Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Look After Every Single Thought (顧好剎那間念頭)
As I said earlier, ordinary people face many obstacles. How many kinds of obstructions are there? We concealed our faults in the past, so now, there are many obstructions. They fall into 3 categories. Yesterday I talked about them, generally. The Three Obstructions are first, the Obstruction of Affliction, second, the Obstruction of Karma and third, the Obstruction of Retribution.
Yesterday I also told you that afflictions arise out of ignorance. So another name for ignorance is affliction. Afflictions can take so many different forms. Some say there are 84,000 types of afflictions. But there are so many more than that. This signifies that in one day, as many as 84,000 afflictions may spin endlessly within our minds. I often think about why the number 84,000 is used. Is it used to represent a very large number?
Then it came to my mind that I once said, “There are 60 minutes in an hour, 60 seconds in a minute. Then, if we carefully calculate the number of seconds in a 24-hour day, we get 86,400 seconds.” When ancient Sutras spoke of 84,000 afflictions, were they referring to having an afflicted thought arise in every second? I believe so, especially since afflictions arise very quickly. When we think about it this way, we must be very vigilant and take good care of our minds. As a lay or monastic practitioner, we must all know that a thought can easily turn into an affliction. When afflictions arise, we will create karma.
Once afflictions arise in our minds, we will take actions that create karma. When we take action, a seed of karma is planted. If we continually accumulate these seeds life after life, we fill face endless karmic retributions. When we plant and bury many seeds they will bear many karmic fruits in the future. Therefore, in our spiritual practice, we really must tend to every thought that arises. We must pay careful attention.
If we are not careful, a thought will become an affliction. Once afflictions arise, karma will manifest. Karmic causes, conditions and retributions continuously reproduce; life after life, it is very difficult to find liberation. So spiritual practice is about taking good care of every thought that arises.
So affliction, karma, and retribution are part of the cycle of karmic retribution. Therefore, these three “are interrelated and sequential.” When retribution manifests, we will create karma out of agitation. This is certain. For a person who does not engage in practice, once an affliction arises, he or she will immediately react to it. The resultant action then creates karma. This action is a result of accumulated afflictions and habits stored in our minds over many lifetimes. These factors are interrelated and sequential. We begin by creating karma due to affliction. Once the seeds of karma are planted and accumulated, when causes and conditions mature, karmic retributions will manifest. When karmic retributions manifest, we continue to take action. After we take action, we again have afflictions. Those afflictions will cause us to act again. Afterwards, there will again be retribution.
This is a continuous and endless cycle. So we are “long submerged in the sea of suffering”, or long submerged in the Evil Realms. We keep sinking deeper and deeper. It is hard to free ourselves. This is because these three obstructions, mutually influence and give rise to each other.
“Afflictions are the source of all bad karma.” The Water Repentance already clearly states that all bad karma arises because of afflictions. “Bad karmic causes & conditions will result in the fruitions of suffering.”
When causes and conditions converge, they repeatedly produce painful retributions. This continuous cycle is truly ceaseless and endless. This is the reason that we must all repent. Earlier I kept talking about the need to truly repent. If we do not repent, subtle afflictions will remain. When bad karmic causes and conditions converge, the bad seeds will reemerge and gather more karmic affinities. This is very frightening.
Therefore, “affliction is the cause of all bad karma.” Afflictions and karma are very scary. If we stray even a little in our practice, once we lose right thoughts, evil thoughts will take their place. This is truly frightening. Sometimes if we make a slight mistake, and our mindset is not completely straight, we will easily become obsessed. This is like being possessed, which is very dangerous.
In central Taiwan, there was a coupe who volunteered for Tzu Chi. Their daughter worked in northern Taiwan. One day she called home and told her mother: “Mom, there is a really great teacher here. He teaches a different way of healing which can change your physical makeup and cure your illnesses. Come let him have a look at you.”
Her mother was bit skeptical “I am in good health, why do I need healing?” She fervently tried to convince her parents to go. Her mother felt that she was being filial and was just showing her concern. Moreover, this group sounded so magical. Out of curiosity and appreciation for their daughter filial piety, the couple drove to northern Taiwan and actually joined this class. First they had to register. How did they do that? They paid a fee. How much was the fee? One session was several thousand NT dollars. The full series cost around $170,000NTD (US$6,000). They were surprised at the expense.
But after the first class, the teachings sounded reasonable. The father felt that since his daughter spoke so highly of it and his wife invited him to come, he had to believe it. When the couple sat down to listen, the wife began to feel, “Our Master says the same things. This is nothing extraordinary.” But the husband was very enchanted. So they attended the second session, then the third. As they became more immersed they were taught to fast, to meditate, and to change their ways of thinking. The husband slowly accepted the teachings and was led deeper into it. It was like entering a black hole.
At home, he started losing control of himself. He went from someone who was mild-mannered to someone who easily lost his temper. In the past, when someone made a mistake, he was very forgiving and laughed it off. Now when he lost his temper, he enumerated every wrong that others committed against him and berated them endlessly. The wife saw this and thought, “Something is wrong. How did he change into such a person?” He couldn’t even sleep at night. She wanted him to see a doctor for digestive problems but he said the teacher told him not to take medicine. Many abnormal and unusual problems kept surfacing. So his wife brought him to Hualien.
She felt they had to quickly seek my help. They came just as our morning assembly ended. It just so happened that our chief of internal medicine was present. As soon as the assembly was over, a Commissioner brought the couple before me. The wife knelt and said, “Master, please save your disciple.”
I asked, “What is the matter?”
The husband started to cry.
“What is it?”
She said, “Something is wrong with his psyche.”
When I heard this, I quickly called for others to stop Dr. Chen before he left. When the doctor came back, I told the husband, “Mr. Wu, please consult with Dr. Chen. Mrs. Wu, please come with me.” I then asked her, “What happened exactly?”
Then she told the story from the beginning. The couple spent so much money but as a result, the husband lost control of himself. The wife told me, “As I listened to the lectures, I kept thinking that this is impossible, that my Master had taught me differently.” They were attempting to lead her mind astray. But because her thinking remained very upright, she did not think much of the class. She only thought, “How is this possible? This is impossible. Our Master has already explained these types of things.” But her husband believed all of it, so his mind was led astray.
After Dr, Chen finished speaking with him and returned to the hospital, I invited the husband to come in. He then told me, “Master, my mind feels much clearer now.”
I asked, “Why do you feel clearer?”
He said, “I don’t know, I feel as though a weight has been lifted.”
“What happened to you?”
He told me everything on his mind. He stayed her for three days. We advised him to go to the hospital again. Dr, Chen told him this is an acute issue, but if he turns around in time he will be fine. When he went to the hospital, the psychiatrist also told him, “You don’t need medication. Just stay at the Abode for the next few days. If you can guide your spirit back, straighten your thoughts and sleep well, then you don’t have to come and see me. Try doing this without medication.” So he came and worked in our vegetable garden. As he worked with others, he was very happy and let go of his problems. His mind was occupied by this work, so he gradually forgot his problems and returned to a normal way of living. He slept well and felt at ease. He was no longer anxious, so his mind gradually calmed down.
Then I told him, “Since you saw other Tzu Chi people in that class, I am worried about them. Can you share your story with others? And please quickly tell your daughter not to send people there anymore.” When his daughter received this call, she was very disturbed. The husband began speaking about his experiences at our Taichung office. In the audience was a woman, also a Commissioner. She said, “After hearing what you said, I don’t know what to do.”
He asked, “Why?”
She said, “It’s terrible. My husband and my daughter are in that class. They have also changed. They are so absorbed by that place. They spent so much time there. They have even neglected their jobs. Now that you have warned us, what should I do?” She quickly asked him, “How did you turn back?” He said, “Now whenever I recall any of it, I quickly think of my Master. My wife told me that while she was listening to their lectures, she recalled Master Cheng Yen’s words, so she was not swayed by them. I am embarrassed that this happened to me. So now I always keep her teachings in mind.”
Fellow practitioners, indeed, a bit of curiosity, a slight deviation, can really lead us to the point of no return. Sometimes if we really lose ourselves and start heading in the wrong direction, I think not even psychiatrists can do anything. Therefore, the psychiatrist also told him, “You’re only at the beginning stages, so you must quickly turn back. As long as you turn back, you will be fine.” That means he had to guide himself back. In learning Buddhism, we can’t have deviant thoughts, we must have Right Views and Knowledge. Please do not think that, in this society, there are folk rituals that can dispel misfortunes. How is that possible?
As we often read in the Sutras, afflictions and karma will naturally lead to retribution. This is a Law of Nature. No one can escape it. We need to have self-respect, take good care of our hearts, and fulfill our fundamental responsibilities. Since we created the cause and the karma, we must willingly accept the karmic retribution.
This is called eliminating karma.
In learning Buddhism, we must have Right Knowledge and Right Views. The Law of Cause and Effect is a Law of Nature. We created the causes in the past. If we accept the effects willingly, we can eliminate karma.
Everyone, it is best not to create a cause. When a cause arises, we must quickly eliminate it, so that we will not create karma. Without karma, there is no retribution. When things do not go our way, do not try to seek risky alternatives. Let us keep our minds firm and pointed in the right direction. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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