Hundred Dharmas (Lesson 7)

The Shastra on the Door to Understanding the Hundred Dharmas

DHARMA TALK 7 – DHARMAS BELONGING TO THE MIND

- Twenty Derivative Afflictions (随烦恼二十)

BY MASTER JINGLIAN

 

To all honourable ones and laypeople who are present:

 

Firstly, we answer some questions that we received yesterday.

 

Q: Master Jing Lian, yesterday you mentioned in your lecture about the greedy love / craving for relationship (亲情的贪爱) of the Formless Realm (In the first evening, we discussed that the Desire Realm, Form Realm and Formless Realm have different greedy loves for desire, love and relationship respectively. The Formless Realm beings are attached to relationship. So this question is about the greedy love for family relationship in the Formless Realm). I have been dedicating merits to my late parents. Recently, I was thinking that my late parents would now have become part of the sentient beings in my surrounding. I keep thinking about them like that but the memory of them is getting lesser. However, I still think I should not forget them. In this case, is this the greedy love for family relationship in the Formless Realm?

 

Ans: Yes, this is the greedy love for the family members which we find it hard to cut away.

 

 

Q: The second question. You mentioned that the seeing ability is the function of the non-arising and non-perishing True Nature and that we can only realize the latter from the phenomena which arise and perish. This reminds me what Master had mentioned in a 3-day Zen Meditation course held in Singapore and are they based on the same principle? From the practice of breathing in-out, long-short, coarse-fine, we observe mindfully the arising and perishing, impermanence and so forth. This continuous practice is to train our concentration, which is then used to observe the arising and perishing phenomena that reveal on our 6 sense faculties. From this observation, we realise the arising, perishing and impermanence of the phenomenal world. And then not to react or respond to them. Is it like that? Is this what is meant by ‘The True mind is not attached to any attribute but can honestly reflect all phenomena, without arising any thought or attachment’? Is the meaning like that? May the Master please explain! With gratitude.

 

Ans: The objective of the practice mentioned in the 3-day Zen Meditation is to attain nirvana. The condition for attaining nirvana is to realize ‘Non-Self’ and this is the objective. So how can I see and realize Non-self? The answer is you can find it by observing the arising and perishing phenomena in this Phenomenon Realm and realize that all phenomena are impermanent as they arise and perish and ‘I also arise and perish and impermanent’. Thus you attain Non-self. This is different from the discussion on the first evening where we mentioned about observing the arising and perishing in the Phenomenon Realm to realize the non-arising and non-perishing of the Noumenon Realm / Reality Nature Realm (本体界). There is a difference in the state. The 3-day Zen Meditation is practising the foundation of mindfulness, Mindfulness of the Body (身念住), which allows you to realise Non-self but cannot reveal the non-arising and non-perishing True Mind or the Reality Nature Realm. Regarding the phrase ‘True mind is not attached to all attributes, True Mind is beyond thoughts (真心离一切相，真心离念)’, it means to let the false thinking mind return to the True Mind and this involves severing Ignorance which is a different state. Yesterday, we are talking about severing Confused / Deluded Views and Thoughts (见思惑) with the practice of Mindfulness of the Body or Four Bases of Mindfulness / Satipatthana (四念住). This practice cannot sever Sand-Dust Confusion / Delusion (尘沙惑) and Ignorance Confusion / Delusion (无明惑) and thus cannot truly see the True Mind as it is a different state. Yesterday, we were talking about the Two Vehicle Practitioners, namely Śrāvaka and Pratyeka-buddha Vehicle, who sever Confused / Deluded Views and Thoughts but have not severed Sand-Dust Confusion / Delusion (尘沙惑) and Ignorance Confusion / Delusion (无明惑). So they cannot truly see the True Mind and its Nature (明心见性) and thus have not seen their Original True / Inherent Nature or Inherent Existence (真心本性).

 

 

Q: I have not attended the classes on “Contemplation of Impurities (不净观)” expounded by Master. However, I have the book “Contemplation of Impurities” written by Master. Can I practise according to the content of this book?

 

Ans: In principle, it is alright. If you have any questions, you can still ask me. If you want to be more assured, then it is better to wait for the DVD on “Contemplation of Impurities” which we will be releasing. After watching the DVD, you can start practising and then it would be more accurate. Before that, you can start practising by memorising the thirty-two contents of hairs, furs, nails, teeth, skin and so on. Memorise them by heart first.

 

 

Q: I have a second question. Can Greedy Love be subdued with Bodhi mind? For example, when encountering the opposite sex that causes strong desire to arise, can we treat this object of desire as a kind mother in our past life? Is there anything wrong in this method?

 

Ans: Do you think this way of visualising is correct? That is to visualise this woman whom he strongly desires, as his kind mother in his past life. In the Mahayana / exoteric Buddhism, there is such a saying, ‘Treat all sentient beings as my father and mother’. So you can visualize this way to subdue the greedy love for them.

 

 

Q: The third question. Can we practise “Contemplation of Impurities” and Bodhicitta (菩提心) at the same time? Or is there an order of sequence to follow?

 

Ans: You can practise both of them at the same time. However, if you don’t have a renouncing heart (出离心) as a basis, you would have difficulty to generate your Bodhicitta, because you still have the greedy love / craving for the three realms and the mind does not really want to leave the three realms. So at this time, the Bodhicitta that you generate is impossible to be complete and perfect because your renouncing heart has not raised. So Contemplation of Impurity (不净观) is used to cultivate a renouncing heart, especially towards renouncing the greedy love in the mind; the heart to renounce the greedy love for the three realms. Then from this renouncing heart, one can raise Bodhicitta easily and more perfectly. Before raising the renouncing heart, can we practise generating Bodhicitta? It is allowed but the result is not as good as one who has raised the renouncing heart. You can still practise them at the same time but we just need to know that renunciation is the foundation for Bodhicitta.

 

 

All the questions have been answered.

 

Then we shall continue to discuss today’s topic on Twenty Derivative Afflictions

(隨煩惱), the fifth category under “Dharmas Belonging to the Mind (心所有法)”.

 

Why is it called derivative afflictions (隨煩惱)? Because they derive from fundamental afflictions (根本煩惱), and depending on the different ways they are arisen, there are classified into Major-grade Derivative Afflictions (大随烦恼), Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions (中随烦恼) and Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions (小随烦恼).

 

Minor-grade Derivative Affliction (小隨煩惱) arises independently and individually and so its extent of coverage is the smallest. When one such affliction arises, the others do not arise and happen at the same time. So their extent of coverage is the smallest. There are a total of 10 types of Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions and they arise separately.

 

Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions do not arise separately but occur simultaneously. Once you have an unwholesome thought or bad intention, a lack of remorse and lack of shame will arise simultaneously. Therefore there are two intermediate-grade derivative afflictions namely, lack of remorse and lack of shame. The reason why we commit unwholesome deeds and harbor bad thoughts in our mind is because the heart has no shame and remorse. Therefore as long as an unwholesome intention or thought arises, there is a lack of remorse and shame at the same time. So we know that the extent of coverage for Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions is bigger than that of Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions. This is because the latter arises individually and separately with one at a time. In the Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions, when an evil intention or a bad thought arises, there will be a lack of remorse and lack of shame arising at the same time.

 

The extent of coverage for Major-grade Derivative Afflictions is even bigger. A few of these afflictions can arise at the same time and they also correspond to the four delusions or basic afflictions of the 7th Consciousness. Can you still remember? The 7th Consciousness is called Manas Consciousness and it means ‘Defiled Mind’ in Sanskrit. ‘Defiled’ means to be always building connections or interacting with four delusions? Can you say them out? The four delusions are “I love or I greed”, “I delude or self-delusion”, “My views”, “My Ego or self-conceit”. ‘Mind’ means its ability to constantly review, think and measure (恒审思量), creating Self attachment by discriminating each and every perceivable phenomenon from the 8 Consciousness. ‘Constantly (恒)’ means the non-stop activities of the 7^th Consciousness to create Self attachment by discriminating each and every perceivable phenomenon from the 8 Consciousness and also non-stop interacting with the four delusions. So now we know where the Self attachment of the 7^th Consciousness come from. It comes from the non-stop thought after thought of “I greed”, “I delude”, “My views”, “My Ego” that has never ceased.

 

The Major-grade Derivative Afflictions correspond to these four delusions or basic afflictions and so we know it is the most difficult to sever. Why is that so? They come along in our life and we are born with them. These so-called inferior roots (劣根性) are innate in us. They constantly interact with the four delusions of the 7th Consciousness and so they have the widest extent of coverage / effect in our lives. In addition, a few of these afflictions can arise simultaneously and because their extent of coverage / effect is the widest, we named it as Major-grade Derivative Afflictions.

 

Today, we are going to introduce the 10 types of Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions.

 

The first one is “resentment”. It means the anger of resentment (忿怒) that brews from indignant and how does it arise? It arises when you are not satisfied with a current situation and instantaneously, this encounter fills your heart with emotions of dissatisfaction. This is called resentment. It can happen in any situation and as long as the condition surfaces, those emotions of dissatisfaction are ignited. That is called resentment.

 

For example, when you were watching television that broadcasted a riot a few days ago and then it was being suppressed subsequently. The reaction from most people would be, "How can this happen!" When watching some bloody or inhumane scenes, there is this surge of energy or Qi that comes from the heart and this is called resentment. Next, he began to criticize and speak out his views such as ‘It should not be like this’, ‘It should not be like that’ or ‘How can it be done like this’, ‘how can it be done like that’. The entire body, mouth and mind karma, is created from a thought of resentment. This is the anger of resentment.

Or when you are not of the same opinion with someone, the conversation ended as a heated argument. But why would this happen? It is because the anger of resentment has arisen in the emotions of that person. Or when the parents are teaching their children, very often the anger of resentment arises, right? "How many times have I told you and you just turn a deaf ear to it" This kind of emotion is also anger of resentment. As long as there is a condition in front of you that caused the feeling of indignant, then that is the anger of resentment. This is the moment when a situation has arisen to test us.

 

But sometimes even when there is no situation or condition, your heart has an inexplicable frustration and you can feel a stomach full of complaints. By then, everything does not please your eyes or heart and you become impatient with everything. Some people feel grouchy when they just wake up. That is called ‘bed-rising blues’. When he wakes up, he has this inexplicable bad mood and is impatient with whoever speaks to him. That is because his heart has been brewing the anger of resentment and the emotions of resentment are already there.

 

So, regardless of the external conditions, the instantaneous anger of resentment such as the feeling of indignation or dissatisfaction, abhorrence, rejection, dislike, discontent or feeling unpleasant to one’s eyes or heart, belongs to resentment. This is the first aspect that defines your mood at that instant of contact.

 

If you are not able to calm your mood even though all things have passed, this means that you have not gotten over it and still hold it in your heart. In that case, it has gone into the second stage, which is known as "hatred" (恨). You already have hatred in your heart.

 

For example, you had an argument yesterday and it should be fine after the quarrel, but you still hold a grudge. So we often say that person will hold a grudge or remember the hatred. That kind of hate is the second stage we are talking about. Hatred means to hold on to the hate. Even though the happenings have passed, his anger has not dissipated but dwells within his heart. Gradually, it will turn into a kind of hatred in the heart.

 

If this kind of emotion cannot be relieved but held over a long time, regardless of whether it is a person or an incident, whenever he thinks of that person or incident, his body and mind become hot with rage. “Rage” (恼) is the third stage and it can cause our body and mind to be raging hot.

 

So we now know there is a difference in intensity between resentment, hatred, and rage. At the point of contact with a temporary dissatisfaction is "resentment". However, if you still hold a grudge afterward, this will proceed to the stage of "hatred". Every time when you recall it, your body and mind will become hot with rage. That is the stage of "rage". Therefore, if one is often resentful, hateful or full of rage, it is easy to have high blood pressure, arthritis and joint inflammation. Anyway, whatever pain in the body, is generally related to resentment, hatred and rage. Those are the retributions of anger.

 

Resentment, hatred and rage correspond to anger. Why are they called "derivative afflictions”? Because they come from the fundamental affliction (根本煩惱) of anger. Therefore, resentment, hatred and rage are parts of anger, which is one of the fundamental afflictions.

 

So the karma of anger is pain. As long as you have any pain in your body, that is the karma of anger or resentment, hatred and rage. Arthritis is about painful joints with inflammation. High blood pressure leads to headache and dizziness. If someone with high blood pressure encounters situations of resentment, hatred and rage, his body and mind will heat up and result in a stroke. Many people, who have high blood pressure, suffer from a stroke. So stroke is also caused by long-term accumulation of resentment, hatred and rage. Once he encounters a situation that drives his pent-up emotions, that energy of anger rushes straight into the brain to cause blockage. This is how a stroke develops.

 

Also, it takes a long time to form cancer, and what causes it? The accumulation of resentment, hatred and rage can easily cause all kinds of cancer. Although cancer has its pathological reasons, in terms of emotions, it means that he has been angry for a long time and is not able to dispel the anger. So he often holds hatred in his heart and is unable to dispel the hateful thoughts. When he recalls the matter, his body and mind will be hot with rage. Whether he has been wronged or has deep enmity with someone, he just cannot get over it and harbours hatred. This long period of tying knots of resentment causes cancer to form.

 

Therefore, the real psychological reason for cancer is prolonged pent-up emotions. So if we want to help cancer patients, in addition to taking medicine and receiving chemotherapy, just try to make him happy, talk to him and find out the grievances in his heart that have not been released. We try to help him untie his grievances or resentment knots in his heart one by one and his condition will soon be improved. The energy and blood have been stagnant for a long time and so will not flow smoothly. This causes stagnation here and there and after a long period of time, it becomes cancer. Depending on which internal organ has the stagnation, cancer will be formed in that organ. This shows that his long-standing resentment, hatred, and rage reside in that part of the body. Different kinds of resentment, hatred and rage reside in different parts of the body.

 

Therefore, we try if we can untie the grievance or resentment knots that have been residing in his mind for a long time. If he can untie them one by one, his cancer will recover quickly. This is the real reason behind his sickness. The Buddha Dharma says, “Everything comes from the mind”. When one changes one’s mind and the mind changes the phenonema, one is like an Enlightened One. In Shurangama Sutra, there is a quote that says “When one’s mind can change phenomena, one is like an Enlightened One.” If you can understand all phenomena arise from causes and conditions, are arising-and-perishing and impermanent, so their inherent existence is Empty. It is through this understanding that you can truly untie the resentment knots in the mind.

 

Therefore, when we talk about resentment, hatred, and rage, they are the contributive parts that make up the anger in us. If you often have the feeling resentment, hatred, and rage, you will have difficulty to hold a mind to give happiness (慈心) to others. This is what we have said before, “Anger obstructs the mind to give happiness ‘瞋心障慈’ and Harming obstructs the mind from extricating the suffering of others ‘害障悲’”. Resentment, hatred and rage are all related to anger and they obstruct us from arising the mind to give happiness (慈心) to others.

 

The frequent feeling of resentment, hatred, and rage will result in the creation of many negative body, speech and mind karma. In the future, we will have to bear the inexhaustible sufferings ourselves. Therefore, suffering is the result of bad karmic deeds that we have to bear ourselves in the future.

 

So how do we treat it? In addition to believing the truth of the karmic retribution, it is also necessary to contemplate more about the principle of Emptiness. When you are about to have the feeling of resentment, hatred, and rage, immediately contemplate the arising and perishing phenomena. When this energy or ‘Qi’ arises up, watch it and then it will disappear. When you think of something unhappy, again watch the thought arising and then disappearing away. You watch it arises and disappears. So what does this imply? Whatever that arises and perishes is impermanent. Therefore the emotions of resentment, hatred and rage cannot be grasped.

 

If you can generate the Bodhi Mind, that is even better! When you have the feeling of resentment, hatred and rage, how do you generate the Bodhi Mind? Now everyone is good at generating the Bodhi Mind. Generate the thoughts, “May all the resentment, hatred and rage of all beings ripen upon my body. Hope that all sentient beings will be free from the feelings of resentment, hatred and rage.” We can generate the Bodhi Mind in this way. In earlier discussion on anger, we also mentioned that this is the fastest way to clear karma and accumulate merits. This can also transform the existing emotions of resentment, hatred and rage into the power of Bodhi Mind and thus increasing its merits. It can also help us eradicate the karmic obstruction of resentment, hatred and rage in countless, past eons. It is also because of your thought of loving-kindness and the generation of Bodhi Mind that karmic obstructions of limitless eons are eradicated and merits of Bodhi Mind are accumulated. At the same time, we can also realise the Emptiness nature because now you understand that the inherent nature of resentment, hatred, and rage cannot be grasped and have experienced the principle of Emptiness, bringing yourself a step closer to attaining Non-self. Therefore, in this way, we are not afraid of losing our temper. In the process of losing our temper, there is even a chance that we penetrate or enter into Emptiness or grow our Bodhicitta and continuously growing it.

 

Of course, we hope that we will not have anger one day as cultivators should always have a mind that is peaceful and happy. So when we are going to be emotional, like going to become angry and brewing that kind of frustration, we should stop it and not allow it to go into the more serious stages of hatred and rage. When one’s body and mind is raging, it is already very serious. So those who have strong ability in calm abiding and insight meditation (止观); as in the skill of knowing awareness is very strong, he would know the kind of emotions that he is going through every instant.

 

Some people are depressed but they are not aware. No matter what people say to him, somehow, he is impatient and has already started to be angry. So his stress resistance level is so low that he will be pissed off by one little thing and blow up a temper. Others would wonder, “How weird! Why is he so bad-tempered?” In fact, he is always cranky. Understand? Usually, he has a chest full of anger and his mood is already not good on normal days, but he is not aware of that. He feels frustrated the whole day but cannot understand why he is so bad-tempered. However, a practitioner can immediately transform any bad mood because his good knowing awareness can pick up the slightest emotion that arises. In any case, a genuine practitioner does not get upset easily if his skill is good. So you will know the level of your practice by looking at how often you get emotionally upset. If you get angry for no reason and without any provocation, that means your practice skill still have room for improvement.

 

So, how do we practise? When you start to feel that your bad mood is arising, quickly practise the contemplation of Compassion, generate Bodhicitta or contemplate the inherent nature of anger is Empty. We can quickly turn that troubled emotions into joy and let your heart be filled with compassion so as to radiate and immerse the surroundings in compassion. Your compassion can be extended to the surrounding environment around you and your home will have a compassionate magnetic field. Understand? This requires you to spread the power of compassion from your heart.

 

So, we have to check our mind everyday, to see if it is filled with the power of compassion, which is joy. Since only when you feel happy and in the good mood, then you will hope others share the same feelings. If you are afflicted, you will feel impatient towards everyone and therefore it is impossible to wish them happiness. If I am not happy, I hope to help you remove the sufferings; but I am suffering so much and so will not be in the mood to give happiness or help others who are suffering. This is because I am not happy and am suffering a lot too. So if we want to raise the compassionate mind, we should always let our heart be filled with the power of compassion. Then you will naturally care for the people around you and they will naturally be influenced by your joy and also become happy. Being genuinely concerned with their suffering, you then seek solutions to eradicate their sufferings with the wisdom of Buddha Dharma.

 

Therefore, the practitioners have high alertness. When you sense a little bad emotion, you should tune it. Don't let it turn into the more serious hatred and rage, which are accumulated over a long period of time. Resentment, as mentioned earlier, is only the immediate and current dissatisfaction, and so it is easier to deal with because it is a very slight emotion of dissatisfaction at the moment towards the current situation. So this dissatisfaction can be quickly tuned back. However, when that emotion changed to hatred, it will be more difficult to resolve. Right? When that resentment and anger cannot be alleviated and continue to brew and accumulate, the resulting hatred and anger will be more difficult to deal with.

 

If it is not anger, then it is hatred. Then it turns into knots of grievance and raging heat of the body and mind. At this stage, it will be more difficult to resolve. So we hope that when it is only a little bit of emotion at the beginning, we will nail it and change our thoughts, transforming it into joy and compassion. In this way, it can be resolved very fast. Learn to always generate the Bodhicitta on a regular basis. When one is in a bad mood, generate the Bodhicitta and hope that all the unhappiness in all beings ripens upon oneself and hope that all beings are very happy. In this way, you will be happy and at the same time truly make others happy. Therefore, raising the Bodhi Mind is a very good method of practice.

 

These are all about resentment, hatred and rage.

 

The fourth one is “covering (覆)”. It means hiding something when they make mistakes, violate precepts or create unwholesome karma. They just cover it up, and don’t want others to know. This kind of mindset is called “covering” and is “covering to conceal (覆藏)”. When one has done wrong, one tries his best to hide it. When one has created an unwholesome karma, one does not want others find out. When one has violated the precepts, one dare not admit it.

 

Why is he so secretive in his action? After that, he covers and conceals his offences? Afraid, what is he afraid of? He is afraid of losing his reputation, benefit, respect, or maybe some kind of status and rights. He wants to protect his present reputation, benefits, respect, power and status. He is afraid of losing them and so he hides all his offences. This mind to cover and conceal is to address all the fear in him.

 

To cover and conceal his offences so that others will not discover, is this really alright? Really no problem? If nobody finds out, then it is alright? No, it is even more serious! When the offence is concealed, it should be fine but why should it become more serious? Because by covering up his offence frequently, his nature towards committing offence will only grow and increase. By covering up the wrong-doing on a daily basis, the karma will only grow like a snowball and becomes bigger and bigger. Why? Because when he commits an offence, breaks a precept or creates karma, he will then cover it up. Won’t his nature towards committing offence be growing over time? The habit and karma continue to grow, so it will not be all right and the result of such covering up does not clear our karma but will only increase our nature towards committing offences. If we are practising, then our cultivation progress will not be easy. Why is that so? Because as long as you make a mistake, you will just choose to cover it up and will not seriously reflect and then correct it.

 

So why did he use this method to handle the offence? It is because he does not understand the principle of the karmic retribution and is ignorant / foolish. So the action of covering up / concealment corresponds to ignorance / foolishness in the fundamental afflictions of greed, anger and foolishness (贪、瞋、痴). Why is it foolishness? Because the most stupid person will use the most stupid way. He is so ignorant to the fact that he thinks he can use means of covering up to solve all the problems. In reality, it won't. Why is that so? Because all the karma he has created will have retributive karma and his covering up does not help him to escape the retributive karma. It is because he does not understand the principle of karma and so he chooses to cover up his mistakes / offences. This is the reason why he uses this method to handle things.

 

Sometimes, it is like a child stealing something. When you ask him, “Did you take?” He will strongly deny. Right? That is a kind of mind that wants to cover up and hide away. Why is he afraid of admitting? Once he admits, he is doomed. Right? Either he gets scolding or beating. So he is afraid to admit. But the seed of stealing has been sown and the karma created so there will be retributive karma in the future. Why do some people want to cover up? That is because he is afraid of being blamed or scolded by others when his mistake is made known. So he is afraid to tell the truth and is unwilling to talk about it. However, we all know that even if he does not speak up, he still has to bear the retributive karma.

 

So, what is the best way? According to Buddha Dharma, the “Confess and Repent” is the best way. Once a mistake is made and karma created, be courageous to face the public and admit the mistake, “This was done by me!” This requires a lot of courage, but in this way, the person clears his karma most quickly and makes the fastest improvement in cultivation. Why? Once he admits his fault, he will correct it immediately. Because he repented, he cleared his karma as well. Is this smarter and wiser than covering up and hiding his faults? So the most foolish people choose to cover up their faults. “Confess and Repent” is the best method because it helps us to quickly clear our karmic obstacles. After confessing and repenting, karmic obstacles will dissolve. If you admit your mistake and then courageously change, your achievement in cultivation will also come very quickly.

 

Therefore, we say that the method of “covering up and hide” actually corresponds to foolishness or ignorance. It will cause our body and mind to be constantly unstable because if you cover and hide the mistake, there is fear that people will find out one day and then you may have to tell more lies to explain why you have done so initially. This is because you still do not want to admit your mistakes. Therefore, after covering up, his heart is unstable because he is afraid of being discovered by people and then he would need to tell more lies. Fundamentally, we all have conscience of remorse and shame. In the silence of the night, our conscience will remind us of our wrongdoing and our heart will be filled with immense regret, causing our conscience to be uneasy. At the time of practising concentration, the wrongdoing committed in the past will all emerge because all those past negative karma have not been dissolved or cleared and so they are perfumed back into the 8th Consciousness as seeds of negative karma. Right? Therefore, when you are practising concentration, those habitual energies and seeds of negative karma will emerge. Those reckless deeds in the younger days and those shameful, wrongful deeds and hidden, deep secrets will come to your mind. At that time, our heart will be filled with all kinds of remorse and regret, causing our body and mind to be unstable and obstructing our concentration practice.

 

Generally, karma is created at the time when the mind is confused. When the mind is not clear, we commit many wrong actions and wrong speech. But when the mind is a little clearer, regret follows. “Why did I speak to him like that yesterday? Why did I do that yesterday? It is absolutely wrong and ridiculous!” So, when our mind is a little clearer, our hearts are filled with immense regret and remorse. Therefore, the result of covering up and hiding cause our body and mind to be unstable and of course, creating more negative karma consequently. This is because you do not know how to change and you will keep on repeating the same mistake. For the precept that you have violated and have not confessed and repented, you have no determination to change and so you keep doing the same wrong deeds, repeating the mistakes. The original precept that was violated will continue to be violated and the original wrongdoings will continue to be created. The reason why the negative nature or karma continues to increase is because you have not changed for the better and have not corrected your psychological behavior.

 

Therefore, the best method of correcting a mind that covers up and hide is “Confession and Repentance” and it is the fastest way to clear or dissolve karmic obstacles. Then, followed by correcting one’s wrong psychological behavior quickly and also the body, speech and mind. This is the best and wisest method and also the fastest way to progress one’s achievement in cultivation.

 

Therefore, the mind of cultivators should be like the pure, bright moon, as big and round like the moon of mid-autumn festival and without any clouds blocking it. This bright moon is analogous to the light of our inherent nature and the clouds are like the unwholesome deeds that we cover up and hide. The more we cover up and hide, the thicker the cloud becomes and the more it will block the bright moon. This analogy illustrates how covering up and hiding our wrongdoings block the light of our inherent nature, obstructing it from revealing. Therefore, only if we do not cover up and hide our wrongdoings and also remove these defiled, habitual energy, the light of our inherent nature will reveal, making it faster for us to realise our original nature through clarity of mind. That's why we say we should quickly correct our body, speech and mind. This is the fastest method to achieve in our practice.

 

The fifth derivative affliction is “deceit”. It is about using various means of deception to deceive others to seek money or other kinds of benefits.

 

In order to obtain various benefits, he may have to use his brain all day to plan how to plan fraud. So the methods that he uses must be improper, illegal, and immoral. For example, corruption is about plotting to obtain money so one will engage in thinking up corrupted means, covering up illegal acts, swindling money, putting up false information on advertisement or cutting corners and reducing quality of materials. These involve devising every effort and means to get money and this kind of livelihood is known as “evil life” or unwholesome livelihood. These improper occupations are called “evil life” because he uses improper methods to make a living.

 

Why did he dare to do this? It is because he does not understand the principle of karma and its fruition and so he uses all kinds of tricks to defraud. By not understanding the principle of karma and its fruition, he does not know the kind of karmic retribution he has to bear and so he dares to do them. But what is the result of this? If he racks his cunning mind so hard to make money all day long, he is only growing his greed, but is it true that he can make a profit? In terms of karma, can he really make a profit? Maybe in real life, he might make a lot of money through illegal means. But will there be karmic retribution for such money? Maybe one day he can become bankrupt or encounter something that causes him to lose his money because he created bad karma in the process of earning that money inappropriately. So, the money he made is not a real gain but the resultant karma of seeking. Therefore, in terms of karma, he may have to repay more in the future so it is not worthwhile. That is why we say he dares to do all these because he does not understand the principle of karma and its fruition.

 

So, what should it correspond with? In this case, this deceit that involves deception and fraud correspond with which fundamental affliction? What causes him to constantly think of making more money all the time? It is greed! Right? Therefore, it is part of greed and corresponds to the fundamental affliction of “greed”. It is this desire of greed that makes him use whatever means and tricks to make money. In doing so, his greed increases. So, every day when he racks his mind to make money unscrupulously, each and every thought plants the seed of greed, creating the karma of greed and the mental karma of greed. By just having that thought, a mental karma of greed is created. Therefore, it becomes necessary to lie – creating the karma of speech, and then the physical actions to cheat others – creating the karma of body. So he is really stupid to think that he can gain in this way. In reality, the loss outweighs the gain. What kind of behaviour is this? It is foolish behaviour and so corresponds to the fundamental affliction of foolishness or ignorance. So we now know that deceit is a part of greed and is also part of ignorance.

 

So how do we correct it? Never make money for your own benefit or engage in improper means to seek money. Don't do anything like this in the future and then slowly remove your greed and do not use deceptive means. Practice honesty and uprightness, avoiding any deception. You can practise like this.

 

He is so attached to benefits because he regards the benefit as a real existence. Right? Money is real and truly exists so he spends lots of his time thinking of how to get it. So how do we resolve this? Contemplate on emptiness! The object that he is willing to engage unwholesome deeds to acquire is in reality arising and perishing, impermanent and inherently empty in nature. So it is not worth the while as it is not real. Committing so much bad karma for something that is not real. So by contemplating that the inherent nature of these benefits is empty, it becomes a good way to remove our greed and quest for fame. We will also look upon these benefits as less important. This is the antidote to handle and treat this deceitful mind.

 

The sixth Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions are “flattery”. It means to flatter. For example, pretending to be obsequious in order to please or deliberately pleasing others with puffery. We often describe such a person as flatterer. That is what we meant by flattery.

 

It also has the meaning of distortion. Distortion means dishonest as the heart is twisted or crooked. Why does he have to distort things? For his own benefits. Therefore, in order to seek his own benefits, he displays servile complaisance, creating body karma. Of course, he resorts to deceptive and flattering words to say whatever the other person wants to hear, changing his words according to the situation and thus lying and engaging in divisive speech and flattery in the process. This is the karma of speech. In the mind, he spends a lot of time thinking on how to move and please others’ emotions so as to be in their favour. To spend so much time on pleasing and confusing others, causing others to be unclear of the truth and unable to read his mind, is the work of a dangerously evil and distorted mind. This is the karma of the mind / mental karma. Therefore, we know this distorted mind creates lots of karma in the body, speech and mind.

 

In the Yogacarabhumi Sastra / Discourse on the Stages of Yogic Practice, it teaches us to observe twelve bad consequences of engaging in distortion. If we contemplate more on the consequences, our mind will become less distorted and gradually become more upright. If you want to attain or be enlightened earlier, you must first get rid of this distorted heart. Why? Because “a truthful, straight and upright heart is the place or abode for cultivating the Path”. If your mind is so distorted or crooked, there is no way to be straightforward. A straight, upright heart is the true mind. Your distorted mind is a deluded mind so it will not be possible to return to the True Mind. So only when our heart is straight and upright, we are closest to True Mind and can return very fast to the True Mind as the mind is not too far away from it. If your mind is similar to that of a road with nine bends and eighteen turns, seriously distorted and skewed, then the time taken to return to True Mind will be very long and even the time of the Three Great Asankhyeya Kalpas may not be enough. If one continues to hold this distorted, crooked mind,it will obstruct us from realisation and this is a very important cause.

 

Therefore, we must always think, “What are the bad consequences of distortion?” The first consequence is that the karma of distortion makes it impossible to attain true wisdom. As mentioned earlier, true wisdom comes from a straight, upright heart and a mind that is distorted for a long time, has difficulty seeing the True Mind and so cannot see the True Mind. So our inherent true wisdom cannot be attained. There is a saying, “The True Mind is away from thoughts and has no thoughts”.

 

The second consequence is that deceit and distortion makes us lose our reputation, status and so forth. Everyone already knows what kind of person he is because he is so used to the habit of distortion. Everyone knows that this guy will flatter others for his own interests and everyone knows he is a flatter. So if the company has to promote someone to the management post, who will be chosen? Will everyone recommend him? No one will vote for him because of his behavior. However, under one circumstance, everyone will immediately think of him. What is the situation? When the company wants to lay off employees, everyone wants to cut off the flatterer because he is playing tricks all day long, reporting falsehood to the superior and deliberately pulling their legs. So everyone wants him to leave the company quickly. Therefore, we say deceit and distortion cause us to lose our reputation and status. Your reputation is not good because everyone calls you names behind your back. Your promotion is difficulty and even if promoted, cannot stay long as others will try to pull you down. You will be immediately downgraded. Therefore, deceit and distortion will cause us to lose reputation, status and so forth.

 

The third consequence is that distortion and deception will also let others lost their confidence in us. Why do they have no confidence in us? A person with no principle, no morality, no sense of right and wrong, is like the grass atop the wall, swaying according to the wind. Wherever there is benefit for him, he will go there. So how can we trust a person like that? How can anyone have confidence in him? There is no way to believe him because we do not know when he will change. He will change according to the situation so it is impossible to have confidence in him.

 

The fourth consequence is that distortion will also cause us to lose our merits and cannot accumulate any. This is because distortion creates the bad karma of body, speech and mind and so even if you are doing good deeds, the merits cannot be accumulated but keep losing them, diminishing by the day. That is even if we are doing wholesome deeds concurrently, hoping to accumulate merits but still it cannot grow and keeps reducing instead. Why? Because distortion creates the bad karma of body, speech and mind. So even if one tries to accumulate merits, it is very difficult and the merits keep reducing. This is the consequence of engaging in distortion.

 

The fifth consequence - not only will the merits be lost, one’s intelligence will also not grow. Regardless of how diligent he makes offerings and commits to helping good and wise advisors, his merits continue to diminish and his wisdom does not grow. This is because good and wise advisors do not like students who flatter. So even though he may stay close to good and wise advisors and listen to proper Dharma, his wisdom will not grow because he uses a distorted heart towards these advisors and so he will not be able to practise well. Why? He will not focus on learning the Dharma but on how to flatter the teacher. So the Dharma could not enter his heart as he is preoccupied with only on how to show himself as a good cultivator and how to act falsely. As a result, he will not make any progress and of course, no wisdom either.

 

The sixth consequence is merits and wisdom will not grow and the only thing that grows, is the evil karma. So the sixth consequence is only evil karma will grow.

 

The seventh consequence - if distorted mind is not corrected, but allow to continue, then one will only be further and further away from wholesome Dharma and closer and closer to the evil or unwholesome ones.

 

The eighth consequence is the distortion will also harm our body and mind, causing our mind to be filled with afflictions and unstable. Because of the distorted mind, you will always feel empty and insecure because all your deeds are about falsehood, deception and thus superficial. Therefore, your heart will feel empty, not grounded, unstable and insecure.

 

The ninth consequence is flattery and distortion will not only make you suffer, but also make others suffer. Why do both you and others suffer? That is because if the other person finds out that you were deceiving and flattering him, he will blame you as all along you have been keeping him in the dark. When they find out that you are only a wicked person who always plays evil tricks, they will blame you. And when you are exposed, you will feel miserable in your heart too and become sad and depressed. That is why we say flattery and distortion will result in both you and others to suffer.

 

The tenth consequence is that a flatterer is not a fit vessel for sainthood. That is to say, people who are good at flattering others, do not have the substance to become a saint. Even though he may be practising Buddhism, he will not make any achievement because his mind has not entered Buddha Dharma and he is not walking the path.

 

The eleventh consequence is that there will only be regret at the end of his life. By flattering and engaging in distortion for his whole life, he thought that he was good at it, enjoying success and prospering, but at the end of his life, all the evil karma will appear before him. At that time, it will be too late to regret. That is why it will make us regret at the end of our life.

 

The twelfth consequence and the last one - after death, he will take rebirth in the evil realms. After death, most flatterers will fall into hell and the evil realms.

 

Therefore, if we want achievement in our cultivation as early as possible, we must find a way to get rid of the flattery and distortion from our mind. How to practise? Start with speaking the truth and doing things sincerely. Treat others with sincerity and behave what you truly think. When mentors and friends are teaching us, do not bear any grudges and hatred against them and be grateful and then reflect and change yourself. In this way, you will probably make some progress.

 

Generally, those with a mind severely laden with distortion, will be unhappy when the master tells him of his mistakes. So the master will not tell the truth in front of such students because they will feel being wronged. Why? Because he puts in so much effort in flattering the master and you can see how diligent he is! Yet the master still keeps pointing out his mistakes. In his mind, he complains, “I am being wronged! I feel so wronged! I have already offered all my body, speech and mind to the master, but the master said that I was wrong. I cannot accept this!” The master knows that his habit of flattery will only hinder his cultivation, so he is attempting to remind him or break his habit. Even when the master is trying to tell him, his mind is already distorting the message. He is so used to deception and flattering that he is unable to honestly face his bad habit / energy or that kind of affliction. He does not have the courage to face it. So when the master is correcting and pointing out his mistakes, he usually cannot accept and will even harbour resentment in the heart. So, in general, the master will not advise such students directly.

 

That is why we have just said that when we have good friends, virtuous Dharma brothers or virtuous Masters teaching us, we must modestly bear the words in mind and be brave to correct ourselves. Because they are helping us and hoping our achievement in the cultivation can come earlier. Otherwise when everyone feels that there is no hope and going to give up on you, it will be too late. Therefore, a truthful, straight and upright heart is the place or abode for cultivating the Path and this is very important. The purpose of cultivation is to be able to return to True Mind soon, but flattering and distortion prevent us from being true and upright.

 

The 7^th Minor-grade Derivative Affliction is “Conceit”. Conceit means arrogance. It is a sense of superiority one has for himself and everyday he is addicted to and dosing himself in the sense of superiority. Therefore, Conceit is a kind of mentality inclined towards self-inflating arrogance / self-infatuation.

 

Everyone has this issue but the object of arrogance differs. There are many different types of conceit and everyone has their own object of pride. For example, rich men look down on poor people and this is called “conceit of being wealthy or wealth infatuation”. Looking down on the poor is a kind of arrogance.

 

People who are born into famous and noble family, will show off their family status from time to time. So annoying! This is called "family lineage conceit". Showing off in front of you from time to time, they say things like, “I bought a diamond yesterday, I feel it so small! Only 20 carats! So small!” or “So annoying! When I drive my sports car, I feel it was not fast enough, so I want to change to a better one!” We cannot even afford to buy a car but he is telling me that he wants to change one. This is called “family lineage conceit”.

 

A good-looking person will laugh at the ugly person and says, “That man looks ugly.” This is "external form conceit" and is often about laughing at ugly people.

A person who is in good and health, will also laugh at others and says, “What kind of body do you have! You are like a sick cat like Lin Daiyu, who will fall when the wind blows" and so forth. This is called the “conceit of health”.

 

Some elderly will sometimes use their seniority to chide the youngsters and this is the “conceit of longevity”. We often hear things like, “Young people want to do this and that”, “The salt I have taken is more than the rice you've eaten” and so forth. This is called the “conceit of longevity”.

 

The young ones not conceding defeat, also look down on the elderly and say things like, “You are old and useless, and needed to be looked after by the family”. This is called the “conceit of youth”.

 

As for those who are knowledgeable, they will often pass sarcastic remarks in between words, at those who do not study or are not learned. They use words like, “You are all illiterate with no substance” or “You have no ink in your stomach.” This is called the “conceit of knowledge”. Being more knowledgeable, they laugh at those who are not knowledgeable.

 

These are the seven types of conceit. These are just a few classifications and actually, there are more. Like those intelligent, quick-witted people, they will lose patience with the less intelligent, slow-witted people, complaining that they are stupid and slow. This is another type of conceit. Also, there are people who are famous in the society and enjoy good social status. Whatever they do, be it their attitude of handling things or their tone of speech, there is this urge to dominate others and that is also annoying. They always like to give orders to others or think that you should obey him because of his social status and reputation. That kind of pompousness or dominance to crush others is another kind of conceit. Artists and writers who like to write and paint will also have another kind of pompousness and self-glorification. It is also a kind of conceit and that kind of habit is called “temperament conceit (憍味)”.

 

Therefore, conceit will make a person become smug and supercilious, always intoxicating oneself with conceit and wanting to tower over others. Therefore, they have difficulty in being humble and will also create lots of afflictions. Conceit will create the affliction of greed, anger, ignorance and so forth. When is greed created? When one is intoxicated in the sense of accomplishment, one is connected to greed. Always feeling, “I am so amazing! My achievements are so amazing!” When others do not agree with him, he loses his temper easily. This is when he is connected to anger. He does not understand that those things that make him proud are just manifestation of conditioned cause and consequence. They are arising and perishing, impermanent and have no-self. He does not understand this principle and so it is corresponding with ignorance. This is the reason why conceit will always create afflictions.

 

In the future, what will be the karma? The more you look down upon others, the shorter your height will be. So the karma is being born short. When one looks down on others in past life, one will be naturally shorter than others. The more one looks down on others, the shorter one becomes. Moreover, one will have deficiency of the five sense organs. What disease is he prone to? It is liver disease because arrogant people get angry easily and therefore more prone to liver disease. Bad-tempered people get angry easily when someone goes against their wish. So being angry will hurt one’s liver and thus get liver disease easily.

 

Why is there such manifestation of arrogance / conceit? It is because of obsession with one’s achievements and thus the mind of arrogance arises. So which fundamental affliction does it correspond with? We have just explained that it is from the obsession of one’s achievement and so it corresponds with greed. So we know that conceit belongs to and corresponds with greed because it is the greedy love of attaching and believing in some amazing self-achievement.

 

We often talk about conceit and arrogance, but what is their difference? There is still a difference. We talk about the fundamental afflictions of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and suspicion. Therefore, arrogance is a fundamental affliction. Now, the conceit we are talking about is Minor-grade Derivative Affliction. So one is fundamental affliction and the other is Minor-grade Derivative Affliction.

 

Conceit (憍) arises from other things / objects. As what we have just said, conceit is caused by having those things that you are proud of and it is also related to your sense of achievement. So it is based on those objects that give you a sense of achievement or things that you are prideful of. Therefore, conceit arises from things or objects. Arrogance (慢) arises from “I” or the Self which is my ego. Every being has a Self and thus the arising of “My ego”. “I” am amazing so it is from an “I”. The former arises from external things (object) and the latter is from an “I” or the Self (subject).

 

We have just said that arrogance belongs to fundamental affliction. It is the mind of loftiness arising after comparing with others. In the beginning, we talked about the different types of arrogance that arise after comparing with others. Regardless of whether he is better or worse, he will forever think he is the most amazing. So arrogance arises after making a comparison. Now, we are talking about conceit that belongs to Minor-grade Derivative Affliction and it does not have an object of comparison. It is about intoxicating in the sense of achievement. This is the difference between conceit and arrogance. Here are the differences. Conceit arises from other things while arrogance arises from a Self. Arrogance is a fundamental affliction which arises after comparing with others. Conceit is a Minor-grade Derivative Affliction which does not come from comparing with others but from intoxicating in the sense of achievement.

 

So we know conceit and arrogance will obstruct our humility and create a lot of afflictions. We have just talked about greed, anger and ignorance arising from being conceited. So it doesn’t only obstruct our humility but also creates a lot of afflictions. So how to resolve it? All the current achievements are just manifestation of the good karma in the past. We have created a lot of wholesome deeds and have also created a lot of bad ones. Depending on which ripens first. If the wholesome ones ripen first, everything will go smoothly as you wish and you will feel a sense of achievement. In fact, it is just the ripening of past wholesome deeds. Moreover, all these things that give you a sense of achievement, do they really exist? Earlier we have discussed about the different types of conceit. They arise and perish and so are impermanent and their inherent nature is empty. Thus they cannot be grasped and so there is nothing to be conceited about. Therefore, the first thought is to contemplate that it is the manifestation of past wholesome deeds ripening and so it arises and perishes and is impermanent. Finally, its inherent nature is empty. This is how to treat the conceited mind.

 

The eighth Minor-grade Derivative Affliction is “harming”. “Harming” means to hurt. Because of lacking in compassion and pity for all beings, one thinks of or does harmful things to hurt beings. This harming also corresponds with anger. So when someone is angry, no one knows what he will say and do. So this kind of mutual hurting of one another is happening every day.

 

Sometimes, just after quarrelling yesterday, especially between spouses, lovers or friends, because of the hard feeling, you would think of ways to torment the other party. For example, “I must give you a lesson, I must not apologize to you first, I must make you feel sad, guilty and regret. Before this, I will engage in cold war with you till the end.” Examples like these are all thoughts of harming. That is to say when you have these thoughts of wanting to hurt the other by giving him a hard time, tormenting him a while, this is the mind of harming. This is still relatively minor. More serious ones like the thought of an enemy and of course, there won’t be any good thoughts, right? Therefore, all the thoughts in your mind may be on how to curse him, hoping that his career will collapse, his family will be broken, his children will be squanderers, he will fall into the 18^th level hell after his death and it will be best that nothing good happens in his life. Then you will feel happy. These are all thoughts of harming. Or how to retaliate against others, persecute, hurt and infuriate the other party to make him suffer. All these thoughts on how to hurt others are thoughts of harming.

 

So what does the mind of harming cause us not to be able to achieve? The heart of Great Compassion (大悲心). Anger obstructs the mind from giving happiness to beings and harming obstructs the mind from extricating the sufferings of beings. So the thoughts of hurting others make us unable to generate the Great Compassion mind. What is compassion? It is to help extricate all beings from sufferings. So if one cannot help to free all beings from sufferings but bring more pain to others, it becomes the biggest obstacle towards the generation compassion. Harming is also a part of hatred.

 

So how do we treat it? One has to nurture more compassion to treat it. You can visualise that all beings had been your parents or the dearest ones in my past life. In the past, when he was my parents or dearest person, some knots of grievance between us were created and so we become enemies in this present life. This is the reason why I hate him so much and therefore conjuring up thoughts of harming towards him. So let visualise that all living beings are probably our parents or the dearest people in our past lives. All sentient beings also hope to be liberated from sufferings. In the same way, I don’t want hardship to fall upon me, so do all beings not like sufferings to befall on them. Therefore, we should generate compassion towards our dear ones and parents in our past lives and then wish to help them extricate their sufferings. In this way, the nurturing of a compassionate mind will help eradicate the mind of harming.

 

The ninth Minor-grade Derivative Affliction is jealousy.

What is the reason of being jealous? It is when one does not want to see others being better off than him and then the feeling of jealousy arises.

 

Why does one not like to see others being better off? Because you are afraid of being defeated upon comparison and then you may lose reputation or respect. So it is the fear that losses will fall upon me after I am being compared to him. So when I see others making achievements, my mood starts to become depressed and the heart will tangle up. Then I will lose my appetite and sleep, always thinking of how to consolidate my position in order to continue getting my benefits, maintain my reputation and let my reputation, benefits and the respect towards me be unaffected. I may have to take some measures. I may want to sow discord, say something that is not conducive towards the other party or play some tricks to obstruct his work. In more serious situation, may probably think of how to hurt the other party. All these are related to anger and so jealousy is part of the angry mind. The result of jealousy is that you will think of how to obstruct and hurt him, so jealousy corresponds with anger.

 

What kind of people is more likely to have jealousy?

The first type is narrow-minded people. Because a narrow-minded person does not have the capacity to accommodate, so he does not want to see others achieve. When he sees others being better than him, he gets jealous and think of ways to criticize and slander them behind their backs.

 

There is also another type of person who lacks self-confidence and can easily become jealous. Because of the lack of self-confidence, he has no sense of security and the insecurity causes him to be afraid of losing his reputation, benefits and respect. So when he sees your success and he will feel threatened. When the sense of threat arises, he becomes afraid that you will destroy all his painstaking efforts. So he becomes very worried and insecure. It is this sense of insecurity and fear that you will destroy the castle that he has built with much effort overnight or in a split moment. So he becomes jealous and obstructive towards you. That is the case when a person with no self-confidence, will also have a very strong jealous mind.

 

Also, a person with strong desire for fame and wealth or strong craving to win, tends to be jealous of others easily. When he sees others overtaking him, he will feel uncomfortable and so he will also take some measures to consolidate or protect himself.

 

Does the result of such jealousy make you safe and secure? Not necessary, right? Not only does it not make your better, you also create a lot of negative body, speech and mind karma in the process.

Then tell me, is this type of people living a happy life? By being jealous and trying to hinder others all day long, is he really happy? He cannot live happily but will actually obstruct his own achievements.

 

So when you see others better off, what is the best way to respond? All of us are very good at this – rejoice and praise. This will not only accumulate merits but also not create bad karma, right? So the best way is to rejoice and praise. Upon seeing the goodness in others, rejoice immediately and praise his goodness. This is correct and you can resolve the jealous mind just like that. It has to be genuine praise, not superficial, not hypocritical and fake. At the time when you are genuinely praising him, can you be jealous? No, because they can't exist at the same time. When you are jealous, you can't be praising him. When you are praising him, you can't be jealous. Therefore, when you see someone doing good quickly give praise as this will cut-off the jealous mind. Then the jealousy residing in your mind will slowly, slowly disappear and then vanish without a trace. So we use rejoice and praise to resolve the jealous mind. This will not create the negative karma of anger, since jealousy corresponds with anger. Instead, this will accumulate the merits of rejoicing.

 

As cultivators, we have to overcome many obstacles. So which is the most difficult one? They are the challenges of fame, gain and respect. We must treat them as if they are not related to us, to be able to overcome them. Contemplate that all these fame, gain, and respect, are like flowers in the air. Right? Originally, there is no such thing in our pure nature. By contemplating that the flowers in the air do not exit originally, then we will be able to quickly overcome these obstacles.

 

The last one is “Stinginess”. Stinginess means parsimony. It is about miserliness, stinginess, and the reluctance to give. Like the saying, “That iron rooster would not part with a cent,” which means that he is very stingy.

 

What is the difference between stinginess and greed? We usually say stinginess and greed. Stinginess is about already having in possession but reluctant to give. Greed is about not having and wanting to obtain, the more the better. So stinginess and greed are not the same. One is already have in possession while the other is not having and so have desire to obtain, the more the better. So when one already has but is reluctant to part with the possession, it is called stinginess.

 

What is the karma of a person who is selfish, stingy and refuses to give? Refusing to help others with money, one gets the karma of poverty. Knowing the Dharma but refuse to teach, one gets the karma of ignorance. In brief, the karmic retribution is like this.

 

However, in Volume 12 of Treatise of Establishing Reality (成实论), it mentioned how the karmic retribution of stinginess and greed affect the future rebirths. Stinginess and greed will cause seven negative karmic retributions in future rebirth.

 

The first karmic retribution is natural blindness. The karmic retribution of natural blindness means he is born blind and not postnatal blindness. At the time of birth from his mother’s womb, he already could not see the light of the sun and the moon. This is the karmic retribution of natural blindness.

 

The second karmic retribution is ignorance. We have just mentioned that because of refusing to share Dharma, the karmic retribution is ignorance. For example, today, he wants to draw close to a good master to hear the Dharma, but he is unable to understand and does not know what he is teaching about. This is because of ignorance. Therefore, one who is born with ignorance, is unable to know the truth of all the Dharma. No matter how he listens to the Sutras and Dharma teachings, he is unable to understand the principles of the scriptures. He will have obstacles in understanding and practising the teachings of Buddha dharma because he is born with heavy ignorance. Why is there such a karmic retribution? It is because in his past lives, he refused to share Dharma knowledge and the result of being stingy with Dharma is ignorance.

 

The third karmic retribution is being born into a family of unwholesome deeds. It means being born into a family that does not believe in the triple gems and also commits severe offences.

 

The fourth karmic retribution is dying in the mother's womb. It is the death of foetus in the womb.

 

The fifth karmic retribution is to be easily frightened by all evil things since birth. This means that in this life, you will often encounter terrifying and frightening matters, making you scared and frightening the life out of you. You will often encounter terrifying happenings.

 

The sixth karmic retribution is being far away from those who are good and virtuous. One may feel strange as to why in this whole life one keeps meeting people who are no good. It is all about the villains and the wicked people who are dragging your feet. They are all bad friends who make you fall. Good, virtuous people and teachers are far away from us. There is no way to get close to genuine, good master or cultivating peers as there is no way to meet them. This is because you are greedy and stingy in the past life, refusing to give to build good conditioned cause with the public beings. As a result, you built unwholesome karma all along and then in this life, the bad conditioned causes manifest as bad friends.

 

So, in the Buddha Dharma, why do we place such importance in giving? In Six Pāramitās / Six Perfections, the first one is giving. What is the main objective? It is to build affinity with all beings by using the method of giving such as money, dharma and fearlessness. All these are to build good conditioned cause, good dharma cause and good wholesome cause. In doing so, life after life, one will meet good masters and cultivating peers and befriend good, virtuous friends who will help us progress. We will have friends who help one another and all our relatives and friends are good people.

 

The seventh karmic retribution is committing all kinds of evil crimes. That is to say one commits all kinds of evil deeds and thus, deepening the karmic obstacles. In this life, one can easily create evil karma. Why? Because the result of stinginess creates a lot of evil karma.

 

So how do we treat stinginess? How can we fulfill the giving of money, dharma and fearlessness? Use generosity to resolve stinginess. If it becomes too difficult to part with the gifts, what should we contemplate on? We think more about the principles of impermanence and death. Contemplate that all the things that you are reluctant to let go and want to hold for your whole life, upon death, you cannot bring any of them with you. These things that you hold for a lifetime, when you die, you have to let go. So think more about the things that you cannot take with you when you die. You should work on those that you can bring along when you die and that is only karma. So quickly cut off evil karma and create good ones. As you can only bring karma with you, let go of those things that you cannot bring along. Besides, one can contemplate more about the karma and merits of giving. The karmic effect of giving money is prosperity and the sharing of Dharma is wisdom. Otherwise, stinginess can also be treated using the Wisdom of Emptiness. That is, these things that you are stingy and greedy with, are arising and perishing, so are impermanent and cannot be grasped. So let go of them quickly now!

 

All the ten Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions have already been introduced. In the beginning, we mentioned about Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions, Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions and Major-grade Derivative Afflictions. Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions arise individually and so it is the easiest to sever. But how do we start the practice? The main purpose of introducing these afflictions this time is to explain in detail the contents of the fundamental afflictions and derivative afflictions so that when our afflictions arise, we know exactly where each affliction belongs. Whether it is a fundamental affliction or a derivative affliction. We are clearer about the contents of each affliction. Otherwise, normally when we complain about having an affliction, we do not know what kind of affliction it is and do not know how to treat or resolve it. It is not very clear and after much practising, you still cannot see our afflictions and then don't know what to do, making it difficult for your cultivation to progress. So now you understand the contents of every affliction and also know how to deal with it.

 

So which one should we start with? First, start with the affliction that is less strong; the one that is sometimes there and sometimes not there. Not the one that is constantly there and connected to the 4 Delusions / Confusions of the 7^th Consciousness because those came together with us at the time of birth and are more difficult to deal with. They are constantly and continuously there, without stopping and even when we sleep, they are in our dreams because they are innate in us and are more difficult to break. Therefore, we must start from the ten Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions that we talked about today. We can check through them one by one to see which are the ones we still have and then use the method of treatment to quickly sever it. They are very easy because they arise individually, with this and without that. They do not arise together so they are easier to sever. They are not innate and they come from the differentiating activities of our 6th Consciousness, so it is easier. The derivative affliction sometimes exists and sometimes does not. It does not always exist, unlike the 4 Delusions / Confusions in the 7^th Consciousness that are always there as we are born with it. The derivative afflictions are acquired this life and also have seeds from past lives, but mostly they arise when we engage the mind on differentiating. It is sometimes there and sometimes not there, so it is easier to sever. So we start from these relatively easy ones. Moreover, it is more obvious and easier to check. Once you find that you have it, you start to cut it off immediately. Like this, you can quickly sever the ten kinds of Minor-grade Derivative Afflictions.

 

Tomorrow is the last class. We will introduce the remaining two types of Intermediate-grade Derivative Afflictions and the eight types of Major-grade Derivative Afflictions.

 

That's all for today.

May these merits be dedicated to all and

May all beings and I walk the path to attain Buddhahood.