Joyfulness

Joyfulness is freeing others from unhappiness and being sincerely happy for them when they accomplish that. It is a mental state of great contentment and ease, not to be misunderstood with happiness, which is just a physical state of feeling good. We can start to develop joy for those who are closest to us: our family and friends. We expand it to those we know and like, then to those we know but dislike, and finally to those we do not even know. Ideally, our wish will be that all beings find joy.

Have We Really Understood?

In our ignorance and delusion, we do not truly understand karma. What we think, say, and do will assuredly come back to us, just as surely as if we threw a ball against a wall. It may take a million lifetimes, but the cause will give rise to the result, the ball will bounce back. It is very likely that many people will think, wait a minute, I believe in karma.

Please think again.

Do we really believe and understand? Have we become even a little irritated with someone or something today? That was anger and we have not understood. Have we thought, “I would like to have a special food for dinner tonight” or “Is there still room for me to quickly pull out in front of that car?” That was greed—for taste, for self-interest. if we still have ignorance and delusion, still feel anger and craving, then we have not really understood causality.

Pure Land Monastics, Part Three

Question: What kind of training does a new monastic go through?

Response: This depends on one's teacher. Since my teacher, Master Chin Kung, is a skilled and accomplished lecturer, his students listen to his lectures daily. In my case, since I do not have a translator with me right now, I work on translations with the translation team members and write daily. Some of us also practice giving lectures.

By tradition, the student takes his or her teacher's talks and starts by presenting them. In this way, the audience hears an accurate lecture that has been passed down from an accomplished master, not a lecture written by a beginner who could easily write something wrong. Saying something untrue would have very serious karmic consequences for the lecturer for he or she would have mislead the listeners.

The student then gradually studies different lectures by the teacher, to pull together parts of talks that were given to different audiences. Ancient commentaries are used for reference.

Our other training can be formal; for example, learning to play the musical instruments in a class. Or it may be more informal as a monastic of several years guides a newer one. Also, monastics who have certain skills may informally teach such skills to others.

Deserving of Love

 

You yourself,

as much as anybody in the entire universe,

deserve your love and affection.

~ Buddha

Rising and Falling Through Samsara

We have lived innumerable lifetimes. We have lived as humans. We have lived as animals. We have lived as beings in the hell realms. We have even lived as heavenly beings. None of these lives were permanent. Some have been short. Others have been incredibly long. At the end of each lifetime, the consciousness moved on to be reborn as a new being.

We die and get born again, die again, are born again. If we are good, we rise through the cycle of rebirth. “Good” means we do not have thoughts of self-benefit. “Good” also means we unconditionally help others without counting the costs to ourselves. We are filial to our parents and respectful to our teachers and elders. We are compassionate and do not kill any living beings. We are generous and do not steal. We are honest and do not lie. We are faithful to our husbands or wives. We do not use language that is harsh, divisive, or enticing. We do not gossip. To be good means to do all these. So due to our exemplary thoughts, speech and behavior, our lives become better and better.

Then, at some point, because we had been thinking selflessly and had created and accumulated goodness our lives become very comfortable. Having relative position and wealth, we begin to think that it is our right to just enjoy ourselves. We forget about being good. We stop helping others. We become selfish. We start to enjoy the benefits that we have accumulated over many lifetimes, happiness, intelligence, and prosperity.

We gradually use up our store of good fortune which we created. Just as we rose through the cycle of rebirth, we now begin to descend. Our greed leads us to the hungry ghost realm. Our ignorance leads us to the animal realm. Our anger leads us to the hell realms. We rise and then we fall. And then we rise again, only to fall once again.

We have done this over and over and over again.