Chapter Six A Receptive Heart like a Valley
"A receptive heart like a valley" means that one should possess the quality of humbleness. With the quality of humbleness, then there will be room to fill things in. First, we need to be able to put things in; second, we also need to be able to keep them. If you can’t keep them, they would be like the Gods of Wealth who just pass by on their way. You would lose as much as you have filled in. It is like a bucket with a hole on the bottom. Although you have filled it with water, after a while you will find nothing in it.
Many people like to talk big because they thought they had learned a lot of knowledge about spiritual cultivation. However, their true level of spiritual cultivation is equal to nothing! Don’t the effects of religions today like that? Look at those cultivators who pursue religious activities. Look at their realization. Look at their wisdom. Look at their faces. Look what they are thinking about or doing. Look at their day-to-day lives. Then, you will know how much they have changed. Some may become more hypocritical than non-cultivators. Non-cultivators put profit-driven sign on their heads (are explicit about their profit-driven mentality) but those cultivators conceal their profit-driven mentality, engaging themselves in profit-driven activities with various excuses.
Therefore, one who understands the true meaning of the Way will show this kind of humbleness in strong contrast with those zealous religious pursuers. He won’t be so hypocritical. He can fill things in and hold them. They won’t leak. It means that he has truly accepted the (spiritual) knowledge. The knowledge that we receive from our spiritual master is very precious. However, if we don’t possess this kind of quality, it will pass away like clouds. I talk about this but you hear something else. Having done listening, nothing remains with you.
Of course, you are not asked to memorize what you hear. You don’t use your memorization faculty to do that. However, when you need it, it will be manifested in your behavior. Then, you did not waste your time in listening the lectures. There was no leaking. Otherwise, it is such a pity to leak! You can’t follow me with a tape recorder all the time. You can’t live with scriptures and tape recorders. You have the most precious thing, which is your brain. Let it become the tool, good equipment, and friend to help you cultivate yourself.
There was no tape recorder in the time of Sakyamuni. But there was a person called Ananda, who was like a tape recorder. He had a very sophisticated brain. But because his brain was too well developed, it took a long time for him to get enlightened.
To have A Receptive Heart like a Valley means that we should have a receptive quality. We talk about that the belly of a prime minister can allow a boat to sail. The belly of a cultivator can contain the whole world. How great is a boat? Even a fleet is like a few leaves to us! The qualities of many emperors added together are just two words—profit-driven! But a cultivator doesn’t even care to look at those things. Therefore what the ordinary people exhibit in this world are just the qualities of the following acts: eating, sleeping, defending, and mating. A cultivator also knows these, but he should discover other qualities that life is furnished with and make good use of them in their daily lives. He should make his precious life beneficial to both the world and the lives of other people.
If everyone lives with this kind of perspective to life, the society will be a positive society and a rational society. This kind of rational society doesn’t depend on laws to drive people forward or coerce people. It is based on self-realization. This is very important. At any time, ideological reform can’t break away from the foundation of self-realization. It won’t work just by means of control.
Laws are just meant to enforce people to take responsibility for the results of their behavior. If one kills somebody and then is sentenced to death by the laws, it will result in two lives being taken away. Murders continue to happen; murderers continue to be sentenced to death. Laws are focused on the responsibility of the results. Those results have already happened. Laws cannot prevent those things (crimes) from happening. The existence of laws proves that those things will continue to happen. And they continue to increase. Therefore, the effect of laws is passive.
However, these kinds of punishments are also needed. We should have something we should have. But it is not enough to manage the world based on this method only. Human society should advocate more active methods to manage the world. In other words, we should raise the morality of people, moral standards, and people’s realization. We should raise the quality of life in general and guide people in pursuing the right goals as well as guide their consciousness of life. This is very very important!
In ancient times—the times of Yao, Shun and Yu, in which the world was managed by saints—these were the principal tasks of a nation. We heard that in those times people "drew a circle on the ground to serve as a prison". What is "drawing a circle on the ground to serve as a prison"? It suggests that the people at those times were very self-conscious. They handled the relationship between themselves and others by the principle of self-realization. Therefore, most people had respect for and understand each other.
The people today spend all their energy in the pursuit of material benefits. Then, there are only conflicts in the their relationship with others. The conflicts will only result in complaints and hatred. These kinds of stirring emotions, as a result, will lead to intolerance. People can’t calm down. They are small-minded. They can’t fill in anything, regardless of good or bad. It is similar to a person with a toothache. His eyes and nose would seem to be extra to him at that time. Everything is ugly in his eyes. It is similar to a drunk man. He always wants to start a fight. He criticizes the world all the time. Look at the people today. Are they always complaining? They don’t look at themselves and examine whether they have done something right. If there is a problem, it is all other people’s fault. They don’t want to start doing good things. They don’t examine themselves. If all the people in a society are small-minded, where can we find tolerance?
Forgiving is now covered with a veil of superficiality. Everything is shrouded with the characteristic—the mentality of exchange. The whole society is flooded with the ideology of commodity. That is why we claim this is a "society of commodity"! Even affection is measured like a commodity, and exchanged like a commodity. Affection is affection and commodity is commodity. How can we mix them up? This is really ridiculous! Money can buy material. Money can even buy marriage. But how can money buy love? How can money buy wonderfulness? That is not it! Can money buy understanding? That is impossible!
People today pursue the other extreme. Although they hope to fulfill their personal goals, to make their lives more wonderful, and to gain understanding, things don’t always go as they wish. It is because they are too small-minded. Their minds can contain only the hopes for themselves. They can’t contain the hopes for others. They just want to make their own wishes come true. They are not concerned about others’ wishes. They just think about "themselves". They don’t think about "you" and "him". This selection will result in isolation. They become more and more isolated, small-minded, neurotic, and fragile. They can’t take any blow. They are near the edge of collapse.
Therefore, people today tend to lose control. Plus there are a lot of advanced weapons of mass destruction. Under the influence of the tendency to lose control, quarrels happen easily. If the leader of a nation is also so emotional, or the decision maker for the fate of a people is so small-minded, wars will be started very often. Once a war is started, it is hard to resolve it. It will affect the whole humankind. Afterwards, it would be too late to regret. Can people today learn tolerance, learn more open-minded, learn to listen to others and feel the feelings of others, and learn to listen what others try to say?
When I heard on TV the Iraqis asking for help, urging the journalists to tell American President that, "Please tell Clinton that we just want to live! We don’t want anything else because we are also humans! We just want to live. Can you plead to him for us?", what do you think I felt in my heart upon hearing these words? There were old and young innocent people there. However, these so-called rulers of the world act without self-control. What do their acts bring to the world?
It was fortunate that that war did not happen for the time being. But the morality of people still hasn’t been raised. The weapons of mass destruction still exist. Their power is not reduced. The preparation for wars is still on going. Is it possible for us to feel secure? Who wants to suffer losses? Who wants to lose face? Who wants to concede? Whose belly can contain a ship? (Master laughed.) Everybody acts for spite or for his face. If one can learn tolerance, or if all of the people have learned tolerance, what will this world turn into? It must become very wonderful like the springtime.
Only after one has learned tolerance can he communicate with and understand others easily. Then, others can possibly understand him. In this kind of mutual understanding, help could then be initiated and problems could be solved. Everyone would try his best to provide convenience for others. People today build up a wall around them and do not want others to understand them. They have a lot of secrets in their hearts and try so hard to conceal them. If any of their secrets is disclosed by others, they will become very angry. However, there are times that we can’t take this anymore. We want to yell but we are afraid to yell. We want to scream but we are afraid to scream. We want to throw up but we can’t. We want to swallow something but we can’t. We can’t die; neither can we live well. What can we do? It is because we can’t face losing! Our lives are like that.
"Helpless" must have been understood deeply by many people. What should we do? We should reflect upon ourselves! Reflect on our behavior. Reflect on the foundations of our acts. Reflect on the philosophy contained in the thoughts of people today that are full of conceit and selfishness. We are just concerned about ourselves but don’t care about others. Everything is done for the purpose of exhibiting ourselves. We put the interests of ourselves above the interests of others and the feelings of ourselves above the feelings of others, and we regard the pursuit of sensual gratification as the highest goal. What will be the results of these? We should reflect on these issues.
However, so many countries in the world, so many radio stations, and so many television networks have no will to address these big issues. There are no programs that discuss these issues. There are a lot of commercials promoting commodities. "Have you ever had Wahaha yogurt drink?" People today will buy anything that is recommended by others. Any commodity will be sold as long as it has been advertised. Look, our ears are attached to the mouths of others. Ears and mouths are molded together. Ears are ears. Mouths are mouths. Heart is a different one. Through the promotion of commodities, the people with strong ideology of commodity will believe it very easily. However, as far as the introduction of Dharma is concerned, even though you put into a lot of efforts to explain it, they still can’t retain any of it because there is a big hole on the bottom of their water bucket.
Therefore, when we try to accept a new thought or accept the most profound views of Dharma, the premise is to put down self-attachments. You shall not refuse to put down "I" or refuse to put down "I think". If you judge everything on the principle of "I", you will never touch the true meaning of Dharma. You will only enlarge the distance between you and Dharma. This is why, although Buddhism still exists today after the Buddha passed away, the contents of Dharma can no longer be found. Therefore, Dharma has become an antique that can be discussed but cannot be understood. Dharma has become a "mummy". Dharma has become a "pyramid". Dharma has become an ancient beautiful legend.
Then, think about that. If someone brings the Dharma to the world today, what will he look like? What do we depend on to recognize him, accept him, or negate him? There are no such things in the heads of people today. They can’t accept such things. It is because they are too small-minded. They can only fill themselves with food. Their heads can be filled only with money. They can’t hold other things. When we prepare to fill a cup with tea, we can’t fill the same cup with water. If we use it for water, we can’t use it for sugar water. Similarly, we have only one body and have only a certain amount of time to use this body. During the time, if we use it to engage in one thing, we can’t use it to do another thing. We can’t get everything or do everything.
Therefore, for the people today, spiritual cultivation is an impossible mission. They can talk about it, play with it for a while, or even try it. There are very few people who take self-perfection to be their goal. The ratio of these people to the whole human population is very tiny. Therefore, I am willing to serve you because you are these kinds of people. You give away everything. The people today can’t give away anything. Only one who gives away everything can calm down and make room in their heart to contain the things (spiritual cultivation) that are considered by the people today to be unrelated to life.
However, it doesn’t mean that these things will be effective as soon as you put them in. They are similar to food. We can’t digest everything right away after we eat. This is a material world. The manifestation of any cause and condition has to be done through time. We must tolerate ourselves, giving ourselves some time. Let us see our changes bit by bit—the change of our heart, our life, and our surroundings. Then, let us use these kinds of changes to expand and magnetize the field of space, spread our love and our realization to our surroundings, and give others joy, tranquility, and security.
The ones who spread this kind of message and consider it as their duty, in my opinion, are very graceful and pure-hearted people. I think that these kinds of people won’t bring any calamities, conflicts or violence to the world. They do no harm to any era, any nation, or any people. They are the good forces for the stability of a nation and the well-being of people. If we make good use of the power of religion, religion will bring into play its positive function.
Therefore, I would like to suggest you to remain aloof from all kinds of religious rituals and religious activities, but to regard simple life and the attainment of realization as your goal. You should complete your life with a solid pace, step by step. To become these kinds of pioneers and practitioners is more beneficial than bragging who you are, which sect you belong to, or that you have read this and that scripture or have taken refuge in whichever spiritual masters.