Families have rules that families follow; nations have laws that nations are run by; and monasteries have regulations that those in the monasteries accord with. If one doesn't understand the rules of the monasteries, then it's very easy to create offenses within the Way-place without even being aware of it.

A family has a definite organization: elder brothers, younger brothers, father, mother, grandparents, and so forth. Every member has his or her role and sticks to it. A father cannot act like a son; an elder brother cannot act like a younger brother. A father has to be compassionate; a son has to be filial. An elder brother has to guide his younger brother; a younger brother has to respect his elder brother. They cannot swap places and confuse their roles.

By the same token, a nation has a head of state. Under the leader are different departments and cabinets, each taking care of its own job. There is the Department of Foreign Relations, the Department of the Interior, the State Department, the Financial Department, and so forth. Each department has its own area of jurisdiction and legislative powers. They cannot swap jobs or overreach their own boundaries.

In a monastery, all the residents must uphold the rules. Residents cannot go into each other's rooms and chat casually. You come into my room, and I go into your room, or we sneak off together to a hidden place and gossip rights and wrongs. Or you sneak off into the kitchen and steal food. These kinds of unruly behavior render you unfit to live with the assembly. You will be asked to leave. The monastery is designed to accommodate cultivators, not busybodies or troublemakers.

Every cultivator here has to have the Way-mind and diligently work hard. In this country there aren't that many monasteries, and so if you disgrace yourself and are asked to leave, it won't be easy for you to make it in any other monastery. Therefore, all of you should respect and cherish yourselves. Do not be indulgent or lazy. Cultivators always maintain a reverent and humble attitude. They should not be overbearing and arrogant. A good attitude is:"being alert and industrious, fond of study, and not ashamed to ask from those who are below you." Not to be ashamed to ask from those who are below you means that you should inquire from your juniors if they are aware of certain aspects of learning that you do not know.

However, you should not use this as an excuse to start up casual conversations with anyone who comes your way. And if somebody asks you, "Why are you talking so confusedly?" you say, "Oh, I'm just inquiring about the Buddhadharma." Just that sentence of rationalizing and covering your own faults is cause enough for falling into the hell of pulling tongues. Why? Because you are not being honest. You are cheating yourself and cheating others. Your work in the Way hinges on a minor points such as that. So remember this: cultivators absolutely cannot lie. Not only must you not lie with your mouth; you can't even lie in your mind. At all times watch over yourself, making sure that within your own nature there are no thoughts of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and taking intoxicants. Sweep clean your thoughts! That is called,

At all times, diligently sweep it clean; let no dust alight.

This way you won't be impeded by heredity, nor covered over by desire for material objects. And you won't be turned by the seven emotions and six desires. Cultivators of the Way, whether men or women, must restrain the seven emotions from arising. What are they? They are,

1) happiness
2) rage
3) sorrow
4) fear
5) love
6) dislike
7) desire.

Happiness: If you become happy when it's not time to be happy, then you've been turned by emotion.
Rage: If you get angry when there is no reason to get angry, then you've been turned by emotion.
Sorrow: If you cry when you shouldn't cry, then you've been turned by emotion.
Fear: If you become frightened when you should not be frightened, then you have given in to emotion.
Love: If you fall in love with things or people you shouldn't love and crave, then you have given in to emotion.
Dislike: If you develop loathing when you shouldn't, you are also being moved by emotion.
Desire: When you succumb to desire for what you shouldn't, then you've also been turned by emotion.

It is very easy to be turned by the seven emotions. Once you get turned, you lose your samadhi, your concentration. Unable to control yourself, you will be blown about by the winds of circumstance. No longer the master of yourself, you'll become upside-down. Living beings in the hells are completely upside-down in their every single act. If living beings within this world go about their affairs in completely upside-down ways, then it's just as if they are in the hells. If everything you do violates the Dharma, if you transgress through selfishness, then you might as well be in the hells right then and there. If you're afraid of this and that, or you crave for this or that, or you bother this person or harm that person, or you love this or dislike that-if you wallow in all kinds of emotion-then everything you do will oppose the Dharma and that's just the same as being in the hells. It's said of beings in the hells that they undergo "ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births, and are replete with ten thousand inversions." Within a single day, they die and are reborn ten thousand times, and they are upside-down in every possible situation. The word "ten thousand" just means many-so many that you can't even reckon how many. That's the experience of hell-beings.

Hungry ghosts do not endure as much suffering as beings in the hells, but they are awfully hungry. Of ten thousand parts, they enjoy one part, or half a part, in which they are not inverted-they have that little bit of good to them. Hell beings are exclusively crammed full of evil, without anything else. But hungry ghosts may still have one part out of ten thousand that is redeemable.
Animals may have one part, or one and a half parts of good. Now this is metaphorically speaking, not an absolute standard. There is nothing fixed about this. Some animals possess a modicum of decency; for example, the lamb will kneel when it takes milk from the mother sheep and the young crows bring food back to the nest to feed their parents. So, even some animals have a sense of filial piety. These animals probably have up to ten parts of good out of ten thousand. Some have two parts, three, four, up to ten parts of good. And so there's still hope for them. For example, dogs watch the door for their masters and would bark or bite if a thief came along. Although they are in the animal realm, nonetheless, they are establishing some merit and thereby obtaining some benefit.

What about humans? Among people there may be those who have one part, ten parts, up to a hundred parts that are not inverted. But a hundred parts out of ten thousand is the highest level they can possibly reach. How do people acquire a hundred parts of good? From creating meritorious acts, such as bowing to the Buddha. But why only a hundred? Well, bowing, for example, is not upside-down. However, you may be bowing with your body, but in your mind you're running all over the place, false thinking in this way: "Gwan Yin Bodhisattva, please help me win at the horse races!" or, "Help me get a Ph.D., even though I don't want to study." Your mind is not completely true. So, at most, human beings can attain a hundred parts of good out of ten thousand parts.

What about asuras? They are on about the same level as humans. Asuras may possess a hundred parts of sanity out of ten thousand. Gods may have a thousand parts. Sound Hearers, two thousand parts. Those Enlightened by Conditions may have three thousand parts, Bodhisattvas, four thousand parts, which means the remaining six thousand parts are still upside-down. Therefore, from the vantage point of a Buddha, even the Bodhisattvas are in a pitiful situation.

Therefore, all of us should look deeply into our present plight-our heads are so muddled most of the time while we "confusedly eat and wait to die." Some of us who have left the home-life still do not want to cultivate, and those who are lay-people wish even less to cultivate. Ultimately, what are we waiting for in this evil world of the five turbidities, hanging on to life? What good is there to this? All of us should be painfully aware of birth and death, and bring forth the Bodhi resolve. We shouldn't go on doing crazy things. We've done enough crazy things. It's time we understand. We should know that,

The sea of suffering is boundless;
One turn of the head is the other shore.