Dhamma Earth 法域

When we have the right view on cause and effect, we will not panic in the face of problems and be better able to undertake them.

When we have the right view on dependence origination, we will know how to grasp the opportunity and do what we can, actively putting in the cause of change into the relative causes and conditions.

With a selfless, non-attached and fearless mind, we can work hard to achieve success.

The life of renunciation is like this, so is the secular life.

It has been hard on you, friends in tribulation. Some sacrifices and costs are inevitable. Can we turn our minds around and let unavoidable sacrifices and costs also bring abundance of merits?

Don’t we live out the wisdom and compassion which are full of Dhamma with a little more selflessness, a little more self-sacrifice, a little more patience and the ability to not make things worse with every action or inaction that we take?

Suffering arises because of causes and conditions. If we can face it according to the Dhamma, the final result can be very different.

Let go of the egoistic mindset to harmonise with the macroscopic view.

Do our part well without adding more problems and mistakes.

The variable of dependence origination is in the present cause and present mind.

My good wishes go to friends in tribulation, to people in Wuhan, China and all living beings.

This test will pass too. Let our wisdom and confidence make this test, one that is in accordance with the Dhamma, the best and the brightest!!

“Teacher, I understand that many things have passed or will pass, but why can’t I let go?”
“Because you’ve not seen through it. You must first let go of “I”.”
“Let go of you?”
“Silly disciple, let go of the big “I” in you.”
“Haven’t I been telling my students that our lives are “non-self”? Then, how do we let go of something that does not exist?”
“Indeed, when we experience and verify the ultimate reality, there is “non-self”. However, before we experience and verify, living beings will be attached to the surface appearance as “I”. Letting go of “I” means letting go of the image of “I” in our mind, until you experience and verify that there isn’t an “I” originally and there’s nothing to be attached to.
“Teacher, what you say is difficult to imagine.”
“The Buddha did not say this can be thoroughly understood by using imagination! This can only be done when we use the tool beyond thoughts, that is to see things as they really are. These words can only play the role of a map at best.”
“Then, how can we see things as they really are?”
“My good disciple, practice well. Practice samatha and vipassanā, practice morality, concentration and wisdom.”

Although the meditation teacher is old, he still drags his heavy body and cast his brightness on us. What kind of compassion is this that makes the elderly go through all difficulties to continue to give us the shade of Dhamma?

When does the old tree retire?

Let the children of Dhamma under the old tree devote themselves to the Dhamma, not be tempted by non-Dhamma and not waste more time.

A beam of sunlight
Shone on the bed
Bringing warmth
and driving darkness away
I leaned against the wall
Bathing in the freedom of being alone
Though my meals repeat each day
The taste of peace in my heart remains

Is happiness so difficult to come by?
It is simply letting go, not for the sake of gaining
Let inactions charge our minds once again
The sails are ready, there’s bound to be wind someday

The familiar greetings of youths
sailed through my window,
Ah! it’s the true feelings of brothers all over the world
that makes strangers feel like old friends at first sight

In the changeable years,
dear friends,
Please allow me to gift you
The light of Dhamma

Disaster happens every day. Whenever I read reports of any disaster in the past, I always perceived this as something which had happened umpteen times in this saṁsāra. Often I would just sigh it off for a while, and be aloof and equanimous.

In theory, disasters are just a cluster of cold realities: they are but causes and conditions arising and passing away.

Disaster relief, just as life release, is neither an ultimate help to the sentient beings, nor a direct support for the attainment of Nibbana like meditative insights. Disaster relief and life release is mainly help from the point of materialising others’ kammic result. The kamma of such acts will just serve as the supporting conditions for the practice and realization of Dhamma. The insight of life teaches us not to forget that only the learning, practice, realization and guarding of the Dhamma are the fundamental and important tasks to do.

Going among earthquake victims, I am always mindful of the reality of life: that phenomenon is just like the ebb and flow of the ocean tides. This awareness of the reality of life has empowered me with a sense of equanimity and enduring ability to face the many vicissitudes of life.

All these are but one tiny drop in the long stream of sufferings.

Yet I cannot wave off my mind the images: the faces and gazes of the children, the wrinkles of the old grandmothers, their paces, their tired and burdened figures, their loading baskets. . . What a peculiar kammic link we must have had !

The insight of emptiness is a kind of understanding, whereas feeling empathy is a state of mind. It is different if we had personally been to the scenes. It is different if there was kammic link. There might probably be a higher state of mind. Still I feel I have perfected an imperfection at this stage of my spiritual life.

Your being void of substantial entity, I know. Your pain and suffering, I feel and understand. Cold reality has already been blended with nourishment and warmth. I am grateful to this unique illumination. May this heartfelt feelings be extended to all suffering beings throughout the world, be they strangers or adversaries.