Life Journey & the Miracle of the Lotus Sutra

By WILLIAM DANG

A simple young man, native of a Province, Vietnam. William was born from a farming family with nine children. Filled with love and support from his loving parents in their beautiful homeland, William Dang spent most of his childhood life in the field. Though life was tough for him, with his nature of being Independent and having strong desire to succeed in life, he was able to climb up the ladder and build his own family of four children with the love of his life – his wife, without the influence of her wife’s family wealth.
William Dang began his journey to discover the depths of his inner self and soul from returning to his childhood memories, about his family home where he was born and grown-up, the journey of craving for knowledge, developing a career, and in building a loving family.
In this journey, you will encounter interesting stories that had happen in real life. You will experience visual images of South Vietnamese people in the '60s as well as following years of journey towards passion for knowledge seeking and overcoming some life’s obstacles until reaching the self-awakening part of life. Awakening and self-actualization from negative experiences of his life, which he would like to share heartily to everyone to bring about positive energy to motivate and to inspire.
As a Buddhist religious follower, you will be surprised that the colours of his own life and his inner awakening all originated from the study of Buddhism. This awakening stage started from prostrating The Lotus Sutra. Thereafter, miracles had happened to his life wholly felt in every second, every breath, and every moment. He felt and experienced the great Love, Compassion, and Sympathy which will be nourished in each one of us every day.
William Dang believes that these miracles he experienced through the Lotus Sutra which teaches the way for enlightenment of all humanity, and the enlightenment of the individual in the current life circumstances, will also be experienced by the readers. Whoever or wherever you are, in any country or any religion, he believes that there is an apparent and intimate link not only between people but between us and the universe.
Join William Dang in this life’s journey. Surely, you will be inspired by his success story, especially during this pandemic period. You might see for yourself in each challenging step, a great life lesson to ponder and find meaning in your own life from rediscovering your inner self as well. Share the colours of your life as well that will become like a stepping stone towards finding one’s self to experience great Love and Peace.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Nov 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781543761337

WILLIAM DANG

WILLIAM Dang called Em. He is a Vietnamese who lived in a province near the Cambodian boarder. He was born into a farming family with nine children. His childhood days, he enjoyed in the field life, with full of love from his parents and the homeland's beauty. The desire for knowledge has helped him reaching his dreams step by step. WILLIAM Dang married a daughter from a wealthy family in 2008 in the same district as him. Due to the nature of independence and desire to succeed in his life, WILLIAM Dang and his wife preferred to lead an independent life without the influence of their family's wealth. WILLIAM Dang and his wife got four children. Currently, WILLIAM’s family is living in Singapore. He has chosen Singapore as the second home for his nest and developing a knowledge journey for his four children. He holds MBA in Business Managament and Bachelor in Economic.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by William Dang.

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5437-6134-4

                Softcover        978-1-5437-6132-0

                eBook             978-1-5437-6133-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

A peaceful soul is the final destination of a

human life. Only the sound is forever.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

The Context

Chapter 1 :   The Context I Was Born

Chapter 2 :   The Journey of Finding Knowledge

Chapter 3 :   Journey to Life

Chapter 4 :   Enter the World of Married Life

Chapter 5 :   Building a Nest

Chapter 6 :   The Miracle of the Lotus Sutra

About the Author

Preface

I n life, we all have good or imperfect memories, and all of us has a fantastic story in our life. Not all great people, heroes, millionaires, or famous people can create miracles in their lives. We are not part of those people, but we can create beautiful things in our lives. Those having talents to shine, they have to spend a lot of time through hard work and be full of effort with the highest determination. It is a whole process where they sow the seed until they have a sweet fruit while most of us look at that ripe fruit and only want to have it rather than thinking about how to grow it. In other words, we have not yet looked inside our hearts deeply and the ability to sow good seeds for ourselves. Life is a colour; everyone can create our colour. We have plunged into an experience to make a living for ourselves and our family, hustle to follow life. We accidentally do not realise the beauty of our life and our desire. With our ability, we can perform better than what we have and our current thoughts. We have not yet completed or failed in our lives because we assumed that it is impossible to achieve our goal into our subconscious mind and leads to impatience to pursue your passion. Also, I am not exceptional because I set a limit in my mind that is my future. But now I found that my journey can go beyond my thoughts. During the fifteen years in my career path, I have plunged into a living journey without thinking about what my ambitions and goals are in life.

When the pandemic occurred, I initially felt the chaos in life and extremely disquiet. While it seemed that I was falling apart, I found myself on time. In other words, I started the journey to wake the subconscious mind. Crossing space and time, I have discovered beautiful memories and good things in my life. What’s even more impressive is that I have found the happiness in my soul where it does not much depend on money.

I began my journey to discover the depths of my soul. It originated from returning to the childhood world, about the family home where I was born and had grown up, the journey of craving for knowledge, developing a career, and building the family.

Throughout the book’s journey, you will encounter the real story that happened in my life. You will be able to find a visual image of South Vietnamese people in the 1960s. Following years were a journey of passion for seeking knowledge and overcoming the incidents in my life until awakening from my soul. The awakening was from past events to current life. I wish to entrust my sharing from the heart. Behind each event, there is a desire to bring positive energy, love, and experience. As a Buddhist, you will not be surprised that the colour of my life and my inner awakening originate from the study of Buddhism. This awakening started from doing the lotus sutra, and the miracle appeared in my life. A miracle of life is wholly felt in every second, breath, and every moment. Love, compassion, and sympathy will be nourished in each of us every day. It will help the planet where we live in and will be filled with loving light. Whoever you are, in any country or any religion, I believe that there is an apparent and intimate link with not only between people but between us and the universe. The sincerity and the good of hearts are always present in every human and religion. The sincerity and the good of hearts always present in every human and religion where we will always find riches for the soul. Please join me on the life journey. You might find yourself on each challenging step and find meaning in your life from your inner thinking. Take replication and share the colourful of your life by writing books, making movies, or stories. Each of these colours become the bricks to build a greatness home where there are fully love and peace.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following:

➢ this world’s system which has created human in which I am present, especially to my wonderful grandparents, my loving parents, my beautiful wife and children who made my presence in this life meaningful, giving me the colours of life where I can fully feel all the flavours of life;

➢ all the teachers, friends, and colleagues who appeared in my life;

➢ the buddhas, Dharma, and the monks I knew or yet to meet and those through the media who have helped me find the awakening of life; and

➢ readers who will join me in making good things for in the present and the future life.

I t’s my first time writing a book, and undoubtedly there will be some mistakes, including Dharma’s limited knowledge. I respectfully request your sympathy and treat me as your friend. I sincerely appreciate your opinions and give me a chance to improve on myself.

The Context

W hen I started to write about my story which you are going to read, my mood became very vast. I do not know how to tell the story logically and awaken my soul to find positive energy for myself and transmit them to life. Everyone’s life has good memories, just like good movies, so why don’t I share these good things with everyone. I asked myself, do I have the patience to write about my story in a book during my lifetime and what if I could not do it. I do not read regularly. Will it affect my focus on getting my thoughts into a story which I wanted to convey? Experiencing when the whole world was in the peak period of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), all countries got stressed out by the epidemic. Singapore is no exception; the stay-home order has been issued worldwide. People from all walks of life work from home via the virtual gateway, and the children are also studying from home, except those who are working in the frontline. During the first two months of stay-home order, I had never imagined that the stay-home order significantly affected and changed my family. It was very stressful and the social order created a mess in my family.

You just imagine waking up every day as usual. My job is to take care of the children to go to school, have breakfast, and go to work until the afternoon to have dinner with the family. Now all of a sudden, the whole family gathers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The entire family, including me, felt excited because it seemed to be an extended vacation, but I gradually began to feel empty. My wife kept opening her eyes to cooking; my job was difficult to concentrate on when the four children were studying at home through the computer. They quarrelled and competed for toys. Other than that, they could not control and solve the learning issue by themselves. Therefore, I am continuously interrupted.

I am the breadwinner. I felt sad and stressed and useless as time goes on, which I previously did not have in the office environment. I started to bully my children. My wife and I became less chatty to each other, even sometimes quarrelling. I wonder what’s going on. I’m killing time and what’s my attitude. I found what was wrong with me; it seemed like a severe psychological imbalance. As a Buddhist, I believe in the teachings of Buddha. I started regularly listening to mediation music every night to find stillness in the soul and hope to release my stress. Luckily, I have seen or known a few right monks who helped me step by step, rebalancing my mind and gaining back healthy thoughts. I had met a monk named Minh Binh, who stayed in Singapore during the pandemic due to all flights cancelled. He came to Singapore to learn and study about Buddha. He accepted the invitation and was very happy to help me rearrange a statue of Buddhist Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva to a new place in my house. That time was on 15 March 2020, lunar calendar. My wife and I are very excited to welcome him in a particular situation that Singapore will be in a circle breaker on the next day on the whole island.

He chatted with me and shared the good things about the philosophy of life. It was very familiar and happens naturally in our daily living, but it was like a cool breeze passing through my soul while the mood was full of insecurities about what was happening. Let’s think and observe the surroundings positively and have meals with the family and make the children be the happiest every day. Those were the first words that he mentioned while talking to me. He continued that money was somehow essential to life, but there were sometimes more important things than that; that was the spirit. Having healthy energy, yourself being the primary breadwinner of your family, you must be even more confident during the storm. Imagine the life, this world, as the ocean, sometimes quiet, sometimes having incredible waves to sudden deluge, but the sea is still immiscible, unchanged, and floaty then. As the captain driving the boat, at this moment, I must be strong enough to understand this nature for overcoming easily. I need to concentrate, calm in my mind, and focus on the present to have a sense of peace.

During a pandemic, everyone at home also needs the time to reflect and reconsider one’s mind, which is also a time to help keep the mind calm, limit contact with external complications, and regenerate energy. Nourishing the soul enough, it will be for generating positive energy to the family and the people around. Everything will become sound and gentle in overcoming life’s difficulties.

My life started to change a little bit mentally. It seems I should have a temporary place to stay for the fears and worries of a large family in Singapore where the living cost is the highest in Asia. I have read a lot of stories about Buddhism, listening to meditation music at night. Fascinated by films and Dharma, I was able to read the life of Thich Huyen Dieu, a monk whose life and miracles attracted me, from an ordinary person who has done miracles for Buddhism of the world in general and Vietnamese Buddhism in particular. As a Vietnamese person, I am proud of him. It was like I found a life vest when I was in the middle of the sea and as a thirsty man finding a drop of water in a desert. I went through all his videos and story; waking me up was the magic of prostrating to the lotus sutra. Visually I observed and felt that all things which he shared were frank and truthful. I thought that I found a sage to practice and learn from his life. I was delighted.

I followed Monk Huyen Dieu’s guidance and started looking forward to the mystery coming to my life. I pray that if the miracle happens, please let me write a book and publish it successfully. I desire to share the good things of my life and the wonder of the lotus sutra. If you are reading this book, please believe that the miracle has come to me.

Part I

Childhood Memory

and Familial Love

Chapter 1

The Context I Was Born

M y mother said that I was born in a rare situation. My family is a farming family of many generations. My father married my mother by arrangement with my grandparents without any first love. In the years sixties in the southern region of Vietnam, especially the land of Ben Cau close to the Cambodian border; the daily living of farmers were mostly having a friend with buffalos, ploughs. My father was no exception. As my mother described, my father was a young man, thin and a little short, but he worked very hard and was agile. My mother just turned eighteen, the young woman’s age as in the spring and innocent stage in life. My mother wakes up about 3am to buy items such as vegetables, fish, cake, and then sell them to Cambodia to share the family’s burden. She yoked goods on her front and back, walked, and carried all those things on her shoulder five kilometres every day. She