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Peace and Harmony

Peace and harmony. Courtesy. Morality. Contentment. Imagine a world where all these abound. Three thousand years ago, the Buddha described just such a world in the Infinite Life Sutra.

 Wherever the Buddha’s teachings flourish, either in cities or countrysides, people will gain inconceivable benefits.

The land and people will be enveloped in peace.

The sun and moon will shine clear and bright.

Wind and rain will appear at the proper time,

and there will be no disasters.

Nations will be prosperous,

and there will be no need for soldiers or weapons.

People will abide by morality and accord with laws.

They will be courteous and humble.

There will be no thievery or injustice.

The strong will not dominate the weak,

and everyone will naturally receive their fair reward.

The Buddha was not describing one unique land nor was he imagining one. He was speaking of a very real land, one that can be created anytime and anywhere the conditions for it exist. Any land is a manifestation of the minds of the people who live there. When the minds of the people are unsettled and violent, the land will be unsettled and violent. When the minds of the people are pure and peaceful, the land will be pure and peaceful.

The Buddha explained that this is due to the functioning of cause and effect. Simply put, we reap what we sow. Causality is a natural law, not a man-made law. Laws written by men are impermanent: they change as time passes. Natural laws, however, are permanent: they do not change. We believe that since causality is a natural law, there is no external force that determines our consequences. We ourselves do that. Each and every one of us, every moment of our lives.

Our past karmas—our thoughts, speech, and actions—determined our lives today. And just as our lives today are the result of our past karmas, our current karmas—what we think, say, and do today—will shape our futures. 

I am here today because I created the causes to be here. So there is no point in me thinking that I should be somewhere else. If I had destined myself to be elsewhere by planting those causes, I would already be there. If I can truly understand, then I can be at peace, knowing that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing. And with this understanding, I would thus be content and at ease in whatever circumstances I found myself.

We are each responsible for ourselves. We cannot blame another for the circumstances in which we find ourselves. The difficulties and suffering we undergo are due to our own past karmas. These past karmas result in the family that we are born into, the lives we lead, and the country we live in.

Our good karmas lead to favorable results and good rebirths in the cycle of rebirth. Our bad karmas lead to unfavorable results and bad rebirths in the cycle of rebirth. Our pure karmas lead to enlightenment and enable us to transcend the cycle of rebirth.

So karmic actions lead to results, good or bad, and determine the future, good or bad, of the individual who created them. But while the karmic cause will always produce a result, when that result will occur is not known. If the right conditions do not manifest for a long time, the result will lie dormant for as long as it takes those conditions to mature.

But regardless of the time frame involved, the causal link is clear. Thoughts of animosity, closed-mindedness, and pleasing ourselves at the expense of others will result in adverse consequences. Thoughts of contentment, respect, and consideration for others will lead to good consequences.

Our practice is to work on ourselves to eliminate our selfish and negative karmas, and increase the altruistic ones. At every moment in our lives, we can decide what we will think, say, or do in the next. But most of the time we do not consciously make such decisions. Perhaps we are unaware that we can.  Perhaps we are not used to doing so, or maybe we are just not mindful enough.

Or, maybe we have become desensitized to wrongdoings. What’s a little bit more anger? A little bit more hate? A little bit more gossip? After all, everyone is doing it—stealing, coveting, lying. People retort, “Surely, the law of cause and effect does not apply to little indiscretions.”

But it does.

It is a universal law, which means it applies 100 percent—not just 60 percent or 80 percent—of the time. In our desensitization, we conveniently rationalize that small wrong actions are okay to do, that only big ones are truly wrong. So we devise our own diluted law of cause and effect. And we end up with knowing—but not understanding.

Our every action is preceded by a thought, but we are so preoccupied with ourselves and so distracted by the ceaseless bombardment of our thoughts that it would seem that we act without thinking. Too late, we realize that we have once again acted automatically out of negative habits and, consequently, planted another harmful seed.

This is why Great Master Yinguang wrote, “Bodhisattvas fear causes, sentient beings fear results.” Bodhisattvas, beings dedicated to helping all beings end their suffering, understand that we need to be wary of the seeds we are planting, wary of causes. Focusing on results is akin to locking the barn door after the horses have all run away.

Everything we do plants a seed. All the seeds lie dormant, waiting for the proper conditions to mature. If we, as gardeners, plant a seed in rich soil where it will receive the proper amount of sunlight and water, that seed will grow. If we place the seed in a bag and leave it in darkness, nothing will happen. Likewise, all of the seeds in our consciousness are waiting for the right conditions—karmic versions of the soil, sunlight, and water—to mature. When the seed matures, the cause brings forth a result.

But it does not end there.

Cause and effect is a continuous cycle. A cause triggers a result. That result then becomes a new cause, which will trigger another result, and on and on it goes. This chain of causality not only affects us but others as well. We do something and it affects someone else. In their response to our action, they affect yet another person. This creates a wave-like response of causality that moves outwards in an ever-widening circle, just like what results when a single drop of water splashes in the ocean: The ripple effect results in all the other drops of water in the ocean moving.   

Each of us has planted a combination of good seeds and bad seeds. Thus, within each of us lie the seeds for both loving-kindness and treachery, both goodness and unwholesomeness, and both tolerance and animosity. Which ones mature today will depend on our individual conditions.

Realizing all this will help us to value and not selfishly deplete our good fortune, which is a result of the goodness we have done. Instead, we need to share it with others. By sharing our good fortune, we will create even more and thus have even more to share with others in the future.

Causality can help us to understand why good people may undergo endless difficulties, while others who are selfish and uncaring enjoy great wealth and power. Good people who are now suffering had previously planted the seeds for suffering. Now, due to their current conditions, those seeds have matured and suffering occurs.

What of those who enjoy great wealth?

Having created the causes for wealth in their past lives, they are now reaping the benefits. But if they do not now share that wealth with others, they will deplete their good fortune, just like a person who writes checks without depositing more money.

Causality is incredibly complex. Stretching over countless lifetimes, it involves all the beings we have interacted with since time immemorial. It is neither necessary nor feasible for us to now know the precise cause that each result is connected to. The immeasurable value of knowing about causality is that our understanding will enable us to mindfully decide how we need to think, speak, and act.

Instead of being pulled by our karma, we will begin to take control of our lives. With this control, we will be able to become the good people we wish to be. And with this accomplished, we will live in a land where people are virtuous and content, where justice abounds, and all beings dwell in peace.

~ Talk given by Venerable Wuling at the multifaith forum "Many Faiths, Many Cultures: One Australia" at the University of Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia from December 3-4, 2011.   

Faith, Vow, and Practice

At the core of the Pure Land teachings lies three prerequisites, or guiding principles, for our rebirth into the Western Pure Land: faith, vow, and practice. Faith is to have complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Vow is the vow to be reborn in the Western Pure Land. Practice is reciting the Buddha-name as well as living a moral life.

As Great Master Ouyi wrote in his commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, “Without faith, we are not sufficiently equipped to take vows. Without vows, we are not sufficiently equipped to guide our practice. Without the wondrous practice of reciting the Buddha-name, we are not sufficiently equipped to fulfill our vows and to bring our faith to fruition.” 

With faith, vow, and the recitation of the name of Amitabha Buddha, we will be able to be reborn in the Pure Land and never again fall back in our practice. Up until now we have made progress in one lifetime only to fall back for lifetimes after that. This constant progression and retrogression is why it is taking us so long to attain enlightenment.

But once we are in the Pure Land, we will never again fall back, so we will attain our goal much more quickly. And as we are progressing, we will learn the infinite ways in which we can help all those we have vowed to help be liberated from suffering as well.

How Can I Stop My Depressing Thoughts?

Question: What can I do when I become depressed and even think of harming myself?

Response: Dwelling on the painful things in our lives can lead us into depression and even suicidal thoughts. But suicide only delays and increases the suffering, and does nothing to end it.

When I was young, I had appendicitis. As we were getting ready to leave for the hospital, I don't remember whether my father took my hand or I asked him to. But I clearly remember asking him to squeeze my hand, hard. The pain from the appendix was excruciating. But I realized that my father's squeezing my hand to the point it hurt (I can only imagine how difficult this must have been for him) took my mind off the pain from my about-to-burst appendix.

I could not focus on both at the same time.

This memory came to me when I read the following by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda in How to Overcome Your Difficulties:

'“A noted British anatomist was once asked by a student what was the best cure for fear, and he answered, ‘Try doing something for someone.’ The student was considerably astonished by the reply, and requested further enlightenment whereupon his instructor said, ‘You can’t have two opposing sets of thoughts in your mind at one and the same time.’ One set of thoughts will always drive the other out. If, for instance, your mind is completely occupied with an unselfish desire to help someone else, you can’t be harbouring fear at the same time.”

Our feelings arise from what we tell ourselves. Trying to break negative thought patterns is very difficult, but this is what our practice seeks to do: to replace what is bad with what is good. Since we all have our own karmic pasts and habits, we each need to find what works for us. But essentially, we need to break into the current line of thoughts with something that pulls our mind away from what is bothering us.

Essentially, Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda, the anatomist, and I are saying the same thing: replace negative thoughts with positive ones. 

If I can replace one depressing thought with just one caring thought, I will have begun to turn my mind away from sadness or depression towards happiness. And with more of my thoughts arising from my caring for others, my own state of mind will be more firmly rooted in happiness. 

Is this easy?

Of course not.

Is it possible and worthwhile?

Definitely!