(Chapter 12 ﹝10﹞ ) 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 we contact with things and there is no heart, it is difficult for us. 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 ﹝10﹞: When we contact with things and there is no heart, it is difficult for us. (Updated on August 21, 2021)
When we contact with things and there is no heart, it is difficult for us (It is difficult for people when they met any situation and had no heart.). It is the tenth difficulty in the twenty difficulties said by Buddha Shakyamuni in this Chapter.
"No heart" doesn't mean heartless or no feeling. "No heart" means no
anger, no greed, no resentment, no hatred, no retaliation, no infatuation, no
stupidity, no stinginess, no contempt, no arrogance, no criticism, no arguing, no
jealousy, and no suspicion. It means there is no negative emotion or negative
status in any situation. All these negative
emotion or status is always happened on everyone. How could it be possible for
us to have no heart when we are meeting something in our life? For example,
most people are very easy to be irritated by a little thing. Then, the emotion
of anger is happened. When meeting the thing of self advantage, the greedy
heart would be happened in most people. Then, we know when we contact with any things and there is no heart, it is really very
difficult for us.
So, we could find
that our heart and mind are easy to be influenced by any inner or outer
situation, phenomenon, object or appearance, whatever it is good or bad,
beautiful or ugly, positive or negative, virtue or evil. All the emotion,
feeling or status as caused, such as anger, hatred, greed, infatuation, is like
a shapeless rope to drag us or to bind us, which make us un-free and make us
have burden in heart. Those are stumbling blocks to life, to hinder our life to
go well. Such all kind of
variety caused by inner heart is like the kaleidoscope to form our inner world
and our outer world. Whatever it is the emotion of sadness or of joyfulness, it
is impossible to permanently dwell in our heart. It is always changing and
changing.
So, the Buddha
said,” All law is created by heart.” It also means that the whole world in our
inside or in our outside is created by our own heart. Then, what could decide
our own fate? It is only our own heart which could decide our own fate. How to
change our bad fate? To change our heart is to change our bad fate. There is reason
to be poor. There is reason to be rich. There is reason to be in suffering.
There is reason to be in happiness. However, do you really know what the reason
is?
In the Buddhist
Scripture, the Buddha said, ” One should dwell in no-place and then to generate its heart.” “Should dwell in no-place”, it means that one should not dwell in any phenomenon or any existence or any emptiness. "Not to dwell in" means "not to attach to" or "not to cling to" or " not to infatuate with" something. It also means to make us have no negative heart to any situation. However, what it
means about " to generate its heart " in this sentence? It means that we generate the heart of benevolence, empathy, and gladness to all
sentient beings. It also means that we arise the heart of wisdom and thus to abandon
the stubborn mind so as to do positive things for all sentient beings. In the deeper
meaning, it also means to let the Bodhi heart arise. That is the heart to
become Buddha, to achieve the Buddhahood. It is the very important key point,
if we want to be in a life completely full of the happiness and the
abundance.
When we do not dwell in any phenomenon and any heart which might affect our life and fate,
and might make our life and fate worse and more negative would not arise. If we choose the
heart of benevolence, empathy, and gladness, we thus would decide our good
direction of our own life and fate, to make our life and fate better and more
positive. When we have such
concept and put it into practice profoundly in our daily life, then, it would
be possible for us when we contact with things and there is no heart. The heart of wisdom is naturally there. To have no negative heart, everything goes well. That is also means everything goes well with the natural heart of wisdom.
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.
