Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Patient Leads To Peace (默忍為安)
These past few days, I have been talking about karmic cause and effect.
The text of the Water Repentance is constantly alerting us. It reminds us to always look after the seeds we sow and the affinities we create in our spiritual practice so that we do not face effects and retributions outside our control.
Every day, we must live in unity and harmony, love one another and work together with other people. Be grateful and patient in order to find peace. In any organization, some people will inevitably still have bad habits. If they do not correct their habits, that is their own business.
We often say, “If one practices, one attains. No one can practice on behalf of another person. If we do not practice, we never attain.” So we must be self-vigilant. It is best if everyone in the group is practicing together. Then it is a spiritual practice group.
But some people still have bad habits. They accumulated bad habits in past lives; so even if they vow to practice now, they still have remnants of those habits. When they are in a group, their thoughts are always in contrary to the rest of the people. They often spark disputes. So in our monastic community, a very important rule is the Six Points of Unity, which we must practice so that we can help one another succeed in our practice and have respect for each other.
Six Points of Unity: live together harmoniously, speak without discord, feel mutual joy, practice the same precepts, share views and insights, share benefits equally.
I often tell Tzu Chi volunteers to be grateful, respectful and loving. These simple words remind us to practice the Six Points of Unity when working together, in our actions, speech, thoughts, and so on. We should be grateful to others. Just be grateful. Whether you are talking to others or doing something with them, remain grateful. Then you can always be calm.
Next, if we respect others, they will respect us too. We must be understanding and loving toward them. Then we will have unity. A group existing in unity and harmony makes such a beautiful organization.
I often say, “I am grateful! Tzu Chi volunteers are living Bodhisattvas! Everyone shares the same purpose and is united and harmonious. Many people see us and ask, “Where is this group from? They are so beautiful!” Joy naturally arises in them. This unity and harmony are also ways to help transform not only others, but ourselves. We train our minds to be in harmony with others. Even if they do not treat us the same way, that is their business. We still try our best to be congenial to them. If we created bad affinities in a past life, we should treat others harmoniously now so that we can resolve the past negative affinities through our spiritual practice in this lifetime.
Unity and harmony are ways to help transform not only others, but also ourselves. The bad seeds and negative affinities we created can be resolved now with earnest practice.
So after eliminating bad seeds and affinities, we can create good ones. This is the most important part of practice. Give love and create blessings, and you will naturally love others and work together. Others will give us the strength we need. Working with people is an essential part of the Jing Si Dharma-lineage and Tzu Chi School. We must treat others with a Buddha’s heart and apply the Dharma when working together to maintain the state of Samadhi. Isn’t this what I keep telling everyone? I use simple terms that everyone can easily understand. So what should we do if we still cannot be harmonious? Be grateful and patient in order to find peace.
Do you still remember? When the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, the Venerable Ananda asked Him, “Buddha, even while you are hare, there are undisciplined monks in our Sangha. Once you are gone, what can we do about them?”
The Buddha told him, “Let them be. If you try to lead them and fail, just let them be.”
This means to not pay attention to them, and ignore them. Let them be, let them go. Here we talk about patience. We should endure. Do not renounce and abandon others. If we have patience, we will have peace. So be patient in order to find peace. I am not asking you to be patient, but also to have a heart of gratitude. Regardless of ability, everyone’s contribution is significant.
In summary, this is a training ground for our practice. The Tzu Chi School is a training ground and Jing Si Dharma- lineage is a practice center. We must be mindful and know that “not upholding the rules creates bad seeds. This is true. If we do not follow the rules, then our minds will foster very bad habits. With these bad seeds, a lack of empathy will attract bad affinities. If other people have bad habits, they need our empathy. But if we argue with them, we strengthen and worsen those bad affinities. In the future, we will be ensnared by them. Bad habits nurture anger and hatred. These habitual tendencies will be deposited into our Eighth Consciousness. We will be prone to losing our tempers, resent others’ success, and criticize others’ practice as fake. We will not be understanding, and our perception of others will become skewed.
These are our habitual tendencies. They are stored in our Eighth Consciousness and we carry them to our next life. It is taxing. We cannot keep accumulating more bad habits. Bad habits and hateful thoughts bring retributions and disruption of harmony. Disrupting harmony means going against it. If we violate the rules of our path, our Dharma, then we are not following our disciplinary system. “Organize with precepts, manage with love.” If we violate this, then we disrupt the harmony of the group. Someone who has nothing to do with a matter might feel that one of the parties is being taken advantage of, and say that the other side is being unreasonable. Creating disputes and disrupting harmony like this is very bad karma. We must be very careful not to disrupt harmony.
Even if we are not rejected by others for creating this bad karma in this lifetime, it might happen in the next life. Maybe in future lifetimes we will attract bad parents, bad children, bad friends, and so on, for many lifetimes. So do not have thoughts of disrupting harmony, or the retributions will be endless.
Not upholding the rules create bad causes. A lack of empathy attracts bad conditions. Bad habits of harboring anger yield bad effects. Disruption of harmony leads to bad retributions. Be united and harmonious, and help one another. Be grateful and patient to find peace.
We must pay attention to the first section. The second part is what we must practice. If we can be united and harmonious, and help each other in our daily living, then we are engaging in spiritual practice. Be grateful and patient in order to find peace. Endurance is a skill. Spiritual practice is a means of training. This is a place for us to cultivate patience. So, we must always be mindful, because this relates to karmic retribution in the last couple of days, we talked about the karmic law of cause and effect.
The Water Repentance says, “If those who do evil enjoy good things now, they are experiencing a reward from a previous lifetime, a fruition of a Future-life Retribution. That is why they experience good things now.”
This passage is simple. We should understand it. I have been talking about karmic cause and effect. Some people say, “If people are punished for bad deeds, why is this person treated so well even though he has done bad things his entire life? Why is his business so successful? Why is he so smug? He is not a good person at all.”
What we see now is not a good person. He is proud of himself. But we need to know that he is smug and successful because he was a good person in the past. Somehow he once created very great blessings, and perhaps created a lot of good affinities. “If he had created good affinities with others and created blessings in the past, then why is he such a bad person now?” Because he never eliminated his bad habits.
I often talk about the Eighth Consciousness in our minds. The mind is like a field. There are all kinds of seeds in this field. If we work hard to plant these seeds, then they will naturally yield fruits. Plant melons, get melons; plant beans, get beans; plant wheat, get wheat. But if we leave the land alone after harvesting the wheat, and no longer cultivate it, then we will not get more wheat, we will get weeds.
So if we see a person who does bad things yet lives a good life, we can think about how in the past he must have cultivated his field and sowed those seeds that are now his harvest. But we also should know that there are weeds hidden in the field. Because he is not sowing blessed seeds now, we know that there will be lots of weeds after this harvest.
Next season, which is his next life, all those weeds will grow. When we see him enjoying blessings, “it is the reward from a previous lifetime.” Right now he is enjoying rewards from a previous life. His “Future-life Retributions” of good karma are now coming into fruition. He has not yet exhausted his blessings, so when we look at him now, he is still harvesting them. This is the reward from a past life. That is why is “experiencing good things now.” In our spiritual practice, we have to remember that [good and bad] karmic retributions are distinct.
There is a story about 50cents that took place in mainland China. There was a family where the young parents worked outside of town, and left their child to be raised by grandparents. But this child was always sick. He seemed to be incurably ill. When the child was on the verge of death, his grandmother had a dream. She dreamed about a donkey pulling a cart. The cart was so full that it was almost bursting. The donkey was gasping for air. The grandmother walked in front of it, and it seemed to turn around to say, “You still owe me 50 cents.”
Then she woke up. She saw that her grandson was on the verge of death. But he told her, “Grandma, give me a small mirror.”
She thought, “Alright. He may die soon, I’ll buy it quickly.
When she left the house, her neighbor asked, “What are you doing?”
“I want to bur a small mirror.”
He said, “Take care of him, I’ll buy it for you.” He returned and they placed the mirror in the child’s hand. He smiled as he died. The grandma saw that the grandson had passed away and the grandfather cried miserably.
Then she wondered, “What was that dream I had?” So she asked the man who bought the mirror, “How much was this mirror?”
He said, “50 cents.”
“So that was it. Without the 50 cents, he wouldn’t leave. I already spent my entire fortune on this donkey’s cart, but he wouldn’t leave, when he was short 50 cents.”
Everyone, every little bit of our karmic debts must be collected. So it is better to have good seeds and affinities. Please work in unity and harmony, and practice with the thought of helping each other. Please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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