Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Witness Suffering to Recognize Blessings (見苦知福)
Illness leading to poverty and worries is the most painful thing in life. When we see suffering, we must constantly recognize our blessings. When we see sick people, we should immediately be grateful for our own health. Those of us who are still healthy should give to and gave concern for those who suffer from illness.
Seeing another family in poverty, we should be grateful that our standard of living is not lacking. Seeing those who suffer from extreme poverty, we should be grateful that we still have the ability to help others. We put the teachings into practice to give support. Of course, we also need to comfort them mentally and counsel them. We let them know they are not the poorest, that there are others even less fortunate.
We should teach them the way to create wealth. Wealth comes from the mind first. If people’s minds were wealthy, they would naturally lead wealthy lives and have a surplus of material goods. A wealthy mind is the start of creating blessings. We first help people with pressing difficulties, and hope that when they receive help, they begin to think of helping others as well. Even if it is only a little, if they give one percept of what they get, it will accumulate. Then, when we are saving people, those little contributions play a part.
This is creating blessings for humanity. It is giving from what you receive, even if it is only one percent. So we “help the poor to realize their riches.” We guide them and give them comfort. We let them know that they can also help people. But as we console and comfort others, we must always be vigilant of whether or not we are practicing this ourselves. Do we treasure the ill with sympathy, love and look after them? Do we have sympathy for the poor, and can we help them in their lives? Can we accomplish all the good we speak of? When we are comforting others, we must always guard against our thoughts going astray. I hope that every day we know how much suffering there is in the world.
If we compare our own lives to others, and see that we are better off, that we have more, then we should help others. That is a rich and blessed life.
Yesterday we said, “During the Eight Kings of the year, we create a multitude of negative karma. Practicing the Sixteen Bad Occupations, we create negative karma.” This text is always alerting us.
How much karma do we actually create in four seasons’ time? We must always be self-vigilant. Some people create karma without knowing it. In addition to the obvious precepts in the Sutras, or the ones we often mention, the Five or Eight Precepts, etc., we should be careful of our profession. There are many whose professions are among the Sixteen Bad Occupations.
Sixteen Bad Occupations:
1.Slaughterer 2.Executioner
3.Pig/sheep farmer 4.Fisherman
5.Hunter 6.Fowler
7.Snake catcher 8.Chicken/dog farmer
9.Snake charmer 10.Thief
11.Bandit 12.Warden
13.Prostitute 14.Liquor seller
15.[Cloth] Dyer 16.Seed Crusher [for oil]
Even a dyer is one of them, someone who dyes cloth or dyes other things. Are these professions truly bad? Looking at them now, we can see the karma created. It is like the common trend among young, middle-aged, or old people of dying their hair. Starting around middle age, people’s hair begins to turn grey. Turning grey is very natural. A natural life is beautiful. But upon reaching middle age and getting a few grey hairs, we start to feel uncomfortable, so we dye it black or red. This is very unnatural.
This is an attitude of not acknowledging your age. When you dye your hair, the dye seeps in through your pores and can really harm your body. Modern medical science has discovered this. Because people fear old age, they hide their grey. This is harmful to their bodies.
It is even worse for the youth dying their hair all kinds of colors. If their health is harmed at such a young age, what will happen later in life? They are wrecking their lives by harming their health. This is not only polluting their appearance, the whole society is becoming polluted.
Actually, if we are born with black hair, we should feel fortunate. It is our Chinese heritage. We should know that dye shows disrespect to our ethnicity. Being born with this ethnicity is precious. The youth dye their hair red, blue, white, yellow, all different kinds of colors. These people are originally Chinese, but they want to become something else. They may have red hair, but they still do not have blue eyes. Other people have red hair, or blond hair, and blue eyes.
But these youth do not, and their skin is also yellow, it cannot be white. So I say, isn’t being natural the most beautiful? These young people are breaking the natural order. Going against the laws of nature is asking for health problems. This gives rise to many rare diseases. They are harming their own health. So the profession of dying is actually harmful to people.
Of the Sixteen Bad Occupations, many people doing business in today’s society are connected with at least one. This is due to a lack of compassion. In the Water Repentance it says, “When we harm sentient beings, we create karma of no pity. “When we have no sympathetic thoughts, we crate karma of no compassion. When we do not help or save others, we create karma of not rescuing.”
This means that among all sentient beings, some people make a living by practicing one of these sixteen occupations. They do not consider their conduct and harm sentient beings. They do not consider the lives of people or other beings. “We create karma of pitilessness” we harm other sentient beings.
I saw this news story some truly cruel behavior. A cook, with his hand, grabs a fish’s head while it is still alive and fries its body in a pot of boiling oil. But he keeps the head out, only the body is fried. The body struggles and squirms until it is put on a plate and seasoning is added, then carried, still hot, to the table. The diners see the fish, called Yin-Yang Fish, which is the name of the dish. The head is still alive, but the body is fried. People gather around the table, and grab the meat with their chopsticks. The mouth opens and closes. Maybe it is crying, or mouthing curses. “When I die, after you have eaten my flesh, and scalded my body, you should know that this will certainly bring retribution.”
Isn’t this how the Water Repentance began? Yuan Ang had Chao Cuo executed. The knife rose, the head fell. Chao Cuo head rolled until reached a rock, and he bit the rock into pieces. He pursed revenge for the next then lifetimes. When I saw this Yin-Yang Fish on the table, its mouth opening and closing, and people around it, picking the flesh off bit by bit, eating it piece by piece, I thought of the karma of pitilessness. This karma is a truly heavy transgression. “When we have no sympathetic thoughts, we watch beings suffer from poverty and illness without any pity or sympathy.” This is the karma of no compassion. “When we do not help or save others, we create the karma of not rescuing them.” This comes from not having the compassion to save suffering sentient beings. Looking on unfeelingly as they suffer is truly cruel, and of course the karma is heavy.
Harming other beings without pity, or seeing the suffering of the poor and sick and not having the compassion to save them, creates very heavy karma. We must always be vigilant. On July 28 and 29, 2007, Tzu Chi volunteers from three countries joined up to provide disaster relief in Swaziland, to help those suffering in poverty. From three countries, South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland itself, people living in ten different locations came together to help. Swaziland is actually one of Africa’s small countries; it is even smaller in size than Taiwan. Its population is about 1,000,000, and poverty is universal.
Since the climate is very hot, and rain is very scarce, the harvest is poor every year, not enough to maintain a population of nearly one million. So even the farmers are very poor and sometimes have nothing to eat. Of the one million people, about one in four have absolutely nothing to eat. That is over 250,000 people who are on the brink of starvation. There is a complete lack of grain. Over 150,000 people completely lack staple foods.
With over 250,000 people on the brink of starvation, and many others who are very poor, the king still lives extravagantly, and does not understand the people’s suffering. He was about 30 years old, and already had 11 wives. Every year he chose a concubine. Every September there was a festival, called the Reed Festival. Girls aged 16.17 or 18 are sent out, bare-chested, wearing skirts made of reeds. At this time, the king prepares to take a new wife. United Daily News and China Times have reported on this. This kind of palace life is truly extravagant. Furthermore, at that time, he wanted to build three more palaces for his wives and concubines. The whole process of constructing these palaces would cost 15 million US Dollars.
The king’s life was so wasteful. Every princess, every concubine, all the wives and consorts, were each given a luxury sedan. This is a luxurious life. With so many people suffering, the country went into debt, 145 million US Dollars’ worth of debt. Their lifestyle was so extravagant. Two-third of Swaziland’s population lived in suffering every day. On average, the people there live on less than one dollar a day. It is clear how mush poverty there is, but the king is still living like this.
This is karma of no pity and karma of not rescuing, “not helping or saving.” This all creates karma. Reports of disaster were pouring in, and the people were so poor. This is collective karma. If the king lacks compassion, the people will certainly suffer. We should always be grateful to have been born in a country like our own. Favorable weather is so important, as it harmony in people’s minds. Only in this way will our days pass peacefully. We should always use our gratitude to generate compassion, whether for the sick or the poor. We should comfort them with sympathy. So we should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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