Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Eliminate Evil and Give Rise to Good (滅惡興善)
When we interact with people, things and matters, let us always give rise to good thoughts. In the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, the section about the first merit says “Giving thoughts arise in those who are greedy.”
When we see something, greed arises and we want to possess it. We constantly pursue material goods. That is very tiring. So if we begin to desire material goods, we must quickly nurture a desire to give. When we have, we should know to give. If we start to feel arrogant toward others, we must quickly become disciplined. When it comes to spiritual practice, doing things is easy, being a good person is hard. In life, people can be very complicated. If we have some talent, we become conceited and arrogant. Pride and arrogance are poisonous. The antidote to arrogance is a disciplined mind.
If we are angry, we must give rise to patience. If things do not go smoothly, those who are very angry easily lose their tempers. Not only do they get angry at people, they get angry over things, too. When things are not going smoothly, have you ever seen someone pick something up and thrown it on the ground? So we get angry over matters and objects, too. If we tend to lose our tempers over people and things, we must quickly give rise to patience. Bear it and it will pass. Then there will be harmony. Many are dissatisfied with people and things because they are greedy, arrogant and angry. When those thoughts arise, we cannot be in harmony with people and things.
If greed arises in the minds of ordinary people, it will grow without limits. So the Buddha taught us these wondrous methods as antidotes. He taught us to give, uphold precepts and have patience. When we are a bit lax, we easily stop being diligent. So when laziness arises, let us bring forth our diligence at once. Time passes unceasingly. If we delay even a little bit, we become even lazier as time passes, and we lead an empty life. This is a waste. Whether we feel greed, anger, ignorance or laziness, we must treat and eliminate it. When our minds become ill, we must take the proper mental medicine.
Giving thoughts arise in those who are greedy.
Discipline arises in those who are arrogant.
Patience arises in those who are very angry.
Diligence arises in those who are lazy.
Selections from the Sutra of Infinite Meanings.
Let’s look at the next passage “We repent all transgressions of killing and other wrongdoings. With the merits that arise life after life, we will attain a Vajra-body and endless life.”
Isn’t this what we all seek? Merits, a healthy body and a long life. This is what all people seek. Why do merits arise from repentance? Because after we repent, we stop killing. If we can stop killing and teach others to protect life, we will have merit.
On the contrary, if we ourselves are killing of course we cause others to kill. That was our behavior before we repented. When we understand the truth that karmic retribution is terrifying, we will repent and stop killing. We know that killing is wrong and begets karma. Karma follows us like a shadow. All karma we create results in retribution.
In the past we did not know and created all sorts of karma. Now that we understand, we begin to repent. Repentance brings purity. Besides upholding precepts ourselves, we lead others to do the same. So we can encourage and promote repentance. Not only do we repent, we can also lead others to repent. Then we have the merit from eliminating evil and giving rise to good. With evil eliminated, good arises. Good and evil are like two sides of a balance. When evil grows, good declines. When evil declines, good grows. This is a definite truth.
So if we are repentant, evil will naturally be completely eliminated and we will naturally have good thoughts and perform good deeds. Besides not killing, we will also protect life. This creates merits.
Repentance brings purity. If we repent, we led others to repent. Then we have merit from eliminating evil and giving rise to good.
When we repent, it is like when dark clouds part to reveal the sun. So we must repent. Repentance is like parting the dark clouds. Take a mirror for example. If the mirror is blurry, it cannot reflect even the most beautiful conditions. This truth is very easy to understand. But there is a deep and wondrous method in this. Our minds are like a mirror. This is called the Great Perfect Mirror-wisdom.
Our wisdom is like a big, round mirror. It can discern colors, or black and white. This mirror clearly reflects all colors in the environment. Everyone has this Great Perfect Mirror-wisdom. It can reflect our external conditions. Like if I ask you what is in front of me, you can tell me immediately, right? The tree leaves are green. There are red and white orchids. Here are some lilies that are gold. Great Perfect Mirror-wisdom can reveal and discern this. So, this is Discerning Wisdom. Hidden within that is Impartial Wisdom. We can discern between things; this is a person, that is a fish. Is it right for people to eat fish? Though we can distinguish between a person and a fish, we still lack impartial wisdom.
With this wisdom, we recognize fish as living beings. All lives are equal. Why do people eat fish? Why do people eat other animals? All animals have Buddha-nature and fear death, so they suffer like we do. This is Impartial Wisdom.
With discernment we distinguish between forms and between colors, but with impartiality we know all beings are equal So we need both discernment and impartiality. If we only have discernment, we will engage in philosophical debates. Discernment alone is useless, we must also have impartiality. So, we always talk about Wisdom-life, [which is impartial]. We often mention Wisdom-life. We distinguish many things with our discernment. But if we lack impartiality, we will do more and more evil. We must have Pure Wisdom and Impartial Wisdom.
Our discernment has to be pure. All conditions reflected in the Great Perfect Mirror-wisdom are good because it develops in parallel with impartiality. This is truly the pure Buddha-wisdom.
Discernment and impartiality must develop together. Then we have both Discerning Wisdom and Impartial Wisdom. Discernment without wisdom easily leads to philosophical debates and towards evil. If we can turn discernment into Pure Wisdom and develop it in parallel with Impartial Wisdom, we will have pure Buddha-wisdom.
Pure Buddha-wisdom cleanses and brightens the mind. So whenever something happens, we can cautious. When greed arises, we discriminate among things. We crave certain things. When we crave, we become greedier. If we have Pure Wisdom, we will naturally give to others. Our minds must remain pure and undefiled by greed. This is Pure Wisdom.
When we see someone we do not like, we feel superior. When this arrogance arises, when this discrimination appears, we have to quickly heighten our vigilance. We must also uphold precepts. Do not be arrogant toward others. Respect and love each other. This is having a vigilant mind. This is Pure Wisdom.
When we see something we do not like, we get angry. Let us increase our vigilance and have patience. This is also Pure Wisdom.
If we get lazy, we must heighten our vigilance. Time just keeps passing by, so be diligent. This is Pure Wisdom.
This wisdom can discern everything, but with it we still remember to use different methods to control bad thoughts. It helps us come up with ways to eliminate evil and create good. This is pure wisdom.
It comes from thorough repentance. Repentance brings purity. After we repent, besides ceasing killing and eliminating bad habits, we teach others to repent, to not to do wrong, and to take the path toward goodness. So naturally we have merits. With our merits, we hope that “life after life, we attain a Vajra-body.”
When we contemplate our bodies we know they are impure. Nothing in the world is pure, not even the body. A few days after we die, it swells. Then there are worms. What is pure about this body？ So we seek to “attain a Vajra-body.”
What is a Vajra-body？ Wisdom-life. With Wisdom-life, nothing can harm us. As long as we are wise, nothing can hurt us and nothing can hinder us. Wisdom-life is everlasting. So “an endless life” is what we seek.
Next it says, “We will abandon hatred and resentment, eliminate thoughts of killing and treat all sentient beings as our children.”
This section is also simple. To attain a healthy and long life, we should leave hatred and resentment behind. Do not create enmity with others, especially not with other animals. Then we will not have damaging behavior or thoughts of killing. Let us always nurture good thoughts. So when we see animals, we must not create enmity or resentment with them. We should not do that. Without anger or hatred, there are no thoughts of resentment and we will not want to kill them.
Treat all sentient beings as your children. We should even treat animals as our children. These are the thoughts we must nurture. Everyone cherishes children the most. Not only should we treat all sentient beings as our children, we should treat all elders as our parents and be filial to them. Love children and be filial to parents. If we foster a loving heart, we will not have thoughts that lead to killing. So, we must always control our minds. We possess the Great Perfect Mirror-wisdom. Even if we can be discerning, we must become pure. Discernment and impartiality must grow in parallel. That is how we attain Wisdom-life. Repentance brings purity. We have to be pure to attain a Vajre-body and extend our Wisdom-life so it is endless. So, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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