(Chapter 33) 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 33: The wisdom-brightness destroys the demon.
The Buddha said,” Those who put the Dao into practice are as one
person fights with the ten thousand persons. When he puts on the armor and goes
out of the door, his will may be weak, he may retreat in the halfway, he may die
because of fighting, or he may return because of gaining the win. The Sramaṇa
who learns the Dao, should insist its heart to keep improving, and should be brave and
elite, should not fear the front situation, and should destroy many demons, and thus gains
the fruit of Dao.”
The Buddha said,”
Those who put the Dao into practice are as one person fights with the ten
thousand persons.” Here, “one person” means those who vow to become Buddha, are
willing to listen to Buddha’s teaching, learn Buddhism and put it into
practice. Such process and experience means to put the Dao into practice. Here,
“ten thousand persons” is a metaphor to mean the various personal bad behavior,
bad habits, troubles, worries and afflictions. “Fight” means to overcome or to
eliminate the negative mental state and events as aforesaid, with the personal power of
precepts, stability and wisdom.
When the person
puts the Dao into practice, it means to overcome, or to resolve, or to release
the various personal troubles, worries and afflictions. When the person did
such things is as if he was fighting with the ten thousand persons. The Buddha
said, humans have eighty-four thousand worries, that’s why they need
eighty-four thousand method-door of Buddhism to eliminate their personal
worries.
Regarding the
causes and conditions of various troubles, worries and afflictions by self, we
have talked a lot in aforesaid chapters. The causes as said are mostly coming
from the self. And the conditions as said are mostly coming from outside.
Everyone's causes and conditions are different. Each one has its own
tribulation. Your destiny may be not the destiny of others. The method-door of
Buddhism applied to the different persons and accepted by everyone is also
different. Therefore, when we observe those who believe in the Buddhism and use
the method taught by their master of Buddhism to release their suffering or
anxiety, it is better for us to respect them and to have the empathy to them.
“When he puts on the armor and goes out of the door, his will may be
weak, he may retreat in the halfway, he may die because of fighting, or he may
return because of gaining the win.”
Here, “put on the
armor” means the precepts in learning Buddhism. There are a lot of precepts
which Buddhist monk should obey and follow. Such behavior and function are to
protect Buddhist monk so as to avoid him to harm self and others, and to avoid him
to be harmed by others. That’s why the precepts of Buddhism are like the armor.
For example, one of precepts as said is not to drink the alcoholic beverage. The
behavior after drunk is always losing the mind and makes the mistake. Drunk
driving is harming self and others. As a Buddhist monk, it is strictly asked
not to drink alcohol.
The details of
precepts are a lot. In summary, the purpose is to eliminate the personal greed,
hatred, resentment, stupidity, silly infatuation, arrogance and incredulity, meanwhile,
to therefore arise the personal wisdom. The related discussions are mentioned a
lot in the aforesaid chapters. Whatever we are Buddhist monk or not, such
discussions are very helpful for us to have a good life in present and in
future.
“Goes out of the
door” means to face the personal troubles, worries and affliction with the
power of personal stability and wisdom. When the person puts on the armor and
goes out the door, it means that this person will go into the battlefield to
fight against the enemies. The battlefield means the personal environment and
situation. The enemies means not else but the personal troubles, worries and
afflictions.
“His will may be weak, he may retreat in the halfway, he may die because
of fighting, or he may return because of gaining the win.”
“His will may be
weak” means when this person faced his personal troubles, worries and
affliction, he didn’t have the powerful stability, wisdom and the strong will,
to deal with those things.
“He may be retreat
in the halfway” means that this person could not face his difficult situation,
when his will was weak. Once to face it, his mental was either shock or
disorder, either complaining or angry, even to close self. This person could
not overcome his personal troubles, worries and afflictions, and thus he choices to depart away the path of personally pursuing the wisdom-truth.
“He may die by
fighting” means that this person was diligent to learn how to overcome or to
eliminate the personal obstacles and worries. However, his power of wisdom was
not enough, and he could not adjust his own way of life in physical and mental
to balance his life. Unfortunately, he had not yet to prove the wisdom-truth by
self in his present life, and died in the process of practicing the Dao.
“He may return
because of gaining the win.” means that, this person has completely overcome
his personal obstacles and troubles, and eliminated his personal worries and
afflictions in life, with his personal compassion and wisdom. He really proves
the fruit of Dao by self through practicing the Dao in daily life. What the
meaning of the Dao is, which we have talked a lot in aforesaid chapters. Please
refer to it by yourself if you are interested.
So, after this
person returning because of his success and victory in the fighting, he can
remove the armor, and no longer be harmed, threatened and controlled by his
enemies. His body and mental is thus completely free and comfortable now.
The Sramaṇa who learns the Dao, should insist its heart to keep
improving, and should be brave and elite, should not fear the front situation, and should destroy
many demons, and thus gains the fruit of Dao.”
The Sramana means
the Buddhist monk. When he learns the Dao and the Buddha, and practices it to
overcome the personal bad habits, evil thought, negative behavior, greedy
desire, hatred heart, silly infatuation, and to eliminate the various troubles,
worries and afflictions, he should insist its positive heart to forge ahead
vigorously, to dedicate himself to progress, to be absorbed and desirous to do
better, day by day.
Meanwhile, he
should be brave, ready to face and endure any dangerous and unpleasant
conditions or behavior coming from the self and others, and also should endure
or face the pain in life without showing fear, so as to make self be elite. At
the same time, he should not fear any front situation, because it is the
changing of phenomenon which is like the illusion of dream, the bubbles, the lightning,
or the dews, which would be appeared and disappeared at any time, because of
any causes and conditions. When he had steadily learned the knowledge and skill
of how to handle any causes and conditions, he would know how to deal with any
front situation, and know how to destroy demons.
Demons mean the personal troubles, worries and pain, which are able to hinder the person to enlighten the self-wisdom, to practice the Dao and to do any good things.
Here, demons mean
the personal troubles, worries and pain, which are able to hinder the person to
enlighten the self-wisdom, to practice the Dao and to do any good things. In
Buddhism, it is called the worried-demon and heart-demon that is because any
causes of personal troubles, worries and suffering are coming from the self,
not others. Therefore, the first principle of Buddhism is to self-reviewing and
self-reflection, not to blame others. So, the demons are inside the body, not
outside.
The second
meaning is that the demons are some kind of human beings in heaven. They can
see us and talk with us. They have mind and conscious. Meanwhile, they can
change their form and body to be anything. If they want us to see them, or to
hear what they are speaking, we can see and hear it. Of course, there must be
some purpose to let them to contact us. When the Dao-practitioner is honestly
vowing to practice the Dao and to become the Buddha, the demons always do a lot
of evil things in order to spoil or to block the good events and behavior of
the Dao-practitioner. In fact, they are playing the bad guy so as to assess or
to examine the Dao-practitioner what the degree of learning Buddha is.
Therefore, such demons are neither inside nor outside of our body. In fact, the
Buddha and demon are unity one. It is really incredible. But, only few people realize
it and prove it, in this world and in the history.
Except for the
above, there are the desire-demon and the erotic-demon, which means that the
self-desire of greed and the self-erotic are as the demon which could disturb the self
and hinder the self-wisdom to be enlightened. Regarding these parts, we have
talked a lot in aforesaid chapters. The desire here means the greedy desire.
If we have the
upright mind, have the compassion and are honesty to self and others, and such
status of us is very stable, whatever the said demons how to disturb us, they
can neither shackle our heart nor affect our thought.
So, to destroy
the demons is the final work if the Dao-practitioner wants to achieve the
Buddhahood. How can we destroy the said demons? The most key point is to have
the compassion so as to heal the self-hatred heart, and to have the abandoning
thought so as to cure the self-greedy heart, and to have the wisdom heart so as
to heal the heart of silly infatuation, or of stubborn obsession, that is
caused by the personal ignorance and stupidity.
Accordingly, to destroy the said demons will be
as the important and final checkpoint which the Dao-practitioner has to pass
it. When the Dao-practitioner has passed the checkpoint as said, he thus really
gains the fruit of Dao, which means that he indeed has achieved the Buddhahood.
When we really achieve the Buddhahood, we are truly people with freedom, ease
and comfort.
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.
