..续本文上一页walk away from the classroom as soon as they finish a lecture, never making an effort to find out what the students think or feel. But there are also teachers who are concerned about their students and want to guide them on life”s passages. For this purpose, introducing them to the right view of life is an excellent starting point.
III. The Necessary Ingredients for Success
Of course, I don”t mean to proselytize to you to become a Buddhist from my talk today. I am merely suggesting that you investigate Buddhism if you think it is plausible. Should you go ahead, I believe you will find something far more worthwhile than money. Buddhism is the supreme quintessence of human civilization of all time. By relying on it, innumerable beings from ancient times to now have attained true inner bliss. For one thing, if the mind has not been pacified in the first place, a person”s search for happiness via wealth or love relationships will not be fruitful, I am afraid.
Some of you must have many fantasies about the future, thinking it is the sure stairway to happiness. However, once you reach that stage, you probably will feel quite nostalgic for your college days. Why
It is because life by then is bound to have more headaches, suffering, and messy entanglements; you just have to deal with more problems.
To be sure, whether life”s experiences can cause you to suffer is determined by your attitude when dealing with them. And speaking of attitude, Buddhism is rich in superb ways of mind training which, regrettably, have been ignored by most people. Carl Jung, the renowned psychologist, observed that the demise of religion in the world is largely to blame for the preva lence of psychological ailments in modern society. In his book Modern Man in Search of a Soul, he observed that a purposeful, religious life is far better, richer, and healthier than an atheistic, purposeless one. Now in a big city, there are throngs of people rushing here and there, in cars or otherwise. Yet the majority of them are chasing after money, pleasure, or sensual contact; only an extremely few are preparing for their next life. Perhaps you do not believe the existence of a future life, do you
I think we can discuss it with an open mind. Such a critical issue must be resolved by sound rational thinking, rather than by a self-righteous stance.
Humans always think they are more intelligent or smarter than animals; however, those who know nothing about themselves are in fact not that much superior to animals. For example, in reality, “I” is nonexistent, yet one still attaches strongly to the “I”. For those uninitiated in the study of emptiness, such a notion is inconceivable—“How on earth can “I” not exist
Am I not here right now
” In Buddhist practice there is a specific logical way of observation, to analyze what and where exactly the so-called I is. Such analysis will lead to the conclusion that the “I” is indeed ineffable. Some of you may never hear anything like this, but I really hope that the seed of “emptiness” will be planted in your mind so that upon the maturation of your good merits, you will grasp this ultimate truth with ease.
Another Buddhist maxim is “all phenomena are impermanent”—that is, all the things before our eyes are changing moment by moment. Now, if you comprehend this, in your coming days when you are hit by a sudden and unexpected blow, such as a problem in your love life, you will not resort to hurling yourself off a tall building or overdosing with sleeping pills. You will gain the sagacity that not only your lover”s heart, but also everyone”s, is transitory; this mortal body is impermanent and all things are in a state of constant flux. Any change, then, is no surprise at all. However, without having fortified yourself with such a noti…
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