Category: TLS Chapter 3

Episode 702 – Negative Effects Come From Deviating Toward Evil

---

>> The causes for negative retributions are the negative karmic conditions we create ourselves. Defilements of afflictions and delusion result in negative karmic effects. Slandering the Dharma cuts off seeds of goodness thus we attract our own retributions. The five chronic and acute afflictions lead us to deviate towards evil.

>> They are reborn as jackals and enter the villages. Their bodies are covered in scabs and sores, They are beaten and thrown about by children, thus undergoing many sufferings, even to the point of death.  [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> “After death in that life, some are reborn in the bodies of pythons with immense bodies as long as 500 yojanas. They are deaf, stupid and have no feet. Crawling about on their bellies, they are bitten and fed upon by many small insects.”  [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> Pythons are large snakes without poisonous fangs and with long bodies. Those born as pythons have long bodies, as long as 500 yojanas.

>> Their sense of hearing is crude and slow; they are deaf and dim-witted. They are foolish and ignorant and are bitten and fed upon by small insects.

>> night and day, suffering without respite. Because they slander this sutra, this is the retribution for their transgressions.  [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> If there is doubt of the Buddha-Dharma, one may engage in base actions. For slandering the Great Vehicle Dharma, retribution is not limited to rebirth as animals. They face retributions according to karma, and each are different.

>> If born as humans, their capacities are dull and sluggish. They may be stunted, ugly, deformed or crippled, blind, deaf or hunchbacked. No matter what they say, no one trusts them. Their breath is perpetually foul-smelling, and demons cling to them.    [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>>Poor and lowly, at the mercy of others, they are often sick, dehydrated and gaunt and have no one to rely upon.    [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

---

“The causes for negative retributions are the negative karmic conditions we create ourselves.
Defilements of afflictions and delusion result in negative karmic effects.
Slandering the Dharma cuts off seeds of goodness thus we attract our own retributions.
The five chronic and acute afflictions lead us to deviate towards evil.”

All it takes is just one single thought. In the past, our minds gave rise to discursive thoughts. Once one evil thought arises, a lot of karma is created. So in this lifetime, we wonder, “Why is this person suffering so much?” When one tragedy after another befalls this one family or this one person, we wonder, “Why does this happen to them?” If many things do not go our way and we encounter many negative causes, conditions and effects, all of these stem from our past [karma].

If we understand the past, we will have more insight into the present. As Buddhist practitioners, this is what we must learn.

We must not feel resentful [of our treatment], but rather think about how, in the past, the way we treated them must have created unpleasant conditions for them as well. That is why, in this lifetime, they treat us this way, causing us to feel stressed and pressured, pushing us around, bullying us, inhibiting us, etc. We must also be grateful for the pressure they give us today, because this way we can learn to endure it.

All of you must have heard about how. Purna Maitrayani Putra told the Buddha. “Venerable Buddha, I am willing to go to the most distant borderland, where people are most crude and negative and where the Buddha-Dharma is absent, in order to promote the Buddha-Dharma, to guide them to internalize the principles and eliminate afflictions from their minds.” The Buddha said, “Going there is dangerous!”

Purna Maitrayani Putra replied to the Buddha in this way, “It is because [people there] are barbarous and because they do not understand the principles that I am willing to bring these principles to that place right away.” The Buddha said to him, “If you go there you will encounter many difficulties. They may shout abuses at you.” Purna Maitrayani Putra replied to the Buddha, “Venerable Buddha, do not worry. So what if they yell at me? At least they are not beating me with their fists.”

The Buddha said, “What if they were to beat you with their fists?” [He said,] “I will be grateful that they are beating me with their bare hands and not with sticks. That would not do my body [much] harm.” Then the Buddha asked, “What if they beat you with sticks and really injure your body?” Purna Maitrayani Putra replied, “Venerable Buddha, I would still feel grateful. They are just beating me with sticks, not threatening my life with knives.” The Buddha asked, “And what if they use knives and threaten your life? What will you do then?” Purna Maitrayani Putra replied, “Venerable Buddha, I will be grateful because in the past I must have created this karmic debt by harming them. In a past life, I may have bullied them in this way, such that in this life. I have to repay this debt. I will be very grateful to be able to resolve the karmic entanglements we formed in our past lives.”

The Buddha was very moved. “I pray that, when you go there, you will protect yourself well. They may be stubborn and hard to teach, but remember, all sentient beings have Buddha-nature. As long as you treat them with reverence, there is nothing you cannot accomplish. I wish you good fortune.” So, Purna Maitrayani Putra went with the Buddha’s blessing. His mission took him to the most barbarous places in the south to promote the Buddha-Dharma.

In our daily living, as we interact with the people, matters and things around us, if we encounter someone who has not yet corrected their habitual tendencies, who give us unpleasant looks, or say things that make us unhappy, that is even more reason to think about Purna Maitrayani Putra and his willingness to go to those barbarous places to teach the Dharma. How does what we face in the world compare? Inevitably, many people will have not yet fully eliminated their habitual tendencies and afflictions. When we encounter people like this, we must remind ourselves to be vigilant. For these people with [strong] habits, we must quickly put our palms together and say, “I understand what you mean. I apologize for not noticing this. I will pay closer attention next time.” In this way, after they have lost their temper, they will see us [and realize], “In fact, I am also a spiritual practitioner, I must pay closer attention too. That person said, ‘I will pay more attention,’ and that is something I also need to do.” Thus we can be a good spiritual friend, as well as heighten our vigilance. If others have these habitual tendencies, isn’t it possible that we do too? Perhaps, we did not eliminate these afflictions in our past life, so in this lifetime we encounter conditions that aid our spiritual practice. So, when we suffer the fruits of our evil karma, we must accept them. When we live among people, we must bring peace to ourselves and others. We must happily train ourselves and happily accept [whatever happens]. If we can happily accept our circumstances, we can exhaust our karmic retributions. Then our conflicts with people can also be eased. We must also know the principles and quickly promote the Right Dharma and a correct direction.

So first, as we listen to the Dharma, we must listen to it mindfully. After we take it in, we must develop the correct understanding. We must not hear or transmit it in error; this we cannot do. When we seek the Dharma, we must seek what is true. We must not be mistaken. This is the first thing we must remember. Even more important is that we must not intentionally slander the Dharma. This severs our roots of goodness in this world and our wisdom-life for transcending this world. In this world, if we cut off seeds of goodness and sever our wisdom-life, true principles will not abide in the world, and the world will be filled with evil.

This is truly worrisome. Thus we want to discuss “the five chronic and acute afflictions.” There are five acute afflictions and five chronic afflictions, which easily cause us to deviate. If we intentionally slander the Dharma and guide others down a deviant path, we ourselves are heading down an evil path. This is why we must be very cautious.

The previous sutra passage states, “They are reborn as jackals and enter the villages. Their bodies are covered in scabs and sores, and they are missing an eye. They are beaten and thrown about by children, thus undergoing many sufferings, even to the point of death.”

They face so many negative retributions. After being in hell, they are reborn in the animal realm, where they face all kinds of retributions. Being an animal already brings much suffering, but they may suffer physical illnesses as well, from skin disease to disabilities, such as missing limbs or eyes. When children see them, they mistreat them, beat them, etc. Whether they use stones or sticks, this is indeed unbearable suffering; these animals face such painful retributions.

So, “After death in that life,” for example, if they were hacked to death, “Some are reborn in the bodies of pythons.” In the next life, they have not yet transcended the animal realm. They are still beasts, still creatures, “with immense bodies as long as 500 yojanas.” They are very long and massive. “They are deaf, stupid and have no feet. Crawling about on their bellies, they are bitten and fed upon by many small insects.” This is a state of great suffering!

“After death in that life, some are reborn in the bodies of pythons with immense bodies as long as 500 yojanas. They are deaf, stupid and have no feet. Crawling about on their bellies, they are bitten and fed upon by many small insects.” 

After facing all kinds of suffering and torment, some are then reborn as great pythons, as a kind of snake. This kind of snake is very long. However, they are not venomous, and their bodies crawl across the ground. How long is the body of such a snake? The sutra says it may be up to “500 yojanas.”

Pythons are large snakes without poisonous fangs and with long bodies. Those born as pythons have long bodies, as long as 500 yojanas.

How long is a yojana? About [13 kilometers]. So, how long is 500 yojanas? A snake of that size is unimaginable. However, we do not need to discuss whether such a large snake actually exists. We know this is just a metaphor for a very long, very big snake. “They are deaf, stupid and without feet, crawling about on their bellies.” Sometimes a huge snake like this cannot see with his eyes. “Stupid” means foolish, with dull capabilities. “Deaf” means their sense of hearing is dull; they are unable to hear clearly. Moreover, they are slow to react and ignorant [of their surroundings].

Their sense of hearing is crude and slow; they are deaf and dim-witted. They are foolish and ignorant and are bitten and fed upon by small insects.

In this way, because their reaction rate is slow, many small creatures take advantage and slowly suck their [blood], wantonly biting and feeding upon their bodies. This indeed causes tremendous suffering. When can they escape this kind of life? They experience this pain, ․”night and day, suffering without respite. Because they slander this sutra, this is the retribution for their transgressions.”

night and day, suffering without respite. Because they slander this sutra, this is the retribution for their transgressions. 

Therefore, night and day they face being fed upon by insects. This goes on without a moment’s rest. Suffering like this is truly unbearable.

I have told everyone before that, around 40, 50 years ago, when we started Tzu Chi, I personally went on case visits. What I saw was a man who was just lying there. There was a rat by his foot that was about this fat. He was by the man’s foot, gnawing at it. I said, “There is a rat at your feet! Can’t you see? Don’t you realize this?”

He said, “I had no idea. I have no feeling in my body. I can only move my mouth. My mind is clear, but I have no feeling in the rest of my body.” This man’s job was to lift heavy things. He was traveling with a truck that hauled logs. The logs were stacked on the truck, but they were not secured tightly. When the log on top rolled off, he did not move in time and was crushed under the weight of the entire log. This damaged his spine, and he became paralyzed for life.

He had four children and a wife. This family of six now relied on his wife doing odd jobs. They were two, three, five and six years old. Looking at them, my sadness was indescribable. We had to provide long-term care for this family, giving the children an opportunity to go to school. By now, these four children must be in their 50s or 60s. Then, they were five or six years old.

Think about it. Some people end up with a life like that, just as some animals experience such suffering. Why does this happen? It must stem from a past life. Whether they had already been through hell or experienced the animal realm, even though they have come to the human realm, they continue to face unbearable suffering. This is “because they slandered this sutra,” thus severing people’s roots of goodness and slandering the true principles. This kind of karma is very severe. “This is the retribution for their transgressions.” This kind of suffering, day and night, is truly unbearable

If there is doubt of the Buddha-Dharma, one may engage in base actions. For slandering the Great Vehicle Dharma, retribution is not limited to rebirth as animals. They face retributions according to karma, and each are different.

When it comes to the Buddha-Dharma, we must not have doubts. We must listen very carefully. If we did not hear it clearly, doubts may arise in our minds, and we may look down on the Dharma. When we view the sutras with contempt and devalue them, or even intentionally slander the Great Vehicle, we will be reborn as animals.

Not all animals are the same. There is not just one kind; there are oxen, sheep, horses, pigs, etc., as well as dogs, cats, animals that fly, beasts that walk and insects and snakes that crawl on the ground, etc. We can be born as any one of many kinds of animals “[We] face retributions according to karma.” Following our karma, we may end up as one of many kinds of animals, whether domesticated or wild. The animal we are born as depends on the karma we created in this world and the retributions we have to experience. This is different for each person.

The following passage states, “If born as humans, their capacities are dull and sluggish. They may be stunted, ugly, deformed or crippled, blind, deaf or hunchbacked. No matter what they say, no one trusts them. Their breath is perpetually foul-smelling, and demons cling to them.”

How painful! Even if they are born human, “Their capacities are dull and sluggish.” We often see people like this. They may be born into a poor family or born with physical disabilities. Perhaps they were injured in an accident, and their bodies became crippled or disabled, etc. All this is due to karmic retributions. Since we have been born human, we should open the door to our minds and recognize that the karmic causes we created in our past lives have resulted in the karmic retributions we face in this life. In this world, there are many things that are beyond our control. Not only are some people born short, they may also be “deformed.” Their hands and feet may not grow normally. “They may be stunted, ugly, deformed or crippled,” like those with brittle bone disease. There are also people who are “blind, deaf or hunchbacked.” They cannot see with their eyes or hear with their ears, and they are hunchbacked, etc. This indeed brings great suffering.

“No matter what they say, no one trusts them.” Some people look very proper, yet when they speak, no one believes them. Because they formed bad affinities with people in their past lives and have bad habitual tendencies in this one, they have terrible relationships with people. Even though their body is healthy, their relationships are not. Some people have very bad breath. Others dislike it, and when they speak, other people detest them. Others detest them, yet demons will cling to them. Demons enjoy this scent.

Aside from this, the following sutra passage states, “Poor and lowly, at the mercy of others, they are often sick, dehydrated and gaunt and have no one to rely upon.”

They are born into the human realm after departing that animal form. So, when they return as a human, they are first born into a life of poverty. This does not necessarily mean they are born in Africa. In our own lives, in this country right here, there are also many impoverished people. Otherwise, why would there be a need for humanitarian organizations? There would be no need for the Buddha to teach the Bodhisattva Way, which He did to save sentient beings. Because sentient beings bring this kind of karma into the human realm, there must be Bodhisattvas in this world to help the impoverished and suffering. So, after experiencing life in the Three Evil Realms, those people still have to come to the human realm to experience being poor and lowly. Their lives are controlled by others; they are not free to do what they want.

They are also often “sick, dehydrated and gaunt.” They often drive themselves to become ill, making it hard for them to move around freely. In particular, there are some who, once born, are immediately orphaned. They do not have parents to rely on. They do not have elders to rely on. They do not have siblings to rely on. People like this “have no one to rely on.”

So, think about it; there is so much suffering in human life, not to mention in the life of an animal! The state of animals’ lives is indeed filled with unbearable suffering. Everything that happens comes about because in our past lives, we created the causes for negative karmic retributions. The cause of negative retributions is the negative affinities we created ourselves. We have created many negative affinities in the past. In the past, we were also contaminated by many afflictions and dust-like delusions, and we still have not fully eliminated our habitual tendencies, so we suffer the effects of our negative karma. Thus, we must constantly make an effort to be vigilant and to always be mindful.

Episode 701 – Facing the Retributions of One’s Karma

---

>> Good and evil karma cause retributions of joy and suffering. No one can add even the slightest transgression to our karma. No other can suffer the retributions of our own transgressions in our place. Good and evil karmic conditions apply to those with few or many blessings accordingly.

>> Upon emerging from hell, they are reborn as animals like dogs and jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance, mottled black and covered in scabs. They are beaten and abused by humans.  [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> Then they are also despised by humans and perpetually plagued by hunger and thirst, so their flesh and bones are withered and dry. Their lives are full of torment, and in death they are buried under stones and tiles. Having cut off the seed of Buddhahood, they suffer retribution for their transgressions.  [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> Ten evil retributions suffered by dogs: Haggard, gaunt and sallow, dirty, covered in scabs, beaten and abused, despised by humans, perpetually plagued by hunger and thirst, flesh and bones withered and dry, lives filled with torment, and set to die and be buried under rubble.

>>The Great Vehicle Buddha-Dharma explains that everything is created by the mind. One thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits. So, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. The latter retributions can be deduced by the same principle.

>> If reborn as camels, or donkeys, they are constantly laden with burdens and flogged with sticks. Their only thoughts are of grass and water, and they know nothing else. It is because of their slander of this sutra that they suffer retribution like this. [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>> Four evil retributions faced by camels or donkeys: Four evil retributions faced by camels or donkeys: They are laden with burdens, flogged with sticks, their thoughts are only on grass and water and they know nothing else.

>>Or they are reborn as jackals and enter the villages. Their bodies are covered in scabs and sores, and they are missing an eye. They are beaten and thrown about by children, thus undergoing many sufferings, even to the point of death. [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

---

“Good and evil karma cause retributions of joy and suffering.
No one can add even the slightest transgression to our karma.
No other can suffer the retributions of our own transgressions in our place.
Good and evil karmic conditions apply to those with few or many blessings accordingly.”

Do you understand this? We ourselves have created all of our retributions. Negative or positive, the karmic causes we have created lead us to retributions of suffering and joy. They have all been created by us. The amount of karma we have created determines the amount of karmic retributions we face; we reap what we sow.

Whatever karma we have created in our past lives, we will have to face those karmic retributions ourselves in this life. If people want to add to our karma, they cannot. If people want to reduce our karma, they cannot. Thus, the actions we took in our past lives determine the retributions we face in this life. As [unenlightened] beings, we need to pay close attention to every word we say, everything we do and every thought we give rise to. We need to be very cautious; otherwise. “Good and evil karma [will] cause retributions of joy and suffering.” We will reap what we sow.

As we recite the Earth Treasury Sutra, we read the story of the Brahmin maiden and how filial she was to her mother [Doing what she did] required the power of great vows. We should already know that this Brahmin maiden, has for many lifetimes, saved sentient beings from suffering by going into hell, the human realm and so on. Who is this Brahmin maiden exactly? The Earth Treasury Bodhisattva. He has the power of great vows. For lifetime after lifetime, he came and went in the human realm and the Three Evil Destinies without rest.

In the first volume [of the sutra], we chant the part about how when the mother of the Brahmin maiden was alive, she constantly slandered the Three Treasures. The Brahmin maiden tried to counsel against this, but no matter how hard she tried, at most her mom might [stop] temporarily. Yet not long after that, she would slander the Three Treasures again. After she passed away, her filial daughter considered her situation. What worried her most was that her mother had fallen into hell. So, she tried to come up with ways to atone for her mother’s transgressions. She sold all their possessions to make offerings to the Three Treasures. The Brahmin maiden often came to the statue of Ease in Meditation King Tathagata to pay her respects. She constantly thought, “Where is my mother right now?”

While praying reverently, she heard a voice speaking from the sky. The voice said, “I am the one you are reverently praying to for help right now, Ease in Meditation King Tathagata. I see how much you care for your mother, how much you miss her, and how you pray with the utmost reverence, as well as how worried you are about where she may be now.”

“I will tell you. Hurry home and bring your mind into a state of stillness. Think about my name; then you will automatically know your mother’s whereabouts.”

The Brahmin maiden believed what she had heard and quickly returned home. At home, she quietly sat in meditation. In that state, with her every thought, she was mindful of. Ease in Meditation King Tathagata. Then a scene appeared in her mind. She was right by the ocean, and the waves were huge. She saw many people in the ocean, floating on the surface and wailing. In the ocean water, many ferocious beasts were swimming about. There were also many yaksas and evil ghosts who tormented the people being punished by dragging them over, tearing them into pieces, then swallowing them. When she saw them, she became frightened.

Then a ghost king came to her whose name was No Harm. He greeted her in a very reverent manner. “Greetings, Bodhisattva; what brought you here?” The Brahmin maiden asked, “Just what is this place?” No Harm answered, “This is the first great sea on the western side of the great ring of iron mountains. The people who come to this place are either people who created this karma or Bodhisattvas with awe-inspiring virtue. They are the only ones who can come here”

[The maiden asked,] “Is this place hell? I have heard that hell is within the great ring of iron mountains.” The ghost king answered, “That is right. This is just the first great sea outside the great ring of iron mountains. To the east of this sea is another sea. The sentient beings suffering there are facing even worse misery and cruelty. To the east of that great sea is yet another sea. The suffering in the third great sea is even worse; it cannot be described in words. It is really excruciating.” Hearing this, the Brahmin maiden became very worried and afraid. The ghost king asked her, “What brought you here?” She said, “I am here because my mother has died. I really want to know where she is right now.”

No Harm asked her, “What is your mother’s name? My mother’s name is Yue Dili.” Upon hearing that, No Harm immediately told the Brahmin maiden, “Bodhisattva, please rest assured. You can go home immediately. Yue Dili, who was to be punished, did indeed fall into hell. However, she has a child who is very filial. This child is always respectful and has shown love to everyone and benefited them. She made offerings to the Three Treasures and prayed to. Ease in Meditation King Tathagata with such reverence that it was very moving. This virtue has extended into hell. With the help of these merits, her mother has ascended into heaven; and not just her mother, but those being punished alongside her have also ascended into heaven.”

Then, the Brahmin maiden woke up and returned to herself. “I am so grateful!” So, she went back and made a vow before this Buddha to spend all her future lifetimes saving all sentient beings, Even if she had to go into hell or come back to the human realm, she would continue in all subsequent lifetimes. Thus, Earth Treasury Bodhisattva said, “Until hell is empty, I will not attain Buddhahood. Until all have been transformed, I will forego enlightenment.” Only one with great merits and virtues can do this.

The Brahmin maiden had been kind from birth. She constantly helped sentient beings out of love and always counseled her mother to have faith in the Three Treasures. She did not do this for just one lifetime. According to the Earth Treasury Sutra, Earth Treasury Bodhisattva had accumulated merits and virtues from saving lives over many lifetimes. It is because she had accumulated so many merits and virtues that she was able to save her mother. Therefore, we should always be mindful. When we create karma, “No other can suffer the retributions of our transgressions in our place.” Nobody can take our place and face the retributions of the karma we created. Similarly, no one can take away any of the blessings we have created.

This applies to blessed and negative retributions. Depending on how many blessings we created, “Good and evil karmic conditions apply to those with few or many blessings accordingly.” If we created just a tiny amount of blessings, what can we really ask for? If we have created a lot of blessings, positive retributions will naturally come our way. If we do not have good karma, all we have is evil karma, therefore we will face much suffering in the world and produce many afflictions that we will bring with us into our next life. Will we end up suffering in hell, in the animal realm, or in the hungry ghost realm? There are countless layers of suffering; they truly never end. Thus, we should thoroughly understand that we create the positive and negative karmic causes that lead us to face retributions of joy and suffering.

As we mentioned previously, those who slander the Great Vehicle principles will fall into hell “Upon emerging from hell, they are reborn as animals like dogs and jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance, mottled black and covered in scabs. They are beaten and abused by humans.”

Not only are they born as animals; they have skin disease and are handicapped. When people see them, they become unhappy, so they beat them, etc. This is their karma. Being born an [animal] already brings suffering, and if they also have this kind of karma, their suffering will be unbearable.

The following sutra passage states, “Then they are also despised by humans and perpetually plagued by hunger and thirst, so their flesh and bones are withered and dry. Their lives are full of torment, and in death they are buried under stones and tiles. Having cut off the seed of Buddhahood, they suffer retribution for their transgressions.”

Regardless of whether they are animals or humans, the sight of them makes people unhappy. They often suffer from poverty and hardship and are born in very humble places. Moreover, they are always thirsty and hungry. Even though they left the hungry ghost realm to come to either the animal or human realm, they still do not have enough to eat. Hence, they are like hungry ghosts in either the human or the animal realm. So, “Their flesh and bones are withered and dry,” making them physically very skinny.

“Their lives are full of torment.” While they are alive, they already experience so much misery. What about after they die? They cannot be buried properly. They are still treated like rubbish. Broken tiles and rocks, stones and sand, are used to casually bury them.

This is what happens Ten evil retributions suffered by dogs: Haggard, gaunt and sallow, dirty, covered in scabs, beaten and abused, despised by humans, perpetually plagued by hunger and thirst, flesh and bones withered and dry, lives filled with torment, and set to die and be buried under rubble.

Why did this happen to them? “Having cut off the seed of Buddhahood, they suffer the retributions for these transgressions.” We do not know what they were like in their past lives and how much karma they accumulated. They brought that karma to their present life. And this karma that they brought with them, where did it come from? Everything is created by the mind.

The Great Vehicle Buddha-Dharma explains that everything is created by the mind. One thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits. So, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. The latter retributions can be deduced by the same principle.

“One thought gives rise to myriad actions.” With one single thought, the mind can create either good or evil karma ․The Great Vehicle Buddha-Dharma explains that everything is created by the mind. One thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits. So, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. The latter retributions can be deduced by the same principle.

With our minds we can spread the Dharma and bring purity to people’s minds. With our minds we can also cut off the Dharma and the seeds of Buddhahood, causing people to be confused about the principles. So, “not being subject to the law of karma” and “not being ignorant of the law of karma” differ by only one character [in Chinese]. If one is “not subject,” one will not fear and will deny the law of karma. “Not being ignorant of the law of karma” means they clearly understand cause and effect. The difference in writing is just one character, but the difference in mindset is very great.

“Everything is created by the mind. One thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits.” One action can lead to many karmic retributions. Not only may they fall into the hell, hungry ghost or animal realm; even if they are reborn human they will face much suffering. In this way, they reap what they sow. Their lack of faith in the principles leads them to destroy others’ thoughts of goodness. That creates very severe karma. Everything is created by the mind. If we do not take good care of our minds, one single thought can lead to many retributions. This is indeed frightening.

The sutra passage continues by stating, “If reborn as camels, or donkeys, they are constantly laden with burdens and flogged with sticks. Their only thoughts are of grass and water, and they know nothing else. It is because of their slander of this sutra that they suffer retribution like this.”

This is frightening! It describes the lives of camels, camel hybrids and donkeys. One of the Chinese characters for “camel hybrid” looks very similar to the one for “donkey.” Their fathers are donkeys, and their mothers are cows. This hybrid of two species is called a camel hybrid. They look almost exactly the same as a pure camel.

“Their only thoughts are of grass and water, and they know nothing else. It is because of their slander of this sutra that they suffer retribution like this.” Being born into the animal realm, whether as camels, donkeys, oxen or horses, they all have to perform hard physical labor. These animals face four kinds of evil retributions. They are laden with burdens; oxen and horses need to pull loads, while camels and donkeys must carry them. Instead of pulling carts, they use their body to carry heavy burdens. When they walk slowly, they are flogged or beaten with sticks and rods. They suffer greatly and do not ask for anything in return; all they ask for is water and feed. They do not even think of seeking comfort or objects of desire. That is not possible for them. So, for them, “Their only thoughts are of grass and water, and they know nothing else.” They do not ask for anything else.

If reborn as camels, or donkeys, they are constantly laden with burdens and flogged with sticks. Their only thoughts are of grass and water, and they know nothing else. It is because of their slander of this sutra that they suffer retribution like this.

When born as this kind of animal, what can they possibly ask for? Being able to eat their fill is good enough. They just obediently toil and suffer. This is the suffering of animals

“Or they are reborn as jackals and enter the villages. Their bodies are covered in scabs and sores, and they are missing an eye. They are beaten and thrown about by children, thus undergoing many sufferings, even to the point of death.” This is also tremendous suffering!

野干：似犬而小，體瘦面長，性聰明，敏感、狡滑，亦稱狐狸。 Jackals go into the villages. In fact, jackals closely resemble canines and dogs. However, they are much skinnier, and their faces are long. They are characterized by their cleverness, and they are also very sensitive and cunning. The same is true of foxes.

In the past, I have told a story about a fox traveling with a tiger. The fox in this case was a jackal. These jackals and foxes [are similar]. This story explains the saying, “A fox exploiting the tiger’s might.” The fox earnestly flattered the tigers so he could walk around with them. One time, as the tigers walked around the forest, the fox walked alongside them. When all the ferocious beasts and animals saw these tigers, they all scattered. The fox put on a very self-satisfied air, giving the tigers the impression that everyone was afraid of the fox, hence they admired him greatly. In fact, the fox clearly understood, “I am relying on the might of the tigers with me. People are scared at the sight of the tigers, not me.”

In addition, some jackals are born with deformities all over their body. Even though they are clever and cunning, they still face the four evil retributions, being covered in scabs, being blind, being beaten and tortured by children and even being maliciously killed.

So, no matter how clever they are, they still have to suffer these torments, physical deformities, etc. Therefore, in life we need to properly adjust our minds. We must return to our pure intrinsic nature and have a deep understanding of principles. Principles can enliven our wisdom-life, can help us to develop it. This is how true principles can help us return to our nature of True Suchness. They are the seeds of Buddhahood. If people do not want to pass on the true principles and instead slander them, they are cutting off the seed of Buddhahood and severing people’s roots of goodness. The consequences for this world would be unimaginable. The retributions for this transgression are very serious.

“Good and evil karma cause retributions of joy and suffering.” We must place great importance on this. No one can add to our transgressions. No one can suffer retributions on our behalf. We face the retributions of the karma we create. So, we must create blessings, not diminish them. Thus we must always be mindful.

Episode 700 – The Painful Results of Slandering the Dharma

---

>>Domestic animals are raised by their owners. These are oxen, horses, pigs, sheep and the like. All animals receive their retribution because of speaking flattery, having inferior capabilities, ignorance, taking no joy in seeing and hearing the Dharma and committing slander.

>>When their lives end, they will enter Avici Hell. They will pass an entire kalpa there, and at the end of the kalpa, they will be reborn. They will then continue on in this way for a period of countless kalpas.    [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>>Upon emerging from hell, they are reborn as animals like dogs and jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance, mottled black and covered in scabs. They are beaten and abused by humans.    [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3 – A Parable]

>>Those who slander the Lotus Sutra, upon emerging from hell, suffer the retribution of being reborn as animals. They become dogs, jackals, camels, donkeys or pythons.

>>Dogs [or] jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance: This baldness explains the karmic effects jackals and dogs face in their retribution of being reborn as animals.

>>Mottled black: They are mottled with black and yellow spots, looking drab and lusterless.

>>They are beaten and abused by humans: They are struck and interfered with, flogged and abused.

>>The Great Vehicle Buddha-Dharma explains that one thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits. So, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. The latter retributions can be deduced by the same principle.

---

“Domestic animals are raised by their owners.
These are oxen, horses, pigs, sheep and the like.
All animals receive their retribution because of speaking flattery, having inferior capabilities, ignorance,
taking no joy in seeing and hearing the Dharma and committing slander.”

When we look at this passage, we should indeed make an effort to cherish our human existence. We must not say, “Making changes in this life is very hard for me. I’ll wait to make changes in the next one.” In our next life, will we have this opportunity? We did not seize the causes and conditions that would allow us to makes changes, so in our next life, negative causes and conditions will continue on in this way, in a cycle of hatred and animosity. Will we be born human again in our next life? As a being in the hell, hungry ghost or animal realm, we will have even less control over things.

Hell is filled with unbearable suffering! There is no freedom at all in the animal realm, and the hungry ghost realm is full of suffering, so these opportunities will not arise. Only by being born human will we actually have a measure of freedom. When a thought of goodness arises and causes and conditions come together, we should earnestly seize the moment and use that opportunity to accomplish something. We must promptly accept the Buddha’s teachings, as well as the chance to put the Bodhisattva-path into practice. This is our true opportunity as humans.

You see, “Domestic animals are raised by their owners.” These kinds of animals are kept and raised by humans; they have an owner. Why is your owner raising you? If you are born an ox, it is to plow the fields. As an ox, you will haul all the heavy things. The same applies to horses. In ancient times, they were means of transportation and were also ridden into the battlefield. This is to say nothing of pigs and sheep, who are raised to be sold and butchered for food. Thus, beings in the animal realm have no freedom at all. The animal realm is really terrifying.

No matter how much we suffer as humans, human life is a mix of good and evil. Some people bring the good karma they created in their past lives to this life to enjoy blessings. Some are very wealthy, well-educated and have a dignified appearance. Everyone they meet envies them. With a life of abundance like this, they live as if they were born in heaven. Some people’s lives are middle-of-the-road; their children are filial, their wife pure in heart. A family living harmoniously and happily like this is living a normal life.

There are people who are very wealthy, but there is no peace in their family. There is no affection between parents and children and no love between husband and wife; mutually they harbor doubts and resentment. There are many families like this in the world.

I heard this from a Malaysian businessman. He shared his story with me. In the past, all he was focused on was money. He had no friends but had a thriving business. Every day, he was very busy. He said that in his brain, whenever he saw people, he thought only about his own personal gain and how he could make money from them. When he shared a meal with someone, he insisted on paying because by making this deal, he would make a big profit.

But due to the guidance of Tzu Chi volunteers, he came to a Jing Si Lifestyle Camp and heard many people share [their stories]. He quietly and calmly contemplated, “Indeed, how long will this life be? How much time do I have? On hearing about the principle of impermanence, it was instilled in his mind. “Indeed! This simple word, ‘impermanence,’ is terrifying. I must change my ways right away. I keep growing my business, but what use is that?”

When he returned home, he shared his feelings with his wife. Upon hearing this, his wife felt, “That is right. I’m always telling you this. You are so focused on your business that you never think about your family. Have you ever really spoken with your son? He has been complaining about this.” With that, he suddenly came to a major realization. He began to delegate more of his business. This gave him more free time to spend with Tzu Chi volunteers, who brought him to volunteer and listen to teachings. As he listened to and understood the Dharma, he began participating in all the activities.

Describing his participation in the activities, he said, “I feel so happy. As the people here talk with each other, their emotions and interactions are really genuine. We accomplish all the tasks together, and then everyone says to me, ‘We are grateful’. I too have learned to say ‘I am grateful’. I have so many friends now, and money is no longer my focus. At home, my son and I always have something to talk about. Sometimes when I’m volunteering, my wife will come with me. Right now, I’m very content with my life.”

This is the kind of freedom we have in our lives. We are free to choose the kind of life that we want to live. If we do not seize the moment in this lifetime to create [good] relationships, if all we think about is satisfying our insatiable greed, in the future, without any say in the matter, we will be born in the animal realm, where we will be fed and raised by our owner and have to work on their behalf. Or we may eat and live in a state of oblivion, and when the time comes we may be led to the slaughterhouse.

Why do living beings end up in the animal realm? Because of the causes they created in past lives. In their past lives, they greedily tried to satisfy their desires, lying and cheating to get what they wanted. People like this are found everywhere. They “have inferior capabilities and are ignorant.” Their capabilities are quite inferior. Even if the Buddha-Dharma and the principles are presented to them, they refuse to faithfully accept them. Even if they do faithfully accept them, they constantly act in ways that are harmful to and slanderous of the Dharma and the principles. Perhaps they use the Dharma to flatter, curry favor or show off. “I understand a lot, I’m so smart. The principles are very clear to me.” Actually, they want people to make offerings to them and want to find a way to gain some kind of advantage. All of this happens because of their inferior capabilities.

They “take no joy in seeing or hearing the Dharma.” They may hear these teachings or read them. Clearly, the Buddha-Dharma is right in front of them. After listening to it, not only are they unhappy and unable to put it into practice, instead they slander it and will then have to face the resulting karmic retribution. What is the karmic retribution for slandering [the Dharma]? They are “kept as domestic livestock by men.”

In future lives, aside from being born in the Three Evil Destinies, they may suffer painful retributions as humans. Therefore, if today we are living in peace, if today we are very blessed, when we witness suffering, we should recognize our blessings. Recognizing this, we should seize every opportunity to be diligent and engage in spiritual practice.

Next, let us look again at the previous sutra passage “When their lives end, they will enter Avici Hell. They will pass an entire kalpa there, and at the end of the kalpa, they will be reborn. They will then continue on in this way for a period of countless kalpas.”

“They” refers to people who hear the Dharma but do not mindfully listen to it nor faithfully accept it. Instead, they slander it and cut off the seeds of Buddhahood. People who do so will descend into Avici Hell, which, as we said before, means unremitting. There is no pause; the suffering is unremitting. This lasts for a long time, and continues unremittingly. For this long period of time, there will be no space and no time to stop and rest. This is Avici Hell. When that kalpa ends, they will be reborn and continue on in this way for countless kalpas. If what we do in this lifetime leads us into hell, we may not be saved for thousands or even tens of thousands of lifetimes.

The following sutra passage then states, “Upon emerging from hell, they are reborn as animals like dogs and jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance, mottled black and covered in scabs. They are beaten and abused by humans.”

They spend a long time in hell, enduring suffering. When they finally exhaust their karma for being in hell and emerge from it, where will they go? They will then be born in the animal realm again.

This is because of the evil they committed in the human realm. Whether it be the Ten Evils or five offenses, the karma they create causes them to fall into hell. After they exhaust these karmic retributions, [they still have karma from] their past lives of taking advantage of people in their business dealings or seizing people’s wealth or valuables. When we [take] people’s things, we will eventually have to repay them. Once we owe something to others, we must repay them. How will we repay this debt? In a future life, we will be reborn as an ox, horse, pig, dog or some other kind of domestic animal, and they will be our owner. They will treat us like merchandise; they may sell us for profit or slaughter. This is how we repay this debt. Another way is to suffer torment at their hands.

Those who slander the Lotus Sutra, upon emerging from hell, suffer the retribution of being reborn as animals. They become dogs, jackals, camels, donkeys or pythons.

So, being “reborn as animals” is also the fate of those who slander the Lotus Sutra, the Great Vehicle Dharma

All of the Great Vehicle Dharma is contained in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. If people listen to the Lotus teachings but do not earnestly accept them, they may instead slander the Right Dharma. By slandering the Right Dharma, they sever people’s roots of goodness and cut off the seeds of Buddhahood. This creates very severe karma, leading them to fall into hell. Then, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. They face the retribution of being born in the animal realm because not only did they cut off the seeds of Buddhahood, they deceived, cheated and swindled people, thereby owing them a karmic debt that they eventually have to repay. Thus they are born in the animal realm to face negative retribution.

The animal realm includes dogs, and besides oxen, horses, sheep, pigs, etc., there are also canines, jackals, camels, donkeys and pythons. All of these are beasts of the land in the animal realm.

Dogs [or] jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance: This baldness explains the karmic effects jackals and dogs face in their retribution of being reborn as animals.

They may be “dogs [or] jackals, haggard and emaciated in appearance”. Some living beings, once born in the animal realm, already face unbearable suffering. Moreover, you have seen dogs whose entire bodies are ragged, or with legs that are broken and so on. Not only have they been born animals, they are abused and disparaged by humans, beaten by sticks and so on. With this kind of appearance, no one feeds them [Malnourished,] they develop skin diseases all over. We have all seen [animals] like this, “haggard and emaciated”; because of their skin disease, they have no hair. Not only may they be born as dogs or foxes, in addition to that, no one feeds them, and then on top of that, they are diseased. If we think about it, they are animals that live as if they are in hell; they face tremendous suffering.

These kinds of jackals and foxes resemble a dog in physical appearance, and they are classified as canines. These are called jackals. Jackals are very clever, devious and cunning. There is a story about a jackal who was hungry and had nothing to eat. Being crafty, he joined a pride of lions where he constantly exhibited his skills in flattery. If a lion did not finish his food, he would go eat it. He thought that it would be a safe thing to do.

One day, after a lion had finished eating, he saw this jackal approaching. Suddenly, the lion reverted to his fierce nature and caught the jackal to eat him. Before the lion could fully swallow him, the jackal was still able to make use of his cunning and his craftiness. He was able to call for help from the lion’s throat. He sounded very sorrowful, and upon hearing this, the lion was moved. He opened his mouth to explain that, “I have fed you for so long and have been waiting for this day to come.” But when he opened up his mouth to talk, the jackal escaped. So, we can see jackals are so devious and clever. They are even able to escape from the jaws of a ferocious beast.

Mottled black: They are mottled with black and yellow spots, looking drab and lusterless.

This is what jackals can do. Though they find ways to survive, they cannot prevent their bodies from becoming diseased and ragged, developing skin diseases, etc. Thus it says they are “haggard and emaciated.” Furthermore, they are “mottled black and covered in scabs. They are beaten and abused by humans.” Their body may also be covered with black and yellow spots, and [their coat] is absolutely without luster. Their hair is entirely filthy; there is no luster at all. The hair all over their body may be tangled. This kind of appearance comes from scabies, a skin disease; it is a contagious skin disease. They may also develop sores, pustules etc. Thus, people dislike having them around, so they “beat and abuse” them with their [fists], or with sticks, etc. No matter where they go, they are unwelcome. Humans drive them away by kicking them, swinging sticks at them, etc. “Struck and interfered with” like this, there is nowhere they feel safe and peaceful. They are also “flogged and abused,” etc.

This is all because in their past lives, they slandered the Great Vehicle Dharma; they sought to destroy the Buddha-Dharma and the principles. Not only did they [slander] the Buddha-Dharma, they sought to destroy people’s sense of morality.

The Great Vehicle Buddha-Dharma explains that one thought gives rise to myriad actions, and one action produces many fruits. So, upon emerging from hell, they are born in the animal realm. The latter retributions can be deduced by the same principle.

This happened because of their minds, because “One thought gives rise to myriad actions.” One thought may lead us to commit the five offenses, deny the law of karma, seize things out of greed. A single thought can lead us to do anything. Thus “One action produces many fruits”
A single action can result in karma that land us in hell, in the hungry ghost realm and in the animal realm. All this results from the negative karma we create because of a single thought. So, one action can result in many retributions. Indeed, there may be so many karmic fruits that it may be hard to face them all. “So, upon emerging from hell, they suffer the retribution of being born as animals.” When they finally emerge from hell, they end up in the animal realm. After the animal realm, they end up in the hungry ghost realm. And after they exhaust their retributions in the hungry ghost realm? The cycle continues again because they do not have the causes and conditions that allow them to be saved or to save themselves. They lack these karmic conditions.

As we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must be mindful. As people interact, there are no causes that do not form conditions and no conditions that do not bring effects. If we had not created negative affinities with people in the past, there would not be evil people setting traps for us. Therefore, our karmic retributions are all created by our minds.

So, I hope that everyone will remember this. Oxen, horses, pigs and sheep are all sentient beings. And how did they come to be born in these forms? In their past lives, they were flatterers, or had inferior capabilities and ignorance. People like this will fall into the animal realm in a future life. This is because, having listened to the teachings, not only could they not faithfully accept and practice them, they gave rise to afflictions, committed slander, thus cutting off the seeds of Buddhahood. We must be vigilant not to do these things, and we must always be mindful.

Episode 642 – The Five Turbidities and Eight Sufferings

---

>> “Youthful magnificence passes in the blink of an eye, never to return. With the passage of time, people’s lives change and fade away. The moon reflected in the water vanishes without a trace. The aged and frail figure is the mother of a thousand children.”

>> “Centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes were burned by the fire and struggled to get out of their holes.”

>> Next, it states, “The kumbhanda demon was chasing and grabbing them to eat. There were many hungry ghosts with the top of their heads aflame. They were afflicted by hunger, thirst and heat and ran about in terror and distress.”

>> The kumbhanda demon was chasing and grabbing them to eat: The demon mother loved her children like her life. Capturing other’s children, she took their lives to nourish her own children. Thus it says, “chasing and grabbing them to eat.” Later, transformed by the Buddha’s teachings, she deeply repented and vowed to become a protector of the Dharma.

>> There were many hungry ghosts, with the top of their heads aflame: This is the suffering of aging. A mind influenced by the aggregate of action is incessantly disrupted. The suffering of illness, the suffering of death, the suffering of not getting what we want and the suffering of parting from those we love are inescapable obstacles. Then there is suffering of meeting those we hate. These sufferings disturb people’s minds, so they are likened to having the top of one’s head aflame.

>> The afflictions of the Four Skandhas are the suffering of the raging Five Skandhas. Lacking the nourishment of flawless Dharma, they were afflicted by hunger and thirst. In comparison to cyclic existence, it says they ran about in terror and distress. These above phenomena occur invisibly and are analogies for fires arising in the formless realm.

>> Fire is an analogy for sentient beings’ suffering caused by the Five Turbidities and so on. The house is an analogy for the Three Realms. This means sentient beings in the Three Realms are tormented by the Five Turbidities and the Eight Sufferings, so they cannot attain safety and stability. This is just as if a big house was burning, so we could not live safely in it. Therefore, the burning house is used as an analogy.

---

“Youthful magnificence passes
in the blink of an eye, never to return.
With the passage of time,
people’s lives change and fade away.
The moon reflected in the water
vanishes without a trace.
The aged and frail figure
is the mother of a thousand children.”

Our lifetime passes very quickly. In the blink of an eye, our youthful years are behind us. This happens with no warning. From a young age, our youthful magnificence passes away without notice; our youthful days will never return. The years of our lives easily pass by in this way. Like the moon reflected in the water, once it vanishes, no trace of it is left.

The old cells in our body are replaced by new, and the appearance of our body goes through subtle changes that we are unaware of. We are so intimately connected to this body, yet we are not always conscious of its changes. This is to say nothing of the moon that we lift our heads to see, which is so far away from us, or the moon in the water we look down upon, which is illusory and has no true substance. This is the same as our lives! “The aged and frail figure is the mother of a thousand children.” Look at the body of a woman. When she is beautiful, we say she is like [Guanyin] Bodhisattva. Though in the past her figure was so slender and she would put on high heels and walk with a certain posture, look at the way she walks now. After decades of being worn down by hardships, aside from changes in her physical appearance, there are also changes in the joints of her feet and waist. When she walks right now, what is her posture like? Think about it. Living in a world [of constant changes], what is there to get upset about? Our time is so short and passes by so easily. Our youthful magnificence is simply passing and will never return. The days of our lives pass us by in this way. See, life is like a dream, a bubble, an illusion; it is like the moon in the water. It truly is. So, with time, our physical appearance fades away, and time will also strip away our life moment by moment. Therefore, we must earnestly make full use of our time in this world. Indeed, sometimes beauty in this world does not come from physical appearance, but from obtaining virtuous Dharma and putting it into practice in this world. That is true beauty.

I saw [news about how a group of] our volunteers from South Africa traveled in their No. 3 Tzu Chi car. It has been in use for over ten years and is very old. Nine South African Bodhisattvas used this old car to travel to Swaziland. Swaziland is 600 km away. From Durban, South Africa, this trip would take eight hours. The car was also carrying supplies. When they finally managed to reach the border crossing between. South Africa and Swaziland, they were held up there for a while. With great effort, they resolved the issues and were able to cross the border. They hurried on in this old car to get to where they were staying for the night. They were already many hours behind schedule. Where were they staying for the night? In a factory owned by a Taiwanese businessman. This factory belonged to Tex-Ray Industrial Co.. The chairman of this company is Mr. Lin. He is very supportive of Tzu Chi volunteers from. South Africa going to Swaziland, so every time they make the trip, he provides a place for them to rest. However, on this trip they were many hours past their scheduled arrival time.

Still, when they arrived, they saw that the place they were staying was cleaned up nicely for them to rest. Seeing this, they felt very grateful. Moreover, someone was still waiting there to provide them with things to eat like bread.

The next day, someone else delivered fruits and even gave them ten blankets. Actually, they had prepared everything they needed so when they were presented with these things, they did not accept them. Although they were very poor, in their minds they believed, “If I am not greedy, I am not poor.” So, they insisted on not accepting these gifts. But the people giving gifts were very insistent.

The volunteers accepted them, saying, “We can pass these things on to people who are in need.” In this way, they accepted these gifts. Then they led the Swaziland volunteers to go out and conduct case visits.

The first person they visited was a female AIDS patient who was in her 30s. She was seriously ill, just skin and bones. She was lying in bed, and the South African volunteers immediately greeted her with a loving embrace. They bathed and cleaned her up and then cleaned her surroundings and gave her the bread, fruits and a blanket. They arranged everything for her and then gave her these gifts. They are role models of giving with love. Seeing this, the Swazilanders were deeply moved.

Then they went to another household. This old woman was frail and sick. The place she lived in was so broken-down that it could not shelter her from wind or rain. She was in a sad situation. [The South African volunteers] again provided her with the same level of care. The Swaziland volunteers were deeply moved again. They saw how, after cleaning up her surroundings, the South African volunteers gave her a blanket and things to eat, like fruits and bread and so on. They also told the Swaziland volunteers and this woman’s surrounding neighbors, “Please look after her. This old woman has no children and lives all by herself. If everyone can give her a bit of love, that would help this old woman a lot.”

Because the South African volunteers led by acting out of love, [the Swazilanders felt,]. “These South Africans actually came all the way to Swaziland and gave so much love to our neighbors. If they can travel all this way, if they can do this, why can’t we do it too?” So, her neighbors all said they were willing. “We will take turns caring for the old woman.” The new Swaziland volunteers also said, “We will also visit her often to see what she needs.”

Look at the love in the world; that is where we find beauty. In summary, this is the power of love. [South African volunteers] live in hardship, but they maintain strict discipline and are not greedy. They know that if they are not greedy, they will not feel poor. Without greed, there is no sense of being poor. So, when other people give them things, they turn around and give them to families that have the greatest need. This applies to things to eat, to use and so on. They have cultivated very pure minds that are free of thoughts of greed.

Recently, we have been talking about the five chronic afflictions. People’s [afflictions] arise from greed. Once we eliminate our thoughts of greed, we will be able to overcome any kind of difficulty. With this loving heart, we can transform others. So, in that place, when volunteers faced various difficulties, with a mind full of pure and unselfish love, they were able to overcome difficulties and transform other people. This is the power of love.

The previous sutra passage states,

“Centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes were burned by the fire and struggled to get out of their holes.”

Our minds are filled with greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt; they contain these poisons. Centipedes’ first pair of legs contain venom, and their last pair of legs is extra long. This is an analogy for how greed extends outward. This is how the world is. This is what our lives are like.

Next, it states, “The kumbhanda demon was chasing and grabbing them to eat. There were many hungry ghosts with the top of their heads aflame. They were afflicted by hunger, thirst and heat and ran about in terror and distress.”

“The kumbhanda demon” was the mother of a thousand children, and because she treasured them, she captured people’s children and fed them to her own. Many children in the countryside had disappeared all of sudden, so people tearfully reported this to the Buddha. The Buddha made a plan for Ananda and the other bhiksus to capture her children. When the mother of demons saw that her children were gone, she wept and sobbed. Upon learning her children were held by the Buddha she came to Him and begged piteously.

The Buddha returned all her children to her except for one. The Buddha said, “You have a thousand children, you will not miss this one. No, you cannot keep him. He is my youngest, my favorite. Your youngest and favorite child is just one out of your thousand children; I just want to keep this one.” She said, “No.” The Buddha said, “What if I trade him for another. No, I cannot lose even one of them.”

The Buddha said, “You say you cannot lose even one child, but the parents you steal children from have only one or two children; how can they stand losing one?” This mother finally awakened and deeply repented. Then she took refuge with the Buddha and vowed to be a protector of the Dharma.

The kumbhanda demon was chasing and grabbing them to eat: The demon mother loved her children like her life. Capturing other’s children, she took their lives to nourish her own children. Thus it says, “chasing and grabbing them to eat.” Later, transformed by the Buddha’s teachings, she deeply repented and vowed to become a protector of the Dharma.

Next it states, “There were many hungry ghosts with the top of their heads aflame.” This represents “the suffering of aging,” how “a mind influenced by the aggregate of action is incessantly disrupted.”

There were many hungry ghosts, with the top of their heads aflame: This is the suffering of aging. A mind influenced by the aggregate of action is incessantly disrupted. The suffering of illness, the suffering of death, the suffering of not getting what we want and the suffering of parting from those we love are inescapable obstacles. Then there is suffering of meeting those we hate. These sufferings disturb people’s minds, so they are likened to having the top of one’s head aflame.

As we grow old, we will certainly fall ill. When the illness runs its course, we die. Moreover, throughout our lives, even when we are young, we pursue our desires. Not getting what we want also causes suffering. Even if we get what we want, we will suffer when we part from what we love. There are obstacles to everything. Why, if we love someone, do we have to separate from them? Why can’t we get the things we want? This is due to obstacles. Because we obstructed people in our past lives, now we cannot get what we want. Because we once broke up others’ relationships, we will suffer our own parting from those we love. These are all due to obstacles which arise because of the causes and conditions we created.

Perhaps there are people we do not want to see, yet we keep being thrown together with them. When we see them we argue; when we see them we fight. “Enemies are bound to meet on a narrow road.” Or quarrelsome but loving people may be entangled with each other in a complicated relationship. They love, hate and resent each other. This is suffering from meeting those we hate.

There are also many other sufferings that trouble and disturb our minds. This is likened to “having the top of [our] head aflame.” Our entire head seems to be on fire. We often hear people complain, “My head is on fire.” This is a description for what it feels like to be very afflicted.

Next, it states, “They were afflicted by hunger and thirst, running about in terror and distress.” This represents the “afflictions of the Four Skandhas.”

The afflictions of the Four Skandhas are the suffering of the raging Five Skandhas. Lacking the nourishment of flawless Dharma, they were afflicted by hunger and thirst. In comparison to cyclic existence, it says they ran about in terror and distress. These above phenomena occur invisibly and are analogies for fires arising in the formless realm.

The Four Skandhas are the first four aggregates of the Five Aggregates, form, feeling, perception and action. Because we have this body, when it connects with external conditions, they disturb our mind and cause us to feel uncomfortable. When our body is ill and in pain, we feel deep suffering. Matters from our surroundings will disturb our body and mind. When it comes to the most pressing things, those things that are directly related to us, we may not be able to deal with them as we wish. This is how the body and mind are connected to people, matters and things in our surroundings.

So, the body is responsible for processing external sensations and feelings etc. Then we have “perception.” If we cannot see through things, the actions we choose to take will continue to aggregate and accumulate. The invisible aggregate of action leads us to accumulate afflictions. The afflictions we have accumulated come from “the raging Five Skandhas.” The first four lead us to create karma, which is then stored in our “consciousness.” Our consciousness stores all these seeds of afflictions. This happens because we “lack the flawless Dharma.”

The flawless Dharma, as everyone knows, is precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. We are short on precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. Because we do not listen to the Dharma, we have no Dharma with which to nourish our wisdom-life. The Dharma is spiritual nourishment. Without the Dharma to nourish our wisdom-life, we “are afflicted by hunger and thirst.” Being hungry and thirsty disturbs our body and mind so we continue to transmigrate. We experience this cycle of suffering and are trapped in cyclic existence in the Six Realms. Thus we “run about in terror and distress.”

The things we have spoken of are all invisible. These invisible things refer to our thinking. In our minds there are many [thoughts and afflictions,] so these afflictions will continue to arise. We are filled with unbearable suffering, so the analogy of a fire is used. Fire is an analogy for “suffering caused by the Five Turbidities and so on.”

Fire is an analogy for sentient beings’ suffering caused by the Five Turbidities and so on. The house is an analogy for the Three Realms. This means sentient beings in the Three Realms are tormented by the Five Turbidities and the Eight Sufferings, so they cannot attain safety and stability. This is just as if a big house was burning, so we could not live safely in it. Therefore, the burning house is used as an analogy.

Sentient beings have Five Turbidities, the turbidity of views, the turbidity of life, the turbidity of sentient beings, the turbidity of afflictions and the kalpa of turbidity. We all live together in this same era. There are so many people on this planet, and everyone’s opinions vary greatly. Everyone has their own afflictions which frequently arise. See, when we fight with and take from each other, everyone is disturbed and this causes turmoil in society. In everyone’s mind there is a fire, thus we suffer from the Five Turbidities.

This “house” is an analogy for the Three Realms. In this space, there are so many things which can start fires. Everyone’s minds has these kinds of turbidities, these fire starters. This is not to mention how sentient beings in the Three Realms are tormented by the Five Turbidities and the Eight Sufferings. “They cannot attain safety and stability.” In this way, the Three Realms are like a burning house. The fire keeps arising and spreading. Now, we are truly running out of time. How can we put out this fire? The only way is with Dharma-water. We need Dharma-water to put out the fire in our minds. We must see through this world.

“Youthful magnificence passes in the blink of an eye, never to return. With the passage of time, people’s lives change and fade away. The moon reflected in the water vanishes without a trace. The aged and frail figure is the mother of a thousand children.” Take this [demon] mother of a thousand for example. After turning her mind around and deeply repenting, she was able to become a Bodhisattva as well and be worthy of people’s respect. So, we must be mindful of our daily living and constantly remind ourselves to be vigilant. We must not have “the tops of [our] head aflame.” When “Our head is on fire,” we will feel miserable. The more we pursue, the less we feel we have; we end up “running about in terror and distress.” Though we run around in all directions, we cannot find a way out because obstacles are everywhere. Therefore, we must always be mindful.

Episode 641 – Transcend Afflictions with Flawless Studies

---

>> “The four elements, the Five Skandhas and the Eight Sufferings rage furiously. The flawless Dharma-essence is the nourishment for wisdom and understanding. We must look, listen, contemplate and practice among people.”

>> “The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

>> “Centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes were burned by the fire and struggled to get out of their holes.”

>> In the desire realm, the centipede is an analogy for anger. The form realm is free of desires; though there are no references to centipedes, it speaks of poisonous insects. There is no anger in the upper realms, and no intent towards mutual harm.

>> All Three Realms have the fires of afflictions, but we take action only in the desire realm. As they move toward the form and formless realms, practitioners renounce the crude phenomena of form and contemplate the formless Dharma. This is like the poisonous snakes that were burned and struggled to get out of their holes.

---

“The four elements, the Five Skandhas
and the Eight Sufferings rage furiously.
The flawless Dharma-essence is
the nourishment for wisdom and understanding.
We must look, listen, contemplate
and practice among people.”

The four elements are earth, water, fire and air. Every material thing in this world arises from the convergence of these four elements; this is how all the various things we see come into being.

The Five Skandhas, also known as the Five Aggregates, are form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. Our daily living is inseparable from them.

As we go through birth, aging, illness and death, the major stages of our lives, in this lifetime we have already accumulated a lot of both good and bad karma. Perhaps we have the karmic conditions to train our minds to gradually eliminate afflictions and return to the Bodhi-path of awakening. By clearly understanding the principles of life, we can already eliminate many afflictions and exhaust the karma we brought from our past lives.

With other people, we can take a step back and be a little more accommodating. If we formed [negative] connections with people in a previous life, by accommodating them and giving way in this life, we have the causes and conditions that allow us to reduce the balance of our negative affinities. By being broad-minded in our treatment of others, we can develop more positive karmic conditions. By reducing negative [karma], good karma grows. This may be because we came into this life with the good fortune and good karmic conditions to be able to hear the Buddha-Dharma. However, the majority of people have not heard the Buddha-Dharma, so they follow the seeds of karma that they brought from the past, and

as they interact with other people, there is no telling how much more negative karma and mutual negative affinities they will create. These karmic connections, these karmic seeds, will be planted in our karmic consciousness, and we will bring them into our future lives. Our future lives will be based on the karma we bring from this one. So, life is inseparable from the Eight Sufferings.

In this lifetime, we experience the Eight Sufferings. Birth, aging, illness and death are four of these sufferings. Not getting what we want, meeting those we hate and parting with those we love are also sufferings. Then, the raging Five Skandhas come together to enter our karmic consciousness. If we cannot escape them in this lifetime, our habitual tendencies will continue to remain in our mind-consciousness. In the past and in this lifetime, we have also brought karma with us; we followed [enticing] conditions to come and face our direct and circumstantial retributions. This is the way life works; we are amidst “the four elements, Five Skandhas and Eight Sufferings.” Oh, how unbearable these sufferings are!

Next, “The flawless Dharma-essence is the nourishment for wisdom and understanding.” We can thoroughly understand that life moves in cycles affected by the workings of the four elements and the Five Skandhas. The courses of our lives are inseparable from “the Eight Sufferings raging furiously”; these are inseparable, plus we incessantly create more karma and give rise to discursive thoughts. We already know these things, and since we do, we must be resolute in our aspirations. We must aspire to engage in spiritual practice, to listen to the Dharma and take it to heart. We must earnestly listen, contemplate and practice.

How we can continue in a wholesome direction and avoid going down an unwholesome direction? We must cultivate precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. When we hear about things we should not do, we cannot feel the slightest temptation to do them. We must truly take the Dharma to heart. Once it is in our hearts, we must not allow it to ever leak away again, for the Dharma nurtures our wisdom-life. This is what the “flawless Dharma-essence” does.

“Leaks,” or flaws, as everyone knows, are afflictions. If we have afflictions, we have Leaks. Because we have afflictions, we cannot concentrate on listening to the Dharma, and even if we have heard the Dharma, we do not retain it in our minds. This means we have Leaks; the Dharma is leaking out. Because we have afflictions, we will be unable to take the Dharma to heart. Even if we can, it will leak out.

Right now, we must listen to the Dharma. We see in communities all over Taiwan, at this very moment, that many people are listening to the teachings. Everyone gets out of bed at 3 or 4 am, when it is still dark outside. No matter if it is very windy or raining hard or if there is a wintry chill, they still leave their house early in the morning to listen to the Dharma. After listening to the teachings in the morning, do they keep the Dharma in mind? I really believe that since everyone is willing to get up so early to continue being diligent, this group of Bodhisattvas can listen to the Dharma without it leaking away. Moreover, the Dharma will remain in their minds.

When we have taken the Dharma to heart, it is the Dharma-essence. When this happens, we have “nourishment for wisdom and understanding.” When the Dharma-essence is in our mind, we can develop our wisdom-life. Our wisdom-life can help us understand all worldly matters, and we will be able to become one with the entire universe. Since we understand this, we will be able to eliminate our desires. Without a desirous mind, material objects or external states will be unable to entice us.

Our minds can even become one with the macrocosm of the world and thus become open and spacious. Then we will no longer be hindered by afflictions and ignorance. We will have “wisdom and understanding.” When we thoroughly understand material things, the workings of all things in the world will be encompassed within our minds. So, we will have “wisdom and understanding.” What nourishes our wisdom and understanding? The Dharma. Therefore, we must take the Dharma to heart.

“We must look, listen, contemplate and practice.” By listening, contemplating and practicing, we see how our daily living is related to “the four elements and the Five Skandhas.” Our body connects with all kinds of sense objects in our external environment. Right now, as I am speaking, your ears are the sense organs that take in the sound of my voice. Once you understand, you will take the Dharma to heart. First, you must look and experience. Once you have looked, you must listen. When you can see and verify for yourself, that is truly the time when you can take in the things that I am saying.

When we listen to the Dharma, we must earnestly accept it in order to “look, listen, contemplate and practice among people.” In this way, as we interact with each other, we will place more importance on the Dharma. Only then can our interactions with each other reveal how the Dharma can improve this world. Therefore, we must be mindful.

This earlier sutra passage states,

“The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

Everyone knows the jackal. They are similar to foxes. The jackal is clever and is used as an analogy for people who know they should engage in spiritual practice. They know that, in this world, pain and suffering are caused by desires and that, to transcend this, they must engage in spiritual practice.

In India, there were religious teachings that taught improper spiritual practices. Though people who followed them could transcend the six desires, they were biased toward seeking the form and formless realms. Even if they achieved those states, they had not completely eliminated afflictions because they were still selfishly pursuing liberation for themselves only. So, the teachings they practiced were deviant, as were the teachings that they passed on.

“[The jackals] had already died” means that they had already put the desire realm far behind them, but in the form and formless realms they had deviated from the true principles. This is why the word “already” is used. “Already” is a reference to the desire realm. They had completely transcended the desire realm, but regarding the form and formless realms, they had not yet penetrated their principles, so they sought the Dharma outside of themselves. “All the large vicious beasts” are our many cravings, and because of them,

“the stinking smoke permeated all four directions.” While we are still within the Three Realms, we are pressed by the Eight Sufferings. We still face the oppression of the. ․four elements and Eight Sufferings. We are still unable to leave the form and formless realms because we are not abiding in the Right Dharma.

The next sutra passage states,

“Centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes were burned by the fire and struggled to get out of their holes.”

This is about “centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes.” What are centipedes? They are many-legged creatures. Centipedes are arthropods, animals with many legs. Their body is made up of segment after segment. Take our hands for example; our fingers have several segments. It is because they have all these segments that they can bend. Our spine works the same way; it is made up of many segments, so it is easy for us to bend over. Centipedes are segmented, with many, many individual segments. “Their entire body is segmented,” and each segment has a set of legs. The smallest centipede is 1 cm long and has 13 pairs of legs. There are two legs in each pair, so 13 pairs means he has 26 legs. The bigger ones can grow up to 30 cm. A 30 cm centipede has 177 pairs of legs. That is more than 300 legs. The kinds of places they live in are holes in rotten wood, or in the seams of rocks. These are the kinds of places they live in. So, it is said that animals live in suffering. They may have to live in the seams of rocks or inside wood that is already rotten. Their first pair of legs contains venom. Thus, centipedes are poisonous. They use their venom as a defense by shooting it against attackers. This is a weapon they use to defend themselves. Their last pair of legs are especially long so that they have the power to propel themselves and run forward very quickly.

Since animals like these are constructed in such incredible ways, we must respect all the world’s creatures, all the Four Kinds of Beings, all of these lifeforms and the ways they live.

The house centipede and the centipede are almost the same, but differ in that the legs of house centipedes are thinner and longer. They have 15 pairs of legs, which means they have 30 legs total. Unlike normal centipedes, house centipedes catch harmful insects, so they are beneficial to agriculture.

The wondrousness of the world lies in this. When it comes to our crops, we are afraid of harmful insect infestations, but there are creatures in the fields that protect the crops. Around the crops there are birds and insects that counter one another.

When Sakyamuni Buddha went on His travels, He observed the fields in the countryside and saw how the strong preyed on the weak. He saw how the birds pecked at live worms. They will stab them in the middle, and while the worms continued to struggle, the herons wolfed them down. When He saw this scene, He lamented, “Humans [discriminate between] the four castes; among animals, the strong also prey upon the weak.” He had experienced the relationship between the strong and the weak and the inequality between the four castes and further saw the impermanence of life. Thus, he wanted to investigate the truths of life.

So, as we said, these kinds of insects, these house centipedes, are helpful to the crops because they eat harmful insects. The centipede is an analogy for anger in the desire realm. As I was just saying, their first pair of legs contains venom. If you touch him, he will shoot out that venom. This is why they are used as an analogy. The form realm is free of desires. To distance themselves from desire, spiritual practitioners try to reach the form realm. In that state, they do not greedily pursue material things; however, they still have afflictions and are still thinking about many things. When in the state of the form realm, we are not like centipedes. We do not have so many desires, like all the legs on a centipede. But there are poisonous creatures in this state. What kind of poisonous creatures? Snakes. We can be like poisonous snakes. See, there are no legs on a snake, but they are more poisonous than centipedes.

In the desire realm, the centipede is an analogy for anger. The form realm is free of desires; though there are no references to centipedes, it speaks of poisonous insects. There is no anger in the upper realms, and no intent towards mutual harm.

“There is no anger in the upper realms.” They have no greed for the desire realm, but these afflictions still have not been eliminated from their thinking. This describes the process of spiritual practice. These “centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes” are all analogies for the process of spiritual cultivation.

“Burned in the fire, they struggled to leave their holes.” This refers to afflictions. All Three Realms have the fires of afflictions.

All Three Realms have the fires of afflictions, but we take action only in the desire realm. As they move toward the form and formless realms, practitioners renounce the crude phenomena of form and contemplate the formless Dharma. This is like the poisonous snakes that were burned and struggled to get out of their holes.

In the state of the form and the formless realms, afflictions still have not been eliminated. We constantly say that the Three Realms are also states of our mind. If we have not eliminated our afflictions, they will start fires. “All Three Realms have these fires but we take action only in the desire realm.” We only take action “in the desire realm.” In the desire realm there are material rewards such as fame, profit and status that people fight over. In the desire realm alone, we take action and fight to obtain things. When fighting we have an opponent. When fighting we get into confrontations etc. These [actions] are very obvious. The afflictions of the desire realm, arise over forms, objects and people, so we end up causing harm. All of this happens in the desire realm.

Spiritual practitioners move toward the form and formless realms. They have already renounced the desire realm and visible and tangible things like fame and profit. These things are coarse and extremely crude. They have no desire for these things any longer. What they seek is to “contemplate the formless Dharma.” Having “renounced the crude phenomena of form,” they have relinquished form, fame and wealth. These are all crude and not worth fighting over, so they do not struggle to obtain them. Instead, they “contemplate the formless Dharma.” They carefully contemplate the formless Dharma, but still they have afflictions. They carefully contemplate this Dharma, but in reality, this is not Right Dharma, so there is no way [to escape from afflictions]. They are like poisonous snakes that are burned and struggle to leave their holes. Like these poisonous snakes, they are suffocated. Although they do not act with their body, inside their minds they are suffocated by the oppressive heat of afflictions. So, “They struggle to leave their holes.” They still face many mental struggles.

In summary, as we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must be mindful. In our daily living, when we awaken and open our eyes, our body comes in contact with the external environment. Thus, “the four elements, Five Skandhas and Eight Sufferings rage furiously.” We must always hold this firmly in our minds. We must earnestly take in “flawless Dharma-essence [as] nourishment for wisdom and understanding.” We should make an effort to absorb the Dharma. In our daily living, we must be able to discern between positive and negative karmic conditions and “look, listen, contemplate and practice among people.” It is among people that we can properly engage in spiritual practice. Everyone, please always be mindful.

Episode 640 – With a Distorted Consciousness, Liberation Is Hard

---

>> “The consciousness of desire: Unable to resolve the serious problems of the Five Dusts, when conditions are favorable, people give rise to greed and cravings. The consciousness of rage: Unable to resolve the serious problems of the Five Dusts, when conditions are unfavorable people give rise to hatred and anger. The consciousness of harm: They constantly perceive and ponder that others are enemies or thieves, so they have thoughts of harm and therefore harbor ignorance, doubt and arrogance.”

>> “They were cruelly harming and killing each other, drinking blood and eating flesh.”

>> “The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

>> This is like jackals and foxes. Jackals can feign death. Even if their ears and tails are cut off, they can endure it. They are an analogy for greed in the desire realm. To cultivate future peace in the desire realm, we have to cut off our greed. Thus it says [the jackals] have already died.

>> Deviant thoughts of greed are like large vicious beasts. This greed can swallow the desire realm, so it says they were contending to eat them. These are Four Inverted Views and Eight Sufferings of the desire realm.

>> This is an analogy for the form realm. Though having left the material desire realm, they engage in thinking in the form realm and are subject to bodily sensations, mental phenomena and the four elements, as if experiencing suffering from all directions. Those earlier examples of hiding in holes and dens are like the blazing fires igniting in the form realm.

>> Thinking in the form realm leads to the Four Inverted Views and the Eight Sufferings. This like being overwhelmed by stinking smoke. With the misty haze caused by the flames, we are subject to the workings of body and mind, and the four elements all bring suffering. These four elements can widely create and give rise to all physical phenomena.

---

“The consciousness of desire:
Unable to resolve the serious problems
of the Five Dusts,
when conditions are favorable,
people give rise to greed and cravings.
The consciousness of rage:
Unable to resolve the serious problems
of the Five Dusts,
when conditions are unfavorable
people give rise to hatred and anger.
The consciousness of harm:
They constantly perceive and ponder
that others are enemies or thieves,
so they have thoughts of harm and therefore
harbor ignorance, doubt and arrogance.”

Consciousness is the thought that is generated when we connect with external conditions. We call this “consciousness.” Originally we did not have these thoughts, but when the conditions manifested, we made discernments. This happens when the Six Roots encounter the. Six Dusts in our external conditions. When the Six Roots and external conditions come in contact with each other, desires arise. This is called “the consciousness of desire.”

Once the consciousness of desire arises, our minds become scattered, so we “[cannot] resolve the serious problems with the Five Dusts.” When we see or come in contact with things, we like them and feel we need to have them, so we do not think about the consequences. Not thinking about the consequences is a “serious problem.” In other words, “when conditions are favorable” we give rise to greed and cravings.

If we live a life of abundance and everything goes our way, we develop even more cravings. I constantly say that having one, we feel we lack nine. If we have one dollar, we want nine more, to make it ten. If we have 100 million, we want another 900 million to make it 1 billion. In this way, people in favorable conditions become more greedy. If they are always full, have nice clothes, live in very opulent places and have attained all the fame, fortune and status that they wanted, they may then indulge in improper sexual conduct. Therefore we say, “When conditions are favorable, people give rise to greed and cravings.” They are greedy for more and want to pursue more. Indeed, there is no end to this. They will never stop trying to attain more.

“The consciousness of rage” has to do with anger and a mind that easily vents its anger.

These things we cannot attain are things we should not have pursued in the first place. Thus, if we keep greedily keep pursing them, it is unreasonable. But we keep going against the principles and continue pursuing them. What happens if we cannot get what we want? We will feel anger. When we greedily pursue things without reason, the result is that we feel anger. When we cannot get what we want, we suffer or we feel anger. This is “the consciousness of rage.” When we encounter conditions where we want something, whether it makes sense or not, if we cannot obtain it, we will get angry. In our current society, there are many examples of this.

Next is “the consciousness of harm,” where the thoughts that fill our minds make no sense. We are constantly thinking about how to cause harm, what approach we can take to pursue things and what approach we can take to inflict damage.

Family members who once got along may, over some trivial advantages, begin to take issue with each other and threaten to divide the family and live apart. They think up various ways to cause the family to break apart. Even among close relatives of a single family this kind of thing will happen, not to mention between people in society. In society, [people] compete with each other over fame, wealth and status, so many disputes will arise. This is due to “the consciousness of harm.”

This is because they “constantly perceive and ponder.” When we say “perceive and ponder,” what one “perceives” is the feelings that arise when one comes in contact with external conditions. What about to “ponder”? This is very meticulous. In order to find ways to harm other people for their own benefit, they make plans very carefully. This is because they see others as enemies; they consider others enemies and thieves. So, their state of mind is constantly one of causing harm, which includes greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt, the five chronic afflictions, which fill their minds.

Thus, the consciousness of desire is greed. The consciousness of rage is anger. The consciousness of harm is ignorance. With greed, anger and ignorance, there will be arrogance and doubt in our minds. So, these five [poisons] are contained within these three types of consciousness. With unenlightened minds, we endlessly live this kind of life. Every day in this world, individuals’ minds begin to influence their families, and individuals’ minds influence their society. This is from a consciousness of afflictions, not a consciousness of purity.

That purity is the three elements of enlightenment. The Buddha enlightened Himself and others and had perfect enlightened conduct. This is the consciousness of purity. However, the consciousnesses of desire, of rage and of harm not only cause disturbances in our minds, but also disturbances in society and disruption in ethics and proper conduct.

This is why recently we have been talking about various kinds of appearances in this world. There are four kinds of beings, the womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born. All sentient beings’ ways of living are encompassed in the minds of human beings. So, in summary, humans are really terrifying, because all these afflictions fill our minds. Because of this, we need to engage in spiritual practice. The Buddha-Dharma is like water; it cleanses our minds to help them be as pure and transparent as crystal. For this to happen, we must engage in spiritual practice; we need to understand the principles.

So, let us examine this previous sutra passage.

“They were cruelly harming and killing each other, drinking blood and eating flesh.”

With desires come the consciousness of desire and the consciousness of anger. That consciousness can also be called thoughts. With thoughts of desire, thoughts of rage and thoughts of harm in our minds, naturally we will be “cruelly harming and killing each other.” For the sake of our own advantage, we will unscrupulously hurt other people. Perhaps we will incite people who are delusional and ignorant to obey our command. By providing them with the slightest provocation, these people may engage in unwise behavior. This can cause individuals and society to become disrupted and never have a moment of peace. This is because. “They were cruelly harming and killing each other.”

As people fight and compete with each other, those who incited them are actually staying carefree on the sidelines, watching everyone else in turmoil. While other people are in turmoil, those who incited it are the ones who benefit. They do not care about the cost that society has to pay for the recognition and wealth they have attained. It is as if they are “drinking blood and eating flesh.” They cause other people to fight each other so they can get what they want. This is a very sinister way of thinking. Therefore, some people’s minds are very sinister because in their minds is a combination of the mindsets of all the beasts, ghosts and spirits.

The following sutra passage states,

“The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

This passage starts with “the jackal and his ilk.” I recall I have spoken about jackals and foxes. Jackals are very wily. Some people say, “That woman is a vixen.” On the surface they appear to be very pretty. However, their minds and thoughts are very wily. They will not allow others to have the upper hand. When they say something nice, they are doing it to benefit themselves. With this kind of wily nature, if there is something they want, they will even injure themselves to gain other people’s confidence and get what they want. Even if [these animals] lose their ears or tails, they can still endure the suffering. People with this state of mind are like jackals and foxes.

There is an old story that is related to foxes. In the past, there was a scholar who loved to learn. Nearby, there were wild foxes living in the area surrounding his house. In ancient times, when people read books, they often read the contents aloud. One wild fox heard all this, and so he learned poetry, astronomy, geography and ways of cultivating crops on the land and retained all this in his head. The fox felt, “I am just like a person, I have understood all human knowledge. As there is no beast more capable than me, I should become the king of beasts.”

He began to put on an air of prestige. Since he was surrounded by these wild foxes, when an elephant saw this majestic fox, he felt this fox had great wisdom because he was able to lead so many followers. Therefore, the elephant also became a follower. Once the fox had this elephant, he sat on the elephant’s back to call to others. Soon a herd of elephants also surrounded him. When a tiger saw the fox sitting on the back of an elephant, looking so authoritative, the tigers came to him, along with the lions. Thus the fox truly became the king of beasts.

After subduing all of these creatures, a thought came to the fox. So, the fox went to the [human] king and told him that he wanted to marry his daughter. The king thought, “How could I possibly marry my daughter to an animal?” He decided to battle the fox. He gathered a group of officials to map out a plan for subduing these beasts. A very intelligent official proposed a plan to the king, “Your majesty, you can fight a war with him; however, you need to set conditions. Tell him that the battle has to start before the lions are allowed to make any sound.”

Upon hearing this, the fox felt, “I see, what these humans are most afraid of are the lions. Since they want me to put the lions in the back, I will put the lions in the front.” Therefore he told the pride of lions to charge first. Once the pride of lions came out and saw all of the people, they all roared at once. This fox had subdued everyone so they were well-behaved. Suddenly, when all these lions roared at the same time, he became extremely frightened and fell off the elephant and died.

Even though he had such a deceptive mind and was able to trick the others, even though he had that ability, in the end, he caused harm to himself. This is an analogy for the desire realm, for the greed in the desire realm.

This is like jackals and foxes. Jackals can feign death. Even if their ears and tails are cut off, they can endure it. They are an analogy for greed in the desire realm. To cultivate future peace in the desire realm, we have to cut off our greed. Thus it says [the jackals] have already died.

Foxes are so cunning; even if they lose their ears or tails, they can endure it. They will do anything to get what they want. However, there are spiritual practitioners in the desire realm who are trying to cultivate peace for their future so they put an end to their thoughts of greed and want to move to the next stage. So it says, “[The jackals] have already died. Have died” means that, through their spiritual practice, they have beaten their desires to death. The meaning of this is that they have already eliminated their desires, that desires are no longer in their minds. Therefore they want move onto the next stage, the form realm.

The following sutra passage states, “All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them.” Deviant thoughts of greed are like large vicious beasts.

Deviant thoughts of greed are like large vicious beasts. This greed can swallow the desire realm, so it says they were contending to eat them. These are Four Inverted Views and Eight Sufferings of the desire realm.

Though they engage in spiritual practice, sometimes spiritual practitioners who have eliminated their afflictions like to boast that they are experienced in spiritual cultivation. Yet they still have “deviant thoughts of greed. This greed can swallow the desire realm”; they think they can eliminate the desire realm. Unenlightened beings are greedy for worldly things. Filled with greed, they say, “I want to possess all objects of my desire.” Heretical practitioners instead say, “I can completely eliminate the desire realm.” In this way, they have swallowed the greed of the desire realm. This is how they completely eliminate it. However, they “were contending to eat.” In the desire realm there are also the Four Inverted Views and. Eight Sufferings. Even if we transcend desires, those thoughts still exist.

This is an analogy for the form realm. Though having left the material desire realm, they engage in thinking in the form realm and are subject to bodily sensations, mental phenomena and the four elements, as if experiencing suffering from all directions. Those earlier examples of hiding in holes and dens are like the blazing fires igniting in the form realm.

Though they do not enjoy materials goods because they engage in spiritual practice, they cling to “views of deviant precepts.” They engage in severely ascetic practices like the foxes or jackals who can endure even their ears and tail being cut off. However, their thoughts still exist, so they are still “subject to bodily sensations and mental phenomena,” which are the feelings of the body. Their “extreme views, deviant views, stubborn views” and “views of deviant precepts” are still in place. Because of this, they are still [affected by] the four elements.

The four elements are earth, water, fire and air. These four elements make up all material things. Even though they claim to have eliminated the [desire for] material things, their minds still have expectations. They make use of all kinds of methods, including improper means of spiritual cultivation. Because of this, they have not yet transcended the four elements. This kind of suffering is an analogy for “experiencing suffering from all directions.” The suffering that has gathered around us from all directions is still in existence; we are still in the state of the form realm.

Previously, we have mentioned that “vicious beasts and poisonous insects” are “hiding and scurrying in holes and dens.” A few days ago, we explained the meaning of “hiding and scurrying in holes and dens.” Even if we hide ourselves very deeply, the heat from the sky and the earth, which is a very oppressive heat, will be felt no matter how we hide or scurry. “Hide” means concealment. “Scurry” means escape. Regardless, we still cannot transcend the four elements. From all sides, the suffering is pressing in. These are the blazing fires that have ignited in the form realm.

Moreover, “The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.” In the form realm, thinking leads to the Four Inverted Views and the Eight Sufferings. This means that in our minds, the suffering of afflictions still exists.

Thinking in the form realm leads to the Four Inverted Views and the Eight Sufferings. This like being overwhelmed by stinking smoke. With the misty haze caused by the flames, we are subject to the workings of body and mind, and the four elements all bring suffering. These four elements can widely create and give rise to all physical phenomena.

This type of “stinking smoke” is like a smoky haze. We often talk about dust storms, when sand and dirt fly all over. This represents the state of our minds, still shrouded in smoke and haze. In the form realm, our minds are still not very pure.

Thus we develop the Four Inverted Views, the four kinds of distorted understanding. These four kinds of distortions are a result of our minds being covered by various kinds of afflictions and ignorance. Thus we are in a state of confusion.

Once spiritual practitioners go astray and deviate in their thinking, they can also become confused.

The Dharma expounded by the Buddha is permanent and unchanging. The “greater self of [Nirvana]” is the ever-abiding truth. However, “Where there is self, they see no-self.” These practitioners do not see any permanent truths. “Where there is permanence, they see impurity.” Obviously, we have a pure intrinsic nature which is undefiled, but they see impurity there. “Where there is joy, they see suffering.” These are the practitioners’ distorted views. So, we must remind ourselves to be vigilant and always be mindful.

Episode 639 – Trapped by Nihilism and Eternalism

---

>> “The view of nihilism is insisting that the end of life is eternal and that there is no rebirth. Thus there is no fear of cause and effect. The view of eternalism is insisting that one can abide permanently in this and future lives and that there will never be an end. These are heretical and extreme views.”

>> “Vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens, and the pisaca demons was living inside as well. Because their blessings were meager, they were hard-pressed by the fire.”

>> “They cruelly harmed and killed each other, drinking blood and eating flesh. The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts contended for food to eat. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

>> They cruelly harmed and killed each other, drinking blood and eating flesh: Sentient beings’ acute and chronic afflictions cause them to each cling to different things, resulting in mutual struggles and disputes. Thus they cruelly harm and kill each other.

>> When these views arise in the practice of the path, one cannot give rise to flawless Samadhi and wisdom. Attachment to meditation is likened to creatures who drink blood and eat flesh.

---

“The view of nihilism is insisting
that the end of life is eternal
and that there is no rebirth.
Thus there is no fear of cause and effect.
The view of eternalism is insisting
that one can abide permanently
in this and future lives
and that there will never be an end.
These are heretical and extreme views.”

Nihilism means that one insists on and is stubbornly attached to the thought that, “As long as it makes me happy, I can do whatever I want. Is there really such a thing as a future life? I refuse to believe in future lives. I will enjoy this life as much as possible and do whatever I want. I’m not afraid of facing any consequences or what may happen in future lives.” This is the view of nihilism; these people do not believe in the law of karma.

People with the view of eternalism are similar. They insist that, “Even if I do not properly engage in spiritual practice in this life, it does not matter because I will be born human again in my next life. I will have another chance next life.” People with this view believe that humans will always retain human form and that cows, sheep, dogs and pigs will always be reborn as cows, sheep, dogs and pigs. They are attached to this perspective of permanence. They firmly hold on to this perspective, so they cannot be guided onto the right course. This is eternalism. Nihilism and eternalism are the two extremes of deviant views.

We should believe in the karmic law of cause and effect. We cannot practice assuming that everything is everlasting and unceasing or that everything will end and cease forever. Neither of those views is correct. They are the extreme views of heretical teachings.

Practitioners of other religious teachings may feel it is not good to desire material things, so they hope to be able to eliminate their desires for material things, sensual pleasures etc. This is why they practice to reach the form realm. In the form realm there are 16 heavens. In these 16 heavens there are still psychological and spiritual desires. There are religious teachings that say [the form realm] is still not a pure state and that to cultivate a higher state of purity, people must practice to reach the formless realm,

where there is no physical substance, nor afflictions from discursive thoughts. But when they cultivate this meditative state and have reached that pinnacle, they still have traces of desire. What kind of desire? A kind of presumptuous desire for that unimaginable state of neither thought nor absence of thought. Thus, the arrogance inside of them is something they are still unable to entirely eliminate.

They still have afflictions from being self-centered and arrogant. Sometimes, with the meditative states that these heretical practitioners are cultivating, once they deviate, they may end up like people we often hear about, acting as if they were possessed. Those practices can be hazardous, so we normal people should not try them.

I remember when I was still quite young, before I became a monastic, there was a family in my hometown who kept a strict vegetarian diet. It turned out their practice was slightly deviant. The head of that family was the leader of a religious sect. One day, he suddenly jumped out of a window on an upper floor. Not surprisingly, he died from the impact. His family said, “He was engaged in spiritual practice and said that he saw a ladder to heaven. He heard someone call to him, ‘Come here! The ladder is right in front of you.’ Then he said, ‘I’m going to heaven The ladder to heaven is right here.'” Then he stepped out of the window. It was as if he was possessed.

Later it became known that he constantly saw and heard things. He had [imaginary] conversations in languages that no one understood. Nevertheless, many people believed his teachings, so they made him the leader of this sect. This is what we mean by possession. This is very frightening.

As Buddhist practitioners, we are learning the true path. What is the true path? Living a practical life. How do we choose a course in life? We need one that takes us in the correct direction. We need a path, a road that we can walk, one that teaches us kind and reasonable ways to interact with people and matters. When our interactions with others are harmonious, and we can deal with matters harmoniously, we are in complete harmony with the principles.

The Buddha put His heart into teaching us. The principles that He taught us were about more than how to be good people. Because we may not have understood them clearly or because we may lack a sense of vigilance, the Buddha used all kinds of analogies to help us understand and accept the teachings so that we can put them into practice. This is what the Buddha taught humans.

As we study the Lotus Sutra, we can see how meticulous the editors were. With the important teachings, aside from using prose sections to help us to understand, out of fear that we might be inattentive and miss out on these spiritual principles, the editors repeated them. There is much repetition in the sutras; this includes the many analogies for people, matters and objects that refer to animals, ghosts and spirits. The Buddha, in His compassion, used various things that exist in the Three Realms as analogies to teach us. So, as we learn the Dharma, we must be patient, meticulous and mindful and carefully contemplate our daily living. Do these animals’ ways of living resemble the mindset we have when we give rise to discursive thoughts? We must constantly remind ourselves to be vigilant of this.

The previous sutra passage states,

“Vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens, and the pisaca demons was living inside as well. Because their blessings were meager, they were hard-pressed by the fire.”

This passage tells us about vicious beasts and poisonous creatures that hide and scurry inside holes and dens; they are everywhere. These tangible things can be turned into delusions inside our minds; we endlessly conceal ignorance and delusions inside our minds. “The pisaca demons” were living inside as well. In our minds, when doubts arise, they cause trouble and so on because we do not have deep faith in the karmic law of cause and effect and do not have the roots of goodness for accepting the Right Dharma. These kinds of vicious beasts and poisonous creatures fill our minds. These afflictions, doubts and delusions naturally lead us to create much karma because they drive our actions.

The following sutra passage states,

“They cruelly harmed and killed each other, drinking blood and eating flesh. The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts contended for food to eat. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”

Theses analogies of vicious beasts and poisonous creatures are still referring to things in our minds. These will incite us to hurt one another.

During the Buddha’s lifetime, there was a time when. He was engaged in spiritual practice at the abode in City of the House of Kings. There was a group of very diligent bhiksus there. This is just like Tzu Chi volunteers now, who are diligently listening to the Dharma. After listening, they discuss those teachings with one another. That is the same as how, during the Buddha’s lifetime, this group of diligent bhiksus earnestly learned from one another.

In the Buddha’s Sangha, there was also “the band of six bhiksus.” This group of bhiksus was not very diligent. They were unwilling to be diligent, to listen, to abide by the Dharma or to follow the rules. This small number of bhiksus watched as everyone else advanced diligently. In their hearts they felt, “If you want us to do that, we won’t be able to, but if everyone else is advancing diligently, we will fall far behind the others.” So, this group of bhiksus said, “Let us think of a way to keep the others from advancing so diligently.”

To achieve this, [they spread rumors]. They said things like, “I can see that you are advancing very diligently and that you treat the others so well, but such-and-such bhiksu is saying all sorts of things about you. I cannot stand by and allow this to continue, so I wanted to tell you what is happening.” The bhiksu they spoke to began to wonder, “How can this be? Why would he slander me like this? This makes me very upset.”

Then the “the band of six bhiksus” would go to the other diligent bhiksu and say, “Have you heard? Such-and-such bhiksu is very prejudiced against you. I have heard him criticize you behind your back. When I heard this I felt outrage on your behalf, so I hurriedly came to tell you this.” When that bhiksu heard this, he too was very angry. In this way, a sense of discord spread through the Sangha. When the bhiksus encountered each other, they stopped greeting one another and stopped talking to one another. It was as if they had become strangers. When the entire Sangha began to behave like this, the atmosphere of spiritual refinement disappeared.

When a group of elders returned from a trip away, they saw what had happened to the Sangha which had once been very diligent. How did this come to be? In trying to understand the situation, they realized that someone had sown discord, so the elders counseled all of the monastics, “You can speak directly to the other person and ask them why they are angry with you.”

So, one of the bhiksus went and asked, “What is it that I have done wrong, so that now when you see me, it is as if we are strangers? What is the reason for this?” The other bhiksu then replied, “I also want to know why it is that you treat me so poorly. You are constantly criticizing me after I have always treated you so well. What have I done to you that makes you criticize me all the time?” The first bhiksu asked, “Who told you that?” The second replied, “Bhiksu such-and-such, one of the band of six bhiksus told me so.” Thus they realized that all of this trouble had been stirred up by these six bhiksus. When the elder learned about this, he called the diligent bhiksus over and said, “See, this is because you have not clearly understood the principles. Your afflictions and ignorance are still giving rise to delusions and doubts. Since you have this mindset, a problem in your mind that you cannot resolve, you must quickly consult the Buddha.”

The Buddha turned to the band of six bhiksus and asked, “Why were you slandering people in this Sangha by spreading false and negative things?” The band of six bhiksus admitted that. “We are unable to advance diligently, so we will never be as good as the others. In order to prevent the others bhiksus from advancing so diligently, we spread these rumors among them.” The Buddha said, “This is also a teaching. Causing discord with gossip is a severe mistake. It is a transgression.”

The Buddha then gave an analogy, saying, “In the past there was a tiger, a lion, and a jackal.” As for the tiger and the lion, the tiger’s name was Good Fang, and the lion’s name was Good Gnawer. These two were very close. When it was time to look for food, they often would go out together. Meanwhile, the jackal followed behind them, so when looking for prey, there was already nothing left for him to eat. He thought, “If only I could separate them, if I could split up the tiger and the lion so that each would seek food on their own, then perhaps I would have a better chance.”

Thus the jackal went to the tiger and said, “I can see that you are very brave and powerful, but the lion said that he looks down on you!” When the tiger heard this he was very angry. Then [the jackal] went to the lion and said, “I see that you have a magnificent appearance, but the tiger thinks that you are a very filthy creature, so he looks down on you.” When the lion heard this, he too was quite angry. When they saw each other, the tiger wondered, “Does he really think that? Though I am quite angry, the lion also seems to be avoiding me. I wonder what is going on? I am angry, and he has distanced himself from me. There must be a reason for this.”

So, one day he approached the lion and asked him, “Why have you recently become so distant from me?” The lion then replied, “Because you said that I was unclean, I did not want to come close to you. Who told you this? The jackal. Really? It was also the jackal who told me that you looked down on me! This is a problem created by the jackal.” You see, what happened to these animals can also happens to humans, even spiritual practitioners in the Sangha.

Look at society today. We can see that the same is happening now. People who lack understanding will blindly act on what they hear. They react rashly and end up opposing each other. Think about it; just what is the purpose of doing this? It disrupts their minds, wastes their time and harms their body. How does this actually benefit them in the end? True happiness in life lies in each of us fulfilling our responsibilities. By being earnest and diligent, we can give of ourselves to benefit the world. This is truly a principle of life.

As we discuss this part of the sutra and look at society today, don’t we see people who “cruelly harm and kill each other”? It is as if they were “drinking blood and eating flesh.” Some people cause others to fight and harm one another so that afterwards they can take what they want, can seize whatever is left. After the other animals have attacked and killed each other, the one who incited it will get what meat is left. Isn’t this the same principle? This is what some animals are like. Aren’t some humans just the same? “Sentient beings’ acute and chronic afflictions cause them to each cling to different things.”

They cruelly harmed and killed each other, drinking blood and eating flesh: Sentient beings’ acute and chronic afflictions cause them to each cling to different things, resulting in mutual struggles and disputes. Thus they cruelly harm and kill each other.

There are five acute afflictions and five chronic afflictions. Everyone remembers these, right? The greed, anger and ignorance in our minds, along with our external behavior and methods of spiritual cultivation, when combined together, lead us to create so much negative karma!

Indeed, when each of us takes action, we each have different objectives. You have your objective and I have mine. Our objectives are different, so when we come together we fight and try to take advantage of each other. Some take advantage of this ignorance to incite people to fight each other. Such are the origins of people’s conflicts with each other. This is frightening! A world like this is lamentable and frightening because of the harm that humans cause each other.

So, “when these views arise in the practice of the path” means that as we engage in spiritual cultivation, we may form various different perspectives.

When these views arise in the practice of the path, one cannot give rise to flawless Samadhi and wisdom. Attachment to meditation is likened to creatures who drink blood and eat flesh.

A spiritual practice center needs people’s minds to be peaceful and stable. Society as a whole has an even greater need for its citizens’ minds to be settled. If we are walking the path together but develop [deviant] perspectives, we will be unable to give rise to flawless Samadhi and wisdom. Because there are afflictions in our minds, there are Leaks, so how can the precepts, Samadhi and wisdom remain in our minds? That would not be possible.

“Attachment to meditation….” There are some spiritual practitioners who crave the meditative state. If we single-mindedly crave a higher state, a state of neither thought nor absence of thought, then our minds will be filled with afflictions. How can our minds be completely devoid of desire or devoid of form? That is not possible. How can we ever reach the formless realm? Therefore, in learning the Buddha’s teachings, we must engage in spiritual practice practically. We must have both feet on the ground, then place one foot in front of the other. As we step forward we must lift our back foot and move in the correct direction. This is the most steady way to practice. Therefore, we must always be mindful.

Episode 638 – Defeat the Five Views and Turn to the Right Path

---

>> “Ordinary people have afflictions and turbid minds. With the combined attack of the Five Views, they do not seek the right path. They do not know how to escape, and so they abide constantly in the Three Realms. Thus, the fire in the desire realm is a metaphor for their willingness to suffer cyclic existence.”

>> “With ghosts and spirits crying out loud in raised voices, eagles, vultures and all kinds of birds, kumbhanda and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves.”

>> “Vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens, and the pisaca demons were living inside as well. Because their blessings were meager, they were hard-pressed by the fire.”

>> The vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding inside holes and dens: This refers to the process of accumulation. All good and evil phenomena can gather, and with the process of accumulation, this is called hiding. They go into hiding by concealing themselves inside holes or dens. Thus it says they were hiding inside holes and dens.

>> The pisaca demons were living inside as well: The pisaca demons feed on people’s vitality and also suck the vitality of the five grains. Many heretical practitioners renounce the desire realm and through the practice of meditation seek to enter the form and formless realms.

>> Their blessings in this life are meager. Without roots of goodness from previous lives, they experience much suffering and little joy. Because their blessings are meager, they are unable to engage in spiritual practice surrounded by goodness, so they are said to be hard-pressed by the fire.

>> They were hiding inside holes and dens: Though not in the raging fire, they are still vexed by the heat. This is an analogy for the four Dhyana heavens. Though beyond the crude evil of the desire realm, they still [seek] joy, delight and so on, and have subtle sufferings of cravings, thus they are pressed by the fire.

---

“Ordinary people have afflictions
and turbid minds.
With the combined attack of the Five Views,
they do not seek the right path.
They do not know how to escape,
and so they abide constantly in the Three Realms.
Thus, the fire in the desire realm is a metaphor
for their willingness to suffer cyclic existence.”

Alas, because sentient beings have afflictions, they give rise to turbidity in their minds. When our minds have even the slightest trace of contamination, with one thought arising, afflictions begin to grow and expand, which results in truly unbearable suffering. The five chronic afflictions are greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. These all fill our minds with afflictions. In addition to these, there are five kinds of acute afflictions, the view of self, extreme view, deviant views, stubborn views and views of deviant precepts. Indeed, when these views affect our thinking, our minds become filled with afflictions, but it is when we physically act on them that these afflictions will have consequences.

When both chronic and acute afflictions, these two sets of five, come together, they combine forces to attack. Once our minds give rise to afflictions, they will incite us to take physical action. Whether in daily living or spiritual practice, whether we are lay practitioners or monastics, these afflictions are always in our unenlightened [minds]. If we want to engage in spiritual practice, we must be very vigilant of them.

If we do not ordinarily learn the Buddha’s teachings, how will we know what the five acute afflictions and the five chronic afflictions are? We will not recognize them. It is because we are learning from the Buddha that we understand what they are. After we have understood, we must earnestly safeguard our minds. “All things are created only by the mind.” Once the mind becomes turbid, afflictions arise. Since we are engaging in spiritual practice, we must let go of everything to develop our pure and selfless capacity to seek the Great Dharma. This comes from our minds. To seek the Great Dharma, we must put the Bodhisattva-path into practice; we must aspire to purify our minds and cultivate the Great Dharma by going among people to put it into practice. If we can achieve all of this, we can purify these five kinds of afflictions and help many sentient beings.

There is a French organization called. Doctors of the World, or Medicins du Monde (MdM). They came to us at the end of 1992 and said that people in Ethiopia were in danger of losing their lives. There was a major crisis. From the material provided in their reports, we learned that Ethiopia had been at war with Somalia for a very long time. These two countries had been in a state of war for many years, so the people suffered from poverty and hardship. Moreover, they had experienced a lengthy drought. So, the Ethiopians suffered from many disasters. MdM hoped that we could work with them to help the Ethiopians.

We could not bear for the Ethiopians to face this tremendous suffering, so we decided to first send people to join MdM in assessing the situation. From the assessment reports, we saw truly unbearable suffering, so we decided to work with them. From January 1993 to January 1996, over a period of three years, we built two medical centers for them. At the same time, we built 15 medical stations and trained 300 medical staff. Over a period of three years, we educated them on sanitation and built 14 water stations in 10 villages because they had no water.

I often say that. Ethiopia made a deep impression on me. This was one of the most difficult international disaster relief projects we have worked on. The process was very arduous. What especially struck me was the extent of their suffering. Every time I talk about Ethiopia, what surfaces in my mind is how difficult their living conditions were, particularly in the area of medicine. They had no means of getting illnesses treated. Such was the situation of those who needed care. We built medical stations for them, and over a period of three years, the French doctors and our doctors took turns going there to treat patients.

One doctor in particular made a deep impression on me. Dr. Lin Jianxi was one of the neurologists in our Internal Medicine Department. At that time, we had just finished constructing one of the medical centers. Immediately after he arrived, someone came in carrying a woman who was in the midst of a difficult labor. She kept bleeding. What equipment could he use to deliver the baby? Moreover, as he was a doctor of Internal Medicine, would he know what to do? He still managed to deliver her baby.

In another case, someone whose foot was cut off was brought to that medical station. What could Dr. Lin do about it? He found a way to reattach the foot. Then he elevated the leg with a stick of bamboo. The bamboo was connected to a rope, which was tied to a basket with some rocks. The other end of the rope was tied to this person’s leg. He rigged this contraption. This picture was deeply imprinted in my head.

What made an even deeper impression on me was [the difficulty of] their water situation. Some women lived over 10km away [from water]. They carried buckets on their heads every day. They would leave their homes early in the morning to collect water from a water hole. The water they scooped up was standing water, which was very filthy. The water would collect in a low-lying area. There, dogs would drink water, and people would scoop water from there, too. When their buckets were 80 percent full, they put them on their heads and went home.

According to what local people told us, a woman would spend an entire day collecting this one bucket of water. By the time they arrived there, it would be noon. They would leave in the morning to arrive at noon. By the time they got back home with the water, it was already dark. They did all of this for one bucket of water. Most people there lived in this way.

I also saw images of a man lying on his stomach next to the water hole, drinking water directly [from the water hole]. Because he braced himself on the ground with his hands, when he stood up, his hands were dirty. So, he spit the water from his mouth to wash them, and that water ended up back in that pool of standing water, so the water was very filthy. The sight of this was very frightening.

I still remember how, at that time many years ago, I said, “My greatest fear is that, if I close my eyes, I may reopen them and find myself in Ethiopia.” In the past, this was something I often said. Clearly the tremendous suffering in those images made a deep impression on me.

But in those three years, as we trained the locals in Ethiopia, we saw people’s lives gradually stabilize and the quality of life improve. Our water stations used plastic pipes to divert water all the way down from water sources high up in the mountains. We saw that now when they collected water, it was just like pouring water from a tap. They were truly very happy.

In Ethiopia, didn’t sentient beings’ sufferings arise from the turbidity of afflictions? The turbidity of afflictions gave rise to the people’s great suffering, with natural disasters added on top. This is the “combined attack of the Five Views.” The afflictions in people’s minds led their bodies to take action, causing widespread chaos so that the population could not sustain their livelihood. This is “the combined attack of the Five Views,” which makes people “not seek the right path.”

As Buddhist practitioners, we must put our hearts into earnestly transforming ourselves and taking the Dharma to heart. The world cannot wait; people’s minds need to be purified. We must promptly share the Dharma we understand with everyone and seize this moment to help guide everyone’s mind onto the right course, onto the Bodhi-path. We must do this right away.

To learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must fulfill our basic responsibilities. Our responsibility is to learn the Buddha-Dharma, and with the Dharma, swiftly dedicate our merits to all beings. This means we must seek the Dharma to transform ourselves and then quickly dedicate ourselves to transforming others. Then we will truly fulfill our basic duties of learning and practicing [the Dharma].

What does it mean to dedicate our merits? It means to absorb the Dharma and then apply it. This is our fundamental duty. This is how we truly dedicate merits and engage in spiritual practice. But we “do not know how to escape.” We do not understand how we can transcend the afflictions in our minds. We “do not know how to escape, so [we] abide constantly in the Three Realms.” So, in our practice, we must first purify our minds. We must give of ourselves for others so that there can be peace in the world and harmony in society. These are things we are able to do right now.

We must not be like that, willing to stay [trapped] within cyclic existence. The fire in the desire realm is scorching us. The afflictions of the Three Realms have been described with many analogies. The sufferings in the human realm alone cannot be described in full. Indeed, worldly matters cause much suffering, so we must seize the moment and fulfill our fundamental duties toward the world.

The previous sutra passage states,

“With ghosts and spirits crying out loud in raised voices, eagles, vultures and all kinds of birds, kumbhanda and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves.”

These are all analogies for how, in our minds, our many afflictions are leading us all over the place. Terrified, we cannot manage to escape; thus our minds cannot settle down. Because of these many afflictions, “the obstacles all around are terrifying. [We] cannot escape by [ourselves].” Just thinking about this is exhausting.

Next it states,

“Vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens, and the pisaca demons were living inside as well. Because their blessings were meager, they were hard-pressed by the fire.”

Everyone knows about “vicious beasts and poisonous creatures.” They are “hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens.” This represents being stored up. “Hiding” refers to accumulating and aggregating; it means so much has already been stored up. Good and evil phenomena have gathered here. In the Three Realms, there are both good and evil phenomena. The Buddha came to “open and reveal,” to analyze the different states of mind we have, the different kinds of evil deeds we commit and the kinds of good deeds we should cultivate. So, we must do all good deeds and refrain from all evils.

“Scurrying” refers to fleeing in secret. These creatures may hide in one place or scurry and keep moving around. This is just like how afflictions are stored in our minds. They may be concealed in our minds, but they may still escape and find their way out. So, to “hide and scurry” also means to run away. This is like what happens with creatures that live in “holes and dens.” This is called “hiding inside holes and dens.”

The vicious beasts and poisonous creatures were hiding inside holes and dens: This refers to the process of accumulation. All good and evil phenomena can gather, and with the process of accumulation, this is called hiding. They go into hiding by concealing themselves inside holes or dens. Thus it says they were hiding inside holes and dens.

In addition to this, “The pisaca demons were living inside as well. Pisaca” is a type of demon which feeds on people’s blood and vitality. “Why does this person seem to be in low spirits? It looks as if he is in a daze.” That is because he has this kind of affliction. If people’s minds were free of afflictions, they would not be so listless and in low spirits. They even “suck the vitality of the five grains.” Farmers work hard to cultivate rice. If the crop is suddenly infested with disease or insects, the stalks of rice will wither as if their vitality had been sucked out by the pisaca. When the weather is abnormal and temperatures are extreme, the rice stalks suffer.

This also happens because the karma created by sentient beings has caused an imbalance in the weather. People continue to use external means of suppressing the problem, by using pesticides and so on. These means are even more harmful to the crops. These kinds of problems also represent the afflictions in our minds.

“Many heretical practitioners renounce the desire realm and through the practice of meditation seek to enter the form and formless realms.” Some heretical teachings explain that the desire realm is exhausting, and we will indeed transmigrate. They believe this, so they engage in spiritual practice. They want to cultivate themselves, but they are attached to deviant teachings. So, they say they want to enter. Samadhi in the form and formless realms. Thus, they may easily go astray. Sometimes they slander the Right Dharma, disturb people’s spirits and so on. The pisaca demons are described as doing the same. They disturb people’s spirits so that their spiritual cultivation takes them to a state where they seem to be possessed. This is what happens to them.

The pisaca demons were living inside as well: The pisaca demons feed on people’s vitality and also suck the vitality of the five grains. Many heretical practitioners renounce the desire realm and through the practice of meditation seek to enter the form and formless realms.

“Because their blessings were meager, they were hard-pressed by the fire.” Right now, this world’s “blessings are meager.” We are not creating many blessings, particularly as we are “without roots of goodness from previous lives.” In our previous lives, we did not cultivate roots of goodness, so we experience much suffering and little joy. This is because our blessings are meager. If we are rich in blessings and give without any expectations, we will never use up our spiritual wealth. Some people say, “I am willing to do this,” but they are attached to how much they give. They compare and calculate, so their virtues and blessings are meager. “They are unable to engage in spiritual practice surrounded by goodness.” People like these are “hard-pressed by the fire.”

Their blessings in this life are meager. Without roots of goodness from previous lives, they experience much suffering and little joy. Because their blessings are meager, they are unable to engage in spiritual practice surrounded by goodness, so they are said to be hard-pressed by the fire.

As we live within the Three Realms, many afflictions are still hidden in our minds. Hence, “They were hiding and scurrying inside holes and dens.” Although the fire is not raging, it is hidden inside and burning slowly. Afflictions are stewing in our own minds. We still have these fiery afflictions.

[So, we strive to reach] the four Dhyana heavens, which are free of the crude evils of the desire realm. In the desire realm there are obvious evils, but though they want to practice, these heretical practitioners are only seeking that kind of joy. So, they still have these desires and cravings, and they still feel traces of suffering. This is [what they] practice.

They say they work to reach the four Dhyana heavens, which are in the form realm. Within the four Dhyana heavens, there are still traces of cravings and desires, like seeking Samadhi. In the formless realm, in the state of neither thought nor absence of thought, they are still subtly pressed by a slow fire. Although these are not as obvious as [the afflictions] in the desire realm, there are still subtle desires and cravings.

They were hiding inside holes and dens: Though not in the raging fire, they are still vexed by the heat. This is an analogy for the four Dhyana heavens. Though beyond the crude evil of the desire realm, they still [seek] joy, delight and so on, and have subtle sufferings of cravings, thus they are pressed by the fire.

In summary, as we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must be mindful. We are down to the subtlest afflictions. But if subtle afflictions are not eliminated, the obvious afflictions will arise again. A single spark can start a prairie fire. As long as we have a trace of afflictions in our minds, it may expand into severe and obvious afflictions, like the situation in Ethiopia we just spoke of. We have since been involved in many international [relief missions]. Tzu Chi volunteers promptly manifest their ability to relieve many sentient beings from hardship. There is so much suffering in this world! Therefore, we must be cautious and make use of the Dharma to settle people’s minds so their society and their lives can be peaceful. All this depends on whether each of us is willing to always be mindful.

Episode 637 – Deluded Karma Begets Future Existences

---

>> “Ignorance and deluded karma beget future existences. All phenomena are subject to constant change and thus are impermanent. With delusional thinking, we create karma and deny the law of cause and effect. Such a mindset of ignorance gives rise to thoughts that never abide.”

>> “The ridgepole, beams, rafters and pillars quaked and splintered with explosive sounds. Smashed and splintered, they collapsed, and the walls came tumbling down.”

>> “With ghosts and spirits crying out loud in raised voices, eagles, vultures and all kinds of birds, kumbhandas and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves.”

>> This means they do not know that the intrinsic nature of all phenomena is empty, that it abides permanently and is never destroyed. Instead, they give rise to nihilistic views and mistakenly hold that after the body dies there is no rebirth. This is known as nihilism.

>> [With] kumbhandas and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves: Such sentient beings have afflictions and impure minds. With the combined attack of the Five Views, they do not seek the practice of the right path.

>> Not knowing the way to escape, they abide constantly in the Three Realms. They willingly suffer cyclic existence; thus it says there are obstacles all around. These earthly matters explained above are an analogy for fires igniting in the desire realm.

---

“Ignorance and deluded karma
beget future existences.
All phenomena are subject to constant change
and thus are impermanent.
With delusional thinking, we create karma
and deny the law of cause and effect.
Such a mindset of ignorance gives rise to
thoughts that never abide.”

That is right, ignorance. All sentient beings are ignorant. Though we continuously listen to the Dharma, there are still so many external phenomena that cause thoughts to arise and stir in our minds. Then, without our control, our body and mind take action. With our mouths we say things we should not say. With our body we do things we should not do. This is because there is still ignorance in our minds. Ignorance means that we have not taken the Dharma to heart, which is why our minds give rise to delusions and lead us to create karma. When delusions arise and we create karma,

that begets “future existences.” For certain, as are the causes and conditions, so are the effects and retributions. Thus, “future existences” arise as the result of ignorance and deluded karma. So, we endlessly experience the cycle of karmic retribution and are in a state of confusion. Ignorance keeps begetting more ignorance. Through successive lifetimes, suffering has constantly followed us like a shadow. Wherever we go, our shadow follows us.

So, “All phenomena are subject to constant change and thus are impermanent.” We still do not understand the aggregate of action, though we talk about it every day. The Five Aggregates start with the aggregate of form. All the many kinds of things we see are deteriorating without our awareness.

While I am sitting here, because there is an osmanthus flower right here, the fragrance of the flower wafts over me. Yesterday the flower appeared very fresh. When I see the flower today, although it has not been touched, it has already begun to turn yellow. This is an expression of the aggregate of action. This flower is in front of me. From its fragrance, we can identify it as an osmanthus flower. But it will not stay the same forever. From yesterday to today it has already undergone infinitesimal changes.

This is what happens to all phenomena. This principle is something we cannot see. What we cannot see are these principles of life. These principles give this flower the potential to give off this very fragrant smell. This is also a phenomenon. This kind of phenomenon also cannot be seen. However, it exists within this space and time, in the space of this vast universe. This vast universe encompasses all phenomena, but all things with “form” that come into being through the workings of these principles are subject to constant change.

The aggregate of action also contains [the aggregate of] “feeling.” Form leads to feelings, the things we sense and feel. When I smell the refreshing scent of this flower, I feel very happy. When I see that everyone is mindful and diligent, I feel a sense of great ease and peace. At this moment, this is how I feel. But how will I feel in the future? I have no idea.

Feelings arise in us the moment we come in contact with something. After we develop these feelings, our minds begin to churn; we want it and we cannot get it, so we feel very afflicted and uneasy. When afflictions remain in our hearts, we give rise to thoughts and turn them over in our minds. We always keep them on our minds; this is called “perception.” Not getting what we want causes great suffering. With the aggregate of perception, as we connect with various conditions and absorb them into our minds, they cause us to become afflicted, to become lost and deluded and to create karma. So, we start taking action.

In this way, all phenomena are subject to the aggregate of action. With the aggregate of action, or with form, feeling and perception, all things are “thus impermanent”; they will never stay the same. However, we endlessly engage in “delusional thinking [and] create karma.” Delusional thinking leads our imagination to run wild. These delusional thoughts cause us to take action, thus creating karma. Have we taken these principles to heart? “With delusional thinking, we create karma and deny the law of cause and effect.” A momentary thought arises, “I’m attached to this; I really want to have it.” So, we constantly focus on our limited self and forget the law of karma. Thus we cannot experience the True Dharma of the greater self.

“Such a mindset of ignorance gives rise to thoughts that never abide.” Because of our confusion and delusion, we ordinary people have three major problems, greed, anger and ignorance. The source of all of this is ignorance. Ignorance is not understanding principles. Thus, with ignorance, we cannot understand principles, and discursive thoughts arise in our minds. We have greed and desires, and when we cannot satisfy our greed, we become angry. Therefore, our greed and anger arise because of ignorance.

When the Buddha gave teachings, He often taught according to life’s circumstances. Once He told a story from many lifetimes ago. There was a kingdom called Varanasi. There, a group of monkeys lived in the wild. In the wilderness, there was a large tree. Underneath this large tree was a very large well with water in it. At dusk, when the sky slowly became dark, the monkey king was sitting on the branches. When he looked down, he saw the moon in the well, so he quickly told the troop of monkeys, “Everyone, please be attentive. The moon in the sky has died and fallen to the bottom of the well. The moon is at the bottom of the well, so we must quickly leave this place in order to escape the long, dark night.”

All the monkeys asked, “What do we do?” They were all very nervous. “We must leave quickly! How do we leave?” The monkey king said, “I will hold on to this branch, and you will climb down my body and hold on to my tail. Then the next one will climb down and so on.” There were many monkeys, so starting from a high branch, they hung off of each other. The branch could not support all their weight, so the tree branch broke off, and the troop of monkeys all fell down. Where did they fall? They all fell to the bottom of the well.

When the Buddha reached this point of the story, He told the bhiksus, “Bhiksus, you should know; the monkey king of that time is now Devadatta. That troop of monkeys are now the monastics following Devadatta and causing disruptions within the Sangha. Some of them are the ‘evil-natured bhiksus.’ Although they are monastics within the Sangha, they are not focused on being in this community, so they are disturbing this Sangha by not upholding the Dharma I have taught.”

This is following a deviant path. They act on whatever they hear; without discerning whether it is true or false, they just take action. This is the karma that ordinary people create due to their delusion. This will certainly beget “future existences.” The kind of actions we take will determine the kind of the results that come to fruition. This is a law of nature. These kinds of “thoughts that never abide,” these afflicted, ignorant thoughts, are constantly arising one after another, so our minds are constantly trapped in ignorance. Sentient beings’ delusions are unbearable suffering!

So, the previous sutra text states,

“The ridgepole, beams, rafters and pillars quaked and splintered with explosive sounds. Smashed and splintered, they collapsed, and the walls came tumbling down.”

Isn’t this house just like the world? This house has already been deteriorating, and its walls have begun to crumble. The mountains, rivers and the land do this too. The karmic forces created by sentient beings have already caused the Three Realms [to decay]. When the Three Realms are mentioned, we should think about the afflictions inside our minds and our desires. In the desire, form and formless realms, our imaginations run wild, giving rise to many afflictions, and all the karma we create comes together.

So, the following sutra text further states,

“With ghosts and spirits crying out loud in raised voices, eagles, vultures and all kinds of birds, kumbhandas and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves.”

“Ghosts and spirits” refer to our mental afflictions. Our mental afflictions will make us say improper things, things that disturb people, or express matters that are improper.

This happens when we do not understand that the intrinsic nature of all things is empty.

All phenomena are empty and still in their nature. The ultimate nature of all phenomena is without form, sound or taste. In this world there are countless kinds of different things, yet they all have their own qualities, ways of life and potential. In this world and this universe, there are phenomena of all forms and appearances and beings born and living in every way.

So, when we talk about a seed, at its core, isn’t there a cause that is contained within that seed? The principles of that cause cannot be seen. The seed is tangible, but the cause is invisible. When the seed is planted in the earth and comes in contact with water, air etc., it will follow these principles to manifest its potential. Thus, the seed is inherently empty. When it is separated from these conditions, when it is alone, there is really nothing for us to see. It quietly sits there, and we cannot see its potential to sprout. So, the intrinsic nature of all phenomena is empty. It is permanent and indestructible. It will always be the same.

However, with our unenlightened preconceptions and afflictions, we “instead give rise to nihilistic views.” Nihilism is a deviant view. When things encounter suitable conditions, their potential will be manifested. So, if we manifest these deviant views, our deviant views and understanding will lead us to break the proper rules of the Dharma. Instead, we will give rise to nihilistic views and “mistakenly hold that after the body dies there is no rebirth.” We will think that after dying in this lifetime, we will never come back again. There are also those who believe in eternalism, that since they are human in this life, even if they do not practice in this lifetime, they can [be human] and practice in the next. This is eternalism. Some people think death is the end, so while they are still around, they do whatever they want and deny the law of karma.

Both eternalism and nihilism are incorrect views. The truth is that all things’ intrinsic nature is empty and still, permanent and indestructible.

This means they do not know that the intrinsic nature of all phenomena is empty, that it abides permanently and is never destroyed. Instead, they give rise to nihilistic views and mistakenly hold that after the body dies there is no rebirth. This is known as nihilism.

We cannot take anything but our karma into our next life. Noble and unenlightened beings are in different states. Noble beings can eliminate all kinds of afflictions. When they come back to this world, they are free of afflictions and will not be contaminated by them. They only bring compassion for sentient beings, as they come to save and transform them. Yet, whenever we unenlightened beings encounter [a challenge], afflictions will fill our minds, and ignorance will arise again. For all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the True Dharma always abides in their minds. Our unenlightened minds fluctuate, so we continue transmigrating in the Six Realms.

For people who believe in “nihilism,” they continue to believe they are correct in their thinking, that, “When this life ends, it is ended forever,” and there is no future existence and no rebirth. This is what they insist is true. They think this is obvious, so they “cry out loud in raised voices.”

Eagles and vultures symbolize chronic afflictions, and kumbhandas stand for acute afflictions. Some people think it is very obvious that when people die, they die and never come back. This is very obvious to them. So, they keep proclaiming this idea loudly. They stubbornly insist their beliefs are correct, that what other people say is incorrect and that only what they say is correct. Thus they are “crying out loud in raised voices.”

Eagles and vultures are the chronic afflictions that are crying loudly wherever they are. The kumbhandas symbolize the acute afflictions. “Eagles, vultures and all kinds of birds” are all analogies. One kind of [analogy] is to what can be seen, and another kind is to what cannot be seen. What can be seen are birds, what cannot are the kumbhanda demons. Whether they are visible or invisible, they are all crying out loud; people remain stubbornly attached to their erroneous teachings. So, “[With] kumbhandas and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves.”

[With] kumbhandas and the like, the obstacles all around were terrifying. They could not escape by themselves: Such sentient beings have afflictions and impure minds. With the combined attack of the Five Views, they do not seek the practice of the right path.

In this place, we may be very terrified. We keep calling out, but we do not clearly understand the principles, so we end up leading people down the wrong path. Whether tangible or intangible, these things [represent] afflictions in our minds. In “the combined attack of the Five Views,” the Five Views are the view of self, extreme views, deviant views, stubborn views and the view of deviant precepts. These are the five acute afflictions.

So, what are the five chronic afflictions? Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. These five afflictions are in our minds. When our body comes in contact with our surroundings, the afflictions in our mind will stir in response, and we will create all kinds of karma that will yield karmic effects; the causes we create will lead to certain effects. This is all because of afflictions and ignorance. This “combined attack of the Five Views” is when the “view of self” and so on converge with “greed” and the rest. Together they are called the Ten Afflictions, which are the five chronic afflictions and the five acute afflictions combined. The five afflictions from both sides come together and attack [our minds] so we do not seek the practice of the right path. Then we will not earnestly practice the right path.

“Not knowing the way to escape,” we “abide constantly in the Three Realms” and “willingly suffer cyclic existence.” This is how we are; we are willing to remain in the Three Realms. In the Three Realms, due to the afflictions and ignorance in our minds, we willingly create karma and continue transmigrating. Thus there are “obstacles all around.” Wherever we go there seem to be obstructions. In every direction we look, there do not seem to any be roads we can take. Thus there are “obstacles all around.” These are hindrances.

Not knowing the way to escape, they abide constantly in the Three Realms. They willingly suffer cyclic existence; thus it says there are obstacles all around. These earthly matters explained above are an analogy for fires igniting in the desire realm.

All the things described above are analogies for fires igniting in the desire realm. This is expressing that we ordinary people have already created so much karma that this era is already filled with the Five Turbidities. Since it is filled with impurities, people’s minds are afflicted and ignorant, and our morality and ethics have already slowly deteriorated. As a result, at this time, a fire has arisen in the Three Realms; everyone’s mind is raging like a burning fire. Right now, it is as if smoke fills the air and no one can find their direction. This is what things are like right now.

So, we Buddhist practitioners must be mindful and remember how to engage in spiritual practice. There is only one course of spiritual cultivation, to eliminate ignorance, delusion and karma and to more clearly understand karmic causes and conditions, how they beget “future existences.” Whatever we do, we bring that karma with us. This is something we should be careful about. We must remember that “all phenomena are subject to constant change and thus impermanent.” We should understand this very clearly and not create karma out of delusion or deny the law of cause and effect. We must examine our own minds; do we have this mindset of ignorance? Do we have these “thoughts that never abide?” This is why we must always be mindful.

Episode 636 – The Three Realms Are Impermanent

---

>> “The celestial realm is subject to formation, existence, decay and disappearance. All material things are impermanent and changing. The workings of the mind are empty and illusory, always arising, abiding, changing and ceasing. In this world of noble and unenlightened beings, the mind creates both disasters and blessings.”

>> “In this abode, a fire suddenly broke out. In an instant, it spread to all four sides and the flames raged fiercely.”

>> “The ridgepole, beams, rafters and pillars quaked and splintered with explosive sounds. Smashed and splintered, they collapsed, and the walls came tumbling down.”

>> The fire ignites, snaps and pops, and blasts like firecrackers; thus it says, “quaked and splintered with explosive sounds.” Their grievous moans are called explosive sounds. Their roots are destroyed; this is called quaked and splintered.

>> Smashed and splintered, [the supports] collapsed. This is the four elements dispersing. The walls came crumbling down. This is mountains crumbling, the earth rupturing, trees splintering, cliffs disintegrating and mountains and rivers being upended. This analogy is of the house of the Three Realms and the quarters of the Five Aggregates being smashed, broken and ruined. The phenomenon of the fire burning unbearably is telling us not to have cravings. The analogy of flames destroying a house overall represents the Three Realms’ appearance of impermanence and decay.

>> This shows that the multitude of afflictions is not only confined to the desire realm. They extend to even the form and formless realms, which should be renounced as well. This is analogous to the burning house and shows the compassionate heart of the Tathagata.

---

“The celestial realm is subject to formation,
existence, decay and disappearance.
All material things
are impermanent and changing.
The workings of the mind are empty and illusory,
always arising, abiding, changing and ceasing.
In this world of noble and unenlightened beings,
the mind creates both disasters and blessings.”

We often say that this world is impermanent. In fact, the celestial realm is also subject to the process of formation, existence, decay and disappearance; it merely takes much longer to go through it. The Buddha constantly describes long periods of time as small kalpas, medium kalpas and great kalpas, because it is impossible to calculate in years exactly how long the universe has lasted. So, when talking about time, the Buddha described long periods of time as “kalpas.” There are small, medium and great kalpas. These are all periods of time. It takes 20 small kalpas to equal one medium kalpa, and four medium kalpas to equal one great kalpa. [The universe] has existed for a very long time, so every world is subject to formation, existence, decay and disappearance, including, of course, Earth.

The objects in the celestial realm are subject to formation, existence, decay and disappearance. We might think that this [cycle] only applies to planets; does it have anything to do with us? It does, because we humans are living on this planet. We are a part of Earth, and all these material things exist on Earth and wither and bloom as time passes. So, our Five Aggregates are form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. When we speak of the Five Aggregates, “form” does not just describe the various things around us that we can see, actually it includes our body as well. All these things are impermanent and changing. Nothing remains unchanged forever.

What about our minds? They are empty and illusory, and experience “arising, abiding, changing and ceasing.” The workings of the mind are that our thoughts “arise, abide, change and cease.” If we can stabilize our minds, focus on our fundamental duties and live the kind of life that we should, it will not be hard for us to become Bodhisattvas. But we humans cannot stabilize our minds, so we are in a flawed state where precepts, Samadhi and wisdom are endlessly leaking out [of our minds]. This is why our minds are constantly led astray by afflictions, ignorance, the karma we create and so on. In this way, “The workings of the mind are empty and illusory”; there will be no principles in our minds. With our empty and illusory minds,

when someone asks, “What’s bothering you?” [we respond,] “I feel empty.” Indeed! When ordinary people do not have the Dharma in their hearts, of course they will feel empty and insecure. This is why “The workings of the mind are empty and illusory.” So, we should try to rediscover the Dharma in our minds so that the workings of the mind will not be “empty and illusory,” always “arising, abiding, changing and ceasing.”

Forming aspirations is “arising.” We aspire to do good deeds. We want to do good deeds, want to learn the Buddha’s teachings and to walk the Bodhisattva-path. We are willing to do all this. Once this aspiration “arises,” we keep it in our minds and then put it into action with our bodies. But after we put our aspirations into action, [challenges] arise and time passes. Then naturally, our mindset may shift. When we change our minds, that is “changing.”

Although we are engaging in spiritual practice, the initial aspirations we formed may have already changed. We may still have expectations and give rise to desires for recognition, wealth etc. This will affect our spiritual practice. Whether we are lay practitioners or monastics, we are still unenlightened beings, so our minds follow the impermanent and changing states of the world, and thus go through arising, abiding, changing and ceasing. That is the difference between unenlightened and noble beings.

Noble beings already have a deep understanding of the principles of “formation, existence, decay and disappearance.” They have also realized that. “All material things are impermanent and changing.” They also understand that this is a law of nature. Their minds have been refined over accumulated lifetimes of spiritual practice. Guanyin Bodhisattva, Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, Manjusri, Maitreya and other Bodhisattvas all returned on the ship of compassion to this world to help out at. Sakyamuni Buddha’s [Dharma-assembly]. These noble beings came with the intention of helping the Buddha transform sentient beings.

We unenlightened beings all came with karma. We do not know our purpose in coming to this world. We have no idea. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to this world with a goal, to transform and teach sentient beings to help everyone realize the true principles of all things in the universe. This is the mindset of noble beings.

For unenlightened beings in this world, our disasters and blessings are created by our minds. If we can understand the Buddha’s teachings and gradually approach the state of noble beings, we will create blessings for this world. But if we remain in an unenlightened state, we will create disasters. Manmade calamities are also caused by our changing minds. When our minds deviate even slightly, we can cause major disasters in this world. So, in learning the Buddha’s teachings, the most important thing is the mind. We must take good care of our minds.

The previous sutra passage starts with.

“In this abode, a fire suddenly broke out. In an instant, it spread to all four sides and the flames raged fiercely.”

The master of this house was about to leave, or perhaps he had left, and afterwards, in this big house, “A fire suddenly broke out.” This was the start of a disaster.

“In an instant, it spread to all four sides, and the flames raged fiercely.” This is an analogy for the Three Realms, which are full of unenlightened beings. Besides the Four Kinds of Beings that we can see, there are also invisible ghosts and spirits. Although there are many kinds, they are all living beings and considered sentient beings. Sentient beings have so much karma, yet it is all inseparable from their desires; sentient beings have a wide range of desires. Whether tangible or intangible, sentient beings are [in the states of] “desire, form” and “formlessness,” states of mind that keep them in the Three Realms. Everything that sentient beings do is all encompassed by the Three Realms.

So, this house, the great house, represents that totality of the Three Realms. Within the Three Realms are this house, this home, which has gradually begun to deteriorate. So the sutra states,

“The ridgepole, beams, rafters and pillars quaked and splintered with explosive sounds. Smashed and splintered, they collapsed, and the walls came tumbling down.”

“The ridgepole, beams, rafters and pillars quaked and splintered with explosive sounds” means that in this house, everything from the beams and pillars to the exterior walls has been surrounded by fire on all sides. The fire has begun to burn.

Once the fire has begun to burn, these structures will fall apart. The noise inside will be very loud. Because the fire has broken out, there will be snapping and popping, as if firecrackers are going off. As everything breaks apart, things on the top half of the house will fall as the lower half sinks. The sound will be very loud. So, this is a description of a house that has been deteriorating. Once the fire has been ignited and it begins to burn, the noise will get very loud. The analogies continue with “grievous moans.”

If the fire inside is close by and is already pressing unto our bodies, we will be very frightened and scared. Or if we are scorched by the fire, we will moan and grieve in pain. We will loudly shout and wail for help. At this point, it is not just material things that have been damaged; sentient beings have also been injured, to the point they cry out in pain and sorrow.

When “their roots are destroyed,” that is called “quaked and splintered.” If a person is scorched by fire, the entire body and the Six Roots will be damaged. The non-sentient house and the sentient beings will, as they remain in the Three Realms, change according to their form as time passes. Since a long time has passed, they will experience formation, existence, decay and disappearance.

The fire ignites, snaps and pops, and blasts like firecrackers; thus it says, “quaked and splintered with explosive sounds.” Their grievous moans are called explosive sounds. Their roots are destroyed; this is called quaked and splintered.

As this is happening, “Smashed and splintered, [the supports] collapsed. Smashed and splintered” means [the house] has already been deteriorating. Section after section has collapsed. “This is the four elements dispersing.” The four elements, earth, water, fire and air, have been continually out of balance. So, we say “This is the four elements dispersing.”

Furthermore, the walls will cave in. They have collapsed and fallen down. This is describing how the entire Three Realms have been damaged and destroyed. Thus disasters gradually and continually occur on this planet. Not only will a house’s walls splinter, so will the land, mountains and rivers. The mountains will crumble, and the earth will rupture.

On September 21, 1999, a major earthquake [struck Taiwan]. See, a whole section of land rose up, and part of the plains became hills. There were even some mountainous areas that suddenly [collapsed] and formed sizable lakes. Natural disasters like these are truly frightening; “mountains and rivers [were] upended.”

Smashed and splintered, [the supports] collapsed. This is the four elements dispersing. The walls came crumbling down. This is mountains crumbling, the earth rupturing, trees splintering, cliffs disintegrating and mountains and rivers being upended. This analogy is of the house of the Three Realms and the quarters of the Five Aggregates being smashed, broken and ruined. The phenomenon of the fire burning unbearably is telling us not to have cravings. The analogy of flames destroying a house overall represents the Three Realms’ appearance of impermanence and decay.

In the [parable] of the house of the Three Realms, the Three Realms is likened to a sizable house. Then the Five Aggregates are analogous to the quarters of the house, meaning the rooms. A sizable house has many rooms; these many spaces have different names. Thus, within this great house there are many spaces, many quarters. They are already nearing a time when they will be “smashed, broken and ruined.” They have already begun to gradually deteriorate.

“The phenomenon of the fire burning unbearably” comes from the imbalance of the four elements. We speak of fires, but we are in fact referring to all four elements, including earthquakes, storms, floods etc. [The disasters of] the four elements have been closing in on us from all directions. With this description, having read these sutra passages, how can we not heighten our vigilance? We must be self-disciplined and reverent. This description [of the fire] is given so that we will put a stop to our cravings. [We are being told] “not to have cravings.” We must not have cravings anymore.

So, “The walls came crumbling down. This is mountains crumbling, earth rupturing.” The analogy of the fire burning the house represents the Three Realms’ appearance of decay and impermanence. The analogy of the fire burning the house also represents how the mountains, rivers and the earth are crumbling and rupturing. This expresses to us that the Three Realms are impermanent and decaying.

So, this sutra passage is explaining “the disturbances caused by creatures and ghosts.” This vast space of the Three Realms contains many creatures. There are also ghosts and spirits. These are analogies for our minds, how we are all the same as these things. Whether we are more like humans or ghosts depends on our minds. Whether we are more like humans or animals also depends on our minds. Because our minds are disturbed, we infringe on, take from, clash and fight with each other. See, isn’t this what people are like nowadays? People are lacking in humanity, so they cause “disturbances [like] creatures and ghosts.” We infringe on and take from each other and clash and fight each other. These are the appearances we manifest. This is also an analogy for the afflictions of ordinary people, afflictions of extreme or deviant paths, afflictions of the desire realm, afflictions of the form realm and afflictions of the formless realm. Those in each realm experience their own suffering of self-immolation and self-torment.

Consider the people of ancient times. How did they start a fire? They kept rubbing sticks against each other. The friction would generate sparks that naturally ignited a fire. We often hear of fires breaking out in national parks around the world. Because of the dry wind, because it has not rained for a while, when the wind blows the tree branches rub against each other and start a fire. People of ancient times used the hand drill method to make fire. Rubbing rocks together will also make fire. So, this is like how those in each realm immolate themselves. They all clash and fight with each other. All things have their own forms of degeneration; this clashing and fighting is truly frightening. This is all happening in the Three Realms, and there is no escape.

In summary, [the sutra] describes numerous afflictions. Afflictions do not just arise in the desire realm, but also in the form realm, in the thoughts of our minds. Even if our body never takes action, our minds are still full of afflictions. Afflictions are defilements. If we cannot eliminate these defilements, we will have afflictions of “form.” Because of forms, there are still afflictions in our minds. We must put an end to our desires and then take the next step forward so that the forms in our surroundings will not lead us to give rise to afflictions that contaminate our minds. We should even put an end to afflictions in the formless realm. Although, in the formless realm, we do not greedily cling to afflictions, we may become attached to self-awakening. If we are stuck in the state of thinking, “This world has nothing to do with me,” we have also deviated.

This shows that the multitude of afflictions is not only confined to the desire realm. They extend to even the form and formless realms, which should be renounced as well. This is analogous to the burning house and shows the compassionate heart of the Tathagata.

In summary, since we have aspired to learn from noble beings and draw near them, we must settle our minds. We must not remain like unenlightened beings. Sometimes we form aspirations to create blessings and learn the Bodhisattva-path, so we must not let external conditions affect us, causing thoughts to stir in our minds again. Once our minds stir, that slight deviation will turn blessings into disasters. That would be hazardous. So, we must take good care of our minds. Disasters and blessings are created by the mind. Whether we become noble beings or remain unenlightened beings forever also depends on our minds. So, we must always be mindful.