Date: August 25th, 2010 (Wednesday)
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Adopting Correct Faith to Eliminate Superstitions 吉祥七月淨三業
<The footage is at a market in Kuala Lumpur on August, 2010 (The seventh lunar
month)>
“These are for ghosts and deities.”
“Why are you making offerings to them?”
“It’s the Ghost Month .”
“We pray for peach and good health. That’s all we ask for.”
“All this is for the Ghost Festival. We burn them for spirits”
“For prosperity and health.”
Faith is the source of all virtues. This is what I often say.
Indeed, if we do not have correct faith, but instead deviated from it, even the slightest bit the wayward and superstitious beliefs we develop would imprison us spiritually and prevent us from being at ease.
The ghosts we create in our minds will rein over our actions at every moment of our life, no mater what we do.
What we just saw was Malaysia.
In Malaysia, there is a large Chinese population and most of them follow the usual folk beliefs passed down from the older generations.
So, in the seventh lunar month, also known as the Ghost Month, they make offerings to ghosts and deities.
“This is the tradition that’s been passed down.”
”We must burn paper money.”
“It’s for peace and wealth.”
To pray for wealth, prosperity and peace, they burn paper money.
These beliefs are indeed superstitions that have caused people to stray from correct practices and moral principles in life.
These are also people who are very superstitious in their everyday life.
Take this Mr. Chen for example.
He used to go to different places and pray to various deities.
A Tzu Chi volunteer, Chen MingChun: “I prayed to the deities the most during the Ghost Month. I prayed to them at home, at the temple and in the streets. I also burned paper money. I was used to it. If I didn’t do all that, I’d feel very uneasy as
I feared the evil spirits would come for me.”
When he was alone at home, he’d throw rice on the floor (to ward off evil) just to gain peace of mind.
But one day, he happened to hear me say: “How can one pray for blessings without working to sow them? Can blessings come our way simply because we pray for them? That is not possible.”
Hearing that, he awakened from his superstitions. He even bought a portable DVD player to play my speech about the seventh lunar month for waiting customers at his garage.
Not only has he changed himself, but he also shares what he’s learned with others so that others can also have correct beliefs and not be superstitious anymore.
“This seventh lunar month is actually a month of auspiciousness.”
See how he was awakened, changed his superstitious ways and thus gained peace of mind.
After all, it is not possible to reap what one has not sowed.
Without doing good in our everyday life, how could we expect to have blessings?
In Malaysia, there are also live performances where entertainers perform eagerly before rows of empty seats.
Who are they performing for?
“The show is for ghosts.”
“These seats are for ghosts, not us.”
Is such a way of pleasing the ghosts and deities correct?
Will ghosts and deities really go watch the shows?
That is why we must have correct faith based on true principles.
Before we take a step forward, we must make sure there is solid ground before us. Otherwise, we’d step on nothing and fall.
Similarly, in cultivating ourselves, we must walk on the path that the sutras point out for us.
Before we can walk this path, we must first work to pen it and pave it.
And only with faith and willpower will we be able to pave a smooth and even path for others to follow onto.
To guide people onto the path, we must share correct faith with them.
In fact, this correct faith lies within every one of us.
As long as we guide people to see this, they’ll give rise to faith, and naturally, their superstitions will be eliminated.
This is what we must work hard to do.
“Can we have blessings simply by praying for them?”
“No, we must do good to sow blessings.”
By performing skits and showing footage for people to see, we can guide them to understand the message we wish to convey and then
explain the principles behind it.
A child, Zhong LiJyun: “It was cruel to kill those chickens. Removing their combs is just horrible. I’m going to eat vegetarian for a month.”.
Miss Huang: “I don’t burn paper money anymore, nor do I kill for the sake of making offerings. Seeing how animals were killed, I don’t want to eat meat anymore.”
Mrs. Li ShuBao: “Now I know that I need to change my ways.”
Mr. Li WeKang: “If possible, I’d like to become a vegetarian.”
See how people have decided to change their ways after our volunteers showed them the footage about how animals are killed for food.
This is how we can awaken people from their wayward ways, and this is what we should work harder to do.
We see that our volunteers in Malaysia are holding seven prayer gatherings in Kuala Lumpur this week.
We also see everyone praying with sincere piety. By praying and chanting together with a pure heart, everyone is truly making the most sincere and pious offering, bringing out a sense of auspiciousness, which is the true meaning of this month.
Our volunteers also promoted filial piety by performing the musical play based on the Sutra of Profound Gratitude to Parents (父母恩重難報經).
After seeing the performance, many people in the audience were inspired and regretted how they treated their parents.
Mr. Li WeKang: “I think of my mother, and now I know that I must cherish and care for her. I want to tell my mom, “I love you.”
This young man has realized that he must spend more time with his parents and let them know how much he loves them.
See how our volunteers’ sincere performance has deeply touched people’s hearts.
This is how we can share teachings with others to truly inspire them, change their wayward views, and further lead them to head in the right directions in life and be filial to their parents.
It’s indeed very touching to see.
In fact, to take part in this performance, everyone had been eating vegetarian and maintaining a heart of since piety.
Indeed, before chanting sutras, we must abstain from meat and make sure that our deeds, speech and thoughts are upright.
That’s why we must observe the vegetarian fast.
See, by taking part in the performance, they were actually practicing the vegetarian fast.
In folk tradition, before making offerings to deities, people would have to maintain a vegetarian diet for three days.
Yet, after the three days, they’d resume killing animals and eating meat.
This truly isn’t the right things to do.
What people do in the first three days is right, but their actions afterwards take away all the merits they’ve gained.
As Buddhist practitioners, we must abide by our precepts, take good care of our deeds, speech, and thoughts, and be sincerely
pious every day.
We truly must be prudent and sincerely pious, have correct beliefs, and not be superstitious.
So, everyone, please take good care of your minds.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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