by Master Sheng-yen

In day-to-day living, you may find it extremely difficult to settle the mind. It might seem that the only time the mind feels settled is when there is nothing to do. When something happens, either externally or internally, or when you encounter gain or loss, the emotions are engaged and the mind becomes disturbed.

Most of us wish to have peaceful, undisturbed minds and to be able to put down attachments and keep our minds open. We may even have ideas on how to accomplish such clarity and tranquility and offer our advice to others. Yet, when personal adversity strikes, often all theories go out of the window and we cannot settle our minds no matter what we do.

Recently, I visited Arizona and noticed that almost all the vegetation in the desert had needles instead of leaves. Small plants had small needles and big plants had big needles. Even some of the flowers had needles. Someone told me that these needles serve as protection from the heat of the sun by reducing the amount of evaporation of water. Their primary purpose is not to hurt others. I tell you this story because we too may have our needles and thorns. We need not think of them as weapons to hurt others but rather as a device to protect or conserve our energy.

If you become disturbed, unbalanced, vexed, or angry every time you encounter adversity, you will undoubtedly lose a lot of energy. These negative reactions arise because you think others are wrong or the situation is wrong, and you strive to avoid, reject or fix it. But before you "fix" it, you have already hurt yourself. First, you are hurt by others, which is bad enough, but then you hurt yourself more by generating and clinging to negative reactions. So in truth you receive the damage twice, or even more often.

On the other hand, if you maintain a balanced mind when encountering adverse situations, there is only one level of damage, as you do not add damage on top of damage. Better yet, you may reach a point where you no longer view the situation as something bad. One of the reasons why we practise is so that we can maintain an undisturbed mind in all situations.

It seems that people create problems more than they resolve them. People who create problems have disturbed, unbalanced minds. To them, everything is problematic, and in dealing with their problems, they inadvertently create more problems. In a traffic jam, some people lean on the horn even though they know it won't make other cars move any faster, and then others honk their horns because the first honkers are annoying them. In the end they have just added noise on top of noise. To me, the world often seems like this.

Have you noticed how quiet it is when it is snowing? It is because snow absorbs sound. There is much to learn from snow. When you encounter adversity, instead of reacting negatively, allow your mind to absorb and dissolve the problem. In this way your mind will be undisturbed and at peace. Practise so that any and all problems disappear. This is an excellent method for daily life.

Venerable Master Sheng-yen

Ven. Sheng-yen is a foremost teacher in contemporary Buddhism. His teachings, writings and personal example have been felt in both the East and West. Born in Shanghai, Ven. Sheng-yen was ordained at 13. At 28 he had a deep spiritual experience after which he completed a six-year solitary retreat. Master Sheng-yen has received Dharma transmission in the two major branches of Ch'an Buddhism: the Lin-Chi (Japanese Rinzai) and the Ts'ao-Tung (Japanese Soto).

Ven. Sheng-yen is a living gem of contemporary Buddhism. He has lectured at more than 40 US universities and in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Europe. Ven. Sheng-yen has led more than 140 Zen retreats and published more than 100 books. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama once described Ven. Sheng-yen as "extremely modest, a true spiritual practitioner of deep and broad learning."

Ven. Sheng-yen will be speaking in Vancouver Dec. 20 at Canada Place. For more see
http://western chanfellowship.org/dharmatalks/