#spritual practice

In Buddhism, there is a concept called merits.  When one does good deeds, he accumulates merits, which brings about good karmic rewards. This is the Buddha’s skillful means of encouraging people to cultivate themselves and do good.  When they do good, not only do they benefit others, they themselves also receive benefits.  However, people can be easily attached to gaining merits.  Their motive for doing good then becomes to benefit themselves instead of benefiting others.  In spiritual cultivation, we are to practice to be selfless and place the wellbeing of others before our own.  Even though we gain merits when we do good, we shouldn’t get attached to good karmic rewards. However, it is truly difficult for people to be completely selfless and not think about gaining merits for themselves. How to prevent people from being attached to the concept of merits depends on how the teaching is explained.

Reflect on the impermanent nature of our mind

Ordinary people’s minds are restless.  In our mind, we have constant chatter of our thoughts, which are always wandering around. The Buddha tells us that all things in the universe undergo four phases of change.  For material things, they go through formation, continuation, deterioration, and annihilation.  For living beings’ bodies, they go through birth, aging, illness, and death.  For our thoughts, they are constantly arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing.  Because our thoughts are always changing, it’s difficult for us to develop wisdom.  The Buddha wants us to reflect on our thoughts and learn to concentrate our mind on spiritual cultivation so that we can bring forth our innate Buddha nature and wisdom.

Every day, when we engage with our surroundings, our mind gives rise to all kinds of thoughts.  Yet, thoughts are temporary.  Here’s a story to illustrate this.  

One day, a cultivator was walking outdoors and saw a pond with a blooming lotus flower.  Joy arose in his mind.  He stopped to enjoy the beautiful lotus flower.  While he was immersed in this beautiful scenery, a farmer came to the pond and, with his shovel, swiftly removed the lotus flower.  

The cultivator asked, “The lotus flower was so beautiful.  It was doing fine in the pond, why did you remove it?”

The farmer responded, “You are a cultivator, and your mind should be tranquil.  How come you are attracted to this lotus flower and let it disturb your mind?”

Upon seeing the lotus flower, the cultivator gave rise to a thought of joy.  As he was enjoying the flower, his thought abides in joy.  When the farmer suddenly removed the lotus flower leaving the pond with muddy water, the cultivator’s thought changed, and his joy ceased.  

Reflect on our feelings and the suffering they bring

Being able to feel is a mysterious thing.  Our body’s sensory system allows us to feel our environment, such as the cool breeze of the fall or the refreshing fragrance of a flower.  We also experience mental feelings, such as happiness and tranquility. Feelings allow us to enjoy life, yet they also create trouble for us.  One moment, we are happy.  The next moment, we can be angry.  Feelings are fickle.  When we get caught up in our ever-changing feelings, it can give us much suffering.  The Buddha wants us to understand our feelings so that we can be in control of them and bring tranquility to our mind.  

In Buddhism, feelings are categorized into five types: pleasant, joyous, unpleasant, worrying, and neutral.  For ordinary people, we experience pleasant feelings when things go our way.  We experience unpleasant feelings when things go against our wish.  People have desires.  When they can’t get their desires fulfilled, unpleasant feelings arise, such as disappointment and anger.  There’s a Chinese saying “out of ten things, eight or nine of them do not turn out the way we wanted.”  This implies that in real life, things turn out the way we wanted only 10% or 20% of the time.  If we always want things to go our way, we will be miserable as most of the time things will not go our way.

Within unpleasant feelings, there is the feeling of worrying. People worry about a lot of things.  We worry about our children.  We worry about losing what we have.  We can worry about just anything.  When we worry too much, it can give us distress.

Pleasant feelings are happy feelings, such as seeing a friend whom we have not seen for a long time.  Yet, happiness is only temporary.  We are happy during the time with our friend. Afterwards, our happiness fades.  Within pleasant feelings, there is the feeling of joy, which goes much deeper than happiness. Even after the moment of happiness has passed, whenever we recall that memory, the feeling of joy arises.  An example is spiritual joy.  It’s the joy that arises from practicing the Dharma.

Our feelings can also be neutral.  It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant.  It’s like plain water and has no taste.  

In fact, how we feel depends on our perception.  Given the same situation, different people will feel differently.  When being solicited to donate money to help the poor, a person responds happily and generously because he thinks that his donation can help people in need.  Another person, however, declines as he thinks that giving money away means he has less money to spend.  In the former case, the person feels happy.  In the latter case, the person might feel annoyed.