Chapter 9: Return to the root and understand the Dao

(Chapter 9) 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 9: Return to the root and understand the Dao 

The Buddha said,” Extensively hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is certainly hard to be understood; obeying our own aspiration and keeping the Dao, such Dao is very grand.”

Dao is Tao, which is transliterated from Chinese character; its original meaning is path, road and way. Then, the meaning of Dao is extended more widely and its meaning has become more broadly with the change in time and space, such as talking, saying, method, law, doctrine, morality, skillfulness, capability, and the thought system of religion or education. The thought system of religion or education includes the aforesaid meanings.

In the history and in the time of war in China, the literati, the scholarship, intellectuals, and some of them in seclusion, they liked to study and talk about the Dao, and some of them would put what they have studied about the Dao into practice. Then, they concluded the concepts and created their own group, to teach their disciples. Such situation is also happened in ancient India, in the time of Buddha Siddhartha. In the modern time, especially in recently 300 year, there are also different concepts or dogmas being created.

A lot of concepts or dogmas are created from the ancient to the modern time. But, it doesn’t mean that the concepts itself are right or wrong. The problem is how it is applied properly by human and to benefit others. So, any concept or dogma is some kind of Dao. But, mostly, we think that Dao is lean to the positive concept which could benefit people and make people live a good life, including in the material and mental areas.

Any concept or doctrine itself has its own advantages and disadvantages. But, how do we delimit it? In any concept or doctrine, some advantage might be a disadvantage for others. And, some disadvantage being thought might be an advantage for others. That is, the advantage what you have thought or the doctrine is advantage to you might be the disadvantage to us.

There are more than one hundred theories, concepts, principles, dogmas or doctrine in ancient China, let alone in India, in European, or in other place. Those mentioned above are some kind of Dao. Even though a person who has the spirit of learning motivation and has learned a lot of knowledge, honestly, it is barely impossible for him to comprehend the all, let alone some concepts might be never heard or seen by people, such as this scripture. To have the knowledge of Dao is one thing; to put the knowledge of Dao into practice is another.

In the chapter 2, the Buddha had defined the Dao for their disciples. 

The Buddha said, “Those who go out of the family, become the Sramana, cut off the desire, remove the love, recognize the source of their own heart, reach the profound principle of the Buddha, realize the law of no-doing, have nothing being gained inside, have nothing being demanded outside, not to fasten the Dao in heart, nor to collect the karma, have no thoughts, have the no-doing, are non-practicing, are non-proving, not to experience the successive levels, but reach the own loftiest state of all, are called the Dao.”

Such Dao is also suitable for all people. But, it is hard to most people to understand, let alone to practice it. For most people, they think that such Dao is no useful for their life. But, if you could understand it deeply, you could find it is very useful for our life, even though we are not disciples of Buddha. If you are interested in the content of chapter 2 that I had explained, you can find here(Chapter 2)A Brief Talk about The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha.

“Extensively hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is certainly hard to be understood. “ Here, the first Dao means a lot of doctrine. The second Dao means the Dao which is explained by Buddha. It also means that it would not help us specialize in the truth, if we extensively hear and like a lot of doctrine. But, I think that it would help us open our mind and increase our knowledge. And it also help us to judge and choice what kind of doctrine is suitable for us.

All the teachings of Buddha include the philosophy, psychology, ethics, medicine, sociology, economics, science, physics and politics. If we widely involved such knowledge, and we have the fundamental concept of Buddhism, we would find that. Of course, the Buddhism is not classified in those respectively academic. The Buddhism is not used for researching in any academic, but for researching to our inner heart and practicing it in our real life. Then, we would find that the truth is in our heart, not from any research of academic, and also not from any outside supreme Spirit. That is the truth that the Buddha wants us to know.       

When we are lack of knowledge and are thus ignorant, we are easy to be bounded by and attach to one doctrine, especially, those persons who are poor and are oppressed by the pressure of life. For them, the Dao explained by Buddha is almost useless.

In the history, unfortunately, there is always the people to use the doctrine what they think it is right, to use it as their faith, and use the military power or the other means to force others people to obey their doctrine. The more worse is that they constrain the other doctrine to be transmitted and oppress or kill the people who practice these doctrines.

From the history, we can find that the Buddhism in the beginning is accepted by those people who are more educated, own more knowledge, and are in the high status, such as the emperor, or the prime minister. Ordinary people barely have the chance to hear or read The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapter Said by Buddha, except for being a Buddhist monk or nun. Most people just know to pray the Buddha to bless them to have a good and peaceful life. But, they do not know, to have a good and peaceful life is based on what they do in compassion and wisdom, and in knowledge. That is why the Buddhism was ever regarded as blind faith. Fortunately, those noble persons protect the Buddhism.

So, the Buddha said,” Extensively hearing and liking the Dao, the Dao is certainly hard to be understood.” In a word, it means that we could understand the truth, only when we profoundly realize the Dao and put it into practice intently.

The Buddha said,” Obeying our own aspiration and keeping the Dao, such Dao is very grand.” Even though these words are said to disciples of Buddha, it is also good for us. We might be curious about what the aspiration for the disciples of Buddha is, and why Buddha had said that.  

In the deep contemplation under the Bodhi tree, The Buddha had perceived that there are three kinds of sentient beings about their root of wisdom. He had classified them as higher root, intermediate root and lower root in wisdom. Why is it called the root of wisdom? The root of wisdom could bear the fruits of Buddha. And he also had used the container as a metaphor to describe how the degree is that the sentient beings could accept the teaching of Buddha, and how the degree is that they could achieve the goal. He also had classified it as large container, middle container and small container.

If people are compared and described as the large container, it means such people could accept the deep doctrine said by Buddha. On the contrary, if people are compared and described as the small container, it means such people could not accept the deep doctrine, and could only accept the simplistic doctrine.

So, we connect the word ”root” and “container” to be “root-container”. We can explain it as that the container could storage the root; the large container could hold the large root; the small container could only hold the small root of wisdom. The Buddha then had classified sentient beings as large root-container, which means it has the large wisdom; middle root-container, which means that it has the intermediate wisdom; and small root-container, which means it only has the little wisdom.

No matter the wisdom is large or little, it is unrelated to the academic experience, social status, age, IQ, and illiteracy. So, it is very important to give up the prejudice and the restriction coming from any concept. 

Those who are in poor have no chance to accept the teaching of Buddha. do you know how many they are in the world? They are more than half of the world's population. So, if you have ever read The Scripture of Forty-Two Chapters Said by Buddha, you are really lucky and blissful. Why? First, you might be in the wealth so you can use the smartphone or computer to read this chapter. Second, you might be healthful so you have the energy to read this chapter. Third, you have time and brain to study this chapter. Be positive thinking is always good for life.   

Now, we return back to the question what the aspiration for the disciples of Buddha is. Do you know how many disciples there are? According to the records in the history, there are 2500 disciples to follow the Buddha. As we have mentioned above, the disciples of Buddha are classified as large root-container, middle root-container, and small root-container.

So, according to the difference of root-container, what the Buddha had taught to them is also different. There is a saying,” Teaching in accordance with the aptitude of student”. The teaching of Buddha is very enlightened, that is Q&A, and there is a lot of “why” or "by what the cause and condition is" coming from the inquiry of disciples. If you have ever read any scripture in Buddhism, you would find it.

Of course, according to the difference of the root-container, there is about the deep question or the shallow question, so their aspirations are different. Then, what is the difference of their aspirations?

Those who are small root-container could little understand what the Buddha had taught, but, at least, could be carefully not to make any mistakes, just ask for not go to the hell, and wish that after dying, it is better to have the chance to go to the heaven or the pure land created by Buddha Amitabha. In there, they still have the chance to accept the teaching of Buddha and to learn the Buddha.

Those who are middle root-container could not realize the real Dao said by Buddha, could be enlightened a bit, and put it into practice in life at times, but, not completely. They also obey the precepts and further do the good thing, to save sentient beings to liberate from suffering. They also could teach and explain what the Buddha had taught, but, just according to the words to explain the meaning, not from their real practice and also not from their personal enlightenment. Even though this, they have wished to become Buddha in future life and to go to the pure land created by Buddha after their dying.

Those who are large root-container could realize the real Dao said by Buddha, could be enlightened, and put it into practice in real life. They could teach and explain what the Buddha had taught based on their real practice and their personal enlightenment. What they taught is very alive, and not be bounded to the words. Furthermore, it is very possible for them to attain the Buddhahood, to become Buddha, in the present life. They would create the pure land in heart by themselves. Where to go after their dying? Just be there.    

These three kinds of persons have one common basis, that is, their minds have been inspired by Buddha and they thus have wished to attain the Buddhahood, to become Buddha, in the future. This is the first and very important aspiration which has been obeyed. On the basis, they could learn the Buddha and accept what the Buddha had taught, and thus to keep the Dao. Keeping the Dao to become Buddha is their final goal. Why it is very grand? The all Buddha-law is completely understood and achieved, and the all virtue is solemn, after becoming Buddha. That is why such Dao is very grand for them.

Then, we might have a question. What is the Buddha-law? In generally speaking, the Buddha-law includes the all, the positive thing and the negative thing, and whether it is positive or negative which are judged by the human subjective consciousness. But, in the concept of Buddha-law, the delimited things sometimes might be broken, because the fact might be not what we have seen and what we have thought.

Furthermore, if we can properly apply the Buddha-law with our wisdom in our life, it could make our life alive and live well. But, if we could not apply the Buddha-law properly, we might “die” in the Buddha-law, which means no elasticity and no creation in our life.   

So, we have understood that, whether such Dao is very grand or not, is not concerned about others, also not concerned about you and me, but concerned about the person who has wished to attain the Buddhahood, to become Buddha.

As mentioned before, Buddha is a substantive noun given by people. It means a state of Emptiness and Non-Emptiness, which include the peace, the wisdom, compassion, and the soul of kindness.

Chapter 8: Saliva and dust defile oneself

( 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.   

Chapter 7: Evils back to the evildoers

(Chapter 7) 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 7: Evils back to the evildoers

The Buddha said,” Someone heard that I obey the Dao and put the grand benevolence into practice so it scolds the Buddha. The Buddha keeps silence, doesn’t respond to him, while the rebuke stopped, and asks: if you bring a gift to someone, who doesn’t accept it, does the gift return to you?” A disciple replies:” It would be returned.” The Buddha said,” Today you scold me, I do not accept it. You have disasters by yourself to let them return to you! Such as an echo responds to a sound, a shadow follows a shape, it is finally unable to be avoided and departed. Be cautious not to do the evils.” 

Recently, there is the news about the suicide to death of student. The reason of her suicide is because her classmate scolds her in the internet. There is also the news about the suicide to death of adult. The reason of his suicide is because many people scold him grave dereliction of duty in the internet. It is pity; they did not read this chapter. If they have read this chapter, their heart would be strong and never be affected by the scold in the internet.

There is a say,” When people scold others with one finger, the other four fingers are now toward themselves. “ It also means it is equal to scold themselves when people are scolding others.” There are a lot of negative emotions and words in the internet to respond to the news. It is like garbage and totally lack of constructiveness to the society or to the person.

When a low-level person rebukes us, then, we rebuke back and attack back to him. You know, at this moment we would find that we have lowered our level to be equal to the person who rebukes us. You see, the Buddha never did such stupid thing. On the contrary, he kept silence when a low-level person rebuked him.

Scold with evil heart to others is also bully, which could be happened in any where and in any age, including in family, in school, and in work place. You know, an ignorant person would easily scold others with evil heart. Usually, such person is inferiority and thus become arrogance so to scold others. In fact, they are pitiful person, if we know it.

If we are scolded by such person, and our heart is weak, we would be easy to be hurt, and then, might to harm ourselves, or to have the hatred heart to harm them or to attack them. The most worse is to vent our resentment to the innocent people. There is a research that those who bully others have ever been bullied in their past time. In such situation, no matter the scolder or the person being scold, or the innocent people are pitiful persons.

So, how to stop being the pitiful person? How to avoid being the innocent people? How to be a person with wisdom? As the mentioned above, first, to keep silence and don’t respond to them, when someone scold us with evil heart. Secondly, with our wisdom, compassion and knowledge, we would have the ability to help them be a good person.   

You see, the Buddha said, ”if you bring a gift to someone, who doesn’t accept it, does the gift return to you?” A disciple replies:” It would be returned.” The Buddha said,” Today you scold me, I do not accept it. You have disasters by yourself to let them return to you! Such as an echo responds to a sound, a shadow follows a shape, it is finally unable to be avoided and departed. Be cautious not to do the evils.” Let those pitiful persons know these words. You know that there is no copyright for what the Buddha said. So, just feel free to quote it.    

As we have mentioned in the chapter 6, the Buddha said,” He came to do the evils, yet do the evils by oneself to itself.” It also means that such person could not avoid any disasters of retribution. So the Buddha said,”Be cautious not to do the evils.” From this, we could feel the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom.

Chapter 6: Endure the evil without hatred

(Chapter 6) 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 6: Endure the evil without hatred

The Buddha said,” When the evil person heard the good deeds and came to disturb you purposely, you should refrain by yourself and have no hatred and blame. He came to do the evils, yet do the evils by oneself to itself.”  

Spoiling people to do the good thing seems rarely being happened in our society in the modern time, because the information in internet is developed well and there are no conflicts of interest in those strangers. Mostly, we praise and support people who are doing the good thing.

However, when there are conflicts of interest in a group, such as a group of religion, those who are greedy for the fame, power and interest, that is, who have the more heart of selfishness, might purposely attack the person of good will, or spoil any good thing which will be done by the good person.

So, to understand the history of Buddhism and to image the situation in the time of Buddha Sakyamuni, we would realize why the Buddha Sakyamuni had said that. What he had said and taught is exactly what he had real experienced.

I tell a story about the history in a brief. The Buddha Sakyamuni had a cousin, whose name was Devadatta. He followed the Buddha Sakyamuni to be a Buddhist monk, a disciple of Buddha Sakyamuni. After the practice in Buddhism for many years, Devadatta had some achievements in the realm, and planed to replace the Buddha Sakyamuni to be a leader of the group. Then, he began to argue with the Buddha Sakyamuni. He always had the different opinions in the group. And finally, he brought some of the disciples to form another group.

Devadatta envied and hatred the Buddha Sakyamuni, and planed to harm him. There is one time, on the higher mountain, Devadatta and his disciples pushed a big stone, let the stone roll down the mountain, and would plan to kill the Buddha Sakyamuni, when the Buddha Sakyamuni walked on the road with his disciples and passed by there. Fortunately, only the feet of Buddha Sakyamuni is hurt.

Even though Devadatta planed to harm the Buddha Sakyamuni for many times, and went into the hell after his death of drowning, the Buddha Sakyamuni still granted Devadatta that he could attain the Buddhahood after his suffering in the hell through his many lives in many eons. Devadatta went into the hell, because he spoiled the harmony of the group of monk and would kill the Buddha.

From the aforesaid story, we know that Devadatta is the person who spoils the good thing which has done by the Buddha Sakyamuni. Does the Buddha Sakyamuni be angry with him? No. He doesn't. Does the Buddha Sakyamuni have the thought of revenge to Devadatta? No. He doesn't.

Remember the verse said by Buddha:

Even if through the hundred eons,

The evil karma does not be disappeared.

When the cause is met by the condition,

The person still has to bear its own retribution by oneself.

That is why the Buddha said,” He came to do the evils, yet do the evils by oneself to itself.”

The heart and mind of Buddha Sakyamuni is wide and unlimited. In the scripture of Buddhism, the Buddha Sakyamuni had said that he would save the Devadatta to liberate from the suffering and help him to attain the Buddhahood, when the retribution to Devadatta had been ended from the hell, and Devadatta was reborn to be human and the human of heaven.

We know that it is not worth for us to be angry, blame, or revenge to the person who has done the evil thing. If we do so, it is really waste our vigor. So, that is why we should refrain by ourselves when the evil person to spoil the good thing which has done by us.  

From the above mentioned, we realize the wisdom and compassion of Buddha Sakyamuni, and that is why it is worth for us to learn Buddha. The wisdom and compassion is really the immeasurable treasures.

Chapter 5: Correct the vice into the good deed

(Chapter 5) 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 5: Correct the vice into the good deed

The Buddha said,” People have a lot of faults, yet don’t know to repent, suddenly let their heart rest, and the sins come to the body; such as the water return to the sea, being deep and wide gradually. If people have faults, resolve them by themselves and know the mistake, correct the vice and do the good, the sins would be vanished by themselves; such as illness cause the sweaty, being healed gradually.”

No matter whether the status is noble or low in the worldly eyes, people are not holy human. There must be fault in the life. In the chapter four, there are mentioned about ten evil deeds. That is faults. Any one of them is also one of the causes which could incur the bad result in the life. Such as stealing because of greedy heart, it could cause the result of poverty. Or such as killing with hatred, it could cause the result of serious disease or dying badly.

Fortunately, there always are the chances for us to repent our faults. However, not everyone can grasp this opportunity, because they do not perceive their own faults. What badly is that someone has made the mistake but they still think what they have done is right. In the history, we can find such persons a lot, who cause the tragic world, and finally, the end of their life is terrible.

The sins would cause the retributions. If people do not know to repent their faults, their sins come to the body such as the water return to the sea, being deep and wide gradually. It means that the sins and the retributions would become bigger and bigger.

There is a verse said by Buddha:

Even if through the hundred eons,

The evil karma does not be disappeared.

When the cause is met by the condition,

The person still has to bear its own retribution by oneself.

“If people have faults, resolve them by themselves and know the mistake, correct the vice and do the good, the sins would be vanished by themselves; such as illness cause the sweaty, being healed gradually.” It means to repent our faults and do the good things, then, the sins won’t come to our body and any retribution would not appear. It is like to have a cold. The cold would be healed gradually when we lie down on a bed, cover a bed quilt and let our body sweat. This also tells us that it is not difficult to resolve our faults and do the good thing.      

In the Buddhism, there is the basic classwork of learning Buddha for the just getting started, that is to repent our faults for what happened in our present life and in our past life. In the concept of the Buddhism, everyone must be responsible for and burden the result of what they have done. The evil karma is made by whom, which person should be responsible to eliminate its own evil karma by oneself, because the retribution caused by the evil karma would not happen to other person, but to the doer itself.

When we do the repent, we do not repent toward the agent of Buddha, such as Buddhist monk, but, we do our repent to Buddha directly. For the beginning learner or for the learner who could not understand the Buddha-nature for a long time, Buddha is someone else. So, when they have made the mistake again after the repent, they are panic to ask for the forgiving of Buddha, because they are afraid of the sins coming to their body.

But, for those who have understood and realized the Buddha-nature, Buddha is not someone else, but having been converged in their heart. That is two in one; the sentient beings are equal to Buddha. Those who are in this state are basically to have done the repent for their faults for a long time and rare to make the mistake again.

Any wise Buddhist monk or nun, or the enlightened Buddha-learner would not replace the Buddha to forgive anyone. They also have no right to replace Buddha to punish Buddhist because the disciples do not believe in what they have taught about the Buddhism, or because they think that the disciples betray the Buddha. Why? In Buddhism, the first, no argument is one of the Buddha-law. Secondly, any result of personal retribution is arisen from the cause made by oneself. Therefore, to let the personal retribution vanish only depends on the personal action, such as correcting the vice and doing the good.

Someone use the Buddha-law, such as the ten good virtues, to view others faults when people do not obey the ten good virtues. For example, when I began to learn Buddha, I sometimes heard someone to say that some Buddhist nuns had fought with each other in the temple, or that some of the Buddha-learner had done a lot of evil things, such as the negative news.

This is to misuse the Buddha-law. In fact, Buddha-law is to regulate oneself, not to regulate others. Whether to learn the virtue of Buddha or not is coming from the self-motivation, not from the force by others. So, whether to obey the ten good deeds is coming from the autonomy, not from the lure or threaten or violence.

A country might use the lure, threaten or violence to force people to obey its country-law. But, Buddha-law cannot be used like that. If Buddha-law is used like that, it would violate the country-law and also violate the Buddha-nature, the compassion and wisdom. Why? The country-law is directly to regulate the public, the people in the country. But, Buddha-law is used for the personal spiritual improvement, from the self-help to help others, from the self-benefit to benefit others, and from the self-realization to help others realize by themselves. Therefore, it is the very important judgment when we chose a community of learning Buddha.

Chapter 4: Understand the goodness and evil at the same time

(Chapter 4) 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 4: Understand the goodness and evil at the same time

The Buddha said, “For sentient beings, there are ten things as goodness and ten things as evil. What are the ten things? Three pertain to the body, four to the mouth, and three to the mind. Killing, stealing, and evil sex pertain to the body. Two tongues, malicious speech, lie, and frivolous speech pertain to the mouth. Envy, hatred, and infatuation pertain to the mind. Such ten things are named as ten evil deeds when not following the holy path. If such evils are stopped, they are named as ten virtuous deeds.”

As a human with the physical and mental body, we can do the evil thing, and we can do the good thing. No matter the evil or good thing, we can choose what we want to do. What we have chosen is the basic cause to affect the result of our life.

The invisible Spirit with higher wisdom and virtue is called bright Spirit, who is indeed to exist in our daily life, being beside or behind every one, to record the good deed or evil deed of every one. No matter we are a king or a beggar, the bright Spirit is always there with us.

Unfortunately, most people do not believe such thing, and some of them ignorantly do the evil thing with no shame. I tell a story to you. I am deeply moved by this story when I have learned the Buddha for more than three years.

There is a Bhikkhu who moves and takes a walk complying with the practice of scripture along the poolside of lotus in the forest. He smells the aroma of lotus, feels joyful, and likes it very much. The lotus-pool spirit tells him,” Why you abandon the seat with clean Zen under the forest but steal the aroma of my lotus? All of the annoyance is arisen because of attaching the aroma.”

 

Then, the Bhikkhu sees a man who goes into the pool of lotus, picks a lot of lotuses, and leaves the pool of lotus after trampling and ruining it. The lotus-pool spirit keeps silence without talking.  

 

The Bhikkhu says to the spirit of lotus pool,” This person has spoiled your pool of lotus and takes your flowers. You do not say anything. I just walk along the poolside and you scold me that I steal your aroma.”

 

The lotus-pool spirit says,” An evil person of world is often in the dirty droppings of sin, without clean and without brain. I do not talk with him. You are a good person with the practice of Zen. However, you have broken your good behavior because of obsessing the aroma. That is why I scold you. Such as a black-dirty thing on a clean-white cloth, people would see it and try to clean it. An evil person is such as black ink sprinkled on black clothes, which cannot be seen by people, and who would care and ask about this person?”

This story advise us that it is a good thing and lucky that someone would remind us about our shortcoming. Only when someone cares about us, it would spend its time and energy to criticize us.

   

There are a lot of people who are atheist. Even though they are atheist, it doesn’t mean that they would do the evil thing. Unfortunately, some of the people who are atheist have done the evil things, but they do not think that they do the evil things, such as to bully others. Would the bright Spirit tell them not to do the evil things? As we know from the aforesaid story, it wouldn't. But, I tell you a secret. By many ways, such as Buddhism, the bright Spirit has taught people not to do the evil things. Unfortunately, some of people still do not believe it. 

There is a saying,”Put down the butcher’s knife and stand on the ground to become the Buddha.” It is to advise people not to do the killing, and not to collect the evil karma. Once give up the mind of killing, the mind would be transformed to be the heart of Buddha immediately. 

I tell you a story about stealing. This story impressed me and moved me a lot. 

There was a Buddhist monk who was very poor and lived in a small temple on a mountain. At midnight one day, a thief sneaked into this temple, looked around in everywhere, and could not find any worth. Finally, he had to but stole the clothes of the Buddhist monk and thought to sell it for getting some money. When he prepared to go out, he ran into the Buddhist monk.

The Buddhist monk had seen his clothes in the hand of thief. The Buddhist monk knew that this person was a thief, and he might become a thief because of some hardship in life. So he did not scold him. On the contrary, he told the thief that he is willing to give the clothes to him, and told him that he did not steal his clothes because the clothes was given by the Buddhist monk.

The thief was very moved and felt shame. The Buddhist monk looked at the thief’s back to leave. Then, the Buddhist monk looked at the full moon and said,” I really hoped to give the bright-clean moon to him at the same time.”

After few months, the thief came to the temple and knelt before the face of the Buddhist monk, to repent his fault, to ask for the forgiving by the Buddhist monk, and to ask for the Buddhist monk to recruit him as a disciple. The Buddhist monk had felt his sincerity and finally accepted his repent and agreed to accept him as his disciple.

Evil sex is involved in lewdness, unusual sexual acts, sexual harassment, sexual abuse and sexual violence. Extending the meaning of evil sex is included homosexual love and the sexual relationship outside the husband and wife.

Homosexual love has already existed since the ancient time. In the Chinese article at the ancient time, it has ever been mentioned. In the modern time, homosexual love is always the controversial social issue. According to my knowledge from the scripture of Buddha, the Buddha does not agree to the homosexual love. No matter we are the homosexual love or not, no indulging in the love and desire is the right thing.

In the viewpoints of Buddhism, after dying of doing the evil sex, the retribution of doing the evil sex is in the animal path, such as to be the bird, pig, camel or donkey, not in the human path. It means that being the animals are foolish and ignorant, and they would have rare chance to hear the teaching of Buddha. 

“Two tongues” means that someone instigates something on purpose in order to alienate and spoil the harmony relationship of two persons or a group by the vicious remark, and thus causes the suspicious of each other or the un-peace of a group.

“Malicious speech” exists in our daily life, such as to bully others by words or to curse people, which we can find that in the community of Internet or in the response to the news or articles on Internet. We also can find some malicious speech in newspaper or in some post on social media, which is in specific position, especially, in political consciousness or political purpose. In the country of free speech, any malicious speech is tolerated, even if it’s not like malicious speech.

Why people have the malicious speech? If we think it deeply, we can find that those who have the malicious speech are the ignorant person and self-fear in mind. In fact, they are pitiful and foolish. But, do we have thought how we help them not to do such stupid thing? Do you know? Some of them are in the high education and position and their malicious speech is very “elegant” and seems very “reasonable.” What a pitiful is that a lot of people who are in the high education and position are also persuaded by the malicious speech. This kind of harm and disaster to the whole world is more beyond the personal bully.

You know that the evils would back to the evildoers.

In the Chapter 7 of this scripture: the Buddha said,” Someone heard that I obey the Dao and put the grand benevolence into practice, so to scold the Buddha. The Buddha keeps silence, doesn’t respond to him, while the rebuke stopped, and asks: if you bring a gift to someone, who doesn’t accept it, does the gift return to you?” A disciple replies:” It would be returned.” The Buddha said,” Today you scold me, I do not accept it. You have disasters by yourself to let them return to you! Such as an echo responds to a sound, a shadow follows a shape, it is finally unable to be avoided and departed. Be cautious not to do the evils.”

What a surprise me is that those who tells a lie have the higher education and position, and their motive is to protect their own personal advantage in life and in position. Sometimes we can find that these persons who tell a lie are no different from the poor who tells a lie. And we also have found that these persons usually fall down badly from the top of their good life and good career.

According to the research for the character of the global leader from the ancient time to the modern time, honesty and not to tell a lie is one of the qualities of a good leader. In the Business, we can find that the quality of the billionaire boss or leader is honesty. If they dare to deceive the client or consumer, how could it be possible for them to be the Billionaire? So the thinking and our attitude would decide whether we are a rich or a poor.

What is the meaning of the frivolous speech? Mostly, it means that someone speaks of something without using its brain and the content of spoken is no advantage for people’s life. Furthermore, it is also means that someone uses the sweet words or rhetoric to deceive or lure people in order to achieve its personal purpose or advantage.

Most people would meet the frivolous speech at least one time in the whole life. The lucky people would leave with no harm. However, a lot of people might be harmed in physical or mental body, or the lost in wealth.

Then, we might have a question. Why those people want to do the frivolous speech? It is also related to the following three evil deeds, and the greedy mind. If people are due to the mind of envy or hatred, they might use the frivolous speech to destroy the counterpart. If people are due to the mind of infatuation or greedy, they might use the frivolous speech to achieve their personal purpose or advantage. 

Now, to think about it, are we the people who do the frivolous speech or the people who is harmed by the frivolous speech? No matter which one we are, it is pitiful. But, if we are the people who are harmed by the frivolous speech, let us be strong in heart now, and forgive those pitiful people as possible as we can.

As the aforesaid, the mind of envy, hatred and infatuation, would cause the harm to the people. And finally the disaster would back to itself. About the mind of envy, the story of Snow White is impressed me.

If such ten evils are stopped, they are named as ten virtuous deeds. In Buddhism, to do the ten evils would collect the evil karma and go to the path of hell, hungry ghost and animal after dying. To stop doing the ten evils would collect the good karma and go to the heaven after dying. As we know, there is the retribution in present life. Of course, there is the good repay in present life if we collect the good karma.

Chapter 3: Cut off the love and remove the greed

(Chapter 3) 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 3: Cut off the love and remove the greed

The Buddha said, “Those who shave their hair and beard to become the Sramana and accept the Dao-law should renounce worldly possessions, be content to beg for alms, and take only what is needed. Eat one meal before noon a day, pass the night beneath trees, and be cautious not to desire more, for love and desire are what makes people foolish and concealing.”

The said rules are set by Buddha for his disciples, Sramanas. Such rules inspire and remind us, to be content what we have, and not to greedy more, because love and desire are what makes people foolish and concealing.

As we have mentioned in the aforesaid chapter, the definition of love and desire here is narrower, which motive is based on the personal-ego and selfishness. That is why the love and desire makes people foolish and concealing.

There is a saying,” To love would cause the dying tragically.” Why? It is involved the personal factor and the factor of the other side. Someone could not accept to be betrayed or broken up in love, and its hatred heart and its mind of revenge would thus be arisen to become the factual action. When they are in such state, their mind would lose reason and their action would be out of control, and thus to do the harmful thing. We call such person as horrifying lover. In generally, such person is lack of confidence and self-esteem. Even though this, they still want to control their lover. In the viewpoint of Buddha, such person is foolish and pitiful.

Someone use the love or sexual desire as excuses and means to have the fortune, especially, the young woman with beautiful appearance and good shape of body to attract the elder-rich man. Then, they would have the fortune by the means of divorce or of broken up. Sometimes we call such person as love-liar. The rich man attaches the lust of love and he is thus concealed by the infatuation.

Most people are following their own hormone of body and their visual sense, but, not following their mind of reason, to find their love. When the second person is shown up, they would be interested in such person by following their own sexual desire and visual sense. We call such thing as illusion and infatuation. In such state, the fact would not be found. So, there is a saying,” The lovers are falling in love because they do not understand each other. The lovers break up because they finally understand each other.”    

In the fiction or drama, the love is always created as romantic story. But, in fact, it is not true in our daily life. In the relationship of love, it is more related to the responsibility, tolerance, respecting to each other, sweet burden and honesty. Unfortunately, most people do not understand it, especially, the young male and female.

When people love and desire someone, something or to do something, they might conceal others for some reasons. Or they might be concealed by others. Then, to lie is happened. The evil karma is formed. The evil future might be waiting there.

The love and desire as mentioned here is the evil cause. Having cut it off, the evil result would not be happened certainly.

Extending the meaning of love and desire, human can love or desire the fame, power, fortune, food, and career. No matter love or desire, fame or power, fortune, food or career, their essence are not sin. Why? If we understand the deep meaning of Buddhism, we would know that those essences are emptiness. Since those essences are emptiness, they are not related to the sin or non-sin. Then, we might have a question. What is the problem or the trouble about the love or desire in such thing? 

As we know, there are two viewpoints in one thing. That is positive viewpoint and negative viewpoint. When we misuse our love and desire for such things, those would cause the bad result in our life. For example, there is a saying,” Human is afraid of fame; Pig is afraid of fat.” Why? When a person attaches the fame, jealous and attack in speech is followed. When a pig is fat, it would be killed to be as food. 

However, good fame would be helpful for the people of world. Such person is aim to benefit the people of world, and good fame therefore follows him (or her). Other things can be deduced by analogy.