20150301念純無私覺有情 To Have Enlightened Love to Save All Living Beings
Seconds and minutes continue to pass by nonstop. Yet, in our world, many conflicts and unrest still remain. Disasters are still happening frequently in the world. Looking at these disasters, I can’t help but remind everyone to be grateful for the peace we have been enjoying and to face everything in life with utmost caution and sincerity. Such a mentality is what we always need to harbor at every moment.
We also saw a video clip that shows what the Buddha said about all living beings have an innate Buddha nature. In India, there was a monkey, for some unknown reason, was electrocuted by high-voltage wires and fell unconscious. A second monkey saw this and courageously rushed to the wounded one. A third monkey guarded them by their site. The second monkey tried various ways to save its unconscious friend. Be it by shaking, pushing, slapping, turning it over or around, the monkey just couldn’t wake up its friend.
After trying in vain for some time, the rescuing monkey came up with an idea dipped its unconscious friend into cold water and splashed water over it. We saw how hard the monkey shook its fellow friend. Why did it do this? To save its fellow primate.We saw how hard the monkey had done to save its fellow friend. The monkey was so caring. The humans coolly stood on the station platform to watch this.
See, the wounded monkey came back to life, and the second monkey still held its friend up. They are only animals, yet ironically they are more loving than humans. How can we believe in the Buddha’s teaching of all living beings possess the Buddha nature.
Also, in the Yunnan province of China, there was a powerful earthquake that had many wild animals scatter for cover. But a red panda, Xiao Huang, returned after the earthquake. The keeper of the wild life enclose saw Xiao Huang behaving strangely because she did not take her favorite apples but took pears she never liked and ran off immediately into the forest. Where was Xiao Huang running off to? The keeper ran after her because situation was quite unusual for Xiao Huang to choose pears and not apples, her favorite fruit. And where was she running to? The keeper followed and saw why.
There was another red panda that was crushed beneath a fallen tree, Xiao Huang took the pears and tried to feed the crushed red panda. The keeper was quite taken by this image and quickly helped to remove the fallen tree to rescue the red panda from under the fallen tree but the red panda had already died from injuries. The keeper placed the deceased red panda into plastic bag. But Xiao Huang, the other red panda, wouldn’t let go and tried to grab the bag. She wouldn’t let the keeper take it away. Such care and love among animals, whether it’s monkeys exhibiting enlightened love or the panda’s care for another.
We see the care and love among all living beings. It’s truly very touching. News reports about mad cow disease have resurfaced. The infectious agent, a mutated protein is very hard to destroy. No matter how high the cooking temperature is this mutated protein doesn’t break down. Therefore, it is safer not to eat beef.
We saw a five-year-old girl insists on being a vegetarian because she cherishes all living beings. She pay attention to protect even tiny ants. Please be careful. Who should be careful? Ants. Don’t scare me. She wants us to walk carefully. If we are careless and don’t watch out, we can step on ants. Then, the little ants can’t find their mom or dad. Even a small child knows that killing even one little ant will upset the entire ant family. Want fried chicken? Pork chop? No. Why do you put an X on the baby pig? It means “no eating.” Why not? His mom and dad will cry if they can’t find him.
Look at the innocence of children. We all have Buddha nature. So, how come we’ve lost it when we grow up? We were born with such innocence and purity. Take the little children in Tzu Chi for example. I often say that these little children are returning Tzu Chi volunteers who had passed away. Now that they have returned to the world, they still remember what they had learned from their past lives. They are born with such a pure heart to protect the life of animals and insist on eating vegetarian, and participate in sutra adaptations.
They take in the Dharma so easily. This is because they’ve carried the Dharma with them to this life. If people don’t learn the Dharma and let themselves be tainted by worldly desires as they grow older, they’ll develop incorrect views, have obscure life’s principles, and spread ignorance, which will disrupt peace in our society. This is truly worrisome. The Dharma is like water that can purify people’s hearts, enable them to understand life’s principles nurture their wisdom and keep them healthy and safe. How wonderful this is.
Seeing these videos, we should reflect and repent. If animals and children can be so loving, why can’t we adults? There is a pure Buddha nature inside every one of us. But, this Buddha nature is covered up by our ignorance. There’s a saying Humans are born good and kind. However, as we mature and grow old, we let the chaos and temptations in the world delude us of our nature, which prevents us from tapping into our innate wisdom.
We are always in delusion and cannot make a clear sense of what we hear. Out of our ignorance, we blindly take in what people say or intentionally create troubles in the world. Only wisdom can help us understand life’s principles.
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