Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: When the Threefold Karma is Pure, We Are Blessed (三業清淨才是福)
We must always uphold the Threefold Karma of body, speech and mind. So, we must always remind ourselves to protect life, not kill. We should give rather than steal, keep our actions pure and rid ourselves of disasters. How do we keep ourselves free of disasters? By protecting life.
The ancients said, “Liberating life is the way to extend health and longevity.” This means we should respect life. To be healthy, we need to sow the right seeds. The seed for health is cherishing other living beings. So of course, we cannot kill. We give rather than steal. We want give to others and never consider stealing their possessions. We have to keep ourselves pure. Do not let your body do anything that defiles you or someone else. Uphold the precepts of the body; avoid killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. Uphold these three precepts to create good causes and effects.
As are the causes, so are the effects. If the body does not create bad karma, naturally it will be free of disasters. We will be unlikely to encounter disasters. So, let us never create the three kinds of negative physical karma. Not only that, we also have to uphold the three kinds of positive physical karma. Then no disasters will befall us.
The four negative karma of speech are gossip, harsh words, lies and flattery. In our daily living, we do not need to flatter or slander others. Do not pass along any evil, false or untrue words. If we can eliminate all mistakes that come out of our mouth, and avoid speaking them out loud, then we can purity the karma of speech. In this way, we wash away the Four Evils of Speech.
What about the mind? Jealousy, anger, greed, ignorance are mental filth. Cease mental filth; follow goodness to find blessings.
Do not keep any filth in your mind. Jealousy leads to anger, greed and ignorance. If these do not arise in our mind, everything will be clean. That is ending mental impurities. Then there will be no filth in our mind, and nothing will arise. We reach a spiritual state of absolute purity and tranquility. It is very clean. Then, everything will be virtuous.
Our body, speech and mind will be pure and virtuous. The absence of evil is virtue. So, we must have faith. Follow goodness to find blessings.
We keep saying we should believe in causes, conditions, effects and retributions. This is the law of cause and effect. If all causes and conditions are good, we will have good effects and rewards. Those are blessings.
So, as Buddhist practitioners, we must remember to always be vigilant of every action, word, and thought in our daily living.
The text continues on by saying, “We may have falsely accused the kind-hearted. For these immeasurable and boundless transgressions of harsh speech, today, we repent with the deepest sincerity.”
This section is about repenting for harsh words. We have previously talked about kind-people, chaste women, or earnest, learned people. We have defiled these people, or slandered their honor or their reputation. With harsh speech we insult, slander, defame and dishonor others.
This may have been done openly or in the dark behind people’s backs. It all creates karma. Unkind words are harsh words. We should know that this is all karma we have created in the past. Since we committed wrongdoings, there is karma.
How much karma is there? It is immeasurable and boundless. So, starting today, we have to repent with deep sincerity. Indeed, we have to repent every day and be more vigilant against making mistakes.
Next it says, “From Beginningless Time until today, through the karma of lying we have committed all types of transgressions. In our minds, we seek fame and wealth.”
Previously we talked of harsh speech. Angry thoughts cause us to speak harsh words. Because we have anger and rage, when we see others succeed or hear them praised, we feel unhappy and thus speak evil words. Those evil words come out of anger.
Lies come out of greed. To attain fame and wealth, we speak lies. We claim that things exist when they do not, and vice versa, just to please others.
Confucius said, “Ill-gotten wealth is like a passing cloud to me.” True wealth or status is not in name or appearance. Some rich people always lacking, some are rich, but not noble. We often see this today. Money does not guarantee respect, especially, if people are ruthless in acquiring wealth. If someone is immoral in making money, no matter how rich they are, no one will respect them. Without respect they are not noble. They did not cherish themselves so they attained wealth unscrupulously.
They did many things they should not have done to make a lot of money. Although they have wealth, to Confucius, such wealth is like a passing cloud.
Most people with more integrity feel similarly. They have to attain their wealth completely through hard work and proper means. They earned all they have without doing anything dishonestly. So, let us earn money in a principled way.
Next the text says, “We hide the truth and are dishonest, ignore our conscience and are shameless. We say that something exists when it does not, and that something does not exist when it does.”
Hide means to cover up or conceal. We turn what is real into something fake. To do this we ignore our conscience and completely cover it up. This has been happening since ancient times.
We hear someone say, “So-and-so did this good deed. So-and-so did many good deeds.”
Then we say, “it’s not him. He didn’t do these good deeds. Actually, it was me. This is how I did it.” We lie and claim their deeds as ours.
Or we protect someone else by hiding the truth. We pretend they did not do what they did. If we speak false words, if we lie, we disregard how things actually happened. What if the lie is revealed? That shows we do not care about our own dignity. Taking credit for others’ actions is wrong. If someone else points out, “You didn’t do it, he did, then we really do not know where to hide our face.”
So, speak the truth. Do not claim credit for others’ actions to seek your own fame and fortune. Or we may try protect someone by concealing the good deeds that others have done. To summarize all of this, “we say something exists when it does not.” These are all wrong, they are all lies.
If we say something exists when it does not, or say we did not do something we did, those are all lies and false words.
Next, “We saw, but said we did not, we did not see, but said we did. We heard, but said we did not, we did not hear, but said we did.”
“We saw, but said we did not.” You clearly saw that this man saved him, not that man. Then you backed up someone else’s lie by saying, “I didn’t see it.” Clearly, you heard that person A did it. But that person lied and said person B did it. At this point, they ask you to speak the truth. What did you actually hear? If you still say, “I didn’t hear anything.” Then you “heard, but said you did not.”
Sometimes you “did not hear, but said you did.” Clearly, you did not hear anything. That person lied and told you person B did it. You did not hear it, but you said, “Yes, I know. I heard him say he did it.”
That is wrong, too. The truth is the truth. If we heard it, we have to say it. If someone says, “This is the truth, we should really listen to it.” A person may ask you if you have heard of something and whether you think it is right or wrong. You clearly know it is right, but you say it is not. If something is the truth and you think it makes sense when you hear it, in the future you should use this truth to help explain the Dharma. But if between two people, one seizes the chance to speak on a principle while causing the other to say something false, in the Lotus Sutra, this is called a great lie. Truth is not just whether people “see, but say they do not.” If people deliberately deviate and misdirect others about the truth, that is a great lie.
Perhaps we say there is something that we have seen or heard. We claim to understand it. We say the truth we know is genuine Dharma, and it has already entered our minds. Faking enlightenment is also a great lie. We may know something, but have not truly experienced it. It is only the principle we heard. If we speak truthfully, we will not create karma through improper or unreasonable speech. Lies are truly very subtle. When we speak, we must be mindful.
A practitioner must speak true words, not lies. Or, “We know, but say we do not, we do not know, but say we do. We did, but say we did not, we did not, but say we did. We cheat sages and saints and delude worldly people.”
You pretty much understand the principle. You clearly know, but say you do not. You clearly know the many principles that you have heard before, but when people ask for advice, you do not say anything. They say, “But I heard that the Truth of Prajna is the Truth of Wisdom.” If you heard something you should share it. But you say, “No, I don’t know.”
They say, “But I heard someone say that you already heard these things. I heard that you really absorbed these truths and took notes and recorded everything. Can you show us so we can understand?”
You say, “No, I don’t know. Maybe later…”
If someone asks you for the truth, hoping you will pass it along, but you say you do not know, that is wrong.
“People must spread the teachings, not use them to promote themselves.” So we cannot say we do not know when we do, and vice versa. If we do not know, then we must say we do not. Knowing what we do not know is true knowledge. Confucius said the same. If we do not know something well, fabricating all sorts of things for others is also wrong. If you know it, if you heard it clearly, but refuse to tell others when asked, that is also wrong.
So, not knowing, but saying you do is wrong. Knowing, but saying you do not is also wrong. We have to speak the truth. We cannot speak what is not true.
“We did, but say we did not.” Clearly, you did this. If we made a mistake then we should admit it.
“We did not, but say we did.” If we did not do the good deed, but say we did, or if we did a bad thing, but say we did not, those are all ways in which we “cheat sages and saints and delude worldly people.” These are all considered lies.
So, every time we open our mouths we create karma. Evil words create karma and so do lies. We cheat others for fame and fortune. If we claim other’s fame as our own or want to hoard the truth by not sharing it that is karma of speech. We can clearly say something, but we do not. We can clearly do something, but refuse. We clearly did not do this, but say we did, but say we did, and so on. This is what we have talked about.
Everyone, when you open your mouth in your daily living, speak good words. Share the truth with others. We should all do good deeds. If we can do this, we are true practitioners. There cannot be defilements in our minds. We must keep them tranquil and pure. It is a blessing when the Threefold Karma is pure. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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