Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: (守護身心正道行)
Safeguard Body and Mind, Practice the Right Path
Always safeguard your bodies, minds and behavior. If we take care of our bodies and minds, we will not engage in negative behavior. Within the 37 Practices to Enlightenment, the Four Right Efforts tell us to prevent future evil from arising, quickly remove any evil that already exists, encourage goodness to arise quickly, and nurture any goodness that already exists. We need to take good care of our minds before any evil develops. Keep your mind on the right and proper path. Do not go off track. If we stray from the path, we easily commit mild and severe transgressions. So, we need to take care of our minds and not allow evil thoughts to arise. If evil thoughts arise, we need to remove them right away. Do not allow them to continue growing. If loving thoughts have not arisen, we need to foster them so they can arise and grow quickly. If we have an opportunity to develop our love, we need to not only protect this love, but also help it to continue growing. The opportunity to do good and create blessings is rare. If we have these causes and conditions, we need to safeguard these kind thoughts. So, as Buddhist practitioners we need to really pay attention to safeguarding our bodies and minds. So, when good arises, we want to let it grow. To not commit transgressions, we need to take good care of these thoughts. Do not let evil thoughts arise. We need to be alert in case they arise so we can eliminate them right away. This is how we prevent the body and mind from transgressing. We must pay attention to this in our practice. Today, let us look at the next section of the repentance text.
“From Beginningless Time until today, we may have had deviant beliefs or inverted views that lead us to harm sentient beings. We may have flattered demons, monsters, ghosts and spirits because we desired to live longer, though in the end we cannot attain this.”
Since Beginningless Time, we have had deviant beliefs or distorted views. Deviant beliefs are misguided. We are easily confused by deviant thinking, views and beliefs. We ask, “How do we pray for blessings?” Most people think to bring the Three Sacrifices or the Five Gifts to the temple to pray for safety. That is wrong. These beliefs are misguided and not right. Think about it. All sentient beings possess life. All living beings desire life and fear death. How can we kill sentient beings as a sacrifice to protect our health or to seek a cure for illness?
Protect our health or to seek a cure for illness?.
This is wrong.
If we harm other living beings for our own sake, we have “deviant beliefs or inverted views.”
This is backwards.
Harming sentient beings to seek blessings is wrong.
In Master Lian-chi’s Essay on Liberating Life, there is the following story.
In Hefei, Anhui Province, there was a family who were in the business of killing pigs.
After more than 20 years, how many living beings had they killed?
There is no way to calculate.
Every morning before daybreak, they would round up the pigs and take them to the slaughterhouse.
Early one morning, before the sky grew light, the husband woke up and began his preparations.
His wife got up and went to the bathroom.
She passed the pigsty on her way.
She thought she saw two women lying on the ground inside the pigsty.
She was frightened.
She rushed in, told her husband and said, “Let’s not kill anymore, alright?”
Her husband said, “Woman, something is wrong with your eyes!”
“You saw wrong. There was no such thing.”
The wife begged him, “Don’t!”
“Killing pigs is like killing people. We see those live pigs in the pigsty. Every morning when you catch them, their pitiful wails break my heart.”
“See, when you stick your knife in, they bleed.”
“They are also aware of it. They also bleed.”
“So many people eat their flesh. Think about it. This is very tragic. Can we really create this cruel negative karma?”
“The more I think of it, the more uneasy I feel.”
The husband said, “So many people want to eat meat. So many people buy pork, duck and chicken to make the Three Sacrifices and Five Gifts when they pray to the spirits.”
“So how can killing pigs, chickens and ducks bring bad karma? It has always been this way.”
The wife continued begging him.
But the husband remain unmoved, and felt he had to kill them.
The day dawned and the wife returned to her parent’s house.
She vented to her parents and brothers, and begged her family to go with her to persuade her husband to take up another profession.
They could live a good life without killing pigs.
They had over 100 acres of fields and three houses.
He did not need to kill pigs.
This did not have to be his profession.
Her family really supported her and said, “Alright, your brothers will go with you.”
So, they went to talk to her husband.
But no matter what, he refused to give it up.
So the wife said, “If that is the case, why don’t we separate?”
“You can do what you want, but I want to take our son with me so he doesn’t have to live with you.”
The husband was very stubborn.
“Then we’ll separate, split everything in half.”
So, they split their wealth in half and lived separately.
He continued to kill pigs.
Eventually he killed all the pigs in the pigsty.
At that moment, his precious son suddenly got sick and died.
The husband and wife were both heartbroken.
The wife then complained that her husband did not listen, so the terrible karma from killing had affected their descendants.
The wife then complained that her husband did not listen, so the terrible karma from killing had affected their descendants This husband also realized this Since he had killed all the pigs, he would not kill anymore What did he do instead?
He simply remained idle They had already separated, so he gambled Every time he gambled he lost. He lost all his cash. He became so addicted to gambling that he sold his fields and houses. After he sold everything he continued gambling.
He continued losing until he had nothing. What did he do then? He felt that he should go catch and sell pigs. So, he started catching and killing pigs again. After more than a year of killing pigs, he suddenly fell ill. Once he got sick he remained in tremendous pain for over a year.
He rolled around in pain every day. In the middle of the night, he wailed in pain like a pig. In the end, he died in agony. So, once our perspective goes awry and we make mistake, everything that follows will be a mistake. He had a very wise wife.
She wanted him to stop killing and change his profession, but he refused His reasoning was, “So many people are buying meat” “Many people are killing chickens and ducks and using them to sacrifice to spirits, so killing pigs is not a big deal”
So, he had “deviant beliefs or distorted views”. He created karma and continued creating it, but his karmic retribution did not arrive right away. With these “deviant beliefs or distorted views, he created karma by killing sentient beings”.
Doing so to flatter “demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits” is wrong. So, we need to have correct beliefs. Everyone that eats food will eventually get sick. So, when you get sick, do not pray to spirits and kill living beings as a sacrifice.
This is wrong In the meantime, we need to quickly create more blessings. When we learn Buddhism we learn Right Views. Do not pray for long life, for immortality. There is no such thing. How could we possibly ensure a long life?
Only if we truly loved and protected living beings in our past lives, can we live a healthy and long life in this lifetime. When something happens to us, we must not kill beings to. Do not do this. This create karma. Whether we do it directly or indirectly, this creates mild and severe karma.
Those who do the killing create severe karma Those who eat the meat create mild karma. Though it is slight, it is still karma. Like the husband who did the killing said, “Others offer these animals as sacrifices”.
Those who cause this creation of karma have inverted perspectives.
They think this will extend their lives.
But that will never happen.
They thonk sacrifices extend life.
But “In the end they cannot attain this”
“We may have lied about “
“seeing ghosts or hearing spirits “
“For these and other transgressions, “
“we repent completely”
Some people lie and say ,”I see spirits ,“
“I saw a ghost “ or “The spirits told me so”
Is this right?
Not only is it wrong m it is a mistake.
It is “lying about seeing ghosts，hearing spirits”
They use these methods to cheat foolish people out of their money.
This happens often ,even now.
So, we need to educate others and help them purify their minds so they know that
as long as they can still breathe ,
they cannot deviate in their thoughts.
As long as we have the strength to do things and move around freely ,
we must not make a mistake in our behavior.
Next ,
“From beginningless Time until today , “
“we may have acted with “
“pride , conceit and arrogance ,“
“upheld caste systems and “
“looked down on everything “
This section in the repentance text.
Talks about the nature [of our behavior]
Previously it mentioned deviant views.
Now it addresses our attitude toward our minds.
As ordinary beings if we have even a bit of talent, we feel superior and proud.
If our family background is better ,we think highly of ourselves.
If we feel superior,conceited or arrogant, we might bully others.
We cannot have such behavior.
I always say all sentient beings are equal.
There is no distinction in status.
So , why do people feel arrogant towards others ?
If we have talent , it was nurtured by others.
So , if we are talented ,we need to be even more humble.
We need to be even more grateful ,because this environment nurtured us.
Our parents ,society, teachers ,etc., nurtured us and helped us develop such great talent.
If we use more resource than others ,we need to be even more humble and grateful ,
towards all beings.
But ordinary beings often become arrogant.
Arrogance is when we feel overly important.
This is not right.
So we have “conceit and arrogance”or“uphold caste systems “
Perhaps we are pround because our ancestors were nobles.
But why does that matter ?
After all this time , even if you are noble now ,are you a benefactor for others ?
You can do good things.
If you have fame , power ,or wealth，you should use all of that to benefit people .
That is truly being a benefactor to others.
When we learn Buddhism, we must remember
we all want to be a benefactor for someone else.
But we cannot be arrogant.
Let us always be grateful.
We give without seeking anything in return while simultaneously being grateful.
So , when we learn Buddhism,we safeguard our body , mind an behave correctly.
We take good care of our minds so we do not commit mild or severe transgressions or karma.
Therefore , we must always be self –aware.
Prevent any evil from arising.
If it arises , remove it at once .
If goodness has not arisen , we need to find it.
We need to find way to create blessings for people.
With the right causes and conditions ,we can accomplish good deeds.
Then we need to continue on this way.
This is truly the best way to practice.
So ,please always remain aware and always be mindful.
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