The Vajra Strikes: Part 5

A Collection of Q & A's with the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

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Q: How come Shakyamuni Buddha, while cultivating, was able to withstand humiliation without becoming angry?
A: That is because he wasn't attached to the self. Being unattached to his ego, having his body parts chopped off was just like someone trying to carve out pieces of emptiness to him.

Q: Why do we have to experience suffering that is deprivation?
A: We suffer because we are extremely greedy. Being so greedy, we cannot sleep at night and cannot eat during the day.

Q: Why do I always meet up with fortunetellers?
A: They want to come and test you in person. They want to see if they could influence you, to see whether you're still interested in money, such as by pursuing get-rich-quick schemes. They want to come to check and see if you've got any samadhi. "Everything is a test to see what you will do. If you do not pass the test, you must start anew."

Q: Don't the rich suffer?
A: Yes. Their wealth could shrink and disappear. They may have lots of money and lots of property, but a fire could easily burn down their house and turn cash into ash. This is a form of suffering called decay. The wealthy experiences the suffering of decay.

Q: What is great compassion?
A: To forgive others. No matter what it is that other people have done, we consider ourselves to have been in the wrong. To be able to forgive others, not see their faults, and allow them to change-that is great compassion.

Q: Won't the human race be extinct if everyone were to become a monk or a nun?
A: Could you make everyone become a monk or a nun?

Q: To really adhere to the precepts, we must first stop crying. Does that mean we ought to laugh a lot?
A: No. A mental state of concentration is required to refrain from both crying and laughing. We cry and laugh because we don't have any samadhi. With samadhi comes wisdom. We have not kept to the precepts if we don't have any samadhi. We may even claim to have wisdom, but that would be talk only.

Q: Will I die from hunger or cold when I become old?
A: What a pathetic way of thinking!

Q: How come the world is in such mayhem that everything seems hopeless?
A: The world is in such a state of chaos and unrest because everyone is selfish and self-interested: "This is mine, that belongs to me." Cultivators must achieve the state of "no-self." What is there to fight for if there is no self? What is there to hanker after? What is there to be sought after? When we have settled our accounts, we figure out that we don't want a thing. We only want to learn to have the attitude of Bodhisattvas: sacrificing ourselves for the sake of others.

Q: How come we can't talk during meals at the temples affiliated with the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association?
A: We have to make sure that we remain silent during meals because talking while eating will cause indigestion and is unhygienic. I'm not forbidding you to talk; I just hope that you will live a long and healthy life.

Q (by a disciple): I really can't stand it!
A: If you can't stand it, then you can't end it. What are you ending? Karmic obstructions. If we don't eliminate our [negative] karma, then we are still attached to emotions. Where does that leave us in terms of birth and death? As it is said, "If our karma were light, we would not have been born in the Saha World; if we don't cut off love, we would not become reborn in the Pureland." When we have put an end to our karma and seen through the emptiness of our emotions, we will have really become liberated, ending our birth and death.

Q: How come both believers and non-believers of Buddhas are all Buddhists?
A: Because no one is beyond [the principles of] Buddhism.

Q: What responsibilities do we Buddhists of the West have?
A: Your responsibility is to bring Buddhism to the West. Each one of you should make resolutions to contribute yourself to the best of your abilities. Don't rely on others.

Q: I have a dog, I really like. . .
A: Do you really have to be that intimate with the dog to help it?

Q: Is it okay for people to be close and is it okay for people and their pets to be close?
A: By being too close, you end up becoming the same life-form as that person or pet in the future.

Once a disciple went to look at a piece of property with the Venerable Master and encountered a vicious dog that was barking wildly. He quickly hid behind the Venerable Master.
Venerable Master: Cultivators have to cultivate so that they reach a stage whereby they are not afraid of any animal.


Q: "The monkey king" was born from a rock. Why did a rock give birth to that monkey?
A: "The monkey king" is a demon; plenty of similar cases exist. The monkey king was probably experiencing some problems with his thinking skandha during his cultivation, so he became a monkey that can bore his way through to the heavens and dig his way into the earth. He symbolizes demons described in the Shurangama Sutra.

Q: I still don't understand the nature of living beings. Also, what is the Buddha nature?
A: It's the Buddha nature once you have become enlightened; it's the nature of living beings while you are deluded.

Q: What is true giving?
A: It's to give up what we cannot give up. That's true giving.

Q: How is it useful for us to be bowing to Buddha statues made of wood?
A: Buddha statues are not the Buddhas; the Buddhas are everyone. There's not one spot that the Dharma body of Buddhas fails to reach. Wooden statues are figures representing the significance of Buddhas in the same way that citizens salute their national flag though it is a piece of fabric or canvass. What's the use for them to salute?

Q: Why are cultivators afraid of having false thoughts?
A: Because each false thought becomes a black film that pollutes our self-nature. By not entertaining false thoughts, we uncover and let shine the brilliance of our self-nature.

Q: Since the Buddha has passed away, those of us living in this time and age probably wouldn't cause the Buddha to bleed, right?
A: Whenever you hurt Buddhism, you can be said to be making the Buddha bleed.

Q: How can we be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss?
A: Without false thinking, we are free from afflictions, hence free from suffering. Having absolutely no false thoughts whatever, we have become reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

Q: Why does the Master look down on the rich in particular?
A: Because the amount of money you have represents the amount of offense karma that has been following you.

Q: How do you explain that the day we are born is the day that we die? Is it that we die as soon as we are born?
A: That's right. We're dead as soon as we are born; but it's not that our life ends, it's that the 84,000 pores in our body die. From our birthday onward, one pore dies each day until we reach the age of 60 or 100. Our pores become clogged because of dead tissue though new cells develop. In any case, nothing is born on our birthday and nothing is dead on our day of passing.

Q: Where does the "I" go after one is dead and has been cremated?
A: The essence of meditation is to look for that "I", the self-nature of the true "I".

Q: You say our body is like a toilet?
A: Every person's body is like a toilet. Our stomach houses feces and urine, for instance. So why do we love our body and value it so much? Our body is extremely filthy, so why do people consider it a gem, decorating it with diamonds, gold, silver, and jewelry or rubbing it with perfume and makeup? Aren't they decorating a toilet with flowers and jewelry?

Q: Cultivating. . .
A: Cultivation is very easy, right? Just eat about 80 percent full and don't make your stomach explode. Just be natural and maintain moderation!

Q: Why should we sit there and not move when we're meditating?
A: It teaches you to have no thoughts. One who gives rise to not one thought is a Buddha.

Q: Exactly how do we avoid giving rise to even a single thought?
A: It's impossible. Although it's impossible to prevent a thought from surfacing, it is possible to keep a thought from ceasing. That which ceases will arise and that which arises will cease. If we can prevent a thought from ceasing, we can prevent it from arising. This is the principle behind meditation: by having not a single thought arise, one is a Buddha.

Q: How are the results different for those who practice asceticism, scholarship, and propagation of Dharma?
A: By sowing melons, we reap melons; by sowing beans, we reap beans. Just as it is the cause, so it is the fruit.

Q: What exactly is the "Wordless Sutra"?
A: It is to "give rise to not a thought." If you can give rise to not a single thought, everything naturally returns to still emptiness. That's all that the Buddhadharma is about; there's nothing else.

Q: Lay people receive the Five Precepts and violate them severely. But how about monks and nuns who don't adhere to the Precepts?
A: I'll tell you, you have to be "a Mahasattva who could careless about others; Amitabha Buddha who just takes care of himself."

Q: Cultivators must cultivate blessings and wisdom, but how?
A: Do more meritorious and virtuous deeds. Try your best to do things that benefit living beings: that's to cultivate blessings. Read and recite Sutras and study the principles of Buddhism by "entering the Sutra Treasury deeply and have wisdom like the sea": that is to cultivate wisdom.

Q: What kind of mental attitude is considered proper and what kind is deviant?
A: The proper mental attitude is one that has set its sights on Bodhi, one of impartiality, one of compassion, sympathy, giving, and shame. A deviant state of mind is one of selfishness, self-interest, jealousy, resentment, arrogance, and false thinking. The purpose for us to be cultivating is to eliminate our falseness and maintain our trueness, which is equivalent to eliminating the deviant mental attitude and giving rise to the proper mental state.

Q: Who are the god of wealth, god of nobility, and god of joy [(three gods according to Chinese folklore)]?
A: God of wealth is by your side when you don't let your essence, energy, and spirit be lost. God of nobility is next to you when you are noble enough to not lose your temper. Furthermore, you have accepted the god of joy when you are happy.

I have a different theory than that of the Chinese. These three gods-the god of joy, the god of nobility, the god of wealth--are all right here inside of us. We don't know how to find them, however. We run out looking for them when they're essentially a part of us.

Venerable Master: Why do we have to die? How can we avoid death?
A relative: The only way to avoid death is to become a monk or nun and cultivate. That's the only way to not die.

Q: The retribution for the number of marriages one has had shows up after death. Depending on the number of times one has been married, one will be sawed apart by a large chainsaw that many times.
What's so bad about being split apart from head to toe?
A: When you are split into several pieces, your spirit will have a hard time regrouping. You may not have the human body again in billions and billions of eons. Your nature becomes transformed and your spirit disintegrated so that you are practically like a grass or tree, an insentient plant. It's difficult to become a sentient being once one has dismembered one's inherent nature.

Q: Why do people gossip?
A: Because they're stupid.

Q: Why is it that "one sees but does not see"?
A: Because one is reflecting and being introspective.

Q: Why is it that "one listens but does not hear"?
A: Because one is turning one's hearing inward to listen to one's inherent nature.

Q: Why is it that "one sniffs but smells nothing"?
A: Because one's body and mind are collected so that they are not turned by the objects of scent.

Q: Why do people have the intent to harm?
A: Because of stupidity.

Q: How come Guanshiyin Bodhisattva can look, look, and look all day long, but I can't?
A: The way you look and the way Guanshiyin Bodhisattva looks are different. Guanshiyin Bodhisattva looks inwardly while you look out.

Q: Are we brothers of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva? But Guanshiyin Bodhisattva is a sage whereas we're ordinary people. How can ordinary people and a sage be brothers?
A: Your thinking is in line with the views of ordinary people because you haven't entered the Sutra treasury deeply and consequently you don't have wisdom as deep as the sea. The Avatamsaka Sutra says, "The Bodhisattva contemplates that, 'I have been brother, parent, sister, and spouse to living beings since beginningless time.'" You don't believe this because you don't understand the principles contained in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Furthermore, not only does a Bodhisattva see living beings in that light, but as a Buddha, he sees every man his father and every woman his mother. Since Buddhas see living beings as their parents, why would it be unreasonable for me to say that Guanshiyin Bodhisattva considers living beings his brothers and sisters?

Q: Chinese monasteries do a ritual for feeding ghosts and spirits, called "Releases at Mt. Meng." What is it?
A: Great Master the Sixth Patriarch told Hui Ming to go and stay at Mt. Meng in Yuan Province. Instead of going immediately, Hui Ming went three years later. There, he met a ghost who used to be a scholar in the ranks of today's Ph.D. Despite having become a ghost, he continued to create poems. He wrote a poem after seeing Great Master Huiming, which says,

Dreams are long here in the wild, desolate and forlorn. . .
Too languid to think over victory or loss, of the past and present. . .
How many grass blades and flower bouquets have I pulled?
Rain seems bitter and wind seems sour, for how many times have I had a broken heart?
In and out with the fireflies during the dark of the night,
My shadow of a form I hide when cocks crow at first light.
My only regret being: not having cultivated the mind's ground from the start;
And hence my fall for the realm of phantoms. . . oh teardrops roll down my face.

Great Master Hui Ming heard the ghost sing this poem and explained Dharma for him. The former scholar was saved as a result and became reborn in a different incarnation. This is how "Releases at Mt. Meng" came about. Releases at Mt. Meng are about saving ghosts.

Q: Why should monks and nuns under the Venerable Master eat only one meal at midday?
A: The Buddha had established the monastic rule for eating only one meal at midday. This helps to regulate our diet, keeps ghosts and the dead at bay, and reduces our desire. There are three spirits of the dead in the human body. When we overeat, these three spirits act up. It's easier to cultivate if our desires were lighter, so don't feed this system of ours anything too rich. Although our group is not doing this perfectly, we do hope that everyone will strive to do what is right.

Q: Why do we have to take refuge with the precepts at the same time that we take refuge with the Triple Jewel?
A: Typically, Buddhists only take refuge with the Triple Jewel and do not with the precepts. However, since the Buddha has passed away, all living beings should take the precepts to be our teacher. That is why I also have you take refuge with the precepts at the same time that you take refuge with the Triple Jewel. Precepts are about not doing anything evil and doing everything good. Do not refuse to do a good deed because it's too small; do not do a bad deed because it's considered insignificant.

Q: What does it mean for Sangha members to be pure and to be fields of blessings?
A: Being pure means not being tainted. The method to not being tainted is: to not fight, to not be greedy, to not seek, to not be selfish, to not be self-benefiting, and to not lie. Whoever can keep the precept against holding money is a true Sangha member who is pure and serves as a field of blessings. It's problematic if one becomes extremely happy because one receives a little donation. If one is thus unmoving and bright with understanding, then one will have the same kind of reaction whether one gets a donation or not.

Q: What is "great kindness despite a lack of affinities"?
A: It means that we try to save those with whom we have no affinities. By being kind to those who are unkind to us, we are acting out of great kindness despite having no affinities.

Q: How exactly did living beings come about? Some say we evolved from monkeys.
A: From what did monkeys evolve? If in the past monkeys had been able to evolve into human beings, why don't they turn into people nowadays? Strange! Idiots who attempt to own a unique and novel theory developed this idea. Humans came from monkeys! Why don't they say humans came from mice?

Q: From emptiness comes existence, that's how people and all living beings came about. Does this apply to cultivation?
A: Cultivation is about transforming existence into emptiness, which means that we return to our source of origin, the Buddha nature that has been there all along.

Q: Why do cultivators practice asceticism, such as by eating only one meal a day?
A: To end suffering. Once suffering ends, there's joy.

Q: How come we never seem to be able to shatter our ignorance? Why can't we ever cut off our afflictions? Why don't our wisdom ever appear?
A: Because of gluttony and licentiousness.


Q: What kinds of state are real?
A: States that occur before a thought has arisen are real. Once deluded thoughts wiggle their way to the surface, you have already been thinking about what you would like to see; consequently, most of what you encounter are false.

Q: What happens if we don't believe in cause and effect?
A: Gods have the virtue of wanting to foster life; gods will not do anything to harm living beings. A violation of the law of cause and effect is like "a slip of the foot that causes regret for a thousand generations." "Once we lose our human form, we may not have it again for ten thousand eons." Anything else may be unbelievable, but not cause and effect. Someone who rejects the law of cause and effect is in an extremely precarious situation.

Q: What particular state of mind should we be in while we recite the Buddha's name?
A: No state of mind! Recite without a mind. Any state of mind is a false state of mind, for it cannot be attained. We should leave behind appearances that have resulted because of our thoughts. By seeing that all marks are no marks, we see the Thus Come One.

Q: What kind of compassion is great compassion based on the knowledge that we are all the same?
A: Feeling that we're in pain when we see others in pain, we would want to alleviate their pain in any way possible. We would treat others the way we treat ourselves. One is all and all is one. This is great compassion based on the understanding that we're the same.

Q: Why should people avoid displaying their talents?
A: We can use candles as an analogy. Candles emit light. By lighting them often, they burn out more quickly. If we only light them as necessary and not light them when uncalled for, we will be able to use them for a long time.

Q: Why is this world in such a mess?
A: Because we haven't set up the foundation to being human well.

Q: How can we become human beings [in the future]?
A: We will become human beings if we do good deeds. Check and see if we have done major or minor, many or few good deeds. Having done a lot of good deeds, we will become rich and belong to the upper class. Having done very few good deeds, we will become poor and belong to the lower class.

Q: How were the hells created?
A: The hells manifest through the karma that we have created.

Q: Why do people face demonic karma?
A: Because they didn't listen to the instructions and follow the guidance of good teachers. Rejecting the warnings of kind teachers, they continued to entertain false thoughts and create evil karma. Hence they are often surrounded and trapped by demonic karma in this life. They don't get their wishes fulfilled.

Q: What criteria are used for selecting an abbot?
A: The first criterion: no temper. He must treat people well and be well liked. He doesn't use his power to oppress; he is democratic: people do things for him out of respect.

Q: Master, you get so many letters every day. Do you collect the stamps on those envelopes? They'll become valuable later on.
A: I don't want money.

Q: What is the power of samadhi?
A: It is the ability to not be turned by situations, but to turn situations around. If you can turn situations around, you are no different than the Thus Come One.

Q: Why don't we click with the Tao?
A: Because our wild mind hasn't stopped.

Q: What is the true self?
A: It's our inherent nature that realizes Buddhahood. Once we have realized Buddhahood, it's the true self. Before we have realized Buddhahood, it's all false.

Q: What kind of practice will we be doing after we become monks or nuns?
A: The practice of being patient with humiliation.

Q: What is the secret to cultivation?
A: Eating less.

Q: What does it mean by "turning over" in terms of our [spiritual] cultivation?
A: It's to "Give what's good to others and leave what's bad for ourselves." We sacrifice ourselves for the greater good.

Q: How do I make my husband believe in Buddhism?
A: Don't be so insistent!

Venerable Master: What happened to your eyes? How come they look differently than before?
A disciple: Because I have makeup on.
Venerable Master: You know you should not wear makeup if you're cultivating. Made up, you increase your appeal and imperceptibly attract a lot of trouble, so it becomes an obstruction in cultivation.

Q: "If people wish to know all Buddhas throughout the three periods of time, they should contemplate the nature of the Dharma Realm and that the Thus Come Ones are made from the mind alone." What shape is this mind?
A: It's shapeless. The mind is just the mind. If it were to have any shape, it wouldn't be the mind. We're not talking about that gray matter that's our brain; we're talking about the real mind, which is omnipresent, pervading all of space and the Dharma Realm. If we recognize this, we will have reached the true mind completely.

Q: What causes people to become immoral?
A: The absence of limits on their desires for money, sex, fame, food, and sleep.
Q: How come these objects of desire make people immoral?
A: Because they don't know to check their thoughts in the areas of contention, greed, seeking, selfishness, self-interest, and dishonesty.

Venerable Master: Don't pick only the good stuff to eat. Don't be greedy for form, scent, and taste. Since you have enough food, eat only about eighty percent full. How can you cultivate if you can't even let go of food?
The disciple was speechless.

Q: Why is this Sutra the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra?
A: It's the most wonderful Sutra among all Sutras. We shouldn't miss the opportunity to attain wondrousness. It wouldn't be wonderful if we failed to receive any wondrousness. No one should be devoid of wondrousness; everyone should go and find this "wondrousness". But first, you must bear the pain and withstand the toil, work hard on studying this wonderful Dharma.

Q: What is the Vajra Samadhi?
A: The Vajra Samadhi is a state of mind that is eternal and unchanging.

Q: Do other places have talks on the Shurangama Mantra?
A: Out of the all the places in the world and all of space and Dharma Realm in fact, only the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas holds the Shurangama Mantra Dharma Assembly that includes lectures on the Shurangama Mantra.

Q: Isn't it a waste that the Master has lots of property but they're all vacant?
A: There are plenty of things that are wasted in this world.

Q: The Master says, "I'm not afraid of people coming and I'm not afraid of people running away either. It's the same whether they came or not; it's just the same whether they run away or not." Why?
A: The Dharma Realm is mine. People can run far away and yet they cannot run outside the Dharma Realm. If they were able to run outside the Dharma Realm, they would have [succeeded] in their getaway. They haven't escaped if they haven't reached the outside of the Dharma Realm. Like "the monkey king" whose one flip goes as far as 18,000 miles, but can never get out of the Buddha's palm.

Q: Who has become enlightened and what have they become enlightened to?
A: Fundamentally speaking, both that which is capable of becoming enlightened and that which is enlightened are nonexistent.

Q: We live in a polluted world, the water and land are polluted, the environment is polluted, and the air is polluted. Where did pollution come from?
A: It basically originated from our single thought of ignorance. The nature of ignorance is like fire: the bigger the fire, the more dark smoke looms over the world and pollutes families and human nature.

Q: Why do we have so many false thoughts? How come we don't have any patience, lasting commitment, or sincerity with any practice that we do? How come we're irresolute?
A: We don't know about the "golden wheel" [mudra] yet. Now that we know what the problem is, don't ignore it.

Q: What are the knowledge and views of all Buddhas and World Honored Ones?
A: One that refrains from fighting, seeking, being selfish, pursuing self-benefit, and lying. With this knowledge and view, one becomes a Buddha right away.

Q: So what if we put the Six Great Guiding Principles into practice?
A: We realize Buddhahood and then some.

A disciple's father passed away unexpectedly. The entire family is heartbroken, teary-eyed all the time.
Q: I want to see my father one more time, where is he?
A: It doesn't help to cry. You have to recite the Earth Store Sutra and dedicate merit that you've done to him. The more often you recite, the better.
Q: Does reciting the Sutra help?
A: Yes! Just recite it sincerely and you will have your prayer answered.

Q: Will the Master please bless everybody?
A: I did it a long time ago, you just didn't know about it.

Venerable Master: It's wrong to have opened my mouth and it's wrong to shut my mouth, so tell me what I should do?
The disciple couldn't come up with a response.

Q: How should we meditate, bow to the Buddhas, and recite the Buddha's name? Will the Master please provide us with instructions?
A: The first thing with meditation is to relax, let go of everything. Bow to the Buddhas as if you're facing them. Don't become greedy over the number of bows, just do them slowly and sincerely. Contemplate on and visualize the Buddha while you're reciting the Buddha's name. Things will click for you when you have recited until your mind is just that of the Buddha.


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