Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Practice the Five Precepts and the Ten Good Deeds (奉五戒 行十善)
Constantly practice the Four Infinite Minds. If we are always kind; compassionate, joyful and giving, we naturally can uphold the Five Precepts.
We should know the Five Precepts, No killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no drinking. In particular, there is lying, which is also among the Ten Evils. Lying is one of the Four Evils of Speech. So let us always practice the Four Immeasurables, kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. Let us always be more vigilant, uphold the Five or Ten Precepts and do not wrong.
Those with clear wisdom can protect their bodies and minds. To protect the body and mind, we must uphold the Five or Ten Precepts. If we uphold the Ten Precepts, we are naturally practicing the Ten Good Deeds. If we remove the Ten Evils by upholding precepts, we are constantly practicing the Ten Good Deeds. If we practice the Ten Good Deeds, we are faithfully upholding the path. When dealing with people and matters, we can be simple, pure and trustworthy. This is faithfully practicing the path. This is what we want to uphold in our daily living.
So, With the Four Immeasurables, we uphold the Five Precepts, practice the Ten Good Deeds and faithfully practice the path.
We should apply this in our daily living, and always be mindful of all our actions. Now, let us examine the next section. It is about the karma of lying. Sometimes lies destroy our character. One a bigger scale, they affect families, society and the nation. So why do we lie?
If we read the next section we will know. The worst lie is “claiming to have attained something we have not.” So, “[We claim] we can call devas, dragons, deities, and ghosts. [We claim] that the wind, earth and spirits are all under our control.” This section warns us not to claim we have attained something we have not. Do not think, “I have already attained this, and readily demonstrate powers to delude people.” That is a lie about spiritual attainment, where one claims to have reached enlightenment or attained some state. In the Lotus Sutra, this is referred to as s great lie. It comes with tremendous karma. Why do people do this? To elevate themselves so others feel that they are different, that they have powers and are at a higher level in their practice. So, they say something exists when it does not. Other people cannot see it and do not know. But some people think they see and know. They think deities, ghosts and such come because they called.
So, from the next passage we know that, “People demonstrate powers to delude others when seeking respect and the Four Offerings.”
Demonstrating powers and speaking sugarcoated words is lying. We do not practice to see thing s others cannot see. We do not practice to know others’ pasta, when we do not know our own, or to know others’ futures, when we cannot know the impermanence that will manifest in our own future.
We do not know how we will attract illness and suffering or when this karma will end, so how can we say we know everything?
When we practice, we have to be pragmatic.
Each of us is an ordinary person who stepped onto the Buddha’s path to practice.
The Buddha always told us we need to practice for three Asankhya kalpas because we have created immeasurable karma over many lifetimes. When we interact with others, we often create a cycle of enmity and resentment. Then retributions manifest as endless disasters. This was written in the Sutras.
Some people ask whether the things written in the Sutras are true. We should use logic to analyze them. Isn’t the law of karmic cause and effect real? A cause is a seed. When a flower seed is buried, and conditions like water and sun come together, it blooms into a flower. We cannot take a flower seed and ask that it gives us peas. That is impossible. Whatever type of seed it is, it will bloom into that type of flower. Once the cause is determined, it will develop under the right conditions. Following the same principle, if we do something evil, that becomes a seed. Under certain conditions, the effects of those evil actions will manifest.
We can infer this from actual facts. If we create bad affinities with others, the next time we see that person, he will not treat us very nicely. This is immediate cause and effect, it happens within a single lifetime. Even if someone has a bad impression of us, if we treat him well, practice patiently, take a step back and are determined to create good affinities, his impression will change. He can forgive us. Not only that, he will also understand that we are sincere and become our good friend, resolving past grievances.
So in this lifetime, we can immediately understand that we were wrong, admit our mistakes and repent. Thus we can resolve grievances in this lifetime. If we refuse to admit our mistakes, our issues carry over into the next lifetime. Look at the deep enmity we create and the great evils we do. We reap what we sow over a long time. We have already mentioned this. So, karma of speech creates many different evil causes and conditions, especially the great lies, such as claiming to have attained something we did not, or to have reached enlightenment when we have not.
Thus it says, “People demonstrate powers to delude others when seeking respect and the Four Offerings.”
These are lies. We may demonstrate powers to delude others. We did not really see something, but say we did “I can call spiritual beings and ghosts! They come to see me, to ask me for Dharma, and to show me respect, give me offerings.” This is performing trickery to delude people.
“I can solve your problem. I can communicate with these spiritual beings and ghosts. So I can give you blessings. I can resolve your enmities.”
Is this right? We are still unenlightened, we have not resolved our own karma, so how could we resolve others’ karma?
This is impossible.
But there are such people. They want to receive the Four Offerings, so they use cunning speech and deviant practices to delude others. What is their purpose? Surely to attain respect and receive offerings to get some benefits. So, they create terrible karma though lies. The evil of these transgressions is tremendous.
Instead of promoting Right Views, they guide others to delusion and superstition. This is not what we should do. Some people are frightened. They are afraid of ghosts, bad luck, and so on. They are scared, so we need to use wisdom to calm their minds. We absolutely must not frighten them and make them even more fearful. Do not frighten them by saying, “Something will happen to you in the future.”
If we do that, fear will arise in their mind. With this mental affliction comes physical illness. A professor, a pathologist, once told me, “In actually, people do not die from illness. They mainly die of fright, because of their doubts.” When someone goes for a check-up, he was originally healthy, but if doctor tells him he already has some disease, then he begins to get nervous, frightened.
Then he gradually transforms from a healthy, vital person to a weak and ill individual. “I’m sick, I can’t do anything. I won’t live long.” So, he seeks ways to attain longevity. He tries using money to rid himself of sickness.
This is wrong. If a problem shows up in the exam, we should know about it. In the past, health problems were hard to detect. Modern technology allows us to see things clearly. “Doctor, can this be treated?”
“Yes, just take some medicine.”
There may be other methods of treatment; work with the doctor and it will be fine. Humans are subject to the laws of nature. We cannot escape karma when the time comes. We should know that we do not own our life, we just have the right to use it.
When that right to our body expires, we must return it. We did not always have this body, but through our affinities with our parents and our past karma in this world, we remain here until that karma is exhausted. We all come to the world with karma. Whether we come with good or bad karma, to repay someone or exact revenge depends on how well. we understand the principle of turning away from evil and toward good. Avoid all that is evil, practice all that is good.
However long we will live in this life. Is the time we have to do good. Seize the moment. We do not own our life, we only have the right to use it. If we are happy and peaceful, what is there to be afraid of? If the doctor says, “We’ll just treat it this way and you’ll be fine,” Then we just accept it. This is a wise belief, not a delusion. There is no need to ask mediums to help us eliminate disasters or change our fate.
Who can eliminate disasters for you? We are all ordinary beings. No one can change our fate for us. The Buddha also said, “Transforming beings’ karma is impossible.” Three things are impossible for the Buddha. One of them is transforming sentient beings’ karma. Even the Buddha cannot transform our karma. He could only say, ”This is how karma is created. You have to know the cause and the effect. You should know about karmic retribution. If you know the law of karmic cause and effect, then you will cultivate yourself and practice.”
So, the Buddha could only teach us, He could not transform our karma. There is a saying, “The teacher can show us the door, but the practice is up to us.” The Buddha guided us through this door, les us onto the path of His Dharma. We have to walk this path; He just opened up the road for us. He showed us the way. He is a guide, the teacher of our world.
He taught us, “The things you did were wrong. I have opened this road to you. Just follow it and you will be fine.”
He was a guide, one who spoke of the path. So, we must understand that when karma manifests no one can do anything about it. I often say that even doctors’ abilities have limits, because we each have a final limit, the moment our time here ends. When we reach the end, even the legendary doctor Hua Tuo cannot do anything. Look at the examples throughout time. Even the Buddha reached His limit at 80 years. He did not live to 120 or 200 years just because He was the Buddha. So the Buddha’s life was like ordinary people’s. If we think about this, then we do not need to do not need to seek a medium to eliminate disasters, change our fate or extend our life. That is impossible.
So then why do we believe that mediums can eliminate disasters or redirect our fate to extend our life?
We do not need to believe this. But there are people like this who lie. Why do they speak these lies to deceive us? They want many people to believe them. We are already deluded , so this is delusion upon delusion.
So l hope we have the Right Faith in the Buddha’s teachings. We cannot be superstitious in our beliefs; we must be wise.
For these countless and boundless transgressions, today we repent with deep sincerity.
Because of our boundless negative karma, “today, we repent with deep sincerity.” If we were deluded in the past and believe in superstition or evil words, let us quickly change now. We change by repenting.
So everyone, please always sincerely repent. Always be mindful. Use your minds for good, for true goodness, so you eliminate all the bad karma you created. Without wrongdoings there is on evil.
So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)