Why do we learn Buddhism? The purpose is for you to awaken sentient beings spiritually – not just for your own awakening. Only by saving sentient beings can you elevate the stage of your spiritual attainment – and your level of spirituality will then ascend. The higher the stage of your spiritual attainment, the higher will be your level of spirituality in awakening sentient beings. If you care only about awakening yourself, then you have already lost the ability to awaken sentient beings and perform meritorious deeds.
For example, if you recite Buddhist scriptures every day only for yourself, it indicates that your karmic debt is so heavy that you cannot repay it fast enough. So how can you perform meritorious deeds? How can you awaken sentient beings? It’s just like if all the money you have earned is allocated to repay the debt, how will you then have extra money to help others? It’s true that awakening sentient beings is our purpose, but how do we achieve it?
First, you must smash the deviant and establish the proper. Only by getting rid of deviant and wrong things can we establish positive energy inside our minds. Doing something only for the sake of self-gain is deviant, which is why you must remove every defiled thought to make it right. Once you have smashed all the deviant and established the proper, your wisdom will gradually become complete. In Buddhism, this is called the appearance of meditative wisdom – becoming perfectly clear and pure. It is when one enters this concentration that their wisdom will arise, and they will attain perfect understanding.
For example, there are some people who are intelligent and even with a glance you recognise them immediately. There are then those people who have issues with their intellect, and you can recognise them straight away too. The appearance of meditative wisdom – being perfectly clear and pure – is very important, and it’s all the result of your smashing the deviant and establishing the proper.
You should be eloquent without any impediments in speech. In other words, give a speech with your mouth, but structure your exposition with wisdom. For example, when you want to spiritually awaken someone and advise them to cultivate their minds, you do not necessarily know how to respond to their questions. Even if it is truth, you make it less clear the more you try to explain it. Being eloquent is being able to give a clear argument and exposition, because “without any impediments” means no obstruction.
If you go out and spread the Dharma, but you don’t know how to properly express it, how can you carry it out? Your delivery of speech must be unhindered, and so you must be able to express the Buddha-dharma very well with no impediments – this is very important.
A person must be equipped with many abilities to dutifully spread Buddhism. They must also possess wisdom and a spirit of great fearlessness. Great fearlessness is about forgetting oneself, and not putting oneself before other people. If this kind of person spreads Buddhism, whether they are using straight or indirect talk, they are using a wonderful method either way.
Straight talk is to speak correctly in a strict manner, and say very directly what can and what cannot be done. On the other hand, indirect talk is to invert the straight talk. Let’s say you want to persuade someone. You can use many different methods to let them understand. But if using normal methods do not work, you can use a different approach. In other words, if you want to let someone believe in Buddhism and recite Buddhist scriptures, sometimes your way of talking will need to guide them towards thinking in a certain way.
For example, doctors tell their patients that if they do not treat the illness properly, it will induce yet more illnesses – and they are not wrong. But under normal circumstances, doctors should not say that, as it would make the patient scared and stressed. It is true that a doctor should not say these types of things to some patients, but to other patients, they should. That is because some patients do not understand or trust the doctor. So if the doctor doesn’t make it sound more serious than it really is, the patient will not pay sufficient attention to their illness.
Therefore, both straight talk and indirect talk are wonderful methods. If your true purpose is to save and spiritually awaken sentient beings, even if you perform indirect talk, it is also a brilliant method. That is because when you truly want to save somebody, you should use any means necessary to achieve your goal. But there is a catch – the root of your main cause must be proper.
In other words, in terms of the karma that you sowed, the root must be proper – you must have a proper, original intent. So, even if you performed a bit of indirect talk, that is fine. One must have faith; if the original intent is correct, a repertoire of wonderful methods awaits.
I want to talk a little now about the capacity and foundation of Buddhist practitioners. Those of average or inferior foundation will feel shocked at hearing the Buddha-dharma. “Shocked” is the operative word here that people commonly use today. Those of average or inferior foundation refer to those whose level of cultivation is average at best. Foundation is the cultivation that originates from your efforts in the previous life have carried forward to the present life.
People of average and inferior foundation, meanwhile, will be terrified or afraid when hearing the Buddha-dharma. Just like when I give a Dharma talk, people of shallow foundation will get scared at the mention of certain topics. When one has different ideas, or when their facial expression changes, it means that their foundation is shallow. When you share the Dharma with those of average or inferior foundation, or when you encourage them to learn Buddhism, they will be astonished. “I didn’t know such things exist in this world!” Then, they become terrified.
When you encourage people to learn Buddhism, you want them to have a sense of fear. For instance, if you encounter a person who frequently commits deeds of killing and you say to them, “Do you know [person X?] He became that way because he committed deeds of killing.” In their shock, they may become scared and develop a sense of fear. As a result, they feel they should stop performing that kind of deed. In so doing, you have saved and awakened that person. Therefore, for people of average or inferior foundation, we need to resort to these kinds of methods to help them thoroughly understand, become awakened, and mend their ways.
Laozi (an ancient Chinese philosopher) once said: “When a foolish person hears of the Way, they laugh aloud. If they did not laugh, it would not be the Way.” What that means is that, to people who lack the knowledge or potential for awakening, when they hear of the Way they will laugh aloud and express scorn and ridicule. It is because the insight and theory of the Way are profound and difficult to understand. If everybody could easily accept and understand, that then would not be the Way. Many Buddhist practices talk about the Way. In fact, it’s a method for cultivating the mind and practising Buddhism. It is just the terminology that is different.
Here is some advice about conducting yourself and dealing with other people:
- Being composed is the number one method to handle every situation;
- Being humble is the number one method to protect oneself;
- Being tolerant is the number one method to deal with people;
- Being carefree is the number one method to nurture the mind.
