Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Breaking the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence (滅十二緣 證寂滅樂)
Date: March.16. 2017
“An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks. Roots, Dusts and consciousness converge due to the aggregate of action. These are the teachings of the Four Noble Truths and Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.”
We are often reminded of these words. “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties.” In our daily living, in our minds, thoughts arise constantly, one after the next. Then they all pass away one by one. In each moment, what thoughts are we thinking? Are they wholesome or unwholesome thoughts? Are they about benefiting others, or only about benefiting ourselves? The thoughts we think in our daily living are constantly fluctuating. How many different thoughts do we go through in a day? For unenlightened beings, most of our thoughts are thoughts of ignorance. This is because, as unenlightened beings, there are many things we do not understand, are not clear about and cannot comprehend. This is what we call ignorance. Ignorant and lacking in understanding, we connect with the outside world, then follow these external conditions to give rise to thoughts. When we see something beautiful, we want it. Thus our greed arises. “I want it, so I will buy it. I need it, so I will spend my money to get what I need.” How many things do we want in life? How much do we really need? Are these really things that we need? This is what we need to be clear on; we need to filter our thoughts. Are we clear? Are the things around us we want to obtain truly “necessities,” or are they things we think we need, or are they things we just want? We often see people who buy things when they want them, but oftentimes end up not using them. This is due to greed. Buying things we never use is due to greed. They are not necessities, not something we need. Thus we grab so many things which we do not use. This is due to our ignorance. In our minds, we often hold on to all of the things that our thoughts attracted at that time. There are so many things which we attract and then put in our hearts. This too is ignorance. This is why it says, “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties.” For instance, in our daily living, why do we need to take issue over anything? When we take issue with things, we create unwholesome affinities with others. Why do we need to get angry? By taking issue over something simple, our frustration leads to anger. Then we do all sorts of things that truly do not benefit anyone and also injure ourselves. This is all determined by our thoughts. “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” These external states are what lead us. For many days, I had been talking about the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. From one ignorant thought, we give rise to volitional formation and take action. This gives rise to name and form, the six entrances and then contact. Contact leads to feelings, to sensation. Feelings lead to craving, craving to becoming. What is it that comes into existence? Many karmic forces. Then this becomes an entire lifetime in cyclic existence of creating more karma and replicating our ignorance and karmic forces. This is all in the state of the Six Coarse Marks. When a situation manifests, our experience of whether we want it or not, whether we feel greed or anger, is all a result of ignorance and delusion. We are led by causes and conditions. So, with these causes and conditions constantly leading us, the Six Coarse Marks continue to grow and increase. The Six Coarse Marks are quite obvious appearances. When I see you I say, “You are not happy are you?” “How do you know?” “I can tell by your face.” This appearance is obvious because you are unhappy inside. If you are unhappy, something must have happened, and that incident undoubtedly was related to matters and appearances. Some person, matter, object or appearance led you to become unhappy. These are coarse matters and appearances. They are not subtle; they are very obvious things that continually multiply and accumulate in our daily living. So, it is said, “External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks. Roots, Dusts and consciousness converge.”
Our Roots, Dusts and consciousness converge. Though our eye-root, we see objects. “I don’t want this; I will throw it out.” Look around you, isn’t all this garbage unwanted things that people have thrown away? Why do people throw away so many things? These are things people wanted at first, so they used their money to purchase them. In order to buy these things, who knows how much thought they put in, how much money they spent to purchase them yet now this has all become heaps of garbage. This is due to the convergence of the Roots, Dusts and consciousness. The eye-root encounters the Dust of form, so we give rise to craving and desire. Thus things attract us, so we buy them. Then they become obsolete, out of fashion, and we do not want them anymore. This is discrimination of our consciousness. It is “due to the aggregate of action.” “Action” indicates the time has already passed; things have now gone out of fashion. We are constantly exchanging the old for the new, and this is why we are accumulating so much garbage now. We also often see Tzu Chi volunteers visiting people completely unrelated to them, going into the homes of the poor, sich and elderly. In those homes they have accumulated, countless broken and filthy things, almost as if they were encamped in garbage. How often have we seen situations like this? Within our large organization, there is a group of Bodhisattvas who are constantly giving. For suffering people like these, for those living in such filthy environments, they help to clean up. It is evident that these people who received help with the cleaning had also lived their lives in ignorance and the Three Subtleties in the past. They had continually created karma and accumulated [garbage] like this. Amidst coarse appearances, they create [karma]. Amidst subtle thoughts, they produce [ignorance]. With one thought of ignorance, these sublet and intricate thoughts continually arise. With external states as conditions, with the matters and appearances of the. Six Coarse Marks, they continuously create karma. Time goes by like this, and as they years add up, people become old and ill; the karma they create accumulates right up until the end of their lives. What about the affinities they formed in the past? What about their relatives and their closest friends? They have all scattered; nothing is left. Now they are alone, with no one to depend on. If they are ill and disabled, who will be there to help them? Bodhisattvas. “Bodhisattvas arise in response to suffering sentient beings.” This is why the Buddha came to the world, to continually teach us about [the nature of] everyone’s minds. The outside environment connects with our minds, and they become hopelessly muddled together. This keeps us ignorance and unable to comprehend the principles.
So the Buddha, in teaching the Dharma, used the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. From the time He first became enlightened, the Dharma He taught for sentient beings started with the truth of suffering. Then He continued until we could understand how we come and go in life. Whatever cause we create determine the retributions we receive. The Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence explain all this clearly. The Four Noble Truths were broken down for us at the beginning. The Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence then help up better understand the causes of life.
Nevertheless, we are so foolish and slow that even if we engage in spiritual practice, it is still impossible for us to understand. This is like a Zen master in the past who engaged in ascetic practice in the mountains. He had a disciple, a young novice, who would follow him every day when he went out to ask for alms. This young novice would follow him every day like this. One day, as they were about to return home having finished asking for alms, the things the almsgivers gave them were shouldered on the young novice’s back. They walked this way, one behind the other. They came upon an old lady lying upon the ground. She normally made her living by begging. She was a beggar, and now, she was sick and could not walk. She could only sit or lie down, and it seemed difficult for her to go up. She also seemed very hungry. This elderly master told his young disciple, “Come, take the food we were given and quickly share some with this old lady!” The young novice was not willing to share at all. “It is so difficult for us, coming down from the mountain and asking for alms every day. It is not easy hauling these things back up the mountain. Why would you so readily wish to give her a share?” This is what the young novice asked his master. “Why would we give these things that we worked so hard to get to this old lady who we don’t even know? Why?” The elderly master told him, “Birth and death, merit and virtue, are all determined in the space of at thought. Do not ask so many questions; just quickly give some to the old lady.” As the young novice divided up their things to give a share to the old lady, he replied to his elderly master. “I know we should cultivate merit and virtue, but times are hard for us now. We really need these things at this time. Wait until I’ve grown up and have a way to complete the work I want to accomplish, then we can talk about merits and virtues!” Although he complained, he also did as he was told by his master and split up their things to give a share to the old lady. The elderly master told him, “Give them to her reverently!” However, his young disciple again replied like this, “My reverence in creating merit and virtue will also have to wait until I have the strength.” The elderly master silently continued on.
Starting from that time, every day they went up and down the mountain, until after many years had passed and the elderly master’s body became weaker. Meanwhile his young disciple had grown bigger and stronger. “I know I should really renovate the temple and increase its size so it could accommodate many worshippers. Then I would not have to worry anymore.” The elderly master no longer had any strength left to speak. Although the master had often told him, “Cultivate merit and virtue,” the disciple always replied, “Wait until I have the strength.” So, time went by, and the temple grew larger and larger. When the elderly master was already nearing his last breath, when he was about to enter Perfect Rest, with his weakened hands he picked up a sutra and entrusted it to his disciple. As his disciple took the sutra, the elder master tried to speak, but no longer had any strength to do so. The disciple took the sutra and placed it by his side. No longer able to even speak, the elder master swallowed his last breath and passed away. After that, this young and vigorous disciple took on the position of head monk of the temple. He became the abbot of the temple. He wanted to develop his temple and increase it in size. After a few years it flourished with worshippers, so he next wanted to buy land. He bought a lot of land, a lot of acreage around the temple. He bought up all the land. Again, time passed, and the young and vigorous abbot eventually became old and began to fall ill. At one point, he suddenly thought, “Before my master passed away, he gave me a sutra, which I never even looked at. Just what teachings are in that text?” So, he took the book his master had given him and opened it to the first page. The elderly master had written, “Helping someone once surpasses chanting sutras for ten years.” [His master] was telling him, “You gain more merit and virtue by helping people than by chanting the sutras for ten years. You must be reverent. You must serve others with reverence. By always being reverent and always thinking of helping others, the merits and virtues one acquires surpass any gained from chanting sutras.” The abbot was old by that time, and his body had become wracked with illness. “What good deeds can I possibly do now? What my master told me then was, ‘Life and death, merit and virtue, are all determined in the space of a thought.’ This is what he was trying to tell me with his last breath. He wanted to tell me this, to help others. In reverently helping someone even one time, there is more merit and virtue gained than by chanting sutras for ten years.”
Spiritual practice is nothing other than constantly keeping good thoughts in our mind, thoughts of reverence, thoughts of helping others. The world is filled with suffering, and people pass their lifetimes in ignorance. Isn’t this how we pass our lives as well? “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties.” With external states as our conditions, amidst appearances of people, matters and things, we pass our days busying about. We busily go about creating ignorance and multiplying afflictions. As our Roots encounter Dusts, they converge with external conditions. Then time passes, and ignorance and karma continue to accumulate. “[This is] due to the aggregate of action. An “aggregate” is an accumulation. We are accumulating the karma we create. Looking back, the principles we must understand are the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. Such simple teachings are by our side, yet it is impossible for us to understand them. We must really be mindful!
We have been speaking of Cyclic Existence. Are we done yet? No, not yet. The previous passage says, “When ignorance ceases, volitional formation thus ceases. When volitional formation ceases, consciousness thus ceases. When consciousness ceases, name and form thus cease. When name and form cease, the six entrances thus cease. When the six entrances ceases, contact thus ceases.”
The Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence begin with a thought of ignorance, then continue on with the aggregate of action. These [formations] accumulated over past lives. Through this accumulation, we were led into the circumstantial retributions of our present lifetime. Based on our affinities with our parents, we were born into a certain family. Throughout our lives, we continually connect with all of the people, matters and things that we come in contact with and thus keep creating karma. So, this is how we live our lives.
With this contact, “When contact ceases, feeling thus ceases.” Next as it previously stated, “When the six entrances cease, contact thus ceases.” The next passage says, “When contact ceases, feeling thus ceases. When feeling ceases, craving thus ceases. When craving ceases, grasping thus ceases. When grasping ceases, becoming thus ceases. When becoming ceases, birth thus ceases. When birth ceases, the worries, sadness and distress of aging and death thus ceases.”
Now, it is talking entirely about ceasing. In the past, we spoke of “conditions arising.” Now, we are speaking about “conditions ceasing.” So, when we speak of “contact” once we come to the world, we come in contact with the world’s matters and objects. Since we make contact, naturally we will have feelings. “An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” This is the external environment and our feelings. When there is contact, when the eye comes into contact with forms, we will have feelings in our minds.
Where do these feelings arise from? That is “consciousness.” It is consciousness that experiences feelings and thereby gives rise to craving for those feelings. So, “When feelings cease, craving thus ceases.” When we see something, [we must ask], “Is this necessity or something I need or is it just something that I want, just something I like? Is it like that?” Or “Do I always need to take issue over things?” What does taking issue achieve? These are all feelings we experience in daily life. With feelings we give rise to thoughts. “Is this something love or dislike? Is it something I resent or hate?” These cravings and aversions are always in the process of arising and ceasing. So, when there is “craving” there naturally will be “grasping.” We will take action. We will be take it or buy it. We will scheme or do whatever it takes. All of this is “grasping.” If these things were totally unrelated to us, we would never take action. Then we would not create karma. “When grasping ceases, becoming thus ceases.” We would cease creating karma.
“When becoming ceases, birth thus ceases.” If we had never created karma, if we had never created affinities, good or bad, with our parents, we would not have been reborn. Or, having been born, if we had no positive or negative affinities with the people, matters and objects around us, then we would not be together with them.
Look how many people there are upon the earth. How many of them do we really know? Not many! Only those with good or bad affinities will be together with us. Without a debt to repay or collect, without any affinitive emotions, we would not be drawn into affinities like these and we would never be together. It is because in the past we formed good affinities with one another that we can all come together in this large organization to do good deeds. If some formed resentment or hatred toward in the past, they may form a gang with us to do harming things to others, things that are not good. Or they may lead us to deviate in our direction. In this way, we will create karma that leads through the process of life to death. We may die from illnesses or face many things that do not go the way we want throughout life. These happen because negative karmic conditions are guiding us toward aging, illness and death. Yet we are not aware of this.
Did everyone feel the earthquake this time? Of course you felt it. At past three in the morning, the earth shook. Everyone felt it. This was an obvious feeling we also have subtle [thoughts] and create and accumulate karma. We already likewise have feeling. One is the feeling of an obvious appearance. The feeling of the earthquake was a very obvious appearance, while our thoughts are subtle and intricate. Subtly and intricate thought continually accumulate. They accumulate over the course of our lives so we go through aging, illness or death. This process of life is one of constant worry, sadness and distress. Where is there a person who has never had worry, afflictions, desire, greed or thoughts of grasping something? Everyone has! These are subtle intricate [thoughts], very subtle parts of our life. They pass by without our even being aware of them.
So, “When contact ceases, feeling thus ceases. When feeling ceases, craving thus ceases.”
When contact ceases, feeling thus ceases. When feeling ceases, craving thus ceases: Since contact does not arise, the appearance of feeling is eliminated. Without feelings to lead the mind, the appearance of craving thus ceases.
We have come in contact with things. Only through contact do we have feelings. How can we remain unattached to our feelings? So much happens because causes and conditions draw us into suffering. Thus, now we are explaining the method of returning to cessation. How do we bring these things to cessation? When we come in contact with something, do we feelings of wanting to grasp it or to nurture it? Do we take it for ourselves or do we share it with others? The elderly monk taught his disciple that he should share with others. Merit and virtue are inseparable from our thoughts. Are our thoughts about creating merit and virtue, or are we only interested in serving ourselves? When we come in contact with something, we have feelings from that contact. If, with our feelings, we know to share with others, then we will create blessings. if we wish to claim for ourselves, then this is merely craving. When it comes to love, there is selfless live, and there is possessive love. Possessive love in the end becomes a pile garbage. This is like those people we mentioned before, those old, sick, disabled and lonely people. We go to help them to clear out their dirty things. At first, weren’t those things accumulated because they wanted them? So, “if contact does not arise,” without contact giving rise to craving, they naturally would not collect those filthy things in their homes. If unwholesome thoughts do not arise in us, then we will not accumulate many afflictions inside of us, then we will not create a lot of karma in our lives, throughout our lifetime.
So, “Since contact does not arise, the appearance of feeling is eliminated.” There are no appearances for us to take in. Without feelings to lead our minds, craving will naturally cease, and we will have no need to possess things.
When craving ceases, grasping thus ceases. When grasping ceases, becoming thus ceases: Without a mind of craving and pleasure-seeking, the appearance of grasping ceases. Without a mind of grasping and attachment, how would any karma come into being? Hence becoming ceases.
So, “When craving ceases, grasping thus ceases. When grasping ceases, becoming thus ceases.” If we eliminate this craving, this possessiveness, we naturally will not think that everything belongs to us. “My business is big, but I want to make it bigger. I want it to become a chain. I don’t want only one or two stores; I want my stores to be all over the world. I want to constantly expand my business. The entire market is mine.” This is grasping and attachment. Without thoughts of greed and craving, grasping and attachment do not arise in us. “Without a mind of craving and pleasure-seeking, the appearance of grasping ceases.” “Grasping” is naturally eliminated. We have no grasping or attachment; we will not grasp or become attached. We will not be attached to having so much. There is no need to be attached. Then, “How would any karma come into being?” In this case, where would karma come from? If we are without grasping and attachment, if we have none of these things, we will not create any of those situations. Then those matters are unrelated to us. We will not grasp or become attached to these things. They do not belong to us. Naturally, all of these things, all these matters, all interpersonal conflicts with others, will be totally unrelated to us. Where then will there be any “becoming”? There will be none. “Have you done this thing?” “No, I have not.” “Do you have this thing?” “No, I do not.” There is none of that. So, with the karma of “becoming.” If we do not create it, there will be no “becoming”; thus it ceases. “Becoming” ceases. Without grasping or attachment, we naturally have none of these things. We are pure.
When becoming ceases, birth thus ceases: With our karma, we attract [future] births. When the karma of becoming is no more, the appearance of birth thus ceases.
“When becoming ceases, birth thus ceases.” When we are without grasping or attachment, when we cease creating karma, we will no longer have any retributions from the entanglements of afflictive emotions. We will no longer have these. So, “When becoming ceases, birth thus ceases.” “With our karma, we attract [future] births.” It is our karma that attracts our [future] “birth” in the world. Once born into this world, we are entangled with love, hate, passion and animosity; this is suffering! So, it is because of our karma that we attract this incessant cycle of birth and death. “When the karma of becoming is no more,” when we fully eliminated the karma of “becoming,” naturally, “The appearance of birth thus ceases.” We will have no future rebirth, and the afflictive emotions of human existence will no longer bind us; they will be gone.
When birth ceases, the worries, sadness and distress of aging and death thus cease: Due to [becoming] we undergo birth and thus aging and death. If unaffected by desire for life, though we undergo aging and death, aging and death will cease. Without birth, aging and death, the worries, sadness and distress will all cease at once.
“When birth ceases, the worries, sadness and distress of aging and death thus cease.” When there is no birth, there is no aging. Because we are born, we experience great pain. When our mothers give birth to us, we begin crying, so we say it is painful. When we first came into the world, when we left our mother’s womb, we came in contact with the biting air, and our naked body felt a piercing pain. Feeling such pain, we cry out. Is there any child that does not cry at birth? It is naturally painful all over our entire body, so all of our nerve cells first come in contact with the feeling of pain. Thus we began to cry. This is our first step in the world. At our first step into the world, at birth, we are already suffering. Then gradually, in the environment of this world, due to both inherent and acquired [tendencies], we continually create karma. So, because of becoming, there is birth. With birth comes the suffering of aging and death, the suffering of aging, illness, death, the impermanence of life and so on. With that earthquake that just occurred, I am grateful that everyone is safe. If that earthquake had been a little bigger, if it had rocked us a little more, we might not be sitting here safe and sound like we are now. Earthquakes are warnings of impermanence, but since we are still here safe and sound, shouldn’t we be grateful for all these things? When the four elements are not in harmony, we can never know when impermanence will occur. Amidst this process of infinitesimal changes, when there was just an earthquake, we said, “There is an earthquake now!” Now we say, “just now.” As time passes in the same way, the words we use change. We must distinguish between “just now” and “now.” We say “now,” but after a moment has passed, we say, “just now.” Time is always passing like this. It is continually passing by. We speak of past and present lives. The karma we created in past lifetimes is what we receive and apply in this one. The karma we create in this lifetime is what we will receive and apply in future ones. This is how the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence continually drag us along. For us to understand the source of suffering, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. He helped us understand the nature of suffering. He hoped all of us would form aspirations to eliminate that suffering, for when these “Links” are eliminated, there is naturally no more suffering of rebirth. So, when it comes to aging and death, we remain “unaffected by the desire for birth.” Desire for birth is when thoughts of desire begin. So amidst birth and death, we remain unaffected by the desire for birth. If we can eliminate this, although we still age and die, we eliminate our karma. You see, as we said yesterday, there are many elderly who practice, who listen to the Dharma and tell me, “It’s enough; I am satisfied.” In my travels through Taiwan this time, among the group of elderly disciples I saw, some of them were ill who came to see me, but they were carefree and at ease, telling me, “It’s enough; I am satisfied. Because I was lucky enough to join Tzu Chi while I was young, my life is so abundant; it’s enough.” They are so free in their attitudes toward life, for they are certain that they have done many good deeds.
So, when it comes to this kind of cyclic existence, birth and death, those who do not understand the principles will fear death; they will become terrified. When one understands the principles, then one knows it is a law of nature. “I have fortunately done good deeds in my life, and doing one good deed surpasses chanting sutras for ten years. Having lived my life the way, I am satisfied, so, I have no worry, sadness or distress over aging and death I have none of these. Although I am old, I don’t worry about when my life will end. I don’t worry since this life has been enough.”
Previously it explained the teaching of arising, thus the Links are the causation of suffering, and the cause of action leads to its arising. Now it explains the teaching of ceasing, thus the Links are the path to cessation. Because of the truth of the path, we bring the Twelve Links to cessation and realize the joy of tranquil extinction.
So, it previously spoke of the teaching of arising. Arising is how we are born into the world, Which we explained before “Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation, and volitional formation to consciousness. Consciousness gives rise to name and form, name and form gives rise to the six entrances, the six entrances give rise to contact, contact gives rise to feeling, feeling gives rise to craving, craving gives rise to attachment, attachment gives rise to becoming, becoming gives rise to the birth, and birth gives rise to the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death.
This is how it is all linked together. What we spoke about today was looking back to bring the cycle to cessation. When we spoke several days earlier about the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence, we spoke about the “teaching of arising” Now, we are speaking on the “teaching of ceasing.” How do we go back and break this cycle? This is how our afflictions and ignorance arose in the past. Now how do we eliminate these afflictions and ignorance? When we have completely eliminated these, we naturally become at ease with birth and death. “Now it explains the teaching of ceasing.” If we can understand this, “The links are the path to cessation.” Our human ignorance and the path we have walked upon must be complete eliminated. The path we should walk upon now is the great, direct Bodhi-path. The great, direct Bodhi-path is so smooth. Furthermore, it can take us from the state of unenlightened beings to the state of Buddhahood. This is the Bodhisatta-path. So, I hope we all will be mindful of our thoughts in the present. If we can understand our thoughts in the present, “because of the truth of the path,” [we are clear]. If we understand the teaching of how we come and go through the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence, naturally we can realize the joy of tranquil extinction. When our mind is without afflictions, “There is no fear,” and “we can transcend deluded thinking.” We can distance ourselves from it. This way we will know that every day. When we give rise to thoughts, even subtle and intricate thoughts, we will always understand. Is what we are doing the thing we should be doing? If so, we should be proactive in doing it. If not, we should hasten to eliminate it. This is understanding “cessation,” the way of eliminating ignorance. This way, we understand how “External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” We have understood causes and conditions, how our eyes, ears, nose tongue and body come into contact with the external states of form, sound smell taste, and touch in this state. If our consciousness is clear, we naturally will not engage in wrongdoing. This way our mind will be always very peaceful. This requires that we always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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