Admiration – The Free Key That Turns Ordinary People into Great Ones

Have you ever heard about a good person somewhere far away and felt deeply moved? But when your own neighbor does the very same thing, you feel annoyed instead? If so, you are not alone. It is a very natural reaction of the ordinary mind. In today's dharma talk, we will learn the fifth vow of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra – "rejoicing in merit" – to understand why a heart of admiration is the key to greatness.

Rejoicing: From Joy to Admiration

We Vietnamese often understand "rejoicing" simply as feeling glad along with others. When we see someone doing a good deed, we smile and feel happy. But Thay Chan Quang points out that this kind of joy is not strong enough, and it may even be an opportunity for us to go deeper.

"Whoever understands that when seeing another person's good deed, their heart feels admiration – that person I would give ten points. Most of us stop where? At merely feeling glad. That gladness is indeed a blessing from merit, but it is not yet strong enough."

Thay explains that when we see a doctor who has devoted a whole life to patients, or someone who has planted forests for decades, we often feel admiration arise. But many times we only stop at the level of "how nice, how pleasant" without truly admiring. This causes us to lose the chance to receive the precious seed for our own future accomplishments.

Admiration: The Free Key to Greatness

Thay tells us that when we admire someone, we are planting a spiritual seed. That seed, however small, can become the condition for us one day to achieve similar greatness.

"The heart of admiration is the doorway, the key, the very beginning of the path that transforms an ordinary person into a great one. And does that heart cost anything? Not a single penny."

How wonderful! We can give away money, donate blood, dedicate our lives to create merit, but to arouse a heart of admiration, we need not spend anything at all. It costs nothing, yet it has the power to change our destiny. Thay emphasizes: "Whoever understands this should resolve firmly to cultivate the heart of admiration."

The Barrier of Jealousy

But arousing admiration is not easy at all. Thay offers two parallel examples: a man selling noodle soup in a faraway land, who spent his whole life doing small but good deeds – when we hear his story, we feel admiration. But when our own next-door neighbor lives the same way, we feel jealousy arise instead.

"The two stories are exactly the same, but one person is somewhere we do not know – very far away, in some country, some era, some period – so when we hear it, admiration arises. But the person right beside us, whose face we see every day, with the exact same story – we feel no admiration, only jealousy."

Why is that? Because our ordinary instinct wants us to be better than others, and we cannot bear anyone being better than us – especially those who are close to us, our equals. Thay also says: "We only admire people – especially people who have already passed away." Those who are gone no longer compete with us, while the living person beside us becomes like a mirror reflecting into our own heart, making us uncomfortable.

Overcoming the Barrier to Become Great

To cultivate the practice of admiration, we must face our own petty ego. We need to learn to admire even our equals, and even those below us, if they possess something good. Thay teaches:

"We admire the accomplishments of the bodhisattvas. We admire the accomplishments of the Arhats. We admire the accomplishments of great figures and famous people. We admire the accomplishments of ordinary good people everywhere in this life. And most importantly, we can admire the goodness of those who are our equals, right beside us. And we can even admire the good, outstanding, brilliant achievements of those who are lower than us, less capable than us."

Thay also says that to uproot jealousy at its very source, we need to cultivate meditative concentration and remove the five hindrances. But if we have not yet reached that level, we can begin with awareness – by recognizing this barrier. The moment we feel annoyed because a neighbor has done a good deed, let us breathe and think: "This is my own ego revealing itself. Let me replace it with a heart of admiration." Those who can do this immediately have cultivated much in past lives. Those who cannot yet should not be discouraged – with persistence, after three years you will see change. What matters is not giving up.

The fifth vow of rejoicing in merit is a priceless gift that Bodhisattva Samantabhadra offers to all sentient beings. It requires no money, no effort – only an open heart that knows how to admire the beauty and goodness in others. Try beginning today: when you meet someone doing a good deed, pause and let admiration arise. You will feel your heart grow lighter, and the life around you will become more beautiful. That is the path of transformation from an ordinary person into a great one. Homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, our Original Teacher.