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Seeking
Nothing Is True Happiness
Only when your own nature is at peace will you know real happiness. A talk by Venerable
Master Hua in the evening of January 9, 1993, |
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| Q:
What are the conditions for
leaving the home-life? A: There aren't any conditions for leaving the home-life. The only condition is that you must be vigorous. Don't be lazy, don't just eat in confusion and wait for death, and don't exploit situations. Don't just sit there all day long waiting for people to make offerings. Don't be greedy for blessings. After you leave home, the more bitter it is, the better. You should not enjoy too much luxury. The left-home people at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas are all like skinny monkeys, because they eat just one meal a day. You won't find any chubby faces. They've all been cheated by me. Some have been cheated for over ten years, and they still feel they haven't had enough. So they haven't run off and are still following me. The ones who feel they've had enough of being cheated have returned to lay-life. Q: What is the meaning of the line, "You should produce the mind which abides nowhere"? A: Where is your mind? First tell me that! Q: Venerable Master, please be compassionate. My whole body is aching and ill. I have had several operations, but they haven't cured me. My family has fallen apart and I have suffered so many setbacks in my life. May the Venerable Master instruct me, and may the sunlight shine on me. Amitabha. A: Amitabha! You have killed too much, and you come to ask me?! Q: Why do so many Buddhists in Taiwan use money as a yardstick to measure their level of accomplishment? How should we seek the true Buddha path? A: The true Buddha path is the poorest of the poor. It costs nothing and doesn't need to be sought. Q: Venerable Master, what motivated you to leave the home-life? A: Is he asking about my leaving home or his leaving home? My leaving home is my business--what are you asking about it for? If you want to expose my roots, I don't have any roots left. Q: The second question is: Why is your Dharma-name "Hsuan Hua"? A: That's my name. Why do you want to know about it? It just means that I'm a ghost in the hells. Q: Venerable Master, how can I get rid of deviant thoughts? A: Simply stop having idle thoughts, and your deviant thoughts will disappear. If you do nothing but idle thinking, then the deviant thoughts will come one after another. Do you really need to ask me? Reflect within and ask yourself: Why can't you maintain proper thoughts? Why are you so fond of deviant thoughts? Q: Earlier the Venerable Master replied that vigor consists of eating, sleeping, and playing mahjong. What does this mean? I am very stupid and cannot fathom the secret meaning. Please explain more clearly how to be vigorous. Thank you. A: Your wisdom is very great. You clearly understand, and yet you ask on purpose. Eating, sleeping, and playing mahjong are the things that worldly people do. If you want to transcend the world, you have to renounce these. Although I don't dare to call this Zen talk, I just said the opposite of what I meant. If you don't even understand this, what can you hope to understand? Q: Venerable Master, how can I improve my relations with people, especially in the workplace, and prevent others from talking behind my back? A: If you haven't done anything bad and someone speaks ill of you, then it's his fault. If you did something bad and people spread rumors, then the more they gossip, the better. Q: The calamities in the world grow day by day, month by month. How can we quell them and save ourselves and others? A: Simply don't get angry and don't fight. Don't cheat and hurt one another. Then the calamities will disappear. Everyone should unite instead of breaking into so many factions and parties. If you have factions, then you won't be able to unite. True unity--great unity--is without factions. In the Book of History (Shu Jing) it says, "Without factions or favoritism, the way of the kings was broad. Without favoritism or factions, the way of the kings was just. Without twists and turns, the way of the kings was straight and proper.” That is what a nation needs. Q: Venerable Master, every Dharma Master tells us that the Buddhas name he recites is the best. As beginners, what is the right Buddhas name for us to recite? A: All the Buddhas of the past, present and future, throughout the ten directions are of the same Dharma-body. You can recite any Buddhas name and be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. All the Buddhas are equal. There is no such thing as a true Buddha, a false Buddha, a living Buddha or a dead Buddha. Q: Is it really true that people can be possessed by spirits? A: Go ask the people who are possessed. I havent been possessed by a spirit, and even if I knew the answer, I wouldnt talk about this. My time is up, and I have to retire. If you are willing to stay up a little longer, eat a little less, and miss your mahjong game, then you can stay and listen to the people I brought along. They speak much better than I do. Although I am the teacher, I learn from and listen to my disciples. Ordinarily, my disciples speak before I do, but today I spoke first because I want to retire earlier. I don't know if this is your lucky chance--an unexpected coincidence. Wherever I go, that place is a Buddhist school. That's how I train my disciples to be better speakers than I am. Why do I say they are better speakers? It's because they can speak many languages, such as Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese and English. On the other hand, I don't even know how to speak Chinese well. Since you insisted, I have said a few words, but you probably didn't find my words very logical or to your liking. Maybe you even feel like throwing up. However, I've already said them, and I don't care if you throw up! |
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