Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Six Doubts (Part 2) (六疑二)
Faith is the source of the Way, mother of merits, it nurtures all roots of goodness. Faith is important. If there is no trust between people, nothing can be accomplished, especially developing our Wisdom-life. Selecting a Dharma-path is very important. Regardless of which religion, you must choose wisely. Once you have chosen and believe it, let go of any doubts.
Besides world-transcending Dharma, this principle also applies to worldly Dharma. Worldly Dharma is interaction between people. If there is doubt instead of trust between them, it is difficult to get along. Doubt is affliction. Many of our afflictions arise from doubt.
Yesterday we mentioned that with a deluded mind we go against the Truth. Thus, we are hesitant toward proper Dharma, and cannot decide or develop deep faith. This is called the Bond of Doubt. We have often said that the Eightfold Noble Path, within the 37 Practices to Enlightenment, is the most important practice in Buddhism. We cannot have doubts. As long as it is righteous Dharma, we must accept it with faith, and practice accordingly.
The verses state, “One is always doubtful toward worldly Dharma and more doubtful toward world-transcending Dharma.” In the mundane world, we are already distrustful toward everything. In a family, there is mistrust toward parents, toward siblings, toward relatives, and toward friends. When there is doubt within a family, there is chaos and discord. How can there be a family when the members distrust each other? Within a neighborhood, community, society or country, if doubts exist, there are disputes and social chaos. We see this in the daily news. We feel doubt and confusion about the mundane world, and more so about Dharma. So we must remember that if we have doubt, we “take false to be true.”
Doubt is false. When things seem insubstantial, doubts arise. Untrue matters are confused with true ones. “True” refers to true doctrines, our True Nature. Afflictions of falsehood confused our true innate nature. Erroneous matters muddled true principles. So we “take false to be true, take evil to be righteous, and invert right and wrong.” We should understand that these cause us to commit many wrongdoings.
One is doubtful toward worldly Dharma, and even more doubtful toward world-transcending Dharma. Thus, we take false to be true, take evil to be righteous, and invert right and wrong.
We have spent a long time discussing principles in groups of six. The many concepts include the “Six Roots may cause all wrongdoings, Six Consciousnesses may cause all wrongdoings, Six Thoughts may cause all wrongdoings, Six Perceptions may cause all wrongdoings, Six Volitions may cause all wrongdoings, Six Cravings may cause all wrongdoings, and Six Doubts may cause all wrongdoings.”
We commit these offenses unintentionally. Such carelessness is created from small afflictions that accumulate. We have spent a long time discussing these labels and names, which arise from a deluded thought, developing into the Three Subtleties. This creates many conditions, giving rise to the Six Coarse Marks.
The Six Coarse Marks: When facing the conditions that appear, six deluded states arise in the minds of living beings: Seeming Wisdom, Deluded Continuity, Attachment, Assigning Names, Consequent Activity, Suffering from Karma.
The Six Coarse Marks are six types of heavy affliction. How many groups of six are there? Many. We only point out the ones that are closely connected with our actions in our normal daily lives. So we are only sharing a few as examples of people’s mindsets. Since when did so many afflictions start to accumulate? Since Beginningless Time. We do not know when our thoughts of ignorance arose. This caused the six coarse afflictions to arise repeatedly, life after life. We take nothing with us except karma. The force of karma carries us into one life after another. In the process, we accumulate more karma. So in natural order, when living beings create and accrue more karma, it leads to collective karma. This cause the Four Elements to become imbalanced.
The devastating disasters occur because of the collective karma of living beings. We are presently in the Era of Decay that the Buddha spoke of. After a long period of accumulation, the Earth is in a phase of gradual destruction. Thus, it is called the Era of Decay. This era is the cumulative result of events over a long period of time. Similarly, after numerous incarnations, we have continued to accumulate much resentment and hatred toward others. Who knows how many lifetimes we have been accumulating these things? In the news these days, we see young people being assaulted or killed just for looking at someone. Isn’t this the force of karma? When karma manifests, no one can escape.
Among the disciples of Sakyamuni Buddha was. Maudgalyayana, foremost in spiritual powers. In a past life, he had created karma by killing. In one of his lives, he had been a fisherman. Every net he cast collected numerous lives. These beings once lived freely and harmoniously in the water, but the net entangled them and caused them to struggle, suffer, and die. That karma of killing had been created countless lives before. He kept receiving retributions life after life. The final retribution was received during the Buddha’s time. He knew that this time, he would not return from his trip, so he bid farewell to the Buddha. The Buddha sent Maudgalyayana off with a kind gaze. As he was leaving, others with spiritual powers also knew that if he left, he would not return. So they asked the Buddha about this.
He sighed and said, “Karma is like Mount Sumeru, it can’t be altered.”
His disciples asked, “Even with the powers of Buddha, it can’t be changed?”
The Buddha said, “There are things that even I can’t do. I can’t change the karma of living beings. All beings inevitably receive their own karma. I can only open a path for them. They must accept their karma, but the degree of retribution will lessen. Or they can resolve karma of many lives in one. Maudgalyayana is receiving and exhausting all the retributions of various lives in this life.” As Maudgalyayana walked on, he reached the foot of a hill and meditated there. When a group of heretics saw him, they pushed a rock from the mountaintop and crushed him. His body was smashed to pieces. So all in all, karma is accumulated continuously through many lifetimes.
That is why I often say, do not do whatever you please. Everything we do must have a reason. If one clearly knows something is wrong but does it anyway, one must readily accept the consequent suffering. If one is unwilling, the suffering increases. They cycle of hatred and retaliation never ends. What can we do?
When we practice Buddhism, we must pay attention to details. The thought of ignorance is very subtle. It develops into the Three Subtleties. The Subtleties are: greed, anger and ignorance. They are very subtle. You cannot see or touch them.
They are within our minds, perceptions and habits, and connect the Six Roots to the Six Sense Objects.
This gives rise to the Six Consciousnesses, which connect to and differentiate external states. With differentiation, even after the external state passes, one’s mind still lingers on it. Even though the condition has passed, it stays in the mind. Moreover, the Six Perceptions continue to stir up emotions. Mental afflictions and external perceptions cause us to create much karma. These things all give rise to karma.
As for the Six Practices, we have spent a long time discussing the fifty plus names and forms. I have explained that they are the proper path of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. But the slightest deviation can turn them into the Six Heretical Practices. If you follow such practices, though you may endure much hardship, it is not proper cultivation. After physical and spiritual suffering in this life, you remain in evil paths in future lives.
Thus, it leads to all wrongdoings. The Six Cravings and Six Doubts originate from the Six Roots and Six Objects. In the past few days we have discussed how “immeasurable and boundless afflictions disturb and confuse beings in the Six Realms.”
Everyone, we have discussed the concepts in groups of six. Aside from the Six Practices of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, if we deviate toward the Six Heretical practices, there will be afflictions. These innumerable and boundless afflictions cause disturbance and confusion not only for humans, but for all Six Realms. Heaven, Human, Hell, Hungry Ghost, Animal and Asura make up the Six Realms. Due to a thought of ignorance and affliction, there is confusion in the Six Realms.
So “Today, I and all sentient beings feel remorse and repent.” We must repent and confess. Everyone, we have mentioned so many names and forms that we encounter in our daily lives. Have we committed these wrongdoings? Absolutely. So we must be ashamed of our actions and remorseful to others. We should feel ashamed of not grasping all the Dharma we have heard and not abiding by the rules we have learned. Others people have diligently advanced, achieving ten realizations upon hearing one teaching. Why can’t we comprehend even one aspect after hearing ten teachings? Not only do we not understand, we believe that we know a lot. Do we have greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt in our daily lives? If so, we must confess immediately. Confessing is repentance.
So Dharma is like cleansing water. If we can repent, Dharma will cleanse our minds. If we can transform upon hearing the Dharma, we are cleansing ourselves with Dharma-water. Dharma-water allows us to repent. Just like repentance. Dharma is as cleaning water. We must not continue the same wrongdoings. If our ego is too strong, it is difficult repent.
Everyone, may all of you cherish your blessings. With blessings, we should be mindful in respecting ourselves, loving others and creating more blessings. Cultivate both blessings and wisdom. One should not just create blessings without wisdom. We must repent thoroughly so our true, innate nature will shine. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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