Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Do you know what is most important in teaching and learning?

That is repetition.

Learning anything, you need to repeat what you learn often, again and again, to gradually have a deeper and deeper understanding of that subject.

Repetition comes from the teacher, who will repeat to what s/he has taught the students, over and over again every time s/he sees the relevancy of an old lesson in the new lesson, or assign homework to students to repeat what they have learned in the class, in the form of exercises or quizzes. Say, teaching second graders to do addition and subtraction. The teacher will assign addition and subtraction exercises everyday to the children to work at home.

If you learn cooking, you have to cook everyday for 3 or 4 years before you may have the honor to stand in a row of chefs.

Learning to play guitar? You marry to the guitar for at least 4 years before doing a serious public performance.

Repetition helps us to master the subject that we have learned.

That is why people go to church weekly, to do exactly the same thing in each Mass and to hear the preacher preach several points over and over again, for life, such as love people, love God, don’t lie, don’t kill, don’t be arrogant… The faithful need to be reminded about those simple commands again and again and to (hopefully) practice them again and again in their daily life.

People recite sutras (like the Heart Sutra) or prayers (like the Lord’s prayer and Ave Maria) every day, repeating a sutra or prayer many times in each daily session, so that they can absorb the deep teaching of the sutra or prayer gradually into their sacred heart (tâm linh).

I have written about 5000 trà đàm, to remind you brothers and sister about 4, 5 basic points only, every day. The purpose is for you to read every day and (hopefully) to practice every day, so that you will understand those fundamental points deeper and deeper every day. You always can go deeper. Spiritual knowledge never stops growing. There is no place called the final destination of spiritual knowledge beyond which you cannot go – always room for further advancement.

So, if you want to grow and master anything, remember the principle of repetition: repeat it again and again, every day, nonstop, for life.

Wish we all become masters.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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