Chapter 28: A thought is as a horse, don’t indulge it.

(Chapter 28) 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 28: A thought is as a horse, don’t indulge it.     

The Buddha said,” Don’t trust your thought. Your thought is un-trusty. Be cautious not to meet the erotic. Meeting the erotic would instantly incur the disasters. Having gained the Arhathood, you thus can trust your thought.    

Each day and each moment, from our senses such as eyes, ears, nose, tongue or body, we absorbing stimuli from various situations and information from the outside world, everything of this kind will inspire our thoughts. At this time, each of the thoughts is like a wild and untrained horse galloping around and it is difficult for us to control it.

When we have not yet trained our thoughts well, most of our thoughts are some kind of illusion, and we indulge it and dream it. This does not allow us to recognize the facts. Meanwhile, a lot of misunderstanding and harmful things is thus incurred. Unfortunately, the person may not necessarily have such awareness.

For people who are hungry for the emotions of men and women, when they meet the object they like in their hearts, their inner thoughts will begin to speculate on the other's thoughts, and start some fantasies of love between men and women. Unfortunately, the other party may not have this thought. If at this time, we ourselves cannot control our thoughts and feelings, not only will we have troubles ourselves, but we may also involuntarily hurt each other physically or verbally. The worse would make us crime.

Some people greed for the erotic. However, some people greed for the money. No matter greed for erotic or money, their thoughts are not controlled by themselves. All illusion is occupied on their mind. For instance, they will feel good about themselves and think that they will have the great power to control everything. Such unreal feeling would make them bully others, seize the interests of others, and finally make them into the crime.

Mostly, the erotic and money would lead us to the crime, if we let ourselves indulge it. That is why the Buddha said,” Don’t trust your thought. Your thought is un-trusty. Be cautious not to meet the erotic. Meeting the erotic would instantly incur the disasters.”

Some evil people would use erotic or money to lure you into crime, which are generally existed in some evil organizations. They even wash your brain so as to make you be agreed with their evil ideology. Under the circumstance, you even think what your thought is right and you have the faith about it. But, in fact, your thought is un-trusty.

So, we should be cautious not to meet the erotic. Meeting the erotic would instantly incur the disasters, which we have seen a lot in the news and movies.

In the chapter 27, we have mentioned how to train our thought and mind by some convenient methods. The most important is to understand the reason. Why we should train and control our mind and thought, which have mentioned a lot in the sutra of 42 chapters said by Buddha. The essence of Buddhism is to control our own inner thoughts and desires and not to indulge them. This is the best protection for everyone. Meanwhile, it is not only to make us peaceful in mind, but is to make the society and world peace.

“Having gained the Arhathood, you thus can trust your thought.” Arhat is Sanskrit and means that a person experiences the long-term practice to train and control its heart and mind to be steady and make its heart and mind very clear, clean and pure. Meanwhile, there aren't any un-pure desire and illusion in their heart and mind. At the same time, their Bodhi heart is established well. Bodhi heart means the heart of becoming Buddha.

In the status of Arhathood, their hearts are not affected and turned by the outside world. Meanwhile, they can generate any positive, right and good thoughts on the basis of no-thought. At the same time, any negative, wrong and evil thoughts would be naturally eliminated and turned into the positive, right and good thoughts by their own power.

Therefore, when we learn Buddhism and achieve the Arhathood, we thus can trust our thought. It also means that we will really do any positive, right and good thing to benefit self and others, when we are in such status.   

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 24: The erotic and desire hinder the Dao

(Chapter 24) 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 24: The erotic and desire hinder the Dao   

The Buddha said,” Love and desire is not more than erotic. The erotic as a desire is so large and there is no beyond it in the external. Fortunately, there is only such one. If there were the second one as the same, the people in the universal world would be incapable of acting the Dao.”   

Anything has two sides, one is positive and the other is negative. The erotic and desire may be the source of inspiration for artistic creation, but it is also the origin of criminal violence, and more is the source of crime. For a practitioner in religion, the prohibition of erotic and desire is one of the most basic precept and the most important precept on the way to practice the faith. Although we are not monks, controlling our erotic and desire can prevent us from embarking on the path of evil.

The Buddha said,” Love and desire is not more than erotic.” It also means that love and desire do not exceed erotic. In other words, the serious and harmful of erotic is more than that of love and desire.

If we profoundly analyze what is love, we will understand that the essence of love is desire. But, do you know why we would generate the emotion of love? In Buddhism, it is analyzed according to the roots of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, which is called as Six-Roots, and thus to generate Six-Awareness when the Six-Roots contact to the phenomena outside the body. Meanwhile, it will thus generate Six-Dust, which means the troubles, worries, or annoyances. The example and the explanation are as follows:  

1.     Eyes: When any hot girl or strong man is seen by our eyes, it will stir the inside desire and generate the feeling of love, and then will make us hope to own them. Anything which can cause our interests and thus stir our desires is seen by our eyes, a strong feeling of wanting to own them is happened. In other words, our mind is affected, controlled and tied up by what we have seen and by the generated desires. Under such circumstances, those who do not temper their desires will easily be lured into making the crime and violence.

2.     Ears: The sound quality will affect our feelings. If we hear the sound which will enjoy us and correspond to our interest, it will also stir our desire and thus is generated any thoughts, such as love. Meanwhile, it will stir any fantasy in our mind.

3.     Nose: Aroma is related to libido. Smelling the aroma by nose will stir the sexual desire. It is generally known by the masses. There are different body fragrances or body odors in every one, which will also incur any like or dislike in our mind.

4.     Tongue: Taste is produced through the tongue. Everyone has different feelings about taste. Some people are prone to inertia for certain tastes. Once any taste could not content them, any annoy will be generated. The desires to eat have to be stirred by the feeling of eyes and tongue. Unfortunately, many people are obsessed on the desires to eat and there is no self-restraint in eating.  

5.     Body: Touching any part of the body produces a sense of touch. The younger the skin is, the smoother it is, and it causes more peoples’ desires and makes them want to touch it. Meanwhile, it will stir the sexual desire.

6.     Mind: What have caused by the aforesaid roots connecting to any phenomena will generate any thoughts, feelings and awareness. Such mind is also the root of any desire.

In a word, if we mistakenly use these Six-Roots, it will bring us a lot of troubles. However, if we can correctly use these Six-Roots with positive attitude, it will bring us a lot of blessing. So, the Six-Roots are neuter. They are neither good nor bad. It is dependent on how we use it. The love and desire is the same thing.

There are five desires from human beings, which are the desire for money, erotic, fame, eating and sleeping. Because of these five desires, mankind has created a lot of bad karma. Among these five desires, the desire for the erotic is the most serious for hindering the practicing of faith and Dao. If a person thinks only with his lower body and not with his positive mind in upper body, it is really no different with the beast.

The erotic is full of love and desire and can cause a lot of harm to the self and the mankind. In fact, a lot of chaos in personality, in society and in international can find the cause coming from the erotic. Some people advocate sexual freedom and think that it is the personal freedom and human right. Unfortunately, they only think of the freedom, but do not think about what it might cause the harm. If we understand the harm, we will be careful about the desire for erotic.

The Buddha said,” The erotic as a desire is so large and there is no beyond it in the external.” In other words, the erotic as a desire is the largest in our inside. Except for this, any desire for anything in our inside and outside couldn’t exceed it.

How to eliminate or avoid the desire to the erotic? There is a method which is called as perceiving and thinking about the white bone. Before using such method, it is better for us to have the concepts of generating, dwelling, changing and eliminating, and the concepts of forming, dwelling, corrupting and emptying. Such concepts are the change in any situation and mental state.

The method is as follows:

Suppose there are a young and beautiful woman with long hair and smooth skin. Her smile is so sweet. And she has captured your eyes and attracts your attention and interest. Your love and desire for her has generated. Then, you close your eyes and meditate in sitting. The figure of this girl is appeared in your third eye, that is, in your mind. Then, use your imagination. Image that she is aging and her appearance become ugly with messy hair. Now she is totally an elder woman and death. Her body begins to rot. In the end, only white bones are left. Then, ask yourself, why you want to love an ugly and dying woman?  

Perceiving and thinking about the white bone is completed. Such method should be used for many times, even to be used for a whole life. Until you are no longer obsessed on the love and desire for woman, you can thereafter abandon such method. No matter the object is, and whatever they are male or female, we can use this method flexibly to help us give up our attachment to anyone or anything.

Such method is very useful and helpful in practicing of faith in Buddhism. Meanwhile, it is also very helpful for us to generate wisdom and avoid going on the evil way.  

The Buddha said,” Fortunately, there is only such one. If there were the second one as the same, the people in the universal world would be incapable of acting the Dao.” It means that the erotic is the largest in the love and desire. There is no second one which could be as largest as the erotic. In other words, other things such as love and desire for money, fame, eating and sleeping, obstacle to the practice of Dao are not as large as erotic. Why?

If we can correctly use money, fame, eating and sleeping with positive attitude, such things would help the practice of Dao and the development of faith in Buddhism. However, the erotic is the abyss of desires’ indulgence. It hardly helps any positive development of faith and Dao's practice.

No matter what our role is, and no matter what aspiration we want to achieve, to restraint the love and desire to the erotic will have a positive help for us.

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.