ecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Dharma Nectar Ends Suffering (甘願滅苦)
You were sitting down quietly, and at the sound of the bell, you opened your eyes. What did you see before you? What objects? What images? The very moment our eyes open, an image is instantly imprinted in our minds. This is perception.
The image in our minds is the image from the Six Sense Objects. The Six Sense Objects associate with the Six Sense Organs and Six Perceptions. When they connect, improprieties easily arise. If there were interpersonal conflicts yesterday, the sense organs and objects connected and imprinted our minds. Have our minds formed bad impressions of that person? These negative impressions are a mental picture of that person acting against our wishes. In our work, we may have conflicts that leave imprints in our minds.
Our minds will still make connections with them, connecting with the past. Then the disagreeable connections will take root in our minds, becoming negativities.
If we let the past stay in our minds, this is a lingering problem. It hurts our root of goodness.
If we allow things that happened in the past to linger in our minds, they will become ongoing problems that will harm our root of goodness.
Confucius said, “Don’t transfer anger or make the same mistake.” As human beings, once we choose what we should do, we should not let anyone affect our emotions. If we had conflicts with a person in the past, we are already at fault. If we let this person affect our mental states so much that we forsake our determination and motivation, this is called transferring anger.
Because of this person, our determination and motivation is all gone. It impairs our root of goodness. It also hurts out Wisdom-life. This will lead to continuous growth of delusional thoughts. Perception arises from connections with the Six Sense Objects. They are sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and dharma 【thoughts】. When they combine, they give rise to perception. It is because our minds have imprints of past happenings. There stay in our minds. That is why delusional thoughts perpetuate, leading to distorted views. So in learning Buddhism, we need to be careful. If our thoughts arise within the three afflictions of view, thinking and delusions, it will lead us to be confused.
Three Distortions: Distorted Thinking, Distorted View, Distorted Mind.
Fist is Distorted Thinking. It makes our thinking inverted and erroneous. When this happens, delusional thoughts will arise ceaselessly.
Second is Distorted View. If our view is distorted, then deviant views will constantly arise. We often hear people say, “I am motivated and devoted to my faith, so why aren’t my wishes readily gratified?” Someone may tell them, “Come, I’ll introduce you to another faith.” They will go with him immediately, even if it is a deviant path. There are many such examples in society. Many fail to correctly understand cause and effect. So when adverse circumstances occur, their distorted understanding causes them to easily succumb to false views. “False” means to go astray. A broad and straight road should be easy to travel. Now it has become tortuous. When thought, view and understanding are perverted it is Distorted View.
Next is Distorted Mind. What kind of mind is it?
A mind of false thoughts. The image imprinted in our minds causes our perceptions to be distorted. The view is distorted, giving rise to a delusional mind, which keeps producing false and wrongful thoughts. With false views, what we see and perceive is all in error. Everything in front of us will be distorted.
What is our true nature? Our nature is originally pure and untainted. So we should choose correctly and quickly. Good conditions are hard to come by; we must seize them when we can. When we know the right thing to do, we should never give it up. Whatever conditions or circumstances appear before us, we should not be affected. This is determination.
If we come across good conditions and teachings, and our minds are not resolute or clear, good conditions and good roots will disappear. Merits or good karma will also slip away easily.
With strength of will, one will not be influenced by external conditions. When encountering good conditions, one with strong will and proper views will know to cherish and seize the opportunity. Otherwise, one will lose the opportunity for good connections.
When the Buddha was enlightened, the first people He wanted to teach were His followers, the five ascetic practitioners. At first they were sent by the king to persuade the prince to return. Then they realized the impermanence of life and the importance of spiritual practice. So these five individuals followed the prince in his practice, until they saw Him accept goat milk from a young shepherdess. They perceived the image of the prince forsaking his spiritual pursuit. So the five men abandoned the prince and left. After their departure, the prince strengthened His resolve. He meditated earnestly on the world, the universe, physics, life and the mind. Then, after several weeks, He was enlightened. He completely understood the working of all things. Then He contemplated again. He wanted to teach the world His realization, so that deluded people could awaken.
So He had to return to the world. Who should He teach first? It should be His five former follows. Thus, He left the place of His enlightenment. On the way he met a person, a very young practitioner who was seeking a good teacher. His name was Yohu. When Yohu saw Buddha’s bright, magnificent eyes, he could not help but become reverent. He greeted the Buddha with respect and asked, “Where do you come from? Are you a practitioner as well?” The enlightened Buddha saw this young man and was also very delighted.
Upon being asked whether He was also a practitioner, He answered, “Yes, I am also a practitioner. Who is your teacher? What did you practice to make you look so magnificent and dignified? Upon seeing you, I feel clear and lucid. To have such dignified appearance, what exactly did you practice?”
The Buddha answered, “I attained the Eight Right Enlightenments. Not departing from them, not becoming defiled. In practice you have to understand one thing, which is to know what is right. There are eight kinds of right.
“Having attained the right path, one must not depart from the Noble Eightfold Path.”
“In daily life, in my thinking, view and understanding, I’ll never depart from the Noble Eightfold Path. Never will I be defiled by wrong thinking.”
“Desires break as love ends; one naturally learns without a teacher. I don’t have a teacher. I have extinguished all desire, and ended all mundane love. I have transcended all sensual desires. The net of cravings has been torn. I have attained realization. No teacher taught me that I didn’t learn it from others. I am very at ease. In nature, in the midst of all beings, I have attained wisdom. I travel without a teacher, no one shares my vision. Now I am alone, without a teacher. There’s no teacher telling me where to go or promising me anything. No, my aspirations still cannot materialize. I have resolved to share my experience with others, but I haven’t done that yet. Right now no one shares my vision. I haven’t spoken anything to anyone yet. I am still alone, without authority. Accumulating merits to attain Buddhahood paves the sagely path. When enlightened thoughts arise, if one can maintain them continuously, these enlightened thoughts will accumulate, and we will be on the Eightfold Noble Path. Once we accumulate Right Mindfulness, Thought, View, Understanding, Speech, Action, etc., once all these are right, then it is a wide straight road to Buddhahood, the road to sainthood."
After hearing these words. Yo-Hu was very joyous, yet he still could not understand it was as if his mind was covered by a net, and he could not see clearly, "Where are you going now?"
The Buddha said to him "I am going to Varanasi, to sound the Dharma Drum and turn the unsurpassed Dharma Wheel."
The Buddha told the young man. He was headed to promote the Dharma, to awaken people with delusional states of mind, thus turning the unsurpassed Dharma Wheel.
Yet this young man, this brahmacarin, after listening, only said, "That's really great."
He then bowed to the Buddha and left. Such a pity! Having met the Buddha, heard the Buddha's teachings, and been told that the Buddha was going to teach in Varanasi, he still left to go on his own way. That same night, the Buddha heard that this brahmacarin passed away before dawn.
So the Buddha said, "The ignorant say life is permanent. Having met Buddha, he still left to die alone."
When the Buddha heard the news of his death He lamented that worldly men are ignorant and think that life is long, unaware that it is impermanent. Having seen the Buddha, and heard the Enlightened One speak to him, he still chose to go away, then died at night, without having found a teacher.
‘The Dharma Drum sounded, yet one could not hear.’ The words were spoken right in front of him, like the sound of the Dharma Drum, yet he could not understand. He alone did not hear. ‘Nectar rids suffering, yet one does not taste it.’ The Dharma nectar could remove suffering yet he could not taste it. "Cycling in the Five Realms, life and death continues for a long time."
In the Five Realms, the cycle of life and death continues for a long time. Life to death, then death to life again, reincarnating in the Five Realms is indeed painful. "After all these eons when will deliverance come?" He lived in the time of the Buddha, and heard the Dharma from the Buddha, yet he could not receive the Dharma nectar.
The Buddha was right in front of him and had sounded the Dharma Drum, yet he could not hear. It was just a mindset, clinging to what is far away, and abandoning the teacher right before him. This is one's view. When view and understanding are not clear, allowing delusions to arise, then good opportunities are missed.
Therefore, in learning Buddhism, we must always remind ourselves that good and evil are all in our view. If our thinking is distorted, we make mistakes. We will have delusions and false thoughts. If the view is distorted, there will be perverted understanding. If our mind is distorted and deluded, it will continue to create false thoughts.
Naturally, we will walk a deviant way, and not be able to practice diligently on the proper path.
As such, everything we do will be wrong. One cannot help but feel pity. The Buddha mourned for Yo-Hu. We also feel pity for him. He let such a rare opportunity slip away. It really is pitiable. So in our daily life, what should we hold onto eternally? We must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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