Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Inspire Good Thoughts Wash Away Defilements (纏綿感情眾生迷)
Every day we should resolve to sweep away our afflictions. Those of you listening carefully to the Dharma as “Water” teachings know that our afflictions tie us to this cyclic existence of life and death. This creates unspeakable suffering. So those who want to change will think about how to eliminate afflictions and purify their minds. Those who want to change their ways know they must ensure that their minds are free of afflictions.
Many people have formed their own opinions and have rejected the notion of religion. Others may be obsessed with a religion. Rejection and biased attachment are both tremendous obstacles to learning Buddhism and seeking Dharma. Those who reject religion have problems not just with Buddhism, but with other religions as well. Some already devote themselves to one religion, so when they hear about other religions, they malign, reject or have negative feelings about them.
For instance, some are so devout in their religious faith they demand that others around them, including their parents, hold the same beliefs. I heard of a woman who was originally very filial. Her parents were both Buddhists. They had the right attitude toward their faith and were dedicated to helping the community. Their daughter admired and commended them. Things were like this until she got married and had a family of her own. Perhaps she felt a lot of stress in managing a family and dealing with various circumstances, so as her friends and coworkers counseled her, they also proselytized her. Without realizing it, she began to follow another religion.
So she began to reject her parent’s religion. She felt that all their activities were wrong. She wanted her parents to convert to her religion. She also tried to convert her mother-in-law, who was also a Buddhist. Her mother-in-law told her, “We are all free to choose our own religions. I respect your decision. But your parents and my family have always been Buddhist. Don’t try to force us to change. If you do everyone will be unhappy.”
So she became annoyed at her mother-in-law. She also told her parents about this incident. Since she hoped that they would convert, she rejected her mother-in-law’s beliefs as false. Her parents also counseled her, “What you are doing is wrong. We are all free to choose our religions. Since we, your elders, gave you that freedom, you should be grateful. Don’t be discontent. Stop trying to convert your mother-in-law and us. These are our beliefs for generations, our family has been Buddhist. We are happy like this.”
From then on, she stopped visit her parents. She stopped visiting her mother-in-law, too. Though she felt very lonely, she insisted, “You are all wrong. You are all foolish and ignorant. You all have misguided beliefs.” Really, who is the ignorant one? Who has misguided beliefs? In the name of her beliefs, she severed her ties with both sides of her family. So who is really in the wrong? What is wrong is her concept of religion. True religions do not discriminate against each other. They admire, respect, and praise one another.
Religion should be like an ocean. The waters from pools, streams, and rivers can all flow into the ocean and be equally accepted. This is the mark of a true religion. Only religions with right beliefs will be this accepting and magnanimous.
Religions should not discriminate but instead should respect and admire each other. A religion with right beliefs is like a great ocean that embraces water from pools, streams, and rivers.
The Tzu Chi Great Love Village in Indonesia is a good example. For those living illegally by the Angke River, we built a Tzu Chi village with over 1000 units of housing. See, we built a very nice place for these residents where they can settle down. Then we considered their livelihood. Once they had a place to live, they needed a source of income. These entrepreneurs in Indonesia, who were our volunteers, learned what expertise and skills each family had to earn a living. Then they found them jobs according to their abilities and interests. They found a way to employ them all so that they could maintain a stable living.
At the same time, we focused on education. We established a primary and secondary school in the village. They say that these schools are the most beautiful in all of Jakarta. We also built a grand mosque in the village because about 90 percent of the residents were Muslims. A few were Protestants, Catholics, and Buddhists. Because we respected the religion of the majority, we built a mosque for them. We also built them a special room for the recently deceased. In the Muslim tradition, within 24 hours a body must be cleaned and a special service must be held before the burial. All this must take place within 24 hours. Therefore they need a mosque and a special room for cleaning the deceased. So we constructed these buildings according to Muslim customs, with Muslim symbols.
So when we built them a place to live, we also thought about their livelihood, education and even their last rites. We took everything into consideration. Who did all of this? Buddhists. Tzu Chi volunteers. Tzu Chi embraces all religions. We respect all people and all religions. We accommodate their culture and customs. We want them to be at peace, to lead a stable and prosperous life. Their children can have a place to be educated, and future leaders of society can be nurtured. This is true open- mindedness. Improving the wellness of all sentient beings is the fundamental responsibility of a religion.
So we cannot reject other religions due to our afflictions and deviated beliefs. We cannot call other religions false. Actually, rejecting others religions is also a form of misguided belief. We do so out of afflictions and ignorance. There are many kinds of ignorance and afflictions, 84,000 altogether. We must be keenly aware of the afflictions in our minds.
When ignorance and afflictions arise in our minds, “countless bad karma brings ceaseless suffering all of which originates from afflictions.”
Afflictions are at the root of all problems. Starting today, from this moment, we should recognize that in the past, we were afflicted and ignorant, so everything we did was mistaken and wrong. We must correct ourselves immediately. I often say, “Do not just seize the present to do good deeds.” Since we have attained wondrous Dharma “we must maintain that resolve forever.” When we hear good Dharma in that split second, we are happy. Since we agree with the teaching, we must hold on to it, uphold it, and maintain it.
So, in that split second, if we feel what we‘ve learned is right, we must hold on to it, and “maintain the resolve of that moment.” We must utilize the teachings we grasped in that moment. The time to do so is today.
Fellow practitioners, when I say today, I am not referring to this day. Every day is a today. If we have forgotten what we learned in these past few months, do not worry. We can start from today, from this moment.
We should “utilize this mind of goodness, plead and repent.”
We should seize the present and take action. We must express our thoughts in action. We often hear people say, “I am deeply moved.” “Moved” means we are inspired. But if we do not act, the feeling will pass very soon. We must take action. Taking action is better than being moved. To “utilize” is not just about feelings, but also actions. “Utilize” implies action. We must act quickly. We must take advantage of this “mind of goodness”.
Afflictions cause unspeakable suffering. They are the strongest restraints on our minds. Since we realize this today, we must seize this “mind of goodness” and immediately do good and uphold wondrous Dharma.
Starting now, we put what we know into action. Let us make good use of our good afflictions, which brought us together to practice Dharma. These are our Assisting Conditions. There is goodness in each one of us. Now that we know, we must arouse, utilize and make the most of this mind of goodness. Now that we have heard this, we all know it.
So we must quickly eliminate our bad habits. We must quickly do good deeds. At this time, in this moment, I believe most of you have a mind inclined toward goodness. This is our Assisting Condition. Since we have the great affinity to gather here, let us use these good conditions to inspire our goodness and take action. The first thing we should do is to “plead and repent.” Some of you may ask “If I have a good heart and do good deeds, why do I still have to repent?” Actually, we all inherently have this mind of goodness, one equal to the Buddha’s. We have the same great compassion, so we already have these good thoughts. We have simply failed to utilize them in our daily living. In the past our wisdom was not yet awakened. We were busy leading the lives of ordinary people, carrying the tendencies of ordinary people.
These habitual tendencies led us to commit many wrong deeds. We may not remember them all. Perhaps we did not realize we made those mistakes. So earlier I talked about mistakes and wrongdoings. Wrongdoings are committed intentionally. When greed, anger, and ignorance arise, we do things to benefit ourselves, and harm others. This is how we create bad karma and plant negative seeds. Mistakes are committed unintentionally or unconsciously. We did not mean to do it. So these are called mistakes. Wrongdoings are committed intentionally. Mistakes are unintentional. Think about it. Whether we do something intentionally or unintentionally, we create karma. So we humans do not realize how much karma we have created. It is truly impossible to recall everything. We simply cannot. So now that we have realized and recognized this, we must quickly “utilize our mind of goodness, plead and repent”.
Our inherent goodness is continuously influenced by people and matters, so we are covered by darkness. To bring out our inherent goodness, we must take the opportunity to strengthen it and repent with utmost sincerity to wash away our defilements with Dharma-water.
Fellow practitioners, we must repent constantly. Repentance is like water that cleanses our minds. Thus, Dharma is like water. We must constantly use it to wash away the defilements in our mind. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水).
首頁 
