Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Feel for Sentient Beings, Establish Great Vows (愍眾生 立弘願)
We must always create good affinities, maintain good thoughts and make good vows. We should always remember to feel for sentient beings with compassion and resolve.
This is why we are constantly reminding everyone that we need to repent. After repenting, how can we always maintain our purity of heart? That requires compassion. We err and give rise to ignorance and afflictions because we lack compassion. So, we must always nurture compassion.
Everyone has a heart of compassion and kindness. Yet we must establish great vows with firm resolve to feel for and help sentient beings. Once we vow to do this, we must put our vow into practice. Suffering beings are the object of our unwavering resolve. So, we should always feel for them and aid them.
We often invoke Great Compassionate Guanyin and Great Vow Earth Treasury Bodhisattva. Earth Treasury Bodhisattva vowed to remain in Hell and not attain Buddhahood until Hell was empty of all beings. That was his great resolve. Guanyin Bodhisattva continued to return to the Saha World to rescue beings and give them peace and joy. This is the vow of compassion, to feel for and aid all beings until they have peace and joy. We must always give joyful. Not everyone suffers from poverty and illnesses, but most people suffer from ignorant afflictions. If that is so, how do we bestow joy? By giving joyously without expectations.
Giving joyously requires generosity, kind words, beneficial conduct, working together. These actions create good affinities with beings. We willingly give material things, as well as the Dharma. At the same time, we also give fearlessness.
To create good affinities with others, we should speak kind words. When others are afflicted, we should comfort and care for them. This is the meaning of kind words. We must care for others and be good spiritual friends and advisors to them. If they have afflictions, we should guide them toward the proper path. If we can help eliminate their confusion and help them calm their minds, that is beneficial conduct.
Moreover, we need to work together to help them. Some people may feel, “I don’t do the same work as him. I am in a different department than him.” Actually, we do not need to work in the same company or department to have a relationship. That is not necessary. We should help anyone with difficulties. This is also working together.
It is like Tzu Chi; many people gather to work together due to conditions. With these causes and conditions, everyone shares the same vow and walks the Bodhisattva-path together. This is working together. We all share the same Bodhisattva mission. If we can do this, we have no regrets, complaints, worries or expectations. This is kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity.
Always develop compassion and make vows to help beings until they attain peace and joy.
Always know to give with joy. With giving, kind words, beneficial conduct and working together, one can maintain purity of heart.
Everyone, we should always nurture kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity in our hearts, and carry them out in our actions. Then we can maintain purity of mind and prevent afflictions form returning. We may achieve purity now, but after a while afflictions return. Only with kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity, gentleness, tolerance and realizing g emptiness can we be free from entanglements of affliction. So, we must enter the house of the Tathagata. We must keep this in mind.
Now let us continue with Dharma as Water. The Water Repentance indicates, “All Buddhas have compassion for sentient beings. Thus they taught the Dharma of Water Repentance. Today we take refuge with all Buddhas.”
We should now understand that the repentance practices arose because Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. The Buddha spoke the True Dharma in this world to let us know the reality of suffering and how we can prevent it. The Buddha taught many teachings. As you know, the Lotus Sutra mentions that for 42 years the Buddha adapted His teachings to suit the needs of sentient beings. He used skillful means that were adapted to the various dispositions of sentient beings. This was all due to His compassion for them. But he kept the True Dharma in His heart. After 42 years, He let go of skillful means and presented the true path, so that we could understand it. This true path is returning to the Bodhisattva fundamentals of working to help sentient beings. The Buddha’s true teaching allows sentient beings with different dispositions to gather at the right starting point. This starting point is bringing forth Bodhicitta.
Bodhicitta is the proper method to enlightenment. So, if we venture forward with Right Dharma, we are on the Bodhisattva-path. This is what the Buddha taught to rescue our minds with the Dharma. We must practice the Dharma among others, and guide those who suffer.
This is having compassion for sentient beings.
With one ignorant thought, Imperial Preceptor Wu-Da faced misfortune stemming from a grudge created ten lifetimes earlier. He later understood this. After he suffered for a long time, Venerable Kanaka finally resolved it for him. He deeply realized that the suffering in life comes from one thought. When an ignorant thought arises, one create bad karma. If one does not completely repent or receive retribution, it is never eliminated. So, he understood that once we create karmic causes, there will definitely be karmic effects. With this realization, he focused on writing the Water Repentance. He analyzed the teachings of the Buddha, and categorized and documented the Dharma, whether pertaining to the mind or mundane matters, so that everyone could raise their awareness.
There are many sources of affliction, but we should always remember that every thought, word or action must be treated with vigilance. So, he wrote the Water Repentance.
We have studied the text, so we should always “take refuge with all Buddhas.” It is not just Sakyamuni Buddha. For immeasurable Kalpas, Sakyamuni Buddha also followed the footsteps of all Buddhas before Him.
So we should also take refuge with all Buddhas and respect all Buddhas.
Where can we find all Buddhas? Sakyamuni Buddha already told us that. If we keep the Buddha in our hearts, then everyone is a Buddha. So, this infinite number of Buddhas are all in our daily life. If we can keep the Buddha-mind as our mind, with purity of mind, we are in the Pure Land. So, everyone is a Bodhisattva or Buddha.
When we recite the Water Repentance, we being by “paying respect to all Buddhas.” Then we repent again. We must always pay respect to Buddha and repent.
Paying respect is being reverent. We must be reverent at all times with all things, not only when we are in the main hall paying respect to Buddha. We must be reverent at every single moment. If we see everyone as a Buddha, we are reverent with everyone. We must maintain this mindset. Furthermore, we must repent. Be reverent and have a repentant mind.
Repentance is being vigilant of whether or not we have made mistakes, whether or not we have misspoken, whether or not our thoughts have gone astray. It is for us to alert ourselves.
After paying respect to all Buddhas, we repent again. We have repented our wrong actions and speech; now we repent for all transgressions against the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
“We have repented our wrong actions and speech.” In the second volume we have discussed the three kinds of evil karma of the body and the four kinds of evil karma of speech. We are clear on those. Now we need to further repent our transgressions against the “Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.” We must repent all of the obstacles we created. To hear the Budhha- Dharma or draw close to the Sangha is truly not easy, because our minds create obstacles for us.
Once a group of honorary board members held an activity called “Jing Si Lifestyle Camp.” They were brought here to visit. After the camp, they had a better understanding of the organization, and gathered outside to share their thoughts. One person made an interesting comment; he said “Now I know environmental protection is the solution to global warming. Being vegetarian is also a way to protect the environment. I should become a vegetarian too, but I need time to do it slowly, because it’s hard to change at once, right?”
Everyone agreed. Indeed, it is hard to become vegetarian right away. So they said, “Then why don’t we start with eating only one non– vegetarian meal per day?” If we think about it, isn’t it the same? They are still not vegetarian. So, [listening to them], it seem that being vegetarian is so difficult. What is obstructing them? The obstacles in their own minds.
Food merely nourishes our bodies. But for the sake of a taste on our three-inch tongue, just for this sensation, one is unable to become a vegetarian, and still want to consume meat once a day. This is obstructing oneself. Once we hear the Buddha-Dharma, we can put it into action. Then we understand the forms and lives of sentient beings. As mentioned before, humans are just one form of life, one that walks with two legs. Actually, the head, hands, body and organs of humans are similar to other animals. Other animals also have heads. What about hands? Many animals walk with four legs; some, like centipedes, have multiple legs. Then some , like snakes, have no legs, There are varied forms, but most possess similar internal organs. All lives are equal.
Animals possess consciousness, fear death and strive to protect their lives. So, all lives are equal. This is the Buddha-Dharma.
If one understands this, one will not want to eat meat even once a day.
When not close to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, one creates obstacles for oneself.
Actually, a vegetarian diet provides sufficient nutrients. By protecting our bodies from pollution, we can protect our environment. In learning Buddhism, we should not create obstacles for ourselves, believing we are clever. If we do, it will be hard for us to be close to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We may transgress in speech and action, and the mind may create many obstacles preventing us from being close to the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha and benevolent friends. So, if we can arouse compassion and make vows, not only will we not obstruct ourselves, others will not obstruct us either. We will not be hindered because our vows are vast as the void and unwavering. We will feel for and help beings through giving, Kind words, beneficial conduct, working together. We will keep creating good affinities with others. We must not prevent others from hearing the Dharma. Instead, we must approach them through Dharma. This is complete repentance. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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