If only we knew sách tiêng anh phật

When we came to a place and only heard bad criticism, we would already know the nature of most of the people here.. Only wise and intelligent people can clearly think that they do not k

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“If we had known that love is blue

If we had known that every party would end”

………

“If he knew that I was getting married tomorrow,

Would he be sad?”

The lyrics above are from an old but very popular love song and poem,

expressing sorrow beginning with “If we had known” and “If he knew” Today, we

will discuss about this topic “If only we knew ” but in a different way We are

going to convey Buddhism philosophies with the hope of eliminating grief

There is a Vietnamese saying: “A frog sits at the bottom of the well”, which

means he could only see the sky via the top of the well, hence, he always thinks that the sky is just as small The frog likes water, and it comes and goes from one well to another The only way he could get out of a well was for someone to take the water, when he could take the opportunity to clutch onto the bucket of water Sometimes, though, he would think that he was trapped, so he jumped back to the well again

The frog in the well was like a prisoner It did not die but had little food to eat It did not have freedom He viewed the sky, which was only as big as the top

of the well When someone intelligent put himself into the similar situation, he would realise that: “What he knew would only be so limited, like the fog viewed the sky from the bottom of the well As time goes by, he would consider the sky and the universe to be as small as such a well Then, he would think that he was the king of the world because the world is so small.”

Because of that narrow-mindedness, our ancestors had criticised: “Those,

who lock themselves in their prejudices are their own prisoners They do not know that there are countless things beyond their knowledge.”

Such people are subjective, prejudiced, and biased” They think that what they see and know is everything They would look down on everyone else This could be called a sickness of being arrogant, subjective, narrow-minded, and short-sighted They did not know that they have been confining themselves to their own prejudices Nobody can stand these people’s behaviours What they knew was so limited but they considered themselves talented As a result, they showed

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arrogance and criticised people for not understanding and not praising them They usually failed but still blindly thought that they were excellent For that, they continued to experience failure and misery

The analogy of the saying “A frog sits at the bottom of the well” indicates a

weakness in our ethical standards

Arrogance means one would consider oneself superior to others Indeed,

some are more intelligent than others, but wise ones would not be arrogant about that This is the difference

Usually, people would likely be arrogant when they have had achieved some successes, but they were not as wise, and they had low morale This has caused failure for many others For Buddhists, this behaviour would cause very bad karma Though it is not as serious as murder or robbery, arrogance could destroy your blessings gradually A Buddhist once said: “I don’t break any rules but only drink alcohol, which I think, is the least important.” When you already started having a bad habit, it is just a matter of time before you would start onto the other bad habits because arrogance is the cause, the motive urging you to do

so

Why are people arrogant?

It is because they have achieved some successes It is human nature For example, if a student could solve a challenging math problem, he had a delusion that he was very intelligent However, it did not mean that he could solve other difficult math problems Let us discuss another example An employee had an idea

to help his company overcome an internal issue: sell more products and increase revenue Because he had been praised, he became too proud of his achievement, then became arrogant and had a delusion that he was very intelligent There are many real life examples like that Even with a Buddhist, when he discussed with non-Buddhists, and he could convince the others and make them respect Buddhism, the Buddhist became so proud about this achievement When someone has achieved something in life, it is quite easy to feel proud and sometimes too proud leading to being arrogant

People’s perceptions about themselves like the above examples indicate that they are unintelligent, and they made a serious mistake Actually, anyone can

make that mistake easily However, we, Buddhists, who have learnt about

Buddha’s teachings; we should know the right and the wrong; though we may be successful or excel others, we must be modest and consider our achievements,

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even ourselves as nothing If we could do that, we would live this life in harmony

And if we could do lots of good deeds, we should keep our mind pure and calm

We should love all beings, and we should respect everyone We should not look down on others when we have had some successes in whatever we do If we think highly of ourselves, we would easily make the same mistake of criticising others and looking down on them We must also remind ourselves, and others so that we all are aware of the importance of having high morale, being modest in life, and as

the result, everything is equally important

Another bad point of arrogance is that it forms a habit of criticising other people When we displayed such behaviour, we should know that we were dominated by arrogance and ego The need to criticise someone comes from a

psychological thinking: recognising others’ weak points means we are better than

they are It is a weird one, and it is like a formula stuck in our mind: “when we see other people’s weakness, we will feel good” In fact, that feeling is wrong and very

dangerous

For example, seeing a girl with long smooth silky hair and good make-up

on, we would think that she is attractive However, someone else might say: “Her hairstyle does not look nice.” They made that criticism because they thought that they had more assessment skill than others Let us discuss another example After attending a seminar on a social issue, someone asked for our opinions, and we would not hesitate to do so When saying so, we thought ourselves that we had assessed accurately the seminar, and could point out someone else’s weaknesses; that would make the listeners think that we were good This caused a delusion that

we were actually better than others In reality, would our presentation be as good?

It might not be, but we would always try to find others’ weaknesses to attack and criticise

In these scenarios, we did not have to spend any effort to improve ourselves

at all, we could do that by just pointing out others’ weaknesses This behaviour has caused a very bad habit in human behaviours, which has led to demoralisation Could we like someone who had criticised us? It would be a challenge! Criticism separates humans When we were about to say something bad about other, the relationship would be damaged The arrogance in us would be stronger and obvious than ever

Arrogance causes bad criticism and vice versa

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This sickness is very contagious When we came to a place and only heard bad criticism, we would already know the nature of most of the people here This sickness would also pass on from one generation to another This is a very bad habit and it would cause people lose their blessings

Each region has its own custom, which passes from one generation to another There were places where there lived only farmers However, these farmers were very knowledgeable about politics and political leaders They always liked to discuss political related topics This habit has passed onto other generations, and because of that, their children grew up and wanted to learn more and more to become leaders

On the contrary, when we arrived at a place, where we only heard bad criticism about everything and everyone, we would realise that other generations

in this place would probably have that bad habit as well They were losing their blessings

All of us should know Newton’s saying: “What we know is only a drop of

water, what we don’t know is an ocean.” He was extremely intelligent Only wise

and intelligent people can clearly think that they do not know all Therefore, they would try harder to learn more and more to fill in their knowledge gaps However,

an arrogant person would not do so, as he would not know what he does not know

Similarly, it is also different from one person to another when they pay homage to Buddha Every Buddhist pays homage to Buddha, but those, who are knowledgeable about Buddhism, and appreciate the greatness of Buddha, they would bow to Buddha, with the utmost respect attitude, with all of their heart and soul Those that could not appreciate Buddha’s greatness, they only pay homage to Buddha because everyone else does so

The wise ones clearly realise that they do not know all, while the ignorant ones are self-satisfied, opinionated, conservative, and imprisoning themselves in their limited knowledge and achievements, which, to them, are the truth

Here is another example About seventy years ago, people used to like to listen to traditional music, as modern music from western countries had not yet been available in Vietnam Nowadays, this modern music is everywhere Its rhythm is new and different, which attracts millions of people around the world Those, who still played traditional music, had become less influential in the market However, they did not accept new music style, and did not want to learn the new thing, and a better thing They still believed traditional music is the best

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Recently, we noticed that many music composers had adapted western music style, mixing it with traditional music style Some of the new songs were great It was because the artist knew how to combine the best of the two musical styles and create the new and different tunes Those artists were the one, who were not

conservative and arrogant, who were willing to learn new thing and embrace it

Similarly, in Buddhism, if a Master had been so successful, over forty or fifty years ago, but he would not change because he believed that he would be still successful with the same old preach Think again! Forty years ago, people’s knowledge was limited, there was not also many Masters like today However, forty years later, the number of great monks, great Masters had increased dramatically Many have learnt new things and have a lot of knowledge We must not be so narrow-minded, and we must not so focus on the past successes because life is changing every day; nothing is limited, and nothing lasts forever

When we follow Buddhism, we must be open-minded There are many jobs

in the society, and nobody is good at everything Similarly, there are many different aspects of Buddhism that no one would know everything about it We must be modest Our achievement is just the beginning, a stepping stone for our future It is not the end We should hope for more and more knowledgeable and greater people help promote Buddhism further

We must understand that the Dharma is boundless, what we know is

nothing Buddha had said: “I have written so many, like leaves in the forest; but

what I preached is just like a pile of leaves in my hand” Therefore, as an average

ordinary human being, we know nothing Indeed, modest people are not arrogant

and do not badly criticize anyone They would provide constructive criticism with modesty, and would not do anything else bad to satisfy their ego This is one of the

most important ethical standards, which we must learn and practise to improve ourselves

There are meditators who have attained the highest level of meditation They are able to control their thoughts to empty and calm their mind At that level, they feel peaceful and happy Though with that achievement, they would never be too proud as that is nothing The Dharma is boundless, what they attained is immaterial We all have to try harder and harder According to the Thevaradin doctrines, successful meditators would have eliminated the Five Fetters, which would help create a virtuous and relaxed mind, though they have not attained The First Dhyana

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For example, when someone asked about meditation and our answer was: “I have been able to control my mind when meditating.” That was a subjective statement When we are still controlled by all the factors around us, still feel happy and sad according to our personal feeling, we then have not yet achieved anything

in meditation We have not eliminated the Five Fetters yet, therefore arrogance could still arise and control our behaviours

Buddha had left the human world; no one would be able to remind us on how well or how bad we have progressed on the cultivation path Therefore, if we kept thinking that we have progressed well, and became too proud of it, naturally

we would be going backwards Even indeed, we had achieved something, that was still nothing We must pray to Buddha that we would always be modest and would always be nothing When comprehending this principle, we should always be self-conscious, we must not be arrogant to criticise or bad mouth anyone else

Nowadays, the Internet is so popular and information is available everywhere Many people take advantage of the Internet and email to abuse others online That is so sad! In the olden days, when someone badly criticised someone else, it would have been just between a couple of people Nowadays, with the Internet, the world would know about these criticisms within minutes This would cause very bad karma, but not everyone knows that

In contrast, if we praised someone properly on the internet, many people around the world would know about it, that means we have created many blessings Once we read an article online that badly criticised a monk This article was written by another monk The writer knew that before becoming a monk, he

used to be a boatman The language in the article was very disrespectful: “He was

just a poor boatman who couldn’t earn enough to support his family”

It was really sad A boatman did nothing wrong He did his job properly, transporting people from one place to another That was a genuine job Nothing was wrong with that From a boatman, he became a monk, and then a famous Venerable

We all have heard the fairy tale story of Cinderella Cinderella was a poor girl who was ill-treated by her step-mother and step-sisters, but she still lived happily ever after with the handsome Prince Though that is a fairy tale story, it has some similarities with the boatman story above Though the boatman was poor, he came from a low income earning family He left his job, followed

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Buddha, learnt and practised the Dharma, and then became the great Venerable

We should have admired him when hearing about that story Why criticized his poor past? That was cruel If anyone of us had agreed with the writer’s criticism about the boatman, or even felt happy when hearing the story, we should have known that our mind still had cruelty

When hearing a person criticises another and we are happy, we are cruel Only when hearing such sayings and we feel unhappy about it, we are ethical

Criticism separates Buddhism and that separation accidentally provides opportunities to other anti-Buddhism powerful force Please never think that

Buddhism is safe and protected Please never think that if we harm no one, no one will harm us There is no such thing! There are many powerful forces trying to

demote Buddhism We always say: The world needs love Yet, in reality, there are

so many cruel acts that harm so many people Please remember that a cruel person would always have great excuse for his act

For example, an extreme Muslim would think that they killed people on

behalf of God “For God” is something so supreme while killing is extremely

inhumane and evil, therefore, using that excuse is not acceptable at all However, this is a true reality Human would always use something great to cover or brand for their evil acts Nowadays, there are many powerful political forces in the world, and its leaders always talk about peace, democracy and human rights but their acts and behaviours have been nothing but like saboteurs and terrorists

This situation already exists in Buddhism We must be cautious and careful Many of them would use compassion to cover up their evil acts We must ignore

the excuses, the rationale of Why, and focus more on the actions We should

consider ourselves as nothing, and should try harder and harder to practise Buddhism Never should we think that we represent Buddhism

When someone claimed that they were representatives of Buddhism or Patriarchs, we knew there was something wrong They were doing something evil, but using Buddhism to cover up their acts Only those who are modest, who often

do not say much, but do a lot, especially do not criticise anyone, would truly be great and kind-hearted ones

Therefore, if we mistakenly criticised someone, we must be on our knees, and remorse in front of Buddha Even when we only thought about a criticism, we should remorse immediately Though we had not spoken out to criticise anyone, but we knew that our mind was not yet pure and calm Criticism indicates

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arrogance and evil Criticising someone is a sin, so we must be ashamed for this act, and we must remorse with Buddha If we could practise not to criticise anyone, even only just a thought, gradually, we could be better, our mind could be calmer, and we would have less sin

If only we knew that when criticising someone, we would act like them, we would not dare to criticise anyone anymore

I used to hate football It was only because I did not understand why everyone has to fight for one ball, then it made people miserable or happy it was strange When a famous football player came to our temple, and asked to take refuge to Buddha, I then had understood about football in a different way This football player was very kind and very ethical Looking at him playing with a ball skilfully in front of the yard, I understood why playing football was not a bad and strange thing

We might have teased someone with speech impediment, but later on we probably had the same issues ourselves There are many other examples about these bad criticisms Therefore, we must be cautious of our words and actions; and never criticise anyone

If only we knew that criticism reinforced arrogance and jealousy in our heart and soul, and that our soul would be miserable and destroyed afterwards,

we would be so afraid and would not dare to criticise anyone anymore

Every time we criticised someone, a bit of our soul would be destroyed If

we spent the whole life criticising everyone else, we would lose our soul, and would become unethical However, if we were careful in our thoughts, our sayings and knew to comment or provide constructive feedback to help others, our heart and souls would improve gradually

If only we knew that each praise would help soften and purify our heart and soul, and also offload our ego and increase our blessing, we would never hesitate to commend anyone

Our compliments would help us think and improve so we could be like other great people We must try to find good things about others and praise them for that

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Some may ask: “Don’t you see anything good about them?” Why couldn’t

we see any good points to praise? That was because we were that frog, which sits

at the bottom of the well, and could not see anything Everyone has something good in them, even bad people However, those good things are so few that we neglect to see them

So what has blinded our eyes? Selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and

cruelty have blinded our eyes Therefore, although people have strengths, we still

would not be able to see those clearly, but just the weaknesses Unable to see

others’ strengths and greatness indicates that evil is still in our soul When we

could not see good things in our family and friends, we knew that our soul was not pure, and vice versa Good and kind-hearted people would be able to see others’ strengths, but they also able to realise their own weaknesses easily

A truly genuine Buddhist have vowed to live in harmony with others,

therefore, he/she would be able to see others’ strength to praise When we praise

someone, each praise would help soften and purify our heart and soul, and also offload our ego and increase our blessing; gradually their strengths would become ours For example, we praised someone’s singing voice and gradually we would

have a good voice We praised someone’s good nature, then we would learn to be less critical and less cruel with others We praised someone’s mercy, and we learn

to be more merciful to others We praised someone’s intelligence and wisdom, and

we would learn and practise to improve our knowledge

That is why we must pay homage to Buddha and often bow in front of Buddha, as it would help with our blessings

Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would become more compassionate Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would become wiser

Because we pay homage to Buddha, we would be enlightened

We only need to be compassionate, be kind and love all beings from our heart and soul, like Buddha’s teachings, we would be successful in our cultivation path later on I must stress that paying homage to Buddha is the most basic but the most important thing of all in Buddhism We should remember that compliments are wonderful presents that we can give to everyone and do not cost us anything

We should never be modest in giving out compliments to others

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If only we knew that genuinely and sincerely wishing the best for others would create more blessing, we would want to do that more and more

Wishing others for the better is only just the beginning Sometimes, the wish

is just a social obligation between two people, but its nature somehow forms the relationship between people For example, on New Year day, we always wish each other a Happy New Year, or we often say: “Wish you good health and wealth” Though it is only the habit and the social obligation to do so, if we could be more sincere in our wishes, it might become true for others, and for ourselves as well

This is another example Seeing a good but poor person, we felt for him and wished: “Wish that you would have health, and would be wealthy” We wished the best for them genuinely When Buddha heard our wish and prayer and understood our true feeling, He would sympathise for us We would not know if any of our wish would become true But let’s be positive, be happy for each other With karma, the law of case and effect, good things will happen to good people Genuine and sincere wishes would help create more blessing for us However, remember those wishes or prayers must be truthful and genuine

If only we knew that it was not easy to control our thoughts, we would be

so cautious and practise meditation more and more to control our mind

Human being is controlled by their ego For the academics, they often think that they are right, because that’s all they have in control And their ego relies on that Sometimes we criticise a person and sometimes praise another It is quite natural It is free We often are controlled by our own assessment and often think that we are right However, we must remember that nothing is absolutely right and

nothing last forever Buddha had said: “Never trust yourself until you become an

Arhat.”

We are not Arhats, so never trust your assessment completely Often what

we see is only about 10% right However, we often use that 10% to represent everything else We should not judge one country based on the minority Similarly, we should not judge other religion based on our own assessment We are only ordinary human begins We are not intelligent enough to assess anything correctly Only when we could become an Arhat, we would be able to be more accurate in our assessment

including their nature They are no doubt intelligent people We should not trust

our assessment completely when our mind is still messy with thoughts That means

we are not wise enough Only when we think of nothing, our soul is calm and pure, our assessment could be more accurate then That is also wisdom

If only we knew that those sublime principles that we had been taught might not be right; and the truth could just be quite obvious and ordinary

This sounds very strange There is a Buddhism teaching: “Bodhisattvas see

everything nothingness: the earth, money, wife and children, houses, etc.”, while

we see the opposite That teaching is conceptual and sublime, we must be careful

in understanding what it really means Let us discuss another saying: “Human

and Saint is the same.” It could not be possible We have always thought that

human was ordinary, while Saint was someone so noble and have attained enlightenment How could they be the same? Again, we must be careful in interpreting this principle

Another simple example is math We all know the basic starts with 1+1= 2 Anything without the basic must be carefully assessed Do not just accept any principle without understanding thoroughly about its context The above principle must be understood within the right context It based on ethical standard It also based on kindness, compassion, and modesty It was not about how we lived freely, without being considerate of everything else, without any respect to anyone else

Once, a Buddhist did not greet me She has been a Buddhist for quite a long time, therefore her behaviour surprised me When asked, she explained: “Dear Master, I see that we are just the same, so I don’t see the need greet you.” I did not know what to say Her response was completely wrong Likewise, if someone asked: “Why don’t you bow to Buddha?” and if the answer was: “There is no need

to do that” That was a big mistake, a big delusion