Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.

Bhikkhus, the teaching is merely a vehicle to describe the truth. Don’t mistake it for the truth itself. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The finger is needed to know where to look for the moon, but if you mistake the finger for the moon itself, you will never know the real moon. The teaching is like a raft that carries you to the other shore. The raft is needed, but the raft is not the other shore. An intelligent person would not carry the raft around on his head after making it across to the other shore. Bhikkhus, my teaching is the raft which can help you cross to the other shore beyond birth and death. Use the raft to cross to the other shore, but don’t hang onto it as your property. Do notbecome caught in the teaching. You must be able to let it go.

To be loved means to be recognized as existing.

When an unpleasant feeling, physical or mental, arises in him, the wise man does not worry, complain, weep, pound his chest, pull his hair, torture his body and mind, or faint. He calmly observes his feeling and is aware that it is only a feeling. He knows that he is not the feeling, and he is not caught by the feeling. Therefore, the pain cannot bind him. When he has a painful physical feeling, he knows that there is a painful physical feeling. He does not lose his calmness, does not worry, does not fear, and does not complain. Thus the feeling remains a painful physical feeling, and it is not able to grow and ravage his whole being.

The source of suffering is a false belief in permanence and the existence of separate selves.

He saw that the key to liberation would be to break through ignorance and to enter deeply into the heart of reality and attain a direct experience of it. Such knowledge would not be the knowledge of the intellect, but of direct experience.

If we lose the present moment, we lose life.

If you want your loved ones to be happy, you must learn to understand their sufferings and their aspirations. When you understand, you will know how to relieve their sufferings and how to help them fulfill their aspirations. That is true love. If you only want your loved ones to follow your own ideas and you remain ignorant of their needs, it is not truly love. It is only a desire to possess another and attempt to fulfill your own needs, which cannot be fulfilled in that way.

He realized that body and mind formed one reality which could not be separated. The peace and comfort of the body were directly related to the peace and comfort of the mind. To abuse the body was to abuse the mind.

Bụt đã ghi dấu chân trên mọi nẻo đường hành hóa. Đi đâu đại đức cũng sẽ dẫm lên dấu chân của người. Đường xưa còn đó, những đám mây trắng vẫn còn, nếu mình bước một bước trên con đường nầy, bước với tâm trạng an hòa và tỉnh thức, thì con đường xưa và những đám mây trắng cũ sẽ mầu nhiệm biến thành con đường hôm nay và những đám mây trắng trong hiện tại. Những đám mây trắng ngày xưa còn đó và con đường ngày xưa hiện thực nằm dưới chân ta. (trích ĐXMT, trang 675)

Everything in the universe is created by our own mind. Our mind is the source of all phenomena. Form, sound, smell, taste, and tactile perception such as hot and cold, hard and soft—these are all creations of our mind. They do not exist as we usually think they do. Our consciousness is like an artist, painting every phenomenon into being. Once you have attained the state of the realm of no materiality, you will have succeeded. The realm of no materiality is the state in which we see that no phenomenon exists outside of our own mind.

The lion is king of the beasts. When he leaves his den, he stretches and gazes out over all the directions. Before seeking his prey, he lets forth a mighty roar that causes the other creatures to tremble and flee.- Birds fly high, crocodiles dive beneath the water, foxes slip into their holes. Even village elephants, decked in fancy belts and ornaments and shaded by golden parasols, run away at the sound of that roar.-Community, the proclamation of the Way of Enlightenment is like that lion’s roar! …..False doctrines fear and tremble. When Impermanence, Non-self, and Dependent Co-arising are proclaimed, all those who have long sought false security in ignorance and forgetfulness must awaken, celestial beings as well as human beings. When a person sees the dazzling truth, he exclaims, ‘We embraced dangerous views for so long, taking the impermanent to be permanent, and believing in the existence of a separate self. We took suffering to be pleasure and look at the temporary as if it were eternal. We mistook the false for the true. Now the time has come to tear down all the walls of forgetfulness and false views.

This is, because that is. This is not, because that is not. This is born, because that is born. This dies, because that dies.

to accept life means to accept impermanence and emptiness of self. The source of suffering is a false belief in permanence and the existence of separate selves. Seeing this, one understands that there is neither birth nor death, production nor destruction, one nor many, inner nor outer, large nor small, impure nor pure. All such concepts are false distinctions created by the intellect. If one penetrates into the empty nature of all things, one will transcend all mental barriers, and be liberated from the cycle of suffering.

Life is illuminated by right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

Đường xưa còn đó, những đám mây trắng vẫn còn, nếu mình bước một bước trên con đường nầy, bước với tâm trạng an hòa và tỉnh thức, thì con đường xưa và những đám mây trắng cũ sẽ mầu nhiệm biến thành con đường hôm nay và những đám mây trắng trong hiện tại.

People were entrapped not only by illness and unjust social conditions, but by the sorrows and passions they themselves created in their own hearts and minds.

He saw the oneness of body and mind, that each and every cell of the body contained all the wisdom of the universe.

Friends, being lost in thoughts is one of the things that prevents us from making true contact with life. If you are ruled by worry, frustration, anxiety, anger, or jealousy, you will lose the chance to make real contact with all the wonders of life.

Người giải thoát là người không kẹt vào sự tham đắm mà cũng không kẹt vào chán ghét. Tham đắm và chán ghét đều là những sợi dây ràng buộc. Người tự do là người vượt thoát cả tham đắm lẫn chán ghét. Do sự vượt thoát đó, người ấy an trú trong tịnh lạc. Niềm hạnh phúc của người đó không thể nào đo lường được. Những cố chấp về vô thường và vô ngã cũng không có mặt nơi người ấy.

He knew that even his own father’s authority was fragile and restricted—a king did not possess true freedom but was imprisoned by his position.

Her smile was as fresh as a half-opened lotus. Siddhartha bowed and looked into her eyes, saying in a quiet voice, “Thank you, princess.

The one contains the many and the many contains the one. Without the one, there cannot be the many. Without the many, there cannot be the one.

The truth is the truth, whether or not it is accepted by the majority. Therefore, I tell you children, it takes great courage to stand up for and protect what is right.

Time passes quickly, Great King. If I don’t use the strength and energy I now possess as a young man, old age will arrive too soon and I will feel deep regret.

Hạnh phúc trước hết là sự tỉnh thức. Một cái nhìn đầy hiểu biết, một nụ cười bao dung, một câu chuyện nói thương yêu, một bữa cơm quây quầy trong đầm ấm và tỉnh thức... đó là hạnh phúc trong hiện tại.Nuôi dưỡng sự tỉnh thức trong hiện tại, ta sẽ tránh không gây khổ đau cho ta và cho những người sống chung quanh, ta và bên cạnh ta. Bằng cái nhìn, bằng lời nói, bằng nụ cười, bằng những cử chỉ săn sóc nhỏ, ta tạo ra hạnh phúc cho ta và cho một người ngay trong giây phút hiện tại. Hạnh phúc này không cần đến giàu sang và danh vọng.

Siddhartha looked at Yasodhara and then confusedly at the ornaments remaining on the table. He appeared flustered—there was nothing on the table worthy of Yasodhara’s beauty. Suddenly he smiled. He removed the necklace around his own neck and held it out to Yasodhara. “This is my gift to you, princess.

Ở đời, ít người biết nhìn bằng con mắt thương yêu. Vì vậy họ ác độc với nhau, họ không tha thứ cho nhau.

If one’s perceptions were accurate, reality revealed itself with ease; but if one’s perceptions were erroneous, reality was veiled. People were caught in endless suffering because of their erroneous perceptions: they believed that which is impermanent is permanent, that which is without self contains self, that which has no birth and death has birth and death, and they divided that which is inseparable into parts.

Everything depends on everything else. The One contains the many, and the many contains the One