Practice In Any Circumstance Thay Thich Thanh Tu

Practice In Any Circumstance

Many people think that practicing is reserved for the people who are healthy or have free times. For those who are poor or working from morning until night, there's not enough time to practice. Thinking that they are blessed and have everything in life, some people do think that only those who don't have enough blessings, are disabled or abandoned will need to practice. Even some think that only those, who are sinful or evil, need to atone for their sinful acts. Because of those types of thoughts, people have no consideration of practicing. However, they do not know that everyone of us has a mixture of good and bad thoughts. If they let bad thoughts freely arise in mind, then they will have an uncontrolled life (living with their instincts or human nature) of sins and depreciation of moral values. It's a pracbreastioner's duty to restraint the bad thoughts so that they can be diminished and to stimulate the good thoughts so that they can be well developed. Diminishing bad thoughts and developing good thoughts are the behaviors of a moral human who will do things which are beneficial to other people. So, is there any circumstance that we cannot practice in?

Practice In A Busy Setting

There are many people who are so busy with their family's life as they wake up early in the morning to open the business at the marketplace and come back home at night. Then, they have to take care the children until real late. Thus, where can they find the time to practice? If they're asked to recite or count the beads, it's impossible. But, a practice is to simply let go the bad thoughts, stop telling bad words, and stop all evil acts, meanwhile, develop good thoughts, say good words, and make good deeds. How much of time does it take us to do these things? When we do business, it is the right time for us to practice. If we have good thoughts, courteous behaviors, and say good words, the customers will like and appreciate us. Therefore, the more customers like to do business with us, the more successful our business will be. A lady is willing to sell her merchandise for $1000 even though she has posted it for $2000. Ironically, a customer makes an offer for $300. In this situation, if the seller doesn't know to practice, she will get irritated to argue with the customer. A big dispute occurs. On the other hand, if she knows how to practice, she can just simply smile with a gentle reply, "I'm sorry. It's not the right price for me to sell you the product." So, everything is settled as no one suffers the loss. There is a chance that the customer will come back next time to buy her merchandises. In any undesired situation, if we know to control our temper, find a humble way to communicate, and maintain a composed manner, we are clever in our practice. Every day, undesirable matters occur continuously at the marketplace. Therefore, practicing is necessary for the people who live in this type of setting. That is why there was an old saying, "Practice at the marketplace first, then in the mountain."

As farmers, our thoughts of working hard to serve rice to our family and distributing them to other people while we are working in the fields are good thoughts. This is already a practice. By feeling unjealous when seeing our neighbor's crop field is much better than ours and happy for his-her success, we already know to practice. While working in the field or embanking a trench, if we know to terminate bad thoughts and develop good ones, we are already in practice. One strike to the soil is a praying to the Buddhas or a strike to the diamond ground. This is a practice.

Students have a better condition to practice since their major focus is just the studying. While attending school, they only think about "study hard so that in the future they can support their parents when they are old and make a contribution to develop a better country." This is a practice. When they listen well and study hard to repay the teaching effort of the teachers, they are in practice. Helping and loving other students who have less learning ability than they have is a knowing of practice. When they feel unenvied and respectful to their clbutt mates, who are better students than them, they have a mind of a pracbreastioner. A pracbreastioner is a person who knows to correct his-her mistakes without any complaint or anger. The future society will be better and brighter because of these buds (youngsters), who know how to practice.

Practice In A Difficult Condition

Yes, we can be poor because of our deficiency in money or materials; however, we are not poor in thoughts, speeches, and actions. Transforming the thoughts, speeches, and acts from bad to good is a practice. We don't need money, materials, or pleasure time in order to practice. Right in our poor and hard life, the practice is needed. Having a good heart, good deeds and speeches, a poor person may improve his-her living condition through people's help. Contrarily, if he-she is mean in speeches and acts, his-her living condition will become worse because no one is willing to help him-her. Besides, having a pure and bright mind, good speeches, and noble acts, we always feel joyful in any circumstance that we live in. Husband and wife respect each other, children obey their parents, and parents love their kids are the conditions of a life of sharing (a split of a grain of salt). What an ideal life it is!

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