Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I talk to you about Buddhist teachings very often, not because I want to spread the Buddhist religion, but because I know that the Buddhist way of living is a very good way for us humans – meaning, for the entire troubling world of ours.

Buddhist way is not necessarily Buddhist religion. You don’t have to be a pagoda goer to live the Buddhist way – it is an observation-based philosophy with living guidelines on how to live productively and happily and, therefore, successfully, for anyone who wants to practice. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice the Buddhist way. It is for everyone , regardless of his/her religious affiliation or no affiliation at all.

Today, I am talking about the highest and most essential point of Mahayana Buddhism (Phật giáo Đại thừa). That is non-attachment (vô chấp), which is also called non-grasping, and I sometime call non-sticking (không dính).

Non-attachment is a very simple, but most misunderstood, concept. Your life has thousands and thousands of situations come and go, maybe a dozen different scenarios in a day, every day, throughout your entire life. Each situation, though seemingly similar to many others, actually is a distinctive situation, different from all others. Therefore, for each situation you would have a different way to deal with it. For each situation you need to handle it with a distinctive solution, though somewhat similar to what you have done previously in other situations, still sui generis in its own right.

In other words, don’t attach yourself to any solution formula. Each new situation needs a new solution from you.

That is the simplest and easiest-to-understand principle, for everyone. We do that all the time – say, you write poetry, many of your poems have very similar ideas, but each poem is a distinctive piece, with different words, rhyme, rhythm and ideas for it. No poem is like any other poem and no language of any poem is completely like the language of others.

So, you cannot attach yourself to any idea, word or writing style and use it for all your poems, although you can use any idea, word and writing style for any one poem.

That is non-attachment. It means: “Be flexible when you work, don’t stick to a dead fixed formula. Be creative to have new solution for new situation, all the time.”

Non-attachment means flexible and creative in everything you do, at anytime, anywhere.

I write 5 thousand trà đàm, talking only about several points, but each trà đàm is a new invention with new illustrations, new words, new writing method.

Yesterday, one of your students didn’t do homework, you said gently: “Don’t miss it again.” Today, another student doesn’t do homework, you tell him to stand facing the wall for one hour. Why the difference? Because they are two different persons, in two different situations, and each one requires a different reaction from you, for you to be effective with them.

That is non-attachment. Very easy to understand.

Non-attachment means you can have all working methods in your arsenal, but you don’t glue yourself to any method for all occasions – in any particular situation, use only the method you think is good for that situation.

So far, I have explained non-attachment, using only our everyday terms, no Buddhist terms at all. So, we can see that Buddhist teachings are just a common-sense way of living – we probably know many of them from life experience without knowing anything about Buddhism.

Now using Buddhist terms, it may become very difficult for many people to understand. The Diamond Sutra says: “Don’t dwell anywhere, and you shall produce the enlightened heart” – Ưng vô sở trụ, nhi sanh kỳ tâm, không trụ (dính cứng) nơi nào thì sinh tâm giác ngộ.

But you don’t have to figure out all that difficult language, just read my simple exposition of non-attachment first, and read the ancient language after you have understood a little.

Another important point to remember. Non-attachment means non-attachment to anything in the universe, including sacred teachings, Buddha’s teachings, sacred books… Those are good things to learn and live by, but still, don’t attach yourself to anything you learn. For example, “Don’t kill” is a good command in all sacred books, and you keep that command well – trying not to kill any man or any animal at all. But if someone is running through every room in your home to shoot all your family members, you may want to shoot him dead first.

That is called non-attachment to anything. Practice all the good commands, except when a command doesn’t work. Use you heart and creativity to solve life problems you face every day, with a pure and loving heart of a Bodhisattva.

Now, the great misunderstanding. Many Buddhists misunderstand non-attachment as “Saying ‘no’ to the material world, to search for spiritual truths.”

The first wrong is that, this is an attachment-to-NO. It says, the material world is NOT existing or, at least, NOT good. That is an extreme thinking about the world. The world does exist, though fleeting.

The second wrong is that it separates the material world and the spiritual world. These two worlds are not different but, indeed, the same. “Form is not different from Void, Voit is not different from Form. Form is Void, Void is Form” (Sắc bất dị Không, Không bất dị Sắc. Sắc tức thị Không, Không tức thị Sắc) (The Hear Sutra). Our body and our spirit are the same. No spirit without the body, and no body without the spirit.

The third wrong is that it considers the material is bad and the spiritual is good. They both – material and spiritual – are the same, and neither good nor bad. If we’re ignorant, they are bad because we think bad and do bad. If we’re enlightened, they are good.

Well, that is the big misunderstanding in the Buddhist world for millions of people, for thousands of years, till now. Please don’t get stuck in it.

OK, my dears, to conclude, Buddhist teachings are common sense, flexible and creative, not the mysterious ancient language they seem to be. (Well, they were written about 25 centuries ago, that is only 2 thousand 500 years, what do you expect? Not like iPhone texting, OK?)

Wish you all stand everywhere but not stick anywhere.

With compassion,

Hoành

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