Chapter 25: The fire of desires burns the body.

(Chapter 25) 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 25: The fire of desires burns the body.  

The Buddha said,” For the people, the love and desire are such as holding a burning torch to walk against the wind, and which absolutely has the trouble of burning your hands.” 

Humans are born by love and desire. The humans being produced by the artificial reproduction is also derived from the parents' love and desire. Love and desire is the root of human nature. Mostly, love and desire is related to the eroticism.

But, I hope that you know that love and desire is not just concerning about eroticism, because love and desire can be connected with the money, authority, social status, social reputation, social control and luxury life such as to have good cars, gorgeous clothes, delicious eating and luxurious living.

When we insight such root of human nature and what have been done, we can understand anyone’s motivation. Even though they use any upside-down and twisted reasons to fool the masses, it is impossible to fool us.  

The source of love and desire is mostly coming from the personal selfishness. It is very rare to come from the selfless love and desire. Selfishness and selflessness are coming from the same heart of one person. If this heart is enlightened, it can be selfless to face the all sentient beings. However, if this heart is unable to be enlightened, it becomes negative and selfish and what have been done is just want to take the advantage from the world.

Whether the heart of one person is selfish or not, it is not concerning about what and how a person has educated, but it is concerning about whether its heart is enlightened or not. Unfortunately, those who have the more education will have the more love and desire to grasp the resource of the world, and will not share the resource to all mankind, that is because their heart is not enlightened.

In the history of China, the corrupt officials always have the good background of education and the appointment through national examination. They collect a lot of gold, money and valuables. They also have many wives. They grasp the resource of the country and do not will to share it to the civilians.

Whenever the new emperor took office, he began to sweep away the corrupt officials of the previous emperor. The outcome of the corrupt officials is not only to go into jail or to be executed, but all property is also confiscated by the state. And this situation has been repeated again and again, China has not learned the lessons and reforms from history. Those who want to be official are because of their selfish love and desire so as they can collect the more gold, money and valuables for themselves and their families. Such situation is not just existed in China, but also existed in many countries in the world.

Such officials don’t have the selfless mind to share the resource of the country for the civilians and don’t have the kind mind to take care of them, let alone that they can respect them. Violence from the government to the civilians often occurs in this situation.

Unfortunately, selfish love and desire are not just exists in the officials, but also exists in the families. Many families have their own family business and property. Those who have the more selfish love and desire for the family business and property would have the intention to occupy the resource of the family. Disputes between brothers to fight for property often occur in such situation. Mental and physical violence also occur in this situation. Injuries and deaths can also occur.

Selfish love and desire is more coming from the eroticism. Why those people want to occupy the resource or to collect the money, gold and valuables? We can find that it is because they want to raise more wives or women who they love and desire, and their children. Moreover, it is also because they have obsessed with the authority, reputation and the luxury life.

Many people fall into this life situation and don't think there is anything wrong with this. They are even proud of this value. Unfortunately, they do not know what the moral wealth is. Wealth obtained in an immoral way is not real wealth. It will eventually turn into smoke and gone. However, the crime and mistake are recorded and will not be disappeared.

For people, eroticism is like walking with a burning torch against the wind, and there must be the worry of burning your hands. In eroticism, it is more concerning about the erotic desire and money. If the desire for the erotic and money is not contented, emotional disputes occur. People will lose their minds. Mental and physical violence also occur in this situation. Injuries and deaths cannot be avoided.

Therefore, we must be careful about any personal selfish love, desire and eroticism. The most important is to be cautious about the selfish love, desire and eroticism of the self so as to avoid any harm or any crime or mistake.

Of course, what we want to review is not others, but ourselves. Avoiding us as a slave to ourselves’ selfish love and desire can prevent us from becoming a slave to others’ selfish love and desire. It is very important. When we thoroughly understand this, our heart can therefore truly be enlightened and realize the truth, and transform selfish love and desire into selfless love and desire. Only in this way can we really benefit the world. We thus naturally can make merits and virtues, and gain moral wealth from it.

The basic introduction of the concept of Zen and how to enter the realm of Zen?

Author: Tao Qing Hsu

The word “Zen” is transliterated from Chinese, and is composed by two Chinese characters, which is the character "express" and "single". Therefore, the literal meaning of the Chinese character in Zen is to express single.

From the literal meaning of the Chinese word ”Zen”, we will be more easy to understand what the Zen means and enter the realm of Zen. Now we know that Zen is to express single. That is, there is no duality (no dualism). Duality here means an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or two aspects of something. For example, "right" and "wrong"; "good" and "evil"; "yes" or "no".

This kind of binary exists in our logic training or any life education. It has become an integral part of our lives. We can say that it has become the inertia of our lives. Such concept of dualism has kidnapped our lives and affects a lot of aspects of our lives. However, we are not alert to this.   

We all know that only one palm doesn't make a sound. Many conflicts in humans are generated from the duality. It is as if two palms to make sounds. If we realized the profound meaning of Zen, we will find that there are many ridiculous absurdities in the consciousness of human opposition, whether in dictatorship or democracy, or any religious doctrine, or any racism, because such things are always related to the dualism and its binary opposition.

However, this is only the introduction of Zen, and it has not yet to make us enter the truth of Zen. In a word, the point of Zen is to break the personal inertial thinking, to break self-attachment, to break self-obsession and there is no binary opposition in personal mind. With this basic concept, it will make it easier for us to enter the realm of Zen.

Learn and understand more about Zen, don't forget to subscribe or follow this blog.

Chapter 24: The erotic and desire hinder the Dao

(Chapter 24) 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 24: The erotic and desire hinder the Dao   

The Buddha said,” Love and desire is not more than erotic. The erotic as a desire is so large and there is no beyond it in the external. Fortunately, there is only such one. If there were the second one as the same, the people in the universal world would be incapable of acting the Dao.”   

Anything has two sides, one is positive and the other is negative. The erotic and desire may be the source of inspiration for artistic creation, but it is also the origin of criminal violence, and more is the source of crime. For a practitioner in religion, the prohibition of erotic and desire is one of the most basic precept and the most important precept on the way to practice the faith. Although we are not monks, controlling our erotic and desire can prevent us from embarking on the path of evil.

The Buddha said,” Love and desire is not more than erotic.” It also means that love and desire do not exceed erotic. In other words, the serious and harmful of erotic is more than that of love and desire.

If we profoundly analyze what is love, we will understand that the essence of love is desire. But, do you know why we would generate the emotion of love? In Buddhism, it is analyzed according to the roots of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, which is called as Six-Roots, and thus to generate Six-Awareness when the Six-Roots contact to the phenomena outside the body. Meanwhile, it will thus generate Six-Dust, which means the troubles, worries, or annoyances. The example and the explanation are as follows:  

1.     Eyes: When any hot girl or strong man is seen by our eyes, it will stir the inside desire and generate the feeling of love, and then will make us hope to own them. Anything which can cause our interests and thus stir our desires is seen by our eyes, a strong feeling of wanting to own them is happened. In other words, our mind is affected, controlled and tied up by what we have seen and by the generated desires. Under such circumstances, those who do not temper their desires will easily be lured into making the crime and violence.

2.     Ears: The sound quality will affect our feelings. If we hear the sound which will enjoy us and correspond to our interest, it will also stir our desire and thus is generated any thoughts, such as love. Meanwhile, it will stir any fantasy in our mind.

3.     Nose: Aroma is related to libido. Smelling the aroma by nose will stir the sexual desire. It is generally known by the masses. There are different body fragrances or body odors in every one, which will also incur any like or dislike in our mind.

4.     Tongue: Taste is produced through the tongue. Everyone has different feelings about taste. Some people are prone to inertia for certain tastes. Once any taste could not content them, any annoy will be generated. The desires to eat have to be stirred by the feeling of eyes and tongue. Unfortunately, many people are obsessed on the desires to eat and there is no self-restraint in eating.  

5.     Body: Touching any part of the body produces a sense of touch. The younger the skin is, the smoother it is, and it causes more peoples’ desires and makes them want to touch it. Meanwhile, it will stir the sexual desire.

6.     Mind: What have caused by the aforesaid roots connecting to any phenomena will generate any thoughts, feelings and awareness. Such mind is also the root of any desire.

In a word, if we mistakenly use these Six-Roots, it will bring us a lot of troubles. However, if we can correctly use these Six-Roots with positive attitude, it will bring us a lot of blessing. So, the Six-Roots are neuter. They are neither good nor bad. It is dependent on how we use it. The love and desire is the same thing.

There are five desires from human beings, which are the desire for money, erotic, fame, eating and sleeping. Because of these five desires, mankind has created a lot of bad karma. Among these five desires, the desire for the erotic is the most serious for hindering the practicing of faith and Dao. If a person thinks only with his lower body and not with his positive mind in upper body, it is really no different with the beast.

The erotic is full of love and desire and can cause a lot of harm to the self and the mankind. In fact, a lot of chaos in personality, in society and in international can find the cause coming from the erotic. Some people advocate sexual freedom and think that it is the personal freedom and human right. Unfortunately, they only think of the freedom, but do not think about what it might cause the harm. If we understand the harm, we will be careful about the desire for erotic.

The Buddha said,” The erotic as a desire is so large and there is no beyond it in the external.” In other words, the erotic as a desire is the largest in our inside. Except for this, any desire for anything in our inside and outside couldn’t exceed it.

How to eliminate or avoid the desire to the erotic? There is a method which is called as perceiving and thinking about the white bone. Before using such method, it is better for us to have the concepts of generating, dwelling, changing and eliminating, and the concepts of forming, dwelling, corrupting and emptying. Such concepts are the change in any situation and mental state.

The method is as follows:

Suppose there are a young and beautiful woman with long hair and smooth skin. Her smile is so sweet. And she has captured your eyes and attracts your attention and interest. Your love and desire for her has generated. Then, you close your eyes and meditate in sitting. The figure of this girl is appeared in your third eye, that is, in your mind. Then, use your imagination. Image that she is aging and her appearance become ugly with messy hair. Now she is totally an elder woman and death. Her body begins to rot. In the end, only white bones are left. Then, ask yourself, why you want to love an ugly and dying woman?  

Perceiving and thinking about the white bone is completed. Such method should be used for many times, even to be used for a whole life. Until you are no longer obsessed on the love and desire for woman, you can thereafter abandon such method. No matter the object is, and whatever they are male or female, we can use this method flexibly to help us give up our attachment to anyone or anything.

Such method is very useful and helpful in practicing of faith in Buddhism. Meanwhile, it is also very helpful for us to generate wisdom and avoid going on the evil way.  

The Buddha said,” Fortunately, there is only such one. If there were the second one as the same, the people in the universal world would be incapable of acting the Dao.” It means that the erotic is the largest in the love and desire. There is no second one which could be as largest as the erotic. In other words, other things such as love and desire for money, fame, eating and sleeping, obstacle to the practice of Dao are not as large as erotic. Why?

If we can correctly use money, fame, eating and sleeping with positive attitude, such things would help the practice of Dao and the development of faith in Buddhism. However, the erotic is the abyss of desires’ indulgence. It hardly helps any positive development of faith and Dao's practice.

No matter what our role is, and no matter what aspiration we want to achieve, to restraint the love and desire to the erotic will have a positive help for us.

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.