Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Calmly and Carefully Observe Daily Living (靜思慎觀日常)
We live our days in peace and tranquility. Therefore we must
quietly contemplate the events of the day and carefully observe our daily living. We have enough food, clothing and housing. We must consider this as very difficult to obtain. We aspire to reply the Four Kinds of Grace. Loving-kindness guides the practices of compassion and understanding.
Let us share this passage. We should always live our days in peace and tranquility. Let us quietly contemplate, carefully observe and live our lives very cautiously. Everyone has vowed to engage in spiritual practice. So, in our daily living, we must mind our speech and all our behavior. Have we made mistakes in our daily living, in our actions, speech, or thoughts? We have no worries about having enough clothing, food and housing. We should know that obtaining this is extremely difficult. Since we have ample clothing and food, we must always think about how hard it is to create things to wear or eat or places to live. Look at something as simple as a piece of clothing. Do you know how many threads it takes to knit it together? Even to just create one thread requires the work of many farmers and manufacturers. After we have thread, we need to weave it into cloth. Then it takes more work to make clothing. So every piece of clothing, every piece of cloth, does not come easily. What about the things we eat? Think about it. We also do some farming here. We know it is not easy to grow each vegetable. The same goes for each drop of oil, each grain of rice, etc. Each day we are alive the hard work of so many people is required so that we can have ample clothing and food. Though we live in very simple accommodations, we are not rained on and are not subjected to the wind. We are warm. Simplicity is good enough. We do not need to worry about any of this. We need to know that it is not easy to come by all these things. Every day, every one of us should have that sense of gratitude.
Therefore, we must establish our faith and vows. We need to believe. The Buddha reminded us over and over again in the Sutras that we need to have faith. Faith is the source of the Way, mother of merits. It nurtures all roots of goodness. If we do not have faith, we will easily become lost in life. So we must have faith, and it must be proper faith. Believe in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They are the wholesome path of our life. The Three Treasures guide us on this proper path. Since we have this path, let us constantly make vows out of gratitude. We should know that in the past we were led by the karmic force of ignorance to make incalculable numbers of mistakes. Now that we know, we repent each of them.
As we repent, we also make vows.We vow that we will repay everyone, repay sentient beings.We dedicate merits and make vows, make vows and dedicate merits.When we make vows, we must make good vows.What vows should we make?We dedicate merits from self to others, from causes to effects.This is dedication of merit.We dedicate merits from self to others.When we make vows, we must make right vows out of right beliefs.
Everything we do is not done for ourselves.However, we ourselves must go out and give.It is more important to ask things of ourselves than of others.If we do not practice ourselves, how can we guide others?So we have to be very strict and require ourselves to be vigilant and reverent.
Everything that we do, every bit of goodness, we do for the land and for sentient beings.
This si dedication from self to others.
In our daily living, we must be vigilant and reverent.
Every bit of goodness and blessing is dedicated to sentient beings.
This is dedication from self to others.
“From causes to effects.”We must always be vigilant.Everything arises from a single seed.
All karmic conditions arise from a single thought.So, we must always be very cautious about this cause.Let us plant good causes, form good affinities.
If we have good causes and conditions, we will have good retributions.The effects are for all sentient beings. Sakyamuni Buddha, Guan-Yin Bodhisattva, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, came to the world to save sentient beings and to attain Buddhahood.
Guan-Yin Bodhisattva, in particular, is one of the Three Sanits of the Western Pure Land.
But he guided the ship of compassion back to this world.When sentient beings suffer they cry out, “Guan-Yin Bodhisattva!Kind and compassionate Guan-Yin Bodhisattva!Come save me, Guan-Yin Bodhisattva!”Though he is a saint of the Western Pure Land, he often returns to the Saha-world to save sentient beings.
We should know that in dedicating merits from causes to effects, all Buddhas of the past, present and future had very strict requirements of themselves.They practiced in the world to create good causes and good conditions to bring the effect of transforming sentient beings.
This is dedication from causes to effects.
We practice in the world to create good causes, good conditions for the effect of transforming sentient beings.This is dedication from causes to effects.
So we establish faith, vows, and practice to repay the Four Kinds of Grace.This is the process of our spiritual practice.We must know the Four Kinds of Grace, the Grace of our Parents, of our Teachers, of the Three Treasures, and of Heaven and Earth.These are the Four Kinds of Grace.They can also be the Grace of Parents, of the Three Treasures, of Teachers, and of Sentient Beings.
As humans we should fundamentally be grateful and repay others for their grace.Moreover, we are spiritual practitioners, so we definitely need to have faith, vows, practice.The Four Kinds of Grace are essential to making vows and dedication merits.Loving-kindness guides the practices of compassion and understanding.We must awaken our loving-kindness every day.Then we can guide our compassionate mind to find the suffering of others unbearable.
So, we will always be understanding when we deal with people and matters.We must keep our practice on the right path.
I share this with you all in the hope that you do not forget.In our daily living, we have ample clothing and food; we have no worries in this regard. We should constantly contemplate how difficult this is to attain. So, we must always remain resolved to take good care of our minds.
Now we are talking about making vows. In the past, we constantly repented. Now we make vows and dedicate merits. We need to put our vows into action. We dedicate merits with hopes for the future. How so?
We hope all have plentiful clothing and food, Right Faith in the Three Treasures, and can let go of this form to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, where we meet Amitabha and receive His blessingIn our future lives, we will see Maitreya Buddha, listen to Right Dharma and practice as it is taught.”
Everyone should understand this passage. If the weather is favorable and people are safe, we will have ample food and clothing. We also hope that when we have ample food and clothing, we reverently believe in the Three Treasures.We need to put the teachings into action. We need to direct our bodies and minds. When the end comes someday, when our lives are over, we let go of this form and are reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. When most people chant the Buddha’s name, they aspire to leave the Saha-world and be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
But where is such a land? In our hearts. Let us forever maintain harmony in our minds. If the Four Elements are in balance, our Six Sense can be open and clear. Everyone can be aware of the Six Consciousnesses of actions, speech , thoughts.When our Six Roots connect with the Six Dusts, our consciousness can remain very clear. When we see things we will not give rise to desire. When we face the external Six Sense Objects with our Six Roots and Six Consciousnesses, we can tame greed, anger and ignorance.Then we can keep our minds pure.
A mind free of afflictions of greed, anger and ignorance is a Pure Land. So at the end, when we leave this body, we will have no cravings and no confusion. We know where we are going. Our hearts are clear and open.This is the Land of Ulimate Bliss. When our bodies and minds are clear and happy, there is already a Pure Land in our minds. But we sentient beings are always praying for a way to go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss, to meet Amitabha. He has infinite life, infinite light, and infinite wisdom. But doesn’t infinite light, infinite life, and infinite wisdom arise from our minds?
So, one hopes, and all people hope, that everyone will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, Amitabha Buddha’s Pure Land, and receive His blessing. This is when we see Amitabha Buddha, and He blesses us Himself.He gives us His blessing that when we return to the Human Realm in our next life, we will see Maitreya Buddha. Now we are in the Era of Dharma Decay.
The Buddha that comes next is Maitreya Bhddha.After we leave this body , we hope that we will not leave the Buddhas of past , present and future. Perhaps we created affinities with
many Buddhas in our past ,so we are now luckly enough to encounter Sakyamuni Buddha.
With his Dharma we can nourish our Wisdom-life. We also hope that of the Buddhas of the future , we are lucky enough to meet Maitreya Buddha again.
So we hope to remain in the presence of all Buddhas of the past , present and future when we hear Buddha’s Right Dharma , we hope to practice as it is taught. All Buddhas from the past , present , or future all share the same path.They all came here to pass down Right Dharma.
We hope that in all our lifetimes we will not be parted from Buddhas and Right Dharma.
Our vow is to practice as it is taught
Next ,
“In life after life ,in every place,may we meet a worthy king who promotes the Three Treasures.”
“May we not be born into a home of non – Buddhist with deviant views. ”
With this vow , we hope that if we are reborn after giving up this body,the world will be at peace. We hope that the king we encounter,or the leader of the country ,whether it ia a king , president , or premire ,etc. ,has Right Knowledge , View ,and Understanding.He will cherish people with great compassion and also promote the Three Treasures.We hope that Right Dharma is present and used to educate people.
This is what we all hope. We hope to not be born into a home of non-Buddhists with deviant views. We hope to be a among Right Dharma.
Next ,
“In life after life , in every place ,may we be transformation –born in a lotus ,to an honored and victorious family ,live stable and peaceful lives ,and easily obtain food and clothing. ”
This is not easy.But everyone has this aspiration.In his text , Master Wu-Da also expressed this hope. In life after life and in every place ,may we be born in a lotus. This means that
we want to be born in a pure place. If the world is defiled ,people’s morals and ethics will degenerate.
So ,we want to be in a pure and undefiled place.We often talk about realizing a Pure Land on Earth.We hope one day the world will become a Pure Land.There , everyone will be“honored and victorious,live stable and peaceful lives”.No one will be born into remote or harsh areas.We hope the family we are born into had traditions of purity and honesty and much accumulated goodness.Then this family will be stable and happy ,and food and clothing will come easily. I hope everyone knows that if we have no concerns about food and clothing in daily living ,we live in abundance.
So everyone , carefully observe your daily living.Carefully think about your lives. We have enough clothes , food and housing.We have nothing to worry about.If we ask for anything , we only ask for this. What we just talked about seems like an issue for our next lifetime.
The effects of next life are this life’s causes. So consider how hard it is to attain these things.
Then you will be able to have self-discipline , be diligent and frugal.So let us make good vows ,establish faith , vows and practice ,and repay the Four Kinds of Grace.
If we do not repay them now ,none of our aspirations will become reality.So we must use kindness to guide our practice of compassion and understanding.
EVeryone , learning Buddhism is really this simple. To pray for the future ,just do the right things now in your daily living.
So everyone , please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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