What do people who practice at home pay attention to?

People who practice at home should strictly observe the precepts. In addition, how should we practice at home? Four key points:

The first is to have renunciation

The word "at home" itself is the cause and condition of an obstacle. This kind of practice at home is very obstructive, so the word "at home" must be changed to "renunciation", which is consistent with Buddhism. Because at home is the Dharma of the world, only with the mind of renunciation can we correspond to the Dharma.

Second, you should strictly observe the precepts when practicing at home. Why should we strictly observe the precepts at home? Because there are many unfavorable conditions at home, heavy medicine must be used. You cannot overcome the temptation at home without heavy medicine.

The best medicine that can truly prevent the disobedience caused by this family is discipline. Therefore, the Buddha said that sentient beings in the end of the Dharma should take the precepts as their teachers. Only by taking the precepts as our teacher can we find the path of spiritual practice. If you cannot take the precepts as your teacher, everything you practice will be heretical and asura path.

Buddhism is the middle principle, so it is said that Buddhism is based on precepts. Without this foundation, you won't be able to build any building. It's just saying. Therefore, we must strictly abide by the precepts when practicing at home. If we are not careful, we will fall into this violation, which is very dangerous. We must be mentally prepared.

Third, practicing at home requires transforming the concept of home. I just said that we need to have renunciation. For example, what should I do if I have a husband, wife, children, or parents?

We can look at what layman Vimalakirti said. He compared his parents to good teachers, his wife and husband to fellow practitioners, and his children to all living beings. In fact, layman Vimalakirti also practiced "monasticism" at home, and it was the same.

Some of us have misunderstood it - not to mention that layman Vimalakirti is the return of the ancient Buddha. Although the layman Vimalakīrti used the layman’s image to save laypeople, he was also explaining that we laypeople should leave this family as early as possible.

If we cannot break away, we must turn the family into a monastery and transform the relationship between people. Don't say this is your wife, this is your husband...then you won't be able to practice. If you all become Taoist friends, it will be easy for us to benefit from our practice. This is the third one.

Fourth, you must protect the Three Jewels when practicing at home.

If you do not protect the Three Jewels, you will lose your teacher. No matter where you practice, you will not have a teacher. You must protect the Three Jewels. Protecting the Three Jewels is to protect you, and it is also the cause and condition for you to become a Buddha in the future. When cultivating at home, you need to do more freeing of life...and do many things. Let me talk about these points first.

Fifth, if lay people study Buddhism, lay people must keep the precepts

Why should lay people keep the precepts? This is because laypeople have so many negative connections. They have a family, a wife, children, a career, neighbors, friends...many things affect your practice, making it difficult to practice. Therefore, lay people should first grasp the precepts. If you can’t grasp the precepts, don’t talk about cultivation. Lay people should first observe the three refuges and five precepts.

————What are the three refuges? That's when we come home.

People have one true parent, that is Buddha and Bodhisattva. Where is this parent? How to find Buddha and Bodhisattva? First of all, you should take refuge in the three refuges. With the three refuges, you can find the parents who truly raised you, gave birth to you, will always follow you, and will never leave you.

We have found it through the three refuges, refuge in the Buddha, refuge in the Dharma, and refuge in the Sangha. This can be said to be a very common truth, but it is also a very deep and secret truth. If you understand this principle, you will be more than ready to become a Buddha. If you do not understand this principle, it will be difficult to achieve it. The first difference between Buddhism and heretics is that heretics do not have the three refuges.

Although some people in the world do very well, they can help people in the world, build bridges and repair roads, and even do many good deeds, but in the end they cannot become disciples of the Buddha. Why? Because he does not have the three refuges.

The three refuges are our foundation. If you grasp the three refuges, you will grasp your life. If you grasp your destiny of immortality, you will become a Buddha in the future. Without this, you can never become a Buddha.

So the three refuges are more important to us than life, and we should try to take the three refuges in the future.

————The other is the Five Precepts. Learning Buddhism first starts with the Five Precepts, which are not only the basis for being a human being, but also the basis for becoming a Buddha. What do these five precepts include? Killing, stealing, sexual intercourse, lying, and drinking. Ahimsa

The first thing is to kill. You cannot kill all sentient beings, including bugs, ants, flies, mosquitoes, mice, and these things that you consider to be the four pests in the world. You cannot kill anything.

You cannot eat its meat, nor can you eat vegetarian food that bears its image. There will be consequences for you if you eat it.

Why do you say that? Because all sentient beings are our parents in previous lives and future Buddhas. Since they are our parents in previous lives, how can we kill them? Since they are future Buddhas, how can we kill them? Yes or no? You can't become a Buddha if you kill it, so we can't kill.

No matter what method of killing, whether you use guns, cannons, words, curses (recite curses to kill), or kill with hatred, this is not allowed. All killings should be done Avoided.

If we don’t kill, we can be human beings and stay away from the six realms of reincarnation. Don’t steal

The second one is “stealing”. This theft precept is even more important. It means that you cannot steal any property, including stolen items.

For example, if this thing is stolen by him, and I steal it back again, that won’t work. If it is stolen by him, it belongs to the thief. You can no longer rob or steal it. You can only ask for it rationally. If he doesn't give it to you, there is nothing you can do about it. It belongs to the thief. This is already called a "thief", so we can no longer steal it.

Including many people who are laid off now. Some people are leaving their work units. Some people say: The factory director has taken all the machines home, so can we get a screw? That doesn’t work either. He is him and you are you. As Buddhists, no matter what others do, we must first not commit theft, not even a piece of paper.

Including when we take a bus or a train, we don’t want to be cheap. When we see there is no door, we sneak in and get off without buying a ticket. If you steal five yuan, you will not be able to repent, and you will be committing a serious crime.

So all property cannot be stolen, including other people’s belongings, including land. Farming occupies one or half of a ridge. You cannot do this, and you must pay attention to it. We must not steal any property, and we must give everything to others.

This precept of stealing is also very important, especially since most of us are female lay Buddhists. We go to the market to buy vegetables and negotiate the price with others. After negotiating the price, we still have to look at the scale. Finally, after paying the money and leaving, you still have to take two sticks - taking two sticks would be committing theft. That's not okay, is it?

When you wear a big rosary in your hand, people will look at it and say: "Why do you think this Buddhist practitioner is like this? I couldn't sell this dish in the first place, but she broke it after picking and picking it. Go ahead and take two more from me." This makes people laugh at us, and we shouldn't do this.

In addition, after you steal it, although you take advantage of it, one pound of stuff you buy becomes one and a half pounds. But your pound and a half is poison. Whoever eats it will be poisoned. Your children, the elderly, your husband, and your relatives will be poisoned if they eat it, because it is unclean. This is also very important.

If we say otherwise, wouldn’t we suffer a loss? I don’t pick or look at them, and I don’t negotiate the price. If you buy one catty, he will give you half a catty, but your half catty can be used for ten catties. Although you buy a pound and give you half a pound, each of these half a pound of vegetables is equivalent to a dose of good medicine. Whoever eats it can cure any disease. It is a priceless treasure.

We should know what a treasure is and don’t take advantage of others or steal. This will bring honor to the Buddha. In addition, we can also cultivate our hearts through this.

So whether we are buying groceries or buying anything else, we must give the good things to others and keep the bad things to ourselves. For example, when buying vegetables, you see that the cabbage is nothing but honey worms, and you will say, "I don't want any more." You have to, because there are honey worms, so why buy them? It's so freeing, isn't it? This is all important.

We have to study some details little by little. Becoming a Buddha depends on whether we can keep the precepts. If you keep the precepts, you will achieve success quickly. If you don't keep the precepts, there is no way to become a Buddha, right? This is a stolen ring. Do not commit sexual misconduct

There is also a precept for sexual misconduct.

The main thing for lay people is not to engage in sexual immorality, and it is not allowed except for normal couples.

Especially now, watching pornographic videos, pornographic books, and speaking pornographic language are not allowed. And running into the dance hall, entering something... I don't understand those things, and I can't tell.

There are too many tricks now, and I don’t understand them either. This shouldn’t be the case. A true Bodhisattva is one who has given up sexual immorality and is like a monk. He no longer has such sexual immorality. This is the true Bodhisattva.

The Bodhisattva precepts at home are just a convenience and must be discontinued in the future. If you continue to engage in sexual misconduct, you will never be able to achieve Buddhahood. This is very important.

If you want to be reborn in the bliss of the West, you will have to give up all thoughts in the future. Although laypeople are currently abstaining from sexual immorality, it is just a foundation. If you want to become a Buddha in the future, you will also have to give up this desire. Because the level of our future rebirth is determined by the size of our lustful mind.

This person is half lustful and half pure, and he behaves like a beast but still acts like a human being. If it is 70% lustful, it will fall into the water tribe. If it is 90% lustful, you will go to hell.

Your ups and downs will be determined by the size of your lustful heart. For example, if the remaining 40 or 30% of the lustful thoughts are born in heaven, they will be born in heaven. The less the lustful thoughts, the higher they will be.

The Buddha gives up all sexual desires. So we should know that we should stay away from this evil and pay attention to this. Don’t lie

Another one, this “false”, let’s briefly talk about lying. In the Dharma-ending period, people are most likely to lie.

Someone will ask you in the morning: "Have you eaten?" You haven't eaten yet, but you will say you have eaten. They are afraid that you will go to their house, so you will tell others that you have eaten. This lie has become a public nuisance to us.

It is incorrect to say, "You cannot succeed or get things done without telling lies." When it comes to truly doing things, the success of a thing does not depend on your words. No matter how nice you say it, it will not succeed whether it is successful or not. Whether you succeed or not depends on whether you have the blessings and karma.

Look at the village we went to beg for food just now. It’s called Xifu Shop? Whoever found that (lay Buddhist) was very good for me, and I also contacted the place. I originally wanted to spend the fast there (in a field), but the secretary or the village chief came over and said, "No, you can't be there!" You said that lay people also Even if you say nice things to him, that won't work.

Look at the place (square) where we were going to fast later, they didn’t “speak good words” to me, and they had to let us come here – it was just a matter of cause and condition, it didn’t depend on words.

Don’t think that you can get things done by lying. Really getting things done depends on honesty, honesty, and your good fortune. Therefore, lying is meaningless. Lying will make things untrue.

For one lie karma, there are many, a hundred delusions, and so many delusions will produce great cause and effect. Therefore, we should stay away from lies, including all lies.

Some people sell clothes, and they originally paid ten yuan for it, but they said they wanted one thousand yuan, and then they negotiated the price and sold it for three hundred yuan. I don’t know if this is the case, so I’m just guessing that it seems to be the case.

It is because of this lie that people have been deceived, but if you have deceived them, they will come to your house to deceive you. If you earn three hundred, you may lose three thousand. Everything has a cause and effect. So everyone should tell the truth.

The Buddha said: The Buddha is one who does not lie, who speaks the truth, who speaks the truth, and who does not speak differently. A Buddha is one who does not lie. We should learn from Buddhism. This is also very important, so everyone should be honest when speaking.

But there are some things, like when people ask: "Where do you keep your money?" You can't tell us where we keep our money, right? You don't have to talk or tell him at this time, but you can't lie. This is also very important, this is a thing. Don't drink alcohol

There is also "wine", which cannot be drunk. Although it is an expiation for sins, alcohol can cause many other karmas to be committed.

For example, there is a person who drinks wine by mistake. After drinking, he becomes drunk and goes crazy. He steals his neighbor’s chicken and commits the precepts of stealing and killing.

The neighbor's woman came to see him, and he committed adultery again. When the officials questioned him, he lied again and violated the precept of lying again.

He committed all the five precepts of sexual intercourse, killing, stealing, lying, and drinking. He violated all the five precepts because of drinking. Therefore, we should stay away from alcohol and should not drink. Including smoking, this is not allowed.

I will simply say this, because there are very detailed instructions on how to do it, how to repent, and how to obtain the five precepts of killing, stealing, sexual intercourse, lying, and drinking.

After you have the five precepts, you will have the eight precepts, the ten precepts, the bhikkhu precepts, the bhikshuni precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts.