Because this life does not know generosity, the next life will be poor. Because of poverty, it is possible to steal, and because of stealing, it is possible to kill. Because of poverty, lust can not be satisfied, and it will be lustful. Because of poverty, one must earn a living, and in order to earn a living, one fears harming one's own interests, so it is possibleto lie. All of the above are evil deeds caused by poverty. If you practice generosity widely, you will live a prosperous life. If you live in abundance and you have no spiritual and material deprivation, it is not easy to do illegal things. For example, Devadatta was a snake in a past life who was in a pond with a toad and tortoise and became friends and family. Later, the water in the pond dried up, and there was hunger and cold. At that time, in order to eat the toad, the snake sent the tortoise to pretend to invite the toad, and the toad saw through the snake's trick and said, "If you lose your true heart when you encounter poverty, and you don't care about benevolence and righteousness and only care about feeding your stomach, you can tell Snake, my toad will not go to the snake!"
When a bodhisattva gives charity, he often develops a compassionate heart because of the recipient. He is not attached to wealth, and he is not stingy with his own things, let alone stealing. Since there is mercy on the recipient, the idea of killing will not arise. Such things can rule out the possibility of breaking the precepts, which is called generosity and can lead to keeping the precepts.
Manjushri Bodhisattva, in a long past life, used to be a monk. He went to the city to beg for food and got a bowl full of happy balls. There was a child in the city who was chasing after him, but Manjushri did not give it to him immediately, wanting him to become a Buddha. So Manjushri took two balls and said to him, "If you can eat one by yourself and donate the other to the monk, I will give you two." The child agreed. The child first gave a happy ball to the monks, and then he was ordained in front of Manjushri and determined to become a Buddha. Giving in this way can enable the recipient to keep the precepts and become a Buddha. This is called generosity and can lead to keeping the precepts.
It is like a beautiful woman: a person with lustful desires sees it and thinks it is pure and wonderful, and greed and attachment arise in the mind; a person who practices the view of impurity sees it and sees that the body is full of blood, sweat, snot, earwax, and feces. .. all kinds of impure, there is not a clean place in the body; another person called a beautiful woman saw it, and jealousy and resentment arose in her heart, and she didn't want to take a second look. Therefore, those who are lustful see it as pleasure, those who are jealous see it as suffering, those who have pure conduct see the realization of the truth, and those who have no desires and pleasures see it as having no feeling, just like seeing earth and wood. If beauty is really pure and wonderful, all four kinds of people should see it. If beauty is actually not pure and wonderful, all four kinds of people should see it as impure and not wonderful. From this we can know that the difference between beauty and ugliness lies in the human heart, and external things are not fixed. Observation of emptiness is the same thing. - "Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom"
The twenty-first day of the second lunar month is the birthday of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
There was an elephant with six teeth and white all over. A hunter, lurking for a long time, shot the white elephant with a poisoned arrow while the elephant was not prepared. At this time, other elephants in the group ran towards the hunter and wanted to trample the hunter. But the white elephant covered the hunter with its own body, like taking care of its own children, and drove away other elephants that came to trample the hunter. The white elephant asked the hunter, "Why did you shoot me?" The hunter said, "I want your teeth." After hearing this, the white elephant inserted its six teeth into the cracks of the rock, pulled out its teeth with flesh, and held the teeth with its nose, gave the teeth to the hunter. Although it is an elephant body, it is so attentive. This elephant is one of the lives before Buddha Shakyamuni became a Buddha. It is contained in the chapter on generosity of "Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom". This story has similarities with "The Nine-colored Deer". The "Nine-colored Deer" is also one of the lives Buddha Shakyamuni became a Buddha. "The Nine-colored Deer" is recorded in the "Jataka tales".
The fifteenth day of the second lunar month is the day of the Nirvana of Sakyamuni Buddha. Nirvana, the old translation is elimination and liberation, the new translation is perfect tranquility. Elimination refers to the elimination of afflictions and habits, the elimination of life and death. Liberation is to escape from the reincarnation in the six realms. perfect tranquility is the perfection of merit, a return to purity and stillness.
King Sapoda, whose country was destroyed by the enemy, hid himself in the jungle. A beggar came from far away, begging to King Sapoda. But King Sapoda has lost his country and his family. King Sapoda took pity on the beggar and felt that the beggar came from far away and would be disappointed if he got nothing. So King Sapoda said to the beggar, "I am King Sapoda. The new king of this country is buying my head with a lot of money. I will give you my body now." After that, King Sapoda hanged himself. The beggar gave the body of King Sapoda to the new king and got a lot of property. If a person who has not yet completed the karma can use all his possessions to give, and his heart does not change, it is called the completion of the Dānapāramitā by karma-body. The above example is recorded in "Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom"
Charities like nurseries and nursing homes are found almost everywhere. In Cangzhou, however, there is a special place for the adoption of blind people, called the "Association for the Support of the Blind". Unlike other charities, this place is not run by the government.
Blind Liu Junrui said: There used to be a Chen who was an alternate official waiting to be appointed. When he passed through Cangzhou, the travel expenses he brought with him had been exhausted. He has no relatives here, let alone borrowing money. After thinking about it, he had nowhere to go, and he wanted to commit suicide by jumping into a river. At this time, a blind man took pity on him and gave him all his money to support the alternate officer. Because of this, Chen was able to enter Beijing and get an official position, and was later recommended as the head of a state.
After Chen became an official, he could not forget the blind man who sponsored him, so he personally brought several hundred taels of silver, trying to imitate Han Xin's way of repaying his adoptive mother who lived by laundry. But he searched everywhere, but never found the blind man, and no one even knew the blind man's last name. So, he donated the funds and built this "nursing home" in Cangzhou, which specially adopted blind people who were lonely and helpless.
The blind man who is generous and righteous, and the Chen who reciprocates his favor, can be called people of noble character.
Liu Junrui also said: All the blind people set aside a room in the "Association for the Support of the Blind" as a place to burn incense in the morning and evening to worship Chen's spiritual seat. I (Ji Xiaolan self-proclaimed) said, "Beside Chen's tablet, there should also be a tablet for the blind man."
Liu Junrui was very disturbed when he heard this, and he whispered: "How dare a blind person be on an equal footing with the state officials?" I said: "If sacrifices are made according to official titles, blind people are of course not qualified to live here. But if sacrifices are made with 'righteousness', Then the blind man's willingness to help others is the same as Chen's act of repaying his kindness, so why can't the society set up a tablet for the blind man?"
This incident happened during the Kangxi period, and when Liu Junrui told me about it, it was already between the Yihai (1755) and Bingzi (1756) years of Qianlong's reign. At that time, Liu Junrui could still name many blind people in the "Association for the Support of the Blind".
Shariputra once practiced the bodhisattva path for sixty kalpas and wanted to cross the river of giving. At this time, a beggar wanted to beg Shariputra to give him an eye. Shariputra asked, "Where do you want this eye? If you want my body or property, I will give it to you!" The beggar said, "I don't want your body or your property, so I just want an eye. If you really want to give, give me an eye!" So Shariputra gave one of his own eyes to the beggar. The beggar took the eye, smelled it in front of Shariputra, but it smelled bad, so he threw the eye on the ground and stepped on it. Shariputra thought: "This person is really difficult to be saved. He wants this eye, which is useless, but he insists on it, and when he gets it, he throws it away, and he steps on it with his feet. It's really bad! Such a person cannot be saved. It's better I regulate my own thoughts, and I will get out of the cycle of birth and death as soon as possible." Thinking of this, Shariputra turned back on the Bodhisattva path and turned back to Theravada Buddhism (pursuing self-transcendence from birth and death). Shariputra therefore failed to cross the river of giving. This is called crossing a river without reaching the other side. - "Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom"