TEACHINGS BY VEN. THICH CHUC THANH

Learning About Buddhism

In March 2018 at a service Thay Thanh said: “Learning about Buddhism is not running from your past.  It is learning from your past and moving on. Learning Buddhism is about the Four Efforts:  stop unskillful qualities from arising; abandon unskillful qualities that have arisen; create skillful qualities not yet arisen and nurture/develop/improve skillful qualities that have arisen.”

How do you apply the Four Right Efforts to your daily life practice?  How do you identify qualities or behaviors that have “not yet arisen” in you but perhaps should? How do you define what an unskillful or bad quality is?  How do you define what a skillful or good quality is?

(Venerable Thich Chuc Thanh is the Dharma Master at Dong Hung Temple. Sangha member Mark Palamara collected these quotations from November 2015 through December 2018 as Thay Thanh taught in services, retreats and dharma classes in Virginia Beach, VA and Southern Shores, NC.  The quotation titles and commentary are by Mark Palamara.)