Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Importance of Virtue in Spiritual Practice (斷善難聞正法)
Time passes as we live our lives. In every minute and second, delusive thoughts constantly arise. Spiritual practice is training the mind to subdue these thoughts. Yesterday we said that we have fed afflictions since Beginningless Time. At some point in the past, an ignorant thought arose. Then over a very long period of time, we continued to feed ignorance and afflictions. Thus, they flourished over time. We failed to pull ourselves out of the mud pit, and instead, continued to sink deeper and deeper. So we created these karmic conditions and blocked ourselves from good Dharma.
So the Repentance text says, “All virtues are eliminated and cannot be maintained. We have obstacles to seeing the Buddha, hearing the Right Dharma, or meeting noble sages.”
These afflictions arose in our past lives. We have long nurtured them and watered the mud of desire with Craving-water. The afflictions grew and flourished, day by day so we are constantly obscured by afflictions and sink deeper and deeper. Our Wisdom-eyes are covered so that we cannot distinguish between right and wrong.
Because of this, we are unable to see the genuine Dharma. Every day we live with confusion and afflictions, and this cuts off our goodness. We have disconnected from the good Dharma. Even when a good thought arises, it does not remain in the mind for long. Initial resolve is easy, but perseverance is hard. Sometimes we see a sliver of light, but it is quickly obscured by the dark clouds of ignorance. In the same way, when virtuous thoughts arise, we start to practice diligently, but we quickly cut off our own roots of goodness, so good Dharma and good thoughts do not last. They cannot be maintained.
So, obstacles arise and we hinder ourselves. The obstacle is that we “cannot see the Buddha, or hear the Right Dharma,” nor can we meet noble sages. We created all these afflictions ourselves. We often say we must be very cautious, very wary, and we must always thoroughly think things through. Do not allow subtle afflictions to appear. If we allow afflictions to manifest, then we have destroyed our roots of goodness. When an evil thought arise, it eliminates goodness. How are roots of goodness eliminated? An ignorant or evil thought will naturally eliminate our roots of goodness so goodness “cannot continue on.” The good Dharma will have no way to carry on. Earlier we said that we must contemplate the Buddha-body.
By contemplating our body, we know it is defiled. We contemplate the body as impure. We know that all things have no self. We also know that the mind is impermanent and everything is ever-changing. We know we must be diligent, but can we maintain this for a long time and contemplate our bodies? We admire the Buddha’s pure and dignified Dharma-body. Through the Buddha-Dharma, we hope to obtain a pure eternal Dharma-body like His.
But when the slightest afflictions arise, we do not see the Dharma within ourselves, and we become lax in our practice. If we are unable to contemplate our own nature, how will we see the pure Dharma-body in everything? Our wisdom has been obscured. Otherwise, even the sound of bugs and birds would all sound like the Dharma. If we have wisdom, and we use it to listen to everything, then we will hear the Dharma in everything. Everything in the world is teaching us the Dharma. But ordinary people become greedy when they encounter the various phenomena in the world. The dirty water of ignorance combined with the mud of desire causes us to sink ever deeper, becoming further ensnared. We create these obstacles for ourselves, and we cover our own Wisdom-eyes. We refuse to see the Buddha even when He is right in front of us. We choose to ignore the Dharma. We can hear the Right Dharma every day but we refuse to listen. It is easy to hear the Dharma nowadays. No matter where we are, if we want to listen to the Dharma, we can turn on the TV and the Dharma appears in front of our eyes. It is so easy. At set times, we can turn on the TV and hear the Buddha-Dharma.
But afflictions obscure us, so we fail to take even this simple action. We are so lazy that we choose not to hear the Dharma. Even if there are noble sages, we are unwilling to approach them. We stay away from the Three Treasures, so we cannot see, listen or understand. We set up these obstacles for ourselves. As soon as ignorant thoughts arise, we eliminate our roots of goodness. So we must always be very cautious.
Otherwise, the roots of goodness and intention to practice that we have so tirelessly cultivated will be easily eliminated by ignorance. If that happen, we will have no way to receive the teachings of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Not only will be impossible to receive them, we have erected obstacle for ourselves.
“We have obstacles to seeing all the good and evil karma of the past or future, and to being free.”
Not only do we not see the Three Treasures, we constantly create afflictions which obstruct us. We are also unable to see the past. Perhaps we also created many obstacles for ourselves in our past lives. In our past lives, the Three Treasures were already invisible to us. This not only happened in the past, but will happen in future as well. The past was like that, and though we are finally able see them now, we have obstructed ourselves in this life, so we will be hindered in the future. When we do not seize the moment, we have already distanced ourselves from the Three Treasures. Then how will we attain the Dharma in the future? We set up obstacles for ourselves.
We do not yet understand our afflictions and cannot see good and bad karma. In the past, present and future, these good and bad karmic forces have kept us in the state of ordinary begins, but we just have not felt or experienced them. In the past, present, and future, we are always ordinary beings with no way to recognize the distinctions between ordinary people and sages.
If we do not know we are ordinary people, then we cannot recognize the existence of sages. So ordinary people do not know they are in the Three Destinies or the Six Realms.
Six Realms: Three Good Realms and Three Evil Realms.
Three Good Realms: Heaven, Human, Asura.
Three Evil Realms: Animal, Hungry Ghost, Hell, also called the Three Destinies.
Perhaps we think that we cannot see the Three Destinies. We know there are Heaven, Human and Asura Realms, and we yearn to enjoy heavenly blessings. There are many religions in the world. Which one does not promise Heaven? But the Buddha taught us to transcend Heaven, though it is full of happiness and blessings and beings there enjoy long life and material abundance. We can have all the clothing and food we desire. We can enjoy anything we want, including long life and good health. Who would not want that? But the Buddha’s wisdom showed us that once blessings are exhausted we will descend again.
Some may also experience Heaven in this world. There are those who have money, fame and power. They appear to be dignified and in good health. Such a life seems like a sort of Heaven on Earth. To attain such good fortune, good looks, a healthy body, and a prestigious family with great wealth and reputation, one must create blessings and do good.
If we cannot attain good fortune in this life, we have hopes of attaining it in the next. Everyone knows these principles, so many religions are about seeking Heaven. But the Buddha said that even Heaven is also impermanent. When blessings are exhausted, we descend again. Our time in Heaven will end, too. In the Sutras, when heavenly beings exhaust their blessings, the Five Signs of Decay manifest, and they descend. We see it often in the Sutra. Buddhist practitioners want to attain Buddhahood. We cannot do that outside of the Human Realm. We would be too happy in Heaven. It is difficult for the wealthy to practice. We have a saying, “Wealth is an obstacle to spiritual cultivation.” We cannot attain Buddhahood in Heaven because we would not practice. We would be too happy there.
What is spiritual cultivation? We must see suffering to recognize blessings. Then we learn the importance of spiritual practice. If we do not travel through the Bodhisattva-path, we will not truly reach the Buddha’s state. Bodhisattvas exist because of suffering beings.
This world is equal parts pain and happiness, a mixture of wisdom and foolishness. Some are wise, some are ignorant. This world shows us the importance of practice and of admiring the pure and dignified state of no-birth and no-death of the Dharma-body. To eliminate all ignorance and afflictions, we must wash away all afflictive and defiled thinking. We can only practice this in the Human Realm. Have we encountered the Three Treasures before? Perhaps we have in past lives, allowing us to listen to the Dharma in this life. But afflictions remain, so when the seeds of afflictions and karma encounter certain conditions, they emergy. It is like mixing water and dirt, which is like ignorance. The mixture will become a sludge, a mud pit. When we step in it we will sink into it. It is worse than falling into water. If we know how to swim, we can stay afloat until someone sees us and pulls us out. If we fall into a mud pit, we will keep sinking. How would we climb back out? The more we struggle the more we sink. Even if someone sees us, no one can pull us up. If anyone tries to pull us out, that person will have to step into the mud pit too. As soon as he steps in, the person helping you will sink as well. When water of ignorance meets the mire of desire, we will gradually sink deeper every day. It is very dangerous.
If this obstacle arises due to others, we can get ourselves out. Obstructions we create for ourselves are the most dangerous. When we hinder ourselves, we cannot see the past or future. We cannot see the good and bad karma of the past, present and future. We have not transcended the state of ordinary beings, so we do not recognize sages. We cannot understand that wise sages exist in the Realms beyond our ordinary existence.
We have no understanding of this, so we cannot transcend from the ordinary to the saintly state. So how can we do that? We continue to sink and remain lost because we do not recognize that we are ordinary beings. So we do not seek to transcend our current state. How broad is the state of ordinary people? It spans the six Realms. Heaven is one of the Realms. We cannot transcend the Heaven, Human, Hell, Hungry Ghosts, Animals and Asura Realms. Thus, “afflictions keep us from being free of the Three Realms.”
An ignorant thought arose, causing the water of ignorance to gush out and saturate the mire of desire. Then it becomes the mud pit we keep sinking into. We must always be mindful of our subtle afflictive habits. I often say, there are no special methods for practice. We simply must correct our habits and afflictions so that we do not become so immersed in the water of ignorance and the mire of desire that we cannot escape and transcend the ordinary to become sages.
Everyone, ordinary-body and Buddha-body are states of mind. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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