Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Fivefold Stinginess (Part 1) (五慳)
Early this morning, before I entered the main hall, I smelled the sweet fragrance of the trees, the grass, and the soil. Even the air smelled good. In this tranquil environment there were no sounds of wind or rain, just the stillness of the ground, the chirping of the birds, the bugs, and the breathing of the earth. The sweet smells of nature were also present. It was such a beautiful experience.
Everyone, living in such a blessed environment, we must constantly be grateful. To have a grateful heart is to create blessings. Only with gratitude can we live harmoniously with our environment. Therefore, we must cultivate our blessings. To do so, we must be open-minded. An open mind is one with empathy. Only those with an open mind can fully understand the principles of the universe, the nature of human relations, and gain knowledge of all matters. This means that our wisdom is naturally in touch with everything in the universe.
We can easily and quickly distinguish between the fragrance released by a tree, or by the earth, and so on. To awaken our consciousness, we need to always keep an open mind. To open our minds, we need to start by learning the way first. It is often said that “Dharma is like water”.
Do our minds have afflictions? If so the mind is polluted and we need to cleanse it with the Dharma-water.
An open mind is one with empathy. Only those who have an open mind can fully understand the principles of the universe and of human relations. To open our minds, we need to use Dharma-water to cleanse all afflictions.
We have previously discussed the Five Grounding States and Five Hindrances. Let us now discuss the Fivefold Stinginess. Stingy means greedy. As mentioned before, we must keep an open mind to be empathetic. Greediness and stinginess lead to a narrow mind. A stingy person likes to keep everything to himself. Regardless of what it is he must be the only one to own it. He becomes unhappy if others have it. This is called stinginess. When one is unwilling to give or share even a bit, it is also called stinginess. This all comes from a greedy mind.
How many types of stinginess are there? The Fivefold Stinginess may cause all wrongdoings. The Fivefold Stinginess: Stinginess of Abode, Stinginess of Sharing Alms, Stinginess in Praise, Stinginess of Assets, Stinginess of Sharing the Dharma.
The first is Stinginess of Abode. It refers to our living space. Living in this world, between Heaven and Earth, we all need a space of our own. It is like how we all live here together. Although this monastic community is big, in the dormitory rooms our personal space is limited, and we also need to follow rules. Since we are here to practice, we should focus on keeping a big heart, instead of a big room.
Our living areas do not need to be luxurious or spacious. No. Instead, we should work on reducing worldly possessions and opening our minds. This is the way to spiritual practice.
In our daily living, we need to reduce our desire for worldly possessions, and open our minds. This is the way to spiritual practice. I have often asked, “How big of a living space do we need?” The largest bed we need is six-by-three feet. This will be enough.
There is no need to extend it three to six feet more. A person’s body is not that big, so there is no need to add extra space. Besides the bed, let’s talk about the room. Each of our monastic rooms can comfortably accommodate three to five people. Is it necessary to assign only one person per room? No. There is no need for a big room.
It is better to have a big heart. This is also a way of spiritual practice.
If we can accommodate more people in our monastic room, we will gain more blessings. With more fellow practitioners, we can all discuss the Path. We can discuss what we heard today, what we saw today, and what moved or inspired us. These discussions, this sharing can expand our wisdom and affirm our determination to pursue our spiritual path. If we share the room with many people who gossip all day long, or if we each have a room and invite others over for gossiping then this will damage our virtues and wisdom.
To gather in cliques and gossip about others is to damage our virtues and wisdom. Yet to discuss and share Dharma in groups is to increase our wisdom and affirm our determination in our spiritual practice.
The purpose of our spiritual practice is to enhance our virtue and wisdom, thus purifying and calming our minds. Then, even in a narrow and crowded place, our spiritual path will be wide and open. So we should not be stingy about our living space.
Invite friends in to practice Dharma together. This is the right way. Wherever we live, in addition to our own space, we also have neighbors whom we must treat with an open mind. I have often said to Tzu Chi volunteers that we must treat our neighbors kindly. We must keep an open mind toward all our neighbors.
In modern society, people are getting more narrow-minded. Nowadays, there are even cases where someone is building a new house and the new house is higher than the neighbor’s. In this case, the neighbor insists that when the sun is out, the new building must not cast a shadow on their house. This means that the height limit on a new house depends on the distance between the neighboring houses. How do we explain this? It is because when the sun is out, it is possible that the new building will cast a shadow on the neighboring house. Nowadays, there is such an unofficial rule. Otherwise, the neighbor can project about the shadow on their house.
You see, so narrow-minded that there is even restriction on the shadow when someone is building a house on their own land. There really is much frustration in this life. Also, personal rights are overly exercised. People act however they please, “I own this space; I live here. I’ll use every excuse to keep you away. This is the Stinginess of –not wanting others to live too close.
The second is Stinginess in Sharing Alms. People usually want more for themselves. If a monastic person, when receiving alms, thinks that he should get more offerings from people, then that is Stinginess in Sharing Alms.
As for lay people, we have never heard anyone say that he or she makes too much money or that he or she is given too much profit. We have only heard people complain about not making enough profit.
Take the tsunami in southern Asia as an example. When it occurred, thanks to Tzu Chi volunteers all over the world who come together and offered help, we were able to provide immediately disaster relief. Many people become homeless. In Aceh, Indonesia, there was an earthquake. Besides the earthquake, Aceh also suffered a tsunami. It was quite devastating.
In addition to Indonesia, over ten countries were impacted. When offering assistance, we choose as top priority the places that needed new housing. There were two such countries. In Malaysia and Thailand, after our emergency relief, we evaluated and found that local authorities could help themselves. But there were two other places that needed serious help. There were Aceh and Sri Lanka. These two places truly needed outside help and care.
So Tzu Chi volunteers in Indonesia, with help from people worldwide, took care of Aceh. There, Tzu Chi built Da Ai villages at several sites, with a total of 3700 houses. In the case of Sri Lanka, we also contracted out the work and commenced construction. But after breaking ground in April, 2005, after we awarded contracts to builders, the cost of materials kept rising. The contractors felt very uneasy about the increase of cost. So they slowed down the construction.
A group of our construction commissioners called me and said, “Master, the market price is fluctuating. To expedite the construction, the only thing we can do is increase the construction budget, because the contractors feel the price will go up more.” So even with the contracts signed, when they heard that the price would go up again, they slowed down the construction. We did know why the progress was so slow. After talking to them, we realized that no one wanted to be short-changed. They thought that they needed more profit, that they should make more money. So they dragged out their schedule. This is also Stinginess in Sharing Alms.
They were greedy for more profits, or they would have finished the job earlier. At that time, we selected the building materials based on what the local people were accustomed to, which were clay brick houses. Building clay brick houses was a good idea. The construction site was at a higher ground with no earthquakes. The clay houses were similar to those in Bam, Iran. Remember? When an earthquake occurred in Bam, our relief team was there to help. Clay houses were used in Bam for over 2000 years.
As long as they are not immersed in water for long, the house will be fine when the water recedes. Another advantage is that they are warm in winter and cool in summer. Since clay houses are part of Sri Lanka's culture, we considered using clay bricks from the outset. But due to the large quantity, it would take over two years to manufacture them, which was too slow. So we switched to cement bricks. The contractors were also happy with cement. But the price kept fluctuating, so they used this opportunity to raise their price.
Changes in the world and people's restless minds led to heavier burdens. This is due to the notion that "Doing business is about making money. I'll slow down when the price increases so that I won't lose profit." This kind of attitude is called Stinginess of Sharing Alms, which is trying to obtain more for oneself. This comes from the desire to posses all and not allow others to receive more profit than us. This is due to people being overly narrow-minded, they cannot open their minds. This negative habitual behavior of ordinary people is not their innate nature.
Our innate nature is as bright and clear as that of the Buddha. But all of us have negative habits. Stinginess is a negative habit of ordinary people. The insatiable desires for a better and more spacious living place, or higher profits than anyone else are all part of stinginess and greed. Wanting more but being unwilling to give is called stinginess.
Our innate nature is pure, yet our habitual tendencies lead us to always desire more. This is stinginess and greed.
In learning Buddhism, we must practice kindness, compassion, joy, and giving. Being happy every day, we can accommodate a lot. We should open and broaden our hearts. We should expand our minds, instead of expanding material possessions.
Everyone, the Buddha is immensely wise. He pointed out every bit of our shortcomings. For example, our neighbors might see our place as too tiny, or we might discriminate and complain about our neighbors, "I live here. I don't want you as a neighbor, so you can't live next door." Laypeople may also encounter such neighbors.
Or we may feel that it is our misfortune to live next to a certain family.
We never reflect that maybe they also feel the same about us. How can we communicate with them? How can we spread love and kindness to them? Whether leading a monastic life or living at home, we need to guard against stinginess.
A stingy mind stays aloof from others. In modern terms it is being aloof and arrogant.
So we should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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