saying
Why I Refused Official Position
Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục (Recorded Sayings of Lay-Elder Tuệ Trung)
Text
When the Trần court offered Tuệ Trung high administrative office, he declined and later explained to his students: 'The dharma asks one thing of us — that we be fully present for this life, not managing the lives of thousands while losing our own. A minister's mind must always be in the future, planning and preventing. A practitioner's mind must always be here. I chose here. This is not indifference to the kingdom. It is my service to the kingdom: to show that the present moment is not a luxury but the foundation of all wise action.'
Attribution
By Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ
From Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục (Recorded Sayings of Lay-Elder Tuệ Trung)
Sources
- contentCuong Tu Nguyen — medieval Vietnamese Buddhism scholarship
Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục (Recorded Sayings of Lay-Elder Tuệ Trung): Why I Refused Official Position