Appropriate attention

“Appropriate attention” (như lý tác ý) means directing the mind in accordance with the teachings: a thought, or an instruction placed in the mind, that binds our mind not to think wrongly or badly. Here are a few lines for reference:

May I always know my own faults

May I respect all beings

May love flood the whole Dharma realm

May I never shrink from sacrifice, all my life.

“May I always know my own faults”: because the ego always deceives us, making us think we are good, not knowing that behind what seems fine lie layer upon layer of faults, wrong views and delusion. Only when we see our faults can we be said to know how to practise, to be advancing in practice.

“May I respect all beings”: before, we did not see what is good in others, so it was hard to respect anyone. But when the heart has settled and become humble, then in this life, looking around us, we will see that everyone has something good to learn from and respect. That is why Confucius once said: “When three people walk together, there is surely a teacher for me among them.”

“May love flood the whole Dharma realm”: we vow that the love in our heart spreads wide, and keeps spreading in the Dharma realm, with no limits, distinctions or barriers. Many people hold different views that make us uncomfortable, but never mind, let us love first. For example, because they do not yet understand Buddhism, many people speak disparagingly of it; or there are people living in places of less developed culture, who often quarrel, cheat and compete… All of this makes us uncomfortable, but from now on we open our hearts and love first; gradually, when the conditions arise, we explain and influence them afterwards. We spread our love to all people on the planet, to all animals, the birds of the sky and the fish of the waters, to the grass, trees, leaves and flowers of this earth. The heart of a disciple of the Buddha must reach beings in the invisible realms, even distant planets that we have never known. Wherever there is life, our heart reaches. This boundless compassion is an ideal that is almost an illusion, yet we must still turn toward it.

The fourth line: “May I never shrink from sacrifice, all my life.” That is, we always shoulder burdens, even heavy tasks, and always yield, even in feelings, position and glory (but do not take this line in an extreme sense; for example, do not yield your knife to a robber).

Worldly affairs are a horse's shadow passing a window

Live with all my heart, yet keep my heart unburdened

Believe in cause and effect, take refuge in the Three Jewels

The compassionate Buddha shelters me and waits.

“Worldly affairs are a horse's shadow passing a window”: this means everything is impermanent, nothing lasts forever. A beautiful body will decay, resounding glory will pass, intense affection will fade. However, this does not make us passive, negative or resigned. We are still deeply compassionate, still steadfastly loyal, still devoted in our contribution, although we know worldly affairs are like drifting clouds, like a horse's shadow racing past a window. This is the Middle Way.

“Live with all my heart, yet keep my heart unburdened”: the essence of practice lies here. We live wholeheartedly, helping everyone as much as we can, but without clinging, holding on, remembering or counting it as credit… Only like this can we soar into the sky of liberation, for we have merit and yet let go as if into nothingness.

Most of us, however, have this weakness: whenever we pour too much of our energy into something, we cling to it; when we worry too much over someone, we keep counting it as credit; when we love someone too much, we remember that person from one life to the next; when we pursue some work too much, it haunts our mind from life to life. Or even worldly merit can make us cling and become entangled. For example, someone in a past life helped build a temple, and in this life receives the karmic results of beauty, wealth and position… All this merit comes because this person hoped for karmic rewards. But if in the past life, when building the temple, they had not clung to credit in their mind and had only wished to practise, then in this life they may not be rich, not very good-looking, not climb to high office, but they would enter the spiritual path and attain meditative concentration. This is more precious.

So we “live with all our heart, yet keep our heart unburdened” in order to grasp this essence, to reach the point where we do not enjoy even very great merit, but devote all the merit to spiritual progress and meditative concentration, heading toward liberation.

“Believe in cause and effect, take refuge in the Three Jewels”: although worldly affairs are like drifting clouds, like a horse's shadow flickering past a window frame, they are not accidental; everything has its causes and conditions, its clear cause and effect. Therefore we must understand everything subtly and deeply, bit by bit, according to cause and effect. Looking at people's beauty or ugliness, wealth or poverty, honour or disgrace, luck or misfortune, we can infer the causes they sowed in the past. Looking at the way they live now, we know the karmic results in the future. And once we understand cause and effect in this way, we draw a map for our own life, and naturally we know how to choose and weigh what we should or should not do.

For a person to believe in cause and effect, they must have some wholesome root, or some goodness in their mind and a love of fairness. Most people, however, do not believe in karmic conditions, wrongdoing and merit, especially those who hold power and wealth and have the upper hand, because they have the arrogance of someone who can command others to do as they want and easily obtain what they desire. To them, the strong win and the weak lose. History has seen many tyrants extremely fond of killing, who took it upon themselves to decide the life and death of others. One order from them, and how many beings died miserably! They never imagined that, in many lives to come, they themselves would have no way to live. After suffering terrible punishments in the invisible realms, if they are reborn, the moment they “poke their heads out” they are killed, for thousands of lives like that, with no chance to live. For such a cause, such a result.

So “believing in cause and effect” is a reminder for us life after life. If in this life we contribute wholeheartedly, we will certainly accumulate much merit. But when merit is overflowing, never forget cause and effect, whether we are a famous king or a magnate with money to spare. Today we may hold power and money, but each time we do a little wrong, our merit is diminished. When merit runs out, everything we have vanishes too, and the karmic result we must pay is extremely harsh. So remember cause and effect and weigh everything.

The latter half is “take refuge in the Three Jewels”: in this life, there is a safe and steady shore to which we can return: the three precious ones, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.

Taking refuge in the Buddha: the disciple vows to revere the Perfectly Enlightened One for life.

Taking refuge in the Dharma: the disciple vows to revere the Buddha's teachings for life.

Taking refuge in the Sangha: the disciple vows lifelong reverence for genuine practising monastics. (In truth, it is to revere the noble disciples of the World-Honoured One. But our age is far from the Buddha's, and with no Buddha to certify who is a noble one, we turn our hearts toward and revere the noble ones and the Bodhisattvas; in practice, we seek out genuine, virtuous and diligent monks and nuns to learn from and rely on.)

Nothing in this life is a harbour, not even the house for which we hold a land-use certificate, with a safe for our money and every comfort… in truth it is only a stormy open sea, something merely temporary. A temple, however simple and poor, even hidden in remote forests and mountains, is the true nest, the true shore to which we return. We must remind ourselves of this: do not let the merit of wealth and glory pull us back to the world. Remember that one day, in some life, the time will come when we enter a temple to practise and do not return to the lay world. Taking refuge in the Three Jewels and devoting our whole life to practising the World-Honoured One's teachings, we close the three evil realms and open ten thousand wholesome doors, so that in this stream of rebirth we have a way to go toward the place flooded with light.

“The compassionate Buddha shelters me and waits”: when we resolve to live by the teachings of the Buddha, when we have once knelt before the Buddha's altar and taken refuge in the Three Jewels, we become the Buddha's children, and the Buddha is always watching over our every step. But because past karma still binds us, and because our mind is not yet sincere and reverent, the responsiveness is still small, and the Buddhas both support us and wait for us to return. Return to where? First, return to the temple. Then return to the path of enlightenment and liberation.

The Buddhas wait, and never use supernatural powers to conjure beings into liberated ones, because liberation must be opened by oneself. The Buddhas left behind a great source of teachings, support us silently in the invisible, and wait for beings to practise diligently and attain enlightenment, so as to return to the home where the Buddhas have kept a place ready. That home is vast in the Dharma realm, with no chairs, no roof, no doors, no beams or pillars… yet that home is as vast as this Dharma realm. There the compassionate Buddha is waiting for us, in the Nirvana nature of non-self, where there is no longer any trace of suffering.

I vow to practise diligently day by day

Whatever obstacles and temptations of wrongdoing

My heart is set on going forward along one path

What are lifetimes that pass so quickly?

“I vow to practise diligently day by day”: once we understand the path, that is, once we have wisdom, then as the Buddha said, let us use the buffalo of diligence to pull the ploughshare of wisdom. That diligence must be day by day, hour by hour, stretching over countless lives, without counting time, for there to be strength enough to attain enlightenment and complete non-self.

“Whatever obstacles and temptations of wrongdoing”: diligence is always tested, by adversity or by favourable circumstances. First there are obstructing conditions, adversity. Disaster suddenly strikes, business suddenly becomes difficult, illness appears… Because of these obstacles we may feel weary and then slack off. But if we rest from practice for even one day, we have lost to adversity. For example, today we worked a lot, came back tired from a long journey, with such a fever we cannot sit in meditation, cannot bow to the Buddha or recite sutras, so we skip a day: we have lost to the illness. Tired or not, keep bowing to the Buddha and absolutely do not give up meditation, and see who wins, we or the illness. It may seem that the illness “fears us”, and we have won over the slackness in our mind. A diligent person never stops practising, even amid the harshness and pain of obstructing conditions.

There are times when adverse conditions surround us

And it seems that life has withered away

But because I revere the Buddha without end

Streams, rivers, abysses, mountains and hills are all crossed.

The second test is the many temptations, such as fame and gain, material things, affection, sensual desire… For example, someone intends to go to the temple to practise but gives it up midway for some entertainment. This person has lost to temptation. Parties and gatherings may bring us joy, but their nature is agitation and unease, and they deplete our merit. So whenever it concerns the Buddha's teachings, we decline all worldly pleasures to attend to the path, because nothing in this world is as precious as the teachings. Or take a person who resolves to practise, and whose lover says in a huff: “If you keep going to the temple I will leave you.” If it were us, how would we reply? “I want to become a monastic, but I still have my promise to you; now that you want to leave me first, I am not at fault. Thank you very much.” Having said that, do not wait for her to apologise but simply go. This is what “whatever obstacles and temptations of wrongdoing” means: no obstacle or temptation can shake us.

“My heart is set on going forward along one path”: a practitioner must have the spirit of an indomitable warrior who never retreats.

“What are lifetimes that pass so quickly?”: practice is a matter of many lives; never set a time limit, never say that you are determined to attain the Way in this one life. Our heart accepts walking the path of practice for three lives, thirty lives, three thousand lives… never limited to a few years. However many lives pass is fine, as long as we practise correctly, as long as every hour and minute we know how to use the mind faculty to illuminate our mind, see our faults, awaken ourselves and settle the mind in stillness. Apart from that, time is meaningless.