Chapter 12 ﹝20﹞ : Good at understanding the convenience is difficult.

(Chapter 12 ﹝20﹞ ) 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 ﹝20﹞ : Good at understanding the convenience is difficult.

Good at understanding the convenience is difficult, which is the twentieth difficulty in the twenty difficulties said by Buddha Shakyamuni in this Chapter.

The meaning here for good at understanding the convenience is meant to reform and save sentient beings to help them liberate from the suffering in life and death by the various methods of the convenience. Such good at understanding the convenience is difficult for the general people, if they do not really understand the Buddhism and put the Buddha’s teaching into the practice.

As we have mentioned before, the Buddha’s teaching is self-reflection, not to demand others people to reflect themselves; it is to demand the self-discipline, not to discipline others people; it is also to demand the self-control, not to control others people; it must at first be completely self-reforming and self-saving from suffering, the person then would have the ability to reform and save others people. In a word, the Buddha’s teaching is self-demanding about the liberation from the suffering. Except for this, what it can do is to advise and bless the sentient beings to liberate from the suffering in life and death. So, in Buddhism, there is no such concept about betraying anyone. That is because no matter what the individual has done, the individual is responsible for the self and its personal causality. That is the causality of karma. 

To know this is very important, because the human beings are very easy to be affected and controlled by any seemed-plausible concepts, which seems reasonable and are the propaganda by any evil persons. If we do not understand the concept of Buddhism as mentioned above, we would be easy to be affected and controlled by the evil persons; even they are looked not like evil persons and what they have talked about is not like evil words.

In the news, we have found a lot about the crime of religion. There is the same point in all of them. They claim that they want to help people and save them from the suffering. However, the used methods are to control the mind and action of the disciples (or followers), even to slave, threaten, scare and harass them. The more worse is to bully them by violence and to imprison them. If they tell you, what they have used is the method of the convenience or is individual teachings. That is bullshit.

So, when we want to learn Buddha or want to liberate from suffering, we must have the common sense, knowledge and wisdom, so that we would not be fooled or concealed by any seemed-plausible reasons.

What is the really good at understanding the convenience in Buddhism? When the Buddha Shakyamuni sat in the meditation, he had found that all sentient beings are different in look, personality, mind, knowledge, intelligence, language, opinion, life, background and education. Meanwhile, what they own about worries, troubles, retribution, blessing and what are their age, gender, career, and karma, are also different. And it is also different about what they are obsessed with and what their destinies are.

Therefore, in the 49 years, the Buddha Shakyamuni has spoken of the different Buddha-law for the different sentient beings. What you know about Amitabha or Mahayana Buddhism is just only one part of all Buddhism. Some people think that the Buddha Shakyamuni only speaks of the Buddha-law for the Buddhist monk or nun. If you are in such concept, it is totally wrong. In fact, when the Buddha Shakyamuni spoke of the Buddha-law, the listeners include the human beings, such as general persons of male or female, non-monk and non-nun which are living on earth, and also include the sentient beings which are coming from the different worlds. According to our current scientific knowledge, the different worlds mean the alien planets, different solar systems, different universes or the different dimensional spaces.

According to the different wisdom of the sentient beings, the content of the Buddha-law spoken by the Buddha Shakyamuni may be difficult for us to understand or may be easy for us to accept it. There is no specific Buddha-law what it should be. What we can accept and we can obtain the benefit from the practicing is the best Buddha-law for us. For example, Amitabha may be accepted by some people and they thus are positive to practice the Buddha-law of Amitabha. However, for some people, they don’t think so and are not interested in practicing the Buddha-law of Amitabha. Therefore, there is no right or wrong. Just respect every one what they have choice.

In Buddhism, there is no division. Whatever which kind of Buddha-law we have choice in Buddhism, the goal that we want to attain the Buddhahood is the same. What the different is the time what we have spent is long or short, the process what we have experienced is difficult or easy and the personal wisdom what we have been enlightened is more or less.

According to the teaching of Buddha, even any religions which seems not belong to Buddhism are regarded as one part of Buddhism. Any religions in any worlds are also regarded as one part of Buddhism, even there is no such word “Buddha”, because there is no boundary and limitation in Buddhism.

So, basically, the Buddhism contains all religions and wouldn’t reject any religions, because all of them are regarded as the methods of the convenience. One day, if they are enlightened in wisdom, they would go to the path of Bodhisattva, even there is no such word ”Bodhisattva” or the word “Fo” or “Pusa” transliterated from Chinese.

Why? Because all things are included in the nature of emptiness, any word and any language are just for helping human beings to understand their own nature, the self-nature and the Buddha-nature. No matter what we are and what we belief, we could not deny our own self-nature and Buddha-nature. What the pity is that most people do not know that they have the self-nature and Buddha-nature inside. And some of them thus do so many harmful things to human beings.

The Buddha Shakyamuni introduced a lot of Buddha and Bodhisattva which is about what they have done in their past life and why it made them be Buddha or Bodhisattva. Each Buddha or Bodhisattva has its own name and the name is about their merit and virtue or their blessing. Some of the story is quit interesting. Why the Buddha Shakyamuni want to introduce so many Buddha or Bodhisattva? If he just introduces himself, it is so boring, right? So, he introduces the different Buddha or Bodhisattva to give us the goal and hope, so that we would wish us to be like them some day. That is the method of the convenience.   

Furthermore, each Buddha or Bodhisattva introduced by Buddha Shakyamuni has its own vow and its methods of convenience to help people liberate from the suffering. Amitabha is one of them. Avalokiteśvara, the Pusa World-sound-perceiving, is also one of them. Both of them are universally known in China and Taiwan. And they are accepted by the people who believe the teaching of Buddha.

What is the method of convenience about Buddha Amitabha? The famous method is to recite or chant the name of Buddha Amitabha in the way of single-mind. So the persons would also have the compassion as Buddha Amitabha. They would birth in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha after the end in this life. They would live in a peaceful and joyful life in there. And then they could still accept the teaching of Buddha until they have completely attained the Buddhahood.

We could recite or chant the name of Buddha Amitabha in our daily life, such as walking, taking a bus. It would help us focus our mind so that our mind won’t be like a messy whirlpool. And we would be blessed and protected by the vow of Buddha Amitabha. 

Any music, drawing or painting about Buddha Amitabha is also the method of convenience. There is a lot of music and painting in Internet, such as YouTube, which we could find the different song of language or different look of painting about Amitabha. The language of Chinese or Tibet about Buddha Amitabha may be no meaning for you, because it is not your language. Why not to create your song in your language, if you are interested in the method of convenience about Buddha Amitabha?

What is the method of convenience about Avalokiteśvara, the Pusa World-sound-perceiving, Guanyin? Which you can find in the article: Pusa World-Sounds-Perceiving in Universally Door Chapter, Liberating people from suffering with benevolence and wisdom, if you are interested in this article. Any music, drawing or painting about Pusa World-sound-perceiving is also the method of convenience, which you also can find in Internet.

Except above, what you can think about and which can be made as creation, which theme could inspire the wisdom of human beings, are the methods of convenience, such as sand painting, sand sculpture, drama, literature, and cartoon. 

Furthermore, the four assimilating-methods which we have mentioned in Chapter 12 ﹝18﹞ are also the methods of convenience taught by Buddha Shakyamuni.

All the methods of the convenience is just for enlightening the wisdom of human beings, or is to reform people and save them to liberate from suffering. All the methods of the convenience could only be enforced by peaceful way, and could not be enforced by violence or by compelling.  

To know above, it would not be difficult for us to be good at understanding the methods of the convenience, when we have the compassion and want to help people liberate from the suffering.