Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Establishing the Fourfold Faith Part 2 (立四信業二)
We have said before that we must establish the Fourfold Faith to eliminate the Four Evil Destinies. What are the Four Evil Destinies?
The Four Destinies are also called the Four Evil Realms. These are the Hell, Hungry Ghost, Animal and Asura Realms. Adding the Heaven and Human Realms, they become the Six Destinies, also called the Six Realms.
We all know about the Six Destinies. Destiny here refers to a path. The Six Realms and the Six Destines are the same. Although the names are different, the meaning is the same. A Destiny is a predisposition.
The Heaven and Human Destinies are good, despite the suffering and the presence of both good and evil in the Human Destiny. Although the Human Destiny is good, there are many people here still suffering. But amidst this good and evil in the Human Destiny, we can become Bodhisattvas and Buddhas. So the Human Destiny is not considered evil; it just has much suffering.
The Four Evil Destinies are Asura, Hungry Ghost, Animal and Hell, where there is indescribable suffering. Asuras are present in all Six Realms; those with blessings are born into the Heaven or Human Realms. The Asuras living in the Heaven Realm often do not know joy or have empathy. Their minds are constantly filled with anger. They lose their tempers easily. Despite living in Heaven, they are suffering in a Hell of their own minds.
Do Asuras exist in the Human Realm? There are many. They are people looking for fights without reason, or those who indulge themselves with alcohol and become rowdy when drunk. They are Asuras in the Human Realm. They have lost their human virtues. Though they are Asuras, they sowed good karma in their past lives and were blessed to be reborn as humans. So there are Asuras in both the Heaven and Human Realms.
Besides living in the Heaven and Human Realms, Asuras also exist in the Three Lower Destinies, the Hungry Ghost Realm, the Animal Realm and the Hell Realm. It is quite hard living in the Animal Realm. Animals can be very vicious. There are many poisonous insects and animals in our world such as bees that sting people. Also there are groups of giant hornets. Just as human gangsters gang up to go after people these hornets will gather together to attack. If they are disturbed in the slightest, they come out in a swarm to attack and sting. If not treated in time, the bite from these hornets can be fatal. So, these are poisonous insects that attack and hurt people when disturbed.
Snakes behave similarly. So, in this life we should try to live in harmony with all others and always create good connections. Whether by womb, egg, water or transformation, Asuras are born in all four forms of life. So, we must create good connections with all sentient beings. We must walk carefully to avoid disturbing hornets or snakes. To summarize, we must be careful when dealing with all beings.
When our volunteers leave for disaster relief work in other countries, I remind them to take precautions and pay attention to their living environment and transportation conditions. I also remind them not to get bitten by mosquitoes. They are one of the four forms of life. We need to live in harmony with them. Some people might ask: how can we live in harmony with mosquitoes and not get bitten by them? We must try to prevent them from getting inside the house. We prevent hornet bites by walking carefully so as not to disturb their nests. We must not disturb or aggravate them.
Asuras are easily aggravated by people. We often read in the news that something as simple as eye contact can lead to confrontations. So in this world, we must always remain aware and alert to the four forms of life in the Six Paths, and prevent confrontations with them. Our purpose in the Human Realm is not to cultivate blessings for heavenly life. Once those blessing are exhausted, we will regress into a lower Realm again. We don’t want to be in the Asura, Hungry Ghost, Animal or Hell Realms, so we must make good use of this life.
We have a great teacher and compassionate father, the Great Enlightened Sakyamuni Buddha. We must believe in the Buddha’s teachings and establish the Fourfold Faith so that we can avoid rebirth in the Four Evil Realms. No one wants to be born in those places. Since we do not want to go there, we must also be mindful of our actions. Do no evil, and practice only good. Only when we do no evil can we practice all good deeds. So everyone, practicing Buddha-Dharma requires much mindfulness. How does evil come about? It stems from ignorance and greed. These lead to Evil Destinies. Greed, anger and ignorance make us fall into the Evil Destinies.
It is not something we control; it is a result of what we have done due to greed, anger and ignorance. So by having no greed, anger or ignorance, we can avoid falling into the Evil Destinies.
All evils are created by greed, anger, and ignorance, causing great obstacles to sustaining Wisdom-life. Buddhist practitioners should be vigilant in their practices to establish the Fourfold Faith. They must prevent and eliminate the Three Poisons to avoid the Evil Destinies.
During His time, the Buddha often taught that leaving lay life to become a monastic would not necessarily liberate us from the Four Evil Destinies. You may be a monastic, but if your mind is still full of worldly thoughts, then you are not cultivating your mind, and are without faith, honesty, sincerity, integrity, kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity.
You seem like a monastic, but are just like an ordinary person. So, one day during the Buddha’s time a group of monks went into the city for alms. Upon entering the city they heard new of a monastic named Xiang-Shou Bhiksu. Although this Bhiksu had renounced the world, he had left the Sangha and lived among people in the city like a lay person. He curried favor with lay practitioners and accepted their offerings in order to gain fame and fortune. Since he had studied the Buddha’s teachings and understood the Dharma, he would teach the Dharma to these people, and gained respect as one of Buddha’s disciples. Many people made offerings to him. Because he was receiving offerings from people, his heart began to leave the right path. But he looked like a monastic and accepted offerings from people.
Life is impermanent, though, and he passed away from illness. When those Bhiksus entered the city, they heard news of this. After eating the alms they received, they sat together with the Buddha. They bowed to pay respect and asked Him for a teaching. They said to the Buddha, “When we went to the city today, we heard this news about the death of Xiang-Shou Bhiksu. We would like to know, to which Destiny did Xiang-Shou Bhiksu go after he passed away?”
The Buddha said, “Listen to me carefully. We know that “Enhancement of the Three Non-Dharma will cause one to enter an Evil Destiny after death.” After entering the monastic life, he did not correct his bad habits, but added more Because of his greed for fame and fortune, he accepted people’s offerings, and his desire for fame and fortune grew. These are the three Non-Dharma of greed, anger and ignorance. They are called the Three Non-Dharma. After entering the monastic life, his greed did not abate, nor did his anger and ignorance. His just accumulated more. This kind of person will always end up in the Hell Realm.”
The Buddha repeated this in a gatha to the Bhiksus. He said, “A negative mind had greed, anger and ignorance. If you do evil things, you harm yourself, just as the plan tree harms itself by bearing fruit. With no greed, anger and ignorance, there is wisdom. Not harming oneself this way makes a man great. So eliminate greed, anger, and ignorance.
So, we should all know that with an unwholesome mind greed, anger and ignorance appear. If they appear and are not eliminated immediately, we will do evil things. All deeds stemming from greed, anger and ignorance are negative. A monastic should never be greedy, angry or ignorant. Once greed, anger and ignorance arise all deed go against the Buddha’s teachings.
Deeds against the Buddha’s teachings are evil. Who is harmed by this? One harms oneself. In order to cultivate one’s mind and avoid transmigration in the Six Realms, one may join the Sangha. But one harms oneself by accumulating negative practices. Life is impermanent. Our body will decay eventually. However, these Three Non-Dharma in our daily lives lead us to think that we have a lot. In fact, we do not just like a banana tree causing harm to itself.
We all know that after bearing fruit, the banana tree will die. After harvesting the bananas, one must cut the banana plant down. It can only be harvested once. This means that once the banana tree bears its fruit it harms itself and gets chopped down. So, “With no greed, anger, ignorance, there is wisdom.” When we eliminate our greed, anger and ignorance we realize wisdom.
The heart of spiritual practice is to eliminate greed, anger and ignorance. If one can eliminate these Three Poisons, one will be free from doing evil and practice only good. One will realize wisdom.
Everyone, the purpose of learning Buddhism is to gain wisdom. If we want to gain wisdom, we have to eliminate greed, anger and ignorance, so we can have the Three Wisdoms and Three Insights. With wisdom we will not harm ourselves. Although life is impermanent, our Wisdom-life is eternal. Therefore, we must understand that to have a developed Wisdom-life, we must eliminate greed, anger and ignorance. Only when we live our lives this way will we not harm our Wisdom-life. Then we will be called a Great Man, one who is victorious. Entering the Sangha is the deed of a Great Man. Even great leaders would find it difficult. We must eliminate greed, anger and ignorance to become Great Man. “We must eliminate greed, anger and ignorance,” which cause great harm to us. We are born in the Six Realms or Four Destinies because of our greed, anger and ignorance. So we must eliminate them from our minds.
After hearing the Dharma from the Buddha, all the Bhiksus and realized and understood that becoming a monk is not liberation, it is only the beginning of spiritual practice and learning to eliminate greed, anger and ignorance. If we learn Buddhism and use it to gain fame and money, we will definitely fall the Three Evil Realms. Even a monk who was a direct disciple of the Buddha could not be helped if he did not practice diligently.
Everyone, we need to truly be mindful. The reason we fall into the Three Evil Destinies is because of the Three Non-Dharma. Although Asuras exist in all Six Realms, the Asura Realm is also one of the Evil Destinies. So everyone, we must be vigilant in learning Buddha’s teachings in our daily lives. Please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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