Place complete trust in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha and the Vinaya

If since the first step in the practice path, you have listened to the teachings of the Buddha to change from evil occupation to good occupation, this means you have full belief in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha and the precepts.

You can have such belief because you have thoroughly pondered the teachings of the Buddha. For example, he taught: “By not creating sufferings to yourself and to others, you will liberate yourself from the sufferings.” If you apply this teaching in your life, you will see its righteousness and the result is immediate.

When he taught us to change the evil occupations, we ponder and see it is very reasonable, because the evil occupations that we are performing are the occupations to create sufferings with so much killing of living beings such as fishing, hunting, selling alcohols, opium etc. As wise people, with these teachings, we can place our complete belief in Him, as such teachings are practical to bring peace and happiness to ourselves, to others and to all living beings on this planet. Accordingly, we believe and no one can shake this belief.

Why so?

Because His teachings are very practical and specific, they bring the liberation with peace and happiness to us and all living beings as mentioned above.

If we do not create sufferings to anyone, it should be that no one will create sufferings to us. If someone brings sorrow to us, probably the person has not heard and understood the teachings of the Buddha. If everybody has the chance to listen, understand and practice in accordance with his teachings, this world will be Heaven and Utmost Happiness, how happy it will be for all the living beings, there would be no sorrow at all.

His method of practice is very practical and brings the immediate and specific liberation, if we just change the occupation, right at that moment, the living beings escape death and sufferings, the strong will not bully the weak, and the big animal will not eat the small ones. Seeing the scenes where the living beings escape death and sufferings, our mind becomes jubilant, our hands no longer do evil deeds and no longer are bloodstained, our eyes no longer see the death and sufferings of living beings. How happy it is for all the living beings on this planet.

From our thorough pondering and consideration, we see the obvious liberation for ourselves, for others and for all living beings. The change from evil occupation to good occupation alone has gained such happiness, such liberation, then for a monk/nun, who left home and entered monkhood, lives with three pieces of clothing and an alms bowl, how much liberation and happiness can be, particularly when they can enter the concentrations to master life, death and put an end to rebirth, how strong such belief can be!

Thanks to the results, we have deeper belief, though at first we do have belief in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha but it is not yet the deep belief. So how the belief in the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha and the precepts can be considered as deep?

In order to make our belief become deep, long-lasting and durable, our practice result of liberation is in daily life, our minds and bodies experience the success of liberation in each specific method of practice, each practice must have result, no matter large or humble, then our belief can grow and be long-lasting and durable.

At the beginning, you only ponder the teachings of the Buddha and see that other people become peaceful and happy when they change their work. You thus become determined to change the evil occupations. First of all, you see your liberation result in the fact that you no longer see the suffer in sufferings and death of the animals. Your pair of hands will no longer shed the blood of living beings, you no longer see the scene of people faltering and tottering in the streets, insulting their spouses, children and neighbours, no longer see the women selling themselves in the street and being depraved like a type of animals without shame, no longer see people sitting in the street booths or stalls and eating the meat of living beings like a type of ferocious animal, no longer see the aquatic species being trapped in the net or tackle and wriggling violently in death, no longer see the animals stampeded in front of the hunters…. Your heart will be jubilant when you see that scene, it is the scene of liberation for yourself, for others and for all living beings. How much happiness would be for mankind and living beings on this planet!

The outside peaceful and happy scenes of people and all living beings are harmonizing with your heart of peace and bliss, this makes the life happier and the love of humanity and living beings becomes deeper and deeper, doesn’t it?

When we have just changed the work, there would be some laboriousness and difficulties at the beginning, after some time, we will be back to normality, and there would be no worry like at the start.

Step by step, the new occupation develops, you will recall the days of fishing, probably you would have been at sea and whenever there were storms, the life were at risk, the relatives would be miserably anxious and stay up the whole night to pray for your safety.

The largest anguish is for those whose work is to kill the living beings, their families are constantly in worries, diseases and disasters often happen to them, but they have no idea.

When following Buddhism and living in accordance with his teachings, those who often have reflection will notice that there have been more favorable situations coming to them than disasters.

In retrospect, you recall that when you were still with the evil occupations, there had been many insecure situations and disasters happening to the family, but because you did not pay attention, therefore the family kept going with sufferings and drifting in the ups and downs of life.

But when following Buddhism, by changing the work in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha, people have found the liberation in the acts of goodness instead of having to wait for ten, twenty or thirty years. The liberation is immediate when we live in goodness, do acts of goodness i.e. not to create sufferings to oneself, to others and to living beings.

There are some people who misunderstand the meaning of liberation of Buddhism, they think liberation means that they get whatever they want or whenever they pray, their wishes will be satisfied. Such thought is not the liberation of Buddhism, it is the running after desire and they are bound more by worldly materials, and thus they have more sufferings.

Buddhism teaches to let go of things in order to avert sufferings, to abandon craving to get out of the circle of life, death and rebirth. In general, the practicing methods of Buddhism are like that. To hold things means to create evilness, to let go of things means to develop goodness.

To live with enough food to eat and clothes to wear, not to have much fame and wealth but the mind is at ease with little desire, in peace and bliss, to live with patience, acceptance and agreement in all circumstances, are these not the liberation of Buddhism?

Money, fame, beauty, food and beverage, sleeping and recreation, praise and criticism, fear and anxiety etc. do not influence us, is it not the liberation?

The liberation of Buddhism is the mind which is unshakeable in front of all circumstances, all kinds of things, all attractions of life and all unlimited painful and miserable feelings of the body and mind, instead of releasing souls, entering body, sitting in Meditation for five or seven days, enjoying the joy of imagination, or contemplating a metaphysical world. It is not magic or miraculous power, also not beholding the Buddha-nature to become Buddha etc. These are the illusion out of imagination to deceive devotees.

Thanks to such real results of practice and the mind of unshakeableness, people believe Buddhism and live their life as the Buddha taught: “Shave one’s hair and beard, putting on the kasaya, living without family and houses, having only three pieces of clothing and an alms-bowl to beg for food”. Without such real results, no one dares to follow Buddhism because the life of Buddhism is very stern (leaving the five worldly sensual pleasures). Moreover, the practice takes great pains and has many other difficulties.

For example, some Monks have been practicing Zenism for five, even some 15 or 20 years, but they have not experienced any liberation. They have beheld the nature, made gradual cultivation and kept practicing until they finish all their thoughts, every day they sit in Meditation and wish to get rid of all thoughts in the mind to become Buddha, however, when they can finish all their thoughts, they fall into the state of losing awareness and the states of joy of imagination. The states vary irregularly,

however, in front of circumstances, the mind of greed, anger and ignorance still exists, in front of fame and wealth, the mind is still desirous, their eating and sleeping are not within regulation, not in accordance with Holy conducts, how can such life be called liberation?

When they start practicing, they could sit in meditation in lotus position for 30 minutes and gradually increase to 1 hour, 10 hours, 12 hours, but the thoughts sometimes stop, sometimes continue, sometimes their state is very peaceful, sometimes unequal, they could not progress but with all such efforts made, they don’t want to stop. If you were in a situation like this, do you feel disheartened? They could only console themselves by the sayings of the Patriarchs: “Practice must be in many lives”, some Patriarchs had to practice for 20 or 30 years etc.

The Monks raise the hope and console themselves that probably they have not practiced well enough and tell themselves to try to further practice. When ten years have passed, they see the same defects in their minds, greed, anger and ignorance are still there, so they tell themselves to practice more. After twenty years of whole-heartedly practicing, they can’t see themselves being able to master their life and that if someone does something to them, the mind of greed, anger and ignorance immediately storms violently, sorrows still exist, why do they keep practicing but are not able to overcome this?

They can sit in Meditation from 7, 8 hours to 11, 12 hours, but they cannot sit for 1 day or 2 days.
Why so?

Because they lack practicing method and they practice wrong method, therefore they do not have practice result, their practice stays put, but they have already practiced, already taught others, what can they do or say now? These are the Monks of the higher position, if they speak out they will lose their fame and wealth, it’s so difficult for them to speak out, such a dilemma, just ignore it, what must be must be, they keep going practicing. And for the Monks of lower position, they have already started, if they return to life people will laugh at them but their practice gets to nowhere, they keep deceiving the Buddhism followers to live by lecturing from one sutta to another, similar to changing food to make it easy for swallowing, they often use the abstract and ambiguous arguments with myths and empty words, being confined to the explanation of the Patriarchs, they keep repeating such things and add details to give them a refreshed look, therefore some people said “he has deceiving tongue”.

For those who have knocked at the right door of Buddhism, there is the immediate result of liberation, they experience the liberation in a specific manner.

Moreover, at our first step entering Buddhism, we see that the practice is very specific, the liberation is clear and without any ambiguity, as everyone can distinguish the goodness from the evilness. That said, it means only those who have completed the study of the morality that is based on the causality law can easily distinguish goodness from evilness. The practice of Buddhism is to live, to live in goodness means liberation, to live in evilness means to suffer.

To change from an evil occupation to a good occupation, if we contemplate it we will immediately have a peaceful and blissful mind, not just for oneself but also for the whole family. Particularly, for people who know how to have little desire and be satisfied with basic material conditions, their peace and happiness are manifold.

For people who have deep belief in causality and have learnt the morality based on the causality law and focuses on human development, they can experience the good fortune very clearly, even though they do not wish for anything nor have capability in gaining goodness, the law of cause-and-effect will bring the good fortune to them and they always enjoy the full happiness of life. For these people, evilness can occur but it is like water off a duck’s back to them.