SOURCES OF HAPPINESS

Article 5: LIKE THE CRYSTAL RAINDROPS

Have you ever watched  the raindrops perching on  leaves and flowers after a shower? When  clouds just dispersed, the sun rose. The sunlight pierced through the boughs of leaves and made those droplets shining and sparkling.  Looking through the windows from my desk in the room, countless diamond-shaped drops, soaked in the sunshine, brightly radiated a myriad of colors on the fragile petals and lushy green leaves. With a  breeze, those heavy-condensed drops rolled up, fell down and quitely vanished without any sound. How similar to a human lifetime they are! Glorious and splendid!   Smooth, glossy hair and pink lips! Laughing and crying! Some tens of years! Abruptly  sinking down and a couple of days in mess and confusion! Then,  silence without any resonance. Raindrops fall down from the sky. Dead leaves from the trees. Also, one day from life, we will definitely tumble  to the ground. 

Looking at the young green pepper leaves and the tiny night dew droplets glimmered on their branches  every early morning. When the sun shined, those dewdrops  brightly flashed like itty-bitty diamonds in multicolor. Some breezes  flickered by.  All  the leaves swayed gently and charmingly in a rhythmic  dance of the nature. Amongst the immense silence of the heaven and earth,  there was absolutely no music, sound, or language.

That raindrop or this leaf reminds us of  living in accordance with the laws of the nature. Everything shown in front of our senses is formed and built up in the coordination of innummerable stuffs. That is why it continues evolving without any inactive moment.  Thus, when  existing on this planet, let’s live in the crystal mind like the raindrops,  whether falling on  leaves or  flowers, keep shining and brilliant. Let’s live joyfully, resiliently and innocently like the leaves  dancing with the breeze  harmoniously.

Each of us possesses that spirit. It is crystalline. It is  not blue, red, purple, or yellow. But when it is lightened up by awareness, it radiates multicolor and  skillfully responds to every situation. Now  our mind is as solid as a diamond. Nothing can break it down. On the contrary, it can smash  every taint, sorrow and contamination.

It is essential to realize   that everyone  does hold  this pellucid mind. When we have not yet acknowledged it,  we keep going around the bush to look for it or coming back and forth to this or that master. We also search for it in books and the webs. We even take part in this or that famous spiritual retreat.  If we are still sad and pleasant, sometimes irritated or considering some solution for some mundane concerns, it is definite that we have not thoroughly understood that we have hold an inestimable treasure of happiness.

You might be reasoning:

 “No one does not know he owns the Buddhahood, stated in the scripture.”

So, how come we are still distressed and suspicious?

“ The sutras indicate the gem is in the hem of the top outfit. But how come no one sees it?”

We know  our possession of the invaluable geocache.  But it has not turned into our own awareness. We have not valued all of its qualities and influences.  That is why we are still looking for it from outside, assuming it is at “the opposite bank” or inside the hem of the master’s  outfit.

The Buddhist scriptures state, “ Not the external circumstances, but self-reflection is the very responsibility of the mind practitioners.". Zen Master T’a-Mei-Fa-Chang, after  realizing the four-word phrase, “ the Mind, the Buddha”,  said by Great Zen Master Ma-Tsu, came back to the mountain and secluded  himself in  the  lonely retreat.  That is the man of advanced-spiritual background with the keen intellect.

Patriarch Bodhidharma once taught Lord Hui-K’o in the same direction: steady mind without undulant thoughts, and not clinging to the outside world.

“ Externally, block all preconditions,

Internally, stop wrong thinking,

Until  mind solid like walls

Able to enter the Path.”

The most obvious manifestation is the Buddha and his sangha in the old days.

The Lord embraced the virtuous manner of staying far away from social life for himself and his disciples. It is said that is the ultimate, unique and the most essential requirement for the Path of mind practice.

Why do I dare to say  it is the only condition? Usually in the Buddha’s time, after the ordination, a monk got a theme, then went to a forest and constantly contemplated on it.   A short time later, thanks to the  good command  of the given subject, his agitated mind stopped and became transparent. He himself knew that the defilements stored and accumulated from his previous lives were transferred.  He himself realized: “ Rebirth cycle ends. Virtuous merits achieved. Essential work done. No more returning to this realm.”

It is briefly said in the sutra: a man after ordained as a monk, started living in the forest by himself. But he had to go alm-begging in the hamlet for survival.  

Let’s  find out the effects from the manner of staying far away from mundane societies. Firstly, the family renunciation.  That means it is tough to break the strings of love and desires.  When they are cut off,  a lot of bonds and wretchedness  are reduced. The Lord once said, “ When being attached to family, it is the road full of life dust.”  The Lord also  realized “ a beloved, a root of sorrow.”

The second influence of that manner discipline is not to get in contact with too many people in society, and to stay away from crowded gatherings.  Just a separate place of abode among forests and mountains for lonely mind practice. It is the Middle Way.  It is not the austere and rigorous asceticism or excessive enjoyment  as the Buddha experienced in the past.

As a result,  the cravings gradually disappear.  No  more desire. No longer yearning of wealth and luxuries. No more thirst of affectionate passion.  No longer hunger of fame and social positions. No  greed for eating and drinking, resting and sleeping any more. The mind is purified.  It is the Nirvana. It is  the Arhatship which, however, is at the long gap to the Buddhahood.  Those Arhats, whose wisdom is not completely at the final level, have not reached the “ Righteous and Utmost  Enlightenment”. But they can release themselves from sufferings. They can live in equanimity, calmly leave this earth, end their samsara to merge into the Nirvana. It means they achieve the entire self-emancipation. 

Now back to our story. Since the beginning of 2020, when the Corona virus pandemic broke out, for the sake of security for everyone, the government  ordered the quarantine  and people with masks limited to  go out to  crowded places. Up to now, in the middle of 2021, majority of the population have been vaccinated, and our daily life slowly returned to normal. Let's go back and see how we were  at that time.

Our life seems to undergo a great deal of chaos. Careers changed, business failed, deaths and separations, and loss of daily directions. Additionally, natural disasters like storms, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires happened everywhere. Those who were caught up in those  whirlwinds became crazy, furious,  pessimistic and revengeful.

However, the past year was also the challenges to us. We, with the comprehension of the Buddhist dharma, understand the principles of the mundane life: impermanence, continuously switching, being full of sufferings,   the predestined birth, aging, sickness and death. So, we could stay in self-composedness and quietly abode such sorrowful incidents.

Last year, unable to go out frequently; I got back to reside in my own house.  A seeming seclusion for hidden retreat. Especially  this monastery, sitting in a scattering mountainous area where each house separates more than 4 acres apart. No one could see anyone. No human voices. Every morning in the garden, there were only birds chirping in different sounds. Occasionally, the utterances of barking dogs and crowing roosters echoed from afar. I did not know all kinds of flowers in the garden till staying at the monastery for the whole year.  In spring, there were red and white cherry blooms, two pink-shaded cherry flowers, purple ice flowers, oleanders, queen flowers, ten-petaled yellow apricot flowers, and whitist daffodils. In summer, purple phoenix flowers in the  early  foggy morning and hot afternoon. In the fall, there were dead leaves, autumn showers, blue sky, white clouds, gusts, and falling leaves. It was not so cold in  California winter. Plants and trees, leaves  and flowers just took  rest  for a while. Then after a few showers, everything woke up, protruded sprouts to offer early blossoms and welcome the spring. Every season was fully energetic with its own unique beauty. A lofty rosebud reached into the air with confidence and independence. A swaying bamboo branch cast a sharp yet gentle silhouette amidst the blue sky.  A white cherry flower amongst the chili dew of the late night spread the pure fragrance.  A little bitty mountain rabbit scuttled  around the garden, then put its tiny mouth at the faucet for the plants to enjoy a drink.

It seems that the whole earth is present in this small piece of land including people, animals, centenarian trees, flowers, fruits, the sun and cloud, the moon together with rain, sunlight,  tornado, and the windy, hot or cold weather. Thanks to those, “the fairies” have been peacefully living in the monastery. In the morning, they watered the trees. They took the rest in the sunny noon and continued feeding the trees in the cool afternoon. Each of them worked at a separate corner so there was no time for chit-chat, and they did not know where earthquake or flood and storm happened, and  where demonstration or violence occurred. Resultantly, those fairies were not whirled up by daily incidents. Due to the quarantine, they could observe their mind and clearly knew  they could isolate themselves in the spiritual retreat with lots of  free time to listen to leaves and flowers or grass and plants “preaching the Dharma.” They thoughtfully experienced   the righteous Dharma present everywhere. They also knew that the Buddhas perpetually  adobe thru ought the uttermost Dharma realm of the universe in the three marks of time. So are the Sangha. The Dharma tones and sounds reverberate day and night. Everywhere in this small garden is the manifestos of the eternal truths, the innumerable responsive conditions for various existence, constant changes, emptiness and illusions, isn’t it? 

Nothing can be compared with the pleasure of the thorough comprehension  of the truths mentioned in the Buddhist canons.  It is the real, intrinsic happiness. Then, the very source of happiness is wisdom, or the righteous mind, or the righteous view; and contrarily, sufferings and affliction are the very ignorance. 

Fortunately, incognizance is also affected by the impermanence. With sufficient prerequisites, it turns into sagacity which is its very essence.  

Sufferings and afflictions are transient. Their nature is also empty, delusionary and similar to a dream.  They are all like a clear dewdrop.  With a breeze, it might roll down to the ground and disappear.

Sufferings and afflictions not only make us burn-out, uneasy and  disinterested in life  but  our parents, siblings, spouses, children, relatives, and friends are also much influenced and exhausted that they do not want to stay close to us.  It is pretty much akin to the Corona virus that spread quickly to those who contact it.  We are fearful of that virus and want to stay far from it. But it seems we are not afraid of  the virus of mental anguishes.  Everyone in the world did take two vaccine injections to get temporarily confident. So, those who are wretched, be hurried to take the first shot, the shot of mundane Pañña,   to comprehend the  transience  and preconditioned existence in life. Then, the second one, the Utmost Pañña,  to get the emptiness and illusion as the nature of the world. Then, what happens?   

Every worldly clinging and expectation  automatically falls down. So, no more desire and craving! Our mind is calm without any wish and thinking. It is non-self and non-prepossession. It is self-emancipation. It comes to our attention that no one and nothing have ever bound and retained us as well. But how come we have to be continuously reborn to pay off debt and gratitude?  The cause is our ignorance.  It disappears when the light is on.  It is unreal and delusionary. So, what about awareness? If the former is non-existent, is the latter necessary?

But why do we engage in our mind cultivation?

To reach wisdom.

As said before, wisdom is illusionary.

Just because we are still  incognizant, we have to take mind training to regain it.

Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như

Sunyata Monastery, June 05, 2021

English version by Ngọc Huyền

Link to Vietnamese article:
https://tanhkhong.org/a1998/triet-nhu-snhp005-nhu-giot-mua-trong