Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: All Teachings Focus on Awakening compassion (千經萬論在於啟發慈悲)
The Six Paramitas: Giving, Precepts, Patience, Diligence, Samadhi, Wisdom. There are also called the Six Perfections.
As I said earlier, Bodhicitta is inseparable from the Six Perfections. We have already spoken about giving. Giving is the first step in learning Buddhism. In all the sutras and treatises wasn’t the Buddha telling us to develop compassion in our hearts?
Those born in this world are all seeking blessings. If we can bring others happiness, we will be happy. This is what is meant by “giving joy.” In this world, suffering is inevitable. We can resolve to have Universal Great Compassion and feel others’ suffering as our own. Then we can make the instant decision to help them. This is Great Compassion.
If we all help one another, this world will be blessed. Therefore, charitable giving is the first step in benefiting others. We say we are benefiting others, but we are actually accumulating merits for ourselves. Didn’t I say that it takes a very long time to accumulate all the merits and virtues we need to eliminate countless and innumerable afflictions?
So to move from the stage of ordinary people to the level of the sages, we need to create more blessings. This is like a balance. If one side is a little bit heavier the other side will be lighter. If we accrue more blessings, there will be less evil.
All in all, we need to clearly recognize disasters and blessings figure out how to eliminate disasters and increase our blessed karma. Thus, after we hear the Buddha’s teachings we must accept and uphold them. This is called upholding precepts.
We should be very grateful that we are born into such an environment. Otherwise we will be easily tempted. So we need to have the strength of patience. Without perseverance and patience, upholding precepts will be difficult. The Buddha taught us to abide by precepts so we can withstand all kinds of desires and temptations. If we do not have enough patience, we may lose our judgment and ruin our character. This is what happens when we lack willpower. If we lack patience in our spiritual practice, we will damage our Wisdom-life. So we can attain Wisdom-life with patience.
If patience is in our vocabulary, we can take a step back and the world opens up.
So patience is important whether we are lay practitioners or monastic practitioners. So in the Six Perfections, the six methods of practice, patience is very important.
Patience is exercising tolerance. We need to withstand things others cannot so our minds can be pure. Then we will have perseverance and endurance to practice this path.
Look at Buddha’s process of spiritual practice. It took Him three Asankhya Kalpas, which is akin to countless eons. During the course of His spiritual practice, every moment required patience? The Buddha went to Hell in one of His past lives. He continued His spiritual practice there. Even before He attained Buddha-hood, He already resolved to go to Hell. He saw an elderly person pulling a metal cart turned red-hot by the flames. The Buddha found it unbearable, so He quickly went up to the old man to take his place.
When the guard saw, he pulled Him away and said, “This old man is being punished. When he was alive, he was very cruel and nasty. There was no evil he wouldn’t do, that is why he fell into Hell. He deserves this punishment. So now he has to pull this burning cart. His karma led him here. Only by doing this can he exhaust his karma.”
The Buddha as a practitioner replied, “This is his karma, but I cannot bear to see it. I am willing to suffer in his place.” Others beings punished nearby, as well as those administering the punishments heard Him say, “I am willing to pull it for him. I am willing to suffer in his place. Even though he deserves this punishment, I am willing to do this.” At that moment, others who were pulling carts, whether young or old, all saw the fire on their carts extinguished. In that moment, a sense of mercy arose in the spirits meting out the punishment. So in that moment, the entire Hell of Fiery Carts ceased. The fires were extinguished. The punishments also halted. This is just one story in the process of the Buddha’s spiritual practice.
So Sakyamuni Buddha vowed and resolved to travel between the Six Realms. The Saha World was His land of transformation the place where He taught. It required patience. Patience is needed to teach and transform. Truly, practicing is not easy. We all try to avoid suffering and seek blessings. We all pursue happiness. Who is willing to go to a place of deep suffering? Only the Bodhisattvas and the Buddhas. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas keep returning to this world of suffering. This is only possible with patience. So patience is most powerful.
We should know that in this world, there are many living Bodhisattvas around us. Many of us know Yu-nian, an elderly Bodhisattva from Caotun. She lived her life with mush patience and perseverance.
As a young woman, her family was poor. Her husband was a carpenter. When there was little rice left, she cooked rice porridge because if she steamed rice, she would have no lunch. Before her husband left for work, if he saw that there was porridge in the pot, he would yell at her, “Don’t you know that I need to expend a lot of strength? Why did you cook porridge again?” She did not have the heart to tell him, “If I do not cook porridge in the morning, I’d have nothing left for lunch.” She could not bear to, so she let him yell at her.
This was how she lived through those days. Her children were all malnourished. It was difficult to raise them. But she vowed, “No matter how hard it is, I will ensure that they get an education. I will nurture my children and give them the best education possible so they can be equal to others in society. Without education, there’ll be no hope for them. They will be manual laborers like their father, and lead hard lived.” That is why she made such a vow.
Then her husband died at a young ago, so she raised the children by herself. Suddenly there was one less source of income, so she took on both parental roles and worked hard to support her family, raise the children and provide their education.
We can only imagine what their life was like. Even when her husband was still alive, there was little rice. After her husband died, how did she manage to raise these children? How did she make a living? We can only imagine the hardship she endured.
She managed to put her kids through school. She gritted her teeth and raised them. Her children also worked hard. After they enrolled on college, they worked part-time to help pay tuition. In the end, every child became successful. One of them became a physician. He was very filial. As the mother of a doctor, she should be able to live comfortably, especially since her son was once a hospital superintendent. But she never thought about living comfortably.
After her children attained success, she learned about Tzu Chi. She joined Tzu Chi, became a Commissioner and collected donations. It was hard work. When I was promoting environmental protection, she felt, “Yes, when I was young I just worried about my family, and hoped for my children’s success and happiness. I never considered that if we deplete the Earth’s resources, life will be difficult for future generations. We cannot just look after our own offspring, we need to look after all generations to come. So she joined our recycling efforts and went everywhere to collect garbage herself.
After the 9/21 earthquake in 1999, she felt, "So many schools collapsed. Master Chang Ten said hope society lies in children's education." when she was poor, she realized that her children's only hope was education. My children have achieved success because I worked hard for them to be educated. Indeed, we must work fast so all children can quickly resume their education. I see the Master working so hard to rebuild these schools. Thus she also started to plant vegetables.
People who did not know her asked, “Grandma, what does your son do? How could he let you come out before down to sell vegetables and then collect garbage?” She told them, “I am collecting blessings. If the young people could not understand, she spent time explaining it to them, “My son and daughter-in-law are very filial. I am doing this for society. First I’m collecting recyclables to protect the planet. We need to care for our future generations so they will be blessed. We should really protect our resources, so future generations can enjoy blessings and have material goods.”
“Second, I sell vegetables to fundraise for the 9/21 Project. Many schools were destroyed, and education is the hope of the future. Master Cheng Yen wants to build schools. She needs all our help, so that is why I sell vegetables every morning and join the recycling efforts every day.” The young people who listened to her speech felt ashamed, and even made a resolution, “Grandma, I will help you. Let me go to the nearby stores to collect recyclable and then give them to you.
You see, this takes perseverance. This type of perseverance comes from patience. She had to endure the cold, heat, wind, rain, and lack of sleep. She rested less so she could give more. She endured suffering and hard work. This is called exercising patience. Though she was very old, she had the endurance to take on a tremendous burden. When we all feel a sense of responsibility, we will contribute our efforts.
One time, her son told me, “In the beginning, I could not stand it. People mistakenly thought I was not filial to my mother, and when I told my mother that, she said, “‘Son, if you want to be filial then comply with my wishes. Compliance is true filial piety. This is my heart’s wish. This is what I want to do. If you let me be happy, then you are being filial.”’ He said, “I did not dare to go against her. But now that she has been doing this for over 10 years, everyone in the neighborhood knows the story. When they see me, they tell me, Dr. Xie, you are so blessed. Your mother is in such good health and she can still do so much for Tzu Chi. You know, everyone calls her a Bodhisattvas, so you are the son of a Bodhisattvas.”
He said, “Now, not only am I not bothered by her doing this, I actually feel very honored. I brag to everyone that my mother is a Tzu Chi Commissioner and she gets up before dawn to pick vegetables and then collects garbage for recycling.” He said, “I even vacated my parking spot so she use the space to collect and sort recycling. When I have time, I join my mother.”
Look at how this mother and son can be forgiving and understanding. That is indeed very amazing. We learn Buddhism to benefit the people. This requires perseverance and patience. Patience is one of the Paramitas. Living in such a comfortable environment and still going out to collect garbage for recycling is truly remarkable.
Every day, hearing the stories of these recycling volunteers is truly inspiring. Whenever I encounter difficulties, I watch the program on our recycling volunteers and all my afflictions are eliminated. Therefore, we all need to constantly take good care of our minds.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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