(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.
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