(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.
1 comment:
Greetings! Very helpful advice within this post!
It's the little changes which will make the most significant changes.
Many thanks for sharing!
Post a Comment