In this sermon,the Blessed One touches on the topic of spiritual training (in Hokkien words:Siew Lian).
First of all,what is spiritual training?Spiritual training means cultivating ourselves to become more humane and mindful.With real spiritual training,one would automatically have good conduct.
Next,why must we undergo spiritual training?Well,spiritual training can slowly eradicate our sensual desires and gradually cut off our attachments on all materialistic things.
In order to succeed in your spiritual training,one must possess or practise:
- Principles in life ~ Learn to hold steadfast to our promise of words and actions in life.A person of principle cannot do evil things,cheat others and betray people’s trust in him.He or she would always emphasises on others’ dilemma and predicaments and be considerate of their sufferings and pains before making decisions.
- Responsibility ~ This means always making sure instructions are followed and done.A person of responsibility does not run away from a given duty or escape from the reality of the problem but ensures that the given task is done in order and completed as requested.He or she would not push the given responsibility to others because he or she is a person of responsibility.
- Integrity ~ A person of integrity possesses virtues and morality.Whatever he or she does would always be honest and sincere in nature.He or she would adopt his or her actions and speeches in accordance to rules and regulations.A person of integrity would never antagonise people through unbeneficial and selfish actions.He or she would keep his or her own thoughts and manners of righteous conviction and not simply listen to others’ rumourmongers and frivolous talks or ideas.
Without principles,responsibility and integrity in life,our backbone of spiritual development would never exist.Where there is no basic foundation in our proper way of living, then it is more difficult to achieve any form of successful objectives in our life,be it spiritual or materialistic world.