LETTING GO: WORLDLY VS SPIRITUAL PURSUITS
Question: Hello Master, you once mentioned that the more one gains in his career in the secular world, the lesser blessings he is going to receive in heaven. Master, how can we ensure that while we strive hard at work, we are not placing excessive value on our worldly achievements such as career?
Answer: We need to learn to accord with conditions when it comes to how much we can make out of our career as it is the blessings you receive from Bodhisattva. However, when it comes to your spiritual cultivation, you need to exert unceasing effort to dedicate yourself to progress. This is because your success on this path is solely reliant on yourself by virtue of discipline, patience and diligence.
As for the worldly things, we should just tell ourselves, “I have enough of everything”. After all, we can still get by with just a sufficient amount of most things in life and hence, do not be too greedy.
Our greed for worldly things is insatiable. When you get your hands on one thing, you only end up desiring for more. However, when you dedicate yourself to progress in Buddhism studies, what you get is an elevation of your spiritual state – a state that helps you let go of the many worldly things.
We should not live like farm cattles, being whipped into the field every morning, toiling for the whole day and feeling content with a little grass and water.
Our life should not revolve solely around work for the sake of survival; neither should we go all out to make a living. This is not right. We need to be happy, in the things we do. You should instil an attitude where you go, “I will do what I should do; things that I shouldn’t do, I won’t do it. Whatever I can manage, I will do and I will try my best to help others”.
“However, I have to be very strict with my spiritual cultivation. I will never allow myself to slack. I am a Buddhist practitioner, a Bodhisattva. Hence, I should not be greedy in life; I must learn to be content. However, when it comes to spiritual cultivation, I am all for a higher level of spirituality.
What do we pursue on a spiritual level? It is the elevation of a state-of-mind in order to be liberated from the mundane world. Such pursuit is neither a form of supplication nor it is a type of worldly desire.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Public Talk, Question & Answer, New York, USA, 13 October 2018
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