Issue2 Article4

Disaster and Peace Both Come from the Mind Venerable Master Hsuan Hua Abstract: The principle of karma in Buddhist ethics is illustrated in this compilation of excerpts from instructional talks given by the late Master Hua. The Master discusses the causal connection that leads from people’s good and evil thoughts to external events.

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he world today is filled with terror. People of all races feel unsafe when they walk about. They can’t taste the food they eat; they can’t sleep peacefully. They know that if even one weapon of mass destruction is set off, the entire human race might be wiped out. And now we are witnessing aberrations in the climate, which is a sign that heaven and earth are becoming unbalanced. Day by day the world becomes darker; a black miasma covers all the lands.

Why has such a situation arisen? We should pay particular attention here to the principle of karma. The evil offenses and evil karma that people are creating are filling up the atmosphere. Everyone keeps creating more evil karma, and no one attempts to eradicate the karma that has already accumulated. Everyone has violated the five moral precepts against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, taking intoxicants and lying, and slowly, bit by bit, the karma becomes great enough to fill up the universe.

All the disasters in the world arise because people do not follow the five precepts just mentioned. If everyone could follow these precepts, disasters would disappear. Just consider the karma of killing. It’s as if everyone harbored an atom bomb that is about to blow up. The atom bomb is each person’s afflictions. The gathered momentum of everyone’s afflictions is actually greater than the energy of an atom bomb.

The problem lies with the three poisons—greed, anger and delusion.

Everyone becomes attached to the various aspects of life because in their delusion they think that everything in the world is real. For this reason, people vie for fame and fight for profit by engaging in all sorts of treachery issue 2, june 2002

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and scheming—all manner of things that violate their consciences. And in the end, those who compete for fame and profit die because of fame and profit. How do people become so obsessed? It’s because of greed, anger and delusion. These three poisons are more lethal than arsenic. They not only poison the body, they devastate the mind. They break up families and drive people insane. Because of them entire countries are in turmoil. Ultimately, they are capable of destroying the whole world. Therefore, these three poisons are our public enemies. Greed causes people to become insatiable, and when their greed cannot be satisfied, it turns into anger and rage. Less intense anger festers inside people’s minds; more intense anger erupts into fighting and war. No wonder the world is not at peace.

What should we do? The Buddha said, “Everything is made from the mind.” What has just been discussed is evidence of that principle. All the things that are happening right now are happening because of the minds of people. If people want disasters to be eradicated, they must begin within their own minds. As members of the human race, we should each take it as our work to get rid of our own bad habits and problems. We should brush away our greed, anger and delusion and act as models who influence others to go toward the good. Each person who can do that will be able to eliminate the vengeful energy from his own world. When two, three, four, five, a thousand or ten thousand people take up this work in their daily lives, then their worlds will be transformed.

All problems lie within the confines of the law of karma. This immutable law of cause and effect dictates that good acts lead to good effects and evil acts doom people to failure. The saying goes, “If you If people want disasters plant melons, you get melons; if you plant beans, you get beans.” That is why the only way to prevent the world from being utterly destroyed is for people to change their hearts. to be eradicated, they When people’s hearts turn toward the good, then a light that comes from wisdom fills the world. People with wismust begin within dom have a glow of righteousness about them. Everything they do exemplifies what is bright, great, proper and just. their own minds.

They seek to benefit all humankind. They don’t discriminate on the basis of race, nationality or religion. They long to see the world become a unified whole where all beings are equal and live in harmony.

Each being follows its own path, along which its energy travels like an electric current. Although each being has its own path, Heaven, Earth and living creatures nevertheless form a unified whole. Therefore, every time a person gets angry or afflicted he increases the toxic vibrations in the universe. Every thought of greed, anger and delusion adds to the world’s poisonous energy. Conversely, one wholesome thought adds to the whole-

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Disaster and Peace Both Come from the Mind

some and righteous spirit in Heaven and on Earth. Whenever greed, anger and delusion are replaced by precepts, mindfulness and wisdom, the auspicious energy in the world, will increase. If our efforts in this regard are diligent and sincere, we can transform violent energy into something auspicious; we can turn disasters into peaceful situations.

We now live in the gloom of night darkened by war. We need light.

Since both darkness and light are ultimately created by thoughts, people’s minds can both destroy the world and reform the world. The Buddhist teachings are an invaluable, precious raft that can ferry people across to safety, because these teachings include methods by which people’s thoughts can be influenced toward the good. The saying goes, “Do no evil, do good deeds, and purify your mind: this is what all Buddhas teach.” That is the truth of Buddhism. It is an idea that everyone understands, but hardly anyone puts it into practice, and that is why the world is in a mess.

The only way we can help avert calamity is to engage in proper moral and spiritual cultivation. In any location where people are engaged in this work, disasters will be lessened. When many people can gather together and unite their efforts in this way, they will be able to eradicate disasters by invisibly transforming the violent energy into a positive, beneficial atmosphere. To make that happen, though, we must do real work, take firm strides, and practice diligently.

For example, when we sit in silent meditation according to the Chan method, our goal is to change evil into good. To practice Chan meditation is to hold the precepts against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and taking intoxicants. Why do I say this? In the first place, when you are sitting in meditation and investigating your Chan topic, you won’t have time to do anything else. You should be able to pick up your meditation topic, your investigation of “Who?” and let everything else go. Just investigate “Who?” Further, when you meditate you can turn the searchlight of your awareness around and illuminate your own mind. You can observe how many evil thoughts you’re producing and how many good thoughts.

If you see that you haven’t been having many good thoughts, you can quickly see to it that they increase. When you observe that you’ve been producing evil thoughts, you can quickly take steps to get rid of them. This is the first business of the Chan practitioner. To avoid evil deeds and respectfully practice good deeds is to lay the foundation for a career in spiritual cultivation.

Now is a time when people’s moral behavior is declining drastically to the point that almost everyone is selfish and self-seeking. More and more people sacrifice the happiness of the majority in order to fulfill their own private desires. For that reason, the world becomes darker and darker day by day, and people become more deluded as time goes on. The situation issue 2, june 2002

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has now grown so precarious that all the inhabitants of the world are poised on the brink of extinction. If we do not exhaust our efforts to turn this tide of selfishness, then the outcome is inevitable: the utter destruction of everyone. None will escape this doom.

How can the world be saved? We can start by “doing no evil and only doing good.” If everyone does good works and refrains from doing evil, then the influence will be all-pervasive. From the international leaders down to the most ordinary citizens, we are all capable of shining our wisdomlight to dispel the darkness of delusion. If we join together in this, we can remove the dark shadows that cover the world and replace them with bright, wholesome energy. This is the way to world peace. ❧ Sources Venerable Master Hua’s Talks on Dharma, Volume 3. Burlingame, California: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1995, pp. 37, 163, 209–217.

Venerable Master Hua’s Talks on Dharma, Volume 4. Burlingame, California: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1995, p. 127.

Venerable Master Hua. Herein Lies the Treasure Trove, Volume 1. Talmage, California: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1983, pp. 55, 58–59.

Venerable Master Hua. Herein Lies the Treasure Trove, Volume 2. Talmage, California: Buddhist Text Translation Society, 1989, pp. 13–18.

About the Author An account of the life of Venerable Master Hsuan Hua is given on page 101.

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