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With time, we can complete a major task or accomplish our spiritual practice. Every one of us has to go through the different stages of life: childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Childhood is the stage of learning, adulthood is the stage where we strive for accomplishments, while old age is where we enjoy the fruits of our labour. This is why it is said that time is what we need to complete our studies, career, and spiritual practice in life.
A huge tree grows from a tiny seed
The Buddha repeatedly stressed that we must be prudent (with the karma we create) and bear a heart of sincere piety as we go about our daily lives.
A “cause” is something very minute, just like a tiny seed. But this seed can grow into a mighty tree whose trunk is so thick that it will take a few people to wrap around it with their arms, hence the saying, “a huge tree grows from a tiny seed”. The “origin” of a tall and big tree is actually just a very tiny seed, and the tiny seed will slowly grow into a robust tree. Think about it, how many seasons and years does it take for the tree to grow so tall and mighty? It truly takes time for a “cause” to manifest into an “effect”.
Spiritual cultivation or the art of learning is just like walking a journey. As the Chinese saying goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Regardless of how long the journey, it has to start with the first step. If you are unwilling to take the first step, you will never reach your destination. Likewise, one needs to make the first step to learn the Dharma or to pick up any skills in life. No matter what you are learning, you must be determined to make the effort and work very hard in order to attain success.
Action speaks louder than words
Always remind ourselves to be a morally upright person and to do good. We must be mindful in cultivating our mind and character.”
Learning Buddhism is also known as “spiritual cultivation” or “practising the Way (to enlightenment)”. But, if one only expounds the theories and never puts them into practice, one will never attain the goal of spiritual cultivation. As the Chinese saying goes, “It is better to get up and walk the path than to just sit down and talk about it”. The Dharma taught by the Buddha is not merely theory; it has to be put into action.
We often hear people say, “I have done a lot.” Usually, people who make such a statement actually do very little. Those who think that they have done a lot are often people who are conceited and arrogant, and yet petty and selfish. They are just like a small vessel that can’t contain much. The bigger a vessel, the greater its capacity. Even if we put a lot of things into it, there is still space inside. We should develop such a big and accommodating heart.
In daily life, we should do good every moment. But we should not be attached to what we have done, because we have not actually done a lot. Even if we do 10,000 good deeds a day throughout our lifetime, they cannot be accumulated into a mountain of good deeds. However, a bad deed that we have done on a day is considered one too many.
It is our natural duty to do good deeds every day—this is nothing special. But if one commits any wrongful act, it is enough to ruin one’s life, regardless of how minor the bad deed.
Practising Buddhism is like walking a journey. It is hard to calculate how much distance a person has walked since childhood. But no matter how far the person has walked, the ground will never stick to his feet. He will only leave his footprints behind and his feet will not be dirtied by the soil on the ground. This is how we should live our lives (i.e. not be tainted by the external environment as we walk on life’s path). Even if we walk bare-footed and our feet become stained with mud and dirt, we can still wash our feet clean before we go to bed and retire for the night.
In any case, we should walk with our two feet and not drag our feet along the path. Likewise, we should (not be sloppy and procrastinate) as we engage in spiritual cultivation, by always reminding ourselves to be morally good, to do good deeds, and to be mindful in cultivating our mind and character.
Extracted from “Sheng Huo De Zhi Hui”《生活的智慧》
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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