(Chapter 12 ﹝18﹞ ) 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 ﹝18﹞: According to conditions to reform people so as to save them is difficult.
According to conditions to
reform people so as to save them is difficult. It
is the eighteenth difficulty in the twenty difficulties said by Buddha
Shakyamuni in this Chapter.
All the beginning teaching of Buddha is to reform and to save ourselves.
To reform ourselves so as to save ourselves is difficult, let alone
to reform others people and save them. All the beginning teaching of Buddha is
to reform and to save ourselves. Only to do so, we are capable to
reform human beings and save them.
Why we want to reform and save ourselves? Do you know? In the
world, there is more than a half of human beings who do not have such concept
and conscious, let alone to ask the question. They are suffering from the
oppression of life and worry about the livelihood day and night. Such events
have made their mental seriously disorder. However, even though this, they
still don't have a thought to reform and save themselves.
What surprises me is that the mental doctor in hospital and the
counselor in university also could not burden their own psychological stress
and then suicide. Why they can’t solve their own mental problem?
There are four sufferings in human beings. That is the sufferings of birth, aging, disease and death.
Buddha Shakyamuni had mentioned that there are four sufferings in
human beings. That is the sufferings of birth, aging, disease and death. In
other words, human beings are fall into the cycling of birth and death in the
Six Paths and are suffering within the cycle.
The Six Paths is classified as followings:
The Path of Bodhisattva
The Path of Ashura
The Path of Human beings
The Path of hungry Ghost
The Path of animal
The Path of hell
So, we are in the Path of human beings. And whatever who you are,
how rich and how smart you are, we couldn't deny that we have to experience the
sufferings of birth, aging, disease and death, not to mention those persons who
are poor or sick. A wise doctor has said what is packed in the coffin is dead
people, not elder people. To suffer the death is not the patent of the elder people. It
is possible for humans of all ages to suffer a disease or death, including
the infant.
The generalized meaning of the suffering of birth includes the
suffering of life. In the opinion of Buddha Shakyamuni, human beings make a lot
of sins because of the surviving and the suffering of life, and also because of
no-wisdom. For surviving, the human beings has no-wisdom and generate the heart
of greedy, hatred and stupid infatuation, and thus to incur a lot of harm
and disaster to oneself and others. That is suffering, too.
"Board " means "save" in Buddhism.
Let
us image that there is a large river. The people live in the left shore are in
the sufferings of birth, aging, disease and death. There are also a lot of
people who fall into the river and struggling in the river and are also
suffering the same. Meanwhile, the people live in the right shore have already
liberated from the said sufferings.
There
is a ship of wisdom on the river. The people on the ship of wisdom invite the
people on the left shore to board the ship and take them into the right shore.
In the river, they also put the rope and lifebuoy down to the people struggling
in the river and help them board on the ship and also take them into the right
shore. In Buddhism, such taking the ferry, such helping process, is called to
reform and save others people. If we take the ferry by our own will and arrive
the right shore, which is called self-reforming and self-saving. Such is the
concept of imagining, describing and metaphor. It lets us easy to understand
one of the meanings of Buddhism.
When we have completely reformed and saved ourselves, we then have the strength to reform and save others people.
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.
All the teachings of the Buddha have one key point, which is to save all sentient beings and help them become Buddhas.
There
is a very important principle that we should know. That is, to cope with the
all changing under the unchanging, the Buddha-nature. When we practice the four
assimilating-methods, we have to clearly aware our Buddha-nature, and not to be
tied and turned by the outer situations or conditions. In other word, we are
the master to hold the whole situation.
Some
people think that the Buddhist are looked foolish and are easy to bully, or
they mistakenly think that the Buddhist might be joyfully to help them. And
they then ask the Buddhist to do a lot of things for them, including the things
that they do not want to do, or the things that they even don’t use their mind
to think how to do, because they think that the Buddhist might not reject their
asking. Once facing such situation, we should use our wisdom and aware our
Buddha-nature to think how to properly reject their unreasonable asking and how
to help them actually.
All
of the Buddha’s teaching has one key point that is to
enlighten all sentient beings and help them achieve the Buddhahood. In
other word, the Buddha’s teaching gives a direction for the sentient beings to
learn wisdom so to resolve their own problem. Under the principle, the human
beings should be independent to deal with their own problem with their own
wisdom, not to dependent others people to resolve their own problem. This is
what we should know when we practice the four assimilating-methods to reform
and save people.
Let
us introduce the four assimilating-methods shortly. That is as follows:
The first assimilating-methods -- Give
There are three kinds of giving. The
first is to give the material things for human beings, such as foods, medical,
clothes, shoes, houses, cars, money and so on. Such material things could
maintain the basic livelihoods of human beings. Of course, it can be extend to
give the technical of agriculture or medical, or to give our own time and
strength to help people, such as to build a house or a bridge unconditionally.
Only basic livelihoods are content, it is possible for them further to learn
wisdom and to learn Buddha. Secondly, if people are fond of fortune, we could
give them the material things so as to lead them into the wisdom of Buddhism.
The
second is to give human beings the Buddha-law (dharma), such as Buddha’s
teaching. If people are fond of listening to the reasons and of thinking, we
could give them the Buddha-law so as to lead them achieve the wisdom of
Buddha. Furthermore, if we are capable to teach human beings the Buddhism and to teach Buddhism correctly, such merit-virtue is incredible and
immeasurable, and is commend and appreciated by the beings of heaven and earth.
Why? Because by Buddha’s teaching, it could enlighten the human beings, lead
them in the path of light of wisdom, liberate human beings from the suffering
in life and death, and finally help them achieve the Buddhahood.
The
third is to give human beings the fearlessness. That is, to
help human beings avoid or get rid of any fear, such as in the classic drama,
the hero saves the beauty when she is in danger. That is, the hero gives the
beauty the fearlessness, and helps the beauty get rid of the frightened. If
people are in danger or fear a lot in heart, or are timid, we could give them the
fearlessness through the express by kindness so as to help them get rid of
the fear.
The Second assimilating-methods -- Express by love
If
we want to lead the people into the wisdom of Buddhism, we better to express by
love, not by rough words. Express by love means to show a feeling, opinion or
fact by compassion and kindness. Such express shows our care, is more
acceptable by the people and would promote the harmony in the relationship in a
group or of each other. When we express by love, don’t ignore the body
language. Some body language would warm our heart, such as smile, embrace each
other, gently pat the shoulder or gently wave your hand and say hello.
When
people feel frustrated in career or feel sad when facing the death of a loved
one, we properly express by love which would encourage them and let them feel
comfort.
The third assimilating-methods -- Benefiting action
“Benefiting action” is meant to offer help or advantage for the acting of others or
benefit the action of others, when we try to help people and lead them into the
wisdom of the Buddha. For example, when a young man is goodness and is
interested in learning Buddha but he doesn’t have a good career to earn money
for maintaining his life, we could support him or offer him a good job so as to
let him have a stable life and the capital to learn Buddha. Such act by
benefiting is not only to support and benefit him to achieve the Buddhahood but
also to support and benefit the all sentient beings to be good, including
ourselves, because it is a good cycling of kindness. One day, when this young
man has completely been enlightened and the wisdom of his Buddha-nature is also
inspired, he would be capable to enlighten and support others and would also
benefit the acting of others.
Secondly,
giving the sentient beings the convenience or help is also the benefiting action, to benefit the acting of others.
The fourth assimilating-methods -- Work by together
Work
by together means that we go on the path as partner and by accompanying with
each other so as toward the same goal and we do something together so as to
attain the same purpose. What is the goal or the purpose? It is to reform and save ourselves so as to influence others through wisdom and mercy. By cooperating in the action or work, it is easy for
us to know and communicate with each other.
For the different people, we would
offer the different Buddha-law so as to help them into the wisdom of
Buddha-nature. There is a lot of convenient Buddha-law which could be applied
to help people liberating from the suffering. The four assimilating-methods are
one of them, and these are the good assistance.
So,
the four assimilating-methods not only could be applied in Buddhism, but also
could be applied in different realms, such as the non-profit organization, the
group of the social or the international well-beings.
To
profoundly learning Buddha, the four assimilating-methods should be practiced
well by us. Through the four reforming-methods, it is not only to reform and
save ourselves, but also to reform and save others.
