(Liao Fan’s Four Lessons) is a very
precious book and has been used
by not just their family
but by many people around (the world),
including our dear Master Chin Kung.
What Liao Fan taught is also a foundation
of Buddhism. Buddhism does not
come out of nowhere.
It has to be based on proper Cause and
Effect, based on understanding of
Cause and Effect, based on a proper use
and practice of filial piety,
and respect towards our elders.
Something we learned from DiZiGui,
those are the foundations of Buddhism.
This is the only way that Buddhism can triumph,
especially Mahayana Buddhism.
Knowing Cause and Effect, decency(禮),
as we learned from Master Xue Wu's class
last time is very important
to build up a foundation to receive
something as grand and as profound as
Buddhism and use it instead of just studying it.
The most important part of Liao Fan’s
sessions is acknowledging the past
wrongdoings and doing something to change it.
So he acknowledged straight away after
listening to Master YunGu about
why he can't have children
and why he can't go further than
what he was calculated to be in his career.
He immediately picked up all his points,
all of his weaknesses and summarized them
and gave them to Venerable YunGu.
So because he had humility,
he regretted and reformed his faults.
Not only that, he actively gave to the
community, to the people around him
and cleansed his heart.
That combined with persistence.
He acknowledged his faults,
he acted on them (corrected them)
and he persisted in them.
That is what made him successful.
One of the most important faults that
he found in himself and that we can also
relate to is his obsession with cleanliness.
While cleanliness is not a wrong thing,
it's a good habit.
It's more about his personality that
he liked to keep himself and his hands clean.
He did not know how to get down and
dirty to help people. If it took too much
trouble, he would not do it.
Looking at ourselves, we might also
have that part(fault) in us that
we might not want to,
be hesitant to help people
even though we could, maybe because
we're in the middle of something.
So this is also a test for us.
What he wrote here is not just a story,
but also a checklist for us, like:
Have I done this? (Am I like this?)
Have I also hesitated when (given
the opportunity) to do good?
You will see in Chapter 2 that he has
given us a more systematic way to reform.
How do we reform?
The first chapter talks about
how you can change your life.
There's no way you can't
and Master YunGu gave a very in-depth
teaching about how you (can) change
your life, because people became saint in the past,
saints like Confucius and Mencius,
they were like us, human beings, normal human
beings with conditions maybe worse than ours.
But they strived through their adversities
and they got through them and
they became sages.
They overcame their own desires,
they got better from it. So why can't we?
Then Liao Fan became motivated.
He began by telling us where to start
to reform ourselves.
The last few weeks, we have talked about
the three ways of … attitudes or reforming.
People who are willing to reform,
have these three character traits.
The first one is that they feel shame,
so feeling ashamed is, in this case,
is about human decency, Li 禮.
So what not to do, what to do,
not only in public, but in private (as well).
Many people keep saying to reform
in public, but in private we also
should have that sense of decency.
We should not do that (commit faults) even
if it's in private. That's the first step of
building up our moral virtues.
If we have that sense of feeling ashamed,
we would not do something that will make
ourselves, our family,
our loved ones, our Youth Group,
brothers and sisters feel ashamed.
We want to do a good job;
we want to set a good example for others.
I will not do something that humiliates
their name or humiliates their trust.
Also he talked about all of his adversities
and... sorry because I was looking at the
lowest point of one's life that changed one’s life,
not relevant but it's a good point.
Second part is fear,
that fear comes out of respect,
it does not come out of the fear of life.
Fear of what? The first part is actually
about morals(倫理).
How you should treat elders respectfully.
How you should harmoniously interact
with people like your siblings and your colleagues.
The second part is about Cause and Effect,
which is what Yun Gu has said,
but this one is a summary of it.
Way Sing talked about whatever you do,
the truth will come out. So be honest,
be real to yourself,
don't try to be pretentious, don't try to
cover it up. Be as real as you could be.
That's the first point he pointed out already.
One sincere thought of repentance,
he even used a metaphor,
it's like a candle light shining
in a dark cave that has not seen light
for a thousand years.
That goes to the second point.
No matter how long ago or
how recent the wrongdoing is,
we do have and Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha
has already mentioned we all have
wrongdoings in the past,
we definitely have that and
it is the reason why we are still here,
in the six realms, we still can't solve
the problem that Ven. Xue Wu has
informed us about birth, death, illness and age.
Because that karma is not cleansed,
we can't reach that level where we can
surpass it or overcome it.
So right now, what do we do? We start
by having that want(desire) to reform.
It does not matter how long is(it'll take).
The point is we are willing to change,
get into the game.
Do not give up, keep going.
He moved on and said life is fragile.
Especially, during current times,
with Covid-19 and all that,
we are literally one breath away
from death and in the future
there will be many more disasters.
We can understand because of the bushfires
and Covid-19, that it's not unrealistic to
expect something worse coming in the future.
Obviously, we hope for better,
we want to hope for better,
Cause and Effect.
If you want a better world, that's an effect
we need to have a good cause first
and the cause is the Five Precepts.
If we don't take the opportunity now
to practice, cultivate, hold the precepts,
understand the precepts,
it will cause misfortune to our family.
Why not pass fortune rather than disasters
to myself, my family and the people around me?
I just bring out the point that
Liao Fan has mentioned
at the end of this fear chapter.
If we can cultivate goodness, if we can
avoid doing bad deeds, it sounds easy, but
to do it (is another thing),
to purify your (thoughts), your speech,
your actions, so that none of your actions,
none of your thoughts,
none of your speech emits
unwholesomeness, emits anything that
breaches the Five Precepts:
No killing, No stealing, No sexual
misconduct, No lying, and if you choose
to help it, No drinking, no intoxicants in general.
These are the rough points
if you can go finer and finer.
Those things are just to tell you
that there are ways for us to guide
ourselves towards the acting,
speech and thought karma of Buddha.
We align ourselves to what Buddha is
doing, because he has perfected
these three karmas
so that he could liberate himself from
this life and death and in the short term,
he can gain great fortune,
he can gain the karma of great fortune,
in health, in wealth, in name,
in fame and everything.
He didn't ask for it, but he got all of it.
That's something we all need right now.
Those are the karmas that we need to learn.
The giving of wealth, gains wealth.
The giving of knowledge, especially if you are
a teacher, (teach) anything you know about,
including this session, if you give
what you know about Liao Fan,
what you know about cooking,
what you know about anything else
to others you will gain wisdom.
You will become smarter basically,
to be smart is to make others smart,
to enlighten others,
to open up other’s knowledge
if the chance arises.
Third one is the giving of fearlessness.
If they are feeling scared to
walk (down) the street at night and
you happen to be with them,
before they depart, then if you can,
accompany them during that
night trip back home.
Or if they are worried about something,
have fear about something, comfort them,
sit down and listen to them.
That is the giving of fearlessness and
the karma is to have a long life, longevity.
Those (3 kinds of giving) are very
down-to-earth stuff(lessons)
if you want all this good stuff: wealth,
everyone wants wealth, everyone wants
long life, everyone wants to be smart,
no one wants to be stupid,
they want to be smart, they want to be
intelligent, they want to have wisdom.
Then we have to start doing this.
So fear is also fear of the contrary.
Being very stingy, yields the karma
of poverty, very fair.
If you don't give, you don't get.
Another karma of the opposite,
is when one scares people or causes people
distress, unnecessarily causing people fear,
or to put fear into other people
in the wrong way.
I am not talking about the parents
educating children to respect the rules,
respect other human beings,
that kind of fear is good. I am talking
about the unnecessary fear for their life,
fear for their career,
that kind of harm(fear),
not education. (It's) harm.
This kind of fear will cause them
psychological trauma and all that.
If we do that,
no matter to how small a degree,
it will harm our longevity
and obviously if we are stingy and preserve
our knowledge by not letting other people know,
even though we know 100% of this topic,
we only give(teach) 80% for fear of
competition, or something like that,
then we will yield a karma of ignorance or stupidity.
There is no other way around it. This is
very raw, just like gravity. Those are
the high-end rules, iron laws of karma.
The last one is the one I am going to
delve in today, hopefully as good as I can,
is courage.
Knowing these two,
feeling ashamed,
what to do and what not to do.
Fear, the consequences and also
understanding the consequences means
you also can turn it into an opportunity
for a better life.
Now it's courage. Liao Fan (said)
if you have(want) to change
your life you need to have courage.
He also mentioned swiftness is the key
you have to be quick.
You have to stop it as soon as they arise.
The next one is three ways of changing.
As far as courage goes,
you need to strike while it's hot.
(you need to act swiftly.)
Do not let it fester. When it happens,
when these unwholesome thoughts,
anything that breaches the Five Precepts,
just for your guideline or anything that
harms others, you use that guideline
as a base or a fallback(starting) point.
Like, is that harming other people? If we
breach the guideline, if we understand
that my thought has already gone excessive,
and left the middle way, I need to stop it!
In our case, we can chant Amituofo.
Or if we still can't use Amituofo to suppress it,
just don't think about it, change the topic,
basically change it with something good,
change with Amituofo, that's the best path,
or change with something wholesome.
Think about how to serve your family,
something like that, good wholesome stuff.
That's for the thoughts. For the speech,
for the actions, it’s the same. Speech,
if you are about to swear or something,
try to hold it back. It's hard, I know,
because I have the same problem myself,
but try to stop it at your tongue before you say it.
Because this kind of speech has
an impact on other people
for the rest of their life.
For some reason if you're in a position
of power or if you are in charge of
something or if you're just giving an opinion,
just filter it before it comes out,
make sure it comes out right.
So the last one is our actions.
Before you act, think about it, or if you
are about to do it, even though
it's wrong because of your habits,
cut it off,
force yourself to go somewhere else,
so that you don't commit it.
That is the courage,
having the courage to act on it(our faults).
The last, the second half of chapter two
is the three ways of changing.
The last fortnight, Michael presented
the first two, by behavior and by reasoning.
We begin with behavior. Don't do it,
just like I say, don't do it. Don't act on it.
In the past, if I scold people,
I stop scolding people.
In the past, if I committed killing karma
maybe by butchering something,
I would stop killing the animals.
This is very tedious, very hard to do
one by one because there are thousands
of behaviors that you might commit
and thousands of them, quite a few that
might cause bad karma. How can you stop it
(each one of them individually)?
He went on to say that before you even
start doing an act, you think about it,
you reason with yourself:
What's my belief? What's my value?
Alex has mentioned last week to ask:
Is it selfish or selfless?
That is the choice that we make
everyday when we act, we can think
about our choice based on what we believe,
what we value the most,
what we value as good,
what we value as bad.
Another layer is what's my personal motto?
Then we have the importance of listening
to Dharma, because of that reasoning,
everyone has their own set of reasoning.
But as we can see with reasoning,
not everyone can get out of
the problem they were in.
And the main most fundamental
problem is life and death,
not everyone can get out of it.
Everyday problems getting along
with people, getting what you want,
not everyone can do it.
Obviously, even though everyone can have
their thinking and their set of reasoning and
it's to be respected, but not all of it works,
not all of them are able to achieve
(the desired) results.
Hence, we need someone who has already
been through this, they have already
achieved all that:
longevity, wealth, family and
all that good stuff to give you a guideline.
Hence, the Dharma, to change our mindset.
We need to have faith in that person
because that person has gone through it,
we call him Buddha, we can call him
the all-knowing one, the knowledgeable one,
but he has been through that.
He has walked the path and he's giving us
all of his works(Dharma) for us to choose
from, that suits our circumstances,
so that we can change our path too.
If not as perfect, if not as high as he is
but gradually working up the way to that level.
Dharma listening is a very important part
of reasoning. Not reacting to people
being aggressive to you.
That's another very good point
brought up by Liao Fan.
If people are very hostile,
tossed out to (mad at) you
in the workplace especially.
Maybe it is just in the moment because
everyone gets stressed trying to get things done.
Be patient. Don't react. Listen to them.
See if they're actually like that.
If it is just a spur of the moment thing,
it's easier to forgive them.
If it's intentional or malicious,
what does that have to do with you?
That's also a very important part.
We have to disengage from that.
Just like defamation,
just like scolding or something.
It's like they're holding the fire (a torch),
a fire torch to the air, eventually
it will exhaust itself,
that is what Liao Fan implored
if we do not react to it. If we react to it,
it's like adding oil to it,
letting it flame up more and more.
Or it's like wrapping yourself up
like a silk cocoon,
wrapped in themselves, and suffocating
themselves. Do not try to defend yourself,
unnecessarily,
only clear it up
for the benefit of the public.
In a real case example, Master Chin Kung
has always been defamed and I observed him
getting defamed all the time
but I saw him only clarify the points that
will affect the whole of the Amitabha Group,
the Jingzong Group.
He clarified like: I did not ask for
donations, I did not ask for your money
to build a temple for me in China.
I don't even go back there anymore,
something like that, if it is for the benefit
of everyone, then yes.
If it's just for yourself and it doesn't
really affect everyone else then fine, let it go.
You don't need to bear that burden.
That person who committed karma
will have to deal with it himself.
That's all for the revision(review).
Sorry for the long talk.
But I figured if we have a system that
we can probably appreciate Liao Fan more.
The last one (way of changing) is
by the heart. Unfortunately today,
Michael has to work, he is a surgeon.
I will take over this part before I pass on
the rest to Beverly. Today we will extend
to 10 minutes. Is that okay, you guys?
10 or 15 minutes past 12.
Silence means yes,
then
We will continue with the three ways
of changing. Reasoning is good,
but it's not thorough,
because everything we commit
comes from our heart.
A heart is formed by many thoughts,
but thoughts are not predictable,
because they are not real.
They are like illusory bubbles.
They are like bubbles on top of a sea.
They keep changing non-stop
like a wave on top of a sea.
They do not exist, they exist, but for a very
short while and they never stay the same.
This is the same as our thoughts.
Trying to reason with this kind of thing
is very painful, it's very hard and tedious
because they keep changing and changing
and changing. Every time you wake up,
you see it change again and again.
Instead of chasing around these bubbles,
like what am I thinking? What's my mood
today? You go to the depth of the ocean.
That's why Liao Fan said everything
arises from this heart just like the ocean
that gives rise to thousands of bubbles,
thousands of thoughts and hence
thousands of speech, thousands of actions.
If we want to get to the crux of it,
then we can change everything else.
You have to get to the depth of the ocean.
That's what Liao Fan has told us.
Every bad habit we have, like we are
lustful or we like fame, we like to enjoy
indulging in expensive stuff,
unnecessary stuff or we easily get angry,
we do not need to pick out one by one.
What wrongs did I commit today?
Yes, you have to be aware,
what's underneath it?
What caused everything unwholesome
or even wholesome to happen,
the thoughts, the idea of thoughts itself.
We do not need to pick out one by one.
We just need to have one heart to rule over them,
which is: I want to be a good person.
I want to change myself.
I want to do good. If I have these issues,
I go to the opposite of it.
Use proper thoughts to overcome
the evil thoughts. That's why we chant
Amituofo. That's the whole point of it.
One Amituofo against everything else,
your anger, your hatred, your greed,
everything,
all the afflictions that Master Xue Wu
talked about last time.
One Amituofo to overcome everything.
That's what Liao Fan said. We are using
Amituofo. Using one proper thought,
as the proper thought comes out,
all the evil thoughts as long as you keep
it there, cannot taint your mind.
Just like the sun in the midday,
when it shines, everything is illuminated.
The shadow will not appear, there is no
obstacle. So we need to keep our mind clear.
This is how when you know you are
skillful in your cultivation.
You don't need to go one by one.
Just like cutting the root
of a poisonous plant,
you don't need to pick off the leaves
one by one, then the branches and trunk,
you just cut the root and it will die, it will wither.
(As soon as a thought arises) in your mind,
make it clean, change it. First thought
comes out, second thought changes it.
First thought comes out,
second thought changes it.
The rest of the game is to keep at it,
keep at it, for us Amituofo, keep Amituofo
on and on and on, and do not let
the rest(other thoughts) come in.
It's just like a defending game.
You don't let anyone slip in.
However, we cannot ignore the
importance of reasoning, or behavioral
changes because ultimately they are one thing.
Michael and I agreed on that
when we talked about it the last time.
Those kinds of things, we break down
into three parts, four parts, five parts.
But it's just for us to have a better
understanding. But when it comes to real
operation, where you really act on it,
it's actually one thing. It is an all
in one package, you have to not only
control your thoughts,
you also need to reason with it because
you will definitely come out of your net
and it will expand.
So you have to be aware of what
you're doing and ask yourself:
What are the consequences?
Then your body behavior
you need to direct it as well.
If you're not impulsive,
it's easier, sometimes when you feel
impulsive then it is a challenge.
He just talked about the people who
changed in the past 20 years, when he
was 21 years old. Never stop reforming.
If we can not find our own faults that
means that we are being (careless),
because faults thoughts are the karma
is a cause and the effect is
a world that is imperfect,
a world that has a lot of flaws,
this is the world that we are born into,
because of the karma that we have committed.
So we might not have committed
a very heavy one, hence we will be born
into a better family, a better condition.
But we are still a part of this world.
We are not here as Bodhisattvas,
but as normal(ordinary) beings.
Hence, we always have faults, whether we
are aware of them or not. That is why
listening to Dharma is important,
to give you that pointer, say: Ok,
I have these points(faults) that I need to fix,
so that I can get better and better better.
and the result is you currently have
elevated your lifestyle, your status,
wealth and in the future,
you will be able to go to the Pure Land,
overcome life and death.
Don't give up! Keep reforming!
