Spiritual Resonance – The Secret Hidden in the Verse We Chant Every Day

Do you know what the verse we chant every morning at the temple – "Năng lễ sở lễ tánh không tịch, cảm ứng đạo giao nan tư nghì" – is really saying? Thầy Thích Chân Quang admits that for more than thirty years of practice, he chanted this verse out of habit, yet only recently realized he had never truly understood it.

A verse chanted for a lifetime without understanding

Thầy says that everyone who goes to the temple knows this verse by heart, but few ever stop to understand it. He compares it to learning English from the sixth grade: words like "how are you" and "thank you" seem familiar, yet only in university do we discover we have been pronouncing them wrong all along. "Practice is the same," he says.

The most basic verse turns out to be a very profound one. We have never understood it at all.

A harmful misunderstanding in the line "Buddha and sentient beings are by nature empty and still"

The first line of the verse, "Năng lễ sở lễ tánh không tịch," means that the one who bows and the one who is bowed to both share the nature of emptiness and stillness. Many people interpret this to mean that they are equal to the Buddha, since both are empty and still. This is a great misunderstanding, one that leads to arrogance. Thầy emphasizes: "This is the first misunderstanding."

Feeling, perceiving, and empathizing – three different levels

In daily life, we often use the words feeling, perceiving, and empathizing. Feeling and perceiving belong to intuition, and thus to wisdom. For example, an employer interviewing many candidates finds them all equally timid and deferential, yet he senses that one person is more sincere and carries greater blessings from merit. That is perceiving. Empathizing, on the other hand, means placing ourselves in another's position in order to understand and forgive. A person with compassion will empathize rather than hate or reject. Thầy Chân Quang teaches: "Do not hate – empathize, and seek to guide and teach."

Empathy belongs to love. Feeling and perceiving belong to intuition, to wisdom.

Resonance – the realm of the saints

Cảm ứng đạo giao is the wondrous communion between ourselves and the Buddha, beyond conception. But this is the realm of the saints. When an Arhat enters meditative concentration and turns the mind toward a certain sentient being, that Arhat "becomes" that being in order to fully understand their entire life. Thầy gives an example: to know the core of the earth, the saint becomes the core of the earth; to know the sun, the saint becomes the sun. That is resonance – not observing from the outside, but merging into the object itself.

This resonance belongs to the saints... They become that object. That is resonance.

Sincerity as the "wifi network" connecting with all Buddhas

Thầy uses the image of the internet to explain. Each person sits in one place, yet simply by connecting to the network, they can access the whole world. In Buddhism there is likewise an invisible "network" – the Net of Indra in the Avatamsaka Sutra, where each jewel contains an entire Buddha realm. Whoever bows before the Buddha with a sincere heart naturally "plugs into" this network and receives the blessing of resonance and protection. Thầy says: "Sincerity evokes response" – meaning that sincerity enables connection with the saints.

Sincerity evokes response... That is, when we have a sincere heart, we naturally attract the resonance and blessing of the saints.

Entering the network of the saints today

So how can we live with this spiritual resonance? Thầy teaches: nurture your intuition to understand others, cultivate compassion to empathize, and keep a mind of sincerity and reverence when bowing before the Buddha. Do not assume you understand cause and effect (karmic law) merely because you can recite "sow the wind, reap the whirlwind." Look within, listen to your own faults, practice repentance, and make a vow. In that very moment, resonance will arrive.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, that sacred first day of the year, Thầy chose to teach this verse again as a gift. May it be that when you chant "Năng lễ sở lễ tánh không tịch...", you read not only with your mouth, but feel it with your heart. Communion with all the Buddhas is nowhere far away – it lies right within your sincere heart.