學禪的四個基礎（英文版）

學禪的四個基礎（英文版）

 

耕雲導師

GENG YUN

 

Four Bases of The Ch'an Practice
Delivered in Taipei on February 5, 1992

 I. An-Hsiang Is the Methodology for Mental Salvation.

 II. Four Bases of the Ch’an Practice

[II.1.To Be Absolutely Sincere ][II.2.To Well Conduct Oneself][II.3.To Be Responsible ] [II.4. To Be Grateful ]

I. An-Hsiang Is the Methodology for Mental Salvation?

Speaking of the An-Hsiang Ch’an, I really do not know where to begin at.  If Ch’an never can be verbally interpreted, then why are we still lecturing about it?  It is because Buddha claimed, “life is painful and consists of eight kinds of pain interacting with one another.”  If people do not practice to rectify and change themselves, they will never be able to get out of the ocean of bitterness.

The purpose of Buddha’s birth is not for spreading knowledge, but for providing mental salvation to suffering beings.  Buddha once was a prince and his wealth could afford him to generously provide people with material salvation.  However, it is not the way to ultimately solve the issue of the eight forms of pain in life.  When people have too much money, they may become lazy and tend to spoil themselves.  As a result, their self-adherences will be enhanced and their spirits will turn deteriorating.  With this in mind, we therefore realize that Buddha’s original concern is the salvation for the minds of the suffering beings.  Mental salvation is undergone on the basic concept that life is painful.  Consequently, after you have accepted the methodology of mental salvation, the most direct and simplest way to measure its effect is to ask yourself, “How do you feel?”  We are ordinary people, and all our perceptions are mostly wrong, ridiculous and incorrect.  All our pain comes from our wrong perceptions and adherences; we attach ourselves to things we should not attach to, and mistake wrong for right.  Therefore, we bring ourselves worries and pain.

The law of causality addressed by Buddha mainly focuses on the present time.  To anyone, if his current consciousness or thought is wrong, he must be unhappy.  It is because “Mistakes are causes of afflictions.”  Once you have accumulated enough mistakes, you will be ruined accordingly.  It is because “Destruction always results from committing a crime.”  Buddha’s methodology of mental salvation is to teach people how to possess An-Hsiang (composure and benignity).  After having cleared all the mistakes generated from one’s conceptual views, perceptions, behaviors and understanding, one’s mind can attain An-Hsiang.

How do we know the Dharma we are practicing is true or not?  It is very easy to verify, as your perception can simply tell you.  Can you sense the Genuine Perception?  Though there are different levels of Genuine Perception, even very mild An-Hsiang can enable you to experience the true flavor of the Dharma and bring you the joy that you have never had before.  It is very practical.  Buddha’s methodology of mental salvation aims at liberating our minds to obtain its true benefits and making our lives free from any tortures or regrets.

If you cannot attain the Genuine Perception through the Dharma practice, your restless mind will make your hormone unbalanced and then jeopardize your health and bring you afflictions and pain.  Though you are practicing the Dharma, you eventually are unable to be liberated.  Consequently, as far as the Dharma practice is concerned, the possession of the Genuine Perception is very crucial.  The Genuine Perception equates to An-Hsiang.  The basic condition of the Genuine Perception is the settlement of one’s mind.  Without a settled mind, one cannot attract blessings and harmony.  To maintain a settled mind, one needs to have a clear conscience to be able to face both the Heaven and the man without feeling any guilt.  Then, it can surly attract blessings and harmony.  If one can misconduct and simultaneously possess a settled mind, which is horrifying, one equates to an Asura, or Icchantika who exterminates the nature of the Buddha.

When you have possessed deep An-Hsiang in mind, someone asks you: “What is your original face?”  You may avoid answering it, but you must know the answer.  Otherwise, you are afflicted with the Ignorance.  As long as you can constantly be aware of your mental status, your mind will gradually attain An-Hsiang and you will be able to see your original face.

The Ch’an possesses the Genuine Perception and Genuine View.  If you only possess the Genuine View, it is likened to attaining a kind of dehydrated wisdom.  If you only possess the Genuine Perception, it is likened to being a dragon trapped in dead water, or a man with a single bat in hand.  One must possess both to be eligibly claimed as an authentic Ch’an practitioner.  A Ch’an practitioner needs to satisfy certain prerequisites.  I have lectured so much on this issue in the past; today I would specially emphasize on the four bases of the Ch’an practice.

II.Four Bases of the Ch'an Practice

II.1. To Be Absolutely Sincere

Throughout history, there have been numerous great intellectuals who all highly value “sincerity”.  Sincerity is the traditional ideology of the Chinese Confucianism.  The statement of “Without sincerity, nothing virtually exists.” means that without sincerity, everything is fake.  The reason why the Confucian ideology can exactly display the essence of the golden means is all because of its sincerity, which is not too mild or sharp, nor overmuch or insufficient.

The Dharma greatly values sincerity.  In ancient times, its translation and wording were different and though they did not use the word of sincerity, they meant exactly the same.  We know that modern academic field can be categorized into three areas, which are intellectualism, emotionalism and volitionalism.  These three categories generally have their individual defects: intellectualism inevitably turns to be empty, distant and cold; emotionalism tends to be attaching and blind; whereas volitionalism can easily lead people to be stubborn and arbitrary.  Nevertheless, they still possess some merits.  However, sincerity possesses all their merits, but none of their defects.  Though Chinese knowledge can be applied to describe the differences respectively among intelligence, emotion and volition, Chinese people do not perceive it as such.  They would regard them in one instead of three, when they have truly completed their practices.

The Chinese interpret sincerity as to fully immerse one’s true emotion into one’s true intelligence.  Indeed, when you cast all your emotion into your intelligence without any holdback, a positive perseverance will be naturally generated, namely an appearance of volition.  To the Chinese, the unification of intelligence, emotion and volition equates to the whole essence of sincerity interpreted by the Confucianism.  There are many interpretations of sincerity in the Confucianism, especially in the Classic, such as “The Doctrine of the Mean” and “The Great Learning”.

Well, what is sincerity related with our Ch’an practice?  If you only possess the Genuine Perception without the Genuine View and are unconscious of being greeted, walking or sitting; to this extent, you are virtually likened to a dragon being trapped in dead water.  You cannot turn clouds into rain, nor blow wind to create waves; you are virtually capable of nothing.  Let alone being eloquent, you simply equate to a mute lamb.  If whatever you say is wrong, then what can be claimed as “Ch’an”?  Ch’an is the mind of Buddha.  If you represent the mind of Buddha; how can you know nothing about the Dharma?  If you want to be like a true dragon in live water, the only way to achieve it is to be absolutely sincere.  You must firmly acknowlege that Ch’an is the true intelligence, true emotion, and the Mahaprajna-paramita (the grand wisdom), and the basis and origin of all reasons and matters.  Without this affirmation, you obviously have no true passion for Ch’an, and surely are very distant from it.

Some people say that Dharma practitioners should be emotionless, which is actually wrong.  What we should say is that Dharma practitioners are not allowed to be personally emotional.  It is truly ridiculous that one fails to tell the difference between emotions and desires.  If we do not have any passion or emotion, where are the grand compassion and mercy originated from?  With regards to this, I once lectured about it, and furthermore, I also created a new statement to describe it – “Though the passion is in flames; it is definitely not burning for one’s self.”  In this world, everything is accomplished by the force driven by our passion.  When knowledge, emotion, and volition are taken apart, knowledge refers to emptiness and coldness, and volition refers to stubbornness and arbitrariness.  Therefore, you have to apply emotion to activate both knowledge and volition to generate power.  If knowledge is likened to a car and emotion to petrol, then volition will be the driver.  Neither of them can be separated.  Among all the ideological trends in the world, probably only the “sincerity”, which has been passed on since ancient times, can combine all of the three.  Let us remember of our very Patriarch, the Sakyamuni Buddha.  He gave up all his privilege, power, and pleasure, those people were fighting for and dreaming about, to pursue his own liberation and the salvation methodology for all beings.  That is the true intelligence, true emotion, great love, and absolutely selfless sincerity and passion.

If we extend most of our love to our children, a little to our wives, little to our work, and equally distribute our interest to playing chess, bridge, golf and games, then the love remained for practicing the Dharma will be next to none.  Will this kind of Dharma practice be successful?  You must treat your job as your responsibility and obligation, and regard the Dharma practice as your sole interest instead of one of your interests.

It is not only applicable to the Dharma practice; it can also be applied to any professionals or celebrities.  Let us take the chess celebrity - Lin-Hai-Fong, as an example.  He must fully focus on playing chess and treat it as his sole interest instead of one of his interests.  If we fail to do so, and are likened to fishing for three days and drying the nets for the following two days, we surely cannot succeed.  The trick of the successful Dharma practice lies on one’s continuous passion.  Therefore, ancient folks said, “It is exactly likened to making a pill from a furnace; and hatching eggs by a hen.”  It needs constant heat.  Consequently, one must immerse one’s true emotion into one’s true intelligence and remain steadfast to generate a powerful perseverance, one then can be successful.

Consequently, the first base of the Dharma practice is to be absolutely sincere.  Otherwise, when you are distracted by many other interests, your on and off effort is virtually in vain.  Therefore, Buddha said that “one can achieve anything when one’s mind is fully focused.”  The Ch’an practice needs one’s full concentration.  Besides, one should not look at Chan as a burden; instead, one should regard it as a joy.

II.2. To Well Conduct Oneself

Ch’an is not restrained by any principles or practices.  There is no obstacle either in principles or in practices.  Consequently, both principles and practices are absolutely free from any obstacles.  Nevertheless, when you have not yet reached that level, your expectation is always far beyond your realistic practice.  If you arbitrarily claim that you are “free from any obstacles in both principles and practices,” you need to deal with the effect caused by such a statement.  Karma results from a mind of thoughts, while a mind of no thoughts does not generate any karma.  When your mind is differential and self-attached to continually sow the seed of evil causes, you still claim that you are free from any obstacles.  Eventually, you will feel regretful.  Hence, we must well conduct ourselves.  It is not right to deviate from the way to behave.  We must follow the golden means to conduct.  The best route to practice is the golden means, which is likened to hitting the bull’s eye.  To take archery as an example, a good archer will not deviate to the left or right, neither aim too high or too low.  He must hit right on the target to claim his success.  When we conduct ourselves, we are not deviating or dependent; not overmuch or insufficient; not to the left or right; not too high or too low.  When we moderately conduct ourselves to follow the way, we are practicing “the means”.

In fact, to define “the means” in details equates to the Buddha’s teaching of The Noble Eightfold Path.  Practicing the Noble Path is the safest.  It will be dangerous to practice through sideways, whereas through the little path will lead you losing your way.  As Ch’an practitioners, we should decently conduct ourselves with absolute sincerity in mind.  Otherwise, an overwhelming electrical resistance will emerge to block the Dharma to enter your mind, and make you unable to practice the Dharma.  It is because of the demon’s karma.  Demons are people who torture and punish themselves by means of their own mistakes and sins.  Look at those psychopathic, crazy or restless people!  They all live miserably, because they are living with mistakes.  Some people like to interfere with others without any reasons.  Though they are always critical and annoying, they simultaneously torture themselves with their own mistakes.

Some people are only good at making perfect speeches, but their behaviors are totally opposite.  Our behavior must correspond to our understanding; namely, we conduct what we understand.  It equates to Wang Yang-Ming’s “the Combination of Realization and Behavior.”  Realization without its realistic implementation equates to no realization.  When true and firm realization is at its pinnacle, its implementation is displayed.  The statement is truly deep!  Why?  When you see a person who has been constantly pursuing reason or meditating on a certain topic, he will eventually reach the critical point and become enlightened.  In fact, he seems to have done nothing.  In the preface of Zhu-Xi’s Commentary on “The Great Learning”, he claimed – “After having made all efforts for quite a period of time, the moment of one’s full realization finally arrives.  Then, you can identify the whole picture of every object, including its appearance, content, delicacy and roughness, and you also become fully aware of the functioning of your mind.”  Zhu-Zi was an academic, he did not use his strength to carry water or move stones; however, he applied his brain and thoughts to achieve his true realization.

To Ch’an practitioners, no matter how talented you are, you must begin with maintaining An’Hsiang.  If you cannot concentrate your mind, nor strengthen your mentality, you are absolutely unlikely to pursue the most superb state of the universe.

Why do so many people fail in learning the Dharma?  It is because they do not truly introspect themselves.  Without having a thorough introspection of one’s life, one will encounter many obstacles in one’s practice.  The methodology of self-introspection is the most indispensible one for all religions.  Therefore, if you do not follow the right way and also refuse to introspect yourself, you surely cannot succeed.  I told some people that they possessed very good origin and needed to make a thorough introspection.  The content of one’s introspection is actually the dust of one’s mind, and nobody would be willing to approach it.  It is the greatest Buddha who would witness it.  You may introspect yourself in front of Buddha or ask an elder to be you witness, and self-introspect yourself anticlockwise from this year, last year, and the year before the last and keep going.  In this way, you may reach to the age of two or three, but you cannot go on any further.  However, if you are very sincere and possess An-Hsiang, you eventually will be able to go further.  By means of this self-introspection, we have a member who discovered that he was an ox in his previous life and was reincarnated from an ox.  Did he tell us a lie?  No, he did not, and it is absolutely true.

There is another person, who has been learning the Dharma for ten years now.  He does not have either the Genuine View or An-Hsiang.  Did he ever undergo his self-introspection?  Yes, he did.  Well, how did he do it?  He said that he was so selfish that he would not allow his friend to borrow money from him.  Then he said that he did not possess any moral senses, and had many weaknesses and so on and so forth.  In fact, he sounded quite innocent.  Finally, he said his worst defect was his intolerance to evil deeds, and his anger to those misbehaving people.  Was it a defect?  No, it was the sense of justice!  Ironically, when we closely look at his defects, we seem to have seen a great person, who is not only full of justice, but also unselfish and straightforward.

What does “being straightforward” mean?  It can be interpreted as: I will not give you what I have; neither will I take any of your possession.  It is a good virtue.  Though Mencius would debate for Confucianism, at times he was unreasonable.  He said that “Yang-Zhu is self-centered; therefore, there is no emperor in his mind.  Mo-Di broadly extends his love to people; therefore, his father is not in his mind.  People who do not have emperors or fathers in their minds are animals.”  Consequently, Yang and Mo are both animals.  In fact, if we do not simply take this statement out of the context; fairly speaking, Yang and Mo were both very good people.  Mencius advocated that one should be filial to one’s parents, lenient to people, cherishing resources, and caring for the aging.  One should always start from the near end to reach the far end, and begin climbing from a low level to a higher one.  That is the typical practice of the Confucianism.  Nevertheless, what is Yang-Zhu’s ideology?  He was absolutely an individualist.  Positive individualism equates to virtuousness.  If everyone is extremely virtuous, there will be no crime to commit, no sins or wars to occur.  Indeed, Yang-Zhu’s statement - “I would not even harm a hair of my head to benefit others,” was not right.  However, it was because people arbitrarily took the statement out of the context.  Its following statement was that “Even though the wealth of the whole world is given to me, I would not take any of it.”  “Yes, I will never take anything you are giving to me.”  Indeed, you need to finish the whole statement to truly understand it.  It is unfair to jump into conclusions when you only finish part of it.  Of course, this kind of individualistic ideology is an obstacle to the progress of a whole society.

Westerners are closer to Yang-Zhu’s ideology.  Some people are straightforward and will not take any advantage of others; neither will they easily favor others.  Even between two good friends, while one is smoking, one will not offer the other one a free cigarette, unless the other one asks.  Moreover, people will go Dutch when they go to a restaurant together, unless they make a deal otherwise.  I think that is right.  You do not have to be social about this, because it will only create trouble.  If we refer to various ideologies of the world, we will find that every ideology has its negative perspectives as well as side effects.  Only by implementing the Noble Eightfold Path advocated by the Buddha, can it be completely right.

Consequently, Ch’an practitioners firstly need to be absolutely sincere; secondly they need to conduct decently and follow the genuine way.  Well, what is the genuine way?  Do not do anything that is shameful to tell others, and abstain from doing anything that is shameful or disgraceful.  The way guided by these principles is the genuine way.  If you say that you dare do what others dare not do, and claim that you are transcendent.  Moreover, you also dare do what those prejudiced practitioners dare not; you are not only defending yourself because of your self-attachment, but also defaming the genuine Dharma.

In the Noble Eightfold Path, there are Right Intention and Right Mindfulness.  Nevertheless, the Ch’an School advocates “The mind of no thought displays the true wholeness of itself.”  Then, is having an intention equivalent to having a thought?  If you think so, you have deviated from the Non-dualistic Methodology.  As Ch’an is the Non-dualistic Methodology, having an intention equates to not having an intention, having a thought equates to not having a thought, and being differential equates to not being differential.

II.3. To Be Responsible

I ever said that people should live in their responsibilities and obligations.  However, very few people can achieve that.  Someone rang and asked to see me, and I told him not to stay too long, at most half an hour.  When he came, he burst into tears and started complaining about how unlucky he had been.  He showed me his notebook recorded in the past three months how many bad things happened to him, how many fits of anger he had, how many quarrels he made with his wife, and how many times he was blamed by his boss etc. etc…..  I told him that I only allowed him to stay for half an hour; however, he had already spent forty minutes on non-stop complaining about how unlucky he had been!

I asked him whether he had ever listened to my lectures.  He said he did with all of them.  I said if you did, why didn’t you follow my lectures to live in responsibilities and obligations?  One should realize that everything happens for a reason in this world, waves will not arise if there is no wind, and any occurrence must have its cause.  All sorts of regrets, complaints, frustration and punishments you are facing today result from weaving the contents of your past thoughts and behaviors.  If you live in your responsibilities and obligations and try hard to rectify yourself, will you still have all these problems?

What we did in the past will not disappear without leaving any trace behind.  If one encounters difficulties and blames for bad luck, he is simply finding himself an excuse.  In fact, he should try to reflect upon what he thought and did in the past.  Did he make enough efforts, or simply wasted all his prime time?  If he tried to avoid his own responsibilities and obligations and expected to have a better future, if it happened as expected, it would have been against the law of causality.

If one does not make efforts today, one will fail to win tomorrow.  Without today’s hard cultivation, there will be no harvest for tomorrow.  Now you are complaining, unsatisfied and taking notes of so many bad occurrences; I am sure you are going to have more and more to write about.  I suggest you buy more notepads.  If you realize that all the harsh occurrences you are facing today result from your faulty thoughts and behaviors in the past, such as: lack of efforts, creation and contribution, in the practitioners’ term, you are likened to “being unwilling to accumulate moral merits.”  It is truly reasonable that various misfortunes happening today all have their causes in the past.  What the universe displays is by the law of causality, which is not only claimed by the Buddha, but also follows the Regularity of Nature addressed in modern logic.  Nature is heaven, and vice versa.  Based on the ideological methodology, modern academic define the law of causality as the law of heaven.  If we offend the law of heaven, we surely should accept punishment, and feel relieved and fair.

When we get punished because of our misconduct, we start complaining, feel mistreated, and our minds are filled with dissatisfaction and anger.  It is likened to adding fuel onto a flame to get you burned even more seriously.  If you can be fully responsible for your own thoughts and behaviors in the past, you will have much less worries.  If we expect to have a better future, we need to make more efforts now.  Only by putting in more strength and accumulating more merits, can we surely be rewarded with a better tomorrow.  As Zhu-Ge-Liang said, “One should be fully devoted to one’s work until one ceases to exist.”  In other words, we should work as hard as possible till the moment we can no longer give any of our strength.  That is the true conduct of being responsible.  If we are responsible for our work, working will be a joy, but not a torture or regret, to us.

I often enjoy talking about Thomas Edison.  He only had two years of private education, and did not even graduate from a primary school; however, all the modern electric bulbs and many other electrical appliances we have been using are his inventions.  He invented more than one thousand kinds of daily necessities, and how could he achieve it?  It was his addiction.  He was addicted to invention and could not resist it.  If you tried to stop him developing his inventions, he would feel bored and meaningless.  He knew nothing about Boyle’s Law or the Archimedes’ Principle.  He only knew to continuously do his research without any stop.  Edison’s inventions made great contributions to the world.  Moreover, the impact of his concepts, reasoning, modeling, and guiding also inspired John Dewey to develop the logic of experiments.  Dewey’s theory emphasizes that all truth can be verified through experiments.  Consequently, many American veterans, who dreamed to be scientists, flocked to undergo research.  Therefore, the United States became strong and wealthy.

There was an American veteran, who was jobless during the postwar recession, and roamed around the streets to find food.  He only had one piece of clothing on him, and he found a button was missing.  It was chilly in autumn.  Therefore, he found a string of iron from a rubbish bin, and he twisted and bent it into a pin.  It was very simple to make a pin from a string of iron and could hold a piece of ripped clothes together.  His invention was found by another person, who thought it was extremely creative.  The person asked, “The pin looks very good!  Where did you get it?”  “I made it myself.” “What job are you doing now?”  “Nothing, I am just roaming around.”  “Then stop roaming around, let’s work together to make the pin.”  Later on their company made a great fortune.

During the Second World War, the business of the American pharmaceutical company, Bristo-Myers Squibb, was extremely prosperous, but they could not pack the needed medicine in time to supply the front.  A supervisor said that I would reward people who could pack quicker than others.  There was a very smart female operator.  She knew that every bottle could be loaded with fifty tablets; therefore, she made a board with fifty tiny dents in it.  When she poured tablets onto the board and gently shook it, all the tablets ran into the dents and then were poured through a funnel into a bottle to perfectly save the time of counting them.  It was a very tactful device.  Her supervisor said to her, “Can you sell me your device?”  Finally, the company bought her device at the price of fifty thousand US Dollars.

If we love our work, we would gain wisdom from doing it.  If we like our work, we should be fully responsible for it.  If we plant the seed of evil causes, we should prepare to be fed with evil effects.  If we keep defending for ourselves, punishment will eventually arrive at our door, as the Sixth Patriarch claimed, “Sins are formed when the self arises in one’s mind.”  Consequently, ancient people said, “Those who can confess and rectify their own mistakes are the most virtuous people.”  They also claimed that “Even the most vicious sin cannot resist the power of repentance.”  Once you have repented, all of your sins immediately disappear.  It is because that the Heaven does not mean to torture you, but simply expects to transform you into a good person.  The Heaven regards everyone, including you and me, as his children.  Please do not be surprised by this statement as it is not claimed by Christianity only.  By referring to the Third Chapter of Parables in the Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Law, the Buddha himself claimed, “The three realms all belong to me, and all the sentient beings there are my children….. The reason why they do not believe in my teaching is because that they are deeply contaminated and attached to all sorts of desires.”  All the sentient beings are the sons of the Buddha.  Besides, all the other creatures are also the Buddha’s sons.

I see many people enjoy criticizing others.  Many people tend to think that they are always right and others are always wrong.  In fact, this is the origin of having worries.  When you see people misconduct, you will get upset and angry.  The anger equates to worries.  Worries are the most destructive element in our life.  All sorts of mistakes, such as killing, stealing, debauchery, illusion etc. are all initiated by worries.  The more worried you are, the less sensible you become.  If you have completely lost your mind because of your worries, you must have made a huge mistake.  Therefore, I composed a song and adopted a paragraph from the Sixth Patriarch’s Platform Sutra as its lyrics.  It goes as,

 “When one is practicing the Dharma, one will not feel offended at all;” - since you are practicing the Dharma, you would not mind of anything.

“To constantly perceive one’s mistake is the legitimate way of doing practice;” – there is nothing else to look at except one’s own mistakes.

“People can make mistakes, but I do not make any mistakes.  If I do, I surely will get punished.  Therefore, I have to get rid of the differentiating mind.”  Indeed, once you have removed the mind of differentiation, you will be able “to break through all the worries.”

We have to thoroughly implement the statement of “People can make mistakes, but I do not make any mistakes.  If I do, I must be wrong.”  When you find someone’s mistake; is it truly a mistake or are you simply deceived by your own eyes?

One who values the law of causality surely will not whinge or complain.  He will not feel mistreated, nor get angry.  He will not create conflicts, nor lose his temper.  This is all because he lives within his own responsibilities and obligations.  He lives with a clear conscience and does not feel regretful.  Therefore, he lives with the law of causality in mind; he works hard today and believes that he will be better tomorrow.

II.4. To Be Grateful

Too many people do not know to be grateful.  They take favors from others for granted, and think they deserve the favors because of their own superiority.  They do not know how hard it is to find and own a true friend.  Moreover, some people who are healthy, fit, and smart; however, they like fighting against others to create trouble.  They never extend their gratitude to the heaven and the earth or their parents, neither to their community.  By reading Robinson Crusoe, we realize how limited, bare and difficult a person’s life could be when he drifted to live alone on an isolated island.

Some people are born with impaired vision or hearing.  Some others are born to be disabled, autistic, or retarded.  Nevertheless, we are sound and safe, and our parents are also very caring to us.  When we start working, the society provides us with fair opportunities.  We should be grateful for all these.  When one realizes how to be grateful, one starts knowing how to be sympathetic.  We should be thankful to all beings for getting favors from them.  Indeed, we do not farm, but we have rice to eat.  We do not weave, but we have clothes to wear.  We are not architects or builders, but we have houses to live.  We truly should be grateful for all these.

Sometimes when we are introspecting ourselves and realize that though we do not posses any special skills or talents, we are living a pretty good life.  Therefore, we know we should respect others.  As we are willing to work hard for tomorrow, for the day after tomorrow; consequently, we will be rewarded when the time comes.  Though we deserve what we get, we still have to be thankful because people do not avoid or neglect our efforts.  Some people do not know to be grateful and also lack of sympathy.  They do not know how to reward the society where they gain all their needs from.  Only those who appreciate the public know how to reward the society.  With regards to those ungrateful people, they only know to be selfish and care about their own benefits.

The Buddhist teaching emphasizes on repaying upward the four great favors and salvaging downward the beings in the three realms of suffering.  We should sympathize with all those beings suffering in the realms of animals, starving ghosts and hell.  We should thank the heaven and the earth for giving us space to live.  We should thank our parents for giving us our bodies and having us educated.  Though we have the heaven and the earth, as well as parents, we still cannot survive in such a “survival of the fittest” environment.  Our lives are in constant danger, irrespective of the properties we own.  People used to thank emperors or kings in the past; however, time is different now, we should thank our country, our government, and our society instead.  Without the public of our community, we cannot survive.  Consequently, we should upward render our thanks to the providers of the four great favors; they are the heaven and the earth, our parents, country and all beings as a whole.  If we can continuously appreciate these favors and be grateful, our lives then can turn warm, vital, and resourceful.  Meanwhile, we can develop our hearty gratitude into the virtues of generosity, unselfishness and humbleness, and naturally evaporate the unspeakable essence of benignancy.  If we do not have a grateful mind, we are unable to be benign.  If we do not have sympathetic minds, our society will become cold, tricky and cruel.  That is not what the Dharma practitioners are expecting.  If you intend to learn the Dharma, you need to nurture your true feeling, true sensibility, and true wisdom.  In addition, you have to learn how to be devoted, and constantly grateful.  Having acquired all these conditions, you definitely will succeed in the Dharma practice.

With regards to the above-mentioned four points, I hope that we can share and support one another to achieve them.