Category: TLS Chapter 3

Episode 593 – Seek Liberation Upon Hearing True Dharma

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>> “Sadly, sentient beings are deluded by ignorance, so they are lacking in wisdom and awareness. Because they are not alert and afraid, they have no sense of renunciation, nor do they seek liberation or recognize suffering.”

>> “The Tathagata then had this thought, ‘If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom but set aside skillful means, and for the sake of sentient beings praised the Tathagata’s understanding and views, powers and fearlessness, sentient beings would not be able to attain liberation through this.'”

>> “Why is this so? Sentient beings are not yet able to avoid birth, aging, illness, death worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions and are scorched in the burning house of the Three Realms. How could they understand the Buddha’s wisdom?”

>> Sentient beings are not able to be transformed because they do not listen to the teachings. With severe obstacles from the Five Turbidities, they cannot avoid being scorched by the fires of birth, aging and so on. Thus they cannot understand, realize and enter the wondrous Dharma of the Great Vehicle.

>> Sentient beings dally in the burning house, so they cannot be transformed. With the darkness of ignorance obscuring their Six Sense Organs, their bodies, minds and all matters are not under their control, and they cannot faithfully accept the Right Dharma.

>> “This house has only one door. Moreover, it is narrow and small. His sons are young and immature and have no understanding. They are attached to the place where they play. So, they may fall and be burned in the fire.”

>> “In this way, though sentient beings all possess the flawless seeds of world-transcending wisdom, they will still be scorched by the flames of affliction of the Three Realms.”

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“Sadly, sentient beings are deluded by ignorance,
so they are lacking in wisdom and awareness.
Because they are not alert and afraid,
they have no sense of renunciation,
nor do they seek liberation
or recognize suffering.”

Sentient beings! Sentient beings are truly pitiable. There is so much suffering in the world; we see and experience it, yet we do not think about how we can understand the origin of suffering. This is the delusion of sentient beings.

Why is there suffering? Because we “are lacking in wisdom.” Wisdom is inherent in everyone, but because of greed, our minds go astray, which causes us to commit various wrongs. Although we know this, we very quickly forget. Many people become temporarily alert right after they do something wrong, but they soon revert to making the same mistake. This is because our awareness is not high enough. Thus we are not alert or afraid; we do not know to be afraid, and do not know to be fearful.

If we had enough awareness, we would see that there are many disasters. In ourselves and in our families there are many illnesses of the mind and body along with a lack of harmony. We suffer from parting with those we love and meeting those we hate, and there are manmade calamities and imbalances of the four elements. On top of all this, life is [impermanent]. If we were constantly aware of all these things, how could we be so attached to this life? How could we be so greedy for objects of desire in this world? But because we are neither alert nor afraid, we constantly make mistakes. Even though we should not do something, we do it over and over again. This is the way we live.

Living this way is so sad! This happens because we do not seek liberation, because we “[do not] recognize suffering.” We sentient beings perceive suffering as joy. We may understand the principles, and upon hearing them they make sense, but after a while, our habitual tendencies resurface. These habitual tendencies are the source of our suffering in life.

Isn’t this what the Buddha referred to in His lifetime with the analogy of the burning house? Aren’t we the beings that the Buddha told His disciples about as a reminder to heighten their vigilance? Although we live in modern times, if we can take the teachings He gave in that era and apply them right now, then aren’t they suitable for our times?

We constantly say that we should. “Hold nature in awe and gather good affinities.” We should respect the heavens, love the earth and accumulate good affinities in our relationships. This also teaches us that we cannot do whatever we please. The four elements of this world must be in balance in order for people on earth to live in safety. In relationships with others, we should show mutual gratitude and respect and constantly form good affinities. We must encourage everyone to do good deeds and create good affinities. This is what we must always find a way to teach. When we follow the Middle Way, we must not deny the law of karma. [The Middle Way applies to] cause and effect, to teaching a sense of reverence and to proper behavior in our relationships. All of this needs to be taught.

So, we must understand the virtues of nature. However advanced our technology may be, no matter how developed it is, it is in fact inseparable from nature. Scientists constantly use their worldly knowledge to investigate all the natural resources in this world. They constantly use resources in their environment for research, to make innovations and for further study etc. Technology is not possible without the resources inherently contained in the world around us. This is the hidden virtue of nature. These resources have always been there, stored within the earth. We humans then apply our knowledge to look for them, extract them and assemble them. This process of extraction and manufacturing causes extensive destruction of the earth and extensive pollution of our air. Air pollution results in the imbalance of the four elements, which then also damages the earth.

To satisfy our desires and gain advantages, we have shaped the world we live in today. With our planet and our air the way they are, disasters frequently occur. If we think about it, this is because we see this world as merely holding these objects of desire, which we extract out of insatiable greed. We do not see nature’s virtue of nourishing humans. We have no sense of the earth’s grace and virtue in providing that which we need to survive. Humans do not know to be grateful; we are only interested in greedily grasping. “As long as it makes me happy, why not do it?”

If we talk about “impermanence,” [people say,] “In any case, today I’m healthy. In any case, today I still have everything. In any case, today….” They are always so short-sighted, only seeing what is in front of them. They never think of the hazards concealed in what is in front of them. This is how we are unknowing, unaware and not alert or afraid. This is the delusion of sentient beings.

Everyone, don’t we Buddhist practitioners need to transform consciousness into wisdom? Since we already have so much knowledge, we should be seeking wisdom. Part of wisdom is discerning wisdom. We must be able to discern right from wrong. When something is right, we must promptly work hard to seek the “principles of what is right.” Here, “right” means according to the principles. The right thing to do is the correct course to follow. We must immediately choose to go in the right direction.

Every day, when chanting the Three Refuges, we say, “May sentient beings comprehend the great path and form the supreme aspiration.” Since we know the course of the great path, how could we allow even a slight deviation, or simply take it slow? We must move promptly. “May all sentient beings delve deeply into the Sutra Treasury.” We cannot take it slow. We must follow the principles and

“delve deeply into the Sutra Treasury.” Our tempers and our negative habitual tendencies must all be corrected right away. If we do this, we will have the wisdom to know what we should and should not do; then we will never deviate from this road.

We also chant, “May all sentient beings harmoniously lead the people.” We need to “harmoniously lead the people.” Does “harmoniously lead the people” mean we should become an army general? Or should we become a president to lead them? Right now, the title is not important. In our day and age, how should we harmoniously lead the people? With the path, our virtue and our example.

We must follow the virtue of this path to cultivate inwardly and practice outwardly. Internal cultivation brings merit, and external practice brings virtue. After we “comprehend the great path” in our minds, we must “form the supreme aspiration.” With this constant motivation to seek the Dharma, we “delve deeply into the sutra treasury.” Only by doing this can we awaken “wisdom as vast as the ocean.” When we find the direction of this path and cultivate inwardly, our virtue will manifest outwardly. “The fragrance of virtue permeates everything.”

This is the fragrance of the Dharma, the fragrance of the path and of virtue. After earnestly listening to the Dharma, our minds will find the direction of the path. By going down this path, naturally people will see that we are spiritually refined and are virtuous and that our words can be trusted. Then we will be role models. As role models we can “harmoniously lead the people.”

To be role models for other people, we must nurture our own character. We must change our temper and habitual tendencies. Otherwise people will see our character as lacking. So, we must earnestly cultivate our ability to be role models for the world.

Wisdom, as we said yesterday, comes from always “seeking the path to Buddhahood” and from “transforming sentient beings.” Wisdom comes from seeking the path to Buddhahood. Only with wisdom can we awaken the compassion in our hearts. Only when we have compassion can we put the teachings into practice, achieve the wondrous uses of spiritual powers and attain the power of fearlessness.

“Fearlessness” and “having no fear” are different. “Having no fear” is when we say, “So what? As long as it makes me happy, why not do it?” Not knowing to be afraid is very dangerous. But the power of “fearlessness” comes from the stability of character. Then the things we do will be right,

and when it is the right thing, we will do it. This comes from [understanding] the principles. Yesterday we discussed not being afraid when we enter dangerous places for the sake of transforming sentient beings. When we carefully consider everything, we will not be scared. When the Buddha came to this world, He was not scared because. He came for the sake of one great cause. To save and transform sentient beings, He repeatedly returned to this world.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas never stop returning to this world. In the process of their practice, they feared transmigration in the Six Realms, so they engaged in spiritual cultivation. They feared continuing to transmigrate in the Six Realms, so they engaged in practice. After engaging in spiritual practice for countless kalpas, they have already awakened. After they awaken, they are no longer scared, so they return to this world. When they return, they are not scared because their character has been perfected and their wisdom is complete. They understand all the principles of the universe so they return to this world for the sake of this one great cause, to transform sentient beings. They go among people and are not contaminated by them. This is the power of great fearlessness. It is not to say they have no fear, but that they already have spiritual powers of being at ease. This is something we should learn.

The previous sutra passage states,

“The Tathagata then had this thought, ‘If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom but set aside skillful means, and for the sake of sentient beings praised the Tathagata’s understanding and views, powers and fearlessness, sentient beings would not be able to attain liberation through this.'”

The Buddha already completely understood the truths of all things in the universe, not to mention people’s states of mind. He knew everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. He could have said this directly, but it would have been of no use, because sentient beings would not be able to understand. No matter how. He might praise the enlightened state of mind, we would still not be able to understand. So, sentient beings could not take the Buddha’s teachings to heart. With a few words He could have revealed the suffering of cyclic existence in the Six Realms so that sentient beings would quickly return to the right path, but we were far from ready. Sentient beings’ capabilities were greatly lacking. The Buddha could not just use a few simple words to explain, so He had to use many methods and establish the Three Vehicles to guide us. This was in the previous passage.

It continues with,

“Why is this so? Sentient beings are not yet able to avoid birth, aging, illness, death worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions and are scorched in the burning house of the Three Realms. How could they understand the Buddha’s wisdom?”

If sentient beings have not yet experienced suffering, they have no way to recognize it. So, I constantly talk about “experiencing.” If we have never really experienced illness, we may think, “I will be healthy forever.”

So it says, “Why is this so? Sentient beings are not yet able to avoid birth, aging, illness, death worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions.” If sentient beings have not yet truly and personally experienced suffering, they lack awareness and understanding. Everyone is like this. “Sentient beings are not able to be transformed” because they still cannot understand; though facing suffering they do not experience it, so “they do not listen to the teachings.”

Sentient beings are not able to be transformed because they do not listen to the teachings. With severe obstacles from the Five Turbidities, they cannot avoid being scorched by the fires of birth, aging and so on. Thus they cannot understand, realize and enter the wondrous Dharma of the Great Vehicle.

If we say, “Come listen to the Dharma,” they reply, “It’s too early; I can’t get up. It’s too cold; I can’t make it. I’m too busy; I can’t make it.” Many truly have “no Dharma to transform them.” That is because they do not listen to teachings. If they do not listen to or accept the Dharma, how can they be transformed by it? So, many have “no Dharma to transform them.”

This is due to “severe obstacles from the Five Turbidities.” The Five Turbidities include the turbidities of views, sentient beings and life. There is so much turbidity around us. This is an era of afflictions; so many afflictions arise in sentient beings, resulting in afflictions of “views.” When these afflictions of all kinds are in one place, they are known as the Five Turbidities. The Five Turbidities and all the impurities in this world have covered our intrinsic nature. Thus they are obstacles for us.

In families there are familial obstacles. In society there are societal obstacles. In businesses there are business obstacles. Greed for fame and fortune etc. are obstacles. There are indeed many of these. Once we experience this, we are already being burned by the fire. It is already too late.

“They cannot understand, realize or enter the wondrous Dharma of the Great Vehicle.” If it is already too late, how can they possibly understand? How can they become awakened? In life, if we do not seize every moment, that will be very lamentable and sad.

The next line states, “[They] are scorched in the burning house of the Three Realms.” This is a consequence of being unaware. If we are unwilling to learn, we will not be able to understand that we are already in the Three Realms, and the fire is closing in. Sentient beings still “dally in the burning house, so they cannot be transformed.” They are still dallying there, so they cannot be transformed.

Sentient beings dally in the burning house, so they cannot be transformed. With the darkness of ignorance obscuring their Six Sense Organs, their bodies, minds and all matters are not under their control, and they cannot faithfully accept the Right Dharma.

“The darkness of ignorance obscures their Six Sense Organs.” We unenlightened beings are still affected by the Six Sense Organs, Six Sense Objects and Six Consciousnesses. The Six Sense Organs connect with the Six Sense Objects around us, giving rise to consciousness and knowledge. It is through the Six Consciousnesses that those impediments, those obstacles of turbidity, accumulate in our minds. When our senses connect with sense objects, we are led to greedily grasp at the objects of our desire. So, the workings of our body, mind and all matters are beyond our control.

This is because we do not normally make the effort to faithfully accept Right Dharma. If we regularly make the effort to do this, Right Dharma will constantly permeate our hearts. The Dharma is like water; it can cleanse our minds of impurities. If we do not accept the Dharma, we cannot wash away the impurities. Thus we continue to be deluded. So, “How could they understand the Buddha’s wisdom?”

As stated in a previous passage that we had discussed some time ago, in the parable about the burning house we find,

“This house has only one door. Moreover, it is narrow and small. His sons are young and immature and have no understanding. They are attached to the place where they play. So, they may fall and be burned in the fire.”

The people inside the burning house are just like young and immature children; we lack an understanding of the matters of this world and of the workings of our body and mind. If there is no one to teach us, if we do not accept the teachings, it would be easy for us to fall and “be burned in the fire.” That means we do not have the capabilities and conditions for accepting the Dharma.

“In this way, though sentient beings all possess the flawless seeds of world-transcending wisdom, they will still be scorched by the flames of affliction of the Three Realms.”

We all have this; we are all replete with these flawless seeds. These flawless seeds are the Three Flawless Studies, precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. Actually, as long as we are willing to be mindful, is there anyone who cannot uphold the precepts? As long as we are willing to be mindful, who cannot attain a state of Samadhi? As long as we are willing to learn, who cannot awaken wisdom? Everyone intrinsically has the same nature as the Buddha, but unfortunately we remain in the Three Realms. “Sadly, sentient beings are deluded by ignorance so they are lacking in wisdom and awareness.” Because we are not scared, we do not understand that we are in a very dangerous place. Thus, we do not seek liberation. That is why we say we will take it slow in listening to teachings and take it slow in improving our temper. Isn’t this the case? So, we must be cautious and always be mindful.

Episode 592 – Relieve Suffering with Compassion and Wisdom

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>> “Giving peace and joy to all sentient beings is His loving-kindness. Relieving all the suffering of sentient beings is His Compassion. With the power of patience, the Buddha does not abandon sentient beings to a mistaken path, With the great power of wisdom, He gives wondrous provisional teachings.”

>> “Sariputra, Buddha saw this and thus had this thought, ‘Ask father to all sentient beings, I should relieve their suffering and give them the infinite and boundless joy of the Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.'”

>> “Sariputra, the Tathagata then had this thought, ‘If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom but set aside skillful means, and for the sake of sentient beings praised the Tathagata’s understanding and views, powers and fearlessness, sentient beings would not be able to attain liberation through this.'”

>> With the power of loving-kindness and compassion, the Tathagata relieved sentient beings’ suffering and gave sentient beings joy. However, He still had this thought. As it was ultimately difficult to express His intent and teach the True Dharma, it was necessary to give provisional teachings. Because sentient beings’ capacities were incapable of accepting [the great teachings], the Tathagata had this thought.

>> With compassion and wisdom, the Buddha considered how sentient beings would be able to realize the meaning behind His words. Thus He had this thought, “If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom….” When spiritual powers are used with the power of compassion and wisdom, they are like two hands working as one. They are even more powerful.

>> Spiritual powers: Spiritual means its wondrous use is unfathomable; powers are what can freely and flexibly succeed. Through Samadhi and wisdom we can attain these free and flexible spiritual powers.

>> Compassion and wisdom: These are the two kinds of virtuous natures that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas must be replete with, also called the two doors of compassion and wisdom. Wisdom is seeking Bodhi and is considered benefiting oneself. Compassion is transforming sentient beings and is considered benefiting others.

>> For the Buddha to set aside skillful means and directly praise the awakened Tathagata-nature and ocean of wisdom, He would manifest His power of the understanding and view of truth and His powers of wisdom.

>> “The power of fearlessness” is praise for the Tathagata’s exceptional state of understanding and views, when “The Buddha spoke in accord with His state of mind and what He wanted to say.”

>> Fearlessness also refers to how Bodhisattvas can transform understanding and views so they can take attachments to existence, etc., and transform them into true emptiness. Thus they can enable sentient beings to [safely] enter situations of disaster and danger to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. This is the fearlessness of the Bodhisattvas.

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“Giving peace and joy to all sentient beings is His loving-kindness. Relieving all the suffering of sentient beings is His compassion. With the power of patience, the Buddha does not abandon sentient beings to a mistaken path, With the great power of wisdom, He gives wondrous provisional teachings.”

I want to help everyone better understand that the Buddha came to this world for one great cause, to help sentient beings who are deluded, who greedily cling to this world, who continue to create karma. So, His one great cause was to teach the Dharma in the hope that everybody could comprehend the meanings behind His words. However, sentient beings are severely afflicted, so realizing the meaning behind His words is extremely difficult for them. So, the Buddha had to first exercise His loving-kindness and compassion.

For sentient beings to listen to His words, clearly understand them and take them to heart, first the Buddha had to settle their minds. Once their minds were peaceful and stable, they felt happy. So, He first practiced loving-kindness, then He exercised compassion, since sentient beings’ suffering had to be relieved. In addition to bringing peace to their minds, the Buddha continued to help them understand the source of human suffering. He hoped everybody could understand where suffering comes from. This was why He never stopped hoping that people would walk the Bodhisattva-path to experience the suffering of sentient beings. To understand the source of suffering, one must have personal experience with it. Otherwise, we may say to someone, “Life is ‘suffering,’ which comes from ‘causation.'” How did this “causation” come about? That person would not understand. This is why we have to go among people [to learn].

So, the Buddha constantly teaches us the Bodhisattva Way. To practice the Bodhisattva Way, we must go among people and relieve their suffering and hardship. As we exercise loving-kindness and compassion, we must have “the power of patience” and never abandon sentient beings. No matter how hard things are, we must persevere. For this reason, “With the great power of wisdom, He gives wondrous provisional teachings.” This is the one great cause for which the Buddha came to this world.

The previous sutra passage states,

“Sariputra, the Buddha saw this and thus had this thought, ‘As a father to all sentient beings, I should relieve their suffering and give them the infinite and boundless joy of the Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.'”

The Buddha and sentient beings are connected through the Dharma-essence and wisdom-life. The Buddha, for the sake of all sentient beings, came to share the Dharma-essence with us to help us revitalize our wisdom-life. Therefore, the Buddha said, “As a father to all sentient beings, I should relieve their suffering.” What He gave to sentient beings was the infinite and boundless joy of His awakened wisdom. This is what the Buddha wanted to do for sentient beings.

Today, let us discuss the following passage.

“Sariputra, the Tathagata then had this thought, ‘If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom but set aside skillful means, and for the sake of sentient beings praised the Tathagata’s understanding and views, powers and fearlessness, sentient beings would not be able to attain liberation through this.'”

This is sad. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, He wanted to quickly infuse sentient beings with this Dharma-essence. However, the ignorance of sentient beings is too severe. Before they can accept the Dharma-essence, they need to spend some time treating their mental ailments. This is why the Buddha established skillful means for them. If the Buddha directly taught [the True Dharma], they would not be able to accept it. So, the Buddha could not praise the Tathagata’s understanding and views, powers and fearlessness. If this was how He taught to help them understand, they would not be able to understand. So, He relieved their suffering with the power of loving-kindness and compassion.

With the power of loving-kindness and compassion, the Tathagata relieved sentient beings’ suffering and gave sentient beings joy. However, He still had this thought. As it was ultimately difficult to express His intent and teach the True Dharma, it was necessary to give provisional teachings. Because sentient beings’ capacities were incapable of accepting [the great teachings], the Tathagata had this thought.

The Buddha had to further exercise great loving-kindness and compassion, as well as patience. As sentient beings are lost, He mindfully figured out how to free them from that state. To relieve the suffering of sentient beings, He had to first help bring them peace of mind so they would be willing to believe and accept what He taught. Although sentient beings have already accepted the Three Vehicles He taught according to their capabilities, although they could accept these, the Buddha still believed that they needed to accept the Dharma-essence so they could truly develop the wisdom to transcend cyclic existence. Because the Buddha hoped they would ultimately attain liberation, “the Tathagata had this thought.”

“It was ultimately difficult to express His intent and teach the True Dharma.” This was the case for more than 40 years. This means the Buddha had already waited for more than 40 years. As He patiently guided sentient beings, they simply developed stability and faith. However, they were still unable to take the True Dharma to heart. So, the Buddha still could not freely carry out His original intent to expound the True Dharma. There was nothing else the Buddha could do, so. “It was necessary to give provisional teachings.” He had to continue to give provisional teachings. “Sentient beings’ capacities were incapable of accepting [great teachings].” So, the Tathagata continued to “have this thought,”

“‘If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom….'” He thought about directly using. His spiritual powers and power of wisdom. How could the Buddha utilize. His spiritual powers and power of wisdom to help them internalize [the True Dharma]? “With compassion and wisdom, the Buddha considered how sentient beings would be able to realize the meaning behind His words.” How would sentient beings be able to realize the Buddha’s original intent and the meaning behind the words He spoke? Did they actually have the capabilities to comprehend what He said? For this reason, He “had this thought.” This was the Buddha’s state of mind. Sometimes when I think about it, I empathize with His dilemma.

․With compassion and wisdom, the Buddha considered how sentient beings would be able to realize the meaning behind His words. Thus He had this thought, “If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom….” When spiritual powers are used with the power of compassion and wisdom, they are like two hands working as one. They are even more powerful.

The Buddha “had this thought” for sentient beings. “Thus He had this thought.” This thought was based on His assessment of their capabilities. “If I simply used my spiritual powers and my powers of wisdom….” If spiritual powers can be used in conjunction with our compassion and wisdom, that will be like using our two hands together. Then there will be much we can do. When we do things, can we do them easily with just one hand? We must use both of our hands. By combining our compassion and wisdom, we can do even more and will be even more powerful. This means that, when “spiritual powers are used with the power of compassion and wisdom, they are like two hands working as one. They are even more powerful.”

“Spiritual” means. “Their wondrous use is unfathomable.” This is truly inconceivable; people cannot comprehend this wondrous use. This is the meaning of “spiritual. Powers” are what allows us to flexibly succeed with Samadhi and wisdom. Our power comes from uniting our spiritual and [physical] powers and putting them to use. Take listening to the Dharma, for example. When I speak, you can hear what I say. My words are not only heard by the people sitting here. Through modern technology, this Dharma can spread across so many countries to be heard by so many people at the same time. With these free and flexible spiritual powers, in this world, there is nothing we cannot do. Anything is possible as long as we have wisdom and the power of Samadhi.

Spiritual powers: Spiritual means its wondrous use is unfathomable; powers are what can freely and flexibly succeed. Through Samadhi and wisdom we can attain these free and flexible spiritual powers.

To develop anything we must focus; we must invent and discover. The power we exercise comes from wisdom and Samadhi. In order to invent something, we must concentrate. Concentration is the power of Samadhi. By exercising our wisdom in this way, we will be able to figure out the functions of all things in the world and bring out the best in them. With spiritual powers we are flexible and free.

In addition to applying our spiritual powers, we also need to apply our wisdom. To have wisdom, we must exercise loving-kindness and compassion. With loving-kindness, we cherish all sentient beings. Since they are suffering, we exercise the power of compassion. Then we have both compassion and wisdom. This is why the Buddha said, “These are the two kinds of virtuous natures that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas must be replete with.” All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas must have compassion and wisdom.

Compassion and wisdom: These are the two kinds of virtuous natures that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas must be replete with, also called the two doors of compassion and wisdom. Wisdom is seeking Bodhi and is considered benefiting oneself. Compassion is transforming sentient beings and is considered benefiting others.

The Buddha, with the wisdom He attained upon enlightenment, still hopes everyone can be in accord with His state of mind. He hopes we can connect with the words He spoke from His heart and connect with His wisdom. Those who can be in accord with His wisdom are called Bodhisattvas. They understand the Buddha’s original intent, how, for the sake of sentient beings, the Buddha stabilized their minds in the hope they could understand [the teachings] and practice the One Dharma to walk the Bodhisattva-path. By doing this, they are Bodhisattvas. Only those who share this mission and path are Bodhisattvas. With the same mission as the Buddha, they can walk this path together with Him.

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are replete with two kinds of virtues. This is His intrinsic nature and virtue. I often mention the Buddha-mind. When the Buddha is in our hearts, the Dharma will be in our actions; we will act according to the Dharma. This is how Buddhas and Bodhisattvas share the same mission and path. They are in accord with each other, so they are able to listen to the Dharma and turn the Dharma-wheel. These are the two doors of compassion and wisdom. We must have compassion, and we must have wisdom. Compassion and wisdom are essential qualities that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas must have.

Wisdom comes from “seeking Bodhi” and is considered benefiting oneself. To be Bodhisattvas, we must learn the Bodhisattva-path. In order to accord with the Buddha’s mind, we must walk the Bodhisattva-path and never stop [cultivating] our wisdom. This means we need to seek Bodhi, which is benefiting ourselves. We seek this Dharma to benefit ourselves.

Compassion comes from “transforming sentient beings.” They cannot bear for sentient beings to remain lost and deluded, so Bodhisattvas constantly seek the Dharma to learn methods to save and transform all beings. Sentient beings suffer because they are lost and deluded, so we must use the Dharma to transform them. This is considered benefiting others.

Next, “If I set aside skillful means, and for the sake of sentient beings praised the Tathagata’s understanding and views….”

For the Buddha to set aside skillful means and directly praise the awakened Tathagata-nature and ocean of wisdom, He would manifest His power of the understanding and view of truth and His powers of wisdom.

The Buddha originally wanted to tell everyone, “You also possess these. You are the same. You and I both intrinsically have Buddha-nature.” However, we could not understand this. The Buddha was starting to wonder, “How much more time do I have in this world?” So, for the sake of future sentient beings, He decided to open this spiritual path. “The Buddha set aside skillful means and directly praised the awakened. Tathagata-nature and ocean of wisdom.”

When the Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, at the beginning He told everybody that His past teachings had been skillful means, which, like the sheep-cart and deer-cart, suited the capabilities of sentient beings. At this assembly, everyone needed to understand that there was an even bigger cart, which could benefit them as well as other people. Not only could they reach their destination, other people could, too. So, the Buddha kept praising the “awakened Tathagata-nature and ocean of wisdom.”

The Tathagata-nature is realizable as long as we can be in accord with the Buddha’s mind. If we can understand the meaning of His words, we can also attain this wisdom. We all intrinsically have this awakened nature and ocean of wisdom. This comes from the power of the understanding and view of truth. This is what the Buddha wanted to say to us. This is the power of wisdom.

[The Buddha has] spiritual powers and wisdom. Spiritual powers can encompass everything, and they are unfathomable. Since they are unfathomable, I cannot explain them. Everyone needs to understand for themselves that in our daily living, as we interact with our surroundings, we all have these incredible [powers].

The Buddha can use wondrous teachings to provide us with analogies. He also has fearlessness. What does it mean to be fearless? Sentient beings cannot understand this, so they “would not be able to attain liberation through this.” Because we cannot understand, we cannot be transformed.

“The power of fearlessness” is praise for the Tathagata’s exceptional state of understanding and views, when “The Buddha spoke in accord with His state of mind and what He wanted to say.”

In this state, the Buddha acted according to. His own intentions.

Through His words, He expressed praise for the state of the Buddha and His spiritual powers and the power of His wisdom. If the Buddha had not used skillful means, sentient beings would not have any way to comprehend what He said. If the Buddha only taught in accord with His state of mind and what He wanted to say, sentient beings would not be able to comprehend.

What the Buddha really wanted to share is “the True Dharma on compassion and impartiality.” So, the Buddha wants us to understand that we must cultivate our compassion because the True Dharma teaches us to be impartial. All living beings are equal. Though the world is complicated, the Dharma applies equally to all. The Tathagata, in His exceptional and wondrous state, can encompass everything in the One Vehicle Dharma. This is the Buddha’s [impartial] state of mind, but helping sentient beings understand it is not an easy matter.

When we reach a state of “fearlessness,” the state of Bodhisattvas, we are in accord with the Buddha’s mind. So, Bodhisattvas are similar to Buddhas. They know “how to transform the understanding and views” of sentient beings and “take attachments to existence, etc., and transform them into true emptiness.” This is the state of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

Fearlessness also refers to how Bodhisattvas can transform understanding and views so they can take attachments to existence, etc., and transform them into true emptiness. Thus they can enable sentient beings to [safely] enter situations of disaster and danger to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. This is the fearlessness of the Bodhisattvas.

Bodhisattvas, while among sentient beings, have the means to transform their understanding and views, turning them from delusion to awakening. This is “transforming the understanding and views” so they are transformed from deluded attachments into true emptiness. We may not be able see through things.

We often say, “You need to see through things and let go.” To let go, we must apply the principle of true emptiness. “Why take issue over this?” This shows the power of Bodhisattvas. Their wisdom can approach that of the Buddha’s, so they can turn delusion into awakening and transform understandings and views. Then those attached to existence and dallying can return to true emptiness. This is the method used by Bodhisattvas.

“This allows sentient beings to [safely] enter situations of disaster and danger.” They will also be able to “relieve the suffering of sentient beings.” Indeed, as long as we can let go of the perspectives we are attached to, we can understand the suffering of sentient beings. When we enter a disaster area, there may be hazards and difficulties. But Bodhisattvas have ways to eliminate the suffering of sentient beings. This is the power of fearlessness. This is what Bodhisattvas do.

The minds of sentient beings may not be able to accept the teachings. Normal people are unable to accept them, so they cannot be transformed. If people cannot accept the Dharma, they will not be willing to practice it, or even praise it. How can sentient beings like this be transformed? This is why the Buddha has to use various methods to patiently guide them. The True Dharma cannot directly enter the minds of sentient beings because “the Dharma does not adapt to the capacities of sentient beings.” If it does not adapt to their capacities, “It cannot benefit sentient beings.”

Dear Bodhisattvas, the Dharma is truly profound and wondrous. Teaching in ways that everyone can comprehend is indeed very difficult. Those who listen to the Dharma must also be mindful and use the power of Samadhi. They must also experience it so they will be able to comprehend the teachings. In conclusion, everyone needs to think carefully and always be mindful.

Episode 591 – Sentient Beings’ Father Relieves Their Suffering

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>> “The Buddha kindly responds to the world and comes for one great cause. He has compassion for the four kinds of beings as if they were all His only son. With the power of great loving-kindness, He bestows peace and joy upon them. With the power of great compassionate vows, He relieves their suffering.”

>> They do not think to renounce [suffering] nor seek liberation. Therefore, they head east and west in the burning house of the Three Realms. Though they meet with great suffering, they do not see it as a concern.

>> “Sariputra, the Buddha saw this and thus had this thought, ‘As a father to all sentient beings, I should relieve their suffering, and give them the infinite and boundless joy of the Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.'”

>> The Buddha is the kind father of the four kinds of beings and views all beings equally as His only son. The Buddha gives sentient beings the Dharma-essence of their wisdom-life, the lineage of awakened sentient beings. He cannot bear for them to sink [into suffering], so He devises teachings according to capabilities.

>> It is like how fathers and sons in this world are part of the same bloodline and family lineage. The Buddha is concerned about. His children’s conduct and karma, whether they are good or evil, wise or foolish, bringing blessings or disasters. He does everything He can to give them joy, and with His compassion, He relieves all their suffering.

>> Sentient beings: This refers to all animals with feelings and consciousness. They are born with myriad conditions, so they are the myriad sentient beings. They also go through myriad births and deaths, so they are the myriad sentient beings. Among the Ten Dharma-realms, all beings in the nine other realms outside of the Buddha-realm are considered sentient beings.

>> The Buddha uses the power of great loving-kindness and compassion. “Bringing joy” is the power of great loving-kindness. “Relieving suffering” is the power of great compassion.

>> The elder was shocked and afraid: He was shocked that the children felt no joy and was afraid they would suffer. Thus, he relieves suffering and brings joy. The fears of the kind father are that his children would dally in the burning house, without being aware or afraid.

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“The Buddha kindly responds to the world
and comes for one great cause.
He has compassion for the four kinds of beings
as if they were all His only son.
With the power of great loving-kindness,
He bestows peace and joy upon them.
With the power of great compassionate vows,
He relieves their suffering.”

In the Buddha’s compassion, He responds to the human realm and comes for the sake of the one great cause. He constantly gives teachings, and we also constantly take them in. When I speak about this, I am filled with gratitude. For the sake of sentient beings, the Buddha repeatedly comes to the human realm. He comes to do only one thing, to “open and reveal” to sentient beings. He feels that compassion for sentient beings.

With loving-kindness, He hopes everyone can become happy. With compassion, He hopes everyone can be relieved of suffering. With feelings of loving-kindness and compassion, He comes here for the sake of sentient beings and treats them all like His child. His singular intention is figuring out how to immediately relieve that suffering.

From the Dalin Tzu Chi hospital, we heard this following story. There was a family of three there, a father and mother accompanying their daughter, who was only 17 years old. They came all the way from Malaysia to Dalin seeking treatment. Their daughter, a few years earlier, felt some aches and pains in her back, which became more intense as time went on. Though they took her to various doctors, her pain grew worse. This went on for a long time, so they brought her to a large hospital. The diagnosis was neuroblastoma, a form of cancer. In particular, her cancer grew in a place that was very difficult to treat.

They went online to do some research. Where in the world was there a doctor who could treat their daughter? They looked online and found. Dr. Chen Jin-cherng of Dalin hospital, who had successfully treated a case like this. He was their only hope, so the parents brought their daughter there.

But sadly, the area around the tumor was completely covered by cancer cells. The cancer had been spreading for a while. The teams constantly thought of ways to help her. Teams of volunteers and medical staff kept her company. For three to four months, day by day they saw this child gradually approach the end of her life. No matter how much pain she was in, she did not once call out, but with a very weak, very feeble and tiny voice, she kept repeating, “Please save me. I want to keep living.”

Although the parents understood that there was less hope for recovery with each passing day, they did everything they could to keep focused on the preciousness of life. Finally, there was nothing that they could do. When the end was near, they said, “She won’t be able to come home with us, so we have some decisions to make. Can we preserve and donate her organs?”

The doctors were very touched to hear this, but when they checked again, they saw that this neurological cancer had already resulted in other complications, and the cancer had spread throughout her body. Every single organ in her body had been affected, even her corneas could not be donated. Originally her parents hoped that she could be a tiny bit of help to someone in the world, but even this slim hope was gone. The volunteers immediately consoled them, “You’ve already done all that you can.” The parents said, “We are grateful! These couple of months we have spent in Taiwan have brought peace to our hearts. The doctors and the medical teams have done everything they could and so have we. This is the way things are; we understand.” So, their daughter passed away here.

See, life is suffering. This is the torment parents face; without regard for anything else, they even came all the way here in their attempt to do everything they could. Sadly, even though the doctors had the compassion of the Buddha, they could not cure her.

Though her physical life could not be saved, looking at her during those three to four months, it seems that she received the loving comfort needed to soothe her, and her parents were able to let go. [Her father] said, “If we had been in Malaysia when we lost our daughter, the two of us might not have been able to deal with this.” So, in coming to Taiwan, ultimately the parents were the ones saved because they were able to let go in the end. The volunteers often shared the Dharma with them, and the doctors did everything they could. So, they were able to be at peace. After the funeral service was over, again and again they expressed their gratitude. This was also a way of relieving suffering.

I often tell everyone that we have to carefully contemplate and weigh our options. Ultimately, why are we here? What are we taking issue over? And so on. The Three Realms are like a burning house. In this burning house, there are many children who continue to linger and play games. They are not afraid of the fire surrounding them that is getting closer; they do not realize this. They still do not understand; they are not aware, not alert and not afraid. They do not renounce [suffering] or seek liberation. Isn’t this a portrait of our lives?

They do not think to renounce [suffering] nor seek liberation. Therefore, they head east and west in the burning house of the Three Realms. Though they meet with great suffering, they do not see it as a concern.

So, we are still not awakened and do not seek liberation. In the burning house of the Three Realms, “They head east and west.” Just as the sun comes up [in the east], a thought of goodness radiates light. But soon, the darkness comes again, just like how the sun sets in the west. This shows how we sentient beings are not knowing, not aware, with no renunciation nor seeking of liberation. When we are deluded by ignorance, this causes unbearable suffering.

So, the following sutra passage begins again with,

“Sariputra, the Buddha saw this and thus had this thought, ‘As a father to all sentient beings, I should relieve their suffering, and give them the infinite and boundless joy of the Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.'”

Living beings are one of the four kinds of beings, egg-born, womb-born, moisture-born or transformation-born. Not long ago we discussed that the “four kinds of beings” means that all life forms experience one of these four forms of birth. The infinite numbers of sentient beings are all “viewed equally as His only son.” When facing all the beings of these four categories, the Buddha treats them all like His only child.

The Buddha is the kind father of the four kinds of beings and views all beings equally as His only son. The Buddha gives sentient beings the Dharma-essence of their wisdom-life, the lineage of awakened sentient beings. He cannot bear for them to sink [into suffering], so He devises teachings according to capabilities.

The Buddha gives sentient beings the Dharma-essence for their wisdom-life. This lineage of enlightened sentient beings is what the Buddha has passed on to sentient beings hoping we could all attain the Buddha-Dharma, hoping we could turn from delusion to awakening and remain among sentient beings to spread the Buddha-Dharma and turn the Dharma-wheel. This is because “He cannot bear for them to sink [into suffering], so He devises teachings according to capabilities.” He uses various methods to teach sentient beings. No matter what kind of beings they are, the Buddha never abandons or gives up on them.

An analogy would be a father-son relationship. In this world, fathers and sons are part of the same bloodline and family lineage. The Buddha and sentient beings are connected by this lineage of. Dharma-essence and wisdom-life; but their feelings about each other are the same as a father and son who are related by blood.

It is like how fathers and sons in this world are part of the same bloodline and family lineage. The Buddha is concerned about. His children’s conduct and karma, whether they are good or evil, wise or foolish, bringing blessings or disasters. He does everything He can to give them joy, and with His compassion, He relieves all their suffering.

All parents hope that their children will be well-behaved and hope for them to do great things. All parents hope their child will do something which is beneficial and does not hurt other people.

But sentient beings, or people’s children, may be “good or evil, wise or foolish.” Whether they are good or evil, wise or foolish, whether they bring blessings or disasters, all depends on their minds, on the mind that can bring blessings or disasters. With the power of love, parents teach children to be better and to avoid doing the wrong things. If they do not do the wrong things, they will not go astray. This is why parents continue to teach them and continue to help them stay on the right course. So, parents do all they can to help their children be happy, and with compassion, they relieve their suffering.

The Buddha also hopes that sentient beings can eliminate their ignorance and afflictions, stop creating karma, benefit everyone and walk the Bodhisattva-path. This is the Buddha’s mindset.

All living beings are sentient beings. “Sentient” refers to all animals that have both feelings and consciousness.

Sentient beings: This refers to all animals with feelings and consciousness. They are born with myriad conditions, so they are the myriad sentient beings. They also go through myriad births and deaths, so they are the myriad sentient beings. Among the Ten Dharma-realms, all beings in the nine other realms outside of the Buddha-realm are considered sentient beings.

Sentient beings include ants and insects. When they have stopped somewhere, even if we poke them very lightly, they will immediately run away. They are afraid of being hurt because they have feelings and consciousness. Sentient beings have different forms and different names. Monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs are all “born with myriad conditions,” so “they are the myriad sentient beings.” Pigs have the karmic conditions to be pigs. Cows have the karmic conditions to be cows. Chickens, dogs, cats and so on, all kinds of life forms, have been born with that name and in that shape because of the karma they have created. Depending on what they have done, they have created different causes and conditions, thus they are born as that form. This makes them sentient beings.

“They also go through myriad births and deaths.” These life forms, these living things, constantly experience the cycle of birth and death. A dog was born in the shape of a dog. After that dog dies, he may not be reborn as a dog in his next life. Maybe when the dog dies, he has exhausted his karma for being an animal, so he will be reborn as a human. Perhaps after his karma to be a dog has ended, he will be reborn a cow or a horse. He might still need to toil to repay his debts. That is also a possibility.

This is why we go through countless births and deaths, continuing to transmigrate in the Six Realms. The amount of karma we have created determines the number of lives we live. The kind of debt we owe determines the form and way of life we take on to repay our debt. The more we think about this, the scarier it is. These life forms we see in this world include all beings with feelings and consciousness.

Sentient beings are part of the Ten Dharma-realms. In the Ten Dharma-realms, other than Buddhas, the rest are considered “sentient beings.” The Ten Dharma-realms includes the Four Noble and the Six Unenlightened Realms. The Four Noble Realms are the Buddha, Bodhisattva, Hearer and Solitary Realizer Realms. They are all spiritual practitioners with the goal of transcending the Three Realms. The Six Unenlightened Destinies are all within the Three Realms. The Six Unenlightened Destinies are the heaven, asura, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. These are the Six Unenlightened Destinies.

As I have said here, all beings other than Buddhas are still considered sentient beings. This is because a Buddha has awakened to all principles of the universe. Bodhisattvas are still “seeking the path to Buddhahood and transforming sentient beings.” They are still in the state of sentient beings, still seeking and still saving others. This is what Bodhisattvas do. As for Solitary Realizers and Hearers, they are still seeking the Dharma. Then there are the beings in the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Those beings are even more unenlightened and are still continuing to transmigrate. So, “Outside the Buddha-realm, all beings in the nine other realms, are considered sentient beings.”

To relieve these sentient beings’ sufferings,

The Buddha uses the power of great loving-kindness and compassion. “Bringing joy” is the power of great loving-kindness. “Relieving suffering” is the power of great compassion.

The Buddha has only one goal, to “give them the infinite and boundless joy of the Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.” The Buddha wants one thing for sentient beings; He hopes they can be like Him and have the same joy of wisdom. If they can eliminate all their afflictions, they can feel peaceful and at ease. This is the state of the Buddha’s joy of wisdom.

The Buddha did not have any afflictions. Since He has already attained enlightenment, He only has worries but no afflictions. Since sentient beings are still sinking, the Buddha will not let them go; He is still concerned and worried for their sake. So, He repeatedly comes to this world for the sole purpose of giving them the lineage of the Dharma-essence and wisdom-life. The awakened sentient beings, the Bodhisattvas, play effortlessly in this world. The Buddha teaches sentient beings with the same state of mind.

As a previous sutra passage stated, “The elder was shocked and afraid.” Seeing this fire burning on all four sides, the elder was scared. What was he scared of? He was scared that the children would continue to linger in the burning house. So, “The elder was shocked and afraid.” Similarly, the Buddha could not bear for sentient beings to face the various kinds of suffering in the Three Realms. So, He came up with many methods to help relieve their suffering. This is how He “gives them the infinite and boundless joy of the. Buddha’s wisdom for them to play with.”

The elder was shocked and afraid: He was shocked that the children felt no joy and was afraid they would suffer. Thus, he relieves suffering and brings joy. The fears of the kind father are that his children would dally in the burning house, without being aware or afraid.

“Shocked” refers to his shock that they felt no joy. He was shocked sentient beings were not happy. He was “scared” that they would suffer; this also caused worry and fear. Lack of joy is suffering. Sentient beings have few joys and much suffering, that was what the Buddha was most afraid of and what made the elder most shocked and afraid. This was why he wanted to relieve suffering and bring joy. To relieve suffering, he exercised the love of his loving-kindness and compassion. This was where the kind father’s shock and fear led him.

He also feared that “His children would dally.” We sentient beings linger in the burning house and seem to find the fire very entertaining. In this burning house, we are not aware, not understanding, not shocked and not afraid. This is what worries the Buddha the most about sentient beings.

So, “The Buddha kindly responds to the world and comes for one great cause, He has compassion for the four kinds of beings as if they were all His only son. With the power of great loving-kindness, He bestows peace and joy upon them.” With various methods, the Buddha helps bring us peace of mind. Thus we can accept the Buddha’s teachings and freely travel in the ocean of Dharma. This is how the power of the Buddha’s great compassionate vows can relieve the suffering of sentient beings. We must further strengthen our resolve to learn the Dharma. Life is filled with unbearable suffering. Therefore, everyone must be self-disciplined, reverent and always mindful.

Episode 590 – Avoid the Evil and Head Towards the Good

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>> “Carefully contemplate the suffering of the Five Destinies and the Three Evil Realms. With learning, give rise to wisdom and cautiously guard against wrongs. Diligently practice and create good and blessed affinities. Avoid the evil and head towards the good; transform others with pure Dharma and affinities.”

>> “Amidst all these various sufferings, sentient beings are immersed completely, playing happily, not aware, not understanding, not alert, not afraid.”

>> “[We] do not think to renounce them.”

>> This is why we “do not seek liberation. We head east and west in the burning house of the Three Realms. Though we meet with great suffering, we do not see it as a concern.

>> So, they “simply dally in the Three Realms”

>> A brief thought of goodness sprouts, and we are aware we must do good. Thus, we are born in the human realm, which is still within the burning house of the Three Realms. A single thought gives rise to good and evil.

>> One analogy is “going to work at sunrise.”

>> “Following good karma, we head east.”

>> “The sun sets in the west.”

>> “Following evil karma, we head west.

>> Though they face billions of kalpas of great suffering, they do not see it as a concern. This is an analogy for how the children, “when the flames are pressing close to them, do not renounce this or feel concern, nor do they seek to escape.

>> The Three Sufferings in life: The suffering of suffering. The suffering of decay. The suffering of action.

>> This is like a leaky boat adrift on the ocean, being blown about by the wind. We let it take its own course as it sinks. This suffering of action is pervasive in the Three Realms.

>> If we suddenly create evil again, we return to the evil realms. We come and go through life and death and do not seek liberation. Thus it says that they head east and west and do not see it as a concern.

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“Carefully contemplate the suffering of the Five Destinies and the Three Evil Realms. With learning, give rise to wisdom and cautiously guard against wrongs. Diligently practice and create good and blessed affinities. Avoid the evil and head towards the good; transform others with pure Dharma and affinities.”

All of us, in our daily living, must be cautious and earnestly contemplate. If we are not careful, the slightest deviation in thought will lead us to suffer in the Three Evil Realms and the Five Destinies. Everyone should know the Three Evil Realms, the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. The Five Destinies are the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. These are all places of suffering,

so we must earnestly listen to the teachings. Only by listening will we understand. If we do not listen, we will not understand. If we do not understand, we will not comprehend. If we do not comprehend, we will be confused, and our minds will fluctuate with our external conditions. Therefore, we must listen. Only by listening to teachings will our wisdom-life grow. We call this “wisdom from listening.”

I constantly speak of listening, contemplation and practice, which is how we achieve precepts, Samdahi and wisdom. If we do not listen to teachings, we cannot meticulously contemplate them. Therefore, we must first listen so that we can contemplate. After we contemplate, we will be able to apply this careful contemplation in order to make discernments. Wisdom is this discernment. We can earnestly discern whether or not we should do something and come to a judgment. So, we must listen to the teachings in order to unlock our potential for engaging in contemplation. “With listening, we give rise to wisdom.”

If we gain wisdom from listening, once we have listened, we form our perspective toward matters and things. Only with wisdom will we have compassion. This is because wisdom unlocks our compassion to see people, matters, objects and principles from an impartial perspective. Once we comprehend this, we will know how to change or eliminate our habitual tendencies such as our greed, anger and ignorance. In terms of the way we see things in this world, how do we cultivate our minds so as to refine our character and correct our behavior? This is spiritual cultivation and practice. “Cultivation” is about cultivating our minds and “practice” is about correcting our behavior. Our spiritual practice and cultivation comes from “listening”; we listen, contemplate, then practice.

So, we said, we must “listen and give rise to wisdom.” Only by listening, contemplating and practicing can we uphold precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. By following the precepts, we will be careful with our behavior every day. With every word we say, every thought that stirs and every action we take, we must be cautious. We must guard against doing wrong so that we will not commit evils. Thus, what helps us guard against wrongs and stop evils are the precepts. In our daily living, we must be cautious to prevent thoughts from arising in our minds. When these thoughts begin to stir, we must stop them right away so that we do not act on them. For example, we must not allow anger to arise and then automatically react physically, or we may blurt out our feelings and start yelling at people. Or we may raise our hand and physically hit someone. This can happen if we do not “cautiously guard against wrongs.”

Spiritual practitioners need to “cautiously guard against wrongs.” When we listen to the Dharma, we must take it in so that we can give rise to wisdom. Only with wisdom can our minds always remain peaceful, happy and at ease. Then, no matter what we see, we will remain happy, at ease and naturally be free of greed, anger and ignorance. This is the mark of a true spiritual practitioner.

Next, we must also “diligently practice.” We still must engage in spiritual practice. Through our spiritual practice, we “create good and blessed affinities.” We must think carefully when we make choices. Should we do something that benefits everyone or something that benefits us but hurts other people? We must carefully contemplate this. We must earnestly choose to do the right thing. We need to continually bring about good things, such as good deeds, beneficial teachings and encouragement for others to do good deeds.

We must never stop doing good things. The most important thing is to “avoid the evil and head towards the good.” Evil is something we must avoid. We must not deviate, even if only in the space of a thought. We must earnestly walk toward goodness and cultivate virtuous deeds. This is how we “transform others with pure Dharma and affinities.” If we can go among people and not be influenced, we have a pure state of mind. If we can avoid being influenced by living beings and be inclined toward goodness and listen to the teachings, we can serve as a model for others. This creates affinities [for teaching] pure Dharma. When people see us, they will believe and be willing to accept the teachings we have learned. Then in turn, they will guide and transform others so they will definitely be able to accept them. This is what we mean by “transform others with pure Dharma and affinities.”

Everyone, as Buddhist practitioners, we must carefully contemplate everything in our daily living so that we will not end up suffering in the Three Evil Realms and the Five Destinies.

Recently we have discussed how,

“Amidst all these various sufferings, sentient beings are immersed completely, playing happily, not aware, not understanding, not alert, not afraid.”

This is the way sentient beings live.

Clearly we can improve ourselves; clearly we can transcend this state of suffering, and clearly we can develop clear understanding, yet we are unable to transform ourselves. That is why we continue to float and sink in the sea of suffering.

So, not only are we “not aware, not understanding, not alert, not afraid,”

“[We] do not think to renounce them.”

As it states in the following sutra passage,

This is why we “do not seek liberation. We head east and west in the burning house of the Three Realms. Though we meet with great suffering, we do not see it as a concern.”

We sentient beings are truly deluded. We are not aware, and because we are not aware and not knowing, we are willing to remain in the burning house of the Three Realms; we do not realize the fire is pressing us. We are still unaware of this. This is how sentient beings are. Because they are unaware, they do not fear or renounce [this place]. They are not afraid of it, nor will they renounce and leave it. So, they “simply dally in the Three Realms.” We have stopped here in the Three Realms.

Sometimes, “A brief thought of goodness sprouts. Brief” means it is temporary. For a short amount of time, we think we want to do good deeds and understand we need to find a way to turn our thoughts of goodness into action. Because of this, we are born either in the human or heaven realm.

If we do not understand the Buddha-Dharma, if we do good deeds without taking the Dharma to heart, even if we practice the Ten Good Deeds for our entire lifetime, the best we can do is end up in heaven and enjoy a long life and many pleasures. But no matter how long [our lifespan] may be in heaven, our time there will still come to an end.

So, while doing good deeds and benefiting others are of course very important, we must resolve to transcend this world. Having a world-transcending resolve means we must act with a pure mind and without any expectation of repayment. Only with a very pure mind can our thoughts of goodness be long-lasting and can we truly behave in an awakened manner. Otherwise, it is just “a brief thought of goodness [that] sprouts.”

A brief thought of goodness sprouts, and we are aware we must do good. Thus, we are born in the human realm, which is still within the burning house of the Three Realms. A single thought gives rise to good and evil.

Humans are within the Three Realms. Heavenly beings are also within the Three Realms. So, not even heavenly beings have transcended the burning house of the Three Realms. Thus, they remain in this burning house.

“A single thought gives rise to good or evil.” In this world, we are truly unenlightened beings. In the space of a single thought, we can give rise to goodness or commit evil.

One analogy is “going to work at sunrise.”

When the sun comes out, we start “doing good deeds” and.

“Following good karma, we head east.”

Do you know from which direction the sun rises? It rises from the east. When the sun is out, it is daytime. With our goodness, our pure and virtuous Dharma, “Following good karma, we head east,” forever in the direction of daylight. Then our state will be clear, radiant and bright.

“The sun sets in the west.”

Sometimes our minds move quickly, and.

“Following evil karma, we head west.”

We move ever westward. Do you know what the west represents? It is the place where the sun sets. If we go to where the sun sets, it means that we are heading toward darkness.

When our hearts enter the darkness again, that is ignorance. Should our minds head in the direction of the light? A single awakening brings a thousand realizations. Once we have been awakened, we head down the path of goodness, straight down this path towards goodness. As we continue on the path towards the light, we must never turn back toward the dark night, back to the road that leads to the darkness.

So, when a single thought [of goodness] arises, we must not be content to have it last so briefly. When a brief thought of goodness arises, our minds simply change with our conditions. When the opportunity is there, we do good deeds. When it is not, we degenerate again. This is how we have lived for billions of kalpas. We have always been in this place where beings of the Five Destinies co-exist, within the Three Realms.

Though they face billions of kalpas of great suffering, they do not see it as a concern. This is an analogy for how the children, “when the flames are pressing close to them, do not renounce this or feel concern, nor do they seek to escape.”

Wasn’t this mentioned in the previous passage? Outside this burning house, the elder is extremely anxious. He constantly calls out, “Children, come out quickly!” Yet the children are foolish and think of the fire as entertaining. Immersed in confusion, they continue to linger in the burning house. This is the analogy.

This is similar to how the Buddha, having transcended the Three Realms and become the Great Enlightened One of the Universe, saw how deluded we sentient beings were and how we remained immersed in the five desires. This was lamentable, so He wondered how. He could help everyone awaken. This is the heart of the Buddha. He could not bear for sentient beings to remain immersed in confusion, so He wanted to transform them. Because they were deluded, He had to devise [skillful means], which are the Three Vehicles. This is analogous to how the elder set up three kinds of carts outside, a sheep-cart, a deer-cart and an ox-cart, in response to what everyone wanted. These suited everyone’s capacities so they could be drawn out of the house. This is the Buddha’s wisdom.

It is also like the virtue of the elder. With His virtue, He came to the Three Realms, yet the children do not cherish this place; they did not appreciate their blessings. Thus, they let the Three Realms fall into disrepair. This became a place that has been deteriorating. This is due to our collective karma. Out of our delusion and ignorance, we have created various kinds of karma, turning the Three Realms into a place of suffering like a burning house. When we are born into the Three Realms, or into the human or heaven realm, we cannot escape the Three Sufferings.

The Three Sufferings in life: The suffering of suffering. The suffering of decay. The suffering of action.

First is “the suffering of suffering.” Life is already suffering, and on top of this, we add the suffering of disease and our mental hindrances about this. This is truly “the suffering of suffering.” Then, there is also “the suffering of decay,” of formation, existence, decay and disappearance. See, even in these past few years we have seen how the four elements are already out of balance and our planet is constantly being harmed. So, aren’t we in a period of decay? Furthermore, in our minds, our thoughts arise, abide, change and cease. This is also true of good thoughts. Once we begin to do good deeds, a condition may arise that ruins our wholesome intentions. This is something that often happens.

Therefore, the Three Principles and the Four States of Phenomena are tied to the suffering of suffering and the suffering of decay, not to mention the suffering of action.

This is like a leaky boat adrift on the ocean, being blown about by the wind. We let it take its own course as it sinks. This suffering of action is pervasive in the Three Realms.

It is said that the life of ordinary people “is like a leaky boat in the ocean.” It is like a boat that is old and full of holes and no longer knows where it is going. It drifts on the ocean, blown about by the wind. Isn’t this how our life is? Not aware, not understanding, “We let it take its own course as it sinks.” How long will it continue to remain floating? When will the boat sink? We have no idea, since when it comes to the Three Sufferings, particularly “the suffering of action,” the aggregate of action, we are not aware and do not understand. [These kinds of suffering are] “pervasive in the Three Realms” and in the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, which are the Five Destinies. So, we must always carefully contemplate the suffering in the Three Evil Realms and the Five Destinies. We must be cautious and carefully contemplate how the Three Evil Realms and the Five Destinies are truly filled with unbearable suffering.

So, the children “head east and west,” not aware, not understanding, not alert and not afraid so they still go to and fro. They run east one moment, and west the next. As I just said, running eastward symbolizes the arising of thoughts of goodness and running westward symbolizes the arising of evil thoughts. In the Three Realms, they play by running east and west “and do not see it as a concern.” This is how unenlightened beings create karma.

If we suddenly create evil again, we return to the evil realms. We come and go through life and death and do not seek liberation. Thus it says that they head east and west and do not see it as a concern.

“We suddenly create evil again.” One moment we create goodness, then suddenly we turn around and commit an evil. This affects our transmigration. We may have been born in the human realm, which is a good path, but even on this good path, we can still give rise to evil thoughts and commit evil actions. When a thought of goodness arises, we do good deeds. By accumulating goodness, we create blessings. When we accumulate evil, we will fall [into an evil realm]. This is how we transmigrate to an evil path.

“We come and go through life and death.” We are born one moment, die in another. We live in the human realm for a few decades, which is not even one day in the heaven realm. In this short lifetime, we cycle between goodness and evil without seeking to become liberated. So, it is said, “They head east and west and do not see it as a concern.”

Everyone, as Buddhist practitioners, we must be mindful. Otherwise, why would we be willing to remain in this kind of state? As long as we are in this state, we suddenly do good or suddenly commit evil. One instant we are on a good path and the next on an evil path. Like a leaky boat drifting on the boundless sea, we are drifting aimlessly; we just keep floating and sinking. Therefore we must, “with learning, give rise to wisdom and cautiously guard against wrongs.” To do this, we must practice the Buddha-Dharma.

It is rare to be born human and rare to hear the Buddha-Dharma. How can we not listen to the teachings? Once we have listened to them, we must “diligently practice and create good and blessed affinities.” We must earnestly practice to “avoid the evil and head towards the good” and “transform others with pure Dharma and affinities.” We must practice the pure Dharma and give to others without expectations. Then we can become role models in the world. Hearing the teachings, we can transform ourselves. We can also transform others with virtuous Dharma. If we can do this, we are true spiritual practitioners. Dear Bodhisattvas, we must always be mindful.

Episode 589 – We Foolishly Dally, Believing This is Joyful

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>> “In the realm of myriad sentient beings, the suffering is as vast as a sea. Due to greed and confusion, we become deluded, create karma and suffer consequences. In a condition of ignorance, we are unaware and do not recognize this as suffering. We foolishly dally, believing this is joyful.”

>> We suffer from what we have created ourselves. [We] then face the suffering of the hell, animal and hungry ghost realms. If we ascend to the heaven realm or remain in the human realm, we face the suffering of poverty and hardship, the suffering of parting with those we love, and the suffering of meeting those we hate.

>> “Amidst all these various sufferings, sentient beings are immersed completely, playing happily, not aware, not understanding not alert, not afraid.”

>> Amidst all these various sufferings: Hell and the rest of the Three Evil Realms are basically retributions of extreme suffering. We should be afraid of them, but because we do not believe in the law of karma, we are not alert or afraid.

>> Even with the blessings to be born in heaven, when that joy and lifespan are depleted, we still fall. In the human realm, when our blessings run out, we face retributions of poverty, hardship and other sufferings. This is the accumulation of much suffering. We should reflect on and repent this accumulated karma and give rise to a sense of renunciation. But due to confusion, we remain attached.

>> “Sentient beings are immersed completely,” because they are “playing happily.” This is their greed and delusion.

>> Because of our ignorance, we are unaware. This leads to deviant conduct. These Three [Evil Realms] exist amidst the true principles. Foolishness, delusion, ignorance, confusion are also called poisons.

>> We harm our world-transcending benevolence. Because we are not aware, we do not understand and are not alert or afraid.

>> “The suffering of suffering, decay and action.” The first is “the suffering of suffering.” This is all the obvious suffering we face as humans or in the Three Evil Realms.

>> The suffering of decay: It is also called the suffering of joy. For example, the heavenly blessings and joy that are experienced by heavenly beings will decay once that karma is depleted, and ultimately they return to suffering.

>> The third is “the suffering of action.” The suffering of action refers to the way that all flawed phenomena “flow through the four states of existence and are never safe or stable.”

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“In the realm of myriad sentient beings,
the suffering is as vast as a sea.
Due to greed and confusion, we become deluded,
create karma and suffer consequences.
In a condition of ignorance, we are unaware
and do not recognize this as suffering.
We foolishly dally, believing this is joyful.”

Life! For the myriad of sentient beings, the sea of their suffering is boundless. Everyone intrinsically has a pure nature, which is Buddha-nature. But sentient beings have covered it with ignorance. Ignorance is like a sea of suffering. If we are immersed in it, we will never reach the opposite shore and never be able to find the ship of compassion. Thus, we will forever drift about in the sea of ignorance.

Indeed, this excessive foolishness of our lives is truly lamentable. Because of our greed and confusion, we give rise to delusions. When we become deluded, we create karma. These are karmic conditions. Under the conditions of ignorance, we are unaware and are unknowing. Since we are unaware and unknowing, we create much suffering. Our interactions with each other are shaped by the greed in us. Thus, when we connect with external conditions, we endlessly give rise to delusions. With delusions in our minds, we are in a state of darkness. In our minds, we constantly and easily give rise to ignorance.

So, we are unaware. Being unaware means we are unknowing; we do not know that external conditions are enticing us. We are constantly influenced by them, so we continuously reproduce the causes of suffering. Then of course we face negative consequences. But, do we understand this or not? We do not yet understand. So, we are completely unknowing.

This lack of knowledge leads to foolishness. Because our minds are foolish, we linger on and cling to attachments. With attachments, we mistakenly believe all causes and conditions to be joyful. In this world, starting from examining ourselves, then expanding to the family, then the society, eventually looking at all humans in the world, we can see this greed, ignorance and foolishness; they are everywhere. This is why there is no peace in the Three Realms, like a burning house with fire on all sides.

In this world, sentient beings create karma collectively. This is how things work. It starts with each of us, with the spiritual home in our minds. When desire arises in the mind, that is ignorance. As external conditions continue to entice us, we are unable to stop giving rise to desires, thus we endlessly produce afflictions. This ignorance in our minds prevents us from being at peace, so naturally we create karma with our actions. You are creating karma, he is creating karma and. I am also creating karma. When all of us together create karma, think about it, doesn’t this cause a lack of peace in the world? We have been creating collective karma, which has been accumulating for a long time, from countless eons in the past up to the present. So, with floods, earthquakes, fires, storms, with every major disaster that strikes the planet, the ripples affect people, not a small number of the people, but most of them. This is the collective karma of sentient beings.

Sentient beings share this collective karma because everyone has a burning house in their minds, and this house keeps burning without end. Yesterday, we mentioned how the house keeps burning and keeps roasting us. This is how the state of our minds affects the world around us. The imbalance of the four elements first manifests in the microcosm of our minds. With this [imbalance], this burning house in our minds, we entangle and bind each other; this impacts the macrocosm of the world.

So, the sutra text from yesterday talked about the sufferings of beings in hell, of animals and hungry ghosts. These beings have constantly created karma in the macrocosm of the world. So, living in this world, they suffer as if they are in hell.

In particular, as humans, we have insatiable greed. Our greed is boundless. Because of this, we are like hungry ghosts and can never be satisfied. [Having one,] we always want nine more. After acquiring so much, in the end, we must flee our debts. Life is impermanent. On our last day, when we leave this life, we may have built up a big enterprise, but we will have to repay our debts in a subsequent lifetime, because we have harmed the macrocosm and damaged microcosms as well. Think about it; with this insatiable greed, we will always suffer from poverty and hardship. In the future, as we interact with other people, we will suffer from parting with those we love and meeting those we hate, etc. This truly leads to unbearable suffering.

We suffer from what we have created ourselves. [We] then face the suffering of the hell, animal and hungry ghost realms. If we ascend to the heaven realm or remain in the human realm, we face the suffering of poverty and hardship, the suffering of parting with those we love, and the suffering of meeting those we hate.

The following sutra passage states,

“Amidst all these various sufferings, sentient beings are immersed completely, playing happily, not aware, not understanding not alert, not afraid.”

Indeed, this is how we live our lives. We are so foolish and deluded. If all we do is listen to the teachings, they seem to have nothing to do with us. Everyone, we must be mindful! Every single word and sentence has everything to do with us. If we are not vigilant, nothing seems to have anything to do with us. If we are alert and aware, we will contemplate everything meticulously. Then how could we say that the suffering in the world has nothing to do with us?

Hell and the Three Evil Realms are different from heaven, but once we deplete our heavenly blessings, we will fall back to the human realm. In the human realm, if we create much karma, we will continue to degenerate. That means we end up in hell. The Three Evil Realms are the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. There is great suffering in these realms. This kind of painful retribution is unbearable suffering. If we want to be vigilant, we should have a sense of fear. We need to be fearful; we need to be afraid of [ending up in that state].

Amidst all these various sufferings: Hell and the rest of the Three Evil Realms are basically retributions of extreme suffering. We should be afraid of them, but because we do not believe in the law of karma, we are not alert or afraid.

The Buddha-Dharma is in the human realm. The principles explained by the Buddha-Dharma are the law of karma. Why don’t we believe this? If we believe in the law of karma, naturally we know we may end up as a being in one of the Five Destinies. So, we must constantly be vigilant as we engage in spiritual practice and must heighten our vigilance. We must not be enticed by all kinds of temptations as we interact with others or allow ourselves to create these karmic consequences. This is what we should be vigilant of.

However, we may not have a deep root of faith so we do not believe in the profound karmic law of cause and effect. This is why we are neither alert nor afraid. People think that they are now enjoying a pretty good life, so why would they need to believe in the Buddha’s teachings? Why should they listen to the teachings? Why should they give up their comforts? “If I have liquor today, I will get drunk today.” Since they are happy and content right now, isn’t that good enough? Even though they have the blessing to be born in heaven, once that lifetime of pleasure ends, they will fall [into a lower realm]. If they are born in the human realm, they may continue to create karma out of delusion.

Even with the blessings to be born in heaven, when that joy and lifespan are depleted, we still fall. In the human realm, when our blessings run out, we face retributions of poverty, hardship and other sufferings. This is the accumulation of much suffering. We should reflect on and repent this accumulated karma and give rise to a sense of renunciation. But due to confusion, we remain attached.

In the human realm, we face many retributions. Some face the retribution of poverty and hardship. Many end up in families that do not get along. They often part from those they love, meet those they hate, etc. There are many various kinds of suffering. We must reflect on ourselves right away; how did our life end up this way? If we understand, we should then repent the karma we have created. In our daily living, we are constantly becoming deluded and creating karma. Whether on the afflictions that arise in our minds or on our actions and so on, we must earnestly reflect on ourselves.

We should reflect on why we are engaging in spiritual practice. To engage in spiritual practice, we must be following a path. Are we walking on that path properly? Are we doing a good job of cultivating our body and mind? If our mind gives rise to improper thoughts, we must repent. If our body does improper things, we must also repent. With every action we take, every word we speak, every thought and so on, we are endlessly accumulating karma. We have amassed so much karma.

If we repent, we easily give rise to a sense of renunciation. We naturally will not create more karma and will stop accumulating it. If we avoid accumulating karma, our minds will become more clear and our ignorance will gradually dissolve. Then naturally, we will understand. We must give rise to a sense of renunciation and renounce our ignorance and afflictions, renounce becoming deluded and creating karma. This is the only way to stop being confused.

But, not only are we not vigilant or repentant, not only do we not renounce [our delusions], we instead remain deluded and linger here. Myriads of sentient beings are likewise immersed in the sea of suffering. Though they listen to the teachings, they cannot faithfully accept them and put them into practice.

“Sentient beings are immersed completely,” because they are “playing happily.” This is their greed and delusion.

With greed comes delusion and confusion, so they treat suffering as joy and remain immersed in it; although they are actually suffering, they treat it as joy. The human realm is filled with conflicts. So, they are “unaware, unknowing, not alert, not afraid.” This is ignorance.

Because of our ignorance, we are unaware. This leads to deviant conduct.

Because of our ignorance, we are unaware. This leads to deviant conduct. These Three [Evil Realms] exist amidst the true principles. Foolishness, delusion, ignorance, confusion are also called poisons.

People do what they are not supposed to do. There is a safe and stable path, but they deliberately do not follow it. This is how a slight deviation leads us very far off course. With deviated understanding, views and conduct, just the slightest difference has already taken us far astray. This is how we live our lives.

The Three Evil Realms exist amidst true principles. Because we are unaware of these truths, we engage in deviant conduct and end up in the Three Evil Realms. Though we are surrounded by many principles, we still remain foolish and deluded. This is called poison.

Greed, anger and ignorance are indeed poisons. We may understand the principles, but refuse to apply them. After a single thought deviates, it can cause our entire mind to deviate. We clearly understood the principles, but once our mind deviates, we become foolish, deluded, ignorant, confused. When we deliberately commit a violation, that is a truly poisonous act. This does great harm to other people and to our world-transcending benevolence. These three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance can obstruct us and prevent us from walking the path to goodness.

Take the Philippines [in 2013] as an example. They were facing a major disaster, so we encouraged everyone to contribute to helping them. Many people were able to help or were wealthy, but they were not willing to give. In contrast, consider that in Africa, many people in the countries of South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, etc., in order to help the people in the Philippines, were willing to donate the few coins that they have. They also went on the streets to collect donations.

Even though they themselves were poor, they did everything they could. Every single drop of water flowed together, creating an ocean of merits and virtues. Often people without money are willing to give while people who are rich are reluctant to do so. This insatiable greed is delusion. This harms our world-transcending benevolence. Clearly, we can do [good deeds]. But because we cannot dissolve the. Three Poisons in our heart, we cannot free ourselves of them, and thus we lose our resolve to do good. Once we lose this wholesome resolve, we will be unable to give to others.

If we cannot do good deeds in this world, how can we possibly transcend the world? [To leave] the burning house of the Three Realms, our body and mind must be pure. To avoid creating bad karma with our body, our minds must be free of discursive thoughts. By giving rise to compassion, we will constantly give to others without any expectations. Then we will have a pure mind. This is the only way to transcend the world. Giving to others without expectations is something we must practice. We must constantly train ourselves to develop this mindset. When sentient beings are deluded and go astray,

We harm our world-transcending benevolence. Because we are not aware, we do not understand and are not alert or afraid.

There are many kinds of suffering in life, like.

“The suffering of suffering, decay and action.” The first is “the suffering of suffering.” This is all the obvious suffering we face as humans or in the Three Evil Realms.

We may see a lot of suffering in life. We cannot see hell, but we see people who seem to be living in hell. The suffering in hell is even worse.

Next is “the suffering of decay.” We may be very happy, but we know that from extreme pleasure comes sorrow. Most of the time, we create karma while we are happy.

The suffering of decay: It is also called the suffering of joy. For example, the heavenly blessings and joy that are experienced by heavenly beings will decay once that karma is depleted, and ultimately they return to suffering.

As heavenly beings experience the joy of heavenly blessings, they are depleting their blessings. Although they have created the blessings to be born in the heaven realm, they cannot cultivate virtuous deeds in heaven. So, while there, they are enjoying themselves, but when their heavenly blessings are depleted and that life ends, they will fall into a lower realm again. This is “the suffering of decay.” After positive retributions come to an end, naturally there will be decay which brings us to the human or the Three Evil Realms. We keep degenerating, level by level.

The third is “the suffering of action.” The suffering of action refers to the way that all flawed phenomena “flow through the four states of existence and are never safe or stable.”

This is called “the suffering of action.” I constantly talk about how we are not aware of the aggregate of action. These infinitesimal changes are very subtle so we are not aware of them. The four seasons are cycling;

we humans go through birth, aging, illness and death. From childhood to adulthood, our body constantly changes and deteriorates, though this happens without our awareness. As we engage in spiritual practice amidst flawed phenomena, without realizing it we let the Dharma leak away.

As we create karma, thoughts arise and stir unnoticed. As these thoughts arise, karma continues to accumulate. This is because when we cultivate precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, we do not earnestly maintain them. Day and night, our precious human form continues to go through the four states of existence. We constantly experience loss. Second after second flies by, so things are “never safe or stable.” This is “the suffering of action.”

Because of this, we know there are many hardships and much suffering in this world. In the middle of this, sentient beings treat their lives as pleasurable and happy. So, they are unafraid, unknowing and are not alert or afraid. Are we ourselves being vigilant of this? This is why we must always be mindful.

Episode 588 – Replacing Suffering with More Suffering

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>> “The five desires, wealth and advantage are in essence suffering, but we do not know this. Sentient beings believe these bring pleasure, so they happily play. Greed, attachment and pursuit are fundamentally futile and taxing. Sentient beings have insatiable greed, so they do not fear the accumulation of karma.”

>> “They then face the suffering of the hell, animal and hungry ghost realms. If they ascend to the heaven realm or remain in the human realm, they face the suffering of poverty and hardship, the suffering of parting with those they love and the suffering of meeting with those they hate.”

>> The bodies and minds of sentient beings are immersed in the sea of suffering, but instead of seeing it as suffering they think it is joyful. By not contemplating suffering and causation, they have no desire to be rid of them. By not contemplating the Four Noble Truths, they do not seek liberation.

>> As for extreme suffering in the Three Evil Realms, no one can take on another’s suffering. Even if born in heaven, one’s longevity and blessings are still limited. One will still fall back to the human realm or the Three Evil Realms. In the human realm, one faces the suffering of poverty and hardship. The human realm is a mix of good and evil, but there is more suffering than joy, more afflictions being reproduced and more karma being created.

>> In our lives, clothing, food and housing are the three things we depend on. Thus we must seek clothing, food and housing, but endless pursuit brings suffering, and the suffering in people’s minds arises from this. From this we replace suffering with suffering. The foolishness of people in the world is that is that they are greedily attached to the five desires and do not let go until death, thus in their next life, they face boundless suffering.

>> “The suffering of not getting what we want comes from pursuing things that are not ours. This gives rise to the afflictions of greed, anger and ignorance.” So, we “commit all kinds of transgressions like killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying.”

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“The five desires, wealth and advantage are in essence suffering, but we do not know this. Sentient beings believe these bring pleasure, so they happily play. Greed, attachment and pursuit are fundamentally futile and taxing. Sentient beings have insatiable greed, so they do not fear the accumulation of karma.”

I have been talking about how the five desires really are unbearable suffering. In particular, I have previously brought up how the Three Realms are like a great burning house. The fire arose from all four sides. The five desires are like honey on a knife blade. Wealth and advantage are like floating clouds. This is what I told everyone before.

In this world, the Three Realms, especially the Three Realms of our minds, desires, forms and formless [thoughts] are all constantly creating karma in our minds. When a thought of desire arises, our greed for wealth and advantage is insatiable. There is no end to our greed. When a greedy thought arises, think about how much karma it leads us to create! The Three Realms, this entire world, is like a burning house. All kinds of disasters are concentrated here, like fire arising from all sides. This is due to our desire.

Desire is like honey on a knife blade. An innocent child sees the honey and, thinking it must be sweet and and not knowing how sharp the knife is, tries to lick it off with his tongue. This is really dangerous. This is what our desirous thoughts are like. Contained in our greed is [something dangerous], like a knife covered in honey.

We also say that wealth and profit are like floating clouds. Awakened people can understand this; deluded people are not able to understand. These are like clouds floating in the blue sky. We see the clouds as they slowly pass by. If we reach out to touch them, they are fundamentally empty. When we live in a deluded state, we treat empty things as real, solid things and enjoy playing with them. Sentient beings, in the darkness of ignorance, pursue them endlessly. Out of ignorance and delusion, we never stop pursuing them. This causes the world to burn with the fire of the Five Turbidities and the Eight Sufferings. This is a disaster; many disasters are arising on all sides.

We also say that wealth and profit are, in essence, suffering. But sentient beings are unaware of this. We are unaware because of the darkness of ignorance. When we are foolish and deluded, we are in a state of darkness, unaware that on the path ahead of us there are traps beneath every step we take. We are completely unaware. Sentient beings think satisfying their desires will bring them the greatest happiness, so for the sake of enjoying temporary pleasure, they indulge in a life of extravagance. In this world, they do whatever they want. They say this brings them pleasure so they can be happy and continue to play. This kind of pursuit, honestly, is completely futile and taxing. Sentient beings have insatiable greed and are unafraid of the burden this karma brings.

I often say, “Having one, people lack nine.” Is that enough? No. If they keep adding nine’s to get more zeros, would that be enough? It is still not enough. They keep adding zeros until they reach a “trillion.” When the Chinese character for “trillion” has the radical for “go” added to it, we get the character for “flee.” We are waiting until we have enough, but actually, even up to the moment we die, we will still say this is not enough. In the end, things are beyond our control, so we must flee.

What are we fleeing from? From a debt. From what debt? We have already amassed so many material assets in this world, how could there be any debts? There are! In this world, we can build up our family enterprise, a large business, recognition and profit to a great extent only by putting our hearts into fighting over everything and exploiting many natural resources. We constantly expand our development and production. In order to manufacture all those things, won’t we have to exploit natural resources?

Natural resources include everything in the earth and on top of the land. We constantly cut down forests in the mountains, excavate and mine for ores and extract oil from the ground. All things in the world, all tangible things, are [exploited] for the sake of development. If we constantly consume these resources, aren’t we harming the earth and polluting the air? The mountains, rivers and land we harm are part of the macrocosm of the world. The karma of harming the macrocosm of the world is more severe than that of harming the microcosm. In this way we are amassing much karma.

But we sentient beings have insatiable greed, so “We do not fear the accumulation of karma.” With karma, when our current life is at an end, we cannot take anything from this world with us, but our “karma will follow us.” We cannot fully pay off this debt in our next life. We harmed the mountains, rivers and land, everything in this macrocosm of the world. Think of how many disasters we have caused. Doesn’t this create severe karma? “Sentient beings have insatiable greed, so we do not fear the accumulation of karma.” This suffering is truly unbearable.

The previous sutra passage stated that, inside the burning house, the minds of sentient beings are truly foolish and in the darkness of ignorance, so they are in a state of endless pursuit. Sentient beings in the. Three Realms do not understand the principles. In addition to endlessly creating karma, they have not awakened to birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction, etc. They do not recognize them. For this reason, sentient beings are forever [trapped] in this suffering.

Next, we read,

“They then face the suffering of the hell, animal and hungry ghost realms. If they ascend to the heaven realm or remain in the human realm, they face the suffering of poverty and hardship, the suffering of parting with those they love and the suffering of meeting with those they hate.”

Everyone, aren’t these sufferings what we constantly discuss? Even if we are born in the heaven realm, when that life ends and we deplete our blessings, we will fall into the human realm again. Once in the human realm, poverty and hardship are unavoidable. After we deplete heavenly blessings and come to this world, will we enjoy blessings here? After heavenly beings deplete their blessings, they will of course experience karmic retribution. When blessings have been depleted, what comes next is poverty and hardship. Moreover, in our interpersonal relationships, we suffer from parting with those we love and meeting those we hate. All these many kinds of suffering

constantly appear in the sutra text. The minds and bodies of sentient beings are immersed in the sea of suffering.

The bodies and minds of sentient beings are immersed in the sea of suffering, but instead of seeing it as suffering they think it is joyful. By not contemplating suffering and causation, they have no desire to be rid of them. By not contemplating the Four Noble Truths, they do not seek liberation.

In fact, all sentient beings’ bodies and minds are constantly immersed in the sea of suffering. But they do not recognize it as suffering; they do not feel that this is suffering. As we just mentioned, “Sentient beings believe these bring pleasure, so they happily play.” This world is actually full of suffering, but we continue to believe that everything is happy and fun. “I possess all of this. Since I was born human in this lifetime, if I don’t have fun, won’t I have wasted this life?” Some people think this way, so they endlessly indulge themselves.

This is what sentient beings think and how they act; their thoughts and actions are in concert. They think in this way, so their bodies act in this way. Thus they become submerged in the sea of suffering and keep sinking. “Instead of seeing it as suffering, they think it is joyful.”

“By not contemplating suffering and causation,” we are not being mindful. The Buddha taught us the Four Noble Truths, suffering, causation, cessation and the Path. But in this way, we have not absorbed them at all. We have not taken the Buddha’s teachings into our hearts and have not transformed or awakened ourselves. If we do not transform or awaken ourselves, how can we use the Dharma to transform others? We do not contemplate the principles of the Four Noble Truths, so we “have no desire to be rid of [suffering].”

We ordinary people are like this; we do not earnestly engage in spiritual practice or value the principles and use them to enhance our spiritual refinement. When we “have no desire to be rid of [suffering],” we are willing to remain in the human realm and the Three Evil Realms, the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. We are willing to return to the Three Evil Realms or to the human realm to experience more suffering. This is the state of delusion we are in. So, we do not try to get rid of our suffering in the Three Evil Realms and Five Destinies.

“By not contemplating the Four Noble Truths, [we] do not seek liberation.” If we seek liberation, we must engage in spiritual practice. This is the most fundamental principle. If we cannot even accept this, then how can we find a path to walk? So, we must always be mindful. Otherwise, we will face extreme suffering in the Three Evil Realms. No one else can face it on our behalf.

As for extreme suffering in the Three Evil Realms, no one can take on another’s suffering. Even if born in heaven, one’s longevity and blessings are still limited. One will still fall back to the human realm or the Three Evil Realms. In the human realm, one faces the suffering of poverty and hardship. The human realm is a mix of good and evil, but there is more suffering than joy, more afflictions being reproduced and more karma being created.

If we are hungry, even if a loving person says, “That is so sad! He is hungry. I have no way to send him food; but maybe I can eat on his behalf, so he can be full,” is this possible? It is not possible. If a father is sick, and his filial child says, “I will suffer on your behalf,” that is also not possible. Likewise, no matter how loving a mother is, she cannot endure her sick child’s pain for him. This is all the same principle; “No one can take on another’s suffering.”

So, “Even if born in heaven, one’s blessings and longevity are still limited.” One will fall into a lower realm again, whether into this world or the Three Evil Realms. The Three Evil Realms are the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. There is endless suffering in the Five Destinies, in the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. In these Five Destinies, only in heaven is there happiness. As humans, we experience so much suffering, and our happiness is limited. We also endlessly create more karma. The karma that leads to the Three Evil Realms is created here. Why do people fall into hell? Because humans, out of their insatiable greed, damage the environment and themselves. This is how humans accumulate karma, leading them to the states of the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. So, it is as humans that we commit those wrongs.

“In the human realm, one faces the suffering of poverty and hardship.” There is both good and evil in this world. Good and evil are evenly matched; however, now there seems to be more evil than good. “There is more suffering than joy.” Because there is less good than evil, and more evil than good, “There is more suffering than joy.” This is the human realm. So, we endlessly reproduce afflictions and create much karma. Because we have afflictions, we are continuously reproducing them and creating and amassing more karma. If we think about this, we will be very worried and frightened because these lead to the Three Evil Realms.

We need food, clothing and shelter to live. In our lives, it is most necessary to wear clothes. As humans, we must wear clothing. No matter how hot it is, we still have to wear some clothes. This is a special characteristic of humans. Of all sentient beings, only humans have a sense of propriety, so we wear clothes. Besides wearing clothing, we also have to eat. If we did not eat anything, think about it, how would we sustain our lives? Hunger and freezing cold cause suffering. We also need a place to live. When a natural or manmade disaster happens, people end up living in tents, which makes for a very harsh life. Then there is the weather. Their tents may be damaged and in a place where the snow is falling and there is water on the ground, so there is both freezing water and mud. The broken tents may be covered in frost and snow. Think about it, don’t people suffer if they have no place to live?

Therefore, we can say that these three things are critical to our lives. They are “the three things we depend on.” We need clothing, food and shelter. These are the things that humans need in order to survive in the world. However, desire knows no bounds, and that brings suffering.

In our lives, clothing, food and housing are the three things we depend on. Thus we must seek clothing, food and housing, but endless pursuit brings suffering, and the suffering in people’s minds arises from this. From this we replace suffering with suffering. The foolishness of people in the world is that is that they are greedily attached to the five desires and do not let go until death, thus in their next life, they face boundless suffering.

When it comes to what we should use, wear and eat and where we should live, we just need what is sufficient. If we can buy a shirt for NT 200, we should not buy a shirt for NT 20,000. That is just because of a label which makes it a designer brand. This is the vanity that people have; we want more than what we need.

We must understand that the suffering in our minds unceasingly arises without end because of this. People want to be fashionable and satisfy their vanity, so they keep pursuing more. For this reason, they “replace suffering with [more] suffering”; they add suffering to their existing suffering.

This is how people are deluded. Our confusion leads to delusion. With delusion comes karma. Because of our delusions, we create karma out of ignorance and are “greedily attached to the five desires.” We do not want to let go even when we die. This is suffering. We pursue the five desires and do not want to let go even when we die. Thus we continue to suffer in our future lives.

Earlier we spoke of the Chinese character for “flee.” After we die, when we return, we must repay our debts. We have created so much karma in this world. As we repay our debts, we face the suffering of parting with those we love, meeting those we hate, etc. We owe karmic debts to each other, so we torment each other.

“The suffering of not getting what we want comes from pursuing things that are not ours. This gives rise to the afflictions of greed, anger and ignorance.” So, we “commit all kinds of transgressions like killing, stealing, sexual misconduct and lying.”

In this way, we have created so much karma, yet what we have obtained is illusory.

The past is in the past. Once something we enjoyed is in the past, we wonder, “Is there anything left?” The things that we enjoy are also illusory. If our lives are not grounded, we just keep pursuing things and keep saying, “I must have it.” Pursuing these “illusory goals of the five desires, wealth and advantage” becomes the life we live.

Perhaps we have constantly been pursuing things and have obtained the things we want, but in the end, we cannot keep them forever, as karma is the only thing we take with us. “We cannot take anything with us when we die, only our karma will follow us to our next life.” We only possess these things temporarily. When we pass from this life, we will lose them. Perhaps we have not lost them yet, but in the end, the result is the same.

We are gone, but the object remains. In this case, we still have to let it go. Even if we do not want to, we have to. We are forced to let go of everything, except “all the bad karma created in the past rooted in greed, anger and ignorance since Beginningless Time.” Isn’t this the case? These things that we do lead us to the Three Evil Realms.

Dear Bodhisattvas, we must earnestly engage in spiritual practice. Think about this; all this suffering is caused by afflictions we cannot let go of. Thus, we face unbearable suffering. So, we must always be mindful.

Episode 587 – In Suffering We Purify and Liberate Our Minds

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>> “Compassion is the root of giving and transforming others. We cannot bear to let sentient beings in the Five Realms suffer. Great loving-kindness and compassion are without regrets or resentment. Great joy and equanimity are without worry or attachment to expectations.”

>> “Because of birth, aging, illness and death, worry and sorrow, suffering and afflictions, are being burned, how, because of their pursuit of the five desires and wealth and advantage, they face various kinds of suffering and how, because of greed, attachment and pursuit, they now face many kinds of suffering.”

>> “The fire that was seen arose from all four sides. The five desires are like honey on a knife blade. Wealth and advantage are like floating clouds.”

>> In the darkness of ignorance, sentient beings pursue their desires as if there is no day and no night. The flames of the Five Turbidities and Eight Sufferings burn them day and night. Thus, they face various kinds of suffering.

>> Greed and pursuit bring the suffering of not getting what one wants. In the hell, human and heaven realms, all beings face [the suffering of] the raging Five Skandhas.

>> Unenlightened beings mistakenly think pursuing the pleasures of the five desires will allow them to attain the joy they seek. Thus, they have greed and attachment. When they cannot satisfy their greed, they do everything possible to pursue it. When they cannot obtain it with force, they suffer.

>> People’s deluded thinking stir the desires of their body and mind. When the things they receive are not fully to their satisfaction or, after a while, they get tired of them, they will suffer. We take delight in the new and discard the old. Actually, this still brings suffering, but in our deluded thinking, we think it brings joy.

>> Life is impermanent and a cesspool of various sufferings. And these constantly changing painful matters all resulted from painful pursuit. Thus, as we face each kind of suffering, we continue to add more suffering. Therefore, it says we now face all kinds of sufferings.

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“Compassion is the root of giving
and transforming others.
We cannot bear to let sentient beings
in the Five Realms suffer.
Great loving-kindness and compassion
are without regrets or resentment.
Great joy and equanimity
are without worry or attachment to expectations.”

I hope that our spiritual practice will awaken the compassion in our hearts.

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have great compassion, so they cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer. This is why they come to save and transform all sentient beings. To do that, they have to be in the Five Realms and have compassion and patience as their foundations. With compassion, they can engage in giving and teach and transform all beings. With the power of patience, they are able to endure the Five Realms and repeatedly come back to this evil world. In transforming others, “Great loving-kindness and compassion are without regrets,”

and the Bodhisattva-path is “without resentment.” This is how Bodhisattvas give and how they tirelessly come and go for the sake of the beings of the Five Realms; they feel no resentment at all.

“Great joy and equanimity are without worry or attachment to expectations.” When they give, they never feel worried, because when they see sentient beings helped and transformed, they feel happy. This is the result of their giving. So, they give without worries and without regard for themselves. They do not have greed and attachments to benefits for themselves. This is how Bodhisattvas are.

In a certain era, there was an elder who was a devout Buddhist. Over a period of time, he discovered that there were two big temples without any spiritual practitioners inside. There were many temples on this mountain, but coincidentally these two temples stood opposite each other. They had been rundown for a long time. No one lived in them, and they were already very dirty. The elder said, “Is there anyone willing to take responsibility for these temples and fix them up so they are like new?”

It happened that there was a group of young men who were very talented at drawing and painting. They approached the elder and told him, “Entrust this temple to us.” The elder was very happy. “If you need anything, just ask.” The group of young men asked for a lot. They asked for all kinds of colors of paint and many tools. The elder always met their needs.

For the other temple, there was also a group of young men, a group of young and accomplished monastics. These practitioners came to tell the elder, “We will take responsibility for this temple.” The elder was very happy that there were monastics willing to take responsibility. “Very good. What do you need? I am willing to give you anything.” This group of young practitioners told him, “The only thing we need are buckets and rags. That’s enough for us.” The elder then gave them what they asked for.

Then, both groups got to work. Three days later, after the young artists painted the temple, it looked like new. It was brightly-colored and beautifully painted. At the other temple, the practitioners filled the buckets with water and then used the rags to clean thoroughly. They repeatedly swept, repeatedly washed and repeatedly scrubbed. Three days later, after the same period of time, this temple had become very clean. With their constant scrubbing, all the glass was clear again. All the wooden surfaces of the structure had been constantly scrubbed and polished. Not only did the dirt disappear, the wood actually became very glossy.

To the elder, it was so beautiful. The brilliant colors at the other temple were indeed painted very well and looked beautiful, but the other temple was simple, clean and bright. Moreover, if a person looked even closer, all the glass and building materials shone brilliantly. All the colors from the other temple were reflected in this one. The glass of this temple mirrored the sight of the temple in front of it so the other one became part of the simple temple. Moreover, there was blue sky and white clouds. In all these mirror-like surfaces on all the building materials, the elder could see a hint of blue sky and white clouds. There was nothing more wondrous than this.

When these two temples were compared, people most appreciated the temple of the spiritual practitioners.

This story tells us that, if our minds are pure and free of dust, the perfect mirror in our minds can reflect the universe. The minds of spiritual practitioners, the place where we engage in spiritual practice, do not need material objects or many colors to adorn them. The place of practice in our minds is where we must make an effort to sweep away our own afflictions so that there is no dust in our minds. Then the perfect mirror [of our minds] will be able to display the universe. The colorful images of all things will be in our minds. The mountains, rivers and land will all be encompassed within it. Thus, “The mind encompasses the universe and embraces the boundless worlds within it.” The place of practice in the mind does not need to be colorful to be magnificent. What is most magnificent is a pure mind.

Compassion is the foundation for giving teachings to sentient beings. Patience is needed to repeatedly come back for the sake of the beings of the Five Realms. With great loving-kindness and compassion, we can definitely walk this Bodhi-path without regrets or resentment. With great joy and equanimity, we will have absolutely no afflictions or worries. We will have eliminated all afflictions. Seeing sentient beings able to be saved and accept the teachings, we are free of attachments and expectations. This is how Buddhas and Bodhisattvas repeatedly return to this world for the sake of all beings. As Buddhist practitioners, isn’t this what we should emulate?

This is the state of mind of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This undefiled spiritual universe [reflected] in great perfect mirror wisdom is what all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have in their minds. So, every one of us ordinary people has an intrinsic nature equal to the Buddha’s. Therefore, we must work hard. Like that group of spiritual practitioners, we must put in effort; it is that simple. All we need is clean water and a rag. When we put our hearts into constantly scrubbing, constantly sweeping and constantly rinsing, then naturally, our minds will be pure. So, “The Dharma is like water.” It can cleanse the defilements from our minds so the mirror of our minds is clean.

The following sutra passage states that all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas “see how all sentient beings,”

“Because of birth, aging, illness and death, worry and sorrow, suffering and afflictions, are being burned, how, because of their pursuit of the five desires and wealth and advantage, they face various kinds of suffering and how, because of greed, attachment and pursuit, they now face many kinds of suffering.”

This passage is still describing the problems in our state of mind. We feel pressed, mentally and physically. Like what it says above,

“The fire that was seen arose from all four sides. The five desires are like honey on a knife blade. Wealth and advantage are like floating clouds.”

In the previous sutra passage, from the outside the elder saw that this house was on fire. In the world all around us, already the four elements have become unbalanced. Now it says that the five desires are like honey on a knife blade, and wealth and advantage are like floating clouds.

If we are greedy, we are as oblivious as children. This knife blade is very sharp, and honey is smeared on it. Greedy children will use their tongue to lick up the honey. Thus, the knife will likely cut their tongue, maybe even cut it off. In this way, worldly fame and fortune and the five desires are like honey on a knife blade. They are very dangerous. Whether we use our hands to grab the honey or use our tongues to lick it off, it is very easy for us to get hurt.

What about wealth and profit? They are like the floating clouds in the sky. As we look at the sky, we see white clouds. In fact, clouds are just vapor. They are not solid at all. Nonetheless, we can see them against the blue sky. Wealth and profit are just like these clouds. In our eyes, they are very attractive. But they are actually far away and do not really exist. So, they disrupt the minds of sentient beings. Sentient beings are in the darkness of ignorance.

․In the darkness of ignorance, sentient beings pursue their desires as if there is no day and no night. The flames of the Five Turbidities and Eight Sufferings burn them day and night. Thus, they face various kinds of suffering.

Our state of mind is in the darkness of ignorance. The things we greedily pursue are ultimately empty. However, humans continuously pursue them without regard for day or night, creating karma that causes our body and mind to suffer. Then we have no choice but to face much suffering. This is a result of “the flames of the Five Turbidities and Eight Sufferings.” Desire for material things, recognition, wealth, status and so on, triggers a sense of greed, which leads us to [act out of] ignorance and create all kinds of karma. This causes us to be pressed by the Five Turbidities and Eight Sufferings. So, day and night, we simply work for these [objects of desire]. Therefore, day and night we face so many difficulties. So, it says that we “face various kinds of suffering.”

When we desire something and cannot get it, we will certainly experience suffering. We may bring this suffering with us to hell; we may be in hell or in the human realm. Even if we are born in heaven, we created that good karma with expectations. So, though we may do many good deeds, once we exhaust our blessings, we will still fall [into an evil realm]. Whether people are in the human, hell or heaven realm, they cannot escape the suffering of the raging Five Skandhas.

Greed and pursuit bring the suffering of not getting what one wants. In the hell, human and heaven realms, all beings face [the suffering of] the raging Five Skandhas.

When we experience something in our external conditions and then try to grasp it, its appearance will be imprinted in our minds. People, matters and objects that are on our minds lead us to give rise to delusion and create karma. We are not consciously aware of this aggregate of tiny changes in our lives. The cycle of birth, aging, illness and death is constantly occurring in our body as it continues to fade way. Thus we create karma.

The suffering we face right now includes suffering from parting with love ones, meeting those we hate, not getting what we want, in addition to the suffering of birth, aging, illness and death. These sufferings have come together. We have to part from people we want to be with. Sadly, we may be separated from our loved ones in life or in death. Sadly, every day we may be with people we dislike; whenever we see them, a sense of rage and anger arises in us. In this way, meeting with enemies causes great suffering. These are the sufferings in our present life. Having created various karma in our past lives, we face various sufferings in this life.

And “because of the five desires,” we “face various kinds of suffering.” The five desires, as previously mentioned, are form, sound, smell, taste and touch. The Five Roots come into contact with the Five Dusts in our surroundings, giving rise to these five desires. Then we cling to those pleasures.

Thus it is said, “Without wealth and advantage, one cannot satisfy oneself with these pleasures.” If we have no wealth or advantage, no matter what sense objects we encounter, we will not feel happy because we want to possess everything we come across. Wealth, profit and the five desires are what everyone wants. When we cannot attain them, we suffer. Unenlightened beings pursue things out of greed, so they “face various kinds of suffering.”

Unenlightened beings mistakenly think pursuing the pleasures of the five desires will allow them to attain the joy they seek. Thus, they have greed and attachment. When they cannot satisfy their greed, they do everything possible to pursue it. When they cannot obtain it with force, they suffer.

In this way, unenlightened beings “mistakenly [plan on] the five desires.” They think the five desires are everlasting. They have the wrong perspective, so they spend a lot of effort calculating, “I want this, I want that, and this is what I need to do to get it.” No matter how carefully we make these plans, in the end, we cannot attain what we crave. So, we deliberately keep pursuing it, which leads us to create karma.

We may know for sure that we will not be able to obtain something, and it is not something we need, but we still greedily pursue it. That is because our minds stir “due to deluded thinking.”

People’s deluded thinking stir the desires of their body and mind. When the things they receive are not fully to their satisfaction or, after a while, they get tired of them, they will suffer. We take delight in the new and discard the old. Actually, this still brings suffering, but in our deluded thinking, we think it brings joy.

Therefore, “Deluded thinking stir the desires of [our] body and mind.” My body needs this. My mind wants that. Thinking this way leads to tremendous suffering. With all the things that we want, even if we obtain them and get to experience them, they may not necessarily satisfy us.

Once we obtain them, we treat them like a damaged straw sandal, something completely worthless. This discarding the old for the new [is often seen in people’s relationships]. It also applies to material objects. People see something and say, “This is very good, I want it.” But after a short period of time, they see something better than what they have, so they like that even better. There is no end to these desires. For this reason, we suffer tremendously in body and mind.

In fact, pursuing and attaining things leads to suffering. However, ordinary beings have distorted thinking. Out of deluded thinking, they pursue things because they think those things lead to pleasure. But everything is illusory. All suffering comes from the impermanence of life.

Life is impermanent and a cesspool of various sufferings. And these constantly changing painful matters all resulted from painful pursuit. Thus, as we face each kind of suffering, we continue to add more suffering. Therefore, it says we now face all kinds of sufferings.

Life is truly impermanent, but we do not recognize that, so we think everything is permanent. When all suffering is gathered together, it is a cesspool of all suffering; it is a complicated mess. Everything we do creates karma, and this karma creates a complicated mix of seeds that are stored in our karmic consciousness. All of these are “constantly changing painful matters.” As our Roots interact with the Dusts, the image of what we want is constantly being replaced. The new replaces the old. The old is phased out and the new takes its place. In this way, we suffer tremendously.

Everyone, this is very taxing. When we talk about suffering, it is also taxing because there are so many kinds of suffering. Actually, things are very simple; it is all about the mind. If our minds are pure and undefiled, they will be free of suffering; it is that simple. So everyone, we must always be mindful.

Episode 586 – Compassion Guides Us Back to True Suchness

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>> “With the imbalance of the four elements comes the oppression of old age and illnesses. Ultimately, we part from each other when our karmic conditions for being in this world come to an end. This is all beyond our control and only karma follows us after death. The Enlightened One practices loving-kindness and compassion, teaching by example to guide us back to our nature of True Suchness.”

>> “[He comes] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions, all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teach them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

>> Greed means “insatiably grasping at all favorable conditions.”

>> Then there is anger. With anger, we easily lose our temper with “all unfavorable conditions.” When things do not go the way we want, we become enraged.

>> With ignorance, we are confused over all matters and principles, thus giving rise to delusion and creating karma.

>> Living in this burning house, we do not recognize it as suffering. This is the darkness of ignorance. Because of ignorance, we give rise to greed. When we cannot satisfy our greed, we get angry. This is greed, anger and ignorance. When the fires of the Three Poisons come together, they create all these disasters.

>> Lack of clarity and understanding leads to all deviant conduct. The Three [Poisons] obstruct all true principles with foolishness, delusion, ignorance, confusion and darkness.

>> They are called poisons because they can harm our world-transcending aspirations. Thus it speaks of the darkness of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons. The sutra previously stated: “A fire broke out.”

>> The Tathagata manifests a body in the Three Realms because He wants to provide relief for all sentient beings and help them escape this burning house to head towards supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. This is the one great cause for which. He appears in the world.

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“With the imbalance of the four elements
comes the oppression of old age and illnesses.
Ultimately, we part from each other
when our karmic conditions
for being in this world come to an end.
This is all beyond our control
and only karma follows us after death.
The Enlightened One practices
loving-kindness and compassion,
teaching by example to guide us
back to our nature of True Suchness.”

The four elements of the macrocosm of the world are earth, water, wind and fire. When these four elements are not in balance, then the world is not in a healthy state.

Recently we have seen, everywhere around this world, that the four elements are not in balance. We can see the effect this imbalance has on the climate, constantly causing [natural] disasters, so that people face much suffering. Right now, during the winter, in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere it is snowing because of the cold. When we see poor people suffering in those snowy conditions, we wonder, “How will they survive?” In addition to poor people who are struggling to survive in the cold, there are also people who were caught up in man-made conflicts and even no longer have homes. They take shelter in tattered tents as the snow continues to fall and accumulate. On the ground, aside from patches of snow, there are also spots that are extremely muddy.

We see children living in places that are muddy and cold. When they run outside, there is mud and a mix of water and snow, which has become slush. The land is wet, so after being trampled by people it becomes mud. Thus, there is a lot of mud. The children’s feet, covered either by ragged shoes or nothing at all, are immersed in that icy and slushy water. This is so sad! Their feet are completely caked in mud. You can imagine the snow from the sky falling upon their bodies, and the snow on the ground sticking to their feet. Think about it, what kind of life are they living? It can only be described as a life of suffering.

So, when the four elements are not in balance, it creates unbearable suffering for people. This is in the macrocosm of the world. What about humans? Each of us is a microcosm. We eventually face “the oppression of old age and illnesses.” This is beyond our control.

When we grow old, our bodies become frail. As we said yesterday, in our old age, when we see young people, we think, “How wonderful!” We were young once too; how did we come to look like this? We look different now than when we were young. Though only a few decades have passed, we are already frail and often ill. The onset of illnesses is beyond our control. As we grow old and become ill, in the end we will have to leave this life. This is life’s greatest sorrow. When our karmic retributions for this lifetime have been exhausted, and our karmic connections are at an end, parting is inevitable,

even from the person we love the most. For some people, when a loved one dies, they are [totally devastated]. After the morning volunteer assembly [one day], a group of people met with me, including a well-known media figure in Hualien. More than ten years ago, his child was involved in an extremely serious car accident. Afterwards the child repeatedly went in and out of the hospital for many years. His body was unable to fully recover. He had suffered a brain injury, so his body was paralyzed, and he developed cerebral palsy. But, he was still able to breathe. His parents suffered deep mental anguish as they cared for their child. They had been doing this for more than ten years and had never been able to come to terms with it. The father himself has now even developed depression. He was trapped by his feelings for his son.

Now, I see him in good spirits. He brought a doctor with him and he told me, “This man is a psychologist. He helped me emerge from a dark state of mind. So, I wanted to bring him to meet you.” The psychologist said to me, “Actually, I often read your books and watch Da Ai TV.” He said, “Spiritual guidance is very important and must be relatable to things happening in our current society. The Buddha-Dharma is inseparable from ways of living in this world.” Regarding this kind of spiritual guidance, he asked me if I knew of any other methods. I said, “You have said it. Bringing the Buddha-Dharma together with the way we live in this world provides us with the best spiritual guidance.”

Indeed, affinities ultimately come to an end. The case of this child is like this; as their affinities come to an end, they all experience much suffering. This depends on what kind of affinity they had. Then once it ends, he will be able to find his spiritual direction.

Many things can happen in life. “This is all beyond our control.” So many things are beyond our control. This man was such a good writer that he could help everyone see through his eyes and also speak on their behalf. He could articulate so many things with his pen. But when his child got into this accident, many things were beyond his control. There was nothing he could do to enable his son to walk again. So, it was beyond his control; everything is a result of karma.

This father-son relationship was shaped by their karma. And at the end of life, there is still karma to face. Even if we have many talents and own many possessions, at the very end, can we bring any of that with us? We cannot say, “I love this the most; I will take it with me.” We cannot take anything with us. The only thing we can take is the good and bad karma we have created. Karma is the only thing we bring to our next life, shaping our future relationships and future karmic causes and effects. This is the way life works. In our next life, will our loved ones stay by our side into our final years? Even if they accompany us into our final years, one day we must part.

Yesterday we also talked about the 90-year-old wife with the 86-year-old husband. Living in poverty with no children by their side, they only had each other. One is old; so is the other. One is ill; so is the other. One’s appearance has changed; so has the other’s. How much longer will they continue to live this life? This is what life is like. What will our next life be like? No one knows.

What we do know is what is happening right now. Now, “The Enlightened One practices loving-kindness and compassion.” The Buddha came to this world for one great cause. He came so that He could teach us. What we have learned from the Buddha is to have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion. This place that has suffered a major disaster is not connected to us in any way. But we cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. So, everyone contributes their own money and efforts to personally go there [to help]. With their own hands, the volunteers helped them up and took care of things for them. They saw the survivors able to eat their fill and able to again exercise both their mental and physical strength. This brought the volunteers great joy. This is the “practice of loving-kindness and compassion.” Those with unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion are awakened sentient beings.

We have accepted the Buddha-Dharma and put it into practice. Not only are we providing them with some help, we also put our hearts into teaching them so that they know that this money should be spent in appropriate ways, that when others are suffering, we should aspire to help them. This is “teaching by example to guide them back to their nature of True Suchness.” The hearts of these people have, one by one, become oriented towards helping others. They have unlocked their spiritual wealth. [They said,] “If I have the ability to help, I will help people who need it.” This is their sense of spiritual wealth, which has transformed their mindset of greed into a mindset of abundance. Thus, they have returned to their human nature, which “is inherently good.” Now it is easy for them to feel satisfied.

So, we must always be mindful. The power of love can help others. If everyone can bring purity to their minds, then there will be fewer natural disasters. So, besides helping others, we must cherish the planet to bring balance to the four elements. Then the world’s weather will be favorable. All this depends on people’s hearts and actions, on our mental and physical behaviors.

The sutra text from yesterday stated,

“[He comes] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions, all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teach them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

The Buddha came to this world for this purpose. He wanted to help us understand the meaning of human existence. We cannot live in this world forever. With birth comes aging, illness and death. These principles help us to understand the process of birth, illness and death that we go through and the different kinds of behavior we engage in. He came to teach us and to help us understand what we see in the world and the worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction of this existence, which are found in our hearts. How can we help everyone’s hearts to transcend worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction, and improve everyone’s attitude and state of mind?

In our minds, thoughts arise one after another. A single thought of greed leads to evil. A single thought of goodness will lead us to benefit everyone. If we understand the Dharma, then we will constantly take good care of every single thought that arises. Practicing the Threefold Kindness means we speak kind words with our mouth, we do kind deeds with our body, and we think kind thoughts with our minds. In this way, the. Threefold Kindness of body, speech and mind will be carried out due to our intentions.

This next sutra passage is about [delivering them] “[from] all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teaching them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

Besides birth, aging, illness and death, and worry, sorrow, suffering and afflictions, there are all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons. The burning house that we are talking about is an analogy for the Three Realms. Look, disasters are arising on all sides just as if we are in a burning house. Why is this happening? Because of the Three Poisons in our minds, greed, anger and ignorance.

Greed means “insatiably grasping at all favorable conditions.”

We want more and more. With greed, “Having one, we lack nine.” Having 10,000, we feel we are lacking 90,000. Having one billion, we lack nine billion and so on. If we live this kind of life, when will we ever be satisfied? If we are never satisfied in life, we will be unhappy.

Then there is anger. With anger, we easily lose our temper with “all unfavorable conditions.” When things do not go the way we want, we become enraged.

When people do not get what they want, they may try to get it by any means necessary, committing all kinds of harmful deeds. This is the poison of anger.

The last poison is ignorance.

With ignorance, we are confused over all matters and principles, thus giving rise to delusion and creating karma.

If we are unclear on matters and principles, in this state of confusion and ignorance, we are constantly enticed by external phenomena and thus become more confused. This is why we reproduce more and more bad karma.

[In Tzu Chi,] we have seen that when a person in a family wants to do good deeds, that can make the rest of the family unhappy. “Why are you helping others instead of taking care of your own family? Don’t we need to spend that money on ourselves? Why would you give it to others to spend?”

People who prevent others from doing good deeds do so out of ignorance. This is also part of “all the dark coverings of ignorance.” These are the fires of the Three Poisons.

Here it states again, “Living in this burning house, we do not recognize it as suffering.”

Living in this burning house, we do not recognize it as suffering. This is the darkness of ignorance. Because of ignorance, we give rise to greed. When we cannot satisfy our greed, we get angry. This is greed, anger and ignorance. When the fires of the Three Poisons come together, they create all these disasters.

We are creating karma but we do not know what the consequence of that karma will be. When we are very narrow-minded, it causes resentment in others. But we do not realize that we are not doing the right thing. This is “the darkness of ignorance.”

“Because of ignorance, we give rise to greed.” Because of ignorance, thoughts of greed arise in our minds. When we cannot get what we covet, we lose our temper. Therefore, “Greed, anger and ignorance, are the fires of the Three Poisons.” The Three Poisons truly cause unbearable suffering.

This comes from lack of clarity and understanding.

Lack of clarity and understanding leads to all deviant conduct. The Three [Poisons] obstruct all true principles with foolishness, delusion, ignorance, confusion and darkness.

Ignorance not only leads us to commit evils, it leads us to engage in deviant conduct and stray from the correct path. It leads us to take a side road, to engage in improper practices. So, it is a poison. A “poison” is something that hinders us, that harms our world-transcending aspirations.

They are called poisons because they can harm our world-transcending aspirations. Thus it speaks of the darkness of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons. The sutra previously stated: “A fire broke out.”

We may want to do good deeds, but are hindered by someone, or perhaps the Three Poisons in our own minds are hindering us by covering our wholesome intentions.

Some say, “My conscience was covered.” This means that our conscience was covered up by the Three Poisons. The “darkness of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons” have covered our kind intentions. This is the disaster faced by the great house. These flames continue to burn, hurting us. This is why the Buddha came to this world, “to teach them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

So, this is why the Tathagata manifests a body in the Three Realms. He appears in the Three Realms to provide relief for sentient beings and help them escape this burning house.

The Tathagata manifests a body in the Three Realms because He wants to provide relief for all sentient beings and help them escape this burning house to head towards supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. This is the one great cause for which. He appears in the world.

The Buddha came to dispel the delusion, karma and suffering in our minds. He came to teach sentient beings how to escape this burning house and “head towards supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment.” We should move along the correct path, which leads to supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment, the wisdom that is equal to the Buddha’s. Then we can understand the principles of all things in the universe.

If we clearly understand the principles, we will always be peaceful and at ease. We will not be affected by things such as birth, aging, illness and death, worry, sorrow, suffering, affliction, all of the darkness of ignorance. We will be able to eliminate these sufferings, and be free to come and go with ease. If we are coming to the world to save people, we will not fear birth, aging, illness and death. Similarly, when we went into that disaster area, we went there intentionally with the goal of saving people.

“Having relieved [beings] from suffering, [Bodhisattvas] then expound the Dharma for them” in the hope that they can stabilize their lives. This is what Bodhisattvas, awakened beings, do. These are the actions of awakened sentient beings. We can come and go as we wish. When it is time to go, we go. When it is time to come back, we come back. Giving to others with this kind of great love is unsurpassed.

Dear Bodhisattvas, as Buddhist practitioners, this is what we must learn. I believe that everyone has this mission of carrying out this one great cause. But we must always be mindful.

Episode 585 – Realize the Suffering of the Four States

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>> “People’s desires are never satisfied. They seek to attain what they do not have and worry about losing what they already possess. Kept in our hearts, this is worry. Expressed outwardly, it is sorrow. Our bodies and minds cannot be at ease. This is what we call distress.”

>> “Great loving-kindness and compassion” so they are “never indolent or tired. [The Buddha] always seeks to do good deeds to benefit all and thus is born in the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms.”

>> “[He comes] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and afflictions, all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teach them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

>> [He came] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction, We are constantly cycling through the four states of birth, aging, illness and death. We are born from the prison of the womb, we age until we grow weary and decrepit, illness confines us to our beds, and death brings the sorrow of parting. From the time we are born, we each have our talents and abilities. When our time comes and our life is over, it all suddenly returns to nothingness.

>> After we are reborn into a new life, we are without the wisdom to know our past life. We cannot remember it and the good and evil karmic seeds we created are all buried under a covering of ignorance, so we are unaware of them. For a long time we have followed karma to be born, and faced suffering and afflictions. This is the suffering of birth.

>> As we age and grow old, our Six Sense Organs deteriorate. We can no longer move freely. This is the suffering of aging.

>> Not all who get old fall ill, and not all who fall ill are old, but illness and aging are connected to each other. Once the body’s four elements are not in balance, the body changes and malfunctions. This is the suffering of illness.

>> Old age and illness are oppressive, and once the four elements are not in balance, they will eventually disperse. Once the karma for this life has been exhausted, we have no control and pass away. For those who have always cared, seeing this is the most tragic and painful thing. This is the suffering of death.

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“People’s desires are never satisfied.
They seek to attain what they do not have
and worry about losing what they already possess.
Kept in our hearts, this is worry.
Expressed outwardly, it is sorrow.
Our bodies and minds cannot be at ease.
This is what we call distress.”

Life is suffering! The Buddha expounded the Dharma with the goal of helping everyone understand that the source of our suffering is that we never feel satisfied. So, we keep pursuing “what we do not have” until we can attain it. Even if we were to attain what we wish, we would remain afflicted

because we would worry about losing it. Worries about gain and loss are all afflictions. If we have these afflictions in our hearts and never verbally express them, they become “worries” that remain on our minds. We sometimes express these worries by crying, which is “sorrow.” Whether we keep afflictions in our hearts or express them outwardly, our body and mind cannot feel at ease. This is what we call “distress.” So many people suffer for so many different reasons. This makes us unenlightened beings. But many of these things are beyond our control.

For instance, in China, we encountered an elderly couple. The wife was already 90 years-old, and in a few days, the husband was to celebrate his 86th birthday. The two of them were dependent on each other. Living in such a remote area, going to other places was very inconvenient. For many days they had been counting down the time until the Tzu Chi volunteers would arrive. They had been counting the days in anticipation.

Finally, the day came. The old couple wore the cotton-padded coats given to them by Tzu Chi and walked together to the entrance of the village. They waited there for the familiar figures [of the Tzu Chi volunteers] to appear in front of them. It was still dark and freezing cold when the couple went to the entrance of the village. Eventually, they saw the familiar blue and white uniforms appear. They were so happy, as if their families had come home to visit them. They quickly led the volunteers to their house. Once there, our Bodhisattva-volunteers treated it as if returning to their own home and quickly tidied up everything. The elderly couple was very happy. The wife said, “I have been waiting for you, and now finally, you have returned.”

The volunteers gave the husband new clothing and helped him to put it on. “In a few days, it will be my 86th birthday, and I want to wear new clothes, so I will wait a few days before wearing them.” The wife saw that these clothes fit him very well and said, “This is great. In your entire life, you’ve never worn anything this nice.” The husband said, “It is good to live a long life. If you live long enough, good things eventually happen.” It sounded like the couple were very optimistic, but seeing that they were so old and frail, that scene was also very bittersweet.

Another care recipient was an old man who was over 70 years-old and still working very hard. Actually, before the 1960s, he had graduated from college. He had moved away to the city for school. After graduating, he got married and had kids. He had two mentally disabled children. They could not talk and could only make cow-like noises all day. They were unable to tell right from wrong, follow directions or speak. They could not manage their most basic needs.

After the birth of the second child, his wife saw that there was no hope for them. So, while the children were still young, she left the family. This man stayed and cared for these two children.

Looking back on this old man’s life, when he was still a college student in the 1960s, how could he know his life would end up like this? Was he suffering? Very much so. But things were beyond his control.

So, as Buddhist practitioners, we need to learn to always be vigilant so that we can create blessings for our future, to benefit ourselves and the world.

In the Philippines, because of Typhoon Haiyan, these cities were, in such a short time, completely devastated. Tzu Chi volunteers gathered together there. To transport supplies and establish communication, they were constantly rushing back and forth. Yet they had no worries, sorrow, suffering or afflictions. Everyone was very happy to do this work. Bodhisattvas must clearly understand principles. Even when they go to places of great suffering to give of themselves, they are very willing and happy to do this. This allows their wisdom-life to grow and increases their experience of the Buddha-Dharma. This is how Bodhisattvas practice in this world. After we understand what the Buddha taught,

when we see others suffer, we know that if we can give to them, that is truly our blessing. When we witness suffering, we recognize our blessings and continue to create more blessings. This is because, with “great loving-kindness and compassion,” we are “never indolent or tired.”

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world with this.

“Great loving-kindness and compassion” so they are “never indolent or tired. [The Buddha] always seeks to do good deeds to benefit all and thus is born in the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms.”

This is the vow of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; they are willing to come to this world.

Take the Philippines for example. All the Bodhisattva[-volunteers] who went there knew that, after being hit by a major disaster, life there would be very inconvenient. There was no water, no electricity. There was debris everywhere, and everything was in chaos. They were willing to sleep on the ground, to be bitten by mosquitos and soaked by the rain. They were willing to stay there and endure the suffering along with the survivors. They have the heart of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who are willing to go into places like the burning house or like hell and give to help the living beings there. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are willing to enter the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms. This is because they have “great loving-kindness and compassion,” and are “never indolent or tired.” They “always seek out good deeds to benefit all.”

The sutra passage goes on to state,

“[He comes] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and afflictions, all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teach them to attain. Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”

Sentient beings are suffering! They experience birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction. No matter how rich you are, how famous you are or how high your status is, in the end, you will still experience illness and death, aging and illness and death. So, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world for the sake of teaching sentient beings so we can understand what to do in life. Since we bring karmic causes and effects with us, what kind of attitude should we have while facing things in the present? From this moment on, what kind of mindset should we have so that we will cautiously accumulate [karmic causes] for our future lifetimes? This is what the Buddha came to teach. He hoped [to save us] from the shore of suffering by using various methods to deliver us to the shore of noble beings. He had to use different methods to help us reach the other shore.

Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi is supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. He taught deluded sentient beings to attain great awakening and great realizations to transcend the state of unenlightened beings and reach the state of noble beings. This is very difficult work. So, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas continually enter the burning house of the Three Realms to share the suffering of sentient beings. This is how they teach.

[He came] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction, We are constantly cycling through the four states of birth, aging, illness and death. We are born from the prison of the womb, we age until we grow weary and decrepit, illness confines us to our beds, and death brings the sorrow of parting. From the time we are born, we each have our talents and abilities. When our time comes and our life is over, it all suddenly returns to nothingness.

Birth, aging, illness and death are suffering. How do they come about? The four states of birth, aging, illness and death are in constant motion and will never stop. This is a continuous process. Birth, aging, illness and death are a series of infinitesimal changes. These infinitesimal changes are beyond our control and time continues to pass like this.

Before we were born into this world, where were we? We have karmic affinities with our parents, so when our mother and father came together and their sperm and egg united, we began to slowly take shape in the womb. Over a period of many months, we remained inside the prison of the womb. Being curled up inside such a small space is truly suffering. Even after our Six Roots and Six Consciousnesses had formed, we still remained in the prison of the womb, all the way until we were born. At that time, the entire family will be very happy. But the baby just cries. This is because, in that moment of birth, our naked body was exposed to the air for the first time, and we felt excruciating pain. The pain stimulated and shocked us, so we began crying. We opened up our mouth and our throats, then this cry came out. The first sound we make is a cry of suffering.

Once we open our throats wide, we never stop eating to satisfy the cravings of our mouth and never stop making sounds and creating the karma of speech. We say false things and stir up conflicts. These are the four types of karma of speech, gossip, harsh speech, lies and flattery. After being born and making our first sound, we opened up our mouth to eat. This goes on for the rest of our lives.

After suffering in the prison of the womb, when we are born we bring this body for creating karma with us. If the first thing we do is cry from suffering, what is there worth pursuing in this kind of life?

After we are reborn into a new life, we are without the wisdom to know our past life. We cannot remember it and the good and evil karmic seeds we created are all buried under a covering of ignorance, so we are unaware of them. For a long time we have followed karma to be born, and faced suffering and afflictions. This is the suffering of birth.

Our ever-changing and unstable life began in the prison of the womb. From that point on, we were destined to age. By the time we reach our old age, we will have created karma for an entire lifetime. We create karma into our old age. However, not everybody lives to be old. Still, by the time we reach our old age, from the moment we are born to the moment [we die], with our mouths, we have consumed so any lives and created so much bad karma.

So much has happened by the time we are old, we begin to grow “weary.” Why is our body so different when compared to the body of a young person? Young people have smooth and delicate skin. When we reach old age, our entire face is wrinkled, and our body is bent over. The way we walk is different from the way young people walk. Young people’s steps are so light and graceful. [They walk] so beautifully. The elderly find it hard to take each step. Even when the path is flat and smooth, our unsteady steps can take us off course.

Think about it. In our old age, our body is completely different. “We age until we grow weary and decrepit.” Like an old bell, our body becomes hunched over. This is why we become weary of our body.

As we age and grow old, our Six Sense Organs deteriorate. We can no longer move freely. This is the suffering of aging.

I often think, “It was so nice to be young. Now in my old age, this is how things are.” It is not just how others see us, but also how we feel within our body, etc. Moreover, we may become ill.

We do not need to be old to fall ill. We might be young or middle-aged. Illness does not only happen to the elderly. Of course, falling ill in our old age is normal. Illness confines us to our beds, which feels like being in the hell where. “One person fills it, as will many.” If we visit the hospital, every patient will say, “I am suffering most. The doctor should treat me first.” Suffering from illness is unbearable. Everyone experiences different illnesses and different pains.

Generally speaking, being bed-ridden and apart from other people is great suffering.

Not all who get old fall ill, and not all who fall ill are old, but illness and aging are connected to each other. Once the body’s four elements are not in balance, the body changes and malfunctions. This is the suffering of illness.

When we are so ill that nothing can be done, we will die. In life, no matter how much people are suffering from their illness, they will say, “Please save me,” even if it requires major surgery and opening up their stomachs and intestines. Why is that? Because they want to keep living. They do not want to die.

So, death is considered most tragic and painful. Why is it tragic and painful? Because we will leave this body, leave our loved ones and leave everything we have been fighting for in life. The suffering of parting is truly unbearable.

Old age and illness are oppressive, and once the four elements are not in balance, they will eventually disperse. Once the karma for this life has been exhausted, we have no control and pass away. For those who have always cared, seeing this is the most tragic and painful thing. This is the suffering of death.

“From the time we are born,” means after we were born from the prison of the womb, “we each have our talents and abilities.” After we were born, eventually we went to school to master skills. Perhaps we study to gain a lot of knowledge and develop our talents. We may have great potential and be very skilled. But one day, our life will end. Then what? “When our time comes and our life is over, it all suddenly returns to nothingness.” Everything disappears. Think about it, isn’t life suffering?

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world for the sake of delivering sentient beings so they can transcend birth, aging, illness and death and the worry, sorrow, suffering and afflictions that they develop. We have been born into this lifetime and are living this life, but what will happen in our next lifetime? We do not know. However, after learning the Buddha-Dharma, we realize principles from the examples Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have set for us. From the suffering in this world, we comprehend these principles. So, we will be mindful and immerse ourselves in the stream of Dharma.

No matter how turbid or defiled life can be, the Dharma is like water. We can bathe in the stream of the Dharma and thus understand the evil world of Five Turbidities. In this world, there are so many impurities from our afflictions and perspectives. How can we get rid of them? There is one method, to practice the Bodhisattva-path.

Dear Bodhisattvas, we must be mindful. As we head down the Bodhisattva-path, we must walk steadily; that is the right thing to do. Everything in the world undergoes infinitesimal changes, which are beyond our control. The only thing we can do is to be mindful. With discipline and reverence we can stabilize our minds. If we can hold on to our aspiration, it will last forever. So, we must always be mindful.

Episode 584 – Always Seek to Do Good to Benefit All

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>> “Outwardly practice compassion with skillful means to be dignified with blessings and virtues. Inwardly cultivate pure wisdom to go among people without being defiled in order to attain infinite spiritual wealth.”

>> “Perfects infinite views and understanding powers and fearlessness, great spiritual powers and powers of wisdom. He is replete with the wisdom of skillful means and the Paramitas.”

>> “He has great loving-kindness and compassion and is never indolent or tired. He always seeks out good deeds to benefit all and thus is born in the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms.”

>> The manifestation-body: Tathagatas manifest the body of a Buddha to teach and transform sentient beings. With compassion, They teach according to situations and relieve sentient beings’ suffering. In the burning house of the Three Realms, They never cease in their efforts.

>> Compassion is the root of transforming others through giving and beneficial conduct. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are constantly benefiting all sentient beings in the Five Realms. With a heart of great joy and equanimity, they are never indolent or tired. They never seek any reward for their good deeds. The only thing they seek is to benefit all sentient beings.

>> “Cultivating oneself brings merits and virtues. Transforming others brings benefit to them.” Those with merits, virtues and beneficial conduct “are cultivating themselves and benefiting others at the same time.” Thus, they “always seek out good deeds to benefit all.”

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“Outwardly practice compassion
with skillful means to be dignified
with blessings and virtues.
Inwardly cultivate pure wisdom
to go among people without being defiled
in order to attain infinite spiritual wealth.”

Internal cultivation and external practice are essential. We cannot just say, “I engage in spiritual practice because I’m very compassionate.” The compassion in your heart cannot be seen by others. If people ask you for help and you do not lift a finger to assist them, how can you be considered compassionate?

Feeling compassion but not contributing effort to help does not show true compassion. True compassion is visible to others. When people need help, if we can immediately give to them, help lighten their burdens and relieve their urgent needs, that is true compassion. Compassion requires giving; that is how we “outwardly practice compassion.” There are many ways to compassionately help people.

Because sentient beings suffer in countless ways, when we help others with compassion, we must do so according to their needs. We must consider their needs and their hardships when we give to them. This requires the use of “skillful means.” When we give to others with skillful means, the people who receive our help feel that they have been respected and aided. We, the people who give, also feel very joyful. When we see that the people we have helped have been relieved of their hardship and have been able to resolve their difficulties, we attain a sense of joy. When we give skillfully and others achieve relief, we attain a sense of Dharma-joy.

Between those who give and those who receive, there is a sense of mutual joy and gratitude. When we feel this way, we are very blessed. By benefiting others, we also attain virtue, so everyone involved feels grateful. After Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, Tzu Chi volunteers gave to the survivors with respect and love and used skillful means and methods so that those who were being helped could feel that they were actually working to rebuild their own towns. When we gave to them without expectations, the aid recipients felt respected. By rebuilding their homes with their own labor, there was dignity in their hearts and actions. Amidst this wreckage, because of our love we used skillful means to help them, and they used their strength to clean up and restore their homes. The towns began to prosper and signs of vitality have reappeared.

The volunteers who gave were joyful because they created blessings in this place. People from this place were grateful to this group of volunteers from around the world. They saw how Tzu Chi gave to them out of love, so whenever they saw people in Tzu Chi uniforms, they shouted, “Tzu Chi! Tzu Chi! Thank you, Tzu Chi.” This is because we have benefited them. The sense of mutual gratitude and love between us has brought dignity to our interactions and created blessings for that place. This is being “dignified with blessings and virtues.” Everyone felt joyful and grateful, and this place has regained its liveliness. This is how we, by using skillful means, can express our compassion among people in a way that is helpful to them.

Giving without expectations is the mindset the Buddha taught Bodhisattvas. This is how we “inwardly cultivate pure wisdom.” If we apply various skillful means to put our compassion into action, then after we have given to others, there is no impurity in our minds; there is only joy. Helping others in this way brings Dharma-joy. This is how we inwardly cultivate pure wisdom. We are not trying to reap any benefits from the people that we help. That is not our goal. Rather, by going among the people in this place, we are able to unlock our deep wisdom and deepen our faith, our faith in the Buddha’s teachings about “suffering, causation, cessation and the Path.” We completely understand the Four Noble Truths. Life is suffering because everything is impermanent. When we see the fragility of the planet and the impermanence of life, this strengthens our faith in the Buddha-Dharma. So, [helping others in need] is very helpful for our own spiritual practice.

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world for the sake of helping sentient beings return to their pure intrinsic nature. They want everyone to “follow the path.” By following this path of wisdom, we can walk the Bodhi-path as Bodhisattvas. This is how Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to this world without asking anything of sentient beings. They only hope that sentient beings can transcend their afflictions, the ignorance in their minds that is like a burning house. This is the goal of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in coming to this world.

After we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we follow the Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ teaching to practice compassion. Knowing that sentient beings face much suffering, we will make use of skillful means to find a way to help them. By giving to others, we benefit the world and bring dignity to each other. When you show gratitude to me and. I give to you out of love, we are showing mutual gratitude and love. This the purest kind of interaction. It is completely free of greed, anger, ignorance and various other kinds of complicated afflictions. Thus, by exercising pure wisdom we can “go among the people without being defiled.”

By “going among the people without being defiled,” we can develop our wisdom-life, our wisdom. The understanding we gain by going among people can inspire us to engage in very rich contemplation. Actually, this spiritual abundance and wisdom has always been in our minds. From one example, we can realize ten things. After a disaster like this happens, so many people are willing to give, because everyone has the same intentions. By joining their efforts they give rise to an abundance of strength to transform sentient beings.

This is why the Buddha came to inspire us to develop this intention to help. Thus, we must always outwardly practice compassion and inwardly cultivate wisdom. By practicing compassion and cultivating wisdom, by exercising both compassion and wisdom, we can benefit other people’s lives and benefit ourselves by developing our wisdom-life.

As I mentioned earlier, The Tathagata.

“Perfects infinite views and understanding powers and fearlessness, great spiritual powers and powers of wisdom. He is replete with the wisdom of skillful means and the Paramitas.”

With various kinds of skillful wisdom, the Tathagata devises ways to help sentient beings who are lost and afflicted and are giving rise to delusions and creating karma. How can He transform their ignorant minds? With skillful means, He can deliver them from this shore of afflictions and ignorance to the other shore. To deliver sentient beings in this way, He uses skillful wisdom as His tools, along with great loving-kindness and compassion.

The following sutra passage states,

“He has great loving-kindness and compassion and is never indolent or tired. He always seeks out good deeds to benefit all and thus is born in the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms.”

This sutra passage tells us that the Buddha has constantly engaged in spiritual practice for countless kalpas, walked the Bodhisattva-path for many lifetimes and has already attained enlightenment. He is already a noble being who has transcended the Three Realms. Nevertheless, His vow is to deliver all sentient beings, so He cannot bear for them to constantly reproduce afflictions and create karma in this world. Thus, for many lifetimes, He has manifested in this world in response to our needs.

This is why we often say that we should respect whomever we see. Perhaps the Buddha is among us right now; maybe one of you is the manifestation of the Buddha, because all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have remained in the Saha World and will always be among people. But His manifestation-body does not only appear among humans; He may also go to the Three Evil Realms to teach and transform the beings there. Of course, as I have constantly told everyone, this world is replete with all Five Realms. The Five Realms are the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. The Buddha lives with sentient beings in this place where the Five Destinies coexist.

So, in summary, the Buddha’s teaching that we are discussing now is the wisdom Sakyamuni Buddha left for us. More than 2000 years ago, Prince Siddhartha engaged in spiritual practice and then attained Buddhahood. As the Buddha, He taught sentient beings, and those teachings have been passed down until today. For this Dharma to exist, there had to be a “manifestation-body.”

The manifestation-body: Tathagatas manifest the body of a Buddha to teach and transform sentient beings. With compassion, They teach according to situations and relieve sentient beings’ suffering. In the burning house of the Three Realms, They never cease in their efforts.

This manifestation-body may not appear among humans. It can be among any kind of living beings. So the Buddha says, “All living, moving beings have Buddha-nature.” Over successive lifetimes, He manifests in different states to transform sentient beings. In that lifetime, [2000 years ago], He manifested as a Tathagata.

With His nature of True Suchness and by practicing the principles of True Suchness, He taught and transformed sentient beings. Therefore, He was called the Tathagata. “Tathagatas manifest the body of a Buddha.” With Their pure intrinsic nature, They manifest the Buddha-body to teach and transform sentient beings. “With compassion, They teach according to situations.” They teach people with methods that suit them.

After entering Parinirvana in India, who knows how many lives. He has lived all over the world as He continues to teach the Dharma by example and educate sentient beings in this world. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world, repeatedly and without rest. With compassion, they are never indolent or tired.

With compassion, they engage in giving, beneficial conduct, loving speech and collaborative work to transform others. These are the Four All-Embracing Virtues, the foundation of the Bodhisattva-practice. I hope everyone will always keep them in mind.

Compassion is the root of transforming others through giving and beneficial conduct. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are constantly benefiting all sentient beings in the Five Realms. With a heart of great joy and equanimity, they are never indolent or tired. They never seek any reward for their good deeds. The only thing they seek is to benefit all sentient beings.

At all times we are willing to give, and at all times we are working to benefit everyone. The foundation for transforming others is having compassion. The Four All-Embracing virtues are also the foundation of compassion.

“Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are constantly benefiting all beings in the Five Realms.” Buddhas and Bodhisattvas never stop going into the Five Realms “with great joy and equanimity.” They will forever give with great joy and equanimity for the sake of [their fellow] sentient beings in the Five Realms. Without regard for themselves, they give to others in the Five Realms. Moreover, they do so with great joy. This joy is the willingness to repeatedly return to the Five Realms to give to sentient beings. This is why they never “become indolent or tired.”

Because of their compassion, regardless of what kind of place it is, the footprints of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will be found there. So, after giving, we do not expect any reward for our good deeds. There are no such expectations. We only seek to give what is suitable. We give out of goodness, without any expectations. This is “to benefit all sentient beings.” When we give for the sake of benefiting all beings without expecting any rewards, we are doing so with the purest of minds.

“The only thing they seek is to benefit all sentient beings.” Those who just want to do good deeds and are not looking for anything in return are called Bodhisattvas.

Spiritual cultivation brings merits and virtues. With internal cultivation and external practice, “The virtuous attain.” When we engage in inner cultivation, we attain realizations. When we express these realizations, that is called virtue.

So, “The virtuous attain.” When we engage in spiritual cultivation and attain realizations, that is a virtue. “Transforming others brings benefit to them.” Cultivating ourselves is for our own benefit. Only after we attain realizations will we be willing to give to others. After we give of ourselves, what we will attain is Dharma-joy. But when we give to others we can transform them. If we share our realizations with others, we can also benefit them by influencing them to do good deeds. This brings benefit to them.

“Cultivating oneself brings merits and virtues. Transforming others brings benefit to them.” Those with merits, virtues and beneficial conduct “are cultivating themselves and benefiting others at the same time.” Thus, they “always seek out good deeds to benefit all.”

On the one hand, we benefit ourselves. When it comes to spiritual cultivation, we attain the benefit of our own practice. Every day, I give teachings. If you can take them in, you will attain [benefits]. If you do not take them in, I myself still attain [benefits], because I am grateful that so many people are willing to listen and for the technology that allows this to happen, and this inspires me to be even more diligent. This is why I say I attain [benefits], and if you listen, you will also attain [benefits]. So, we are mutually engaged in internal cultivation and attaining realizations. Then we can earnestly put these into action; this brings merits and virtues.

We can benefit by applying what we hear to ourselves and then sharing it with others. All this happens among people. When we all attain merits and virtues, we all benefit. This is how we cultivate blessings and wisdom. When we benefit others, we create blessings. When we develop our wisdom-life, we create merits and virtues. With the merits and virtues we have cultivated, we can benefit others. This is cultivating both blessings and wisdom. So, “We are cultivating ourselves and benefiting others at the same time.” We need to spend a long period of time doing this, not just a short period of time. By continuously listening and taking action, we continuously learn and develop our wisdom-life.

With “great loving-kindness and compassion,” we “are never indolent or tired.” We must not stop and should “always seek out good deeds to benefit all.” We “are born in the decaying, burning house of the Three Realms.” This burning house of the Three Realms is filled with afflictions and defilements. So, we give rise to delusion and create karma, thus accumulating various kinds of afflictions. The manifestation-body of the Buddha appears in this burning house of the Three Realms.

To save and transform sentient beings, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas live where “the beings of the Five Destinies co-exist” to continue to benefit sentient beings. They live together with them in the burning house of the Three Realms, so they can teach them. Dear Bodhisattvas, the Buddha’s grace is boundless and hard to repay. So, we should continue to diligently practice and always be mindful.