Subject: Lost in the Entanglements of Love (纏綿感情眾生迷)
Yesterday, we spoke of how the Buddha’s teachings are about remaining steadfast in our spiritual practice. To do so we safeguard our minds.
In the Sutras, it is written, “Karma from greed, anger, and ignorance causes sentient beings to fall into and suffer in Hell, Hungry Ghost or Animal Realms.”
We discussed this passage yesterday. Therefore, afflictions can also be called greed, anger and ignorance. These are the Three Poisons. Though we refer to them as greed, anger, ignorance, they are essentially afflictions. Therefore, we can say there are three, or we can group them into one, and just talk about them as afflictions.
Afflictions can be separated into 3 categories. Then those three can be divided into six. The six can be divided into eighteen. The eighteen can divided into many more. All 84,000 kinds of afflictions originate from one ignorant thought. Just one thought. Where does this ignorance come from? From the mind. This is why I constantly say that we must take good care of the mind. If we do not safeguard our minds, the Six Emotions will arise Greed, anger, ignorance rise from the Six Emotions, which are responses to the Six Sense Organs. When eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind make contact with Six Sense Objects, our minds begin to grasp and consciousness begins to discriminate. This is the cause of all chaos in the world.
The Six Senses crave the Six Sense Objects and thus produce the Six Emotions. The Six Emotions elicit the Three Poisons, greed, anger and ignorance, which cause chaos and confusion in the world.
Look at what happens in relationships when people have misguided emotions. In our present society, we see how this leads people to commit suicide, to kill or to be killed in the name of love. Love can be so overwhelming. It can entangle our minds. Therefore, we always say that we learn Buddhism to transform deluded love into enlightened love. As people, we cannot be without love and affection but what is the nature of our love? If it is deluded love, it will turn out lives upside down.
One example of this is romantic feelings. Parents devote decades to raising their children. They experience so much hardship and give so much. Parents today do not ask their children for anything in return, only that they have healthy minds and bodies and lead normal lives. This is all parents ask. A disciple of Confucius once asked him, “What is true filial piety?”
He answered, “Filial Piety is not causing our parents to worry.” Parents “worry about children getting sick.” They worry about children contracting diseases. Does this refer to physical illness? Physical illness can be treated with medicine.
What is most frightening is psychological illness, having incorrect ways of thinking. With this kind of incorrect thinking, our minds will often be deluded by love. People can rebel against their parents for the sake of someone they had just met. They cause their parents worries and hardship. What is this love that is so entangling? The entanglement can cause the mind to get sick. This type of mental illness really causes parents to worry. Nowadays, young people beginning in their teenage years, neglect their studies and get involved and entangled in relationships. This causes problems. Even if they do not commit suicide, they are hurting others. Committing suicide, being killed or killing others, are caused by mental problems. Parents are very concerned.
As they wait for children to grow up, they provide them with proper education. Parents want their children to start a normal family and get a normal job. But society and families are in chaos nowadays. This all begins in the mind. The mind indeed has so many afflictions. Just love alone can cause much trouble. So this type of entangling love causes sentient beings to become lost in greed, anger and ignorance.
These deluded thoughts are ignorance, they are afflictions. These deluded thoughts cause sentient beings to fall into Hell, Hungry Ghost or Animal Realms. This is the pain and suffering of life. So in learning Buddha’s way, it is important to take good care of our minds.
Selfish love and deluded affections can easily give rise to affliction and create a life of pain and suffering. In learning Buddhism, we must look after the mind and transform deluded love into enlightenment love. Then we will attain peace and freedom in life.
The next passage states that after we are punished in Hell, Hungry Ghost or Animal Realms, and our karma is exhausted, we can return to the Human Realm. But we will continue to suffer because when we are creating evil karma, we are not creating any blessed karma. Without any blessing, we will be born into the Human Realm “Poor, alone, malicious, stubborn, ignorant .Such afflicted retributions are the evil effects of bad thoughts.”
Therefore, “from this day forth, we must thoroughly repent. After being reborn in the Human Realm, we suffer from poverty and loneliness. When we take about poverty, many stories immediately come to mind. There are many cases that we can look at. But everywhere there are still suffering sentient beings that we do not see. How many suffering people can we encounter? We can find a way to help those we know of, and improve their lives.
Many people in the hospital are old and alone. Thought some have children and relatives, no one wants to look after them. These people are alone, not just poor. Of course poor people are already pitiable, but there are many people who are poor and alone. Some people are “malicious, stubborn.” These people are very cruel. When people are kind to them, they do not appreciate it. They refuse to accept this as kindness. They simply think being treated well is their due.
Therefore, we see many people whose parents toiled to support them, yet who do not appreciate such efforts. They are lazy to work, yet eager to spend. They refuse to work but spend extravagantly. They lose themselves in bars and casinos and live in a daze.
Then they go home and demand money from parents. If their parents do not satisfy their needs, they will beat or even kill them. There are quite a number of cases like this. These people have not a trace of gratitude or love for others. They dare to kill even their own parents or elders not to mention other people. These people committed evil in the past and had passed through the Three Evil Realms, but they remain unchanged. They are like people with prior convictions who are caught, judged and sentenced. Once they are released, they immediately seek revenge. They never think that they have harmed others or made mistakes. They do not self-reflect or repent. Their minds are filled with thoughts of revenge, resentment and hate. These people are alone and can also be considered poor. Aside from being materially poor, they also lack love, they lack gratitude and affection. These lives are considered “poor, alone”. These are all abnormal mentalities.
Suicidal tendencies are also abnormal. Nowadays, there are diseases called bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia. These are all psychological conditions. The other day, our hospital superintendent and physicians paid me a visit. As we talked I asked, “If we can treat and cure so many illnesses with medicine, why do some people conceal their illness and avoid going to the doctor? Their condition worsens and when no one is paying close attention, they commit suicide.” So I asked the doctors, “What is the cause of this mental disorder?”
They said, “It’s in the genes.” Of course, they talked about many causes, one of which was genetics.
I asked, “Isn’t this like karma?” A gene for mental disorder is just like a seed. For us, this can be called karma. Where does karma come from? From ignorance. If we have problems, we need to let them out and share with others. People think, “I have this illness. I need to see a doctor and take medication.” Actually they need to relieve their pressure. This pressure does not come from a busy workload. Rather, it is continuously generated from their minds. This is a type of mental disorder.
They do not harm others, just themselves. This is a form of mental illness. With advancements in medical research, all sorts of diseases can be treated. So people should be open about them. However, sometimes people cannot face reality. This is why they will conceal a physical or mental disorder.
We often talk about repentance. When we repent, we do not hide. If we make mistakes, we should promptly confess. If our mentality is becoming deviant, we should quickly tell someone. This is called open repentance. So in a monastic community, people always hold group confessions, which serves the same purpose. We can say, “I want to let you know what is wrong with my mindset lately. I know the Truths and principles, but I cannot fix this issue.” In this case, we find someone we can connect with and pour out our problems. Then the person will think of ways to help us. This is also a form of open repentance. Let us not suppress our afflictions. Instead, we open our hearts to let others know about our afflictions. We do this because even though we know the principles, we still have so many afflictions and there is no one to remind us, of the principles we know, we may hear one particular phrase, and say, “I knew this already but I never thought that if I use it this way. I can eliminate the afflictions that have been bothering me.”
Sentient beings can be stubborn. Sometimes we will not accept others’ criticism. We are very stubborn or just do not understand. This is the result of accumulated ignorance. We cannot indulge our ignorance and delusions. We need someone to guide us, show us the way. Otherwise, we’ll forever be immersed in delusions. Then the suffering will be unspeakable as we continue to cycle through the Three Lower Realms or end up in the Human Realm “poor, alone, malicious, stubborn, ignorant, and deluded. This vicious cycle will continue forever. All these negative retributions arise from our thoughts.
Ignorance and afflictions obscure wisdom and cause people to act in deviant ways. If we can openly repent, we can eliminate ignorance and afflictions. If we conceal and hide our problems, we will fall into the sea of afflictions and suffering, and be unable to free ourselves.
Therefore, as we learn Buddhism it is very important to take care of the mind. Afflictions arise from the mind. Karma of the mind are mental afflictions. Our minds reflect our perspectives and tendencies. So as we learn Buddha’s way, we really cannot neglect our thoughts because they can lead us to produce 84,000 kinds of afflictions. How frightening! 84,000, countless, immeasurable afflictions. As long as we maintain very simple mindsets, we can eliminate complicated afflictions. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水).
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