..续本文上一页eat this mantra seven times or one hundred and eight times. This practice helps us to keep a good mood and improve the relationships with other people. Many problems will simply go away.

　　I had been practicing this mantra for a while, and benefited a lot. Of course, you may not feel it apparently if you lack faith. For any dharma practice, faith is the key. Some think it is not rational to rely on faith. In fact, you can hardly enter into any profound state by being rational all the time. Similarly, relying on perceptual experience only is the other extreme. Some academic researchers completely deny faith or blessing, and they only trust their own conceptualized mind, while some believers never study the theory and blindly trust their faith. Both attitudes are unacceptable. To realize the truth in this world, we need to stay on the middle way and away from any extreme behavior.

　　That mantra practice can expand our mind. If we look at things from a different angle, we will not get stuck on one point. Once an artist painted a black dot on a piece of white paper and then framed it. Many people watched the painting and had no idea of what it stood for. In fact, it has a deep meaning: when one focuses on one point, typically he will ignore other things and cannot see the open space nearby.

　　If you get scolded or slandered for no reason today, you may be too upset to eat if you cannot get over it. Or if your father passed away, your relationship is in trouble, you may feel it”s the end of your world. Although there are many things that can bring you happiness, you can still suffer strongly, find it hard to let go if you simply attach yourself firmly to that single black dot and ignore the remaining area of the white paper.

　　I used to know a woman who became desperate for family problems. She chartered a car and drove from Chengdu to Dzamthang, and arrived at a prairie. The prairie is vast, and one cannot see its edge from tens of kilometers. She let the driver go and stayed there just by herself. She let out her pain by shouting. After a while, her mind was cleared as she noticed the sky was endless and the prairie was so vast. She felt just like a tiny ant busy with its little house all day, and it was meaningless. Realizing this, she got relaxed right away and all sufferings disappeared. Therefore, our inner attachment is the source of suffering. Once we let it go, suffering will stop binding us.

　　None of the greatness has taken pain seriously throughout the history. As said in The Way to Bodhisattva, “If there is a remedy, then what is the use of frustration

　　 If there is no remedy, then what is the use of frustration

　　” This is a very good logic. Suppose you parents are dying, if there is a way to save them, there is no need to suffer; if not, crying is useless. However, today very few people have such an attitude when facing sufferings.

　　I”m not saying that I am one of them who can calmly face anything in life. But through the study of Mahayana for many years, I have developed a completely different attitude toward the loss of family members. I will not lie in front of so many people. So when suffering, I wish you can find a good way to solve your problem in Buddhism. Suicide, drugs, ecstasy pills, all of which will do nothing but to destroy you. Don”t choose them as a way to escape. You should try to read some dharma books or listen to the teachings from eminent monks or the great virtues, and understand the true meanings of dharma. This way, you can get rid of suffering by uprooting its cause.

　　Many people have such experience. Originally, they feel meaningless with what they do. After learning dharma, they start to understand the meaning of life, and are able to solve many problems and experience the inner happiness this way. None…

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