Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Spiritual Practice Takes Place in the Mind(道場在我們內心)
As we face the ever- changing events of life, our minds should remain unchanging. What is meant be unchanging? It refers to our intrinsic nature, the Buddha-nature, the pure and untainted nature.
However, our pure, undefiled, unchanging nature has been obscured, layer after layer, by everything in the world. Though we possess this unchanging nature, we’re tempted and influenced by various conditions. With a slight deviation, many conditions manifest. Thus our unwavering mindset changes continuously due to these conditions.
From the Threefold karma, transgressions arise. Through the Six Roots, mistakes arise. From the mind, deviant thoughts arise. Through contact with external conditions, defilements and attachments arise.
We have spoken about how our minds have the tendency to give rise to deviant thinking. It is said conditions are conditions, mind is mind. Yet we allow our minds to react to and be affected by external conditions. There is an old saying, “it’s not the wine that intoxicates but the drinker who gets himself drunk.” The conditions we encounter are external.
If our minds are unwavering, no matter what conditions we encounter, we will not be affected by them. In the same way, our deviant thoughts come from within, from the habits accumulated over a long time. When we encounter external conditions, our own minds begin to cause trouble. Our views and thinking thus deviate toward the extreme. Once our minds deviate, we are easily affected by external conditions such as sound, form, smell, etc..
When the Six Roots are tempted their corresponding sense objects, our minds move under their influence. As our senses move, our consciousness moves too. The Six Roots and Six Sense Objects move our Six Consciousnesses and arouse the Seven Branches.
We explained the Seven Branches before: the 3 wrongs of the body and 4 types of speech. Stirred by our internal consciousness, we kill, steal, engage in sexual misconduct, lie, flatter, gossip and speak harsh words. These unwholesome actions are the result of our deviant thinking. When we come into contact with external conditions thoughts inevitably arise. This is beyond our control. If the thoughts are deviant and evil, we become misguided and develop deviant beliefs.
Everyone, in our spiritual practice we really must subdue our body and mind. That means to examine ourselves at every moment and reflect on whether what we just said correct and whether what we have just done is faultless. After we’ve spoken or acted, we should correct our wrongs immediately. As ordinary people, we carry habitual tendencies accumulated over lifetimes. These tendencies often take hold and are expressed in our actions without conscious control.
When interacting with the outside environment, if our habitual tendency is anger when circumstances are not in accordance with our wishes, anger will arise. Then our manner becomes unpleasant with our wishes, anger will arise. Then our manner becomes unpleasant, our tone harsh and unkind. This is how habits affect us.
In our practice, we must be highly aware of whatever we say “Why am I talking so loud?” “Why is my tone so negative?” “Why do I react so fast and harm others with harsh words?” In this way we can quickly collect ourselves to take command of our minds and subdue these tendencies of hatred and anger. We should promptly rein them back in, instead of letting them out.
As we have mentioned before, the “Seven Branches” are like rays that once shot out, will travel onward endlessly. Spiritual practice is, when our habits manifest, to quickly subdue our minds and correct ourselves. That is spiritual practice.
Constantly remain vigilant. When habits manifest, subdue and correct your actions. This is spiritual practice.
The Buddha discovered and taught long ago “By changing one thought purity arises”. There is also the saying, “Affliction is Bodhi” Affliction and Bodhi are the same if we’re caught up in affliction, we lose our originally enlightened nature. Then troubles will never end. When entangled in such afflictions and habits, we will continually be contaminated. It is our pure enlightened nature that is defiled.
Everyone, I have brought up so many examples and spoken from different angles to tell you this central message. Spiritual practice lies in proper thinking. Deviant thinking is bad karma and the source of all transgressions.
Next, it is written, “From external conditions, defilements arise”. The mind is defiled by external circumstances. As I said earlier, the way the external environment afflictions us depends on our thinking and perspective in viewing the external environment. In the external environment, be they flowers, grass, or trees, if our minds are in a serene and tranquil state, they are all beautiful.
If we can respect everything and be grateful to the land for providing us with so many different varieties of flowers, plants, or trees, we feel gratitude to the environment. We are grateful for the land and climate, the water and air which enable us to live. Such a state is very beautiful. You see, if we can extend gratitude toward all things on Earth, our hearts will be filled with Dharma-joy.
If we walk with gratitude, each step we take will be gentle so as not to hurt the land. We cherish this great land because we are grateful and appreciative. If we face everything with such an attitude every day, what wouldn’t bring us joy?
There are many ways we can transform the outside environment. Change your state of mind. Don’t let external states sway your mindset. Otherwise, we will suffer unspeakably.
If we are influenced by external conditions, we can easily be defiled by afflictions. As various conditions manifest, if our minds cling to them and get attached, these conditions naturally enter our minds. When external conditions deeply penetrate our minds it is defiled attachment.
Normally when we look at our surroundings, we just appreciate beauty. If we let go, then nothing remains. However, if we let conditions contaminate us, it will penetrate deeply into our minds. Let’s take smoking for example. Some urge you to quit smoking because it’s harmful to your health and the environment. But quitting is very painful.
We often wonder, what is so attractive about smoking and why it is so difficult to quit? It is only a puff, with nothing but some smoke. It’s just a feeling associated with the act. Why can’t they give it up? But people’s willpower is very weak. Our true nature has the potential for purity, but we are not able to awaken and bring forth this potential. Thus, we become deluded.
When the mind transforms conditions, this is wisdom. When conditions transform the mind, this is affliction.
There was a story in the US that made headlines about a woman who smoked, and later suffered from lung cancer. After she was diagnosed with lung cancer and realized that it was due to smoking, she sued the tobacco company, a large corporation. How much compensation did she seek? 28 billion US dollars. In Taiwan dollars, this is over 900 billion.
It was a big story, the lawsuit went on for a long times. This woman smoked for 40 years. When her daughter asked her to quit, she insisted, “I am an adult I’m free to do as I wish. She was quite young, in her teens, when she started smoking I imagine her parents also asked her to quit, but she didn’t. Then she had problems with her lungs which became life-threatening. She was diagnosed with terminal stage ling cancer.
Only then did she begin suing the tobacco company. The tobacco company claimed, “We’ve always put labels on our products warning people about the contents of cigarettes and how they could be harmful to people’s health. You didn’t seek to change your own habits. Instead you seek damages from us. How is that reasonable?”
Since both parties made their cases and the asking amount was so great, the lawsuit dragged on for a long time. In the end the tobacco company lost, but she didn’t receive much money. Wasn’t she deeply defiled by desire? The 3-inch cigarettes were there, no one asked her to smoke them. But because her mind was tainted by desire, she didn’t heed the doctor’s warning or her child’s plea. In the end this defiled attachment brought her illness and death.
We pass through life with such afflictions. The Three Poisons of the mind manifest in our everyday life. Due to these spiritual poisons, all of our actions are wrong. In the heat of the moment, we lash out with unkind words that may cause a dangerous crisis. It is so easy to say something, we only need to open our mouths. But we must know that, whether within an organization, between people, or within a family, the simple utterance of a few words in the spur of the moment can create problems that plague us for life.
We must constantly look after our minds. Every word we say, every action we take, is karma and transgression.
Everyone, the source of afflictions lies within our mind. I hope all of you will remember that we all inherently possess an unchanging nature that can cope with any kind of conditions. We have an inherent ability to eradicate all kind of afflictions.
As long as we develop our wisdom and allow our intrinsic nature to be awakened, we can dissolve many unnecessary disputes. It is like having spiritual antibodies. If we have immunity, then unpleasant conflicts will naturally dissolve when they reach us. It’s often said, “Laugh away all your troubles”. Let us always keep a joyful heart and face our lives with an open, positive attitude. I hope that you will have a positive mindset and apply your pure potential in facing the various conditions and interpersonal conflicts of everyday life.
Please be mindful and work to quarantine your intrinsic nature from afflictions. When we open our mouths to speak, if we feel habitual tendency arising, we must correct it immediately. Stop it right away. When our habits manifest and we do not stop them quickly we will lose greatly. Spiritual cultivation is about developing the ability to check and overcome our habits as soon as they arise. This is spiritual cultivation. The mind is the place of cultivation. Everything we encounter in life is a supporting condition for our cultivation. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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