To tolerate the Se and desire is difficult.

(Chapter 12 ﹝6﹞ ) A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha (updated 2019/11/24)

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 

To tolerate the Se and desire is difficult. This is the sixth difficulty said by Buddha Shakyamuni in the Chapter 12 (6). This is the updated translation and writing.

“Se” is transliterated from Chinese. There are many different meanings for the character “Se” in Chinese. When I want to translate it into English, I have tried many words. Last time, I use the word ”erotic”. However, I always think, it could not completely representative the Chinese word ”Se”.

This time, I decide to get rid of what views from others, and to translate and express it by my own views and knowledge. So, I decide to use the original word “Se” instead of “erotic”. What is the connect about these two words ”Se” and “erotic”?

What is the meaning of “Se”?

The original meaning of“Se” in Chinese is the impression that light emitted and reflected by an object produces through vision. On this basis, it is extended to be many different meanings. All of any object, any material or any substance, which could be seen by our eyes or could be touched by our hand or body, is included in the word “Se”.

Let’s explore the original meaning of “Se”. We could find that if we want to form the word ”Se”, it has to be combined by light, emitting, reflection, object and our eyes. In other words, the light, emitting, reflection, object and our eyes are conditions to form the word “Se”. If there is lack of any one of the said conditions, it is impossible to form the word “Se”.

Extending the meaning of “Se” and translating it into English, it would be the meanings of color, tint, hue, look, appearance, countenance, expression, scene, description, kind or quality. In the Chinese meaning, it would include the meanings of erotic, lust or sexual desire. And mostly, when the Buddhist monks teach Buddhism, they prefer to use the meanings of erotic, material or substance to express the meaning of “Se”.

Why tolerating the Se and desire is difficult?

Why tolerating the Se and desire is difficult? That is because our mind and eyes are always following the changes of colors, hue, look, appearance, countenance, expression, scene and description. If we thus see what we like or what would content our mind, our desire for them is therefore generated. That is, our heart is always turning with the changes of external realms. In Buddhism, that is called un-stability of heart.

For Buddhist monk or nun, to cut off or to abandon the love and desire is the basic discipline. That the eyes and mind stop following the changes of external realms is to train the mind and heart to be stable. However, it is very difficult to do that, let alone to tolerate the changes of external realms.    

Most people prefer to follow the erotic. To stop following the erotic is one of the most difficulties. And mostly, the erotic is concerned about the money or fortune. For some people, it is even connecting the poison. Such thing becomes the temptation and is possible to draw in people to make crime. Such people indulge in the enjoyment in the current moment. That is why it is difficult for people to tolerate the erotic and desire. Unfortunately, they do not think about any consequence. That is, the suffering or pain is coming after the enjoyment.  

For the male, they prefer to follow the beautiful and glamorous woman. For the female, they prefer to follow the handsome and sturdy man. Their eyes see the woman or man, and the romantic love illusion and dream are generated in mind. The desire for the woman or man is generated at the same time. The mind and heart is thus no longer clear and pure, but turbidity. Then, they could not see the self of clear and pure, let alone to see the Dao.     

Regarding to tolerate the Se and desire, how could we put it into practice in life?

This is one of the examples. For the younger, they might indulge in or follow the video game. In fact, there is no good or bad in the external realm. But, what is the problem? Once we are stupid and stubborn to obsess in the external realm, our mind and heart is easier to be dull or be fooled by the changes of external realm.

In other word, once our mind and heart are no longer stable, clear and pure, it is difficult for us to think or understand anything independently. If our mind and heart are in the state of un-stability, our thinking are easier to be kidnapped and it is easier for us to make sin by any lure, threaten, or kidnapping.

To blindly repress our desire about the Se is not a good idea. Regarding to tolerate the Se and desire, how could we put it into practice in life? When we understand the principle of what said above and know that all of the things or external realms is combined with different reasons and conditions, we would try to dismantle the reasons and conditions one by one, and then we could see the truth, and think and reason anything independently. Under the circumstance, it would not be difficult for us to tolerate the Se and desire. 

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.