" Diamond Sutra " is one of the greatest classics of Buddhism. It contains the highest wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism and is regarded as "the mother of wisdom of all Buddhas, the wise father of Bodhisattvas, and the refuge of all saints."
In ancient China, from emperors and generals to celebrities and officials, to traders and common people, everyone respected and upheld the Diamond Sutra. After thousands of years, this classic has been deeply integrated into China. traditional culture. Among the reasons are the eight truths of life revealed to us by the Diamond Sutra. Awakening has selected part of the speech given by Mr. Nan Huaijin on the Diamond Sutra. Let’s listen to Nan Lao’s analysis.
Truth 1: The state of mind determines the situation
When you truly understand the Tao, you have no concept of time. The Diamond Sutra tells us, "The past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped." Time is relative, real time, one thought for ten thousand years, one thought for ten thousand years, no past and present, no coming or going, it is equivalent to an ancient poem: "The wind and moon have no past and present, the feelings are shallow and deep."
The moon, sun, wind, mountains and rivers, they will always be like this. The sky and clouds that the ancients saw, that is, the sky and clouds we see now, are the same world. The same thing will be seen by people in the future. Although Fengyue is the same, the feelings are different. Some people are happy when they see the scenery, and people who are in pain are so sad that they want to die when they see the same scenery. This is all caused by their own idealism.
Regardless of Confucianism , Buddhism, Taoism , and all other religions, all human cultivation methods are all based on these three words--good and protective thoughts. Take good care of your thoughts. Whenever you have thoughts, take good care of your own thoughts.
The hearts of all sentient beings are changing. Like time and the physical world, they will never stay, can never be grasped, and are always in the past. Therefore, "the past mind cannot be grasped, the present mind cannot be grasped, and the future mind cannot be grasped." ". As soon as we said the future, it has become the present. When we were talking about the present, it has become the past. This phenomenon is unobtainable, and this is true of all feelings and perceptions.
However, all sentient beings do not understand this principle and desperately want to stay in the unavailable "three hearts" - past, present and future, trying to stay and grasp it.
Truth Two: Only by self-help can God help you.
Buddha is not authoritative or dominant. The Lord and authority of Buddha is in everyone's own heart. Therefore, when a person learns Buddhism, it is not superstition, but true faith.
Right faith is to wake up spontaneously, realize oneself, and become a Buddha by oneself. This is the true spirit of learning Buddhism. If you say go to worship and pray, that is superstitious; if you want to rely on Buddha and Bodhisattva to protect yourself, to be honest, Buddha will not care about your business, and Buddha will tell you how to protect yourself.
This is the same as the spirit of Chinese culture: seek blessings for yourself, help yourself and God will help you, and help yourself and others will help you. In other words, you help yourself and the Buddha helps you. If you have done something bad today, go to the Buddha and Bodhisattva to pray and say sorry, and the Buddha will forgive you. That is impossible.
Truth 3: The mind is like a mirror, only then can you realize that life is like a dream
The so-called Tathagata, the mind is like a clear mirror, this mind is clean, no subjectivity, no prejudice, things come as they come. As soon as something happens, this mirror will reflect it. When joy, anger, and sorrow come today, there will be joy, anger, sorrow, and joy; if the past is not retained, nothing will be retained after it has passed.
The great poet of the Song Dynasty Su Dongpo , he studied Zen. His poetry has a high realm and is consistent with the realm of Buddhism and Zen. He has a famous saying: "People are like the coming of autumn with a letter, and things are like a spring dream without leaving a trace." All things have passed, just like spring dreams. People love to sleep in spring. If they sleep too much, they will have more dreams and . When they wake up from the dream, the dream cannot be retained and leaves no trace.Life is like a big dream, everything is gone in the past, like a river flowing eastward, there is no turning back.
If you truly realize that everything in life is like a spring dream, there is no need to study the Diamond Sutra.
Truth 4: Everyone has happiness, but no one can enjoy it.
Life in the mortal world is fame and wealth, which is generally called enjoying great blessings. Pure blessings are called pure blessings. Great blessings in life are easy to enjoy, but pure blessings are not. People without wisdom dare not enjoy pure blessings.
When people reach their old age, they could have enjoyed this blessing, but most people feel miserable instead, because once they have nothing to take care of, they will not be able to live anymore. There are many old friends who, when it is time to enjoy a happy life, they insist on dying. They are afraid of the loneliness and have nothing to do. How can they live?
What is the real blessing? Pure and inaction. There is neither trouble nor sorrow in the heart, neither gain nor loss, no glory nor insult, neither positive nor negative, and it is always very peaceful. This is the so-called blessing of the upper world - pure happiness.
Qingfu Everyone has it, and each of us has free time, but you have nothing to do all day long, and you can’t be free at home! I would shed tears, as if I had been forgotten by people in society, and I was afraid of being looked down upon by others! No one handed me a business card to see me, no one sent an invitation, and no one called me to greet me, alas! I'm so sad... He won't enjoy the happiness he has!
Is true blessing so hard to find? very easy! But when people have this blessing, they don't want it anymore, which is asking for trouble.
Truth 5: Unperfection is the real thing
In this flawed world, no one’s life is perfect. If he were perfect, he would have died long ago, because the Saha world, as the Buddha calls it, is a flawed world. So it’s better to keep some flaws.
Zeng Guofan also understood this truth very well in his later years. His own study room was called Qiuquezhai. It is terrible to be too satisfied with everything. I hope I can find some flaws.
Therefore, in this flawed world, people with blessings have no wisdom, and people with wisdom have no blessings. People who are good at reading books are likely to have less blessings; people with better fortunes are more likely to have less knowledge, and if they have one aspect, they will lose that aspect.
Truth Six: The truth of the mind is formless
For example, when you turn on the switch of a light bulb or an electric fan, the electricity comes, but you cannot see the electricity. You only feel the light and the wind. Is the electricity coming? It has come, but it seems that it has not come, and it has disappeared again. Has the electricity gone? It has gone, but it seems that it has not gone. If it is activated again, it will come again. It neither comes nor goes, neither lives nor dies.
The name Tathagata means that the phenomenon of clarifying the original nature of the mind is the phase mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures, which is also the phenomenon of the mind and the nature of the mind.
Let’s zoom out a little further. In the first minute, a person starts speaking. Did any of us hear it? If he comes, he seems to have been here before, and he has heard every word, and it has passed. If he goes, he seems to have gone away, and if he speaks again, he comes again, but this body remains unchanged.
So what the Buddhist scriptures talk about is description. When we reach that state of cultivation, which is almost close to the pure and empty phase, Ruru will not move. It doesn't seem to be moving, but it doesn't really move. If it really doesn't move, it's a dead thing.
Truth Seven: Only by ignoring worries can we truly eliminate them
Where do thoughts come from? Where to go? “Nothing has come from, and nothing is going to, this is the Tathagata."Why do you care about thoughts? When they come, they come in a hurry, and when they go, they go away in a hurry. So when everyone meditates, they try desperately to get rid of their delusions. Look, how stupid they are!
Why do you get rid of your delusions? Delusion is empty, and it cannot be kept. Who has kept his thoughts? You said that I feel painful and troubled. Are you not talking nonsense? Yesterday's day has long passed, and yesterday's troubles have long since disappeared. Don't worry if you are sitting here now! You are worried now, don't worry if you wait! You can't be worried forever, worries don't stay.
We must always observe our own worries and mind, neither come nor go, nor sit still. Lying, neither birth nor death. The disappearance of the first thought is called death, and the coming of the next thought is called birth. What is born must die. After it is destroyed, won't it cease to exist?
Life and death are like waves on the water. Although the waves are moving, they disperse one by one after they move. Although the waves are invisible, the entire wave is made of water. The water has not moved, but there are still so many. No more, no less, it will always be there.
We use various methods to practice, and we are all trying to flatten the wave in our hearts. We try our best to make the wave flat. So what if it becomes flat? Or water! What about unevenness? So trying to make it smooth is not asking for trouble, right?
People often say that life is like a dream. There are no dreams, and this concept and thought is wrong. Dreams are not, they are accidental, temporary, and one-sided. Psychological research shows that the longest dream does not last longer than five seconds. A dream. I dreamed of growing up, going through many things, and finally died. When I woke up, my pillow was wet with tears. In the dream, decades passed, but in fact, there were only three seconds of time and space in the dream. Einstein also understood that time and space are relative. When we spend half a month on the earth, it is only one night on the moon, and one year in this world is only one day and night in the sun.
There are other worlds, and we spend one day on the moon. One hundred years, they only spent one day and night, but one day and night for us humans is the countless lives of many small creatures. They die and are reborn, and they are born and die again. Tens of billions of reincarnations are incarnated and no one knows how much time has passed. Therefore, for any planet in the universe, time and space are relative.
At the beginning of the "Diamond Sutra", the Buddha set an example for us to see. He put on his clothes, alms, and ate. After eating, he washed his muddy feet and sat down on a seat. No student laid out his seat. He placed it himself, arranged it, laid it down, patted the seat flat, and then sat on it himself.
What is practice? It’s all said at the beginning—behave properly, do things honestly, refrain from doing any evil, and do all the good deeds. This is cultivation.
picture source | Ten Wish Encyclopedia
