On Spiritual Cultivation

My life has been bumpy, so of late I have turned to Buddhism for solace. Sitting before the Buddha image and chanting the name of Amitabha, the agitation in my heart gradually settles, and I find temporary peace.

The world is impermanent and our fates are capricious; how should a middle-aged person face them? Reading the sutras, I often feel the Buddha is truly compassionate and has left us a comprehensive and perfect way to deal with life hardships. The Diamond Sutra says: all conditioned phenomena are like a dream, a phantom, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or lightning; view them thus. In another passage the Buddha says: a wise person does not dwell in phenomena, does not dwell in signs, does not dwell in the mind, and does not dwell in giving.

Indeed, most of life troubles come from dwelling too much on things, signs, and the mind. If we can be detached in all circumstances, miseries will lessen greatly. But detachment is easier said than done; as a middle-aged person with family burdens, detachment also means being callous.

Reading these two sentences from the Diamond Sutra, I thought of Kant and Einstein. Kant held that our understanding of the world is subjective, that phenomena are filtered through the human cognitive framework, and that we can never truly know the thing-in-itself. The more I read Kant, the more I feel the Buddha same conclusion: the phenomena we see are merely our mind projections. Einstein also said: reality is an illusion, though a very persistent one.

So to escape the suffering the world brings us, the only way out is to adjust our own mind. I remember reading somewhere that Einstein often read the Bhagavad Gita and said he found peace of mind in it. Feynman also read religious books, studied the Bible, and was critical of religious dogma but deeply admiring of Jesus character. To Feynman, Christianity was like many things in the world: not all truth, nor all falsehood, and no one has ever truly grasped the truth of the world.

Feynman once said in his memoir that he had read many religious books in his youth, and that after reading them he still did not know the meaning of life. He said: I think perhaps the meaning of life is just to live, to experience the world, and to leave a little mark. That is enough. This is probably the most honest view on religion and life I have heard from a great scientist.

Many people imagine that scientists are all atheists, but this is not true. Great scientists often have a deep religious sentiment, yet they are not religious people in the ordinary sense. They do not go to church every week, nor pray to the Buddha before meals; they simply hold an attitude of awe and humility toward the world. They know that the world is vast and that what humans can understand is only a tiny corner, so they never claim to have grasped ultimate truth.

When we read Buddhist scriptures, what moves us is often not the so-called Buddha-nature or karma, but the compassion and wisdom the Buddha shows in the sutras. He knows the world is suffering, yet he never despises the world; he shows us a way to leave suffering behind. Whether we can truly follow that path depends on us.

Recently I have been reading the Diamond Sutra again. It says: all the Buddhas and their enlightened teachings arise from this sutra. I do not know whether that is true, but I know that after reading it my mind is a little more peaceful. For a middle-aged person, a little peace is already a rare blessing.

Spiritual cultivation is not about burning incense and bowing to the Buddha; it is about how you live each day, how you treat the people around you, and how you face the ups and downs of life. The Buddha said: be a lamp unto yourself. This means that in the end, no religion, no teacher, no scripture can save you; only your own understanding and practice can.

In this sense, Buddhism, Christianity, science, and philosophy all point in the same direction: toward a clearer, calmer, more compassionate heart. The road may differ, but the destination is one. Whether one calls it Nirvana, the Kingdom of Heaven, the pursuit of truth, or simply a good life, what matters is that we walk it with sincerity.

So I do not insist that others believe in the Buddha, nor do I think Buddhism is the only truth. I only hope that every person can find their own way to inner peace, and in this impermanent world, live with a calm heart and a clear mind.