(Chapter 30) 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 30: Depart far away from the desire-fire
The Buddha said,” Those who act the Dao are such as putting on the
dried grass, must avoid it, when the fire comes. When the Daoist people see the
desire, they must depart far away from it.”
The desire-fire
is the fire of desire, which means that the desire is like the fire (the fire of worries, the fire of greed or hatred), which
could destroy anything in life and cause any damage. Mostly, the fire gives us
the negative impression, because it might hurt us, including our life. In this chapter, the fire is
based on the negative concept to be used as analogy. It is not only necessary for us to leave it away, but also necessary for us to "cease or extinguish the fire", which means to remove the negative mentality and emotion, such as the inside desire, greed, or hatred. It also means to remove the harm caused by the desire, greed or hatred.
Dao is Tao, which
is transliterated from Chinese Character. Dao originally means path, road or
way. The meaning of Dao is extended to be any system of education, including
any teaching in any religion. Therefore, the meaning of Dao is very broad. In
Buddhism, the Buddha also uses the original meaning of the character “Dao” as
the explaining or the defining. That is when the honesty disciples want to
practice the truth in life, what the principle is they can put it into the
practice in real life. In a word, Dao is some truth, principle and method to
enlighten self from the meditation by self and the practicing the teaching of
Buddha. In other words, the truth and all the enlightenment from the self and
the Buddha is also the Dao.
What is the difference between Buddhism and Daoism in Chinese?
To know the truth
in life is not enough. As a Buddhist monk or a general person who wants to
study the Buddhism, it is necessary to put the truth into practice, which is
called to act the Dao. I use the word "acting-Dao”,
"practicing-Dao" and “Dao-practicer”. Therefore, please do not mistakenly
understand the Dao to be the Daoism. In Chinese culture, there is some kind of
different between Buddhism and Daoism (Taoism). What is the difference between them? In
a word, the appearance, form, method and the way of practicing the Dao is
different.
Meanwhile, what the nouns to be used to introduce and explain the
gods is different. However, the goal that the truth they want to practice and
to enlighten self is the same. Thus, the Buddhism and the Daoism could accept
each other and there is no conflict. Furthermore, the
Buddhism and Daoism could accept the other righteous religion, such as
Christianity and Catholicism. Do you know why? In the emptiness in mind as if
in the universe and as if in the sky and earth, there is nothing which could
not be included.
From the above
explanation, here the Daoist people mean those people who practice the Dao in
Buddhism. I call them as Dao-practicer. You could also use “Dao-practicer”
instead of “Daoist people”. In this chapter, I hope that you do not mistakenly
understand that the Daoist people mean those people who learn Daoism.
For the Dao-practicer, there are two kind of the desire which have to be departed from.
For the
Dao-practicer, there are two kind of the desire which have to be departed from.
One is the desire of the erotic and the other is the desire of the greed. The
Buddha talked about the erotic desire and the greedy desire for many times in
The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha. There are a lot of chapters
to remind the honesty Buddhist monk to be cautious for the erotic desire and
the greedy desire. I also explain it a lot in those chapters. The erotic desire
is also one of the greedy desires, if we deeply perceive it, we can find it.
The Buddha said
that the greedy desire is the source of suffering. For the masses, they do not
have such perceiving and thus do a lot of harmful thing for the self and others. They could not understand the dangerous of the greedy desire, unless they have experienced the greedy desire in life, tasted the bitter consequence and
suffered it. Or, they have accepted the teaching of Buddha and thus have been beginning to think
and perceive why the greedy desire is the source of suffering.
In the world,
there are a lot of harmful cases caused by the greedy desire or the erotic
desire every day. In the history, there are also a lot of cases as said. Many
people are followed to and turned by their own greedy desire and the erotic
desire and thus to do harmful thing to others people. They might just see the
self-interests or just self-enjoy the happiness in the present. However, they
do not see the consequence which would harm self and others. There are many such
similarly events, which we can find in the tyrannical and brutal government, or
in any society, even in the environment which surrounds us.
The greedy and
erotic desire is the cause, which would link the many and complicated
conditions coming from the outer environment. Then, such cause and conditions
would let the person to do any harmful thing by violating its personal good
self-nature, to harm the self and others people.
A news reminds us not only have to be cautious for our own greedy and erotic desire, but also have to be cautious for other peoples’ greedy and erotic desire, so as to avoid any troubles.
Recently, in
Taiwan, there is social news which attracts my attention. A couple married less
than three months since they have known each other in the Internet. The female
is 45 years old and older than the male for 7 years old. The female don’t get
along well with the male’s parents. So, they move out from the male’s parents’
home. One day, the female find that the name of beneficiaries of her husband’s
insurance policies is her husband’s father, she asks her husband to change the
name of beneficiaries to be her name. But, the man doesn’t do that. Then, the
female’s mood begins to change and she starts to deliberately cause trouble to the
man. She accuses the man for doing the domestic violence to her and also
threatens the man that she wants to spill gasoline on him to start a fire as
fighting back.
In another day,
this couple goes back to the male’s parents’ home. The female begins to
deliberately make trouble to her mother-in-law, to threaten her with knife, to
slap her face and kick her foot, and to throw foods to everywhere on the floor
from the refrigerator. When polices come, she even accuses her mother-in-law to
hurt her. All such badly behaviors are secretly recorded by her husband and the
film is sent to the male’s best friend.
Finally, in the
male’s parent’s home, the female indeed spill gasoline on her husband to start
a fire, which cause the male severe burn and being sent to the ICU. Meanwhile,
the female’s face is severe burned and ruined. What happened as mentioned above
is less than one year since they married. And the man dies in the end after one month.
From this case,
we know that, it is not only men who would engage in domestic violence. Women
would also do it. This case also lets us know that the greedy desire from
others people can hurt us and our family, no matter they is male or female. In
this case, we find that this man doesn’t be cautious for his erotic desire and
indulge in and confused by this female. Meanwhile, He also doesn’t be cautious
for the greedy desire from this female. And thus it brings the seriously
trouble to him and his parents. For this woman, she doesn’t be cautious for her
own greedy desire and thus she engages in the domestic violence to her
family-in-law by violate her good nature, and thus ruins her happy life and her
future. Therefore, we understand that we not only have to be cautious for our
own greedy and erotic desire, but also have to be cautious for others peoples’
greedy and erotic desire. No matter the greedy and erotic desire is coming from
self or others people, it would be possible to become the invisible fire or the
real fire to burn us. Thus, we also know that the greedy and erotic desire is
the cause of any violence. That is also why we have to depart from it.
When we depart from the cause, that is the greedy and erotic desire, any consequences would not be happened, no matter the outer conditions are.
When the dried
grass meets the fire, it would be burned. The Dao-practicer is as the dried grass,
it is better for him to depart from the greedy and erotic desire, because the
greedy and erotic desire is as fire which could damage self, just as if the
fire burns the dried grass.
Even though we
might not be the Dao-practicer, however, when we have seen a lot of damaged
consequences as said, which would remind us to be cautious for our own greedy
desire or the erotic desire. Furthermore, we also have to be cautious for the
greedy and erotic desire coming from others people. We now understand that such
desire is like fire. If we are wise, it is better for us to depart from it. When
we depart from the cause, that is the greedy and erotic desire, any
consequences would not be happened, no matter the outer conditions are.
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.
