Keeping promises

1. IN LIFE, MANY AGREEMENTS ABOUT THE FUTURE ARE ESTABLISHED BY PROMISES

Keeping promises is the third lesson on the morality of language (after the two lessons "The practice of truthfulness" and "Mastering one's speech"). We already know that making a promise is something that faces toward the future, yet those who practise the Buddha's way usually live by the view:

"Do not pursue the past

Do not long for the future

The past has already gone

The future has not yet come

There is only the present moment

Insight is right here

Unmoving, unshaken

Practise in just this way"

A person who knows how to practise the Buddha's teaching is not concerned with what happened in the past and does not dream of life in the future. They simply live serenely in the life of the present. In truth, when we search to the very end for what is called the present, in order to abide in it, we find nothing that can be called the present any more. In real life the present is never a moment independent of the past and the future. The present is still a link in the course of time, which never stops or stays. So giving up the past or the future in order to abide in the present is also not something real, although in the effort of practice we imagine it to be so.

Because the present is the result of the past, all that we did in the past makes up our life in the present. And the person living today carries thousands of echoes of yesterday.

For example, if today we have the good roots to practise in peace, not bound by the many ties of family that bring trouble and suffering, so that one day we may use wisdom and virtue to protect the Buddha's teaching and benefit sentient beings, we must have created so many meritorious practices in previous lives. That is, we constantly made offerings to the Three Jewels, practised meditative concentration and did very many good deeds. That we, with our hair still dark, were able to turn away from worldly life and step onto the path of the Way is the result of accumulation from the past. Not to look far, to sit here and practise now, we too have gone through so many days and months of striving in practice. From the time we lived with our families until we met the Buddha's teaching, began to eat vegetarian food, went to the temple, and then asked our parents for permission to leave home…, that stretch of road was extremely hard, not simple at all. Once in the temple, we also had to make an effort to study and strive so that our teachers would let us attend the Basic Buddhist Studies class and further, higher programmes. If we now destroy that result, the future will go in another direction. We will no longer have peace to practise.

So the past has created the present, and the present will create people's life in the future. If in the present we study well and make progress in practice, in the future we will reap good things. For example, a person who studies well and has a good reputation will be arranged by the teachers in the school to go on to the Advanced Buddhist Studies class. Or a person who resolves to practise will be helped by the teachers to enter a retreat. Or a person of good conduct, who is always compassionate and loving to the community and sacrifices and yields, when grown will be proposed by the teachers to be abbot or teacher at some temple. Or in the present, because we know how to be diligent and keen in practice, and how to sacrifice and yield everything to our fellow monastics, good fortune will later come to us naturally. Others will bring us so many good things. Clearly the past has made the present, and the past together with the present makes the future. That is a natural process.

So does the future influence the present in return?

The future has not yet appeared, but in fact it influences our life in the present. Plans and intentions for the future shape the way we conduct ourselves in the present. For example, while still in the Basic class, some people have planned to go on to the Advanced class and are determined to take the entrance examination for the Buddhist Academy. A person with such an aim will be very diligent, poring over books day and night and improving their English in order to pass the examination. Meanwhile another plans, after finishing the Basic class, to enter a three-year retreat and so does not study tirelessly or fervently. They only need to study enough to get by, and the rest of the time is devoted to sitting in meditation and reading meditation books. Another has been promised by the teacher that they will be made abbot of a temple after finishing their studies, so what matters to them now is learning the "art" of being an abbot. All day that person wonders how, as abbot, they will get many lay Buddhists to follow them, what to do if they want to build a temple, how to support the community. That is, that person worries only about being an abbot and not much about study or practice. So plans for the future have a great influence on our attitude to living, practice and study in the present.

There is also another thing that greatly influences the present: a promise. In life, very many of one person's plans rest on another person's promise. For example, someone promises us something. At once we place our hopes and draw up plans for our life based on their promise. If a person promises us something small, we will place a small part of our life on it. But if they promise something greater, we will place most of our life on it.

Let us take an example from worldly life, and we will understand this. Person A owns a house worth about forty taels of gold. He wants to buy another house worth about sixty taels to make his business easier, but does not have enough money and so cannot go ahead. Person B, seeing this, promises: "Sell your house now, and I will lend you another twenty taels of gold to buy that house." A is delighted, quickly sells his house, and draws up a business plan for when he buys the new house. So A's plan has rested on B's promise.

However, if the promise is not kept, the plan may fail. For example, A finishes selling his house but B goes back on his word, saying that many unexpected things have happened and he has no money to lend any more. So A cannot carry out his plan and falls into an awkward situation, having to live from place to place for some time until he can buy another house. If we place our lives on another person's promise and that person does not keep it, we will fail. This is only a very simple case. For after all, A still has some money with which he can manage in other ways.

Or someone promises that if we try hard to study, finish the Basic class and pass the Advanced class, they will give us a motorbike to go to school. We make every effort, studying tirelessly day and night, and the result is as we hoped. But then that person does not keep the promise. To go to school we must pedal a bicycle several dozen kilometres. Still, this does not greatly affect our life, because their promise was only one part of life and we had placed only a part of our trust in it.

In worldly life there are cases where, because one person breaks a promise to another, heartbreaking tragedies occur. For example, a young man promises a girl that he will marry her and love her all his life. But he does not keep his promise. Circumstances change, he meets someone new, and he hurries to forget the old scenes and the old love. The girl, having placed all the hope of her life on that promise, is utterly miserable. In her despair she acts blindly and seeks death in the hope of escaping that extreme suffering. Or, seeing a poor girl who needs money to change her life, a certain man sows hope by promising to provide capital for her to do business. Like a drowning person grabbing a float, the girl gives up everything to follow the man in the hope of being helped by him. But to her surprise, his promises were only lies. The girl, in utter disappointment at having come to the end of her road, took her own life.

So to make an important promise that leads people to place their whole lives on it, and then not keep it and disappoint them, is an unwholesome karma. We will carry a very grave wrongdoing. Depending on whether the promise is great or small, the wrongdoing will be greater or lesser. Although a promise belongs to the future, it greatly affects people's life in the present. So we must be careful with promises and must not promise carelessly just to get past a moment. Once we have promised someone something, we must be determined to carry it out, whatever it takes.

There are two cases of breaking a promise:

Sometimes a person at first promises sincerely but later changes their mind. This is the wrongdoing of breach of faith (bội tín). That is, not keeping a promise, acting against one's credibility and one's own promise. Perhaps at that moment, out of impulsiveness or momentary enthusiasm for something, the person promised very warmly and sincerely. But on reflection, seeing that their promise was truly unreasonable and foolish, they changed their mind. For example, in a burst of high spirits, wanting to show himself a generous and open-handed person, one man promised another: "When you build your house, I will give you ten bags of cement." But when he got home and reckoned it up, he saw that ten bags of cement was no small gift, and the one who promised began to regret it. So when the other came to say he was starting to build and reminded him of the ten bags of cement, this man found ways to wriggle out. That is breach of faith: promising sincerely but not being able to keep the promise.

In the second case, when promising, the person knows clearly that they are only promising empty words, knows clearly that they will not carry it out, yet still promises. This is the wrongdoing of lying together with breach of faith, so the wrongdoing is graver. If the broken promise brings serious consequences, the promiser may be found guilty of fraud and may be prosecuted criminally… In business this case often occurs. Professional swindlers often promise good things so that others believe them. So many people are cheated and lose all their money. Day by day, fraud is carried out ever more cleverly. Many people have forged papers and played the role of senior officials in the State apparatus to cheat companies and enterprises. They promise to "work" the paperwork so that large projects are approved or investment loans obtained, and so on… Before the promise comes true, those companies have to pay them money many times for "public relations". In the end, having pocketed a tidy sum, those fellows find a way to "slip away". When these people promise, they know full well they are lying to cheat others, so their wrongdoing is very grave.

In life there are also empty promises like this that do not have serious consequences. For example, in a cheerful moment one person says to another: "Don't worry, go off to your studies and leave this matter to me." They say so, but when the other returns, everything is still just where it was. For the speaker knew for sure that he would not do it but lied anyway so that the other would believe him. Although there are no serious consequences, such a promise is both breach of faith and a lie, and we should not let this happen.

2. KINDS OF PROMISES

We can divide promises into several kinds:

The first is a promise to help. A promise to help usually comes from kindness. We meet very many such promises, like: "You take care of that job, and I will help you with this part," or: "Go ahead and build your house, I will come over to help you so you save on labour costs"… Sometimes it is a promise of giving: "Just concentrate on your studies, and I will provide for you, from writing paper to tuition fees." These are promises to help that come from kindness, from living for others and from love of people. They are not empty promises but sincere ones, and the promiser will surely carry them out.

The second is a promise to look after property. For example, a person who has to go away for a while leaves a large amount of his property with a friend for safekeeping. He instructs: "This is all my property. I have to go far away and cannot take it with me, so I ask you to keep it for me. When I come back, I will take it back. If I do not return, please hand it over to my relative who is now living at…" In handing a large property over to a friend, the depositor clearly must have a certain trust in that friend's reputation. And the one who promises to keep the property must be a person without greed to be able to keep his promise. This is not simple. That person's nature must be free of greed and unconcerned with others' wealth, so that he has credibility. But in this case, keeping the property is much harder. Comparing two situations will make it clearer.

For example, walking along the road, we see that someone has dropped a necklace worth ten taels of gold. As disciples of the Buddha, knowing that taking what is not ours is wrong, we do not take it but hand it to the local authorities to have them find and return it to the person who lost it. That act, although hard (because it is a large sum), we get through because of morality and out of obedience to the Buddha's teaching. Moreover, the time from picking up the necklace to handing it to the authorities is not long, so we overcome greed easily. But if someone else entrusts two hundred taels of gold to us to keep year after year, everything is no longer simple. This is when our morality is tested most severely. If that person came back, we would be ready to hand it back without having to think anything over. But here, the person has gone and vanished without a trace, while the wealth is right there in our own house. This is truly a great test for one with the "mission" of keeping another's property.

In this case, a person who still keeps his promise and still finds a way to hand all that property over to the depositor's relatives, without taking even a tiny amount, though the time drags on for ten years, truly has exceptional morality. This person has very great merit in the mind, although outwardly his merit may not seem great. For enduring the allure of the property for ten years, not taking a single đồng of it, also brings no great benefit to others. Sometimes the depositor himself is no longer alive to enjoy the money, and his relatives do not know and so have no hopes. So no one has to suffer from disappointment. For that reason, keeping that property for ten years and then handing it over does not bring much merit to the keeper. But the virtue in his mind is confirmed, and nothing can compare with it.

We must admit one thing: when it comes to morality, anyone can talk. But only when we face adversity and temptations can we confirm our own morality. Even those who specialise in lecturing others on morality admit that if someone entrusted them with a hundred taels of gold, they too would perhaps not be able to eat or sleep in peace. Or when someone speaks harshly, they too feel anger in their hearts… Keeping property for many years in order to test our own freedom from greed is the same. If we manage to hold to that, the merit is not much, but our virtue is very great. When we die, we may even be born in the heavens.

The third is a promise to give up a mistake. In life, no one is without mistakes. What matters is that, when they know they have made a mistake, they have the determination to give it up. To give up the mistake, the person who erred usually promises to some party, sometimes promising only to their own heart. For example, a person who at first, out of greed, liked taking others' things as their own gradually develops an illness, the illness of stealing. People of old used to say: "Habitual stealing comes easily to the hand, as sleeping by day comes easily to the eye." That is indeed not wrong.

Some people live in relatively well-off families but, as soon as they see someone else's lapse, steal at once. When people around them find out and their family explains that if they steal, later they will suffer the karmic results of poverty, loss, damage, suffering and disappointment…, the person comes to understand and promises not to steal any more. That is a promise to give up a bad habit. Or some people make the mistake of often keeping company with bad people.

A girl from a respectable family keeps company with a young man of the hooligan type, for example. When her family advises her kindly, the girl regrets it and promises her family she will cut off her relationship with him. That too is promising to give up a mistake.

Or some people make the mistake of addiction. Today, living amid so many temptations (drugs, drinking, gambling, promiscuous relations…), if they lack strength of character, people will be infatuated by these pleasures and become addicted. We know that what makes people addicted usually creates an inner sensation. Just as all happiness in this world is in truth not due to circumstances but only an inner sensation. Alcoholics who can drink from one glass to the next bottle, who cannot bear to be without alcohol, do so because when alcohol enters the body it gives them some inner sensation that they enjoy. For them at that moment happiness can lie only at the bottom of the glass. It is that pleasurable sensation that makes them want to drink regularly and creates addiction. Depending on whether the sensation is strong or weak, the addiction will be hard or easy to give up.

Gambling addicts are the same. What has made them addicted? Besides being drawn in by winning and losing, gaining and losing, the inner sensation that thrills them may also lie in the suspense of squeezing out each card. It is that suspense that creates the inner sensation that makes people enjoy and love it. But of all the things that make people addicted, the most frightening is drugs. The appearance of drugs is a calamity for humanity. But many people are not yet aware of it and still run after them. Not a few, for the sake of money, trade in drugs and push others toward death. In the observation of many, of a hundred drug addicts, not one has yet beaten it. For the inner sensation drugs bring is very strong. So much so that once addicted to drugs, a person gives up everything else that once enthralled them. A drug addict who has understood and awakened, and promises everyone to give it up, is also making a promise to escape a mistake in their life.

Such promises are not easy to carry out because the inner pleasure those things bring is so strong, urging them to want to have that sensation forever. So a person who is addicted must have very great merit to be able to give up the bad things that once drew them in.

Another case is also regarded as promising to give up a mistake: promising to give up a vengeful nature. Some people from childhood tend to hold petty grudges. When someone offends them, they keep it in their belly and look for ways to harm that person in revenge. For example, at school, beaten by a friend but not daring to hit back, they keep making petty mischief behind his back, such as secretly spilling ink on his books and notebooks, picking "cat's eye" fruit to rub on the seat where he sits, or finding ways to speak ill of him behind his back… That is a way of petty revenge. When they become adults, if they do not correct it, that bad habit becomes dangerous. If they resent or hate someone, they will think up a way to take revenge. But when they understand the Way and know it is a bad habit, the person with the vengeful illness promises to give it up.

Of course, for human beings, every kind of promise is hard to keep, especially promising to give up a mistake. When others discover and point out our fault, everyone feels ashamed and promises to give it up. But from the time of the promise until we have completely given up the mistake, we must go through many stumbles. When no one else is around, we are easily pushed by habit and pulled back to the old road. Only with determination and strong will can we give up the mistake. If we know how to prostrate to the Buddha regularly, we can also give up those bad habits.

Those are the three kinds of promises commonly met in life. Depending on each kind of promise, to carry it out we must have kindness and living for others, be free of greed and selfishness, and have very great will.

Besides the three kinds of promises above, we also meet a kind of speech that also expresses the morality of language but at a lighter level than a promise: an appointment (hẹn). An appointment is an agreement to do something or meet someone at a certain time. A promise includes an appointment, but an appointment usually stresses the meaning of the point in time, the hour. If we arrange a particular time but fail to keep it, this is called missing an appointment. When we miss an appointment, we usually disturb others' work and plans. So once we have made an appointment with someone, we should be on time. Especially in work, we need to be strict about time. Everyone needs to live by the principle: "When arranging to meet someone, arrive before that person; better to wait for others than ever to let others wait for us." In life too we should take the disadvantaged share ourselves. If we live by the idea "better that others wrong me than that I wrong others", we will feel our conscience more at peace because we do not have to live with a sense of guilt toward others. In appointments, being strict about time is also a sign of a great mind. We Vietnamese still have one weakness, which is not being serious about time, and everyone is used to calling it "rubber time". That is a sign of poor character and weak inner life. People who are often late for appointments can seldom accomplish great things. If we pay attention, we will see that those who do great things are very strict about time.

Higher than a promise is an oath. An oath is more resolute in nature. Sometimes people even cite some punishment as a guarantee for the oath if they break it. In love, worldly people often use oaths. To assure their oath of constancy and firm fidelity, they also borrow grand and eternal images in the universe:

Though the river runs dry and the stone wears away

While mountains and waters remain, the old vow remains.

(Tản Đà)

For them, those "vows by mountain and sea" are truly meaningful. Even if mountains move and the sea dries up, this heart will never change. And as the sea never runs dry and the mountains stand for a thousand years, this love will remain faithful forever.

Or sometimes people even borrow the moonlight to bear witness to their oath:

The moon shines clear and bright in the sky

Firmly, two mouths, one word, side by side.

(Nguyễn Du)

Some people even stake their own lives on an oath. We often hear fierce oaths: "If I am lying, I will be run over by a car in the street," or: "If I am not telling the truth, may I die vomiting blood." Such oaths are the very cause, and there will be a karmic result if the oath is broken. Let us not think such things never happen. When we utter an oath, many beings in the invisible world bear witness to it. An oath is so resolute in nature that before swearing anything, we must be extremely careful.

In Buddhism there is a very important kind of oath. That is the oath at the time of receiving the precepts. This is the moment when we make a sacred and great oath before heaven and earth. Although it is often praised, many people still do not fully understand the sacred meaning of receiving the precepts. If we understand it exactly by the words, "to receive" (thọ) is to accept, and receiving the precepts is accepting the prohibitions to keep. Understanding it like that is very simple. In fact we must understand it as an oath before heaven and earth, before the Three Jewels, before sentient beings of the ten directions, and only then do we see all its sacredness, and bind ourselves to keep it all our lives, to carry it out all our lives. Often, because of the setting of the ordination platform, we do not fully understand. For according to the Vinaya, when we receive the precepts we do not receive them before the Buddha but before the Precept Master, in a place where the image of the Buddha is screened off by a cloth, so that we no longer see the Buddha, only the Three Masters and Seven Witnesses. And we receive the precepts from those teachers. At ordination platforms, those chosen as the Three Masters and Seven Witnesses are usually people of authority and pure virtue in the precepts, so that the candidates can look at them and take them as examples to arouse their resolve. We do not realise that the time of receiving the precepts is the time we make a sacred oath before heaven and earth. Once we have received the precepts, we must try to keep them and must not treat them lightly. So before receiving the precepts, we must weigh whether we have the strength to keep them. In other religions, receiving the precepts is called a vow (lời thề / nguyền). When a monastic fails to keep the vow it is called breaking the vow (sự tan vỡ lời thề). In general, in no case should we let ourselves break the vow.

However, keeping the precepts is not simple. For some of the precepts in Buddhism also have points that no longer fit and need to be re-examined. According to some books handed down, before entering Nirvana the Buddha told Ānanda (A Nan):

• After the Tathagata passes away, those precepts that on examination are no longer necessary or appropriate may be dropped.

But at that time Ānanda was so sad that he did not ask the Buddha in detail which precepts. When the great assembly of arhats met, Kāśyapa (Ca Diếp) asked Ānanda. Ānanda replied:

• Venerables, I heard the World-Honoured One say so: any precepts that are no longer necessary may be dropped.

Kāśyapa asked:

• Did you ask the World-Honoured One which precepts? Did you ask specifically?

Ānanda answered:

• Venerable One, I did not ask.

So Kāśyapa reproached Ānanda, because that was a great fault. A person who served as the Buddha's attendant, with an extremely strong memory for preserving the precepts and the teaching, had not asked in detail about an important point bearing on the fate and life of the Sangha.

In truth Ānanda is also to be pitied. Placed in that situation, he only heard and understood the general sense of the instruction and did not ask again. But Kāśyapa was so profound and his life so refined that he noticed it. If one has not asked in detail and has only heard in general terms, how can one know which precepts to keep and which to drop? So he decided to keep all the precepts for the time being. According to the Southern tradition, the monks (bhikkhu) have two hundred and twenty-seven precepts; according to the Northern tradition, two hundred and fifty; the nuns (bhikkhunī) have three hundred and forty-eight.

The basic, important precepts we must keep. But as for the minor precepts, many of them, on reconsideration today, no longer fit, and we can apply them flexibly. For example, the precepts on the robe and bowl. Perhaps at that time rice bowls were scarce, so the Buddha instructed that one must look after one's rice bowl very carefully and not let it break. In those days cloth was also scarce, so one had to look after the robe and bowl carefully in order to keep one's standing. If the robe and bowl were torn or lost, a monk going out would look slovenly and lack standing. In our age this no longer fits, because wherever we go we have bowls enough to eat from. Not to mention lay Buddhists' homes, where there are all kinds of fine and attractive bowls. So this issue is no longer important. If a practitioner always carried a bowl along when going to eat, it would be too cumbersome. The robe is the same. In those days, besides its sacred meaning, a practitioner's robe also had a practical meaning. Now, monks who go to teach need only wear the ceremonial gown (áo tràng); monks sitting to study the Dharma also wear only the gown, and no one wraps a robe any more. We keep the robe as we keep a symbol of the Buddha's teaching, with a sacred ritual meaning. At that time, "a monk with three robes" meant three robes wrapped round in turn. The five-panel robe was the robe for labour; the seven-panel robe was for eating, chanting sutras, paying homage to the Buddha, sitting in meditation and so on… Only the nine-panel robe had a ritual character. When transmitting the precepts or giving a sermon, the monks wear the nine-panel robe. So the robe and bowl alone account for several dozen precepts.

The matter of the robe and bowl was very important in the past. So there is a story: when a person who had awakened to the Way came to ask the Buddha to transmit the bhikkhu precepts, the Buddha asked:

• Do you have a full set of robe and bowl yet?

That person answered:

• Venerable One, not yet.

The Buddha said:

• The Tathagata does not transmit the precepts to a person who does not yet have a full set of robe and bowl.

Although that person's mind had attained the Way up to the level of an Anāgāmin (a world of difference compared with today), the Buddha still did not transmit the bhikkhu precepts. He told the man to go and seek robe and bowl. Only when he had begged for a complete set would the Buddha let him receive ordination as a bhikkhu. To be a bhikkhu, a practitioner must have the standard outward form and standing. Today the matter of robe and bowl is no longer as important as before.

As for the other precepts, we must try to keep them, but flexibly according to each case, without rigidity. For the precepts are not a fixed mould but belong to wisdom. It was the Buddha himself who, relying on his wisdom and morality, established the precepts. Today, to keep the precepts we too must have wisdom, the power of concentration and morality. If we keep the precepts in a stereotyped, rigid way, we may fall into attachment to precepts and prohibitions (giới cấm thủ). That is rigid clinging to the rules of discipline. That clinging runs against the spirit of liberation in Buddhism and can be regarded as an obstacle to the path of liberation. So, according to each case, we should be flexible in keeping the precepts. What matters is that, in studying keeping promises, we remember that receiving the precepts is a great oath that must be kept all our lives.

3. A DISCIPLE OF THE BUDDHA MUST ALWAYS TRY TO KEEP PROMISES

A disciple of the Buddha must always try to keep promises. For if we break a promise, we lose credibility with others. Losing credibility means losing standing and losing everyone's trust. For when we have promised and not carried it out, people will think we are people with no determination and no will, and that our morality is also in question. A person without morality and without standing is surely not trusted by others. This affects the common reputation of Buddhism. Meeting devout lay Buddhists, who understand "rely on the Dharma, not on the person", they will not judge the whole of Buddhism by the individual practitioner. They will understand that an individual may err but the Way absolutely never errs. But with people who do not have firm faith in the Way and judge the Way only by those who practise it, if we keep making empty promises and not carrying them out, they will not believe in the Way. So keeping promises for ourselves is in truth keeping the honour of the Way and keeping others' trust in the Way. It is a small matter but the merit is very great.

On the other hand, keeping promises also increases our spiritual strength and our authority, so that our words have an invisible power able to persuade others, because behind keeping a promise is a great determination. Observe a few people around us, and we will see this. If a person does what they say, after a while that person becomes robust, firm and strong. A person who promises and delivers must be a person of very great determination. That determination keeps quietly urging within their hearts and gradually turns into strong spiritual energy. That spiritual energy shows outwardly on the face, making them look robust, authoritative and spiritually strong and steady. Looking at people with such faces, we naturally feel respect. That is the merit created by determination to keep promises and carry them out. Conversely, a person who keeps "talking just to talk", talking without needing to carry it out, will within a few years have a face that loses colour and spirit and becomes weak and ordinary. Few show respect when looking at such people. Of course, it is not that people do not respect them because they know that person often breaks promises, but that they no longer have the spiritual energy and authority for others to hold them dear.

In truth keeping promises is very difficult. For between the time of the promise and the time of carrying it out, many things happen that can easily make us forget or change our minds. Many people have fallen into this. Sometimes we have promised, but with so much going on we forget completely. Only when reminded do we start, remember and feel at fault. There are also cases where we do not forget, but for some reason feel we cannot carry it out, so we change our intention and withdraw the promise. For example, one time, seeing a friend in difficulty who needs capital for business, in a burst of high spirits we promise to help them with three million đồng to open a grocery stall. But when we get home and think it over, we see the sum is too large, and with family members talking us in and out of it, we change our intention and do not help after all. That is a case of breaking a promise under the influence of external circumstances, from not holding to our stance. Once we have promised to help others, we must accept the loss. Where selfishness is greater than living for others, without determination we will not keep our promise.

As for the cause and effect of keeping promises, in one sutra the Buddha said: A lay householder comes to a samana or Brahmin and says: "Venerable One, I will make this and that offering to you." Afterwards this person does not carry it out as promised. When he goes out to do business and trade, he always fails, because promising and not carrying it out disappointed others. So the karmic result of breaking a promise is that we will fail and achieve nothing.

In the second passage, the Buddha said: A lay follower comes to a samana or Brahmin and says: "Venerable One, I will make this and that offering to you." Then that person makes the offering as promised. Afterwards, when he goes out to do business and trade, he succeeds in all of it as he had planned. That is, when we have promised something to someone, if we carry it out properly, we will meet the karmic result of achieving what we have planned.

In the third case, the Buddha said: A lay householder comes to a samana or Brahmin and says: "Venerable One, I will make this and that offering to you." Afterwards this person carries it out beyond what he promised. When he goes out to do business and trade, he succeeds in all of it beyond what he had planned. So in this life or any life, if we promise one and deliver two or three, we will have great success. Those are the Buddha's words on keeping promises for the lay follower.

In Buddhism, keeping promises can support meditative concentration. For the determination to keep and carry out good promises creates spiritual strength, creates the strength to gather the mind in meditative concentration. We already know that gathering the mind in meditative concentration requires very great spiritual strength. People with weak spirits cannot gather the mind into concentration. So among the many factors that create a person's spiritual strength, keeping promises is also one of the important ones.

4. THE HEART'S VOW

When we come to the Buddha's teaching, we usually make vows every day. A vow will set our direction in practice in this life and in later lives. To come to the Buddha's teaching and not make a vow each day is a great shortcoming. A vow has two aspects: the heart's vow (tâm nguyện) and prayer (cầu nguyện).

Prayer is asking for the Buddha's spiritual power to protect us so that we attain what we want. Such asking usually goes beyond our ability. In this lesson we do not discuss prayer, only the heart's vow.

The heart's vow is making a vow, what we promise to carry out. Yet there is still a difference between a promise and a vow. What we promise are usually small but concrete and clear matters. It might be a promise that in three years we will begin a retreat; it might be a promise to ask the school board to help a certain fellow monastic so that they can be admitted to study… A heart's vow, meanwhile, is usually very great and abstract. For example, we vow to the Buddha that we will liberate all sentient beings. That vow is vast beyond measure and utterly abstract, for who knows when we will ever liberate all sentient beings. But we still make the vow, to create the cause for the next life and for many lives after.

That is how a vow and a promise differ. Although a vow seems strong, in fact it is not firm, because it is vague and abstract, with no deadline for people to carry it out. Conversely, a promise, though smaller, is more concrete and firm. All the same, we make vows regularly every day, because that too is a cause that leads to strong action in later lives.

For example, every day we always vow to "take the Buddha's teaching and spread it everywhere", that is, vow to be a Dharma teacher. If there is a cause there will surely be a result. If we have such a heart's vow, in the end we will be able to do it. Today in our country and in the world there are very many Dharma teachers. Perhaps in some life these people also made the vow to "take the Buddha's teaching and spread it everywhere", and so have reached this.

However, becoming a Dharma teacher is not enough. What matters is how we will teach. Do our words contain profound truth? Do we only look for ways to speak that attract listeners, or do we teach from our own inner practice? Then, will our teaching be lasting, do we have affinity with sentient beings? and so on… A Dharma teacher must bring together all these factors. So besides vows from previous lives, we must practise many other virtues. Only then can we become a wonderful Dharma teacher. If we teach only in an ordinary way, our merit will not be great. Later, when conditions allow, we will study this issue more deeply.

Throughout history, the great figures of the world, those who have influenced humanity, have had some kind of heart in a previous life. Perhaps it was a heart that thought of the human race, of humanity. So now their actions naturally affect the whole of humanity. This is called the heart going first and action following. If now we do not think of humanity, only of ourselves or the people around us, then in the next life our actions will affect only a narrow sphere. Understanding this, we must try to arouse the mind to think of all sentient beings and not think of small, ordinary things.

The Vow chant (Khấn nguyện) that we often recite is both a heart's vow and a prayer. For in it there are passages where we only ask the Buddha:

May all living beings

Live together in peace

Without jealousy or hatred

Without war or killing.

Or there is a passage:

May the beings in the hells

Who are suffering there

Arouse a compassionate heart

So as to be free of their suffering.

These things we ask of the Buddha because we cannot do them ourselves. But when we pray for the world and for sentient beings, a mind of living for others secretly arises in us. So the Vow chant has a very important role in practising the path of virtue. Other passages are passages of vows:

May my hands be open wide

Knowing how to share and make offerings

Knowing how to help and love

Those who are in hardship.

Or the mind of rejoicing, which we vow ourselves but still have to ask the Buddha for:

May my heart be glad

When I see others succeed

Or create good fortune

As if I had done it myself.

Some people, when reading the Vow chant, show that they disagree with the author, because they think there is no such thing as asking in Buddhism. In fact, the author wrote this way with a purpose. Although it is a vow, we still use the words "may" and "grant" at the start of each vow because those words are very beneficial for the reader. For example, humility is something each practitioner cultivates for themselves, but we have to ask the Buddha:

May I know humility

Know how to respect everyone

See myself as small

My practice still poor.

Why so? If we pay attention we will see that a prayer for ourselves to be humble could make us weak. Meanwhile a vow stirs the will and makes us strong but easily gives rise to arrogance. Joining the two can destroy the arrogance hidden in the vow. Even when we vow good things, we still think that it is thanks to the Buddhas' protection that we attain them. That is the deeper meaning the author wanted to convey in the Vow chant.

5. WITHDRAWING A PROMISE

As a rule, once we have promised we must keep the promise. But in life there are cases where we have promised and cannot keep it, because when we promised we did not have enough wisdom to see the mistake in the promise. Later, when we have wisdom and understand the matter, we want to withdraw and no longer keep the promise. For example, in conversation we promise to lend a friend a book we once read because the book seemed fairly good. But before lending it, we discover that it contains many mistaken points that are not good for the reader, so we decide not to lend it after all. So we do not keep our promise, but we act from a good heart, for the benefit of others and not for our own. That is, it is not out of selfishness that we break faith but out of compassion for sentient beings. Earlier that promise was uttered out of a lack of clear-sightedness, without enough maturity, without a thorough grasp of the matter. Now, having practised and gained wisdom, we are able to see the mistaken points. So in this case we must withdraw the promise. However, when we want to withdraw a promise we must tell the person early so that we are not fully guilty of breach of faith and not regarded as a person who has lost standing. But if we give notice early for a justifiable reason, we are guilty of only a part of breach of faith and we gain great merit.

There are cases where, because of circumstances, we cannot possibly keep the promise. But in this case we are not at fault. For example, we promise someone a gift, a Dream motorbike say. But the next day a thief comes and takes everything, our belongings and money, so we cannot carry out the promise. In this case, though, no one blames us for breach of faith. For our not carrying out the promise is not due to the mind but to circumstances.

If we cannot carry out a promise, we must apologise and make amends in another way. For example, a lay woman is walking with her younger sister past a fashion shop. Seeing that her sister likes that blue dress so much, she promises: "When I get paid, I'll buy you that dress." But later, when she goes to the shop, the elder sister finds that the style her sister liked seems too revealing and does not suit her, so she does not buy it. She explains this to her sister and promises to buy her a different, prettier dress. So although she did not keep the promise exactly, she made amends in another way, and so the elder sister is not guilty of breach of faith either.

The Buddha is a complete symbol of morality and Buddhism is a perfected path of morality. As disciples of the Buddha following the path the Buddha taught, we must keep morality very carefully. One of the important standards of morality is keeping promises. So before promising anything to anyone, we must weigh it carefully. And once we have made a promise, we must be determined to carry it out, however long it takes. If we promise and then let it slide, not determined to carry it out, not only are we people of poor morality but we also destroy others' trust in the Way. Then we will bear a very great wrongdoing.

6. THE MEANING OF THE GENTLEMAN (QUÂN TỬ) IN CONFUCIANISM

Speaking of Confucianism, we usually think of an image of engagement with the world. A follower of Confucianism is one who often commits himself, takes initiative and shoulders every task in life. This is the opposite of the follower of Daoism, who is one who goes beyond the world and always looks for ways to escape from life. For the scriptures Laozi left in the Dao De Jing always speak of what lies beyond the world. Meanwhile Confucius's teachings to his students, left in the classics and in the Analects and so on…, always speak of a person's role and responsibility toward society. However, if we look into it closely, we will see that the image of the gentleman that Confucius set up is very beautiful. It is a very exemplary type of person, with morality, living in the world with benevolence and righteousness, with an upright character, truthful words, keeping their word and showing courtesy to everyone. They are not people who leave the world, but people who are both carefree and at ease and engaged with the world. That image is wonderful, very much the middle way, and fits the Buddha's Bodhisattva path. In the past, in literature, people often borrowed the images of the pine and the bamboo to praise the gentleman. For those are trees whose trunks grow straight and firm, enduring rain and sun, snow and frost.

Once Confucius asked his disciples about their preferences. One by one they told the Master what they liked. Some wanted to be high officials to teach the people and educate them to be better. Among them, the student named Yan Hui (Nhan Hồi) liked going to sing, bathing in a clear river on a summer day, lying beneath the cool shade of a tree playing the zither, singing and roaming free, living a leisurely, unburdened life, unconcerned with the world. Hearing that answer, Confucius praised him warmly. We still see that Confucius's way has a carefree, otherworldly quality. For according to Confucius's definition, the gentleman is one who lives simply but profoundly in the principles of the Way. Although they live a simple life, they never grow weary of it because of the deep principles within it. Confucius's teachings are truly distinctive and not so different from Buddhism.

The gentleman is also one who dares to take responsibility and knows how to admit fault. When they do something wrong, they are ready to take the blame and dare to bear responsibility for the consequences of their actions and do not evade or blame others. He is also a person who knows how to use reason. That is, he knows how to distinguish right and wrong, good and evil clearly, without vagueness. Although distinguishing good and evil excessively can become rigidity, knowing how to hold to good and cast away evil is also a good thing in a world in which not a few people run after evil.

Precisely because they have such beautiful standards of living, many followers of Confucianism have a fairly peaceful and unhindered death. We know that a peaceful death is a sign of a holy life. So if we who practise Buddhism want to become a holy one, then followers of Confucianism want only to become a gentleman. In society the value of a gentleman is rated lower than that of a holy one. But we should remember that a gentleman's character is the foundation of a holy one. To become a holy one by Buddhist standards, we must first have the quality of the gentleman in Confucianism. That is, we must live a pure life, open and upright, not devious, deceitful, sneaking or scheming in the manner of a petty person. In reality there are people who practise Buddhism, seeking the path that transcends the world and goes beyond the three realms, but who in everyday life do deceitful, devious, scheming and sneaking things like a petty person. This is very sad.

So even though we are not yet holy ones now and have not yet attained the Way, let us live like a gentleman of Confucianism. We must act so that, when people come to Buddhism, they trust in our integrity, standing and morality, regard us as people of benevolence in the world, who know courtesy and modesty, know how to admit fault, dare to take responsibility, live with reason… If the disciples of the Buddha merely keep such basic morality as Confucianism teaches, our Buddhism will flourish. Beyond that, if we add the more transcendent things, the wisdom of the Prajñā teaching and the practice of meditative concentration, then truly we are on the way to becoming a holy one. In short, for disciples of the Buddha in particular and for people in general, keeping promises is an important moral quality that we cannot treat lightly.