( Chapter 8 ) 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 8: Saliva and dust defile oneself
The Buddha said,” The vicious person harms the virtuous person,
such as spitting the saliva toward the sky, the saliva doesn’t reach the sky,
but falls to oneself; to scatter the dust in inversing wind, the dust doesn’t
reach the other place, but being brought back to oneself. The virtue doesn’t be
destroyed. The disaster absolutely ruins oneself.”
This chapter is
echoing to the chapter 6 and the chapter 7. We could find that if someone wants
to humiliate others on purpose, it might spit the saliva toward the
counterpart’s face, or toward the ground with the mind of contempt. Mostly,
such person is self-arrogant and opinioned. But now, if people want to
humiliate others, they use words or pictures on the internet. Such network
bullying, it can be classified as mental violence to others. In the history,
there always is the real violence, if the evil will of bullying people could
not be contented, they use violence to compel others to obey their evil will.
There is a
saying.” Good horse is always ridden by people; good person is always bullied.”
Some of the ignorant people think that the Buddha-learner is looked foolishly,
and think that the Buddha-learner could not use the violence to kill people or
to revenge; so, the evil person unscrupulously bully the Buddha-learner. Usually,
the Buddha-learners would refrain themselves, endure the violence, and pity those
evil persons, because the Buddha-learners obey the teaching of Buddha and put
the Ten Virtues into practice.
There is a
highlight concept in Buddhism. That is, any person has to bear its own
consequence of any retribution to themselves due to what they have done the
evil thing. So, they have to bear the disasters coming from the nature or from
the other persons.
The
Buddha-learner, including the Buddhist monk or nun, would not revenge to the
evil person, because it is well known that the evil person naturally deserve
its own retribution. From the chapter 6, 7 and this chapter, you could find such
concept.
Without hatred
and revenge, it is one of the practices in learning Buddha. To have the mind of
hatred is no light. It would let us do the stupid thing. On the contrary, to
abolish the mind of hatred is light. It would give us the wisdom.
Those who could
have the opportunity to read these words said by Buddha are lucky and blissful.
Now you have the wisdom. And the wisdom is the immeasurable treasure.
The Buddha said,” The vicious person harms the virtuous person,
such as spitting the saliva toward the sky, the saliva doesn’t reach the sky,
but falls to oneself; to scatter the dust in inversing wind, the dust doesn’t
reach the other place, but being brought back to oneself. The virtue doesn’t be
destroyed. The disaster absolutely ruins oneself.” In a word, it means that to harm others is to harm ourselves; to
humiliate others is to humiliate ourselves; to bully others is to bully
ourselves; to rebuke others is to rebuke ourselves. It is easy to understand
it.
