Modern day monk

Currently, teachers have heard many people present how to learn in a modern way, such as if you want to make a cake, go to Google to search for a way to make a cake, if you want to grow vegetables, go online and type the key "growing clean vegetables", I also guide myself, I follow that habit, so if you want to study Buddhism, go to Google to search to show you how to practice. Google has many preachers, Google has many writers, Google has many Sutras, etc. are all complete, so what do we still need to hear from the teachers? Staying at home is fine, but sitting here, it's hot here, 38-40 degrees, but there is no fan, at home with air conditioning, is it better to go to Google? Do you think it's right or wrong?

I haven't said right or wrong, but I have to understand until there. When put on Google, no one checks it, so it's mixed and unfiltered. Are you smart enough to filter it out? If you have enough intelligence, you won't learn, if you have enough knowledge, you will be uneducated, so people will not search Google, and if you search for learning, it means that your knowledge is not complete, but if your mind is not complete, the "filter" is not good. , will certainly be messy. Without filtering, what do we learn? That is learning from outside knowledge and understanding, patching up to create a proposition that is said to be the Buddhadharma.

Why does this say so? Because now you see it deeply, it's good, but when you are sick, weak, or have a great shock, that vision goes anywhere, we are still suffering, so it is a patchwork of knowledge. Like a house when closing the door to display flowers to make it beautiful, let the perfume out to make it smell good, then turn on the air conditioner and think it is liberating. That is not liberation, liberation means that you are in a position of 40 degrees, the sun is hot, there is no fan, and even though it is sunny or rainy or cold, your mind does not change, your mind is still calm, self present. Setting the condition to be cool to be freed is just lulling outside. Similarly, that house is self-healing, creating a knowledge base with egos, interests, and knowledge through understanding through one's own horizons, bringing the Buddha Dharma to fit the world. his love. Then lull the mundane, feel pleasurable, and call it liberating. That is, you only use Buddha Dharma to decorate your house.

That patchwork is not said to be learning from the heart, but studying Buddhism is learning from the heart, turning to those original minds is learning Buddhism.

Why didn't Google win? Because a sermon must meet two basic standards, one is the body, the other is the contract. The reasonableness is in accordance with the truth of enlightenment and liberation of the Buddha. The contract is in accordance with the body of the person who is listening. Google, Ipad, computer cannot know their own base, but it only matches with their ego, habits, and common sense.

You search Google to find something, that's to find the right thing for you. If you are the true mind and Buddha nature, the wisdom is present, then surely you are uneducated, then you don't need Google, even the ignorant monks don't like to use Google anymore, let alone great people, Great people do not need Google, people and Google are still ordinary. But searching Google is to find things that suit me because it doesn't have a base, I shop for myself so I find things that suit me. So if we study the Way and learn it that way, we don't learn by ourselves, but we don't learn to return to the mind, that is to study knowledge, patch up knowledge, and turn the Buddhadharma into a hobby to serve our deluded ego. me.

...If you go online and type in Google, then consider what you use to learn, use common sense to study common sense in the style of assembled research, then go in common sense. Learn or shout out loud, but actually you know it's like a fish, in the water no matter how much you struggle, it's still wet but not out of the water. No matter how much we study, no matter how much we feel sitting in meditation, patching up, but still in the ordinary, whatever we say is the same. We are in the ordinary world, in our karma, in our mind of birth and death, in our research, thinking, contemplating to write down, etc. These are all common things we tell each other, but we haven't come out of the country yet together. Like displaying fish toss up for fun, love is still fascinated. Therefore, students of the Way must realize this mind. They say that as soon as we see and receive, we will see that what we recognize before we appear, it already exists. Right there is enlightenment with the Buddha, the Patriarch as a teacher.

In short, in the beginning, we practice with our hearts moving to correct, subdue, and adjust. The second step is to get the self-nature (view-nature) to live in it and practice righteously, that is, to cultivate the mind.

(Recorded and excerpted by Tran Tue in the lecture on Tu Tam by Master Thich Tam Hanh - Abbot of Truc Lam Bach Ma Zen Monastery)