The Challenges We Face In Our Daily Practice Towards Buddhahood

Namo Amituofo!

I believe most of us face many challenges in our daily practice towards buddhahood. May it be small and negligible to some big difficulties that may hinder our bodhidharma path. This is proof that we have countless bad karma that may come at anytime to claim it's debt. We may not know when it will come but in most cases the more serious we get in our practice, the more it comes to hinder us.

My biggest obstacles is actually my family. First of all, we have a restaurant business, as you know we sell meat. So killing directly or indirectly is difficult to avoid. I need to go to the market to order some chicken, pork or fish. Although I do not kill directly, those animals are killed because of my business demand.

I can actually choose to leave the business, but I am the only son and I'd be considered unfilial if I do so. What a dilemma! So, whenever I buy meat, I quietly chant Amituofo for those animals, hoping the merit will bring them to better realms. I also vow that after I reach sukhavati, I will come back to this saha world to help those beings escape.

I also have difficulties being a vegetarian. I myself still love eating meat, and my family does not welcome the idea of vegetarian. I find it difficult and inconvenient for me and for my family if I alone become a vegetarian, because we eat together all the time. Well, at least I'm still
able to force myself to avoid meat on my once a week chanting day with the buddhist society.

Those are the more obvious obstacles that I have. Some others are less challenging to me. Like driving, traffic in Jakarta is a mess and whenever I drive, I must keep reminding myself not to be impatient with the surrounding. Another issue is with the political situation. Whenever I read the newspaper, I keep telling myself that this is my own karma that I must live in such a country with political turmoil.

I have been quite successful in this area, I've learnt not to complain too much about my surroundings and keep my emotion cool all the time.

I remember another incident where my mobile phone got stolen from my hand. In theory I know that this is the result from my own karma, but when it happened on me, I couldn't sleep for 3 nights. My mind kept thinking about the incident and I kept cursing the thief who snatched my phone.

From then on, I avoid all kinds of stealing, hoping that such an incident will never fall on me again. The most successful effort that I achieved is not to buy pirated movies, software and games. In Jakarta, pirated products are so easy to find and everybody is buying without guilt. At first, it's really difficult to do, especially with me so used to buying them. Later on, with much discipline, I can say I'm quite successful and satisfied with my effort.

One thing that is still bugging me the most is sexual misconduct. I'm sorry I'm not going to discuss this further now. Perhaps sometimes in the future when I'm successful in dealing with this issue, I'll write more.

I'm sometimes also dissatisfied whenever I give my friends advises and kindly rejected. Most of my friends here are from my old school and our beliefs are different. Actually, I tried my best to give objective advise without any religion point of views at all. But since our underlying concept towards life is different, my advise becomes irrelevant and unacceptable to them.

Like recently just happened, I gave an advise to a friend who is quite desperate in getting a child after so many years of marriage and age problem. I thought, if I told him about karma, it wouldn't make sense to him. So I carefully chose "4 Lesson From Liao Fan" to inspire him. This is an auto-biography and it almost has no religion content at all.
I told him how Liao Fan changed his own fate from childless to 2 children.

I encouraged him to practice according to Liao Fan's method of doing good deeds to change destiny and getting what you desire the most. Well, he was grateful to my effort, but I knew he didn't accept it.

I used to be disappointed whenever this happened to me. I used to be unhappy if others doesn't take my advise. Later on, after hearing to Ven. Wu Wen speech on "according to fate and destiny" in helping beings. I realised how beings have different quality and upbringing. If they can't accept your advise now, perhaps in the future they will. So there's no need to be unhappy about it.

Perhaps in the past countless lifetimes, I was also in that position. Where I didn't take any advise from a buddhism perspective, but today, my fate and destiny has matured, and I am now a devoted buddhist.

There are many many more challenges that we face daily. The important point is, like Ven. Wu Wen always says "If your heart and mind are in peace, this world becomes a peaceful place, if every thought is for others, you are a boddhisatva and this world becomes sukhavati."

Namo Amituofo!