Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Cleanse the Mind; Eliminate Ignorance (守住善念會聚好緣)
Yesterday I said we cannot “conceal our flaws.” The Buddha does not want that. He wants us to purify our minds. Why else do we learn and practice Dharma? So we must maintain purity in our minds.
The next part in the Water Repentance states that “I, disciple so and so, and others, do not cover up our minds and do not hide our defilements. I have been talking about repentance for many days. We need to repent the past. Did we do something wrong? If we did, we must quickly raise our awareness, eliminate it and repent. So we need repent openly “I will no longer cover up my wrongs.”
“In the Three Obstructions, the first is affliction.”
We should know that eliminating the 3 Obstructions requires repentance. In the Three Obstructions, the first is the Obstruction of Affliction the second is the Obstruction of karma the third is the Obstruction of Retribution “These three are interrelated and sequential.”
Fellow practitioners, all mental obstructions belong in these categories. The first is affliction. In the past, I’ve continually said “vexations take countless forms.” But they all fall under three general categories: affliction, karma, and retribution. What is affliction? It is an ignorant thought. It is said that “An ignorant thought causes the 3 Subtleties. External conditions cause the 6 Coarse Marks.”
Once ignorance arises, our minds begin to produce the 3 Subtleties. The 3 Subtleties are greed, anger, and ignorance. Where does greed come from? When will our greed be satisfied? This is indeed very profound and mysterious. When greed arises in the minds of ordinary people, they cannot control it. Therefore, I often say that greed causes humans suffer, be afflicted, and create bad karma because “having one, we lack nine. Therefore we ordinary people cannot control our greed. Once we are greedy, we become insatiable. This is a subtle affliction it starts out very subtle and unnoticeable.
Anger or hatred causes one to lose one’s temper. If losing our tempers becomes a habit, whenever we hear something displeasing, irritation will arise in our hearts. Once such feelings arise, our tone of voice and demeanor will be negative. Whenever we speak, we will tend to be negative. We must recognize that losing our temper is damaging to our character. If we lose our temper easily, we damage our character with our negative manner and tone of voice.
We often hear conversations like this, “Who do you want me to talk to? You talk to him, don’t ask me to do it. Why not? I may be scolded before I even open my mouth.” People will be scared of someone like this and will avoid and dislike him or her. We absolutely should not lose our temper.
But is this easy to change? Not really. It is quite difficult. When such a person encounters a situation, his mind starts to move involuntarily. Before he says anything, his temper kicks in. Where does this come from? “I really do not know. I really want to change, but I don’t know why this happens.” How can he not understand his own temperament? So isn’t this a very subtle obstruction? It is the same with ignorance.
We clearly know the principles.
We should take good care of ourselves and not be negatively influenced by others. Yet when ignorant thoughts arise, our minds will be led by external conditions. One flawed thought leads to thousands of mistakes. The abundant deluded emotions in this world, passion, affection, enmity and hate, all arise from ignorance.
There was once a young woman and young man. When they were dating, her parents, relatives, and friends told her, “Stop dating him. He likes to drink and gamble. Don’t be with him.” But their passion and affection outweighed the shortcomings she heard of or saw. She looked past the flaws others told her about. She was confident, “If I just talk to him, I know he will change.” Armed with passion and affection and her deluded sense of confidence, she married him. Of course, his wayward ways got worse after the weeding. He came home drunk and beat her. When he lost at gambling, he asked her for money. He even threatened her with knives in both hands. Her days were filled with pain.
But what could she do? She had to continue living like this because they already had two children. After more than a decade of marriage, due to the type of life he led, the husband died from liver cancer. Everyone told her, “You’re free! Are you going to remarry soon?”
She replied: “I now know that marriage is very difficult. I just want to safeguard my two children.”
So she devoted herself to raising her children. But life is unpredictable. Her younger child was very will-behaved. But one day, this seemingly healthy child went to bed and never woke up again. The child died. What happened? What cause this? No one knew.
Was it an illness? It was unknown. Perhaps a heart attack caused the sudden death. How did she deal with this? She made peace with it. Fortunately, she still had another child. She dedicated herself to raising him. But not long afterwards, her remaining child suddenly suffered a stroke. He was only a teenager, but he suffered a stroke from high blood pressure.
See, a single thought of delusion brought her a life time of suffering. This child fell into a semi-vegetative state. Before she got married, others warned her that this man would drink, gamble, and sleep around. They told her not to marry him. But love made her blind, made her confident that she could change him. When people are blinded by passion, their judgment will go astray. This is called ignorance. When ignorance arises, our karma, influenced by external conditions, will lead us to a lifetime of suffering. This is greed, anger, and ignorance. It is beyond our control.
Afflictions are ignorant thoughts. They arise from greed, anger and ignorance. When greed arises, our desires are boundless. Having one, we lack nine and are discontent. When our anger rises and we express inharmonious attitudes, it damages our character and image. When ignorance arises, we are trapped in delusions. Entangled in passion, affection, enmity, and hate, we are unable to free ourselves.
The second obstruction is karma. Once ignorance starts to stir, our body, speech and mind will move accordingly. In the case of that woman, because of her ignorance, she made a wrong decision which she physically put into action. This resulted in the creation of karma. After that comes retribution. So the third obstruction is retribution.
When retributions manifest, if we do not confess but keep lying, if we attempt concealment, we create more afflictions and bad karma. Therefore, the 3 Obstructions are interrelated. Ignorance is the cause of our actions the effect is the retribution. After the initial cause and effect, we will create karma out of ignorance again. This cycle of entanglement continues. It is mutually dependent, mutually influenced, and mutually replicating. This is why, life after life, we cannot transcend these obstacles & afflictions.
In learning Buddhism, we must recognize that we cannot let ignorance arise. We must realize that ignorance is the source of afflictions. Ignorance is embodied in many subtle obstructions. The many obstructions are very subtle. So every day we give rise to the 6 Coarse Marks in our daily living. The 6 Coarse Marks arise when our 6 sense organs, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, make contact with the 6 sense objects, form, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought, in our surroundings. From this emerge 6 kinds of consciousness, those of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought. These consciousnesses make discernments in our daily encounters, resulting in our feelings and our actions. These three sets of six comprise the 18 Realms.
The Six Coarse Marks represent the three sets of six: what we encounter, what we feel, and what we create in our daily living. The Six Sense Organs, Six Conditions, and Six Consciousnesses comprise the 18 Realms.
Fellow practitioners, we can talk a lot more about these terms. But in summary, we create bad karma from ignorance and afflictions. As a result, we face our present conditions. So we must constantly be vigilant and self-reflect. These three are the biggest obstacles to our spiritual practice. Therefore, they are called the 3 Obstructions. These three kinds of subtle obstructions “influence one another”, so they are interdependent. “Afflictions are the source of all bad karma.” A lot of bad karma is created due to afflictions.
When ignorance arises, it stirs up afflictions. Our actions, speech, thoughts will then create bad causes that lead to bad effects. Affliction, karma, and retribution are entangled and cause each other to replicate cyclically, thus becoming obstacles to spiritual practice.
As we learn Buddhism let us increase our vigilance. Do not allow afflictions to grow and multiply in the mind to grow and multiply in the mind. Otherwise these afflictions will drag us into an endless downward spiral.
So it is said ordinary people are “long submerged.” They are always submerged in the 6 Realms. Even though Heaven is full of incomparable bliss, that blessed karma will be depleted one day. We see many people who lead fortunate lives, “born with a silver spoon in their mouths.” They enjoy the best of everything. Everyone is envious of them. However, life is impermanent. Some say wealth does not last beyond 3 generations. Too much wealth leads to self-indulgence and lack of motivation. These people simply enjoy themselves. Heavenly beings are just like this. They enjoy pleasure without witnessing suffering. They have no opportunity to be vigilant, so they submerge themselves in heavenly pleasures. However, once their blessings are exhausted, they too, will fall. Therefore, the Buddha does not advocate rebirth in Heaven but wants us to transcend it. What state will that be? The state of Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are born in the Human Realm because sentient beings are suffering here. Bodhisattvas are connected to the suffering beings.
The Human Realm is called the Saha world, one that is hard to endure. As we look around the world, we see so many people who are suffering. Every day, we hear stories that fill us with gratitude. I am thankful that so many Bodhisattvas are around. Everywhere, we can see Bodhisattvas transform and enlighten people. So, Buddha wanted us to transcend heaven. Let us create blessings but not be attached to the idea of enjoying them in the future.
We must develop Bodhicitta, make a Bodhi-vow. As we learn Buddha’s way, if we want to transcend these 3 Obstructions, we must develop Bodhicitta.
If we can develop Bodhicitta, make a Bodhi-vow, constantly purify our minds and eliminate ignorance and afflictions, we can transcend the Three obstructions of affliction, karma and retribution.
Therefore, let us all remember not to cover up our ignorance, afflictions, and wrongs. We must constantly cleanse our minds and constantly resolve to give. Therefore, in our daily living, let us always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水).
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