March 30, 2021

Chapter 31: To silence in heart removes the desire.

(Chapter 31) 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 31: To silence in heart removes the desire.       

The Buddha said,” There is someone who is suffering from fornications and can't stop, and wants to cut off his penis by himself.” The Buddha told him, “If you cut off your penis, it would be better to cut off your heart. The heart is like Gong Cao. If Gong Cao stops, the followers will halt. If the evil heart could not stop, what are the benefits to cut off the penis?” The Buddha said the verse to him:” The desire is happened from your consciousness. Your consciousness is occurred from your thought. If the two hearts are silent separately, there is no the erotic nor the action.” The Buddha said,” This verse is spoken by the Buddha Kasyapa.”        

 

”There is someone who is suffering from fornications and can't stop, and wants to cut off his penis by himself.”

 

There is someone who is suffering from the strong desire of and behavior of sex and cann’t stop it. I use the character “fornications” to include the meaning of promiscuousness, licentiousness and lewdness. In a word, there is a person who is male and has the strong impulse of sex and thus pushes him to do a lot of things about sex. However, it has brought a lot of troubles to him. So he wants to use the method to cut off his penis by himself so as to stop his fornications and its troubles.

 

The Buddha told him, “If you cut off your penis, it would be better to cut off your heart.

 

Here, the heart means the mind or thought. “Cut off” also means “stop, abandon, or eliminate.”

 

The meaning is: if you want to cut off your penis with knife, it would be better to stop, abandon, or eliminate any of your thoughts about sex.

 

The heart is like Gong Cao. If Gong Cao stops, the followers will halt.

 

Gong Cao is transliterated from Chinese characters, which means an ancient official position. Here, it means the major command. Gong Cao is also like the boss who can command the subordinate to do anything. The heart is like Gong Cao, which also means that the heart is the initially cause. ”If Gong Cao stops”, it means any thought doesn’t be occurred any more. That is, to stop any initially cause, to abandon the major command. “The followers will halt”, here the followers means our consciousness which is eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind. Such six subjects have their functions of distinguishing and feeling, which are the consciousness. When the Gong Cao stops, the followers halt. That is, when any thought for sex is not occurred, the said six subjects will rest.

 

If the evil heart could not stop, what are the benefits to cut off the penis?

 

Here, the evil heart means the thoughts of the erotic, the fornication and the promiscuousness, licentiousness and lewdness. To cut off the penis could not cease the unsteady heart. If the evil heart could not be ceased, the six consciousness are still vigorous by following the outside erotic subjects and events, and thus keep turned to appear the behavior of sex. We thus know, to cut off the penis could not resolve the problems brought by the erotic desire and behavior.

 

Even today, there is a lot of crime and murder caused by the impulse of sex, which is still happened in each country. Any law and positive propaganda for stopping the harm caused by the impulse of sex couldn't make the good effect in the poor country.  In these countries, the male couldn't have the good chance to have the good education, not to mention that they could have the chance to accept the teaching of Buddha and to read this article. In the circumstances, even to cut off the penis, it is still impossible to stop the inner erotic desire, the behavior of sex and thereafter the commit crime.  

 

In some religion or in some countries, it asks the people to be cautious for their inner erotic desire. However, they are not to demand themselves to do so, but to demand females. Males force girls to cut off their clitoris so as to avoid them to be promiscuous, licentious and lewd. And males force girls and women not to expose their face and body so as to avoid to attract males and to cause their sex impulse. Such thoughts and behavior, which is unfair events for females and shocks me, is reported and criticized in Taiwan’s media.

 

The desire is happened from your consciousness. Your consciousness is occurred from your thought. If the two hearts are silent separately, there is no the erotic nor the action.

 

When we profoundly understand any teaching of Buddha, we will find that all the teaching of Buddha is self-demanding, self-introspection and self-enlightenment. This is a fairly civilized and progressive education.

 

The inner erotic desire is happened from our six-consciousness as mentioned above. Our six-consciousness is occurred from our thought. Here, the two hearts means the six-consciousness and the thought. If our thought and our six-consciousness are both still, any inner erotic desire and any thereafter behavior could not be happened. 

 

No matter the change of outside subject and its phenomena, it would not affect us, when our thought and six-consciousness are steady in the stillness. Even though the girl’s face is extremely gorgeous or her body is extremely hot, it could not attract those males, whose thought and six-consciousness are both silent, to do any harmful thing through the behavior of sex.

 

In a word, to be cautious for the inner erotic desire and its evil behavior is not dependent on the physiology, body, outside form, or other people’s behavior and their discipline, but on the self-stillness in the inner heart, self-mentality and self-discipline.

 

Kasyapa is Sanskrit. The Buddha Kasyapa is the teacher of, the master of Buddha Shakyamuni. This verse was taught by Buddha Kasyapa to Buddha Shakyamuni.

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