(The article was penned from Mr. Nguyen Viet Cuong’s sharing at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of An Ninh Thuong Pagoda, Van Lung Commune, Phu Tho Town, Phu Tho Province on March 23, 2022).

As Buddhists, I and my whole family have taken refuge in the Three Jewels. I’ve known Buddhism for a long time, however my first official practice was performed in 2016. I practice Tantric Buddhism, Eastern Tantric Buddhism, and Buddha Chandi. After 6 years, my practice improved gradually. In the past three years, I have been more interested in the Buddhadharma, deepened my understanding of the Buddhadharma, and become more conscious and dedicated to my studies.

Every day, I spend about 45 minutes reciting Tantric Buddhism mantras and also spend about 1-2 hours studying and learning about Buddhism such as listening to lectures on Youtube, reading books about Buddhism.…

Since I came to know the Buddhadharma and especially after 3 years of thorough studying, I found that my perception, understanding, and perspective have changed greatly. These changes have special importance that change my life, make me more successful, live happier and healthier. There are a lot of things to be shared, but within the framework of this article, I would like to share some issues that I have drawn from my own practical experiences.

The first issue, ups and downs or difficulties in life.

So far, I have had to go through two tough periods. The first period was in 2003 – 2004 after I graduated from college for few years. At that time, my job was not stable, I had to move around and even participated in the university entrance exam for fee, and paid a heavy price.

The second period was from 2012 to 2014, when the Vietnamese economy was in recession and the real estate market was severely affected, Kosy Group at that time, Kosy Joint Stock Company, had just been established and faced up with a number of challenges.

Later thinking about those two periods or even other problems and difficulties that I had encountered, I was stressful and worried, I always blamed myself for my lack of understanding, limited capacity, and calculation, so these things happened, creating bad situations that left impact on many people.

However, after learning the Buddhadharma, I understood that each person has a karma, a personal merit. Each person’s karma in this life is the result of his own cause in countless previous lives. Each person has different karma, good or bad karma is determined by our previous lives. If in previous lives we created a lot of merit, then in this life we ​​have good karma and vice versa. People with good karma have a successful career, their life are prosperous and happy. On the contrary, those with bad karma live an unhappy and poor life. People with good karma lead to their beauty, intelligence and talent. Those with bad karma only look good when they are young, the more they grow up, the uglier they are and the worse they become. People with good karma may be lazy and naughty when they are young, but when they grow up, they will cultivate their will and succeed. Some have to go through many failures, experience ups and downs, setbacks to succeed. While the others once falling down, never get up.

I realized that my karma is to go through these two tough periods, which is the result I have to bear for the causes I have created in previous lives. When I understand these things, knowing my karma in this life, I have to go through hardships and difficulties then I accept it with an optimistic, self-assured attitude. The first difficult period has built me from a person who has no ideal, no goals for my life, to become a person with strong skills, clear aspirations and life objectives. The second period of difficulties trained my ability to overcome hardship. I have learned lessons, made the right mindset, and planned strategies for Kosy Group in the future.

When I understood my karma, that I have to go through those turbulent periods, I no longer felt tormented, no longer blamed myself for miscalculation, or blamed on external circumstances. I accept those came to my life and live happily, optimistically, ready to accept challenges and obstacles in the future ahead.

The second issue, life demands.

When we were young, surely many of us wanted our family to be richer, our parents to be more successful. Getting older, we want our house to be located in the city, not in the countryside; be more handsome, more beautiful, smart, and good at school. As an adult, a husband wants his wife to be beautiful, long-legged, and well-educated; The wife wants her husband to be talented, good money maker, be successful, gallant (without desire for beautiful girls) and we also want our children to be beautiful, good, and filial.

All those “what if” are in the minds of most people, but in reality we do not have those things. As the result, we blame our parents for not being as successful as other people’s parents; Blaming our parents for not being smart, so we are not born as smart as our friend; Blaming ourselves for marrying a bad, dishonest wife, or blaming our children for not being as good as others. 

Despite having those thoughts, we still have to accept the fact as it is. We expect our neighbors to move away (as they sing karaoke all day long) but in reality we have to accept that they may stay forever. We accept those realities, but our heads are still heavy, not clear. I used to have such thoughts and perceptions before knowing the Buddhadharma. After I came to know the Buddhadharma, my perception completely changed.

Each person has a karma, a blessing. Your karma is due to your living in previous lives, leading to such karma in this life. It is not possible to be reborn in a wealthy family. As our lives and merits in our previous lives were just like that, therefore in this life we ​​have to be reborn in such a family. And due to past karma, we married a wife and husband and gave birth to such children. We want to be different, but we can not change, because it is determined by the merits of our past lives. There are children who come to take care of us, but there are also children who come to collect their debt in my previous life we owed, so they destroyed, causing the family to fall apart. There are cases where children kill their parents, that is when they are reborn to take revenge on their parents.

All of these things we have to happily accept, as they are all due to fate and karma, and determined by our previous lives. When we understand these things, we don’t blame our parents anymore, we don’t blame our wives for not being able to give birth (only giving birth girls), and we don’t blame our neighbors anymore, all of that is due to our own karma.

The third issue, communication and behaviours with others.

In the past, when I was a student and later when I graduated from school, I often read books on communication skills so that I could talk and persuade others better. Among those books, Dale Carnegie’s “Getting People’s Heart” which I have read and re-read many times. In which, there are many rules and secrets to good communication, such as having the right attitude, appropriate dressing, respect, sincerity, praise, no criticism, no backbite…

Those teachings are good, those tips are very useful, allowing me to be good at communicating. During the conversation, I pay attention to see if the other has any praiseworthy points; I am always careful with appropriate attitude, manners, and words. I have to pay attention to the attitude and words to be the most natural, the most genuine, the most sincere, as it is forced, it does not come from the heart but is forced out from wishes and thoughts.

Coming to know the Buddhadharma, I understand that, there are people who love me, there are people who hate me, there are people who harm me. Everything is due to karma, all due to cause and effect. If someone hates me, I should have made mistakes with them in my previous life or past, and if someone harms me, I must hurt them in the past. There are people who are better, more successful, more beautiful…than you, It’s all thanks to their karma. In their previous lives, they had a lot of merit, so in this life they will enjoy it. Your karma is different from theirs. When we understand this, understand the root of the problem, we are no longer jealous of them, no longer envious of them, and on the contrary always admire them, congratulate their success and consider them as an example to study.

We also know that every meeting has a cause and effect, each person comes to our life for a reason. One who comes to teach us this lesson, and other teach us another experience. Therefore, we must always cherish all those who have come to us, even those who have hurt us, which means they came to collect our debt or come to teach us a valuable lesson.

When I came to know Buddhism and went through the process of cultivating, gradually I found myself learning compassion, loving people and living beings; Use your mind to treat those around you, and always love everyone in your heart. These things come from the heart, so when communicating, we manifest ourselves through appropriate attitudes, speech, honesty, love, and sincerity. This is the root of effective, persuasive communication.

The fourth issue, success and career development.

I myself have a great aspiration and in order to accomplish that, I strive to study, finish my university education, then further my Master’s and Doctoral degrees and read many books and documents… Among them, there is a book I like the most “Business Secrets to Become Rich and Happy” by Napoleon Hill, now renamed “Think and Grow Rich”. In addition, I read a lot of books about business, entrepreneurship, success, and about human development. Recently, I listen to audio book summaries, last year I listened to about 500 books of summaries, this year I strive to listen to 1,000 books of summaries, each book is about 45 minutes on average. Those books teach a lot of secrets to success, such as having a desire (aspiration), knowing how to set goals, to plan, then confidence, perseverance, ability to overcome difficulties… Up to now, I have always followed the teachings in those books, which are valuable and very useful.

Before understanding the Buddhadharma, I thought that in order to be successful, one must have aspiration, study, and read books to improve capacity; try hard at work, make precise calculation and create proper strategies in business. In my perspective, that’s all it takes to be successful, which means it all depends on your own efforts. In addition, I also thought that I have to try harder than others so that my business may develop more than other businesses, I have to make it bigger and stronger than others. 

But when I know Buddhism, I understand that success does not come from those things. Success or failure is largely determined by our karma and our merits. If our karma is good, then try harder, we could succeed, but if our karma is not good, even if you have high education, effort, and no matter what strategy you use, it is very difficult to succeed.

Therefore, I realized that all the efforts dedicated for studying and working only contributes to a part of success. The success that comes to me is largely determined by my karma and blessings. And even, the karma leads you to be a person who is eager to learn and works hard, and the karma also leads you to be a lazy person. Having the mindset that you have to be better than that person, your business must be bigger than other businesses… All of these are due to your karma and their karma, your own merits and their blessings. If their blessings are greater, they will make their businesses bigger and develop sustainably and if our blessings are not enough, it will be difficult for us to keep up with them.

Before, I also thought that if other people can do it, then I can also do it, but now I see that saying is not true (just for encouragement only). People can do it, it doesn’t mean you can do it, because their karma is different from yours, and your blessings are different from theirs.

Realizing that, on the one hand, I try to study, learn as much as possible, I study even more than before and I focus on work, trying to do everything as best as I can. On the other hand, I went to find out how my karma, my blessings. Through many years of studying Buddhism, practicing Tantric Buddhism, practicing Zen and studying the science of horoscopes, numerology, spirituality, practical work experience…, I also have a relatively clear understanding of my karma and my blessings.

When I understand about my karma, about my merit, I control my desire or aspiration in accordance with my karma, with my blessing. I set goals, plan to develop according to my karma, how the goals do not exceed my blessings. Besides, every day I practice to stop, to turn my bad karma and increase my merit so that my merits and virtues are getting bigger and bigger, so that I can achieve greater things.

When I came to know Buddhism, Buddhist principles changed my perception and thinking in a positive and correct direction, enabling my understanding about the root of problems.

Recently, I find myself having more luck, I feel my intuition is more developed, I have better hunches. There are many miracles that happen to me, many decisions I make that surprise me. Only after I made them, I realized that how and why I could make such decisions. It was as if some metaphysical force was acting on my consciousness, helping me to make those decisions.

One thing I always regret is: My fate did not let me know the Buddhadharma sooner. The teachings of the Buddha are a huge treasure of knowledge, knowledge of mankind. Buddhism allows me live a healthier, happier and more successful life.

Through the above sharing, once again, what I want you to know is that, with Buddhism, you will know karma and blessings. Therefore, living in this world, success or failure should always be cheerfully accepted, because it is the result of the causes in our past lives and in the past. When we succeed, we should not be too happy because it is the fruit we have sown in the previous life and this life we ​​enjoy. If there is failure, we are happy to accept it because it is the result we have to bear for what we have caused in the past and previous lives. Knowing these things, you will keep a cheerful and happy state of mind, ready to accept anything that comes your way, whether it’s success or failure.

To have a better life, create your daily merits by: doing many kind deeds, trying to keep the 5 precepts and know how to practice and learn to stop karma, to change karma. Being able to do this, the rest of our lives will be better, our next life will be reborn in a good realm and if fortunately to be human, we will live a more successful life than this one.