Buddha crossing a predestined person: Dharma and wisdom in life

Chapter 69 Cultivating a Heart of Charity with the Buddha’s Mind——Being Compassionate and Kind (3)
King Sapoda said: "I have sworn to save all sentient beings, not to mention this pigeon asked me for help, and I have promised it. People should keep their promises, I cannot give this pigeon to you."

Goshawk said: "My lord! You said that you want to save all sentient beings, but if I don't eat this pigeon today, I will starve to death. Am I not one of the sentient beings? Are you just watching me starve to death?" , don't you hear or ask?"

King Sapoda said: "In this case, I will bring you some more meat, so you don't eat this poor pigeon."

Goshawk said: "That's fine, but what you bring must be freshly cut meat, otherwise I won't be able to eat it, and I will still starve to death."

Hearing what Goshawk said, King Sapoda felt embarrassed.He once wanted to find some cooked meat to send Goshawk away, but he didn't expect that Goshawk only ate hot freshly cut meat.

King Sapota thought: "Where can I find the freshly cut hot meat? If other animals are slaughtered for this purpose, I will save one life and kill another. Such a thing cannot be done." Thinking about it Go, he decided to cut a piece of flesh from himself to feed the goshawk.

After making up his mind, he said to Goshawk: "Since you must eat freshly cut hot meat, then I will cut a piece of meat for you!"

Goshawk saw that King Sapota had fallen into a trap, and secretly laughed in his heart, but said solemnly: "Your Majesty! You can do this, which shows that you have a high moral character. However, since you want to save all sentient beings, you should treat everyone equally. Although I It’s just a bird, and it’s guaranteed to be unbiased. Therefore, as long as the meat you cut off is as heavy as the pigeon just now, then I won’t eat that pigeon anymore.”

King Sapoda said: "Okay!" and asked the waiter to fetch a balance.

King Sapoda put the pigeon on one end of the scale, and then enduring the severe pain, he cut off a roughly equal piece of meat from his left leg with a sharp knife and placed it on the other end of the scale.

Due to the law cast by Emperor Shi, the end of the balance where the pigeons were placed sank low, while the end where the meat was placed was raised high.

Seeing this, King Sapoda quickly cut off another piece of meat, but the two ends of the balance were still unbalanced.Again and again, one piece of meat followed another, and in a short while the flesh on King Sapoda's two legs was all cut off, and the blood dripped all over the floor.However, the end of the balance where the meat is placed is still tilted high.King Sapoda had no choice but to continue cutting off the flesh on his chest and arms. After a period of time, King Sapoda's body was almost cut off, and the balance was still unbalanced.King Sapoda was in a hurry, struggling with the little strength in his body, he threw himself on the balance, and then fainted.

At this time, the heaven and the earth shook, and the gods descended one after another, deeply moved by King Sapoda's noble behavior.

At this time, Tiandi Shi also returned to his original form. He woke up King Sapoda and asked, "Why do you do this kind of good deed that ordinary people can't do? Do you want to be a wheel-turning holy king? Or do you want to be Tiandi Shi? Among these three realms, what exactly is it that you are after?"

King Sapoda said in an extremely weak but firm voice: "I don't ask for anything in the three worlds. I only hope to save all sentient beings."

Heavenly Emperor Shi asked again: "Today you cut off your whole body for a little pigeon and suffered so much, do you feel regretful?"

"I don't regret it at all," King Sapoda said.

Only then did Heavenly Emperor Shi realize that it turned out that King Sapoda was not trying to steal his seat, but he still felt a little uneasy in his heart, so he asked again: "Is what you said all the truth?"

"Of course it's all true."

"Is there any evidence to prove that what you said is all the truth?"

King Sapoda struggled to stand up and swear by pointing at the sky and the earth: "Heaven is above and earth is below. If I have told a lie just now, please punish me! If what I have told is all the truth, please let my body recover as before. !"

Strange to say, as soon as King Sapoda's words fell, new flesh suddenly grew out of his body, which was exactly the same as before the cut, and there was not even a scar left by the knife.

Seeing this situation, all the gods of heaven and earth clasped their hands in praise of King Sapoda's noble character, and rejoiced for his recovery.

There are countless records in Buddhist scriptures about Buddhist disciples burning their bodies and gouging out their flesh, suffering on behalf of all living beings and redeeming all living beings. In order to show the world a great ambition and determination of great compassion and a complete spirit of sacrifice—in order to relieve the pain of others, one can sacrifice everything of oneself without hesitation.

Stand alone

Likes and dislikes, lusts, proclivities, and wishes vary from person to person.Human beings want to live in groups, but they are very selfish, and often prefer to ignore others, and many interpersonal conflicts arise because of this.

"Put yourself in the same way as others" is the most general and fundamental principle for dealing with the relationship between people and dealing with others.

This idea was first put forward by Confucius.One sentence is not to do to others what you don't want yourself to do to yourself; the other sentence is to establish others if you want to be established, and to achieve others if you want to achieve yourself.Both sentences are found in "The Analects of Confucius", and the meaning is very simple and clear, requiring little explanation.Don’t give to others what you don’t want; if you want to gain a foothold in society, help others to gain a foothold;In a nutshell, it means putting yourself in the same place as others, or as the folks say, you should compare your heart with your heart and put yourself in other people's shoes.That is to say, when dealing with people, you should think of others, not just yourself; you should regard others as the same person as yourself, and others will have what you want, and others will not want what you don't want.This is an attitude of treating people equally, showing respect, caring and helping others.

Let me share a short story of "This is also a son of man": the wife of Yang Wanli, a poet in the Southern Song Dynasty, is over 70 years old. Whenever it is cold, she gets up early, and then goes straight into the kitchen in the backyard, skillfully lighting a fire, boiling water, cooking Porridge.It takes a long time to cook a big pot full of porridge, and Mrs. Yang waited quietly.After a while, the sweet aroma of porridge gradually filled the kitchen along with the heat and floated into the yard.On the other side of the yard, the servants woke up one after another with the familiar aroma. After washing, they went to the kitchen to pick up a large bowl of hot porridge that Mrs. Yang personally served and drank it, feeling very warm physically and mentally.

Mrs. Yang's son Yang Dongshan saw his mother busy all morning, and said distressedly: "It's so cold, why do you bother to work so hard?" Mrs. Yang said earnestly: "Although they are servants, they are also children that their parents care about. Now that the weather is so cold, they still have to do work for our family. Let them drink some hot porridge, so that they will have some heat in their chests, so that they will not hurt their bodies when they work."

Although this story is small, it embodies a traditional virtue of Chinese culture: to treat others with respect.Traditional Chinese culture talks about "the old and the old, and the old; the young and the young, and the young", and advocates treating others with respect, loving other old people like your own elders, and caring for your children with the same care for your children. other people's children.This fine tradition of respecting the old and caring for the young embodies the moral concept of fraternity in traditional Chinese culture.In fact, this is a manifestation of selflessness.

In fact, it is the duty of human beings to treat others with respect to others.If everyone thinks of themselves, in society, the relationship between people will become more and more indifferent, and everyone is a close enemy.Even though you seem to preserve your own interests to the greatest extent, you find that your heart is increasingly lacking in that kind of caring between people, and you are becoming more and more closed.On the contrary, if everyone can think of others in dealing with others in life, such a society must be full of care and warmth.Even though it may seem like you're losing an interest, you'll find yourself getting more in return from each other.And when it comes to modern society, how many people can push themselves and others?When some people do business, their mentality is as if they want to earn all the money in other people's wallets, but has he ever thought about the hardships of others, how can others live without money?It is human to be able to think of others at any time.

Treating yourself and others is the foundation of all social morality.To maintain normal social order, we must abide by social morality.The more civilization develops, the more important social morality becomes.In order for social morality to be observed, the most basic thing is to have the idea of ​​​​exposing oneself to others.Everyone can think for others, when doing something, think about the impact I will have on others, think about whether other people also have this kind of request, think about how others will feel when I do this , many problems are solved.Now there is a new term called empathy.Ask bus workers to think about if I am a passenger, commercial employees think about if I am a customer, etc.; there is also a promotional slogan saying "You will grow old too", which also means putting oneself in touch with others.During the SARS period, everyone had this experience. They were very afraid that others would not pay attention to public health and infect them, so they consciously paid attention to starting from themselves and abiding by public health habits.Therefore, it is the foundation of social morality to push oneself and others.

In terms of generalization, empathizing with others can and should also become a social life criterion that is generally followed by all human beings.In recent years, a group of people in the world have raised a question, seeking a universal global ethics, seeking an ethical principle that everyone can accept.Some international conferences have been held for this purpose, and one of the results of these conferences is that everyone has reached a consensus that "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is acceptable to all religions, nationalities, and cultures. It has become a standard of social life that all mankind generally abides by.

Therefore, it is simple in principle and of great significance to extend oneself to others, but it is not easy to do.All around us, and in our own lives, the opposite of self-regarding others is common.For some things, I feel disgusted when others do it, and I feel that I have hurt myself, but I also do it that way.So the principle is very simple, but it is not easy to do.But we just want to start from the simplest truth and the simplest place.

Self-interest and altruism, consciously feel others

Standing on one's own feet, consciously realizing others, sacrificing oneself, and helping all living beings, this is the never-ending vow of Mahayana Bodhisattvas.The scriptures say: "If you have not been saved before, save others first, and the Bodhisattva will be motivated."

What do you realize?It is the realm of the Buddha, which is the so-called enlightenment of self-interest and others, self-conscious awareness of others.To borrow the words of Mencius: "To know first, to know later." It is the person who foresaw the first, and the person who taught the latter.

The core of Darwin's theory of biological evolution is the theory of natural selection, which tells us that in the process of survival competition, species gradually produce new species through natural selection to realize biological evolution.Examples of survival competition can be seen everywhere in nature. For example, penguins in Antarctica often push each other into the water to check whether there are seals in the water before entering the water, and let their companions act as scapegoats; the monkey king in the forest has groups of wives and concubines, but does not allow others. The male monkey "touched" one of its concubines.These are typical selfish behaviors.

However, competition for survival is only one aspect, and there are altruistic behaviors of mutual assistance and mutual love in the animal kingdom.

There is an act of extreme selfishness and extreme altruism at the wedding of the spider and the praying mantis.The female spider and the female praying mantis cruelly ate her "husband" on the "bridal night" just to get a delicious meal, while the male spider and the male praying mantis knew that they had an extremely tragic fate waiting for them, but they still had no hesitation. ".Perhaps this is an opportunity they have been waiting for for a long time, because the probability of them encountering a female is very small, and if they miss it, they may not be able to mate for life.Therefore, in order for the "newlyweds" to have better nutrition and raise their offspring, such a sacrifice is also worthwhile in their eyes.

Bats are a type of bat that feeds on the blood of other animals and starves to death if it goes without blood for three nights.But not every bat can suck blood every night, but the bats that don't suck blood don't starve to death.But a bat that has sucked blood spits blood to another bat that is starving, and the relationship between two bats is not limited to parent and offspring.This behavior is comparable to the universal love in nature, and it is deeply moving.

Among the birds, the cuckoo can be described as "notorious".Cuckoos don't build their own nests, let alone spend a lot of energy raising their chicks.All they do for their offspring is go find other birds' nests and foster parents, the hosts.Such as the aloe camp in the swamp or the great tit in the forest.The cuckoo uses its eggs to be very similar to those of the host to deceive the host.What is even more hateful is that the newly born cuckoos went on a killing spree, pushing all the eggs of their "righteous brothers and sisters"-the host out of the nest. Take care of your own children until they grow up.In this incident, Reed Duk and Great Tit set an example of altruism.

In an ant colony or bee colony, workers ants or bees working tirelessly to serve the queen or queen and other companions are typical examples of altruistic behavior.

Animals know altruism, but what about us humans?
Mr. Feng Youlan believes that the meaning of human beings' doing things is an objective existence, with utilitarian meanings, moral meanings, and heaven and earth meanings.But people have different degrees of understanding. If they are aware, they are in a state of enlightenment; if they are not, they are in a "state of ignorance."The meaning of life is different, and the realm of life is also different. From low to high, it can be divided into four levels: the natural realm, the utilitarian realm, the moral realm, and the heaven and earth realm.

The lowest is the natural realm.This kind of person has no understanding, or does not understand very much, and what he does has little or no meaning to him.

Going up is the realm of utilitarianism.This kind of people understand the meaning of utilitarianism, that is, the meaning of self-interest.This kind of person has only himself in mind, and he does things entirely out of self-interested motives.

Further up is the moral realm.This kind of person has society as a whole in mind, understands the meaning of morality, and consciously does things for the benefit of society. He is a truly moral person and a sage.

The highest is the realm of heaven and earth, also called the realm of philosophy.This kind of person has the greater whole of the universe in mind, realizes the interests of the universe, and consciously does things for the interests of the universe. In this way, he is identical with the universe and has super-moral values. highest achievement.

The first two realms are products of nature, and the latter two realms are spiritual creations.The task of philosophy is to make people understand, improve their spiritual realm, help them reach the moral realm, the realm of heaven and earth, and become sages and saints.

According to this analysis of Lao Tzu's words: "The way of heaven is beneficial but not harmful; the way of sages is to do without fighting." This is of course the highest state, that is, the state of heaven and earth.Although we mortals do not seek to be saints, we should also reach the "moral realm" and be a sage.

The laws of nature are beneficial and not harmful.The meaning of life lies in altruism, not self-interest.And self-interest can only be realized in altruism.If you haven't saved yourself, save others first, and finally save yourself.

We often evaluate unconsciously: this person is good, that person is bad.In fact, whether you see good people or bad people, they all have one thing in common: they are all self-interested people.When it comes to "self-interest", many people will feel ashamed to say it-although this is only an objective fact described from a scientific point of view (interested readers can read Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene").Shyness is because our social fashion is based on the theme of "altruism".Isn't this strange? ——A society composed of self-interested individuals has a social fashion of altruism.

And indeed it is.Just imagine: if you are a self-interested person (this is an objective fact in itself), in order to maximize your own self-interest, what do you want others to be like? ——It is best for others to be altruistic.Because of this, as an "other" in the eyes of others, you can benefit from other people's "altruistic" behavior without being violated.If the rational thinking results of each individual are summed up, it is not difficult for us to come up with an "altruistic" public choice.It's interesting——from the seeds of "selfishness" are the flowers of "altruism" that germinate and bloom!

Treat others how you want others to treat you
A person can push himself and others, consider his own needs, and think of the needs of others. If I want to eat, others will eat. If I want to wear clothes, others will wear them. If I want to be rich, others will get rich. If I want to be cheap, others will be cheap. The purpose of all people is the same.Therefore, as a parent, leading and educating children, don’t forget what it was like when you were a child, then it is easy to understand children.It's a pity that when we became parents, we forgot when we were children.So the principle is to "learn scriptures from oneself", which is leadership.

Jingxin said in the notes of "Zhuangzi":

"Jianwu" is an ancient god and a man of Taoism. He has appeared in "Xiaoyaoyou" and "Qiwulun".He went to see a famous "Crazy Jieyu" who scolded Confucius.Kuang Jieyu is a native of Chu State, his surname is Lu, and he is also called Chu Kuang Jieyu.This "crazy" is a nickname, not necessarily crazy, but arrogant, unrestrained, and caring about no one, just like the monk Ji Dian in the novel.In the eyes of Taoism, Chu Kuang Jieyu is a god and a man of Taoism.Kuang Jieyu asked: What did those people who understand yin and yang and gossip tell you just now?Jianwu said: He told me that a leader should treat others like himself and others, and then come up with a way to go straight and don't bend his mind. Who in the world would not obey such a leader?Nature will be affected. "Using oneself to draw scriptures" and using oneself to reason about others is the Confucian way of loyalty and forgiveness that promotes oneself and others. "Jing" is a straight road. "Shiyi Duren" uses a format that is very practical for everyone, and draws a norm on the track of humanity to regulate ordinary people. "Righteousness" is justice, and this principle is a matter of thought, the so-called benevolence and morality. "Saving people" does not mean saving people in Buddhism, "sacrificing" means using a standard to regulate others.

(End of this chapter)