Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Affliction of Attachment (執相煩惱)
Buddhists practitioners must cultivate sincerity, integrity, faith, and resolve and practice kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity. If we base our practice on integrity, we will have no afflictions. Simplicity is beauty. It is having truly virtuous thoughts, which is the state of mind that practitioners should have.
That is why the Sutras remind us that we must be genuine in our hearts. Otherwise, when we are “insincere and flattering, afflictions of dishonesty arise.” If we are “rough or unapproachable,” then “afflictions of disharmony arise.”
Being “insincere and flattering” means one is dishonest with others and tries to curry favor with them. This means that one always praises people, whether they are right or wrong, just for the sake of pleasing them. This is flattery or adulation, pretending to be nice to everyone, then speaking ill of them behind their backs. The mind of this type of person is sincere and rather twisted. These kinds of people have the affliction of dishonesty. We take sincerity as our practice.
So if we behave one way in front of others and another behind their backs, people may say, “A moment ago, you praised him so intently and with so much respect. But now you say that he has so many shortcomings! You have so much contempt. Why would you behave like this?” Then we should realize that this is the affliction of dishonesty. When people point this out, we may be vexed. We should be consistent in how we treat others. If someone is really worthy of our respect and praise, we should act sincerely in and out of his presence.
If we hear others disparaging the person, then we should defend him. We should say, “This is not the case. He is normally not like that. It is not the way you described. Although he is very particular about things, everything that he does is right.” If we are understanding toward others, that is also a form of sincerity.
But if we praise others in their presence and criticize them later, then this is not right. If we do that, others may likewise criticize us behind our backs, saying that we are not sincere. Or they may criticize the way we lavishly praise others in their presence, but ridicule them behind their backs. If we behave like this, it is the affliction of dishonesty, and others will despise us. This is also a type of affliction. There is another type of person who is “abrasive and quick-tempered.”
These people do not have devious thoughts. But thought they do not flatter others, they are blunt and very irritable. When they feel something is wrong, they let others know right way. There is no room for compromise. They are very domineering, blunt and rude. We should be gentle. Even if others make mistakes, we should use skillful methods to guide them gently and patiently.
Just look at how the Buddha taught. He made use of many different methods to ingeniously guide sentient beings. Whether someone is [right or] wrong, we must clearly discern good from evil. If one is virtuous, we should praise him accordingly. If one is evil, we use various methods to slowly transform him. We need to not be too rough in our approach. If we are abrasive, when others mention that we have done something wrong or try to gently correct us, we immediately express anger; that is an even worse mistake. This is called the affliction of disharmony.
We practice within a community, so we must be able to harmonize with others. One person in a community, whose mind and actions are in disharmony, can easily cause a second person to stir up disputes with others. Then a third person becomes antagonistic, which causes a fourth person to make trouble. This would become very troublesome, indeed. So owe must be gentle and sincere in practice; we must not be divisive. First, we should not flatter others. We must not purposely flatter them, then become cynical behind their backs. Nor should we get upset and act rudely. If we do, nobody will dare correct us, knowing that it will instantly create disharmony and all kinds of problems. So we all need to adjust our minds. We have to live among people, not only in a place of spiritual cultivation, but also in society. When interaction with each other, we must always keep our minds in harmony. Only then can society be harmonious.
“If we are easily upset and hard to please, afflictions of hatred arise. If we are jealous and attack others, afflictions of ruthlessness arise.”
This is all about our attitude. If we easily become resentful, whether towards events, towards society, towards the community, or towards other people, then we will never be happy, with anger constantly in our hearts. When people are nice to us, we are not happy. When they try to persuade us, we are still not happy. If we are always resentful, then we have to wonder if we have psychological problems.
Otherwise, why does everything we see easily cause us resentment and make us unhappy? Why does everything we hear make us feel miserable. When we see others doing well, we believe that they are currying favor to get ahead. When we see someone who is nice to others, we are also unhappy. And when we see someone mistreating others and try to advise them about it, we are still unhappy. This type of person always has hatred deep inside.
This mind of hatred is an affliction. One is “easily upset and hard to please.” With anger in the heart, one cannot give rise to joy. So we must open our hearts a bit. We often talk about broadening the heart. With a spacious heart and pure thoughts, we will not easily get angry or have difficulty calming our minds.
Otherwise, we will easily become jealous of others. “Being jealous and attacking others” is “the affliction of ruthlessness.” We have to think about it. When we see noble sages, we must maintain a sense of respect. Isn’t it often said that in a group of three, I will find my teacher? We should pick out the virtuous and follow them. If they are virtuous and good, we have to show our respect. Since we want to learn from them, we should be respectful. When we see someone who is very capable, jealousy may arise in our hearts. We may become envious of the sages and the talented. If one is talented and we are envious of him and intend to “attack” him or put him down, then we are giving in to our jealousy. When we see a beautiful person we may think, “How beautiful is she? I am equally as beautiful. Why don’t you praise me? Why do you praise her? How good is she? I am just as good. Why don’t you flatter me? Why not follow me?”
Jealousy like this easily leads to “attacks”, to discrediting and harming others. All these are wrong. People like this have ruthless minds; they are in disharmony. This affliction causes much suffering, especially if one does not listen to advice. These types of people are always self-centered, very violent, rude, easily angered, and do not listen to others. No matter how we try to advise or guide them, it remains a challenge; they are totally unapproachable and really stubborn.
Just before the Buddha passed away, Anada asked Him, “There are so many people in the Sangha and some of them won’t listen to advice, how should we overcome this?” Even the Buddha could not help, so He said, “Alas, let them be. Just try your best, and if they won’t listen, then let them be.” There is nothing to be done. This is what the Buddha taught the Bhiksus. Within His Sangha, there were people beyond help, who could not be transformed. They simply would not listen to advice.
Next, the repentance text states, “Being destructive and malicious is the affliction of cruelty. Going against the Noble Truths is the affliction of attachment.”
“Being destructive and malicious” is dangerous. Such people are very capable and will not hesitate to demonstrate it, in a very ruthless manner. There are people like that in our society. When others fail to collect a debt, they say, “How stupid are you that you can’t collect, I’ll do it.” They may kill a whole family [to collect the debt]. This actually happens in our society. Or, they say, “Why you are being bullied? Come on, let me get even for you.” These dangers exist. So the Buddha felt deeply about this. These people are “bullying the good and the kind.” They often take advantage of those who are kind and honest. They know for sure that they can bully them. This is called the affliction of cruelty.
“The Noble Truths, the Ultimate Truth, are without appearance or attachment to appearance. By rejecting these, they demonstrate the affliction of attachment.”
If we are to learn Buddhism, we should follow the Buddha’s principles. The truth taught by the Buddha, Bodhisattvas and sages has survived the test of time. We should follow the Noble Truths. The Truth is “with and without appearance; there is no appearance or attachment to appearance.” The meaning of this is beyond what we can see. But whether truth is with or without appearance, these people reject the explanations of the truths. Whether it is a tangible subject matter or and intangible principle, they reject any efforts to bring harmony. They even reject the principles passed down by the sages. This is called “rejecting all truths” and is going against principles.
They reject social etiquette, too. People like this are ruthless and dangerous. They attack the sincere and kind-hearted. They act against all principles of the Noble Truths. They even act against social norms and customs, let alone the true principles! This is “rejecting all principles” and “holding the affliction of attachment.” Such people believe they are great, courageous, forceful and strong. These people are truly unmanageable.
When the Buddha was alive, He told this story. There was a monkey in the jungle practice Dharma; it had attained more wisdom than an average human. One day, it saw a man fall to the bottom of a deep ravine, from many days he called for help, but there was nobody to save him. The monkey could not bear any more, so it found a way down to save the person. It was not easy to climb back up, let alone carry a person on its back. Hanging on to the rock, its hands bled from gripping vines and branches. With great efforts, it finally carried the man out of the ravine. The monkey was tired; so was the man. The man had not eaten for several days. The monkey, whose limbs were wounded, had exerted a lot of energy and was very tired. It wanted to lie down for a rest.
The man had been without food for several days and could not sleep, though he was very tired, too. Then an evil thought arose in his mind. Looking at the monkey deeply asleep, he thought, “It is an animal, after all. Let me kill the monkey for food and leave here when I regain my strength.” So he picked up a rock, and struck the monkey’s head. The monkey did not die. Even with its head wounded and bleeding, it was still very agile. It turned around and climbed into the trees. The man again tried to hit it with a stick. He was determined to kill it. Though the monkey was bleeding, a sense of empathy arose deep inside. There was absolutely no hated, just compassion. “I tried to save him, but I only saved his body and not his mind.” The monkey then thought to himself, “May this person meet nobles and sages in his future life. Otherwise I’ll have to cultivate more diligently to create good affinity with this person. Perhaps then I will be able to help him.” You see, this human being failed to measure up to an animal.
Being “destructive and malicious” and giving rise to “affliction of cruelty” are contrary to the principles and social norms, not to mention the Ultimate Truth of the sages. How can someone like this accept the principles? So, this is called affliction of attachment. This suffering is beyond words. Even during the Buddha time, some within the Sangha were uncorrectable. So we have to be attentive at all times to maintain, deep from within, faith, resolve, sincerity and integrity, and practice kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity. Everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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