Once upon a time, there was an elder named Ajiuliu who did not believe in an afterlife. One day he passed a dangerous road, and he was about to starve to death without seeing any plants for three or four days. Later, when he met a tree god, he told the tree god that he was very hungry and thirsty. The tree god produced food from the tips of his fingers to relieve the elderly and his companions. The elder asked: "This respectable god, what merit do you have that can actually produce food on the tip of your finger?" The tree god said: "I was a poor man when Buddha Kassapa was in the world. I often grind the mirror at the gate of the city, and when I see monks entering the city begging for food, I always raise my right finger and show them where to eat. This is more than one day or two days. So the blessings I have enjoyed in my entire life depend on this finger. "The elder heard that he had an insight, and since then he has done a lot of charity and fasted to many monks every day. Later, he was reincarnated and reincarnated in the second heaven of the world of desire, becoming the heavenly being responsible for dispersing flowers. [Press] People without wisdom do not know how to use wealth to accumulate blessings even if they have wealth. A wise man can be blessed even if he has no wealth. If one can learn from the tree god about accumulating blessings with his fingers, then the wealth of others can be used for me to accumulate blessings. If you use your hands to show people the way, your blessings will be vast from your hands. If you admire and exhort others to do good, the blessings will come from the mouth. Walking up and down to help others, the rewards will spread from the feet. In this way, my ears, eyes, hands, and feet can all be used to accumulate blessings. The benefits of Buddhism to people are very great. How can ordinary people have this wisdom?
Excerpt from "An Shi Book" "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue" Generalized Excerpts: Accumulate blessings on the tips of your fingers
The original meaning of supreme enlightenment is that there is no difference. With all the conveniences, there are countless ways to practice. There is no specific method to practice, and there is no specific method called Dharma. Therefore, the "Diamond Sutra" says: "This kind of law treats things as equal, and there is no difference between high and low, so it is called the highest correct equal consciousness. With the absence of self-attachment, the absence of human beings attachment, the absence of sentient beings attachment, and the absence of longevity attachment, to practice all good deeds, is to realize the highest correct equality consciousness.
Today is May 7, 2021, at the Yarra River in the center of Melbourne. As usual, I went for a walk on the wooden pier platform in the afternoon and saw a pile of fast food boxes and beverage bottles piled on the platform where I usually walk. Someone had eaten fast food here last night and left it here. I ignored the garbage and looked at the phone for stock price as usual. Inadvertently, there was an old man in his 60s, riding a dilapidated bicycle, carrying a very old schoolbag, and parked not far from me, also on this dock platform, relying on a wooden stake, looking into the Yarra River. He is a few meters away from the place where the rubbish is located. I thought he was just looking at it casually, so I didn't care about him and continued to look at the stock prices on the phone. Just when I was going to be farther away from the pile of rubbish, the moment I looked up, I saw that the old man was already moving towards the rubbish on his bicycle. Subconsciously, I hurried away from the pile of rubbish. But the old man stopped by the pile of rubbish, bent over to sort the rubbish together, picked it up one by one, and grabbed it in his hand. At the same time, he realized that I was staring at him, so he turned his head and smiled at me. I was already moved by the old man's behavior, and thought that I stood there first and did not pick up the trash, and fleeing him and the trash in disgust, I was really ashamed, so I gave him a thumbs-up. He continued to smile and nodded to me, pushed his bicycle, and left. Looking at him holding the garbage in one hand and pushing the bicycle in the other, I was thinking that he is so ordinary and the bicycle is so worn, but he loves here so much. He looks at the Yarra River like his own home, and he sees the pile of garbage as if it's a pile of trash in his own house, he cares so indifferently that he will soiled his hands if he picks the garbage up. He just makes you feel that there is really a kind of person in the world, this kind of person may not be rich in material, but they will always do something you once dismissed, and then make you shameless, and make you rethink the meaning of your life. Because it is such a person who you think he is not outstanding, who did a very outstanding thing, but behaved so ordinary, so naturally, you will feel that the world is not just stocks, not just money, you should say that you should pay back, and there are many more meaningful things that you never realized, and you start to feel that you are still far away. When I looked up again to look for him, I no longer knew where he was going.
Both troubles and Nirvana do not remain in the heart and become obstacles, so that the only unchanging mental state can be produced, and you can be at ease with the situation and follow the trend.
In 675 AD, the Sixth Ancestor of Chan- Dajian Huineng came to Guangzhou Faxing Temple (now Guangxiao Temple). At that time, Master Yinzong of Faxing Temple was giving a lecture, when a gust of wind blew, the flags and streamers hanging in the temple fluttered. Yinzong said on the scene and asked the audience what was moving. The monks argued endlessly, some said the wind is moving, and some said the flag is moving, and no one could convince anyone. Master Huineng couldn't help saying: "It's not the wind, it's not the flag, it is our heart that's moving"
There is a difference between movement and stillness in the moving mind, and there is no difference between movement and stillness in the stillness mind. All things are the reflection of mind. When the mind is quiet, there is no mind, that is, the mind does not recognize and react to external things, so there is no difference between static and dynamic. The "Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment" says, "Because of pure enlightenment, stillness is the guide of the mind." Stillness, as the mind's behavior guide, can reach the state of purity.
Bhikkhu who picks others' faults
People who Pick on the faults of others and being prone to anger, their troubles grow, and at the same time, they are still far away from the realm of getting rid of all the confusion. (Dhamma Sutra verse 253)
Yuhanasani Bhikkhu always likes to pick other people's faults and talk about other people's faults. Many monks reported this to the Buddha.
The Buddha said: "Bhikkhus! If you pick other people’s mistakes in order to teach them and make them understand the right way, then this kind of picking is not malicious and does not need to be condemned. But if one always picks on others’ faults, and accuse others only out of contempt and malice, then this kind of person cannot obtain meditation. He cannot understand the Dharma, and troubles will grow in his heart."
‧Excerpted from ‧Book of Dhammapada ‧Stories by Master Dharma Nanda
There is no resentment or hostility towards everything around, so as to achieve a state of no obstacles.
People who can adhere to the Dharma can acquire memories of the lives they have experienced in the past, and can remember one life, two lives, three lives, four lives, five lives, six lives, seven lives, eight lives， nine lives, ten lives, twenty lives, thirty lives, forty lives, fifty lives, one hundred lives, one thousand lives, one hundred thousand lives, life experience during several times of kalpas ruin , life experience during several times of kalpas forming, life experience during several times of kalpas ruin and forming. I used to be in that place, with that name, with that surname, with that kind of body, with that kind of diet, with that kind of pain and happiness, with that kind of life span, and then I died there, and then reincarnated in another place. In the other place, I used to have that name, that surname, that kind of body, that kind of diet, that kind of suffering and happiness, and that kind of life span, and then died there again, reincarnated here. People should have all these memories of the lives they have experienced in the past. If people have this knowledge, they will have cut off their ignorance, they will have the light of wisdom, the darkness will have been extinguished, and the light will have arisen. Those who don't indulge themselves, learn bravely and diligently.
All obstacles are ultimate awareness. Thoughts gained and thoughts lost are both liberation. Achieving a kind of cognition and breaking a kind of cognition are both Nirvana. Wisdom and foolishness are both wisdom. The Dharma accomplished by Bodhisattvas and the Dharma accomplished by non-Buddhists are both Bodhi. There is no difference between ignorance and truth. Precepts, meditation, wisdom and lust, anger and delusion are both pure actions. All sentient beings have the same nature. Both hell and heaven are pure land. Both beings with Buddha-nature and those without Buddha-nature will eventually become Buddhas. All troubles are relief in themselves. The various phenomena reflected by Dharma wisdom are like emptiness. All these equal and undifferentiated cognitions are called the consciousness of the Tathagata. - Superficial translation of " Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment"