Buddha once said, 'My Dharma is like honey, sweet everywhere .' This means that the Dharma encompasses all worldly and supramundane happiness. Therefore, those who sincerely devote themselves to the Dharma will certainly experience varying degrees of joy.
In Buddhism, the practice of renunciation and bodhicitta is a way for us to attain worldly well-being, while cultivating the right view of emptiness is the way to attain transcendent happiness.
For instance, much of the suffering in the world arises from desire. When the mind clings to a certain external object and craves it, but not fulfilled, the suffering of unfulfilled desire emerges; even if the desire is satisfied, it is difficult to escape the suffering of separation from what one loves; different individuals attached to the same object will experience the suffering of resentment and aversion; and when we continually cling to external objects in an individual manner, until the capacity of desire is exhausted, the body and mind remain persistently uncomfortable, immersed in distress and pain, like being scorched by a blazing fire, which is referred to as the Suffering of the Five Aggregates.
From this, it can be seen that all attachments bring us only suffering. Buddhism teaches us to detach and provides many cultivation methods of letting go of attachment, thereby freeing ourselves from the suffering and attaining unspoiled happiness.
Some practitioners initially join a Buddhist community with full faith, while actually harboring desires for their own benefit, not realizing that this is a form of spiritual opportunism, hoping to take shortcuts with a 'thief mentality'. Once their expectations are not met, or their vested interests are disrupted, they quickly develop doubts about Buddhism due to frustration.
Buddhism teaches us to break free from the shackles of desire and provides various practices for this purpose. For example, when sentient beings become the object of our desire or anger, Bodhicitta can extinguish the fire of our desire or anger.
When the practice of renunciation and bodhicitta is made concrete, it becomes the Ten Virtuous Actions, Precepts, Bodhicitta Vows, various meditation methods, progressive stages, and so on.
If one wishes to attain transcendent happiness, one must understand the essence of all phenomena which is insubstantial. Abiding in this, the mind dissolves all sufferings due to the detachment—all suffering originates from attachment. Practising the correct view of Emptiness helps us to gradually remove attachment from our continuum, thread by thread. When it is completely removed, it is like the bottom of a bucket falling away; this is called penetrating the essence and understanding the true nature of the mind.
However, for Buddhists, these realms cannot remain merely at the intellectual level and must be put into practice. When actually doing it, one should also constantly reflect on oneself: Have I really taken Buddhism seriously? Am I truly embodying Buddhist philosophy?
For example, performing meritorious deeds such as providing meals for A Thousand Monks Dharma Assemblies this year is a cause of happiness. Some people, after making offerings, ask, "I have been making offerings for so long, why haven't I become wealthy yet?" Others are keen on seeking the blessings of virtuous masters, and while making offerings, they secretly consider how much interest their offerings will yield and when the interests will be received—it can be a conscious calculation or an unconscious expectation. In this way, the power of desire surpasses the power generated by the seeds of good deeds, which can result in the delayed arrival of good benefits, or they may not be realized until the next life.
Even worse, people compare and compete for merit with each other, which can lead to resentment and hostility, resulting in various forms of dissatisfaction. 'One moment of anger can destroy a thousand eons of blessings.' Despite our hard work in accumulating numerous good deeds, we often easily destroy them, gradually exhausting our worldly blessings.
As practitioners of Mahayana Buddhism, should we give the benefits and victories to others and sincerely rejoice in their success? In fact, this kind of aspiration brings even greater merit.
If one genuinely generates bodhicitta and makes offerings to the Sangha, it is easy to manifest wealth and happiness in this life; if one truly observes the Five Precepts and diligently practices the Vajrasattva practice, many negative karmas, even in their seed form, will be destroyed, and one will feel refreshed and liberated. Why do we always fail to achieve this? It is because we have not taken learning Buddhism seriously and have not aligned our conceptual understanding of the Dharma with our heartfelt experience. This leads to a narrow-minded approach when facing situations, and even to the distortion of the Dharma into a tool for pursuing benefits, with a mindset akin to robbing a bank.
The principles of Buddhism are simple but very practical. One key principle is that in our practice, we should frequently introspect our own minds. When facing criticism, misunderstanding, or slander, or when things go against our wishes, we should ask ourselves: Am I a Mahayana Buddhist? Perhaps you are already able to, as the Heart Sutra says, "see that the aggregate of form is empty," experiencing the illusory nature of form. However, if the aggregate of formation has not yet been seen as empty, then the aggregate of feeling cannot be empty either. When emotions arise and cause painful feeling, it becomes difficult for us to "transcend all sufferings".
Therefore, we should allow our mind and body to be truly immersed in the principles of Buddhism. Through day-by-day practice, one day, we will sincerely experience the vastness and profundity of the truth that 'My dharma is like honey, sweet everywhere.' The taste of this, as Elder Master Xuyun says in his verse on enlightenment, is: 'When spring arrives, flowers scent the air, the mountains, rivers and the vast earth are none other than the Tathagata.'
This article is a preliminary translation draft and has not yet been reviewed or proofread by the speaker.
