20200327調伏自心依戒行 Taming Our Minds and Calming Our Hearts
There are a lot of cruelty and suffering existing in our world now. This easily makes our views and thoughts packed with intense emotions, which increasingly make us agitated and short-tempered.
Recently, we become worried and anxious because of the pandemic. This virus has spread across the world. Countries all over the world are paying close attention to it and everyone is fearful and anxious. Now it is known that the source of the virus is from animals. The host animals carry the virus but are not infected by it because their immune systems can defend against it, and they are not harmed by it.
Originally, viruses like this do not cross from animals to humans. However, we humans have taken too many animal lives and kept on farming animals for meat. In the past, people farmed chickens and ducks in a spacious environment near the countryside. This has changed now; chicken or duck are raised near cities because there are more buildings being built. The animals are not raised near people; they are also raised in very crowded spaces.
Be it chickens, ducks, pigs or cattle, all their living space is no longer spacious. Animals are raised in overcrowded spaces. Their living condition is poor, some live in cages that are stacked up in piles. Consider this, there are people and the space is very crowded, people can easily become ill from stuffiness.
When people are kept in a space without much air, they will get sick, not to mention theses birds and animals have always been kept in a very crowded environment; when one of them gets ill, all of them get ill. Of these diseased animals, humans eat them, and diseases enter through the mouths.
The virus, COVID-19, came from what people ate. Master also said, to fix this problem, we should start by keeping a vegetarian diet, which also gives us a healthy body, as well as a healthy Earth.
Don’t think of keeping a vegetarian diet as a chore, it’s easy because you just replace meat with tofu or other protein, or just don’t add meat when you cook, that’s ok.
Let us know that, this is not a disease that typically infects people and we need to take preventive measures. What worries me the most is people are beginning to panic. This current pandemic is a disaster of the century and for the world. This is very worrying.
Thus, in our daily life, we need to pay attention to the weather. We can pay attention to our bodies’ needs, but, can we always pay attention to our minds? Can we take goo care of our hearts and minds? It depends on whether we Buddhist practitioners cultivate diligently and whether we’ve deviated from the path. When we’ve deviated from the path, can we quickly bring back our heart of sincere piety and diligently? We need to constantly be aware of this.
Because of this, let us slow down. At the same time, we need to continue to learn the Dharma and nurture our wisdom-life.
Not only we do eat a vegetarian diet, we need to take vows, carry them out, and actively protect all living beings with love.
We need to keep our Tzu Chi brothers and sisters calm during this pandemic. It’s very important that volunteers calm their hearts first so that they can calm the hearts of people around them.
To be born as a human being is truly a rare opportunity, and even harder to come by is the chance to hear the Dharma. After coming into contact with the Dharma, are we able to abide by the precepts and live according to the Buddha’s teachings, taking each step in accordance with the way the Buddha has taught?
The Dharma is like water. Do we often use this water to wash away the filth of impurity and ignorance of the mundane mind? In our daily life, we cannot do without water. We need it to survive. But, we often do not realize that spiritually, water is also essential…… our souls also need to be kept clean. To do that, we need the Dharma.
The Dharma enables us to maintain our pure original nature. Should there be any impurity, we must quickly work to remove this impurity.
Everyone, the Buddha was teachings us to tame our minds at all times; when we have done so, regardless of the situation presented in front of us, let us face it with a heart of gratitude, and care for others with understanding and acceptance. That way, this viral outbreak will be over soon.
If people are not willing to calm their hearts, the agencies in charge of health and to control the diseases will be helpless because everyone is anxious and worried. Think about it, how will they attain a calm mind to deal with the tasks related to preventing the disease? Thus, if we want this pandemic to quickly and calmly come to an end, the hearts of people must be calm and settled.
Everyone, please be more mindful, and tame our minds all the time. When minds are tamed, we will find ourselves in an environment that is full of hope and vitality. Hence, I always want to tell everyone, “be more mindful.”
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