Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Compassion Guides Us Back to True Suchness (慈悲教導歸真如)
Date:June.12. 2015
“With the imbalance of the four elements comes the oppression of old age and illnesses. Ultimately, we part from each other when our karmic conditions for being in this world come to an end. This is all beyond our control and only karma follows us after death. The Enlightened One practices loving-kindness and compassion, teaching by example to guide us back to our nature of True Suchnesss.”
The four elements of the macrocosm of the world are earth, water, air and fire. When these four elements are not in balance, then the world is not in a healthy state. Recently we have seen, everywhere around this world, that the four elements are not in balance. We can see the effect this imbalance has on the climate, constantly causing [natural] disasters, so that people face much suffering.
Right now, during the winter, in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere it is snowing because of the cold. When we see poor people suffering in those snowy conditions, we wonder, “How will they survive?” In addition to poor people who are struggling to survive in the cold, there are also people who were caught up in man-made conflicts and no longer even have homes. They take shelter in tattered tents as the snow continues to fall and accumulate. On the ground, aside from patches of snow, there are also spots that are extremely muddy.
We see children living in places that are muddy and cold. When they run outside, there is mud and a mix of water and snow, which has become slush. The land is wet, so after being trampled by people it becomes mud. Thus, there is a lot of mud. The children’s feet, covered either by ragged shoes or nothing at all, are immersed in that icy and slushy water. This is so sad! Their feet are completely caked in mud. You can imagine the snow from the sky falling upon their bodies, and the snow on the ground sticking to their feet. Think about it, what kind of life are they living? It can only be described as a life of suffering.
So, when the four elements are not in balance, it creates unbearable suffering for people. This is in the macrocosm of the world. What about humans? Each of us is a microcosm. We eventually face “the oppression of old age and illnesses.” This is beyond our control. When we grow old, our bodies become frail. As we said yesterday, in our old age, when we see young people, we think, “How wonderful!” We were young once too; how did we come to look like this? We look different now than when we were young. Though only a few decades have passed, we are already frail and often ill. The onset of illnesses is beyond our control.
As we grow old and become ill, in the end we will have to leave this life. This is life’s greatest sorrow. When our karmic retributions for this lifetime have been exhausted, and our karmic connections are at an end, parting is inevitable, even from the person we love the most. For some people, when a loved one dies, they are [totally devastated].
Yesterday, after the volunteer’ morning assembly, a group of people met with me, including a well-known media figure in Hualien. More than ten years ago, his child was involved in an extremely serious car accident.Afterwards the child repeatedly went in and out of the hospital for many years.His body was unable to fully recover.He had suffered a brain injury, so his body was paralyzed, and he developed cerebral palsy.But, he was still able to breathe.
His parents suffered deep mental anguish as they cared for their child.They had been doing this for more than ten years and had never been able to come to terms with it.The father himself has now even developed depression.He was trapped by his feelings for his son.
Yesterday, I saw him in good spirits.He brought a doctor with him and he told me, “This man is a psychologist. He helped me emerge from a dark state of mind. So, I wanted to bring him to meet you.”The psychologist said to me, “Actually, I often read your books and watch Da Ai TV.”
He said, “Spiritual guidance is very important and must be relatable to things happening in our current society. The Buddha-Dharma is inseparable from ways of living in this world.”Regarding this kind of spiritual guidance, he asked me if I knew of any other methods.
I said, “You have said it. Bringing the Buddha-Dharma together with the way we live in this world provides us with the best spiritual guidance.” Indeed, affinities ultimately come to an end.
The case of this child is like this; as their affinities come to an end, they all experience much suffering.
This depends on what kind of affinity they had.Then once it ends, he will be able to find his spatial direction.Many things can happen in life.“This is all beyond our control.”
So many things are beyond our control.This man was such a good writer that he could help everyone see through his eyes and also speak on their behalf.He could articulate so many things with his pen.But when his child got into this accident, many things were beyond his control.There was nothing he could do to enable his son to walk again.So, it was beyond his control; everything is a result of karma.
This father-son relationship was shaped by their karma.And at the end of life, there is still karma to face.Even if we have many talents and own many possessions, at the very end, can we bring any of that with us?We cannot say, “I love this the most; I will take it with me.”We cannot take anything with us.The only thing we can take is the good and bad karma we have created.Karma is the only thing we bring to our next life, shaping our future relationships and future karmic causes and effects.This is the way life works.
In our next life, will our loved ones stay by our side into our final years?Even if they accompany us into our final years, one day we must part.
Yesterday we also talked about the 90-year-old wife the 86-year-old husband.Living in poverty with no children by their side, they only had each other.One is old; so is the other. One is ill, so is the other.One’s appearance has changed; so has the other’s.How much longer will they continue to live this life?This is what life is like.
What will our next life be like?No one knows.What we do know is what is happening right now.Now, “The Enlightened One practices loving-kindness and compassion.”
The Buddha came to this world for one great cause.
He came so that He could teach us.What we have learned from the Buddha is to have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity, unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion.This place that has suffered a major disaster is not connected to us in any way.But we cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer.So, everyone contributes their own money and efforts to personally go there [to help].
With their own hands, the volunteers helped them up and took care of things for them.They saw the survivors able to eat their fill and able to again exercise both their mental and physical strength.This brought the volunteers great joy.This is the “practice of living-kindness and compassion.”Those with unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion are awakened sentient beings.
We have accepted the Buddha-Dharma and put it into practice.Not only are we providing them with some help, we also put our hearts into teaching them so that they know that this money should be spent in appropriate ways, that when others are suffering, we should aspire to help them.This is “teaching by example to guide them back to their nature of True Suchness”.
The hearts of these people have, one by one,become oriented towards helping others. They have unlocked their spiritual wealth. [They said,] “If I have the ability to help, I will help people who need it”. This is their sense of spiritual wealth, which has transformed their mindset of greed into a mindset of abundance. Thus they have returned to their human nature, which “is inherently good”. Now it is easy for them to feel satisfied. So, we must always be mindful.
The power of love can help others. If everyone can bring purity to their minds, then there will be fewer natural disasters. So besides helping others, we must cherish the planet to bring balance to the four elements. Then the world’s weather will be favorable. All this depends on people’s hearts and actions, on our mental and physical behaviors.
Yesterday, the sutra text stated, “[He comes] to deliver sentient beings from birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sadness, suffering and afflictions, all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teach them to attain
Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi”.
The Buddha came to this world for this purpose. He wanted to help us understand the meaning of human existence. We cannot live in this world forever. With birth comes aging, illness and death. These principles help us to understand the process of birth, illness and death that we go through and the different kinds of behavior we engage in. he came to teach us and to help us understand what we see in the world and the worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction of this existence, which are found in our hearts. How can we help everyone’s hearts to transcend worry, sorrow, suffering and affliction and improve everyone’s attitude and state of mind?
In our minds, thoughts arise one after another. A single thought of greed leads to evil. A single thought of goodness will lead us to benefit everyone. If we understand the Dharma, then we will constantly take good care with every single thought that arises. Practicing the Threefold Kindness means, we speak kind words with our mouth, we do kind deeds with our body, and we think kind thoughts with our minds. In this way, the Threefold Kindness of body, speech and mind will be carried out due to our intentions. This next sutra passage is about [delivering them] “[from] all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons and teaching them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi”.
Besides birth, aging, illness and death, and worry, sorrow, suffering and afflictions, there are all the dark coverings of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons. The burning house that we are talking about is an analogy for the Three Realms. Look, disasters are arising on all sides just as if we are in a burning house. Why is this happening? Because of the Three Poisons in our minds, greed, anger and ignorance.
Greed means “insatiably grasping at all favorable conditions”.
We want more and more. With greed, “Having one, we lack nine”. Having 10,000, we feel we are lacking 90,000. Having one billion, we lack nine billion and so on. If we live this kind of life, when will we ever be satisfied? If we are never satisfied in life, we will be unhappy.
Then there is anger. With anger, we easily lose our temper with “all unfavorable conditions”. When things do not go the way we want, we become enraged.
When people do not get what they want, they may try to get it by any means necessary, committing all kinds of harmful deeds. This is the poison of anger.
The last poison is ignorance. With ignorance, we are confused over all matters and principles, thus giving rise to delusions and creating karma.
If we are unclear on matters and principles, in this state of confusion and ignorance, we are constantly enticed by external phenomena and thus become more confused. This is why we reproduce more and more bad karma. [In Tzu Chi] we have seen that when a person in a family wants to do good deeds, that can make the rest of the family unhappy. “Why are you helping others instead of taking care of your own family?” “Don’t we need to spend that money on ourselves?” “Why would you give it to others to spend?”. People who prevent others from doing good deeds do so out of ignorance.
This is also part of “all the dark coverings of ignorance”. These are the fires of the Three Poisons. Here it states again, “Living in this burning house, we do not recognize it as suffering”.
“Living in this burning house, we do not recognize it as suffering. This is the darkness of ignorance. Because of ignorance we give rise to greed. When we cannot satisfy our greed, we get angry. This is greed, anger and ignorance. When the fires of the Three Poisons come together, they create all these disasters.”
We are creating karma but we do not know what the consequence of that karma will be. When we are very narrow-minded, it causes resentment in others. But we do not realize that we are not doing the right thing. This is “the darkness of ignorance”. “Because of ignorance we give rise to greed.” Because of ignorance thoughts of greed arise in our minds. When we cannot get what we cover, we lose our temper. Therefore, “Greed, anger and ignorance, are the fires of the Three Poisons.”
The Three Poisons truly cause unbearable suffering. This comes from lack of clarity and understanding.
Lack of clarity and understanding leads to all deviant conduct. The Three [Poisons] obstruct all true principles with foolishness, delusion, ignorance, confusion and darkness.
Ignorance not only leads us to commit evils, it leads us to engage in deviant conduct and stray from the correct path. It leads is the take a side road, to engage in improper practices.
So, it is a poison. A “poison” is something that hinders us, that harms our world-transcending aspirations.
They are called poisons because they can harm our world-transcending aspirations. Thus it speaks of the darkness of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons. The sutra previously stated: “A fire broke out.”
We may want to do good deeds, but are hindered by someone, or perhaps the Three Poisons in our minds are hindering us by covering our wholesome intentions.
Some say, “My conscience was covered.” This means that our conscience was covered up by the Three Poisons. The “darkness of ignorance and the fires of the Three Poisons have covered our kind intentions. This is the disaster faced by the great house. These flames continue to burn, hurting us. This is why the Buddha came to this world, “to teach them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”
So, this is why the Tathagata manifest a body in Three Realms. He appears in the Three Realms to provide relief foe sentient beings and help them escape this burning house.
The Tathagata manifests a body in the Three Realms because He wants to provide relief for all sentient beings and help them escape this burning house to head towards supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. This is the one great cause for which. He appears in the world.
The Buddha came to dispel the delusion, karma and suffering in our minds. He came to teach sentient beings how to escape this burning house and “head towards supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment.” We should move along the correct path, which leads to supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment, the wisdom that is equal to the Buddha’s.
Then we can understand the principles of all things in the universe. If we clearly understand the principles, we will always be peaceful and at ease.We will not be affected by things such as birth, aging, illness and death, worry, sorrow, suffering, afflictions, all of the darkness of ignorance. We will be able to eliminate these sufferings, and be free to come and go with ease. If we are coming to the world to save people, we will not fear birth, aging, illness and death.
Similarly, when we went into that disaster area, we went there intentionally with the goal of saving people.
Having relieved [sentient beings] from suffering, [Bodhisattvas] then expound the Dharma for them in the hope that they can stabilize their lives. This is what Bodhisattvas, awakened beings do. These are the actions of awakened sentient beings. We can come and go as we wish. When it is time to go, we go. When it is time to come back, we come back. Giving to others with this kind of great love is unsurpassed.
Dear Bodhisattvas, as Buddhist practitioners, this is what we must learn. I believe that everyone has this mission of carrying out this one great cause, but we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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