Spring Joy

Ngày 17/01 Mậu Tuất (04/03/2018) được sự chấp thuận của sư phụ (Thượng tọa trụ trì chùa Hoằng Pháp – Thích Chân Tính) chúng con có đủ nhân duyên phước báo tham dự chuyến phóng sanh tại Sa Đéc, cách chùa khoảng 200 km do Đại đức Thích Tâm Huệ (trưởng ban từ thiện) phụ trách.

We performed the charity work at the pagoda, where Northern-Central-Southern people got together. There were 4 buses then. Without the monk, our mouth could not be kept self-consciously pure. The passengers had a good chance to express their feelings and tell their life stories. ‘My hometown is in Central Vietnam, well-known as a place where “monkeys cough flamingo crows” (according to the common people)’, said a middle-aged woman. ‘Indeed, life is full of hardship and difficulties. Luckily, I live in the town, so I was able to join the cultivation courses at the pagoda. As to my husband, he is a true spendthrift who is always spending money on alcohol, girls, gambling and so forth. What boredom it is! On getting home from work and catching me watching videos of the monks’ preaches, he became furious and tried to make a fuss about anything. I remember the Buddha’s teaching that it is worthless talking a person without any natural bonds with Buddhism into Buddhism; by versa, once that person is born with a certain fate, our appearance is powerful enough to wake up every sense of theirs. Therefore, it all depends on what is called ‘fate’. Poor him!’

The next person sharing a story was from the South. She was profuse in her compliments upon how wonderful and generous her husband is when letting her go to pagoda, bowing to the Buddha, chanting the sutra and sometimes eating vegetarian food. ‘Also, he supports me financially so I can do the charity work, give things as alms, etc.’, added she. Before she stopped talking, another woman interrupted, ‘You must have practiced Buddhism in your previous incarnations, so you get such good results. You can enjoy the merits to your heart’s content from now on while continuing to grow new seeds of good deeds for the next incarnation. Congratulations on your husband and you!’

Despite the hot weather, ebullience from the ‘gossipers’ still filled the air. An old lady added, ‘I grew up during the relentless wartime, so I have gone through almost all the life sufferings. The country is now at peace and becomes so beautiful, I am extremely happy. Leisurely going to pagoda every day to attend preaches and chant the Buddha’s title is joyful enough. Many friends of mine at my age either are too busy making money or have reunited with their ancestors for a long time. How can they reach pagodas and the Buddhas? How can they be introduced to the Buddha’s teachings?

There were also some elders who had absorbed some of the Buddha’s doctrines, not to mention their being born and growing up in Dong Thap Muoi (in the South), which is famous for its enormous lotuses. The lotus is noble because ‘it does not smell muddy in the mud’. I am always keen on offering pretty lotuses to the Buddha, committing to myself, ‘to do what is supposed to do, go in the right way, keep kind-hearted, cherish sincerity, mercy and tolerance for others as well as be strict with myself.’

So quiet as it became after a while that I started to fall asleep in cool breeze. All of a sudden, there raised a voice from the North, ‘Hey, let me tell you something. You coming from the South is the best luck. You guys are endowed by nature with fertile soil and a temperate weather. Besides, preaches on Dharma are ubiquitously available. In the North, especially in remote areas, the weather is very severe, sometimes bitterly cold, sometimes boiling hot. Plenty of customs have been ingrained into people’s blood, in which the most outmoded and obsolete one is probably the buffalo fight. Another similar custom is that a person is only allowed to visit a pagoda 3 years after the death of his or her family member. How cannot there be a dead one in two sides of the family? How long will it take before one can go to a pagoda? People wish to be able to learn Buddhist doctrines. They wish the light of Dharma will shed on their village one day.’

In the course of her sharing, the women stopped listening to see the big Tien River of Dong Thap Province. Some people were trying to catch fish, pants up to their knees. Some were absorbed in watching each school of fish being set free and freely swimming. What adorable creatures!

All of them had one wish in common, which was that loving every species of creatures is also respecting our own life. As a matter of fact, releasing animals or doing charity work is a long journey requiring lots of efforts as well as one of the beneficial duties of the respectable monks. I wish great mercy of Trinatra would provide support for the respectable monks so they would have good health to continue to guide us on the Buddha’s holy rightful path. Do not abandon the path for ages as weeds will thrive on the path just like people turn unaware and unconscious and therefore keep being reborn permanently. Escape seems impossible for them then. We are Vietnamese who love our country very much. No matter how many modern skyscrapers are being built or how magnificent their structures are, we still love Vietnam because of its endless rice paddle fields filling the air with fragrance of reap rice, colorful and fragrant flower fields, luxuriant fruit gardens, bridges connecting peaceful countryside roads, etc.

I wish there would be more and more people who start to eat vegetarian food and more and more vegetarian restaurants to maintain the beauty of ‘brand forests and gracious seas’, keep the balance of the environment and preserve all the natural resources for all of us.

The trip went to an end in everybody’s joy, gaiety and delight. We smile today and will keep smiling when tomorrow comes, which simply results from the fact that life is too short to wait for anyone and that we have to cultivate the tree of compassion, look at positive points of life like a sunflower always faces the sun instead of black clouds in order to grow strongly and rapidly.

How meaningful and wholesome enjoying the spring in the pagoda is!

Hoang Phap Monastery, March 7th, 2018.

Nguyen Thanh Thao

Translated into English by Nguyen Minh Thuy Tien