Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We see often in the movies a scene of leaving and loneliness – a person, man or woman, for some sad reason, leaves town – waiting at the bus station, boarding a bus, taking a seat by the window, and quiely looking out the window with trees, cars, houses and people flashing backward, while his/her memory also flashing back the memorable scenes from his/herpast. That is movie directors’ familiar scene of leaving in loneliness. Sometimes the bus is replaced by a train. Bus or train, the idea is the same – when you make a break from the past, you are lonely and your past life flashes through and away from your mind, probably for the last time.

You probably will experience the same thing in your spiritual life. When you decide to make a break from your past to enter a true spiritual life – dropping greed, anger, and arrogance (tham sân si) and entering a world of humility, honesty and loving (khiêm tốn, thành thật, yêu người), you may feel lonely leaving your past world behind, because no one in that world can recognize the new you with a complely new attitude. They think you are having some kind of mental breakdown. When that happens, you know you have entered a new world with the new you.

In the other hand, if you haven’t got that experience, you either haven’t got the Big Change yet or you are getting there at a speed so slow that you don’t even feel anything.

I am talking about this experience so that you know when you actually enter a spiritual life – focusing intensely on purifying your heart – you will meet that sad goodbye experience of leaving a familiar and intimate world that is no longer familiar and intimate, and familiar and intimate people who are no longer familiar and intimate – they think you are sick, or faking saintly, or hiding something horrible.

When the sixth Zen patriarch Hui Neng (Huệ Năng) was recognized as Enlightened and given cassock and alms-bowl to become the next Zen leader, he had to leave his school quietly and lived many years in cognito just to survive the dangers from his jealous Zen classmates.

Buddha Sakyamuni had an opponent who constantly tried to harm him and his work. That opponent was his cousin Devadatta.

And we all know how the life of a great teacher named Jesus ended – on the cross.

Spiritual life can be difficult with peer pressure. People don’t like and don’t trust whoever different from them.

So, don’t wait for social praises when you decided to live spiritually. Expect distances and rejections instead.

You do not enter spiritual life to gain praise and respect. You enter spiritual life for your purified, loving and humble heart – to love, but not to be loved. If people love you, you’re lucky. If people hate you, you’re lucky too.

To be sure, keep in mind that people have presecuted your master, who are you not to be persecuted also?

If you enter the spiritual life to gain respect or fame, you are on the wrong road and not very spiritual.

The spiritual road is the road less travelled. However, you are always in the company of God, Buddhas, Saints, and Bodhisattvas.

Wish we all be courage on our spiritual road.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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