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Friendship and Brotherhood
Today marks the end of the winter retreat at Phuong Khe Monastery, where the young sangha and many lay friends have returned to practice, receiving the Five Mindfulness Trainings with Dharma names beginning with Tam (Mind) and Nguyen (Vow). Ordination brings about a spiritual family that is much larger than our blood family, where each monk and nun becomes a father, mother, brother, or sister according to the Dharma, not according to blood lineage. The sangha is built on love and understanding; every thought, word, and action is aimed at cultivating collective happiness and transmitting the seeds of Buddhahood to future generations.
Members of the spiritual family address each other as follows:
- Su Phu (spiritual father)
- Su Huynh, Su Thuc, Su Ba (elder brothers and uncles in the Dharma)
- Su Em, Su Chu (younger siblings and nephews in the Dharma)
- Su Ong, Su Ba, Su To (spiritual grandfather, grandmother, and ancestors in the Dharma)
The work of a practitioner is to sow the seeds of mindfulness, concentration, insight, loving kindness, and inclusiveness for both monastic and lay disciples, through Wake Up groups, retreats, books, or the electronic temple with the Three Gates, Dharma hall, library, and the Purple Cloud platform. The seeds of the Dharma spread everywhere like dandelions in the wind, creating a strong and harmonious sangha. Brotherly love (maitri – loving kindness) is not just a title, but must be practiced through living together, sharing happiness and suffering, and even small actions like picking up trash, in order to sow the seeds of non-discriminative love, which is the foundation for the happiness of the sangha.