Episode 309 – The Turbid Kalpa of Dharma-degeneration
>> “The Five Turbidities constantly grow worse, and the world gradually becomes more turbid. The era is changing and becoming more impure. We are now undergoing Dharma-degeneration. Confusion of right and wrong causes unbearable suffering. This is the turbid era of Dharma-degeneration.”
>> “Sariputra, all Buddhas appear in the evil world of the Five Turbidities, which are the turbidity of kalpa, the turbidity of affliction, the turbidity of sentient beings, the turbidity of view and the turbidity of life.”
>> The turbidity of kalpa refers to being born in an era of decay. Famine, epidemics, wars and so on arise one after another. There is never a day of peace.
“The Five Turbidities constantly grow worse,
and the world gradually becomes more turbid.
The era is changing and becoming more impure.
We are now undergoing Dharma-degeneration.
Confusion of right and wrong causes unbearable suffering.
This is the turbid era of Dharma-degeneration.”
Things in the world right now are really chaotic. The Buddha-Dharma talks about “the evil world of the Five Turbidities.” The Five Turbidities are impurities. The Buddha examined how our world undergoes formation, existence, decay and disappearance. Before anything came into existence, countless kalpas ago, things gradually entered the state of “formation.” After they were formed, they entered “the kalpa of existence.” Thus, the world, living things and humans came to exist. At this time, all things and sentient beings had already come into being. This is the period of “existence.”
The “kalpa of existence” has lasted a long time. Over this long period of time, sentient beings continued to grow and reproduce. Thus, interpersonal relationships became more and more complicated, and simple things became more complex. Complexities arose from the mind and complicated the relationships between people. Complications then led to conflicts, and conflicts generated much karma. After this karma was generated, people’s minds became defiled, and people and matters became chaotic. This is “turbidity.”
[Relationships] were originally simple and pure, but gradually people wanted to control each other, so things became complicated. So, the Five Turbidities arose during “the kalpa of existence” and gradually grew over a long period of time. Humans continued to become very complicated and develop more turbidities.
We often use “the world” to refer to time and space. Time and space are limited, but people’s minds are boundless. In this world, time and space are very vast. We are humans, and we live on this planet. Specifically, we are in Taiwan, which is just a very tiny place on this planet but it holds a population of over 20 million. Each one of us has such a small [presence], [especially compared to] the entire planet.
On this planet, there are between 100 and 200 countries. These countries all want to control each other. This starts very small, from individuals’ [actions,] and expands to affect the entire world. People go from wanting small things to wanting to occupy other countries. This evolves into manmade disasters and leads to wars. In this way, turbidity spreads across the world.
This is what life is like now. In this era, things have become more impure. Not only are people’s minds impure, even the atmosphere is impure because it has been polluted by humans. This era and this world we live in are no longer pure. We humans are living in [a world] without clean air. This is all caused by humans in the world. We are in the era of Dharma-degeneration. Morals are on the verge of decay in people’s minds. What are morals? People no longer know. We can see that society is in an unbearable mess.
Now, in this era of Dharma-degeneration, every day we can clearly see how terrifying human minds can be. This is because [our understanding] of “right” and “wrong” has become clouded. What is right? What is not right? To be a good person takes a sense of propriety. In the past, people’s thinking was, “I did something wrong, so I feel ashamed. I am afraid of others finding out.” This is because they have a conscience. Nowadays, when people do something wrong, they are actually [proud of it] because they have lost their conscience. Without a sense of remorse, they have a distorted sense of right and wrong and cannot recognize Right Dharma.
We must earnestly, mindfully do the right things and promptly feel remorse for our wrongdoings and repent them; this shows our conscience. So, we should know what is right and wrong. Committing wrongdoings is very shameful; we must not do those things. Unfortunately, people of this era do not have this sense of remorse. Therefore, [their sense of] right and wrong has been clouded.
As I mentioned before, water is naturally clear. But soil and mud will contaminate it. How do we return the water to its original purity? Only by diluting the soil and mud with a constant stream of clean water. As clean water is continuously poured in, the impurities will gradually be eliminated. But now, in this turbid era of Dharma-degeneration things are very clouded, and Right Dharma is fading away. However, Right Dharma exists in our minds. Though this is the era of Dharma-degeneration, Right Dharma will always remain. We humans are just very confused, so we do not see the Dharma or accept it. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
Living in this modern era, we have already been gradually defiled. As the atmosphere becomes permeated by evil and turbidity, we gradually lose right mindfulness. This is what we must work [to prevent]. As we look at the world, we see the changes in people’s hearts. They have begun to eliminate superstitions and to gradually learn Right Dharma. However, how many of the over 20 million people [in Taiwan] have actually encountered Right Dharma? Perhaps 10 percent? 20 percent? We do not know.
Though we have worked very hard, we have only reached 10 percent [of the people;] we have not seen the remaining 90 percent. We hope that this 10 percent can become 20, 20 will become 40 and 40 will become 60. Perhaps we can gradually purify turbidities in this way.
In modern media, on the internet, there is something called Facebook. We can do many things with the click of a finger. When we have a thought, we write a few words. Then with the click of a finger, it causes a ripple effect. When just a drop of water falls into a pond, its effect spreads very quickly. So, having many turbid thoughts will have a great impact. If many people work hard to learn Right Dharma, when will it become just as pervasive? With just one click, it will be accessible to everyone. But there are many severe obstacles to this.
These severe obstacles have created turbidities in this world. So, obstacles lead to turbidities, which greatly obstruct Right Dharma, so evil influences are constantly spreading. This is what we should be worried about; we call them “turbidities.”
From the previous sutra passage, we learned that the Buddha said to Sariputra,
“Sariputra, all Buddhas appear in the evil world of the Five Turbidities, which are the turbidity of kalpa, the turbidity of affliction, the turbidity of sentient beings, the turbidity of view and the turbidity of life.”
[The world] has already been polluted by turbidities. This is why all Buddhas appear in the evil world of the Five Turbidities. We mentioned this previously.
All Buddhas share the same path. Each Buddha appears in the world because sentient beings are suffering. Suffering is caused by sentient beings’ delusions. Delusions give rise to afflictions, which arise from views and understandings and result in the “turbidity of life.” In this era, people truly face unbearable suffering. This is why Sakyamuni Buddha comes to the Saha World. He manifests in this turbid world to teach the One Vehicle Dharma.
We all know living in the Six Realms is suffering. To transcend the Six Realms, we must return to our pure intrinsic Buddha-nature so that we will no longer be trapped by cyclic existence, which is the turbidity of life. We had no control over being born in this evil world of the Five Turbidities.
This is the “kalpa” we are in. A kalpa is a very long period of time. How long is it? Each kalpa is comprised of one increasing and one decreasing kalpa. Since the beginning of the decreasing kalpa, turbidities have continued to arise. Once they arise, they keep growing worse.
Just how long is each “decreasing kalpa”? As long as it takes for an average human lifespan of 84,000 years to decrease to an average of ten. This is called a “decreasing kalpa.” During a “decreasing kalpa,” turbidities slowly develop. Consider the length of this period of time. The more time passes, the more turbidity there is.
This is why the Buddha appeared in this era. The worse the turbidity, the more urgently we need the Buddha to teach. He gives teachings so we will be able to quickly purify our hearts. The Buddha appears in this turbid world for this one great cause, to teach the One Vehicle Dharma.
We all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. We must all quickly look within to contemplate our intrinsic nature. Then, with the sense that time is running out, we will become diligent. The Buddha comes to the evil world of the. Five Turbidities to teach the One Vehicle Dharma.
As I mentioned previously, “turbid” means very polluted; it is a severe level of impurity. Consider the sandstorms we have seen. During a sandstorm, all we see is a thick cloud of sand. Driving on the road, we cannot see more than couple meters ahead. Similarly, as soon as an evil wind blows, the dusts of ignorance and afflictions fly up. This is an era of severe turbidity, so we call it the evil world of the Five Turbidities. A “kalpa” is a long period of time, and we are now living in this long period of time.
The turbidity of kalpa refers to being born in an era of decay. Famine, epidemics, wars and so on arise one after another. There is never a day of peace.
The turbidity of kalpa refers to being born in an era of decay. In this era, what worries us most are famines, epidemics, wars and mutual conflicts.
Take famine for example. As more people are born, more and more food is needed. Nowadays, people need a lot of food. To satisfy their cravings, they raise many animals, who also consume a lot of food. Think about how much food we need to produce. Moreover, the four elements are imbalanced, so frequent droughts prevent successful harvests. Sometimes, right before a harvest, a storm or a flood destroys everything. This leads to famine.
In addition to natural disasters, manmade disasters also prevent farming from taking place. There may be land, but no one can focus on cultivating it. Some wealthier countries, for the sake of trade, have asked farmers to stop farming. For older generations of farmers, they are happy to enjoy their retirement. For the middle-aged farmers, they abandon agriculture to go into business. This also leads to famine. So, there are many causes of famine.
For people in Africa, or those escaping wars and violent conflicts, many of them have nothing to eat. They barely even have time to escape. [Aside from famine], there are also epidemics. We constantly hear about how people raise animals and how viruses in those animals’ bodies cross over to infect humans.
Right now, just the human population alone has increased exponentially. Humans are the most turbid. The Buddha said to contemplate the body as impure. [The surface of] our body is impure, and the inside of our body is even worse. Think about how impure humans are. Viral infections are also transmitted by people. The things we worry a lot about, aside from famines, are epidemics. Famines and epidemics constantly occur. Then there are also armed conflicts and wars. Countries invade each other, and people oppose each other.
Many countries were involved in. World War I and then World War II. Sometimes there is conflict within a country, between government and anti-government forces. Anti-government forces are organized to fight against the government. People of the same ethnicity fight and kill one another. People of the same nationality fight against each other. We see many examples of this. [These conflicts] are common in this world.
So, within the turbidity of kalpa, there are so many [problems]. These things constantly occur, one after another, so “there is never a day of peace.” Living in this era, even one day of harmony, with the entire world at peace, is truly impossible to ask for. Since we cannot ask others for it, we must look to ourselves to find a way to bring peace to our minds. If our minds are at peace, then we can all live in peace. Then the pure streams in our minds can eliminate the turbidity of this era. This is only possible with pure minds.
Think about this. Famines are caused by humans. Diseases are also caused by humans. Wars are also caused by humans. Our thoughts and our perspectives and so on shape this era and have transformed it into a kalpa of turbidity. Over time, living in such serious turbidity is indeed unbearably painful.
Let us think about this carefully. If we do not thoroughly understand the Five Turbidities, small problems can accumulate and become very serious. So, we must always be mindful and cultivate our purity.