Source of Happiness

In helping others, there are the giving of wealth, the giving of teachings, and the giving of fearlessness. Wealth refers to resources we can spare.

Frankly, living a good life—a natural life, a carefree life, that is, a life of high quality—does not necessarily mean living a luxurious life. If your life is natural, carefree, and happy, then it is a perfect life. So long as we have enough food and clothing, we are free of worries. Why do we need extra things? If we have enough food to eat and clothing to wear, and a house that shelters us from harsh weather, we are fine physically and mentally.

If we have extra, we can help others. Helping others is a source of happiness. So, we should enthusiastically and voluntarily provide material resources to all those who need them. This is the giving of wealth.

We should give without attachment. We should not keep thinking about how many good deeds we have done, or else the rewards will just be mundane rewards, and wisdom will not arise. After we have given, our minds should be pure, without any attachment.

Do not think about the giving. Then we will have true merit, which will help us achieve meditative concentration and wisdom.

A reward that helps us achieve concentration and wisdom is a merit. A reward that does not is not a merit.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung

Heavy Load, No Load

Two monks were strolling by a stream on their way home to the monastery. They were startled by the sound of a young woman in a bridal gown, sitting by the stream, crying softly. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she gazed across the water. She needed to cross to get to her wedding, but she was fearful that doing so might ruin her beautiful handmade gown.

In this particular sect, monks were prohibited from touching women. But one monk was filled with compassion for the bride. Ignoring the sanction, he hoisted the woman on his shoulders and carried her across the stream--assisting her journey and saving her gown. She smiled and bowed with gratitude as he noisily splashed his way back across the stream to rejoin his companion.

The second monk was livid. "How could you do that?" he scolded. "You know we are forbidden even to touch a woman, much less pick one up and carry her around!"

The offending monk listened in silence to a stern lecture that lasted all the way back to the monastery. His mind wandered as he felt the warm sunshine and listened to the singing birds. After returning to the monastery, he fell asleep for a few hours. He was jostled and awakened in the middle of the night by his fellow monk. "How could you carry that woman?" his agitated friend cried out. "Someone else could have helped her across the stream. You were a bad monk!"

"What woman?" the tired monk inquired groggily.

"Don't you even remember? That woman you carried across the stream," his colleague snapped.

"Oh, her," laughed the sleepy monk. "I only carried her across the stream. You carried her all the way back to the monastery."

My Fear, My Shame, My Choice

The following is an edited version of a recent group discussion:

Andrea: In the recorded talk we listened to today, you spoke of shame. When I am criticized and feel guilt or shame, even though I can consciously say all the right things, there is still a being inside me looking for a hole to crawl into. So when it comes to guilt or shame, I find that it’s a tremendous exercise to be able to not recoil from that feeling. For me, this is much more difficult to deal with than anger.

Ven. Wuling: First, I think a good number of people feeli like you do. When anger flares up, we may find it easier to calm down than to to eliminate the guilt over having become angry. But as difficult as it is to work with shame, it is good to feel it when we have done something wrong because then we will feel badly. Frankly, unless we feel badly, we will keep repeating our mistakes without any qualms. But the risk is that we will hold on to the shame and become so caught up in it that we can no longer function. And because all we want to do is look for that hole to hide in, we can’t be mindful. That leads us to make more mistakes, and so we keep perpetuating this cycle.

This is when we need to use the compassion that we feel for others and try to feel that same compassion for ourselves. Although our goal is to awaken and become a perfect being, at this point in time we are very far from perfection. We need to keep reminding ourselves how to act. Once we have realized our wrongdoings, we then can decide how to not to repeat them. But we need to stop going over and over unfortunate situations or else we’ll just keep planting more seeds for shame, or anger, in the future.

So we need to gently pull our mind away from what has happened and redirect it to what we are doing right now. We use our ability to concentrate our thoughts on what we choose to rather then allow our mind to wander willy-nilly. We can use the same techniques for managing our thoughts of mind-numbing shame that we use to manage our anger or other destructive emotions.

Andrea: Like fear! Fear can be an underlying emotion to anger or shame. And something like fear can be much more insidious than anger. It has a different energy. Without detection, it can drain us. And while we know we shouldn’t return to our anger, there is some sense that we should return to our shame, to explore it by going over and over it until it threatens to drown us. And all the while we think we’re doing the right thing.

So to realize that our way of always having done this is neither helpful nor healing is very important. To hear you say “don’t panic” but instead look at where we are, see what needs correcting, and then move the mind back to a calm awareness is so powerful for me. In the past when I moved my mind elsewhere, a voice would pop up and say “No, you’re trying to escape.” Then I feel guilty about having tried to escape!

Ven. Wuling: What we need to do is learn from our mistakes. Then we try to return to a sense of calm, an awareness of what is happening in this moment. An awareness of our thoughts and actions. Doing this, we will be aware of when fear starts to creep in because fear is the handmaiden of many destructive emotions. And as you said, it is more sinister and is often less noticeable. And as each of us knows, fear can immobilize us.

When the Buddha spoke about the three kinds of giving, he spoke of the giving of fearlessness. So fear is a major problem for us. Fear can arise because we do not want to lose something tangible, something outside us. Or it can be fear of losing something within us. We may fear the loss of “myself,” a carefully crafted concept of whom I am.

We don’t yet understand there really isn’t anything to fear. Fear of losing a possession? If I am supposed to have something and it is taken from me, it will come back to me. Or another will replace it. Fear of losing a loved one? The sad reality is that we will eventually be separated from all those we love. Fear of aging and illness? They are a natural part of living. Trying to delay or avoid them is trying to hold off what comes to all those who live.

Andrea: It feels like to take in new ideas to our cup, if you will, we have to first empty what is already in it. But if fear is present, we also feel diminished. And now we are expected to empty our cup of what feels familiar. So this results in more fear.

Ven. Wuling: I think it’s so difficult to let go of what is already in our cup because no matter how unhelpful and damaging it is, it is still what is in our cup. And so it is very difficult to empty the cup until we are confident that what we will put in instead is truly better.

David: It requires trust. Or faith. And it can no longer be merely a concept. This brings us to what we heard in today’s talk on Changing Destiny. We are not hopelessly trapped by our karmas created in our past lifetimes for we can change what we destined. We do so by doing good deeds, by taking charge of our lives, and acting with wisdom. Is this too simplistic?

Ven. Wuling: Well, it is very simple. We have a choice. While we are here due to the force of our karma and we cannot change our past, we can change how it impacts out future through what we do in the present. It depends on how well we are able to focus on what we are thinking, saying, and doing.

In Changing Destiny, Yuan Liaofan had gradually stopped worrying or even thinking about things. So he excelled at reducing his wandering thoughts. He had developed the ability to direct his thoughts. We are still struggling to do this.

He also focused on good deeds. We can also ask ourselves what can I do right now to help others. And if nothing presents itself, then I can at least determine how to not do anything bad. How can I not create any more problems? If I’m not with anyone, what can I do to have good thoughts, not harmful ones?

We can pull our mind away from anything disruptive or negative or harmful to us or to other people or beings. We have the choice. Initially, redirecting our thoughts is really tough because our mind says “well that was all well and good but I want to go back to where I was because it’s comfortable there. And easy.” So we have to gently pull it away again and say “That may be true but it’s not where I choose to be.”

So it is very simple. It is to do nothing that is bad, to do everything that is good, and to purify the mind.

But this is so difficult to do because we have so many bad habits. Even high-level bodhisattvas still have habits. They have learned not to act on them, but the habit remains. So we can see how difficult it is to break our habits. We need a toolbox of ways to pull us away from harmful karmas and return us to good ones.

Jean: And we need to know the combination to the lock on the toolbox!

Ven. Wuling: The combination is very simple: t-h-e-c-a-l-m-m-i-n-d. When we calm the mind, the Buddha-nature that is already within us, that has all the answers within it, has everything we need within it, can arise and function. We will find all we need inside each of us. But first, we need to calm the mind.

Imagine you’re looking into a pool of murky water, which you are throwing rocks into. It’s so muddy, you can’t see the bottom. But when you stop stirring up the water and allow it to become calm and clear, you can see all those wonderful tools lying at the bottom of the pool. All we need to do is reach in and pluck one out. But we have to calm the pool—the mind—to see which one we’ll use in this situation and which one we’ll use in another.

Andrea: I’m sitting here thinking about guilt and shame and have realized how deeply implanted in us is the myth of the garden of Eden, of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden.

This Buddhist teaching speaks of what is most deep, what is whole. At my very deepest, I have not been cast out of the garden, but rather at the deepest part of my being is the concept of God or Christ or Buddha-nature. I think the personal terror of annihilation is that somehow at the very deepest we are lost and somehow we have to add something to our unworthiness. But to know the deepest part is intrinsically good and whole is totally transformative.

Jean: Yes! It makes perfect sense. It took me a long time to accept that the Buddha-nature was always within me. That these feelings that when I was a “bad girl” my Buddha-nature would dissolve and that I was totally bad all the way through were wrong. To know that I carry and can be in touch with the Buddha-nature is a wonderful security. It dissipates much of my fear. And it makes it easier to be good!

Ven. Wuling: I think part of the reason we do not want to examine what we do is that we are afraid of what we will find. That if we look very deeply, we will find something truly frightening, something that we are not going to like. So to avoid looking, we frantically rush around doing things so we’re too busy to have the time to do what we know we should. And so we waste our time, our lives. And we fail to realize that deep within is our own Buddha-nature.

Andrea: This is extraordinary because this is more than asking what sins, what things can I correct. There is something here deeper than discovering that I am actually more hostile than I had thought. It’s a fear of being irredeemably defective or perhaps just unable to be effective.

Ven. Wuling: Flawed, cast out of the garden for a good reason.

Andrea: That’s what I think many hold in their hearts.

Ven. Wuling: And so, afraid of what we suspect we might find, we haven’t looked. We have spent our time and energy on all the wrong things.

But now we have the combination. Now we can make different choices. We can choose to let go of fear and to change from within.

To Respect all Buddhas

Of Samantabhadra’s Ten Great Vows, the first is to respect all Buddhas. This is to cultivate respect. To whom do “all Buddhas” refer? They refer to all beings, not just those who have attained Buddhahood. There are past Buddhas, present Buddhas, and future Buddhas. Future Buddhas refer to all beings. Not only sentient beings, but plants and minerals are also Buddhas-to-be.

This is the level [of teaching] in the Avatamsaka Sutra, which says “Sentient and non-sentient beings all have the same Buddha-wisdom.” Not only sentient beings—that is, animals—but plants and minerals can also attain Buddhahood. Therefore, we have to be sincere and respectful to people, to things, and to objects. This is the practice of Samantabhadra.

If you still have any discriminations or wandering thoughts, then you do not have sincerity and respect. Cultivating the Six Perfections with sincerity, purity, and

nondiscrimination is indeed cultivating the Ten Great Vows. If we still have [some degree of] discrimination and attachment, then we are cultivating the Six Perfections, not the Ten Great Vows.

So the difference between the Ten Great Vows and the Six Perfections is the degree of purity. In cultivating the Ten Great Vows, the practitioner’s mind is truly pure and nondiscriminatory.

~ Ven. Master Chin Kung

We Need to Show Before We Can Receive

"One day Siddhartha [the future Sakyamuni Buddha] left Rajagrha to go to the foot of the mountain where many hermits and sages dwelt. On the way, he saw dust falling down from the mountain amidst the pounding sound of animal hoofs. Going closer, he found a large flock of sheep and goats moving along like a bank of clouds. They were being helplessly driven toward the city.

At the rear of the flock, a little lamb was straggling, limping along painfully, its leg wounded and bleeding. Siddhartha noticed the little lamb and its mother walking in front of it constantly looking back in deep concern for her offspring. His heart was filled with pity. So Siddhartha took the little lamb with the wounded leg up into his arms, gently caressing it while walking along behind the flock.

When he saw the shepherds, he asked: 'Where are you driving this herd to? They should normally be driven back in the evening! Why do you drive them back at noontime?' The shepherds replied: 'The King is holding a big sacrifice today, and we have been ordered to bring one hundred sheep and goats each to the city at noontime.' Siddhartha said: 'I'll go with you.' He carried the little lamb in his arms all the way to the city. Walking behind the flock of sheep, Siddhartha reached the city; then he went toward the palace, where the sacrifice was being held.

The King and a group of priests of the fire-worshipping cult were chanting hymns, while a big fire was burning on the altar. They were about to kill the flock of sheep as a sacrifice, but when the leader of the fire-worshippers raised his sword to sever the head of the first sheep, Siddhartha quickly moved up and stopped him...In a grave and solemn manner, Siddhartha...said to King Bimbisara: 'Your Majesty, Don't let these worshippers destroy the lives of these poor animals.'

Then he spoke to people who were standing as witnesses to this event: 'All living creatures cling to life. Why should people exert brutal force upon these friendly animals? The suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death will naturally take away their beloved lives.' Siddhartha continued: 'If human beings expect mercy, they ought to show mercy, for, according to the law of Cause and Effect, those who kill will, in turn, be killed. If we expect happiness in the future, we must do no harm to any kind of creature whatsoever. For whoever sows the seeds of sorrow and agony will undoubtedly reap the same fruits.'

The manner in which Siddhartha spoke was peaceful and dignified and full of compassion yet, at the same, forceful and determined. He completely changed the intention and belief of the King and the fire-worshippers.

So King Bimbisara asked Siddhartha to stay in his country to teach the people to be merciful...Siddhartha was deeply grateful, but since he had not yet attained his goal of Complete Enlightenment, he gracefully declined the invitation and departed."

~ A Pictorial Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha