Resting on One’s Laurels is Hazardous to One’s Happiness

Once after giving a talk on Buddhism, my hostess said she had not previously heard a monastic talk so much about cause and effect. Thinking back on that, I realized that she had probably not heard many, if any at all, monastics from the schools in Chinese Buddhism. Her background lay primarily with Tibetan Buddhism and Zen.

After Buddhism came to China in 67 AD, the Mahayana teachings were gradually incorporated into the foundation of Confucianism and Taoism. Confucianism emphasizes filial piety and the individual's relationships to other people. Taoism emphasizes cause and effect. So Chinese Buddhism often emphasize the Buddha's teachings of cause and effect. Since my teacher, Ven. Master Chin Kung is from China, he speaks often of causality, and thus so do I.

When I was a teenager and read about cause and effect, it answered the "Big" questions for me. So it was only reasonable that when my conditions matured and I was ready for serious study and practice of Buddhism—three decades after my initial encounter—that I should be drawn to a teacher who spoke so often of cause and effect, and conditions.

Also, I write and talk a lot about causality because I believe it is so important for us to realize how it totally permeates our lives. And since it is so dominant, we need to be constantly vigilant and not rest on our laurels, thinking we've done everything necessary to insure our happiness.

We cannot think that just because something we worked at happened that it will last forever and then stop working at it.

We cannot think that we can stop doing the things we did that won the heart of the person who loves us deeply or of the person who cares about us a great deal and assume they will always love or care about us.

We cannot take anything for granted, thinking it was long meant to be and will thus continue for a long time.

We cannot forget about conditions.

Just as we worked hard in past lifetimes to be able to receive something today, we need to continue working hard to ensure we will still have it tomorrow. If we fail to continue to create good conditions, what we have will be gone. We cannot fall into the trap of thinking something is our due or that we have done everything we were required to do.

We cannot stop thinking the good thoughts, saying the good words, and doing the good things that brought to us the good things we now enjoy, and would be wise to appreciate.

Simple Wisdom

Hear what is said.

Retain what is important.

Speak what is worthy.

Attach to nothing.

The Illusory Mind or the Enlightened Mind

Ordinary beings have an illusory mind, the mind that arises and ceases. In other words, ordinary beings have wandering thoughts. Enlightened beings have true minds that constantly dwell on truth. They do not have wandering thoughts, only deep concentration. Deep concentration is the state without discriminatory wandering thoughts or attachments.

However, this does not mean that we are idle all the time; we continue to do our job with a pure and completely aware mind. When the external environment no longer hinders or affects us, we have attained deep concentration.

Understanding this principle, we will know how to correct our improper behavior. When our six senses encounter the external environment, our thoughts, words, and deeds are improper because our senses follow the external conditions and we allow afflictions to take hold. We have been wrong for countless eons and this is the root of our improper behavior. We have buried our true nature and have allowed afflictions, especially those of views and thoughts, to be dominant. Thus, we have transformed the One True Dharma Realm into the Six Realms of Reincarnation. How are the Six Realms formed? They are formed by our attachments.

The first mistake from the view or thought affliction is our attachment to our bodies as we think that this body is “I”. This is why the Buddha told us there is no self and therefore our attachment to self is wrong. With the initial attachment to self, we have a mistake that is hard to undo. This body is not “I”. This body is something that we possess just like the clothes that we own.

If we understand this, we will realize that humans do not have births or deaths. Death is just like taking off our soiled clothes and birth is like putting on a new set of clothing. In the cycle of reincarnation, our birth and death is like changing clothes.

What then is “self”? In India, some religions believe that the spiritual self is I. In China, we call it the soul. In Buddhism, we call it the spirit. This state of believing that the spiritual self is “I” is higher than that which views the body as “I.” Why is it such an improvement? Because when one believes that when revolving in the cycle of reincarnation the spiritual self takes on a body just like someone takes on a piece of clothing, there is no fear of death. Rather, death is regarded as something quite normal.

If we have accumulated only good karma in this lifetime, then we will be reborn into the Three Good Realms—changing from a human into a heavenly being and having a much more beautiful and dignified appearance, a longer lifespan and greater good fortune. This is to “sow a good cause and reap a good result.” However, if we were to do bad deeds, then our body will change for the worse.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung

Protons, Neutrons, and Quarks

Trying to find new ways to explain what I’ve tried to explain before is always an interesting challenge. In this morning’s online class with some good friends back in Indiana, I was struck by another way to think of how we are not separate.

One of the main teachings in Buddhism is that there is no independent self, we are in actuality, all one. This is one of the most difficult principles to grasp because our eyes tell us we are separate. I’m inside my skin and the rest of you are outside of me and inside your own skin. So we certainly all appear to be separate. And we do look quite different.

But if we think down to the basic building blocks of say protons and neutrons, or even quarks, those are in each of my cells. They are also in the air around me, they are in the window I look through, in the trees beyond the window, in the clouds, and even in the stars that I know are there even if I cannot see them during the day.

The same particles that make up my body are in everything around me. They take different forms: me, the window, the trees, and the sky. But inside of me, my skin that encloses me, and the air next to my skin are all made of the same atomic particles: quarks, neutrons, and protons. So there really is no separation. What comprises me, comprises everything in the universe.

I truly am one with everything.

In the Eye of the Beholder

Ordinary people see everyone as ordinary.

Arhats see everyone as arhats.

Bodhisattvas see everyone as bodhisattvas.

Buddhas see everyone as Buddhas.

Wise people see everyone as teachers.

Pure Land practitioners should see everyone as Amitabha Buddha.

So if we look down on anyone,

we look down on Amitabha Buddha.

If we have conflict with anyone,

we have conflict with Amitabha Buddha.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung