The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.107)

TZU CHI 107 59 * This article is extracted from the book “The Master Tells Stories”. * The Five Precepts: no killing, no stealing, no lying, no fornication and no drinking. The Ten Virtues: no killing, no stealing, no fornication, no lying, no double-talking, no abusive words, no improper remarks, no greed, no anger and no delusions. The Six Perfections: charity, moral conduct, patience, devotion, contemplation and knowledge. The Four Noble Truths: existence is suffering; suffering is caused by human passion; suffering can be eliminated by the destruction of human passion; and human passion can be ended by a life of holiness. The Three Freedoms: everything is formed by conditions and has no ego or self; everything is impermanent and has no real form; since everything is impermanent, we have no desires, and are thus free from the cycle of reincarnation. In sum, one person cannot do everything, just as one person cannot eat all the rice in the world. We have to be grateful to other people, to our parents, and to Heaven and Earth. Then, our minds will be good and joyful. No matter what kind of environment we find ourselves in, it will always be beautiful. regulating his own mind and body.” The young man became even more curious. He had travelled and learnt all the skills and crafts in the world, but he had never heard of a skill in regulating the mind and body. He asked Buddha, “How many ways are there to regulate the mind and body?” Buddha said, “There are the Five Precepts, the Ten Virtues, the Six Perfections and the Four Noble Truths, and the Three Freedoms.* These are all methods of regulating the mind and body.” The young man did not know what these were and he was curious. Buddha said kindly, “One person cannot eat all the rice in the world, and one person cannot do everything in the world. In this world, we must each use our own special talents to support each other.We should always be grateful and always repay other people. If you can be grateful to other people, to your parents, and to Heaven and Earth, then your mind will grasp the Five Precepts and the Ten Virtues. After that, you can understand more deeply the Four Noble Truths and practise the Six Perfections to bring out all your potentials.” When theyoungmanheard this, everything became clear to him, and he entered into deep contemplation. It was a beautiful world that he had found, so he asked Buddha to accept him as a monk. He studied very hard, and before long he became an arhat .