Going Against the Current: The Difficult Path That Creates Merit

**Summary:** A lecture by Venerable Thích Chân Quang points out that our natural instincts easily lead us to suffering, while reason and morality represent the difficult path that leads us to blessings and wholesome realms.

Have you ever found a large sum of money lying on the road in the early morning? A feeling of joy, as if it were a gift from heaven, rushes in without thinking. You reach down, pick it up, and put it in your pocket. But did you know that this very ease is the path that leads to suffering? In the lecture "The Issues of Instinct and Reason," Venerable Thích Chân Quang revealed a surprising truth: humanity's natural instinct is the easy path, yet it leads us into dark realms. Reason and morality are the difficult path, but they are truly the path toward bright realms.

**Instinct: The Natural Flow of the Mind**

What is instinct? These are the natural reflexes everyone possesses: greed, hatred, selfishness, laziness. We do not need to be taught to covet beauty or avoid hardship. The Venerable Chân Quang explained:

"What is natural is easy; what goes against it is difficult."

Instinct is like a downstream current, simply carrying us along. When facing obstacles, we naturally choose the easiest way. But this very ease pulls us into the painful cycle of samsara.

**Finding Money on the Road: The Moment of Choice**

Imagine early one morning, you are walking on a deserted road and see a bundle containing five hundred million dong. Your instinct will tell you: "Look around, no one sees, pick it up now!" A feeling of elation and luck washes over you. But if you have been practicing, you will think of the person who lost it, their worry, and choose to find a way to return it. The Venerable said:

"Only those who have practiced for a long time, and are accustomed to it, will naturally pick up lost items and return them."

Two choices, two paths. One side is instinct, the other is reason and morality. Which is easier? Clearly, picking up the money is easier than returning it. But who among us wants to accumulate merit for themselves? It is precisely the difficult path that is the place for us to sow and cultivate merit.

**Ingratitude and Gratitude: Two Crossroads of the Mind**

One of the clearest expressions of instinct is ingratitude. Whoever helps us, we easily forget. Remembering gratitude makes the heart feel heavy. The Venerable pointed out clearly:

"Ingratitude is the natural instinct of humans. We forget those who helped us. Remembering kindness and repaying it is reason, it is morality."

But this heaviness in the heart is precisely our dignity, our value, our merit. The grateful one is respected even by gods and spirits. The ungrateful one, even if humans are unaware, is despised by gods and spirits. So which path do we choose?

**Going Against the Current: Choosing the Difficult Path**

The Venerable emphasized: "Practice is to go against the current of life, to go against our own selves." This means we must resist the instincts of greed, hatred, and delusion within our own minds. In daily life, this is expressed through many small acts: cherishing your parents instead of only loving your children, loving your country instead of only worrying for your family, living for others instead of only seeking pleasure, being diligent instead of lazy. He said:

"Do not seek the easy path, for the easy path does not hold much merit. What is difficult, that is what you should do."

Each day, we can invite a friend to go to the temple. That is very difficult, but it is precisely that difficulty that creates blessings from merit. If we are indulgent, only caring for our own pleasure, then at death, we will become hungry spirits. But if we strive to do the difficult things, helping others, we will be reborn in wholesome realms.

**The Benefits of the Difficult Path**

The difficult path is never easy, but it leads to glory and happiness. The Venerable affirmed:

"It is the difficult path that brings us back to glorious happiness or even to the heavenly realms."

Therefore, whenever you face a choice, ask yourself: "Which is easier? Which is harder?" If we choose the difficult one, we are walking the true path of a practitioner. Choosing the easy one, we are drifting along with instinct, losing the opportunity to accumulate blessings.

Today, when you face a choice: easy or hard, remember the Venerable's words. The easy path leads us into the realm of hungry spirits. The difficult path leads us back to peace. Try to do one difficult thing each day: return something you found, or invite a friend to the temple. This is the simple yet profound way of practice. Promise yourself, and the Buddha, that this year you will help guide a few more people to the temple. For the difficult path is indeed the path of light.