Equal to all living beings:
One year, the Buddha lived in the Jetavana-vihāra, and his disciples were scattered in various places to live in peace. After 90 days, the scattered residence was over, and the Buddhist disciples who were scattered and lived in various places returned to the Jetavana-vihāraone after another to ask the Buddha for advice and listen to the Buddha's teachings.
The Buddha was very pleased to see the disciples who had been separated for a long time coming back from their peaceful residence. He raised his hands to greet them, and asked them humbly, asking whether they had enough food and offerings when they lived in a remote place. The Buddha, whose merits are so great that no one can match him, actually cared for his disciples with such a humble attitude, so that Venerable Ananda, who was accompanying the Buddha, was deeply puzzled when he saw it, and asked the Buddha: "Buddha! Your birth is the most extraordinary, Your merit and wisdom are rare in the world, why do you still greet the monks so humbly?"
So the Buddha explained the origin of this matter to Ananda:
A long time ago, there was a big country called Benares. At that time, there was a man who was thrifty by nature and preferred to save gold. He lived frugally throughout his life, and used all his hard-working income to buy gold, and put the gold he bought in bottles and buried them in the cave at home, accumulating over time, gradually saving from one bottle to seven bottles.
This person later fell ill and died. Because he loved the gold he had accumulated so much, he was reincarnated as a poisonous snake, guarding the seven bottles of gold day and night. After many years, the house was destroyed, and no one came here, and the life of the poisonous snake ended, because the attachment to love did not diminish, so he was reborn as a snake for life after life, and continued to guard the golden vase. After tens of thousands of years, the poisonous snake suddenly got tired of the snake body. It understood that it was because it was greedy for gold that it would be a snake for life, so it decided to donate gold for its own benefit.
The poisonous snake left the golden vase and came to the side of the road, hiding in the grass beside the road, looking for kind people to help it fulfill its wish. At this time, the poisonous snake saw a farmer walking on the road, and called him. When the farmer heard someone calling him, he looked left and right, but there was no one, and he continued on his way. Then the poisonous snake appeared and called the farmer, asking him to help it. Seeing that the snake was not malicious, the farmer agreed to help, and followed the snake back to the gold hiding place to take out the gold. The poisonous snake handed over the gold to the farmer, and asked him to send the gold to the Buddhist temple to set up a fast to support the monks, and took it with him to participate in the fast to listen to scriptures and Dharma.
On the day of fasting monks, the farmer brought a bamboo basket, put the poisonous snake in the basket, and took it to the Buddhist temple to fast for monks. On the way, a man came forward to say hello to the farmer, but the farmer kept silent. The man kept saying hello, but the farmer still didn't answer a word. The poisonous snake in the basket was very angry when it heard this, and thought to itself: "Why are the farmers so impolite? Others kindly ask where he is going, but he did not say a word." So the poisonous snake became angry and wanted to harm the farmer several times, but the snake changed its mind afterwards. "The farmer is a blessing to me, and he have been kind to me, but I haven't repaid it yet." Thinking of this, the poisonous snake endured it. After finally reaching an open field, the poisonous snake asked the farmer to let it go, but the poisonous snake accused the farmer of being arrogant and unreasonable. The farmer was ashamed and blamed himself at the moment, he developed a humble heart, and vowed to be compassionate to all sentient beings.
The farmer brought the snake to the Buddhist temple and placed the snake in front of the monks. When the time for fasting monks came, the snake ordered the farmers to pay incense one by one, and the poisonous snake looked at the people receiving incense with faith. After the monks circled the pagoda, the farmer drew water and made offerings to the monks one by one. During the whole process, the poisonous snake was respectful and never tired of watching the people washing their hands. After the meal, the bhikkhu accepted refuge for the poisonous snake, and spoke extensively about the wonderful methods of giving, keeping the precepts, patience, and diligence. The poisonous snake was very happy to offer all the gold. After the merits and virtues are completed, the poisonous snake dies and is reborn in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven.
The Buddha told Venerable Ananda: "In the past, I was the farmer who carried the poisonous snake. That poisonous snake is the wisest Śāriputra today. When I was carrying the snake in the past, I was blamed by the snake and felt ashamed, so I vowed to treat all sentient beings equally with a humble heart, and have never turned back for many kalpas."
When the disciples listened to what the Buddha said, they all felt joyful and followed the teachings.
Dong Eluo, the chief historian of Hengwang Mansion, was relegated to Manas. This place is under the jurisdiction of Urumqi. One day, Dong Eluo went to Urumqi from Manas. In order to avoid the scorching heat, he chose to travel at night. On the way, he got off his horse and took a rest by the big tree. At this time, a man came and said hello to him on a half-kneeling. This person claimed to be Liu Qing, a soldier under Chen Zhushan. The man talked to him for a while. When Dong Eluo got on his horse and was about to go, Liu Qing said: "I have a small matter to trouble you. Please send a letter to Xi'er, the servant of the Urumqi Yinfang official. He owes me three hundred cash. You tell him, I am in a very poor situation now, let him return the money to me."
The next day, Dong Eluo met Xi'er at the Yinfang official's office in Urumqi, and told him Liu Qing's words. After Xi'er heard this, he was so frightened that he was sweating like rain, and his face was ashen. Dong Eluo was very surprised, so he asked him what was going on? Xi'er told him , "Liu Qing has already died of illness."
It turned out that after Liu Qing died of illness, Chen Zhushan regretted his hard work and prudence during his lifetime, so Chen Zhushan gave a special reward of 300 Wen cash to Xi'er, and asked him to go to the market to buy some paper money to pay homage to Liu Qing. Xi'er knew that Liu Qing had no relatives and no one would accompany him to pay homage, so he embezzled the money. He thought no one would know. Unexpectedly, the ghost would personally come forward to collect the debt.
Chen Zhushan has never believed in cause and effect. When he learned of this incident, he couldn't help but said in horror: "This incident is indeed true. The words that Liu Qing sent cannot be fabricated by others. I thought that when people do evil things in the world, the most fearful thing is to be known. If others don’t know about it, they can do whatever they want. I just realized today that some people’s idea that there are no ghosts in the world is really wrong. However, for those who have done bad things secretly, I really feel worry for them." - Ji Xiaolan
Equal heart: the heart of equality for all sentient beings. And there is no difference in the treatment of various cognitions.
Contact refers to the general understanding arising from the contact between the root and the environment after the womb, that is, the understanding of the six sense organs to the six dust objects. At this time, the "contact" is not only about knowing the external environment, but also contains the defilement corresponding to "ignorance", so it is also called "contact corresponding to ignorance".
Buddhism often says that the six sense organs are easy to practice, that is to say, in daily life, we should detect the thoughts corresponding to ignorance on our six sense organs. We must understand that in our general cognition, there are often "responses to ignorance". The key point of our practice is not to react according to ignorance, but to find a way to use the Buddhist teachings we have learned to transform the"response to ignorance" into "wisdom corresponding touch".
For example, when someone scolds you, your root consciousness works to recognize that someone is scolding you. At this time, the cognition that usually arises is to respond with hatred and other hearts, that is, "ignorance corresponding contact" arises. And practice is to use wisdom to guide and restrain our greed, hatred and ignorance to deal with it.—Master Ruyuan: What does touch mean in Buddhism?
If you subdue desire and greed, cut off desire and greed, and surpass desire and greed, it is called detachment from form. - "Saṃyukta Āgama"
All sentient beings are afraid of persecution, and they all begrudge their own lifespans. Forgive other sentient beings with the heart that forgives oneself, do not persecute other sentient beings.