Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Be Content, Joyful and Cherish Blessings (知足惜福心常樂)
Every day we talk about the mind. We must not have greedy thoughts in our minds. If we are insatiably greedy, we will toil our whole life and cause disasters for our descendants, they will have few blessings and much suffering. So, we need to promptly repent. This means that we need to always look after our thoughts. We need to have a measuring stick in our minds. We often talk about our sense of propriety. As humans, in our conscience we need to have standards to gauge whether we are coveting what belongs to others. The Buddha taught us that we need to be giving. This means more than just not being greedy. We also need to give what we have, which includes wealth, Dharma, and courage. Besides greed for tangible objects, we must not have greed for intangibles either. This is our mind’s guidepost, which gives us a sense of propriety. We always need to take good care of our thoughts.
If one thought of greed arises, we will become insatiable in our desire for worldly things. If we are an insatiably greedy person, we will certainly suffer in this life. Even if we earn more, it will not be enough.
We need to always take good care of our minds. If one thought of greed arises, we will be driven by worldly desires and descend into unspeakable suffering. Treat people according to your conscience. Do not have improper thoughts. Give without asking for anything in return. Know contentment, cherish your blessings. Then your mind will naturally be joyful.
I often hear things like, “Master, I want to be more dedicated in helping Tzu Chi. But I haven’t been able to. I don’t know why, but I get busier and busier.”
I would say, “Didn’t you say once you finished your building project, you could focus on Tzu Chi?”
They said, “Yes, I did.” They mistakenly thought that they would be able to hand it off to someone else. “But right now, it is the perfect opportunity. They want me to invest. It is a big chain enterprise. Without our investment, they won’t be able to build this kind of vertical enterprise. Master, you might not understand this.”
I said, “I understand vertical integration. It refers to the starting point of production. Below that, other companies take your product, and can sell it to make money. So you want to start factories, right?”
“That’s right.”
“The factory is already being run, yes?”
“Yes. But now I am thinking of the finished product. If we can make the entire product, then we can have direct trade.”
I said, “Really? Direct trade? Next your chain store could retail directly. So you could keep opening stores endlessly?”
He said, “That is right. Now I am thinking of more countries. This product that we are making, we can go out and promote it ourselves. Then we arrange to let other people make it. This way we are also doing good deeds.”
I said, “Why do you say you are doing good deeds?”
He replied, “When we are developing products, we train a few people so they can go and develop them. Aren’t I training talent in this way?”
I said, “You’re right. You are training people. Letting a few people brainstorm and develop it, this is good.”
“After we succeed, we will begin to produce the product.”
I asked, “When the finished product is made, isn’t that success?”
“Once the development is complete, the finished product comes out.”
He said, “It is exactly like this. Only after development is complete do we need the factory to begin production. Once the factory is open it will give many families an income source.”
I said, “That sounds right to me.”
“Yes, this way I am also doing relief work.”
“You are doing relief work in this way. But are you first giving love to the people? You need to first give love to take care of people and their families. Do not wait until you have started production, and then just give them a salary. If you want to develop this in any country, first you need to choose a poor country. Before you start, before you build your factory, you first need to do relief work. When your workers arrive, before they start production, you need to first understand their families. First help their families settle down. Then they will be at ease when working for you.”
“This is also the right way.”
He took my words to heart. In whatever country he went to open a factory, he followed my advice, and truly looked after several thousand families.
In that year there happened to be a riot. His workers in that country protected his factory. This was very good news. But is that the end of it? Because he feels that what I told him was very good, no matter which country he goes to, Vietnam, Cambodia, etc., he always extends himself and works very hard. “Master, I am working so hard. I know you are working hard. But why are doing this to yourself?”
“I am doing this because you yourself said that this way I can truly help and save many people.”
“If it is so difficult, what about the future? Who can carry on such a difficult business?” “This is true, I do have some worries.”
But he did not worry too much, and started developing again a way to promote his produce around the world, to sell it worldwide. He began to work even harder. He was very focused on his business. Of course this is very good. To open a path to impoverished is also good. But if people worry about vertical integration, money being made by other people, this kind of trouble is never-ending.
Sometimes when I am calmly reflecting, I think that continued industrial development, although it keeps many people from losing jobs, is also creating pollution, the worldly desires in our minds are endless. The manufacturing industry is also without limits. Development leads to increasingly more pollution. It is not just a matter of who will take future responsibility for this. This is a very big problem; furthermore it is the poor countries which are being polluted. Sometimes I feel very conflicted about the development of industry. In the end, just how long is our lifespan? No matter what we think, a slight deviation makes a big difference. Some people earn money and return it to society through donations. Some people cannot do this. Their constant dissatisfaction will lead them to constantly make a lot of money. But those people will be unable to do any good. Those people not only toil, working extremely hard, and tiring themselves out they still remain unsatisfied. If there is always dissatisfaction, then they continue to develop in this way, they continue to produce, and the Earth continues to be polluted.
This is ill-gotten wealth. They may covet other people’s labor, or sell other people’s servants and so on. We have talked about all of this before. Doesn’t this disaster extend to our descendents?
Therefore, if someone is dissatisfied, he will never have enough. When he is doing business and making lots of money he still thinks that it is not enough money. This kind of insatiable greed is fearful. For all the things we have done in this life and the things for which we have suffered, we need to repent at once. Do not complain about how successful you once were. Do not complain about how hard you work now. We cannot complain about this, as it is all from the past. If it is not from this life, then it is from the countless kalpas of previous actions. So even when we suffer, we need to always repent. We need to always nurture a contented mind. We need to be content. Only those who are content can recognize blessings. Only those who recognize blessings can be giving. We want to always be content and joyful.
The next passage of the text says, “We may subtract inches, steal a fraction of an ounce, cheat with standard measures, trade coarse for fine, switch short for long.”
What does this mean? Since we have rulers, cups and scales, we have a fair way to measure things. When people want to buy something, we can measure it out for them. Some people who sell cloth measure with a ruler. You watch clearly as they measure, and it seems to be correct. But when you return home and measure again, it seems you are many inches short. The more you bought, the more you are missing. Some people do this often. So, “subtraction inches” is when they are cutting the cloth, and using their rulers.
Some “steal a fraction of an ounce.” Even if it is just a small thing, if it is measured long or short, if it is weighed light or heavy, even if they are just greedy for a little bit, this is also the transgression of stealing. Stealing a pound, ounce, foot or inch is still called stealing, it is “stealing a fraction.” Even if it is a small thing, it is still stealing.
Then there is “cheating with standard measures.” This is using pounds or cups to measure. Some people often use cups to measure. They quickly scoop things up and pour them in, so they can measure a lot quickly. If they are a bit slow, then they can measure more carefully. They can give the cup a little shake, and some of what’s inside falls out, so of course what goes into the bag is more. In this way the seller loses out. But ancient people all had their tricks. It was hard to raise a child to do business well. They had to learn how to control the ruler, how to measure pounds and cups. These children truly did not have it easy; they needed to have a lot of skill.
Perhaps they “trade coarse for fine.” They exchange crude things for better ones. Sometimes, in the past, some places would trade. This trading was not like today’s markets. Some places were very rural and would barter goods for other goods. Some would trade coarse goods for fine ones, exchange cheap and shoddy things for valuables. Sometimes they would look for good opportunities, sometimes trading rice for gold. During the era of air raids, this often happened.
Some would trade yams for jade bracelets. At times when there is nothing to eat, it is possible for small things
to be exchanged for very valuable ones. This is trading coarse for fine. When trading and bartering, people exchange things. You exchange things for money, or things for other things. Some “exchange short for long.” They exchange short things for long ones and so on. This is all taking advantage of people. We should know, originally, ancient people also had a fair way to do business. Cloth sellers used rulers, and they had to measure very well. Usually they gave a little extra. This is being generous.
Being generous brings blessings. With a cup, you need to use a full measure. This is also a way of being generous and creating blessings. It is not selling light and buying heavy.
Some people sell things too short even though they buy them long. This happens when there is measurement involved. You clearly see them measure out an extra piece, but then when you measure again, even that extra piece is gone, and you are actually short. This is selling short, buying long. This is also common.
The summarize, people’s minds are like this “We may cleverly cheat in 100 ways, hoping for a bit of profit. For these and other wrongdoings, today we repent completely.”
Our minds may have the tendency to be sneaky and deceitful. People often fail to learn anything good, but instead they study many crafty tricks; they learn how to take advantage of others. There are many ways, so this is, “cleverly cheating in 100 ways hoping for a bit of profit.” Some are greedy for even small amounts. They do not want to let others earn even a bit. They will not yield at all.
Thing in the past were rather crude. People used traditional methods to cheat others. These methods have limits. But now this is not the case. With only some simple tricks, they can take great advantage of others. These are the differences in the times. The karma created is becoming greater and greater. Therefore, natural and man-made disasters are also more frequent now. This is all created by people, all from their mindset. We have created all this karma, so now we really need to “repent completely.”
Everyone, in studying Buddhism we need to study our thoughts. We cannot be greedy. After greed comes dissatisfaction, and our lives will be filled with trouble and toil, without an end in sight. Or, if there is deviance in our thoughts, it will be more trouble than our greedy actions. If we have deviance in our minds, we use schemes to fulfill our greed. Not only will we descend into Hell, disasters will befall our descendents.
People work so hard, and put in all this effort, but all they get are fleeting rewards. So we say blessings are short, suffering long. We need to promptly repent. So, we should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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