The best helpfulness is to give those who ask for help the true wisdom.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

There are many ways to help people. But, do you have found that some people are zealous to help other people, however, it makes the zealous persons being tangled in the helped peoples’ problem. And then, such problem would birth new problem to the zealous persons. In other word, it is not only the problem of being helped people. It has become the problems of both of them.

 

In my practical experience, I have found that some people who ask for the help from outside are because they are lack of wisdom to deal with their personal mental problem. In other word, when they ask for people from outside to do things and help them, that is not the master problem. What the master problem is their disorder in mental activity. They are tangling and stocking in their negative emotion and thinking. And that affect their relationship with their family and the methods to handle things. They also have felt about their mental problem and attend the mind course. What have shocked me is that such course almost is no helpful for them. Their disorder in mental activity has still been there. Why? Because such course does not touch the core of the true wisdom.

 

So, if we are zealous to help people, we should not be blind. It is better for us to use our brain and wisdom so as to avoid that we fall into the tangled problem and trouble. The best helpfulness is to give those who ask for help the true wisdom. The second helpfulness is to give them knowledge. When they have wisdom and knowledge, they would be strong in heart and independent in life, and finally could find the way, including knowledge and specialty, to improve their problem, including the poverty.    

 

If we understand such method and have such ability to help people, we would not despise the un-learner.

The impermanence of emotion or feeling may affect and disturb our life steps.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

Everyone has its own mood obstacle. Most people’s personal emotion or feeling is easy to be affected by others mood such as anger, anxiety, excitement or depression. Especially, in a family or in a group, the member’s mood may affect to each other. When the mood is negative, such as anger, hatred, complain, sad or anxiety, it may affect the member’s ability to learn anything and may result in the bad performance in studying or in career.

 

Of course, our personal mood may also affect the emotion of others. Some people’s mood is easy to come and go. For example, they may be in happiness at this moment, however, they may be in anger at next moment and thus to shock us.

 

Knowing the impermanence of joy and anger, we know that we should learn and train our minds and emotions to be stable and to keep our heart at peace. But, how can we do that? Learning Buddha is one way. Meditation-sitting and keep mindfulness is a good way. Doing so would also help us resist the negative effects from the other negative emotions.

Chapter 19: Perceive the fake and real at the same time (Updated on January 7, 2022 )

(Chapter 19) 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 19: Perceive the fake and real at the same time

The Buddha said,” Observe the sky and land, have a thought of the impermanence; observe the world, have a thought of the impermanence; perceiving the spiritual awakening is the Bodhi. Those who have such knowledge gain the Dao quickly.”    

To have the feeling about the impermanence is one of the most important teachings in Buddhism, because it is the basic concept to enter the gate of Buddhism. If we have no feeling about the impermanence in life, it would be hard for us to understand what is taught by Buddha. 

A story enlightens us to know the impermanence.

There are a lot of stories and news to enlighten us to know the impermanence. In the ancient India, there is a woman whose child died. This woman cries every day and feels very sad for losing her child. One day, she meets the Buddha Sakyamuni, and tells him, ”Could you use your spiritual and magical power to let my child to revive? The Buddha Sakyamuni tells her, ”You go and ask each family in this lane whether they have any family member not to die. If you could find a family which has no dead family member, I promise you to let your child to revive.”

This woman feels hopeful and asks each family in the lane, “May I ask you whether there is no dead family member in your family?” “No, my grandpapa is just past away.” The person replies to her. She finishes all asking and finds that each family has its own dead family members.

The woman disappointedly comes to the Buddha Sakyamuni and tells him what the outcome is. The Buddha Sakyamuni consoles her, “Now you know each family has ever the dead family member. The impermanence of life exists in the world, and also exists in each family and in each person. The dead family member is gone. Abandon the worry of missing and sadness in heart. Let your child go. He would be well in heaven.” 

I am also very consoled by this story. I have ever read some news that the person is too sad to die suddenly or to suicide, because of his loved family member dying. It is usually happened in those who have the more closed relationship with the dead family member. This is true. According to the psychological research, such emotion and feeling is normal. We would abandon such sadness gradually with our intellect, if we know that the impermanence of life exists in the world. However, it may be not for those who have no such concept. That is why they will feel more painful and sad. The worst is that some people use drug or wine to resolve their pain and sadness, and which makes their life bad.  

  

“Observe the sky and land, have a thought of the impermanence.”

From the sky, we observe the change of the climate, such as the strong wind, heavy rain, heavy snow or ice storm; from the land, we observe the change of earth crust. The severe earthquake, severe tsunami or volcanic eruptions always happened in seconds and without warning; and which always bring a lot of disasters and cause many damages, lost of fortune, and deaths of humans. What happened is in the twinkling of an eye. Under the circumstances, we do not know whether we are alive or death in the next moment.

Understanding such impermanence of the sky and land, we will humble ourselves to the sky and land, and know that we should get along well with the natural environment, and not destroy it too much when developing the original natural environment.

“Observe the world, have a thought of the impermanence”

We observe the impermanence of life. We also have observed the worldly impermanence, which include the impermanence of romantic love and marriage, and of the personal and others emotion and feeling, and of career, working, and of the friendship, planning, attending school and disease, even of the politic.

As we know, the romantic love and any vows for the love are the myth. Many people finally quarrel, break up, and go their own way, because of any trivial matters in daily life. There is no forever romantic love. Romantic love can't bear the real challenge. If we can know it earlier, we will focus on how to cultivate our own noble character to love the humanity and have the ability to live in the reality, and not to count on the romantic love and the unreal opposite sex for living.

If we cannot face the impermanence of love and marriage, we can easily fall into hatred and desire to control the opposite sex. That is because we are afraid of betrayal, and we are addicted to love and marriage. This is why we cannot make our hearts free. In any case, there is the similar situation.

So, it doesn’t mean that there is no love in marriage. On the contrary, it makes us clearly know how we can properly deal with the relationship between lovers or spouses in love and marriage. In life and economic, the more independent and the more respect to each other will be better in love and marriage.

 

Most of the working and career is impermanent.

Working in a privately owned company does not guarantee that we can keep working until retirement, because any company may face the operational or failure risks. Secondly, we may also leave any company because of the personal factors, such as the health problems, or accidents. Even in the government institution, there are also a lot of changes and it may not guarantee that our career is always the same.

The risk of suicide due to unemployment exists in every country and society. However, what surprise me is that civil servants committed suicide because they were unable to adapt to the transfer of duties.

Knowing the impermanence of the working and career, we can prepare in advance, to save enough money, leave self a back lane for survival, or prepare another skill to survive for a runway switch in career. And we will be flexible when we face any impermanence in job.

The impermanence of emotion or feeling may affect and disturb our life steps.

Everyone has its own mood obstacle. Most people’s personal emotion or feeling is easy to be affected by others mood such as anger, anxiety, excitement or depression. Especially, in a family or in a group, the member’s mood may affect to each other. When the mood is negative, such as anger, hatred, complain, sad or anxiety, it may affect the member’s ability to learn anything and may result in the bad performance in studying or in career.

Of course, our personal mood may also affect the emotion of others. Some people’s mood is easy to come and go. For example, they may be in happiness at this moment, however, they may be in anger at next moment and thus to shock us.

Knowing the impermanence of joy and anger, we know that we should learn and train our minds and emotions to be stable and to keep our heart at peace. But, how can we do that? Learning Buddha is one way. Meditation-sitting and keep mindfulness is a good way. Doing so would also help us resist the negative effects from the other negative emotions.

It is possible for us to experience the impermanent friendship.

For the teenage, friendship is the very important in their life. Maybe you are experiencing the wonderful friendship or the worst relationship with friends. Whatever it is, it is the experience in life. As we work after graduating from school, any friendship seems to be diluted gradually. We have found that many friends are disappeared from our life, and we don’t contact to each other for a long time.

Then, we establish the new relationship with new friends in work. However, we have found that such friendship is no longer pure like what we owned in the time of school. The worst is that we may meet the villain. Don’t worry. The best is that we may meet the noble friends who support and help us a lot in many ways by his sincerely heart and ability.

Sometimes, we may do many things for our friends, but to receive the complaining from them. If we are cheated or betrayed by our friends, it may cause us angry and distrust them. Whatever it is, we find that the friendship is temporary. It seems hardly to keep the long term friendship, unless we cherish it very much.

So, the friendship is also impermanent. When it comes in life, we welcome it. When it goes away, we don’t keep it. At the moment, there will be no burden in our heart.

Planning has always not kept up with change.

There is a Chinese saying, ”Artificial calculations are not as good as those of heaven.” It also means that human calculations cannot keep up with heaven's calculations. That is, any planning about our life may not be as good as the arrangement for us from the heaven. It seems the destiny. But, it also tells to have the open-minded attitude and not to tangle in the stuck situation. It may be a good choice to turn around the way. And the light of our future may be there.

So, the planning is also impermanent. But, it doesn’t mean that we do not need to plan anything in our life. There is a saying, “The only constant thing in the world is change.” When we know the impermanence of change, we would have more flexibility in mind to deal with any change.

That all doing is impermanent is a law of generating and eliminating.

Because that all doing is impermanent, any barely force to pursue external things will bind our heart. When we do everything, we comply with any cause and condition naturally, but not climb up by social ladder by barely pursuing. Then, our heart will be free.

Understanding, facing, and dealing with the worldly impermanence, and letting go of it after resolving it, nothing is occupied in our heart. Any impermanent change will not be regarded as frustration, failure or regret, but the wisdom growth of any experiences for us that enables us to face the change of life with our open-minded.

When Buddha Shakyamuni entered the Nirvana, he said the following verse:

That all doing is impermanent is a law of generating and eliminating. Generation and elimination are eliminated. Stillness and elimination are joy.

Everything is impermanent is a law of generating and eliminating, which include to generate and eliminate a self thought, and thereafter to generate and eliminate any self behavior and attitude. After self-generation and elimination are completely self-eliminated, that is, after the mind of generation and elimination and the phenomenon of generation and elimination or after the mind of birth and death and the phenomenon of birth and death are completely eliminated, the Buddha nature of the self will not be destroyed. This is the happiness achieved by the quietness and cessation of self.

So, the whole thing is basically concerned about self perceiving and self reflection in heart. On the basis, we thereafter perceive and reflect the external world. However, some beginners of learning Buddha don’t perceive and reflect self, but to see and criticize the mistake of others and thus to cause others to feel bad and hate Buddhism. If we will learn Buddha, it is better for us to avoid such mistake.

Perceiving the spiritual awakening is the Bodhi.

What is the spiritual awakening and what is the Bodhi? Relative to awakening is sleeping. It is a kind of describing. When we don’t know our self Buddha-nature which is the serenity and stillness in mind and nothingness in heart, we are like sleeping in the dark room and we couldn’t see the brightness. Once we know our self Buddha-nature, it is as we are awakening from the sunshine and could see the brightness, which is also called enlightening. This is the simple and short explaining about spiritual awakening.

There could be a lot of explaining about Bodhi. According to the different degree of learning Buddha, Buddha Shakyamuni or the Master in Buddhism will offer the different meaning from shallow to deep. We will read the different meaning for Bodhi from the different Buddhist scripture. So, be wise and don't be bind by one meaning.

Bodhi is originally the Sanskrit and means a tree which names Bodhi. That is because Buddha Shakyamuni seat in meditation under a tree, where he is enlightened and prove the supreme-equality-wisdom by self. Then, this tree is called Bodhi tree. So, Buddha Shakyamuni uses the word “Bodhi” as “enlightenment” or “prove the supreme-equality-wisdom”. The masters in Buddhism usually explain Bodhi as compassion, wisdom, or becoming Buddha.

Perceiving the spiritual awakening is to have seen the self Buddha-nature and to enlighten and to prove the self natural wisdom, and then becoming Buddha, which whole experience is Bodhi.

How to perceive the spiritual awakening? There are three important methods. That is, to listen to Buddha’s teaching or to read the Buddhist scripture and its explanation, to think and to reason what the Buddha has taught, and to put Buddha’s teaching into practice. The spiritual awakening means to know self heart which is self nature, self Buddha nature.

Learning Buddha is to perceive the self spiritual awakening, not to worship Buddha Shakyamuni. For the masses, they may not have such knowledge. But, to worship Buddha will bring them hope and peace in heart. It is better for us to understand such situation with our empathy.

Pinch a flower and smile. Outside of teaching, other imparting, one heart to confirm the other heart.

When Buddha Shakyamuni is on the spirit-vulture mountain, he pinches a flower and shows to his disciples and the masses. All of them are silent, and do not understand what the meaning is. Only a Buddhist monk Mahakassapa comprehends about this with smiles. 

Then, Buddha Shakyamuni says, ” I have the correct-law-eye-treasure, Nirvana wondrous heart. The true phenomenon is without phenomenon. The wondrous law-gate, no text is established. There is the other imparting outside of teaching. These exhorts are imparted to Mahakassapa.”

This is the origin of Zen. “The correct-law-eye-treasure” is translated from Chinese into English. “Law” here means “Buddha-law”. “Correct law” means the whole Buddha law. “Eye” here means “to see and reflect the all things clearly.” “Treasure” here means “hiding the treasure to include the all things.”

So, what Zen is imparted is the whole Buddha law which is reflected the all things and it could be seen by us. It is the treasure which could lead us into the Nirvana with our wondrous heart. What is the wondrous heart? It is to realize that the true phenomenon is without phenomenon. How can we go into the gate of such wondrous Buddha law? Its password and secret is the wondrous heart and no text. Such special and wondrous Buddha law is outside of the normal Buddha’s teaching and these imparting are delivered to Mahakassapa.

Mahakassapa is the first generation of India Zen. The word "Zen" is transliterated from Chinese. The system of Zen imparts from the first generation which is the only one, to the next generation which is also the only one. The method is one heart to confirm the other heart. In other word, at the same generation, the second person has no chance to gain the confirming from the Zen master. This rule continues until the sixth generation of Chinese Zen. After him, Zen is broadly imparted and delivered in China.

The India Zen is from Mahakassapa to Dharma. Dharma can speak and read in Chinese and he imparts Zen in China. He is respected as the first generation of Chinese Zen. In Zen, each Zen master will leave his verses as confirmation of enlightenment.   

There is no text. Why? That is because it is from one mind to communicate to the other mind in the emptiness. Where you can find the text? It is unless someone records it on the paper.

If someone could not perceive the self spiritual awakening, it is hardly for him to experience and prove the emptiness-nature, and to experience the communication from one mind to the other mind in the emptiness. It is hardly for us to be imparted and confirmed from Zen master in the emptiness, unless we are the top supreme wise person, and have the merit and virtue in learning Buddha.

In the worldly, there are golden-thread dresses and bowl to be used as Zen heritage tokens which is ceased to happen after Zen master Huineng who is the sixth generation of Chinese Zen.

Zen is not easy to be understood by the masses. That is why it is single imparting, and why the Zen is the mystery and puzzle for the masses, and why it is not publicly known in India.

Zen is publicly known by the masses since the Master Huineng, the sixth generation of Chinese Zen. His time is in A.D.638-713. The master Huineng imparts Zen for five disciples who are confirmed to be enlightened in Zen. Then, these five disciples develop Zen everywhere in China. And at the same time, Zen is also imparting to Japan and Korea.

The Zen master Huineng is illiteracy. As we know above, no text is established in Zen. That is what the interesting. The illiteracy doesn’t be the obstacle to be enlightened in wisdom. That is a special record in the Buddhist history. This record also lets us know that, whatever the language is spoken, it is not the obstacle for enlightening our natural wisdom. Why?

Any language is developed in a social group. As we have mentioned before, the grandest Dao is speechless. That is, our natural wisdom is speechless. Once we realize our natural wisdom, whether we are illiteracy or what language we speak is not so important. Any text or language is just to help us more easily understand what our natural wisdom is. In other word, any text and language itself is not the natural wisdom. When we want to enlighten our natural wisdom, we even have to abandon any text and language in the temporarily.

Then we know human appearance or color of skin is also not obstacle to enlighten our natural wisdom. As Buddha said, the true phenomenon is without phenomenon. Human appearance or color of skin is the phenomenon which could be changed in any time. And it is also the impermanence.    

Verses demonstrate whose natural wisdom is enlightened.

Zen master Hong Ren (A.D.601-674) was the fifth generation of Chinese Zen. He directed a large Zen temple where many disciples learned Zen from him. One of his disciples named Shenxiu was the chief professor who also taught Zen. However, his heart had not yet been confirmed by the heart of the Zen master Hong Ren.

All the disciples thought that the chief professor Shenxiu would be the sixth generation of Chinese Zen. And they expected it to be true. One day, Zen master Hong Ren asked his disciples to write down verses on the wall about what they have enlightened in wisdom. 

All disciples invited Shenxiu to write verses. Then, Shenxiu wrote verses:

The Body is Bodhi tree.

The heart is like a stand of the bright mirror,

Which have to be often wiped diligently, and

Do not make it provoked by dusts.

The dusts meant annoyance, trouble, or mistake. The verses meant that we should remove any annoyance, trouble and mistake. It looked reasonable. All disciples agreed with it cheerfully, and thought that everyone should follow the verses to practice. They all thought that the sixth generation of Chinese Zen must be Shenxiu.

At that time, Huineng passed by there from kitchen where he worked and felt curious what they were talking about. A colleague told him what verses Shenxiu had written.

Hearing that, Huineng had verses in heart and asked his colleague to assist him to write down the verses on the wall:  

There is no tree in the Bodhi originally.

The bright mirror is also not a stand.

There is nothing in the original.

Where the dust could be provoked?

All disciples read these verses curiously, did not understand what they meant, and were all stunned.

Zen master Hong Ren came here and had read the verses on the wall. He knew that Huineng had enlightened his natural wisdom. At the midnight, Zen master Hong Ren spoke Diamond Sutra for Huineng and imparted the Zen to him, including the golden-thread dresses and bowl. From the moment, Huineng was confirmed by Zen master Hong Ren and became the sixth generation of Chinese Zen. That is because his self spirit was awakened naturally.    

Those who have such knowledge gain the Dao quickly.    

Basically, there is no wrong for the two verses. But, do you know the difference of the verses said above between Shenxiu and Huineng? Shenxiu has not yet seen his self nature. However, Huineng has already seen his self nature. The self nature is the Buddha nature. That is what the difference between them, and such difference has decided their different destiny and future.

What is the difference? In a word, it is the difference of the general person and the Bodhisattva. It is also the difference of distinguishing wisdom and no-distinguishing wisdom. It is only the difference by a thought. It is so simple. However, it is very hardly to be understood by the masses.

What is the difference between distinguishing wisdom and no-distinguishing wisdom? For the general people, they are good at the distinguishing intellect, especially the elite. The ability of analysis, research and debating is the distinguishing intellect. But, it is not the no-distinguishing wisdom.

The distinguishing wisdom could help us distinguish what is the true virtue and what is the true evil, and we know that we should do the true virtue and not do the true evil. So, to have the distinguishing wisdom is a good thing. For the general people, they may have the distinguishing wisdom. But, it is not enough, if we want to learn Buddha.  

To learn Buddha, we must realize the no-distinguishing wisdom on the basis of distinguishing wisdom. Only we are in the state of no-distinguishing wisdom, we will realize the wisdom without binary opposition. That is the top supreme wisdom.

If we want to realize such wisdom, we have to realize the emptiness nature. However, it is hardly to realize it for anyone. So, Shenxiu may have the distinguishing wisdom. But, he does not have the no-distinguishing wisdom. That is why he cannot be the leader of the sixth generation of Chinese Zen.

 

For the masses, some people even do not have the distinguishing ability to distinguish what is good and what is evil, let alone to have the distinguishing wisdom. That is why they do the evil things and even do not have the feeling of shame.

Perceiving the sky, land and the world, to have a thought of the impermanence, it would lead us to realize these natures and essences are emptiness. The essences of the impermanence is the emptiness nature. The changing of phenomenon is the impermanence,  this is like the illusion, and is not real, and this is the perceive of fake. The essences of the impermanence is the emptiness, this is the real and permanence, and this is the perceive of truth. From that, we extend to realize that the nature and essence of our spiritual awakening is also emptiness. Then, what they mean for us? It is the wisdom of no obstacle, and which is the all wisdom, including the distinguishing wisdom and the no-distinguishing wisdom. The changing of phenomenon and the corresponding impermanence are belonging to the distinguishing wisdom.  The essences of the impermanence is the emptiness, this is the truth and permanence, and is belonging to the no-distinguishing wisdom.  The essences of all of them are the wisdom of emptiness nature. That is, the fake and the real are one, the illusion and the truth are one. Huineng realize it and that is why he can be the leader of the sixth generation of Chinese Zen.

If we have such knowledge as said above, we gain the Dao quickly. What the next we should do is to practice it, realize it and confirm it. In the Heaven and in the world, no one is as superior and wondrous as Buddha. The merit and virtue of Buddha is deep as sea. Life is short and it is difficult to gain our human body. If we have the chance to read this article, it is better for us to cherish our Buddha nature to learn Buddha. 

p.s. Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese. The original meaning of Dao is the way 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.

Chapter 12 ﹝19﹞ : Seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart are difficult.

(Chapter 12 ﹝19﹞ ) 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 ﹝19﹞ : Seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart are difficult.

Seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart are difficult, seeing the circumstance so not moving in heart is difficult, which is the nineteenth difficulty in the twenty difficulties said by Buddha Shakyamuni in this Chapter.

 “Seeing the circumstance” also means seeing the situation, the condition, the form, the development and its trend, the state, the event, the thing, the case, the consequence, the environment, and all of which is happened in outer of our body, could be seen by our naked eyes, could be judged or thought by our mind, and also could be felt or perceived by our awareness. We say that it also could be seen by heart.  

Furthermore, “seeing the circumstance” also means seeing the image appeared in our mind, such as seeing the image or the situation, which is showed in the heart-mirror, and could be seen in any time, especially, in the time of quiet, such as dreaming or Zen sitting, the meditation sitting. We say that it is seen by the third-eye, the heart-eye.

Do you have ever made the nightmare? The nightmare is so real and so to make us feel chilly and scared. Do you have ever made the sweet dream? The sweet dream makes us happy and encouraged. The dream is really to affect our emotion, feeling, thinking, judgment and action. So, it’s hard to see the situation and not moving in heart.

All things as what happened in the outer or inner of our body, are like a dream, which also affects our emotion, feeling, thinking, judgment and action. That also means that our heart is to move or is moved. This kind of moved or moving is not what you think about to touch your heart. On the contrary, such moved or moving is related to the static.

The original of our heart is stillness. Once we are affected by any circumstance as said above, our heart is easily moved or turned, such as a still flag in the air. Once the wind blows, the still flag is beginning to sway in the wind. The circumstance as said is like the blowing wind. The heart is like the flag.

In the Tang dynasty of China, a Buddhist master was teaching the Buddhist scripture and asked his disciples: “There is a flag swaying in the wind softly. What do you have seen? Is the flag moving from side to side, or is the wind moving? ” Some of his disciples said what are moving is the flag, not the wind. Some of his disciples said what are moving is the wind, not the flag. The sixth-founder of Zen, the master Hui Neng, went by this place and heard the question. Then he said, “What is moving, is neither the flag nor the wind, but is your heart.”

This story is telling us that our heart is easily affected and turned by the outer situation so as easily to be moved or shaken.

There is a story in the Buddhist scripture. One day, the Buddha walked in the road and saw a pile of silvers beside the road. Then, he told his disciple, Ananda, and said, ” I just see vipers over there.” Ananda came, saw the pile of silvers, and said, “ Yes, I also see vipers.” Then, they walked away and kept going forward.

A father and his son, walking behind the Buddha and Ananda, had heard the saying by the Buddha and Ananda. They felt curious, walked forward and saw the pile of silvers. They were so extremely happy to see those silvers and took the pile of silvers away. The father and his son didn't know that these silvers were stolen from the national treasure and were thrown by the stealer. They were regarded as the stealers and finally taken away by the state for questioning and were locked in jail.

This story tells us that we are easy to birth the greedy in heart when we see the outer things, such as the father and son see the said silvers. And it is also easy to make us stuck in troubles. That also means that we are easy to make us fall into any troubles, once our heart is not stillness but is moved (shaken) or is moving.

The same reasoning, we are easy to birth the hatred or resentment in heart when we see any situation or object, which are not corresponding to our will, or not content us. Or we are easy to birth the stupidity and obsession in heart when we see someone or something which we love. 

So we can see that there are a lot of things or events in the world are the flow of the phenomena caused by such three kinds of hearts, greedy, hatred or resentment, stupidity and obsession, because everyone’s heart is moving and affecting each other.

Furthermore, all of these are also becoming the circumstances. Then, the outer world of us is like the kaleidoscope, and which conceals us to see the truth, including the truth in our heart in the original, the stillness and the silence, nothing in there.

Suppose that everyone’s heart is stillness and not to affect each other, how it would be in the world? Of course, we could not ask others’ heart to be stillness, but we could ask for ourselves. Suppose everyone lets its heart return to the stillness and not be affected by any circumstance, what it would be in the outer and inner world of us?

Think about it, then, seeing the circumstance and unmoved in heart would not be difficult for us.

Chapter 12 ﹝10﹞: When contact with things and no heart is difficult. (Updated on August 21, 2021)

(Chapter 12 ﹝10﹞ ) 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 we contact with things and there is no heart, it  is difficult for us. 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 ﹝10﹞: When we contact with things and there is no heart, it is difficult for us. (Updated on August 21, 2021)

When we contact with things and there is no heart, it  is difficult for us (It is difficult for people when they met any situation and had no heart.). It is the tenth difficulty in the twenty difficulties said by Buddha Shakyamuni in this Chapter.

"No heart" doesn't mean heartless or no feeling. "No heart" means no anger, no greed, no resentment, no hatred, no retaliation, no infatuation, no stupidity, no stinginess, no contempt, no arrogance, no criticism, no arguing, no jealousy, and no suspicion. It means there is no negative emotion or negative status in any situation. All these negative emotion or status is always happened on everyone. How could it be possible for us to have no heart when we are meeting something in our life? For example, most people are very easy to be irritated by a little thing. Then, the emotion of anger is happened. When meeting the thing of self advantage, the greedy heart would be happened in most people. Then, we know when we contact with any things and there is no heart, it is really very difficult for us.

So, we could find that our heart and mind are easy to be influenced by any inner or outer situation, phenomenon, object or appearance, whatever it is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, positive or negative, virtue or evil. All the emotion, feeling or status as caused, such as anger, hatred, greed, infatuation, is like a shapeless rope to drag us or to bind us, which make us un-free and make us have burden in heart. Those are stumbling blocks to life, to hinder our life to go well. Such all kind of variety caused by inner heart is like the kaleidoscope to form our inner world and our outer world. Whatever it is the emotion of sadness or of joyfulness, it is impossible to permanently dwell in our heart. It is always changing and changing.

So, the Buddha said,” All law is created by heart.” It also means that the whole world in our inside or in our outside is created by our own heart. Then, what could decide our own fate? It is only our own heart which could decide our own fate. How to change our bad fate? To change our heart is to change our bad fate. There is reason to be poor. There is reason to be rich. There is reason to be in suffering. There is reason to be in happiness. However, do you really know what the reason is? 

In the Buddhist Scripture, the Buddha said, ” One should dwell in no-place and then to generate its heart.” “Should dwell in no-place”, it means that one should not dwell in any phenomenon or any existence or any emptiness. "Not to dwell in" means "not to attach to" or "not to cling to" or " not to infatuate with" something. It also means to make us have no negative heart to any situation. However, what it means about " to generate its heart " in this sentence? It means that we generate the heart of  benevolence, empathy, and gladness to all sentient beings. It also means that we arise the heart of wisdom and thus to abandon the stubborn mind so as to do positive things for all sentient beings. In the deeper meaning, it also means to let the Bodhi heart arise. That is the heart to become Buddha, to achieve the Buddhahood. It is the very important key point, if we want to be in a life completely full of the happiness and the abundance. 

When we do not dwell in any phenomenon and any heart which might affect our life and fate, and might make our life and fate worse and more negative would not arise. If we choose the heart of benevolence, empathy, and gladness, we thus would decide our good direction of our own life and fate, to make our life and fate better and more positive. When we have such concept and put it into practice profoundly in our daily life, then, it would be possible for us when we contact with things and there is no heart. The heart of wisdom is naturally there. To have no negative heart, everything goes well. That is also means everything goes well with the natural heart of wisdom. 

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.