UNKNOWN
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One of the special characteristics of human beings which other living creatures can never have is thirst for knowledge. We talk about UNKNOWN so that we can speak of KNOWING.
What does UNKNOWN mean? It is something we “don’t know”. Because the meaning of it is UNKNOWN we can’t define what it is. If we are asked “what does ‘knowing’ mean?, we can easily figure out, for the meaning of “knowing” is broad. Actually, now we talk about
UNKNOWN so that we can begin to aim at a higher sense of KNOWING.
Why do we enter into Buddhism by our free will? Because we know well that the way of living in this religion is broad, generous, and noble. Whereas, the earth where we are living is not eternal, and it would never bring us true happiness. Therefore, we prefer leading a religious life to living in the unhappy world. When we live in the way of religion, we realize that there are various principles that we have to learn for throughout our whole life.
If we are conscious that we do not know everything in life, this is the first step in our practice that helps us improve our knowledge and increase our morality. If a person says that he knows everything, it means that he does not know anything at all. He will regress later.
When we say the word UNKNOWN, we want to talk about a challenge to our knowledge, wisdom and morality. Confucius once said that “when we sense we don’t know, this means we know well.” This sentence seems a little mysterious. The Buddha said simply that “Everything we know, we know as it is. This is wisdom.”
We can define in short that “To know what we don’t know is the beginning of wisdom.
To admit what we don’t know is the beginning of virtue.”
If a person has the beginning of virtue, he can obtain the beginning of wisdom. We can be sure that his life is progressing well, and his practice is right on the way to Enlightenment. Because if there is the beginning of virtue, there is the beginning of wisdom.
If a person always shows his knowledge to everyone, we can be sure that he is a man of arrogance and self-satisfaction.
As for virtue, this man is arrogant.
As for wisdom, this man is self-satisfied.
When a person is both arrogant and self-satisfied, he will never get knowledge and never see the light of Enlightenment.
Unexpectedly, our attitude towards knowing and unknown is a big subject that can help us consider whether we know something well or we don’t know it at all. Maybe many of us have no idea about it, and we try to find it out.
For example, if our teachers are unaware of a subject on which they are lecturing, they can make a mistake when they give us lessons. It is terrible that our minds will be damaged. Because they are teachers, they are subjective, and they consider themselves as persons of knowledge.
That’s why any monk or nun should be always careful with arrogance, and self-satisfaction. Although people have deep respect for us, we should still pay much attention to self-control. If not, our minds will block out the knowledge of doctrines. Any one of us practicing Buddhism can admit inside that we really don’t know everything. It means that we get already the good beginning. Then we will instruct our disciples a lesson of UNKNOWN so that they will become the best preachers when they grow up and when they leave us to go elsewhere to instruct lay followers later on.
Now we are discussing the subject of the UNKNOWN that contains the vital philosophy which helps us to improve our minds, and to avoid making any mistakes.
We say UNKNOWN in order to imply that people always desire to learn and get more and more knowledge. Why do people do that? It is the structure of psychology. The subject is deeper and more complicated.
The Buddhism’s saying is that human being is the accumulation of the five skandhas1 also called the aggregate of the existence. The five skandhas include form, sensation, perception, karma formation, and consciousness.
Form is a shape of person, the physical presence. Although a person is to go to heaven, his form will keep its shape and go along with him.
Sensation is physical feeling.
Perception is the way of understanding or thinking about something.
Karma formation is the secret activities of intuitive cognition. It is deductibility, creation, action, and control.
Consciousness is the knowing. It goes through the eyes it is called the conscious eye. It goes through the ears, it is called the conscious ear.
Each of the skandhas wants to eat its own food every hour, and every day.
For example, this physique is the form. What is it’s the food? Its food is the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe every day.
What is the food for sensation? Its food is a feeling of joy, of sadness, of happiness, of Sanskrit suffering. Normally, people think that we only need a feeling of joy and happiness. Actually, the sensation also needs sadness and suffering. when there appears a feeling of sadness, there seems a feeling of joy needed to arise. The sensation requires both of these feelings: happiness and suffering. People always seek for happiness. But it may be bored if they only get happiness for the whole life. Life is combined with happiness and suffering. So people should experience sadness then they will need a sense of happiness.
For example, some people like the taste of chili. If their meal is lacking in chili, they would not take a delicious meal. Similarily, bitter melon is bitter, but some people like its taste. Chili and bitter melon may not seem tasty, but people still like them, because of the rich taste of bitter and hot.
There is someone who is adored, pleased, and praised so long that one day he feels bored. Then he flees away from home. He puts on old clothes to wander about the streets. He meets someone else who does not respect him at all. He is insulted and scolded. But he feels joyful. How odd is the psychology of people?
There is a movie that tells the story of a King who was always highly respected. Everyone in his palace prostrated themselves at his feet. That happened day after day. Then he felt bored and travelled incognito out of his palace. He disguised himself as a commoner to go somewhere with his men.
Through out one month, he did not give audiences. He mingled with the masses. He was scolded severely by others. Then he met a girl who did not know he was the highest noble, she even severely reprimanded him. But he fell in love with her and took her to his palace, then rising her a royal concubine.
This is only fiction, but it is seemingly appropriate with the sensation, and with the odd psychology of people. When people are happy they need a little sadness in order to balance their lives.
This is the food for sensation.
What is food for perception? It is erroneous thinking.
We think too much about something useless. This is the root of the cycle of birth and death. If we keep our erroneous thinking being in our minds day by day, we will go on sinking into the ocean of misery. The perception is very important. Therefore, our practice of Buddha’s teachings always begins at practicing perception. That means we must purify our thinking first. When our thinking is pure we can see the door to Nirvana.
The deeper skandha is karma formation. This is intuitive cognition being secretly inside. We can hardly see what its activity is. We can only see the perception. We know well when our erroneous thinking is arising. Only people who attain the third stage of meditation can see karma formation.
What is the food for the fourth skandha?
Its food is the need for creation, need for control, and need for action. People who are prohibited from these needs can die, because the fourth skandha is hungry.
The last one is consciousness. Its food is knowledge. This skandha always want to get information. We have to read newspapers, watch television, and have conversations with others in order to get information. Those are the food for the last skandha. This skandha needs to be delivered its food every day, if not, people can be uncomfortable. Only one who attains the great power of spiritual development can ignore the food of this skandha.
If a monk lives in a forest, or in a cave, he practices the doctrines everyday without getting any new information. Sometimes, he steps out and sees birds flying from this branch to that branch, and listens to the soft murmur of the wind and of the brook. The activities of nature and his practice are repeatedly, but his mind is never disturbed with outside. That means he attains the great power of his spiritual development.
People in common want to get more and more information, and knowledge. Some tend to study from high school to bachelor’s degree, then to masters, then to the doctoral degree. They learn repeatedly. Their consciousness always wants to know something more and more. Only when they get complete peace of mind, can they do anything else.
Knowing and UNKNOWN are related to knowledge that we need to obtain. Knowledge is very important to mankind. At the beginning, mankind is advanced or un-advanced depending on knowledge.
For example, a scientist wants to create a machine. He must obtain much knowledge, then he deduces a formula from many data. Knowledge is consciousness. Creating and deducing are the karma formation. Consciousness comes first, then there appears the karma formation. So we need to have knowledge, then we can do anything we want.
Like that, our way of spiritual development must be right. If we do not know how to find the right way, our striving for spiritual development will be wasted. The great matter for our spiritual development is to know what is wrong or right. Therefore, the Buddha put the Right View at the start of the Eightfold Path.
If a monk does not distinguish between right and wrong, he will attain nothing his whole life of practice. He will even fall down into evil heterodoxy.
If a person is practicing Buddhist doctrines, but the more he practices the more greedy, angry, and ignorant he becomes, and, his ego ever-increases, this means that he is leading a wrong way of practice. It can be sure that he will go to hell after death.
Therefore, how to know the right way is very important for us. It helps us open the door to Enlightenment.
However, we really do not know how to identify it. We do not know what is right or wrong. If we know it well, it means that we have no need to learn more. We would only want to supplement what we know.
Actually, we have to study more and more because we have a good sense of our UNKNOWN. This very UNKNOWN makes us depend upon the instructions of our masters. This is good luck. Good luck or bad luck in the present happens to us due to the consequences of our past.
If our past had good causes, our present will get a beneficial effects, and we have good luck. Then we will have a good teacher. Vice versa, if our past had bad causes, our present will get harmful effects, and we will have bad luck. As a result, we will be instructed by a bad teacher. Then our path of spiritual development will be wrong. The wrong way will go along with us to the end of this life and even to the next life, because we do not know how to choose the right master. We only hear a rumor that this is a good master, and we follow him. And we are told that another is bad, then we avoid him.
This is the major subject.
Some people may ask us, “How can we realize a good master and a kind-hearted friend so that we can follow their advice in the practice of spiritual development?” We can only say that nobody knows. Human beings tend to be self-praising, if they are asked about themselves. Whom can we trust? We had better ask the Buddha. This means that we must persistently kneel down to worship the Buddha every day, to pray to see good people. If we keep on worshipping and praying day after day, we will be blessed by the Buddha.
It is the beginning of our practice.
In the other aspect, UNKNOWN, knowing, and knowledge are related to many subjects of living, of philosophy, of society, and of religion. The civilization of the world rises from knowledge. Humankind goes on developing their minds with knowledge. The greatest scientists are the ones who show us this.
The famous saying of the scientist Newton is “what I know is only a drop of water. What
I’ve not known yet is the ocean”.1
- 1. The original: “I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother
Likewise, people now know much more about everything, however, what they know is only a drop of water in the ocean. This is the matter of society and living.
As for the religious form, the word UNKNOWN contains a great meaning. Buddhism calls it IGNORANCE. Because of ignorance, people are drifting into the cycle of birth and death.
That’s why we have to practice the doctrines in order to destroy ignorance. It means that we must cultivate ourselves to wipe out the unknown, but it does not mean we know everything.
In Buddhism, the practice is not to obtain knowing, but the practice is to wipe out unknown. If we go deep into the practice we can realize how thoughtful these sentences are. Normally, people tend to say that practice is to obtain knowing. This thinking seems to be unthoughtful. The Buddha said that “practice is to destroy ignorance”. Thanks to His sayings,
Buddhism is the best religion of many in the world.
Why do we say practice is to wipe out the unknown? And why do we suppose this phrase is the greatest and most thoughful? Maybe each of us should ponder this question for one’s own life. We have no explanation for the Buddha’s saying: “Practice is to destroy ignorance, to wipe out the unknown. It is not to get knowing.”
In the Sutras, when an Arhant attained the truth, he realized that the stream of transmigration was ended, then he destroyed ignorance. Thus, The End of The Stream of Transmigration is something of knowing that can destroy ignorance. This state is of the Arhant who attained the truth in reality, not in theory.
So, if a person tries hard to seek an explanation for The End of The Stream of Transmigration, he can get the knowing of how to destroy ignorance one day. However, it is just talk, a presumption of knowledge, or it is his consciousness. It is not the reality, not his witness of the truth, because he does not practice to attain the truth at all.
For example, someone who is very skilful at speech can suggest an idea that when an Arhant realizes The End of The Stream of Transmigration, he can see ignorance, then he can destroy ignorance. However, this suggestion will never come true, because it is through practice that we must try hard to achieve our own real realm. Our normal minds can never understand how wonderful the moment appears when an Arhant attains the truth. In the final realm of attaining the truth, it is called the destruction of ignorance. From a human to an Arhant, people must experience many stages of attaining Realization. At each stage of attaining Realization, we will get to a new realm, a new cognition that we have not known before.
After the Buddha preached to Kondanna and the first four disciples about The Middle Path and The Four Noble Truths, it was the eldest Ashava Kondanna who immediately entered The
pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
Stream of Holy Living. The Sutras noted that “Then the pure dharma-eye rose up in
Kondanna’s mind. He recognized that If anything had its beginning, it also had its ending. If there was a rising, there was a cessation, too.”
Throughout the Dharma of The Middle Path and The Four Noble Truths, The Buddha did not mention this sentence yet. However, Kondanna recognized the law of birth and death when he entered The Stream of Holy Living. And his achievement was approved by the Buddha, and was noted in the Sutras. How amazing it is.
Thousands of years later, we are touched by the ancient story that the Buddha went back to look for people from his past, who were his co-religionists and his protectors1, and became his first disciples later on. For the Buddha, Kondanna and the four disciples were his intimate friends, who had practiced austerity with him for six years. Only misunderstanding made them leave the Buddha. But he never blamed them for their leaving. He knew well that one day, he would help and guide them to liberation when their conditional causation came in time.
The Middle Path and The Four Noble Truths were the first two Dharma teachings that the Buddha gave them right after he attained Enlightenment. It was the first reunion after they had left the Buddha for quite a while. Their meeting was so touching.
Not only this story but also many others stories in the Sutras give us the lesson that any Arhant who attained Enlightenment would always say the same thing: “If anything had its beginning, it also had its ending. If there was a rising, there was a cessation, too.”
Nowadays, we should learn this sentence by heart. If a person can perceive the point of this he can give a lecture on this issue very well. But how many people can really attain Enlightenment?
This is a different way that we can perceive the point by perception well, and we can lecture on it to other people, but we may have not witnessed the truth yet. Whereas, in the old times, Kondanna could enter The Stream of Holy Living just after the Buddha gave him the Dharma of The Four Noble Truths. Kondanna uttered his witness even though the Buddha never mentioned it. Thus, when he realized the truth, his perception was changed and he saw something that could destroy ignorance.
We shall not give an explanation for this question on which each of us should ponder through our experiences in life.
Everyday, we keep on practicing, listening to the teachings, worshiping the Buddha, chanting the Sutras, and meditating. We should keep the question in our hearts until we get enough conditional causation and enough experience of practice. Then we will receive the right answer,
- 1. Kondanna and the four disciples obeyed King Suddhodana’s order to follow the Buddha in order to take care of him. (Readers can find more details in the cartoon the White Peak vol. 9 and 10) and we will become someone better than we are now.
When we come into Buddhism, both we in the Sangha and lay followers, we can instruct others in Buddhist doctrines. For those people who have very little idea of Buddhism we should only teach them about the law of cause and effect. Though this law is the most basic doctrine, this is the highest doctrine in Buddhism.
It is the most basic doctrine because if people understand the law of cause and effect, they can distinguish between right and wrong deeds. They will know how to avoid making evil deeds and try to do good deeds in life. They will also know how to treat all beings and people around them well. This is the way of human morality.
It is the highest doctrine because it reaches to the utmost. All Great Boddhisattvas and Buddhas apply the law of cause and effect in transforming people, they do not apply their super-natural powers at all. The Buddha did not transform beings into Arhants because of His boundless love. But the Buddha had to carefully check their causes and effects accumulating in many past lives before, then He would come to his decision.
If we want to direct people in another direction, we have to know what to do and we have to be skilful to instruct them in making their new causality. It means that we find the best way for them. They themselves can create their new causality. It is not the Boddhisattvas or the Buddhas who would make it for them.
For example, if Boddhisattvas love beings and want to transform them, but those beings have no idea what the Dharmas is, the Boddhisattvas will guide them to come to pagodas in order that they themselves can worship the Buddha. Then their causality of Buddha-Dharma would arise. Therefore, The Law Of Cause And Effect is the most basic doctrine and also the highest doctrine.
This Law is very important and never ending. If our wisdom is at a low level, we can only understand this Law superficially; Whereas, we can understand this Law more thoughtfully if our wisdom is at a high level.
Through this Law, we can check if a person how much understands the doctrines. His explanation of this Law being superficial or thoughtful shows his level of wisdom being lower or higher.
Thus, the first step that people should practice is the understanding of The Law Of Cause And Effect. This helps them keep away from UNKNOWN. If they do not know of this Law, they will be led in a wrong way. They can never perceive what they do is wrong or right. Maybe they always try to justify their evil-doing because they confuse evil doings and good deeds.
For example, when a person is asked why he hurts another, he may say that because this person is so bad, or has a fault, then he has to do that, etc… people always have justifications.
On the other hand, if people understand the Law, they will do good and treat others well, despite others’ good or bad characters. They know if they treat others badly they will receive a bad result later on, or they will receive exactly the same as what they did towards others. People know well that due to their bad habits in the past, such as greed, anger, and ignorance, they manifest their acts of violence in the present. Now, thanks to understanding of The Law Of Cause And Effect, people will think twice about doing something because their doings towards others will return to them in the same way.
Therefore, any Buddhist, especially a monk or a nun, who can apply Dharma for leading people to the right way should thoroughly understand The Law Of Cause And Effect, and be good in teaching the Law. If we have not become masters yet, and have not given a sermon to mass audiences, we can only teach The Law Of Cause And Effect to any lay follower, then our merits will accumulate more and more.
The Sutras have noted that anyone can instruct someone else in The Law Of Cause And Effect, and then their merits will be countless. We help people regarding the faith of The Law in order that they can avoid making mistakes and try to do good deeds; our merits will be countless. This is such the most basic and highest doctrine.
However, someone would put the question: why people who believe in the Law still do wrong? It is true. If someone who does not believe in the Law does wrong, we suppose that he doesn’t distinguish between right and wrong, then we can use the Law to help him avoid doing that. But why do people who know the Law well still do wrong? This is another case. An explanation for this question will be seen below.
The most awesomeness for us is UNKNOWN of doctrines, UNKNOWN of Dharma. Because of UNKNOWN of doctrines, we are easily drowned in the sea of evils. We do not know that there is the cycle of birth and death, and also there is Nirvana.
We have no supreme bodhi that is Enlightenment. We only indulge in dissipation and we sink into degradation. We rarely tend towards good deeds. As a result, we will be reincarnated in the form of animals in the next life.
As for merit, we should know that the greatest and most basic merit is to help people understand Dharma. The life of the Sangha is to aim at principles that we have to spread Dharma to everyone. If a monk considers that he has not yet given any doctrine to anyone since he entered a life of a monk, then he should begin to fear indebted to people who have offered him many things. Therefore, our responsibility for spreading the Dharma is so important that we have to fulfill our duty as much as possible.
The Singapore monk Thitadhammo used to be a Protestant pastor. One day, he by chance read Buddhist doctrines. He found out that Buddhism is the greatest religion, then he entered the Sangha. He is now the member of the International Buddhist Conference. He was invited to give lectures at the Buddhist Research Institution of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City. His lectures raised a lot of new issues that caused a big surprise for people, which may clash with many usual ideas. His ideas can be summarized as follows:
“We ought not to spend time chanting so much. Instead, we should spend more time doing practical works beneficial to life, such as doing charity, and going to distant regions to spread the dharma.”
As soon as he said about reducing our time chanting, he encountered strong opposition. Vietnamese Buddhism tends to chant as much as possible. The more time we chant Dharma, the more merit we will get. Practically speaking, he wants to do good for people, he wants to help people understand Dharma. From studying Protestantism to studying Buddhism, he has had a lot of experience in proselytizing, which is the Protestant way. Pastors spend most of the time preaching. However, when he shared his ideas with us, he was immediately opposed. From then on, he may hesitate to speak out.
This is also a serious matter in Buddhism which we have to consider. Why do we gather together every summer? And what for? Because we want to lessen UNKNOWN, because we want to obtain more knowledge of Dharma, of the right direction, and because we want to bring our knowledge to help people.
An abbot in a pagoda should create the conditions that will provide the Sangha a chance to teach the Dharma and to rescue all beings. The abbot should not keep the Sangha from working hard for everyone. If the Sangha cannot do Buddhist works, they won’t be able to get merits.
They must take charge of Buddhist works as much as possible.
The abbot should not think that his disciples are too young to do Buddhist works. He must assign tasks to his disciples as much as possible. Then he can see how much they accomplish their tasks. The more Buddhist works they accomplish, the more their practice develops.
If an abbot is living in a small pagoda, he might suppose that there is no need to ask his disciples to do Buddhist works. It may be a wrong thought. Every Buddhist work always needs to be accomplished. And if it is well planned, it will be useful. For example, we can check some regions where people have no idea about Buddhism, then we send our disciples to go there to pay the people visits. The monks are in charge of the pagoda only to pay a visit to the people. However, whenever they pay a them visit, they may give the people some words about the teachings. That’s all.
If we can do that, even though it is only a little, we also repay a debt to our donors. Now if we begin to spread Buddhist teachings to people living in areas near the pagoda, then five or ten years later the people who are given Dharma will become protectors of the Buddha-Dharma and supporters of the pagoda. If we try our best to do that, our Sangha all get merits.
We, the ones who can understand Dharma, should rescue and transform people who do not know Buddhist doctrines yet. Because of unknown, they abandon themselves to a life of pleasure. Our duty on the earth is to save their lives. It means that we should bring them the understanding of Buddhist doctrines so that they themselves can wipe out unknown.
Because of UNKNOWN, we make every effort to practice, to cultivate ourselves more and more, and to spread Dharma everywhere. We wish not only ourselves but also people all over the world to get an understanding of Dharma, in order that the world be a peaceful and happy planet where, nowadays, there appear many more evil geniuses than good geniuses.
Now in Vietnam we live in peace. It is because so many people shed their blood for the country. We are living in a peaceful country and we have good time to practice the doctrines. Because we live in peace, we do not realize that evils are creeping in everywhere and dominating the world little by little. Therefore, we don’t have the ideal that we have to rescue and transform people by bringing good to spread all over the world. We only want to rescue ourselves by chanting all day and night. Maybe we only spend very little time helping some people.
If we realize that the evils will conquer the good and invade the whole world one day, we must immediately make the great vow to rescue all beings. If we are conscious that it may cause a big problem for our people, then we should know that there is so much work that needs to be done. We must take charge of stopping the evils from spreading everywherem not only in the present life but in next many lives as well. It also means that we are helping sentient beings lessen the unknown of Dharma.
How holy and insightful Buddhism is. Nevertheless, so many people in the world have not known about this religion yet. Moreover, for private purposes, there are some kinds of powers trying to obstruct the development of the Buddhism. It is so sad! They can hardly understand that Buddhism is the truth that always leads people to the light, and to Enlightenment.
Only we here understand it. Although we know it well, we still do nothing for it. This is a fault of both the Sangha and the lay followers. Now we have the good chance to be in the
Sangha, to be the Buddha’s disciples, and to practice his teachings, we should think of this world where so many people still do not know the truth of Buddhism.
We ought to pray to the Buddha that “All of us take the great vow of developing Buddhism all over the world.” This vow must penetrate into our hearts, and we should try hard to make our wish come true one day. If we have no vow or no wish, then the world goes on in dark ignorance.
Now we should talk about knowing.
If human beings do not know about science, that means we do not have knowledge of it, and we will be poor forever. If a building is built, it is thanks to human’s knowledge of building. And thanks to our knowledge, there are many things produced for us to use every day.
It is due to our knowledge that people can reach higher civilization and development. Then we can alleviate poverty. Therefore, we support the application of science and technology to living, including religious living, so that the Sangha can practice more effectively.
Of course, the witness of the truth has no need for the application of science and technology at all, because it is invisible. The simpler we become, the easier we can obtain the truth. On the other hand, both living and the preaching of doctrines need science and technology so much more, because they are useful. This matter needs to be clearly understood. Some people suppose that Enlightenment is very simple. That this depends on nothing. They refuse the benefit that science and technology bring to living.
This is an extreme view.
The second extreme view is that people think of science as a symbol of advancement of society. We should apply it in every aspect, and also in the practice of doctrines as much as possible.
We should understand the Golden Mean as follows:
Science and technology help us reach higher civilization, so we highly appreciate them. Whereas, Enlightenment is something very simple like the image of our Buddha walking barefoot on all the pathways in ancient India to propagate his doctrines.
If we know the two sides well, we can apply the Golden Mean towards our spiritual development. We can apply science and technology to what we need, and we should always turn back to nature, to the moral life, to cultivate our minds.
If anyone goes to one side, we know that he has an extreme view. We should be careful with the two extreme views, and also aim at the core of the matter.
Knowing science and technology is never unnecessary. Nowadays, people are increasingly obtaining higher levels of knowledge. Commonly, a minimum level of education obtained by people is graduation from high school. People can easily obtain basic knowledge of the world through reading newspapers or watching television. Their various activities day after day improve their knowledge.
We are the preachers, we can give people Dharma lectures, but if we say something in opposition to advanced knowledge, our lectures may be not effective any more. People might respect our life of virtue, but they still disregard our narrowness of views. Due to disrespect, they cannot fully get the doctrines or believe in our way. On the other hand, if our words are perfect, people will pay much attention from the beginning to the end, and they can have a deep respect for us. As a result, they can get the doctrines effectively.
People’s admiration or respect is common sense but it is also meant in reference to religion. Why? Because if people consider preachers as intellectuals and virtuous monks, they should think that Buddhism must be the noblest religion of which they should become followers. That is why our Sangha should always find the best way in order to cultivate our minds to witness the truth and also to get more knowledge outside.
Recently, we had a talk on the theme of “Protecting The World Environment”. That day, lay followers were crowded in the hall. It seemed that people pay much attention to the matter. Nowadays, the environment in the world is placed on the alert. We do not sense it has changed because everything seems as usual.
However, anyone who has knowledge knows that the earth is going to fall into ruin. We can see that in the North Pole, for living environment for seals, bears and the Inuit are changing. Many icebergs have existed there for millions of years. Scientists hypothesized that the earth is becoming hotter and hotter, and the icebergs there will melt in the next century. But they were wrong, for the icebergs melted in 2008.
No one foresaw that in the Summer of 2008, the icebergs in the North Pole disappeared completely. Only ice-drifts in the sea are left. The earth changes so quickly that we can hardly imagine it. Its effects all over the world are extremely devastating. Water temperatures are faster and faster, and agricultural lands are drying up. The next problem that can cause people much worry is the problem of hunger. And war can easily break out when the world is short of food. Many problems arise because of the changing climate in the world.
The negative effects must be known and the environment must be kept clean by all people in the world. We are the Buddha’s disciples who must have the sense of responsibility for the environment. From now on, knowledge of the environment should be added to the Buddhist view and to the disciples’ thought. In the pagodas, we should encourage our people to be friendly to the environment. We ought to add this idea to our lectures when we teach our lay followers.
We used to teach social morality and undertake charity for the people. Moreover, we have fulfilled our duty to develop the Buddhist Association. Now we need more knowledge and more concrete and prompt action about environmental protection. It is for the survival of the earth. If we cannot understand this matter, the earth will disappear one day.
That is the reason why we have to take responsibility for protection of the living beings in the world. It is now becoming a big issue in our knowledge. Whenever we meet lay followers we should remind them about this. Every lay follower should also find out the best way to do this effectively. We have to sense that this is the big problem in the world.
If we are unknown of something we may be short on it. The saying is that “the truth releases us”. Thus, the more we understand the truth the closer we get liberation.
Like this, when the monk Kondanna witnessed the truth he knew that “If anything had its beginning, it also had its ending. If there was an arising, there was a cessation, too.” That meant he got very close to liberation. When he practiced more and more he also perceived something new, and came closer to liberation. We can do that, too. If we take a step forward, our minds by nature develop much more. Anything we know more we will reinforce a splendid view on life.
For example, when people do not know the history of their country, we can be sure that they do not love their country at all. If they do not love their country they cannot love humankind. They may become selfish if they have no ideals in their lives. They only pay attention to their homes. But we are not sure if they love their families or not.
Whereas, people who are patriotic love their country as much as their families. They treat their families and others very well. Those people always have high ideals to live. They can live more properly than people who have no ideals. Therefore, the first and most important thing in life is that we should have patriotic ideals. Then we can have the rest.
Thus, to be the disciples of the Buddha, we have to be the true patriots first, then we have ideals, then we can give our love to all humankind, and then we have the greatest respect for the Buddha-Dharma. If not, we have only little respect for the Buddha-Dharma.
No matter if we are Sangha or are lay followers, we should have knowledge of our history, so that we can have patriotic ideals. It is the basis of life that we should have ideals. It is a great loss if a person has no ideals in his life. Anyone who does not love his country is to lose something big inside.
To love our country, we should have knowledge of history that makes us happy or unhappy due to the rise and the fall of our nation. We feel happy when our forefathers gained independence. We feel sorry when our nation was dominated.
When we look back to history when our forefathers had built our nation and kept it from falling into the hands of the invaders, we also can see how Buddhism has developed along with our nation, and how our nation and Buddhism have been interlinked with each other. But there was a time when Buddhism declined so dramatically, other religions could spread all over our country. Nowadays, we should realize this and we should correct our mistakes as soon as possible.
Perhaps we were also Buddhists in our past lives, but we took no responsibility to propagate our Buddhism. Buddhism had developed along with our nation for a long time, but we have not preserved it at all, and we have not tried to make it close to our people. We let people know nothing of Buddhism. As a result, many clergymen of other religions came into our nation to spread their beliefs.
If the Sangha in the past thousands of years had made their efforts to propagate Buddhism around their pagodas, heterodoxy could not have spread all over our nation. Then wars would not have lasted for hundreds of years.
If we suppose that the invaders were cruel to do that, we may make a mistake because it was not true. It was the Sangha itself who did nothing to keep our nation safe by spreading Buddhism. Perhaps, if our people developed an idea about Buddhism, then they might have had a sense of nation. When the imperial powers wanted to invade other country, they sent their clergymen to go there first to propagate. People outside of any religion would be led to their path. While Buddhism has existed in our nation for over two thousand years, our people have still not understood Buddhism well. Whose fault is that? It is ours. Because we have not tried very hard to help our people know of the Buddha-Dharma, thus our nation was invaded.
Another matter of UNKNOWN is that if we know nothing about the affairs of the world, we cannot love all beings. The world is very small nowadays. Anything that happens in this country will affect the other country sooner or later. We just wrote a song called “The Small World” in which we can see that “Your nation has been hit by a flood, my soul is flooded with tears. The war killed your people, my heart is bleeding. Because the world is small now, there’s no border, no racial features, no religion, no color that that can cause us any hatred. But these are the very differences giving our world more diversity and multicolor beauty. We should love each other, for the world is small.”
When we have knowledge of the world we can love the whole world. Similarily, when we know of our history we can love our nation. It is UNKNOWN that makes us indifferent. If we have much experiences and knowledge in life, our hearts will open wide.
That is why we must wipe out unknown.
Even in our life, if we have no idea about problems that we have to solve, how can we find a right way to solve them? For example, if there is a conflict between two monks, then they come to the director of pagoda to ask for an arbitration. He does not have a clue about their
quarrel but just punishes them. However, their quarreling and punishment keep happening…
Why? Because the director has no good solution to solve that problem.
It should be considered whether the problem has arisen from two causes. Firstly, they may have always picked their quarrels in their past lives. Secondly, in their present lives, they always hold tightly onto their views. Each consider his view to be better than the other’s. While Buddhism has no self, people who try to hold their views are egotists. Egotists can never reach liberation. The more spiritual development they try to practice, the more trouble they cause for someone else.
There is a family in which the father is ahigh ranking person in society while the mother is a devoted Buddhist. However, all suffering in the home is caused by the mother who always tries very hard to encourage her children and friends to practice spiritual development. Everything and everyone in the house are arranged under her power. It seems improper but nobody dares object because she is violent. Now the atmosphere of the family is so stressful and conflict is happening more and more… But people in the home do not know how to find the best way to solve this.
Here, we can see that the root of the matter is the mother’s point of view. She tightly holds onto her view. She thinks what she does is right and her people must obey her orders. This is a kind of egoism or self. This kind of person can never get tranquillity in meditation. When we meditate we have to let all thinking go.
If people can reach a stage of meditation they are never too stubborn. They are very nice towards others, and they live peacefully. They know how to let their thinking go away so they can easily concentrate on meditation. Whereas, people who always tightly hold onto their views, they cannot concentrate on meditation. Whenever they try to meditate, their erroneous thinking will arise from their minds. That is why they cannot go deep into meditation.
That is all. The point is there. If it comes from past lives, we can hardly correct it. We only correct what is arising from the present life.
The advice for that family is that people in the home should repeatedly remind her to let her thinking go. And they must tell her that her ideas are her ego that will make her more and more selfish. She must be continually reminded of this until she herself can strike at the root of her grasp.
Buddhism is a religion that has no self. If we cling to our ideas of what we think right and we force people to follow us, we are falling down into egoism. This is not the teachings of the
Buddha. We must follow the note in the Kakacupama Sutra that “I do not live by my heart, but I live by my brothers’ hearts.”
We worship the Buddha every day, we should take the vow that we try to let our thinking
go away, and that we do not hold it tightly any more. The root of sin is our view, our thinking. If we could master that, everything can be smooth. There are such many cases that usually happen in life, if we clearly understand the core of the matter, we will have a good way to solve any problem effectively.
One more example, we might help the poor with money in order that they can have a fund to open a small business. But they frequently fail in doing business, fail in holding onto the small amount of capital, because they enjoy spending money. They live beyond their incomes. Thus, our money seemed to have failed to help. It means that this problem is not solved well. The core of the matter is that they have no merit.
Why do they live beyond their incomes? Because they do not cultivate their minds. They want to live a pleasurable life, they do not accept their poor condition. And one more thing, they do not want to do good deeds. The poorer we are the more good deeds we ought to do. Those people make two mistakes. Firstly, they do not try hard to do good deeds even little by little. Secondly, while they have no merit they live beyond their incomes. As a result, they can hardly get any success in doing business or holding money that others give them.
We should remember that unknown will make us solve any problem in the wrong way, make us guide others without full consideration, and make us teach others without thorough understanding. If we have much knowledge and experiences of life and if we understand thoroughly any matter, we will treat any question smoothly and appropriately.
It is in accordance with our karma and our wisdom that we can wipe out unknown or not.
The other matter of UNKNOWN is that we fail in judging people’s characters. We meet people every day, we do not know if this person can be honest and kind-hearted or that person can be dishonest and cruel. So we get into bad company and we might be harmed one day. We should have made friends with good people, we have already missed a good chance. It is because we cannot see through their character.
But, how we can know people? It is said by a Zen teacher that “If our minds are as bright as a clear mirror, anything that happens we can see its clue thoroughly, so we can settle it appropriately”. Thus, when our minds are bright and pure, we can correctly judge people. Thanks to knowing, we can make friends with good people, and we can know how to lead others to a life of religion.
If our minds have not been bright and pure enough we should be careful with every thought, every deed, because we know something is still unknown to us. However, it is our very UNKNOWN that we recognize is the beginning of wisdom and morality. Then we should try hard to cultivate our spiritual development so that one day, our minds will be bright and pure to solve correctly any problem.
If we want to do Buddhist works but we do not know how to hold a meeting or arrange time, we cannot do things well for our society or the Buddhist Congregation. If we want to organize a Summer Retreat in our pagoda, but do not know how to organize both the schedule for daily life and a good program for spiritual development for monks and nuns in those three months, how can the Summer Retreat be successful? Everything related to the Sangha’s spiritual development such as meditation, repentance, study of the teachings, etc… must be well prepared.
The best effectiveness of the Summer Retreat is that the Sangha’s spiritual development must be have increased after the end of this class. If the Sangha are more stable in their practice and highly moral, then the Summer Retreat is successful. At the same time, as lay followers come to give offerings to the Sangha, their minds are developed, too. They must completely put their faith in the Three Refuges (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha).
In order to get success in organizing the Summer Retreat, we should pay much attention to three things:
First, the Sangha must be supplied with adequate food, rest, and sleep.
Food is important. If the Sangha are not supplied with enough food, their health will be broken, and then they cannot fully practice their spiritual development. Nowadays, we can hardly follow the meal regulations of the Buddha’s time. Because then the Sangha must go around to beg for food, and they could not keep going for food all day, so they had to follow meal regulations. The Sangha in that time were allowed to take only one meal at noon every day. One more thing is that we need good sleep in order to be healthy to practice. It is the formula. We will make a mistake if we think that our practice should be developed increasingly in an austere life.
Second, study of the doctrines must be appropriate for the Sangha, and lecturers must be good enough to teach the Sangha more effectively.
Lectures and lecturers must be well planned for the whole Summer Retreat. Abbots should choose the effective doctrines for the Sangha’s study, and must know excellent lecturers. In order to be well prepared, the abbots and the instructors should carefully discuss the program and consider who are the best lecturers. If the plans are well organized, in three months, the Sangha can gain more knowledge and their wisdom will be increased.
Third, the Sangha’s practice must be well organized in order that their spiritual development will increase continuously. And that their minds will be clear to see their mistakes.
Practice, firstly, is to worship the Buddha every day. We have to show our deep respect for the Buddha by our worship Him. If a whole day we only pay much attention to our practice without worshipping the Buddha, we would be lost a half of our practice. We should think of worshipping the Buddha as our happiness. If anyone who worships the Buddha does not feel happy, it means that he does not know how to practice at all. Worshiping the Buddha is of the great merit and the basic practice which we should accumulate every day. If we don’t do that, we don’t have any accumulation of merit. Worshiping the Buddha with our deep respect is the basic practice that we consider the first step of success in our practice.
Next, it is our chanting. We must choose a Sutra as short as possible, but the Sutra must be meaningful and highly educational so that the Sangha can apply it to their lives every day.
Last is meditation. Our minds should be concentrated in pureness and tranquility. We have to wipe out all wandering thoughts in order to get close to no self. Reciting the names of
Buddhas is good, too. When we repeat Buddhas’ names we are also mindful of the Buddhas.
For example we can recite glory to the Amitabha Buddha, or glory to the Master Sakya Muni Buddha, or glory to the Bodhisattvas. This helps us think of the Buddhas all the time, and help our minds become calmer and calmer. If we have deep respect for the Buddhas, we can practice praying Buddhas’ names as the first step. We can receive a telepathy between the Buddhas and us. It is intimacy of parent and child.
When our conditions come to fruition, we can practice in another way as the Buddha told us: “You should light your torch to go ahead”. So we must check inside our minds if we have fallen into bad habits such as greed, anger, and ignorance, or jealousy, hatred, selfishness from which we must see clearly in order to get away. We must do that by ourselves, no one can do that for us.
The organizational board and the instructors of the Summer Retreat must remind the Sangha to check and control their thoughts every day. If monks or nuns could practice well and reveal honestly to the Sangha, they can see their mistakes clearly. As a result, their spiritual development will be developed.
In short, in order to successfully organize the Summer Retreat, we should aim at these two targets:
The Sangha’s spiritual development must increase.
The lay followers’ belief in Buddhism must be stronger and stronger.
If we need to, we must organize these criteria well:
First, the Sangha must be supplied with adequate food, rest, and sleep.
Second, study of the doctrines must be appropriate for the Sangha, and lecturers must be good enough to teach the Sangha more effectively.
Third, the Sangha’s practice must be well organized in order that their spiritual development will increase continuously. And that their minds will be clear to see their mistakes.
Being aware of mistakes is knowing.
If people can see their mistakes, it means that their minds are so wise. They can become good masters in the future. On the other hand, anyone who cannot acknowledge their faults cannot become a good master.
For the whole three months of the Summer Retreat, the Sangha should be given more time to practice meditation so that their minds can be purified to be aware of their mistakes. That is all. However, their wisdom and spiritual development will be increased. The Devas and Protectors of Dharma will witness spiritual development of the Sangha.
We call it knowledge when monks and nuns know how to organize anything well. And they have the ability to predict what will happen first, and then next.
If we are able to hold a meeting, or a class, or undertake a task, and or anything else, we can easily be in charge of undertaking social work, or the work of the Buddhist Association. When we are assigned to Buddhist works, we can fulfill our duties well.
The subject of organization must be planned for the Sangha to study in the Summer
Retreat, because it’s necessary to improve the Sangha’s working ability.
There is unknown of the law that is easily harmful to people.
There are so many things unknown in life. Some are to be pitied, others are to be blamed. Thus, the unknown is both pitied and blamed.
When is the unknown to be pitied? When people cannot practice Buddhist doctrines. Then they let themselves be driven to bad habits, they live in the world without having a good goal, they do something without knowing so that it breaks the law. As a result of the unknown, people suffer greatly.
When is the unknown to be blamed? When people can easily commit a sin and usually relapse into their misdoings.
We, the disciples of the Buddha, should take a vow that for our whole life we should go
everywhere to help human beings wipe out unknown as the Buddha said that we must wipe out ignorance.
It doesn’t make sense if we know everything in the world. Actually, we cannot. Our lifespan is limited. Our ability is limited, too. So we can only concentrate on basic knowledge. We are the Sangha, we should only concentrate on the Dharma. Sometimes, we need something else such as knowledge of science, of the world, and of the law, in order that we can instruct people in the best way.
We cannot know everything in life. We should only rely on our knowledge we get from practicing precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Only the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas can know everything in the universe. We have no time or ability to understand everything, because we only live in worldly life. We can know something basic so as to practice and do right. We can know how to increase merits so that our minds will be enlightened. Then the knowledge coming from practicing precepts, concentration, and wisdom will appear. At that time we can wipe out unknown, we can make matters of life clearer, our practice will be perfect, and we can instruct people better.
Because people usually say that “I don’t know”, this brings us to the subject of unknown now. When we talk to someone, that person may say “I don’t know”. That person may be a saint, or may be a common person, even though the answer is the same.
How can we know that person is a saint?
It is when he or she answers honestly.
As the scientist Newton said: “What I know is only a drop of water in the sea. What I don’t know is the whole vast sea.” This was a great scientist and a saint.
As the philosopher Confucius said: “To know what we don’t know is the beginning of knowing.”
As the saying of Buddhism: “To know what we don’t know is the beginning of wisdom. To admit what we don’t know is the beginning of virtue.”
How can we know that person is a common person?
It is when he or she answers in an irresponsible way.
For example, in a pagoda, if a monk asks his disciple: “Where is your brother?”. The disciple answers: “I don’t know”. This answer cannot be accepted, and the disciple is blameworthy. Instead of answering that way, the disciple ought to say that “Dear master, he might have gone somewhere, I’ll try to find him.”
In many companies, their staff cannot be allowed to say “I don’t know”. For example, when a director asks his staff to outline a plan, then the staff says “It’s new, sir. I don’t know”.
His answer will have him fired. This answer shows that the staff can never contribute to the development of that company.
If a person is assigned a task, he might say that “Please give me more time, I’ll try my best to outline a plan as soon as possible”. It means that the employee can contribute to the development of that company.
Nowadays, the development of Buddhism needs the Sangha who should try hard to contribute to Buddhist works. Because of the development of Buddhism, and because of our spiritual development, we can never accept this sentence “I don’t know”, which is said by common people.
Unknown can be accepted in some cases. For example, if a revolutionary was arrested, he would say “I don’t know” even though he was tortured. It is because he wanted to protect his comrades, or he wanted to keep his state secrets. This is acceptable.
In short, we should try to avoid this sentence as much as possible. Especially, since we are leading the Buddhist life, we should always try to practice in order to wipe out unknown, as the Buddha considered it as ignorance.
When we destroy unknown or ignorance we can easily make a great contribution to the development of Buddhism.
NAMO SHAKYA MUNI BUDDHA
