眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

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Dharma Teachings

14 May 2026    Thursday     1st Teach Total 4711

Translate the following Chinese title into an English title\: The Audience Whitewashes the Peace

Like spring: A body full of pus, phlegm, excrement, and urine, wrapped in a skin bag, is adorned as a physical form of "jade-like beauty," and further embellished with love and affection to conceal humanity's innate greed, lust, and depravity. Countless poems and songs praise this, which is itself foolishness, yet under the veneer of ornate words, it is transformed into a display of brilliance—truly an inversion of reality.

The physical body is essentially a machine for producing excrement, urine, pus, and phlegm. Yet, when people lack wisdom, they cling to it with immense attachment. Observe the myriad industries in the world—cosmetics, fashion, hairdressing, health preservation, medical care, food and beverage, culture, entertainment, tourism, and so on—every single one exists to serve this five-aggregate physical body. Their purpose is to immerse sentient beings in worldly pleasures and indulgence. This world is a meticulously designed deception and prison, with the demon king as its architect. Only by cultivating the path, ceasing to crave the enjoyment of the five aggregates (through precepts), and further developing meditative concentration and wisdom, can one see through the demon king's deception. When one realizes that the five aggregates are empty, one can break free from the demon king's prison.

Tables laden with the corpses of various animals are embellished as a "food culture." For thousands of years, the broth in the bowl has harbored resentment as deep as the sea, with hatred hard to quell. The world calls this "blessings" (lu) and regards it as a great pursuit and pleasure of life, mistaking a sea of resentment for a sea of fortune. Observe how many people and industries in the world serve this. If you wish to know the cause of warfare and slaughter in the world, just listen to the sound of butchering at midnight. How many evil deeds have sentient beings committed, and at what great cost, due to the tongue's craving for flavors? Moreover, there are the cravings of the other five sense faculties. The sins of sentient beings are truly endless and inexhaustible. Can we still take pride and joy in being born as humans? The human digestive system is a cremation system; the gastrointestinal tract is the realm of hungry ghosts. Driven by their karmic forces, sentient beings have no choice but to eat. Only by learning the Buddha's teachings and cultivating the path can one transform one's own karma and change dietary habits. For instance, heavenly beings do not eat food; they are satisfied by merely smelling fragrances—how wonderful and convenient that is. Otherwise, as people now eat sheep, in the future sheep will eat people. The cycle of rebirth continues without end, wars never cease, and suffering persists without respite.

The evil world of the five turbidities is embellished by ignorance and self-view into an era of peace and prosperity. Sentient beings blindly pursue glory, wealth, and status. With corrupt minds and filthy means, they construct noble identities, positions, and reputations, turning them into capital for ostentation and for enjoying the pleasures of the five aggregates—essentially, capital for being bound within the three realms, weaving a cocoon around themselves. The more solid and refined this shackle is made, the more pride one takes in it. Is this not an inversion? If one does not crave glory or wealth, and does not cling to the various feelings of the five aggregates that arise from them, one will not be bound by them and can attain freedom. If one does not contact or crave sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, or mental objects, then one will not receive or generate feelings of the five aggregates. Without receiving, there is no craving; without craving, there is no grasping; without grasping, there is no becoming; without becoming, there is no birth; without birth, there is no aging, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, or despair. The chain of the twelve links of dependent origination is thus broken, and one attains liberation from suffering. This can also be understood more simply: not craving the six sense objects with the six sense faculties is called precepts. From precepts arises meditative concentration, and from concentration arises wisdom, enabling one to be free from suffering. Only the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, out of compassion, unable to bear sentient beings' such confusion and inversion, repeatedly descend from the clouds. They open the wisdom eye of sentient beings, transform their base bones, sever their self-views, and lead them to fight Mara without fear—ethereal and majestic, awe-inspiring and dignified.


——Master Sheng-Ru's Teachings
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