跳到主要內容

after lives

There was a time when I had this question on my mind:

If there are countless after lives, meaning we will come back again and again, until an infinite future, why do we have to practice diligently this life? 

Why can’t we just play around and have fun this life and then in one of our after lives, we start to practice.

It will never be too late because we will have infinite after lives. 


But as I learn more and more about mindfulness practice, I realize that Buddhism practice is not for reaching an ultimate goal to become enlightened. Mindfulness practice is to become happy, and to reduce suffering. 

So why do we have to wait until future lives to start becoming happy when we can become happy right here and right now?


you can be happy right here and right now and when you do that, you are enlightened, you are a Buddha.


# Jill Yang

留言

張貼留言

這個網誌中的熱門文章

成佛有什麼用？what is the use of becoming a Buddha?

成佛有什麼用？What is the use of becoming a Buddha? This is a rhetorical question often asked by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. We always have the presumption that life is for a purpose and every thing we do should contribute to that purpose, otherwise it's useless. This ubiquitous utilitarianism dominates our modern society. It's so deep and prevalent that we can't even recognize we are acting under its influence. I was reading the book "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh this week. He emphasizes on being mindful of one's breath, body movements, feelings and emotions a lot. That means we should be aware of our in breath and out breath at every moment, even when we are doing our work or talking to somebody.  While I seem to know what he's saying, I don't really understand why we should do that? Why should we be aware of our breath when it goes so well automatically? Why do we bother to mind it if human beings have evolved such a long way to make our ...
張貼留言
閱讀完整內容

一個公案

Sometimes I come up with my own 公案, a philosophical dialogue or question to contemplate. This is a recent one: Master: The Buddha is not confined to his skin. He is everywhere. So if you only see the Buddha as someone in a physical body, you are wrong. The Buddha is present in the entire universe. Student: Dear Master, why do you say the Buddha is everywhere in the universe? I can't see how the Buddha can be found in the farthest star or at a time before the Buddha Shakyamuni. Master: What Buddha? This came to me after I listened to a Dharma talk from Thich Nhat Hanh on "there is action but no actor". Whenever we wonder "who" is doing "what", "when" and "where", we are caught in the wrong perceptions and are blinded by wrong questions. It's like asking "where is the parallel universe?" That's a false question because space and location are in the universe, not the universe is in the space. And this also came to me ...
張貼留言
閱讀完整內容