Earth Treasure Dharma Gathering — Houston, 09 August 2010
Dear Venerable!
For the first time, I came to you, with the Service Compassion Society. My emotions are filled with emotion as if I were entering a new world; The colorful world of love, enthusiasm, service, and sacrifice. A world in which man desires commitment to others, and society; It is a far cry from the world I live in out there, a world full of material pitfalls, where man struggles to survive, to satisfy the trivial desires of the body.
Teacher! I’m both happy, sad, and ashamed.
Merry. Because I have found a new world full of love, full of nobility. A bodhisattva world, where everyone participates with a spirit of service, with the aim of giving others peace.
Sad. Because I found this world too late. I’ve wasted so many years of my youth! In the world of material drunkenness, after all-night fun, waking up still finds yourself alone, alone. Far from the world full of love, cozy teachers like here.
I am ashamed of my years of indulgence. Work, have money, dress well, only know how to replenish your selfish body. In fact, in the order of a society, I am not at fault. But for the little brothers and sisters, my students, the guilt in you continues to grow. I felt so small, too ordinary for those beautiful souls.
Dear Venerable!
Looking at the way he taught his disciples, the way he treated them, the way he socially played with them, I saw him as both a friend, a brother, a brother, and a child of them. I have realized the differences between 21st century Buddhism and ancient Buddhism. The time when the “Master” had become obsolete for his teaching was gone, a time when he was more than his father was no longer relevant to his teaching. A time when teachers were sometimes too majestic, too strict, too isolated, were no longer present in his teaching. But I love you so much, my way of teaching makes us love you more, respect you more, be much closer to you, Sir.
Dear Venerable!
How can you remember all your students’ names? Your students are countless. I think it takes a deep desire, an infinite love, to do so. You have given all your loving heart, you have given all his great bodhisattva heart to them, sowing in their hearts the highest races of man, which is love and service of fellow human beings. They have loved and served others, devoting their precious efforts and time to life, to religion. Your students have been sharing his boundless love with others, for their fellow human beings. They have been cultivating in the world so many bodhisattva germs, implanting in the hearts of this suffering and confusion, the seeds of love and hope. The world has been and is having so many more fruits of human love, to ease the pain of human being.
Dear Venerable!
Listening to the Teacher of the Tibetan Bodhisattva has returned to this earth for countless lives to save sentient beings. I have felt the fragility of life. The three thousand-thousand-day of a human life is just a wink of this infinite, infinite universe. I’ve wasted almost half of the cosmic wink on my life. I wish that even if there is only one end of my life, I will always be good, will forever nurture in the heart of the bodhisattva tree. I will join you and you, you, to sow and nurture the seeds of love, for the people to suffer less and more beautiful. And I believe that one day I will call you my name lovingly as I have been calling you, my beloved students.
Nguyễn Việt Trình
