Practise unlimited compassion in all worlds, and have no grievances or hostility in the ten directions, in order to achieve no hindrance. -"The Sutra of Mercy"
Two metaphors are used to illustrate the practice of chanting Buddhism. The first analogy is: For example, if there are two people, it is a relationship between relatives and friends. There is a person who cares about another person in particular, and always misses the other person no matter where and when; while the other person does not care about it. Sometimes the two of them meet, sometimes the two of them meet, but because the other person has no heart to miss, so even if they meet, they will pass by as if they did not meet; even if the other person sees them, they will be the same as a stranger. . This is a metaphor that the Buddha has been thinking of sentient beings and wants to help sentient beings. Many sentient beings have too much karma and too little wisdom, and temporarily have no relationship with the Buddha, so it is difficult for the Buddha to help them. If these two people remember each other, or even have a hard time thinking about each other, they both want to see each other as soon as possible. After meeting, they don’t want to separate again. If this is the case, they will miss each other for life, and even make a wish that they will never be separated from life to life, like a shadow and a person. The same, can't be separated anymore. This is a metaphor for beings who have developed wisdom due to the Buddha's world-wide education and made aspirations to eventually become Buddhas. Therefore, no matter when and where, the two will never separate. This is the first analogy with relatives and friends.
The second analogy is: All the Tathagata in the ten directions, compassion and miss sentient beings, just as a loving mother misses her own children, this is the greatest maternal love, which does not contain any selfishness. However, due to the children's ignorance and self-willedness, they only want to play licentiously and do not want to return home to be happy with the affection of mother and child. This is a metaphor that the Buddha has been thinking of sentient beings and wants to help sentient beings. Many sentient beings have too much karma and too little wisdom, and temporarily have no relationship with the Buddha, so it is difficult for the Buddha to help them. If the children miss their mothers because of their long wanderings, and if they miss their mothers with the same urgency as their mothers miss their children, then mothers and children will miss them all their lives, and even wish that they will never be separated from each other forever, then they will never be separated. This is a metaphor for beings who have been wandering about life and death for a long time and are suffering abnormally. After being enlightened by the Buddha, they have developed wisdom and made aspirations to eventually become Buddhas. This is a metaphor for the relationship between mother and child, which is one level higher than the previous metaphor.
The thirteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is the anniversary of the birth of the Bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta.
Although it is said that Buddhism is eager to seek the pure land, we should understand the mindfulness of the body is emptiness, like a dream. Although emptiness exists, if you could understands that there is nothing and is not nothing, that is, you have achieved non-attachment. The "Bao Ji Sutra" says: "If there is a declaration that you are tired of life and death and rejoice in Nirvana, it will not be named righteous; if there is a declaration that there is no difference between life and death, it is named righteousness."
No. 1 in the world exam
During the Song Dynasty, the two brothers Song Jiao and Song Qi both studied in Taixue. Once, they met a monk and said to their brother: "This younger brother will be the top high school student this year. Although the elder brother has a ranking, his ranking is not high."
Afterwards, the elderly brother Song Jiao went to the wild once, and occasionally saw ant dens, which were soaked by storm water, and countless ants would be drowned. Song Jiao felt compassionate and made bamboo bridges, saving the lives of countless ants.
That year, the two brothers took the exam at the same time, and before the results were announced, they met the monk again. When he saw Song Jiao, he was surprised and said: "Your appearance has changed, and you must have great virtue, as if you had saved millions of lives."
Song Jiao replied, "How can I have such ability?" The monk said, "All living things are life."
Song Jiao said: "An ant nest was invaded by a storm, so I made a bamboo bridge to extradite them. Is it because of this?"
The monk said: "That's exactly what happened! That's right! Your younger brother is the champion, but your fame will not be under your younger brother!"
The results of the examination are as recorded in the "Song History": "Song Qi and his elderly brother Song Jiao were both elected as Jinshi, and ranked first in the Ministry of Rites. However, the emperor's mother believed that younger brother should not be higher than his elder brother, so the government changed Song Jiao's position as the first place."
In the story of Song Jiao, people think that the merits are small but the blessings are great, and they are suspicious. That's because the ants are only viewed as the ants, and the champion is viewed as the champion. If you look at the fundamentals, then the number of ants saved at that time will be no less than tens of thousands, and there will be no less than tens of thousands of sentient beings who are grateful for reincarnation in future generations. Is it possible that a champion can enjoy all these blessings? Besides, the champion is nothing more than a false name outside the body. After the death of a person, is there still the title of the champion? If it is said that Song Jiao's reward for saving the ant and becoming the champion is too great, it would be confused! -"An Shi Quan Shu"
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, King Cao Wuhui, named Cao Bin, was a general with outstanding military exploits.
One year, the house where King Cao Wuhui lived broke down, and the younger generation asked King Cao Wuhui to repair the house.
King Cao Wuhui told his descendants: "It is the cold winter season. Between the walls and stones, there must be many small animals such as insects and ants hibernating in hibernation. If the house is renovated now, the old and damaged parts will inevitably need to be demolished, which will inevitably hurt those innocent lives. So we can't repair the house now."
King Cao Wuhui led the Northern Song army to fight against the Southern Tang and annihilated the Southern Tang and Houshu. He once said: "Although I, as a general, killed a lot of people, I didn't kill anyone indiscriminately because of my personal emotions."
In the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Yanxiao and his elder brother Zhao Yanyun lived together for twelve years after their parents passed away. Later, Yan Yun was idle all day long and abandoned his business, so Yan Xiao had to ask his elder brother to split the family. In less than five years, Yanyun's estate was depleted. One day, Yanxiao set up a banquet to entertain his brother, saying: "Brother, I didn't intend to separate the family. Because my brother doesn't know how to control, I can only protect half of the ancestor's inheritance on behalf of my brother, and at least enable my brother to barely maintain a living. Now I invite my elder brother to come back and still take charge of the housekeeping.” Yan Xiao immediately took out the deed to separate the family and burned it, handing over the keys to his elder brother, and paying off various debts on his behalf. His brother was ashamed, accepted his brother's request, and has since reformed. In the second year, Yan Xiao and his son were admitted to Jinshi at the same time. [Comment] When facing money, brothers are most likely to have conflicts. So when they need to spend money for their parents, they often excuse themselves. When dividing the inheritance of the parents, they often compete vigorously with each other. "The distinction between merit and sin" states: "As a child, when supporting parents and burying them after death, you should think that your parents have no other children. When you divide the family and accept the property, you should think that your parents only gave birth to other children. Looking at what Zhao Yanxiao did, how could he have thoughts of property in his heart? Excerpted from "An Shi Book" "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue" : Love and Respect
There used to be a scholar named Zhou Yu who had a hobby of eating eel. Once, when Zhou Yu was cooking eel again, he saw an eel in the pot. The eel bent its long body high and bowed out of the pot, but let its head and tail stay in the boiling water. Zhou Yu felt very strange, so he caught the eel and opened its belly, only to see that the belly of the eel was full of roe. So Zhou Yu understood that this eel was bent to protect the roe. Zhou Yu was shocked when he saw that the eel was able to protect its children regardless of its own life. From then on, Zhou Yu would never eat the eel again. -"Cooking Eel"
In the Tang Dynasty, in the fourth year of Zhenguan, there were only 29 prisoners on death row in the whole year, and the premise was that the troubled times had just passed, the country was poor and the people were poor, and the age was not good. The reason for this is that the early Tang Dynasty paid more attention to the role of enlightenment, strengthened morals and ethics, and greatly strengthened the self-discipline of the human heart, so there was no resentment in the event of natural disasters. Once there is a good harvest, it is natural that the house is not closed at night, and no one picks up the lost things on the road. As for those traveling without food, it was not uncommon at the time to be donated by someone on the road. "Zi Zhi Tong Jian" records: Tang Taizong exercised benevolent governance and ordered the official minister, Chang Sun Wuji, and others to modify the criminal law and change the hanging to cut off the right toe. Later, Taizong thought it was too cruel, saying that corporal punishment should be abolished long ago, and demanded that other methods be used instead of corporal punishment. In the end, under the suggestion of Pei Hongxian, the criminal law of cutting off the toes was changed to three thousand li exile. The benevolent governance realized the prosperity of Zhenguan. When people's hearts change, the world will change. To save the world, we must first save the heart. -"An Shi Quan Shu" In 2020, the total number of new death sentences known to Amnesty International is at least 1,477, a decrease of 36% from 2019. Part of the reason is that the COVID pandemic has caused interruptions and delays in criminal proceedings around the world.
The below story is recorded in "Pre-Han Shu" by the author Ban Gu. It is one of the prototypes of Guan Hanqing's drama "Dou E's Injustice".
During the Western Han Dynasty, there was a filial wife named Zhou Qing in Donghai County (now Tancheng County, Shandong Province). Zhou Qing was a widow when she was young and had no children, but she still served her mother-in-law wholeheartedly.
The mother-in-law persuaded her to remarry, but the filial wife refused. The mother-in-law said to her neighbor: "The daughter-in-law has always worked hard to serve me. She has no children and is a widow. I am old now, and it will be a drag on her for a long time. What should I do?"
Soon after, the mother-in-law hanged herself in order not to burden her daughter-in-law.
The mother-in-law's daughter complained to the government: "The daughter-in-law killed my mother." The government arrested the filial wife, who insisted that she did not kill the mother-in-law. But under the severe torture of the government, the filial wife was forced to admit that she had killed her mother-in-law.
After the local officials finalized the case, they reported the case to the higher-level government. Yu Dingguo served as the county judge in charge of justice. After reading the dossier, he thought that the woman had served her mother-in-law for more than ten years, and she was famous for her filial piety in the country, and it must be impossible to kill her. Unexpectedly, Taishou couldn't listen to Yugong's advice. Yu Dingguo and Taishou argued fiercely, but still couldn't achieve their goals. Yugong cried at home holding the file and resigned from the official position.
When Zhou Qing was about to go to the execution ground, a ten-foot-long bamboo pole was inserted in the car that pulled her parade. Five flags hung on the bamboo poles. Before his death, Zhou Qing said: "If I am really guilty, my blood will flow down this bamboo pole after death; if I am wronged, my blood will flow backwards after death." After the execution, Zhou Qing's blood turned blue and yellow. The blood flowed retrogradely along the bamboo pole, until it reached the position where the flag was hung, and finally dripped down the flag.
After the filial wife died unjustly, Donghai County suffered a severe drought for three years. After the new Taishou took office, he asked someone to fortune the cause of the drought. Yu Dingguo said: "A filial wife shouldn't be sentenced to death. The former Taishou insisted on acting on his own and forced a decision. That's the reason, right?"
So the new Taishou personally went to the tomb of the filial wife, killed the oxen for sacrifice, and erected a monument for it. There was a downpour in the sky at that time, and the harvest was good that year. Therefore, the people in the county respect Yu Dingguo more.
The eight precepts are requirements in Buddhism. The content includes: one prohibits killing, two prohibits theft, three prohibits adultery, four prohibits lying, five prohibits drinking, six prohibits wearing wreaths or perfumes, seven prohibits sitting or lying on a large bed, eight no food after noon.
The first and second vows of the forty-eight vows issued by Buddha Amitabha before he became a Buddha and when he was Dharma^kara:
(1) If I become a Buddha, if there are hell, hunger ghosts, and animals in that world, I will not become a Buddha.
(2) If I become a Buddha, if people in that world fall back to the world of hell, hungry ghosts, and animals after the end of their lives, then I will not become a Buddha.
Dharma^kara saw that there is a world where the Buddha is. In that world where the Buddha is, there is no suffering, or even the name of the three evil ways (hell, hungry ghosts, and animals), so he swore: "I wish when I become a Buddha, there will be no suffering in the world, or even the name of the three evil ways."
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a man named Yan Feng in Gui'an (now Huzhou City), Zhejiang Province, who was called Mr. Xi Ting, and he respected his brother by nature. Yan Feng used to take a boat with his fellow townsman Shi Yizhi. Shi Yi told him about the unfairness of his brother's property division. Yan Feng frowned and said sadly: "My brother has always been cowardly, and I'm feeling distressed about it. If my brother can be as capable as your brother and can take all of my land, I don't need to worry about his cowardice." Yan Feng broke into tears after speaking. When Shi Yizhi heard this, he was deeply moved and awakened.
It turned out that Shi Xiangzhi and Shi Yizhi were brothers. They both resigned from office and returned home after being Zhizhou. After returning home, the two brothers had been resentful for dividing their land for many years.
After listening to Yan Feng's words, Shi Yizhi was influenced. From then on, the brothers gave each other humility and no more gossip for life.
[Press] After Yan Feng resigned and retired and returned to the hometown, his brother was poor and old. He took his brother into his own home for support. Whenever a banquet is held to entertain guests, it must be the elder brother who carries the wine glass, followed by Yan Feng with the chopsticks. One day, Yan Feng handed the chopsticks slowly, his brother was furious and slapped him, Yan Feng just smiled. Yan Feng was very happy until the end of the banquet. After the guests left, Yan Feng sent his brother into the room to rest. Before dawn the next day, Yan Feng went to his brother's bed to greet him. Soon, his brother died, and he wept bitterly for his brother's funeral. Yan Feng served his elder brother with such respect, and it can be seen that what he said to Shi Yizhi came from the bottom of his heart.
Excerpted from "An Shi Book" "Wenchang Emperor Silently Doing Good Virtue" : Sincere nature moves people