Chapter 5: Correct the vice into the good deed

(Chapter 5) 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 5: Correct the vice into the good deed

The Buddha said,” People have a lot of faults, yet don’t know to repent, suddenly let their heart rest, and the sins come to the body; such as the water return to the sea, being deep and wide gradually. If people have faults, resolve them by themselves and know the mistake, correct the vice and do the good, the sins would be vanished by themselves; such as illness cause the sweaty, being healed gradually.”

No matter whether the status is noble or low in the worldly eyes, people are not holy human. There must be fault in the life. In the chapter four, there are mentioned about ten evil deeds. That is faults. Any one of them is also one of the causes which could incur the bad result in the life. Such as stealing because of greedy heart, it could cause the result of poverty. Or such as killing with hatred, it could cause the result of serious disease or dying badly.

Fortunately, there always are the chances for us to repent our faults. However, not everyone can grasp this opportunity, because they do not perceive their own faults. What badly is that someone has made the mistake but they still think what they have done is right. In the history, we can find such persons a lot, who cause the tragic world, and finally, the end of their life is terrible.

The sins would cause the retributions. If people do not know to repent their faults, their sins come to the body such as the water return to the sea, being deep and wide gradually. It means that the sins and the retributions would become bigger and bigger.

There is a verse said by Buddha:

Even if through the hundred eons,

The evil karma does not be disappeared.

When the cause is met by the condition,

The person still has to bear its own retribution by oneself.

“If people have faults, resolve them by themselves and know the mistake, correct the vice and do the good, the sins would be vanished by themselves; such as illness cause the sweaty, being healed gradually.” It means to repent our faults and do the good things, then, the sins won’t come to our body and any retribution would not appear. It is like to have a cold. The cold would be healed gradually when we lie down on a bed, cover a bed quilt and let our body sweat. This also tells us that it is not difficult to resolve our faults and do the good thing.      

In the Buddhism, there is the basic classwork of learning Buddha for the just getting started, that is to repent our faults for what happened in our present life and in our past life. In the concept of the Buddhism, everyone must be responsible for and burden the result of what they have done. The evil karma is made by whom, which person should be responsible to eliminate its own evil karma by oneself, because the retribution caused by the evil karma would not happen to other person, but to the doer itself.

When we do the repent, we do not repent toward the agent of Buddha, such as Buddhist monk, but, we do our repent to Buddha directly. For the beginning learner or for the learner who could not understand the Buddha-nature for a long time, Buddha is someone else. So, when they have made the mistake again after the repent, they are panic to ask for the forgiving of Buddha, because they are afraid of the sins coming to their body.

But, for those who have understood and realized the Buddha-nature, Buddha is not someone else, but having been converged in their heart. That is two in one; the sentient beings are equal to Buddha. Those who are in this state are basically to have done the repent for their faults for a long time and rare to make the mistake again.

Any wise Buddhist monk or nun, or the enlightened Buddha-learner would not replace the Buddha to forgive anyone. They also have no right to replace Buddha to punish Buddhist because the disciples do not believe in what they have taught about the Buddhism, or because they think that the disciples betray the Buddha. Why? In Buddhism, the first, no argument is one of the Buddha-law. Secondly, any result of personal retribution is arisen from the cause made by oneself. Therefore, to let the personal retribution vanish only depends on the personal action, such as correcting the vice and doing the good.

Someone use the Buddha-law, such as the ten good virtues, to view others faults when people do not obey the ten good virtues. For example, when I began to learn Buddha, I sometimes heard someone to say that some Buddhist nuns had fought with each other in the temple, or that some of the Buddha-learner had done a lot of evil things, such as the negative news.

This is to misuse the Buddha-law. In fact, Buddha-law is to regulate oneself, not to regulate others. Whether to learn the virtue of Buddha or not is coming from the self-motivation, not from the force by others. So, whether to obey the ten good deeds is coming from the autonomy, not from the lure or threaten or violence.

A country might use the lure, threaten or violence to force people to obey its country-law. But, Buddha-law cannot be used like that. If Buddha-law is used like that, it would violate the country-law and also violate the Buddha-nature, the compassion and wisdom. Why? The country-law is directly to regulate the public, the people in the country. But, Buddha-law is used for the personal spiritual improvement, from the self-help to help others, from the self-benefit to benefit others, and from the self-realization to help others realize by themselves. Therefore, it is the very important judgment when we chose a community of learning Buddha.