Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Nine Bonds Part 2(九結二)
A tranquil environment can truly clear our minds, so we have no afflictions and no hindrances.
The Superintendent and Asst. Superintendent of our hospital came here accompanying a group of medical students who were about to start their residency. They came here to experience life and the Tzu Chi spirit.
I saw these students, who would soon leave school and enter the hospital to learn from doctors about patient care. I think that it is very important for people in the medical profession, who possess a high social status, to cultivate an open and loving mind. A doctor needs to treat patients with painstaking attention, and care for them like his own family.
Doctors learn Great Love and attentiveness through personal interaction, but first must learn from a teacher who is an experienced doctor. They observe the teacher’s manner of speech and action and receive his knowledge. So they must be humble and open their minds. They must also be earnest to take in their teacher’s special knowledge. Most important is learning how to treat the patients. Residents must be mindful and respectful when observing a doctor-patient interaction. They should observe and listen carefully to how their doctor-teachers treat and care for their patients. The doctor-patient relationship takes wisdom. No matter which hospital they serve, medical residents must gain wisdom. Good medical treatment without good beside manners is not good enough. Residents must distinguish between good patient interactions and poor ones.
I once heard a very good doctor speak of his experiences in becoming a doctor. He said he had vowed to become a doctor. At school, he learned mindfully. He encountered teachers with varying temperaments. So he mentally noted the good examples and used the bad examples to remind himself. He still observed carefully after he started working in a hospital because he needed to choose a specialty after his internship. Before he entered a residency program, he needed to make a decision on what his specialty was going to be. Before he decided, he had to experience them all.
He told me he learned both good and bad from his teachers. He entered the hospital with a vigilant mind and shadowed every doctor this way. He knew which doctors were particularly attentive to their patients and which doctor to follow. He analyzed his options carefully, because he planned to dedicate his life to saving lives in that specialty. This happened a long time ago. In his conversations he conveyed his mindset.
At every stage of learning, we should learn to differentiate good from bad. We should apply the good and use the bad as an opportunity for self-reflection.
After our medical school was built, our class of students donned their white coats and took an oath. In their oath, they pledged to carry out their medical mission with love. They pledged to respect their patients and take care of both their bodies and minds. As I heard them recite the oath together, I felt hope for the future.
I often say that everyone should respect themselves. We should respect our own abilities. The Buddha taught us to have self-respect, but we also need to respect others. Not only that, we need to respect other religions as well. Aren’t Tzu Chi volunteers like that? We respect others regardless of religion, and we also respect their religions. If we only cared about ourselves, and showed disregard for others, our arrogance would grow. Once those thoughts arose, our arrogance would increase with our technical skills and status. That would be terrible.
Therefore, people say, “In high positions you need to be humble”. If their status is high, it is not easy to be humble. If you are only looking to go up, when you fall, you will be terribly hurt. So, among their fundamental responsibilities, teaching by example is important, especially when doctors teach bedside manners. People are responsible for themselves. Teachers need to teach mindfully and students need to learn mindfully. There is a saying, “Teachers guide, but students have to practice.” When we know the truth, we know to humble ourselves so we can lead happy lives.
It is said, “Self-love needs to complement self-respect.” People with self-respect who lack self-love appear arrogant, but actually they do not love themselves. They do not appear pleasant or likable. So, both self-respect and self-love are important. Not only do we need to respect others, we need to love ourselves. If we can love ourselves, then we are capable of loving others. So, both self-respect and self-love are important. Not only do we need to respect others, we need to love ourselves. If we can love ourselves, then we are capable of loving others. This is an obvious truth. If we truly love ourselves, we can be humble. By reducing our egos, we can respect others. If we love ourselves, we take good care of our body, speech and mind. Then we can be humble and cherish others. That is the way to cultivate blessings and wisdom in the world.
Those who can love themselves know how to be humble. They always take good care of their body, speech, and mind, and are modest torward others. They are truly endowed with wisdom and blessings.
So the truth of life is pretty simple. An undefiled mind does not hold grudges. When the mind is cleared, no afflictions remain. We let go of our worries, so our minds are undefiled and free of negativity. When we hear others speak this way, it adds to Dharma in this world. Practice is not independent of worldly phenomena Buddha-Dharma was taught for people in this world.
Yesterday we spoke about Bonds, how our minds are entangled. We spoke about the Bond of Craving. Our minds can be bound by desires, like a rope tied into many knots. If we cannot open our minds, we cannot empty out all our afflictions, or let go of worries. When worries remain in our minds, they multiply and increase our ignorance. That entanglement is painful. Cravings and desires are like this.
Next is the Bond of Anger. Anger is having a bad temper. Why do we often lose our temper? It is very painful. There’s a common saying, “I’m so mad I could die.” That shows how deeply we suffer from anger and how helpless we feel. So we say we are so mad we could die. Isn’t death what people fear most? But we get so mad we could die. Truly, that captures the ultimate form of pain and unhappiness in life. The Bond of Anger is very painful.
Our minds cannot be calmed, no matter what. Because our minds are restless, when we see someone who we do not like, everything that person says irritates us. When rage overwhelms us, that anger comes from hatred. An erratic mind will result in such fury. With people or things, regardless of right or wrong, we easily get enraged. So if we do not take care of our minds, we will suffer unspeakably.
So it is said, “Anger and hatred cause sentient beings to commit a wide range of bad deeds, which causes them to continuously transmigrate in the Three Realms with no way out.” "That is the Bond of Anger.”
According to this passage, sentient beings like us are easily agitated and feel unsettled due to inharmonious thoughts in the mind. Some people get involved with others’ issues in the name of justice. “When injustice exists, onlookers become enraged.” Even if they have nothing to do with it, they still want to get involved. This type person leads a difficult life. An unsettled mind is prone to creating conflict.
There is a story in Sutra where someone said, “I’m a kind-hearted person.”
Someone else said, “You? You’re a very bad person.”
“How am I bad?”
“You’re quick to anger.”
When he heard the other man say this, he picked up a chair and was about to hit him.
“You see! You see! Aren’t you losing your temper right now?”
“I didn’t lose my temper. You said I was bad first.”
He was going to hit someone because that person told him he was bad. Didn’t that show his bad temper and unreasonable attitude? When friendly conversations easily turn sour, one has a difficult life.
His temper was his habit. And if that habit grows, he won’t be able to tell right from wrong, and will impulsively commit bad deeds. Don’t we frequently hear about kids who get beat up on the street simplely because they looked at someone? Kids from gangs and disregard right and wrong. Their minds are disrupted; they hurt others and cause chaos in society. This is from the Bond of Anger. It is very easy for people to quickly lose their tempers. When they see something, they cannot calm their minds, so they act impulsively and engage in many bad deeds. Thus they “commit a wide range of bad deeds.”
If this continues, they let their habits run their actions, and they will turn into bad people. We should start by changing our habits. Otherwise, once bad karma is created it will be very difficult to undo this Bond, even over many lifetimes. If we do not change our habits now, we will create causes. When conditions gather again, the karmic retribution will manifest. This causes us to continuously transmigrate and suffer in the Six Destinies and the Three Realms. The suffering is truly unspeakable.
We should start by changing our habits. If do not change them quickly, we will continue to create bad karma. When the time comes to face karmic retribution, we will suffer unspeakably.
We talked about the Three Realms, and the past, present, and future. These can be long periods of time or they can be short periods of time. Right now as I speak, if you glare at me, you create bad affinity between us. Then I know you do not like what I say and I will hold that against you. At that moment, enmity is created. Later on when you speak to me, I will ignore you.
Right now, as I am here speaking, if I see you smile and nod, I feel my words well-received. Later I will approach you and ask if you enjoyed the talk, and whether you share my thoughts and aspirations. Perhaps we will thus create good affinity. In summary, we need to understand that we easily create the causes that lead to our transmigration within the cycle of Three Realms in the past, present and future.
So we need to be vigilant about our habits. Do not ask others to understand your bad habits. If we do not change and just ask for acceptance, that is problematic. Entanglements will remain unresolved. We have to change ourselves so others’ perception of us will change. When others perceive us differently then, our entanglements will unravel. Everyone, please remember that all entanglements begin with what we say, what we do, and what we think. They can be as minor as a grudge, or as major as doing harm to ourselves and others. They are all related to anger and an agitated mind. Everyone, always take good care of your mind and be vigilant in facing people and matters. Be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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