January 28, 2006

Someone told me that January 24^th is the most unpleasant day of each year.  It is because the many people had purchased lots of presents with their credit cards before Christmas and New Year, but they are unable to pay the huge bill when their credit card statement comes.  Therefore, many people are wretched on that day.  Debt issue is only one of the mental obscurations.  I went to the bank on January 25^th, the teller told me: “I was very unhappy last night.”nbsp; I asked her: “Why?”  She told me: “Yesterday is the worst day of the year.”  I thought, how come she said the same thing.  She continued on: “Because it snowed a little last night and it was freezing.  That’s why I was very unhappy last night.”  I said: “You should think about last year’s this day; we were still plowing the snow tiredly.  Although it snowed a little last night, but look, it is sunny outside right now.  The snow is all gone and you don’t need to shuffle the snow.”  She replied: “Yes, it is much better compare to last winter.”  Then, I told her: “If you thought and compared to last winter, then you wouldn’t be too worry and could sleep last night.  We should be like Buddha that we shouldn’t ask for too much but be content with just enough, that goes for anything.”

A Great Patriarch sang a song: “There are a hundred kinds of flowers blooming in the spring, a bright moonlight in the night of the fall, cool breeze blowing gently in the summer, and snow falling in the winter.  If there is nothing hanging around in our mind, then that is a good time in the world.”  In America, we are fortunate. When you drive on the road in the spring, the flower garden in front of every house is as pretty as a picture.  It is cool and comfortable in the fall, neither too cold nor too hot, which is the best season to take a vacation, etc.  The fall is especially beautiful in Pennsylvania.  We can appreciate the pretty foliage and be accompanied by the bright moon at night.  In the summer, the breeze is cool and it is very comfortable with the breeze.  In the winter, we can see pure and white snow once we open the door.  How fortunate we are!  We have everything that was described in the Great Patriarch’s stanza.  But, if we are malcontent, then we will be uncomfortable during the spring if it drizzles because our bodies are sore due to the high humidity.  We won’t dare to go out in the summer because it is too hot and we may get heat stroke.  When we see the falling leaves in the fall, we will be anxious and feel that our lives are reaching the end.  And, we will feel that the winter is extremely cold and we are miserable when we see the snow.  Therefore, we worry in all seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter.

How we are going to choose the direction of our lives?  We are all living in America; the worries and problems we run into in our lives are about the same for everyone.  We all have had difficult times in our lives.  How come some people can have good lives?  It is like human’s mind and body that can be divided into two parts.  The right side is optimistic that everything is great and peaceful.  But, the other side is very pessimistic that nothing works.  Therefore, “The Middle Way” is the assertion of the Buddhism.  We shouldn’t be too happy when we meet fortunate circumstances , because after that you will have lots of worries.  Why?  Because if one matter makes us very happy and very successful, then we will be attached to it and hope that we would be successful like this for the rest of our lives without any problems; once we run into some problems, we will be overwhelmed.  If we were unfortunate for the whole life, then it would make us unhappy to live.  Therefore, the direction of our lives should be right in the midddle and it shouldn’t be extreme.

Many people say: “We are anxious for our lives, starting from our childhood to grown up and until we are employed.”  Especially, the mothers who put all their energies in her children.  But, after the children graduate and get married, they moved from east coast to west coast to work and only come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The mothers only see them two or three times a year.  If the mothers couldn’t accept this fact, so it become a huge burden for their minds.  In “The Path of Becoming Buddha”, it teaches us that, “People will be separated after being together for a while.”  Our relatives and good friends, who are with us now, will ultimately be apart from us one day.  It is impermanent.  We should think of “people will be separated after being together for a while” when running into this kind of anxiety.  The awful circumstances will also leave us eventually.  We don’t want to let go when the good connection ends; when an awful circumstance leaves us, we will be very relaxed and it is like we have been liberated.  Therefore, “The Impermanence” that asserted in Buddhism is such subtle.  Thus, we shouldn’t be worry while we are struggling the hardest in our lives because the worst circumstance is also impermanent and it might be gone soon.  Therefore, we should create a four-season garden in our mind and make the garden to be delightful in the spring, summer, fall and winter.  We are the gardener of this garden and we should take a good care of it.  If we don’t enrich and fertilize our garden in the mind and just let it overgrow with weeds, then we won’t be able to see the flowers bloom and fruitful.

“The Practice” in Buddhism is very simple.  It doesn’t mean that we only study the Sutras of Twelve Divisions.  We need to apply what Buddhist Sutra teaches into our daily lives and into the way we meeting people and managing things.  Every Sutra can help us to become Buddha.  If we didn’t apply what Buddhist Sutra teaches into our daily lives and into the way we meeting people and managing things, then every Sutra would just pass by and it couldn’t help us.

If we have a grateful mind and we know how to cherish things, then we will have a great day every day.  No matter how the external environment changes, we will always know how to live a good life.  Taking the Buddha as an example, his food, clothing, and his way of living and traveling were all very simple.  He didn’t take anything for granted or have a luxury life after becoming a Buddha.  He was still the same living a simple life.  His mind is richer than ours.  The more you have let go the more you will gain.  If your mind is as wide as the space, then your merit will be as large as the sky.  It all depends on what we do on the path of practice.

October 14, 2006

Today, we prostrated to the One-Thousand Buddhas that would come in the Future, called the Star Era.  It also represents that the year will be ending soon.  Time goes by really quickly.  It seems that we just celebrated the New Year, now it is the conclusion of the year in just a short while.  Sometimes, we may think that: “For exactly how long would it be sufficient for a human to live?”  The Buddha said: “A human’s life is within a breath.”  All of us are middle aged, that we often feel that the time passes quickly.  It is the same twenty-four hour to a clock.  How come our sense of time has such a big difference than for the kids?  Maybe it is because that the kids don’t have many things to do that they play all day long, imagine when will school end, and don’t have much to worry about.  On the other hand, we as adults would see more desirable things when we grow older, which would trigger our desires stronger.  For example, we would want to earn lots of money to buy a house, a car etc.  We couldn’t say that these wishes are unreasonable.  It is normal for us to have those needs while living in this world.  In the scripture, human realm is called the “desire realm”, and it is very painful.  The more things we are pursuing, the less chance we will get them.  Therefore, enough is enough will do.

There are four words (in the Chinese language) in the Sutra, that is: “Who has the child-nature of simplicity will enter the Way quickly.”  The child-nature of simplicity represents the children.  Young children’s thoughts are extremely pure.  ”Children will enter the Way quickly”, is the best way to do the practices.  Their thoughts have not been defiled by the society.  If you want him/her to recite the Buddha’s name, he/she will recite the Buddha’s name.  You tell him/her that meditation is great; he/she will meditate splendidly.  He/she will absorb whatever you gave him/her, that simple.  On the contrary, there are so many different thoughts in adults’ heads.  Although there are some good thoughts, we won’t be able to digest those things in our heads.  It is like we are so full that we can’t eat anymore.  Therefore, we come here to prostrate to the Buddhas to help digest the excessive stuffs in our bodies, speeches and minds, and to eliminate our Karmic Obstructions.

Our lives are very transient indeed.  You couldn’t imagine how the world will change in ten years.

It is like the construction project that our temple is doing right now.  I said to the foremen: “You ought to make it firm and stable.”  The foremen told me: “Shi-Fu, don’t worry.  There were wooden props beneath the Buddha Hall, now we are using “H” steel beams as the foundation.  This type of steel props was used in building of the Trump Tower in New York City.  Even an elephant could go into the Buddha Hall.”  I was thinking how to do it in the safest way.  However, there isn’t anything that won’t break down sooner or later in the world because everything is impermanent.

I remember that the communication between the people wasn’t so frequent ten years ago, and the Internet hadn’t prospered yet.  Nowadays, if your computer equipped with chat room software then the people from China or India would want to chat with you as soon as you turned on the computer.  We don’t know how the world will change in the next ten years except for the Buddha, who is omniscient. What we can do is to live in the present moment and to treasure every minute dearly.

The spiritual contentment surpasses the material contentment.  Especially us, the middle aged.  At this age, we should not have much demand on the material comfort while we are living in a simple life.  However, the older we get the more spiritual we should become.  If we didn’t have sufficient spirituality, then we are wasting our lives everyday.  The time passes by day by day which makes you panic.  The sunset daily reminds you that your life is going to end one more day sooner.  If you didn’t have sufficient spiritual strength to overcome this panic then many problems would arise and you wouldn’t be able to have a good but to have generous thoughts but transient life.

Confucius taught us that: “One should be introspective three times a day.”  It means, once in the morning, once at the noon, and once at night.  If we had a busy work schedule, we could just be introspective once a day.  We should say this to ourselves everyday before bedtime: “Today has passed, did I accomplish any thing?  Was I cultivating my practice?  Or was I creating the Bad Karma?”  You should ask yourself.  In this way, you will be very happy with your practice and in walking on the way in this life.  Then you will be content and develop a grateful mind.  The Buddha can’t eliminate the Karmic Obstructions for us because he knew that one creates one’s own Karma.  How are we going to live our lives?  We are the decision makers in deciding to have a happy or a miserable life.  Many rich and famous people live unhappily.  Their frustrations are greater than ours, and they have greater suicide rate because money cannot solve the problems in their minds.  Practicing is the spiritual life, which takes good care of your mind and keeps your body healthy.

One of the practices is to attend and complete this Thousand-Buddha Confession Ceremony.  To be able to participate in this tells us that our bodies are still healthy that we should be grateful to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas.  One prostrates to the Three-Thousand Buddha in the past, present and future.  Especially the One-Thousand Buddha who will attain Buddhahood in the future, it depends on how many times that you have prostrated to them and recited their names, and how many connections that you have formed with them in this life then you will have the opportunity to follow them in learning of the Buddhadharma and in cultivating of the practice when they attain the Buddhahood in the future.  Therefore, prostrating to the Buddhas will not only absolve the Karma operating with our bodies, speeches and minds but also will form a connection with these Buddhas.  You will be one of the living beings that they want to deliver and you will hear the Buddhadharma in front of them when they attain the Buddhahood.  Thus, the Buddhism pays great attention to the practice of prostrating to the Buddhas, and reciting of the Buddhas’ names.

One of the practices is to attend and complete this Thousand-Buddha Confession Ceremony.  To be able to participate in this tells us that our bodies are still healthy that we should be grateful to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas.  One prostrates to the Three-Thousand Buddha in the past, present and future.  Especially the One-Thousand Buddha who will attain Buddhahood in the future, it depends on how many times that you have prostrated to them and recited their names, and how many connections that you have formed with them in this life then you will have the opportunity to follow them in learning of the Buddhadharma and in cultivating of the practice when they attain the Buddhahood in the future.  Therefore, prostrating to the Buddhas will not only absolve the Karma operating with our bodies, speeches and minds but also will form a connection with these Buddhas.  You will be one of the living beings that they want to deliver and you will hear the Buddhadharma in front of them when they attain the Buddhahood.  Thus, the Buddhism pays great attention to the practice of prostrating to the Buddhas, and reciting of the Buddhas’ names.