Last thursday, a good friend of mine, Xuezhen posted a message in Facebook via the application 'God wants You to Know' and the message went, "On this day, God wants you to know that your pilgrimage to God is your pilgrimage to yourself. It's never too late to start and it's never too soon to take one more step on your pilgrimage." and she wondered what it meant.
When i read this post, it popped into my mind almost instantaneously what Thay Thich Nhat Hanh mentioned extensively in his books and Dhamma talks, the Here and Now. He talked about Amitabha Buddha's Pure Land and how it can be achieved here in this very present moment, in the Here and Now and all of us can do so by simply residing in this very present moment.
When we are here and now, mindful and fully aware of the present moment without being distracted by the past and future, the mind does not crave or cling. Mind settles down bit by bit, becoming calm and peaceful, naturally free of worries and anxieties. Without any unwholesome thoughts, our minds are clear and our hearts light. We are happy, we are blissful and we have already arrived in Pure Land.
Thay could not have said it better - a quote from him, "If you practice correctly, you know the Buddha is already in your own heart, that God is already in your own heart. You can see that the Pure Land, that the Buddha is right here in your own heart. God is not somewhere else. If you study the Christian mystics, you can see that God is right here. In Plum Village we have often said, 'The Pure Land is here and now.' Nirvana is not a realm you attain after you die. Nirvana is something that is available right here and now. We have to put nirvana in the right place: right here and right now. Nirvana is here and now."
In the same spirit, i left a comment on her post that from what i understood, our friends of the Christian faith has the belief that we are made in the image of God. And therefore the Kingdom of God is available in the present moment and within ourselves. If we understand and have faith in that, there is no need to search outwardly for a path to the Gates of Heaven and we only simply need to look within ourselves and journey inwards to be with Him in his Heavenly Palace.
In Thay's recent tour in Southeast Asia during September this year, he stopped by Singapore and held a 5 day retreat in Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery. During the retreat, he held a Dhamma talk one of the evenings that was opened to the members of public. I had the good fortune to attend it and for that i have to thank Ryan who had a spare ticket. During the talk, Thay spoke of how Pure Land and Kingdom of God can be achieved in the here and now.
With good humour, he spoke of how we carry portable entertainment devices such as IPods, mobile phones and e-book readers to bring happiness to ourselves everywhere we go. And for him, he too has portable enjoyment, portable happiness that he brings everywhere he goes - his Portable Pure Land. And i know his portable happiness is way better than any of ours. IPods, mobile phones and e-book readers can run out of battery or breakdown due to wear and tear, rendering fustration but Portable Pure Land requires no batteries and will not wear out due to usage. In fact, the more you practice and use Pure Land, the more vivid it becomes, the more vibrant it will be. Seems like Thay has the better version of portable happiness. =)
So have we practiced mindfulness today and have you brought your Portable Pure Land, Portable Kingdom of God with you? If you have not, let's rest a moment and touch base with ourselves to enter Pure Land, to enter the Kingdom of God.
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