How Should a Buddhist Practitioner Face Daily Life? | Master Jingben
【Q&A Series】
How Should a Buddhist Practitioner Face Daily Life?
Master Jingben Answers: Namo Amitabha. Let me share a few points with you:
1. How should a reciter of the Name face daily life?
Reciting the Buddha-Name does not require abandoning your present life. Work well at what you should work at; fulfill your family duties and responsibilities as you normally would. We recite the Name right here, within these ordinary days — while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; in the gaps between tasks, or even while doing them, we can all recite "Namo Amitabha." This is what it means to "recite the Name within daily life, and live daily life within recitation."
2. But in a normal life, is there still time to recite often?
Yes, there is — please be at ease. The greatest convenience of reciting the Name lies precisely in this: it requires no specially set-aside block of time, is not particular about place, and needs no ritual whatsoever. In our daily lives there are, in fact, many scattered moments: while walking, while riding, while doing housework, while waiting in line, in moments of rest… all of these are times when we can recite. Take these moments that would otherwise pass by empty, and exchange them for one recitation after another of "Namo Amitabha" — and over the course of a day, you will actually have recited a great many. So a normal life and reciting often are not in conflict at all; the key is to let the Buddha-Name flow naturally into every detail of your life.
3. Must one constantly maintain the mind of renunciation?
For the reciter of the Name, the "mind of renunciation" is mainly expressed in the aspiration to "be reborn in the Pure Land." But this does not mean we must be perpetually tense, deliberately sustaining some intense feeling of world-weariness.
It is like a traveler far from home, who clearly knows that his native land is the home he will ultimately return to. Yet he does not need to weep day after day, nor steep himself constantly in homesick sorrow; he can still work with a settled heart and live his life well — it is only that the heart set on "returning home" has never once changed. When the time comes, he naturally sets out on the journey back.
Our aspiration to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss is just the same: once we sincerely wish to be reborn there and entrust ourselves to Amitabha, this "aspiration to be reborn" is already settled, and from then on we need only recite the Name with a peaceful heart — there is no need to be perpetually strained with world-weary emotion. This so-called "aspiration to be reborn" is simply the heart's clear understanding: that this Saha world is, in the end, suffering and impermanence, and that our ultimate direction is the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss — our true home. Carrying this clear understanding, we can in fact live all the more freely and at peace.
So: live your life with a settled heart, make use of the bits of time within daily life to recite the Name, and hold in your heart the aspiration to be reborn in the Pure Land — this is already very good. Entrust everything to Amitabha Buddha: recite with ease, live with ease. Namo Amitabha
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