..續本文上一頁gative seeds in her that prevented her from being happy. She was just a little bit too hard on the other sisters. I proposed to her that she was a very talented person, very skillful in many things, and she could make many people happy if only she knew how to be silent and to say only things that needed to be said.

　　I proposed to her that she use only three sentences for three months. She could repeat these three sentences as many times as she wanted (laughter) and I told her that if she practiced that for a week, she would feel happiness right away. The first sentence was, "Dear sister, is there anything I can do to help you

　　" (laughter) The second sentence was, "Did you like what I did to help you

　　" The third was, "Would you have any suggestion that I can do it better

　　" (laughter) If she could say that, she would make many people happy and the happiness would go back to herself very quickly.

　　In the family we can practice silence. We can ask the other members of the family to agree that we will practice silence for three days or for a week. It is very beneficial. There will be a transformation after the period of practicing silence.

　　Letting Go of Suffering

　　Q: Why do we cling to our suffering

　　A: Many of us are not capable of releasing the past, of releasing the suffering of the past. We want to cling to our own suffering. But the Buddha said very clearly, do not cling to the past, the past is already gone. Do not wait for future, the future is not yet there. The wise people establish themselves in the present moment and they practice living deeply in the present moment. That is our practice. By living deeply in the present moment we can understand the past better and we can prepare for a better future.

　　Today I attended a Vietnam war veterans” discussion, and my heart is still heavy. The condition of the war veterans-their heart, their mind, their body-do you think that they will ever be emotionally healed in this lifetime

　　 I think if they practice with all their heart and they are determined to relieve the past, they will be healed.

　　We cling too much to the past; we have to face the future. We have to stand on the ground of the present moment. The war in Vietnam was just a war. There are many wars still going on and we continue to create victims of war and war veterans. The number of American soldiers who died in Vietnam was something like 55,000. Every year the number of people who die in car accidents in America is exactly that number, 55,000. So there is the equivalent number of dead people caused by alcoholism and unmindful driving. This is another war. The toll is as huge as the damage inflicted by war, and every time a person dies because of a car accident, it creates many war veterans in the children who lose their mother, the mothers who lose their son.

　　If we stick to our suffering we can never stand up for healing and prepare the future for our children and their children. I would say to the Vietnam war veteran, okay, you did kill five children. We know that. But here you are, alive in the present moment. Do you know that you have the power to save five children today

　　 You don”t have to go to Vietnam or southeast Asia. There are American children who are dying every day; they may need only one pill to be saved from their illness.

　　If you know how, every day you can save five children from dying. Why do you let yourself get caught in guilt and become paralyzed year after year

　　 Why don”t you make a bodhisattva vow to use your life to work for the safety of many children

　　 Did you know that 40,000 children die in the world every day just because of the lack of food and nutrition

　　 You are here; you can do something. Why do you let yourself get caught in the past

　　 You can save children in the here and now. You can u…

《Questions and Answers》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…