é™æ€è¯ Readings For Silent Reflection
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The Code of Life
Scientists have already deciphered the code of life by unlocking the secret of human DNA. From a Buddhist perspective, the code of life or DNA has another name ——karma. The Buddha taught the world about it more than 2500 years ago. If we consider the code of life merely as DNA, then it is no more than an unit or a cell, and is not enough to explain life. The truth of karma would provide a more comprehensive explanation.
Karma is the action of the body, speech, and mind. There is wholesome, unwholesome, and neutral karma. “Even going through thousands of kalpas, the karma created never dies.” All the karma generated by the body, speech, and mind will be stored in the warehouse of karma, the way a computer stores information. “When the causes and conditions ripen, karmic retribution will be experienced by the self.” The Laws of Karma is immutable. What goes around comes around-it may ripen tomorrow, next month, or many years from now, but it is inevitable.
Karmic power is one of the Buddha’s great realizations. Humans live from previous lives to the current one, and then carry on to future lives. The crucial link in all this is karmic power, which strings the ongoing lives together like a rope. Nothing is missing; nothing is lost. Because of karma, life never ends. “Water from the spring rains flows along toward the east.” Similarly, the seasons change with time, spring comes and fall goes, and along with them, the warm weather and the cool breezes. Everything comes and goes in cycles and is reborn. Any conditioned dharmas can be destroyed, but only the code of life is indestructible and exists infinitely.
DNA can only explain the components of an individual life. But, according to Buddhism, there is not only individual karma; there is also collective karma. For instance, the reason for so many individuals being born in the same family, the same village, or the same tribe is “collective karma.” But when people from different walks of life experience an accident while traveling on a ship or a plane, some dying while others survive are examples of “individual karma” within “collective karma.” So even though scientists have already discovered DNA as the code of life for the individual, we hope they will further determine the common factors among living beings, a theory that can explain the unity of all life.
Because of variations in DNA, different lives are formed. Our karmic power, however, manifests in different ways. There is karma that is generated and arrives in this life, like planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall. Then, there is karma that is generated in this life but arrives in the next life, like planting this year and harvest next year. Last but not least, there is also the karma that is generated in this life but doesn’t arrive until some life beyond the next life, like a harvest that is planted this year and harvested a number of years later. So, karma always manifests itself; it is just a matter of time.
The truths of causes and conditions, karma, and karmic retribution in Buddhism are indisputable truths, absolute, universal, and equal for all. The discovery of DNA by scientists merely serves to explain the content and function of karma more concretely. -
When you are detached from possessions, from name and gain, from passions and troubled thoughts, you won’t be discouraged by what may come.
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Always pray to have eyes
That see the best,
The hands that helps another,
A heart that forgives the worst,
A mind that forgets the bad,
And a soul that never loses faith... -
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Before attaining Buddhahood,
the swiftest way to attain swiftest progress
to Buddhahood without retrogression
is via swift rebirth in a Pure Land.
– Stonepeace
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若生西方，
庶�与佛光寿�一，
æ— é‡�æ— è¾¹çŸ£ã€‚
– 净土宗å��三祖å�°å…‰å¤§å¸ˆ
Be born in the Western Pure Land,
so that you can attain the same light and life of Ä€mítuófó,
that is immeasurable and boundless.
– The Pure Land Tradition’s 13th Patriarch Great Master YìnguÄ�ng
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If lust is very strong and left unchecked to grow, as worst-case scenarios, this can lead to rebirth in the three lower realms mentioned, thus being difficult to escape from them, much more from rebirth entirely. For Buddhahood to be attained, the uprooting of lust should be so thorough, that there is no need to suppress it from arising at all. Yet, just as it is difficult, in this Dharma-Ending Age, to instantly and totally sever lust in this lifetime, it is difficult to realise Buddhahood here and now.
However, the Buddha, taught Niànfó (practice of mindfulness of the name of AmitÄ�bha Buddha – ‘Ä€mítuófó’) as a most skilful means to regularly, at least suspend workings of all Three Poisons, including greed as lust in everyday life. With sufficient practice, this can surely also be done on the deathbed. Connecting one’s Buddha-nature with Ä€mítuófó instead any of the poisons, Pure Land will be reached, where there will be no more outflows of the poisons in practice towards Buddhahood. (Note that Niànfó was taught by the Buddha to be an unsurpassable meditative practice for samÄ�dhi. -
外在�是助缘，�人生有�义，�从內心去寻找。
——大寶法王噶瑪巴-------------------------------------------
"One who cherishes life regrets that it is too short.
One who wastes life complains that it is too long.
One who understands life knows that it is suffering.
One who masters life is not afraid of suffering and impermanence."
-366 days with Wisdom
Venerable Master Hsing Yun
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