Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter 12: Miscellaneous Talks on Cause and Effect (2)
Eleven: When one has done something wrong, should one apologize face-to-face, or is repenting in one's heart enough?
When you know you were wrong and have done something to wrong someone, you should repent and apologize. Apologizing means sincerely expressing your apology and guilt to the other person, so as to remedy their psychological hurt, dispel their displeasure, and at the same time dissolve grudges and resolve karmic knots, clearing away the resentment in the heart and making the relationship harmonious. Repentance and apology should have a target and an object\: since you have wronged someone, you must openly acknowledge your fault to that person face-to-face, repent and apologize, to show your sincerity. This is truly recognizing that you have wronged the other person, wanting to correct your mistake, and wanting to make amends to them.
If you do not apologize and repent to that person face-to-face, but only repent in your heart, not daring to face them, such repentance lacks sincerity. It cannot dispel the resentment in the other person's heart, cannot remedy their psychological hurt, and cannot change the relationship between the two of you. The other person has suffered harm and unfair treatment; since you have recognized this, you should offer them some compensation—at the very least, compensation in terms of feelings and emotions. Explain the matter clearly face-to-face so that they can let go in their heart; this is the most basic form of respect and repentance. You have all kinds of feelings and emotions on your side, but the other person knows nothing of them. The manas of the two people have not connected, so the knot in the heart cannot be fully untied, the estrangement cannot be fully removed, and this repentance is neither thorough nor ultimate—it carries a psychological tendency to evade problems and not dare to face one's mistakes.
Twelve: How should one deal with evil people appropriately?
In the secular world, people always debate whether human nature is fundamentally good or fundamentally evil, arguing endlessly. From the Buddhist perspective, this is not a problem at all. It is obvious: if human nature were fundamentally good, there would be no sentient beings in the three evil destinies; if human nature were fundamentally good, sentient beings would not have the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion; there would not be so many major crimes in society, and there would not be so many people in prisons—indeed, many people go to prison repeatedly and still do not repent. Even devas are not all good in their mental nature; they also have afflictions, especially delusion, which is a tremendous affliction. Sentient beings without afflictions would not transmigrate; as long as there is transmigration, there are afflictions. Human nature has more evil than good, and some people have no goodness at all.
Why is human nature fundamentally evil? Because of ignorance (avidyā). This ignorance is innate from the moment sentient beings exist; it does not arise later in life. Because of ignorance, sentient beings create evil karma, and thus there is birth-and-death transmigration over measureless kalpas upon measureless kalpas. Each sentient being spends the vast majority of its kalpas in the three evil destinies; the kalpas spent in the human world with a human body are one percent, one thousandth, or one ten-thousandth of the long river of its life. Some beings in the animal destiny have never even obtained a human body to this day and have never left the animal destiny. These are extremely deluded beings, and delusion is evil.
Those people who, within beginningless kalpas, have just been reborn among humans from the three evil destinies are extremely deluded and extremely vile, hardly corresponding to human nature at all; their mental nature is very much like and very much corresponds to that of animals. Some of them have only delusion; some are deluded and also brutal, with an ingrained habit of killing. As long as they live among humans, they will harm people; harming others is their nature—their killing nature and harmful nature are their animal nature. For such people to acquire human nature and goodness, they can only, within the human destiny, through many lives and many kalpas, continuously be steeped in wholesome dharmas among humans, gradually removing the evil animal nature and taking on human habits. Although human habits are not that good either, they are still better than animal nature. Only through such cultivation of habituation over successive lives and generations do they finally acquire a complete personality and perfect human nature.
But in this process, many people will be brutally harmed and killed by such people. When good people live alongside evil people, of course it is the good people who suffer and lose out—that is forever the rule in the Dharma realm. When good and evil people are mixed together, it is forever the evil people who commit evil, and the good people must endure the evil of the evil ones. Those who constantly stir up trouble and cause incidents are mostly evil people, people at the bottom; those with problems are forever those without cultivation. Because good people do not create evil karma—or great evil karma—and do not deliberately harm others, they can only be harmed. Evil people will inevitably create evil karma and will inevitably harm others; their original nature cannot be changed. So if these evil people have committed extremely great evil karma, should their lives be taken so that they can no longer continue to harm people, or should their lives be spared so they can continue to be steeped in wholesome dharmas among humans?
Each of the two choices has its advantages and disadvantages. If their lives are spared, others will subsequently be harmed and killed, and other lives will be threatened. If the evil people's lives are taken, curbing them from continuing to harm their fellow beings, these evil people will lose the opportunity to be steeped in wholesome dharmas, will have no chance to correct their evil nature, and their mental evolution will be obstructed—this too is a great loss. What, then, is the best way to handle this matter? Is there a better way to let good people and evil people each have their proper place and live in peace? How does Amitābha Buddha manage good and evil people in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī)?
The solution is: things gather by kind and people divide by group—good people and evil people must be separated; sentient beings of different levels and different attributes must all be separated and cannot live together mixed. This is the rule throughout the Dharma realm. Just as buddha-lands such as the land of bliss must be separated from buddha-lands like the Sahā world—the mental natures of the beings in the two worlds are different, they cannot have contact with each other, cannot live mixed together, to avoid trouble. Sentient beings have many levels; the thoughts and views of beings at each level differ greatly, vastly different, impossible to unify and coordinate. If they live mixed together, there will be constant disputes; if they are all separated, there will be no trouble.
The Buddhist precepts also require this: following the principle of sharing the same precepts and the same practice, those who have received different precepts cannot live together; the ordained and the laity cannot live mixed together; even among the ordained, if the precepts and practice differ, they cannot live together; even among the laity, if the precepts and practice differ, they should as much as possible not live together; otherwise there will be trouble and violation of the Buddha's precepts. In the secular world, groups generally form automatically in this way as well: those with different merit and wisdom, different social status, different cultivation and quality generally live separately and not together. And criminals, the evil people, are imprisoned, isolated from those who have not committed crimes. Sentient beings as a whole are divided into six destinies according to their karmic actions and mental natures; wholesome and unwholesome beings do not live together.
Thirteen: Mysterious experiences near death
1. When I fainted, I felt especially comfortable, very light and floating, with no thinking at all in my mind, and very quickly the experiences of my whole life were recalled.
2. I was hit by a car into the air, and in one second I had finished recalling my entire life.
3. When I was drowning, I did not feel the pain of suffocation; instead I felt very calm, and in a few dozen seconds I recalled my whole life.
4. During my car accident, only a few seconds passed, but I recalled everything from childhood to adulthood—even things I had forgotten could be recalled, like a god's-eye view and a slide show.
5. Before death, it feels like the brain's memory data is being deleted, traversed and deleted one by one. Extrapolating from this, it is nothing but a nightmare.
6. Those who have practiced judo know this best: in the second of being choked unconscious, one recalls all the events of one's life with exceptional clarity; upon waking, one feels a long time has passed, when in fact it was only a few seconds.
7. When I was a child with a fever reaching 42 degrees, the doctor pricked my finger with a needle, but I remember it clearly: in those few minutes, I recalled everything I could remember.
8. When I cannot sleep at night, I also recall my whole life; it feels like being an onlooker, as if it were not what I myself experienced.
9. When I was little, I accidentally fell into a river. In the few short seconds before being rescued, I thought of so many things—even what would happen to my grandmother, who watched me grow up, after I died. I was only three or four years old then.
10. I previously proposed a viewpoint: the reason people feel their memories replaying when near death is that, at this final moment, your brain is replaying memories at full capacity, trying to find, within the memories of your whole life, a way to save you.
11. Once while soaking in a hot spring, I stood up, felt dizzy, and fell down. My mind began playing events from childhood to adulthood like a slide show. It felt like a very long time had passed, but in fact I woke up right after falling into the water; my friend said they only saw me suddenly fall down—it should have been only 2–3 seconds.
12. I have experienced drowning twice, once briefly and once at length. At first, choking on water felt painful; then suddenly it no longer hurt, my mind went blank, and before my eyes my life began replaying like a revolving lantern. Then I was very fortunate to be saved by someone who happened to be going out—a case of great fortune and a fated life.
Question to ponder: When approaching death, why does one recall one's whole life in a flash? Why does an accident lasting only a few seconds feel so long?
Fourteen: Can a non-vessel become a vessel?
The so-called vessel refers to a container that holds things; the thing can be material, or it can be wisdom, thought, and views. In the Buddhadharma, "vessel" refers to the latter—that is, a suitable vessel for the Path, meaning the capacity to receive the path of the Buddhadharma. Many people, due to insufficient merit over beginningless kalpas, have insufficient accumulated experience and cannot accept dharmas beyond their own cognition; hence it is said that these people have poor indriya (spiritual faculties) and are not suited to studying deeper dharmas.
So is a non-vessel truly a non-vessel, unable to be transformed into a vessel? The Dharma has no fixed dharma; no dharma is forever unchanging. When conditions and the season arrive, any dharma will change. Some non-vessels conceal great vessels within; as long as the obstructions are skillfully removed and the conditions are gathered together, a non-vessel will become a great vessel. Even stone can be turned into gold—let alone a person who is a non-vessel. How could the capacity of mind and mental nature be fixed and unchanging?
To be honest, sentient beings were originally all non-vessels. For beginningless kalpas they willingly sank in the bitter sea of birth-and-death, not wanting to awaken at all, unable to accept any dharma. It was the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who secretly planted the seeds of Dharma in sentient beings and prompted conditions to ripen early, so that sentient beings gradually became vessels capable of receiving the Buddhadharma. Sentient beings initially all grasp the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as self, so solidly that they cannot be loosened. With respect to the Small Vehicle dharma of non-self, all sentient beings are non-vessels. But can one refrain from teaching the Small Vehicle principle of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) just because sentient beings are non-vessels? Of course not. The Buddha spent twelve years forging sentient beings into vessels, and countless sentient beings realized the fourth fruit of the great arhat—including the non-vessel assembly of non-Buddhists. So whether one is a vessel or a non-vessel also depends on the wisdom and polishing skill of the polisher. One who does not understand the method of polishing will often polish a vessel into a non-vessel, destroying the vessel.
There is a saying in the Buddhadharma that teaching profound dharma to a non-vessel will cause the other party to be unable to believe and accept it, giving rise to slanderous words and deeds. This saying was originally spoken by the Buddha, who worried that sentient beings would slander the Dharma and create evil karma, suffering retribution in hell for long kalpas. The Buddha is compassionate toward sentient beings, but the Buddha also has great wisdom; therefore this saying of the Buddha is not a dead dogma but is applied flexibly according to the person and the time.
The greatly wise Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī was extremely adept at flexible application. He once taught the great prajñā dharma to five hundred bhikṣus of Small Vehicle indriya, and because these five hundred bhikṣus did not believe this great dharma, upon death they all fell into hell. Someone asked Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī: "You clearly knew this would be the outcome—why did you still teach the great prajñā dharma to these five hundred bhikṣus?" Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī replied: "Because I knew that after they entered hell, they would reflect on the reason they fell into hell—that it was because they did not believe the great prajñā dharma. From this they would know how powerful the great prajñā dharma actually is, feel solemn reverence in their hearts, sincerely repent, and thus come out of hell." After coming out of hell, they first ascended to the heavens, then returned to the human world, encountered the great prajñā dharma, and then had the opportunity to study and practice prajñā. Their wisdom advanced rapidly, and before long they realized Mahāyāna bodhi, shortening the kalpas of cultivation and attaining buddhahood ahead of time.
Truly worthy of a bodhisattva of the stage of equality (bhūtatā-samatā-krānta): with great wisdom, he forcibly forged a non-vessel into a great vessel. Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī is a master craftsman at polishing non-vessels, with extraordinary wisdom; his Dharma eye penetrates the conditions of beginningless kalpas. He first destroys the non-vessel, and after melting it down, directly forges it into a great vessel—equivalent to dismantling an unusable non-vessel object and reassembling it into a usable vessel. How fortunate the five hundred bhikṣus were to encounter Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī! Without great merit, how could one encounter such a great condition? If they had met an ignorant, poor teacher who kept silent about Mahāyāna prajñā, the fate of the five hundred bhikṣus would not have had such a great turning point. In summary: vessel or non-vessel—the Dharma has no fixed dharma; if one encounters wholesome conditions, even a non-vessel becomes a vessel.
Fifteen: My Vow of Mantra
I have already built for everyone a heavenly ladder for ascending the peak of the Buddhadharma. This heavenly ladder is the most direct and most secret passage for obtaining all great wisdom, closest, closest to the sun and moon, almost within arm's reach. As long as your physical and mental strength permit, climb up by yourselves and, looking down from on high, observe the workings of the Buddhadharma, and you will obtain great wisdom. In worldly terms, I have provided this secret passage—how much patent fee and usage fee should I charge to be fair and reasonable? In truth, whatever fee I charge would be too little; even if all the jewels in the world were given to me, it would not cover my costs. Since charging any fee now is inappropriate, and besides, I am not very good at spending money and have no need for so much money, I shall cast a long line to catch a big fish and collect the greatest, greatest benefit.
I now make this vow of mantra: whoever receives even a drop of Dharma grace from me shall, throughout the future three great measureless kalpas, follow in my footsteps, emulate my way, practice my practice, disregard any personal benefit, perform the myriad practices of the bodhisattva, and liberate all beings who can be liberated. After the three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, you must also, without shirking hardship and regardless of cost, liberate all beings who can be liberated, without the slightest unwillingness or defiance.
The vow of mantra has been issued, and no one can escape it. It is already too late to run; even those who ran away in the past cannot escape the power of my vow of mantra. All people, whether willing or not, are within the power of my mantra, consciously or unconsciously fulfilling the vow of mantra; no matter how many distant kalpas, none may escape. You may slack off for a day, a year, a lifetime, but you cannot slack off forever under the power of my mantra—the mantra power does not permit it—until you attain buddhahood, until all suffering beings have been liberated.
Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, without attaining buddhahood, has taught and brought forth seven Buddha World-Honored Ones with his bodhisattva body, and will even again bring forth countless Buddha World-Honored Ones with his bodhisattva body. But once Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī attains buddhahood, his buddha-land will cover all buddha-lands; all buddha-lands will be within Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī's buddha-land. And I now do not wish to harvest; I do not want even a speck of return—I want the greatest, greatest return in the future. Those who receive my grace must, for measureless kalpas upon measureless kalpas, emulate my practice and repay my grace, just as I unconditionally emulate the Buddha's practice and repay the Buddha's grace, without complaint. Even if there are complaints, after complaining, you must still disregard the cost and toil on forever—whether before attaining buddhahood or after.
The power of my mantra is a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand times greater than the mantra power of Māra. Receive my mantra, be freed from Māra's mantra, and never again be disturbed by Māra. The power of my mantra subdues Māra's mantra; Māra's power becomes Buddha's power, together blessing practitioners on their way—bravely diligent and never regressing!
