幸福之道（英文版）

幸福之道（英文版）

 

耕雲導師

ＧＥＮＧ　ＹＵＮ

 

A PATH TO BLISS
DELIVERED ON APRIL 4TH, 1993,
IN TAIPEI

[I. The original purpose of Buddha’s birth to the world is for helping sentient beings be blissful ] [II. Genuine bliss lies in the combination of peace,    harmony, blessing, status and longevity ][III. A path to bliss is the way of the mean ][IV. The Conditions of Bliss ][V. The Price of Bliss - To do an act of kindness per day &To eliminate an error per week ] [VI. The source of bVIliss - love and mercy ] [VII. Items of introspection – To remove the thieves of bliss ] [VIII. The Sublimation of Bliss – To Attain Buddhahood ]

Among all the offerings, the offering of the Dharma is most superb.  Why to say so?  The reason is that it is most thorough.  Generally speaking, material substances cannot fill up the emptiness of one’s spirit, nor can they eliminate human ignorance and vexation.  Though lacking of substances, people can still live a happy life.  To take Confucius as an example, "Eating only coarse rice, drinking plain water, and sleeping on his bent-elbow, Confucius still enjoyed himself.”  Besides, Confucius’ disciple Yen-hui was another good example.  “Having only a bowl of plain rice, a scoop of water, and living at a shabby alley, Yen-hui, unlike most people failing to endure such poverty, never changed his delightful mood.”  Both of them were blissful, because they had a concept in their mind, and realized the true meaning of life.  For them, life equated to a kind of devotion and joy.  Conversely, one’s life will become a torture and punishment, when it is filled with frustration and lack of any bliss.  Therefore, today I am going to lecture on the topic of "A Path to Bliss".

I. The original purpose of Buddha’s birth to the world is for helping sentient beings be blissful

A path to bliss is a way that leads man to bliss.  You may be curious why I am talking about bliss but not about Ch’an or the Buddhadharma.  It is because the original purpose of Buddha’s birth to the world is for helping sentient beings be blissful.  The purpose of his birth is to eliminate our worries and sufferings; instead, to offer us joy and blessings.  Buddha’s compassion aims to offer us joy and bliss; whereas, his mercy aims to rid our sufferings and worries.  Truly, it is the original purpose of Buddha’s birth; Buddha came to bless everyone a blissful life.  The reason why all beings fail to live a blissful life is that they are heading to the wrong direction.  They plan to go to Taipei in the North; instead, they are heading down to the South and arrive in Kaohsiung.  Therefore, today, the topic of my lecture is “A path to bliss.” 

First, we have to understand that bliss is not only the Buddha’s blessing to all beings, but also everyone’s reasonable expectation.  In my understanding, not many people wish to become a Buddha, but the majority intend to live a better life.  Even though they are having a hard and bitter life, they still wish to live longer.  If you want them to give up their bodies, families, and immediately become a Buddha, they would panic and reject your offer.  As what they really want is nothing but bliss.

II. Genuine bliss lies in the combination of peace, harmony, blessing, status, and longevity [Back to Top]

There is a difference between genuine bliss and fake bliss.  Fake bliss refers to the general common combination of blessing, status, and longevity, which are called three shining stars.  Blessing is one’s fortune and luck; status is one’s earning, position, and deserved respect; longevity means to have a long life.  People think it is blissful to possess them.

However, some people are not satisfied with these; therefore, festivity is added.  Besides having blessing, status and longevity, they also need frequent festive events.  As a result, the combination of blessing, status, longevity and festivity is formed. Furthermore, some other people want to become richer to achieve the state of “five blessings arriving at one’s door.”  Therefore, the combination of blessing, status, longevity, festivity and wealth is formed.  In fact, all these are illusions, because you are not qualified to possess them.  All the existence in the grand universe results from the combination of various conditions. Without having relevant conditions available, nothing can exist.  For example, the smallest unit of a matter is an atom.  When electrons, protons and neutrons are split, nothing exists.  The water we drink is H2O.  If we separate H2O into two units of hydrogen and one unit of oxygen, there would be no water.  If you want to possess blessing, status, longevity, festivity and wealth, but fail to possess the conditions of bliss, how can you attain them?  Therefore, we name it fake bliss.  What we want is genuine bliss, which is well-founded with the concrete basis; namely, peace, harmony, blessing, status and longevity.

Peace refers to having a clear conscience without any guilt, which can be further sublimated to become An-Hsiang.  What is An-Hsiang?  It is exactly the present state of your mind, which is fully aware, clear, and free from any illusions.  Besides An-Hsiang, you also need “harmony”.  Even though you are rich, your husband is a high-ranking official and you are a successful career woman, there are endless quarrels between you couple and among siblings. Under these circumstances, is there any bliss to attain?  That is why I say that An-Hsiang is needed, and so is harmony.  I believe you all ever had the experience. When your mind was in the state of An-Hsiang, your interpersonal relationship was in its best situation.  Otherwise, your social relationship turned deteriorating and worries also came one after another.  Where are worries from?  They are simply from people.  As the Sixth Patriarch stated, “One should always see one’s own faults, but not those of others.”  Indeed, one should constantly find one’s own faults, but not find faults with others, thus can avoid being disturbed by worries to maintain one’s harmonious mind.

Consequently, genuine bliss is well-founded with the firm basis, namely the combination of peace, harmony, blessing, status and longevity.  It is because blessing, status, and longevity have already included festivity and fortune.  How could a blessed person be unhappy and a man of status be short of wealth?

An emperor in Han Dynasty gave a man, named Teng-Tung, a mountain of copper for him to make his own money, but eventually the man was starved to death.  Obviously, money is not everything; it is necessary but not sufficient.  If you pursue wealth by kidnapping or blackmailing, you are pursuing death not wealth.  It is because no one can override the law of causality of the grand universe.  In conclusion, genuine bliss must be built upon An-Hsiang and harmony, and then one is likely to possess blessing, status, and longevity.

III. A path to bliss is the way of the mean [Back to Top]

Only by following the right path can one attain genuine bliss, and the right path is the mean.   We know many people have already talked about the mean, but the more they say the more confused we become.  What is the genuine mean?  It can be induced into the following four points: 

1.  The principle of dealing with people is to constantly mind mutual benefits

When dealing with people or making a business deal, do not just seek your own benefits, you should consider others’ benefits before yours.  Otherwise you will create many enemies and obstacles, and end up with having worries rather than benefits.  Meanwhile, you also have to be aware whether your mutual benefits will cause any harm to a third party.  Only when all these conditions meet, can you claim that you act in accordance with the true mean and benefit everyone involved.  If you only care about your own interest, you cannot survive long.  It is because the earth does not exist simply for you alone.  Even Emperor Chin-Shih-Huang and Adolf Hitler could not achieve their goals, how could you?    All unreasonable pursuits will result in destruction; therefore, we should follow the mean.

2.  The requirement of handling things is to achieve perfection and properness

What does “right and proper” mean?  Let’s take “archery” as an example, one has to hit the bull’s eye, as “the Doctrine of the Mean” states, “No deviation equates to hitting the target.”  Only by hitting the bull’s eye, can one claim it as the best performance and unreplaceable.  Either deviating to the right or the left, or aiming too high or too low, is not right, nor proper.  To apply this to handle things, one aims to achieve perfection and properness.

 No matter what we engage ourselves in, we have to consider our own capacity and how we can benefit our society and people.  After having thought deliberately, one can start to make a realistic plan or project, and can even abandon one’s own prejudices and biases to humbly seek for others’ advices and support.  After having run though all the brilliant ideas, people normally can come up with an outcome which is much better than the previous one.

 Although human intelligence and capacity are the sources of the progress and prosperity of a society, they may also lead to countless disasters because of improper management.  For example, the over development of transportation brings in air pollution; the prosperity of the motor industry results in over-production of cars and causes traffic congestion.  Excessive logging and arbitrary damage to water reservoirs will also deter our future generations from enjoying fresh air and clean water.  Such an inhumane management should not be encouraged, even though these professional managers are super capable and intelligent.

The development of human intelligence and competence certainly can improve our livelihood in food, clothes, housing and transportation, to accelerate the prosperity of our society.  However, if the development does not aim to attain the permanent welfare and true happiness for human beings, this kind of arbitrary management seems like killing a chicken simply for its eggs.  Therefore, when one is handling things like these, one must thoroughly deliberate them and try to make them right and proper.

3.  The concept of living is to maintain its balance

Some people are obsessed with the pursuit of nutrition, and are always choosing the most nutritious food to eat.  As a result, they gain nothing but high blood pressure, and even contract heart diseases and arterial sclerosis.  It is all because they deviate from the mean, and thus lose the balance.

 Some other people are too frugal, which is not right, either.  My colleague’s wife was very nice, but extremely frugal.  She always bought five buns to share with her husband for dinner.  However, when her husband was too busy to come home for two days, she would eat all the buns by herself, even they had become stale.  Eventually, she died of stomach cancer.

Moreover, an old comrade of mine stayed single throughout his life.  He worked hard to save money and did not care about his own health.  He died of malnutrition in his early 40s.

In our life, besides keeping balanced diets, we also need to maintain a balance in many other aspects, such as to prevent our mind from being overly spiritualistic or materialistic, externally-oriented or internally-oriented, and not too dependent nor too reliant.  Some people say they never ask for help, and are fully independent.  Well, without running a textile factory, they have clothes to wear; without farming, they have food to eat.  Therefore, everyone has to give his share of contribution, and also gets his needs from others.  Truly, besides giving what we can, we also need to get supports, which we fail to produce, from others.  That is the way of balance, namely, the mean of the concept of living.

Some people only care about their internal cultivation, and neglect the triviality of their realistic life.  For example, Hippies of thirty years ago are no longer around nowadays, because they did not follow the mean, and ended up with being abandoned by the community at large.  The reason of being eliminated was that they overly emphasized on their internal cultivation and became anti-value and anti-tradition, and thus interfered in other members of the society.  Once they checked into a hotel, none of the other guests would check in because of their pungent smell, and eventually no hotel would take them. As time went by, the community gradually abandoned them, and they finally disappeared.

There was also this kind of hippy Ch’an seen in China.  It is truly sinful to say that Chi-Kung, the living Buddha (濟公活佛), acted slightly like a hippie.  He did not care to fix his ripped pants.  Upon hearing that Chi-Kung was a living Buddha, Empress Dowager Tzu-Hsi went to ask him what she would be in her next life, a male or female.  He did not say anything but started to turn a somersault in front of her.  Being enormously shocked, her guards wanted to behead him in public. Empress Dowager Tzu-Hsi stopped her guards and ordered to offer him gold instead, and said he already gave her a clear answer that she would be a male in her next life.  In fact, Chi-Kung was a saint.  Though he violated the common social practices at that time, he should not take the blame.  The reason is that during his time, the practice of Shih-Shuang Ch’an was very popular, and it only advocated sitting meditation.  It was needless to lecture the Dharma, to recite sutras, or to practice Ch’an.  Therefore, people teased the methodology as a dry tree stem, which was too plain and dull.  Consequently, Chi-Kung tried to act lively to show people that his conduct also counted as Ch’an practice.  He intended to rectify the rigid Ch’an practice of that time.

Han-Shan (寒山) and Shih-Te (拾得) were two Ch’an masters.  Though they also did not care about the social rules, they did their practice in the deep mountains without interfering with others.  They stood for another type.

Now, living in the present society, we have to attend to both aspects: one is our own practice, and the other is to naturally blend in with the realistic life.  Only by doing so can we claim that our concept of living meets the mean.

4.  The guideline of Ch’an practice is to cut off both ends

Illusions are the worst enemy for Ch’an practitioners.  They not only interfere with our practice, but also shorten our life span.  According to the Old Testament, David, one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, lived for more than three hundred years.  Being recorded in the Chinese history, Peng-Tsu lived for more than eight hundred years. King Wen also lived for more than one hundred years.  Why are modern people’s lives shortened?  It is because we always have too many illusions, and thus deviate from the mean.

Ancient people "started working at sunrise, rested at sunset, drank the water taken from the well they dug, and ate the food grown on their own farm.  How could they be conscious of the imperial power?"  In those days, people's minds were very simple, and they did not have too many illusions to disturb them.  Nowadays, people are physiologically weaker, mainly because of being affected and interfered by their own illusions.  For example, upon talking about Tainan’s Tsung-Tsu (sticky rice stuffed with meat and mushrooms wrapped with lotus leaves), and Kuan-tsai-ban (thick fried toast with stuffing and a lid like a coffin) with friends, our mouths began watering.  Even though we did not eat them, we were physiologically preparing for digesting them.  In addition, when you watch a movie that you are not supposed to watch, you will naturally secret a large amount of sex hormones.  All these will physically do you some harm.

Why do newlyweds tend to catch colds?  According to the Chinese medical theory, it is due to the shortage of the renal water.  In other words, over consumption of one’s sex hormone causes the overall imbalance of the hormone for other organs.  Hormone is secreting by infiltration to supply the needs of various organs, not like tears or nasal mucus running through glands.  In fact, the basic essence of hormones is identical, but it supplies to various needs.  As a result, if you consume too much of your sex hormone, the hormone for your lungs may become insufficient, and other organs will also be affected.  Therefore, the reason why newlyweds tend to catch colds is because of their behaviour and thoughts.  If we cannot maintain a balance between these two aspects, our Ch’an practice can never succeed.

In Buddha’s time, most practitioners had only one meal a day to maintain their bodies in a half starving state, and so did Buddha himself.  As they were ordained practitioners, they could do so.  Nevertheless, we are practicing at home and should have reasonable nutrition.  We just have to avoid spicy food; otherwise, we will violate the mean.  In fact, only when one’s mental and physical conditions simultaneously stay smooth, can genuine practice be undergone.  It is like when you feel headache or have an ulcer on your leg, can you sit quietly to meditate?  No, you can’t.  You must be physically and mentally sound to be able to meditate.  Moreover, to meditate does not mean to just sit unconsciously, that is “mental dullness” and equates to meditating as dry wood or dead ashes.  Mental dullness is a serious obstacle to one’s meditation practice.  Upon meditating, you must be fully conscious, aware, and thoughtless.  Do not think it is unlikely to achieve; actually, it can be done easily, and now you have achieved it.  The key point is to cut off both ends.  Where do our illusions come from?  The senior always think about the past, whereas young people tend to dream of a fascinating future.  As we all know, it also consumes energy to think illusively.  Labour workers only need the supply of carbohydrate food; however, brain workers need much more refined nutrients like high protein to provide them with necessary needs.  If you constantly fantasise through day and night, you are consuming your energy and wasting your vitality.  That is not right.

Being Ch’an practitioners, we should eliminate our illusions.  According to Pure Land School, the purpose of chanting “Amitabha” is to rid one’s illusions, which is an expedient method.  As the saying goes, “To abandon an expedient method, one can never find the ultimate goal.”  In other words, besides methods, there is nothing we can claim as truth.  All the speeches about truth are nothing but expedient methods, not truth itself.  In this bright and vast universe, though we can see all sorts of magnificent phenomena, we simply cannot find any truth.  Therefore, we should not pursue truth.   If we cannot help thinking there is truth, then truth is life. Life is existence, and you are the existence.

There are many forms of life; some are moving, some are about to move, and some others do not move.  In fact, we should not be deceived by our own five senses to say that this microphone is lifeless, and the ash tray is dead.  They are actually composed of atoms, which contain electrons, and electrons are always active.  Realistically, how could we find something motionless?  Therefore, the guideline of Ch’an practice is very simple, and that is to cut off both ends: not to think of the past, nor the future, and stay free at the present.  However, you must be able to overcome loneliness.  During your free time, if you try to keep yourself busy by writing a letter, calling or chatting with someone, how could you do your practice?  Even Buddha came back, he could not save you.  It is all because that you fail to overcome loneliness, which is also a major weakness for a Ch’an practitioner.  In fact, that “being sound and safe is a blessing,” should be the true motto of Ch’an practice.

The legitimate way to deal with loneliness is to live with responsibilities and duties; that is to do what you should do.  Especially for a housewife, there are endless household chores to do; how could she possibly be lonely?  As long as one can hold the guideline of the practice to cut off both ends, one is practicing the mean.  We would like to talk about facts rather than theories.  Once we cut off both ends, we become An-Hsiang, realistic, and delightful, and naturally our mind and body can go smooth, then our wisdom can also be naturally developed.

Ancient sages said, "What coming in through the door cannot be counted as a family treasure".  Indeed, heirloom must be originated from one’s family, not from any outside sources.  Here is another ancient sages’ saying, "All the Dharma is originated from one's mind; to seek it outwardly is likened to abandoning one's father to run away.”  Do not go out to find any truth!  Only by cutting off both ends to maintain the mean, can you instantly attain the grand liberation.  Try to see what you are having now?  There is nothing but emptiness.  The "emptiness" is the space for creation, the body of truth, the reality of the universe and the full development of life.  If you can always maintain this mentality, it not only will not affect your working, but also can boost the potential of your life.  With this focused mentality, no matter what you are doing you can always concentrate your mind to spark your wisdom.  On the contrary, if you indulge yourself in making illusions, you will lose yourself in dreaming throughout day and night.

To sum up, the way of the mean leads one to the path of bliss.  When dealing with people, one constantly tends to mutual benefits; when handling things, one aims to make it right and proper; in one’s living, one maintains its balance; and on Ch’an practice, one cuts off both ends.  By passing through this route, you can attain bliss.  Otherwise, if you only care about yourself, your interpersonal relations will become inharmonious, and thinking too much will make you anxious and headachy.

IV. The Conditions of Bliss [Back to Top]

Many people are seeking bliss but only few can attain it.  Why is it so?  It is because people misunderstand that it is unconditional to attain bliss, and think that bliss arrives by luck.  In fact, it is conditional to possess bliss; there is nothing in the world that can be unconditionally attained.   Everything is formed by the incorporation of various conditions.  To take setting up a choir for instance, you need a conductor, choir members and a composer etc., which are visible factors.  You also need those invisible factors, such as the enthusiasm, faith, passion of the members to keep the harmony among them. 

Nothing in the world can exist solely by itself; being sole equates to being non-existent.  The very basic unit of matter is an atom, and even an atom is not sole.  When you remove all the conditions, nothing is left.  Therefore, while pursuing bliss, you need to be equipped with the necessary conditions.  Besides, you need to pay upfront, because harvest comes after cultivation, and cultivation is the prerequisite for harvest.  If you only expect to gain but not pay, you can never gain anything in this world.  To take those robbers or kidnappers as an example, they intend to take something from nothing, and end up with paying off their lives.  The more resistant they are to make efforts, the more miserable they will become.  Therefore, no matter what task or project we are engaged in, we have to contribute either our time, strength, money, or labour to complete it.  Nothing is free to get.  That no pain no gain is always the rule.

Then, what are the conditions required for our pursuit of bliss? 

1. Faithfulness & Sincerity
Apparently, faithful people often get various disadvantages; however, they realistically gain quite a lot of advantages.  It is because faithful people do not argue with or fight against people for their own benefits; therefore, they usually have brilliant children and virtuous wives.  Hence, having disadvantages equates to having advantages; thus, we must be faithful.  

Sincerity means to be sincere.  Many people are very honest, but their arbitrary attitudes make their interpersonal relationship inharmonious.  To live blissfully, one must possess a good interpersonal relationship.  If you are very hard to approach and can not get along with others, you will get upset in every day.  Nevertheless, if you are always sincere, even though sometimes you make mistakes, people can easily forgive you. 

2. Humility & Tolerance
Humility means to be humble.  As the saying goes, "Modesty brings benefits; haughtiness invites loss"; if you are not humble, people are not willing to talk to you about any issues.  Indeed, if Chang-Liang was not humble, the old man on the bridge of Huang Shih-Kung would not say, “What a great kid to teach!”  It was his humility to make the old man willing to help him with his unexpected glorious career in the early Han Dynasty. Therefore, one’s humility is very important.  

Tolerance means to be tolerant of the imperfections of other people.  No one is perfect in this world.  The sun has black spots on its surface, and a white jade also has little cracks.  Obviously, there is nothing perfect in the world; therefore, we have to be tolerant.  If you believe in causality, you would even be more tolerant.  It is because mistakes equate to worries.  Whenever you make a wrong speech, you immediately get yourself a trouble, and so will a misunderstanding of someone’s speech.  Originally, someone was not talking about you, but you were suspicious about his talking behind you.  You found yourself worries, didn’t you?  Even if it was true, why to be bothered?  A person may die by being killed, but definitely will not die because of someone’s speech.  Just let it go!  Therefore, we must be tolerant.    As you can see, tolerant people mostly are living blissfully; whereas, intolerant people are not.  To constantly be at cold war with others, one eventually defeats no one but oneself. 

3. Harmony
A harmonized family will become warm; a harmony maintained among colleagues can make a company prosperous, and a harmonious mind can make one live blissfully.  Then, how to achieve harmony?  At the very least, it should be like the present moment, while I am talking, you are listening; as soon as I stop talking, your mind becomes empty and unattached to anything.  This is the harmony, and it also means to reserve some space for oneself, which means to reserve and boost one’s vitality to enter the state of genuine calmness.  What is calmness?  Calmness enables one to recharge one’s vitality.  Then, what do dynamics mean?  It means to fully expand and stretch one’s vitality.  If you cannot stay calm, neither can you be dynamic.   This is also the mean, and the way of harmony. 

If you are not good at dealing with harmony, you may just be too dynamic, and fail to be calm; eventually you will turn yourself into an animal because of being overly dynamic.  In short, one should know how to balance one’s calmness and dynamics, and keep the harmony between one’s mind and body, which is very important. 

4. Diligence & Frugality
Diligence means working hard with one’s own business or job.  As an ancient saying goes, "Prosperity results from diligence."  If you are truly diligent, your business will definitely go booming and get better.  Frugality means thrift or economy.  It is not to be wasteful.  If four dishes and one soup are sufficient for one family, it would be wasteful to cook eight dishes and have four dishes left unfinished. 

5. Self-discipline
One needs to restrain oneself from making wrong speeches and acts.  One should not say or do anything improper.  For example, one should not be smoking while walking on the street, or spitting betel nut juice wherever one likes.  These acts show lack of self-discipline.  Moreover, some dog breeders like walking their dogs, and allow them to leave their faeces everywhere they like, which may make people accidentally step on them.  It is lack of self-discipline and not ethical.  Will these people feel happy after having interfered with others? 

In Buddhism, “karma” refers to the overall combination of one’s thoughts and behaviours.  If you misbehave to create evil karma, you are doomed to gain the evil effects.  Therefore, Bodhisattvas fear to make any evil causes; whereas, ordinary people fear to face evil effects.  Bodhisattvas realize that evil brings evil, thus are very cautious about initiating any causes.  Conversely, ordinary people enjoy doing whatever they like, so that it is always too late for them to avoid the fear of facing evil effects.  Therefore, one must be self-disciplined to avoid from getting trouble.  In fact, self-discipline equates to tolerance.  In most cases, things are not satisfactory as expected.  If you cannot be tolerant, you are very likely to make quarrels with others.  Before you lose your temper, I suggest you excuse yourself to a restroom to have a break.  I believe your anger will probably vanish when you come back.  I used to be very intolerant in my youth, and this was the method a senior friend of mine taught me. It worked truly well! 

6. Respect
One must respect others.  According to Lotus Sutra, Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta even bowed to a dog, and told the dog, “You also have Buddha nature, and you will become a Buddha someday.”  Well, what is the Buddha nature?  It is awareness, which is the basic attribute of life.  Without consciousness, we are not living beings, but dead beings.  Though we have consciousness, we do not have the same as Buddha’s.  His consciousness is pure; namely, there is nothing but the pure consciousness.  Does it mean that the pure consciousness cannot function?  No, absolutely not.  Now we are talking and listening with the pure consciousness.  If it is not so, I am making a huge illusive speech.  While I am making my first statement, I think nothing of my second one, and when I start to speak, there is no thought in my mind.  We should always learn to respect others, including adults, children, animals and plants, because not just human beings have lives, so do animals, plants, and minerals.  The life of plants is in the form of getting-to-move; whereas, minerals are in the form of motionlessness.  By the Buddhist terminology, the whole universe is like a grand ocean of awareness.  In our modern language, it means the ocean of life, where nothing is lifeless. 

In the time of Tsu-Dao-Sheng (竺道生), when only half of Nirvana Sutras had been translated, he claimed that not only sentient beings, but also everything in the objective world (including plants and minerals), had Buddha nature.  His thoughts were transcendent, and he advocated monism by claiming that Buddha nature equated to everything and vice versa.  He was regarded as a heretic because his statements were different from Buddha’s teaching.  Indeed, they concluded that all the statements different from Buddha’s teaching were heretical.  This exactly interprets the statement that “To literally interpret the sutras will upset all the Buddhas of the three generations for being misunderstood.”  In other words, the Buddhas of the past and the present will get truly upset, if you literally explain Buddha’s intentions.  Why is it so?  It is because He does not mean that!  Besides, another saying goes, “Even just making one different interpretation, one preaches as a devil.”  Yes, it is because your interpretation differs from what sutras state, and that makes you a devil. 

Being unable to relieve himself from the upset, Tsu-Dao-Sheng went to Hu-Chiu Hill (虎坵山) in Suchow to make a speech to a stone, and after his speech, he asked the stone whether he was right. The stone nodded.  This is the origin of the legendary Nodding Stone.  If you can go on a tour to Suchow, you may have a look at the stone.  This story explains to us that everything, including the moving and the non-moving, deserves our respect.  It is true that we should even have our respect for a tiny teacup, and appreciate it for the service it provides.  When your mentality is in its best state, you will discover that everything has its own life.  Some of you must have had this experience.  When your mentality is at its best condition, you can see all your household goods, such as thermo flasks, television, and all the other objects, beaming a pale yellow light from their own backs.  Namely, their inner light particles have been revealed, but why doesn’t it happen to other’s household goods?  As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.”  If your mental light is not sufficient enough, you cannot make it happen.  When your mentality is sublimating, you can activate objects to correspond to you. 

Why can a Ch’an master transmit his mentality to others?  It is the same reason, “Birds of a feather flock together.”  As his original mind has emerged, so that he can awaken yours.  If his original mind is asleep, he will not have the power to awaken your sleeping mind.  Therefore, we must give our respect for everyone, and learn to behave like Bodhisattva Sadaparibhuta, which is also one of the conditions of bliss. 

7. Awe
We should be in awe of both Heaven and Buddha.  Confucius said, "A gentleman stands in awe of three things: the mandate of Heaven, great men and words of the sages."  The major theme of Confucianism in the Sung and Ming dynasties was essential respect and pure sincerity.  Essential respect refers to a constant respect, which will not be influenced by the outside conditions.  One should always be as respectful as meeting someone important, and should not be less respectful because no one is around.  This is the spirit of vigilant solitude.  By being respectful and sincere, one must have respect for everything.  You cannot violently throw a rice ladle on the floor simply because you are angry at a rude comment.  It is an act of disrespect.  How can you throw the rice ladle on the floor?  It does not offend you at all.  This is to redirect your anger onto something else.  We must have our respect for every person and every object.

I have a friend, if he is praised by his boss at work, he would go easy with everything, and when he gets home, he will hold his son up over his head, and even allows him to ride on his shoulders.  However, if he gets upset at work and feels stressed, he would slap in his son’s face when arriving at home.  This is a true fact.  Sometimes I act like that, but not to that extent.  Everyone somehow has this kind of weakness; nevertheless, some people expose it, but some do not.  Consequently, we must always be respectful and sincere, and do not arbitrarily transfer our anger onto others.  

8. Caution
As we know, Chu-Ke Liang (諸葛亮) owed his lifelong achievement to caution.  Before making any speech, we must think deliberately, and try to bite our tongue.  If we do everything carefully and cautiously, we will not create trouble and worries for ourselves to jeopardize our bliss.  A person living with trouble will not be blissful.  One must be extremely cautious, if one does not want to live with worries.  Many people do not speak sensibly, and repeatedly make wrong speeches for days or years, which is an act of incautiousness.  Caution refers to be cautious of one’s speeches and deeds.  By being cautious, one will be likely to cherish one’s bliss.  That being able to cherish one’s bliss enables one to attain and maintain one’s bliss.  Therefore, though it is cliché to address caution, it is truly important. 

9. Introspection
What to introspect about?  It is to introspect about everything that may affect our bliss.  We have to eliminate all the factors that may influence our bliss, then, we surely can be blissful.  As its content is lengthy, we will discuss it later.

10. Gratitude
By reading newspaper reports, we know how many people are starved to death in Ethiopia and Somalia every day.   Therefore, when we look at ourselves, and know that we are leading a sound and safe life with dear family together, we should feel content and grateful  

If not because of the affiliation with our parents, we will not be born to this world.  During the process of growth, we totally rely on others’ supply of food, clothes, housing, and transportation, to survive.  Besides, we take the unpayable love from sunshine, air and water, the genuine love from our parents, the cultivation and education from our nation, and the interactive assistance and friendship from our community, which all deserve our acknowledgement, gratitude, and reward, in the journey of our life. 

According to the Buddhism, there are four favours to return upwardly; namely, to appreciate the favours rendered by the heaven and earth, our parents, our nation and all beings.  Why do we have to appreciate all beings?  It is because we cannot survive without them.  Can you live like Robinson Crusoe?   That is why we need to be grateful to all beings.  By being grateful, we will become kind and can keep bliss.  If you are unkind, mean, and ungrateful, you will not be able to keep blessing, and will totally ruin it. 

11. Law-abidingness

Why is law-abidingness relevant to the lecture of bliss?  There are many people who violate law.  When one commits a crime and gets summons from a court, one’s whole family will turn chaotic.  Citizens of an advanced country and society always behave decently, and value law-abidingness.  Though Taiwan is a small country with limited population, Singapore is even smaller with only one tenth of our population.  However, it is one of the four dragons in Asia, being small but strong, and its tourism industry is more prosperous than ours.  Why is it so?  It is simply because everyone in Singapore abides by law.  When the government announced, "Eating chewing gum should be prohibited", everyone immediately followed it.  However, if our government makes the same announcement, people may immediately walk on the streets to protest and claim that eating chewing gum is the very basic freedom and accuse the government of being anti-democratic.  

Overflowing democracy equates to a catastrophe, which is not good.  Law-abidingness is more important.  The fairest is the justice of law, not democracy.  

What is the justice of law?  It means that everyone is equal in front of it, and free within it.  Besides, beyond law, there is no democracy, and above law, there is no authority.  Truly, no authority should go beyond law.  Who is the authority?  Law is, but not a president.  Democracy should not be addressed beyond law; otherwise, it will become a catastrophe.Even those Western liberals admit that a nation is a necessary evil.  Though it is disgusted, it is needed.  As the saying goes, "Without skin, where is hair attached to?”  It is true that no individual can survive without a nation.  In short, law-abidingness is the prerequisite for being blissful.  If you violate law, you not only ruin your own bliss, but also ruin that of others’.

12. Spreading the Dharma

When talking about the Dharma, we would like to emphasize on planting causes, which exactly means to spread the Dharma.  The true value of spreading the Dharma lies in offering sentient beings with the Dharma, which is named the Giving of the Dharma (法布施).  Among all the offerings, the Giving of the Dharma is most superb, because it can save one’s mind.  If you are writing for an Essay Bee, and stay awake for a whole night, I believe you will be worn out next day.  However, if you write for Ch’an magazine; though you do not sleep at all through a night, I assure that you still can see a vibrant you in the mirror next day.  It is exactly as the statement Lao-Tzu made, "The more one does for others, the more one possesses; the more one offers to others, the more one gets in return."  To offer people with the Dharma, you can attain the vitality of life. 

The genuine offering of the Dharma is the source of bliss and makes the greatest merit.  As a saying goes, "The merit of saving one’s life is greater than that of constructing a seven-storeyed pagoda," let alone the merit of saving one’s spiritual life.  It is an eternal merit!  To save one’s life can bring one back to life; to save one’s spiritual life can make one attain one’s Buddhahood.    Being a Buddha, one can light up the world and the universe by spreading An-Hsiang.  This is also one of the conditions of bliss we are lecturing about.  If you are equipped with the above-mentioned conditions, you are assured to attain bliss.

V. The Price of Bliss - To do an act of kindness per day &To eliminate an error per week [Back to Top]

We all know that making efforts is the prerequisite for gaining.  Before expecting to gain, one must pay something in advance.   After having lectured about the conditions of bliss, now I would like to talk about the price of bliss, which is to do an act of kindness per day, and to eliminate an error per week. 

Every Scout knows the practice of doing an act of kindness per day; therefore, we should feel ashamed if we cannot do it.  Some people say it is very hard for them to practice it.  Why?  It is because their income is limited, and they do not have spare money to do good deeds.  However, according to the Sixth Patriarch Platform Sutra, ethical merits do not result from donating money.  Though being rich is favourable, one still can create ethical merits by not spending any money. 

How to do an act of kindness every day?  We have many female audiences here, if you can take a basket with you to go to market like what women did 30 years ago to avoid using any plastic bags, you are doing an act of kindness per day.  Ladies and Gentlemen, you know we owe a great apology to Heaven and earth!  The earth has been more polluted in the past five years than in the past 5000 years.  If the pollution keeps going, we will be losing space for our survival.  In other words, we are digging our own graves.   Maybe you would think that using plastic bags is no big deal.  However, the fact is when they are buried underground; they will not be decomposed in many years, so that plants cannot grow deep and soil turns infertile.  Besides, if they are heated by hot weather, they will release toxins.  Consequently, it is absolutely doable for everyone to do an act of kindness every day. 

In fact, we can do kind acts at any time.  For example, when you are taking a bus, you can always give your seat to a senior, and I think people of my age are qualified for that.  I do not mean to ask you for a seat, just try to tell you that everyone can easily do an act of kindness in a day. 

I have recently seen two reports on television.  One is that there was an old man who had been very sick.  His children all had successful careers, so he actually did not have to work for a living.  He felt so bored that he decided to fix and repair the damaged tracks in the mountain every day.  After one year, he became much fitter and all his chronic diseases were completely gone.  Moreover, he and the other seniors together built a shelter at the hilltop, and took the mountain spring to make “the senior’s tea” to drink in their leisure time, which was healthy and joyful.  He did the repair every day, and turned to be healthier and healthier.  If he changed his life style, and did nothing but sleeping, he might have already died.  If one is always inactive, sooner or later he may get sick.  To witness the senior, we could see him make efforts and attain his health, joy, and friendship.  What a fruitful harvest! 

We must do a kind act every day, and it is very important for us to practice it in the field of environmental protection.  Ladies and gentlemen, let’s look at our current environment!   There is trash everywhere, and our country has almost become the kingdom of rubbish. 

The other report was about an old man going to mountains every day to collect all the rubbish, empty cans, containers, etc., left behind by people who had barbecue there.  The whole area had been seriously jeopardized, so that the old man brought a bag to collect the rubbish.  He did not mean to show off his kind act, just thought that everyone should contribute something beneficial to the society and the public.  Such kind of act does not cost anything; therefore, everyone surely can do an act of kindness every day. 

Then, let’s move on to the elimination of one’s error per week; indeed, we should get rid of a minor error every week.  Maybe you will say that you do not have any error.  Well, then, you are a saint, and stop calling me “teacher”; instead, you are my teacher. (Loud laughter)  If people are free of any errors, they are virtually Buddha.  If we can do kind acts at least one per day, it would be good.  But two will be better, and three will be marvellous.  Yes, the more is the better.  Furthermore, if we can do them with the same attitude addressed in the saying of "Doing kind acts is not for earning personal credits, nor for gaining personal merits;" then, the ethical merits generated will become even more overwhelming and countless.  Nevertheless, it is truly hard to get rid of one’s errors! 

One of my kids always picked his nose when he had nothing to do.  I told him not to do it by explaining that picking noses with one’s finger could scratch the skin to allow bacteria coming through capillaries to easily cause sinusitis.  Instead, I suggested that he could wipe his nose with cotton bud dipped with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide.  Then, I asked him whether he could stop doing it, and he said yes.  After more than a month later, I asked him the same question.  Though he answered yes, he was unconsciously picking his nose again.  Apparently, it is truly difficult for people to get rid of their errors. 

Before starting to rectify ourselves, we should make a plan in advance and follow the plan to gradually get rid of all our errors; we then can live with bliss.  It is true that no one can take something from nothing.  For example, when you go to a supermarket to buy something, you need to pay before taking it home; otherwise, you are committing a crime.  Therefore, only by doing a kind act per day and eliminating an error per week, can one lead a sound and delightful life.  To witness those two seniors, who either repairing mountain tracks or picking up dumped trash, we should take them as our role models.  Realistically, what they did is the practice of Bodhisattva. 

Many people are religiously biased.  Some Buddhists try to defame other religions, and vice versa.  It is all wrong.  It is acceptable for religious clergymen to behave so, because they need to defend their profession.  Nevertheless, we cannot do so.  As both genuine religions and arts are man’s common assets, and there should not be any biases between each other or among one another. 

On television, I saw a cosmetic surgeon specialised in treating children’s cleft lips.  Though he is also a priest, in my eyes, he is a living Bodhisattva.  

Some people criticize that the Old Testament is quite unscientific and absurd by asserting that human beings are born with sins, the original sins.  Unfortunately, it is very true that human beings do carry with their original sins.  It is because human beings can think, and thus have likes and dislikes, which arouse their self-attachment to appear.  One’s self-attachment breeds one’s possessive desire, and one’s dominant desire naturally comes with one’s possessive desire.  Consequently, one’s karma starts to be formed, and that is the origin of sins!

Why is it called “the original sin”?  Adam and Eve lived happily in the Garden of Eden for aeons of time without feeling anything wrong with their nudity.  After having eaten the forbidden fruit, they suddenly discovered the differences between men and women, and started feeling embarrassed by being nude.  This problem did not ever exist until they had eaten the forbidden fruit to bring about the differential mind.  When the differential mind appears, dualistic thoughts simultaneously arrive to generate contradictions.    Being conscious of the difference between you and me, people start to develop the desire of possession. 

Do you think that children carry an original sin?   Yes, they do.  As soon as they become conscious, they start to misbehave.  When my son was three years old, he got bored of the toy I bought him and left it under his bed.  I asked him whether he still wanted to play with it, he told me to throw it away because he got bored of it.    A few days later, when a little boy from next door came to visit, and played with his toy, he immediately hit the little boy, and said, “Don’t touch it, it is mine!”  Simply looking at this incident, we realize that human beings are born with original sins.  

Human beings’ differential mind is the gene of the original sin, and that is the primordial ignorance.   If people are free of differential minds, the concept of Jesus Christ can be fulfilled.   As Jesus claimed: "My will can be practiced on earth, as it can in heaven;" which is definitely true.  Buddhism teaches people to detach from differentiation, which means to destroy one’s original sins.  Maybe, the record of Adam and Eve in the Old Testament is merely a fable, and they may not be real.  However, it explains that human differential minds, self-consciousness, self-attachment, possessive desires, dominant desires, and dualistic thoughts are all wrong and toxic, and they definitely will jeopardize one’s bliss.  When we have fully realised this, we will try to constantly find our own mistakes and rectify them.  We will not find fault with others; instead, we will fully ignore others’ errors.  By doing so, we will become better and happier.

VI. The source of bliss - love and mercy [Back to Top]

Next to talk about is the source of bliss.  While thinking of a problem, we are consuming our energy; having completed a task, we have also consumed our energy; therefore, to attain bliss, we surely must find its source.  To take a car for example, when a car runs out of petrol, it is even less useful than an oxcart.

Well, what is the source of bliss?  It is love and mercy. 

Nowadays, there are countless incidents of murder, homicide, kidnapping, blackmail, embezzlement, crooks, hostile couples, and broken families, happening all over the world, which are all due to lack of love.  Love means sacrifice, also means to burn oneself for lighting up others, and is the origin of morality.  Without love, there is no creation, no morality, and no life.  Well, how to interpret it?  

Throughout the history of all creatures, the largest and most vicious animal is the dinosaur.  They were huge and powerful, with big appetites, but now they are extinct species.  Some say they became extinct because of the Ice Age, but that is not entirely correct.  As we know that many other animals and plants lived through the same time as them, they remain survived.  Some others say meteors brought about their extinction, which is not true, either.  Human beings are much weaker than dinosaurs.  If human beings could survive, why couldn’t they?  It was simply because dinosaurs were lack of love.  When being starved and failing to find food, they would even eat their own babies for survival.  Due to the lack of the very foundational love, no wonder they became extinct.

Love is life.  The essential reason for all living beings to sustain their lives is because of love.  You can see how hostile and severe of the contamination along the Tan-shui River have become; however, still many aquatic birds come to hatch their eggs and feed their young there.  That is also due to love. 

Love is the dynamics and root of life, and also is our human nature.  Couples’ love is the merge of two lives, rather than the worldly love-making, which is a human instinct, not love.  Are human instincts sinful?  No, they are not!  We are born with them.  However, if you violate the mean, you may go wrong.  Why is love the origin of life?  If mother birds do not love chicks, and tigers are cruel enough to eat their own cubs, both of them may have become extinct by now. 

Love is also the origin of morality.  According to “The Doctrine of the Mean” (中庸), "The way of a gentleman originates from the formation of husband and wife".  Then, how to define a gentleman?  A gentleman refers to a person who has his own self-respect and dignity, and his morality starts from the formation of husband and wife.  Having gone from the stage of primitiveness to the stage of civilization and from a chaotic state to a disciplined society, the journey of human evolution was also originated from the formation of husband and wife.  Before that, people only knew their mother but not their father.  In such a social setting, it was unlikely to address the issue of a loving father and his filial son, and a caring elder brother and his respectful younger one.  It only occurred when the love between couples was established.   Since then, we have had loving fathers and filial sons; caring elder brothers and respectful younger ones. Moreover, there has been love between fathers and sons, and obligations between couples.  Consequently, love is the origin of morality. 

 The main guidelines of morality are intelligence, benevolence and courage.  Human intelligence results from love.  As you know, Thomas Edison had only two years of private lessons and did not receive any formal education.  Then, where did he get his intelligence?  It all came from his love for researching.  One day while doing research on a train, he carelessly dropped some yellow phosphorus on the floor, and burned the floor.  In a fit of rage, the conductor slapped in his face and made him deaf on one ear; even so, he continued his research.  He was not forced to do his research, nor for making money, but simply enjoyed doing his research to develop his intelligence.  As a result, he became a great inventor, and invented more than 1300 items.  The light bulbs we are using, the movies we are watching, and the stereo we are listening, all come from his inventions.  Surely, his original inventions were primitive, but many improvements had been made to bring about their modern forms.  For example, he used carbon as filament for the bulbs he invented, and later on the carbon was replaced with tungsten.  Even though he did not personally invent fluorescent lamps, if not because he invented the electric bulb with carbon as filament, we may never have had fluorescent lamps to use.  For Edison, he was truly interested in working on his invention; therefore, working itself was a great joy to him.  

Then, let’s have a look at James Watt!  When he was doing experiments, he often forgot to eat and sleep.  One night, his family brought him two eggs and left them beside a kerosene stove, and told him if he felt hungry during the night, he could cook the eggs with the stove.  In the morning, he felt hungry and wanted to take the eggs out of the stove to eat, but he could only find his own pocket watch, not eggs, in the stove.  Confucius said, "Persisting in one’s work makes one forget to eat, too happy to worry, and even unconscious of one’s ageing.”  Therefore, for a person who is fully focusing on his work, his working equates to his enjoyment.  

By reading Ju-Lin-Wai-Shih (儒林外史: Legends of Confucians), we know that Wang-Mien’s lotus paintings could even attract bees and butterflies.  Originally, he was a shepherd boy, but due to his great passion for lotus, he became a great artist.  He observed the purity of the rain-washed lotus and the crystal raindrops rolling over the lotus leaves, which made him falling deeply in love with lotus and even dreamed of it.  Therefore, first he started using sticks to paint lotus flowers on the ground.  Later he used the very limited money earned from looking after cattle to buy pigments and paper for painting them.  Eventually he became a great painter.  This is another successful example telling us that intelligence can be developed because of love. 

Chang Tai-Yan (章太炎), a great contemporary scholar of Chinese classics, often studied through the night without any sleep.  He claimed that he could attain the vitality of life simply by studying.  One day, he studied from night to dawn.  His elder sister brought him a plate of refined sugar and a plate of Chinese New Year's sticky cake.  He told his sister to leave them on his desk, and he would eat it while reading.  By the time his elder sister came back to collect the plates, she was shocked to see his mouth and lips be smudged black.  Was he poisoned by the food?  Upon having a closer look, she found the plate of sugar was completely untouched.  Chang had finished all the cake by dipping it into the black ink.  This exactly proves that one is absolutely single-minded when one has completely immersed oneself in work. 

Many academics think that the Chinese sincerity denotes Confucius’ mental methodology, which is quite true.  What is sincerity?  It is the combination of knowledge, emotion and will.  That to inject all one’s love into one’s true reason and to remain steadfast will bring one a strong will.  The will generated from one’s true love is overwhelmingly powerful, even more powerful than that from Yoga practice. 

According to the Western academic, knowledge, emotion and will are separated, but the Chinese academic do not think so.  The combination of them denotes sincerity, and its dynamic origin is love - genuine and passionate love.  By western interpretation, philosophy means the love of wisdom.  Genuine love is the origin of our bliss, which can make us develop the true value and significance of life to dedicate ourselves to our society and community.  Love itself is a kind of morality and courage.  Love truly can make a timid person brave.

I ever had a colleague, who was my roommate.  He was so timid that he dared not get into the room by himself.  At that time, there was no electric light but only oil lamps.  He was so afraid of ghosts that he dared not enter the dark room alone.  After a while, he made an acquaintance of a girl.  Every time when he had a date with her, he had to go through a public cemetery yard.  As long as his girl friend set a time, he could always arrive on time.  At that time, people were used to dating secretly, but not like today’s outing.  In order to avoid all sorts of gossips, people always dated secretly.  Therefore, he often dated at night, and came home around the midnight.  Every time, he had to go through the cemetery yard, and I asked him whether he was afraid of ghosts.  He replied, "What ghosts?" "Where are ghosts?"  (Loud laughter)  Consequently, love can also breed courage. 

Everybody knows Huang-Hsiang’s story about fighting off a tiger, which is one of the famous twenty-four classic anecdotes of filial piety.  When little Huang Shiang was naughty and slept late, his mother always scared him by saying, “A tiger is coming!”  Then, he would immediately hide himself in the comforter and quickly fell into sleep.  Truly, he was afraid of tigers.  One day, his father took him to mountains to collect some firewood; suddenly, a tiger came to bite on his father and tried to take him away.  Huang Shiang, who was only eight years old, took an axe, chased after the tiger and chopped on its butt.  The tiger dropped his father and ran away because of this sudden and unexpected attack.  His neighbours asked him how he could resist his fear to attack the tiger.  He replied it was all for loving his father, because he could not allow his father to be taken away by the tiger.  Once again, love spells courage. 

Christianity claims that God loves all beings, Jesus said to love your enemies, and Buddhism teaches to equally treat people whom you love or hate.  You should love both your enemies and benefactors.  Therefore, love is the origin of our bliss.  A family without love is incomplete and cold.  To love whoever you should, and do not mind how they behave, or if they meet your standard.  Generally, people tend to criticize others about their faults; however, when you look at yourself, have you ever pleased anyone?  If, during your whole life, you hardly please anyone, how could you ask others to meet your standard?  It is a tyrannical thought, and is wrong.  If the offer of one’s filial piety is subject to how one’s parent behave, then Shun (舜) in the ancient time would not have been so filial to his father Ku-Sou (瞽叟). Shun's filial piety was truly authentic. 

The reason why a person being filial is for loving his parents, and the reason why a person being benign is for loving his children; loving knowledge makes one wise, and for protecting one’s love makes one brave.  Only when one has fully realized what true love is, can one respect and value oneself.  Nothing else but love can last, lead to harmony, and develop the potential of one’s life and create the value of one’s life. 

Why to lecture about kindness and compassion?  They are the sublimation of love. Love is conditional, hierarchical, and has its own process.  I love my own country before loving others’, and love my own parents before loving others’ parents.  This is so-called, "To care for our own elders and then to extend our care to others’ elders."  

Yang-Chu (楊朱) advocated egoism.  It appears that Yang-Chu only cared about himself rather than about others, his community, or even the emperor.   In our modern language, he respected neither his country nor the government.  In fact, a country would be prosperous and strong if everyone were like Yang-Chu.  He said, "I would not even pluck out a single hair of mine to benefit the world"; however, his following remark was, "I would not take anything from the wealth of the world even they have been offered in front of me.”  Yes, he would not take anything from others; he advocated an extreme individualism.  If everybody can take good care of himself, the country will become strong and prosperous.  Why?  It is because there will be neither rubbish nor burden for a society, and a country surely will prosper. 

Buddha’s love lies in kindness and compassion.  What is kindness?  It is to offer all beings joy.  Then, what is compassion?  It is to remove all beings’ suffering, and give them joy, happiness, and bliss.  Over all, that is what kindness and compassion mean. 

The grand kindness of Bodhisattva Guan-Yin (觀音菩薩) is absolutely unconditional.  She feels sympathy for everyone who is suffering.  It does not matter whether you are her acquaintance or not; her sympathy is genuine. 

What does her “shared compassion”(同體大悲) mean?  It means that when you are having an ulcer, she feels like having one herself, too.  This is the “shared compassion.”  

People like her can attain not only bliss, but also the eternity of life. 

Bodhisattva Guan-Yin is virtually omnipresent; her

Dharma body is everywhere in the universe.  From China to Southeast Asia, She is worshipped almost in every country.  We can even claim that she has been worshipped all over the world. 

We realize that love is the momentum of bliss.  If a family is full of love, it must be warm, harmonious and complete.  If a society is full of love, there will be no homicide, kidnapping, and blackmail.   Surely, a society will become harmonious and warm.  If every member of a society is devoted to giving love, the society will become a paradise and the country can be fairly claimed as an advanced one.  

On the contrary, if we are cold and ruthless because of lacking love, we cannot gather momentum to create a blissful life.  A cold and ruthless person will not be healthy, nor can he become a genius, as a genius is always full of love and passion.  Consequently, if we want to live well and blissfully, we must be full of love.  Only by further sublimating our love to reach the state of the grand benignity and compassion, can we create a blissful life and bring all beings a permanent aspiration.

VII. Items of introspection – To remove the thieves of bliss [Back to Top]

Finally, let’s talk about the thieves of bliss, which are the items of introspection we just mentioned.  Well, what to introspect about?  It is about the thieves of bliss.  Why do we name them the thieves of bliss?  It is because these elements can definitely jeopardize our health, interpersonal relationship,   moral conscience, and bliss; therefore, we name them as is.  Inductively speaking, what are they? 

1. Falsehood
The cause of falsehood definitely results in the effect of destruction.  Some people are extremely false.  They can always give you a smile whenever they see you, but the smile simply is a smirk not a real one.  Though they really hate you, they still can smile at you and try to flatter you.  That is falsehood.  Human life has been as untrue as those illusive bubbles, and now falsehood is added on.  People like them can only live with falsehood and their life will be like a show of no audience.  They surely are miserable and pathetic.  

2. Folly & Superstition
Foolish and superstitious people cannot tell good from bad, right from wrong, and virtue from evil, so how can they be blissful?  Let us talk about superstition first.  Many people worship Buddha for gaining blessings.  Frankly speaking, unless you are entitled to, namely, you have planted good causes; otherwise, neither God nor Buddha will give you any privilege to bless you.  

Sometime ago when the lottery game of Ta-chia-Le was popular, many statues of Bodhisattva were in trouble.  People suddenly flocked to them to pray for lucky numbers to bet on.  When the number offered was not right, they went to chop off the ears or hands of those statues to release their disappointment and anger.  What a stroke of bad luck for those Bodhisattvas who had not offended anyone!  That was superstition. 

It is totally against the law of the universe when people only ask for rewards but without making any efforts, for harvest with no cultivation, and for gain with no pain.  

The governor of the grand universe, no matter what we name him, either God or Buddha, abides by the law of causality.  People should not be superstitious, and only ask for blessings without sowing any good seeds.  Buddha has neither privilege, nor hegemony, and simply emphasizes the law of causality.  Therefore, when you are equipped with the condition of bliss, you surely will be blissful even you do not believe in Buddha.  However, if you do not believe in Buddha, you can never be equipped with the condition of bliss.  It is because the condition of bliss virtually equates to Dharma.  The methodology of Buddhahood taught by the Buddha is not a truth, but a method.  In fact, nothing in the universe can be claimed as truth.  It is all about a method.  Even we just talked a lot; we talked nothing about a truth, at most just a method.  

Next to talk about is folly.  Folly is a crime and ignorance.  Primordial ignorance stated in the Buddhist scriptures exactly means folly.  Human beings start making mistakes since they are born.  It is correct to say that life is a journey of exploration.  It is because man does not know what is right or wrong from the beginning of their birth, and it takes time for them to explore.  Even though human history has been developing over several thousands of years, we are still exploring, and fail to get rid of folly.  

Why is folly a crime?  Many years ago, I remember an incident happened in my village.  A high voltage wire fell on the ground because of a typhoon passing by.  A mother saw it and asked her son to pick it up and take it home as a clothing line.  As soon as the boy touched the wire, he was immediately electrocuted to death. His mother rushed to pull him, and also got killed immediately.  Obviously, folly can kill people. 

Another example is about an old lady and her grandson.  It occurred about 30 years ago.  The lady was in her late 70s, and kept complaining about her unfilial son, a general in his 50s, and her daughter-in-law, a professor in her 40s, for not giving her a grandson.  At that time, medicine was not fully developed yet; therefore, she visited as many temples as possible to pray for a grandson.  Eventually her daughter-in-law was pregnant, and gave birth to a baby boy, which delighted all of them.  However, her grandson died at the age of two because of getting sick.  The old lady blamed her daughter-in-law for working to have neglected her grandson.  Her daughter-in-law could only tolerate all the blame until one day the family’s nanny could not help but tell the truth that the real cause of the death was the old lady.  The hospital told the general that his son was afflicted with tuberculosis.  Eventually the truth was disclosed.  Due to the deep love of her grandson, the old lady always chewed and minced biscuits or cakes in her own mouth, then fed her grandson.  Unfortunately, she had tuberculosis, and made her grandson infected and killed.  Upon having learned the truth, she went back home and hanged herself, because she was deeply ashamed, remorseful and embarrassed.  This old lady did not kill her own grandson, it was folly that made the whole family miserable with despair and caused the death of a lovely baby.  Therefore, man should not be foolish and superstitious. 

Nowadays, there are still cannibals in some backward tribes, which is a display of folly.  In addition, some people pray to God for rain, which is also a foolish and superstitious act. 

When I served in the army, a soldier came back from his leave with a blind eye.  It was because his eyes got infected, and his mother sprayed the incense ash obtained from a temple onto his eyes to make him blind.  His mother truly had good intention to do so.  She used to suffer from a stomach pain and incense ash did cure her illness.  Indeed, it is very scientific to have the result.  Since his mother’s stomach pain was caused by excessive acid, and the attribute of incense ash is alkaline, no wonder it could neutralise her excessive stomach acid.  After taking two doses, she was fully recovered.  Unfortunately, she did not know that incense ash could not be put in one’s eyes.  Luckily, doctors cured one of his eyes by having his cornea transplanted.  

Consequently, we realize that folly and superstition can jeopardize bliss most.  In the pursuit of bliss, we must get rid of both.  It is virtually impossible that you will fail to attain blessed merits, if you follow the teaching of the Buddhist scriptures.  However, you must realistically practice the Buddha’s teaching; to just kowtow and pray is simply useless. 

3. Stinginess
Stinginess denotes being frugal and mean. Even though you are very rich, you cannot take even one penny with you when you pass away.  One should not be stingy, and should spend money whenever necessary, especially when it is beneficial to the public.  Moreover, we should not spend money on unnecessary events, such as for temple’s festival celebrations.  When one is not stingy, nor wasteful, one meets the mean. 

4. Reliance
Reliance is a bad habit.  It is against the mean when one does not work on improving oneself, but just tries to rely on bribing others to get promoted.

If he is not qualified for the position, even he has already got it; eventually, he is going to lose it.  Consequently, we should realistically behave and work, and do not try to build connection with those powerful authorities or relatives!  Once they lose their power, you will lose your stand, too.  Hence, simply relying on others will jeopardize our bliss.  

5. Laziness
Laziness is a common weakness for many people.  For some people, they do not work hard, but only expect good luck to come.  The longer they wait; the more miserable they become.  Therefore, we should not be lazy; instead, we should be diligent to work hard.  In due course, we will see the results of our efforts.  We must cherish time, and the efforts we make today surely will be rewarded by the success of tomorrow.   Never let laziness rob bliss from us. 

6. Fear
Fear stems mostly from self-attachment.  Fundamental human desires revolve around self preservation, occupation, domination, and power.  Excessive expansion of these desires interferes with the progress and harmony of a whole society. Most people live a pathetic life; they fear people during the day and fear ghosts at night.  

A student who learned sitting meditation told me, “Master, whenever I close my eyes, I am afraid of seeing ghosts.”  I replied, “Don’t be afraid of ghosts.  Besides you, there is nothing else.  You ARE the ghost!”  (Loud laughter)  In fact, ghosts fear man.  If you are righteous, harmless, and do not hold any hatred for them, they will not come to you.  If you are a Ch’an practitioner, you are surrounded by a magnetic field that radiates energy.  You can have a look at the pictures of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary or Bodhisattvas, and you can find a halo surrounding them, that is the energy.  Recently, Chi-kong has been popular, and its practitioners also emphasize its energy and magnetic field, and claim that the energy is sufficient to protect you.  Taoism also refers it as a kind of mighty air that can protect you.  Therefore, don’t be afraid!  For a righteous and guiltless person, there is nothing to fear. 

I am not saying that only Bodhisattvas can radiate; in fact, everything can radiate.  It is just a matter whether you can see it or not.  When your mentality is sound, you can see both your thermo flask and bonsai radiate.  In fact, it is your own radiance projecting on them.  Therefore, do not look down upon yourself.  It is true that you can save people and give people An-Hsiang.  An-Hsiang is bliss.  Fear makes life decay, whereas An-Hsiang makes life flourish.  In the morning, when your mentality is good, you are a Bodhisattva.  However, in the afternoon, when your mentality turns foul, you immediately become a devil.  It is transmigration, also spells the transformation of life and death.   If you can constantly maintain the radiance of the true nature, you are identical to Buddha.  Therefore, we must get rid of fear. 

Fear can only torture and press people.  Though we do not emphasise that one’s life, death, and blessings, are all destined, we think that longevity is achievable only if one can take good care of oneself and keep one’s mind and body balanced.  Don’t be afraid.  A righteous person will never be killed by a ghost.  It is said that some evil people were chased by ghosts for their lives.  In fact, we do not know whether it is true.  However, at least it must be true that they were tortured by their own conscience. Therefore we should free ourselves from fear and do not live in the shadow of fear.  

7. Vanity
Vanity is the love of pride which springs from one’s self-attachment.  Indeed, if we do not have any self-attachment, vanity will never appear.  One’s need of vanity constantly brings misfortune to make one suffer. 

When I just came to Taiwan, I rented a house from a civilian at the low cost of 18 kilograms of rice per month.  The rental of rice already made my landlord very happy.  The reason was that at that time most people could only afford to eat dried or shredded yam as their main meals.  However, it wasn’t long before he went bankrupt as a victim of usury. Why did he borrow money at high interest rates?  It was because he needed to spend a lot of money on lavishly feasting his relatives and friends for religious festivals.  It was all for satisfying his personal vanity; therefore, he had to pay for the usury. 

Many people have the same weakness.  Though the wardrobe has been truly full, one will still buy new clothes for a wedding next week.  Yes, there is no more space left in the wardrobe, and the new clothes will go out of fashion next year, one still insists on getting a new one.  It is vanity.  In order to satisfy one’s vanity, one always spends more than one can afford, and brings oneself poverty.  Therefore, vanity is not admirable at all. 

The Doctrine of Mean states, "If one is wealthy, one should act as is.  If one is poor, one should act as is. If one is barbarous, one should act as is."  Indeed, whatever you do, never go beyond your capacity or status; otherwise your bliss will surely be ruined.  The family I just talked about could have lived a balanced life financially.  Nevertheless, due to the application of the usury for spending on religious festivals, they had to worry about paying off their debts every day.  Since the interest was so high that all their annual earnings could only be sufficient to pay for the interest.  Obviously, their bliss was totally jeopardized.  

In fact, I have quite a few friends, who were usurers.  I tried to persuade them not to do the business, and thankfully, they all took my advice.  To make money by unrighteous ways will also ruin one’s bliss.  

A friend of mine from the city of Hua-lien argued with me about my lecture on the law of causality.  He agreed that wrong speech could cause trouble, because he had proved it.  However, he did not believe that evil would be recompensed with evil.  He said someone who was seriously corrupt lived in a grand mansion; whereas, he behaved himself so well, but struggled to make ends meet.  I said to him, “Alright, I am wrong and I owe you an apology.  I now bow to you.  If it’s not enough, I can also kowtow to you.”  Ladies and gentlemen, please do not ever try to convince others of your thoughts.  Originally, it does not matter whose idea is better.  However, when you intend to convince someone of some ideas, he would start to become rebellious.  Moreover, do not even try to convince your own kids, which may harm your relationship.  Therefore, I apologised to my friend and told him never to listen to me again.  

A week later, he came back to knock at my door again saying that he was very uncomfortable for a whole week, and felt like being pressed by a rock on his chest.  He could not find a reason and thought it could be my bowing to him that made him suffering.  Then, he said to me, “Master, please sit still, and allow me to do three kowtows to you.  If you accept, I will leave right after my kowtow; otherwise, I will stay till you say yes….”  

I could tell his sincerity, so I accepted his kowtow. Then I said to him, “I do not make any illusive remarks that have not been verified.  You can go to visit a corrupt official’s house, and when you step into the house, you will feel an air of stuffy pressure in the house.  Even though the house is luxuriously decorated, you do not enjoy staying inside and cannot help running out of it.  Though the lighting system has been fully established, the house still looks dim, dark, and eye-hurting.  Moreover, though the house owner is rich, his son must behave differently in front of him, and behind his back.  It is called [pretending submission versus realistic disobedience.]  You can try to prove what I said to find out it is true or not.  If it is not, you can come back to slap in my face.”  Not long thereafter, he came back to see me again, saying that I was absolutely right.  He said that sitting in his friend’s house was like sitting on a bed of thorns, and he also felt the air of the stuffy pressure which made the room similar to a room of carbon dioxide (laughter).  

Why did I say so?  It is exactly the retribution of causality.  Some retribution are visible, some are not.  Before an invisible retribution comes, you will feel very uncomfortable for no reason.  Even just sitting alone at home, you feel restless.  When it happens to you like this, you must start introspecting yourself.  Why does retribution appear?  It is all because evil surely is recompensed with evil.  

If you practice An-Hsiang Ch’an well, your friends will enjoy staying in your house and have no intention to leave.  They cannot describe how good your house is, but simply feel comfortable and warm there.  Man’s mind can transform everything, as Buddhist Sutras claim, "When a person’s mind can transform things, he equates to Tathagata Buddha".  If the root of bliss is sown in your mind, you definitely can live with An-Hsiang, and be blissful.  However, if you live with vanity, your life will surely be miserable. 

People should not insist on keeping their pride.  When you make a mistake, just confess it!  Never go beyond your own capacity.  It is needless to say that I want to starve myself today for saving the money to sponsor you tomorrow, which is against the mean.  

Let me restate that the essence of the mean is to benefit both others and oneself, and have no one else harmed.  When doing business with the others, we must be sure that the deal is beneficial to both sides, and no one else is disadvantaged because of our deal.  That is the mean of a decent person.  One does not need vanity, or religious festivals.  What can one gain from those religious festivals?  It is nothing but the high interest to gain. Of course, some people do make a fortune by gambling at Ta-chia-Le; however, such a fortune must be followed by a misfortune.  Why?  It is simply because they get their lucky numbers from demons, and demons are very hard to deal with.  If demons are slightly annoyed, they must come to take your lives.  

Broadly speaking, demons are referred to people who are tortured by their own mistakes; whereas, narrowly speaking, they are evil spirits – very vicious ones.  It is true that there are evil spirits; however, ladies and gentlemen, is it possible that you will be approached by them?  No, you will never have the chance.  Referring to the saying of “birds of a feather flock together”, you are very different from them.  Even you wish to get close to them, they would not take it.  To be your friends will make them very uncomfortable.  You seem like a shiny sun constantly radiating warmth, which makes them unbearable and melting.  It goes without saying that the safest way to bust demons is to constantly maintain An-Hsiang in one’s mind. 

8. Dissatisfaction
The reason why people are not content with their life is that they do not live by the mean and have too many illusions.  One’s concept of life has been formed since one started receiving education.  Therefore, needless to think too much, you just live as is.  Do not think about the past!  Does it matter now that someone scolded you or treated you nicely before?  Moreover, do not think about how to make an egg hatched to be a chick, and raise the chick to trade in a lamb, and then trade in the lamb for a calf etc. etc….  If you do not have so many illusions, you can actually do what you plan to do tomorrow.  If you have too many fancy thoughts, and find a huge discrepancy between them and the reality, you will feel seriously disappointed and become very discontent.  For example, if you were expecting someone to treat you nicely, but he did not even serve you a cup of tea when you visited him.  Then, you became dissatisfied, and even felt angry.  In fact, he treated you as himself, and thought that you could make yourself at home and serve yourself.  If you are angry with people for not serving you tea or offering you a cigarette, I think you can easily get irritated.  Indeed, dissatisfaction is also an essential factor that may ruin one’s bliss.  

If you have too much dissatisfaction to result in a poor interpersonal relationship, you will lead a miserable life.  People who do not have good interpersonal relationship are mostly used to complaining constantly.  They are always complaining about their children as well as their husbands.  For example, when a husband came home after a long day of tiring work and enjoyed eating his dinner, his wife started criticising on the hoggish sound he made while eating.  How could he go on to enjoy the meal?  In fact, her husband simply enjoyed the great dishes she cooked.  Nevertheless, she could not stand the noise he made, and even criticised him eating like a pig.  This is an act of releasing one’s emotion of dissatisfaction, and it will harm people’s feeling. 

In fact, the great time of being happy is right now, the perfect location of being happy is exactly where you are, and the effective method of getting happiness is to make others happy, which is the true essence of happiness.  If you cannot make others happy; namely, you are not willing to offer others happiness, how can you attain happiness?  Is it possible that you make everyone annoyed and simply enjoy your own solitary joy?  My answer definitely is “no.”  Therefore, you need to contribute more, and try to work harder to make people happy; then, you can become happy.  It is man’s natural reflex.  

Someone asked me where the strength of An-Hsiang Ch’an lies. I told him not to mention about those superb achievements, such as transforming an ordinary person to a saint, or attaining one’s enlightenment to become a Buddha.  I only want to claim that an An-Hsiang Ch’an practitioner can attain two kinds of strength: one is the strength of amiability, which can improve your interpersonal relationship, and the other is the strength of assimilation.  When you achieve a successful practice and well maintain your An-Hsiang, you can transmit it to people who are close to you, and make them unwilling to leave your place, which exactly displays the strength of assimilation.  It is worth being congratulated, if you attain both.  However, if your mind is filled with dissatisfaction, there is no way to attain them.

9. Suspicion
Suspicion is the source of worry.  For example, a friend of mine was once very angry, and I asked him why. He said two persons were scolding him.  I asked him how he knew it.  He said they were talking to each other, but stopped when he got in the room.  He said, “Who else could they give the scolding to, if not me?”  I asked again what they did after having stopped their conversation.  He said that they both stood up.  I told him if they kept talking while seeing you get in, they really meant to ignore you.  However, they stopped talking and stood up upon your arrival; they simply showed their respect for you.  How could you say they were scolding you behind your back?  “Was it so?!”  He finally realised the fact.  Apparently, suspicion brings one worry, and also makes one doing false accusation.  Any arbitrary suspicion or subjective judgement, which does not have any supportive evidence, fact, or conclusion to base on, definitely will end up with a wrong conclusion. 

There is a high marble-made tower near Calcutta of India, and it was built about 3000 years ago in memory of a dog.  It was said that this tower was constructed by a royal couple.  The husband was a prince and the wife was a princess, and they had a very faithful dog.  One day, the couple went hunting and left the dog to look after their son at home. Upon returning home, they found their son disappeared and the dog’s mouth was full of blood.  They thought that their dog might have eaten their son because of hunger.  They thought, “Yes, it must be our late return to make the starving dog eat our boy as its snack!”  They got so furious as to kill their dog.  The dying dog was shedding tears on the ground, and still wagging its tail to show its affection for them even before its last breath.  Not long after, suddenly, their son crawled out from the underneath of his own bed, and told his parents that he was so frightened because of the appearance of a huge python.  They asked him where it was.  He said that their dog had killed the python in the back yard.  Finally, they realized that the blood in the dog’s month was the python’s, and their son was hiding underneath his own bed.  They felt incredibly sad and remorseful for what they had done to the dog.  Therefore, they built the tower which was above the average height to be dedicated to the dog, and they also hired venerable monks to recite sutras to offer the merits to the dog.  Nevertheless, it was unlikely to relieve them from regrets.  

Consequently, suspicion is truly a very vicious weakness.  When interacting with friends, we should not be suspicious.  If you have any doubts, just inquire, but do not guess.  It is fine to inquire, but to guess will result in a huge mistake.  All the misunderstanding between couples or among friends can be solved by making an inquiry.  After having clarified your doubts, if you can apologize for your confusion, it will even be better.  It will be a permanent regret and unrepairable mistake when a suspicion occurs between or among good friends.  Try to think for the loyal dog, who sacrificed its own life to protect its master’s son, and what could it make up to build a memorial tower for the dog?  Therefore, suspicion can lead to a tremendous remorse.  Please do not be suspicious, if we want to keep our bliss and free our conscience from any guilt.  Whenever we have any doubt, we must do whatever we can to find out the truth. 

10. Worry
Why does worry jeopardise one’s bliss?  It is because worry equates to a negative prayer.  For instance, your well-behaving son rides his bike with his friends to go on a picnic on the weekend.  Meanwhile, you stay at home and keep worrying about his safety, and thinking he may be hit by a car when crossing a road. In fact, you are exactly doing a negative prayer.  If it works, there will be a car accident.  This is truly an unnecessary worry.  Though it is important to teach children about road safety, to keep worrying about their road safety is truly unnecessary.  Moreover, when you have not received any letters from your child for a long time, you start worrying whether he or she is sick.  It seems that you are cursing your child to get sick.  One should not find oneself this kind of mental burden.  Since you are constantly worrying for others, and praying negatively every day, eventually your prayer will work.  Obviously, worry can jeopardise our An-Hsiang.  To worry for others can only bring disadvantages rather than advantages to them.  Consequently, do not worry, and do not pray negatively! 

11. Evasion
Many debtors will rush in a restroom to hide themselves upon hearing someone knocking on the door, and tell their family to lie about their absence from home.  Generally speaking, one must pay one’s life for killing a person, and clear the debts one owes.  If a homicide surrenders himself to justice, his sentence very likely will be reduced.  There is absolutely no way to evade one’s responsibility.  One reaps what one sows, and an effect must result from a cause.  How can one evade one’s responsibility? Why not just face the reality to clarify the mess?  If a creditor comes to take your television away, just let him do it.  Needless to evade it!  I remember when my eldest son was studying in the junior high school, he asked me to write him a note for a sick leave.  I asked him why.  He said for avoiding his monthly examination on the next day.  I said to him, “Then, what about your term examination?”  It was an act of evasion.  Evasion can never solve one’s problems; on the contrary, it will bring in even more problems.  What can they be?  An unsolved issue will constantly give one pressure.  The longer it stays; the more stressed one becomes.  One would prefer a short pain than a long one.  Though no one can predict a sound or foul ending, one definitely will be relieved by having found an immediate solution.  Surely, besides the issue of debts, there are more issues about evading one’s responsibility. 

When I was young, a friend of mine asked me to send his girlfriend away by lying to her that he was out of town on an errand.  Why?  It was because the girl was pregnant and wanted to marry him, but he did not just have one girlfriend.  What a headache!  I told him that to evade his responsibility might end up with losing a human life.  Unfortunately, it happened as I predicted.  

One should not arbitrarily make causes.  A cause must result in its effect.  One may spoil oneself to attain a temporary pleasure, but not a true bliss.  It is simply because one does not realize the law of causality and surely will bring oneself countless disasters.  Therefore, we should not evade our responsibilities and should persist in fulfilling our own duties.  We should only get a loan that we can afford to pay back; otherwise, do not even have one.  As for helping others, do not make a promise that you can never achieve; otherwise, you will try to evade it when you are unable to make it.  

12. Cruelty
By reading newspaper reports, we saw a lot of fish being speared to death, and many migratory birds were also brutally killed. They both were acts of cruelty.  A Buddhist stanza states, "If you want to avoid the calamity of war, you should admonish people not to kill.”  It is true that if you want to live well, you must also allow others to live well.  If you abuse other’s life, you are absolutely unable to possess a beautiful life. 

We do not particularly emphasize on going vegetarian, why?  It is because some people are brain workers, and a deficient intake of high protein will seriously affect their health.  In addition, labourers need sufficient calories to maintain their strength to work.  Malnutrition not only weakens one’s working efficiency, but also adversely affects one’s marital harmony.  Though it is truly admirable to go vegetarian, we do not advocate it, nor object to it.  We do not insist on going vegetarian, but we strongly object to killing any beings. 

13. Greed
Greed denotes discontentment, which is a desire of endless needs.  Poverty tends to make people greedy; therefore, greed is a feature of poverty.  General Yueh-Fei of Sung Dynasty once said that, "A country will be rich, prosperous, and free of wars, when its officials are not greedy to commit bribery and its officers do not fear to sacrifice themselves for the country."  To apply it to today’s situation, it means that a country definitely will be prosperous and powerful, when its businessmen do not evade taxes, and its public servants do not commit bribery.  Evading taxes equates to a grand greed, and it is illegal and against one’s conscience.  People with any income are under an obligation to pay a tax.  Today, our Six-year National Development Project cannot be continued to proceed, why?  It is all because of too many people evading taxes; therefore, our government cannot even collect half of the revenues projected in its budget.  Under these circumstances, it is extremely difficult to establish a prosperous and strong nation.  

If contentment is a sign of prosperity; then, greed is undoubtedly a special feature of poverty.  Greedy people are unlikely to build a blissful family, because they are not equipped with the conditions of bliss.  Greed can only bring troubles to ruin your family, to deprive the honour your family deserves, and also to make your children failing to relieve them from a mental stress.  To sum up, corruption, tax evasion and the sale of counterfeit medicine all are various facets of greed, and they all can kill without bloodshed.  People who sell counterfeit medicine are actually life-takers.  They not only will cause a delay of a diagnosis, but also may take a person’s life.  In particular, counterfeit eye-care products can simply impair people’s vision.  It is completely beyond one’s imagination to realize how overwhelming the harm will be brought to individuals and a society.

14. Indulgence
For a couple, especially a newlywed, they should not over-indulge themselves in carnal desires, and should maintain a harmony between each other.  In fact, if their love is genuinely true, they will feel heartedly content by just embracing each other.  For those men and women in the heaven, they will feel content simply by holding the other’s hands.  It is so-called the combination of one’s spirit and body.  It is the most superb love when two souls are melted into one.  If a person overly cares about his own sexual needs, he is just showing an instinct of a living creature.  Couples who overvalue their own instincts cannot be harmonious.  It is because they tend to be too subjective, neglect other’s feeling, and fail to care about others.  All of these are wrong. 

Indulgence also refers to one’s appetite.  It means one is desperately eating all kinds of delicious food without a stop.  Though food is truly delicious, it may threaten your health.  Eating as such may bring illness through your mouth to you, what can you do if it costs your life?  

I had a friend who was in charge of public affairs, and organized all sorts of functions for his company.  Surely, he attended all the parties, and enjoyed eating here and there.  As a result, he died in his late 40s because of getting a stomach expansion, alcoholic toxin, high blood pressure and irregular heartbeat.  The development of all these illnesses resulted from his indulgence in food.  

In Spring and Autumn Period of China, a person named Chun-Shen-Chun could not even straight his back up, and looked like a prawn, which was all because of his indulgence in sex.  The story was recorded in the history, and not made up by me.  Therefore, never indulge yourself in various desires.  We should only be 80 percent full when having meals, which can allow us to have a smooth digestion, and also prevent us from dozing off.  If you eat too much, you tend to feel sleepy.  If you are a teacher, and feel sleepy when teaching, you owe students an apology; if you doze off in the office, you have to say sorry to your boss.  Consequently, we should never indulge ourselves. 

In addition, indulgence can also be referred to many other aspects, such as staying up for reading a novel, focusing on playing video games, and playing chess without eating and sleeping.  All these are various types of indulgence.  Once you have something to love, you become attached; as you are attached, you become biased; as you are biased, you become inadequate; as you are inadequate, you definitely have lost something.  Indeed, your indulgence must interfere with your routine duties and affect the bliss of your life. 

15. Complaint
Complaint refers to an expression of discontent.  A complainer constantly thinks that he is mistreated by his boss, parents, friends, siblings, even God, and is the poorest person in the world.  Complaint is a form of self-hypnosis.  Originally, you are leading a pretty ordinary life; however, once you start complaining, you become very annoyed.  The more you complain, the more annoyed you become, which is a vicious cycle.  If you do not complain, let bygone be bygone, and just focus on working hard, you definitely can have a better future.  If you keep complaining day after day, you not only trap yourself in pain and worry, but also constantly spread the negative energy of your mind.  When you are making complaints to your friends, who feel guilty to turn away from you, you make them start to feel worried after having listened to all your complaints.  It is because you have passed your complaints onto them.  It is true that An-Hsiang is infectious, and so is worry.  Consequently, do not arbitrarily make any complaints.  When you are used to complaining, your life will become miserable and it is truly bad. 

16. Jealousy
Jealousy refers to narrow-mindedness, intolerance, and fear of being inferior.  When I was little, I lived in the countryside, and a female classmate of mine had a cousin who just came home from a big city.  She said to me, "My cousin just came back, but I really can’t stand her!  Look at her high heels, isn’t she afraid of having her feet sprained?  Her lipstick is so red as to make her look like just eating someone alive; her curly hair looks like a chicken coop.…"  Her criticism on her cousin was extremely harsh.  Did it mean that she was very conservative?  No, she simply was jealous.  I thought she objected to wearing make-up, and dressing oneself up.  A few years later, she went to city to study in the university.  During her summer vacation, she came home and dressed herself up exactly like her cousin before, namely, on high-heeled shoes, with blood red lipstick and curly hair.  I said to her, “Hey, you used to criticise your cousin so and so, but why….?” She lowered her head in silence, and then cursed me, “You, devil!”, as if I did something wrong. 

One should not be jealous, because it will create trouble for both oneself and others.  Moreover, do not be jealous of others when they have made a fortune, because it results from their individual causality.  In addition, do not be overly critical, like searching bones in eggs, and keep trying to purposely find the faults of others.  In the long run, your jealousy will jeopardise your own bliss, if you are always unwilling to acknowledge the merits of others.  

17. Arrogance
Arrogance is a sign of devils. According to a Buddhist Sutra, a devil led a crowd of 108,000 demons to fight against the Lord Indra.  How could a devil defeat the Lord on High?  Wasn’t he merely throwing eggs on rocks?  No matter what, devils are very arrogant.  Absolute arrogance is undoubtedly a sign of devils.  You can look at those heretics!  They all look very arrogant; whereas, those authentic practitioners are very humble.  Arrogance can affect our mentality of An-Hsiang, make people turn away from us, and jeopardise our amiability.  Therefore, we should be humble, but not arrogant.  

18. Anger
I once wrote a song named “To Eliminate Mistakes” (杜漏歌).  Since I was afraid that people could not fully understand my true intention, I then lectured on the same topic and said, "the fire of anger can burn down the forest of one’s moral merits.”  After having thrown a tantrum, you can look into a mirror and find not you, but a devil.  It is true that man’s features can change.  After having lost you temper, your calmness will be replaced by a violent energy.  It will change the way you breathe, and so will your heartbeat, taste, walking pose, voice, and even your working efficiency be changed.  If you do not believe it, just give it a try and I assure you that what I say is absolutely true.  Above all, your An-Hsiang will slip away as soon as you start to get angry.  It is because An-Hsiang does not coexist with anger; therefore, please do not get angry.  

That "The fire of anger can burn down the forest of one’s moral merits” refers to that due to your anger, all the merits you have attained throughout the journey of your practice all vanish, and all your efforts have been down the drain.  Moreover, one’s anger can also attract a devil, because “birds of a feather flock together.”  Devils feel that you are one of them, and come closely to you.  In addition, if you get depressed, you can also attract ghosts.  

There was a girl, who was adopted to be a daughter-in-law since little, and was treated badly by her foster mother-in-law who did not offer her any good food or clothing.  She felt so painful and depressed that she constantly wept alone.  In the neighbourhood, a ghost who died by hanging himself found her similar to him, and decided to induce her to kill herself, then she could replace him and allow him to go on for his own reincarnation.  The ghost told her, “Look, there is a garden outside of your window!  As long as you stretch your head into it, you can get into the garden and set yourself free.”  Though she was depressed, she did not mean to die.  Therefore, she was unwilling to stretch her head into it.  The ghost tried all sorts of tricks to get her into trouble, such as using a stick to break every piece of meat dumplings she cooked to make her scolded by her mother-in-law.  Things like this happened again and again; eventually, she could not bear it and hanged herself.  I did not personally see the incident, but a senior of mine told me about it.

To sum up, we should not get angry or depressed.    We do not induce devils or ghosts, nor nurture the energy of anger or complaints; in a long run, we can cultivate an air of harmony and blessing.  

19. Mischief
All religions advocate harmony; therefore, mischief and defamation are the most immoral acts a person can do.

In Buddhism, there are precepts for “two tongues” and “verbal abuse”.  “Verbal abuse” refers to making untrue and harsh speeches, which equates to defamation abuse; whereas, “two tongues” refers to making different speeches to two parties on the same issue to ruin the harmony between them, and get up to make mischief between them.  These acts make one’s bliss truly difficult to be maintained.  

It also happens in the field of religions.  This religion criticises that religion as a devil, and that religion claims that the preaching of this region is totally wrong.  In fact, all these mischief and defamation simply come from few ignorant and biased clergy.  I can assure you that all those saints, such as Jesus Christ, Confucius, Lao-Tzu, and Shakyamuni, definitely will not fight against one another, because God is Shakyamuni, and vice versa.  

There are two kinds of God.  One is the existent God, so God is truth.  As truth is omnipresent; therefore, it is the existent God.  The other God is formed through practice and cultivation, such as

Krishna of India, who is worshipped by Indians as God, so is Jesus Christ to westerners.  Taoism emphasizes the three purities: superb purity, grand purity and jade-like purity, and the Great Highest Elder Lord is God.  Undoubtedly, God is omnipresent, and so is the Dharma-body of Buddha.  Both of them are in the same space; consequently, Buddha is God - a cultivated one. 

What is the difference between a cultivated God and the originally existent God?  In fact, there is no difference.  According to the Chinese ideology, heaven and man are combined as one.  It is likened to throwing a particle of H2O into an ocean where you can find countless water particles are not just similar to the one thrown, but are totally identical to it.  Therefore, Buddhist sutras state that one should identify with the ocean rather than with its bubbles, then claim that “the universe is I, and vice versa.” 

I spent almost twenty years on researching the statement of "The universe is I, and vice versa." Why?  It is because the statement is irrelevant to any reason or knowledge, and is nothing but a state where one should personally reach.  Otherwise, how could you claim that you are the universe?  You must personally reach it.  If you only know about it, it does not count at all.  It is just like you came across a friend in the street, and he/she asked you - “Did you have your lunch?”  Though you said yes, you might not have it yet.  Therefore, in the field of religions, abusive and mischievous speeches must be prohibited; instead, a harmony should be maintained among all religions.  

As An-Hsiang Ch’an does not follow any religious route, we welcome all religions to join our research on it.  It is because culture is a common asset of all man, and An-Hsian is the true essence and life of all religions. 

What is God?  What is a spiritual life?  What is the trinity?  Without An-Hsiang, all these are just verbal expressions. 

With An-Hsiang, there is a spiritual life. 

With An-Hsiang, there is a genuine perception, which is one’s true benefit and correct sensation.  

With An-Hsiang, people can really lead a blissful and free life. 

With An-Hsiang, people can enter the methodology of non-dualistic Dharma, where having thoughts equates to not having thoughts, and vice versa. 

We all know a language is the voice of one’s thoughts.  Without thoughts, there is no language.  Though I am lecturing now, there is definitely no illusive thought in my mind, and I believe your mind is exactly like mine.  This denotes the essence of the methodology of Non-dualistic Dharma.  

When a religion detaches from a soul, it is no longer true.  What is a soul?  It is the pure life.  Once a religion detaches from the pure life, it becomes fake, superstitious, anti-scientific, anti-evolution and anti-truth.  Therefore, An-Hsiang Ch’an invites all religions to join us to do research on it and share its benefits.  We do not reject any religions, nor have any particular rituals or abstentions.  We abide by nothing but a precept, which is, “Never do things that you are ashamed to tell, and never think of things that you are not allowed to do.”   If you do something shameful, your mind turns restless.  If you think illusively, your mind will be polluted to turn dark, gloomy, and unrighteous, and your ignorance will also be deepened.  All these will even make you fearful to meet the Lord of Hell upon your death.  If you have not done anything shameful, you will feel like seeing an old friend when meeting the Lord of Hell.  Yes, why to be afraid of him!  Maybe he will organize a band to welcome your arrival.  I am not telling a joke.  Many successful practitioners did hear music when dying.  Many similar incidents were recorded in the book named, “Pure Land of Saints and Sages.” 

Though there is only one way to reach the origin, there may be many accesses to get to it.  The success of any practice completely lies in personal persistence, but not in defaming others.

20. Gamble
By my definition, gambling also refers to speculating in stocks.  Someone complained about failing to invest in stocks and lose many chances to make a fortune because of taking my advice.  Truly, he did not make a fortune, but he remains alive.  Do not be forgetful! The money earned through one’s hard work can be saved; whereas, the money earned by speculation will be hard to keep and tend to corrupt you. 

One of my neighbours became very rich because of successfully speculating in stocks, so he bought a brand new car, moved into a new house, remarried a younger wife, and kept changing his outfits.  He was as proud as a peacock.  Nevertheless, in a fleeting time, the stock market plunged, his house and car were seized, and his young wife also ran away.  Undoubtedly, the marriage was based on the material benefits, and when the conditions varied, so did the love between the couple.  Consequently, a couple should love, respect, and tolerate each other.  Your wife may not be beautiful, but she is your partner who shares all the joy and sorrow with you so that you cannot arbitrarily replace her with someone else.  Moreover, it is extremely cruel and inhumane to change your children’s mother.  We have seen so many broken families all because of gambling.  Therefore, the last point I would like to emphasize is “Do not gamble.”

VIII. The Sublimation of Bliss – To Attain Buddhahood [Back to Top]

Today I am lecturing about “A path to bliss” which refers to a way that leads people to reach bliss.  To sum up, it covers the conditions of bliss, the price of bliss, the origin of bliss, etc.  In addition, we talked about the factors that jeopardize bliss, and those are what we should introspect on.  Finally, we want to talk about the sublimation of bliss.  In other words, the real purpose of pursuing bliss lies in the pursuit of the eternal bliss rather than the temporary bliss at present.  The eternal bliss refers to the sublimated bliss, which is completely free from any impurities and conditions and is called the pure bliss.  Sublimation is a chemical term.  Things after having been sublimated must turn out pure and refined.  It is conditional to attain the pure bliss; then, who is eligible to enjoy it?  Only when a person has reached the pure life through his successful practice can he attain it.  

The lives of ordinary people are mostly impure.  They have seven emotions and six desires, such as love, hatred, anxiety, joy, anger, sorrow and delight; moreover, they also have many other weaknesses, such as jealousy, dissatisfaction, fury, hatred etc.  We have to eliminate all these that do not exist originally, and the remained that is true and original is the pure life.  

Some people say that life comes from nowhere, and originally there was no life.  That is totally untrue.  Without wind, there will be no waves; without water, waves cannot be made.  Therefore, our lives are absolutely eternal.  Otherwise, I am telling a big lie, and will get an evil retribution.  Life definitely is eternal, and it will not end as an extinguished light.  Consequently, as far as the true bliss is concerned, we should pursue the eternal bliss, and should not feel content with a few decades of worldly bliss in this lifetime.  

What is the pure life?  It refers to the life that has been sublimated.  To what extent should one sublimate one’s life?  One should sublimate one’s life to reach the state of the pure life, and that is to attain Buddhahood.  Buddha means awareness which is a pure consciousness.  The pure consciousness can be conscious of everything coming into one’s mind; however, it does not allow anything to stay in one’s mind.  This is what Diamond Sutra states, "A mind of no attachment".  Our eyes can see everything, but they do not allow anything to stay.  Otherwise, they will become impaired like those developed films.  If after seeing you, my eyes become fully occupied by your image, and unable to see anything else, that is rigidity.  In order to sustain our eternal life, we have to constantly keep our awareness fully alert to sublimate our life.  It is not unlikely to achieve it.  Only if you can maintain your present mentality, can you start to have your life sublimated.  Now, I stop talking, and you try to see what is in your mind.  That is the state of the pure life where there is only knowing, but without the contents of knowing. 

Once you possess the pure life, you also can attain the pure bliss.  What is the pure bliss?  It is as Nirvana Sutra states, “Eternity, delight, self, and purity.”  Eternity refers to the permanent life; delight is joy, and self is self-awakening, which denotes, “I am aware; therefore, I am,” rather than “I think; therefore, I am.”   The “self” equates to emptiness.  Buddhism does not emphasize on the theory of emptiness, but on the true reality of emptiness which is unlimited quantum and infinity.  Therefore, the emptiness allows the heaven and man to be combined as one and become omnipresent.  Otherwise, how could a person like you, who are shorter than two meters, reach the state of the combination of the heaven and man?  It is simply impossible!  When you reach the pure life, you are simultaneously combined with the heaven to attain your Buddhahood and become a cultivated God as Krishna of India.  

What I lectured today is about the mystery of life that I have never mentioned before.  When you reach the pure life, you must also have possessed the pure bliss, which includes: eternity – permanence, delight - joy, self – self-awakening, and purity which is free from worry, sin, impurity, complaint and disturbance, and eventually, you become omnipresent.  It is the state where you are Tathagata, Arhat, Samyaksam buddha, omnipresent, fully aware, fully joyful without any worry, and fully independent within the whole universe without confronting any conflicts or competitions.  There is nothing but a perfect life, and then you can claim that “I am the universe!”  

Selflessness is the authentic grand self, which defines the Buddhist methodology of non-dualistic Dharma.  Truly, selflessness is the true self. Only when one has verified the true self, can one attain the true bliss.  The so-called true self is the pure self, and the true bliss is the pure bliss.  The self of the pure life and the pure self of the pure bliss are completely identical, not dualistic. 

Today, though my lecture is quite ordinary, it is all true.  Thank you!