Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Eleven Universal Agents Part 4(十一遍使四)
In learning Buddhism, we must be mindful of our thoughts and views. We cannot deviate. A slight deviation can lead to a great divergence. We must always take good care of the mind.
We spoke previously of the Eleven Universal Agents, up to the fourth, View of Nihilism. We must adhere to neither notions of Eternalism nor of Nihilism. We must see that the world is impermanent, but realize that our innate nature is permanent. As we contemplate the Truth, sometimes it seems things are impermanent, but sometimes permanent. What is that all about? We must be mindful. All things with form are impermanent. Those without form are not created or destroyed. They are eternal. So we must contemplate with wisdom and be free from delusion.
We should now understand the fifth, which is View of Precepts, or View of Deviant Precepts. All practitioners must understand “precept.” Precepts should help prevent wrongdoing and evil. What must we prevent ourselves from doing? From upholding the wrong things. If we uphold things that are incorrect, then we are creating evil. This is called “precept.”
But some people do not understand what is right and wrong. They get the wrong ideas from other people. They start to practice what others practice, and study the precepts that others hold. They do not know right from wrong. We cannot steal or take from others. This is already incorrect. If we take other people’s things, considering what we Buddha had taught us, that is wrong. That is called “stealing.” It is not the Right Dharma; it is not the Buddha’s teaching. If we take precepts from others, that is wrong; it is like stealing. View of Precepts or View of Deviant Precepts is stealing other people’s precepts.
View of Precepts: Unclear about right and wrong, one engages in evil practices and upholds deviant precepts. Taking wrong teachings causes one to stray from the correct path.
The Buddha’s teachings are correct. If we can put them into practice, we will definitely not err. This is the right path. If we can follow the correct guidelines, if we “practice according to the Right Precepts”, we are following this path. If we deviate from the Right Precepts, and take the precepts of others, that is wrong. It is “not knowing Tathagata’s Right Precepts,” and “practicing in delusion under false precepts.” The difference between deviant and right precepts is that if one takes deviant precepts to advance, even if one is wrong, he will not change.
Just like when the Buddha was in this world, there were many non-Buddhists in India. Many Brahmins were teaching different practices and methods. Some practiced fire precepts, water precepts, some followed cows, dogs, etc. They believed they should live like cows or dogs. There were their false precepts. This is not what the Buddha was teaching. They derailed themselves; what they upheld and practiced was their “own thinking.” It was not the Buddha’s teachings. If we leave the path to take other precepts, then we do not cultivate the right causes. This is also View of Precepts. If we are not willing to understand our own true cause or accept our own precepts, then it is wrong.
In learning the Buddha-Dharma, if one does not know the Tathagatha’s Right Precepts, one takes on deviant precepts and practices them. Then one does evil and creates evil karma.
Modern society is like this, very chaotic. Why is it chaotic? I always say it is all from our thoughts. If you talk to many older people today, they see the modern youth as very wild. “Why are young people like this? They have no propriety!” They think that today’s youth have already lost their way. Why have the principles of human interaction been derailed? Maybe the world today is the result of events that occurred over a long period of time, from decades to a hundred years. In the beginning of the 20th century, World War I began. People with no mutual hatred killed each other and slaughtered the innocent. In that kind of war, most people are innocent, but so many were hurt.
Then, they lived through World War II. Many were killed when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The atomic fallout hung in the air and did not disappear for a long time. It caused countless mental and physical traumas. With this cause, the effects still cycle. The collective bodies and minds are wounded. These past 60 years, in the collective minds of our society, there have been many diseases. Our bodies and our minds suffer many rare physical and mental illnesses. They constantly appear, are constantly created, so we should be very careful.
I saw a full-page article in the United Daily News. Taiwan discovered a “cockfighting disease.” Do you know what cockfighting entails? As soon as the birds see each other, they fight. Some people today have this same psychological symptom, and it is called undersocializaed aggressive conduct disorder. This is a very long name. It is a very rare disorder that has begun appearing.
A case has already been discovered in Nantou. There is an eighth-grade student with a very volatile temper. What would happen? Like a fighting bird, as soon as he saw someone, he would provoke a fight or he would just hit them outright. With this frame of mind he often ran away from home. His family would look for him. After he came home, it was still the same. If he saw someone, he would hit them, or look for a fight, or even wave a knife around. His mother and father, his whole family really suffered. It was miserable.
They worried that a family member might get hurt. They were also afraid the child would commit a serious offense outside the home like hurting someone else, or causing some kind of disturbance in society. His mother had it very hard. She would try to teach him, but he would not listen to anything she said. He would pick her up and judo throw her. What could she do? She asked for help, but it was nowhere to be found. She asked a doctor, begged him to treat her son. She brought her son to see him, but nothing could be done. She was so afraid. She asked the police for help, hoping they might discourage his violent behavior, but that did not work either. So this mother suffered beyond words. She even thought of suicide, because she could no longer endure her son’s violent behavior. But she could not abandon her family, so she did not go through with it.
Later, she wrote to a judge, asking for support. Asking the police was useless, so she wrote to a judge. She hoped the judge could get her son to accept guidance, and fix what was wrong with his mind. She looked everywhere for help. Her own guidance had not helped, so she had to look for outside aid. But this child still did as he wished. He could not be helped. At home, the child would usually be lost in watching TV. Before his disease appeared, he was always watching TV, especially violent programs. His mother told him not to watch them. But he answered, “I feel like I am not bad enough yet. I want to watch TV to learn if I can be meaner.” Not bad enough! He wanted to watch TV to learn more bad things, to learn to be meaner.
Is this type of situation a social problem or a family problem? Actually, we have no way of knowing. The family was probably very ordinary since it was in Nantou county. Nantou, if you do not know, is a very simple, rural area. Why would there be a child with such deviance in his mind? Psychologists study this kind of aberrant thinking and behavior. They classify it as a type of disease. Put into simple language, it is like “cockfighting.” This worries us greatly. If these kinds of diseases keep appearing, it is not only the parents who will worry, the entire society must worry. Society is one big family, made up of countless families. If there are many people like this, it becomes a big concern for society. We should know that this behavior is based on illusion, greed, bias, attachment. This attitude is already illusory. Illusory means not of the real world. One is greedily clinging to the illusion. Today many TV programs are very brutal and violent. There is greed for an illusion. In today’s society, the media really leads people astray.
We practice Buddha-Dharma so that our minds can always be calm. “With minds pure and tranquil, vows vast as the universe, our conviction is unwavering.” Our minds must always preserve that purity. No matter the state of the outside world, our minds are all unshakeable. Seeing the turbulence in the world, seeing society and humanity suffering, we must strengthen our resolve and our vow. “Vows vast as the universe.” We must make our vows bigger, stronger. This way we inspire others to be calm, and we can have peace everywhere. If one more person is calm, then one more person is at peace. If everyone can be calm and be at peace, we will have a peaceful society, and then real world peace.
In learning Buddha-Dharma, one should learn to remain pure of mind. No matter how external conditions are changing, one is not influenced or shaken. With a little more peace in the mind and one more amiable person, there is more energy that will bring about peace and harmony in the world.
The scariest thing is our minds. When greed and delusion arise, greed for illusions causes biased attachment. The mind becomes diseased. Attachment is persistent, for it has already reached extremes. So one does not take advice from anyone, not even one’s own parents. Then one is engaged tirelessly in meaningless and unrighteous actions. Everyone, in practicing Buddha-Dharma, we must be mindful. Do not let your mind waver. It is very hard to calm it down. Every day in our lives, we confront people, things and conditions. This is our world, a place of cultivation to train our minds. Everyone always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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