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We Are the Continuation of the Buddha
Dwelling happily in the present moment means to live peacefully and at ease right in the here and now: “present” is what is happening, “dharma” is the teachings, “dwelling happily” is to live happily and at ease. Through the Upāsaka Sūtra, the Buddha taught the lay friend Anāthapiṇḍika and about 500 merchants to practice the Three Refuges and the Four Recollections (recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and the Precepts) so that each step and each breath brings joy and peace. The practice is not to wait for happiness in the future, but to enjoy joy right in every moment: when washing the dishes, cooking rice, sweeping the house… we need to have full mindfulness so that the mind is not caught in worries and anxieties.
The Buddhadharma is a living body that has gone through three periods (early, middle, and late) and is transformed according to cultural context. In forty-five years of teaching, the World-Honored One skillfully “transformed” the prevailing ideas of the time (rebirth, the Four Immeasurable Minds…) into distinctive teachings, and left behind the essence:
- The Four Noble Truths;
- The Noble Eightfold Path – the path of right practice;
- The Three Dharma Seals – impermanence, non-self, Nirvāṇa;
- The Three Doors of Liberation – Emptiness, Signlessness, Aimlessness;
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The teaching of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (some sutras mention 6, 9, or 12 links).
The Buddhadharma continued as the Mahāyāna through the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and so on, about 300–400 years after the Buddha’s passing, and then entered Tibet, Thailand, China, and Japan by harmonizing with local cultures. Today, monks and lay friends are invited to continue “turning the Dharma wheel” with wisdom and insight, digesting new cultural elements so that the Dharma is always alive, serving the suffering of society, and deeply integrating into the present moment.
