DDM Abbot President Visited Singapore to Share Three Prescriptions for Peace of Mind

On the evening of September 27^th, 2024, Ven. Guo Huei (果暉法師), the Abbot President of Dharma Drum Mountain (DDM), visited Dharma Drum Singapore to share with approximately one hundred attendees the concept of "Four Fields for Cultivating Peace" under the topic of DDM's annual theme for 2024, "A World of Blessings." He explained how to put these concepts into practice in daily life. Before the Abbot President delivered his Dharma talk, the new generation of Buddhist disciples at the Dharma center marked the opening of the event by performing several Buddhist songs.

In his Dharma talk, Ven. Guo Huei pointed out that the first step to attaining peace and happiness is to "cultivate peace of body." He quoted Master Sheng Yen's words to elucidate that keeping the body active and the mind calm is a prerequisite for a healthy life: "To be physically healthy, we must engage in moderate exercise; on the other hand, mental health requires adequate stillness."

The second step is "to cultivate peace of mind." Ven. Guo Huei shared that, due to ongoing wars throughout the world and the prevalence of misinformation, people are constantly exposed to disturbing news and are often left bewildered. If we can focus on the present and deal with those things that are within our control—as opposed to worrying about the future—our mind will naturally settle down.

The third step is "to cultivate peace in our family and in our actions." Ven. Guo Huei expected lay Buddhist practitioners to love and help their family members, and to have strong work ethics and team spirit at work. He emphasizes that, to attain harmony with other people, communities, the world, and the environment, we must start with cultivating harmony within ourselves.

Ven. Guo Huei also cited three examples of sensory illusions to illustrate that many phenomena don't truly exist as we perceive them. By quoting the scripture of the Diamond Sutra, "[all Bodhisattvas] should give rise to a mind that does not abide in anything," Ven. Guo Huei urged everyone not to be attached to phenomena, but to live positively using the concepts of karmic causality, the principle of cause and condition, and the contemplation of impermanence, to further develop wisdom and compassion.

Lastly, Ven. Guo Huei gave the participants three prescriptions for peace of mind. The first prescription is to recognize all phenomena are impermanent. With the understanding that everything is impermanent, we can recognize the fact that it is completely normal for most things in life to go against our expectations. The second prescription is to cultivate blessings; that is, to ameliorate our relationships with others by doing good deeds. The third prescription is to be grateful, by using the wisdom of the "Four Steps for Handling a Problem," as well as reciting the name of Guanyin Bodhisattva when having difficulties. If we can put these three things into practice, we will naturally attain peace of mind.

The participants unanimously indicated that they learned a lot from the talk. In addition, they were also presented with Ven. Guo Huei's new book From Relaxing to Letting Go: The Wisdom and Wondrous Function of Chan Buddhism (從放鬆到放下：禪的智慧與妙用) as a guide for them to continue cultivating peace of mind after the lecture. This caused everyone to be filled with Dharma joy.



Text / Huang Ying-chi (黃穎祺)
Photos / Chu Shu-hui (朱淑慧)
Translation / Li Siang-ling
Editing / Keith Brown, YKL