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Focusing
the Heart in One Place
•By Living Buddha Lian-Sheng, Sheng-Yen Lu•
Translated by
Cheng Yew Chung. Edited by TBN
I want to say that most human beings are spiritually
sleeping or living in a state of spiritual coma, often unaware
why they are so busy at all. It is rare to find a moment of
peace and tranquility for oneself.
Think about it--
Don't you have to rush to the office to attend to business
everyday?
Don't you need to work overnight, overtime, and attend
meetings every day?
Don't you have to attend to endless housework every day?
Don't you have to attend to ceaseless trivial matters every
day?
Do you really enjoy a comfortable meal every day?
Do you really enjoy a good sleep every night?
……
We keep ourselves busy, and busily work until we fall sick
and die. I realize that there are simply too many trivial
matters in our lives, and it seems that keeping ourselves busy
is normal, and not being busy is abnormal. Human beings have
become a herd of deranged wild beasts, roaming in a world
filled with too much desire, their thoughts wandering from one
end to the other.
"Too little time!" says everybody.
Yet the Buddha says, "When you focus your heart in one
place, you can achieve everything!"
Amitabha Buddha says, "If your heart is undistracted,
you shall gain rebirth in the Buddha Land!"
We as practitioners are concerned with the heart. Of
course, you cannot cut yourself off from your daily life and
talk only about the heart, foregoing your office work, your
business, your household chores, and your trivial little
things. What I mean to say is that you must know how to
prioritize. What you need to let go, you let go. You cannot
want everything, and exhaust all your strength pursuing
everything. By doing so, nothing good is achieved.
Modern man—his mental focus is scattered and his heart is
restless.
We as practitioners—we focus our heart in one place.
We must keep to at least one practice session per day so
that our heart is not wandering too much. We practice to keep
our cultivation going, which helps to keep us awake
spiritually. It helps to maintain a tranquil state of mind and
spirit, so that we may experience the state of focusing the
heart in one place.
If you are simply too busy and too tired, recite just ten
minutes of the Buddha’s name or ten minutes of mantra! It is
true that material desires may come to us from every
direction, but we must ask ourselves, what is it that we can
truly own forever?
We must learn to let go!
For those who can focus their heart in one place are the
truly awakened ones!
--->回目錄
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