Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Body Is Impure; Karmic Seeds are the Cause (觀身不淨業種為因)
Date:November.30. 2015
“Contemplate the body as impure and suffering. The karmic seeds of afflictions are the cause. Our parents’ unclean actions are the conditions. These all come together resulting in our physical body. The human body has nine orifices that constantly excrete impurities. Those who have these thoughts are wise and respond by distancing themselves from dust and defilement.”
How do we come into this world? We should earnestly contemplate this “Contemplate the body as impure”. With everything in our daily living starting from our first sensations, we must consider our body. It is summertime now, so the weather is quite hot. If we are out under the sun and start to do a little work, the moment we move, sweat immediately starts trickling down our back. Working outside, we also become covered in dirt, causing us to feel filthy. After a day like this, we want to take a bath or a shower to clean ourselves off. But how long can our body stay clean? Very quickly, we start sweating again.
Nowadays, people use air conditioning so they can feel clean and cool. Walking out from an air-conditioned home is like walking into an oven from a refrigerator. This kind of feeling is very uncomfortable. Thus we must mindfully contemplate the Fourfold Mindfulness. “Contemplate the body is impure. Contemplate all feelings as suffering.”
Of course, we must also “Contemplate the mind as impermanent,” and “Contemplate all things as being without self.” If we can thoroughly understand these principles, we will have no more afflictions. But if we do not thoroughly understand them, we will be afflicted. With these afflictions, we begin to cling to our sense of “self”.
“I love this. I want it done this way. I want to have this”; the list goes on and on! So, we start to create karma. Our afflictions multiply and give rise to karma, so we create even more karma. Of course, this karma is the karma of afflictions. Out of afflictions, ignorance and dust-like delusions, we create karma; these things are the causes.
With these, we have the causes and the conditions for remaining sentient beings, and as we create all kinds of karma, we will suffer karmic retributions. When we come to face our karmic retributions, how do we enter this world? Through our parents. How did our parents come to give us this body? “Our parents’ unclean actions are the conditions.” Their coming together is an unclean action which created the condition [for us to be here]. We have affinities with them, and thus [these causes and conditions] “come together resulting in our physical body.” This is the beginning of our lives. Now, “The human body has nine orifices.” Count them. The eyes, two, the ears, two, the nose, two, and the mouth, one. All together, aren’t there seven orifices on a face? Then there are two more for urine and feces. This is what we humans are like. Once people fall ill, you can see that, all over their body, their seven orifices are discharging impurities. This is our human body; “[It] constantly excretes impurities.” This is our life.
If this body is so unclean, why do we take issue with other people for its sake? [Instead,] we should make the best use of the body we have now to earnestly listen to the Buddha-Dharma. We should make an effort to comprehend our cyclic existence and how we come and go in this world. If we can understand this, “Those who have these thoughts are wise.” Once we understand how we come and go from life, naturally, the principles will become clear. We will naturally be able to “distance ourselves from dust and dirt.” Naturally, we will not say things like,“This person said such and such about me” or “That powers treated me this way” or “Looking at this matter, I think things should go this way. Why won’t he go along with what I want?”Our minds become filled with afflictions and hateful thoughts.The greatest liability in life comes from having this body.
Our body originally came from such an unclean [action].In this world, if we can clearly understand principles, then we will recognize the workings of karma.We will recognize that we have created these kinds of causes and formed these kinds of affinities with people.
When people treat us [negatively], we think, “An, I can get through this easily; I do not need to take everything so seriously. Thank you for going easy on me; I’m grateful.”If we can respond this way, if we always have gratitude in our minds, is there any karma we cannot exhaust?Are there any [negative] affinities that will lead us to continue the cycle of animosity?
There will be none.
We can do this because we have come in contact with the Buddha-Dharma, understood the principles, eliminated our ignorance and retained wisdom.If we manifest wisdom in our daily living, we can “distance ourselves from dust and dirt.”We can distance ourselves from our afflictions.
We have seen what happened in Lesotho and when [volunteers] from South Africa went to Swaziland.They were holding trainings for volunteers to become certified.When they held this training, it was not like ours, where people can just drive to the training and then go into a room with electric fans or air conditioning.We have a roof, a floor and chairs to sit on.We have a dignified spiritual practice center.
[In Lesotho,] they did not have any of this.We could see how they held their training under the open sky, on the bare ground.That country is vast and sparsely populated, and the roads everywhere are hard to travel.However, they still wanted to conduct trainings, and the news spread from one person to another.
They also heard Meijuan (Jennifer Chen) share about the Tzu Chi sprit and the Jing Si Dharma-lineage.There in Lesotho, she inspired the locals, led them in chanting the Buddha’s name, led them to accept the Dharma and explained the law of karma to them.
They held two days of training.Over those two days, more than 300 people read Jing Si aphorisms and shared their realizations.They shared about how, in their villages, there are people who are ill, elderly and lonely, or who have disabilities.According to their malady, the local volunteers find a way to care for and serve them.Their faith is steadfast, and they are very dedicated.They are willing to do all this because they have already taken the Dharma to heart.
We also saw Tzu Chi volunteers from South Africa.When they went to Swaziland, they still woke at dawn to listen to my Dharma teaching.
They would prostrate and wish me good morning and so on.They did everything properly.See, they have already taken the Dharma to heart.
Though these Bodhisattvas are [far away], they are also my disciples and are very disciplined.
The videos they sent back were very touching.
Clearly, they have taken the Dharma to heart, so they have wisdom.Their wisdom has already been awakened, and they have eliminated their afflictions.Take for example Tzu Bi (Beatrice Sibisi), a local volunteer who is over 70 years old.Her leg had been broken in two car accidents, so now she walks with a limp.
But all the same, she believes that, “This body is very precious. With it, I can listen to the Buddha-Dharma and walk the Bodhisattva-path; I do not want to stop.”She lives out her wisdom-life in this world.She is not just living a physical life, but also making use of her wisdom-life.Thus, she can manifest wisdom and distance herself from dust and dirt.She is not hindered by the long distances.
Truly, if she had not come here because of her vows, she would not have this kind of courage.
Thus, with these causes and conditions, though this world is full of suffering, in this place of such extreme suffering, these volunteers can still happily give to others.So, we can compare this to our own lives and surroundings.It is so easy for us to walk the Bodhisattva-path.The [volunteers in Africa] must overcome such great difficulties; they are true spiritual practitioners.
The previous passage states, “Or if they are reborn human, they are deaf, blind or mute, impoverished, with signs of deterioration. They think of themselves as majestic though they are bloated or dried out, have ringworm, carbuncles or abscesses. These and other diseases are worn like their garments.”
This kind of life is indeed filled with suffering.
Sings of their severe physical illness include their whole body being putrid, or [problems with] their eyes, ears, voice, etc.Many appearances [of illness] have manifested on their body,like a garment they are wearing. These can be clearly seen by other people.
Next, it says, “Their bodies constantly stink, are filthy and impure. Their deep attachment to their view of self escalates their anger and their rage, and they are ablaze with lust, indistinguishable from birds and beasts. For slandering this sutra, they face retributions such as these”.
Indeed, the body is filled with impurities. On top of that, if there is an imbalance of the four elements in our body, “The body constantly stinks”. This happens when our body is our of balance. When we are ill or…we may give off a bad odor. When there are a lot of people and no ventilation, we find the smell unpleasant. Moreover, sentient beings refers to more than just humans; there are many other physical forms animals take many forms. Pigs are found in a sty, cows in a pen, certain insects in cesspits. Animals live in all of these environments. Humans are just one kind of animal. Even though our bodies are “filth and impure”, we are still greed [for its sake].
Thus, we are “deeply attached to our views of self”. Our body is so impure, yet just due to our perspective of [having a] “self” we give rise to so many afflictions. Having this human body, most people experience lust. This kind of human desire, the attraction between men and women, etc., is unclean. People with no shame are “ablaze with lust’ and are “indistinguishable from birds and beasts”.
We all know the ways that birds and beasts live their lives. With the karma of transgressions, “For slandering this sutra, [we] face retributions such as these”. Thus, our body will be very unclean. It stinks and is unclean and filthy. This results from the karma we brought with us.
Their bodies stink: being impure and filthy is a negative appearance. Being impure and filthy is a negative appearance. The lotus flower is a metaphor for the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. Its fragrance is sweet and clean, and it is pure in appearance. The one who does not believe and even slanders it obtains the retributions of a foul-smelling body.
Why is that ? “The lotus flower is a metaphor for the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. Its fragrance is sweet and clean, and it is pure in appearance”. This flower grows in the filthy mud, yet is remains clean. It rises from the mud, beautiful and undefiled. It lives in the mud, but is not tainted by it. Yet there are people who use disrespectful words to describe the shape of this lotus flower. By the same principle, we clearly know that the Buddha gave teachings in this evil world of Five Turbidities for the sole purpose of teachings us and helping every one of us emerge from these severe turbidities with a mind as pure as the lotus flower. But some people do not believe in this wondrous Dharma, so instead they slander it. By slandering the Dharma, they sever people’s root of goodness, causing turmoil in people’s minds and in society. This creates very severe karma.
So, the Buddha said to Sariputra, “Stop, stop, there is no need to speak further.” Three times He said, “Stop” because if this Dharma is expounded and people do not believe in it, it will actually lead them to create karma. For this reason, He said “Stop” three times. At the same time, He also analyzed for us why this sutra must be taught to those who are willing to believe in it. If they cannot believe in it, we must not share it with them. That is because if they do not believe in it and instead slander it, they will create very severe karma. This shows the compassion of the Buddha.
However, He also could not fail to teach it. His one great cause for coming to the world was to enter the evil world of Five Turbidities and manifest the lotus lower. He hoped that though we are in the evil world of Five Turbidities, our minds can remain undefiled so we can go among sentient beings to transform them.
Otherwise, “Their deep attachment to their view of self escalates their anger and their rage”. Their evil actions come from “the raging of the Three Poisons”. What kind of poisons are these? They come from a “deep attachment to view of self”. Our view of self leads to deviant understanding and biased views. If our understanding is deviant, if our views are biased, our minds will give rise to poisons that lead to slander. Naturally, this “escalates our anger and our rage”. When poisonous thoughts arise, we feel rage, lose our temper, etc.; all these affliction arise. Thus, we do things that go against what is proper.
When wholesome principles are not to our liking, it is easy for us to feel a sense of rage. So, it will be easy to slander this sutra.
Those who slander the sutras: In the past they never had the cause for seeing the Buddha or hearing the Dharma. They do not know enough to repent and change and are attached to their. View of self. Their retribution is their inferior appearance. Others detest them, but since they have no sense of remorse, this only increases their anger and rage.
Why do they slander them? Actually, in the past they might not have seen the Buddha or heard the Dharma they had not created the causes for that. They lacked the cause [to know] right Dharma, so when they hear others slandering it, they join in spreading those slanderous words. If someone tells them, “You are wrong to do that, they refuse to change their ways. Once they do something wrong, they persist because they refuse to admit they are wrong. People like this are “attached to their view of self.”
Those who are “attached to their view of self will suffer from having an inferior appearance. As it says in the previous passage, “They are deaf, blind or mute.” Or they “have ringworm, carbuncles or abscesses”, their physical appearance is inferior.
Because of their lesser, inferior appearance, people detest them. Those who see them reject them. But they think to themselves, “You reject ne and ignore me, but I do not need your attention. They still feel very self-important and do not engage in even a bit of self-reflection to contemplate, “Why do others not like me when they see me?” These kinds of people have no sense of shame, but instead become more and more angry. Not only do they not reflect on themselves, they become resentful of other people.
So, “[They] escalate their rage and their anger, and they are ablaze with lust, indistinguishable from birds and beasts.All of these things arise from poisonous thoughts of greed and anger. When our state of mind is filled with greed, anger and ignorance, poisonous thoughts will arise. Thus, “Of all the bad karma of sentient beings their none that does not arise. Greed, anger and ignorance are the Three Poisons, and karma arises from them.Because we create karma, our karmic retributions escalate. As we replicate our afflictions, we replicate delusions and karma; we create more karma. Because of this, we commit serious transgressions and face deep hindrances.
There is nothing worse than falling into the hells, hungry ghost and animal realms before returning to the human realm to face so many [negative] retributions.
This happens because we slander this sutra, slandered all those principles.Thus we caused a lack of principles in this world, leading people to create turmoil. This is truly frightening.
So, “For slandering this sutra, they face retributions such as these. How long will this go on? The answer must be calculated in kalpas. At the end of a kalpas of suffering, they will continue to be reborn in the hell realm, in the hungry ghost realm, in the animal realm and in the human realm, always under the most unfavorable conditions.
In this world, they undergo the worse suffering. In this world, they have the ugliest physical appearances and worst sufferings from illness. So much suffering will be concentrated in them. Then, when this life ends, they will be reborn to face the same. Having suffered so much in one lifetime, they are unable to them accept the Dharma, they do not repent, nor do they have the chance.
Thus, this kind of negative situation will continue to entangle them. They remain “in this continuous cycle for countless kalpas without end.
It says at the end of a kalpas they are reborn, continuing on for countless kalpas without end. These karmic retributions are all due slandering this sutra.
Dear Bodhisattvas, we must have compassion for sentient beings. Since we have these causes and conditions, this kind of opportunity, we must make an effort to accept the Dharma. We are able to listen to the Dharma every day. If we thoroughly understand it and make good use of this body to accept the Buddha’s teachings, and benefit ourselves and others, transform ourselves and others, then we resonate with this kind of wisdom. Thus, we can distance ourselves from dust and dirt. So, I hope we will always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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