For Little Angels – Lesson 27

by master Duy Tue (originally in Vietnamese)

Lesson 27 – Knowing how to nurture and help your brain develop

Somebody is paralyzed. He can’t move his hands and his legs. He can’t speak. His brain, however, can work normally. That person can use his eyes, and his facial expressions to communicate with other people. He also knows how to help unhappy people feel less miserable. He can do that because of the magic of brain that can work properly.

Stephen Hawking, born 1942, is one of the world’s leading theoretical physicists in history. He is also a brilliant astrologist, a cosmologist, and a mathematician. His major research is in the fields of theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity. His outstanding research is “Large Scale Structure of Space – Time” (with George Ellis). Hawking, however, became famous mostly because of his works of popular science. His bestselling books include “A Brief History of Time (1986), “Black Holes and Baby Universe and Other Essays” (1993), and “The Universe in a Nutshell” (2001).

Stephen Hawking is an example about a person with a highly developed brain. People can do a lot of different things as long as their brain can work properly. This is true even when other parts of their body don’t work normally. It is because of the importance of the head that the helmet is needed to keep it safe.

When you are angry, the parts that make up your brain don’t do their work normally and your brain chemistry is out of balance. When somebody’s brain chemistry is out of balance, “the eye balls” in his brain will get crazy, and he may hit other people or burn the house down.

Your brain has, for example, ten eye balls to see and know. A person, when drunk, loses nine. The eye ball that doesn’t get broken will not see clearly and this drunk man may cause an accident if he is traveling in the street.

When a person is depressed, his brain works in a different way. This is also true when somebody is exceptionally happy.

For these reasons, you should live a balanced life. Don’t get too much or too little sleep. Don’t be too sad or too happy. Eat the food that is good for the brain, for instance, whole grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and fruit. Beef, on the other hand, because of the fat and cholesterol in it, is not good for the brain. Going to bed early is also good for your brain.

Learning some foreign languages and doing creative writing are among the things that help your brain develop.

Take care of your brain, you will come to discover that your brain has an amazing light of seeing. A special thing that your brain can do for you is to help you develop a broad understanding of life. And this development never comes to an end.

 

For Little Angels – Lesson 26

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 26 – Recognize and stay away from bad guys

Outside your house, there are bad people. You have to watch out. You are too young to really know what a bad guy is like.

How can you identify them?

Bad people often do two bad things, threatening and luring. They do these things because they want something from you.

They can trick you in different ways. They may say something that attracts to lead you into wrong or foolish actions. This is called luring. Remember my words and be careful when somebody sounds like luring or says something to fascinate you.

Not everyone who gives you a present is bad people. The problem is that you are a child and you don’t know when a person is bad. So think carefully before you take something from somebody. Don’t take a present just because you want it so much.

Why do fish get hooked in a fishing line? Because it likes the bait.

You shouldn’t accept a present easily when you don’t know the reason why it is given to you. If a stranger gives you some candy, you should thank him but don’t take it.

When evil people can’t trick you, they may threaten you. Tricking and threatening are the behaviors of bad people. You have to be aware and stay away from them.

For Little Angels – Lesson 25

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 25 – Good thoughts, good actions

Your grandparents, your uncles, or your cousins may live far away from you. Don’t put them out of your mind. Write to them or give them a call sometimes. You do this to maintain a blood relationship with them.

You may still think about your beloved family members when they are far away but if you don’t try to get in touch with them, your good thoughts for them, after a while, will be good for nothing. You have to turn the good thoughts in your head to good actions. Otherwise, your good thoughts would not help anyone or make anyone happy. If you just keep the good thoughts in your head, after many days they will turn into trash.

You are thankful to and concerned for people around you. Those are good thoughts. And remember to turn them into actions. Practice doing this at a young age and you will grow up living by the rule “Good Thoughts, Good Actions.”

Why actions are important? Because if you just think and don’t act, your brain won’t develop properly and you can’t see and understand things broadly without neglecting details.

For Little Angels – Lesson 24

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 24 – Giving Presents

Give presents and flowers to your parents, your friends, and your teachers.

By giving presents, you show your gratitude to and your love for those who love you. You give presents not because you want them to love you. Giving presents is the easiest thing you can do to show your gratefulness.

Some people say they love their parents but they don’t do anything for their parents to show their love. You shouldn’t be like that.

Let somebody see your love through what you do for them. Being grateful is how you show your respect and love to people around you.

For Little Angels: Lesson 23

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 23 – Learn to save money at a young age

When you help your parents out, say, helping your father mow the lawn, he may give you some money in return. You should save it for later use.

Your parents may have a lot of money but you when you grow up, you have to work to earn your own money. You can work for your parents to get paid or find a job outside. Save the money you earn and use it pursue the big goal in your life.

Learn to work and earn money for yourself. Don’t be picky about jobs. You can do little things like mowing the lawn or washing the car for your parents. When you work to earn your own money, you will understand the value of your hard work and also appreciate it when other people work hard.

For Little Angels – Lesson 22

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 22 – Learn to express what you see

Learn the habit of expressing what you see everyday. What color is the shirt that the teacher is wearing today? How do her shoes look? How do your school friends look? Is anyone tall? Is anyone short?

Looking and listening without judgments are two life skills that you need to be able to live a safe, productive, and pleasant life.

Practice looking and listening everyday, and your mind will be clear and bright.

For Little Angels – Lesson 21

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 21 – Be Grateful

You have to know the right way to be grateful. You should be thankful to your parents or anyone who has brought you up and loved you. Be thankful for everything that you possess.

Parents pay so that you can go to school. Your teachers help you learn in school. Your friends support you. So you have to show your gratitude for your parents, your teachers and your friends.

When your neighbor gives you some corn, you have to say thank you to your neighbor, and to the corn itself because it is something you can eat when you are hungry.

When you have a new pair of shoes, be grateful to the shoemaker who has made something you need for your feet to walk safely, and be grateful to the shoes themselves for supporting your feet.

 You should know that being grateful is a proper manner in Vietnamese culture.

 

For Little Angels – Lesson 20

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 20 – Being Kind and Honest

A kind person loves and helps other people, and never tells lies.

When you hear elders talk about God or great men, they are probably talking about someone who loves everyone with an enormous love and never lies.

 If you love and help other people, you will be loved and helped.

If you don’t lie, you will meet good people. If you lie, you will meet bad people.Don’t have bad thoughts about anyone and few people will think badly about you.Don’t think about how to get someone into trouble and nobody will ever do that to you.

Don’t take away anything which is not yours. Don’t steal from others.

For Little Angels – Lesson 19

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 19 – Sowing Good Seeds

When you play games too much, your head will get crazy because of the noise from the games. Your brain will get sick as you spend more time playing games. Your brain is like a car, which is made up of different parts. If you don’t wash it or have the maintenance service take care of it, it can’t work properly. Similarly, you have to take care of your brain. Relaxing and listening to soft music keep your mind bright and clear. If you spend too much time playing violent and noisy games, your brain will be damaged.

Your brain is like a garden that needs taking care by watering and pulling out weeds. You should take care of your brain by relaxing, listening to music, or taking a nature walk.

For Little Angels – Lesson 18

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 18 – A man of the future

Now that you are a boy, what do you need to know?

You need to do physical exercise. Don’t be like girls because girls are different from boys in nature. Don’t dress like girls, don’t whine, don’t paint your nails, don’t wear make-up, don’t play with dolls, don’t grow your hair long, and don’t trim your eyebrows.

You shouldn’t date a girl until you are 18 years old. Don’t try by all means to have what others have just to show off.

When in streets, or at school, don’t be afraid of strange people, even when you are threatened. Don’t fight, either.

Don’t feel sad, don’t feel hurt, and don’t feel sorry for yourself.

In brief, you have to make your body healthy and fit by doing exercise and playing sports and expand your understanding by observing and asking questions .

 

 

For Little Angels – Lesson 17

By master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 17 – Be disciplined or Responsibility

When your parents are busy with their work outside the home, you should take care of your little brothers or sisters. While waiting for them to come home, don’t play with the computer and don’t leave home. There are things that your parents tell you not to do, and you have to obey them. That is responsibility or self-discipline.

Your parents might tell you to get up early in the morning to do your homework, not to play games too much, or to stick to your timetable. If you don’t do those things, you are not responsible.

Your parents are hard on you because they know what is good for you. So you have to listen so that you can change in a good way.

Discipline also involves good manners. You have to be respectful to your older brothers and sisters, your teachers, and elders. You have to say hello and goodbye to visitors to your house in a polite way. Remember to wish everyone in your family a good day everyday when you get up and wish them a good night sleep before you go to bed.

Learn to do the right thing, even when no one is watching. Don’t just be responsible because you are asked to. Don’t just satisfy your feelings and have little concern for other people. That way of living is dangerous for you.

For Little Angels – Lesson 16

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 16 – Don’t Believe in Your Assumptions

When you guess something, you have to know what you guess is not the truth.

There is somebody in your class you don’t like very much. He sits next to you. One day you can’t find your pen and you think that he has taken it.  Your assumption starts like this:  This guy is not nice. Nobody in the class wants to play with him. He is sitting next to you. So he must be the one who has taken your pen. You believe he has stolen your pen although you cannot prove it.

Your guess might be true but it is unfair to suspect him when you do not have any evidence.

You can’t conclude anything about your friend until you have enough evidence, for example, you see your pen in his bag.

Don’t suspect other people without evidence.

For Little Angels – Lesson 15

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 15 – Focus on your talent

Do you know what talent means?

Everyone can be good at more than one thing. For example, you do well in math, geography, physics, and language arts. In which subject does your talent show? The subject that you like best and always have the highest scores of all.

You may like physics but your physics scores are not always high. You also like math and your math scores are always the highest in the class. If the teacher asked you to focus either on math or physics to receive a scholarship to go to college, which one would you choose? Pick math.

When it comes to considering a subject to invest your time and energy in, don’t make a decision according to your feelings. You should choose the subject where your talent is shown.

Focus on the subject that you have been doing excellently in school. Focus on developing your talent, not on what you want but are not sure how far you can go with.

For Little Angels – Lesson 14

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 14 – You have to believe in your ability

If a little boy your age can learn 4 foreign languages, you can do it too.

If somebody does well in school and has the first place in his class, it is also possible for you to do that.

If somebody can make a robot or a computer, you can, too.

You can do whatever people in the world are able to do. Never ever think that what somebody can do is beyond your ability.

Be confident that, like somebody, you can do something that nobody has ever done before, something that is beyond human’s imagination. Why? Everyone is born with their brains alike. Your brain is not an exception, so you can do what others can.

For Little Angels – Lesson 13

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 13 – Don’t think you are a loser

You shouldn’t think that you are poorer than other people or your parents live a harder life than others. Similarly, you should never think you are less smart than your friends or they are more talented than you. Your neighbor’s house is big or your friend’s parent is a big boss, don’t care about it. You shouldn’t compare yourself with anyone.

You should enjoy life and never get jealous, there is no other way than denying that you are a loser.  As I said, you have everything in your head. Your head will give you just what it takes for a pleasant life.

For Little Angels – Lesson 12

By Master Duy Tue

Lesson 12 – Don’t think you are a special person

You study very well or sing very well.  A lot of people tell you that and you think you are really special.  It is not right for you to think so. You should never think that you are a special person.  You have to understand that you are a normal person.

Even when other people admire you, you are still a normal person. If someone praises you, of course you have to thank them but you should  also know you are not a genius.

Don’t think you are better than anyone.

For Little Angels – Lesson 11

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

By Master Duy Tue

Lesson 11 – Praying

The magic of love will come in your life when you think about doing good for other people and pray for your beloved. Pray for your father. Pray that he won’t gamble or drink, that he will work hard to feed and raise you and your siblings. One of the best ways to bring up this issue with him is telling him something like this, “Daddy, money you earn from gambling and in dishonest ways is not the right money to bring us up to be smart and good for the society.”

Pray that your mother will be well, happy, hard-working and lucky. If there’s something that makes her upset, pray that she will be gentle with her words so that the peace in the family won’t be disturbed.

Pray that your parents will live happily together.

Pray that your brothers and sisters will have good health, listen to your parents, study hard, and won’t lie. Pray that they will always be smart and love other people.

Pray that you yourself will have good health, understand your school lessons, finish your homework, be fluent in some foreign languages, etc.

Wish yourself those things so that you will grow up to be an understanding person with a loving heart.

For Little Angels – Lesson 10

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

Lesson 10 – Don’t think that your friend is less than you

When somebody can’t do what you can, don’t think he is a loser. It is better to wish that he would be as great as you are. If he doesn’t understand a lesson, you should try every possible way to help him figure it out. You need to help him study so that he will be just as good as you.

If someone is better at mathematics or language arts than you, don’t hate him or get jealous of him, be nice to him. Talk to him and ask him to share his experience in studying those subjects, and be grateful for his help.

For Little Angels – Lesson 9

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

by Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 9 – Six important things to learn

 Your life will get better everyday if you understand the importance of the following things and practice them.

1. Ability to use foreign languages: You should be able to speak at least three languages. Why? Because it will help you communicate with people in other countries when you travel out of your country. Being able to read in languages other than your first language allows you to get more from what is known and written by people around the world. You can find information in different languages from the Internet. If you can speak some foreign languages, you will have more opportunities to meet and talk with people around the world. You will be wanted by more companies, more people, and more countries. Language fluency will help you open your mind.

2. Ability to use computers: Information technology is an important part of our life today. Therefore, you need to know how to use a computer to do different kinds of work. Being able to use a computer connects you with the world in which you are living.

3. Not believing what you haven’t seen or understood: You should trust what you see, what you hear, and what you know by your life experience. Don’t trust and live by other people’s guidance until you know whether their ideas are right or wrong. I hope you will not readily believe what you haven’t understood or seen.

4. Staying away from cruel and selfish people, but don’t hate them. You should practice loving them instead.

5. Paying attention, observing, and listening: The habits that help you in many ways and you should learn are paying attention, observing, and listening.

6. Whether or not to answer a question: When somebody asks you a question, you shouldn’t give your answer right away. Look into his or her eyes before you decide whether or not to answer.

For Little Angels – Lesson 8

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 8 – Helping

For example: In your class there is someone really fat. Everyone in class always makes fun of him. That guy also has one thing that you don’t like. He often breaks in a conversation earlier than expected or starts talking before the other person finishes his or her words. What do you do so that he will not interrupt when somebody talks and everyone will not make fun of him.

If you want to help him, you have to choose your words carefully so as not to make anyone upset. With those who like making fun of your fat friend, tell them gently that if they make him seem silly by saying that he is fat, they themselves will get fat sooner or later, or even fatter. Tell them that is why you don’t dare to make fun of the fat friend.

When you see him interrupt somebody, rather than tell him it is not a good thing to do, tell him a story you make up about yourself like this: I once had the habit of interrupting, then my grandfather said, “Now that you jump into somebody’s mouth, when you grow up, you will have no good food to eat”. Since then, I haven’t interrupted anyone again in fear of having nothing delicious to eat.

Those are the ways for you to help your friend. Talk to him softly so that he won’t get hurt and he will listen. When you know the right way to help him get rid of his bad habits, he will not get upset.

For Little Angels – Lesson 7

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 7 – The Magic of having a dream

 Having a dream is different from wanting something like money, fame, or power. In which way are they different?

Your wants that come with being greedy, lazy, and playing tricks will not make you happy.

A good dream is a desire that is possible to be fulfilled. In that dream, you desire to do something that helps your community and people in other parts of the world.

Some examples of a good dream are a dream of writing a lot of interesting books, of having inventions or initiatives that benefit the society, or of becoming a professor at a well-known university in the world. Dreams of doing good for your people and the mankind are the dreams that let your love grow.

When you dream like that, your head will get clearer and brighter. Then you will have whatever you need to be able to help other people. You don’t have to worry about money or housing. Those things will take care of themselves. Therefore, having a dream is a magic that few people know.

For Little Angels – Lesson 6

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

Lesson 6 – Love and Intelligence

 The greatest and most precious power that we, as human beings, are born with is our love and our intelligence. The person with the most loving heart and the most intelligent head is the most powerful.

You should look to developing your love and intelligence. What your love tells you and what you see and hear are important for you to decide what to do in your everyday life situations, whether you are in school with your friends and your teachers or at home with your parents. Use your love and your understanding when you make your own decisions. If you depend on others to decide something for you, you are a puppet.

What is a puppet? A puppet is a doll that looks like a person or an animal and is controlled by people. When you see a puppet raise his hand or move his leg, you know it doesn’t do it by itself but somebody behind is controlling it. You are not a puppet. Make your own decisions and you will be confident. It is fine if your decision is not right.

To be intelligent, you should never use your imagination in a negative way. Negative imagination means that you believe in things that are unreal or you cannot prove. For example, your dad parks his car in front of your neighbor’s house and the neighbor is not happy about that. You want to ask him to forgive your dad. You want to apologize to him but are afraid he may yell at you. If you think that your neighbor may yell at you, it is negative imagination because you never know what he will actually do until you talk to him. Focusing on something unreal will not get you anywhere. When you think that your neighbor is not nice, you cannot talk to him comfortably and you may make him upset even more. Instead of worrying, you should look into his eyes and concentrate on your words to him. That way you can convince him to believe you and get his sympathy for your dad.

Keep in mind that one way to be intelligent is believe only in what you can see, hear and understand. Don’t believe in anything that cannot be proved to be true. Daydreamers or people who have negative imagination are not intelligent. They are not as productive at work as other people.

For Little Angels – Lesson 5

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

Lesson 5: Treat everyone equally and fairly

Do you know how to treat everyone equally? That is not to see your brothers and sisters to be the most important and people outside your family less important. You should love everyone and treat them equally. When you have some treats and you are with your friends and your brothers or sisters, you have to give everyone an equal share.

When you have only one candy bar and in front of you are your little brother and your friend, you may find it hard to decide who to give the candy bar to. Then you’d better put it away. Or if you are near a candy shop, you can buy more to give everyone enough. That is how you treat them equally.

And what does fairness mean? Let’s imagine one day your buddy takes you to an ice cream shop and he pays. You should let him do that and have fun with him. But another day, you must tell him to go with you to eat ice cream and you will pay. That is fairness. Fairness means no one takes advantage of the other.

If you practice being fair, your ability to see will get sharper and love will grow more.

For Little Angels – Lesson 4

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

Lesson 4: The magic of giving

You should practice giving things. Try it today. Try it everyday if you can. Practice giving to friends, your brothers and sisters, and everyone around you something that you can afford to give or that is possible for you to give.

If you give away a lot, you will grow to see you get a lot because giving a lot means getting a lot. If you give one person something, another person will give you something else. Your life will be full of joy if you live with giving and sharing.

First you can give something to a friend, or your brother. That person will be happy and love you more. Then you may want to give more. This time you don’t just give a gift to your brother or your friend, but to everyone around you. You don’t just want to give one person, but you want to give everyone.

When you give away a book, a pencil, or some candy, you will feel happy inside. Just work on it and you will be able to feel it. Remember to listen to the pleasure inside.

For Little Angels : Lesson 3

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

Lesson 3: Always be smart and never be wrong

You should always listen to your head to see if it is quiet or noisy and busy with thoughts that you cannot stop. There are a few things you need to know if you want to get rid of the disturbing thoughts.

When your head does not have uncontrollable thoughts or ideas about things that are unreal or cannot become true, it is in a state of mind called intelligence. Intelligence means that you see everything as it is and are prepared to have solutions to issues you have never dealt with before. You are intelligent only when there are no uncontrollable thoughts in your mind.

 Your thoughts or ideas change with time. For this reason, you should not trust them. Not trusting what you think is the only way for you to know what is true. Believe in your thoughts and you will be mistaken. For example you are now in Grade 1 and you want to be a policeman. You believe that becoming a policeman is your dream but you don’t know that your dream may be different next year or in many years from now. This means your belief may be wrong. When you grow up, you will see your ideas are not the same as when you are in Grade 1.

If you doubt your thoughts, you will not be mistaken.

For Little Angels : Lesson 2

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

How not to get tired and lazy any more?

When you are tired, you can’t do your work in a normal way. Working when you are tired is not productive. You are tired probably because the level of oxygen in your brain is low. Very often, you think the thoughts that you cannot stop. This makes your brain tired. When your brain is tired, your breathing gets short, and you feel you don’t get enough air.

If you want to refresh your head, you must do the following things in a quiet and empty place:
Make your breath deeper and longer than usual. Focus on your breath so that your brain gets the most oxygen. Take 5 to 20 breaths. When you do the breathing, shut your eyes gently and look at the point midway between your eyebrows. Focus your attention on the dark and empty space at that spot. Observe lights of various colors that you may see there. Just make observations.

When you breathe and observe lights in the way that I have shown you, you do not see any thoughts in your mind. In other words, your thinking machine has no data to work. When the machine stops working, your head is at rest. You may feel sleepy. Let your head rest a while and you will feel refreshed and be ready to work again.

Practice this exercise all your life and you will see the magic. This exercise is as important as your breath. As much as you need to breathe to stay alive, you need energy to work, to study, to play and to do other things. A large part of your energy is lost when you think. Doing this exercise is to restore the energy lost from thinking and give your body enough oxygen to work at its peak level.

For Little Angels – Lesson 1

By Master Duy Tue
Originally in Vietnamese

FOR ANGELS TO ASPIRE TO THE GREATEST HEIGHTS

The key to open the treasure created by your light of seeing

You are born with two unlimited abilities that will be with you your entire life: the ability to see and understand and the ability to love. You need to be aware that you have these two abilities. The way to get the most out of these abilities is to remember them and use them all your life.

In this lesson, I will show you how to use the ability to see and understand to get focused again when you are studying and thoughts pop up in your mind, making you distracted. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Notice that you are thinking. You have to know that you are losing attention because of some thoughts in your mind

Thoughts that come to your mind and you cannot control are the root of all troubles for everyone in the world. Uncontrolled thoughts cause you to pay less attention to what you are doing. When you are not attentive, you cannot see things as they truly are. If you don’t see clearly, you can’t act correctly. Understanding this harmful side of thinking is important to removing unwanted thoughts. Putting your thinking under control is impossible without this understanding.

2. Stop your work for a while

3. Recall and look at your thoughts

Try to remember what thoughts have made you unfocused. When you are able to see the thoughts, start to observe it. When you look at a thought in your mind, you will see it is like a video that records things that happened a few moments before. The video tells a story. Looking at it, you see the scenes, the people, the time and place of the events. This movie has been made out of your imagination and you are the main character of the movie.

4. Watch the movie but don’t judge it

When you watch the movie, try not to have any ideas about it. There are two reasons why you shouldn’t do that. First, if you think the movie is lame or interesting, the scenes in the movie will get you emotional. You may fear of something or hope for something. Either fears or hopes are not good for the health of your body and your mind. Second, if you judge the movie you are watching, it will take you to another movie. This way one movie will come after another and you just cannot stop it. That’s why you shouldn’t judge. Only watch it. Also, you shouldn’t believe what is happening in the movie in your mind is real.

If you believe it is real, you can’t improve the power of your brain. Your ability to see and understand will be limited. Your love will not grow. Your limited intelligence, visions, and love will make you feel unconfident. And it will be hard for you to avoid risks in your life.

4. Shift your focus of attention

Shift your attention from the movie in your head to something outside of your head. Instead of sitting and thinking, you can play with your little brother or sister, or play with your pet.

5. Go back to your work

After you have shifted your attention, you can get concentrated again. Now it’s time to go back to what you were doing. Full attention is perfect for studying. You can learn the most in the shortest period of time if you are concentrated. When you are paying attention, your ability to see and understand is at its best. When this happens, you can work for a long time without feeling tired.

The five steps above together are the key for you to increase your span of attention and cut off thoughts that “pop” into your mind. You have to remember and use this key as much as possible. The more you use it, the more clearly and precisely you can see and understand. If you can manage to follow the five steps all the time, you will raise your intelligence beyond what you can imagine.

Master Duy Tue: The Danger of Mind and Thinking – part 3

6. It’s important for you to choose your life purpose.  Just for you to understand easily, I divide the world into  the world of forms( material world) and the world of formless (spiritual world). Most of us choose a life purpose that has to do with the world of forms . Only a few choose the formless world. Such visible things as your spouse, your children, your occupation, your house, your possessions, your feelings and desires all belong to the world of forms. People spend all of their energy on these things, yet never feel satisfied. The first consequence of pursuing the world of forms that you must face is dissatisfaction. Second, all things belonging to the world of forms arise and change very quickly and may suddenly go up in puff of smoke. Forms certainly won’t leave back any comfort, instead they only bring about short-lasting pleasure and then vanish. It doesn’t mean that you should belittle the world of forms, but you should make the formless world your top priority.

To come back to your true self is to come back and discover the wakefulness. That exactly is the formless life, which is real, eternally unborn and un-dying. When that purpose becomes your major concern, it will attract a life in the world of forms which is more peaceful, comfortable, safe, and lasting. Changes in the world of forms won’t cause us  pain since we are now abiding in the formless life.

Thus, it must be clear that choosing to discover and abide in the formless world is your purpose of top priority according to the reasons I have mentioned. It should be noted that, among those reasons, there is an unexpected one: in doing so, the goal of life in the world of forms will be attained very easily. That’s why I advise you to set discovering the formless world your top and constant purpose. I do not recommend ignoring the world of forms, instead I emphasize that being mindful of the formless world, prioritizing it and constantly discovering it should be your most important goal. By doing so, the pursue of goals in the world of forms will be of utmost ease.

Life itself is in no way simple. Problems happen day in, day out. Impeaching, criticizing, humiliating, insulting… are common. But once we are able to abide in the wakefulness, those things are no longer of our concern, because  all we have to do is to generate the sky blue light, which represents love, to respond and cope with the situation. Look inside, radiate the sky blue light and let everything settle down on its own, do not direct your ears to the outside but instead to listen to the inside, do not open your eyes to look outside but close them and look inside, then all humilatings won’t affect you.

It’s important for you to uncover three light sources: the white light, the golden light, and the sky blue light. Those three light sources will attract all saints and invisible, magical forces. Being like a center from which those three light sources are radiated, you will gradually know all the mystical essentials of the universe. At one point, you will even be able to perceive that, among billions of planets in the universe, a not-too-small number of them have similar or different kinds of life. The abiding in the white light will let you be informed that there are different kinds of living creatures in various planets of the infinite universe. Thus, when I delivered speeches, there were several times I found myself talking about the international affairs, communities, and planets. I said that I was not only a Vietnamese citizen but also a world’s citizen, not only our earth’s citizen but a universal citizen. I dared not  saying this without the signals given to me by the white light. Thus, the body is just a device that I use to make use of the three light sources. Because of the value brought about by abiding in the three lights, all worldly attainments in the world of forms are not important and can not bind my body and mind. All worldly positions, material, win-lose or right-wrong controversies, clothing, housing, cars, … are little value to me. I almost find an ant bigger than all possesions in the world of forms. Nothing can make me over-think. I only feel sorry for people in this world, who are continously stucked in win-lose arguments, struggling for reputation, and play-acting with one another. But I’m sure a day will come when the humanity discovers that there is life in other planets where the living is so beautiful and harmonized, and where people don’t need to rely on flattery, win-lose, killing one another… yet live a very peaceful life. What is the use of competing for a house, a position, clothing, or reputation? How mediocre and trivial that is! Once you know that there are wonderful kinds of life in other plantets, the win-lose in this world becomes ridiculous funny, a complete nonsense. Please don’t follow that win-lose track.

In studying with me, you are supposed to open your perspectives. Once abiding in the white light, you will have an immense perspective. All worldly attainments in the world of forms won’t get you moved because your perspectives are quite extended now. One of the powers of the Magical Force and the Innermost Intelligence is that it creates such an immense, unimaginable perspective. From that immense perspective, I can’t stop myself thinking about the life in other planets. By comparing the life in those planets with one in this world,  I see that all attainments in this world are not attractive at all. Thus, abiding in the white light leads us to a special perspective, with this help we gain limitless, infinite happiness. That perspective is the white light, the golden light, that brings about incredibly great strength and happiness.

In summary, all those steps that I’ve gave you as instructions for your spiritual practice. It will help you to see through your ego and not let it become the master. In addition, the sky of wakefulness will dawn and shine in you. This is the ultimate issue in all religions, nothing else. When your sky of wakefulness dawns and shines, you will once again stand above the ego and no ego. When it comes to ego, you use ego. When it comes to no-ego, you use no-ego. Both are just manifestations since you are now completely abiding in the white light. Sometimes, it is required to turn into the golden light or the sky blue light, or occasionally, the red light (anger) or the black light (sadness)… which also are manifestations in order to be engaged in life when necessary, not our true self. The true self is the white light, the perfect wakefulness, the profound wakefulness. This wakefulness is eternal, unborn, and un-dying.

My lecture is ends here for today . Its content should be memorized and discussed among yourselves. From my part, I have discussed clear and details. From those three light sources, everything you wish to have, dream of, will come true, so don’t be worried about trivial things in life. And I can assure you that you won’t be afraid of poverty, illness, accidents, and even death.

I wish you success!
Online lecture, May 24, 2008.

For more information, please visit  http://www.duytue.org/

Master Duy Tue: The Danger of Mind and Thinking – part 2

4.   Praying is extremely important. This is a highly beneficial method and good meditation. First, it helps people to come back to the tranquil and pure nature of their souls. That is because the ego is absent when one is completely devoted to the praying, therefore the ego is not believing in his own thinking, planning, and struggling anymore. Or if he still believes in it, that belief is much more reduced. That is, when the struggling remains trivial, whereas the inspiration and support from the “divine” is extremely large, the ego naturally becomes small. Thanks to the belief of and reliance on the praying, we feel more at ease, more at peace. The wakefulness and presence are more available to us, thus giving us a more comfortable feeling and bigger strength. Though we may not know and have not yet know about whether Buddha, Jesus, God or deities… will be able to help or save us, the sincere praying will definitely lead to strength and peace. Thus, praying is very important.

Praying must be attended by faith. For example, praying to the Sakyamuni Buddha, a symbol of golden light, representing liberating wisdom, pain-removing wisdom. Praying to the Amitabha Buddha, a symbol of white light, representing the purity in our soul and helping us to return to the wakefulness. Praying to the Avalokitesvara, a symbol of sky blue light, representing the unconditional love that helps solving problems and overcoming difficulties. Faith rested in the praying will lead to more peaceful feelings, more strength and will cause us to have a kinder living, to develop greater personalities and to have proper manners and attitude. Thus, praying is quite necessary. It causes the ego to become smaller, widens the wakeful space, and allows the invisible energy to come and bring along with it the peace and develop great inner power. It doesn’t matter what religion you are following. Once you like and choose to follow one traditional religion, sticking to the faith of that religion will bring the benefits associated with the faith during praying. Within this program, I instruct you to use praying to come back to wakefulness, to reduce the ego, to develop your style and your personality as a man, to increase your endurance and faith in order to improve the invisible power. That is not to mention whether any spiritual figure will be at our side to help us.

5.  It is important to constantly think about the non-thinking, invisible realm, which is right inside your mind, below formal ideas and concepts. As soon as you notice the arising of formations, shift your attention to the formless. When you hear the sound, pay attention and listen to the no-sound realm, the silent realm which is below the sound. You should know that the invisible is the basis and origin of the visible, from which all visible things appear. If in your daily life, you pay constant attention to observing and  listening, be mindful of the silent realm, then at one point, it will always give you the answers so that you won’t be worried of lacking wisdom. The value of that invisible realm can’t be imagined enough. Thus, you are advised to constantly be mindful of that invisible realm even though you may not be able to see, know or have understood it yet. To put it differently, if you always pay attention to the no-word Bible which is somewhere around or beneath our body, it will naturally give you the answers. That is how the constant and everyday mindfulness of the invisible realm becomes valuable. For example, on the way from your house to your car, be mindful of the invisible realm in your body. When you get in your car, before starting the engine, take a few seconds to think about the invisible realm, the invisible sound which is inside your mind or your body, then start the engine and depart. Once on the road, you must be focused on driving according to the laws, be observing the traffic flow, pay full attention on the road so that the driving is safe. To be extremely focused on the driving is to be in a wakeful state . As a result, accidents are less likely to happen. On the contrary, lack of focus means reduced wakefulness and may easily cause accidents. In the highest wakefulness state, accidents definitely won’t happen. In the case of you are hit by someone who is not wakeful, the accident will not be too dangerous. That’s because our body becomes very light in the wakeful state so that when our car is hit, our body may fly out of the car like a piece of cotton wool. The car may be broken into pieces but we will be safe. That is why I am quite at ease when traveling by plane or any other means of transportation, and never be afraid of accidents because I know how to handle it for my utmost safety.

In the highest wakefulness, the body is very light. For example, a person who cannot swim and jump into the sea or a deep river, the heavy body will sink quickly because he has many thoughts and panic. But if he is able to keep himself in a wakeful state, imagine that he could swim or that he’s in a no-water area, his body will be much lighter and it takes much longer for the body to be drown.  Thinking leads to loss of wakefulness, which causes the body to be heavy. That explains why a lot of people or children survived from a plane crash, or why many were hit in a car accident but their bodies flew off the car and they survived. At that moment, perhaps they were lucky enough to remember praying or, for some unclear reasons, were unintentionally able to return to their wakefulness so their bodies become so light that they were out of danger.

If worries and fears are present during praying, the body is still heavy. Only when praying with the total belief that you will be saved, then worries and fears will disappear completely, leading to a light body. That’s how you should practice when driving.

Master Duy Tue: The Danger of Mind and Thinking – part 1

Originally in Vietnamese

In the Catholic Bible, there is the story about Adam and Eva. Eva was created from Adam’s seventh rib. They lived in a stark-naked state and completely unaware that they were so. God let them live in a very beautiful, so-called Garden of Eden that was protected by deities. They were allowed to eat everything in that garden, except one type of fruit that God had advised them not to ever eat at all, since eating it would be dangerous to their lives. If Adam and Eva would consume the other fruits only and not that forbidden one, they would be able to live long, peacefully, happily, without painstaking bodies, and enjoy walking with God every afternoon in the vast field where the wind blowing was whistling and immense.

Then, at one time, God was away from home. When Adam was sleeping, a snake appeared and come to tell Eva, “God is so selfish that he wants to command the whole universe by himself, without letting anyone to equate him. That’s why he doesn’t allow anyone to eat that forbidden fruit. God lied that the forbidden fruit is a dangerous one, but in fact, it is a precious type of fruit. I can assure you that, once eating that fruit, you will be able to see many things, think many things, and become as clever a person as God himself.” Eva believed what the snake said and ate the forbidden fruit. Right then, she was able to think and see that she was a woman, and naked…

Being so pleased that she could think such many things, Eva woke Adam up, saying, “God did not want to tell us the truth. That’s why he ordered us not to eat this fruit, saying that it would be dangerous. In fact, I’ve just eaten it and I find myself being able to think, to consider this and that, to see that everything is interesting, that it’s not polite for us to remain naked, and that you are a man, a husband, whereas I’m a woman, a wife. That’s so wonderful! Why not try eating it.” Adam rose up, ate that fruit, and just like Eva, he found that things are so interesting. Together, they played, giggled, and felt ashamed as they were without clothes, so they run to the brushwood to make a cover out of leaves.

Not long after, God was back home. Not finding them under the trees as usual, God became doubtful and asked them to come. At the second call did they reply, saying, “God, we are collecting leaves in the brushwood to cover our body since we feel ashamed”. God then knew that Adam and Eva had eaten the forbidden fruit and were now able to think and judge. God called them out, asking, “Why do you know that you are not wearing clothes? Why do you think that being naked is bad so you should use leaves to cover your bodies?” Adam and Eve told all the details that led them to eating the forbidden fruit which caused them to know.

God immediately got the snake, Adam, and Eva together for a punishment. As his punishment for the snake, it could not live long anymore and must forever be reborned in a legless body so that it could not walk but crawl. Adam and Eva were expelled from the Garden of Eden, must work hard, must be over head and ears in work for a bare living. They could no longer enjoy the comfort and pleasure of being at ease, without worrying about working, clothes, shelter, and other things as those days they lived in the Garden.  God warned them that life out there would be very hard and would not last too long, and at death they must return to dust, because that what they were made from. Eva, on the other hand, must undergo the painful childbirth

Eventually, Adam and Eva had to go out to live a hard life, working very hard, going through all the hardship of child-bearing, nurturing and educating children! Adam and Eva had to suffer the painful consequences due to their mind thinking that they were capable and that they knew everything.

I was pleased to have read the story and found that many teachings in the Catholic Bible also conveyed similar “secret ideas” as Buddhist teachings. The concept of “God” itself as represented in the Bible is nothing but the white light that dazzles people’s eyes when they look at it.

 Through the story, it is possible to see the danger of the conceptual mind. Since the time of eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eva no longer believed in God, and instead believed in their mind. That’s why they are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Those who believe in their mind and their thinking and holds what they thinks to be true will not have the wakefulness. They will not be allowed to stay in the Garden of wakefulness and to abide in the white light. Instead, they must encounter problems, must “fight” using their mind and their thinking, must believe in their thinking and conception in order to struggle and scramble in their lives.

It is obvious that things must go around in a vicious circle and, despite the fortune and wealth due to earning big money in business, sufferings must inevitably come. This is because the richer one is, the more he or she believes in his or her own thinking. In other words, the more one kicks himself against the pricks, the more suffering he or she ends up having. In addition, many other things may happen like family separation, win-lose competition against friends, presumption, illness, imprisonment, having to watch out for burglars and robbers, to name a few. As a result, accidents happen and competition or confrontation continuously comes. What joy is there? It all results from believing in your thinking, from considering yourself to be capable and good at doing. Actually, there is nothing good about it. It’s just because of your thinking, or more correctly, it’s because of the thoughts naturally coming out and causing you to follow. Don’t identify yourself with your thinking. Don’t believe and follow it since it is no more than a machine, a device that you can use. What you truly are is the white light, the wakefulness.

 In short, one of the things you should familiarize yourself with is to see if, after using the mind for observing, you are in command of your mind. That is, you should see who is the master. Have I lost my mastership? Or am I still the master of the mind’s current functioning?

 In the first part, I have talked about meditation methods which are concerned with listening and observing in order to come back to your wakefulness. In the second part, I have mentioned separately each of the topics about the equanimity of the mind, generosity, giving, not believing or relying in your thoughts. Particularly, do not identify yourself with thinking and thought in such ways as: “I must be this or that in order to be different from others”, “When it comes to talking about me, it must be like this, otherwise that’s not me”… That way of thinking inevitably brings about disasters. It must be understood that “I” or “me” doesn’t mean anything. The self exists only in dependence on circumstances. It exists in order to cope with circumstances or as a temporary manifestation for use. In terms of white light nature, male and female are the same. There is no difference between them. Don’t rely on thoughts to conclude that you are specifically this or that. That’s not what we should do, instead we should drop it and come back to our wakefulness! In wakefulness, no ego is established. A highly wakeful man will be able to use the mind – the thinking mechanism, the heart, and other internal systems for his growth and development.

In the third part, I will talk about how to use our will to overcome our fixations. This becomes increasingly difficult. Thus, we have to use our consciousness, to restore our wakefulness to see what is contained in our souls and what fixations there are in the mind. For example, the fixation that I am a woman, a man, a literate or an illiterate person, a poor, clever, stupid, good, or bad person, a Buddhist, a Catholic, a cosmopolitan or a countryman… We must be able to recognize what have become our inherent fixations, what we become strongly attached to and even identified with, such as, “I am a girl of the capital. I am a cosmopolitan girl. Or, I am a rustic girl…” No matter whether you are a person from the capital or a rustic person, in terms of white light nature you are totally equal. “Cosmopolitan” or “rustic” are to do with forms and are subject to change, whereas the seeing and the knowing are constant and the same among everyone. Forms are temporary and not stable. It may happen that a rustic person becomes a cosmopolitan person, and vice versa. That is not a fundamental issue. Therefore, we should know what our fixations are so that we can try to use our wills to overcome them. Then, by abiding in the white light, in the wakefulness, by being the white light only and nothing else, we destroy the fixations. Our mind will then become empty and more open. The white light will go through the mind – the thinking machine – and becomes the golden light. Going through the heart, it become the sky blue light. Thus, we must use our wills to overcome our fixations and to discover our see-and-know nature. We must use our wills to create new habits in order to stop and substitute old ones. We must try to be aware of our patterns of behavior in family, communication and verbal expression… We must be aware of those habits that hinder us from restoring our wakefulness, so that we could stop them and replace by the different ones.

In so doing, our mind will become fully flexible. Having a wills is absolutely required for obtaining such a mind, otherwise it won’t be possible. Engaging in sitting meditation, observing and listening alone will not guarantee success: we definitely have to use our wills. During observing and listening, which is to return to the wakefulness, we will know what are obstructing us from opening our mind. Then, we use our wills to remove those obstructions.

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 7

Some supplementary methods to widen and deepen into wisdom space

It is difficult to define exactly what wisdom space is, but in my terms, it is mainly for you to obtain true happiness. All definitions or concepts that I have used are just to help you approach the truly happy world with abundant love energy and enjoy; a satisfactory human life on this planet.

Just imagine that your brain is composed of various “drawers” to store everything you have seen, heard, studied and researched. For example, one drawer contains knowledge, experience and images of the past; while others keep in stock all desire, selfishness, altruism, conditional love energy, imagination, clear and practical visions, assessment, innocence, prejudice, arrogance, modesty, jealousy, anger, suffering, mistakes, regret and fear. And another drawer stores patience, true love, etc. Those drawers can be easily recognized and you can open them to make use of the accumulated contents in everyday activities but it is rather difficult. There is, however, a very special, perfect and miraculous drawer whose function is to solve any impasse of a human being. If we have a belief in an Omnipotent Almighty God or in Buddha with the ability to comprehend all matters and possess a mysterious and invisible power to create everything, then this “drawer” will be exactly the typical one.  This drawer is empty but overwhelmed with miraculous power to supply you with whatever you want. I call it in my own terms the  Wisdom .  And implementing the Wisdom Meditation is to practice methods aiming at activating this miraculously invaluable drawer.

To bring you enthusiasm in practicing and gaining this habit for your spiritual cultivation, I offer herewith an extra addendum of humorous suggestions as follows:

When you look at someone, you often see the surface outlook and the surface appearance usually manifests uncomfortable or non-attractive things according to your prejudice. Beneath those unpleasant things, there may be valuable aspects that are hard to see. If you want them to show their valuable and lovable personal features, you should look at the best things that they are often proud of. Only act upon those aspects with your most sincere attitude and honesty; then both you and the other partner will enjoy peace, joy and happiness

Do not trust your mind

I  have repeatedly told practitioners not to continue piling up knowledge but use factual stories to question ourselves or doubt our mind. Only by this method we can gain control of our thinking mind .This method will actually change us so that our souls can flourish and our minds remain peaceful.

 Do not stick any label on ourselves

One early Autumn evening when strolling along Huntington Beach in California with two successful businessmen, I told them that “In order to open up the Wisdom Space you should not stick any label on yourselves. Do not consider yourselves to be successful at the moment, and then later on you will not face failure. Do not judge yourself better than other people, then later on you will not feel the underdog or disgraced. Do not think you are first class citizens, since this is only a false vision from the tricky mind. Consequently, you will live a much simpler and comfortable life and the real value of yourselves will emerge. Do not think yourselves rich, and you will never feel poor. If any of you encounters a misfortune, do not view it as a failure. Patiently wait for something better and a certain miracle is likely to come to resolve the difficulty encountered.”

At present, those two businessmen are laborious practitioners of Wisdom Meditation. They have achieved encouraging results: they have found their mind more at ease and their working efficiency has been much improved. They can do things that they never could before; they are ready to save part of their precious time to look after their own moral life and their family.

Do not think yourself to be moral

I have also told some practitioners that “Moral concepts are not truly virtues; they are merely conventions imposed by humans. Do not pretend yourself to be a moral person or a representative of any moral lifestyle, much less thinking you are in a process of cultivating a religious life, because it will mislead your mind to cheat yourself and you will cheat others. Not pretending to be a moral person, then the Wisdom Space in your mind will adequately adjust your lifestyle to suit different moral norms on this planet. Refusing to pretend to be a moral will surely open up the Wisdom Space and the light of your heart will shine everywhere.

The purpose of meditation is not to prove a noble aim. The important truth in practicing meditation is to achieve the only practical aim: Gaining the habit that is totally beneficial both in our physical and spiritual lives. Thus, it is essential to do the meditation exercise frequently in order that the habit becomes refined, and with this purely holy habit, the practitioner will enjoy a stable and endless happiness inside. This habit will develop a perfect life of wisdom. It will also bring you luck and peace of mind.

In brief, the meditation method outlined here has no aim to attain enlightenment but merely to formulate a habit to promote and master the awareness in the brain/mind whose mechanism is to freely conduct the thinking process, without causing disturbance and mental suffering. From this habit, the practitioner shall have all joy, true happiness and a more stable morale.

For those who could understand Vietnamese, please visit http://www.duytue.org for more information

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 6

3. Meditation while doing physical exercises, leisurely walking

Meditating while leisurely walking is to be aware of the way we are walking. While strolling around, we bring our attention to the steps (clearly aware that we are observing the steps), then switch the attention from the steps to the attention to the breath, noticing the breath being long or short, light or heavy. Then we switch again our attention to the surrounding area.

In so practicing we will gain the habit to monitor actively the observation in the state of awareness that is to know what is going on.

4. Meditation while speaking in public

This meditation technique is also based on  observation, listening and clearly knowing what we and the other partner are speaking.  Carefully  listen with no judgment to our partner’s statements; do not judge ourselves or our partner, either. We should be constantly  aware and watching if any thought arises to bring the attention back to the conversation; that is, during speech, we must know if any thought arises, then shift 100% of the attention back to the subject being discussed or to the reality of the speech. If we do not do so, the thought will lead us out of the subject, out of the reality.   If we can keep our  awareness, our speech will automatically be fluent and eloquent.  Remember that contentedly satisfied eloquence comes from awareness, not from thinking.  The awareness will supply us with adequate eloquence which can conquer the audience who will gain interest while listening to our speech.

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 5

2. Meditation while observing the thought:

At the basic level, we can make use of the thinking process as the observation target that is to  observe  the inner world making it a habit to bring the  vision or the  attention to the inside of the brain.

Again, this technique of meditation can be implemented by various postures: sitting, lying, standing, walking, strolling or even while working. This can be performed in any circumstance while we are calm.  This is an extremely marvelous habit  which many practitioners have successfully achieved, and it has become an essential habit. As many youngsters have stated “while  watching and observing the thinking process in any instant of the day we are enjoying a true life and working in a happy atmosphere, full of peace and contentment and if ever we happen to omit it for one day, we will feel uneasy and uncomfortable”.

This is in fact an enjoyable result of this technique of  meditation through observing the thoughts.

Up to the present, most of those who have practiced this technique, ranging from as young as 13 years of age to as old as 77 years of age  have achieved great success. This is actually joyful news to everybody.

The technique of meditation by observing the thoughts consists of the following:

Only observe and clearly “know” whether or not any thought comes up in the mind.  If meditating in a sitting posture, we loosely close our eyes and concentrate toward the midpoint between brows, then observe  as if we are searching for a certain image in a “black hole”. We should be  aware that we are  observing  something or those we have already lost the  observation action. If we have lost our  observation,  we must come back to it. For a start, we will  observe the thoughts at the midpoint between brows. If we notice the presence of any thought or any image, then we should be  aware  of their presence or their disappearance.  A simple but essential keynote is that we must know whether there exists any thought or not: If it is present in the mind, we know its presence, and if it is not present we know its non existence.  Should there be a presence of any thought, then we just pay attention to that thought or that image only, we will not do anything else. If there is not any thought present, then we just keep on observing this point, waiting for a thought or an image to appear, as if we were watching a dark screen : If any picture appears we will watch the picture but if nothing appears, then just watch the black screen!

Constantly identify the appearance of any thought and keep our attention on the present moment.

In other meditation postures such as meditation while working, studying, reading, talking… we also pay attention to watch if there appears any thought or image. If so, then we  know clearly its presence and draw our attention back to the work we are doing, to the current reality.

Before going to sleep, we close our eyes and check if there exists a thought or any image in our mind.

If so, then just watch it as if we were watching a  movie of thoughts, since any thought is just a shadow of the past that persists in the mind due to our silent acceptance ; it is like we are, or another person is doing an important and sustained activity in reality .  In other words we cannot tell the difference between life and awareness.  Awareness is an invisible, ever existing entity, while life is a continuous stream, with no beginning or end, of all forms including thoughts, notions, writings, meanings, philosophy value…. We should not therefore count on that streamline since we truly own  the invisible, everlasting and omnipresent existence of awareness.

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 4

The ultimate aim of Wisdom Meditation is to open the boundless space in the brain.

It can be divided into two levels – basic and advanced. Meditating at the basic level is to relieve stress, the brain being calm due to the absence of thinking activity. This level is the borderline between the aforementioned phases two and three. It is transforming an individual’s suffering to the stage of non- suffering in order to become a more creative, happy and lovable person.

The advanced level of meditation has the goal to enter into the identification of the nature of the thinking process, aiming at minimizing its destructive impact on our spiritual and physical lives. At this level, the practitioner will enjoy the miracle of awareness and can almost split 99% of the thinking from awareness. At phase two, the practitioner will practice to enter phase three of life, the sublimation phase of the mind.

This is  the basic level will be discussed due to its practical aspect towards everyday life. The basic level includes meditation techniques while walking, standing, lying down, even while working or performing some activity like talking, by observing the thoughts coming to mind. Hundreds and even thousands of techniques of meditation, observation and listening could be envisaged to achieve awareness and to master the mind, but here I wish to present only some of the most popular ones. When you get used to them, you can devise a technique that most suits your situation.

Whatever method you use, it would be of the utmost importance to share with me in the first implementation stage as “an egg needs heat to develop when being hatched”.

Basic meditation techniques:

The purpose of this meditation technique is to set up a perfect habit for the brain. Instead of leaving the brain free to think, we now bring the brain to a state of constant awareness through the habit of observation and listening. That habit is actually the only aim of the meditation technique. Happiness and joy, as well as other miraculous findings to be enjoyed by the practitioner, rest with this noble nature and perfect habit from which there are almost unlimited benefits.

The first beneficial gain of the technique is the efficient relief of stress and worry, the peaceful mind being able to control emotions generated by the thinking process and develop the habit of enjoying happiness when the brain rests in calmness.

1- Meditation in sitting posture

Various meditation techniques, the sitting meditation is basic and essential but we should not spend too much time during the day for meditation practice. We will consider the sitting meditation only as a special case which cannot be replaced by other techniques. In the sitting meditation, it is mandatory to note related facts, such as the time of the day for meditation, the duration of time for each session, the kind of clothing, the place and particularly the preparation of the mind’s state before the session.

As to the spirit of meditation:  It is preferential to make a vow “I pledge to keep on training myself to gain a habit to live in the state of an aware mind, not allowing free thinking to destroy my spiritual life or to shadow my clairvoyant world of awareness. This habit is the great joy for me and for mankind.”

As to clothing: Wear comfortable clothing that does not cause any discomfort while meditating.

As to place : Any place but if possible it is recommended to practice in a quiet atmosphere in nature since the calmness of the nature will help the practitioner achieve 50% of the result! In fact, the basic characteristic of natural calmness and the awareness state are really the one thing indispensable for meditation.

As to the time of day for meditation:  It is not necessary to fix a time because in so doing it would be contrary to the spirit of meditation which is natural and comfortable. Thus, if we set up a fixed time for meditation we could easily come up with formalism, which, in reality, is not to enjoy meditation. It should be kept in mind that, in practicing meditation, a pure and noble habit is being trained to enjoy the happiness inside when thinking does not freely flow in the mind. In brief, whenever we feel a need or an enthusiasm we can start meditating in a sitting posture. We can even enjoy a short meditation session in a sitting posture while working in the office!

As to duration of meditation:  Up to your choice with a minimum 5 minutes or longer, but not too long since we can drop ourselves into a state of neither thoughtlessness nor awareness.

As to sitting posture:  Any posture, lotus or semi-lotus or sitting in a chair; when sitting in a chair, both feet must rest on the floor. The back and head must be straight up to ease blood circulation and respiration; the lips should be closed with the tongue touching the upper part of the mouth to prevent saliva from getting dry. For a good start, it is preferential to give a gentle massage to the face, ears and eyes with both hands to release tension and promote comfort. In case we sit on a flat floor it is suggested to use a cushion.

The observation target while meditating in sitting posture:  Using the respiration is the easiest and most efficient method.   After preparation as above, slightly close the eyes  direct the eyes toward the nose and bring the attention to the in-out movements of the respiration. When breathing in, we follow the in-movement and when breathing out, we follow the out-movement. If this awareness is lacking, we cannot consider the respiration as a meditation practice,  we normally breathe round the clock without paying attention to the respiration, and that is not meditation!

To render this awareness  constantly permanent, the practitioner can follow the respiration by counting its cycles. A cycle of respiration in and out shall be counted as one. Count from 1 to 20 cycles and back to one again. This counting technique should last for at least 5 minutes for each meditation session.

How to breathe:  Breathe gently, the breath being a little longer than normal to allow more oxygen to get in, seeking better health after “working long hours without true respiration”. Many respiration alternatives can be envisaged but we ought not to forget to keep an eye on the respiration process in its in-out movements. For example, we can  notice the respiration being short or long, its noise big or low; we can adjust the respiration so as to gradually diminish it for a better observation and attentive  listening.  An alarm clock can be used for timing the wanted meditation duration; but when we are used to it, the alarm clock will serve no purpose!

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 3

The second phase is extremely important and essential.  It is a sine-qua-non condition for the third phase, a must condition for love and wisdom to flourish. In the second phase, due to the pay-off in life that most people wish to stay away from life’s pressures and try to envisage a world from which they can runaway.

When it comes to the third phase, which is similar to the first one, there seems to be no need of going anywhere after death: should you talk about Paradise to a baby? The baby is currently in the paradise of his/her own brain and of the surroundings. He/she does not need any notion of paradise.

The nature of the first phase is the transparent naivety of the brain where needs do not come from the thinking mind and it is also the characteristic of a truly grown-up person in terms of spirituality but he/she must reach the third phase to recognize it.

Speaking of happiness or maturity is speaking about the mind’s sublimation but not about knowledge, about political or economic power, much less world power or theological power.  World power does not exist in the domain of happiness or maturity.

In more than 10 years, despite severe misery and all tricks of jealousy from mankind’s selfishness, I kept maintaining my great pledge, enduring my goodwill to help people discover, build up and pave the path to peace of mind. From young fellows to senior people, when implementing the observation technique of respiration outlined in the method of wisdom meditation, the mind as well as emotions are improved greatly. Those people who achieve amazing changes are those who stay close to me listening and practicing what I have shared with them.

In order to reach the third phase of life, practice is essential, not the accumulation of knowledge.  I strongly recommend that the development of knowledge be avoided, since any knowledge will surely keep you drowned deeply in the pay-off phase of life.   Knowledge will not bring about the opposite-direction change to obtain happiness in the third phase.

The only prompt efficiency and most hopeful way is to doubt what you consider as gained knowledge and you should try to find all opportunity to contact and discuss with me.  I will try to create some methods to help you make an approach to the old path.

The following are some implementation methods to help you stay away from the stream of thoughts and emotions.

Let’s look into the details of Wisdom Meditation

What is Wisdom meditation?

It is a simple method to activate the boundless stillness of the brain for the purpose of observing any indication of phenomena in the mind’s operational mechanism such as thoughts, ideas, judgment, reasoning, deduction, greed, past memories, imagined events to come… While doing so, we can rejoin many comfortable peace spaces and wisely react in a natural and successful manner to suit any situation with the mind always being in its unaffected nature.

This meditation technique aims at identifying negative emotions such as anxiety, discomfort, suffering, anger, despair, hopelessness, currently residing in the mind and along with the impact of the meditation, those emotions will disappear and the brain will regain calmness, ease, awareness and transparency in all life situations.

This is a method of training to put an end to the belief or sticker-in-the-thoughts of the brain. A boundless awareness space will then emerge, bringing along required intelligence to come to existence with joy of peace and true happiness. The result of this way of life is that the brain always remains peaceful and a kind of love unaffected by any life condition will come true.  This permanent and everlasting love is the utmost beauty of mankind.   It will bring about unlimited happiness through experiencing a true love, not the kind of love generated from thoughts, judgment or reasoning.  This is the key to open and truly enjoy the happiness inside our mind.

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life – part 2

The first truth is that a sort of energy of unconditional happiness permanently exists within us.

This is the most fanciful, perfect, magic, enduring, stable, widest, and deepest happiness while a regular life directed by the thinking mind can never help obtain this achievement. This state of invaluable and miraculous happiness only emerges when the thinking machine stops functioning; it is not by any means related to the activities of the thinking mind and obviously does not depend on the life with tangible manifestations. This kind of happiness is common to all lives on this planet as well as to all lives from other planets.

The second truth is that, while carefully observing what happens from inside the mind to the outside, we will find the true meaning of life and the living essence of human beings.

The more accurately you observe things, the happier your life will be. Observing action helps your mind become fresher and more at ease. This experience clearly points out to me that, with the thinking machine being locked, there emerges a more meaningful life. It is the life with cautious observation, not the life monitored by the thinking mind. This is a truly real and more stable life with its concrete meaning; the thinking mind is not by any means the true life. While this experience happened with the thinking machine locked, an individual with alert observation would be aware that the brain could not function and there was complete absence of the notion of his own name and/or of surrounding objects.

In this state of mind, everything seen through our eyes is merely unconnected images appearing before them. Our body weight becomes much lighter; all substantial things we normally see will appear as if they were completely new or without previous existence or bearing no names. In short, everything stops at the observing stage. And at that very moment, anything I touched or saw automatically responded an answer that could not be found from the mind.

The third truth is that, when all material for the thinking machine had gone, I clearly understood the causal sources of my own suffering – they were the mind’s thoughts! In addition to this finding, I also realized that the energy required for a person’s happy life and endless love was covered, controlled or even destroyed by thoughts.

This experience also indicated very clearly to me that the mind could only work properly in the state when there were not any stored materials inside it, namely: memories, knowledge gained in life, philosophy, religious beliefs, or political theories set up to build up a typical life for an individual or a family. There are no more model concepts for an individual, a family, a country’s community or a world.

Later on, I temporarily decided to live, work and love with an empty mind, not to follow any discipline. Through experience I soon realized that all ideologies, notions, knowledge, scripts, life concepts and acquired philosophy theories or doctrines could be voided for ever so as to provide an empty room in the brain for a better perception and that wisdom would illuminate and help identify the origin of suffering (eventually including physical suffering) which mankind has encountered in myriad incarnations:  the culprit being obviously the mind.  Along with prejudice, human beings do not see this truth but on the contrary they trust and stick to the resistance to disown it!

After going through three periods of this experience, I spent another two years enjoying the kind of happiness that I had never had before. It was like I found an ancient road, the road the Creator had laid for mankind at the very beginning of life , and that this road was still there, dustless and without the vestige of time; no silhouette of man existed on it, except myself! Though I felt really lonely, I was also filled with great joy when escaping from the notion of age, origin, form, skin color, language, knowledge, earnings as well as culture and civilization. I self-realized that this wonderful road for mankind was still hidden somewhere behind the mind. There seemed to be no entrance to this road but still, for a period of over 10 years, I had made a great effort to guide my noble disciples in joining me and to transfer the miracle of the road to them and to other people.

In other words, the three periods of the experience took my mind to a world that creates an unlimited path not only to stop suffering completely, but also to open an extensive and endless ability to create, love, work and fully enjoy a life that is always tough and constantly changing.

After encountering the aforementioned experience three times, I began gaining a habit of practicing some methods to hold fast to the WISDOM SPACE in my mind and I was truly happy! Up to the present moment, I often observe and keep track of all changes inside my mind. I observe my life’s cause; consider it a true life, a breath for the Wisdom’s mind: the disbelief in the thinking mind being my life’s target! And I have been truly happy.

To illustrate the three periods, I temporarily divide my life into 3 phases, of which the last phase I term as a truly happy phase. I have elaborated on these three phases of my life on Skype for a broader discussion, namely:

– The phase of childhood’s naive tear.

– The phase of pay-off tear in life when the secret of the brain has not been discovered.

– The tear-reappearing phase of the return of naivety in an old brain.

Master Duy Tue: For Those Who Wish to Achieve Peace, Success and Happiness in Life -part 1

Originally in Vietnamese

Every day, we have to perform many tasks, tackle unusual situations and face various problems  for which we cannot find a solution.

For example, your husband or wife says or does something to make you angry; children disobey their parents; your parents-in-law make you confused or upset; or your son or daughter-in-law breaks your heart. Even your sisters and brothers upset you. Eventually your friends or your sweetheart betrays you.

Economic and financial difficulties might cause hardship to you or your business and make you feel like an underdog. All of these circumstances can cause worry, fear, despair, anxiety, and stress, leading to all kinds of diseases such as tuberculosis, liver or kidney dysfunctions, high blood pressure, coronary thrombosis, cerebral vascular accidents, etc.

In other words, life-related circumstances adversely impact your mind, causing its inability to find a sound solution. As a result, negative emotions affect decision making and cause uneasiness, anxiety and suffering. In addition to these environmental events, your mind is constantly disturbed by your thoughts that automatically come up and make you feel uneasy and unable to concentrate on your daily work, resulting low efficiency and even mistakes.  Or there may be other reasons that keep your complexion from being naturally fresh and unaffected. Eventually you have to rely on cosmetics or get help from beauty parlors. In the end, it becomes rather difficult for you to promote sympathy and love from the people around you.

These problems will lead you to a narrow and unfortunate life. Life itself often raises so many questions that are not readily resolvable: you are like a student who is trying to deal with a mathematical exercise but fails to solve the problem because your brain jumps from formula to formula. When you are about to find an answer to a question, your mind suddenly switches to another question!

As a matter of fact, the main issue to deal with is your mind.  In order to tackle life’s constantly changing problems, you must concentrate first on solving problems in your brain, and then the problems themselves may find no grounds to exist.

For more than ten years, in the course of studying and understanding the mind’s mechanism, I have shared different methods with people from various classes in society and most of them have achieved marvelous results both in their physical and spiritual lives. They have found true peace of mind; their physical life has improved and their behavior towards human relationships has been more successful.

I use the term “Wisdom Meditation” to refer to the method used to stabilize the mind and monitor the brain.

However, before introducing some techniques of Wisdom Meditation, I wish to share with you some background information about how I have come up with those techniques. I am not an exceptional case compared with others who have experienced and talked about meditation methods. It just happened that I accidentally fell into the state where enlightenment emerged and I started to clearly understand the mind’s mechanism.

From that big event on, I found myself totally changed. It looks as if I was a newly born person in the present era, but in the meantime I found myself out of history. And due to that miraculous change, I have encountered a boundless happy life, with a brain deprived of combustible supplies for the thinking mind to function.

From that point forward, I have clearly recognized people’s disappointment, despair, anger, puzzlement and even panic without any escape, regardless of whatever role a person occupies in life. Although many people have tried to find different ways to resolve these deadlocks, there has not been a practical and efficient way to enable human beings to achieve peace of mind.

At the same time, I have found a path for everyone to live a happy life, provided that he/she listens without prejudice to what I share! How my enlightenment took place?

The following are some points I would like to share with you. After spending years plunging into the secrets of life, its meaning and the origin of suffering, I accidentally found myself in a state of total happiness when my brain was somehow locked up.

This experience happened over three years. During the first part of this experience, I enjoyed twice the state of wonderful happiness. The second stage occurred many times over subsequent years when I saw the tangible world with my entirely locked thinking ability. And at the third stage, my thinking mind was not locked but all the supplies needed for its operation somehow vanished completely. Each stage revealed to me a clue which I decided to adopt to stabilize my spiritual life.