Embracing Dependence for Inner Peace

The greater our capacity for dependence, the greater our peace of mind.

Everything in the world and the whole universe is made up of many conditions. Even electron particles that are microscopic units are not a separate entity, they are always in a state of alignment. Because every individual must rely on a multitude of conditions to manifest and survive, we call it dependent birth. Looking at a rain, we know that the rice field has just received more charm is water and in the sky is also less charm is cloudy.

The process of coming and going is extremely mysterious. They have no fixed status, or sometimes they are formless. Therefore, we cannot use the ordinary eye or the technology of science to clearly see their operation. Unless we can break free of the false idea of the individual self and break through those narrow boundaries, our vision can transcend the boundary of time and space that can be calculated, then we can clearly see the course of all conditions from ourselves and everything around us. However, all conditions follow the principle of cause and effect, so it is also called causes and conditions. The kernel is what happened before. That is, there is never a completely new charm, but there are always some small charms in it that have met and connected with each other. Therefore, today is also the cause of the future.

The ancients often said that to do anything, it must meet three important factors: natural time, favorable terrain and human peace. Heaven is the right condition from the universe. Geography is the social situation that is appropriate for what we do. Peace is the enthusiastic support of everyone around. But the ancients also said that natural time is not equal to geography, and terrain is not equal to peace. With human harmony, it is easy to get the other two elements, because the element of harmony is within ourselves, we can take the initiative to create it. As long as we let go of our arrogance and envy, wholeheartedly respect and support those around us—that is, live blessedly with virtue—we will naturally connect with the other two. No matter how talented and brave we are without one of these three elements, especially without winning people's hearts, we cannot succeed. If so, it would quickly collapse. Remember that grace has a dissolve, there is a come, there is a go. Let's not be sure that what we have today will last forever. While we can't fully actively create all causes and conditions for ourselves, we can create connections that cause and conditions maintain or disintegrate.

Our mind is also a very mysterious mechanism. Every good idea will generate countless good energies and every bad idea will generate countless bad energies. They will be directly linked to other good or bad energies that are scattered throughout the universe, and when enough causes and conditions are combined, they will create unbelievably large effects. Therefore, our mind is the source of most of our adaptive causes and conditions. But if we are not able to exert the superiority of the mind to strengthen the causes and conditions we have, we must accept to let the causes and conditions go. This attitude is arbitrary. In addition, not wanting any other causes and conditions is also an arbitrary attitude.

It is up to you to please accept what happens in the present, to suspend your struggles and calmly wait for the appropriate causes and conditions to converge. Sometimes it is the attitude of stopping struggle and waiting calmly that is an important predestined condition to connect with other good causes and conditions. Do not forget, a successful thing needs to converge millions of causes and conditions, as long as there is a lack of one, it can also fail. If we have deep knowledge or experience, in some cases we can also guess what we should and should not do, so that good causes and conditions fully converge or bad causes and conditions soon dissipate.

We often refer to good causes and conditions as predestined and bad causes as paradoxes, i.e. conditions that are beneficial and unfavorable to us. There are predestinies that are favorable to us but opposite to others, and there are causes that are favorable to others but opposite to us. That is to speak only within the human sphere, while causes and conditions have always happened to all things everywhere in the universe. The nature of causes and conditions is not reversible, good and bad. It only converges or disintegrates according to the adaptation between the energy frequencies emitted by all individuals.

The habit of most of us when receiving predestined conditions is always to feel happy and very much want to maintain that predestined cause. When faced with adversity, we always feel uncomfortable and seek to avoid or exclude it. But it is not necessarily that predestined will bring happiness, or that adversity will bring real suffering. Sometimes misfortune leads to maturity, while grace easily makes us weak. Sometimes the initial predestined but turned into the paradox later, or the paradox now but the favor in the future. It all depends on our bravery and attitude to life. Therefore, we don't need to urgently change causes and conditions that we are not happy with, or try to find causes that we like. When our minds are stable enough to create peaceful causes and conditions, the corresponding causes and conditions will automatically connect. In fact, when we find vitality in ourselves, we no longer matter external conditions. Any predestined condition is fine. Very self-reliant.

Predestined is also the attitude of taking advantage of new causes and conditions that are converging in the present to solve problems, or create better breakthroughs. It is willing to ignore expectations, even those that have been set before. This attitude is only in those who are truly brave and steady. They must ensure that their qualities are not only unchanged, but they are also better before they act. This is different from an emotional outburst — fiercely getting it right, then quickly getting discouraged and giving up.

The zen house has a very interesting story. The two brothers were on their way to the fang when they suddenly saw a girl struggling to cross the fast-flowing stream. The brother then came forward and asked, "Hey miss! Do you want me to carry you to the other side?" The delighted girl nodded in agreement. After crossing the stream, the brothers bid farewell to the girl and continued their journey. After walking a long way, the disciple could no longer restrain himself and said angrily: "Why did you do this?" The brother asked in surprise, "Do what?" "Well, carrying that girl earlier, we're ordained cultivators!" the disciple snapped slightly. The brother smiled and patted the monk on the shoulder: "I left that girl by the bank of the stream, why did you bring her here!"

There was nothing wrong with the monk not helping the girl cross the river. Since the monk's cultivation level is still weak, it is necessary to observe strict precepts so that the heart is not stirred but easily meditates. But the monk's mistake was to think that the brother was the same level as himself, and had to keep the same practice as himself, so he was dissatisfied with the brother's help to the girl. Granted, purity of mind is a mandatory requirement for an ordained person, but it is not the ultimate goal of the practice. Cultivation is not about protecting the precepts so that it is pure, and who suffers. The precept that protects purity alone is only for those who live for themselves or are too weak. It is not worth adapting to those who already have the courage to remain immobile in the face of the disturbances of circumstances. Therefore, we cannot rely on some external phenomena to evaluate without considering the motives and results. The problem is that after that breakthrough action, they lose themselves or improve their qualities.

The phrase "I left that girl by the bank of the stream, why did the disciple bring her here?" partly determined the level of immaculate immaculate master. Of course, it takes further fact-checking for us to believe in the possibility of discretion without changing someone's qualities. Because there are many people who love to break through, especially young people. They always want to use all their energy to grasp the causes and conditions in the present to make miracles, but the number of successful people is very small. Most fail because they are overconfident, underestimate their circumstances, are driven by ambition, are provoked by a habit of changing their stance, or do not know they are indulging in impulse. Although they were also dependent, they disappeared.

Sudden strategic changes, overcoming important principles, despite the obstruction of those around them, but ultimately failing to achieve the goal but also paying very high costs are very serious psychological wounds. That wound causes us to lose faith in ourselves and become very allergic to changes later on. Because of such unpredictable consequences, people who have experienced it only prefer a normal lifestyle, keeping a pattern for peace. But life isn't always normal. There will come a time when we have to transcend that normalcy in order to save ourselves or help others, what should we do? Therefore, being equipped with a sufficient ability to respond to adversity is the work of those who experience and have insight.

Zen master Tran Nhan Tong of the Tran Dynasty of Vietnam once advised: "In the joyful life, it must depend on the religion / If you are hungry, you will eat and sleep immediately" (Cu tran heresy, release depending on the charm / Co xan clown wretched - Cu tran heresy). The art of preserving peace of mind in the midst of all the distractions of everyday life is an arbitrary attitude. According to Zen master Tran Nhan Tong, dependence means hunger, eating tired, sleeping. But eat and eat and sleep out of sleep; whichever thing comes out, does not mix, sees no more important thing than which; Whichever comes first, it is solved first, not impatient, not flattered. It sounds easy, but it is very difficult to do. We have to change very old habits like rush, anxiety, and fear. Even those who live in a place of leisure are still full of longing, let alone living in the midst of a distraction.

Of course, no one forces us to be arbitrary. But the greater our capacity for dependence, the greater our peace of mind. If we continue to seek happiness on the outside, we will surely continue to desire and impose causes and conditions on our will. Only when we have found the true value of happiness in ourselves can we accept all circumstances. Integrating all circumstances to help people help life without being dissolved, that is the most ideal type of society in all time.

Come and go in serenity, Do not choose the causes of the East,
then spring again
Neither less nor more

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