“…We might be renting a place to live and the landlord does not mention that we’ll be required to pay certain additional costs, so when we actually receive the bill, we are shocked. “Hey! When I first came you didn’t tell me about any additional costs!” For this reason, we should carefully inquire before we move in, “So what are the various bills and expenses I will be responsible for?” so that we are mentally and financially prepared.
In the same way, once we are born we should ask, “What will happen now that we are born?” We should know that old age, sickness, and death will have to come along, so that we can be fully prepared. Do we frequently contemplate our impending old age, illness, and death? Just as the Buddha taught, we should reflect on this all day long. We continue reflecting until it’s enough and we no longer forget.
Instead, if we only think about it once or twice a day, we will easily forget about it when we are occupied with other tasks. If while contemplating old age, sickness, and death we feel uneasy, it shows that we have already forgotten all about it. To be able to think in this way, the mind needs to be calm and free of responsibilities requiring it to think about other things. If we are working, we will be occupied with the thoughts about work, and so we will not have the time to reflect on old age, sickness, and death, and we will forget after a while. Our mind is prone to forgetfulness.
Things arise and then pass away, so if we do not think about them, we will soon forget. Can we even remember what we ate for breakfast this morning? If we do not recollect often, we will forget, because new matters will distract us. If we don’t want other matters to obscure the truth from our mind, we have to think about it all the time. To be able to do this, we have to be calm and have no other work to do. For example, we must ordain or live a life like a monk.
A monk doesn’t work and has nothing else to think about, so he is free to reflect on old age, sickness, death, separation from our loved ones, loss and decline. We consider these topics frequently so that we will not forget and become deluded. When we don’t forget, we don’t become deluded. All of us are forgetful and deluded, thinking that we will live a long time, with no old age, sickness, or death. So when these things actually happen, we are shocked, to the point that we lose our appetite and can’t sleep well.
When a doctor diagnoses us with cancer, giving us just three to six months to live, will we still be able to laugh? If we have trained our mind continuously, then when the doctor tells us the prognosis, we can say, “I already knew that I would have to die.” The doctor only confirms what we already know. At that point, we will be ready to sincerely prepare ourselves. Before that we weren’t, because we still did not know how true it really was. But now we must accept it and be able to let go of the body.
If we have concentration and wisdom, then we can definitely let it go. We have to practice concentration and wisdom to give rise to them, but it is not something we’ve ever done before. Perhaps we have just practiced a little, but that isn’t enough. We have to do it as a full-time professional, as a full-time meditator. If we do it as an amateur, it will not be possible to defeat the defilements.
Having said that, we still have to start off as amateurs. Let us do it whenever we have free time, such as on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays. Instead of using the time to go out seeking false happiness, it is better to meditate, to take the eight precepts. If we are not able to come to the temple, we can turn our home into a temple by putting up a sign that says this is a temple. We take the eight precepts and meditate without TV or other entertainment on our day of rest.
If we do not do so, we will not be able to progress. We have to train ourselves step by step, starting from what we can do, increasing from doing a little to doing a lot. Right now, we just start where we are; we do what we can, and look to improve on it.
if we can currently maintain the five precepts, we consider taking the eight. We may take the eight precepts on religious observance days, or on holidays when we don’t need to work. Or we can treat any day that we don’t have to work as our observance day. On that day, we try taking the eight precepts, try turning off the TV, not wearing makeup, not using perfume, not watching movies, singing, dancing, or going out for fun. We just stay at home doing walking and sitting meditation.
We do it step by step, because we can’t do it all at once. We can’t just drop everything and ordain right away. If we did, we would only torment ourselves, because we have never done that before. However, if we have continuously practised, then when we ordain it will be easy to meditate as a professional. Those who are professionals have previously been amateurs. It is only after practising continuously that they see their abilities develop to the level that they feel confident enough to take it up professionally. If we don’t start doing it, our practice will not progress.
So let’s all start. Let’s start keeping the eight precepts. If we can’t, then we can keep the five precepts instead. Those who still cannot do that can be generous and practice that first. Don’t worry about possessions and wealth. Don’t use wealth to buy happiness and seek pleasure, for it will only obstruct the path to virtue and slow the progress of our meditation, because if we use money to seek pleasure, we will also have to continuously earn money. We will then be unable to maintain the precepts. So instead of using money to seek pleasure, we can give it to charity, which actually buys us true happiness.
Making merit in this way buys us happiness of heart. It will enable us to maintain our virtue, and it won’t be necessary to earn too much money. As we experience greater and greater inner happiness, our craving to experience pleasure from eating, shopping, and spending money will decrease. We will then have more money to give away.
Once we have made more merit, our mind will become more peaceful, more able to maintain our virtue, and more skilled in meditation. This is how these practices mutually support each other, step by step…”
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