Never Make an Enemy

There are four kinds of affinity for a person to be born into a family: to repay kindness, to take revenge, to collect debts, and to repay debts.

All living beings, not just humans, are born into a family in the six paths because of one or more of these four kinds of affinity. Knowing this, we need to remember that we should not owe any debt nor should we incur enmity.

When we take advantage of others, this is incurring a debt, which we have to repay. When we incur an enmity, we will breed the desire for revenge. Reprisal breeds reprisal that is cyclical and never ending.

When others take advantage of us, we become upset. But ancient Chinese said that letting others take advantage of oneself will bring good fortune. Why? Because letting others take advantage of one will eliminate one’s karmic obstacles.

Those wishing to practice Buddhism invariably wonder how to cultivate. Cultivation is to correct one’s wrongdoings. We usually would not let others take advantage of us. But actually, this way of thinking or acting is wrong. When we are taken advantage of, we usually harbor a grudge and want to retaliate. Once we have this thought, a seed will be planted in the Alaya consciousness, our most subtle consciousness that moves from lifetime to lifetime. When the conditions for this seed mature in the future, there will be serious trouble.

When we are truly awakened and, like Buddhas, know the truth, we will not incur any enmities. No matter how someone takes advantage of, deceives, or falsely incriminates us, we should not dwell on these things. This is cultivation. We do not harbor a grudge or wish to retaliate.

In future lifetimes, we will become good friends with that person when we meet again. The enmity is dissolved, and this is good fortune. If we harbor a grudge and take revenge in future lifetimes, both we and the other party will suffer. That is misfortune, not good fortune. Revenge will be repeated lifetime after lifetime, and the suffering will be endless.

~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra

Eyes of a Stranger

Without judgment or favoritism,
bias or expectation,
look smilingly into the eyes of a stranger.

Just for a brief instant,
be totally one with the other.

Think thoughts of unconditional love,
wishing for them
the same happiness you yourself yearn for.

Warm the other with your smile
and your wish for their wellbeing.

Right Livelihood

There are two criteria for right livelihood. First, it should not be necessary to break the five precepts in one's work, since doing so obviously causes harm to others. But further, one should not do anything that encourages other people to break the precepts, since this will also cause harm. Neither directly nor indirectly should our means of livelihood involve injury to other beings. Thus any livelihood that requires killing, whether of human beings or of animals, is clearly not right livelihood....

Selling liquor or other drugs may be very profitable, but even if one abstains from them oneself, the act of selling encourages others to use intoxicants and thereby to harm themselves. Operating a gambling casino may be very lucrative, but all who come there to gamble cause themselves harm. Selling poisons or weapons—arms, ammunition, bombs, missiles—is good business, but it injures the peace and harmony of multitudes. None of these is right livelihood.

Even though a type of work may not actually harm others, if it is performed with the intention that others should be harmed it is not right livelihood. The doctor who hopes for an epidemic and the trader who hopes for a famine are not practicing right livelihood.

~ S.N. Goenka

Free of Vexations

"To find fault with others and talk about it is a sinister act in itself; it is also an indication of an impure mind. Your mind will become more composed and unfettered if you get rid of the habit of differentiating pleasant circumstances from the bad. Therefore, keep it to yourself when you see anything immoral or anyone breaching the Dharma. Do not expose them, nor feel any aversion. 'With your mind in a pure state, you will be free of vexations.' This also indicates the potency of your practice." ⁽¹⁾

The objective in our practice, in our cultivation, is to maintain the mind that is not swayed from its naturally calm, clear state. Ideally, when we see someone doing something wrong, we view the act as purely as a mirror reflects what is in front of it. When we are not yet at this point, we will be tempted to speak of what we have seen to others. But this is a discriminatory thought, a wandering thought that does not advance us in our practice of helping others.

Speaking of the immoral, unethical, or just unkind actions of others will agitate us and cause us to be annoyed or perhaps frustrated. Hardly the state of a happy person at ease with the world.

We need to get out of the habit of gossiping and carelessly speaking of the actions of others. See it, and let it pass.  

(1) Analects of Master Kuang-ch’in

How Should We Practice Nianfo?

In the Pure Land school…[w]e emulate Avalokitesvara ’s compassion and Mahasthamaprapta's single-mindedness. The "Chapter of the Perfect and Complete Realization of Mahasthamaprapta" in the Surangama Sutra tells us how Mahasthamaprapta and fifty-two fellow bodhisattvas single-mindedly concentrated on being mindful of Amitabha Buddha and on chanting his name from the time they took refuge until the time they attain Buddhahood. All they relied on was the name of Amitabha Buddha—[as the sutra says] "without the aid of any other expedient, the mind will be opened."

In other words, Pure Land practitioners do not need to rely on any other method. From their initial determination to seek enlightenment until their attainment of Buddhahood, they only need to concentrate on nianfo—on being mindful of Amitabha Buddha and on chanting his name.

How should we practice nianfo? Mahasthamaprapta taught us that the key is "the perfect control of the six senses with continuous pure thoughts." "Pure thoughts" means that when we chant "Amituofo" we should not have any doubts or other thoughts. The mind must be pure; we must chant with a pure mind. "Continuous" means that we chant with no interruption. "No intermingling, no doubt, and no interruption" is the key to success in the practice of nianfo that Mahasthamaprapta taught us. If we practice "the perfect control of the six senses with continuous pure thoughts," we will definitely succeed in our practice of nianfo.

~ Venerable Master Chin Kung