Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Giving is the Sturdy Ship Offering Deliverance (施為堅舟廣度苦海)
Date:November.24. 2015
“We see that the suffering of poverty is deep and vast like the sea. Giving is like a sturdy ship that can deliver those in the sea of poverty. When great compassion arises, the heart’s wealth is a great field of blessings. When we give, though we seek nothing in return, we obtain great blessings for ourselves.”
Previously we have been describing the many sufferings of life. Besides the human and animal realms, there are all kinds of sufferings in hell, too. When a single thought goes astray, countless negative retributions are created. After falling into hell, the hungry ghost and animal realms, upon our return to the human realm, we will be born into poverty and hardship. There are many impoverished and suffering people. When we arrive in poor countries, everywhere we look we see people like that. Because of their collective karma, they were brought together to face poverty. There are so many of them, it looks like a vast sea of people. With so many impoverished people, how can we deliver them from their suffering? Charitable giving is the only way.
Charitable giving out of love is like a sturdy ship. It is a very stable, very big ship that “can deliver those in the sea of poverty.” In this sea of suffering, we can pull them up and rescue them one by one to deliver them across this sea of poverty.
“When we give, though we seek nothing in return, we obtain great blessings for ourselves.” Our charitable giving comes from a single thought, to practice giving willingly and joyfully. Thus our charitable giving becomes the activity that makes us the happiest. In this way, though we seek nothing in return, we will naturally become very happy and attain great blessings. We often discuss how we sometimes see people who have so much love to give, while also living in such poverty.
I often explain that this is because they did not create blessings in their past lives. In this life, they have been born human, so they are able to listen to the Dharma turn their lives around, open up their minds and give of the strength they have.
This is like how once, long ago in China, there was an elderly monastic. His temple had become quite run down. The elderly monastic made a vow to restore and maintain this old temple. So, every single day he went out with his alms bowl to beg for alms, hoping people of the villages, towns and cities would help him to fulfill his vow.
However, although he did this for many years, he was unable to collect very much. During this time, there was a child who had been orphaned. This child was constantly covered in filth. Every day, he sold sesame flatbread. He noticed this elderly monastic walking around every day and saw how people in the village showed him no respect and refused to give to him. Seeing this, he felt very sad. Though he himself was very poor, one day he decided, “Even if this means I cannot eat, I’m willing to donate all the money I make today to this elderly monastic.”
When the people in the village saw this, they said, “Oh my, this child cannot make enough to eat three meals a day, yet now he is donating all of his money. What about us?” They looked at each other and then, feeling moved, they each made a donation to help the elderly monastic rebuild his temple.
The news began to spread and passed from one person to the next. Before long, construction was able to begin on the old temple.
One day, this child suddly lost his sight. A few days later, he felt and broke his foot. After another couple of days, because he could not see and was unsteady on his feet, he lost his footing by the latrine pit, and he fell into the latrine pit and died. The entire village gathered to see what happened and amongst themselves, they all said, "No good comes from doing good deeds!"
When the elderly monk was sitting in meditation he suddenly saw the child in front of them. They elderly monastic said to him, "You have fallen into the latrine pit and died. How do you feel right now? Do you have any regrets? Do you have any afflictions?" The child replied with ease, "None at all! I am very happy because I have been liberated. I now know that throughout my past lives, I created much bad karma. I was supposed to suffer painful retributions for many lifetimes. I have already been in the animal realm, and when I was born in the human realm, I was orphaned, with no one to rely on, and my body was always covered in filth. After this lifetime was finished, there was still much karma I have to face, like being born with impaired physical faculties and other retributions for many lifetimes until finally, in my last life, I would be born as a creature in a latrine pit. But with the momentry aspiration I formed, those lifetimes of karmic retributions were all exhausted in that short amount of time were all exausted in that short amount of time. So, this is why I have come to express my gratitude to you.
But I still have one wish that I hope you will fulfill for me . The villagers saw me fall into the latrine pit, and now now they are all creating karma of speech, relling each other that no good comes from doing good deeds. I would like to ask you to tell everyone of my past and that due to the negative karma I created in my past lives, I was supposed to face lifetimes of retributions. But I have been able to face a milder retribution for my severe karma and exhaust lifetimes of bad karma in one sigle lifetime. I bed of you; please clearly convey what I have said to the other villagers so that they will not slander the Buddha-Dharma and thereby sever people's roots of goodness. This is what I ask of you. Please accept my plea."
Suddenly, the elderly monk emerged from this meditative state. He hurried towards the village. The elderly monastic then told everyone that this child had, over many of his past lives, created much negative karma. Now he had been able to exhaust those lifetimes of tetributions in this one lifetime. When everyone heard what he had to say, their minds opened, and they understood.
This story can be applied to [this part of] the Lotus Sutra where it speaks of how, "Poor and lowly, at the mercy of others they are often sick, dehydrated and gaunt and have no one to rely upon."
Let us look at the following sutra passage. "Though they draw near to others, no one cared about them. If they do attain something, in their seeking they lose it again. If they study the healing arts to appropltely cure illnesses, they only add to others' maladies, or even cause death."
"Though they draw near to others, no one cares about them." Although people may have family, their own flesh and blood, their loved ones, as soon as these relatives or friends fall into difficulties, they may disregard and ignore them.
"If they study the healing arts to appropriately cure illnesses, they only add to others' maladies, or even cause death." The human body is subject to 404 ailments, which arise due to imbalances in the four elements in our body. Our body is also made up of earth, water, fire and air. You see, our human bodies cannot do without water. The blood circulating in our bodies consists mainly of water. That is water. Our body also must maintain a certain temperature. If our temprtature is not high enough... Once we stop breathing, we will lose our body heat. This is an imbalance in the element of fire. When we are breathing, this had to do with the element of air. After breathing out, we breathe in. If the element of air is out of balance, we are short of breath. If the element of air is out of balance and our breathing stops, then we pass away.
Then, there is earth. Earth is everything in our body that we can touch. Our muscle and our bones are [solid] like earth. When it comes to our body, we need the four elements to be in balance. When the four elements are out of balance, hundreds of ailments break out.
“When the body’s four elements are out of balance, hundreds of ailments break out. The path of medicine is to look, listen, ask and determine [the presence of] the six energies of wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness, heat and all the various symptoms.”
There are many professions that the world can do without, but we cannot do without the field of medicine. The path of medicine is a process that helps “appropriately cure illnesses”. According to what doctors learn about diagnosis and medicine, they prescribe medicine according to the illness. So, in the path of medicine, how are illnesses diagnosed? In the old days, to treat an illness doctors had to look, listen, ask and determine.
When a patient saw a doctor, the doctor had to meticulously observe. To do this, a doctor must “look” very carefully at the color of the skin and so on. Then the doctor must “ask”. He has to ask questions very clearly. Then he has to carefully take the pulse.
So, the doctor looks, listens, asks and determines. He carefully observes and listens to what the patient expresses about how his body feels to determine what this illness is. He must also pay attention to the seasons as well to understand whether there is [an excess of] wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness or heat. These are all sign of illness.
Regardless of whether it is the Chinese Medicine of the past or modern Western Medicine, doctors need to undergo education, training and must have clinical experience “to appropriately cure illnesses”.
People say, “If the doctor has good affinities, the patient will be blessed”. If a doctor formed many good affinities with people in a past life, he will have so many blessings that when patients come before him, the sight of him alone will have already cured the patients halfway. If they have blessed affinities with each other, then naturally the doctor will be able to cure the patient almost immediately. This is a wondrous doctor with wondrous skills and methods.
Some doctors earnestly try to treat the illness and help the patient, and the medicine they prescribe is of high quality. Yet the patient’s condition worsens day by day. Though they are “appropriately curing illnesses” and prescribing medicine that is appropriate to the illness, “They only add to others’ maladies”. There is nothing they can do.
The skill of healing is to follow the principles; its rules are there to correct any shortcomings. Extreme caution is taken not to treat human life lightly, to misguide in the path of medicine or to prolong treatment of the disease, which can even cause other illnesses or kill the patient.
Thus it is said, “The skill of healing is to follow the principles”. All doctors cure illnesses according to principles. The arts of healing are all alike. Doctors must also be very self-disciplined; “The rules are there to correct any shortcomings”. Doctors have their own methods. Doctors have their own rules. When a doctor treats a patient, he must be very cautious and also very earnest. He places great value on the patient’s life. This is how he treats the illness. So, why would doctors “add to their maladies”? Though treating a patient with the same medicine, they instead add to the patient’s maladies until the patient eventually passes away.
There are times when, even though someone is not a doctor, they may say, “For this illness, you shouldn’t go to a Western Medicine doctor. I will take you to see a Chinese Medicine doctor”. The Chinese Medicine doctor tells the patient, “Listen to me and take the medicine I give you. You do not need surgery”. This may cause a delay. The person guiding the patient led him in the wrong direction, and this other doctor delayed his chance to receive [effective] treatment. We hear often of situations like this, too. There are also people who consult spirits and ask for signs. That is not correct either. When it comes to treating the body, if we feel ill, we should promptly get a checkup and take the medicine prescribed for the illness. This needs to happen promptly and without delay.
It is the same as listening to the Dharma. If we only have a partial understanding or have a mistaken understanding, the teachings we transmit will be incorrect, and we will cut off worldly seeds of goodness and sever people’s wisdom-life; that is not right.
So, I hope that everyone will truly heighten their vigilance are be very cautious.
The sutra passage continues by stating, “If they themselves get sick, there is no one to save or cure them.” “Even if they take wondrous medicine, they severity of their illness only increases.” “When another person transgresses by revolting, raiding, plundering, stealing or robbing, they will also be affected by suffer from others’ calamities.”
When others are ill, we may add to their maladies by delaying the time it takes for them to get treatment. What about when we ourselves get sick? No one will be able to come and help us. Even if we are taking lots of wonderful medicine, “The severity of [our] illness only increases.”
There are many people like this as well. The world is full of suffering, and illness is something beyond our control. One may clearly be a skilled doctor, but there are also times when doctors are unable to successfully treat an illness. Sometimes, the illness takes a turn for the worse. This is an experience of extreme suffering.
“There is no suffering worse than illness, let alone from [an incurable] illness.” Indeed, illness brings suffering. Furthermore, “There is no one to save or cure [us].” Or, even if we take the best medicine, that may only increase the severity of the illness.
“When another person transgresses by revolting, raiding, plundering, stealing or robbing, they will also be affected by and suffer from others calamities”. Revolts and rebellions cause tragedy in the world. We often talk about manmade disasters; when we look at the world, so many countries constantly experience these manmade calamities. When people fight for recognition, for advantage or for their greed, that country will be unable to achieve peace and harmony. Revolts and rebellions come about when a few people are in conflict over politics or over territory. Many innocent people are harmed, causing a nation of people to become refugees.
The chaos created by revolt is a calamity to the world. By using force to rob and plunder, people raid one another and wrest away goods, stealing and pilfering other people’s wealth.
Once society is thrown into turmoil, whether from manmade or natural disasters, there will always be robbing and plundering, or the raiding and wresting away of others’ goods, This is the “loss of blessings.”
In the past we did not crate blessings; thus, we now encounter all kinds of disasters.
The manifestation of having lost their blessings explains why those who commit acts of evil, after facing retribution, suffer further calamity. In saying they suffer further calamity, “suffer” means to encounter mishaps such as violent or sudden death or meeting with unexpected accidents.
This explains the karmic retribution faced by those who do evil. They will eventually experience further calamities. They will experience many disasters, manmade and natural alike.
So, “having lost their blessings, they will encounter negative karmic fruits and will not have the protection of blessings.” They do not have the fruits of blessings, thus they have no blessings that can shield them, and they have no one and nothing to rely on. They may learn worldly skills, or they may study the Buddha’s Way, and thus attain [realizations], but they will just as quickly forget them.
When we listen to the Dharma, why can’t we take it to heart?Because we did not practice enough in the past. With our karma, sometimes there is a mental block, so the things we have heard, learned, etc, cannot remain in our minds, and we can unable to penetrate them. We many attain something, but then lose it again.
The purpose of learning medicine is to save people and yet doctors can also cause them harm. Thus we constantly say that those who want to be doctors must create blessings. Only when they have blessings can the medicine they prescribe cure their patients. Otherwise the opposite might happen; their patients may remain the same or get worse which can threaten the patient’s life.
When others do bad things, we ourselves may suffer the consequences.
I did not commit this wrongdoing, they did. How is it that I have become a refugee? That is very similar In conclusion. In learning the Buddha’s Way, we must be mindful. We must begin to create blessings right now. The situations we encounter now arise because of what we did in the past. Now that we know this, we must work [for the sake of our future]. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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