..续本文上一页 see how much other creatures are possessed of ill-fortune; take dogs, pigs, snakes and other creatures for instance. They have no chance to study Dhamma, no chance to know Dhamma, no chance to practice Dhamma. These are beings possessed of ill-fortune who are receiving karmic retribution. When one has no chance to study, to know, to practice Dhamma, then one has no chance to be free from Suffering.
As human beings we should not allow ourselves to become victims of ill-fortune, deprived of proper manners and discipline. Do not become a victim of ill-fortune! That is to say, one without hope of attaining the Path of Freedom to Nibbana, without hope of developing virtue. Do not think that we are already without hope! By thinking in that way, we would then become possessed of ill-fortune the same as other creatures.
We are beings who have come within the sphere of influence of the Buddha. Thus we human beings are already of sufficient merit and resources. If we correct and develop our understanding, opinions and knowledge in the present, then it will lead us to behave and practice in such a way as to see and know Dhamma in this present life as human beings.
We are thus different from other creatures, beings that should be enlightened to the Dhamma. The Buddha taught that at this present moment, the Dhamma exists here in front of us. The Buddha sits facing us right here and now! At what other time or place are you going to look
If we don”t think rightly, if we don”t practice rightly, we will fall back to being animals or creatures in Hell or hungry ghosts or demons.[3] How is this
Just look in your mind. When anger arises, what is it
There it is, just look! When delusion arises, what is it
That”s it, right there! When greed arises, what is it
Look at it right there!
By not recognizing and clearly understanding these mental states, the mind changes from being that of a human being. All conditions are in the state of becoming. Becoming gives rise to birth or existence as determined by the present conditions. Thus we become and exist as our minds condition us.
The Two Faces of Reality
(A Discourse delivered to the Assembly of Monks after the recitation of the Patimokkha, the Monk”s Disciplinary Code, at Wat Pah Pong during the Rains Retreat 1976)
In our lives we have two possibilities: indulging in the world or going beyond the world. The Buddha was someone who was able to free Himself from the world and thus realized spiritual Liberation.
In the same way, there are two types of knowledge -- knowledge of the worldly realm and knowledge of the spiritual, or true wisdom. If we have not yet practiced and trained ourselves, no matter how much knowledge we have, it is still worldly, and thus cannot liberate us.
Think and really look closely! The Buddha said that things of the world spin the world around. Following the world, the mind is entangled in the world, it defiles itself whether coming or going, never remaining content. Worldly people are those who are always looking for something -- who can never find enough. Worldly knowledge is really ignorance; it isn”t knowledge with clear understanding, therefore there is never an end to it. It revolves around the worldly goals of accumulating things, gaining status, seeking praise and pleasure; it”s a mass of delusion which has us stuck fast.
Once we get something, there is jealousy, worry and selfishness. And when we feel threatened and can”t ward it off physically, we use our minds to invent all sorts of devices, right up to weapons and even nuclear bombs, only to blow each other up. Why all this trouble and difficulty
This is the way of the world. The Buddha said that if one follows it around there is no reaching an end.
Come to practice for liberation! It isn”t easy t…
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