I have met some college students, who do not have much knowledge except arrogance as big as mountain king. They scorn and criticize Buddhism as they like. In fact, Buddhism welcomes criticism, since the revealed dharma truth will stand up to any challenge. However, if knowing nothing about Buddhism and just garbling a few words and making nonsense, one can only expose his or her own shallow ignorance, rather than hurting Buddhism.
Therefore, the main purpose of education is to teach students how to be a person, a person with both ability and integrity. In ancient China, whether a person can be used depends on both his ability and character. With a noble character, even if one doesn”t have abundant knowledge, he can still be put in an important position. On the contrary, without a heart of compassion and kindness, even if one is extremely talented and has endless erudition, or masters the whole Tripitaka of Buddhism, he may not benefit the world.
Therefore, we must understand the importance of virtue. There is a saying of Confucius hanging on the wall at the UN headquarter, “Do not do to others what you would not like to be done to you.” Do many of us really understand it
When your life is under threat, you desire to live and fear dying. Then how about those animals eaten by you
Didn”t they have the same feeling
Benefiting sentient beings instead of oneself is not just a verbal slogan. You need carefully observe yourself from many aspects. If you really do it, for sure you can get rid of all kinds of suffering.
2) Turning Suffering & Happiness into the Path
When we are having tremendous sufferings, there is another method in Buddhism to help us, which is to turn suffering and happiness into the path. In other words, you can use the suffering as a dharma practice, instead of regarding it as suffering.
For example, Bodhisattva Ngulchu Thogme (Gyalse Ngulchu Thogme Zangpo) said in his The Song of Happiness, it is okay we are either healthy or sick. If we are sick, we can clear bad karma of the past; if we are healthy, we can benefit others. It is okay we are either poor or rich. If we are poor, we can cut off the attachment to wealth; if we are rich, we can accumulate merits through offering and giving. Some renouncing practitioners do not cling to money and money automatically comes. In this case, you need not worry what to do with the money. As the Buddha said in vinaya, if you collected huge merits in your past lives, this life you will get very rich even without any hard work. So it is okay for a monk to live in a luxurious house and wear expensive robes. Therefore, no matter what happens, regardless good or bad, we should be happy all the time.
In fact, if one wants to succeed, it is necessary to endure all kinds of sufferings. Einstein once said, “There is only one road to human greatness: through the schools of hard knocks.” Therefore, a wise person won”t be afraid of suffering, rather he will turn every adversity in life into a stepping-stone of the path toward liberation.
There is a parable of this theory. Once upon a time, a farmer”s donkey fell down into a dry well. The farmer was very worried nearby the well, but he could not find a way to get the donkey out. At last, the farmer made a decision: since the donkey was so old and the well should be filled up anyway, so it was not worth to retrieve the donkey. So he asked his neighbors to come over and help him fill the well with dirt.
The donkey immediately realized what was happening. At first, he cried horribly. Then, to everyone surprise, the donkey calmed down. The farmer looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey shook it off and took a step up. Soon, to everyone”s amazement, the donke…
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