Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Four Right Efforts (四正勤)
Every day we talk about cultivating the mind. There is an old saying, “Cultivate the mind and do good deeds.” Indeed, having a good heart and doing good are the most of important goals of our spiritual practice.
So, “whatever you do, never commit any evils. With no evil thoughts, suffering will not arise.” We need to take care of our minds so that we have no grievances or conflicts. Abiding in peace and joy, our heart is at ease.
When our mind is at peace, it is the happiest, most blessed thing in life. In the 37 Practices to Enlightenment, Fourfold Mindfulness comes first. We should always “Contemplate the body as impure, feelings as suffering, mind as impermanent, things as having no self.” That is the Fourfold Mindfulness.
Today we must thoroughly understand that we must be vigilant in this way. We should be diligent in our spiritual practice. Diligence means putting forth effort. Our efforts must be correct. Therefore, we have the Four Right Efforts. If we want to be diligent, our direction must be correct so that our efforts do not go astray. The Four Right Efforts are very important to spiritual practitioners.
The Four Right Efforts:
1. Quickly eliminate any evil that exists
2. Prevent future evil from arising
3. Encourage goodness to quickly arise
4. Nurture any goodness that already exists
First is “quickly eliminate any evil that exists.” I just reminded you all to take good care of your minds. If we do not take good care of our minds, we go astray. When an evil thought arises, it manifests with evil actions. We must be aware of our interactions with people. If we encounter conflicts or controversies, or any other unfavorable conditions, we must be in control of our minds. We cannot allow evil thoughts to arise. If an evil thought has already arisen, we must eliminate it immediately. So, “quickly eliminate any evil that exists.”
If you make a careless mistake, what can you do to fix it? When other people irritate you, resentment and anger arise. You may even end up exchanging harsh words. After that, what can you do? You must reflect, change and repent. Repentance brings purity. After repentance, vow not to ever make the same kind of mistake again. That is to “eliminate any evil that exists.”
When an unwholesome thought arises, eliminate it right away. When an unwholesome deed has been done carelessly, immediately reflect and vow not to do it again. This is quickly eliminating any evil that exists.
“Prevent future evil from arising.” Usually we have good relationships with others. If we treat everyone with a balanced and unbiased attitude, we will all get along very well. We need to always keep it that way. We should have the right view and be aware of the many traps in external conditions. We should not fall into them. We must always be on our guard.
If we are not greedy, we will not be tempted. So, we must never allow the thoughts of greed, anger or ignorance to manifest in our action. Do not even let them exist in the mind. It is very good when there are no afflictions. Then we will not cling to external phenomena. In our dealings with people and things, no anger or conflict will arise.
Some people say, “That person practices well, has a good temper, treats people well and approaches things with ease and openness.” We should esteem this kind of person. Not only should we praise him often, we should also emulate his good temper. When we praise someone, it means that we have respect for him. How can one earn other’s respect? Refined self-cultivation is what earns respect. We will praise that person, and others will praise him, too.
If we practice in the same manner, other people will praise us as well. This affirms that we are well cultivated. So “prevent future evil from arising.” The mind should remain calm and peaceful. No matter how challenging things are or people are, we should always remain calm. Do not give rise to any evil thoughts. This is “preventing evil from arising.” Once evil thoughts do not arise, we must maintain that state.
When facing difficult people and circumstances, always remain calm and peaceful; do not let any evil thoughts arise. This is preventing future evil from arising.
If goodness has not arisen yet, we should encourage it. If we do not have any bad relationships, grievances or resentment, that is very good. But, we need to take it a step further and do good. We cannot just engage in self-cultivation. We must actively make a joyous effort and actively engage in doing good. Hinayana practitioners, as we mentioned previously, strive to “quickly eliminate any evil that exists” and “prevent future evil from arising.” Hinayana practitioners think it is enough to mind themselves.
They do not get into others’ business or take issue with other’s over anything. If one can do that, it is good. We can go one step further. If our view is correct, we will see things clearly and not be petty. With the right view, we will be able to go further on the Bodhisattva-path. One should actively “encourage goodness to quickly arise.” We should actively encourage thoughts of goodness so that they arise quickly and foster within us a good heart.
Cultivate yourself and actively do good deeds. Constantly give rise to good thoughts. This is encouraging goodness to quickly arise.
“Nurture any goodness that exists.” Develop the good heart in you. With a positive attitude, engage in helping others. Do not limit the good works to your family, or those who have connections with you, or your neighbors. Besides helping our own communities, we should extend our efforts internationally and view issues form a global perspective. In the same manner, beyond cherishing our own family and community, when we are able, we should help the world. In the whole universe, there is neither a place nor a person that we do not love or care for. We should love all beings in the world, and develop this love. As we do kind deeds, we should not be limited to a small area. We should expand our area of influence.
In Chicago there is a physician. His wife, Wu Chun Chun, has Parkinson’s disease. Usually Doctor Su is by his wife’s side. She really needs him. So he is never far from her In 2003, they learned about Tzu Chi and got actively involved. They felt that the path of Tzu Chi was what they had been looking for. They wanted to actively serve others and do charitable work. In 2003, the husband and wife joined the Tzu Chi Medical Association (TIMA). Because he is a doctor, whenever a free medical clinic was held somewhere, he would participate. His wife would go with him, volunteering in the clinics. They both went through commissioner training. In 2006, they were certified to be commissioners. Doctor Su joined the Tzu Cheng Faith Corps and was put in charge of the local TIMA chapter. His wife is also a certified commissioner. They both are very determined in their mission. In 2005, before he was certified, Katrina hit New Orleans, and his wife encouraged him to join the free clinic team. Their relatives from Taiwan happened to be there to look after his wife, so he felt that he could go. Since the free clinics were going to be held in New Orleans, which was far, and would last six to seven days, he started to feel uneasy about the trip. So he said that instead of going to faraway places, he would just volunteer in the neighborhood. But his wife was very clear-minded. She told him that it was his chance to transform his personal love to Great Love. It requires training to transform personal love to Great Love. It was still difficult for him to leave. He worried that if he left home, his wife’s illness might get worse. His wife was determined and strong and forced him out of the house, figuratively speaking. She told him to leave home and transform his personal love to Great Love. She reminded him not to limit his love to those areas nearby. He should extend it to faraway places. Fortunately, his daughter, an assistant professor at Northwestern University, went home to stay with her mother so that her father could be at ease at the medical outreach.
It worked out perfectly. In this world, if there is a will, there is a way. If you can let go of personal love, you have the power to do the work of Great Love. It is not difficult to do that. So, “nurture any goodness that exists.” Doing a few kind deeds is not enough, nor is simply refraining from bad deeds. Of course that is a good thing; it is good to be a good person and do good deeds. But, we should strive to be a Bodhisattva. It is good to have the heart of a Bodhisattva and practice the Mahayana teachings of helping others. We should not only love ourselves, our families, those around us, and the people in our community, we should also cherish everyone in this world. We cannot lack a loving and empathetic heart.
Do not limit doing good deeds to nearby areas. We can turn limited love into Great Love that expands to include faraway places. This is nurturing any goodness that already exises.
Our minds should remain righteous. Just a slight deviation may cause us to go thousands of miles off track. I read an article in the news, that illustrates how we should be self-aware, righteous and mindful in everything we do. In Alaska, USA, there was young couple who loved each other very much. The couple was expecting a baby with great joy and anticipation. For some reason the wife had a difficult delivery. They saved the baby, but the woman died.
The husband was still young. He wanted to raise the child well. Gradually, financial pressures forced him to return to work. What did he do? He trained a dog to take care of care of the child. The dog was very smart indeed. When it was time to feed the baby, the dog would take the baby bottle filled with baby formula and feed the child. This is unbelievable. During the time, he felt reassured that the dog was just like a nanny to his child. He felt at ease.
One day, he had to work so late that he did not return home until the next day. But he had great confidence in the dog. When he came home in the morning, he opened the door and saw blood on the dog’s mouth. And on the dog’s leg, it looked like a piece of flesh was hanging off. The dog was very happy to see the master home. Happily, he came to greet his master. The man was wondering where the baby was. Where was the baby? He couldn’t find his child. His immediate thought was that the dog had killed his baby. Enraged, he got a knife and killed the dog.
After he killed the dog, he heard he heard his baby calling. Where was he? The child kept crying. He followed the noise and the baby climbed out from under the bed, looking perfectly fine. As he looked up, he saw a wolf by the side of the door and realize that the wolf had attempted to attack the baby. The dog fought with the wolf and left large gash on the wolf’s neck. The wolf was almost dead. Flesh from the dog’s leg was in the wolf’s mouth. He knew at once that he was wrong. But once his thoughts had run wild, it was too late to eliminate the evil; he had already killed the dog. You see, our thoughts are very important. If we can keep a level head, no evil thoughts will arise. So, “whatever you do, never commit any evils. With no evil thoughts, there is no suffering.” Then naturally there will be no regrets.
Without hatred, anger, or conflict the mind can be at ease with joy and harmony. So, spiritual practice means taking good care of our minds. We have to remain calm and see things with the right view. So, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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