Buddhism As Education

What is need? It is the things that you cannot live without, such as sunlight, air, moisture, a minimum of food, cloths to fend off the cold, a house to shelter you from the wind and the rain. In our time, basic transportation, computers and telephones have become needs too. Having these necessities is not indulgence. What is indulgence? It is those luxuries and adornments beyond what is necessary. It is things that only serve to satisfy your vanity or to keep up appearances. Nevertheless, in certain situations and in accordance one's position, one must have a certain level of elegance in order to suit the occasion. That can be counted as a need, but one must have a sense of propriety. The things we truly need in life are really quite few. From subjective perspective, however, one might really feel that without a certain thing, his life will be empty, forlorn and meaningless. This is a personal value judgment. So, looking solely at need, we find that the definition is very hazy. Wh...

The root cause of people’s problems is that they are too content, therefore they have drawn innumerable and endless calamities onto themselves. To cultivate Buddhahood is to learn from the Buddha. Irrespective of status, professions, all must learn the spirit of the Buddha, the ideas of Buddha and the compassion of Buddha, and implement all these qualities in their daily lives. Therefore, our life style should be modest and content. Excess is shared with all sentient beings. This is the difference between Buddhas-Bodhisattvas and the lay people: The Buddhas-Bodhisattvas share their good fortune with everybody while the lay people indulge in their good fortune, unwilling to share their fortune with others. This is over content. The saying, “six roots are pure, tainted not by one dust” actually means that the six roots i.e. eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind remain unperturbed in face of temptation. It does not mean a state of purity attained by eschewing social contact. If upon facin...