Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: A Father’s Urgent Concerns (諸子無知父憂如焚)
Date: April.29. 2015
“Sons and daughters all over the world do not understand their parent’s hearts. With long-lasting compassion and great love, parents forever cherish their children. The children are ignorant and defile their consciousness with attachments to sensory objects. Confusion and awareness are decided in a single thought; good and evil are created by the mind.”
Are sons and daughters all over the world able to understand their parents’ hearts? The way people live now is completely different from the past. In the past, three generations, four generations or even five generations lived in the same place as one big family. Everyone lived together, mutually upheld proper family relationships and respected their elders. This was how they lived. Things gradually changed over time; these days, once the children grow up, they move out of the house. The parents remain in their hometown.
Will their children’s children, the grandchildren, the next generation, actually know their grandfather’s name or their grandmother’s maiden name? It is possible the second and third generation’s affection for the first generation has continued to fade away. So, there is no sense of closeness between them. This is the way families are now. For those people who live in cities, even if they are living with their children, when they become elderly, they may think, “If I live at home, I’m a bother to these young people. I’ll go to the nursing home.” But they are still hiding a feeling of sadness and loneliness, a deep loneliness. In some families, people are unable to care for their sick parents, so they likewise send them to nursing homes so that professionals can take care of them. There are a lot of these kinds of issues with the elderly now.
We often sigh about how life is full of suffering. In our current society, people have lost sight of morals and ethics. These values have faded and become distant. As we take a look at people’s families, many seniors still live in the countryside. As for the many seniors in the nursing homes, when we ask them, “Do you have children?” [they say,] “We do.” “Then why do you live here?” “I don’t want to be a bother to the young people.” When parents are taking care of their children, no matter how poor they are, they still want their children to be well-fed and warmly-clothed. Parents who are wealthier work hard to expand their business so they can give their children a solid foundation. As their children grow up, they encourage them to increase their knowledge in order to earn a higher status. This is the mindset of parents.
Gradually, the mindset of the parents and of their children become polarized. Everything parents do is for their children’s sake. But their children eventually leave them and move far away. This is a phenomenon we see in the world right now.
The lack of understanding children show for their parents is the suffering elderly people experience most these days. “With long-lasting compassion and great love, they forever cherish their children.” Whether they are living in nursing homes or somewhere else, parents still have “long-lasting compassion.” They will always be concerned about their children and grandchildren living far away. They constantly think about them. These people who are in their later years have these kinds of worries; this is the mentality of seniors. However, what exactly do these children do after leaving [their parents]?
“The children are ignorant.”After leaving their hometowns, many of them lead an undisciplined life.This is really worrisome for their parents.If their children become successful, they are too busy with their work or caret to come home.Then, when their parents are asked, “What do your children do? He is a teacher,” “She is a professor” and so on, is how they proudly respond.
But if their children stir up trouble and do bad things, or if they should become frustrated and depressed, as parents they will be concerned.They worry that people will find out.
With this fear comes a sense of disgrace.This state of mind also causes suffering.
Actually, affection and love are inherently impermanent.
Unfortunately, nowadays, people easily forget about the affection and love their parents have shown them.But with other kinds of affection and love, they become inextricably entangled.Love, hate, affection and animosity all lead to great suffering.
In summary, in this world, just the feelings of affection and love alone can cause many complications.Are they really that complicated?Actually, they are very simple.
Whether we are deluded or awakened is decided in the space of single thought.Goodness comes from following ethics and morals.When we follow these ethics and morals, everything we do will be good.If we deviate from them, we will commit evil deeds.Good and evil both arise from the mind.
Oriented one way, our minds think good thoughts and can turn from evil toward goodness.But with a shift in mindset, we can also turn from goodness toward evil.
In this world, there are so many imbalances in the macrocosm of the world and so much confusion in the microcosm of people’s minds.These lead to poor physical and mental health.Once people’s minds are unhealthy, every action they take will be wrong.This is the reason that so many interactions between people in this world have caused such large-scale disturbances.These problems all originate from the mind.
The majority of people are living in suffering.Take a look at Mozambique.Starting last year or early this year, a group of compassionate South African volunteers have been bringing their love across the borders into Swaziland and then all the way to Mozambique.Wherever Tzu Chi volunteers have walked, lotus flowers will bloom with each step.
Though these Bodhisattvas from South Africa are themselves poor and lacking in material goods, their hearts are filled with an abundance of love.At the beginning of this year, when Mozambique experienced a disaster, South Africa Tzu Chi volunteers once again accompanied the local Bodhisattvas to visit the disaster area and taught them how to survey the disaster and conduct assessments of each [affected] family.
After learning these methods, the Mozambican volunteers put them into practice, steadfastly following their teachings.
Once of them was a volunteer named Victoria.She had gone into those filthy conditions.Several months after the flood, the places that were affected had still not been cleaned up.In the places she had to pass through, there were many dead pigs and dogs.Many things were still rotting in the water and there was a terrible stench because the garbage and stagnant water had not been cleared away.
To pass through areas like this, Victoria would take off her shoes, roll up her pant legs and walk through these filthy and foul-smelling areas to care for people.What she did was very touching.But she said, “My family is very poor, and I am also living in poverty, so I cannot offer food to the survivors. However, I have feet and good health, so I can walk. I will visit this place every day and at least let the people who are suffering know that someone cares, that there are still people with love who care.”
She also said, “Now, if I don’t do a good deed every day, or provide care to one or two people, I do not feel at ease, mentally or physically.”This all comes from the mind.
In the past, [some volunteers] complained a lot. In the past, they felt, “You are poor; well, so am I. You are suffering; so am I.” They did not want to give something they needed to anyone else. This kind of mindset they used to have is that of the poorest among the poor. Now, we see a large group of volunteers who are happy every day. Each day, they take care of other people. This brings the volunteers great happiness. When they encounter the elderly and the sick, they care for them by physically guiding and supporting them.
Though volunteers who live in these conditions lack material wealth, they have spiritual wealth. This long-lasting compassion and great love is not limited only to their own parents and children. Actually, their great love has expanded to encompass all human beings. Their compassion goes beyond loving their own parents. They also often hold activities that honor parents. They teach people ways of practicing filial piety by encouraging children to wash their parents’ feet.
They said, “We have never done this before. Now we do this often.” In that place of poverty, people are getting back on the right course. Because they have extended their compassion and spread great love, every day, the volunteers think of the suffering. Their love is gradually growing. Therefore, delusion or awakening are still determined by our minds.
In this burning house of the Three Realms, we need to find ways to help everyone quickly awaken to the fact that being immersed in this state of delusion is not right. Everyone must quickly awaken and find ways to change the environment so it can be safe for everyone. They need to learn how to put out the fire, to avoid the places where the fire is burning and to rebuild their home. This is very important.
It is said, “Harmony and unity are precious”. With harmony and unity in our hearts, we will work together in concert and rebuild the compassion and love between all people. The previous passage mentions how the elder saw that the children were still inside the burning house. They did not realize how the fire was raging, so they remained inside and “just ran about as they played and merely looked at their father”. They just kept on playing.
“Moreover, they did not know what fire was, what the house was or what the danger was. They just ran about as they played and merely looked at their father”.
Now, this sutra passage continues, “At that time, the elder had this thought. This house is already burning with great flames. If I and my children do not get out now, we will certainly be burned”.
He was thinking, “If I do not quickly get out, what will I do?” Though the elder was already outside, he saw his children continuing to play. The fire was almost upon them, but they still treated it as a plaything. No matter how their father cried out to them, they merely looked at him. They did not want to listen to what he was saying. From this passage, don’t we see how hard it is to be a father? He had already contemplated and devised many ways to reach out to them, yet the children did not change their ways.
This is an analogy for how, “In the Buddha’s kindness, He did not have the heart to allow anyone to remain ignorant and undisciplined”. Though the father was standing outside and crying out to them, everyone inside still remained indifferent. This burning house was very hazardous. If they did not get out immediately, they would certainly be burned by the fire. This is how the elder felt. The elder is the Buddha, and in His compassion, His heart went out to those sentient beings.
“In the Buddha’s kindness, He did not have the heart to allow anyone to remain ignorant and undisciplined. Absorbed with their playthings, they lost their resolve and did not awaken. The fire had already been ignited, yet they remained unaware.”
The Buddha continued to establish teachings, but when He directly taught the True Dharma, people could not understand. Therefore, He used skillful means to expound various teachings. Actually, the Dharma and the truths He taught encompass all things in the world. Unconditioned Dharma was taught with causes and conditions, analogies and various other conditioned phenomena. The workings of matter, body and mind, known as the Four States and the Three Principles, and all kinds of material and tangible things were used as analogies.
In this world, we also see the four kinds of birth. They are womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born. Human beings are womb-born. [Because of this] we can be compared to many other womb-born animals. The Buddha used these animals as analogies for our lives. With the suffering experienced by animals that we can see, the Buddha taught about the law of karma. We can see suffering people, so the Buddha taught about hell.
We see people who suffer from starvation, so the Buddha taught about the hungry ghost realm. In life, some people enjoy great wealth, so the Buddha taught about the heaven realm and how the karmic law of cause and effect guides transmigration in the Six Realms, all to help everyone understand more clearly. The Buddha used various kinds of analogies, but those listening to the Dharma still had not truly awakened; it was as if they were sleeping walking.
So, people “remain undisciplined” and unaware. Therefore, “Absorbed with their playthings, they lost their resolve and did not awaken.”When we are inspired, we must form great aspirations, make great vows. “We vow to deliver countless sentient beings.” “We vow to eliminate endless afflictions.” Then we must put these vows into practice. With unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion, we go among the people. Such is our resolve and such are our great vows.
Unfortunately, after listening to the Dharma, people only partially understand and remain partially deluded. “Absorbed with their playthings means indulging in their desires, and thus being unable to awaken.” “The fire has already ignited.” The disasters that people have caused are like the fire that has been ignited.
Think about the society we are living in. According to what we discussed at the beginning, people used to clearly understand family ethics. Nowadays, the ethics of family interactions have already been lost. Moreover, often when people interact, they oppose each other, fighting openly or plotting secretly. They do all this to satisfy their desires. So, habitual tendencies are hard to eliminate. This has already brought about disaster; a fire has already been ignited. Yet “they remain ignorant.”
So, the elder said, “If I and my children do not get our now, we will certainly be burned.” If they did not quickly escape, they would be burned. “The kind father saw his children weakening their virtues and their resolve.”
“Weakening their virtues” means people who like to play only want to play. They do not want to do anything serious. In today’s news reports we often hear about how young people want a workplace that is more relaxing, more comfortable, with higher salaries and many other perks. So, when they look around, they do not see any jobs that suit them. See, many people nowadays just want to play. Even when they are working, they may still be playing on their computers or using the internet. Out of ignorance, they weaken their resolve and focus on their playthings. Where do virtues come from? Without spiritual cultivation, how can one attain virtues? People have already “weakened their virtues and resolve” and so they “remain completely muddled and ignorant.”
The kind father saw his children weakening their virtues and their resolve and remaining completely muddled and ignorant. Thus the father worried for his children and his heart burned with anxiety, so he quickly called for them come out.
The father was very worried, and his heart burned with anxiety. Therefore, he loudly called out, “Everyone, get out now.” He yelled this over and over, feeling a great sense of urgency. He had already reached the stage of “call out.” This is because if we sentient beings do not quickly reflect upon ourselves, repent and immediately change our ways, who knows what society will be like tomorrow. Therefore, we must constantly take the Dharma to heart and manifest it in our actions. Thus we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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