Chapter 12 ﹝5﹞: Being born in the time of Buddha is difficult

(Chapter 12 ﹝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 12: List the difficulties and exhort to practice   

The Buddha said,” There are twenty difficulties for people. Giving something to others is difficult when people are in poor. Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility. It is hard to the people when they must die because their lives have to be abandoned. Being able to see the scripture of Buddha is difficult. Being born in the time of Buddha is difficult. Enduring the erotic and desire is difficult. Seeing the self-interest and not to pursue it is difficult. No resentment when being humiliated is difficult. When having the authority and not to draw near to ordinary people  is difficult. When contact with things and no heart  is difficult. Learning widely and researching extensively are difficult. Removing the ego-arrogance is difficult. Not to despise the un-learner is difficult. Practicing the equality in heart is difficult. Not saying its right or wrong is difficult. Meeting the good-knowledge person is difficult. Seeing the Nature and learning the Dao are difficult. According to conditions to reform people so as to save them is difficult. Seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart are difficult. Good at understanding the convenience is difficult.

Chapter 12 ﹝5﹞: Being born in the time of Buddha is difficult

What is Buddha?

Being born in the time of Buddha is difficult. This is the fifth difficulty said by Buddha Shakyamuni in this Chapter. Buddha Shakyamuni was lived in the year between 563 and 483 BCE and his living range was in the north India. “Buddha” is a title and means “the person who is awaken or enlightened, meanwhile, who is liberated from all suffering in life and death, and who also has the ability to help sentient beings liberate from all suffering in life and death.”

Brief description of Buddha Shakyamuni

The title “Buddha Shakyamuni” is called by the Buddhist disciples and the public. The worldly name of Buddha Shakyamuni is Siddhartha. Siddhartha was an ordinary person, just like you and me. He was a prince and educated well. He also had the marriage and a child, a boy. Before he left the family, he was expected by his parents to be a king.

He had found that being a king could not resolve the personal problem, that is the suffering in life and death, let alone to help the others resolve their personal problem, that is also the suffering in life and death. He had found that everyone could not avoid the four sufferings, that is, the suffering of life, of aging, of disease, and of death. Then, he sought for the methods to liberate himself from the sea of personal suffering. That is why he began to practice the Dao (the Dao of Buddha) and then proceeded with the course for speaking of Buddha-law and the teaching of Buddha-law during 49 years, after he had achieved the Buddhahood in his 31 years old.

Everyone has Buddha-nature and is equal to each other on this principle and basis.

In his teaching, he did not deify himself to be a god. Meanwhile, he did not control or harm others by the name of god. In other word, he did not rely on the strong to bully the weak. What he had told us is a truth, that is, everyone had the Buddha-nature which could let us become Buddha. In this point, everyone is equal to each other and is equal to Buddha. He had proved it by himself and had showed it to us. In other word, he wanted us to know that we could achieve the Buddhahood as him someday.  

What is the special about Buddha?

Then, we might have a question. What is the special about Buddha? Buddha owns the honor of bliss, virtue and wisdom at the same time, is the teacher of the human beings in heaven and on earth, and is also respected by them. There is no gender difference to become Buddha. In other word, woman or girl could also become Buddha.

The benevolent and smiled god of wealth, Buddha Maitreya.

There is a lot of Buddha in the universe, including the past and the future. Buddha Shakyamuni is not the only Buddha. He had mentioned that there is a lot of Buddha before and after his time. What the viewpoint of time from Buddha Shakyamuni, the time is very long and it is beyond our knowledge and understanding. He had mentioned that the next Buddha being born in this world is Maitreya. That would be after 56 hundred million years. In other word, the time from one Buddha being born to the next Buddha being born in the world, it is very long.

“Maitreya” is originally the Sanskrit and means benevolence, mercy and compassion. Buddha Maitreya has some of the different appearance which is created by the human’s imagination, and I think that is not what the really appearance of Buddha Maitreya. Anyway, do not be bound by any appearance of any Buddha, but to know the essence of Buddha's teaching.

In China and Taiwan, the outward appearance of Buddha Maitreya is a Buddhist monk with many smiles and relaxed sitting position. He has a little fat and upper body naked, and it is highlighting his round belly. Mostly, one of his hands holds a gold ingot and the other hand holds Buddhist-beads or wishful treasure. Meanwhile, he carries a fabric backpack on his back. So, he is also called Buddhist monk Fabric-backpack. There is a folk hymn to describe him:

The Big belly can tolerate things that are difficult to be tolerated for the world;

The mercy face often smiles and smiles to the ridiculous people in the world.

Secondly, such outward appearance of Buddha Maitreya as described above is always regarded as the god of wealth by the folk. And we can see such statues at the general stores. It means that the bosses of the stores hope to luckily have the wealth.

In Buddhist Scripture, the Buddha Shakyamuni said that the human beings are benevolence, mercy, compassion, wealthy and healthy, and have the longevity life to be 1000 years, in the time of Buddha Maitreya. Meanwhile, each one is happily interested in learning Buddha.  

The Buddha Shakyamuni also said that the world what we have been now are more evil and more trouble. And the people in this world are not easy to be taught. In other word, those who are willing to learn Buddha and could learn it well are few. In the history of China, there are some Buddhist monk who learn Buddha well and vows to reborn in the time of Buddha Maitreya and to encounter him, so as to have the chance to keep learning Buddha and to follow the path of Buddha Maitreya, and to support him to continue the teaching of Buddha.

If we could be born in the time of Buddha, we would have the chance to meet the Buddha and be taught by the Buddha. That is also to mean that we have a lot of chance to be saved by the Buddha and to liberate ourselves from our suffering, such suffering includes the suffering of reincarnation.

But, I have to tell you that the above speaking is one of the teachings from Buddha Shakyamuni. Such speaking is for the beginners in Buddhism and is to hope them to cherish their human body and time to learn Buddha. Therefore, they would be willing to learn Buddha well in the present, and to have more chance to be born in the time of Buddha and to encounter them.

The human beings in heaven still keep learning Buddha.

In the viewpoint of Buddha, doing the good for going to the heaven and enjoying the bliss in there could not really liberate the personal suffering. In the teaching of Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni had mentioned that, even the human beings in heaven, they would have to meet the suffering of aging and of death. The human beings in heaven might be reincarnated into hell after the ending of their enjoyed bliss and their death, if they did not have the chance to hear the teaching of Buddha.

Buddha Shakyamuni also had mentioned that, there are thirty-three heavens and which could be classified into three, which are the realm of desire, the realm of material-form, and the realm of no material-form. What we have known about the god in the Greek and Roman Mythology might be the human beings in heaven in the realm of desire.  

Buddha Shakyamuni had also mentioned that, some of the human beings in heaven in the realm of desire also have the heart and mind of hatred. Such human beings of heaven would fight with the other human beings of the other heaven. So, there is also the war in some heavens. Such human beings have the great bliss. However, they still have not yet liberated themselves from the suffering. They have to go into hell after the ending of their life in heaven someday. The amount of human beings in heaven which is mentioned by Buddha Shakyamuni is countless more than the human beings on earth. Even though we might not feel their existence, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. For example, do you think that the all ants could feel the existence of human beings on earth?  

Don't kill self and others is one of the basic teachings of Buddha.

In the Scripture of Buddha, there is rare to mention about the war. That is, in the time of Buddha and in the living range of Buddha, the world is more peaceful. Even today, there are some people who are living in the war; and there is almost not existed the Buddhism in those place. In the history, we could find that most of those people to attack others, to bully others, and to fight to the other country’s people are not Buddhists. Why? It is because that don't kill self and others is one of the basic teachings of Buddha. But, Buddhists will also defend themselves in support of Buddhism without being destroyed.

Being human beings born in the world is difficult.

In the Scripture of Nirvana, Buddha Shakyamuni had said that, being human beings born in the world is difficult; encountering the Buddha-world is difficult; it is so difficult such as in the big sea, a blind turtle meets a hole floating on the sea. In other word, this is a small chance.

We could image that a blind turtle swims in the big sea, meanwhile, there is a hole floating on the sea in the other side. The blind turtle and the hole are respectively floating or sinking with the wind and the waves in the different realm. If the head of the blind turtle wants to meet into the hole, the probability is very low.

Being human beings born in the world and encountering the Buddha-world is like the head of the blind turtle to meet into the hole, the chance is very small. That is also to tell us that, to obtain the body of human beings is difficult and to hear the Buddha-law is also difficult, even though we are not born in the time of Buddha. If we have the chance to obtain the body of human beings, we should cherish our body to hear the Buddha-law. That is to cherish our Buddha-nature and to learn Buddha well. 

Supplementary note: Dao is transliterated from Chinese, meaning way and method, deeper meaning as a system of learning or religion. Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese. The original meaning of Dao is the way and path, and it is extended to be the truth of life that we can learn and practice in our lives.