Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It is very interesting that the idea of “born again, rebirth, reincarnation” and the like is present in many cultures of the world – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and many religions around the world in small indigenous tribes and nations since the ancient time till now. The idea is some what different with each culture, but they all talk about refreshing our life and our soul with a new beginning. Continue reading Born again
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
When I was much younger, I understood the standard life is grabbing, gasping, fighting, lying, badmouthing, backstabbing… anything you do to win. Why? Because I saw everyone around me do that, almost no exception, and I understood that was the standard life, because I didn’t see any other lifestyles around. Continue reading What is the standard life?
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
If you check all the schools of spirituality of the world, you will realize that they all talk, in one way or another, about the great power inside everyone. Buddhism talks about Buddhahood in each of us. The Abrahamic tradition – Judaism, Christianity (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant), and Islam – teaches we all are children of God with Spirit of God in us. Advaita Vedanta Hinduism says Atman (a human) is a part of Brahman (God).
Even the non-spiritual schools of today talk about “the force” or “the energy” of the universe that we can activate to work in our favor to achieve what we want. I think these schools simply use the old concepts of the spiritual schools without mentioning the word “God”. Continue reading Believe in your great potential
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Let’s talk about heaven and hell in our heart.
If you look at children, you see heaven – children are always happy, innocent and playing.
We adults experience fears, worries, sorrow and anger, and we often find ourselves fighting, grabbing (chụp giật), and grasping (chấp), which leads to us being stressed all the time. That is hell. Continue reading Children and Heaven
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
There is a spiritual world parallel to our earthly world. That is the world of God and saints. Many earthlings can feel, see, hear, or experience it. That is the reason why religions have survived all over the world for thousands of years. And I have experienced communications with that spiritual world. Continue reading You and God (Ông/Bà Trời)
The Lion King là cuốn phim hoạt họa Walt Disney năm 1994, kể truyện về một Vương quốc Sư tử ở Châu Phi. Simba, chú sư tử nhỏ, có cha là vua sư tử Mufasa, vua của Pride Lands. Nhưng sau khi chú của Simba (người em đầy ganh tị của vua Mufasa), giết Mufasa, Simba bị lừa để nghĩ rằng mình chịu trách nhiệm về cái chết của vua cha và chạy trốn. Lớn lên với hai kẻ bụi đời lười biếng, Simba được người bạn từ tấm bé, Nala, và thầy phù thủy, Rafiki, giúp thông suốt ít chuyện về cuộc đời. Sau đó Simba trở về chiến đấu, thắng người chú giết cha, và nhận vị trí của mình trong Circle of Life như là vua chính thức. Continue reading Circle of Life – Vòng đời – phim The Lion King
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Probably the strongest statement about human faith in history comes from Jesus: “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (Mathew 17:20).
Wow, how do we tell this mountain to move from here to there, and the mountain will move? Can you do that? Probably if you have a huge construction company, they can do that for you; but if they have to break this mountain to pieces and build a new mountain from those pieces, it wouldn’t be the same mountain. Continue reading Faith as small as a mustard seed
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Life is not easy. I am sure that you all would agree to that. So, all the great teachers of the world, from the ancient times till today, have focused on one job: figuring out the way to make life easy and teach others to go that way.
I am in no way a great teacher, but I am doing that – figuring out the way to make life easy and teach you, my readers, to go that way. Continue reading Stay firm
500 Greatest Songs of All Times
Let It Be là bài hát của The Beatles phát hành năm 1970 trên đĩa đơn cũng như là một bài trong album Let It Be. Ngay sau khi phát hành bài hát lên đến hạng 6 trên Billboard Hot 100 của Mỹ. Bài này được Paul McCartney viết và hát và là đĩa đơn cuối cùng của The Beatles trước khi McCartney tuyên bố rời khỏi ban và ban tan rã.
Năm 1987, bài hát được ghi âm bởi nhóm thiện nguyện Ferry Aid (có Paul McCartney trong nhóm này), và lên đến hạng 1 trên bảng Đĩa Đơn của Anh trong 3 tuần, và lên top 10 ở nhiều nước Âu Châu. Continue reading Let it be – Hãy để tự nhiên
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Sun Tzu (Tôn Tử) said: “Know yourself, know your opponent, fight hundred battles, win hundred battles” (Tri kỷ tri bỉ, bách chiến bách thắng). However, if you know yourself, you already know 90% of your opponent, because between 2 persons, the similarity is 90% and the difference is about 10%.
The real problem is, most people don’t even know themselves. They don’t know any of their weaknesses – they talk before thinking, they lie without recognizing, they steal without understanding, they are arrogant without knowing, they are ignorant without accepting… If you don’t even know yourself, the chance for you to understand others is zero. The chance for you to win life battles is close to zero (You still can win by luck when you fight against ignorant people like you. But the chances for you to win wise people is zero).
So, know yourself and you will win all life battles. If you know yourself well, you already understand 90% of your opponent, only 10% left for you to study.
People who don’t know themselves, know nothing about others, and nothing about life strategies, because life strategies are the ways of dealing with other people.
Practicing Four Kinds of Mindfulness Zen (thiền tứ niệm xứ) will help you know yourself deeply. You can practice it about 15m to 30m a day. Very soon you will always be aware of what you are thinking or doing. Below is my simple version of Four Kinds of Mindfulness. But you only need to practice the first three to know yourself, the last one is to know the entire universe.
Start by sitting crossed-legs like the man in the picture below, keeping everything out of your mind, and follow your breathing in and out. This is simple Breathing Zen to calm you down. Do it for several minutes.
1. Now start the first mindfulness: Observe your body. Close your eyes and use your mind to observe the way you are sitting, the way your legs cross, the way your hands are placed, the way your back straightens, your neck straightens… Observe your entire body .
2. Second mindfulness: Observe your feeling. First, physical feeling. Observe the feeling of the body – you are itchy where, aching where, uncomfortable where… Then move to observing the emotional feeling: are you feeling happy, a little sad, a little angry, some no-name discomfort in the mind…
3. Third mindfulness: Observe your mind/your thinking: What you are thinking? You may try to figure out why you feel a little sad? Or you are thinking about work tomorrow? Or you are asking how to calm the mind down… Look at all your thoughts in the mind. Just observe and don’t try to do anything with what you see.
4. Fourth mindfulness: Observe all elements are non-self, non-permanent. This, you don’t need to do to know yourself.
Your awareness of yourself will increase very fast. Years ago, a doctor friend of mine got some personal problem, and I taught him the first three kinds of mindfulness above. After one week, I met him again, and he told me happily: “The Zen you teach me is amazing. Now I am so aware of myself, what I feel and what I think. And I become much calmer, less depressed, and much more focusing.”
So, brothers and sisters, know yourself and conquer the world.
With compassion,
Hoành
© copyright 2024
Trần Đình Hoành
Permitted for non-commercial use
www.dotchuoinon.com
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
God has so many names in different cultures of the world, probably we can count to the thousands. But there is one single name of God that has fascinated me over many years. That is the name “I Am Who I Am” or, short form, “I Am” when God told Moses His name:
Moses said to God, “They ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. This is what you are to say to [them]: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
“This is my name forever,
the name you shall call me
from generation to generation. (Exodus 3:13-15)
If God’s name is “The Supreme Spirit” or “The Utmost Almighty”, I wouldn’t be surprised, but “I Am Who I am” or “I am” really challenge my intellect.
Imagine you go to a company to meet someone about a potential contract, you ask your counterpart: “May I know your name?” and he answer, “My name is I Am Who I Am, or I Am for short,” what would be your reaction? “Thank you, Mr. I Am Who I Am”?
Strange as it is, it has a deep philosophical meaning. Usually, each of us has a name with a meaning. Say, Dũng means courageous, Hùng means the bear or hero as anh hùng, Huệ means lily, Mai means plum blossoms… But you really can’t give God a name with an attribute, because God is Absolute. God cannot be limited by any attribute. So, the name I Am Who I Am contains nothing that can limits God. That is really superb philosophical thinking. ( I am assuming that some philosopher gave birth to that name of God. The faithful may tell me: “You idiot, there was no philosopher. That is God told Moses what God’s name was.” “Yes, Sir, Amen.”)
Anyway, the absolute name of “I Am Who I Am” is very much similar to the name of the absolute nature of everything in the universe in Buddhist philosophy: Không, the Void. The ultimate nature of everything in the universe, the foundation on which everything stands, is the Absolute, therefore there is nothing that we can use to name the Absolute, so we call the Absolute “The Void” or “Không.”
(It sounds almost like “Nothingness” of existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Satre, but the Void, Không, is not Nothingness. It is the Absolute – the ultimate nature of everything and the foundation on which everything and every phenomenon exists and stands. This is very similar to the concept that God is the cause and the foundation on which everything and every phenomenon exists and stands. God of the God-based traditions is not much different from the Void, Không, of the Buddhist tradition – both are the Absolute foundation of all things. The only difference is that God is a personality and the Void (Không) has no personality).
So, that is God’s name I Am Who I am.
But God’s short name “I Am” is even more intriguing.
How many times in a day you say “I am”? – I am a teacher, I am sick to day, I am running late, I am going to the supermarket, I am happy, I am very disturbed…
Every time you say “I am” you repeat God’s name.
What does that mean?
That means, you are so close to God that you can’t even understand how close you are to God.
You are an image of God, no more no less.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
So, brothers and sisters, every time you say “I am” in the day, you are calling God, because you are so close to God, you are a part of God with God’s likeness in you.
You have the Spirit of God in you:
Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)
YOU ARE A PART OF GOD. YOU ARE HOLY.
Just remember, every time you say “I am” you are calling God’s name and reminding yourself that you are a part of God and God is in you.
How sacred and wonderful that is.
With compassion,
Hoành
© copyright 2024
Trần Đình Hoành
Permitted for non-commercial use
www.dotchuoinon.com
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This article is for the folks in the God-based religions (Hindu, Jew, Christian – Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant – Muslim). How much do you believe in God?
This question is crucial, because it is the question that rules everything in your life. Continue reading How much do you believe in God
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
If you have just graduated from university and are looking for job, or have just started a new job, chances are many of you will feel a little lost, because you’re not sure what job to look for, what should be your job for life, not mentioning where to look for the job you want…
And not only job, there are questions about life too – When I can buy a house? How many years from now? When should I marry? What kind of girl/boy I should merry? When should I have children? Do I care if my child is boy or girl? Should I explore religions? Should I have a religion? How should I choose a religion? Probably marry a religious girl/boy and follow her/his religion? That would be cool! Continue reading Life trinity – purpose, (un)certainty, happiness
Những ngày xa xưa đó chúng ta đã từng hát ca, đã từng hy vọng, đã từng mơ ước ta sẽ đổi thay thế giới. Rồi thời gian trôi qua, những cơn mơ từ từ khô héo và biến mất theo thời gian. Mỗi đứa chạy một dòng đời và dòng nào cũng làm mình tất bật và vật vã. Thế nên những mộng mơ xa xưa không còn đất sống. Continue reading Những ngày xa xưa đó
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
It seems today, busy parents tend to leave the children’s education totally in the hand of schools. That is the parents’ grave mistake and their children’s grave misfortune.
Schools don’t have enough time for our children, because their time is spent mostly on academic subjects. They don’t have enough time to focus on educating your kids to be good persons. Continue reading Parents need to educate their children
Đọt Chuối Non 