Master Hsing Yun once said: Patience is a kind of virtue.
Of course, the "tolerance" mentioned here does not teach you to confuse the difference between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil in the world. When you encounter villains' slander, you should just reflect on yourself and tolerate it, or even endure it silently without saying a word. , this is wrong.
Patience is a relative term. It is a kind of introspection. When problems arise, how to put yourself in others' shoes to think and understand.
In the book "Human Nature You Must Know": "Being able to think about the situation of others with the same heart, tolerate your own inconvenience and displeasure, and not only not criticize harshly, but also take the initiative to lighten the burden on the other person's mood is to accumulate negative virtue. .”
Therefore, patience here means magnanimity, empathy, understanding and tolerance.
But when we face malicious slander about ourselves and others, we don’t have to think for him or understand him. We should speak out and expose it, maintain social credibility and justice, including helping to repair the dignity of others, rather than being a keyboard warrior and echoing his opinions. It encourages evil tendencies, so this is also a kind of good deed, and it is also the accumulation of negative virtue that we can do.
Regarding this point, it is quite consistent with the idea of Liang Daozhang I mentioned earlier.
Let me give you another example of Yin De. When Patriarch Bodhidharma came across the river with a reed, he saw "a Mahayana scene" in Han Dynasty, and immediately opened the door of the Eastern Zen sect.
At that time, the greatest protector of Buddhism and the greatest supporter of Patriarch Bodhidharma was Emperor Wu of Liang.
This story is about Emperor Wu of Liang and Patriarch Bodhidharma.
It is said that one day, Emperor Wu of Liang summoned Patriarch Bodhidharma and said to him: "Since I came to the throne, I have printed scriptures, built temples, worshiped monks and worshiped Buddha, and done so many good deeds. How much merit do I have?"
Patriarch Bodhidharma answered calmly: "There is no merit, you just did some good deeds."
Emperor Wu of Liang was puzzled, so Patriarch Bodhidharma said to him: "What you say is not divorced from the world, just like the shadow of a person. Although it seems real, it is actually empty. The real merits originate from Prajna wisdom, which is perfect. , which is empty in nature and cannot be obtained by worldly methods.”
What Patriarch Bodhidharma said is that although Emperor Wu of Liang did many good deeds, they were all inseparable from a sign of merit and virtue. The purpose was to gain fame. This is Yang virtue, which comes from giving with a sign.
Emperor Wu of Liang was particularly kind to the Buddhist monks and gave away a lot of money, but he paid no attention to the poor people in the world.
Therefore, giving with this kind of mentality will only result in some missed blessings.
"Yin virtue" is completely different. It comes from formless giving, which is what the Diamond Sutra calls: "no self, no one, no sentient beings, no lifespan."
The nature of yin virtue is empty and peaceful, and you can use the wisdom of prajna emptiness to do good deeds. After doing good deeds, do not leave them in your mouth or dwell in your heart. This is the highest state of doing good deeds and accumulating virtue.
"The Diamond Sutra" says: "If a Bodhisattva does not give alms, his merits will be immeasurable."
Did everyone see it? Never give alms to others, this is what the Buddha said. If anyone wants to make excuses again, go to the Buddha to make excuses. I won’t make excuses with you.
The meaning of giving without giving is to not take your giving seriously, not to care about the rewards, not to seek any benefits, just let everything take its course and follow your own heart, so that your merits will be immeasurable.
So there is no difference in form between giving in the form of living and giving in the form of non-residing, but the "mentality" is different. One is a kind deed in the world, and the other is the obedience and compassion of Prajna wisdom. One is walking in confusion, and the other is walking in enlightenment.
I advocate both of these, because we are all ordinary people with seven emotions and six desires. I don’t ask everyone to do good deeds without asking for anything in return. Regardless of whether you live or not, as long as you do it, you are taking a step toward kindness. One step further, there is no Amitabha Buddha.
After talking about merits and virtues, let’s get back to business and continue telling stories.
At that time, Uncle Ma said that he wanted to stay, and he wanted to take Ma Yunfeng to stay with him to build the temple, and sent me home to raise money.
As soon as this statement came out, everyone was surprised, but in fact it was expected.
Taoist Master Zixu still wanted to refuse, but Uncle Ma had made up his mind and immediately took the two of us to work in the temple, tidying up the courtyard, tidying up the main hall, clearing out all the broken bricks, and then starting to level them. ground.
Immediately afterwards, Uncle Ma made a list, took out a bank card, and asked me to buy materials. He said that there is a saying since ancient times, which is that if we want to be rich and build roads, if we want to make the temple prosperous, we must first We need to repair the road into the mountain, replace the dilapidated yard in the temple, and replace the old incense burner!
Seeing that the vigorous temple construction operation was about to begin, at this time, the other two disciples of Taoist Master Zixu also returned from gathering medicine.
When I saw that the two apprentices were both men, I felt a little more at ease. It seemed that the work didn't have to fall entirely on Lao Ma and Xiao Ma.
But I was a little curious, so I secretly asked Zhang Wenwen, where was that Shixiu? The apprentice she said earlier could not be Shixiu who escaped, right?
Zhang Wenwen laughed and said that there was another person who escaped. Senior Brother Shixiu asked the master to send her out to take orders, and asked her to study the rituals well and become a high-level mage in the future.
So that’s it, I’m actually quite interested in the Taoist rituals, especially the sutra rhyme that sounds so nice, so I asked her if she had any plans to learn the rituals in the future, and if she learned it, would she also become a high-level practitioner? Mage?
Zhang Wenwen shook his head and said that high-gong masters are not easy to learn. It is very complicated to make a set of rituals, and there are so many Quanzhen rituals. It is difficult for a real high-gong master to be proficient in them all.
At this time, Ma Yunfeng interjected and said that many Taoist priests on the Internet have begun to belittle the rituals. The argument is: when the ancestor Celestial Master founded the religion, there were no rituals, so everyone does not need to pay attention to the rituals, as long as the practice of the law is effective. Well, the rituals were created to cater to the royal family. They made some beautiful robes, which just looked good and showed off their pomp, but in fact they were all just to fool people.
Others say that as long as one is devoted to the Tao, everyone is trying to induce people to do good. No matter how good the rituals are, but the person's moral character is not good, he is still not considered a Taoist priest.
Some people also say that when the ancestors of the heavenly masters exorcised evil spirits and caught ghosts, they did not use any rituals, so a real Taoist priest can fulfill his wishes in a flash, and the gods will obey his orders!
To sum up, it is useless for Taoist priests to practice rituals. It is also biased to use whether they know the rituals to distinguish true and false Taoist priests.
So is this view right or wrong?
Zhang Wenwen was stumped by this question. She didn't know how to answer it, so she could only tell us truthfully, saying that she didn't know how to perform rituals, and she only helped occasionally, maybe before she could do it.
Not only Zhang Wenwen, but also the rest of us didn't understand, so we all turned to look at Uncle Ma.
