|
Focusing the Heart in One Place
- Guru's Talk: Focusing the Heart in One Place
- By Living Buddha Lian Sheng, Sheng-Yen Lu
- Translated by Cheng Yew Chung
- Edited by TBN
|
I want to say that most
human beings are spiritually sleeping or living in a state of spiritual
coma, often unaware why they are so busy at all. It is rare to find
a moment of peace and tranquility for oneself.
Think about it--
Don't you have to rush to the office to attend to business everyday?
Don't you need to work overnight, overtime, and attend meetings
every day?
Don't you have to attend to endless housework every day?
Don't you have to attend to ceaseless trivial matters every day?
Do you really enjoy a comfortable meal every day?
Do you really enjoy a good sleep every night?
..
We keep ourselves busy, and busily work until we fall sick and die.
I realize that there are simply too many trivial matters in our
lives, and it seems that keeping ourselves busy is normal, and not
being busy is abnormal. Human beings have become a herd of deranged
wild beasts, roaming in a world filled with too much desire, their
thoughts wandering from one end to the other.
"Too little time!" says everybody.
Yet the Buddha says, "When you focus your heart in one place, you
can achieve everything!"
Amitabha Buddha says, "If your heart is undistracted, you shall
gain rebirth in the Buddha Land!"
We as practitioners are concerned with the heart. Of course, you
cannot cut yourself off from your daily life and talk only about
the heart, foregoing your office work, your business, your household
chores, and your trivial little things. What I mean to say is that
you must know how to prioritize. What you need to let go, you let
go. You cannot want everything, and exhaust all your strength pursuing
everything. By doing so, nothing good is achieved.
Modern man-his mental focus is scattered and his heart is restless.
We as practitioners-we focus our heart in one place.
We must keep to at least one practice session per day so that our
heart is not wandering too much. We practise to keep our cultivation
going, which helps to keep us awake spiritually. It helps to maintain
a tranquil state of mind and spirit, so that we may experience the
state of focusing the heart in one place.
If you are simply too busy and too tired, recite just ten minutes
of the Buddha's name or ten minutes of mantra! It is true that material
desires may come to us from every direction, but we must ask ourselves,
what is it that we can truly own forever?
We must learn to let go!
For those who can focus their heart in one place are the truly awakened
ones!
|
|
