Returning to Childhood
How can a Buddhist student return to childhood? Today we are going to talk about "rejuvenation". From the time we are children until we are old, we are very happy when we are children, right? Then we are happy in our middle age, but in our old age, we become more and more unhappy, we are under a lot of pressure, and in our old age, we suffer a lot. So can people who study Buddhism change their concept? If we start with old age and then move on to young age, it's not the body that's actually being transformed. Do you understand?
Because this is the law of the young to the old, I am now assuming that it is reversed so that you can feel what it is like to be born old and then get smaller and smaller, do you understand? Then how should your path go? To be born from a very young age with so much suffering, with teeth that don't work, with legs that can't walk, then this is the time to be very careful. If he is born with so much suffering, he will be careful to take good care of himself, he will keep taking good care of his teeth, keep taking good care of his knees, his teeth will get better and better, his knees will get better and better, and he will go younger and younger. Right?
So next the Master gives you a talk, again turning it upside down, we talk about the mind. The human mind, born from childhood, is kind and good, however, as we grow older, the experience of life, jealousy, anger, greed, these bad habits, but through the practice of mindfulness as he grows older, more and more time, his mind is getting better and better. He understands that I can't be jealous of people because if I am jealous of people, I will be jealous of people; because I hate people, I will be hated by people; because I've done a lot of bad things, I've been retributed, and then the more and more his mind is calmed down, and in this way he actually moves towards childhood, without any worries. He doesn't offend people, he doesn't envy people, he doesn't covet, doesn't his mind turn around? Right?
So the master told us that we should first taste the suffering of old age, sickness and death. Old age, sickness, and death are all the sufferings of the old, right? If we then move on to youth, will it make us appreciate life more? In the past, many of us did not know the Dharma, but now that we have followed the Master and learned the Dharma, have you changed your lives? Are you becoming younger and younger? Are you younger, happier, and in a better state of mind? Don't you cherish the feelings of your body and mind and the things around you more? Therefore, people must learn to reflect, must learn to reflect, to use alternative ways of thinking to consider problems, that is to say, to think about the problem in reverse. If you feel bitter now, think about the fact that you have already been bitter in the past, and I am now considered sweet, right? If you are troubled now, think about how many times more troubled you were in the past than you are now. This is called the alternative reflection method. If you can think like this, have you not figured it out? Therefore, only the person who often reflects on himself, his enlightenment will always be with you
Life. Because man lives in this world by enlightenment, he is able to become enlightened, he is able to understand, and starts his life from aging. I'm going to say the opposite again, that a person's life begins with aging, do you know if there's that? There really is. There is a scientist who says that there is a child who is born like an old man, his heart, his lungs are all like an adult, he is born as a very old man, and that's actually what we experience in our lives. We'd rather hit the nail on the head a little bit earlier, we'd rather suffer the trials a little bit earlier, and we come to earth to know exactly where we're going? We suffer these trials so that we know exactly what we're after? If you don't know anything, you're not enlightened, you can't be enlightened to these realms of the Dharma.
The development of the intellect is the most important thing in a person's life, because the mind develops when it comes into contact with people and the environment. In other words, a person's IQ develops only when it is in contact with his body and his environment. For example, if a person is smart or not, how can you know if he is smart or not if he has never been in contact with people? If I have never been to this place, how can I know this place? Let's say I can handle a lot of things today, isn't it because I have done these things in the past? It is because you have been touched. If I ask you to handle something today and you handle it well, isn't it because you have handled it in the past?
If you don't touch people and things, how will you know how to handle them? So remember, let's not look eighty years old because we are eighty years old and look like we are eighty years old intellectually. Many mothers-in-law do not know what they should do, bully their daughters-in-law and then do terrible things, is it because she is seventy years old? Her IQ might as well be forty. Can you hear me? Because the maturity of the body does not affect the growth of your wisdom. For example, if a person with a neurological condition matures from childhood until he is very old, do you think he will have wisdom in his brain? Even though he is old, he only has the IQ of a few years old.
That is why the Buddha said that the body is a stinking bag. Do you understand? It is a temporary shell that serves no purpose. What we have in the body is a temporary shell that cannot last. Whether we start with an aging appearance or a cute baby, in reality the length of life is always the same. The length of a person's life is always the same, no matter when you started, when your IQ started, the actual life is your real life, not the life of your physical body, do you understand? Many people live their whole life and only in their later years smell the Dharma of Guanyin Bodhisattva and think that this Dharma is so good that it allows them to solve too many problems, and at this time he is a baby. Like our Mrs. Zhou, because she has just learned what the Dharma is all about, she has just received the true meaning of the Dharma, she has just begun to live happily, so she is a "little girl". She is a "little girl" because her heart is young. But longevity is not something we can control.
We can't look at appearances in everything we do in life. Because it's easy to be blinded by appearances, because it's easy to lose our wisdom. For example, if you look at this person who is really honest and treats you well on the outside, you marry him, and only after you marry him do you realize how many things are wrong with him, right? My example is to tell you that a person's appearance can cloud a person's wisdom, that is, it makes you unable to see the direction, do you hear me?
So remember, recognize the nature, the Buddha nature you will find that the world is always balanced. This sentence should be analyzed for you, recognize the world, understand the truth, the world is balanced. Let's take a simple example: Why did this person get into trouble today - a car accident - because he never drove seriously, and he ended up crashing his car. People say, "Gee, why didn't I get into trouble when I drove this car, but why did you get into a crash when you drove it?" Because the world is fair, because he is never serious. "Gee, why does it work when this man asks for it and not when he asks for it?"
Because people really beg, and you don't really beg. We have a girl in our youth group who has not been pregnant for several years and begged the Master to give her blessings, and the Master looked at her poorly, but she also begged for a good ah, and now she is pregnant. You know that a child is very important to a mother, and whether or not she can give birth to a child is also a very important issue. So it's great to help someone have a baby, but it's even more important to help her get pregnant.
We must realize that everything in this world has a root and a source, and is always in balance. Buddhism says that one is the same as the other. If you are good at everything, you must have your reasoning, if he is good, he has his reasoning, if you are bad, you must have your reasoning. The nature is the same. So things are what you make of yourselves, things that should be normal, all things have Buddha nature, understand? So the natural law of birth, old age, sickness and death we can't change it, we can only lament the helplessness of life, why are we cast to earth? Why are we given such a short period of time on earth?
Why do we have to be cast to the earth so that we can suffer all the pains - birth, old age, sickness and death? Life has to be bitter before it can be sweet, yet now we would rather be bitter first, then sweet. The body also suffers first and enjoys later, that is, suffering first and then sweetness, understand? If a person doesn't suffer, he can't get sweetness. That's why it's called the end of suffering and the beginning of sweetness. In this life on earth, we pay back what we need to pay back, do what we need to do well, and wait for the sweetness to come, and this sweetness is not necessarily the sweetness that you can immediately get back on earth, but it is to see where your future wisdom life is going to go. Do you understand?