The man who is guarding the field

The man who is guarding the field

【Preface】

Most people think that religion is "advocating others to do good."This is just a superficial view, because after all, goodness itself has different levels, and the differences are very large. Just like education, the training methods and key points of primary education and university research institute education are different.Buddhism is to look at the issue of "goodness" from the perspective of ultimate extermination of suffering.The problem of goodness is a moral problem. Buddhism classifies it into the "precepts" among the three studies. If it is reasonable and legal, it is called "discipline", and if it is not reasonable and illegal, it is called "non-discipline".Why do sentient beings act "non-discipline"?This is because one cannot protect one's six senses, such as eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind.After these six senses come into contact with external environment, they will develop various good and evil mentalities, so these six senses are also called the "six touching places".In order to enable sentient beings to achieve ultimate extermination of suffering, the Buddha guided sentient beings from "non-discipline" to "worldly discipline", and then from "worldly discipline" to "worldly discipline".Because the Buddha skillfully guides sentient beings to achieve ultimate suffering step by step, he is called the "God of God".The following examples illustrate how the Buddha used metaphors to explain different levels of "discipline".

【Buddha’s teachings in Ahgama]

For a time, the Buddha lived in the Qu Shiluo Garden in the Kingdom of Kishunmi.There are monks practicing here in the garden.Every dusk, monks gather in front of the Buddha to listen to the teachings.On this day, the Buddha said:

If there are monks or nuns who develop consciousness from the form and condition, desire, greed, intimacy, love, or decisive attachments, you should protect your heart well.Why?Because these are terrifying and terrifying dangers, with obstacles and difficulties.These are what the evil people rely on, not what the good people rely on, so you should protect yourself.The same is true for the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind.

Here the Buddha directly pointed out that when a person's eyes see the form and consciousness, if he sees the state of form, he will develop greed and attachment, and if he is in accordance with his own will, he will develop anger and attachment. This mentality that directly reflects love and hate through habits is the dangerous path that the evil people rely on. This is "non-discipline". This mentality is wrong and should be protected.Similarly, when the ear root hears sounds, the nose root smells, the tongue root tastes, the body root touches things, and the mind root thinks of various things, if you develop greed and anger and let your likes and dislikes according to your habits, this behavior is a "non-discipline" and should be protected.The Buddha then used metaphors to illustrate:

It’s like there are good seedlings in the field, but the people guarding the fields are lazy and careless, allowing the cows locked in the pen to run out and eat the seedlings.The ignorant ordinary people are like this, the six touches... and even lazy and negligent.If there are good seedlings in the field, the field guards should not be lazy and negligent, and do not let the cows locked in the pen come out to eat them. If they walk into the field, they will drive them out.As the saying goes, our heart, mind, and consciousness, the saint disciples who hear a lot should protect the merits of the five desires (color, sound, fragrance, taste, and touch) and stop greed and attachment with all their heart.

Here the Buddha used metaphors to illustrate that it is wrong for the people guarding the fields to let the cows steal the seedlings, and protecting the cows is the correct behavior.Similarly, practitioners should protect their six senses (six touches) well and should not develop greed and attachment to objects such as form, sound, fragrance, taste, and touch.This kind of protection in a "blocking" way is a "coarse worldly discipline."The Buddha believed that such training was the beginning of practice and would go to a higher level, so he continued:

「If there are good seedlings in the field, the field guardians can not be lazy and negligent. When they see the cows in the railings run into the field, they will immediately hold the cow's nose with their left hand and hold the wooden stick with their right hand, beat the whole body and drive them out of the field.Monks!What do you think?After the cattle were beaten, from the village to the house, from the house to the village, will they still run to steal the seedlings from the fields like before?"The monks replied, "No, World Honored One!Why?Because it remembered the pain of getting beaten a stick when entering the field."The Buddha said, "Bhikkhus!We should also be like this for our hearts, minds, and consciousness. The saint disciples who are knowledgeable should be extremely disgusted and terrified of the six touching places, settle in their hearts, suppress this heart, and focus on one place."

This means that when practitioners abide by the precepts, they must also use wisdom to observe: "There is the bitter fruit after evil deeds." After violating the precepts, they gain very little benefits and have a lot of bitter fruit. Therefore, they no longer do evil. Just like a cow only knows that after stealing the crops and seedlings, they will get the pain of beating a stick. This kind of understanding of keeping the precepts through reasonable thinking is "a middle-grade worldly discipline."However, the Buddha believed that such training was not enough, and he should further observe that the greed and love in the desire realm of the human world are short and impermanent. Therefore, practitioners should develop disgust and fear of their six senses (six touching places) and the five desires in the human world. They should practice meditation, suppress this mind, and think about it in one place, and obtain the happiness and tranquility of the form or formless realm.Practitioner

Use the concentration of the form realm or the formless realm to subdue the love and hate mentality of the desire realm. These mentalities will not be realized for the time being, so you will have the "fine worldly discipline".A person who can abide by the "worldly rules" is like a good land guardian. By worldly standards, he can be regarded as a good person.However, the Buddha believed that training is not enough, so he continued to use metaphors to explain:

In his past life, a king heard the wonderful sound of piano that he had never heard before, and developed a very loving and greedy mind, so he asked the minister: "What is this sound?"Very enjoyable!』

The minister replied: "This is the sound of the piano.』

The king told the ministers: "Go and get that voice."』

The minister accepted the order and immediately went to pick up the piano and reported to the king, saying, "King!"This is the piano that makes a nice sound.』

The king told the minister: "I don't need this piano, I will get the cute sounds I heard before.』

The minister replied: "This piano is composed of many parts, including a handle, a body, a pillar, a string, a skin, and a skillful piano player. It has many factors to make a wonderful sound. It is not possible for each part to combine and have sounds.The sound of the piano I just heard has passed for a long time and has been destroyed. It is impossible to take it out again.』

At this time, the king said: "Duh!Why use hypocritical things!The piano in the world is a hypocritical thing, which makes people addicted and greedy.You should take out the piano now, break it up piece by piece, and throw it away to all parties.』

The minister accepted the order, divided the piano into 100 pieces, and threw it everywhere.

The Buddha's metaphor means that some practitioners have continuously meditated and have suppressed the greed of the desire realm, obtained tranquility (Samata), and have arisen the joy of meditation, but they are stuck in the joy of meditation, just like the king was initially confused by the beauty of the piano.In order to break this infatuation, we must see clearly the wonderful sound of the piano like a minister, which is composed of many parts.Meditation practitioners should use the wisdom of introspection (Vipashana) to carefully observe the joyful feelings in meditation, which are all born from impermanence and selflessness.When a meditator observes with wisdom in this way, he still belongs to the highest level of worldly discipline. He also strives to achieve the dual movement of cessation and contemplation, develop equal wisdom, and truly understand the selflessness of the body and mind. Therefore, the Buddha continued:

Such monks!For physical body, feelings, thoughts, thoughts and desires, you should know that these physical and mental phenomena are created by impermanence, action, wishes, and causes and conditions. Originally, they said that these are "I am, I owned", but now you can see clearly that these are not me, I owned.Monks!Such equality and righteous wisdom should be developed and these physical and mental phenomena are observed truthfully.

Here the meditator should see clearly with wisdom:

（1）From the first meditation to the fourth meditation, all feelings depend on the physical body.

（2）From the first meditation to the cessation of samadhi, there will be "thinking and feeling" in most cases.

（3）The causes of all feelings in the future come from thoughts, desires and wishes.

In this way, all dharmas from the first meditation to the non-thinking and non-thinking are all born with impermanence and selflessness.Through the power of indifference, the meditator develops equal wisdom and truly understands the Noble Truth, and now he forever eliminates the "worries that are eliminated by the seeing of the Way", breaks the attachment to the self and the self, and obtains the "learning discipline" in the world;After obtaining the learned precepts, the meditator continues to work hard, and then uses equal wisdom to eliminate all "worries eliminated by practicing Taoism", and then realizes the "unlearning precepts" in the world.After achieving "unlearning discipline", there is no higher discipline than this.The Buddha's guidance of sentient beings is to reach this ultimate level. After reaching this level, he eliminates all troubles, transcends life and death, and no longer reincarnates in the sea of suffering.After the Buddha finished preaching the sutra, all the monks who listened to the lecture happily followed the Buddha's teachings.The sutra introduced above is the 1169th sutra of the "Miscellaneous Agama Sutra".

【Conclusion】

The Buddha's teachings to sentient beings 2,500 years ago were still vividly preserved in the "Agama Sutra". The troubles of sentient beings that day were still the same as those of sentient beings today;The method of eliminating troubles on that day is the same as the method of eliminating troubles today.The Dharma taught by the Buddha is applicable to everyone.The "regulation" in the eyes of sentient beings and the "regulation" in the eyes of Buddha are different in depth."The worldly discipline of rough quality" comes from listening power."The middle-grade worldly discipline" comes from thinking power."A careful worldly discipline" is the cultivation power (referring to cessation or meditation) from the world."The discipline of learning" and "The discipline of learning" are the cultivation powers from the transcendent world (referring to the dual movement of meditation and contemplation).A person who can abide by the worldly rules of "coarse and medium-grade" can be considered a good person by worldly standards.But the Buddha pointed out that even if one can abide by the worldly rules of “fine scrutiny”, one will still be in the sea of suffering of life and death.Therefore, Buddhist disciples should work hard to "non-learning discipline" so that they can solve the problem of life and death.

Related Readings: The peaceful way to seek the law on the other side of the river, fruits and water, animals, small bitter trees, people, dogs, birds, monkeys, strong winds and guest houses