Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: The Body is a Vessel for Spiritual Practice (以身載道 藉假修真)
Fellow practitioner, as we learn Buddhism, let us constantly be vigilant. As we discussed earlier, we must always have a sense of shame, and then realize the impermanent nature of life. We must also develop a sense of fear. If we are not afraid or cannot develop fear, we may lead an empty life and may not be motivated to be diligent.
So we cannot become lax. We must be grounded in our daily living. Life is impermanent. So when we think about impermanence, a sense of fear must arise. As we said yesterday, life is truly short. If we do not guard our actions, speech & thoughts, we will create bad karma. There are many temptations to commit wrongdoings. If we succumb to them, after this life, we will fall into the Hell, Hungry Ghost or Animal Realms. There will be no end in sight. This is truly horrifying.
Therefore, let us develop a sense of renunciation. This world is impermanent and full of traps and chances for wrongdoing. So we must quickly renounce it. According to the text, the third is a sense of renunciation. Constantly contemplate life and death, and find only impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self. They are impure and illusory, like ephemeral water bubbles. The cycle of rebirth constantly turns like a wheel. Birth, old age, illness, death, the 8 Sufferings are constant and never-ending. “The Assembly”; including you and I, all of us, together, should contemplate the body from head to toe. There are 36 elements, which are hair, body hair, nail, teeth, rheum, tears, mucus, saliva, sweet, urine, feces, skin, blood, flesh, tendons, veins, bones, marrow, fat, brain, spleen, kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, gall bladder, intestines, stomach, brown & white phlegm, and 2 digestive organs. Impurities flow from the 9 Orifices of the body. According to the sutras, sufferings are centered in the body. Everything about it is impure. How can any wise person find in the body? Since this existence is full of such ills, it is indeed detestable.
Let us review this section on renunciation. Having read this, I believe we all can understand it. But even though we know what it means, it is difficult to thoroughly comprehend it. The body is our most intimate possession. The body extends from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. It is roughly composed of 36 Elements such as our hair, skin, nails, and even our internal organs, etc. These are roughly 36 elements. All these things are wrapped in the skin that covers the body.
We have no idea just how unclean it is inside. Wherever the skin breaks, we bleed. This can be scary and frightening. This is the same for everyone. If the skin is broken and the body is infected by viruses and bacteria, then the results are unmanageable.
We may remember, when Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital first opened, an ambulance delivered an old lady to the hospital. She had a foul odor, so the doctor treated her immediately. Her foot was under layers of wrapping which had already become very dirty.
The doctor cut through the wrapping and found a poultice of herbs. When the doctor removed it, he found that the foot had already festered. He pricked the pustule and found maggots. There was a terrible small, blood, pus and maggots. I remember that day. When I arrived at the emergency room, the doctor was removing the maggots. I heard a nurse say, “There is one here and another one there.” The doctor quickly and very carefully picked them up one by one with tweezers.
You see, when humans are covered by skin, we do not realize how impure the insides are. Once the skin breaks and festers, maggots will grow and it will reek. The foulest odor in the world is the smell of festering human flesh.
This reminds me of a trip to Hengchun. The poor households there were spread far apart. When we arrived at Checheng, it was dusk. When the villagers saw the arrival of Tzu Chi volunteers, they knew which home we were going to visit, so they quickly led the way. When they brought us to the side of the house, we smelled a very strong stench. The Tzu Chi Commissioners who traveled with me went in but quickly ran out again.
Inside apart from the dim lighting, the air was very stuffy and smelly. Where was this stench coming from? From a person sitting at the edge of the bed. The sole of his foot looked like a cauliflower. The flesh was completely exposed and festering. What caused this? Cancer in the sole of his foot.
Apparently, one time he stepped on something while working in his garden.He thought it was nothing and applied some ointments. Then the foot began to rot. He eventually went to the doctor and was told it was cancer. Look how easily it happened. It was just a slight puncture in the skin that became infected. He left it alone too long, and the doctor diagnosed it as cancer.
The smell was awful. The cancerous cells had already to other parts of his body. His lungs were infected. There was nothing left of him but skin and bones. This left a very deep impression.
There were also other cases before him. When Tzu Chi was first established, I personally visited care recipients in Hualien. I remember a particular family in Shoufeng Village. The person we visited was only in his 40s. He had a wife and four children. When we arrived, it was summertime, and all we saw a straw hut.
The door was left ajar so we called out, “Is anyone home?”
A voice responded, “Yes, please come in just push the door open.”
We pushed open the door and when we entered, we saw that it was dark. “Why was it so dark inside?”
The person spoke again, “There is a light above you. You can reach up and turn it on.”
Indeed, when we reached up, there was a light bulb swinging from the ceiling. We quickly turned it on. We saw a person lying on a bamboo bed by the wall.
Seeing him, my heart broke I quickly walked towards the bed and asked him, “What is wrong?”
He said, “I cannot move any part of my body.”
“Why can’t you move? How long had it been?”
“Four or five years.”
“What happened?”
“I fell down at work and was paralyzed by spinal injuries. Only my head is alive. The rest of my body is dead. ”
One of the commissioners exclaimed, “Oh my, how can there be rat this big?”
I looked around to find the rat. Where was it? On his leg, gnawing at it. The rat grew big by feeding off his leg. He had no feeling in his legs. Who knows how long that rat had been eating the flesh off his legs? We tried to drive it away, but it was unafraid and did not budge. It had probably never been driven away before. It truly was a heartbreaking sight.
In life, when the body is healthy, skin envelopes everything and appears to be clean. Every day, we wash our bodied and hair. Lay people, especially, wash and brush their hair very often. They look very beautiful. But we should know that there are so many unclean elements wrapped within the skin.
Only day, Dr. Jian, Asst. Superintendent of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, gave a simple, 5-minute explanation on how germs enter the human body. He said, “In a person’s body, these are over 600 different kinds of disease-causing germs. In our stomach and intestinal areas alone, there are over 100 trillion beneficial bacteria.
How large is 100 trillion? It is hard to describe. If we calculate it by weight, it is roughly 1 kg. Our bodies need bacteria, such as the trillions of beneficial bacteria in our intestines that help with our metabolism. They allow us to absorb nutrition and help our digestion. So we need these beneficial bacteria in our bodies.
But among all these bacteria, there are over 600 kinds that will cause diseases. These good and bad bacteria will sometimes be in conflict. So the Buddha told us that our bodies exist as a temporary union of the 4 Elements, earth, water, fire and air. If these Four Elements are in harmony we are healthy. This is just like the bacteria in our bodies; if good bacteria are in balance with bad ones, our bodies will be in good health. If these bacteria fall out of balance and start fighting one another, the bad bacteria will overcome the good and disease will arise in that part of the body.
Fellow practitioners, we all know that some bacteria did not originate from the human body. These germs did not exist in humans, they came from animals. These bacteria and viruses have continuously crossbred with human bacteria and viruses. Talking about it, we see that life is truly impure. So the Buddha asked us to be mindful.
The text we just covered was quite long, it describes how filthy and unclean our bodies are. So why do greed, anger and ignorance arise on behalf of this body? Why do we often take issue on its behalf? We should recognize that the body is undesirable. So we must self-reflect and be fearful Life is impermanent. We must make good use of this body as a vessel for spiritual practice. We must use this illusory body to practice and attain what is true. With this body, we can see through the countless phenomena of life and be inspired to practice.
The body is formed by the temporary union of the Four Elements and Five Skandhas if we use our illusory bodies as vessels to cultivate truth, we are engaged in spiritual practice. If we take issue on behalf of this body, we are creating karma.
Fellow practitioners, we must first have self-respect before we can love others. Love cannot be greedy. Let us expend our love to love ourselves and others. Do not be greedily attached to this human body. Make good use of it. I often say that we do not own it, we can only use it. It is rare to attain a human body. We eat and sleep for its sake, to take good care of it. If we do not use it earnestly for spiritual practice, this lifetime will be an awful waste. Everyone, please always be mindful of the Truth.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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