Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Tirelessly Work to Benefit Others (為福莫倦)
We always talk about karma. We create karma and suffering follows. What kind of karma do we create? There is negative karma and blessed karma. Blessings bring joy. Without blessings we suffer. We should create blessings in every lifetime.
What does that mean? What kind of person has blessings? The mind of a blessed person is always peaceful, free and happy. When our hearts can remain peaceful and free, we will be the happiest people. If we lack blessings, we suffer. Then, no matter what exotic luxuries or great wealth we may have, we will not feel that we are blessed. We should know, whether in this life or the next, that we must create blessings ourselves. Otherwise, in our next life we may find that this life’s enjoyment has exhausted our blessings. In this life, if we hear the Buddha-Dharma, have some good in our hearts and put it into action, then we can earnestly follow the path. We must be diligent and not retreat.
So, whether in this life or the next, work tirelessly for blessings and do good deeds. Do not feel tired or lazy, and say, “I can’t go on. That is too difficult.” We should happily and sincerely work for blessings.
Blessings bring joy, without them we suffer. When good thoughts arise, we need to quickly act on them. Seize the moment; tirelessly create blessings.
Look at our many recycling Bodhisattvas. They get up early and work hard out in the heat. “Grandma, don’t you find this tiring?”
“Grandpa, why didn’t you sleep in? You could be at home relaxing. Why aren’t you at home, enjoying your blessings?”
They reply with something like this, “Do you know, being idle is actually quite difficult. Having work to do makes us happy, and we enjoy doing it together.” Recycling volunteers can save the planet and put their love into action. Working makes them happy.
What is happiness? What is toil? In the past, in order to grind wheat into flour one had to use a large millstone. People could not move it by themselves. They needed a cow or a donkey to turn it. A rope and a yoke were used to tie the cow to the stone. The cow would constantly circle the stone. All day it would pull the very large stone to grind away the null of the wheat. There was one such cow, already several decades old. Every day it pulled the millstone to grind wheat.
One day its owner felt the cow was too old and had already toiled enough. “I’ll let you retire.” He led the cow away from the mill and very gently and gratefully pet the cow. He cared for her a lot and was very grateful. “For decades you have pulled the mill. Now I want to let you rest for a bit, let you retire. You see that big field under the tree? You rest there.”
He tied her down, and the cow no longer had to pull, grind or exert herself. Nevertheless, she started circling the tree. Around and around the tree she went, wrapping the rope until it became very short. The cow bound herself under this tree until she could not move.
Aren’t we just like the cow in this story? We work constantly when we are young. Whether it is skilled or unskilled, intellectual or physical labor, we work just like that cow. For production, for a living, we work like a cow. Years pass like days, just pulling the millstone. We talk about retirement. Actually, this cow’s owner also thought about letting her retire, but when it came down to it, he tied her under the tree, helplessly looking at that big field. She could see it, but could not eat the grass. Although it was a big field, she was tied up under the tree, without any freedom. The rope was wound taut and had become quite short, so cow and tree were bound together.
The meaning of this story is clear. After the years add up and we finally retire, we are already old. Although our body is still able and we can see and do many things, everyone else has determined that we are already too old and useless. We have been forced to retire, just like being tied to that tree. Every day passes with nothing to do. The elderly actually have their own potential, if they are allowed to freely realize it, they can do what they are capable of and what they like to do. Everyone should do what makes them happy while cultivating a loving heart as much as possible, loving people, treasuring things and the planet. This is excellent.
At the recycling station they all work so happily. The elderly can improve their health and longevity. This is also a path to happiness. It creates blessings for the whole society, too. Those with blessings can happily create more blessings. If this life is like this, the next life will be the same. We should create blessings this life. We should vow to create blessings even in our next life. This is our perspective on life.
How do we become truly blessed? When we do good, we accumulate blessings. If we do evil, we create bad karma. So, we are always talking about repentance. Only by repenting can we eliminate bad karma. Who hasn’t done wrong? Who hasn’t created negative karma? Because of this, we need to be more aware, more vigilant. We need to repent every day.
We talked earlier about general repentance. General forms are karma of body, speech and mind, our thoughts and emotions, bearing and actions. There are so many ways we crate karma. Now we will talk about the specific forms.
General or specific, obvious or subtle, mild or severe, revealed or hidden, and all of the various derivatives. We vow to eliminate them all.
Some specific forms are obvious, some are subtle. Obvious forms are the Seven Branches. Subtle forms refer to the three negative karma of the mind, the thoughts of greed, anger and ignorance. The origin of all actions is in the mind. These actions can be either mild or severe. Mild refers to unintentional mistakes, whereas severe forms are those done intentionally. Sometimes we want to do something bad, so we mindfully plan, make preparations and lead someone into the trap step by step. This is very serious karma, very severe. Some things can be revealed “I did this, I did that. I was wrong, I frankly admit it.” When you admit something, everyone will know about it “I did this thing.” People say repentance brings purity. After repenting, we can change. There are also hidden things. One may have clearly made many mistakes, but he has covered them up. People who hide their mistakes are more likely to repeat them. Since they believe no one knows what they did, they start to think that they can hide everything, that they can do it again. If someone hides his or her actions, and continues to do the same things, this is a severe transgression.
All of these different kinds of transgressions follow us like a shadow following a shape. Whether mild or severe, the karma has already been created. Milder karma merely brings a milder effect.
Analyze and repent them one by one. Obvious or subtle, mild or severe, revealed or hidden, we have created each and every distinct karma. Thus we repent the specific forms.
Who hasn’t brought their karma into this world? Is there anyone with whom everyone is satisfied? A complete and perfect person does not exist. Everyone has imperfections, things they lack. Some people are very rich, but cannot have children. Others have many children, but they are very poor. Some children are very filial, yet they do not succeed in any endeavor. To sum up, it is impossible to find perfection. This is also karma. Those with relatively severe karma are impoverished and have children, but each of these children cause them to worry a lot. With old age, ceaseless misfortunes occur one after another. This is very severe karma. Yet however serious their karma, they are still within the Human Realm.
Outside the Human Realm there is Hell. If the retributions of Hell are not yet exhausted, and they are born again as humans, their karma will be truly very severe. Whatever we do, karma ceaselessly follows us. There are truly many different types; there is no way to mention all of them. But we still have hope. Whether they are mild or severe, since we now study Buddhism, we know that they are all karma which is simply our actions, so we already know we need to repent. Whether they are light or serious, we need to thoroughly repent all our action.
If we do not divide the karma we have created into items or varieties but repent it all together, we are repenting the general forms of karma. “In repenting the specific forms, first repent the three [evils] of the body, then the four speech and the rest of the obstacles.”
It is truly difficult. These Seven Branches of body and speech are all created by the Six Roots. These miscellaneous karmic obstacles are a real mess. They are really complicated karmic obstacles. Our interpersonal relationships were originally very pure and simple; how did they suddenly become complicated? Being a recycling volunteer is great. Everyone should know about global warming, weather abnormalities, and so on. Everyone should cherish humanity, treasure resources, and love and protect the Earth. Volunteering to recycle is great. But some people do not think this way. They stand at the side, watching from afar. Maybe they have some logical reason to be negative and criticize others. Is this right or wrong? Maybe they believe what other people say is incorrect, so they seek out their own way of thinking. Who knows?
Humanity is really very mysterious. There are no guarantees that everyone will universally acclaim good things. One mouth can speak both good and bad words. One body can do both good and bad deeds. One pen can write both good and bad things. There are so many things, so many different varieties, there is no way to name them all. But to act is to create karma. We need to repent karma bit by bit.
Next it says, “We repent all remaining obstacles in sequence. In the three karma of body, first is killing. As the Sutras make clear, have mercy for others as you would for yourself.”
We all cherish ourselves. We have clearly made mistakes, but we still try to justify ourselves. We think of every way possible to protect ourselves. But if others commit a small wrong, we will make sure everyone knows. We will gossip about it and exaggerate. This is how human beings act. They have lost intrinsic nature, their simple Buddha-nature. They have complicated it. We have covered our intrinsic nature with negatively. So in our relationships, we naturally give rise to discrimination between self and others. This is why ordinary people protect themselves and harm others. It turns into a habit. This is all a delusion.
In this deluded, unenlightened life we try any way possible to see our extreme our evils in the best light. We always try to get off the hook, always saying, “It wasn’t my fault, it was his.” We try to find a way to escape our transgressions. But karmic cause and effect is always fair. Karma follows us like a shadow. Whatever your actions, they will follow you. It is like Imperial Preceptor Wu-Da. Even after ten lifetimes of spiritual practice, his negative karma was still not exhausted. The human-faced sore came to torment him.
Causes, conditions and retributions are fair. But we are always trying to find a way to explain that we are not wrong; it is everyone else who is wrong. This is karma. This is losing our intrinsic nature. So we create more karma, ever more serious. Now we will talk about first karma of the body. There are three karma of the body. So in all our behavior and actions we need to always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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