What He (Chuang Tzu) means is, it’s unavoidable that we sometimes will do the so-called, something that we don’t feel comfortable with, against our conscience, it’d be best that our deeds won’t get us into trouble. Meaning try our best to avoid what we can. We shouldn’t… do bad things comfortably. Avoid as much as possible. When we really can’t avoid it, we really have to think of some way to avoid big disasters. Yeah. Understand? (Understand.) The best is not to do it; then it’s alright. But there are things that people think are bad, which actually are not. Therefore, this is what He meant. I’ll explain again later. I’ll explain it later. Let’s continue reading it.
“Therefore, we follow the Middle Way, then we can preserve our body, our human body, fulfill our obligation. Also to take care of our parents, and then live out our years.” What did He mean by that? Our life is truly limited. Material things, things made from material are ephemeral. […] He said that if we use this physical body or the so-called physical brain to try to pursue the eternal limitless Tao, it would be a joke; meaning we are seeking in the wrong way. That’s why we cultivate the mind, not the body, let alone cultivate the clothes. […]
Many people think that we should practice this way, that way, with crossed legs, or prostrating, then we’ll attain the Tao. Can we? He, Chuang Tzu, said we can’t. It’s not me who says it. Don’t scold me. He meant that this ephemeral body, no matter what we use it to do, we can’t attain the eternal Tao, eternal Wisdom. That’s what He meant. If one already knew that this is the wrong way and still continues, it’s even more strange. He said that it’s even more futile. If you unavoidably must do something, then when you do good things, better don’t boast about it for others to know and praise us, to prevent our ego from growing even… (Bigger.) bigger. It’s unavoidable that we must do something we feel uncomfortable with, or feel disgusting by, it’s also best to take precaution to avoid incurring too big a disaster, because we have a body to preserve.
Why do we have to preserve this ephemeral body? He said it is because we have to practice the Middle Way. If we don’t have the body, we cannot practice, and we won’t have time to understand the purpose of life. And so, in order to attain realization, we have to preserve this body. It’s not practicing with the body, it’s not because we sit cross legged that we can become Buddha. Neither is it because we do good things that we’ll become Buddhas. Also, it’s not because we avoid doing bad things that we can attain the Tao, or communicate with GOD. That’s what He said. That’s why we should practice the Middle Way. That means, don’t intentionally do good things to accrue merits. If we can’t avoid doing bad things, we should think of ways to minimize causing mishaps for others or for ourselves. For example, some so-called bad deeds in society…
I tell you, take me for example… I can’t think of other things, so I drag myself into this. Take me for example. Previously, when I went bathing, I tied a piece of cloth around here and exposed my shoulders, or exposed a little over here, people said that it’s not right. But they didn’t know. If I went outside like that, when taking a walk, then of course it was improper. But when I did that, I was in the mountains, at the riverside where there was no one else except our own disciples. One should wear less clothing to swim. If you go into the river with your clothes, you’ll drown. Therefore, maybe my behavior at that time was improper, maybe improper, but I didn’t feel anything wrong. If I walked on the road like that, on the highway to attract others, causing car accidents for those drivers, causing car accidents because people were distracted, then I’d be wrong. But I was in the mountains. At most I could only tempt wild boar(-people). Or snake(-people), venomous snake(-people). Wild boar(-people). So, they couldn’t say that I was wrong. Maybe those wild boar(-people) could accuse me. People out there couldn’t.
Because wherever I go, it’s all publicized. A lot of disciples followed me, and they took pictures or videos. And then everyone knows. I didn’t feel I had anything to hide. I don’t have any secret that I don’t want people to know. I haven’t done anything bad. I was in the mountains having a retreat or swimming, which was certainly true. So I didn’t feel there was anything that I shouldn’t let people know about. And then, because of that, some people criticized me, saying that I was “bad.” OK, it doesn’t matter. That’s what I mean. People think some things are bad, but it’s not necessarily bad.
Or some things in society… We say one must not steal. I’ve also said that the Five Precepts forbid stealing. But when you’re starving to death, your family is uncared for, you have no job, and you are rejected by everyone, so you steal. I won’t say you are bad. Understand? Yeah. It depends on the situation. Not all bad things are definitely bad, nor are all good things definitely good. No, no, no. Some people give alms and do good things in order to hide something, to cheat others, to make people think that they’re good. In fact, behind the scenes, they do many bad things. They deceive people to earn their trust, but they may not be good people. Alright. Only GOD knows what is good or bad. The judgement depends on the situation. We can’t always judge whether it is good or bad. Or about our second precept… or our Fifth Precept is “no sexual misconduct,” meaning if you already have a wife or a husband, then you cannot have another one, because it’ll cause trouble and vexations for two or three people. That’s why I say no. There’d be too much struggling in your mind, and then you can’t practice in a stable way. One wife is already troublesome enough. (Yes.) Only a fool would find a second or third one.
Therefore, the law exists to protect people, not for people to protect the law. And so, it depends. For everything, there’s always a general principle. But we still have to be flexible and deal with things according to the situation. When your whole family is starving to death, and you steal a piece of bread, what does it matter? You don’t steal it intentionally; you just want to fill your stomach temporarily, to sustain your body. Tomorrow you can find a job, earn a lot of money, and then repay it by giving bread to those who are suffering. Your act of stealing that piece of bread is nothing. So we judge things according to the pure intention within, not just according to whether the precepts say something is good or bad. Therefore, here He said the same thing as I did. He said, “When you do bad things, you have to take care not to incur great disaster.” That’s what He meant. But if it’s unavoidable, you can still do it; He didn’t say that you cannot do bad things.
The so-called bad things are bad in worldly eyes. For GOD, nothing is good or bad. But because we are working in this society and living here, if everyone does bad things recklessly – stealing, killing, snatching people’s wives, two or three wives – then it’s too chaotic. Therefore, when we can avoid it, of course we avoid it, which we know would be better. We avoid as much as possible. That’s all there is to it. It’s not that these precepts can make you a Buddha. If you only keep the Five Precepts and follow a vegan diet, even innumerable eons later, you still won’t become a Buddha. Look at the cow(-people), who keep the precepts more strictly than us, eating grass since childhood, not giving any trouble to society – they eat only grass, look at them. Aren’t they better than us? (Yes.)
You see, even if a man has done bad things, tomorrow he’ll wake up. He will practice spiritually and still can become a Buddha. Therefore, it’s hard to define good or bad. If a man is bad, for example, he steals, he kills, but maybe in his previous lives those people killed him or stole his things. So, in this life he can’t help it. Driven by the karma of previous lives, he kills or steals. Maybe after stealing or killing, his karma is eliminated, then he’ll suddenly wake up and want to practice spiritually. Therefore, we can’t say who is good or bad.
Of course, after following me to learn, I’ll tell you which road is easier to travel on, to avoid having a lot of karma and trouble. It’s for the future. As for the past, we won’t hold the past against you. We can forget the past completely, just don’t do those things again in the future. Because if we create blood debt and karma again, we’ll have to come back. Even if we don’t come back, the karmic consequence will make our life uncomfortable. Our enemies will chase after us and kill us again, the cycle of vengeance goes on. Therefore, after initiation, we definitely must keep the precepts to avoid future karma and troubles, and complicated situations. But keeping precepts and the vegan diet are not conditions to become a Buddha. Being vegan is to express our love, our love for all creatures as one. Since all creatures are one, killing animal(-people) is equal to killing a part of ourselves, and if a part of us disappears, how can we become perfect? This is for those who seek to attain the perfect Tao.
Therefore, when we practice the Middle Way, we can have the chance to preserve our precious human body, to take care of our parents, according to Him, and fulfill our responsibilities in life. Thus, we can lead a comfortable life, and when it’s time for us to leave, we leave at the right time, without too many troubles, not too many disasters, not too much hatred, killing or intimidating one another. That’s what He meant. That’s what He said… Do we agree? (Yes.) Yes. What He says aligns with our views. We think in the same way. That’s why, we still like Him to this date. The whole world knows Him. Apart from Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu is also very famous. Lao (Tzu) and Chuang (Tzu) are the spirit of China, and a reliance for the world. Why? Because what They said is never obsolete, and can be applied generation after generation.
However, we must understand, and put them into practice. Otherwise, even if we read them millions of times, books are still books, and we stay exactly the same. Many people read books and sutras this way. That’s why I tell them to stop reading. I’m not saying that you should not or cannot recite sutras, but if this is the result, then don’t recite anymore. It is useless, reciting just like a tape recorder. Or like a parrot: “blah blah blah.” It’s not useful at all. So, I say reciting sutras is not useful. The recitation can’t make you a Buddha. As for burning incense and worshipping the Buddha (statue) – you should know that the Buddha is in your heart, not in bowing to the wooden Buddha. This is useless, truly useless. But it’s hard to listen to honest advice. People don’t like to hear it. They don’t like to hear it, so be it. I can’t tell a lie. The Five Precepts, I have to keep the Five Precepts. I can’t tell a lie. Whatever I know, I should say it, and then you can choose whether to listen or not. If you don’t want to, then never mind.
People say, “To believe in the Buddha without understanding the Buddha is to slander the Buddha.” Day in and day out, we keep thinking that the Buddha is just the wooden statue; this is a misunderstanding. Shakyamuni Buddha said, “The Buddha descended to Earth to enable all sentient beings to awaken to the Buddha insight and wisdom.” That means He wanted to teach us how to become a Buddha. If we have not attained Buddhahood, how can we understand Buddha’s knowledge? How can we understand Buddha’s wisdom? That’s why He wanted us to become a Buddha. He didn’t want us to bow to the wooden statue. When the Buddha was alive, of course, we would pay respect to Him because we admire Him, we like Him. We can still do so now, to pay respect to Him; it’s alright to do so in remembrance of Him.
Such as after our parents passed away, even though the photos are not our parents, we still bow to them, because we cherish them. We love them very much, we worship them, and respect them. The photos represent our deceased parents, that’s not wrong, not wrong. However, if we identify that photo as our parents all day long, as if they were still alive, isn’t that wrong? (Wrong.) Are we being unfilial? Maybe we are. Because we don’t let our parents go where they should go and enjoy their rest in Heaven, as they have earned. We keep pulling them back here all day to wait on us, to be there for us to see. Because we’re selfish. We love having them here, we don’t think about their time to rest. Likewise, we can bow to the Buddha, to the Buddha’s statue, because we want to remember Him. We respect His Teachings, we respect a great enlightened Master of the past, which is correct. But if we insist that the statue itself is also the Buddha, then we’re wrong. The Buddha is within us, within all sentient beings, not in the wooden statues.
Photo Caption: “Reaching Up Is the Goal”
