Chapter 2: Cutting off the desire and no demanding

(Chapter 2) A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha

Co-translators in the time of Eastern Han Dynasty, China(A.D. 25 - 200) : Kasyapa Matanga and Zhu Falan (Who translated the said Scripture from Sanskrit into Chinese. )

Translator in modern time (A.D.2018: Tao Qing Hsu (Who translated the said Scripture from Chinese into English.)

Teacher and writer for explaining the said Scripture: Tao Qing Hsu

Chapter 2: Cutting off the desire and no demanding

The Buddha said, “Those who go out of the family, become the Sramana, cut off the desire, remove the love, recognize the source of their own heart, reach the profound principle of the Buddha, realize the law of no-doing, have nothing being gained inside, have nothing being demanded outside, not to fasten the Dao in heart, nor to collect the karma, have no thoughts, have the no-doing, are non-practicing, are non-proving, not to experience the successive levels, but reach the own loftiest state of all, are called the Dao.”

So now, the Buddha explained what Dao means. I have to explain the original meaning of “Dao” in each chapter, because most people only read one or two of the forty-two chapters. It takes a lot of time to read or comprehend the whole chapters. You can find the broad meaning of “Dao” in the introduction of this Scripture. “Dao” is transliterated from Chinese word. It is original meaning is path, way, road. Now, what the Buddha explained about Dao is one of the broad and extended meanings. We could say that the definition of Dao of this Scripture is coming from the Buddha. Whether to accept it or not is your choice.

In the past time, the meaning of Dao confuses me a lot. Finally, I have found that it can be given a lot of different meaning in different situation. So, do not be bound to one meaning.

In fact, what the meaning of Dao in this chapter is Zen. What is Zen? It is. Zen also confuses a lot of people. They do not understand what Zen is. When I have not yet understood what is learning Buddha. I am also confused by Zen. “Zen” is also transliterated from Chinese word. It is not easy to be comprehended by the public. Those who could comprehend the Zen and put it to the practice are almost near the degree of Buddha. “Buddha” is a name which is given by people, and it is not myth. The meaning of “Buddha” is a state. The said meaning of Dao in this chapter is one of the states of “Buddha”. There are also a lot of different names which could be instead of the word “Buddha”. And those names have different meanings respectively. Some of them also mean the different states of “Buddha”.

So, we might have one question. Is there only one ”Buddha” in the world? No. Is there only one “Doctor” in the world? No. Then, we would know that there is a lot of Buddha in the world. The world includes the space and time. Regarding the space, it includes the other Solar systems and planets. Regarding the time, it includes the past, the future, and the present. In generally, Buddha exists in each space and time. The number of Buddha is immeasurable. In fact, what we have known in our world is very limited. That what we can not see or what we can not hear doesn’t mean that it does not exist, such as ultraviolet light. There are a lot of invisible objects or unheard voice in the world. No matter it is “virtue object or voice” or “evil object or voice”, we could not prove that they do not exist. From the Scripture of Buddhism, we can find this. It is pity that most people never know or read the Scripture of Buddhism. Even though they know or read the scripture of Buddhism, they could not comprehend the teaching of Buddha, such as the aforesaid what the Buddha had explained.

In the world, there are 99.99% people who seek for what the things exist and want to have something in hand, such as good education background, good title or career, fame, power, a lot of money, love, spouse or children, and so on. No one wants to be Buddha, because Buddha seems always to teach us to give up what we have attached. However, do you have ever thought that what has mentioned above had owned by the Siddhartha, before he left his family. And why his teaching could be supported proactively by people for more than two thousands years, after he had enlightened and had attained the Buddhahood. It is worth for us to think and understand its meaning, if you are interested.

The Buddha said, “Those who go out of the family, become the Sramana, cut off the desire, remove the love, recognize the source of their own heart.” The meaning of desire and love in this scripture is narrower as mentioned in the first chapter. It means that people romantically like someone or are sexually attracted. If people attach to such desire and love, their thought, mind and heart are limited. It also means that people would be bound to the little desire and love, and a lot of troubles and affliction would thus be caused.

Only when people cut off such little desire and remove the little love, it is possible for them to permanently dwell in the state of no desire and no love, and to experience the state of no trouble and no affliction. The mind and heart would be in the clearness and peace. Why? In our outside, any object or situation would not cause our attention or attachment. In our inside, since there is no attachment, any trouble or affliction would not be occurred any more.

  

And then, the great desire and great love would be thus arisen, that is, to attain the Buddhahood and to save all sentient beings. So, you may find that it seems to abandon something, but, at the same time, it seems to own the different something. We may call it as transformation or sublimation.

Secondly, to cut off the desire and to remove the love would help us to recognize the source of our own heart. As mentioned above, we would dwell in the state of no desire and no love. Maintaining such state continually, it would be possible for us to recognize the source of our own heart, that is, the Emptiness. The heart in the state of Emptiness is like the universe which includes the all. It is also like the sea which could contain all beings. So, the boundary of heart is unlimited.

“Reach the profound principle of the Buddha, realize the law of no-doing, have nothing being gained inside, have nothing being demanded outside, not to fasten the Dao in heart, nor to collect the karma, have no thoughts, have no-doing, are non-practicing, are non-proving, not to experience the successive levels, but reach the own loftiest state of all” Do you have found that such concept seems to violate our knowledge and what we have learned from school and society. So, if we use the past knowledge or logic what have learned from the school and society to read this chapter, we absolutely could not understand the meaning as said by Buddha. Most people could not understand the meaning as said by Buddha, they even misunderstand it.

We might have one question. If there is no thought and no doing, why the Buddha Siddhartha had taught and spoken of the Buddha-law for forty-nine years, and what he had thought and what he had done during this time? We might find that he has thought and done a lot, including this chapter.    

In the past, some people learned about no-thought and no doing, and fell into the death silence, in physical and mental body. They did not understand that the meaning as said by Buddha is only one state of learning Buddha. When most people have heard no-thought, no-doing, and the Emptiness, they do not know what to do, because they do not understand the profound principle of Buddha. What is the profound principle of Buddha? In a word, Emptiness and Existence are one. Or, Emptiness and Non-Emptiness are one. When we experience and keep in the state of no thought and no doing, we could realize that any thought and any doing are occurred from no-thought and no-doing. That is, any situation or any matter or any existence is occurred from the Emptiness, and finally they would return to the Emptiness.

To seat for meditation is one way to experience no-thought and no-doing. In this moment, it is possible for us to contact and recognize the real self. Then, we would furthermore recognize that our thought and doing would no longer be restricted by the worldly value or consciousness. At this moment, it is possible for our mental body to experience the real freedom. Why? The worldly value, view or consciousness is set by human. All of them are attached in the human, situation, matter or phenomenon. Those things are impermanent, because they are occurred from the inside and outside causes and conditions. Once any cause or condition is disappeared, any worldly value, view or consciousness would not be set up and would be disappeared, too. That is why the Buddha said that all of phenomenon is like the illusion. If we attach to such illusion, we are like in the darkness and do not have the wisdom.

“Have nothing being gained inside, have nothing being demanded outside” It means that we should not attach to anything of our inside or outside. The reason is just as the aforesaid.

  

“Not to fasten the Dao in heart, nor to collect the karma, have no thoughts, have no-doing.” Even the Dao as what had said in this chapter, we should not attach to it. The Buddha said that, no matter the Buddha-law or the Dao as mentioned, which is like a boat to be used to cross the river of suffering. Once we have reached the shore of liberation and freedom, the boat does not be required any more. In the Emptiness of heart, there is no Dao. But, the Dao also exists in there. Why? When we need it, we make use of it. When we do not need it, we put it down. That is why not to fasten the Dao in heart.

“Nor to collect the karma” The karma means that one’s action could influence one’s present life and future life. The karma includes the virtue karma and the evil karma. Most people know the evil karma. Only few people know the virtue karma. Such as becoming a Sramana, and putting the Dao into practice, it is viewed as the virtue karma. Doing the good things and help others is also viewed as the virtue karma. Why not to collect the karma? Here, it means the virtue karma. It is to remind the Sramana not to attach to the virtue karma. Because, even though one person do the good things and attach to it, it would also cause the trouble in heart, and become the obstacle for practicing the Dao. In other words, not to collect the karma means not to collect the trouble.      

“Have no thoughts, have no-doing” As we have mentioned above, on the basis of no-thought and no-doing, understanding the illusion of phenomenon arisen from causes and conditions, when we leave meditation of seating, any right thoughts is able to be happened, and we could do any right things, to benefit others and ourselves. Even though this, remember what the Buddha had said, not to collect the karma. After we have done any good thing, put it down, let it go and forget it.

“Are non-practicing, are non-proving, not to experience the successive levels, but reach the own loftiest state of all” It does not mean that we do not need to practice the Dao or to proving it. It means that we still have to practice the Dao, before we are in the state of non-practicing and non-proving. Such as climbing the mountain, we have to walk upward to the destination step by step. When we reach the destination or we are in the top of mountain, itself is the best proving. It means that we do not need to practice any more, when we have already practiced the Dao completely. In the deep meaning, when we have recognized the source of heart, the Emptiness, and realize the law of no-doing, have nothing being gained inside, and have nothing being demanded outside, what we should practice? What we should prove? Nothing could be practice and nothing could be proved. Practicing and proving is superfluous in itself.

As the mentioned in the first chapter, it mentioned the successive levels of the state of practicing. The Sramana is the higher level. The Arhat is lower than the Sramana. In the first chapter, it mentioned that Arhat has to go the 250 precepts. But, we can find that there are no precepts which should be obeyed by the Sramana. Why? The answer could be found in the content as mentioned above.

“The Sramana does not experience the successive levels, but reach the own loftiest state of all.” The Sramana has already proved his fruit of Dao by the way of soundless and shapeless. If one person has already been on the top of the bliss and freedom, it is not necessary for him to prove which level of bliss and freedom he is. Such as we already have a lot of fortune, should we need to prove how many wealth we are? It is not necessary, because the fact is in there. 

Even though we are not Buddhist monk or Sramana, it does not mean that we could not or are not allowed to put the Dao as said into practice. The outward of Buddhist monk and the Buddhist non-monk might be different. But, their heart and mind with practicing the Dao are no difference. In the modern time, the females should not be excluded. The gender would not be the hinder of practicing the Dao and proving the Dao.