Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Always Benefit and Bring Joy to Others (樂利人群於永恆)
These past few days, I have been sharing with you and reminding you that we must do good, not evil. Doing good begets lasting blessings. This is an unchanging truth that has been passed down throughout the ages. The Buddha also personally taught this. So, this is an ageless and unchanging truth. Everyone must believe this; do not doubt it.
We do good and create blessings for the world to be harmonious and to benefit and bring joy to others. We should be willing to make this resolve. On the path of spiritual practice we must guide people to goodness and truth. The construction of Chinese characters is beautiful and very logical. The character for “proper” written under the character for “path” creates the word “guidance”. So not only must we walk the path of cultivation, we must do so by knowing what is proper. We must guide people toward a good path. As we guide them toward goodness, we cannot deviate from the truth. This is our responsibility.
Right now it seems like society has reverted to being unenlightened, chaotic and ignorant of the truth. If right and wrong are indistinguishable, society will be disorderly. We must be very clear, must have a pure and tranquil mind, to guide everyone onto a truly correct path. So, we must remember to have propriety in our practice and guide people toward goodness and truth. So, we have to be mindful.
When our hearts remain pure and tranquil and clearly discern the principles, then we can guide people toward goodness and truth. Then there will be peace in the world.
First, let me tell a story. In mainland China there was a small and simple temple. There was an old master and a young monk. One day the old master brought the young monk to collect alms in the city. People in the town really respected the old master, so they gave him a lot of food and cash. Upon their trip home, they saw an old woman. She seemed very hungry and weak, laying on the side of the road. The old master told the young monk, “Come, let us leave her some provisions and give her some cash so she can recover her strength and return home safely.”
The young monk was very reluctant, but he did not dare disobey his master. So he unwillingly followed the instructions and left some food and money for her. In his mind he thought about how difficult it was to collect alms. He had hoped to return to the temple and thoroughly renovate it so that it could be grand and splendid. These were his thoughts.
The master led this young monk on, but when he turned around, he saw that the young monk was not very happy. So he asked, “Why are you so unhappy? Shouldn’t you be glad you did a good thing?”
The young monk replied, “Yes, it I s nice to do good deeds. I want to do them, and in the future I will do them. But I want to wait until our temple is fixed up. I will do it with what we have left. Right now I want to focus on helping you finish rebuilding the temple.”
When the old master heard this he sighed and continued walking.
After a few years, the temple was still unfinished. The old master had already passed away. Now the responsibility of building the temple rested on this young man, who had grown into adulthood. He also drafted plans for fundraising, etc. Construction finally began. As the main hall was built, he felt they had enough land for other facilities. So, they built dormitories. After the dorms were completed, he felt that the mountain was so big, they needed to build an entire compound. He modeled it on other institutions. Then he thought about how the monks would need food, so he bought all the surrounding farmland.
He lived out his days this way. The young monk spent an entire lifetime on collecting alms and building temples. The scale of the construction was tremendous. It was as grand and splendid as he wished. There was also a lot of farmland, as far as the eye could see.
As he entered old age, he remembered a Sutra his master gave him before he died. As he accepted it, his master watched him and pointed to it. His mouth moved, but no sounds came out. He could not say the words in time. So, he moved his mouth without making a sound. Then he passed away. Now this young man was already old and his body had weakened. The temple was large but few people came. He suddenly remembered this Sutra, so he quickly took it out. He opened this Sutra to the first page. His master had inscribed, “Helping someone once is greater than reciting Sutras for ten years”
You see, helping people once is better than reciting Sutra for 10 years. When he was young, this monk did not immediately act on the words his master told him. Now he was old and although the temple was big, there were very few people there He felt regretful and repentant. If he had listened to his master in time, who knows how much good he could have done. Why had he spent these last decades on chanting and fundraising to build the temple?
Therefore, though he had the good karma to become a monk and understood many truths by reciting Sutras, and did not put them into practice. He just built temples and bought farmland. This is wrong. Doing good once brings the same merit as reciting Sutras for 10 years. So, we say we must be timely with our good deeds. We must seize the moment and just do it.
The next section is also explaining this to us. It says, “Those we see doing good in this world are praised and respected, and will definitely reap rewards in the future.”
Although many disagreeable things happen to good individuals, the people around them will feel for them, “That person is so good, why did this happen?” So, the people around them become their benefactors. The people around them have sympathy and praise for them. What does it mean to be blessed? To be trusted, affirmed and recognized. Then these people are good and blessed. In everything we do, if we cannot bring people to affirm and support us, it does not matter how high our status is, how famous we are, or how much money we have, it will be useless.
A blessed life is not just about being wealthy or having a lot of money. Some people are kind-hearted, and do no evil deeds, yet they still suffer many misfortunes. But if they can endure, their bad karma will be exhausted. In addition, people will wish them well, because they are always giving. They will slowly accumulate great blessings. So, we know these people will “definitely reap rewards in the future.” Their future will be great, even if we do not see it in this lifetime. Perhaps they cannot yet enjoy those rewards in this life. But we affirm them and trust that blessed rewards are in their future.
If they do evil, they will be rejected and renounced. People will not believe in them and will caution others about getting involved with those people. They are untrustworthy and will “definitely reap bad retributions in the future.”
So the text says, “Since we all have bad karma from our past, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas taught us to be close to good spiritual friends so we may all repent together.”
The Buddha knew that everyone has created bad karma in the past. This is why He worked so hard and repeatedly returned to the Human Realm. He came to transform sentient beings and lead them from this afflictive river of life and death, away from 1000-foot waves in the river of love, which can easily drag us under and drown us. The Buddha repeatedly sailed the ship of compassion back to the Human Realm to rescue all beings from the Sea of Suffering, with its waves of afflictions. The Buddha knew that everyone created karma, so He repeatedly came to guide sentient beings.
Therefore, the text says, “Since we all have bad karma from the past.” Since all sentient beings have this bad karma, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas came to this world and earnestly guided us. With great love and patient, they gradually “taught us to be close to good friends.” They taught us to become close to good people. Do not make bad friends. The benefactors in our lives are good people who guide us to do good things. This is the compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They taught us how to choose teachers and friends. They hope we can all repent our past together. Since we are in this Saha-world, we all have karma; if we did not we would not be here. Collective karma brings us to the same time and place. Because we share Circumstantial Retributions, we are born into the same era and collectively experience the riches and poverty, favorable weather or extreme temperatures, etc., of this era. Those are Circumstantial Retributions. Our circumstances are the present era.
So, we must repent together. We are born on this land and though there is suffering, there is also a lot of happiness. Therefore, we must recognize our blessings. Look at the world. So many suffer and live in poverty. How many are now facing starvation? We must alert everyone. We must “be close to good spiritual friends” and also become the teachers and good friends to others without being asked. We guide each other toward goodness and truth. As we walk on this good path, we must be industrious and diligent. Even if bad karma had manifested, we must repent and happily accept it.
We must become repentant. We would not meet if we had no affinity. There are both good and bad affinities. If we encounter bad affinities, we should happily accept them. We must sincerely repent.
If we can do so, they will vanish and goodness will arise. So, we should truly come together to mindfully do good deeds and bring lasting blessing. This is an unchanging truth. To bring harmony to the world, we must always benefit and bring joy to others. We should be proper in our path of spiritual practice. We must guide people to goodness and truth. We should know that this is our mission. Please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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