Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Greed and Dissatisfaction are Poverty of the Mind (多貪不足是心貧)
When we have few desires and are content, we lead the richest lives in the world. If, instead, we are greedy and dissatisfied, then our minds are in poverty, and we live life in the poorest way. Wealth and poverty are a matter of our thoughts.
If we have few desires and are content, we will live very simply; our hearts are open, and our thoughts pure. Isn’t everything under the sky part of our world? Yes, if people are always seeking endlessly, as we just discussed yesterday, they, “cleverly cheat in 100 ways, hoping for a bit of profit.” They covet even the tiniest things. They endlessly covet large things and do not pass over small things either. With a life like this, just how much karma is created? So, we have said this is all negative karma, and it should be repented every moment.
Have we committed these wrongs in this life? If not this life, maybe we have committed them in a past life. Retribution may come this life, next life or later. In the past, we have said that perhaps the deeds from our past lives have not yet matured. In this life, we have not yet seen retribution; perhaps it will be in the next life. Just how much have we coveted from others? How much karma have we created? In the past, we did not know. We did not know to repent. But now that we understand, we need to repent at once. We need to repent for the wrongs have done from Beginningless Time until now. If we have created karma, we need to repent every day.
Each day we talk about repentance. The next passage in the repentance text says, “From Beginningless Time until now, we may have pierced the walls, blocked the path to rob people, refused to pay interest, borrowed from friends and not repaid, deceived with our face, stole with our heart.”
You may not understand it when you hear this, but in the context, we should be able to understand. Piercing is digging, digging out a wall, so as to trespass. Some people steal, rob or hijack. “To rob” means that one person robs another. “Forced entry” means breaking into another’s home; it is a kind of burglary. “To steal” is to take something when others are not looking. These acts are all taking from those who have not given permission, thus we rob, break in or steal secretly.
Now we will discuss “pierced the walls.” The meaning of this is not one person robbing another, nor is it forced entry. A hole is dug in the wall, sometimes from an underground tunnel. People do not know; it is all in secret. People do not know about the digging. The criminals continue to dig this tunnel until they reach their target. They know which parts of which houses have hidden treasures or lots of money. They have already targeted the place. Sometimes they dig in from a tunnel; sometimes they just go under a wall.
They keep digging until they have drilled under the house, then they dig their way up. Actually, this happens even now.
Next to a bank, there was a building site. Because it was under construction, everyone assumed the workers were construction workers. One day, when clerks went into the bank’s basement, they discovered the vault had been pried open, and tens of millions were missing. When the police went to investigate, they discovered a tunnel in the corner that was just big enough for people to squeeze through. They dug a hole like this from the next-door construction site. No one knows how much time they spent using the building site as a diversion, so as to dig through the earth and walls and enter the basement vault. They took tens of millions in cash. This is an example of “cleverly cheating.” The people were very intelligent and use their heads to prepare a method to enter the basement vault. They made use of their advantages. To have this kind of patience, this kind of strength and intelligence to estimate the spot is clever cheating.
These were intelligent criminals, but they were still caught. This is present-life retribution. They were caught and sentenced; I do not know how many years they served, possibly a long time. They lost their freedom. You can possess many things, but these things can still be taken by others. In the same way, many years of freedom can be taken from you. In the future, when these criminals are released, they will have lost their reputation and character. Other people will not trust them. Because of greed, they will have lost everything. This is from piercing the walls. Some people dismantle the walls rather than use the door to enter. This method is also used to steal or rob, to take others’ things.
Some people force their body in through a hole or an opening. Once in, they rob the place. There are also people who “block the path to rob people.” This means they rob people in person. They know that when people leave banks, they carry many valuables. So, they follow these people to a place where no is one around, and rob them. This is very common today. Now, there are also armored vehicles, which carry a lot of money from bank to bank. They go to small branches, and for convenience, collect money to take back to main banks. Some people know the route that such vehicles take, so they block the road and hijack the car. They create a roadblock. They block the road in front of the armored car, and rob it in broad daylight. This also happens. This very violent robbery.
Or we may have “refused to pay interest.” Some people borrow money from others. Originally, they plan to return the money. They agree that there will be interest to be repaid on top of the principle. Everyone agree upon this, and some even sign a contract. But when some people borrow money, they then try to find a way not to repay. They try to cut the interest, or even wipe out the original debt. There are people like this. But now, what is scary are loan shark. They multiply the interest. Sometimes they will loan you 100,000 dollars, and then after a month, they may want 300,000, and this is only interest, without counting the original loan. Today this is a kind of forced repayment. You often see in the papers that, in order to dodge their creditors, some people commit suicide. Other people go out and rob. They do many illegal things. This all comes from borrowing money. When you borrow money, you should repay it. But some people tire themselves out thinking of way to dodge their creditors.
Another kind of person forces people to repay, forcing them even to death. In this kind of world, people do not know to keep to the path. If we are living well, how much can we eat in one day? How much can we wear?
How big of a house can we live in? If we are content, we do not need to go into debt. Then we do not need to borrow.
Some people are empathetic. When they see someone with difficulties, they will help that person, write them a check or give them a loan against their property. When this person has overcome his difficulties and repaid the debt, will he be able to return the deed and give the property back untouched? Sometimes, not only are they unable to return it untouched, they also damage the leader’s name and property. In society, there are many complicated situations involving debt. Some people throw away their friendships. When people are friends, they may often borrow and lend to one another. Whether or not there is interest involved, or whether an even bigger favor is done by cosigning or letting someone borrow against one’s own property, this was done out of friendship.
But people go against their friendship; the burden their friends and renege on their agreement. One clearly lent to another, but when it is time to repay the person in debt runs away. No one knows where he went. Then this loan becomes the burden of the good-hearted friend. There are all matters of debt, and they are incredibly complicated. People throw away friendships and break their promises. Although there is a clearly written contract, they still refute it.
They deny it and look for a way to wipe out the loan completely. This is how friends mutually deceive each other. Some good-hearted people end up burdened with debt. In life, although people are smart, they lack conscience. We need to have a conscience. Defaulting on debt or forcing others to repay is very serious karma. It is tragic when people become burdened due to their good hearts.
Next it says, “We may have seized things illegally, objects of spirits, animals or beings of the Four Forms of Birth. Under the pretext of prophecy, we may have stolen people’s wealth.”
The previous section in the repentance text discussed conflicts from lending and borrowing, which create a lot of torment. Lives may be threatened, such as through suicide, or a family [murder-suicide], etc., all very miserable affairs. Now we are talking of “seizing things illegally.” This is unprincipled, seizing things for no reason.
Nowadays, there are con artists who
cheat people this way. They look for elderly people, people who do not have a lot of knowledge, very good-hearted people, or even some greedy people.
They tell them, “I have all these funds over here, but right now I have this problem. If right now I can get some amount of money, I will be able to resolve it, and then I can let you have the funds. So if you could just…”
Anyway, there are many tricks to deceive people. This happens in personal relationships; some abuse those who do not know better, those who have loving hearts. They make use of all kinds of tricks. These are con artists.
Sometimes they have a roll of banknotes; one or two notes are real, the rest blank paper. They accompany someone to withdraw cash. When that person unsuspectingly withdraws money, somehow the con artist switches the rolls and takes the real money, leaving the person with a stack of paper.
In our society, this phenomenon is too common. “Seizing things illegally” refers to these kinds of methods, like when people pretend to be weak in order to steal. When it is discovered, the people’s whereabouts are unknown, and nothing can be done. Some people’s entire life savings are conned from them like this, and their things are “seized improperly.”
It may be “objects of spirits, animals or beings of the Four Forms of Birth.” What do spirits have that can be taken? To thank spirits, some people hang gold metals inside the temples. In small local temples, we often hear about these medals being stolen. Or there may be other valuables in the temple that are stolen, including money.
Objects belonging to beings of the Four Forms of Birth, such as animal feed, are also stolen. Especially now,
feed is very easy to steal; it is taken by the bag.
To summarize, in Imperial Preceptor Wu-Da’s time, theft, robbery, fraud, exploitation, coveting wealth and taking improperly, were all written into the repentance text. This may have been done to “spirits, animals” or “beings of the Four Births” not only to people, but spirits and animals, too.
“Under the pretext of prophecy, we may have stolen people’s wealth.” Under the guise of a spirit, oracle bones or fortune telling, some tell people make offerings or do certain things. In this way, they deceive them. Otherwise, they might say, “This year, your luck will be such and such.” There are truly many ways to deceive people with tricks in this world. They are truly countless. We need to earnestly cultivate our minds. People who have few desires and are content can be free and at ease every day, and live with joy and abundance. We cannot be greedy. Once you are greedy and start doing things carelessly, you create negative karma and suffer the results. So we should always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)