Dharma Talk " Progressed Forward " in the 85th Seven-Day Retreat

This morning April 21, 2017, Venerable Thich Phap Dang - Member of the Management Board of Vietnamese Buddhism Congregation in Dong Nai province, head of the Buddhist Administrative Board of Thong Nhat district, abbot of Hue Vien pagoda in Dong Nai province, has the Dharma talk to practitioners in the 85th Seven-Day Retreat at Hoang Phap pagoda with the topic "Progressed Forward".

It was a long thought that practicing/cultivation meant sitting meditation, chanting, reciting Buddha’s name/mantra ... Frankly to say, they are just the tools for practicing. In fact, practice/cultivation bears the positive meaning: correct for betterment, making ones from badness to goodness, wrong doing to right doing, ugliness to kindness, ignorance to wisdom, secularism to holiness, and mediocrity to Buddha ...

Regardless whatever method or school applied, Buddhism practitioners should have the right faith and deep knowledge of cause and effect rule. We still have hatred or dispute because we strongly believe that the Self is true and stable while Buddha teaches us that life is measured by the breath and so fragile. Understanding that truth, we can easily let things (including affliction) go, be free from desires, and be diligent on our path of cultivation.

Practicing is more likely rowing upstream, we will get back if we do not go forward. In Lien Tong Bao Giam, a guide-book for Pure Land Practitioners, of Master Uu Dam, it said:

"Do not be afraid or surrender in front of challenges, don’t be subjective and underestimate the easiness, do not choose the lazy way leading to un-durable results, do not be idle losing your strength and diligence, do not give up due to lack of courage, do not delay things until tomorrow due to hesitation, do not drop out due to the complex of un-qualification, do not give up due to your dullness. It is more likely planting a tree, the longer time it is, the deeper root it gets. It is also more likely sharpening a knife that needs time to make a blunt one sharp. We should not stop cultivating trees and leaving them withered just because of the dry land or abandon the knife just because of its bluntness. "

In more an hour of sharing, the Venerable has encouraged and given the mass more energy as the luggage for their path of practicing.

Following are the recorded photographs:

BBT Website