Go Veggie and Help Yourself

 

·   In America, 55% of all antibiotics are fed to animals and the percentage of staphylococci infections resistant to penicillin went up from 14% in 1960 to 91% in 1988.

·   Vegetarian diets—naturally low in saturated fat, high in fiber, and replete with cancer-protective phytochemicals—help to prevent cancer. Large studies in England and Germany have shown that vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to develop cancer compared to meat-eaters.^1-3 (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)

·   Vegetarian eating plans offer health benefits, too. Vegetarian plans tend to result in lower rates of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. Vegetarians also tend to have lower body mass indexes and cholesterol levels. (American Dietetic Association)

·   In the Seventh-Day Adventist Church Health Study, compared to non-vegetarians vegetarians had about ½ the high blood pressure and diabetes, ½ the colon cancer, 2/3 the rheumatoid arthritis and prostate cancer.

·   By purchasing meat and fish, we share in the karma of killing. The retribution from killing is to be killed.

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, Fourth Vow

Sentient beings are innumerable;

I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

The fourth vow, the attainment of enlightenment, of Buddhahood is our ultimate goal. Only as a Buddha, can we perfectly fulfill the four vows. Only as a Buddha, will our generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom finally be perfected. Only as a Buddha, will our vow to help all beings be perfectly fulfilled and our afflictions perfectly eliminated.

With this fourth vow, we will know our ultimate goal. The second and third vows provide the road map to arrive at our goal. Without this road map, we will not know how to progress or even what direction we are headed in.

The first vow provides us with our motivation—we make the vow that we will help all beings end suffering and attain happiness. 

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, Third Vow

 

Sentient beings are innumerable;
I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

 

Learning many Dharma doors, methods of learning and practice, is where most people start. This is understandable because when we are unfamiliar and do not know the right order to do something, we start with the most obvious. For many people that's the Internet and bookstores. If there is a local practice center, then people might also go there to see where to start.  

But as my teacher, Ven. Master Chin Kung, says, starting with the third vow is like trying to build the second floor of a building without having first constructed the foundation and the first floor. 

We undertake the third vow of mastering all the teachings once we have vowed to help all beings and have striven to end our afflictions. Accomplishing this, we will have a clear mind and be able to learn different methods without becoming confused or attached.

With our clear understanding and learning, we will then be able to skillfully help others. Different beings have different needs and capabilities. If we mistakenly use the wrong method to help someone, we may do much harm. So we need to wisely master all Dharma doors to progress further to the fourth vow.

 

 

 

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, Second Vow

Sentient beings are innumerable;
I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

As long as we have afflictions, our minds will be impure and we will not be able to selflessly help others.

So the second vow is to end our afflictions, the causes of suffering. Desire, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, and wrong views are the major afflictions—the six poisons. 

What is our ultimate reason for ending afflictions? Because we want to help innumerable beings. There are so many beings waiting for us to help them end their suffering forever. How can we do so if we have no virtues, no knowledge, and no abilities? The reason we vow to end afflictions, cultivate virtues, extensively learn Dharma doors, and attain Buddhahood, is for the purpose of universally helping all beings. It is not for ourselves. This is the force of great compassion.

Four Great Vows of Bodhisattvas, First Vow

 

 

Sentient beings are innumerable;

I vow to help them all.
Afflictions are inexhaustible;
I vow to end them all.
Dharma doors are boundless;
I vow to master them all.
Buddhahood is supreme;
I vow to attain it.

With much enthusiasm to learn and practice the teachings, most people start by reading books and listening to teachings by various teachers and writers. But in the vows above, we see that mastering the many Dharma doors, the different methods of learning and practice, is the third vow, not the first.

Our first step in becoming a bodhisattva is to give rise to the vow to help all beings. If we practice just to help ourselves or those we love, our mind will not be broad and spacious. It will be narrow and constricted, and our practice will be selfish.

With the first great vow, the aspiration to help all beings, our great compassion will be generated and it will compel us to be diligent on the bodhisattva path. Without this compassion and diligence, we will give up when encountering obstacles. Thus the first vow is imperative if we are to truly help others.