Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Drawing Near Virtuous Friends
(捨惡知識親近善友)
Date: December.08. 2015
“Be upright in mind and pure in intentions. Carefully choose virtuous friends who benefit your own virtue. Let go of harmful friends and be careful not to draw near them. Firmly guard kind thoughts and never harbor evil ones.”
Making friends is so important! But from the start, we must begin with our own minds; we must carefully safeguard our minds. We must return to our intrinsic nature, which is an upright state of mind. When our mind is upright, our intentions will be pure. When farming, we must take good care of the rice. We must not allow weeds to grow, particularly the ones that look just like rice stalks. Those weeds are called “barnyard grass.”
Barnyard grass grows at a faster rate than rice. It matures faster than rice, and because it matures faster, its seeds will fall to the ground sooner. This is why farmers kneel down and weed by hand. First off, they want to preserve the roots of the rice stalks. Most importantly, they want to identify barnyard grass, so they can pull it up immediately. As soon as it sprouts, it must be pulled up. If it is not immediately pulled and it matures [and spreads], we will never be able to remove it all. This is true for our spiritual practice as well, which is like cultivating the field of our mind.
We must take good care of it so that it remains very clean and pure. There should just be one thing, rice, in this field that must tend to as it grows. Isn’t this the same for spiritual practitioners?
Our spiritual aspirations must completely fill this carefully cultivated field of our minds. We have only one aspiration, which is to seek the Path and receive the Dharma. We must not permit discursive thoughts to arise within our minds. Therefore, we must be mindful and take good care of our minds so that we can “be upright in mind and pure in intentions.” We must “carefully choose virtuous friends who benefit our own virtue.” As we kneel down to pull weeds in the fields, we must “be able to choose”; is this actually rice or is this barnyard grass? At their early stages of growth, they look nearly the same, with only a slight difference. But rice and barnyard grass have a different feel. Barnyard grass produces blades of grass that feel very glossy and smooth, whereas the leaves of the rice stalks have some texture; they are a little bit more coarse. By pulling out the barnyard grass, naturally, the nutrients in the soil will help the rice grow even more beautifully.
If there is barnyard grass in the field, then the harvest will be poor. In the same way, if we make friends with wholesome people, it is as if you are a rice plant, and I am also a rice plant. We are in the same field; we share the same piece of land, and thus we can help each other grow. So, we must “let go of harmful friends, and be careful not to draw near them.” We must take good care of the friends of our minds. We must be the farmers, if we discover something harmful to our good seeds we must quickly remove it. This is “letting go of harmful friends.” Most importantly, we must protect our kind thoughts.
For instance, one time when the Buddha was at Jeta Grove, many people had come to hear the Buddha speak. Among them was a Brahmin practitioner, and this Brahmin approached Him with a question.
“Venerable Buddha, I wish to draw nearer to the Buddha-Dharma.However, what is the first thing I must be careful of and pay close attention to?"
The Buddha said, "You must be able to choose between virtuous and harmful friends. A virtuous friend is a person you must earnestly get to know. A harmful friend is a person you must quickly distance yourself from."
The Brahmin practitioner then quickly asked, "How does one identify a virtuous friend?"
The Buddha said, "Look at the moon."
This practitioner then asked, "What about a harmful friend?"
The Buddha still responede, "Look at the moon."
The Brahmin thought to himself, "For virtuous friend, I look at the moon, and for harmful friends, I also look at the moon. Truly, I cannot understand this." So, he raised another question. "Venerable Buddha, you just gave me a general idea. I don't understand. Can you give me an analogy to explain this?"
The Buddha said, "Look up at the moon. At night, if you look up and see that the moon had faded to a thin crescent, then you know it is already well past the fifteenth day of the lunar month; the sun and moon have moved in their positions. The moon is affected by its revolution around the earth. Gradually, as it changes position, a shadow is cast over it. Thus, this [phase of the] moon is dark when we look up at it, all except for this tiny sliver, this very thin crescent. When we come to look again in a few days, it will have completely disappeared. This is an analogy for people's minds. Everyone intrinsically had a bright and pure Buddha-nature. It is because they are influenced by external conditions that their pure nature of True Suchness is covered. This is how ordinary people lose sight of their pure intrinsic nature. Thus, covered by darkness, they give rise to delusions and create karma. People at this stage are harmful friends. But harmful friends have only been momentarily covered by ignorance. On the fifteenth day of the following lunar month, if you look up again at the moon, what does it look like? "
This Brahmin answered, "Of course at that time there is a full moon. It filled the sky and the land with its light."
The Buddha said, "That is right. Actually, the moon is always this bright. At the end of the lunar month, the external conditions lend it to be covered over. Then in the middle of the lunar month, again because of its external conditions, its intrinsic quality is manifested again. This is just like a virtuous friend. After experiencing causes and conditions that cover them in darkness, as their environment continues to change, they still retaion their ingerent nature, so their [brightness] will appear once again. After those challenges have passed, after experieencing the difficulties of being covered by darkness, ignorance and dust once they push these aside they can manifest their intrinsic quilty, which remains pure and bright like the moon."The Buddha taught with this analogy.
Hearing it, the Brahin practitioner said, "I understand! It turns out that I already understood that everyone intrinsically has a pure nature of True Suchess. It is just that it has been covered by external conditions and the ignorance we have built up. No matter how much ignorance we have, our pure intrinsic nature is still there. It is just like the moon in the sky." The Brahmin practitioner immediately asked to take refuge, to receive the Five Precepts and Ten Good Deed and become a lay disciple of the Buddha.
Likewise, we must also believe that everyone intrinsically has a nature of True Suchness. We must carefully store our spirtual "harvest" to be able to walk the Bodhi-path. Thus, as we learn the Buddha's Way, we must truly be mindful.
How do we go about accepting the Great Vehicle, the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra?
Previously I spoke a lot about those who do not have the right causes and conditions, whose roots of goodness are not deep enough and whose root of faith are not strong enough. People like this are unable to accept the wondrous Dharma. So, the Buddha wanted to remind everyone of the kind of person who could accept it.
Thus, the previous sutra passage explains it this way, “If there are people who are respectful, with no discursive thoughts, who distance them selves from ordinary foolishness and live alone among mountains and streams, for people like this, you can teach the sutra”.
People like this wholeheartedly and earnestly distance themselves from ordinary foolishness. We must wholeheartedly and earnestly cultivate the fields of our minds; we must take good care of our minds. We must befriend virtuous people who will benefit us. Though in the midst of this troublesome society, we can still take good care of our minds. Our minds remain unaffected by other people. This is the meaning of “living alone among the mountains and streams”. We gradually clear away our unenlightened minds draw near the minds of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. We must put the Bodhisattva-path into practice by going among people without being contaminated by them.
So, “For people like this, you can teach this sutra”.
The following passage states, “Again, Sariputra, if you see those who let go of harmful friends and draw near virtuous friends for people like this, you can teach this sutra”.
When the Buddha gave this reminder again, He was not just directing it at Sariputra. Calling Sariputra’s name is actually a way of reminding everyone, “Be mindful when listening to the Dharma”. Perhaps, at that time, the Buddha saw many people nodding off. That is very possible. So, at that point in teaching the Dharma, He reminded people again that they must earnestly listen to teachings, let go of harmful friends and draw near virtuous friends. Because we are still ordinary people, we have not eliminated our bad habitual tendencies. When we are among people, it is very easy to be influenced by others. So, the Buddha wanted to remind us again about the kind of friends we should make. What makes a true friend? Who is it that can help us accomplish our spiritual cultivation?
The Buddha reminded us again that letting go of harmful friends and drawing near virtuous ones is the pure vinaya, translated as “beneficial cure”, as it cures greed, anger, ignorance and other evils. It is also translated as “discipline”.
The Buddha reminded us that we must earnestly draw near virtuous friends. This is the “pure vinaya”. In fact, “vinaya” means beneficial cure. For our hearts and minds to be very clean, first we must cure ourselves of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt and other evil thoughts. These five things are just like the barnyard grass in the field. If it were to grow, it would develop and mature very quickly. These negative habitual tendencies grow quickly, and they harm the entire field of our mind. In our practice, we must earnestly administer a “beneficial cure”. This beneficial cure is the vinaya.
We must protect ourselves, the purity of our minds, and not allow ourselves to do things that contaminate our minds. If we give rise to greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, pride and suspicions of the Dharma, that will be very damaging to our wisdom-life.
Vinaya: Translated as beneficial cure, it is how we maintain purity and self-respect. Cautiously guard against making harmful friends, those who are unable to distinguish between right and wrong or who hinder one’s virtues. The vinaya, the beneficial cure, also disciplines our Threefold Karma. It is a necessary condition for controlling our mistaken behavior.
So, we must have the vinaya. This means we must administer beneficial cures. We must find the treatment for our own ailments, so we must maintain purity and self-respect and must be prudent and take preventative measures, to prevent ourselves from making harmful friends. Sometimes we ourselves do not take good care of our minds, but simply place the blame on other people. It is because our minds cannot remain settled, because we do not understand the principles, that with our ignorance and afflictions we cannot distinguish between right and wrong. If a harmful friend beckons us, we go along. Since our minds are not in a settled state, we have even more of a need for an environment full of good people and virtuous people. When everyone encourages each other, we can be each other’s benefactors and become each other’s beneficial friends. [We want to create] an environment like this, which is why, as spiritual practitioners, as monastics, when we live in a community, we need “the six points of reverent harmony.” Then we have mutual respect with virtuous friends.
Harmful friends, unwholesome friends, cannot tell right from wrong. As they are unable to distinguish between them, they will hinder [our cultivation] of virtue, so we must engage in spiritual practice. Unwholesome friends cannot distinguish right and wrong. When they entice us, we go along, and as we follow them down a path where right and wrong are unclear, this stirs up many dust-like thoughts of ignorance. This hinders us from [attaining] virtue.
So, the vinaya, or beneficial cure, is a preventative measure, like precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. If we have precepts, we can guard against wrongs and stop evil. If we earnestly take good care of our mind, we can stabilize it and develop wisdom. In this way, we can vanquish our greed, anger and ignorance. If we are greedy, angry and ignorant, we easily create karma with body, speech and mind.
So, the vinaya is beneficial cure that can help us overcome our faults. We have made mistakes in the past, how do we quickly transcend them and quickly return to our pure intrinsic nature? We absolutely must distance ourselves from harmful friends and draw near virtuous friends.
“For people like this, the sutra can be taught.” Like them, we know how to choose virtuous friends and knew how to engage in spiritual practice, to practice the Bodhisattva-path, and fulfill our basic responsibilities. Since we understand, we know that in our past lives, we also had the good karmic conditions to draw near the Buddha-Dharma. Thus in this life, we again have the karmic conditions to listen to the Buddha-Dharma. So, at this point, we must make the great vows.
“To cultivate the Bodhisattva-practice, we must distance ourselves from all evil and deviant views and draw near virtuous friends.” Thus in the sutras it states, “If there is one who can teach, has faith in the precepts, is knowledgeable, practice charity, has wisdom and helps others to accept the practices, a person like that must have drawn near virtuous friends.”
We must have respect for virtuous friends. We must be very close [to them]. We must be very respectful. We must revere them. This is because we have begun to develop “the power of Great Vehicle vows.” We can be Bodhisattvas to each other, so everyone is our exceptional friend. We ourselves must be others’ beneficial friends. When people help us succeed in our spiritual cultivation, they are our beneficial friends.
Through the power of Great Vehicle vows, with other Bodhisattvas as our victorious friends we accumulate no afflictions nor deluded karma internally, and face no evil demons nor evil karmic conditions externally. Therefore, after a single lifetime, we will achieve a non-retreating state.
If we can achieve this state, we will have neither afflictions nor deluded karma. Then naturally, we can be peaceful and at ease because there are no evil demons nor evil karmic conditions around us to trouble us.
This is where we must be diligent as we learn and practice the Dharma; we must choose virtuous friends and draw near them to benefit. Listening to and observing them is beneficial to our spiritual cultivation. We must not lose this sense of diligence.
In the Analects [of Confucius], it is also said, “In a group of three, I will find my teacher.
When I see someone who does good, I follow suit. When I see someone make mistakes, I correct my own.” This is what I constantly tell everyone. When we see a good example, we must follow it. When we see a bad one, we must raise our awareness. Thus we must draw near our virtuous friends. They can correctly choose between good and bad. They respect themselves and others. With these kinds of people, we can discuss the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Sutra.
Dear Bodhisattvas, be mindful. As we engage in spiritual practice, we must whole heartedly and earnestly safeguard our mind so it can remain pure. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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