Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Afflictions of the Mind (心靈的煩惱)
Time marches on, by the minute, by the second, without pause. No matter how time passes, to us there is a past, present, and future.
The past keeps passing away, the present is always present, and the future continuously stays ahead of us. The meaning of continuous is that time keeps passing. So can our minds really be still? It is impossible. Our minds move with the tides of time and continuously arise, abide, change, and cease. Thus our lives continuously change; and with all these changes come endless afflictions.
Time continuously passes and the mind, along with time, continuously arises, abides, changes, and ceases. Thus we have endless afflictions.
In the midst of afflictions, over this long period of time, just how much afflictive karma have we created with our minds? What is affliction? Afflictions manifest as anxiety and fear, which arise from our desires and cravings. Once we have cravings and desires, we become worried. We worry about gain and loss.
How do we attain something? We use any means necessary. We work so hard to get things, but are we then satisfied? No, then we worry about losing it. Worries about gain and loss compound our fear.
Afflictions, anxiety, and fear arise from desires and cravings. We work to attain something at all costs, but once we have it, we fear losing it. Worries about gain and loss compound our fear.
These mental afflictions follow us throughout our lives. Over time, as we get older, in numerous situations in our relationships as we give, we have expectations so things become more complicated. The more we crave, the more we desire; our afflictions continue to evolve to this day. Will they end today? No, because the future is still to come. As we age, we constantly experience external phenomena, the connections of the sense organs with external objects, and the accumulation of conditions. Therein lies the source of our afflictions.
When these worries of gain, loss and need dictated our thoughts and actions, how much karmic force did we accumulate? What is karma? When afflictions collect in our minds and manifest as actions, we have already created karma. If that manifestation harms others, harms ourselves, or harms matters and objects, etc., then we have already created bad karma. Similarly, if we understand the reason behind our actions, we can lessen and reduce our desires and cravings. As cravings and desires fade, we naturally have less afflictions. That energy will not emerge and create karma. Creating karma takes energy, so we should always be vigilant.
When afflictions collect in our minds the resulting actions create karma. If we can lessen our desires and cravings, we reduce afflictions and create less karma.
Most importantly, we must often self-reflect. The Buddha provided many teachings, especially for lay practitioners. They must at least abide by the Five Precepts and do the Ten Good Deeds. As for monastics, we must vow to follow in Buddha’s footsteps.
We know how He lived and the conditions He lived in. Doing the same allows us to practice peacefully and truly know the source of bad karma in this world. We all know this clearly. Thus we know how to close the door to karma, so external temptations cannot easily enter our minds.
Our minds can be closed to greed and desire; we do not just shut them out, but eliminate their presence within us. We can try to see through the worldly emotions of love and hate. With love comes hate. Passions arise from love, and those feelings lead to discontent, resulting in misfortune and enmity. We know these truths, so we must eliminate cravings and desires. Then our minds will be pure, and external conditions will not lead us to create bad karma; so entanglements and enmity won’t exist. This is spiritual practice.
Recognizing the source of karma allows us to shut it out. Eliminating cravings and desire and purifying the heart is true practice.
But how can we guarantee that something as fickle as our minds will not go wild? Who can hear the Dharma and realize 1000 things? After hearing the teachings, we vow to do all good deeds, benefit all beings, do no evil, and commit no wrongs. That is enlightenment through listening. Through one thing, we can gain knowledge of many.
This is easier said than done. Take “do all good” for example. Whether we try to benefit ourselves or try to benefit the world, we should always say good things, cultivate benevolent thoughts, and treat others well. Even if we only seek to enlighten ourselves, we can at least do these three things. If we want to benefit the world or walk the Bodhisattva-path, what is unachievable? In our interactions with people and things, we should always be mindful of every subtle thought and action so that everything we do truly benefits others. This sound simple but it encompasses all the good in the world, benevolence to all humanity.
Not only should we do what we can, we must do it diligently. The concept is simple but sticking to it is actually difficult. We hear this repeatedly and say “I know, I should do it, and be diligent.” Yes, we must be diligent, but can we maintain that mindset every year, month, day and hour? Sometimes we must ask ourselves, are we being diligent? Are we constantly engaging in good deeds, benefitting humanity? This requires our constant vigilance. So we should often ask ourselves if we have been tempted, or if our behavior is correct, or if we are diligent every day, or if we diligent every day? If so, we are on the path to becoming an enlightened being.
Self-reflect constantly, move in the right direction, progress diligently every day. This is how we truly become enlightened beings.
However, we have all resigned ourselves to being human. We say it is natural to make mistakes since we are only human. Spiritual cultivation is not easy because we make excuses and become lazy. If we do not dedicate ourselves, our willpower gradually weakens. Then sense objects and external conditions tempt us. When our Six Sense Organs and Objects interact, we are lead to unwittingly create various karmas.
Therefore, we must often repent and feel remorse. If there are any erroneous thoughts, we can eliminate them quickly. This is repentance. “Like water, Dharma washes away defilements. This means that if Dharma exists in our minds, the pure water of wisdom will always remain in us. Unwholesome thoughts inevitably arise. We must quickly wash them away with wisdom, so they do not easily manifest in the presence of external conditions. Then it will be difficult for (karma) force to surge outwards in the wrong direction.
We must constantly repent. Whether we see others make a small mistake or we are tempted ourselves, we must be vigilant and self-reflect. If we are alert, self-reflective, and can openly reveal our faults, that is true repentance.
When you make mistakes, self-reflect immediately. Cleanse the mind with Dharma-water, and openly admit faults; that is called repentance.
We should always be self-aware. From Beginningless Time until now we’ve been creating karma.
Beginningless time means that things did not merely begin with this life. Through many lifetimes, we continuously created bad karma. After the end of each life, we bring the seeds of karma back to this world and start again. It is like soil: at first there is nothing. But if a seed is planted in it, slowly something will sprout. It needs support because it is small. It relies on the environment, the nutrients in the earth, as well as water, air, sun, etc.
We humans are no different. We were once simple, but our karmic forces become conditions. This is because the past affinities we created follow our karmic forces into the present. The environment, sense objects and conditions develop and connect with Sense Organs. So from Beginningless Time until now, we have been plagued by many afflictions. We have talked about the ones, twos, threes, and fours, now we are on the fives.
They are the Five Grounding States, also called the Five Grounding Afflictions. What are they? Actually, we have already talked about the Four Grounding States. We have gone over them in death.
First is Deluded Views of All Phenomena. Deluded Views of All Phenomena means as we age and interact with external conditions, whether by sight, sound or thought, everything we encounter naturally evokes confusion in our minds. Confusion is an affliction. If our thinking is confused, it is an affliction. So in this process, our sense organs slowly come into contact with external objects and conditions, and karma is inevitably created. In facing external conditions, we constantly connect with sense objects, so cravings and desires continuously arise. Thus, it is beyond our control.
Love and hate are not visible, but their energy tempts us to do wrong. Under certain external conditions, actions will result from our delusions and our ignorance. The strength of ignorance in our minds is truly tremendous. If we are led by our afflictions, what will happen? Painful retributions. Once we are tempted and affected by karmic forces, we are led by them, uncontrollably. We follow them and constantly create bad karma, a process that brings painful retribution.
When the seed of karma comes in contact with external conditions, desires constantly arise. The mind will be tempted by ignorance & afflictions to create unlimited karma, and that results in painful retribution.
Everyone, this is the first of the Five Grounding States, Deluded Views of All Phenomena. Everyone, we must know that the karmic power of our minds is frightening. We have already brought so much bad karma from previous lives. In this life, if we do not shut the door to karma, if we do not eliminate what is within us, and wash away our afflictions, the resulting karma will be unimaginable!
We are all very fortunate. Whether we are monastic or lay practitioners, we are very lucky to hear Buddha’s teachings. Dharma id like pure water that washes away our inner defilements. I encourage every one of you to be mindful, and allow the pure spring in your minds, the fountain of wisdom, to constantly erupt and wash away afflictions and defilements. Please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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