(Chapter 9) 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 9: Return to the root and understand the Dao
The Buddha said,” Extensively hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is
certainly hard to be understood; obeying our own aspiration and keeping the
Dao, such Dao is very grand.”
Dao is Tao, which
is transliterated from Chinese character; its original meaning is path, road
and way. Then, the meaning of Dao is extended more widely and its meaning has
become more broadly with the change in time and space, such as talking, saying,
method, law, doctrine, morality, skillfulness, capability, and the thought
system of religion or education. The thought system of religion or education
includes the aforesaid meanings.
In the history and in the time of war in China, the literati, the scholarship, intellectuals, and
some of them in seclusion, they liked to study and talk about the Dao, and some
of them would put what they have studied about the Dao into practice. Then, they
concluded the concepts and created their own group, to teach their disciples.
Such situation is also happened in ancient India, in the time of Buddha
Siddhartha. In the modern time, especially in recently 300 year, there are also
different concepts or dogmas being created.
A lot of concepts
or dogmas are created from the ancient to the modern time. But, it doesn’t
mean that the concepts itself are right or wrong. The problem is how it is
applied properly by human and to benefit others. So, any concept or dogma is
some kind of Dao. But, mostly, we think that Dao is lean to the positive
concept which could benefit people and make people live a good life, including
in the material and mental areas.
Any concept or
doctrine itself has its own advantages and disadvantages. But, how do we
delimit it? In any concept or doctrine, some advantage might be a disadvantage
for others. And, some disadvantage being thought might be an advantage for
others. That is, the advantage what you have thought or the doctrine is
advantage to you might be the disadvantage to us.
There are more
than one hundred theories, concepts, principles, dogmas or doctrine in ancient
China, let alone in India, in European, or in other place. Those mentioned
above are some kind of Dao. Even though a person who has the spirit of learning
motivation and has learned a lot of knowledge, honestly, it is barely
impossible for him to comprehend the all, let alone some concepts might be
never heard or seen by people, such as this scripture. To have the knowledge of
Dao is one thing; to put the knowledge of Dao into practice is another.
In the chapter 2,
the Buddha had defined the Dao for their disciples.
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.”
Such Dao is also
suitable for all people. But, it is hard to most people to understand, let
alone to practice it. For most people, they think that such Dao is no useful
for their life. But, if you could understand it deeply, you could find it is
very useful for our life, even though we are not disciples of Buddha. If you
are interested in the content of chapter 2 that I had explained, you can find
here(Chapter 2)A
Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha.
“Extensively
hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is certainly hard to be understood. “ Here,
the first Dao means a lot of doctrine. The second Dao means the Dao which is
explained by Buddha. It also means that it would not help us specialize in the
truth, if we extensively hear and like a lot of doctrine. But, I think that it would
help us open our mind and increase our knowledge. And it also help us to judge
and choice what kind of doctrine is suitable for us.
All the teachings
of Buddha include the philosophy, psychology, ethics, medicine, sociology,
economics, science, physics and politics. If we widely involved such knowledge,
and we have the fundamental concept of Buddhism, we would find that. Of course,
the Buddhism is not classified in those respectively academic. The Buddhism is
not used for researching in any academic, but for researching to our inner
heart and practicing it in our real life. Then, we would find that the truth is
in our heart, not from any research of academic, and also not from any outside
supreme Spirit. That is the truth that the Buddha wants us to know.
When we are lack
of knowledge and are thus ignorant, we are easy to be bounded by and attach to
one doctrine, especially, those persons who are poor and are oppressed by the pressure
of life. For them, the Dao explained by Buddha is almost useless.
In the history,
unfortunately, there is always the people to use the doctrine what they think
it is right, to use it as their faith, and use the military power or the other
means to force others people to obey their doctrine. The more worse is that
they constrain the other doctrine to be transmitted and oppress or kill the
people who practice these doctrines.
From the history,
we can find that the Buddhism in the beginning is accepted by those people who
are more educated, own more knowledge, and are in the high status, such as the
emperor, or the prime minister. Ordinary people barely have the chance to hear
or read The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapter Said by Buddha, except for being a
Buddhist monk or nun. Most people just know to pray the Buddha to bless them to
have a good and peaceful life. But, they do not know, to have a good and
peaceful life is based on what they do in compassion and wisdom, and in
knowledge. That is why the Buddhism was ever regarded as blind faith.
Fortunately, those noble persons protect the Buddhism.
So, the Buddha
said,” Extensively hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is certainly hard to be
understood.” In a word, it means that we could understand the truth, only when
we profoundly realize the Dao and put it into practice intently.
The Buddha said,”
Obeying our own aspiration and keeping the Dao, such Dao is very grand.” Even
though these words are said to disciples of Buddha, it is also good for us. We
might be curious about what the aspiration for the disciples of Buddha is, and
why Buddha had said that.
In the deep
contemplation under the Bodhi tree, The Buddha had perceived that there are
three kinds of sentient beings about their root of wisdom. He had classified
them as higher root, intermediate root and lower root in wisdom. Why is it
called the root of wisdom? The root of wisdom could bear the fruits of Buddha. And
he also had used the container as a metaphor to describe how the degree is that
the sentient beings could accept the teaching of Buddha, and how the degree is
that they could achieve the goal. He also had classified it as large container,
middle container and small container.
If people are
compared and described as the large container, it means such people could
accept the deep doctrine said by Buddha. On the contrary, if people are
compared and described as the small container, it means such people could not
accept the deep doctrine, and could only accept the simplistic doctrine.
So, we connect
the word ”root” and “container” to be “root-container”. We can explain it as
that the container could storage the root; the large container could hold the
large root; the small container could only hold the small root of wisdom. The
Buddha then had classified sentient beings as large root-container, which means
it has the large wisdom; middle root-container, which means that it has the
intermediate wisdom; and small root-container, which means it only has the
little wisdom.
No matter the
wisdom is large or little, it is unrelated to the academic experience, social
status, age, IQ, and illiteracy. So, it is very important to give up the
prejudice and the restriction coming from any concept.
Those who are in
poor have no chance to accept the teaching of Buddha. do you know how many they
are in the world? They are more than half of the world's population. So, if you
have ever read The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha, you are
really lucky and blissful. Why? First, you might be in the wealth so you can
use the smartphone or computer to read this chapter. Second, you might be
healthful so you have the energy to read this chapter. Third, you have time and
brain to study this chapter. Be positive thinking is always good for life.
Now, we return
back to the question what the aspiration for the disciples of Buddha is. Do you
know how many disciples there are? According to the records in the history, there
are 2500 disciples to follow the Buddha. As we have mentioned above, the
disciples of Buddha are classified as large root-container, middle
root-container, and small root-container.
So, according to
the difference of root-container, what the Buddha had taught to them is also
different. There is a saying,” Teaching in accordance with the aptitude of
student”. The teaching of Buddha is very enlightened, that is Q&A, and
there is a lot of “why” or "by what the cause and condition is" coming
from the inquiry of disciples. If you have ever read any scripture in Buddhism,
you would find it.
Of course, according
to the difference of the root-container, there is about the deep question or
the shallow question, so their aspirations are different. Then, what is the
difference of their aspirations?
Those who are
small root-container could little understand what the Buddha had taught, but,
at least, could be carefully not to make any mistakes, just ask for not go to
the hell, and wish that after dying, it is better to have the chance to go to
the heaven or the pure land created by Buddha Amitabha. In there, they still
have the chance to accept the teaching of Buddha and to learn the Buddha.
Those who are
middle root-container could not realize the real Dao said by Buddha, could be
enlightened a bit, and put it into practice in life at times, but, not
completely. They also obey the precepts and further do the good thing, to save
sentient beings to liberate from suffering. They also could teach and explain
what the Buddha had taught, but, just according to the words to explain the
meaning, not from their real practice and also not from their personal
enlightenment. Even though this, they have wished to become Buddha in future
life and to go to the pure land created by Buddha after their dying.
Those who are large
root-container could realize the real Dao said by Buddha, could be enlightened,
and put it into practice in real life. They could teach and explain what the
Buddha had taught based on their real practice and their personal
enlightenment. What they taught is very alive, and not be bounded to the words.
Furthermore, it is very possible for them to attain the Buddhahood, to become
Buddha, in the present life. They would create the pure land in heart by
themselves. Where to go after their dying? Just be there.
These three kinds
of persons have one common basis, that is, their minds have been inspired by
Buddha and they thus have wished to attain the Buddhahood, to become Buddha, in
the future. This is the first and very important aspiration which has been
obeyed. On the basis, they could learn the Buddha and accept what the Buddha
had taught, and thus to keep the Dao. Keeping the Dao to become Buddha is their
final goal. Why it is very grand? The all Buddha-law is completely understood
and achieved, and the all virtue is solemn, after becoming Buddha. That is why
such Dao is very grand for them.
Then, we might
have a question. What is the Buddha-law? In generally speaking, the Buddha-law
includes the all, the positive thing and the negative thing, and whether it is
positive or negative which are judged by the human subjective consciousness. But, in the concept
of Buddha-law, the delimited things sometimes might be broken, because the fact
might be not what we have seen and what we have thought.
Furthermore, if
we can properly apply the Buddha-law with our wisdom in our life, it could make
our life alive and live well. But, if we could not apply the Buddha-law
properly, we might “die” in the Buddha-law, which means no elasticity and no
creation in our life.
So, we have
understood that, whether such Dao is very grand or not, is not concerned about
others, also not concerned about you and me, but concerned about the person who
has wished to attain the Buddhahood, to become Buddha.
As mentioned
before, Buddha is a substantive noun given by people. It means a state of
Emptiness and Non-Emptiness, which include the peace, the wisdom, compassion, and the
soul of kindness.
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