Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Delusions Arise and Obstruct Good Dharma (妄念生 障善法)
We often have delusional thoughts, so we frequently hinder ourselves.
“When delusions arise, evil obstructs good Dharma. We must end afflictions and delusional thoughts, and understand that the virtues of our nature are inherent and do not increase or decrease.”
How do we do that? With the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind. We can use these five methods to cease having scattered thoughts and delusions. I explained these five methods yesterday. If we are greedy, we must contemplate the impurity of the body. If we are angry or hateful, we must be compassionate. If our minds are unfocused, we must count our breaths. If we are ignorant and do not understand reason, we must contemplate causes and conditions. If we have many obstacles, we must be mindful of the Buddha.
Since we face so many obstacles, we must start by contemplating our bodies. Everything in the world is impure and impermanent. To follow the Buddha’s example, we must draw closer to the Dharma step by step. These five methods cease the five different types of delusional thoughts. If we do not eliminate them, they will block everything we try to learn. So we must stop these afflictions and delusions by applying the five methods. Only then can we clearly understand the virtues of our nature.
Didn’t I say we inherently possess these virtues? We are contemplating the Buddha-body, also called the Dharma-body, which is a virtue we possess by nature. We all inherently have it. It is not increased in a Buddha, nor diminished in ordinary people. If we all understand this, then good Dharma will not be eliminated whenever an evil thought arises from our delusional thinking. We should “understand that the virtues of our nature are inherent and do not increase or decrease.”
Everyone, this sounds simple, but delusions easily arise in our lives every day, so we often hinder ourselves. The next passage in the text says, “We have obstacles to learning Warmth, Pinnacle, Patience, First in the World, and the Seven Expedients. We have obstacles to learning kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity and to listening, contemplating and practicing.”
These are obstacles created by delusions. They hinder our learning. We are still ordinary people, so we have to learn the Four Good Roots, which are Warmth, Pinnacle, Patience, Supreme Worldly Wisdom. I think I have explained these in the past. But it has been a long time, so everyone might have forgotten. What is the stage of Warmth? A good analogy would be how people use to cook. How did they start fires before matches were invented? By rubbing sticks together. They vigorously rubbed two wooden sticks together until they produced a spark. First there was smoke and heat, but the rubbing had to continue in order to fully ignite the fire. So the smoke comes before the fire and serves as proof that there is heat.
This is like our spiritual practice. When we begin, we do not know anything. We do not feel anything. When we start to work hard, however, we gradually accept and uphold the teachings. Like I said earlier, we start by counting breaths.
Anapana is about reining in our minds by counting our breaths. It focuses our thought so that they do not wander when we meditate. Our thoughts are otherwise wild and unfocused. So we need to learn a method of focus. This method is counting our breaths.
It is a way to adjust our minds. How do we maintain one thought for a long time? With a lot of practice. When we first start training, we may slow count from one to three before our mind starts to wander. Later, we can remain focused for five breaths. Then we increase that to seven breaths. And finally we can go up to ten breaths. We practice this over and over to train our minds. We do it for ten minutes, then twenty, then thirty. We stay focused. If we focus on breathing in and out, without any random thoughts creeping in, then we start to feel something, like a sense of warmth. This is like the stage of Warmth. We start cold at first, but through practice, we gain some warmth.
The next stage is Pinnacle. This is like climbing halfway up a mountain. At the foot of the mountain, our view is easily obstructed, which is how we sometimes view people and matters in our daily lives. How clear is our analysis and understanding? Perhaps our ordinary minds and led by others. We take in everything we hear, and discord fills our minds. We easily become suspicious or think delusional and ignorant thoughts. We are ordinary people.
When we try to see things clearly, our view is blocked. Once we experience the stage of Warmth, we are a bit more accomplished, and have certain feelings. That takes us to next level. Now, in our thinking and perspective, our minds have encountered and experienced some Dharma, so when we hear others speak, we can start to discern right from wrong.
When we look at the world around us, we slowly learn to recognize cause and conditions, and the law of cause and effect. When we understand these concepts, it takes us to a higher level. That is the stage of Pinnacle. From halfway up the mountain we can still advance to the pinnacle, from which we can see everything even more clearly. The stage of Pinnacle is when we truly open our minds.
Next is the stage of Patience. Even if we have reached a point where we clearly understand different states, when we return to working with people, whether we face conditioned or unconditioned Dharma, world or world-transcending phenomena, we must work hard on the next skill, which is patience. If we make a vow without the strength of patience, even if have climbed the mountain, we will fall off. We are easily affected by conditions. Otherwise, we, who all have the same innate virtues as the Buddha, would not have ended up so far away from Him.
So we must start at the beginning. First we feel something, kind of like when we rub sticks together. We start to have some experiential understanding of all phenomena in the world. If we advance a little further, then we can comprehend them. If we understand and see everything clearly but lack patience, then we cannot go any higher up the mountain. If we lack that strength, we can only go half way. Without patience, we cannot reach the pinnacle. So we must endure.
There is a saying, “There is always a higher heaven, and a better person.” Do not think you have already reached the pinnacle is that correct? There is always a higher heaven, a better person, a more advanced teaching. So we must engage in practice. If we practice without patience, we cannot attain the stage of the Buddha.
In the Six Perfections, upholding precepts and giving are both important. But without patience, upholding precepts is difficult. We must follow the Six Perfections in order to be perfect in all of our actions, so patience is very important. After we can maintain Warmth, Pinnacle, and Patience, the next stage is Supreme Worldly Wisdom.
It is very important that we know how to learn the Buddha-Dharma in this world. The world is full of conflicts and complications. To truly understand everything without being defiled is not very easy. So we must take another step forward. We must stay strong through Patience in order to reach the stage of Supreme Worldly Wisdom. This is a process of advancing from being ordinary to being a Bodhisattva, attaining the sagely state. These are the Four Good Roots. If we have delusional thoughts, there will be obstacles to attaining the Four Good Roots. There are also obstacles to the Seven Expedients.
The Seven Expedients are the Three Worthies and Four Good Roots of the Hinayana.
The Three Worthies are The Five Meditations on Quieting the Mind, Meditation on Specific, Phenomena, and Meditation on Universal Phenomena.
The Four Good Roots are Warmth, Pinnacle, Patience, and Supreme Worldly Wisdom.
If we cannot attain the Seven Expedients, many afflictions remain in our minds and cannot be eliminated. Even though we want to learn the basic practices, it is not that easy. We are blocked by many obstacles. Because there are blockages, we easily lose the warmth that we felt in the beginning. “It is easy to be inspired, but hard to persevere. A vow made in the heat of the moment will cool before three days.” These sayings have the same meaning.
So that is why I always say to be persistent and seize the moment. When aspirations arise, we must seize the moment and maintain them forever. This is what we mean by having “vows as vast as the universe” and “remaining unwavering.” This is first step to realize the Dharma. There is a second, third and fourth step, so we must persevere. If we do not start with the first step, even if we memorize the words kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, it is still difficult to have kindness without regrets, compassion without resentment, joy without worry, or to give unconditionally in equanimity. When it comes to hearing the Dharma, we must do it with a steadfast mind or else afflictions will arise. In the past, people traveled far and wide to seek teachers and Dharma.
Now that the Dharma is in front of us, are we listening to it mindfully? After hearing it, do we spend our entire day bathing in this stream of Dharma? Did we truly attain the wisdom in the Dharma? Can we do this? Do we practice according to the Dharma? Have we developed wisdom? It seems like we still have a ways to go. Spiritual cultivation is very difficult because it is easier to make a vow than to maintain it.
So we use expedient means. The Seven Expedients include practicing the three Worthies, like the Five Meditations. This takes us to the level of the sages. This level is not enlightenment, but it is close. If we cultivate the Four Good Roots of Warmth, Pinnacle, Patience, Supreme Worldly Wisdom, then we are close to enlightenment. The stage before enlightenment is the sages’ stage.
The Three Worthies can be difficult, but it all depends on our state of mind. We intrinsically have pure nature and virtues, but our delusions have blocked the good Dharma. So if we can put an end to afflictions and to all our delusions, if we can stop them, then we can naturally “understand that the virtues of our nature are inherent and do not increase or decrease.”
The Buddha does not have more than we do, and we do not possess less than He does. We have the same virtues by nature. But because of a single delusional thought, we have to study all these methods in order to truly understand. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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