Awakening at the Present Moment

The Globalized Age Appeals for More Openness

The world is different now from any era in the past. Everyone is part of the global village, whether from the east or the west. If we insist on our own traditions, views and religious beliefs, but repel others or view others with bias, we may end up creating more sufferings for ourselves as we are producing smaller space for ourselves. Therefore, even for the benefit of oneself, we should maintain an open mind and thus it will bring more vitality into our life.

Further more, if we let go of our grasping on to our own beliefs and views, and try to learn others’ merits and study their knowledge directly and objectively, we will find many unexpected truths in our lives. Otherwise, if we stubbornly reject other schools or traditions based on our own subjective judgment, we will probably make many mistakes in life. As a Buddhist quote says, “Many mistakes of mankind are made due to ignorance”.

A Positive Mind Creates a Happy Life

Generally speaking, all those feelings or perceptions—happy or sad, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, right or wrong, etc.—are closely related to our state of mind.

The mind can cause changes in our life. The mind can change attitude, which further brings effect to our behavior, then the change of behavior reforms our habits, and the reform of habits slowly reshapes our characteristics, which in turn consequently affects our spirit and future life.

Thus, it is important to keep a healthy and positive mentality. With a healthy mentality, even if encountering unexpected circumstances and miseries, one is able to accept it and deal with it in a happy state.

Look Beneath the Surface

In this world, sometimes what we see is not necessarily the truth. On the contrary, truth is probably hidden beneath what we can see.

We think that we are holding the right views. However, sometimes, what we perceive to be true will refute itself as we grow mature or become more knowledgeable.

Thus, I often think, what we see with eyesight is not necessarily the reality, what we observe with enriched knowledge does not necessarily prove to be the truth.

Therefore, to uncover the profound mystery of the inner mind, and of this external world, and of the relationships between people, it requires an in-depth wisdom.

The Best Remedy for Mental Illness

There are many problems in our lifetime that cannot be solved by the knowledge of science, literature or philosophy, yet it can be easily solved by various religious knowledge.

Especially regarding knotty problems of mental affliction like depression and other psychological illnesses which prevail in the modern age, it can actually be treated easily in a short period through religious meditation practice. If we have physical illness, we will be able to receive effective treatment in the hospital. However, as for mental illness, it is still a thorny issue for psychology and other scientific fields. But you may probably find the best remedy in religions.

As one of my favorite sayings goes: a greedy person is never satisfied; a person in hatred never gets along well with others; an ignorant person will never achieve anything worthwhile; a jealous person is often being unhappy; an arrogant person often denies others’ merits and virtues; a sceptic person cannot see the truth.

If we have a good training of the mind, life should always be full of happiness no matter what we encounter.

A Great Meditation Practice

There are many meditation practices in Buddhism. Usually, when we talk about meditation, it refers to Samantha.

Samatha is a practice of mental concentration that tranquilizes our conceptual thoughts, which are the cause for the wandering of the mind. By doing this practice and observing our mind inwardly, we might be able to see the nature of our mind to some extent. As it is taught by the Buddha in the Diamond Sutra , “Bodhisattvas should develop a pure and lucid mind which alights upon nothing whatsoever.” Thus when you observe the mind, you will find that the nature of mind is in fact emptiness, and just within this emptiness all forms of appearance can be manifested. Once you realize the true nature of your mind, all the fabricated thoughts arising from the appearance in our real life will disappear. This is one of the best meditation practices.

Of course, it takes a certain period of time to have remarkable results. In Outliers: The Story of Success , Malcolm Gladwell wrote the “10,000-hour rule” is the key to achieve world-class expertise in any skill. Similarly, in order to achieve the inner peace, one must take a certain period of time to practice deliberately. Many Zen and Tibetan Buddhist practitioners practiced continuously for many years in their life and eventually they were able to control their mind with ease at any time.