Life Wisdom: Protecting Our World by Creating Blessings
What we’ve seen (of this pandemic) always make our hearts (ache), like they are being squeezed tightly and cannot break free. Indeed, the pandemic has given us a sense of heavy pressure as it is a crisis. Yet, have humans awakened to this? Have we? Life is impermanent.
At this time, what is needed the most is for everyone to abstain and stay vigilant. To abstain is to follow precepts as well as rules and regulations.
In the past, we have been overindulging. Ordinary beings’ minds are all over the place, every day, their minds run rampart, always thinking about ways to enjoy life and to win over things in order to have more and more. So much so that they are never satisfied. Ordinary beings have all arrived at such a level.
In the Lotus Sutra, there is a parable of “the Physician’s Sons.” A physician was very well-known and skillful, however, his children never listened to his teachings, and they only wanted to rely on their father, thinking, “I’m ill, but my father is a skillful physician; he’ll treat my illness.”
The physician told them, “You must take good care of your own body, have respect for yourselves, and raise your vigilance. If something will harm your body or mind, you must not think about it or do it.” However, his children disregarded his words. This is just like us humans.
The Buddha came to the world and expounded many teachings. People who came after him gradually understood his teachings and gradually spread them, both orally and in writing, but this was several hundred years later. When people hear or read the teachings, the teachings sound wonderful, they are written beautifully, but for people in the world, besides listening, can they follow his teachings? It is very hard.
It is very hard to change our habitual tendencies. When the teachings are written in articles, the language is so beautiful, and when people read them, they praise them! Though the teachings in writing can elicit praises from people, can they follow the teachings accordingly and apply them in everyday life as they interact with others? It’s still the same old answer: it is hard. Speaking of this, following the teachings should be easy.
Speaking about the current pandemic, it is so severe. What caused this pandemic to be so severe? It’s humans’ desires. The fastest way of satisfying our desires is eating. There are so many desires of eating. People seek different food and different taste.
When net fishing in the sea and the nets are hauled in, how many fish struggle in the nets? So many lives are fed to humans every day. But, do humans need to eat animals in order to survive? Not necessarily.
What keeps us healthy and alive are grains (and plants), not fish that swim in the sea nor animals that run on land. Birds in the sky, animals on land, and fish in water, all have lives and live freely in their habitats. We humans also have our own world on land.
Humans, fish, birds, animals, and countless other creatures together make up living beings. Yet, living beings kill and eat other living beings. The killing and eating of one another have created the world we have now.
In this world, not only do humans fight among themselves, animals also fight other animals, and then humans capture and kill all animals. This is creating karma. That’s right, we are creating karma. We see many natural disasters happening around the world now. We are to raise our vigilance on this. We need to be very mindful and pray for safety and peace for the world.
For this pandemic, I again urge everyone to be vigilant, disciplined, and sincerely pious. To have discipline is to adjust our mindset. Don’t let our direction go astray. The direction we’re heading today cannot go astray. We have to give of ourselves and create blessings for humanity.
We need to adjust our mindset to be like this every day. If we can adjust our mindset to have the correct values, we’ll accumulate blessings every day. Creating and accumulating blessings and growing in wisdom is called cultivating both blessings and wisdom.
I’m grateful to all volunteers. May everyone cultivate both blessings and wisdom. Let us pray sincerely for this pandemic to come to an end and the world has favorable climate. May our world be safe and peaceful.
Sitemap