Dear brothers and sisters,

If your think you know how to learn, let’s consider these facts.

Almost everyone in the world knows very well the Buddha’s teaching, or Jesus’ teaching, or Quran’s teaching. There are books and Internet for eveyone to read the original teachings as well as the explanations of all kinds of current teachers expounding on the masters’ teachings. Nothing is new or unknown to anyone in the world. And everyone respects and learns seriously what the masters teach. Except for a very small minority, no one says these teachings are stupid – they all follow the masters, at least that is what they believe.

But the entire world is full of tham sân si (greed, hatred, ignorance), from high leaders to lowly citizens.

The big question is why?

Why do the people faithfully learn from the masters and follow the masters, but they live 180-degree opposite the masters’ teachings?

That is a crazy phenomenon – people think they follow the teachers while they indeed live 180-degree against the teachers’ teachings?

Why?

I can’t say that people are lying – no, they are very honest. They are simply ignorant, as the Buddha said. My translation of ignorant is stupid. That is why you can see I use that word very often.

But the question remains. Why do people think they follow the masters while they indeed live against all the masters’ teachings?

My observation over the years is that: When a person reads a master’s teaching, s/he reads the words and automatically understands the words the way s/he thinks, not the way the master means. So, the person thinks s/he understands the master’s words, but s/he indeed only understands her/his own words and nothing from the master.

Examples, master says: “Love everyone”, the follower thinks: “Of course, I love everyone, except the bad guys, the liars, the thieves, the dishonest, the corrupt, the anti-God, the arrogant, the selfish…”

Master says: “Don’t attach to anything and you will be enlightened.” The follower say “yes”, but he still forces his children to think the way he thinks, reacts adversely to everyone who acts to him with a “low” manner, judges everyone who has “uncivilized” behavior, despises people whose thinking is “outdated”… In short, the follower obviously attaches himself to hundreds of things in his head, while he thinks he is following the “non-attachment” teaching of the master.
…

The problem is clear: We read one thing, and we automatically understand that thing the way our head thinks, not the way the original master means to convey.

This misunderstanding is, of course, a personal issue for each individual, but it always becomes the entire world’s problem when billions of people from a religion or a culture make the same mistake. And we see that problem clearly in the human history with so many crazy wars among religions and cultures.

People have wrong thinking like that in billions, always the entire world, except several enlightened persons worldwide in each generation.

So, if you think you read and understand spiritual teaching of a master, check again to see if you are one of those billion people who really understand nothing, or one of those few who are truly enlightened.

Billions of people learn, only several get it right.

That is truly an extremely difficult problem for everyone in the world to overcome.

But the solution is not difficult: You just have to read the master’s teaching “as it is” in every word, and make sure you understand every word the way it reads and spells. Don’t add anything else from your head into the master’s teaching.

The master says: “Love all people”, it means “Love all people” in the world. Don’t mentally add in: except the bad guys, the anti-God, the anti-Buddha, the thieves, the unrighteous…

Don’t add your clever thoughts into the master’s teaching.

Simple like that.

The Buddha says: “Don’t attach to anything”, then you don’t attach to anything –including your culture, your habit, your history, your sacred books, your education, your religious dogma… Attach to nothing. You can have everything, but don’t attach yourself to anything. It means “no attachment to anything.”

How hard that is to understand a master? Extremely easy, you see?

But people worldwide can’t do it correctly for thousands of years till today, because everyone has the habit of interpreting the master’s words with the stupid ideas they already have in their head. Don’t interpret the master’s teaching – read it and understand it the way it reads. Master’s teaching is usually very simple – it need no interpretation. It just need you to read it the way it reads.

Don’t add your dumb ideas into a sacred teaching. And you will easily be enlightened.

Not hard at all. Just a little discipline to keep the master’s words exactly the way they read and spell. And follow them.

Wish enlightenment to you all.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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