An Instructional talk by Venerable Master Hua in winter of 1979 at the City of Ten Thousand Buddha
All people in the Saha World like happiness and dislike misery. Beings in hells like misery and dislike happiness. Hungry ghosts like hatred and anger, and dislike kindness and compassion. Animals like stupidity and dislike wisdom. That’s why they’ve descended to the destiny of animals.
Although we people say that we like happiness and dislike misery, none of us really know how to end our miseries. Beings in the heavens also prefer happiness over misery.
The state of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is such that they neither have misery nor happiness. Joy and sorrow are both forgotten. Most of us living beings are inverted. We take right as wrong and wrong as right. We take black as white and white as black. Are we aware that this is considered as inverted behavior? Yes. Although we know, we still insist on doing wrong things. We clearly know what is not in accordance with Dharma, yet we explicitly do them. We know what’s right, yet we don’t do them.
An example would be somebody who goes off to drink tea in the middle of Buddha recitation. There’s a specific time set for drinking tea; not any time you feel like it. A person who goes off to drink tea in the middle of Buddha recitation is being lazy. He gets tired reciting the Buddha’s name, so he decides to take a rest and drink tea. How can someone who is reciting the Buddha’s name true-heartedly even think of drinking tea? He’d have forgotten about drinking tea altogether, even less of drinking milk. He’d have forgotten everything else. When a person is truly reciting the Buddha’s name, he’s oblivious to whether he’s eaten or not, much less think about drinking tea.
Someone may say, “Reciting the Buddha’s name is too risky if you don’t even know whether or not you’ve eaten.” Nonetheless, this “not knowing” reveals true skill. Someone who truly cultivates is oblivious to whether he’s eaten, got dressed, or slept. He’s forgotten everything. Likewise, he is oblivious to whether it’s day or night. He is oblivious to the heaven above and the earth below, as well as the people in between. Everything is empty. When everything is empty, how could he even think of drinking tea or milk?
There’s a dharma master in Gold Mountain Monastery who doesn’t dare to drink milk, because once he does, his thoughts of desire multiply and he cannot control them. So, he dares not drink it. We eat to sustain our life. We should take food as medicine, taking a bit to sustain ourselves because if we don’t eat, we’d die. However, there’s no need to eat very nutritious food to bolster our body. Excessive nutrition causes a lot of trouble.
When we cultivate the Dharma-door of Mindfulness of the Buddha, we should be constantly mindful of the phrase, “Namo Amitabha Buddha,” and never stop reciting it, awake or asleep. This eight-syllable great name “Namo Amitabha Buddha” cannot be severed no matter how much you push and pull. It cannot be severed even with a sword. The power of Mindfulness of the Buddha is even stronger than a diamond. There is no way to sabotage our recitation of “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” This is the state of Buddha Recitation Samadhi.
(To be continued …)