One of the Ten Titles about Buddha—Man-Tamer

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing)

The meaning of Man-Tamer represents the Buddha who taught the living beings the knowledge and wisdom of Buddhism  and reform the living beings to be good.

  

The word Man-Tamer is translated by me from the Chinese Buddhist Scripture. I will explain it and why I use this word Man-Tamer. In the history of India, men were usually working and frequently and socially interacting with each other  in the society.  For obtaining and striving for the power and resources for the self and the family, any evil mind and behavior arose which is like the situation of today in the world. Furthermore, in the beginning, there were only the men leaving the family to practice the truth of life and therefore to become monks.  The Buddha Shakyamuni taught the men the knowledge and wisdom of Buddhism  and reform the men to be good persons. That is why I use the word Man-Tamer as the translation to represent one of the ten titles about Buddha.  

Therefore, to extend and expand the meaning of Man-Tamer, it can represent the Buddha who taught the living beings the knowledge and wisdom of Buddhism  and reform the living beings to be good.

Why is it called Man-Tamer?

In the Buddhist Scripture--The Scripture of the Ten Titles Said by Buddha,, the Buddha explained what the Man-Tamer  meant:

Why is it called Man-Tamer? The Buddha said. Buddha was a great man. And it could harmonize and rule the two sorts of good and evil things. The evil one made the three karmas of not good arise. And doing all the evil thus depraved oneself into the hells, hungry ghosts and brutes therefore gained the evil retribution. A good person practiced all good deeds in body, mouth and mind. Obtain blessings fruition from human and heaven. All good and evil were done by the mind. The Buddha used the law of nirvana of the good of the first meaning. It demonstrated the harmonizing and ruling to make beings leave the contaminated and filth and thus gained the supreme silent and eliminated Nirvana. Therefore, it was called Man-Tamer.

The story and meaning of the Man-Tamer.

In another Buddhist Scripture – Miscellaneous Agama Sutra, there was a paragraph which referred to  the story and meaning of the Man-Tamer. I translated it from Chinese into English as follows: 

 

This is what I heard:

At one time, the Buddha lived in the Kalanda Bamboo Garden in the city of Rajagaha.

At that time, a horse-training master named Zhishi came to the Buddha's place. He bowed his head at the Buddha's feet, stood back and sat down, faced and said to the Buddha, "World Honored One! I see that the world is very mean and low, like a flock of sheep. World Honored One, I am the only one who can train horses." If an evil horse is running wild, I will use the convenient way to make it easy for it to show signs of disease. I will tame it in the convenient way according to its signs of disease."

The Buddha asked the village-leader of horse-trainer: "How many methods  of convenience do you use to tame the horses?"

The horse master said to the Buddha: "There are three ways to tame an evil horse. What are the three? One is gentle, the second is vulgar, and the third is gentle and vulgar."

The Buddha told the village-leader: "You have used the three methods of convenience to tame the horse, but if you still cannot tame it, what should you do?

The horse-training master said to the Buddha: "Anyone who cannot be tamed should be killed. Why? Don't let it  humiliate me." The horse-training master said to the Buddha: "The World Honored One is the supreme Man-Tamer. How many methods of convenience can you use to tame the man ?"

The Buddha told the village-leader: "I also use three methods of convenience to tame the man. What are the three? One is always gentle, the second is always vulgar, and the third is gentle and vulgar."

The Buddha told the village-leader : "What so-called always gentleness is as the following said: 'This is the good deeds of the body and this is the reward of the good deeds of the body; this is the good deeds of the mouth and mind and this is the reward of the good deeds of the mouth and mind. Such is called the heaven, is called the human, is called the transformation-birth of good-going, and is called the nirvana. This is the gentleness.” 

"What so-called vulgarness is as the following said: "This is the evil deeds of the body and this is the retribution of the evil deeds of the body; this is the evil deeds of the mouth and mind and this is the retribution of the evil deeds of the mouth and mind. Such is called the hell, such is called the animal, such is called the hungry ghost, such is called the evil-going, and such is called falling into the evil-going. It is called the Tathagata’s vulgar teachings.”

"What so-called gentleness and vulgarness means that the Tathagata sometimes talks about the good deeds of the body, sometimes the reward of the good deeds of the body, sometimes the good deeds of the mouth and mind, sometimes the reward of good deeds of the mouth and mind; sometimes the bad deeds of the body, sometimes the retribution of bad deeds of the body, and sometimes the bad deeds of the mouth and mind, and sometimes the retribution of bad deeds of the mouth and mind. Such is called the heaven, such is called the human, such is called the good-going and such is called the nirvana. Such is called the hell,  such is called the animal and  the hungry ghost, such is called the evil-going, such is called falling into the evil-going. Such is called  the Tathagata’s teaching of gentleness and vulgarness”

The horse-training master said to the Buddha: "World Honored One! If you use the three methods of convenience to tame sentient beings, and some of them are not tamed, what should you do?"

The Buddha told the village-leader: "I should also kill them. Why? Don't let them humiliate me."

The horse-training master said to the Buddha: "If you kill a living being, it will be considered impure in the law of World Honored One. In the law of World Honored One, there is no killing of living beings. Now, it talked about the killing. What is the meaning of killing?"

The Buddha told the village-leader: "So! So! In the Law of Tathagata, killing is impure. And in the Law of Tathagata, there is no killing. However, in the Law of Tathagata, those who are not tamed by the three teachings will no longer be spoken, taught, or admonished. Village-leader! What does it mean?  In the Law of Tathagata, if Tathagata no longer speaks to, teaches, or admonishes these people, isn't that death?"

The horse-training master said to the Buddha: "Indeed, World Honored One! Tathagata no longer speaks to them, and never teaches or admonishes them. This is really death. World Honored One, for this reason, I will abstain from all evil and unwholesome deeds from now on."

The Buddha told the village-leader : "Good, as what you said!"

At that time, after hearing what the Buddha said, the master of the horse-training - Zhishi - was delighted, followed and complied with the joy, and left with all due respects by bowing his head at the Buddha's feet.

The Function of Soul

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

In a brief, every one has the soul and the body. Even though the soul is shapeless, it still has the conscious, feeling, thinking, and memory. It also could “speak” and “communicate” to others with mind. It is the “sound” with no sound. In other words, it is the speaking and communication from the heart or mind to the other heart or mind. It is existed in the shapeless and in the no substance, and it is hard to be verified by science instrument. For the most people, it might be experienced when we are dreaming in sleeping. It is very clear and could be remembered. However, it is different from the theory of Freud.

 

As we have mentioned in the Chapter 12﹝2﹞ : Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility, the body is formed by the four elements, that is, the land, the water, the fire, and the wind. The body has the form and the substance which could be seen and touched. If we want to vocalize from our body, we have to depend on the medium in the air, so that our voice could be transmitted to others and be heard by others.

 

Now we have the basic concept for the soul and the body. Following concept would be hard to be understood, because it is beyond our experience of the general knowledge and common sense.  

 

The soul is eternal. It can not be eliminated. There is no arising and no destroying for the soul. In other word, there is no birth and no death for the soul. The soul is like the software. What we have learned, what we have thought, and what we have done, would be recorded in there. The seed of virtue or of evil would be planted in there, which means that the thought of virtue or of evil would be recorded in there. It would affect our current life and our future or next life.

Our Body is not permanent.

 

On the contrary, the body is not eternal. It could be eliminated. The body could be arisen and then be destroyed. In other word, there is the birth and death for the body. Our cells are metabolized and replaced at any time. Our decaying organs can be transplanted or replaced through surgery.

 

Sometimes, we describe our body as a car or a piece of clothing, which could be replaced. Once our body is dead, our soul would leave the dead body, and dwell in the next new-born body, which is like that we change a new car or a piece of new clothing. That is reborn or reincarnating.

 

The eighth consciousness is soul.

 

The Buddha Sakyamuni had mentioned eight kinds of consciousness. Our soul is equal to the eighth consciousness. The soul is some kind of quality. Some scientist has said that the soul has weight.

 

To know and understand above, it could help us understand the concept that life is equal to death, and death is equal to life. And, it could help us not attach to or depend on our body, but our soul. We have known that our soul is not dead, and what has dead is just our body. To have such concept would help us accept and face the fact that our body might die at any time. Meanwhile, we could let our soul be at peace, and let us increase our wisdom, to nourish our life of wisdom.

Under the circumstance, it is no difficult for us, when we must die because our lives have to be abandoned. So, what has being abandoned is the body, not our soul. Our lives of wisdom are still very live, abundant and extend. 

The Source of Human Beings in the Concept of Buddha

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing)

 

In Buddhism, the Buddha Sakyamuni have mentioned about the source of human beings and the world. He mentioned that the source of human beings is coming from the human beings in light-sound heaven. Such human beings can light from their body and talk with each other by "sound" from mind to mind. And they can fly to everywhere because their weight of body is very light. However, they are greedy to eat the delicious food on earth, so their body is getting heavier, and can not fly to their home, the light-sound heaven.

 

According to the modern knowledge, someone thinks that the source of human beings is the alien. The Buddha Sakyamuni also mention about many Buddha or Bodhisattva living in different world. Some of their body is very huge and big. According to their view, our body, the human beings on earth, is so small like an ant if we stand in front of them. Even we are so small before them, they also know that they should not bully us, such as someone tell us not to kill the ants. It is very interesting, doesn't it? The unknown world is very broad and large, and is beyond our knowledge and experience.

Chapter 12 ﹝2﹞: Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility

(Chapter 12 ﹝2﹞  ) 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 ﹝2﹞: Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility

Learning the Dao is difficult when people are in the huge wealth and are the nobility. As we have mentioned that there are four noble truths. That is suffering, accumulation, elimination and Dao.

The four kinds of basic suffering

There are four kinds of basic suffering. That is the suffering of life, of aging, of illness, and of death. No one could avoid such four kinds of suffering in its whole life. What is the suffering of life? Many people are suffering how to survive in the situation of war. And more than half population in the world is suffering how to survive in the pressure of potential attacking from the contiguous countries, or in the situation of un-equal and of un-peaceful society.

More than half population in the world almost has no chance to hearing the Dao said by Buddha, let alone to learn the Dao. Once they could have the chance to hear the Dao said by Buddha, they would be willing to learn the Dao and correspond to the compassion of Buddha, then, to arise the personal and natural wisdom. They then would have the chance to liberate from the suffering of life.  

What is the suffering of aging? There is a saying,” we are beginning to walk toward the tomb from our birth.” If there is no accident in life, we would be aging finally. Do you know how the suffering of aging? Our brain nerves begin to degenerate. Our physical strength and our brain strength are not as good as before year by year. Meanwhile, we might be suffering the chronic.

To eat the medicine every day makes our head dizzy and we are afraid of falling. Our appetite is getting worse. We often suffer from insomnia because of illness or chronic. The worst is that we might have the loneliness and melancholy, which could increase our feeling of suffering. And we might lie on the bed, can not move by ourselves any more, and have to be taken care by others people in our daily life, let alone the pain in cancer or the suffering of dialysis, if we have cancer or the illness of dialysis.

What is the suffering of illness? Illness is not belonging to the elder. Each age of human being could have the illness. A lot of young man or woman is suffering the illness of diabetes, cardiovascular, dialysis or cancer. Most of them could face the disease in positive mind. However, some of them are suffering the melancholy and choose to end their life so as to end their suffering.

For the young and healthy people, they could not feel or experience the suffering as said above, let alone the suffering of death. What they might feel or experience is the suffering of life.

Four Key Elements to Form Our Body

About the suffering of death, we have to mention about the four key elements to form our body. That is the land, the water, the fire and the wind as follows.

The land means hard or solid. In our body are bone, nail and hair.

The water means liquid and flowing. In our body are blood, urine, tears, nasal fluid and saliva.

The fire means temperature. In our body is the body temperature. So we might have fever, or feel cold, or feel hot.

The wind means gas, air and breath. In our body is respiratory system. If we make the meditation in seat or practice the qigong, we could feel the gas flow in our body. It can cause our body or limbs to move or rotate involuntarily. That's because our inner airflow is running. It’s normal. So, don’t worry about the change in the moment.

When we are dying, the four key elements of us would be in the state of decomposition. At the time, we would be in the serious suffering. In the beginning, we would feel the severe pressure in our body, so, we would become restless. Then, we would feel very cold. Sometimes, we would feel very hot. We can not eat anything anymore. If we do not have any belief, or we can not accept the coming of death, and we still have the conscious, we would feel the serious suffering because we know that we would depart from our family members and to said good bye to this world. This is the suffering of death.

Those who have no wisdom do not care about the suffering as said, let alone they do not understand the suffering as said.       

No matter rich or poor persons, they have chance to learn the Dao.

If one person wants to enter the Dao, he must have felt the suffering as said in life. Meanwhile, he must have felt that the suffering has being accumulated at each moment, or day by day, so that they would have a thought, a self perceiving, to ask for the elimination of the suffering and the liberation from the suffering. This is the motivation, cause and condition for learning the Dao.

Therefore, it is possible for them to inspire their Bodhi-heart, go into the path of Buddha, then, to attain the Buddhahood after learning the Dao. No matter the rich people or the poor people, once they have felt the suffering in life, they would be willing to go into the path of Buddha, the Dao defined by Buddha, which you can find and read in the chapter 2. (Chapter 2)A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha

Most of the wealthy and the nobility persons have less chance to liberate from suffering in life and death.

Those who are in the huge wealth and are the nobility are lack of such feeling of suffering in life, because they are living in the very comfortable environment. Meanwhile, their relatives and friends might be also living in the same way. In other word, they are lack of the environment and motivation for learning the Dao.

According to my observation from the history, most of the people who are in the huge wealth and are in the nobility, their life is short and die early, which we can find in the royal family or the official family. In other word, the huge wealth and nobility for them are very short. Why?

In their environment, what they have focused on is not the suffering of life, but, how to obtain the more power, official position and wealth. In other word, it is an environment which is full of fighting for the power and of demanding for the profit. Under the circumstance, how could they be longevity? A lot of people is murdered, or die in disease, because of the heart and the mind of the greedy and hatred from themselves and from others people.

Who would have more chance to achieve the Buddhahood?

In Buddhism and In Daoism, the founder and the successor are longevity. The Buddha Sakyamuni lives to 80 years old. When he is dying, he still teaches the Buddha-law for his disciples. His successor Dajiaye and Ananda live to more than 100 years old. They are neither being hanged up because of crime or sin nor being murdered. On the contrary, they have died naturally in peaceful mind.

The first founder of Zen in India is Dajiaye. The successor is Ananda. It is 2,500 years ago. As we have mentioned, the Dao defined by Buddha Sakyamuni is Zen. In the time of Buddha Sakyamuni, he did not use the word “Zen”. The word“Zen” is used in China.

Do you know who the first founder of Zen in China is? It is the person named Dharma. He also lives to more than 100 years old, and is dead naturally in peacefully mind. They themselves are one of the persons who are in the huge wealth and are the nobility, and have educated well in the worldly, before they learn the Dao.

So, we could find that, those who are in the huge wealth and are the nobility, and have educated well in the worldly, would have the higher achievement in the realm of Buddhahood, once they are willing to go into the path of Buddha. And they are dying naturally in peaceful mind. That is because they have already liberated from all suffering, including the suffering of death. Since they have the ability to help people to liberate from their suffering, that is why they are not dead in suffering, let alone to die for others suffering. In other word, they have the supreme wisdom. The teaching of liberating from the suffering in life and death is the key teaching of Buddha.

Two Basic Conditions to achieve the Buddhahood.

There must be full of two conditions so that the Buddhahood could be achieved. That is the worldly bliss and wisdom. The bliss includes the wealth, health and intelligence. Generally speaking, those who are in the huge wealth and are the nobility might be full of the worldly bliss. In other word, they might have good education and good knowledge. However, they are lack of wisdom. That is also why it is difficult for them to learn the Dao. Because they are full of the worldly bliss, they would learn the Dao more smoothly, comparing to the poor people, once they are willing to go into the path of Buddha.  

What is the importance of learning the Dao?

Then, we might have one question. What is the importance of learning the Dao? In a brief, there are two kinds of importance to us for learning the Dao. One is to help ourselves liberate from the suffering in this life, and do the good karma as the cause and condition to lead us to the good life with bliss and wisdom in the present and the future life. The other is to help us to be reborn, to reincarnate into the human being of virtue and bliss in the next life and in the future life. Therefore, those who could feel the four suffering as said, intent to liberate from the suffering, and who are like to increase the self wisdom, would be willing to learn the Dao.

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.

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.