The Sutra in Forty-two Sections Spoken by the Buddha (Section 31 to 35)

Lectures by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua,
Given at Gold Mountain Monastery,
San Francisco, California, in 1974

The Sutra in Forty-two Sections Spoken by the Buddha
Section 31 to 35

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Section 31
When the Mind Is Still, Desire Is Dispelled

The Buddha said, there was once someone who was plagued by ceaseless sexual desire and wished to castrate himself. The Buddha said to him, to cut off your sexual organ would not be as good as to cut off your mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, his employees will also quit. If the deviant mind is not stopped, what good does it do to cut off the organ? '"

The Buddha spoke a verse for him:

Desire is born from your intentions.
Intentions are born from thoughts.

When both aspects of the mind are still,

There is neither form nor activity.

The Buddha said, this verse was spoken by the Buddha Kashyapa. "

The thirty-first section explains that when people want to stop desire, they should stop it within the mind. If you want to know the method for stopping the mind, you should realize that desire arises from the mind intentions and that your intentions are produced from your thoughts.

Now, take a look at your thoughts. Are they produced of them-selves? Are they produced from something else? Are they produced from a combination of both? Or are they produced without any cause? You should also find out whether thoughts are internal, external, or in the middle between the internal and external. Do they come from the past, the present, or from the future?

When you try to find thoughts in this way, your thoughts also become still and without any substance of their own. Once your thoughts are still, your intentions also become still. Since your intentions are still, your desires also become still. When your desires are still, you will see all forms and dharmas as images in a mirror. Like reflections in a mirror, they are not real. You will see that all activities are like bubbles: they are also false. All Buddhas successively contemplate and transmit these expedient Dharma-doors that enable one to subdue the mind.

The Buddha said, here was once someone who was plagued by ceaseless sexual desire and wished to castrate himself. "This person couldn’t stop his thoughts of lust even for a moment. Because his sexual desire was so strong and overwhelming, he tried to do something about it. He finally thought of a method: he decided to cut off his own male organ.

The Buddha said to him, to cut off your sexual organ would not be as good as to cut off your mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, his employees will also quit. " The Buddha said to him, you say you want to cut off your male organ. It would be better to cut off your false-thinking mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, the people working under him will also stop. " If the deviant mind is not stopped, what good does it do to cut off the organ? You get involved in an activity only because your mind has false thoughts. If your mind didn’t have false thoughts in the first place, then it wouldn’t get any help from others, and this kind of activity would stop. But if your deviant mind of lust is not stopped, then what use would it be to cut off your organ? That would be absolutely useless.

The Buddha spoke a verse for him: Desire is born from your intentions. Thoughts of desire arise from your mental intentions. Intentions are born from thoughts. What do intentions arise from? They come from thoughts. When both aspects of the mind are still. There is neither form nor activity. Your thoughts of desire are made quiet, and your thoughts that contain various kinds of deviant knowledge and views also cease. When these two kinds of thoughts both become still, then there isn’t sexual behavior, nor are there any remaining thoughts of sexual desire. The Buddha said, his verse was spoken by the Buddha Kashyapa. "Kashyapa Buddha spoke this verse.

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Section 32
Emptying out the Self Quells Fear

The Buddha said, people worry because of love and desire. That worry then leads to fear. If you transcend love, what worries will there be? What will be left to fear? "

The thirty-second section explains why people worry and feel afraid. People feel worried and afraid simply because they have love and desire. If we can put an end to love and desire, then we will not have any worries or fears. From limitless eons in the past up to the present, we have mistaken the four elements for the characteristic features of our body. We have mistaken the conditioned perceptions of the six defiling objects for the characteristics of our mind. As a result, we have become attached to the body and its senses; we crave its pleasures, and we don want to let them go. Because of this, every kind of difficulty arises. Once difficulties arise, then many worries and afflictions arise, and we fall prey to anxiety and fear. You should contemplate the four elements: know that the body is a combination of the four elements and that fundamentally there is no self. Next, contemplate the conditioned perceptions of the six defiling objects as empty and non-existent, and recognize that the mind is impermanent. Finally, if you can cut off thoughts of love and desire, then all your worries and fears will naturally disappear.

The Buddha said, people worry because of love and desire. That worry then leads to fear. "Because you chase after love and desire, you have things to worry about; you have worries and afflictions. From those worries and afflictions, fear develops. But if you transcend love if you can cut off or turn around thoughts of love and desire what worries will there be? What will be left to fear? What will you have left to worry about? What is there to be afraid of? Nothing at all! The reason people have worry and fear is because they have attachments and cannot put things down.

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Section 33
Wisdom and Clarity Defeat the Demons

The Buddha said, people who cultivate the Way are like a soldier who goes into battle alone against ten thousand enemies. He dons his armor and goes out the gate. He may prove to be a coward; he may get halfway to the battlefield and retreat; he may be killed in combat; or he may return victorious.

Shramanas who study the Way must make their minds resolute and be vigorous, courageous, and valiant. Not fearing what lies ahead, they should defeat the hordes of demons and obtain the fruition of the Way. "

This thirty-third section uses an analogy to show that people who cultivate the Way should follow the three non-outflow studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom and should study the Way with single-minded vigor. Consider the example of a person who has various kinds of pretensions, bad habits, and delusions elusions in views, delusions in thoughts, and delusions like dust and sand which have accumulated since time without beginning. If you can single-mindedly study the Way, you are like a single person. If you have many pretensions, many delusions, and many bad habits, those things are like ten thousand enemies. If you can receive and uphold and cultivate the pure precepts, that is equivalent to donning your armor. If you strengthen your resolve, then you won be cowardly; that the decisive vigor that comes from your precept-power. If you can advance with courageous vigor, not turning back halfway, that is a kind of samadhi-power. If you have samadhi-power, you won quit halfway through. Furthermore, if you don fear any situation, no matter how many enemies are up ahead waiting to attack you, then you won be killed so easily when you go into battle. That is a kind of wisdom-power.

By uniting the threefold powers of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom, you can defeat your beginningless habits, your pretensions, and all your other faults. All these myriads of problems are analogous to the hordes of demons. If you can defeat the hordes of demons, you will be able to obtain the fruition of the Way. If you obtain the fruition of the Way, that means you will return from the battle in triumph.

The Buddha said, people who cultivate the Way are like a soldier who goes into battle alone against ten thousand enemies. "If you can concentrate your mind to cultivate, you are like a soldier. Countering your bad habits, faults, pretensions, greed, anger, and stupidity is just like going to war against a host of ten thousand enemies. He dons his armor and goes out the gate, just like someone preparing to go to war. He may prove to be a coward. Perhaps your resolve is not solid, and you act like a frightened coward. He may get halfway to the battlefield and retreat. Perhaps you cultivate for a while and then stop cultivating. You stop halfway through and retreat. He may be killed in combat. Maybe when you fight against your illusory bad habits and against the demon armies, they defeat you. You fail in your cultivation and die in battle. Or he may return victorious. Perhaps you return in triumph.

Shramanas who study the Way must make their minds resolute and be vigorous, courageous, and valiant. Shramanas who cultivate the Way should make their minds firm and resolved. Don’t turn back halfway. Go forward with vigorous courage. Only advance; never retreat. Not fearing what lies ahead, they should defeat the hordes of demons and obtain the fruition of the Way. Don’t be afraid of how many enemies lie ahead. Defeat the demons, and then quite naturally you will be able to attain the fruition of the Way.

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Section 34
By Staying in the Middle, One Attains the Way

One evening a Shramana was reciting the Sutra of the Teaching Bequeathed by the Buddha Kashyapa. The sound of his voice was mournful as he reflected remorsefully on his wish to retreat in cultivation. The Buddha asked him, n the past when you were a householder, what did you do?" He replied, was fond of playing the lute. "The Buddha said, hat happened when the strings were slack? " He replied, hey didn’t sound. "what happened when they were too tight? "He replied, he sounds were cut short. "what happened when they were tuned just right between slack and tight? " He replied, he sounds carried. "The Buddha said, t is the same with a Shramana who studies the Way. If his mind is harmonious, he can attain the Way. If he is impetuous about the Way, his impetuousness will tire out his body; and if his body is tired, his mind will become afflicted. If his mind becomes afflicted, then he will retreat from his practice. If he retreats from his practice, his offenses will certainly increase. You need only be pure, peaceful, and happy, and you will not lose the Way. "

The thirty-fourth section explains how people should study the Way. We should regulate the body and the mind in a wholesome way. We should not be too tense or stressed in body and mind; nor should we be too lazy. This same truth is also discussed in Confucianism: If you advance too rapidly, you will also retreat rapidly. When you cultivate the Way, you shouldn’t forget about the Way, but you also shouldn’t try to force the Way along. Neither too fast nor too slow. This is a good method for our cultivation. If you don’t keep to a moderate pace, then you won be able to accomplish the Way. If you don know how to cultivate, then you will either be too hasty or too slow.

If it too tight, it will snap.

If it too slack, it will sag.

If it neither too tight nor too slack,

Then it will work out right.

If you’re too tense, you’re like a taut lute-string that will snap; and if you’re too lax, you are like a lute-string that will go slack and sag. By being neither tense nor lax, you will succeed.

One evening a Shramana was reciting the Sutra of the Teaching Bequeathed by the Buddha Kashyapa, which is a text passed down from the time of Kashyapa Buddha. As he recited the Sutra, the sound of his voice was mournful as he reflected remorsefully on his wish to retreat in cultivation. His voice was sorrowful, and he sounded distressed. He felt very ashamed and remorseful because he didn’t want to cultivate anymore. He wanted to retreat.

The Buddha asked him, n the past when you were a householder, what did you do? "He said, hat was your occupation when you were a householder? What kinds of things did you do? " He replied, was fond of playing the lute. "The Shramana said to the Buddha, liked to strum the lute; making music was what I liked most. "

The Buddha said, what happened when the strings were slack? "you know how to play the lute? " the Buddha said. If the strings were slack, what happened to the lute-strings? " He replied, they didn’t sound. " If the strings are slack, then no sound comes forth, and the lute can be played. There no music.

What happened when they were too tight? " the Buddha asked the Shramana. He replied, he sounds were cut short." The Shramana said, then I strummed, the lute-strings would snap, and there would be no sound. "

What happened when they were tuned just right between slack and tight? When the strings were neither too slack nor too taut, when they were just right, what was that like? " the Buddha asked. He replied, he sounds carried. "The Shramana said to the Buddha, the sounds carried very far, and the music was very pleasant to listen to. "

The Buddha said, it is the same with a Shramana who studies the Way. If his mind is harmonious, he can attain the Way. If a Shramana who diligently cultivates precepts, samadhi, and wisdom and puts to rest greed, hatred, and stupidity wants to learn the Way, he must also be like this. If your mind is neither too tense nor too lax, then you can attain the Way. Don’t be in a rush, and don be lazy; then you can attain the Way.

If he is impetuous about the Way, his impetuousness will tire out his body; and if his body is tired, his mind will become afflicted. If you are hasty and impatient in your cultivation, your anxiety and temper will wear out your body. If your body gets tired out, your mind will certainly become afflicted. If his mind becomes afflicted, then he will retreat from his practice. As soon as you have these afflictions, you will want to retreat. You’ll want to go back to lay-life and give up cultivating. If he retreats from his practice, his offenses will certainly increase. If you retreat from your practice and are no longer vigorous, your offenses will certainly increase in number and severity.

You need only be pure, peaceful, and happy, and you will not lose the Way. Simply make your mind pure, make your mind peaceful and happy, and you will certainly attain the Way.

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Section 35
When One Is Purified of Defilements, the Brilliance Remains

The Buddha said, people smelt metal by burning the dross out of it in order to make high quality implements. It is the same with people who study the Way: first they must get rid of the defilements in their minds; then their practice becomes pure. "

In this section, the Buddha said, people smelt metal by burning the dross out of it in order to make high quality implements. " In forging metal, the dross is expelled before the metal is wrought into tools and implements. That way the tools are of extremely fine quality. If the dross is not first expelled, you can make a good quality tool.

It is the same with people who study the Way: first they must get rid of the defilements in their minds." People who cultivate and learn the Way must get rid of the defilements in their minds. Once you remove the impurities from your mind, you will have a pure mind. If you cannot remove the impurities from your mind, a pure mind will not manifest. It just like the dross in metal: if you don first get rid of it, you can make a good quality tool. If you get rid of the dross, then the metal can be made into good quality tools.

All people can accomplish the Way; everyone is potentially a vessel that can hold the Way. But if you don get rid of your mental defilements, you can hold the Way. You can accomplish the Way. If you want to attain the fruition of the Way, you must first get rid of your defilements.

“Defilements " here refer to the desires in your mind, most especially to the thoughts of sexual desire. If you don get rid of sexual desire, then the filth and defilements will remain. If you can get rid of your sexual desire, there won be any filth. Then their practice becomes pure. Without defilements, your practice our method of cultivation will become pure. But if your mental defilements are not eradicated, you will not attain purity in your cultivation. Although sexual desire is the greatest defilement, there are others. Greed, hatred, stupidity, pride, and doubt are all defilements in your mind. You should get rid of them, and then you will have a response in your cultivation of the Way. You will be able to return to the source, go back to the origin, and regain your inherent, pure mind.

End of Section 31 to 35