Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: With Pure Causes and Conditions One Awakens (清淨因緣覺有情)
All of our relationships have their causes, and they end based on conditions.
If everyone understand this principle and clearly saw our connections with our loved ones, we would transform our love into Great Love. If we cannot see clearly, we will be entangled endlessly in our selfish love and hatred. Then we cannot escape the delusions of birth and death.
So, as practitioners, we should understand the importance of causality I often speak of gratitude. We should truly be grateful at all times, for all things, to all people. We must be universally grateful. Impartiality requires gratitude. If we practice selfish love, we will always be competing with each other. When we do not get what we want, resentment arises. If we can maintain an open heart and be grateful for all things to all people, we are practicing Great Love.
If we have a possessive mind, we repay kindness with resentment, and hold grudges over many things.
There is only a fine line between thoughts of gratitude and resentment. Since we were all born into this same world, isn’t everyone in the world our family? Don’t we co-exist with all sentient beings? So, everyone in this world is our family. If we all held such a view, wouldn’t the world be wonderful?
We should “spread our love far and wide.” In the past, present and future, since Beginningless Time, the Bodhisattva’s love was, is and will be known as Enlightened Love. Those who return to help suffering beings possess Enlightened Love. Such love is only slightly different from the delusive love of sentient beings. A slight deviance results in delusive love.
This comes from karmic causes. Everything arises from karmic cause and effect. If we clearly understand causes and conditions, we see everyone as a Bodhisattva whom we should thank. Once we see clearly, we will be filled with gratitude and Great Love. The love we give others is Enlightened Love. These are the causes of purity, so we must be very clear to be able to maintain this undefiled purity. Then resentment and divisiveness will not arise.
Those with affinities will meet each other. This is a law of nature. We must know that the length of someone’s life is dependent on causes and conditions. So, we should cherish these conditions.
Once these conditions end, we can only give them our heartfelt blessings. There are positive and negative affinities. Negative affinities lead to resentment and hatred, while positive affinities lead to gratitude. So, we should be vigilant and not create negative affinities in this world. If negative conditions manifest and continue to entangle us in future lives, we will suffer beyond words.
This depends on what type of affinities we create. We should create affinities of purity and share the same mission and purpose with others on the Bodhisattva-path. If we can do this, with our good affinities we will always have companions who work together with us to benefit and contribute to sentient beings. Aren’t these the best kind of affinities to have?
So, we should cherish our affinities and always remain pure in our interactions. We have been continually talking about repentance. The next passage reads.
“We disciples and others, again repent for our transgressions of greed. As the Sutras say, because of our desires, we are imprisoned by ignorance. We sink into the river of birth and death and do not know the way out.”
These verses should be very self-explanatory. We have been constantly repenting for our past. Are we done? Not yet. Now we need to “again repent” for our transgressions of greed and desire. This greed is truly boundless. A single thought of greed will lead to 84,000 obstructions. The Sutras indicate that, “because of our desires” we are always “imprisoned by ignorance.” Greed gives rise to anger. Of course, it all began with an ignorant thought. Ignorance is like a prison.
Nowadays, if someone commits a crime, he is imprisoned, and loses his freedom. For unenlightened beings, “an ignorant thought causes the Three Subtleties, external states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” When we encounter challenging conditions, ignorant thoughts cause us to keep seeing the world through our delusion. With this ignorance, we interact with others within this limitless universe. Think about it. We human beings exist in the vastness of this universe. Yet ignorance has created many obstructions for us life after life. Life after life, afflictions appear in our relationships. We do not know whence we came or where we go. It is not in our control.
After this life, we cannot choose where we will go next life. So this is the “prison of ignorance.” We are always carried along in the “rive of birth and death” 1,000-foot swells rise in the river of desire, 10,000 waves surge in the sea of suffering. We transmigrate in the Six Realms with no escape. We are adrift in the sea of birth and death. This sea is our boundless desire. Desires create the sea of birth and death.
If we have greed, we will have desires. This all originates from ignorance. Because of this, we do not know when we can be free. Once in the prison of ignorance, in the sea of births and deaths, we do not know when we can be free.
Society today is very chaotic. The news is filled with stories about the desires of lust. In a good family, parents show their kindness by raising and nurturing their children. But for the sake of romantic love, children rebel against their parents and become unfilial. That is repaying kindness with resentment.
Many say that after marriage, a man is strongly influenced by his wife. Of course, this is natural for human beings. But even while caring for one’s spouse, one still needs to care for one’s parents. One should also be filial towards in-laws. But oftentimes, woman feel closer to their parents than their in-laws. Nowadays people say that if the daughter marries, the family gains a son. But if the son marries, the family loses a son. People today do not realize that they must be grateful towards both sets of parents. One must thank his spouse’s parents who allowed him to marry such a wonderful wife. Similarly, the wife must be grateful toward her husband’s parents. Both the wife and husband must be grateful toward their in-laws. If a woman marries into a family, she must follow household rules, so family values are maintained.
Some men, when they are first married, love their spouses wholeheartedly, vowing, “Even if the seas dry up and the rocks crumble, I will love you forever!” But soon, they have a change of heart. Things get complicated as the couple starts to quarrel and have conflicts. Some eventually kill or commit murder-suicides because of infidelity. This happens frequently; it is all due to sensual desires.
So, we often speak of the Five or Ten Precepts. Lay practitioners must abide by the Five Precepts. However, in Tzu Chi, besides the Five Precepts, there are other precepts that were adopted in response to modern society. Alcohol, cigarettes and betel nuts are unhealthy. One must drive carefully and be gentle with others. Within a large organization, one must be clear on moral values and never carelessly break precepts.
So, Tzu Chi values the Five and Ten Precepts. Among these precepts is “no sexual misconduct.” In addition to being loyal to one’s spouse, we need clear boundaries with the opposite sex. We must be grateful for our Dharma-family. In this large group of Dharma brothers and sisters, we are all one the same Bodhisattva-path, so we all must maintain a pure mind. The affinities of Bodhisattvas are unlike the delusive love of ordinary people. If someone excitedly joins this organization, but still has delusions in his mind, he may break the rules. So, I hope everyone cherishes his own Wisdom-Life. These pure causes and Bodhisattva-affinities must be kept undefiled. So, we must not have this kind of desire. It may lead us to cross the line in a relationship. Then we enter the prison of ignorance. This is what the repentance text indicates.
The next passage reads, “Due to causes and conditions of the Five Desires, since long ago all sentient beings have transmigrated through countless lives.”
Sentient beings’ delusions are all due to the Five Desires. “Since long ago” means from Beginningless Time till today. We have continued to be reborn, but not always as humans. We have been “all sentient beings.” There are multitudes of sentient beings, millions and billions of living beings. NO matter how small they all possess Buddha-nature. Just one mistaken thought can cause us to lose our human forms. So “all sentient beings have transmigrated through countless lives.” This refers to beings born over eons of time, continuously and into different forms.
We are fortunate to remain human. Regardless of the suffering, we still have a chance to hear and practice Dharma. Thus the saying, “It is precious to be born human and hear Dharma.” We underwent much difficulty to attain human form and be able to listen to the Right Dharma. But we still have this opportunity, which is unavailable to other animals or species. Now we know the power of the Five Desires, and the troubles they can cause us. Everyone, learning Buddhism is about tending our minds. All of our relationships have their causes, so we must maintain the purity of these causes. All relationships end depending on conditions, so we must maintain the purity of our conditions. With pure causes and conditions, we can practice on the Bodhisattva-path.
In this way, there is harmony in society and fewer calamities worldwide. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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