A Talk Given by DM Heng Rung    English translation  by  Genglin Zheng  

 

Today we recited the Earth Store Sutra. Those who came here for this sutra are more or less knowledgeable in Buddhism, at least know about cause and effect.
To live in this world, it’s impossible that one commits no wrong doings; one makes mistakes more or less. The most important thing is to recognize them clearly. One must be courageous in admitting and taking responsibilities for one’s mistakes. What comes first to the mind of a Buddhist when he or she makes a mistake? ---- Go to repent before the Buddha. As long as your repentance is very sincere, then the wrong doing can be eradicated instantly.

So we know from the Earth Store Sutra, about various situations told us by the Buddha – what we should do and what we should not do. Well when mistakes are made, what consequences come out of what mistakes? These were also laid out clearly in the sutra.

Some people say, Earth Store Sutra is terrible, horrific. There are so many avici hells; could it be so miserable? In fact, hells are in our hearts, it is our hearts that created the hells; there is not a ready-made hell, waiting for us to go for suffering. What you do results in corresponding consequences. To give, as an example, Venerable Master Hsuan Hua said, in this life, if you have several wives, when you die, you will be split into portions for as many wives as you had. For instance, if I had two wives, I would be cut into halves and become two; if I had three wives, I would be cut into three portions.

Nowadays, people get weaker and weaker in this notion; especially young people, who do many things wrong all day long, resulting in muddy criminal karma. Now that we learned about cause and effect, we will do something for ourselves; what then, are the things to do? To hurry up and study Buddhism; studying Buddhism is the only way out. Only by studying Buddhism can we break away from the sea of suffering through life and death. Next I am going to tell a story.

Long time ago, when the Buddha was in the world, in India, besides Buddhism there were many heretics, who could also cultivate to certain spiritual levels;

 

nevertheless they could not free themselves from rebirth in the six paths. At that time in Shravasti, there were four heretics, who were very well-cultivated and could soar in the clouds and ride the fogs; they could go into the sea, and could exhibit various transformations.

These four heretics often met and discussed things. One day they realized that they could no longer find topics to discuss. Then one of the heretic said, “We’ve never looked into till when we would live. Now let’s investigate for how long we are going to stay alive.” The other three, upon hearing this, said, “Mm, this is a very good idea.”

So the four of them sat down and concentrated in observation. In time, one of them, the young heretic jumped up, and said in panic, “This is terrible, I’ve only got seven days remaining in my life!” Right then, the other three heretics all sprang to their feet, all in the same great panic, and all said the same thing: “There are only seven days remaining in my life!” One of them complained, “Well, this is all your fault, we were doing fine until you told everyone to observe life. Look, all four of us have only seven days to live. What shall we do?” One of them then said, “Let’s hurry up to come up with an idea. Let’s see if we could find a way out; we won’t die within these seven days.

One of the heretic, he said, “I will rise up to into the skies to hide in the tips of the clouds; Death won’t find me there.” The next one said, “I think I’d better hide in the sea, into the deepest part of the sea, this way, Death won’t find me either.” The third heretic said: “As for me, I think the best method is to hide where torrents of people rushing about – people come and go twenty-four hours a day. If I hide there, Death for sure won’t find me.” The forth heretic said, “Will I think, the best thing to do, I feel, is to flee into the mountains, this way Death won’t find me.”

So these four people, having said this, started about their happiest six days. On the night of the sixth day, they went to the royal palace, to bid farewell to the king. The king, upon hearing that tomorrow would be their life ending day, had a banquet prepared in their honor. The king said to them, “I hope to see you again tomorrow, if I could see you again, I would have an even more abundant feast prepared to offer to you.”

One the seventh day, one heretic soared up into the empty space; the other dived into the sea; the third went into the thick of the crowds; and the fourth, ran off into the mountains and hid there.

Inside the palace, the king was wondering, “These four people, would they escape Death?” While he was thinking, all of a sudden, crowds of people collected outside, somebody was crying out loud; momentarily, the guard came running in to tell the king: “O King, someone fell from the tip of the clouds, he is dead.”

In no time, someone else came and reported to the king: “O King, a corpse drifted from over the sea. It’s the dead body of one of the heretics that bid farewell to the King yesterday.” The king thought, “Two dead now, what about the other two?” Not long after, another person reported, “My King, in the busiest market place,

 

someone was found dead there.” There remains the last one, thought the king, “This person is hiding in the mountain, is he safe?” But there was no safety for this person, because, soon enough, this person died, which was discovered by a woodcutter. The king knew that the gang of four all died.

It came to the king’s mind that, “These four people, with such fine cultivation, still did not ward off Death, what about me?” He thought about himself, “I have got nothing, I don’t know how to cultivate either, will I not be more miserable at death? No, this can’t go on.” He then thought he should go to seek answer from the World Honored One, as to whether there is a method to avoid life and death? So the king had an abundant amount of offering packed, and started out with his group, then they arrived at the Buddha’s Jeta Grove Monastery. The king bowed and made his offering, then he asked the World Honored One: “O the World Honored One, how can humans escape life and death?” The World Honor One said, “There is no other ways, but only one way, to cultivate. You cultivate, then you would break away from this sea of suffering through life and death. Without cultivation, you will forever experience rebirths in the six paths.”

Now the story has come to an end, has it occurred to any one of you that although we were born as humans, however, in our life, how many happy things we have, still how many afflictions we have? Are there more afflictions? Or is there more happiness? As the saying goes, “There is a hard-to-read sutra in each family.”

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua told us, this hard-to- read sutra, who’s done reading it? Do you know? Let me tell you, this sutra, those who have finished reading it are the left-home persons. So the Venerable Master said, the left-home persons have finished reading this sutra, that is why they are able to leave home.

Leaving home is the first station along the path of cultivation. Without being a left-home person, you would never become a Buddha. All right, even though in this life time there is no chance of leaving home, you can go to make a vow sincerely before the Buddha: vow that next life I should enter the path as a youth, and leave home to cultivate. This is our one utmost important vow, all of you, do not forget about this.

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