(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.
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