The world of Tzu Chi September 2020 (Vol.126)

2020 • 09 48 need to be good citizens of our country. We should do our best to help society move towards a state of harmony and help every family attain happiness. This is the duty of spiritual practitioners. Spiritual cultivation has to be practised and learned by interacting with people and dealing with matters. We need to “use our minds to transform the state we are in” and not “allow the state we are in transform our minds”. If we want to train ourselves to mastery, we must not let interpersonal conflicts disturb us, but use interpersonal conflicts as a way to remind ourselves to be vigilant. “In a group of three, I’ll find my teacher. When I see someone who does good, I follow suit; when I see someone makes mistakes, I correct my own.” Every person can be our teacher. If we mindfully observe, virtuous people are our role models, and people who are not virtuous act as a warning for us. When we see people doing good deeds, we should follow suit and support them; when we see bad deeds or bad people, we should remind ourselves not to do the same as they do. We should treat conflicts as lessons to learn from, and must not turn interpersonal issues into conflicts. We must temper our minds and strengthen our aspirations as we go among people. Then, no matter how complicated this world is, our minds will not be affected by it. This is called, “using our minds to transform the state we are in”. If our mindset is that, “when someone is unreasonable, then I’ll become angry”, then our minds will be easily affected by the situation. This is because we do not understand how to apply skilful methods to touch and transform other people. We must not misunderstand the admonition to “not participate in worldly affairs”. We should not fear the many matters that need to be attended to, but fear only that our minds are affected by those matters. Spiritual practice requires a sense of responsibility. We need to go among people to give of ourselves. The Buddha also went through challenges life after life, but he still maintained that same mindset, to not fear even going to hell as long as the people being helped can truly escape suffering and attain joy. If we maintain such a mindset in our spiritual practice, we will certainly be joyful and harmonious. We will also understand that in spiritual practice, we need to be able to move forward even when it is most difficult. Such a life is very fulfilling. Furthermore, we must not “act as emissaries”. An emissary is one who is dispatched to pass on orders. When we have taken monastic vows to engage in spiritual cultivation, we do not perform the work of “acting as emissaries”. In this way, we demonstrate respect for our true nature and do not disparage our principles. All of the precepts above refer to our bodily action—we must all make an effort to dignify our own conduct and behaviour. Avoiding improper speech Next, let us discuss the karma of speech. There is a saying, “Illness comes harma