Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Burning House is the Fruit of Suffering (貪愛苦報戒慎六根)
Date:June.26. 2015
“Be careful not to wait for suffering to appear. Desires for sights, sounds and material things induce and pull at one another. Greed, craving and attachment are the causes of suffering. The burning house of the Three Realms is the fruit of suffering.”
Every day, we speak of this, and I believe that everyone is listening. In our daily living, we must truly remind ourselves to be vigilant. Spiritual practice begins with our minds. In our minds, we can always be careful. After listening to the Buddha-Dharma, we should take it to heart and always be careful. We must not wait until suffering is already pressing upon us before recognizing it as suffering. By then it is too late. We must believe the Dharma the Buddha taught. We must believe the truth of suffering. Since we believe, we must be careful. As a precaution, we must immediately put the Dharma into practice and be determined to not commit wrongdoings. We must not do things that go against the principles or are not good.
So, we must persevere in doing good deeds and benefiting others. We must not wait until suffering appears, and then say, “Fine, I will change my ways now.” By then it is too late. So, we must always be vigilant of our desire for sights, sounds and material things.
Along with upholding vegetarian precepts, what other precepts must we abide by? We need disciple with regard to desires for sounds, sights and material things as well as sexual desires. Some people desire sensual pleasures. It is said, “Sexual desires make people reckless.” Think of how many family tragedies or terrible events happen in this world due to people’s sexual desires.
Not long ago, I saw this in the news. There was a man who worked hard at his business and always sent money home, so his wife never worried about food or clothing. She was always out having fun with other people; she often went singing or dancing. This was how she got involved with many different men.
When her husband came home, he found it strange that his wife was acting odd. Why did she often seem so busy? Their life was peaceful and stable, and their children were studious in school, so what was she so busy with? Suspicion began to grow in his mind, so he hired a private investigator to follow her. He discovered she was not just out having fun, but that she had already committed adultery. The husband was enraged.
One day, he came home after drinking. He told his wife, “You think I don’t know, but I know everything! One that day, you were out at that dance club, then you left with someone and went to this hotel” and so on. He carried on and completely lost his temper. Not willing to concede defeat, his wife said, “You haven’t been home in so long. Have you cared for your family in all this time?” The husband relied, “Every month, I send money to you. How can you say I haven’t cared for this family?” His wife said, “In life, money alone can’t bring happiness. We have other objects of desire. The body’s sensual desires must also be satisfied. Don’t you know that?”
The husband said angrily, “I work like an ox, day and night for you, conducting business and laboring hard. My focus is always on the family. Why can’t you focus on caring for the family?”This led to a confrontation.
He could not control his rage and grabbed a knife and hacked at her until she was dead.
This is how “Desires for sights, sounds and material thigns induce and pull at one another.”When it comes to desires for sounds, sights, material thigns and so on, we always see stories like this in the news.
Seemingly, not a day goes by without a story about how sounds, sights and material things lead people to take [wrongful] actions.This creation of karma seem to be repalyed in our society over and over.
“Greed, craving and attachment are the causes of suffering.”This is because of greed.We are greedy for what we desire.[We say,] “As long as it makes me happy, nothing is off-limits. I just love these things.”
Our greed for material things is insatiable, so we are attached to these things.
When we do business, it is the same; our greed is also be boundless.This has led people to lose their direction in life.This is one of the seeds of suffering.
“The burning house of the Three Realms is the fruit of suffering.”We humans are just like this; we create so many causes of suffering.
This arises from our interactions over a long period of time.By a long period of time, we are referring to many past lifetimes.For countless kalpas, we have transmingrated through the Five Destinies.The affinities we formed with others, the karma we created and the debts we owe come with us to this life.
While we may have created blessings in past lives and our work and daily living in this life have been enjoyable, we still have enemies and creditors.Karmic forces may suddenly manifest.Our enemies or creditors may appear to ruin us in any number of ways.
We often see examples of this in news stories.How could things change so suddenly?Weren’t things going well?This is because of our past karmic debts.
So, this is the manifestation of karma, something we have no control over, just like Master Wu-da.He committed an evil act ten lfietimes before, then for his next ten lfietimes, he upheld the precepts.Thus, his karma could not enter his life.
Eventually Master Wu-da became well-known.He had the respect and reverence of the emperor, who bestowed lavish surroundings upon him, so he became arrogant.By becoming arrogant, he lost the essence of the precepts.So, this karmic retribution entered his life.
He sufferied the torment of a human-faced boil.Then he remembered that Venerable Kanaka had agreed to help him.Remembering that promise, he went to find him.Thus he was ablae to resolve that old grudge and the Samadhi-water washed away that karma.
Karma can manifest at any time because of our [past] greed and attachments.
Some peple wonder, “If I have not relly done anything wrong why are there so many obstacles in my life? I have clearly done many good deeds. Why are there still peple who constantly slander me behind my back and criticize me from head to toe? Why is this so?”
Because of karma!
When karma manifests, we must be grateful.After karma manifests, it is exhausted, and we have paid off yet another debt.We must have this kind of gratitude.
Whenever karma manifests, we accept it gratefully.
If we repay our karmic debt happily, our [sufering] will be lighter.“We cannot take anything with us when we die; only our karma follows us to our next life.”When we pass away, we can takek nothing with us except for our karma.
We take the causes of suffering with us.This is considered attachment.“Greed, craving and attachment are the causes of suffering.”We take the causes of suffering with us and repay these karmic debts in our future lives.
All of this takes place in the Three Realms.Objects of desire, such as form, sound, smell, taste and touch, cause us many kinds of suffering.
Families suffer, societies suffer from unrest and natural and manmade disasters bring suffering. All of this suffering is the fruit of suffering in the Three Realms. What we are facing right now is suffering due to our collective karma, which manifests as natural disasters and manmade calamities, etc.
As the earlier sutra passage states, “The Tathagata is just like this. I have powers, and fearlessness, but do not apply them”.
“The Tathagata is just like this. I have powers and fearlessness, but do not apply them. Instead I use wisdom and skillful means in the burning house of the Three Realms to save sentient beings. Thus I teach the Three Vehicles, the Hearer, Pratyekabuddha and Buddha Vehicles.”
Look at how all the sentient beings in the world have created various kinds of karma which is now manifesting as collective karma. Look at how manmade calamities are pressing us, but sentient beings are still foolish, still fighting over recognition and wealth. In the Three Realms, we are still attached to the desire for sounds, sights and material things. What can be done about this?
The Buddha has to teach for a long time and exercise wisdom to guide everyone to, on the one hand, walk the Bodhisattva-path, and on the other, seek the Buddha-Dharma. Then He used skillful means, various ways to go among people to help them. This is how the Buddha taught the Three Vehicles, which included the Hearer, Solitary Realizer and, most importantly, the Bodhisattva-path.
Walking the Bodhisattva-path requires exercising wisdom and skillful means in parallel to go into the burning house of the Three Realms and relieve the suffering of sentient beings. After listening to the Dharma and awakening our wisdom, we turn the Dharma-wheel. We share the Dharma we hear with other people.
If everyone upholds the Dharma, than everyone will be safer. This is the Buddha’s mindfulness in teaching us. The next sutra passage states,
“Thus, I said this, “You must not happily remain within the burning house of the Three Realms. Do not be greedy for coarse and worthless forms, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations. If you are greedy and give rise to cravings, you will be burned.”
I have already said that the Three realms are created by our minds. Desire and greed arise in our minds in response to external conditions, to form, sound, smell, taste and touch. If we greedily cling to these, then we will certainly be burned.
Earlier I mentioned the news reports we see. If we watch the news every day, we will constantly see how attachments to sounds, sights and material things cause tragedies in families, societies and so on. This is all caused by the mind; we play with fire, so we burn ourselves.
The Buddha did everything He could. “Thus, I said this”. Everyone, “You must not happily remain”. We must not greedily cling to and be attached to this place anymore. In His loving-kindness, the Buddha earnestly reminded everyone that we should not want to stay in this world of material desires nor remain in a state of insatiable greed. This was His warning to us.
“The Buddha has compassion for sentient beings so He earnestly reminded them, saying, “You must not happily remain within the burning house of the Three Realms or be greedy”. This is warning us of the truth of causation, that greed and craving are the causes of suffering.”
Look at how this world is full of natural disasters and manmade calamities. This is all because of “causation”. We have accumulated various [karmic seeds] from having acted out of our desire for sights, sounds and material things, from greedily clinging to things, etc. this is the karma that we create, the “causation” of accumulating causes of suffering. We do not know how many lives we have spent accumulating karma from killing or how many lives we have spent harming the earth for the sake of our businesses. For the sake of development, who knows how many damaging things have been done. Although our businesses might have taken off, in the end, that karma will follow us lifetime after lifetime. This is the “truth of causation”, the causes we have accumulated.
In our past lives, how many of these causes did we create? In the present, how many people are collectively creating this kind of karma? Nowadays, there is a great disparity between rich and poor. People with blessings live like heavenly beings. People who are poor face hardship and suffering as lf they are living in hell. Similarly, nowadays there is also extreme change in climate patterns.
Some people bask in extreme enjoyment, while others face extreme suffering. Doesn’t the same principle apply? This is all due to “causation”.Suffering comes from an accumulation of causes. Those who enjoy great blessings may also face great suffering in the future. This is part of the imbalance that we see. Greed and craving are causes of suffering. When we greedily cling to many things, we end up creating and accumulating karma, so as a result we have many causes of suffering.
“Do not be greedy for coarse and worthless forms, sounds, smells tastes and sensations.” We must not greedily cling to these things. Drinking, gambling, pleasure-seeking and so on, are all forms of pursing momentary pleasure. But we are actually accumulating many causes of suffering. So, these things are “coarse” appearances.
Then we face immediate retributions for what we have done. All this happens because we want to enjoy form, sound, smell taste and touch.
How many living beings have been killed to satisfy our craving for taste? So, “Being careful when our Six Roots connect to our conditions prevents wrongdoing.” We must always be careful and make an effort to be self-disciplined. If something is wrong, we must not do it.
Being careful when our Six Roots connect to our conditions prevents wrongdoing. Being careful in speech and actions stops evil. When our thoughts begin to stir and arise, we must uphold proper intentions. We must carefully prevent our consciousness from being greedy for coarse and worthless sense objects and being dragged around by external conditions.
We must be vigilant of our Six Roots, our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. With the Six Roots, thoughts stir within our minds so we greedily grasp at things in our external conditions. Therefore, we must be abide by precepts and be self-disciplined. This is how guard against wrongdoing.
To guard against wrongs, we must be careful in speech and action. We need to be careful when we speak and heighten our awareness of our actions. This is stopping evil. Guarding against wrongs and stopping evil begins with our thoughts. When our minds give rise to discursive thoughts, when our minds connect with our external conditions and a thought of greed arises, we will try to grasp something, which causes us to create karma.
So, when these thoughts begin to stir, we must quickly stop them from arising. We cannot give rise to discursive thoughts. Once these thoughts arise, we will act on them we must maintain the proper mindset. We must constantly engage in right thinking without going astray.
A slight deviation causes a great divergence. Therefore, we must protect our mind and be careful about what arises in it. We must not have attachments or engage in distorted thinking. So, “Do not be greedy for the coarse and worthless sense objects. These exist in our external conditions.
If we greedily cling to them, we will become entangled and tied sown by them and will never be able to escape.
“If you are greedy and give rise to cravings, you will be burned;” the fire of the Three Realms will surely harm us. If we are greedy and attached, though we have world-transcending, flawless seeds, they will be burned by the flames of ignorance.
The Buddha told us that everyone intrinsically has a pure Buddha-nature. everyone has it. Although we all have world-transcending, flawless and the Tathagata’s pure intrinsic nature, though we all have it, due to our greed, craving and attachment, we will be entangled by sounds, sights and material things.Then in our ignorance, we will face retributions again and again. Within the burning house of the Three Realms, we experience painful retributions. So, with all things, we must mindful.
If we see an effect, there must have been a cause. These causes are created through our actions. There are so many traps around us. The Six [Sense Objects] and the material things we desire are all around us. If thoughts [of greed] begin to stir, we will certainly act on them. After accumulating so many causes of suffering, when fruits of suffering manifest, we blame everything else [but ourselves]. We search for a way to resolve the disaster, yet we cannot find it. Indeed, we must fully repay our debts, or else they will continue to entangle us forever. So, it is most important for us to think carefully and be mindful. We must not wait for suffering to appear before looking for ways to eliminate disasters.
We must always think carefully, not just suffering manifests before us. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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