to follow Buddhism path, the person vowed: “Life is impermanent, all feelings of love are fragile, and nothing is lasting forever. I now vow to follow Buddha’s path. Remember, anywhere you are, my heart always wish you to go towards the path of Buddhism.”
We have told a story about a beautiful courtesan in Phap Cu Dharma. When she met Buddha, she was enlightened and became the first level Saint. Then, she vowed to offer food for five monks. Until one day, one monk felt in love with her and got really love sick. When she died, Buddha composed a poem which was about the fact that beauty was nothing.
We had just discussed that poem in one of the seminars, a person complained to us: love is too fragile, she promised to love me, but now she no longer loves me. We advised him: “That is quite right. Nothing in this life is long-lasting. That is the truth. Only a religious life is sustainable. So, we must use willpower to follow Buddhism to change our past karma. If we always follow our feelings and emotions, we would let it control ourselves, we would never be able to change our past karma”. In this life, there are people, whom we have good feelings with. They may be the ones whom we had good past karma with. Therefore, we should not always follow our emotion, we must use willpower to choose good person to take refuge and rely on. That’s the first obstacle.
The second obstacle is that we do not always know who is a good person. Many people are very good at first, but later they turn out to be very bad. So, if we always have doubts about others, how could we ever find a good person to learn from and to be close with? In fact, it is very difficult and challenging to find a really good person. We must pray that Buddha helps us find a good person so we can rely on and learn from. Buddha will bless us and guide us to find the right one rather than totally rely on our limited knowledge.
And even when we know a good Master, a good group of people, it is still a challenge to make acquaintance with them. For example, the Master did not pay much attention to us, members of the group did not give us an opportunity to share our stories and be close to them. It is probably because we were not meant to be with this group. Then it would be the time we must be directive and take control of the situation… i.e we must take action to change our fate. We should participate in all activities which are taken place within the temple. The more we do, the more we can be close to the Master and learn from Him. Eventually, the connection with the Master would be stronger.
Similarly, with this group of people, we should participate in any activities, which they organise. The more we do, the more we are close to them. Again, we build a stronger connection with them. Good people would never be always available for us all to meet. It is important and essential that we try our best to find good people, to be close to them, even when they do not have any past karma with us. What we did is just to follow To’s advices. All of this is like “walk in the fog”, though we do not get soak, but over time we would feel and absorb the coldness and the wet.
What should we learn from good people? We need to learn how to live properly, learn how to speak, behave properly and how they run their work every day. We need to pay attention to how they treat everyone else. For example, we see a monk, who share his meal with others, we know that is a selfless person who always care for others first and worry about himself later. Then, we should think how we could apply the same thing in our life. It could be simple as: should we choose a good seat when going to a seminar? Or should we get the reward, or should the others deserve it better. We must always consider, and assess if we care for others at all, or we just care and take everything good to ourselves.
The key is that we must want to change, and we must want to learn. Those, who do not want to learn, would never be able to see these valuable lessons and learn from them. These people would see good gesture as silly actions. These people would never be able to become good people. Therefore, we must learn how to behave, how to live properly from our teachers, our Masters and friends.
For example, during a meal, we spilled a cup of soup onto someone else by accident. We were waiting for an angry face but instead the other person just smiled and even apologized that they did not see the path properly, they accepted their mistake. Their attitude made us think for a long time. They showed their forgiveness and ethics just in a very small action.
We need to assess ourselves to confirm if we have any good qualities or not. Good behaviours from others are good lessons for us to perfect ourselves, it is better than reading many good books. However, in order to realize this, we must accept that we are not good enough yet and we want to continue learning and perfecting ourselves. If we thought that these good actions are in fact stupid, we would never be able to learn and improve ourselves. When we want to learn, we would be able to see the greatness in even a small action; and by learning these small things day by day, over time, we would be able to improve and perfect ourselves.
Or there was a person, who was arranging a beautiful vase of flowers. She called for our help. When the Master walked by and asked: “Who made this beautiful vase of flowers?” She laughed and said: “It’s her work, Master” The
Master nodded and praised. Witnessing this, we realised the other person did not take the glory, but passed on to us. We must consider this gesture. We must admire this gesture. These people will be reborn in good realm where there would always be compassion and forgiveness. If we remained competitive, even just a little thing, we would never be able to reborn in a good realm.
When we are close to good people, the more we learn from them the better we will becomes. This is such a wonderful thing. But, the greatest thing is that we can learn many things from a Saint Monk for our whole life but it would never be enough. If someone yelled at our master, but he only clasped his hands, bowed his head, smiled and did not say anything back, we would never be able to understand why. It would take many lives of cultivation, and practice of the Dharma to understand his actions and his silence in this example.
Please do not think that we would completely understand a Saint. They possess great qualities that we would never be able to understand. We are just dust and sand in this earth. It is like when we look at a mountain, though we could see the top, but we would never know what is on top of the mountain. When we learn from a Saint, even just a little bit, we must not be proud and arrogant about the achievement. When someone asked you: “Who is your Master?” And we responded: “I am a disciple of Venerable …” – “Oh! You must be great.” Actually it is not true. Why? Again, it is because we would never be able to learn everything from the Master, as he already possesses holy qualities. We could only learn as much as we can from our Master, but would never be able to completely understand Him and be like Him.
In Buddhism, mediation is a great example. If we are in an environment where our teacher and brothers meditate regularly than we are fated to have great blessings. When we see people sitting in silent mediation, with peaceful minds, we are naturally motivated to meditate. As our mind begins to clear and be at peace, our state of mind shifts to a different state. A person who meditates is very different in comparison with someone who does not meditate
There are three steps to studying Buddhism:
- The first step is to understand the Buddhist doctrines
- The second step is the application of the Buddhist doctrines in
life
- The third step is to achieve a peaceful mind through meditation.
To understand the Buddhist doctrines is truly difficult. Through many life times, even hundreds of life times, we can come to understand only little by little.
The application of the doctrines in life is also very difficult. The teacher has taught us: “Do not become angry, if someone abuses you, you should ignore them”. The meaning is simple to understand. But when we are confronted with such scenarios, our immediate reaction is to be angry. As such, although the meanings of the doctrines can be quickly understood, it is the application of the doctrines that is easily forgotten and challenging. So, between understanding and the application of the Buddhist doctrines the two are still very far apart. The Buddhist doctrines may be of little difficulty to understand, but it is the application of the Buddhist doctrines in life that will be a thousand times harder. Therefore, if we are able to apply the Buddhist doctrines in our everyday lives, our accumulated blessings become greater.
When we begin to understand the Buddhist doctrines, our good will is still very small. To understand the Buddhist doctrines, to be able to study the Buddhist doctrines is a blessing. That is why, after we receive Buddha’s teachings, we often say: “I pray this good will, is shared amongst all living beings, to fulfil Buddha’s teachings”. If we do not have good will, than how will we be able to share to others? By listening to the prayers wholeheartedly the more blessings will be received. Why is that? Because in order to preach Buddha’s doctrines well, many criterions need to be met:
- It is dependent on Buddha’s blessings onto us. Not just anyone can preach the Buddhist doctrines;
- It is thanks to the Masters’ many years of teachings;
- It is thanks to all the Masters who have written detailed books for us to read, study and practise;
- It is thanks to the many brothers who guide, support, and remind us to practice Buddha’s teachings.
- It is thanks to the listeners’ utmost attention. When the listeners are tentative the preacher will be energised to deliver more engaging verses. If the listeners are distracted or fidgety than the preacher will lose the strength behind their words.
It is important to remember that when we listen to the Master preaching about the Buddhist doctrines, we must always listen wholeheartedly and attentively. The ability to listen to these doctrines is only one part, it is the application of the Buddhist doctrines in our everyday lives that will contribute to our blessings by a thousand times.
We should dedicate every second, every minute of our life to reflect on ourselves. We should think about whether we have lived according to Buddha’s doctrine or not. Reflecting on our words and behaviours to ensure we have lived according to Buddha’s doctrine. Every minute, every second should be compared against Buddha’s doctrine to self-regulate and change to align with those principles. If we can do this, we will have boundless blessings.
However, despite having boundless blessings, if we cannot practise meditation, we have not really a genuine Buddhist. To be able to meditate and cleanse our mind of impurities, is to be able to follow Buddha. If you are unable to achieve this, it means you are uncertain where you will end up. I repeat: There are three steps to studying Buddhism; understand the Buddhist doctrines; application of the Buddhist doctrines in life; and achieve a peaceful mind through meditation. Let’s remember this carefully.
If we are able to come across these examples of meditation in our life time, we have been very blessed. For example, when we attend temple, hearing everyone chanting prayers creates an atmosphere of inner warmth, happiness, and our faith increases. That is why we must practise meditation. When we attend a temple, chanting prayers and application of the Buddhist doctrines is the foundation to living a moral life, but we must practise meditation as well. There is no other way. When we have achieved the inner peace through meditation, when we leave our physical body, we will be reborn in holy realms. In this place, everyone’s minds are so pure that their influence on each other is very strong.
Living in the Holy realms, we are able to improve and progress quickly until we attain the highest level of enlightenment.
Conversely, a person who lives sinfully will be reborn in hell or as hungry-ghosts. All beings born into this world are greedy, with little morals. The interactions they have with each other increases the severity, making it very difficult to escape; and in a way, it is similar to living in a prison. In other words, if there are one thousand people in the prison, there may be twenty to thirty people who have been sentenced unfairly, which means the remaining people are true sinners who have very impure minds. Those impure minds influence each other in their words and interactions with each other, creating deeper sins. That is why, prisoners in jail often find it difficult to reform because they are influenced by so many like-minded criminals.
For this reason, every country in the world must have a new education policy which must be more sophisticated, more powerful to ensure that the prisoners are not affected by each other’s negative mentalities. This will lift their spirits and help them be better when they leave prison. This is a very challenging thing to do, and requires lots of time but it is essential for today’s society. We hope that every nation in the world will care about this. However, uniting for a good cause is different to building relationships for personal gains.
What does it mean to build relationships for personal gains? When we attend a temple, we see people whom we perceive as good, so we befriend them. But when we befriend them to form a gang with the purpose to protect each other’s selfish objectives or to benefit only each other, then that is not making friends to learn good virtues. This action will create division amongst the community. Therefore, we must only be to close to be good friends, and do not let it become a trigger causing division within the community. However, human feelings are very complicated. We want to be close to good people, then over time, we want to build up power to protect our own benefits. We must understand To’s teachings clearly to not to make mistakes in our cultivation path.
In the family, parents need to teach children how to exercise good judgment when making friends. As parents, we should know who our children are friends with in our absence, who their peers are at school, and not just the children who come over to play. We should get to know our children’s friends because “being close to good people is like walking in the fog”. Of course, in this modern day and age, with internet technology it is difficult for parents to keep track of everyone, whom our children are befriending.
That is why, as parents, we need to have some awareness of technology to manage how our children use it. We love them but we must be strict to teach them. We don’t need to make them fear us and avoid us, or spoil them. Being strict but loving, will help them stay away from bad friends.
Back to the story of To Quy Son. He’s a disciple of To Ba Truong, who was a famous Zen master with the following saying: “If you do nothing in a day, then eat nothing in that day”. “Do nothing” in this saying does not mean not go working. The saying actually means, if we do nothing to serve our community for that day, the food we eat on that day is a debt.
At first, Mr Linh Huu, with a pure mind, followed his teacher. One night, he lit a fire for his teacher heating. They sat together and said nothing because their mind was very pure, there was nothing much to say. When the fire began to go out, his teacher asked, “Can you see if there is still a flame?” Mr Linh Huu answered, “Dear Master, the fire is out”. His teacher looked through the embers took out a stick of coal and said, “You said there was no flame, then what is this?”.
Immediately at that time, Mr Linh Huu became enlightened. Enlightenment is when our mind reaches a different state of change. Enlightenment cannot be explained and can only be understood when we are enlightened.
Once reaching enlightenment, Mr Linh Huu became very reputable with the masses. One day, a feng shui master came to visit To Ba Truong and said:
– I go to many places, and I see that Quy Son mountain is a very beautiful place. If there is a temple or pagoda there, it will attract 1500 followers.
To Ba Truong asked him: “You see if I can go there or not?”
The Feng shui master replied, “No, that mountain is the mountain of “meat”, You’re a person of bones. If you go there, you cannot attract more than 500 followers”.
– So, can you advise, who, from my disciples, would be able to achieve this?
After looking at everybody, he said Mr Linh Huu was suitable to go to Quy Son mountain.
To Ba Truong let Mr Linh Huu reside at Quy Son mountain to build a temple with no monetary possessions. Quy Son mountain was only a forest at that time. Mr Linh Huu made a tent and ate fruit to live. One day, he met a tiger on his way, then he said: “If I am destined to open ashrams and teach Buddha’s doctrines here, then go away, do not to live here anymore. But if you don’t think I can’t do that, then eat me now. Then he continued walking towards the tiger without any hesitation, but it ran away.
After that, woodcutters who frequented the forest to collect wood did not encounter those wild animals (tigers, leopards, foxes, bears,…) any more. So, they went further up the mountain and met a respectful monk. They came to greet and asked about Buddha’s doctrines. Mr Linh Huu told them about Buddhism, and they wholeheartedly accepted his words. This event spread very quickly and far, many people came to meet him and built a temple for him. It was not long before he had gathered 1500 disciples, and the Quy Nguong sect was established. Mr Quy Son had a very good disciple who was Mr Nguong Son. Thus, the two names combined formed the Quy Nguong sect that was one of the largest sects in China, which has all but disappeared in modern times.
Mr Quy Son was not only enlightened but he was also gifted with words. He has written books “Quy Son Canh Sach” for monks to encourage them try their best to live a good religious life. Life is impermanent. If anyone, who left their family to follow Buddha’s path, but would not try to live a good religious life, they would have committed really bad sins. Besides, the monks must be grateful to Three Jewels, To and Buddhists. Those words are very touching. Many monks shed tears when reading the book and tried hard to practise. Therefore, To Quy Son merit is immeasurable.
One of the things he wanted to remind us is “being close to good people is like walking in the fog”. So, society should try to increase the number of good people to protect good things. If there are more and more bad people, bad things will definitely increase.
So, who is responsible to increase the number of good people in society?
It is the responsibility of all government leaders of a country. The government must outlines the strategies and tactics to build and develop further ethics in society. This must focus on many aspects of the society e.g. what is the way to teach ethics at school? what is the way to build a best cultural neighborhood? how must people apply moral example of Uncle Ho Chi Minh to their life? how does the National Army Force support religions to teach morality to believers? … The national leader must always find a way to improve, promote and protect good things in society.
It is the responsibility of all parents. Parents must teach their children to be better.
It is the responsibility of all monks and nuns. Monks and nuns must help all believers to perfect their moral.
It is the responsibility of all Buddhists. All Buddhists must try to perfect themselves, remind others to be better to increase good things in this life. All of us must prevent bad things from spreading further. Because when bad things increase, good things will not exist, and the world would become a place of darkness and sufferings.
In fact, many good people with good conscience around the world are trying to increase good things in life. But, there are websites, which contain bad content all over the internet, are destroying the younger generation. We cannot control this. While we are trying to build good things in the community, these websites are trying to do the opposite. So, the battle on the internet is a new frontier that we must be very careful today. It is an alarming time. We must understand the virtual world on the internet in order to protect our children.
Another thing is that we must fight back the spread of the evil. The spread will appear on two aspects: the first is public opinion, and the second is whispering amongst everybody. The spread on public opinion can easily influence our children. We must be aware of this to teach our children what is right and what is wrong.
We also need to be aware of those, who use a more subtle way to spread bad things such as whispering from one to another. Remember that only when we are close to a good person, and only when we are really strong in our belief in good things, we then have enough strength and power to influence bad people. Do not try to influence bad people before we achieve that level of greatness. Everybody must try the best to become a great person.
In the past, we often thought that we were not good enough, but also not bad either. We now must understand that we must practise to the level when we can spread further our greatness and we would not be impacted by bad things. Whoever is close to us, would be influenced and become better. By doing this, we are the real gems, which bring good things to this life. When we leave this world, we certainly will be reborn in holy realms.
We have to understand one more thing: Maybe we cannot learn all good virtues all at once, however, by being close to good people, their invisible greatness will go into our sub-consciousness and our mind will be better gradually. This is very invaluable. Again, we must look for good people and be close to them.
Grateful for the great merit of our ancestors,
So we could be immersed in the sea of ethics.
Though this realm is dark and chaos,
Moral doctrines help sorrows disappear. As fog covers everywhere,
Despite not being wet but will absorb. Looking for a holy person,
To learn from them and become perfect.
Namo Shakyamuni Buddha.
