Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Three Poisons Create Countless Evils (三毒造無量惡行)
During the summer, when different air currents intersect, they may produce low-grade typhoons. If the Four Great Elements are not in balance, there will be extreme currents that pull at each other, creating atypical weather.
When the Four Elements are imbalanced, there will be excessive wind and rain. This will cause disasters. The right amount of wind and rain is healthy. If it’s not the right amount, there is an imbalance, which leads to countless problems. All things, even air currents, work like this. Our bodies work in a similar way. The Japanese refer to illnesses as “ill chi.” They think illnesses are caused by an imbalance of chi(energy) in the body. Similarly, if the elements of our minds are not in balance, illnesses will also arise. This is the source of mental problems.
When our relationships with people and things are in harmony, we experience true happiness. We feel pain if we are not in harmony with others. Without harmony, things will not go smoothly. We may experience unspeakable suffering imbalances disturb our minds, our surroundings, and our society. When people are not in harmony, many problems will be created. Indeed, everything happens because of the mind.
As I often say. If we are in harmony with people and things, we will be perfectly in harmony with principles. How can we achieve this perfection in our affairs? By taking a step back and being accommodating. If we can do so, we will naturally be in harmony with others. When there is harmony in our relationships, we are in harmony with the principles. This leads to success in work and relationships.
A world like this is most delightful. But sentient beings are drawn to the Three Confusions and thus create wrongdoings.
The Three Confusions are also called the Three Inversions. They are Inverted Thinking: Inverted Views, and Inverted Mind.
In our confusion, we lose sight of the true principles and become even more deluded and lost. In our delusion, we will not be discerning when we interact with people and things. We can use our principles to determine if someone is doing the right thing. However, if we feel even a bit of bias in our heart, we may side with someone. Even if that person is in the wrong, we will still be partial to him or her. If both parties are wrong, we will still say one person is more correct. This is biased reasoning.
Right is right, wrong is wrong, but we are unable to tell the difference because we are partial. Thus we become lost. We are confused, so we take the truth as delusion. This is the confusion of sentient beings. We see what is impermanent as permanent so we go against the natural order of things.
When our thinking is not in line with principles, we can damage our roots of goodness. This is called Inverted Thinking. Mistaken views are evil views. They are called Inverted Views. When a pure mind is deluded, it becomes confused in its discernment. This is called Inverted Mind.
Some people regard impermanence as Permanence, suffering as joy. They only care about temporary happiness because they think it is lasting and do not realize that “extreme joy brings sorrow”. In modern society, we see many people who do as they will regardless of consequences. They crave momentary pleasures that turn into tragedies. I have given many examples of this. These people go against true principles and are lost and confused. They do not adhere to reason so they disrupt the world.
Their views are backwards. Their understanding is confused. This is the root of affliction. When people’s principles are inverted, they may create all wrongdoings and all suffering in life. With 3 Confusions we may create all wrongdoings. Because of these Three Confusions, we remain in affliction and ignorance and act upon them. We see Impermanence as Permanence, not-joyful as joyful, and “no-self” as “self”. We think there is an everlasting, permanent self. These are all confusions.
“Craving 3 Existences may cause all wrongdoings. Such transgressions are innumerable & boundless.”
We must know that life comes with many sufferings. These sufferings arise from attachments. The topics we are discussing now are grouped in threes. I often talk about the Desire Realm, Form Realm, and Formless Realm. If I were to explain them with Buddhist terminology, these Three Realms will seem unrelated to us in our daily living. So instead, I want you all to think of them as our past, present and future, which is inseparable from our daily living.
There is something called Existence of Desire. As humans, we make many mistakes because of our desires. We become greedy and ignorant. Greed and ignorance are called the Two Poisons. When there is ignorance on top of greed, we crave something that we see. We should not want it, should not take it, should not have it, yet for no reason, we crave it anyway.
Aren't some countries like this? In violent regimes the people are treated harshly, while the rulers live lavishly. This goes against reason it is not right. The rulers only think of themselves. Some countries want to flaunt their strength, so they invade a faraway country. This is also wrong. These things should not happen, it should not be done. This is called greed. It is a poisonous root.
Ignorance is delusion, it causes our reasoning to be confused. Greed and ignorance are both poisonous thoughts. With them in our minds, we cannot see Truth and so anger will arise. When I want you to do this and you refuse I get angry and punish you. Greed, angry, ignorance make up the Three Poisons. Greed and ignorance appear first. When we are greedy for something that is not ours, we seek to attain it forcibly, because we have lost our principles. That is ignorance. With greed and ignorance, when anger arises, we will be unscrupulous. Then we have all Three Poisons.
Each poison is harmful. When the three are combined, their power is great. This is called a "mind of craving and attachment.” The word "existence" in the Three Existences refers to craving and attachment. There is a craving for desire, a craving for form, and also a craving for formlessness. These attachments give rise to the Three Existences.
Excessive attachment to the Three Existence, the Existence of Desire, Form and Formlessness, will initiate the Three Poisons of greed, anger & ignorance, which will cause infinite evil deeds.
First is Craving for Desire. As I mentioned sentient beings' desires arrive with birth. Newborns know how to suckle milk. They desire food right from the beginning. This does not apply just to humans. Cows, houses, goat, etc., all the animals that we can see, want food even before they can open their eyes want food before they can open their eyes. This desire comes with life. This is the way of life in the natural world. This is a true principle, we are born with it.
But as we slowly grow up, these desires go off the rails, stray from what is right. Once we let our desires run free we can never contain them. These desires go astray.
Next is Existence of Form. Existence of Desire is the current retributions that result from what we created in the past. Existence of Form is something that begins now. We have already committed actions out of our karma and ignorance and we are already reaping those fruits. Though we have experienced these bitter fruits, we do not know their origins. This is because we were not repentant. We took action but we did not promptly self-reflect and reform.
In our thoughts, we cannot forget that person or that thing. We keep thinking about it; that image remains in our minds. If it continues to remain there, it may come into Future Existence. Then our future bodies and minds will suffer the retributions. The Existence of Desire refers to the painful retributions our current bodies and minds are already facing. But something that has not yet happened, that we are just thinking about or planning, is called the Existence of Form which can also be called Future Existence. It may come into existence soon because we have the intention of making it happen.
If we really go through with it, it will truly exist in the future, very soon. This will give rise to afflictions and produce negative effects. So it is called Future Existence.
Third is Existence of Formlessness. Another term for it is Intermediate Existence. Intermediate and formlessness refer to thing that have not happened. We have not done these things in the past, and we have not yet done them in the future. We may not yet have improper cravings. Though we don't have them yet, they have an Intermediate Existence. For ordinary people the state between what we have done and may do is called Intermediate Existence. We are already suffering from what we have done. Our bodies and minds are in pain.
At this time we have yet to commit more misdeeds. But we will commit them, because we are ordinary people. We have not thoroughly self-reflected we have not reformed after we made mistakes. So even though we have not yet started thinking about doing it, nevertheless, one of these days, we will think about it. So this is called Intermediate Existence. It is a state between what we have done and are suffering from, and what we have yet to do. At this moment we are still ordinary people, with ordinary bodies and minds, and we do not know what we will do in the future.
When we ask a person, "Do you know you made a mistake?"
"Yes."
"Will you change?"
"I don't know."
This is Intermediate Existence.
"Will you change?"
"I don't know."
For example, some people have so many children they cannot support them all. So Tzu Chi volunteers ask, "Can you stop having children?" "I don't know." They have not taken action so they do not know if they can exert self-control. They have no idea. These are the ways of ordinary people.
Existence of Desire means that we have already done something and are now facing the painful retributions. Existence of Form means that we are just now planning what we will do. Existence of Formlessness means we are in between what we have already done and what we have not yet done.
To learn Buddhism, we must know cause and effect. As I just said, the Three Poisons
begin with desire. Desire is a poisonous root. Next is ignorance. This is the second poisonous root. When anger is added to the mix of desire and ignorance, it goes beyond just thinking, it will manifest as action. We may forcefully seize something that we want. Sometime we steal. What is worse, we may rob, lie, cheat, etc. These actions are rooted in the Three Poisons. Our present actions are all tied to desires. The Existence of Desire, Form, Formlessness means after we do something, it takes on an existence. The result of existence is suffering. The source of this is greed, anger and ignorance. So we must all truly be mindful.
Everyone, please reflect, very mindfully and carefully, on what already exists, or will soon exist, in our daily living. Shouldn't we also pay close attention to the thoughts in between? So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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