Subject: Do Not Get Lost in Ignorance Unawares (勿癡迷而不自知)
Date:July.31. 2015
“We should understand that the attachments of ignorance and doubt lead us to deludedly cling to all conditions, which are impermanent and impure. In ignorance, we create deluded karma, and in the midst of all phenomena, we cling to permanence, joy, self and purity. We are contaminated with desirous thinking and sink slowly into confusion.”
We must recognize “the attachments of ignorance and doubt.” Once ignorant thoughts arise, doubts will follow. So, we must maintain clarity in our minds. If ignorance and doubts arise, once they are in our minds, we may become attached to them. If we continue to be attached to them, they “lead us to deludedly cling to conditions.” That is how people get lost; they deviate from the correct course and head in the wrong direction. That is due to their attachment. No matter how we try to convince them, it is hard to get them to turn back. “[Conditions are] all impermanent and impure.” What are the conditions we deludedly cling to? The impermanent and impure states in which we create deluded karma out of ignorance. We create karma without realizing it. We do not understand that these conditions are impermanent and impure. We have been contaminated by so much ignorance that we cannot draw this distinction.
Thus in ignorance, we continue to create deluded karma. In the midst of all phenomena, we “cling to permanence, joy, self and purity.” We cling to what is not permanent as permanent, we cling to what is not joyful as joyful, we cling to a non-existent self as self and we cling to what is impure as pure. With these deviations, we become attached to the existence of a “self”.
This means we count on these things as belonging to our “self”. We count on them being “permanent”. We count on obtaining many things to bring us “joy”. We center our world around this “self”. Whatever good conditions we find ourselves in, we see them as “what I have achieved.” With these views on “permanence, joy, self and purity,” we do not think about how long we will actually live. We do not think about being in accord with morality and virtue or the virtues of bringing harmony to society and maintaining proper family relationships. These are not on our minds at all. All we cling to are the ideas of getting what we want and doing what we want.
Look at how manmade disasters in many countries arise when discord divides people into factions. They have not been invaded by another country; they themselves created the unrest and turmoil. In Syria, disagreements between two factions led to a confrontation that has caused many people to flee their homes. How many people has this affected? That country of beautiful rivers and mountains, filled with ancient and historical architecture, has been completely destroyed, turned into ruins. In the end, they have taken possession of a broken society and shattered buildings. So many people have died because of this. What is the use of occupying that piece of land?
People do not understand the consequences. Once they start fighting, they keep going. They are deluded and cannot awaken. In modern times, so many people have been displaced because of such conflicts, and so many countries are in a state of unrest. Life is indeed unbearably painful. In this state of ignorance and doubt, people form “attachments”.
We sentient beings cling to things; they are what we are attached to. It is because of ignorance and confusion that we form these kinds of attachments.
We are so attached that we fight over things until we are satisfied with the results.But once we start, when will we be satisfied?Thus we continue to reproduce our ignorance, which “leads us to deludedly cling to conditions”.As soon as our minds give rise to attachments, we cling to our conditions and cannot bring our minds back; we just remain attached.All things are impermanent and impure.
Is anything in this world actually permanent?
Nothing is permanent.Humans can create all kinds of things and can also destroy all kinds of things.Our planet has gone from “formation, existence” to a state of “decay and disappearance” all because of humankind’s destructiveness.
[Not recognizing] the importance of life is actually the most common source of human transgressions.Originally, under the laws of nature, everyone lived a life that was peaceful, free and happy.But because of people’s greed, they turned “happiness” into “suffering”.This is also due to their mindsets.
How long can we actually live in this world?
How many years will this “I” exist?Only for a few decades.But we think that this “I” will last forever and that everything in this world belongs to “me”.How can that be?
People try to escape from life.They flee from the karmic debts of previous lives only to repay them in this life.They create karma in this life, then try to flee into their next life.
In summary, every few decades, we have to “leave,” but the karma we have created is calculated in the “trillions”.This number is so high, yet the length of our lives is limited.Just how much karma have we created?It must be measured in the trillions.
Even if we have wealth valued at tens of trillions or hundreds of trillions, on our last day we still have to leave this world.We leave with all the karma we have created.It follows us when our lives end.
When we leave, it is like we age “fleeing”.It may seem we are running away from this life.But we end up repaying our debts in the next life.This is because we do not know where we will be reborn in our next life.We have no choice in this.We cannot choose the place where our circumstantial retributions will lead us.We cannot chose who our parents will be.
We do not know if we will be a human or a cow, sheep, horse, dog, cat or pig.We do not know, and we absolutely are not able to choose.
After creating so much karma, no matter how we try to flee, or where we try to go we cannot leave our karma behind.We think that what is not permanent is permanent, we think that what is not joyful, is joyful, we think a non-existent self is the self and we think what is impure is pure.Thus “We are contaminated with desirous thinking.”All of this comes from our own thinking.
We thought this up, and we believe that we are right, so we are in a state of delusion and confusion.This is how we live.This is the way life is.
Think about it, what is the benefit of living a life like this?We must try to understand the minds of people and animals.All the birds and beasts have certain ways of living, which are attachments the same way we have attachments.
For example, birds have one main habitual tendency, which is arrogance, looking down at everyone.All humans have this potential for being arrogant.
Also, “These were snakes, vipers and scorpions, centipedes and house centipedes. There were geckoes and millipedes, weasels and rats.”
Snakes can be quite large creatures.“Snakes, vipers and scorpions, centipedes and house centipedes” are all poisonous creatures, [representing] losing our temper without reason, losing our temper with reason or losing our temper because we feel we are in the right;
These are different kinds of anger.There are also “weasels and rats”.They bully fellow rodents who are weaker, like by burrowing into the ground to eat mice.
This is like the way humans treat their fellow humans.Humans killing other humans also seems like a very contradictory thing.
Humans are also a kind of animal, so we must earnestly engage in spiritual practice.Humans have civilization and education so we can understand morals.This is what makes us human.
Once we have been educated, if we do not keep the principles in mind, and do not put them into practice, what is the difference between us and other animals?
So, though this sutra passage is talking about birds and beats, actually, the ways they live reflect the ways that we think.
So this passage states, “All sorts evil creatures were running back and forth in places that smelled of urine and feces, where filthy things flowed. Dung beetles and other insects were gathered on top”.
Different kinds of creatures, including those with four feet, those flying in the sky and those crawling on the ground, were all “running back and forth”. Some of them lived in “places that smelled of urine and feces”. These are very unclean places. If we take a look at filthy places, they are full of tiny insects burrowing in and out. Places “where filthy things flow” means the environment is very dirty.
In particular, “Dung beetles and other insects were gathered on top”. In this analogy, the dirtier a place is, the more of these kinds of creatures we see. This is an analogy for the things in this world, which are all decaying, impermanent and impure.
Things in this world decay very quickly. Even delicious delicacies, if we leave them out for a few days, will go bad. This is to say nothing of our bodies. We take such good care of ourselves, but one day, we will cease to breathe but one day, we will cease to breathe. This body is also full of impurities, so one day it will decompose and attract worms.
Likewise, everything in this world is impure and subject to decay. “Dung beetles” are a kind of black beetle. They are in the family of scarabs. The way dung beetles survive is by living off of “human and animals’ feces”. They burrow into feces, bite it off piece by piece and then roll those pieces into balls. They have this ability to turn feces into small balls, and then they stack these up in piles. They do this when they are about to lay eggs. They lay their eggs among them so that the larvae that hatch from the eggs can eat this supply of feces. That is how they live.
Is this kind of life one of suffering? For human beings, this would truly be suffering. So, this is the “chronic afflictions of ignorance. These creatures are an analogy for ignorance and the karma we create from the “chronic afflictions of ignorance”. If we are in such a state of deep ignorance right now and have not awakened, we may be born as dung beetles in the future. This is a possibility.
So, “dung beetles and other insects” means many insects have this way of life.
Dung beetles and other insects were gathered on top: due to the endless affliction of ignorance, people cling to permanence, joy, self and purity and thus give rise to defiled attachments. Like dung beetles gathered on top, when people have desirous thoughts. Towards men or women, they become extremely confused.
“Due to the endless affliction of ignorance, people cling to permanence, joy, self, purity and thus give rise to defiled attachments”. This is comparing us to these insects. Regarding “permanence, joy, self and purity, we cling to them and are attached, just like dung beetles. Dung beetles dig around in filthy places; they were born there. Aren’t humans the same? In the midst of such filth, we wallow and fight with each other. This way of living is indeed suffering, but humans see it as joyful. We think, “By doing things this way, I will forever be…”.
In this world, does anything last forever? After we have created all of our karma, we have to leave this body. When we cannot take another breath won’t this body that we think of as “I” decompose as well?
Thus, we do not recognize that we are tunneling back and forth amidst this impurity. In this impure state, we create karma. All of our afflictions are filthier than feces. As human beings, we wallow in these afflictions we wallow in these afflictions. This is a truly sad state, so it is sometimes said that humans are sad creatures. Men and women are like “dung beetles gathered on top. This is an [analogy for] “when people have desirous thoughts towards men or women”. This is what humans are like. So many people, to satisfy sexual desires, create many problems for their society and their families. They are “extremely confused”.
This is an analogy for the affliction of ignorance. “What people see as being impure and filthy is what the dung beetle takes joy in”.
We humans wonder why those dung beetles live in these filthy things, biting off pieces of feces and then rolling them into balls. They collect and pile up these balls of feces. They collect and pile up these balls of feces and then lay their eggs there. When their eggs hatch, the larvae that emerge will eat the feces there. When humans look at dung beetles, we may feel they are so ignorance. In fact, how different are we from them? Not very.
In the heaven realm, when heavenly beings observe the human realm, they also tell us that we are very impure. Heavenly beings have such dignified appearances. They enjoy happiness, long lifespans and blessings. They see us work until sweat drips from our backs. To them, the food we humans ear is unclean. We human also constantly fight with each other. From the perspective of heavenly beings, they laugh at how unclean we are.
However, we are not aware of this. We think our life is outstanding. We think we are very talented we think we are… We have much pride and arrogance and fight with each other out of anger and ignorance. Indeed, we are truly very unaware.
Heavenly beings see us as unclean, but we are not aware of this. “Noble beings who transcend the world contemplate the Three Realms as unclean. But sentient beings in Three Realms are not aware of this.
When noble beings who transcend the world look at heavenly beings, human and animals, they consider them all as unclean. The pleasures heavenly beings enjoy will end, as will their long lifespans.But they continue to indulge in pleasures instead of earnestly accepting the Buddha-Dharma. So when their blessings end, they will fall again.
Noble beings who transcend the world look at sentient beings of the Three Realms as truly being very unclean. But sentient beings in the Three Realms are unaware of this.
So in the end, each level is higher up than the last, until the highest level. Supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment is something only Buddha have. It is something only Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can “understand.”
They clearly understand the conditions of the lives of humans and heavenly beings. The Buddha understands everything because He is one with the universe, and there is nothing that He does not know.
So, He completely and clearly understands. He understands the ignorance of sentient beings. Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt lead people to replicate more and more karma; they cling to their delusions and do not awaken. This is why the Buddha appeared in this world and did everything He could to awaken us.He used various methods, analogies, expressions. In His awakened state of mind, He contemplated the heaven and human realms and the ways various animals lived. Then He synthesized all of this. These are all expressions of our unenlightened nature.
Our unenlightened nature is no different from that of animals. Humans are also a king of animal.
In summary, if we mindfully observe the ways of life and environments of beasts and insects, we feel sympathy for them. But when heavenly beings look at our lives, they feel sympathy for us. When Buddhas and Bodhisattvas look at heavenly beings, humans and animals, we are all deserving of their sympathy. So, we should make an effort to contemplate this meticulously and in great detail.
We cannot be careless and lose this opportunity. Together we can create a pure land in this world and follow the Right path of the Dharma with our body and mind. so, we should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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