Life and Death Are One.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

To understand above would increase our wisdom. Then, we might have one question. When people must die because of their lives being abandoned, how to let it not be difficult for them?

 

As we know, we are afraid of dying, especially, when we are told that we have serious disease, such as cancer. Some of people are unwilling to die, when they have known that they have cancer and might have to die in less than half year from knowing the cancer. Unfortunately, they finally have to die; even they have spent a lot of money to cure their disease. Under the circumstance, it is hard to them, when they must die because their lives have to be abandoned.

 

A lot of people could not accept and face their disease and death with peaceful mind. So, they feel angry, despair, and depressed. They are suffering the life and death, and struggling in there. Finally, once they could not stand or bear the suffering or pain any more, they choose to suicide or euthanasia. 

 

However, if they have the concept that life is equal to death, and death is equal to life, the realm of their heart would be different. The meaning that life is equal to death is also meant to that life and death are one. Such concept is hard to be understood.

Evil karma would counterattack to oneself in the future.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

A lot of people for keeping their life, they had to but being instigated by the blind ideology of patriotism or the other, and thus to kill others. A lot of evil karma has thus been done. They do not know that such evil karma would counterattack to oneself in the future. In other word, if one person kills others with the mind of hatred, one day it would be killed by the hatred mind of other person in the future or in the next life.

 

That is why the Buddha has said,” What has been done in the past life is the consequence of the current life; what has been done in the present life is the consequence of the afterlife.”

 

“It is hard to the people when they must die because their lives have to be abandoned.” That is one of the weaknesses of human nature. The self-righteous person would use it to control human beings. People’s livelihood is concerned about the life and death. However, do you have found that the Buddha Sakyamuni did not take part in or play in the rule of game of any worldly system created by human, let alone the ideology of patriotism. Why? Think about it.

When we have completely reformed and saved ourselves, we then have the strength to reform and save others people.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

How to reform and save ourselves? It depends on our own strength of wisdom, the Buddha-nature. That is what the Buddha Shakyamuni wanted to enlighten us and to teach us to know it. When we have completely reformed and saved ourselves, we then have the strength to reform and save others people. How to reform and save others people? It depends on our own strength of compassion and wisdom. In the methods of application, there are four methods said by Buddha Shakyamuni. That is as follows:

 

Give;

Express by love;

Benefiting action;

Work by together.

 

The above is called four assimilating-methods or four reforming-methods. To reform and save others people is not easy, because most of the human beings have the stubborn nature and the strong arrogance. When we have not yet been enlightened, we might be one of them and have no such self-awareness.

 

To practice the four assimilating-methods needs to follow the opportunity and conditions which are changed in the situation and environment, and also needs to follow the change of personal situation and the change of fate of the persons who are in the suffering. It is unable to force them, if we want to reform and save others people by the four reforming-methods. Furthermore, the four assimilating-methods should be based on our four immeasurable inner hearts of mercy, compassion, joy and abandon. 

Chapter 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao (added explanation)

(Chapter 16) 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 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao (added explanation) 

The Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and cannot see the Dao. It is such as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who can see its own image. People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they cannot see the Dao. All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen. “

 

There is no-condition and no-demanding in the grand love. That is, there is no-desire in the grand love. However, the most people don’t have such grand character. Generally, the love in their mind means yearning for and controlling something in order to get some kind of selfish purpose. In this situation, many people have the behavior of the extortion with some kind of emotion to their relative friends or their family members in the name of love. This kind of love contains the selfish desire. In the research of psychology, there can be extended various negative characters on the basis of this kind of love and desire as mentioned, for example, the manipulative personality.

 

Dao is transliterated from Chinese. The Dao means the path, the way or any system of education or theory. Here, we can give the Dao the various explanations and teachings according to the different intelligence of humans and to the different classes of learning Buddha. Generally, there are two kinds of Dao in Buddhism. One is the Dao of Bodhisattva and the other is the Dao of Buddha. What is the difference between them is according to the different extent of realization and practicing about Buddhism. The Dao explained by Buddha in the Chapter 2 also means the clear and pure heart, which is the basis realization and practicing for entering to the Dao of Bodhisattva. And, the Dao of Bodhisattva is the basis realization and practicing for entering to the Dao of Buddha.

 

No matter what the Dao is, the basis of the Dao in Buddhism is the clear and pure mind. The basis of the clear and pure mind is under the no-condition, no-desire and no-demanding to others when one person faces any person and anything and doing anything. Secondly, the clear and pure mind is also to realize and practice the true equality in the mind when facing any situation. This kind of ideas is more difficult for ordinary people to understand and practice. However, if we have the will to understand and practice it, it may not be difficult for us.

 

"There is no good or bad under any circumstance. The good or bad under any circumstance is in our mind." This is the famous sentence said by Zen master in the Tang Dynasty of China (A.D. 618-907). If you could understand and practice this sentence, you would be free and easy when you face any situation. Why? The environment itself is objective. However, our thought itself is subjective. That is why poor people complain a lot to their situation and cannot change their fate, and thus feel suffering. Learning Buddha can change our subjective and negative thought and thus change our fate. Regarding how to understand and practice the true equality in the mind, we will explain it in the following chapters.

 

The Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and cannot see the Dao.” That is, when people are in the selfish love and desire, they cannot understand and practice the clear and pure in the mind. The Buddha explained in a metaphorical way why people cannot see the Tao. “It is such as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who can see its own image.” The clear water is as our clear and pure heart. In the clear water, the sand is in the bottom. When the clear water is stirred by hand, a lot of float sand makes it become turbid. Meanwhile, the whirlpool of the water also makes the water no longer clear. A generated thought of selfish love and desire is as the hand to stir the clear water. A lot of float sand and the whirlpool of the water are like the complicated situation in the outside and inside. “The public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who can see its own image.” The public means the self and the others persons. “Approach this water together” means both of them are involved in this situation caused by the selfish love and desire. “There is no one who can see their own image”. It means no one can see their clear and pure heart.  The clear and pure heart is the true self.  

 

The Buddha said, “People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they cannot see the Dao.” It means those people who contact each other with the mind of the love and desire. It makes them appear any unreasonable conditions, harsh demanding and fantasy expectation to each other from their mind. Under the circumstance, there is the selfish and self-interested purpose, and there is no treatment of equality to each other. It means the turbidity is thrived in heart. That is also means those people have mean and scheming minds. These dirty things with greed would make them blind their heart-eye and make them cannot see their clear and pure heart. That is why they cannot see the Dao.

                                                                                           

The Buddha said, “All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen.“ Therefore, the Buddha advised their disciples, the Sramanas, the Buddhist monk, to abandon this kind of love and desire. Those dirty things with greed are the filth of love and desire. Once this filth of love and desire is ended, the clear and pure heart can be seen. This is to remove the filth of love and desire and the brightness of heart is appeared. Even though we are not Buddhist monk, the Buddha’s teaching as mentioned is also very helpful for our life. It can increase our wisdom and help our mood to be steady and help our life to be good.

 

When we deeply understand and practice the Buddha’s teaching as mentioned above, we come back to observe the situation of the world, we can find that a lot of crime and war, and any dirty things are caused by the selfish love and desire. That is, the selfish love and desire is the root of evil. In the past thirty years, there is the good economic and democratic development in Taiwan. Some of the girls from the poor country come to Taiwan in order to look for the better life for themselves and their family. However, they use the wrong way. What they use is the filth of love and desire as mentioned. When Taiwanese men are confused and trapped by the lie of love from these women, the belongings of Taiwanese men are gradually gone and transferred to the name of these women. Then, the Taiwanese men die. Finally, the families of these Taiwanese men have found something wrong and then sue these women--the deceiver of love. In the end, the truth is revealed.

 

According to the research in England, the average intelligence of men is about 103. This is the normal intelligence. However, once these men are fall in love, their intelligence will decrease. According to my personal observation, men not only decrease their IQ when they are in love, but even decrease their IQ after getting married, but when they have an affair after marriage, their IQ drops even lower. Decreasing intelligence means their moral principle, thinking ability and judgment are not as good as the men who have the normal intelligence. According to the research, the men who have the lower intelligence will have the more rates to have an affair after marriage, comparing with the men who have the higher intelligence. Usually, the men who have the lower intelligence harm the family members more than those who have the higher intelligence.  

 

When we deeply observe the problem of a family and we are wise, we can find that the root of the problem of a family is the dispute of their love and desire. This dispute of love and desire is full of the filth as mentioned above. It is full of greedy and dark thought in their mind. Therefore, it is meaningless to judge who is right and who is wrong. If we are wise, it is better for us to pull ourselves away this situation of turbidity. If you are a party to this kind of dispute, when you see the teachings of the Buddha, you should have wisdom on how to deal with it. In chapter 23, it is mentioned that the wife is more than a prison. The root of the problem is the love and desire which come from the husband and wife. This problem makes the family become an invisible jail to bind the mind of husband and wife.

 

The love and desire as said above is not only about affairs of the erotic and family, but also about the dispute and the affairs in politics, enterprises, and organizations. It is also about the relationship of friends. When we insight the problem caused by love and desire, we would have the better thinking and judgment to face any problem, and then to deal with it.   

 

No matter we are Sramana or not, the Buddha’s teaching gives us a good teaching and inspires ourselves wisdom. This is the invisible fortune which cannot be measured. There is the doing and there is the no-doing. To abandon the love and desire as mentioned is the doing and no-doing. Not to have the mean and scheming minds is also the doing and no-doing. How to do and how not to do, there is a choice in our mind, if we are wise. 

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.

Chapter 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao (updated on 22 Dec, 2021)

(Chapter 16) 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 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao

The Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and can not see the Dao. It is as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who can see its own image. People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they can not see the Dao. All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen. “

There are different methods to teach in Buddhism.

The topic is mostly for the Buddhist monk, Sramana. The topic could also help us learn Buddha, or make a reference and value to promote our life to be good, even though we are not Buddhist monk.

Buddha Sakyamuni had ever told his disciples how and why the love and desire is generated and how and why we are concealed by the love and desire in life, and let us could not see the truth or make us could not see the Dao. That is there are the reasons that would result in any consequences. Basically, Buddhism is not the superstition. On the contrary, it is very logical and wise.

However, for the public, it is some kind of hard for them to understand the reasoning. Under this circumstance, telling the story, even the magical story is easier to be accepted by the public. That is also why those who don't understand the Buddhism and are focused on the reasoning would think that Buddhism is blind faith. Then, think about it; which one that we would be? Do we prefer to accept the reasoning or the told story? Or, both of them could be accepted by us?

How and why the love and desire are generated.

If we have ever research the psychology or the growing process of human beings, we would have read the Freudian personality development theory. The age 1-2 is in the period of oral organ. The infant needs to suck the nipple so as to content the desire of oral organ. If we purposely take off its plastic nipple, the infant would be unhappy and cry loudly. In this period of time, the original seed of the love and desire has already been planted in its mind. That is, there is the subconscious of the love and desire in the infant. That is their original instinct.

If we track and date back to the infancy before, a thought of no light, that is one of the eighth conscious and one of the seed of no light, go into the embryo; that is the soul as we call generally. Then, the infant is growing and follows the self-six-roots in its body; it is affected by the outer conditions and such changes, such as the video game, education from family, the school education, and so on; its love and desire in its mind are developed and changed gradually. The self-six-roots mean the root of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind.

For example, our eyes would follow the colors of dresses, the forms of hairs, the performance or the appearance of any human beings. Our ears would follow the sounds, such as soft sound, powerful sound or dull voice. Our nose would follow the smell, such as fragrance or stinky. Our tongue would follow the taste, such as salty, sour, sweet or spicy. Our body would follow the sense of touch, such as the feeling of smooth or rough. Our mind would follow the various feeling of aforesaid five roots from self and others. We thus generate the self-consciousness, differentiating and concept about the feeling of likes and dislikes for anything in the outer world.

Our roots and mind are obsessed in such outer changes and thus are tangled in those things. We have made a choice what we love accordingly and want to own something from it. And our love and desire are therefore generated and developed in such process, and never stop, even to die for it. For example, some people prefer to die for their woman or man, or for fortune.

Furthermore, the five poisons (greedy, hatred or resentment, stupid-obsession, arrogance and suspicion) are therefore happened according to the love and desire. And it thus occur the more complex development and changes to affect or harm the self and others, including any fighting in life or in society, or any unexpected war in the domestic or in the international. If we profoundly observe the fighting in politic or any war, we could find that is because some persons want to content their original and personal love and desire. That is their subconscious motivation.

Some evil persons know about the human weakness. That is the strong feeling of love and desire, and therefore to generate the five poisons. So, the evil persons would follow their love and desire, and use the human weakness to threaten, control, harm and slave the people. What happened is not only in the cruel dictatorship politic, but also in the ignorant lovers or the couples, even to the parent treat the children. So, extending such love and desire, it becomes some kind of the power of control for contenting the personal love and desire, and is formed to be the authority which is not allowed and unable to be challenged by anyone.

In other word, the love and desire not only harm others and make the worries to others, but also harm the self and cause the self trouble finally. However, most people do not have such self perceiving. On the contrary, they seem to enjoy in the great dream and the illusion, and are concealed by their own love and desire.

All of the outer changes are like the illusion. And any feeling and emotion thus occurred in inner heart are also the illusion. Those things are not permanent. That is because it is appeared by conditions and would be disappeared in any time by conditions, too. Those things are also like the dust or filth would dirty and disrupt our clear mind and heart. And it thus makes us unable to see the original nature of the self, which is the mind and heart of peace, stillness, clear and pure.

In sum up, the disorder of self mind and heart would make the disorder of the others mind and heart, and many disorder of many minds and hearts would seriously make the world disorder. 

That is why the Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and can not see the Dao. It is such as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who could see its own image. People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they can not see the Dao. All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen. “

What is the Dao? If you have no concept about it, you can make a reference or read Chapter 2: Cutting off the desire and no demanding or Chapter 13: Ask about the Dao and destiny in this blog.

Why the Dao could be seen? When we clearly understand what our true colors and what our nature is, that is our mind and heart is no longer disorder, we would then clearly know what we are doing in each moment and thus we could clearly see what the Dao we are walking. 

In the teaching of Buddha, abandoning the love and desire is one of the very important teachings. It is mentioned in many Buddhist Scripture. But, for the disciples or those who want to learn Buddha, it is really difficult for them to put it into the practice in life. That is because such habit has been rooted and it is not easy to remove.

Furthermore, there are the reasons from the physical body and mental body, such as the Hormonal hormone is naturally generated in the physical body. Sometimes, it is really hard to repress it and to ask it not to be happened. In the mental body, most people are demanded by their parent to have children so as to continue their family life, career and property. That is also why most people could not accept the Buddhism and do not allow their children to be Buddhist monk or nun.

However, do you know why abandoning the love and desire is so important in learning Buddha? If we don’t have a lot of love and desire, we would not come to birth on earth. That is also because we have a lot of love and desire, and we thus reincarnate again and again in life and death and suffer from it. That is to die here and to birth there, and to birth here and to die there. And it would not stop forever until we have abandoned the selfish love and desire. We then are able to jump out the reincarnation in life and death and its suffering. 

How to abandon the love and desire?

For abandoning the love and desire, there are some methods to practice it for the Buddhist monk or nun. One of the methods is to view the bone of the dead body by naked-eyes or to observe the white bone of human body in self-mind while meditation-sitting.

Why to do that? By such method, we would know that, even the beautiful girl or the handsome boy, there is only a pile of white bones in the end with time passed by. To practice it for a long time, it would disrupt the stupid-obsession about the opposite sex, and thus to stop the love and desire for it. That is also meant to stop any trouble caused by stupid-obsession, or by the love and desire. On the basis of such practice, we would gradually abandon the love and desire for outer things. In other word, we would abandon any trouble and worries.  

Furthermore, the Buddha also had told stories to inspire our wisdom and thus to make us abandon the love and desire. 

Abandon but not abandon

Most Buddhist monk only knows to cut off or abandon the love and desire. But, they might do not know or would not mention another teaching from the Buddha about not to cut off or not to abandon the love and desire. Why? And How?     

If we persistently hold the love and desire, which means we persistently hold the trouble and worries, so we absolutely need to abandon it. However, if there were no love and desire in mind, which means there is no trouble and worries, so what we should abandon? Therefore, it is not existed any problem of abandon.

It is not to deny the existence of the love and desire, but to understand why it is possible for the love and desire not to exist. Most of the general people are insisting in having something, such as love and desire. It is easier to teach them to give up what they have. However, it is hard for them to understand what is emptiness or nothingness in mind. That is why it is harder to teach them the concept about not abandoning anything. When people do not have the profoundly understanding about the Buddhism, It is easier to be mistakenly understood and used by them for the no-abandoning love and desire.  

If you have read the following two articles in this blog : A Brief Talk About Cause And Result or Chapter12 ﹝17﹞  : Seeing the Nature and learning the Dao aredifficult.,  you might have the basic understanding about Buddhism, and might understand what is talked. However, if you have not yet read the aforesaid articles, have no concept about the Buddha-nature, and are interested in the new knowledge, I recommend you to read it. Such reading could avoid you to mistakenly understand the Buddhism.  

In Buddhism, there are the shallow teaching and the deep teaching. It is because the human intellectual and wisdom, and thus its ability of understanding, has the different level. On the internet, it is easy to search about the shallow teaching about Buddhism. However, it might not be helpful for the people who are focus on thinking and reasoning, and want to profoundly understand the Buddhism.

In the shallow teaching of Buddhism, it is only talked about to practice the good and not to do the evil, and thus to have a lot of bliss. They do not dare to talk about the emptiness-nature. Why? If we talk about the emptiness-nature every day, all people might leave and run away.

So, why it is abandoning but not abandoning? The answer is there, do you have found it?

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.