Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Cultivate Blessings, Plant Right Causes(持戒修福種正因)
Date: September. 03. 2014
The Four Noble Truths, Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence and the Six Perfections are used to transform sentient beings. Uphold precepts and cultivate blessed conditions to plant wholesome causes and conditions.
So, as we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must apply them to our daily living. If we take good care of our minds, with every good thought we accumulate blessings. When the mind strays, it brings about boundless suffering. Where does suffering actually come from? The Buddha spoke of “suffering, causation, cessation and the Path.” These are the Four Noble Truths. They are the foundation of our spiritual practice. So, we must carefully analyze the few decades of our lives to see how many wholesome and unwholesome things we have done in the past, how many thoughts of joy, range, sadness, etc., we have given rise to. If we analyze this further, we see the “causation” of suffering is the accumulation of [these causes] throughout our lifetimes. Things that cause suffering do not only exist in our minds. The global climate is not in balance. Over the course of a year, this will result in many worrisome things occurring. When there is not rain for a month, we begin to worry about vegetable beds drying up or the people lacking water for their use. The news media begins to speculate on a drought. If two months pass [without rain], we look up at the sky and ask, “Are there clouds?” “Will it rain?” We long for rain. Perhaps it may rain every day for a whole year. Without sun, the roots of the crops in the ground will keep deteriorating and the seed itself will rot, and so on. If there is no sunlight, farmers will be very worried.
Indeed, if this period of [heavy rain] is prolonged, the price of food will rise, increasing the burden of those who live in poverty. If the climate is imbalanced for even longer, harvests will be lost and everyone in the world will worry. [Now, the weather is extreme] in all four seasons. Those in the freezing cold lead very hard lives, especially those in remote areas. Their buildings are so primitive, how could they live through even one winter day?
Every day, we can see imbalances in the world. If we quickly analyze the joy, anger, sorrow and happiness we experience in our daily living, we may find that there are not many things that truly make us happy. Moreover, there is meaningful happiness and there is happiness from meaningless things. This is something we must discern. Are any of us this mindful? The Four Noble Truths start with suffering and its causation, which is accumulated in daily living with our every thought and action. This applies to everyone in this world. The Buddha taught this. If we understand it, we will reflect on ourselves and think about ways to eliminate our suffering and to gradually alleviate the state of extreme imbalance that the climate is currently in and help it [return to normal]. Although people all over the world are becoming aware of this, there is nothing they can do other than call attention to it.
Haven’t we talked about how in England, people celebrate the Christmas holiday by buying many things? Consider just and food. In just one day, almost two million turkeys were thrown away as kitchen waste. Over ten million pies were also thrown away.In short, the amount of food wasted alone on this holiday was a huge quantity.If only, instead of wasting these things, they use these resources to help the unemployed who are leading difficult lives.In this kind of cold and freezing weather, many people are starving or freezing to death.Instead of wasting these things, they can give fresh, warm and filling food to help other people in England.Wouldn’t this be a wonderful thing to do?
This is just one holiday and celebrating it only brings momentary happiness.And is this happiness actually meaningful or not?Though there is global awareness of this [waste] and the [government] is also aware of this, can they implement policies to stop this waste?They cannot.
The same thing sharpen in Taiwan.Right now everyone is planning to celebrate the holidays with firework displays.This pollutes the environment and is also wasteful.
But is there a way to stop the fireworks?It is so wasteful, and everyone knows [it is wrong], but nothing can be done.This is a clear example of how confused people in this world are.
So, the Buddha taught us to clearly understand the “causation” of suffering accumulated in this world.Our collective karma is manifesting in this era.We must awaken in order to achieve “cessation”.To achieve “cessation” [of suffering], we must know how it comes about.Do we know?If we know this and promptly awaken, we will stop [our current actions] and stop creating karma.If people are wasteful, we must remind them to be frugal, and take what they save to give to people in need.This is the best way.If we want people to give, we do not force them; we need to teach them to happily give with equanimity.This is the Buddha’s teachings to us.It certainly contains principles which we can then share with others.
Thus, [if everyone understands] “suffering, causation, cessation and the Path” and can walk on this road, the path to awakening which is the Bodhi-path, then this world can be saved.
The Four Noble Truths, Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence and the Six Perfections help transform sentient beings.Uphold precepts and cultivate blessed conditions to plant wholesome causes and conditions.
These are the Four Noble Truths.The Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence also allows us to understand that in our lives, we must not take issue over or complain about so many things because they result from the karmic conditions we have created ourselves.
If what we have created is evil, it may affect the good family we were born into.Or perhaps we may be born with ignorance, afflictions and disobedience, etc.These are all direct retributions, which come from direct causes.
We may be born into a negative environment, with parents limited by physical or mental hindrances, or we may be born into a family with much poverty and suffering.But as long as we bring wholesome and blessed direct causes with us, if we work hard we can become one of the wealthiest people in the world.For some people, “wealth does not last beyond three generations”.This depends on whether their next generation, when entering this familial environment, bring blessed and wholesome karma with them.
If so, the family enterprise will continue to develop.
Otherwise, it will be subject to the impermanence of life and fragility of countries.So, the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence are taught specifically to help us realize that we need not complain or take issue over things, but we do need to take good care of our minds.
Then we must earnestly practice the Six Perfections to transform sentient beings through giving, upholding precepts, patience, diligence, Samadhi and wisdom.
With these Six Perfections, we can transform sentient beings, uphold precepts and cultivate blessed conditions.
We must carefully abide by the rules for being a good person.Besides practicing giving, we also must also uphold precepts and plant various wholesome causes and conditions.This is what the Buddha has taught us.As I mentioned before, He used various skillful means to establish suitable teachings for sentient beings capabilities.
He actually only wanted to speak of the supreme meaning, which is the unsurpassed, ultimate true principle.This is what we discussed yesterday. If there were sentient beings who could encounter the Buddha, they must have had the right karmic connections and roots of goodness. They must have more or less planted some wholesome causes.
So, the next passage of the sutra states, “Those who heard the Dharma practice giving, upholding precepts, patience, diligence, Samadhi, wisdom and so on, and cultivated blessings and wisdom. People such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood”.
If we had the karmic condition to heart the Dharma in the past, once we listened to the Dharma, we would know to practice giving, upholding precepts, patience, diligence, Samadhi and wisdom. This is because in our past lives, we had the blessed karma to encounter the Buddha-Dharma. For us to become human in this lifetime, we must also have had the causes and conditions to continue to listen to the Dharma. People who uphold rules and precepts, and cultivate blessings have “cultivated blessings and wisdom. People such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood”. Let us examine this next line, “Those who heard the Dharma practiced giving”.
“Those who heard the Dharma practiced giving: Sentient beings who can listen to the Dharma and give rise to Right Faith will think about the meaning behind it and practice according to the teaching. They will listen to the Dharma and then teach it to other sentient beings.”
“Those who heard the Dharma practiced giving”. This means that if we sentient beings can listen or have listened to the Buddha-Dharma, we can give rise to Right Faith. We must listen, contemplate and practice. After we listen to the Dharma, we must contemplate it carefully. “Suffering, causation, cessation and the Path,” which we just mentioned, are not that easy [understand]. We must think about where suffering comes from. It is caused by accumulation. So, we must think about how “causation” happens. In our daily living, how can we accumulate so many causes in the ever-changing and impermanent world that we end up affecting all things? What is the force we are accumulating? After understanding it, we must promptly change. We should not just stop at knowing it. The whole world knows extreme climate change is caused by the way people live their lives and the pollution from industrialization. We know all about this, but may not do anything. This is when we must practice “cessation”. We must cease these inappropriate behaviors, but that is very difficult. The difficulties in the world around us come from the difficulties in people’s minds. Rather than hoping for our greater environment to change, let us change our own surroundings and state of mind. If we can change our own state of mind, our greater environment will naturally improve. But can small changes in the environment be effective? No. This is why the Buddha wants everyone to understand [His teachings]. So, the Buddha-Dharma has to be spread widely all over the world.
“Those who heard the Dharma practiced giving”. After listening to the Dharma, we should give and let go of our greed and indulgences. We must even become frugal in our daily living so that we can practice giving and help all those who are suffering in this world. This is the giving of Right Dharma, the correct way of giving. So, we need to “giving rise to Right Faith”. We must have Right Faith in the Dharma. This is not for our own sake; we must contemplate the principles behind it. If we understand the principles behind it, our thinking will be correct and we will follow the right course and go in the right direction. This is how we practice according to teachings. This is because in the past, we have listened to the Dharma and shared it with other sentient beings. We should not be the only ones who hear it. For the Buddha-Dharma to spread, we must all listen, and in turn, teach each other. This is the right thing to do. “They will listen to the Dharma and then teach it to other sentient beings”. This is most important when we listen to Dharma. “[They practice] upholding precepts, patience”.
“[Practice] upholding precepts, patience: Those constantly mindful of precepts will remember and uphold them, not forget them and not commit evils. This is upholding precepts.”
“Upholding precepts, patience” means that all of us should always be mindful of and uphold precepts. We often say, “Organize with precepts and manage with love”. Not only do spiritual practice centers require precepts, businesses in society do as well. If we all follow rules and stay on the right course, all kinds of big corporations and enterprises can be very successful, not to mention a spiritual practice center. If we all uphold precepts, this place will be filled with an air of spiritual cultivation that can inspire and guide others. So, in our lives, we must “remember and uphold [precepts], not forget them and not commit evils”. This is upholding precepts. Evils are created by our body, speech, mind, by what our body does and what our mouth says. If our mind is wholesome, everything we say will be the Dharma. If we do not keep the precepts in our minds, the words we speak will be improper.
So, we uphold precepts to prevent wrongs and stop evils. We, as spiritual practitioners, must always abide by the precepts.We must also be patient. As we uphold precepts, we must also be patient.
When people encounter things that go against principles and are disturbing to them, if they can be broad-minded and forgiving, remain at peace and be unmoving, they have patience.
We can practice patience when “things that go against principles disturb [us]”. If we encounter someone who is unreasonable, we just let them be. In the Buddha’s lifetime, He had to deal with Devadatta, who always went against propriety and principles. So how did the Buddha handle him?
The Buddha’s principle was to be broadminded, so He forgave him with great broadmindedness. “There is no one I cannot forgive, there is no one I do not trust and there is no one I do not love.” If everyone practices the Three No’s, what is there to take issue over in this world? So, “[If they] remain at peace and be unmoving” “they have patience”. If they can open their hearts and treat everyone impartially, then there will not be anything to take issue over or be afflicted by “Diligence, Samadhi, wisdom and so on” means we should be focused, not scattered, advancing without regressing.
Those who are focused are not scattered. Those who advance will not regress. With a straightforward mind, they walk the Path ad diligently practice Right Dharma. They do all good deeds and are never indolent. This is diligence.
We must not be scattered and must keep moving forward. When something is right, we should just do it. I heard that last night, in Taipei, people packed a room to listen to a group of entrepreneurs share how they were influenced by the books from Jing Si Publishing.One successful entrepreneur said the most useful phrase for him is, “Time, space and interpersonal relationships”.Then another person also answered, “Yes, after you understand, just do it”. Yes, just do it Regardless of time, space and interpersonal relationships, when something is right, promptly seize the moment and just do it. Regardless of the location, if it is the right thing to do, no matter where we are, we should just give. In our interpersonal relationships, we must find a way to forgive.
“Do not use the mistakes committed by others to punish yourselves.” Everything is Dharma. Many entrepreneurs find it useful.
So, to “focus” is to remove discursive thoughts from our minds and then face the right direction and with a straightforward mind, walk the Path and diligently practice Right Dharma. Do all good deeds and never be indolent.This is diligence.
Dear Bodhisattvas, regardless of time, space or interpersonal relationships, everything we do in our daily living will affect all things in the world. Of course, all of us must aspire to continue teaching each other so the Buddha-Dharma can spread to more people. This is beneficial to the world around us and to all things in our lives. When we encounter the Buddha-Dharma in this world, we must seize that moment, and sustain it forever. If all sentient beings have the same mindset, the Buddha-Dharma can save the world. In order to save the world, we must save people; to save people, we need to first save our minds. So, we must take care of our inner spiritual training ground and always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
首頁 
