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 20110223--Repenting Deeply to Return to Our True Nature(學佛調心守人倫)

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20110223--Repenting Deeply to Return to Our True Nature(學佛調心守人倫) Empty
發表主題: 20110223--Repenting Deeply to Return to Our True Nature(學佛調心守人倫)   20110223--Repenting Deeply to Return to Our True Nature(學佛調心守人倫) Empty周四 2月 24, 2011 11:56 am

Date: February 23th, 2011
Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Repenting Deeply to Return to Our True Nature(學佛調心守人倫)
See how disasters are occurring so frequently that sometimes I don’t even have time to speak about all of them during my morning talk.
At this time yesterday morning when I was giving my daily talk and our volunteers were sharing with us stories they came across while serving in our hospitals, something happened to a country that is very far away from us---.
New Zealand was struck by an earthquake, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.
Compared to other major earthquakes, it may not sound very strong, but the quake struck at a shallow depth of only about 5 km.
The images of the quake-stricken areas are very terrifying to see.
At a time when disasters keep occurring, we truly must heighten our vigilance at all times and be prudent and humbly pious at every moment.
Indeed, when impermanence like this strikes, we must repent deeply.
Lately, I often talk about how we are truly running out of time.
They only way to save the world is to pray with a heart of utmost sincere piety so that our prayers may resonate and reach the Buddha and Bodhisattvas in the heavens above.
To show our sincere piety, we must start by abstaining from meat as only then are we truly showing repentance.
Repentance cleanses us.
See how people are creating bad karma continuously due to their ignorance and delusion.
Just as there is the Pacific Ring of Five where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are active, we must also create a “Ring of Repentance” by encouraging everyone to repent and adopt a vegetarian diet.
We should work to tame our unwholesome thoughts of greed, anger and ignorance and settle our minds at peace and ease.
Only then can there be no disasters in the world.
So, as Buddhist practitioners, is to tame our minds and quickly return to our pure, original nature.
Jia-Xuan’s mother said: “Her first kindergarten class taught a Jing Si Aphorism about taking care our duties.
Since then, she has been insisting on doing things herself, like washing her own dishes or cleaning her shoes.
She does everything herself and doesn’t rely on us to do it for her.”
This little girl is only six years old, yet she takes care of her own daily routine, and also helps her mother with chores.
She even thoughtfully calls her father to remind him when it’s time to come home for dinner and does what she can to help her grandmother.
See, children truly have purer minds as they have not been tainted by the unwholesome influences of society.
This girl is an example of how our true nature is inherently good and pure.
This shows how important good influences are as they serve to remind us of our wrong ways.
Take a college student from Indonesia for example.
After joining Tzu Chi, she came to understand that one mustn’t wait to do goodness and be filial.
However, her father had died in a car accident, so she’d already lost the opportunity to take care of him.
At our Year-end Blessings Ceremony in Jakarta this year, she had the chance to perform in the musical play on filial piety.
Performing in the play led her to understand the meaning of filial piety even more.
So, after giving the performance that day, she kneeled before her mother and repented for her past rebellious behavior and the mistakes she’d made in the past.
This act of deep repentance moved many people in the audience.
Hsiu-Chin Chen said: “Performing in the play saddened me very much not because I was hurt, but because I realized the mistakes I’d made.
I am grateful that I still have a very healthy mother who I can good daughter to.”
Everyone, we often see people repenting before the statue of Buddha.
But are such expressions of repentance enough?
If you regress, the Buddha won’t say: “You told me the other day you’d change your ways, but how come you did it again?”
A statue of the compassionate Buddha.
So, it will only work if you tell people:
“Starting from today, I will change.
Please keep an eye on me.”
This is what it means to repent.
Just like how we seize the chance to do good, we must also seize time to repent and reform.
We must repent and change our ways without delay anymore.
We mustn’t keep putting things off because there are many things that cannot wait.
To change our unwholesome ways and return to our pure, original nature, we must repent for the wrongdoings we committed as a result of our ignorance in the past.
From this moment on, we must seize the chance to be with good and upright people and stay away from the bad and the evil.
Having seen so many disasters around the world, we truly must quickly repent.
As I often say lately, since Taiwan is the birthplace of Tzu Chi and there are many Tzu Chi volunteers in Taiwan, we must start with ourselves by studying the Water Repentance text and organizing Dharma services for everyone to attend.
That way, people around the world can see our efforts and be awakened and further give rise to a heart of goodness to bring about a cycle of goodness in the world.
We truly must work together with one another to create an environment where everyone can practice vegetarianism as a way to deeply repent at every moment of our life.
As we adopt a vegetarian diet in our daily lives, we’ll also be more cautious about what we do and say, and not to repent the same mistakes that we have made before.
This is deep repentance.
All of us mist repent.
Who has never made mistakes?
So, we must repent.
To repent is to purify ourselves and to not repent the same mistakes again.
This is what it means to repent.
Everyone, seeing so many disasters occurring around the world, I am very worried and concerned every day.
That is why I keep reminding everyone to take care of our hearts and minds at all times lest our minds become lax.
Living in this world, we must take every step firmly and steadily and diligently walk down the path we take.
To do that we must take good care of our minds and be mindful always.
(Source: Da Ai TV 人間菩提)
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