Dharma Preaching at Hai Duc Pagoda (Niem Phat Duong Hai Duc), Texas, United States

In the evening Sep 16, 2016, Venerable Thich Chan Tinh had a Dharma talk at Hai Duc Pagoda, Texas, US, with the warm welcome from monk abbot Thich Tri Hien.

Every opportunity we meet with others in life is predestined. And the meeting between the Venerable and the Abbot Thich Tri Hien is one of the cases. In Vietnam, Hoang Phap Pagoda has got a long-term relationship to Hung Thien Pagoda, whose abbot is monk Thich Phuoc Duc, master of abbot Thich Tri Hien. The humble attitude of monk Thich Phuoc Duc has been respected by the Venerable Thich Chan Tinh who would like to take that as an example for his behavior.

On this occasion, the Venerable shared that in Buddhism, humility is the way to protect us from the trend of conceit which often accompanies with the psychology of intolerance, bigotry, conservative and authoritarianism. Arrogance, conceit and contemptuousness derive from the attachment of the mindset of the “self” and the “mine” which are unreal. Those who having such attachment would more likely be self-centered and look down on others regardless their limit in capacity. Pride people often find themselves better than others and consequently are aggressive, easy to do bad deeds losing their merits. Once the collected merits have been used up and the fruits of evils ripe, suffers and misery would appear and go along with them in the cycle of birth and death.

On the other hand, humility is a virtue which can cease the self and the mindset of attachment, giving us peace and ease in mind. Humility makes us open, spreads the kindness and friendship in the work environment as well as in the relationship making us success in communication.

At the end of the Dharma talk, Venerable Thich Chan Tinh presented the DVD film “Search for the Enlightenment” as the Dharma gift to the participants.

Following are the recorded photographs: