The profound Buddha's teaching is beyond our general thinking.

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

There are the Bodhisattvas who show the wide eyes, appear the anger, hold the magical tool in hand, and ride on the strange animal,  so as to deal with, punish or discipline those people who are full of hatred and rage. Such picture of or image of Bodhisattvas and the magical tool in hand is some kind of the meaning of symbol. With the evolution of the times, the picture of or the image of Bodhisattvas and the magical tool are following the modern image and the modern technology and change. In our times, The appearance of  Bodhisattvas in reality and the illusion of image of Bodhisattvas in our dream may be the similar. Therefore, we should have such knowledge and flexibility in learning Buddha. 

 

There are also the Bodhisattvas who show the greedy smile, appear the greedy heart, and take the treasures or gold or money through wisdom from the true greedy people, so as to deal with those people who are in the mind of greed, meanwhile, to save them and let them leave the suffering. That is to help them avoid the harm brought by the greed of themselves and others. 

 

There are also Bodhisattvas who show the foolish smile, appear the obsession minded, fall in love with infatuated people, so as to save those people who are in the state of obsession, and to liberate them from suffering. That is to help them avoid the harm brought by the infatuated minded of themselves and others. 

 

There are also Bodhisattvas who show the attitude of arrogant and appear the indifferent expression, so as to deal with those people who own the arrogant minded. The purpose is to save them to leave the restrain and difficulty brought by their own arrogant minded.

 

Eventually, there are no such negative minded as said for all of  Bodhisattvas, because they have always dwelled on the self-nature and the Emptiness-nature. They are like the angel to protect and teach the persons who are willing to believe Buddha's teaching, or they have the good cause and condition with the Buddha's teaching in the present life or in their past life. All Bodhisattvas would not appear without cause and condition. If you don't have any cause and condition as said, they don't appear in your life. We respect these Bodhisattvas as Protector-in-Buddhism. 

 

To sum up, if we are the stupid, stubborn or arrogant person who cannot accept the persuade or the advice from the other person's normal and reasonable thinking, however, we still have a little good cause and condition in learning Buddha, the Bodhisattvas would appear any kind of attitude, thought and state to help us to deal with what negative heart and state we own.  That is why if we show the evil thought and behavior, the said Bodhisattvas would appear the equivalent thought and behavior. That is like a mirror to reflect our thought and behavior and let us see it. 

 

How Bodhisattvas appear in our life?

 

They would appear in our environment what we are living, studying or working. Those what we may meet might be our family members, classmates, teachers, friends, colleagues, directors, strangers, or any persons who are in various industries. They might make us feel uncomfortable, anxious, angry or sad. In a word, these appeared images and the ensuing phenomenon could help us to correct or adjust our thought, behavior, and attitude which are not proper and not corresponding to the universal value. In general and in Buddhism, the universal value is corresponding to the good and free will of humans, to the mercy, empathy, content, honesty and open-minded of humans, and to the mutual aid with the equality of humans. The more profound meaning is to correspond to the no-self, no-selfishness, no-desire and no-demanding of  humans.  

 

Except for this, all various images of Bodhisattvas would appear with drama in our dreams, which are ever-changing and not what we can imagine. However, we still can feel and reason it in our dream or after our wakening. All various images of Bodhisattvas are not like what we have seen in the drawing or in the statue. However, they are like our family members and so on as mentioned above.  

 

The character "Bodhisattvas" is the appearance of name, which is the phenomenon of arising and eliminating with causes and conditions. For example, as I have told in the blog, we call "Bodhisattvas" as "Pusa" or "Busa" in the Chinese transliteration. The various images of Bodhisattvas are also the phenomenon of arising and eliminating with causes and conditions. There are not the fixed and rigid images which are regarded as Bodhisattvas. All pictures or statue or images made by humans are some kind of representative or symbol to show the exist, virtue and function of Bodhisattvas. In fact, the essence of Bodhisattvas is the Emptiness-nature, and is no form and no image. On this basis, it is able to appear various forms and images of Bodhisattvas, including the animals, such as the legendary dragons, or elephant, or big worms, even that we can reason there would be the images of alien as Bodhisattvas. 

The Buddha and Bodhisattvas don't care whether you believe the Buddha's teaching or not, because the law of cause and effect (or result, consequence, outcome) is the universal value.

Some people don't understand why the Buddhist worship the image  of Buddha or Bodhisattva in the drawing or the statue. They deny, reject and sneer such behavior. According to our normal intelligence,  of course, we are not to stupidly obsess with the image in the drawing or with the statue. The image of the drawing or statue is some kind of representative or symbol. In fact, the Buddha or Bodhissattva exist in everywhere of the Emptiness.       

 

The Buddha said that he cannot save those people who don't have the cause and condition with Buddha and those people who don't have good causes and conditions in their present or past life. The Buddha and Bodhisattvas don't care whether you believe the Buddha's teaching or not, because the law of cause and effect (or result, consequence, outcome) is the universal value. What we have done absolutely repay in our present or future life. Good deeds are rewarded with good deeds, and evil deeds are rewarded with evil deeds. All evil is self-inflicted. All goodness creates auspiciousness by itself. It is doesn't matter what kind of religions or ideologies we believe. When we deeply realize the Buddhism, we can understand this truth. 

It is better for us to listen more from various kind of the teachings of  Buddha, and should be careful and alert any fraud from the fake teachers in Buddhism.

 

Furthermore, I cannot deny there are existed a lot of fraud by the mean of religions. The profound Buddha's teaching is some kind of danger for the beginner who learn Buddhism. That is why I have to remind you that if we are the beginner in learning Buddhism, it is better for us to listen more from various kind of the teachings of  Buddha, and should be careful and alert any fraud from the fake teachers in Buddhism. When we learn Buddhism, it is better for us to use our common sense and normal logical thinking to judge whether the teachers are honest and  moral persons or not.  

The secondly, we have to think and judge whether what they have taught is corresponding to the true meaning of Buddha, to the social order and good customs or  is their own subjective consciousness and ideology. It is to avoid us to be washed brain by the mean persons. When we have the correct thinking and judgement, we can choose who can be our teachers and we are willing to follow them to learn Buddha.     

Even the ego-arrogant people, they are suffering in the affliction and problem by their own stupid ego-arrogance. Why?

 

Author: Tao Qing Hsu (Hsu, Tao-qing) 

 

The Buddha had advised us that there are five negative psychological characteristics, which is like toxins would poison our physical and mental body. These five negative psychological characteristics are called as Five Poisons, which are the greedy, hatred(or as anger, resentment, grudge), infatuation(or as stupidity, obsession), arrogance (or as pride), and suspicion. The arrogance is one of the Five Poisons which are not only to harm ourselves but also would harm other people.

 

There is a famous novel as “Pride and Prejudice”. If we insight the characteristic of arrogance, we would find out that the ego-arrogance would bring the self-prejudice. Actually, both of them are formed at the same time.

 

Secondly, the ego-arrogance is always linked to the stubborn mind, even to purposely reverse the right and wrong, and to use such opinionated ability and concept to affect other people, even to bully them.

 

Therefore, the ego-arrogant people always want to hold the power of control other people, so they could not accept other people’s opinion or criticism.

 

After the carefully observation about the characteristic of ego-arrogance, we understand that the mind of ego-arrogance is actually the self-limited and self-imprisoned mind. Under the circumstance, how could it be possible for them to liberate themselves from the suffering in life?     

 

Unfortunately, the ego-arrogance is existed in most people, from the child to the elder, from the poor to the rich, from the illiterate to the elite of knowledge, from the employee to the boss, and from the masses to the politician. We could find the “ghost” of the ego-arrogance everywhere or in every person, even to find out that it is existed in our own body. Mostly, we could easily perceive the other people’s ego-arrogance. However, it is difficult for us to perceive our own ego-arrogance.

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.

Chapter 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao (updated on 22 Dec, 2021)

(Chapter 16) 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 16: Abandon the love and gain the Dao

The Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and can not see the Dao. It is as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who can see its own image. People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they can not see the Dao. All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen. “

There are different methods to teach in Buddhism.

The topic is mostly for the Buddhist monk, Sramana. The topic could also help us learn Buddha, or make a reference and value to promote our life to be good, even though we are not Buddhist monk.

Buddha Sakyamuni had ever told his disciples how and why the love and desire is generated and how and why we are concealed by the love and desire in life, and let us could not see the truth or make us could not see the Dao. That is there are the reasons that would result in any consequences. Basically, Buddhism is not the superstition. On the contrary, it is very logical and wise.

However, for the public, it is some kind of hard for them to understand the reasoning. Under this circumstance, telling the story, even the magical story is easier to be accepted by the public. That is also why those who don't understand the Buddhism and are focused on the reasoning would think that Buddhism is blind faith. Then, think about it; which one that we would be? Do we prefer to accept the reasoning or the told story? Or, both of them could be accepted by us?

How and why the love and desire are generated.

If we have ever research the psychology or the growing process of human beings, we would have read the Freudian personality development theory. The age 1-2 is in the period of oral organ. The infant needs to suck the nipple so as to content the desire of oral organ. If we purposely take off its plastic nipple, the infant would be unhappy and cry loudly. In this period of time, the original seed of the love and desire has already been planted in its mind. That is, there is the subconscious of the love and desire in the infant. That is their original instinct.

If we track and date back to the infancy before, a thought of no light, that is one of the eighth conscious and one of the seed of no light, go into the embryo; that is the soul as we call generally. Then, the infant is growing and follows the self-six-roots in its body; it is affected by the outer conditions and such changes, such as the video game, education from family, the school education, and so on; its love and desire in its mind are developed and changed gradually. The self-six-roots mean the root of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind.

For example, our eyes would follow the colors of dresses, the forms of hairs, the performance or the appearance of any human beings. Our ears would follow the sounds, such as soft sound, powerful sound or dull voice. Our nose would follow the smell, such as fragrance or stinky. Our tongue would follow the taste, such as salty, sour, sweet or spicy. Our body would follow the sense of touch, such as the feeling of smooth or rough. Our mind would follow the various feeling of aforesaid five roots from self and others. We thus generate the self-consciousness, differentiating and concept about the feeling of likes and dislikes for anything in the outer world.

Our roots and mind are obsessed in such outer changes and thus are tangled in those things. We have made a choice what we love accordingly and want to own something from it. And our love and desire are therefore generated and developed in such process, and never stop, even to die for it. For example, some people prefer to die for their woman or man, or for fortune.

Furthermore, the five poisons (greedy, hatred or resentment, stupid-obsession, arrogance and suspicion) are therefore happened according to the love and desire. And it thus occur the more complex development and changes to affect or harm the self and others, including any fighting in life or in society, or any unexpected war in the domestic or in the international. If we profoundly observe the fighting in politic or any war, we could find that is because some persons want to content their original and personal love and desire. That is their subconscious motivation.

Some evil persons know about the human weakness. That is the strong feeling of love and desire, and therefore to generate the five poisons. So, the evil persons would follow their love and desire, and use the human weakness to threaten, control, harm and slave the people. What happened is not only in the cruel dictatorship politic, but also in the ignorant lovers or the couples, even to the parent treat the children. So, extending such love and desire, it becomes some kind of the power of control for contenting the personal love and desire, and is formed to be the authority which is not allowed and unable to be challenged by anyone.

In other word, the love and desire not only harm others and make the worries to others, but also harm the self and cause the self trouble finally. However, most people do not have such self perceiving. On the contrary, they seem to enjoy in the great dream and the illusion, and are concealed by their own love and desire.

All of the outer changes are like the illusion. And any feeling and emotion thus occurred in inner heart are also the illusion. Those things are not permanent. That is because it is appeared by conditions and would be disappeared in any time by conditions, too. Those things are also like the dust or filth would dirty and disrupt our clear mind and heart. And it thus makes us unable to see the original nature of the self, which is the mind and heart of peace, stillness, clear and pure.

In sum up, the disorder of self mind and heart would make the disorder of the others mind and heart, and many disorder of many minds and hearts would seriously make the world disorder. 

That is why the Buddha said,” People hold the love and desire, and can not see the Dao. It is such as the clear water is stirred by hand; the public reach and approach this water together; there is no one who could see its own image. People interlace the love with desire. The turbidity is thrived in heart. That is why they can not see the Dao. All of you Sramanas should abandon the love and desire. The filth of love and desire ending, the Dao could be seen. “

What is the Dao? If you have no concept about it, you can make a reference or read Chapter 2: Cutting off the desire and no demanding or Chapter 13: Ask about the Dao and destiny in this blog.

Why the Dao could be seen? When we clearly understand what our true colors and what our nature is, that is our mind and heart is no longer disorder, we would then clearly know what we are doing in each moment and thus we could clearly see what the Dao we are walking. 

In the teaching of Buddha, abandoning the love and desire is one of the very important teachings. It is mentioned in many Buddhist Scripture. But, for the disciples or those who want to learn Buddha, it is really difficult for them to put it into the practice in life. That is because such habit has been rooted and it is not easy to remove.

Furthermore, there are the reasons from the physical body and mental body, such as the Hormonal hormone is naturally generated in the physical body. Sometimes, it is really hard to repress it and to ask it not to be happened. In the mental body, most people are demanded by their parent to have children so as to continue their family life, career and property. That is also why most people could not accept the Buddhism and do not allow their children to be Buddhist monk or nun.

However, do you know why abandoning the love and desire is so important in learning Buddha? If we don’t have a lot of love and desire, we would not come to birth on earth. That is also because we have a lot of love and desire, and we thus reincarnate again and again in life and death and suffer from it. That is to die here and to birth there, and to birth here and to die there. And it would not stop forever until we have abandoned the selfish love and desire. We then are able to jump out the reincarnation in life and death and its suffering. 

How to abandon the love and desire?

For abandoning the love and desire, there are some methods to practice it for the Buddhist monk or nun. One of the methods is to view the bone of the dead body by naked-eyes or to observe the white bone of human body in self-mind while meditation-sitting.

Why to do that? By such method, we would know that, even the beautiful girl or the handsome boy, there is only a pile of white bones in the end with time passed by. To practice it for a long time, it would disrupt the stupid-obsession about the opposite sex, and thus to stop the love and desire for it. That is also meant to stop any trouble caused by stupid-obsession, or by the love and desire. On the basis of such practice, we would gradually abandon the love and desire for outer things. In other word, we would abandon any trouble and worries.  

Furthermore, the Buddha also had told stories to inspire our wisdom and thus to make us abandon the love and desire. 

Abandon but not abandon

Most Buddhist monk only knows to cut off or abandon the love and desire. But, they might do not know or would not mention another teaching from the Buddha about not to cut off or not to abandon the love and desire. Why? And How?     

If we persistently hold the love and desire, which means we persistently hold the trouble and worries, so we absolutely need to abandon it. However, if there were no love and desire in mind, which means there is no trouble and worries, so what we should abandon? Therefore, it is not existed any problem of abandon.

It is not to deny the existence of the love and desire, but to understand why it is possible for the love and desire not to exist. Most of the general people are insisting in having something, such as love and desire. It is easier to teach them to give up what they have. However, it is hard for them to understand what is emptiness or nothingness in mind. That is why it is harder to teach them the concept about not abandoning anything. When people do not have the profoundly understanding about the Buddhism, It is easier to be mistakenly understood and used by them for the no-abandoning love and desire.  

If you have read the following two articles in this blog : A Brief Talk About Cause And Result or Chapter12 ﹝17﹞  : Seeing the Nature and learning the Dao aredifficult.,  you might have the basic understanding about Buddhism, and might understand what is talked. However, if you have not yet read the aforesaid articles, have no concept about the Buddha-nature, and are interested in the new knowledge, I recommend you to read it. Such reading could avoid you to mistakenly understand the Buddhism.  

In Buddhism, there are the shallow teaching and the deep teaching. It is because the human intellectual and wisdom, and thus its ability of understanding, has the different level. On the internet, it is easy to search about the shallow teaching about Buddhism. However, it might not be helpful for the people who are focus on thinking and reasoning, and want to profoundly understand the Buddhism.

In the shallow teaching of Buddhism, it is only talked about to practice the good and not to do the evil, and thus to have a lot of bliss. They do not dare to talk about the emptiness-nature. Why? If we talk about the emptiness-nature every day, all people might leave and run away.

So, why it is abandoning but not abandoning? The answer is there, do you have found it?

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.