Broadcast Dharma Lectures in Vernacular | Episode 1: Follow the causes and realize the results when you see them
29/08/2020 | Back
Why do things get worse and worse? It’s because many people have made mistakes and continue to make them! This is why we say that no matter what happens, you should recite the sutras, which will help you get rid of your anger. Master has told you before that if you want to lose your temper, you have the ability to stop listening to what others say and recite the Heart Sutra once. It only takes 30 seconds to recite the Heart Sutra once, right? If you finish reciting the Heart Sutra once in 30 seconds and then think about the matter again, you can calm down in 30 seconds. Do you understand? So the Heart Sutra is to correct the direction of your mind. No matter what happens, we must first calm down. Think about your own mind with the mind of others, “I said something to him today, what will he think?” He is sad today, are you happy? What did you get? You made him suffer today, what did you get? You got nothing! You just got a feeling, what do you think this feeling will cause? It will cause harm to others and may even cause revenge against you. Why should you endure this meaningless anger! So don’t do anything based on my own ideas, and you will have the same mind as the Bodhisattva. Because Bodhisattvas never hurt others, because Bodhisattvas always think for sentient beings, and use their hearts to warm others. This is the true reality. People feel warm, and are happy after listening to your words, because you bring them warmth, because you bring them happiness, because after hearing your words, they feel the existence of Bodhisattvas, then you have the reality of the world. Because you know that only by helping others can you change yourself, and only then can you get peace and joy. You make others happy, how can you not feel joy? Today, you write a few words to make others jump up, and say a word to make others make a fuss, right? You make a move to make others curse, are you a Bodhisattva? Therefore, the satisfaction of sentient beings is actually a kind of spiritual satisfaction. Sometimes, you just need to say a few good words to this sentient being and thank him, and you will not be too painful. Because many people will be satisfied after hearing the words; once satisfied, they will not be in pain; when they are not in pain, they will easily find light; when they find light, they will have eternal life. To find eternal life, you must first live happily and joyfully. This kind of happiness starts from the adjustment of your body and mind, from the love given to you by others, from your understanding of the Dharma and the world, and you will gain the wisdom that is neither born nor destroyed. What is the wisdom that is neither born nor destroyed? Because human wisdom is actually inexhaustible. Many people foolishly think that as a human being, “Oh, this wisdom is gone.” No, what is the wisdom that is neither born nor destroyed? Perfection and peace, the heart must be peaceful, things must be perfect, you must learn to be tolerant, and you must understand your heart. If you want to help others, you must understand it in your heart. In this way, your life will become very bright and shining, so there is no suffering, no suffering, no suffering, no accumulation, extinction, and no path. Only such people will not have wasted their life in the world. Because he has found a way to understand himself and help others, this is a bodhisattva! So you must remember Master’s words: if he has found a way to understand himself and help others, he is wise, and he is a bodhisattva.
Don’t look at the horrible things happening right now, because in the human world, what you see is actually horrible. Look at the hospital. If you haven’t been to the hospital, do you think the hospital is closed? If you work in the hospital every day, you will see horrible things every day. Every person rescued by the ambulance is either in a car accident, in the emergency room, or out of breath. It all exists! It’s just that you don’t see it, so you think it’s gone. So the horrible things happening right now, you should know, are actually caused by our own karma from past lives! These karmas make us have karma retribution. If you don’t take care of your body for a long time, one day you will have poor health; if you offend people for a long time, one day you will be despised by everyone. You often quarrel with others for no reason, you are not popular, no friends will help you, and no one will love you. If a person has no one to love him in society, how can he live? The love of children, the love between husband and wife, the love of parents, the love of teachers, the love of colleagues, and the love of classmates are all love. If you don’t even have these loves, how can you feel the warmth of this world while you are living in it? So many people are suffering and say, “I am lonely!” You see, people with autism are lonely because they don’t get love! So think about it, why don’t you get love? It’s because you don’t give love to others! So Master tells you that the more suffering you have, the more you should rely on the Dharma in your heart. If you are suffering today, you should think, “I have Guanyin Bodhisattva and Buddha to help me, I can rely on them.” When you are confused, Master said, “There are enlightened masters to save you.” Many people will have many obsessions in their lives, and they can’t figure out if there is a master to save them? So they will be saved until you become Buddhas and abandon the evil thoughts and evil deeds in the human world. If you want to become a Buddha, but you don’t want to abandon your evil thoughts and evil deeds, how can you become a Buddha? You are a monkey today, and you want to be a human being, so why don’t you stand up and walk? Why don’t you cut off your tail? You say it hurts and it’s hard to stand up and walk, so how can you become a human being? If you want to become a Bodhisattva today, how can you not get rid of all your greed, hatred, and anger? So you are creating karma in the human world! Generally, people who do not study Buddhism say that they are just living their lives, but in fact, they are creating karma. What kind of karma are they creating? Sometimes it is good karma, and sometimes it is bad karma, but they are just unaware of it and think that they are just living their lives. In fact, these karmas lay the foundation for the consequences to be created in the future.
Practice your own practice, and suffer everything from practice, that is, accept all pain or torture. The meaning of this sentence is to tell you: How can you not suffer pain and torture if you want to practice? When others are playing, you should recite the sutras at home; when others are eating delicacies from land and sea, you must be a vegetarian… Everything, others spend a lot of time playing mahjong and feel very happy, you want to recite the sutras and cultivate your mind, but you get the good results of bliss! You accept all pain and torture in practice, and you get the good results of bliss! When you are happy, others are sick. When you are not sick, you have the blessing of the Bodhisattva, so have you obtained good results? So how do these good results come from? They are obtained when others are eating, drinking and having fun, while you are chanting the sutras and practicing!
Therefore, we must let our hearts practice according to the cause, that is, we must know how to practice according to the cause of cause and effect in our hearts. We should chant the Buddha’s name and chant the mantra without feeling pain, that is, we should not feel very painful. We now have many Buddhist friends who are very happy when they chant the sutras. They feel very sad if they don’t finish their homework today. They are happy when they chant the sutras, because chanting the sutras is the best time for you to be quiet. You are no longer annoyed, there is nothing to be annoyed about; you don’t think about it, what are you thinking about when you chant the sutras! So why do many people who are having trouble with their emotions stop thinking about it when they chant the sutras? Many things that were just bothering you can be forgotten by chanting the sutras.
When we are upset, we all have chaotic behaviors: “Oh, this action, I shouldn’t have done this action just now, I was so stupid that people misunderstood me.” A thought: “Oh, why did I think like this? I thought of others like this, what have I become?” “Oh, why is my mind so chaotic! I need to return to calmness and nature. What’s the matter? What will happen if I don’t think about it? What will happen if I think about it? I think about so many bad things, which will only cause harm to myself. What is there to think about? Just practice well.” What should I do if I have already done it? Once you say something, it’s like spilled water! You can only do this. When you recite the sutra, “Oh! Bodhisattva, I just said it wrong! Bodhisattva, I just did it wrong! Bodhisattva, I repent!” Then this is correcting. Keep recalling: Why did I say the wrong thing just now, why am I so embarrassed in front of him, what happened to me… All these will only hurt you and not help you, so reciting the sutra can help you return to nature.
Returning to peace will naturally overcome your low-level distraction. You see, people with restless minds are of low class and cannot calm down. Tell me, which person of status would be so distracted at ordinary times? There is a way to sit and a way to stand, right? People of low class like this think a lot about one thing throughout their lives, which eventually causes their minds to be distracted and unable to pass away peacefully. Do you know what it means to be unable to pass away peacefully? If such people do not learn Buddhism, they will not die well! Being unable to pass away peacefully means that there is no way to pass away peacefully! Because their minds are in a mess all day long, and they do not think about returning home. They do not think about “where I will go in the end.” No matter how much you think, where will you go in the end? You will still die! If you do not think about returning home, you will suffer in the cycle of reincarnation! The heart is reincarnated, the behavior is reincarnated, and the language is reincarnated. If you repeat a sentence over and over again, it is called the language reincarnation. In psychology, if language cycles frequently, it is called language disorder, and in thinking it is called logical disorder. So when you talk to someone, you will know whether this person’s thinking is disordered or not. If someone keeps repeating the same sentence, is it Alzheimer’s disease? Repeat it again and again, and repeat it again and again. I have told you, and you tell it to others once more, and they will listen; if you tell it to others five times, they know you will tell it to them for the sixth time, but they did not listen to you carefully the first five times, did they understand?