The world of Tzu Chi February 2020 (Vol.119)

TZU CHI 119 51 * This article is extracted from the book “Reminders under the Sala Trees – A Commentary on the Sutra of the Buddha’s Bequeathed Teachings”. REMINDERS UNDER THE SALA TREES basic needs. However, some people whomake a lot of money still feel they do not have enough. They keep trying to come up with more ideas to make money, seeking to indulge in material enjoyment or even to flaunt their wealth. This is all due to people being attached to “permanence”. Looking around the world, we see earthquakes happening without respite; in an instant, large numbers of precious lives and painstakingly built homes are destroyed, causing great fear and unrest. Even the earth’s crust is not still andunchanging.Thisworld is truly impermanent! InSouthernFrance, a 1,000-year-old forest was destroyed by a great fire that raged out of control for days. This shows that even a 1,000-year-old forest cannot exist forever. InAmerica, just after takeoff, an airplane made an emergency landing and crashed, causing many deaths and injuries. Transportation in developed societies is very advanced, but who would have imagined, when they boarded the airplane, that they were embarking on a journey of no return? These are all examples of impermanence. The Buddha taught us to contemplate impermanence—the impermanence of the universe, of the body, and even of people’s moods as they give rise to happiness, anger, sorrow and joy. In general, ordinary people do not make the effort to realize the principle of impermanence and stubbornly mistake impermanence for permanence. This is the inverted view of unenlightened beings. They always chase after or fuss about the things surrounding them, eventually sinking into a chasm of pain and suffering with no way out. This is the first kind of inverted view. The second inverted view is that of “joy”. The Buddha told us that there is no true joy in the world. However, many people see non-joy as joy, and think that fighting for fame and fortune can result in a happy life. Some seek out happiness in places of entertainment or luxurious lifestyles. They do not know that these are breeding grounds for transgressions and evils; there are often incidents of fighting and homicide in places of entertainment. These are tragedies due to “seeing non-joy as joy”. Some students dream of contributing to society while in school, but after graduation, when the time comes to devote themselves to society, they fall prey to worldly temptations and their ideals become inverted. There are people who devote themselves to politics or law for the sake of building a peaceful and orderly society, but as soon as they encounter the temptations of fame and profit, they become corrupted at the expense of their country and people. Originally, they were pure and full of ideals; in the end, they create the causes of suffering for themselves and forget their original aspirations. Likewise, those who study medicine originally uphold the spirit to love and save the world, but upon graduating and entering society, some forget their initial aspirations of relieving suffering and giving joy and are drawn into the struggle for fame and profit. This is turning joy into suffering; they originally create good causes, but in the end, they reap the fruits of suffering. If we can continuously sustain our intention of helping others, and make good use of our innate abilities, we will improve our moral character and utilize our bright human nature. As a result, we will not turn joy into suffering or treat non-joy as joy. (To be continued in the next issue)