(ORANGE BOOK) THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT (FD14072020-2)
(ENGLISH COMPLETE)
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
FREE DISTRIBUTION
next page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and thanks to Venerable Master Hsuan Hua of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas for his kind permission to allow the English translation of the following sutras by the Buddhist Text Translation Society, Dharma Realm Buddhist University, California, U.S>A. to be published for free distribution.
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENT AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
*mandarin word*
TO COMMEMORATE
BUDDHA'S HAPPY DAY (ULLAMBANA)
7 LUNAR MONTH 15 DAY
*mandarin word*
BIRTHDAY OF EARTH STORE BODHISATTVA
7 LUNAR MONTH 30 DAY
*mandarin word*
next page
TEN REWARDS FROM PRINTING BUDDHIST SUTRAS ANA MAKING BUDDHA IMAGES
People who print sutras and make images obtain the following benefits:
They wipe away all evil karma created by light offenses made in the past and they reduce the retribution due to them from their serious past offenses.
Auspicious spirits constantly surround and protect them so they never experience the disasters of plagues, floods, fires, thieves, armed conflict, or imprisonment.
They avoid the suffering inflicted by vengeful enemies they made in the past. Moreover, the merit derived from printing sutras allows enemies to receive the benefits of Dharma, and thereby untie the bonds of hatred.
Yaksha-ghosts and other evil beasts cannot bring harm.
They experience peace of mind; by day the meet no danger; at night they have no bad dream. Their complexion will be ruddy and moist; their energy will be full and vital. All of their business will quickly prosper and will meet with ultimate success.
As a result of their sincere honoring of the Dharma, quite naturally they will have ample clothing and abundant food, even though they do not wish for or seek after such things. Their families will be at peace; blessings and prosperity will constantly increase.
Other people even Gods, will immediately take a liking to things these people say and do. Wherever they go, they will be greeted by happy throngs of dear friends who respect and revere them.
Stupid people will grow wiser, unhealthy people will grow healthier. Troubled people will feel happier, and women will become men in their next lifetime if they wish to do so.
They will depart forever from the Evil Destinies, and will be reborn always in wholesome places, with a handsome and upright appearance, and an unusually fine character. They will enjoy supreme happiness and abundant wealth.
They will be able to plant roots of goodness on behalf of all living beings as a grand blessings field, and will help them reap a bounteous, measureless harvest there.
page 1
In whatever land they are born, they will always see the Buddha and hear the Dharma. Ultimately, they will obtain full use of the three modes of Wisdom, will be certified as possessing Six Psychic Penetrations, and will quickly accomplish Buddhahood.
Since printing Sutras and making images brings such incomparable merit and virtue, every time people have occasion to celebrate a birthday, offer congratulations, when they seek to fulfill a wish, or to avert a calamity, to repent and reform past errors, or to rise in position, in every event such as these, it is fitting to joyfully donate the means for printing sutras of making images, and then vigorously pursue their wishes.
page 2
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
page 3
Translated by : Upasika Terri Nicholson
Reviewed by: Bhiksuni Heng Tao
Edited by: Bhiksuni Heng Chih and Upasika Susan Rounds
Certified by: Venerable Abbot Hua and Bhiksuni Heng Tao
Thus I have heard, at one time, the Buddha dwelt at Shravasti, in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, twelve hundred fifty in all, and with all of the Bodhisattvas, thirty-eight thousand in all.
At that time, the World Honored One led the great assembly on a walk toward the south. Suddenly they came upon a pile of bones beside the road. The World Honored One turned to face them, placed his five limbs on the ground, and bowed respectfully.
Ananda put his palms together and asked the World Honored One, "The Tathagata is the Great Teacher of the Triple Realm and the compassionate father of beings of the four kinds of births. He has the respect and reverence of the entire assembly. What is the reason that he now bows to a pile of dried bones?"
page 4
The Buddha told Ananda, "Although all of you are my foremost disciples and have been members of the Sangha for a long time, you still have not achieved far reaching understanding. This pile of bones could have belonged to my ancestors from former lives. They could have been my parents in many past lives. That is the reason I now bow to them." The Buddha continues speaking to Ananda. "These bones we are looking at can be divided into two groups. One group is composed of the bones of men, which are heavy and white in color. The other group is composed of the bones of women, which are light and black in color."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, when men are alive in the world they adorn their bodies with robes, belts, shoes, hats and other fine attire, so that they clearly assume a male appearance. When women are alive, they put on cosmetics, perfumes, powders and elegant fragrances to adorn their bodies, so that they clearly assume a female appearance. Yet, once men and women die, all that is left are their bones. How does one tell them apart? Please teach us how you are able to distinguish them."
page 5
The Buddha Answered Ananda, " If when men are in the world, they enter temples, listen to explanations of Sutras and Vinaya texts, make obeisance to the Triple gem, and recite Buddhas' names, then when they die their bones will be heavy and white in color. Most women in the world have little wisdom and are saturated with emotion. They giver birth and raise children, feeling that this is their duty.Each child relies on its mother's milk for life and nourishment, and that milk is a transformation of the mother's blood. Each child drinks one thousand two hundred gallons of its mother milk. Because of this drain on the mother body whereby the child takes milk for its nourishment, the mother becomes worn and haggard and so her bones turn black in color and are light in weight."
When Ananda heard these words, he felt a pain in his heart as if he had been stabbed and wept silently. He said to the World Honored One," How can one repay one's mother's kindness and virtue?'
The Buddha told Ananda, "Listen well, and I will explain to you in detail. The fetus grows in its mothers womb for ten lunar months. What
page 6
bitterness she goes through while it dwells there! In the first month of pregnancy, the life of the fetus is as precarious as a dewdrop on grass: How likely that it will not last from morning to evening but will evaporate by mid-day!
"During the second lunar month, the embryo congeals like curds. In the third month it is like coagulated blood. During the fourth month of pregnancy the fetus begins to assume a slightly human form.During the fifth month in the womb, the child five limbs-- two leg, two arms, and a head--start to take shape. In the sixth lunar month of pregnancy, the child begins to to develop the essences of the six sense faculties: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. During the seventh month, the three hundred sixty bones and joints are formed, and the eighty-four thousand hair pores are also complete. In the eight lunar month of the pregnancy the intellect and the nine apertures are formed. By the ninth month the fetus has learned to assimilate the different nutrients of the food it eats. For example, it can assimilate the essence of peaches, pears, certain plant roots, and the five kinds of grains.
page 7
"Inside the mother's body, the solid internal organs, used for storing, hand downward, while the hollow internal organs , used for processing, spiral upward. These can be likened to three mountains which arise from the face of the earth. We can call these mountains mount Sumeru, Karma Mountain and Blood Mountain. These analogous mountains come together and form a single range in a pattern of upward peaks and downward valleys. So, too, the coagulation of the mother's blood from her internal organs form a single substance which becomes the child's food.
During the tenth month of pregnancy, the body of the fetus is completed and ready to be born. If the child is extremely filial, it will emerge with palms joined with together in respect and the birth will be peaceful and auspicious. The mother will remain uninjured by birth and will not suffer pain. However if the child is extremely rebellious in nature, to the extent that it is capable of committing the five rebellious acts, then it will injure mother's womb, rip apart its mother's heart and
1 The five rebellious acts are patricide, matricide, murdering a sage, breaking up the sangha and shedding the Buddhas' blood.
page 8
liver, or get entangled in its mothers' bone. The birth will feel like the slices of a thousand knives or like ten thousand sharp swords stabbing her heart. Those are the agonies involved in the birth of a defiant and rebellious child.
To explain more clearly, there are ten types of kindness bestowed by the mother on the child:
The first is kindness of providing protection and care while the child is in the womb.
The second is the kindness of bearing suffering during the birth,
The third is the kindness of forgetting all the pain once the child has been born.
The fourth is the kindness of eating bitter herself and saving the sweet for the child.
The fifth is the kindness of moving the child to a dry place and lying in the wet herself.
The sixth is the kindness of suckling the child at her breast and nourishing and bringing up the child.
The seventh is the kindness of washing away the unclean.
The eight is the kindness of always thinking of the child when it has traveled far.
page 9
The ninth is the kindness of deep care and devotion.
The tenth is the kindness of ultimate pity and sympathy.
1. THE KINDNESS OF PROVIDING PROTECTION AND CARE WHILE THE CHILD IS IN THE WOMB.
The causes and conditions from accumulated kalpas grows heavy,
Until in this life the child ends up in in its mother's womb.
As the month pass, the five vital organs develop;
Within seven weeks the six sense organs start to grow.
The mother's body becomes as heavy as a mountain;
The stillness and movements of the fetus are like a kalpic wind disaster.
The mother fine clothes no longer hand properly,
And so her mirror gather dust.
2. THE KINDNESS OF BEARING SUFFERING DURING BIRTH
The pregnancy lasts for ten lunar months
And culminates in difficult labor at the approach of the birth.
Meanwhile, each morning the mother is seriously ill
And during everyday is drowsy and sluggish.
Her fear and agitation are difficult to describe;
Grieving and tears fill her breast.
She painfully tells her family
That she is only afraid that death will overtake her.
3. THE KINDNESS OF FORGETTING ALL THE PAIN ONCE THE CHILD HAS BEEN BORN
On the day the compassionate mother bears the child,
Her five organs all open wide,
Leaving her totally exhausted in body and mind.
The blood flows as from a slaughtered lamb;
page 11
Yet, upon hearing that the child is healthy,
She is overcome with redoubling joy.
But after the joy, the grief returns,
And the agony wrenches her very insides.
4. THE KINDNESS OF EATING THE BITTER HERSELF AND SAVING THE SWEET FOR THE CHILD
The kindness of both parents is profound and deep,
Their care and devotion never cease.
Never resting, the mother saves the sweet for the child,
And without complaint she swallows the bitter herself.
Her love is weighty and her emotion is difficult to bear;
Her kindness is deep and so is her compassion.
Only wanting the child to get its fill,
The compassionate mother doesn't speak of her own hunger.
page 12
5. THE KINDNESS OF MOVING THE CHILD TO A DRY PLACE AND LYING IN THE WET HERSELF
The mother is willing to be wet
so that the child can be dry.
With her two breasts she satisfies its hunger and thirst;
Covering it with her sleeve, she protects it from the wind and cold.
In kindness, her head rarely rests on the pillow,
And yet she does this happily.
So long as the child is comfortable,
The kind mother seeks no solace for herself.
6. THE KINDNESS OF SUCKLING THE CHILD AT HER BREAST AND NOURISHING AND BRINGING UP THE CHILD
The kind mother is like the great earth.
The stern father is like the encompassing heaven:
One covers from above; the other supports from below.
The kindness of parents is such that
page 13
They worry that at night he will have to lie in the cold
Even a moment's pain suffered by their sons or daughters
will cause the parents sustained distress.
10. THE KINDNESS OF ULTIMATE PITY AND SYMPATHY
The kindness of parents is profound and important.
Their tender concern never ceases.
From the moment they awake each day,
their thoughts are with their children.
Whether the children are near of far away,
the parents think of them often.
Even if a mother lives for a hundred years,
She will constantly worry about her eighty-year-old child!
Do you wish to know when such kindness and love ends?
It doesn't even begin to dissipate until her life is over.
The Buddha told Ananda, "When I contemplate living beings, I see that although they are born
page 16
as human beings, nonetheless, they are stupid and dull in their thoughts and actions. They don't consider their parents' great kindness and virtue. They are disrespectful and turn their backs on kindness and what is right. They lack humaneness and are neither filial nor compliant.
For ten months while the mother is with child, she feels discomfort each time she rises, as if she were lifting a heavy burden. Like a chronic invalid, she is unable to keep her food and drink down. When the ten months have passed and the time comes for the birth, she undergoes all kinds of pain and suffering so that the child can be born. She is afraid of her own mortality, like a pig or lamb waiting to be slaughtered. Then the blood flows all over the ground. These are the sufferings she undergoes.
Once the child is born, she saves what is sweet for him and swallows what is bitter herself. She carries the child and nourishes it, washing away its filth. There is no toil or difficulty that she does not willingly undertake for the sake of her child. She endures both cold and heat and never even mentions what she has gone through. She gives the dry place to her child and sleeps in the
page 17
damp herself. For three years she nourishes the baby with milk which is transformed from the blood of her own body.
Parents continually instruct and guide their children in the ways of propriety and morality as the youngsters mature into adults. They arrange marriage for them and provide them with property and wealth or devise ways to get it for them. They take this responsibility and trouble upon themselves with tremendous zeal and toil, never speaking about their care and kindness.
When a son or daughter becomes ill, parents are worried and afraid to the point that they may even grow ill themselves. They remain by the child's side providing constant care, and only when the child gets well are the parents happy once again. In this way, they care for and raise their children with the sustained hope that their offsprings will soon grow to be mature adults.
How sad that all too often the children ad unfilial in return! In speaking with relatives whom they should honor, the children display no compliance. When they ought to be polite, they have no manners. They glare at those whom they should venerate, and insult their uncles and aunts. They scold their siblings and destroy any family
page 18
feeling that might have existed among them. Children like that have no respect of sense of propriety.
Children may be well taught, but if they are unfilial, they will not heed the instructions or obey the rules.Rarely will they rely upon the guidance of their parents. They are contrary and rebellious when interacting with their brothers. They come and go from home without ever reporting to their parents. Their speech and actions are very arrogant and they act on impulse without consulting others. Such children ignore the admonishments and punishments set down by their parents and pay no regard to their uncle's warnings. Yet, at the same time, they are immature and always need to be looked after and protected by their elders.
As such children grow up, they become more and more obstinate and uncontrollable. They are entirely ungrateful and totally contrary. They are defiant and hateful, rejecting both family and friends. They befriend evil people and under their influence soon adopt the same kind of bad habits. They come to take what is false as true.
Such children may be enticed by others to leave their families and run away to live in other towns, thus denouncing their parents and rejecting
page 19
their native town. They may become salesman or civil servants who languish in comfort and luxury. They may marry in haste and that new bond provides yet another obstruction which prevents them from returning home for long periods of time.
Or, in going to live in other towns, these children may be incautious and find themselves plotted against or accused of doing evil. They may be unfairly locked up in prison. Or they may meet with illness and become enmeshed in disasters and hardships, subject to the terrible pain of poverty, starvation and emaciation. Yet no one there will care for them. Being scorned and disliked by others, they will be abandoned on the street. In such circumstances , their lives may come to an end. No one bothers to try to save them. Their bodies swell up, rot, decay, and are exposed to the sun and blown away by the wind. The white bones entirely disintegrates and scatter as these children come to their final rest in the dirt of some other town.These children will never again have a happy reunion with their relatives and kin. Nor will they ever know how their aging parents mourn for and worry about them. The parents may grow blind from weeping or become sick from extreme
page 20
grief and despair. Constantly dwelling on the memory of their children, they may pass away, but even when they become ghosts, their souls still cling to this attachment and are unable to let it go.
Others of these unfilial children may not aspire to learning, but instead become interested in strange and bizarre doctrines. Such children may be villainous, coarse, and stubborn, delighting in practices that are utterly devoid of benefit. They may become involved in fights and thefts, setting themselves at odds with the town by drinking and gambling. As if their own debauchery were not enough, they drag their brothers into it as well, to the further distress of their parents.
If such children do live at home, they leave early in the morning and do not return until late at night. Never do they ask about the welfare of their parents and make sure that they don't suffer from heat or cold. They do not inquire after their parents' well being in the morning or in the evening, nor even on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month. In fact, it never occurs to these unfilial children to ever ask whether their parents have slept comfortably or rested peacefully. Such children are simply not concerned in the least
page 21
about their parents' well being. When the parents of such children grow old and their appearance becomes more and more withered and emaciated, they are made to feel ashamed to be seen in public and are subjected to abuse and oppression.
Such unfilial children may end up with a father who is a widower or a mother who is a widow. The solitary parents are left alone in empty houses, feeling like guests in their own homes. They may endure cold and hunger, but no one takes heed of their plight. They may weep incessantly from morning to night, sighing and lamenting. It's only right that children should provide for aging parents with food and drinks of delicious flavors, but irresponsible children are sure to overlook their duties. If they do attempt to help their parents out in any way, they feel embarrassed and are afraid people will laugh at them. Yet, such offspring may lavish wealth and food on their own wives and children, disregarding the toil and weariness involved in doing so. Other unfilial offsprings may be so intimidated by their wives that they go along with all their wives wishes. But when appealed to by their parents and elders, they ig-
page 22
nore them and are totally unfazed by their pleas.
It may be the case that daughters were quite filial to their parents before their own marriages, but that they become progressively rebellious after they marry. This situation may be so extreme that if their parents show even the slightest signs of displeasure, the daughters become hateful and vengeful towards them. Yet they bear their husband's scolding and beatings with sweet tempers, even though their spouses are outsiders with other surnames and family ties. The emotional bonds between such couples are deeply entangled, and yet those daughters hold their parents at a distance. They may follow their husbands and move to other towns, leaving their parents behind entirely. They do not long for them and simply cut off all communication with them. When the parents continue to hear no word from their daughters, they feel incessant anxiety. They become so fraught with sorrow that it is as if they were suspended upside down.Their every thought is of seeing their children, just as one who is thirsty longs for something to drink. Their kind thoughts for their offsprings never cease.
page 23
The virtue of one's parents' kindness is boundless and limitless. If one has made the mistake of being unfilial, how difficult it is to repay that kindness!"
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the depth of one's parents' kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly threw themselves on the ground and begin beating their breasts and striking themselves until all their hairpores flowed with blood. Some fell unconscious to the ground, while others stamped their feet in grief. It was a long time before they could control themselves. With loud voices they lamented, "Such suffering! What suffering! How painful! How painful!We are all offenders. We are criminals who have never awakened, like those who travel in a dark night. We have just now understood our offenses and our very insides are torn to bits. We only hope that the World Honored One will pity us and save us. Please tell us how we can repay the deep kindness of our parents!"
At that time the Tathagata used eight kinds of profoundly deep and pure sounds to speak to the assembly. "All of you should know this. I will now explain for you the various aspects of this matter.
"If there were a person who carried his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were ground to powder by their weight as they bore through to the marrow, and if that person were to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred thousand kalpas until the blood that flowed out from his feet covered his ankles, that person would still not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, during the period of a kalpa fraught with famine and starvation, sliced the flesh of his own body to feed his parents and did this as many times as there are dust motes as he passed through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"if there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a sharp knife and cut out his eyes and made an offering of them to Tathagatas and continued to do that for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
page 25
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his father and mother, used a sharp knife to cut out his heart and liver so that the blood flowed and covered the ground and if he continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, never once complaining about the pain, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a hundred thousand swords and stabbed his body with them all at once so that they entered one side and came out the other, and if he continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, beat his bones down to the marrow and continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, swallowed molten iron pellets and continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas , that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents."
page 26
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the kindness and virtue of parents, everyone in the Great Assembly wept silent tears and felt searing pain in their hearts. They reflected deeply, simultaneously brought forth shame and said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents?"
The Buddha replied , "Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish to repay your parents' kindness, write out this Sutra on their behalf. Recite this Sutra on their behalf. Repent of trangression and offenses on their behalf. For the sake of your parents, make offerings to the Triple Jewel. For the sake of your parents, hold the precept of pure eating. For the sake of your parents, practise giving and cultivate blessings. If you are able to do these things, you are being a filial children. If you do not do these things, you are a person destined for hells."
The Buddha tola Ananda," If a person is not filial, when his life ends and his body decays, he will fall into Spaceless, Avici Hell. This great hell is eighty thousand yojanas in circumference and is surrounded on all four sides by iron
page 27
walls. Above , it is covered over by nets, and the ground is also made of iron. A mass of fire burns fiercely, while thunder roars and bright bolts of lightning set things afire. Molten brass and iron fluids are poured over the offenders and broils their flesh and fat to a pulp.
"Oh, such suffering! Difficult to take, difficult to bear! There are poles, hooks, spears and lances, iron halberds and iron chains, iron hammers and iron awls. Wheel of iron knives rain down from the air. The offender is chopped, hacked, or stabbed, and undergoes these cruel punishments for kalpas without respite. Then they enter the remaining hells, where their heads are capped with fiery basins, while iron wheels roll over their bodies, passing both horizontally and vertically until their guts are ripped open and their bones and flesh are squashed to a pulp.
Within a single day, they experience myriad births and myriad deaths. Such sufferings are a result of committing the five rebellious acts and of being unfilial when one was alive."
page 28
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the virtue of parents' kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly wept sorrowfully and addressed the Tathagata," On this day, how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents?"
The Buddha said," Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish to repay their kindness, then for the sake of your parents print this sutra. This is truly repaying their kindness. If one can print one copy, then one will get to see one Buddha. If one can print ten copies, then one will get to see ten Buddhas. If one can print one hundred copies, then one will get to see one hundred Buddhas. If one can print one thousand copies, then one will get to see one thousand Buddhas. If one can print ten thousand copies , then one will get to see ten thousand Buddhas. This is the power derived when good people print Sutras. All Buddhas will forever protect such people with their kindness and can immediately cause the parents of such people to be reborn in heavens, to enjoy all kinds of happiness, and to leave behind the sufferings of hells."
At that time, Ananda and the rest of the Great Assembly--the asuras, garudas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
page 29
people, non-people, and others, as well as the gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, wheel-turning sage kings, and all the lesser kings--felt all the hairs on their bodies stand on end when they heard what the Buddha had said.They wept grievously and were unable to stop themselves. Each one of them made a vow saying," All of us, from now on until the exhaustion of the bounds of the future, would rather that our bodies be pulverized into small particles of dust for a hundred thousand kalpas, than to ever go against the Thus Come One's sagely teachings.We would rather that our tongues be plucked out, so that they would extend a full yojana, and that for a hundred thousand kalpas an iron plough would run over them; we would rather have a hundred-thousand bladed wheel roll freely over our bodies, than go against the Tathagata's sagely teachings. We would rather that our bodies be ensnared in an iron net for a hundred thousand kalpas, than ever goes against the Tathagata's sagely teachings. We would rather that for a hundred thousand kalpas our bodies would be chopped, hacked, multilated and chiselled into ten million pieces so that our skin, flesh, joints and bones would be completely disintegrated, than ever
page 30
go against the Tathagata's sagely teachings."
At that time, Ananda, with dignity and a sense of peace, rose from his eat and asked the Buddha, "World Honored One, what name shall this Sutra have when we accord with it and uphold it?"
The Buddha told Ananda, "This Sutra is called THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY OF REPAYING IT. Use this name when you accord with it and uphold it."
At that time, the Great Assembly, the gods, humans, asuras and the others , hearing what the Buddha had said, were completely delighted. They believed it, received it, and then bowed and withdrew.
page 31
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
Translated by Bhikshuni Heng Tao
Reviewed by Bhiksuni Heng Ch'ih
Edited by Upasaka David Rounds
Certified by Venerable Abbot HUa
and Bhiksuni Heng Ch'ih
At that time, Ananda was on Magic Mountain, together with twelve hundred fifty in the assembly. Ananda made obeisance with his palms together, circumbulated the Buddha three times, and knelt with his palms joined. Then he asked Shakyamuni Buddha this question: "During the Dharma Ending Age, all the living Beings in Southern Jambudvipa will give rise to much unwholesome karma. They will not revere the Triple Jewel, or respect their parents. They will be lacking in the Three Bonds, The Five Constants that safeguard the universal obligations between people will be in disharmony and disarray. Beings will be poor, destitute, lowly and vile. Their six faculties will suffer impairment. All day long they will engage in killing and harming. Moreover, they will not be of equal status; some will be wealthy
1 The "Three Bonds" refers to the relationship between ruler and minister, between father and son, and between husband and wife.
2 The Five constants are humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trusthworthiness.
page 32
while others will be poor. What are the conditions leading to these various different rewards and retributions? We disciples pray that the World Honored One will compassionately explain each one of these for us."
The Buddha told Ananda and the assembly of great disciples, "You should now listen attentively. Good indeed, good indeed! I will clearly set forth all of this for you. All men and women of the world, whether they be poor and lowly or wealthy and noble, whether they be undergoing limitless suffering or enjoying blessings without end, are all undergoing rewards or retributions which are due to causes and effects from their past lives. What should they do from now on?
"First, they should be filial and respectful to their parents. Next, they should reverently believe in the Triple Jewel. Third, they should refrain from killing and instead liberate the living. Fourth, they should eat pure vegetarian food and practise giving. These acts will enable them to plant seeds in the field of blessings for their future lives."
Then the Buddha spoke these verses on cause and effect:
page 33
Wealth and dignity come from one's destiny
From causes planted in lives in the past.
People who hold to this simple principle
will reap good fortune in lives in the future.
Kind men and women, listen to the causes,
Hear and remember this Sutra's reminder
Of the causes and effects of karmic deeds
In the past, in the future, and in the present.
Cause and effect is no small care.
True are my words; don't take them lightly.
Why are some people officials at present?
Because with gold they gilded the Buddhas
In their past lives, long long ago.
It's from their practice in lives in the past
That they reap in this life a rich fruition.
The purple gown and golden cordon--
The honored marks of higher office:
Should you seek them, seek with the Buddhas.
Gilding the Buddhas is your own gain;
Robing Thus Come Ones, you robe yourself.
Don't say it's easy to become an official;
It cannot happen if causes aren't planted.
page 34
What are the causes of owning a carriage
And riding on palanquins? People like that
Were builders and menders of bridges and roads.
Why are some people wearers of satin?
That is because in times in the past,
Robes they gave as gifts to the Sangha.
Sometimes people have plentiful goods,
The reason, in fact , again is quite fair.
In the past those people gave food to the poor.
Others don't have food and drink,
Who can guess the reason why?
Before those people were plagues with a fault:
Stingy made them squeeze every penny.
The well-to-do among us dwell
In very tall mansions and vast estates.
The reason is they gladly gave rice,
Lavishing gifts of grain on monasteries.
Enjoying blessings and justly prosperous,
Are people who reap a fitting reward.
In times now past they helped build temples
And saw that the Sangha had huts and shelters.
page 35
Some people's features are fine and perfect.
Surely the reason for such rewards
Is that beautiful flowers they offered to Buddhas.
Why are some people gifted and wise?
In former lives they ate pure food
And remembered the Buddhas with mindful regard.
Look at men whose wives are loyal,
Their reward comes now for what happened before:
Their conditions are strong in the Buddha's door.
Some have marriages lasting and meaningful.
Their happiness doesn't happen by chance.
The cause this time is the hanging of canopies
And streamers before the Buddha's statues.
Some happy fellows' father and mothers
Enjoy long lifespan, contentment and ease.
Where is the source for rewards such as these?
They protected orphans in times now past
And regarded all elderly ones as their own.
page 36
Orphans must live without father and mothers
Since before they shot down birds for sport.
How does one get lots of children and grandchildren?
By letting birds fly from their cages to freedom.
In raising children, some really fail badly.
It's because before they drowned female infants.
When barren, people won't bear any children.
Thats' their due for committing promiscuous deeds.
Some have long lifespans, why are they lucky?
Liberating creatures, they ransomed lives.
Have you seen how many suffer short lifespans?
Their wanton slaughter of beings is why .
Lonely are men whom no women will marry.
They're paying their debt for committing adultery.
Widows bear a sad retribution.
They held their past lives' husbands in scorn.
Servants and slaves made that bondage themselves
By neglecting repayment of goodnesses done them.
page 37
Bright are the eyes of some fortunate beings.
Before Buddhas they offered lamps fill with oil
The blind of this world bear a heavy burden
For past failure to tell the way clearly to travellers.
Some people's mouth are very misshapen.
They blew out lamps on the Buddha's altars.
To be deaf and mute is a dreary existence.
Reward appropriate for scolding one's parents.
How do people get to be hunchbacks?
They berated and laughed at those bowing to Buddhas.
Take heed of malformed hands, my friend.
They betray people prone to evil.
Fellows with crippled and useless feet
Ambushed and robbed with reckless abandon.
Most cows and horses were humans before--
People who didn't settle their debts.
Many former people are now pigs or dogs
Because they injured and heated others.
page 38
Illness and pain: an effect inevitable
For bestowing meat and wine on the Buddhas.
Freedom from illness: a fine reward
For relieving the sick by bestowing medicines.
The fate of imprsonment catches some people
Due to fiendish deeds and a failure to yield.
Death by starvation: due retribution
For stop[ping up holes of rates and snakes.
Appropriate that a victim of poisoning
Caused aquatic poisoning; damned up waters.
Abandoned, forlorn, rejected beings
Were cruel of old, abusing others.
The stature of some is extremely short.
Before, they read Sutras spread out on the floor.
Vomiting blood? Believe it's from first
Eating meat, then reciting the Sutras.
Another deed that determines deafness:
To not listen well to Sutra recitals.
Sore and scabies bother some people
Who gave stinking fish and flesh to the Buddhas.
page 39
People who reek with a terrible stench
Sold inferior scents and phony goods.
Why do some by their own hand hang themselves?
Before they used nooses to capture their prey.
All those widowed, alone, unwed, or orphaned,
Are now paid justly for former jealousy.
Those struck by lightning, consume by fire,
Rigged their scales to better their business income.
Fierce tigers and snakes that feast on people
Are enemies bearing resentments from lives before.
In our myriad deeds, whatever we do,
We reap our own rewards, it's true.
Who can we blame for our woe in the hells?
Who can there be to blame but ourselves?
Don't say that cause and effect is unseen.
Look at you, your offspring, heirs, and grand-children.
If you doubt the good of pure eating and giving,
Look around and find those enjoying fortune.
Having practices of old, they now harvest abundance.
page 40
To cultivate now will bring blessings anew.
Those who slander the cause and effect in this Sutra
will fail and have no chance to be human.
Those who recite and uphold this Sutra
Are supported by Buddhas and Bodhisattva.
Write out this Sutra, study it hard
And in future your families will flourish.
Uphold this Sutra atop your heads
To avert disasters and fatal accidents.
To lecture this Sutra on cause and effect
Is to sharpen your wits in successive rebirths.
Chanting this Sutra on Cause and Effect
Will make one revered, well regarded by all.
Print and distribute this precious Sutra
And reap rebirth as ruler or king.
To verify former cause and effect,
Regard Mahakashyapa's golden body.
A case of future cause and effect:
Bhikshu Good Star slandered the Dharma
And lost his chance for human life.
page 41
If cause and effect contained no truth,
Why did Maudgalyayana seek to rescue his mother
From the hells to save her from suffering?
Those who trust the words of this Sutra as true,
Will all be reborn in the Western Land of Bliss.
To speak of present cause and effect
To proclaim future and past as well,
Is a deed that could never be done to its end.
Join at the door of the Triple Gem
WIth blessings and wholesome belief one can enter
The door, supported by gods and dragons,
Dragons and gods who won't let you down.
For every part of giving you practice,
You'll reap ten thousand parts reward.
Such blessings are stored in a solid treasury,
For enjoyment in future rebirths without end.
If you care to know of past live's causes,
Look at rewards you are reaping today.
If you wish to find out about future lives,
You need but notice what you're doing right now.
END OF BUDDHA SPEAKS
THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT
IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
page 42
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
page 43
Thus I have heard. At one time the Buddha was in Shravasti in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, five hundred in all, as well as all the Bodhisattvas.
At that time the world honored one told all the Bhikshus," In the future there will be Bhikshus who will fail to be transformed by the Dharma for a set of specific reasons, thus bringing the Dharma to ruin and preventing its increase and growth. What are these reasons? They are: not protecting the prohibitions and moral precepts, not being able to guard the mind, not cultivating wisdom, being lax in thought, only seeking for a good reputation, not following the teachings of the way, and being
page 44
unwilling to diligently honor the deeds which rescue those of the world. All these comprise the first matter which will bring about the Dharma's extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus," In addition, there are two other matters which will cause the Dharma's extinction. The first is not protecting the moral prohibitions, not gathering in the mind, and not cultivating wisdom. Indulging in dissolute attitudes and licentious intentions, Bhikshus will take wives and raise children, and engage in business to male a living. The second is forming sects and parties, giving rise to enmity and competition. and wishing to cause Dharma peers to fall. Abusing proper language and discourses, Bhikshus will indulge in flattery and deceit. Internally creating evil deeds, outwardly they will pretend to be of pure conduct. These comprise two other matters which will bring about the Dharma's extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus, " In addition, there are three other matters that will cause the Dharma's extinction . The first is a failure to protect the prohibitions and precepts, to gather in the mind and to cultivate wisdom. The second
page 45
is an inability to know the proper sequence of sentences on the part of people who read literature of the Dharma. They will put what comes first in the place of what comes later, and will put what comes later in the place of what comes first, and vice versa. By inverting the order of the beginnings and the endings like this, they won't understand where the teachings lead to, yet they will assume that their understanding are correct.The third is a refusal to listen to other people who correct them, but instead they harbor feelings of hatred, resentment, and jealousy toward them. People who recognize the teachings will be few. The majority will be unable to discern the principles, but will simply follow along with the opinion of others. These comprise the three other matters that will bring about Dharma extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus,"There are also four other matters which will cause the Dharma's extinction. What are they? The first is that in the future, there will be bhikshus who, having renounce the livelihood of house-holders, will go to aranya but will fail to cultivate the way. The second is that they will enjoy socializing in noisy places with common people, wandering as they please, and engaging in casual talk. They will seek
page 46
fine clothing and wear precept sashes made of multi-colored cloth. The third is that they will affect the manners of the elite, and make pretense lofty vision and vast knowledge. They will claim high virtue for themselves and consider other people inferior. And though possessing fragmented wisdom, they will compare themselves to the brilliance of the sun and the moon. The fourth is that they will not gather in the three karmas, nor protect the gates of the sense organs.They will travel among women and propogate literature with erudite embroidered phrasing. They will speak much of coupling and marriage in order to move people's minds, thus causing the pure to become defiled. They will practice profligacy and reckless behaviour. thus the proper Dharma will go to ruin. And these are the four matters which will bring about the Dharma's extinction.
The Buddha told the Bhikshus," And furthermore there are five other matters that will cause the Dharma's extinction. What are they? The first is that some Bhikshus who originally left home to cultivate the way because of the Dharma, will subsequently abuse and abolish the teachings of the
page 47
of the profound sutras, such as the twelve links, the thirty-seven limbs, the vaipulya, the deep and wonderful esoteric wisdom of emptiness, the unsurpassed perfection of wisdom, the wholesome provisional devices and expedient means, the empty, markless, and wishless, and the ultimate means of bringing about timely transformations.The second is that they will instead turn to the practices of random phrases, shallow branches, and lesser sutras. Because they mix with the mundane world and lead worldly lives, they will allow the classics and manifestos of kings to become a source of chaos within the way.Bhikshus will enjoy discussing these matters and become skilled at explaining worldly affairs.They will know how to win people's approval by pleasing, thus gaining fame and reputation for themselves. The third is that they will readily employ the ideas of scholars with shallow understanding, including those who have only studied the Dharma briefly, preferring them over those of scholars who possess profound penetration of the teachings. The fourth is that they will displease the gods, the gods will say, "This is the dharma ending age and that is why things are this
page 48
way." Forsaking the teachings of the wonderful Dharma, these bhikshus will only propogate fragmented sentences, all the gods will weep and quickly depart.
The fifth is that from that time on, the proper Dharma will be scarce and no one will cultivate it with vigor. And these comprise the five matters that will bring about the Dharma extinction.
The buddha told the Bhikshus, "After my Nirvana, These deviant deeds and fifteen disorders will bring the Dharma to extinction. How painful it is! If there are Bhikshus among you who are sincerely wish to reverently study the way, you should throw out all embroidered and decoration, and not seek fame or reputation. But with a nature that is straightforward and innocent, you should guard the true and propogate the orthodox Sutras, the exalted Canon of the Buddha, and the profound transformations of the Dharma, but avoid using too many words in explaining them. You should rely on the original explanation in the Sutras ; not abandon the preper phrasings. In using special terms and repetitions, you should not allow the Buddha's intent to become lost. As to food and clothing, you should not be pleased with good offerings nor despise
page 49
mean offerings but accord with the wishes of the donors. You should be neither delighted nor displeased with the quality of offerings of food and clothing, whether fine or coarse.
"You should gather in body, mouth and mind and guard the sense gates. You should not turn from the Buddha's teachings, but be mindful of life brevity, for it's over in a flash. It is like a vision seen in a dream; upon awakening one cannot recall where it went. The suffering of the three evil destinies cannot be reckoned. Diligently cultivate the Buddhadharma as if saving your head!
"The five precepts, the ten good acts, the six paramitas, the ten thousand conducts, the four unlimited minds, the four kind of kindness, wisdom and expedient means must all be practiced with vigor. Then even though you may not meet a Buddha in the world, nonetheless, your leaving home and studying the way will not be in vain. You should make your original mind level and equal. With sympathy, be mindful of all beings and treat everyone with kindness."
After the Buddha instructed them in this way,
page 50
The Bhikshus all felt happy to the point of tears. They submitted to the Buddha, Bowed in ob eisance, and took their leave.
End of the Buddha speaks of the changes to come sutra.
Translated into Chinese
by Tripitaka Master
Dharmaraksha of Kasana of
Western Chin Dynasty
(265-313 A.D)
page 51
*mandarin words*
Verse of Transference
May the merit and virtue accrued from this work,
Adorn the Buddha's purelands,
Repaying four kind of kindness above,
And aiding those suffering in the paths below.
May those who see and hear of this.
ALl bring forth the resolve for Bodhi.
And when this retribution body is over,
Be born together in ultimate bliss.
next page
*mandarin words *
LIST OF DONOR'S
($50.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
*MANDARIN WORDS*
CHAU KOK YUEN AND FAMILY LEE CHOO
YIEW KIM SIONG CHOK PONG WENG YIEW TZE PHIN
(30.60) *mandarin words*
KUO MEE
JOHORE BAHRU WELL-WISHERS - BY Lee Choo $290/=
($30.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
FRANCIS YEW
($20.00)
*MANDARIN WORDS*
CHOK YEN PING SIOW HSIANG
CHAN ENG KIT AND FAMILY
($10.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
NEO LEE HUANG CHAN YOKE PING
DEE LAI SING WONG SOW LENG YAN HUI LAN CHEW
($8.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
NG POO FOCK AND FAMILY
($5.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
JULIE PEGGY LIM PUA TEO HUA
KUAN TECK HENG CHU SU POOH
($2.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
CHONG AI CHON
next page
DONATED BY:
[$120/=]
Mr. and Mrs. Goh Kah Keng And Family
[$100/=] Tan Cheng Fui C.C.Lai
[$70/=]
Yeo Kuo Moy
[$57/=]
Anonymous
[50/=]
Leow Poh Swee Teo Kuo Shr (Nancy)
[$30/=]
Y.L.Ho
[$20/=]
Mr.and Mrs.Chong Hock AUn and Family
Datin Yeoh Heang Jong
Mr.Teoh Hua Hock and family
Dr. and Mrs.Lee Kok HUat and Family
In Memory of Mr.Yap Thuan Thye
Mr.and Mrs. Lee Keng Hai and family
[$10/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Mah Tuck Chin and family
Loo Kam Choon and family Tan Wee Lian
Mr. and Mrs.Chan Bock Seng and family
next page
[$10/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Khoo Eng Tong and family
Mr.and Mrs.Wong Thean Hock
Chong Ngong Ken Jerry Cheng and family
Loo Yee Loon and family Loo Sau Wan and family
Loo Yee Cheong and family
[$5/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Teh Kok Leng and family Fong
Mrs Irene Cheung Mr.and Mrs. Aw and family
Madam Lee Kook and family Yeo Ban Goh
Tan Siew Luang and family Audry Yong
Tang Hing Chuan
[$4/=]
Dennis Lim
[$3/=]
Wendy Gan Lim Chai Thiam Evelyn L.C.Teh
Mrs.Choo Teck Tong Tong
[$2/=]
Tracy Cheong Ng Wong Chai William Kok Mae
Bellinda Quah Liz Yap Tong Choy Albery Chong
Yap Kien Fung Goh Chee Teng Lee AH Moi
Chu Yoke YIn
[$1/=]
B. K. Chiam Catherine Chee Lai Mei Yoong
Tan Chor Eng Teh May Chin LInda Waybe
Lucy AU P.C.CHew Lim Guat Hoo and family
Linda Tham Yan Kuee Chen Y.S.Lu
L.K.WOng
next page
*all in mandarin words*
next page
*all in mandarin words*
next page
*mandarin words are omitted in this page*
($100)
($75.00)
($20.00)
($21.00)
($10.00)
($5.00)
Tan Bay SIang
Ng Kim Wah Ng Ah Bay Tee Kian Giap Dereen Tan
Deceased Tee Kian Eng
($2.00)
Anonymous
next page
ALAS! MY PARENTS
Alas! My parents who bore me and toiled on my behalf:
The debt of kindness I owe them is higher than the heavens.
from THE BOOK OF POETRY
If you want to be a person, the very first thing you should know is that compared to the sea, your parent kindness is deeper; comp[are to the sky, your parent kindness is higher...If you plan to repay them, you must first learn to have virtue and teach living beings to cultivate the Way. It is said. "If one child obtains the Way, 9 generations will leap over Birth and Death"'
Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
"Record of Water and Mirror Reflections"
next page
*all in mandarin words for the next few pages*
next page
*mandarin words*
Printed by : Majujaya Indah Sdn Bhd
NO.68, Jalan 14, Ampang N/V,
68000 AMpang, Selangor,
Tel: (03) 4566001, 4566002, 4572053.
Res.Tel : (03) 4912797
next page
*mandarin words*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The author got this book from a temple in year 2017.
The capital words are change to small alphabets by author for the content of The buddha speaks of the changes to come sutra due to it is difficult to read in big capital here.
The author didn't include the mandarin names donor here until futher notice .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dedicate the merit of this post to Author parents , author past seven lifetime parents and to all sentient beings wishing that they will meet with buddha teaching, buddha , dharma and sangha.
*this book show the sign of alphabet dissappearing from the word.
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
FREE DISTRIBUTION
next page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We wish to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude and thanks to Venerable Master Hsuan Hua of the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas for his kind permission to allow the English translation of the following sutras by the Buddhist Text Translation Society, Dharma Realm Buddhist University, California, U.S>A. to be published for free distribution.
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENT AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
*mandarin word*
TO COMMEMORATE
BUDDHA'S HAPPY DAY (ULLAMBANA)
7 LUNAR MONTH 15 DAY
*mandarin word*
BIRTHDAY OF EARTH STORE BODHISATTVA
7 LUNAR MONTH 30 DAY
*mandarin word*
next page
TEN REWARDS FROM PRINTING BUDDHIST SUTRAS ANA MAKING BUDDHA IMAGES
People who print sutras and make images obtain the following benefits:
They wipe away all evil karma created by light offenses made in the past and they reduce the retribution due to them from their serious past offenses.
Auspicious spirits constantly surround and protect them so they never experience the disasters of plagues, floods, fires, thieves, armed conflict, or imprisonment.
They avoid the suffering inflicted by vengeful enemies they made in the past. Moreover, the merit derived from printing sutras allows enemies to receive the benefits of Dharma, and thereby untie the bonds of hatred.
Yaksha-ghosts and other evil beasts cannot bring harm.
They experience peace of mind; by day the meet no danger; at night they have no bad dream. Their complexion will be ruddy and moist; their energy will be full and vital. All of their business will quickly prosper and will meet with ultimate success.
As a result of their sincere honoring of the Dharma, quite naturally they will have ample clothing and abundant food, even though they do not wish for or seek after such things. Their families will be at peace; blessings and prosperity will constantly increase.
Other people even Gods, will immediately take a liking to things these people say and do. Wherever they go, they will be greeted by happy throngs of dear friends who respect and revere them.
Stupid people will grow wiser, unhealthy people will grow healthier. Troubled people will feel happier, and women will become men in their next lifetime if they wish to do so.
They will depart forever from the Evil Destinies, and will be reborn always in wholesome places, with a handsome and upright appearance, and an unusually fine character. They will enjoy supreme happiness and abundant wealth.
They will be able to plant roots of goodness on behalf of all living beings as a grand blessings field, and will help them reap a bounteous, measureless harvest there.
page 1
In whatever land they are born, they will always see the Buddha and hear the Dharma. Ultimately, they will obtain full use of the three modes of Wisdom, will be certified as possessing Six Psychic Penetrations, and will quickly accomplish Buddhahood.
Since printing Sutras and making images brings such incomparable merit and virtue, every time people have occasion to celebrate a birthday, offer congratulations, when they seek to fulfill a wish, or to avert a calamity, to repent and reform past errors, or to rise in position, in every event such as these, it is fitting to joyfully donate the means for printing sutras of making images, and then vigorously pursue their wishes.
page 2
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY IN REPAYING IT
page 3
Translated by : Upasika Terri Nicholson
Reviewed by: Bhiksuni Heng Tao
Edited by: Bhiksuni Heng Chih and Upasika Susan Rounds
Certified by: Venerable Abbot Hua and Bhiksuni Heng Tao
Thus I have heard, at one time, the Buddha dwelt at Shravasti, in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, twelve hundred fifty in all, and with all of the Bodhisattvas, thirty-eight thousand in all.
At that time, the World Honored One led the great assembly on a walk toward the south. Suddenly they came upon a pile of bones beside the road. The World Honored One turned to face them, placed his five limbs on the ground, and bowed respectfully.
Ananda put his palms together and asked the World Honored One, "The Tathagata is the Great Teacher of the Triple Realm and the compassionate father of beings of the four kinds of births. He has the respect and reverence of the entire assembly. What is the reason that he now bows to a pile of dried bones?"
page 4
The Buddha told Ananda, "Although all of you are my foremost disciples and have been members of the Sangha for a long time, you still have not achieved far reaching understanding. This pile of bones could have belonged to my ancestors from former lives. They could have been my parents in many past lives. That is the reason I now bow to them." The Buddha continues speaking to Ananda. "These bones we are looking at can be divided into two groups. One group is composed of the bones of men, which are heavy and white in color. The other group is composed of the bones of women, which are light and black in color."
Ananda said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, when men are alive in the world they adorn their bodies with robes, belts, shoes, hats and other fine attire, so that they clearly assume a male appearance. When women are alive, they put on cosmetics, perfumes, powders and elegant fragrances to adorn their bodies, so that they clearly assume a female appearance. Yet, once men and women die, all that is left are their bones. How does one tell them apart? Please teach us how you are able to distinguish them."
page 5
The Buddha Answered Ananda, " If when men are in the world, they enter temples, listen to explanations of Sutras and Vinaya texts, make obeisance to the Triple gem, and recite Buddhas' names, then when they die their bones will be heavy and white in color. Most women in the world have little wisdom and are saturated with emotion. They giver birth and raise children, feeling that this is their duty.Each child relies on its mother's milk for life and nourishment, and that milk is a transformation of the mother's blood. Each child drinks one thousand two hundred gallons of its mother milk. Because of this drain on the mother body whereby the child takes milk for its nourishment, the mother becomes worn and haggard and so her bones turn black in color and are light in weight."
When Ananda heard these words, he felt a pain in his heart as if he had been stabbed and wept silently. He said to the World Honored One," How can one repay one's mother's kindness and virtue?'
The Buddha told Ananda, "Listen well, and I will explain to you in detail. The fetus grows in its mothers womb for ten lunar months. What
page 6
bitterness she goes through while it dwells there! In the first month of pregnancy, the life of the fetus is as precarious as a dewdrop on grass: How likely that it will not last from morning to evening but will evaporate by mid-day!
"During the second lunar month, the embryo congeals like curds. In the third month it is like coagulated blood. During the fourth month of pregnancy the fetus begins to assume a slightly human form.During the fifth month in the womb, the child five limbs-- two leg, two arms, and a head--start to take shape. In the sixth lunar month of pregnancy, the child begins to to develop the essences of the six sense faculties: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. During the seventh month, the three hundred sixty bones and joints are formed, and the eighty-four thousand hair pores are also complete. In the eight lunar month of the pregnancy the intellect and the nine apertures are formed. By the ninth month the fetus has learned to assimilate the different nutrients of the food it eats. For example, it can assimilate the essence of peaches, pears, certain plant roots, and the five kinds of grains.
page 7
"Inside the mother's body, the solid internal organs, used for storing, hand downward, while the hollow internal organs , used for processing, spiral upward. These can be likened to three mountains which arise from the face of the earth. We can call these mountains mount Sumeru, Karma Mountain and Blood Mountain. These analogous mountains come together and form a single range in a pattern of upward peaks and downward valleys. So, too, the coagulation of the mother's blood from her internal organs form a single substance which becomes the child's food.
During the tenth month of pregnancy, the body of the fetus is completed and ready to be born. If the child is extremely filial, it will emerge with palms joined with together in respect and the birth will be peaceful and auspicious. The mother will remain uninjured by birth and will not suffer pain. However if the child is extremely rebellious in nature, to the extent that it is capable of committing the five rebellious acts, then it will injure mother's womb, rip apart its mother's heart and
1 The five rebellious acts are patricide, matricide, murdering a sage, breaking up the sangha and shedding the Buddhas' blood.
page 8
liver, or get entangled in its mothers' bone. The birth will feel like the slices of a thousand knives or like ten thousand sharp swords stabbing her heart. Those are the agonies involved in the birth of a defiant and rebellious child.
To explain more clearly, there are ten types of kindness bestowed by the mother on the child:
The first is kindness of providing protection and care while the child is in the womb.
The second is the kindness of bearing suffering during the birth,
The third is the kindness of forgetting all the pain once the child has been born.
The fourth is the kindness of eating bitter herself and saving the sweet for the child.
The fifth is the kindness of moving the child to a dry place and lying in the wet herself.
The sixth is the kindness of suckling the child at her breast and nourishing and bringing up the child.
The seventh is the kindness of washing away the unclean.
The eight is the kindness of always thinking of the child when it has traveled far.
page 9
The ninth is the kindness of deep care and devotion.
The tenth is the kindness of ultimate pity and sympathy.
1. THE KINDNESS OF PROVIDING PROTECTION AND CARE WHILE THE CHILD IS IN THE WOMB.
The causes and conditions from accumulated kalpas grows heavy,
Until in this life the child ends up in in its mother's womb.
As the month pass, the five vital organs develop;
Within seven weeks the six sense organs start to grow.
The mother's body becomes as heavy as a mountain;
The stillness and movements of the fetus are like a kalpic wind disaster.
The mother fine clothes no longer hand properly,
And so her mirror gather dust.
2. THE KINDNESS OF BEARING SUFFERING DURING BIRTH
The pregnancy lasts for ten lunar months
And culminates in difficult labor at the approach of the birth.
Meanwhile, each morning the mother is seriously ill
And during everyday is drowsy and sluggish.
Her fear and agitation are difficult to describe;
Grieving and tears fill her breast.
She painfully tells her family
That she is only afraid that death will overtake her.
3. THE KINDNESS OF FORGETTING ALL THE PAIN ONCE THE CHILD HAS BEEN BORN
On the day the compassionate mother bears the child,
Her five organs all open wide,
Leaving her totally exhausted in body and mind.
The blood flows as from a slaughtered lamb;
page 11
Yet, upon hearing that the child is healthy,
She is overcome with redoubling joy.
But after the joy, the grief returns,
And the agony wrenches her very insides.
4. THE KINDNESS OF EATING THE BITTER HERSELF AND SAVING THE SWEET FOR THE CHILD
The kindness of both parents is profound and deep,
Their care and devotion never cease.
Never resting, the mother saves the sweet for the child,
And without complaint she swallows the bitter herself.
Her love is weighty and her emotion is difficult to bear;
Her kindness is deep and so is her compassion.
Only wanting the child to get its fill,
The compassionate mother doesn't speak of her own hunger.
page 12
5. THE KINDNESS OF MOVING THE CHILD TO A DRY PLACE AND LYING IN THE WET HERSELF
The mother is willing to be wet
so that the child can be dry.
With her two breasts she satisfies its hunger and thirst;
Covering it with her sleeve, she protects it from the wind and cold.
In kindness, her head rarely rests on the pillow,
And yet she does this happily.
So long as the child is comfortable,
The kind mother seeks no solace for herself.
6. THE KINDNESS OF SUCKLING THE CHILD AT HER BREAST AND NOURISHING AND BRINGING UP THE CHILD
The kind mother is like the great earth.
The stern father is like the encompassing heaven:
One covers from above; the other supports from below.
The kindness of parents is such that
page 13
They worry that at night he will have to lie in the cold
Even a moment's pain suffered by their sons or daughters
will cause the parents sustained distress.
10. THE KINDNESS OF ULTIMATE PITY AND SYMPATHY
The kindness of parents is profound and important.
Their tender concern never ceases.
From the moment they awake each day,
their thoughts are with their children.
Whether the children are near of far away,
the parents think of them often.
Even if a mother lives for a hundred years,
She will constantly worry about her eighty-year-old child!
Do you wish to know when such kindness and love ends?
It doesn't even begin to dissipate until her life is over.
The Buddha told Ananda, "When I contemplate living beings, I see that although they are born
page 16
as human beings, nonetheless, they are stupid and dull in their thoughts and actions. They don't consider their parents' great kindness and virtue. They are disrespectful and turn their backs on kindness and what is right. They lack humaneness and are neither filial nor compliant.
For ten months while the mother is with child, she feels discomfort each time she rises, as if she were lifting a heavy burden. Like a chronic invalid, she is unable to keep her food and drink down. When the ten months have passed and the time comes for the birth, she undergoes all kinds of pain and suffering so that the child can be born. She is afraid of her own mortality, like a pig or lamb waiting to be slaughtered. Then the blood flows all over the ground. These are the sufferings she undergoes.
Once the child is born, she saves what is sweet for him and swallows what is bitter herself. She carries the child and nourishes it, washing away its filth. There is no toil or difficulty that she does not willingly undertake for the sake of her child. She endures both cold and heat and never even mentions what she has gone through. She gives the dry place to her child and sleeps in the
page 17
damp herself. For three years she nourishes the baby with milk which is transformed from the blood of her own body.
Parents continually instruct and guide their children in the ways of propriety and morality as the youngsters mature into adults. They arrange marriage for them and provide them with property and wealth or devise ways to get it for them. They take this responsibility and trouble upon themselves with tremendous zeal and toil, never speaking about their care and kindness.
When a son or daughter becomes ill, parents are worried and afraid to the point that they may even grow ill themselves. They remain by the child's side providing constant care, and only when the child gets well are the parents happy once again. In this way, they care for and raise their children with the sustained hope that their offsprings will soon grow to be mature adults.
How sad that all too often the children ad unfilial in return! In speaking with relatives whom they should honor, the children display no compliance. When they ought to be polite, they have no manners. They glare at those whom they should venerate, and insult their uncles and aunts. They scold their siblings and destroy any family
page 18
feeling that might have existed among them. Children like that have no respect of sense of propriety.
Children may be well taught, but if they are unfilial, they will not heed the instructions or obey the rules.Rarely will they rely upon the guidance of their parents. They are contrary and rebellious when interacting with their brothers. They come and go from home without ever reporting to their parents. Their speech and actions are very arrogant and they act on impulse without consulting others. Such children ignore the admonishments and punishments set down by their parents and pay no regard to their uncle's warnings. Yet, at the same time, they are immature and always need to be looked after and protected by their elders.
As such children grow up, they become more and more obstinate and uncontrollable. They are entirely ungrateful and totally contrary. They are defiant and hateful, rejecting both family and friends. They befriend evil people and under their influence soon adopt the same kind of bad habits. They come to take what is false as true.
Such children may be enticed by others to leave their families and run away to live in other towns, thus denouncing their parents and rejecting
page 19
their native town. They may become salesman or civil servants who languish in comfort and luxury. They may marry in haste and that new bond provides yet another obstruction which prevents them from returning home for long periods of time.
Or, in going to live in other towns, these children may be incautious and find themselves plotted against or accused of doing evil. They may be unfairly locked up in prison. Or they may meet with illness and become enmeshed in disasters and hardships, subject to the terrible pain of poverty, starvation and emaciation. Yet no one there will care for them. Being scorned and disliked by others, they will be abandoned on the street. In such circumstances , their lives may come to an end. No one bothers to try to save them. Their bodies swell up, rot, decay, and are exposed to the sun and blown away by the wind. The white bones entirely disintegrates and scatter as these children come to their final rest in the dirt of some other town.These children will never again have a happy reunion with their relatives and kin. Nor will they ever know how their aging parents mourn for and worry about them. The parents may grow blind from weeping or become sick from extreme
page 20
grief and despair. Constantly dwelling on the memory of their children, they may pass away, but even when they become ghosts, their souls still cling to this attachment and are unable to let it go.
Others of these unfilial children may not aspire to learning, but instead become interested in strange and bizarre doctrines. Such children may be villainous, coarse, and stubborn, delighting in practices that are utterly devoid of benefit. They may become involved in fights and thefts, setting themselves at odds with the town by drinking and gambling. As if their own debauchery were not enough, they drag their brothers into it as well, to the further distress of their parents.
If such children do live at home, they leave early in the morning and do not return until late at night. Never do they ask about the welfare of their parents and make sure that they don't suffer from heat or cold. They do not inquire after their parents' well being in the morning or in the evening, nor even on the first and fifteenth of the lunar month. In fact, it never occurs to these unfilial children to ever ask whether their parents have slept comfortably or rested peacefully. Such children are simply not concerned in the least
page 21
about their parents' well being. When the parents of such children grow old and their appearance becomes more and more withered and emaciated, they are made to feel ashamed to be seen in public and are subjected to abuse and oppression.
Such unfilial children may end up with a father who is a widower or a mother who is a widow. The solitary parents are left alone in empty houses, feeling like guests in their own homes. They may endure cold and hunger, but no one takes heed of their plight. They may weep incessantly from morning to night, sighing and lamenting. It's only right that children should provide for aging parents with food and drinks of delicious flavors, but irresponsible children are sure to overlook their duties. If they do attempt to help their parents out in any way, they feel embarrassed and are afraid people will laugh at them. Yet, such offspring may lavish wealth and food on their own wives and children, disregarding the toil and weariness involved in doing so. Other unfilial offsprings may be so intimidated by their wives that they go along with all their wives wishes. But when appealed to by their parents and elders, they ig-
page 22
nore them and are totally unfazed by their pleas.
It may be the case that daughters were quite filial to their parents before their own marriages, but that they become progressively rebellious after they marry. This situation may be so extreme that if their parents show even the slightest signs of displeasure, the daughters become hateful and vengeful towards them. Yet they bear their husband's scolding and beatings with sweet tempers, even though their spouses are outsiders with other surnames and family ties. The emotional bonds between such couples are deeply entangled, and yet those daughters hold their parents at a distance. They may follow their husbands and move to other towns, leaving their parents behind entirely. They do not long for them and simply cut off all communication with them. When the parents continue to hear no word from their daughters, they feel incessant anxiety. They become so fraught with sorrow that it is as if they were suspended upside down.Their every thought is of seeing their children, just as one who is thirsty longs for something to drink. Their kind thoughts for their offsprings never cease.
page 23
The virtue of one's parents' kindness is boundless and limitless. If one has made the mistake of being unfilial, how difficult it is to repay that kindness!"
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the depth of one's parents' kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly threw themselves on the ground and begin beating their breasts and striking themselves until all their hairpores flowed with blood. Some fell unconscious to the ground, while others stamped their feet in grief. It was a long time before they could control themselves. With loud voices they lamented, "Such suffering! What suffering! How painful! How painful!We are all offenders. We are criminals who have never awakened, like those who travel in a dark night. We have just now understood our offenses and our very insides are torn to bits. We only hope that the World Honored One will pity us and save us. Please tell us how we can repay the deep kindness of our parents!"
At that time the Tathagata used eight kinds of profoundly deep and pure sounds to speak to the assembly. "All of you should know this. I will now explain for you the various aspects of this matter.
"If there were a person who carried his father on his left shoulder and his mother on his right shoulder until his bones were ground to powder by their weight as they bore through to the marrow, and if that person were to circumambulate Mount Sumeru for a hundred thousand kalpas until the blood that flowed out from his feet covered his ankles, that person would still not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, during the period of a kalpa fraught with famine and starvation, sliced the flesh of his own body to feed his parents and did this as many times as there are dust motes as he passed through hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"if there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a sharp knife and cut out his eyes and made an offering of them to Tathagatas and continued to do that for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
page 25
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his father and mother, used a sharp knife to cut out his heart and liver so that the blood flowed and covered the ground and if he continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, never once complaining about the pain, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, took a hundred thousand swords and stabbed his body with them all at once so that they entered one side and came out the other, and if he continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, beat his bones down to the marrow and continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas, that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents.
"If there were a person who, for the sake of his parents, swallowed molten iron pellets and continues in this way to do this for hundreds of thousands of kalpas , that person still would not have repayed the deep kindness of his parents."
page 26
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the kindness and virtue of parents, everyone in the Great Assembly wept silent tears and felt searing pain in their hearts. They reflected deeply, simultaneously brought forth shame and said to the Buddha, "World Honored One, how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents?"
The Buddha replied , "Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish to repay your parents' kindness, write out this Sutra on their behalf. Recite this Sutra on their behalf. Repent of trangression and offenses on their behalf. For the sake of your parents, make offerings to the Triple Jewel. For the sake of your parents, hold the precept of pure eating. For the sake of your parents, practise giving and cultivate blessings. If you are able to do these things, you are being a filial children. If you do not do these things, you are a person destined for hells."
The Buddha tola Ananda," If a person is not filial, when his life ends and his body decays, he will fall into Spaceless, Avici Hell. This great hell is eighty thousand yojanas in circumference and is surrounded on all four sides by iron
page 27
walls. Above , it is covered over by nets, and the ground is also made of iron. A mass of fire burns fiercely, while thunder roars and bright bolts of lightning set things afire. Molten brass and iron fluids are poured over the offenders and broils their flesh and fat to a pulp.
"Oh, such suffering! Difficult to take, difficult to bear! There are poles, hooks, spears and lances, iron halberds and iron chains, iron hammers and iron awls. Wheel of iron knives rain down from the air. The offender is chopped, hacked, or stabbed, and undergoes these cruel punishments for kalpas without respite. Then they enter the remaining hells, where their heads are capped with fiery basins, while iron wheels roll over their bodies, passing both horizontally and vertically until their guts are ripped open and their bones and flesh are squashed to a pulp.
Within a single day, they experience myriad births and myriad deaths. Such sufferings are a result of committing the five rebellious acts and of being unfilial when one was alive."
page 28
At that time, upon hearing the Buddha speak about the virtue of parents' kindness, everyone in the Great Assembly wept sorrowfully and addressed the Tathagata," On this day, how can we repay the deep kindness of our parents?"
The Buddha said," Disciples of the Buddha, if you wish to repay their kindness, then for the sake of your parents print this sutra. This is truly repaying their kindness. If one can print one copy, then one will get to see one Buddha. If one can print ten copies, then one will get to see ten Buddhas. If one can print one hundred copies, then one will get to see one hundred Buddhas. If one can print one thousand copies, then one will get to see one thousand Buddhas. If one can print ten thousand copies , then one will get to see ten thousand Buddhas. This is the power derived when good people print Sutras. All Buddhas will forever protect such people with their kindness and can immediately cause the parents of such people to be reborn in heavens, to enjoy all kinds of happiness, and to leave behind the sufferings of hells."
At that time, Ananda and the rest of the Great Assembly--the asuras, garudas, kinnaras, mahoragas,
page 29
people, non-people, and others, as well as the gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, wheel-turning sage kings, and all the lesser kings--felt all the hairs on their bodies stand on end when they heard what the Buddha had said.They wept grievously and were unable to stop themselves. Each one of them made a vow saying," All of us, from now on until the exhaustion of the bounds of the future, would rather that our bodies be pulverized into small particles of dust for a hundred thousand kalpas, than to ever go against the Thus Come One's sagely teachings.We would rather that our tongues be plucked out, so that they would extend a full yojana, and that for a hundred thousand kalpas an iron plough would run over them; we would rather have a hundred-thousand bladed wheel roll freely over our bodies, than go against the Tathagata's sagely teachings. We would rather that our bodies be ensnared in an iron net for a hundred thousand kalpas, than ever goes against the Tathagata's sagely teachings. We would rather that for a hundred thousand kalpas our bodies would be chopped, hacked, multilated and chiselled into ten million pieces so that our skin, flesh, joints and bones would be completely disintegrated, than ever
page 30
go against the Tathagata's sagely teachings."
At that time, Ananda, with dignity and a sense of peace, rose from his eat and asked the Buddha, "World Honored One, what name shall this Sutra have when we accord with it and uphold it?"
The Buddha told Ananda, "This Sutra is called THE SUTRA ABOUT THE DEEP KINDNESS OF PARENTS AND THE DIFFICULTY OF REPAYING IT. Use this name when you accord with it and uphold it."
At that time, the Great Assembly, the gods, humans, asuras and the others , hearing what the Buddha had said, were completely delighted. They believed it, received it, and then bowed and withdrew.
page 31
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
Translated by Bhikshuni Heng Tao
Reviewed by Bhiksuni Heng Ch'ih
Edited by Upasaka David Rounds
Certified by Venerable Abbot HUa
and Bhiksuni Heng Ch'ih
At that time, Ananda was on Magic Mountain, together with twelve hundred fifty in the assembly. Ananda made obeisance with his palms together, circumbulated the Buddha three times, and knelt with his palms joined. Then he asked Shakyamuni Buddha this question: "During the Dharma Ending Age, all the living Beings in Southern Jambudvipa will give rise to much unwholesome karma. They will not revere the Triple Jewel, or respect their parents. They will be lacking in the Three Bonds, The Five Constants that safeguard the universal obligations between people will be in disharmony and disarray. Beings will be poor, destitute, lowly and vile. Their six faculties will suffer impairment. All day long they will engage in killing and harming. Moreover, they will not be of equal status; some will be wealthy
1 The "Three Bonds" refers to the relationship between ruler and minister, between father and son, and between husband and wife.
2 The Five constants are humaneness, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trusthworthiness.
page 32
while others will be poor. What are the conditions leading to these various different rewards and retributions? We disciples pray that the World Honored One will compassionately explain each one of these for us."
The Buddha told Ananda and the assembly of great disciples, "You should now listen attentively. Good indeed, good indeed! I will clearly set forth all of this for you. All men and women of the world, whether they be poor and lowly or wealthy and noble, whether they be undergoing limitless suffering or enjoying blessings without end, are all undergoing rewards or retributions which are due to causes and effects from their past lives. What should they do from now on?
"First, they should be filial and respectful to their parents. Next, they should reverently believe in the Triple Jewel. Third, they should refrain from killing and instead liberate the living. Fourth, they should eat pure vegetarian food and practise giving. These acts will enable them to plant seeds in the field of blessings for their future lives."
Then the Buddha spoke these verses on cause and effect:
page 33
Wealth and dignity come from one's destiny
From causes planted in lives in the past.
People who hold to this simple principle
will reap good fortune in lives in the future.
Kind men and women, listen to the causes,
Hear and remember this Sutra's reminder
Of the causes and effects of karmic deeds
In the past, in the future, and in the present.
Cause and effect is no small care.
True are my words; don't take them lightly.
Why are some people officials at present?
Because with gold they gilded the Buddhas
In their past lives, long long ago.
It's from their practice in lives in the past
That they reap in this life a rich fruition.
The purple gown and golden cordon--
The honored marks of higher office:
Should you seek them, seek with the Buddhas.
Gilding the Buddhas is your own gain;
Robing Thus Come Ones, you robe yourself.
Don't say it's easy to become an official;
It cannot happen if causes aren't planted.
page 34
What are the causes of owning a carriage
And riding on palanquins? People like that
Were builders and menders of bridges and roads.
Why are some people wearers of satin?
That is because in times in the past,
Robes they gave as gifts to the Sangha.
Sometimes people have plentiful goods,
The reason, in fact , again is quite fair.
In the past those people gave food to the poor.
Others don't have food and drink,
Who can guess the reason why?
Before those people were plagues with a fault:
Stingy made them squeeze every penny.
The well-to-do among us dwell
In very tall mansions and vast estates.
The reason is they gladly gave rice,
Lavishing gifts of grain on monasteries.
Enjoying blessings and justly prosperous,
Are people who reap a fitting reward.
In times now past they helped build temples
And saw that the Sangha had huts and shelters.
page 35
Some people's features are fine and perfect.
Surely the reason for such rewards
Is that beautiful flowers they offered to Buddhas.
Why are some people gifted and wise?
In former lives they ate pure food
And remembered the Buddhas with mindful regard.
Look at men whose wives are loyal,
Their reward comes now for what happened before:
Their conditions are strong in the Buddha's door.
Some have marriages lasting and meaningful.
Their happiness doesn't happen by chance.
The cause this time is the hanging of canopies
And streamers before the Buddha's statues.
Some happy fellows' father and mothers
Enjoy long lifespan, contentment and ease.
Where is the source for rewards such as these?
They protected orphans in times now past
And regarded all elderly ones as their own.
page 36
Orphans must live without father and mothers
Since before they shot down birds for sport.
How does one get lots of children and grandchildren?
By letting birds fly from their cages to freedom.
In raising children, some really fail badly.
It's because before they drowned female infants.
When barren, people won't bear any children.
Thats' their due for committing promiscuous deeds.
Some have long lifespans, why are they lucky?
Liberating creatures, they ransomed lives.
Have you seen how many suffer short lifespans?
Their wanton slaughter of beings is why .
Lonely are men whom no women will marry.
They're paying their debt for committing adultery.
Widows bear a sad retribution.
They held their past lives' husbands in scorn.
Servants and slaves made that bondage themselves
By neglecting repayment of goodnesses done them.
page 37
Bright are the eyes of some fortunate beings.
Before Buddhas they offered lamps fill with oil
The blind of this world bear a heavy burden
For past failure to tell the way clearly to travellers.
Some people's mouth are very misshapen.
They blew out lamps on the Buddha's altars.
To be deaf and mute is a dreary existence.
Reward appropriate for scolding one's parents.
How do people get to be hunchbacks?
They berated and laughed at those bowing to Buddhas.
Take heed of malformed hands, my friend.
They betray people prone to evil.
Fellows with crippled and useless feet
Ambushed and robbed with reckless abandon.
Most cows and horses were humans before--
People who didn't settle their debts.
Many former people are now pigs or dogs
Because they injured and heated others.
page 38
Illness and pain: an effect inevitable
For bestowing meat and wine on the Buddhas.
Freedom from illness: a fine reward
For relieving the sick by bestowing medicines.
The fate of imprsonment catches some people
Due to fiendish deeds and a failure to yield.
Death by starvation: due retribution
For stop[ping up holes of rates and snakes.
Appropriate that a victim of poisoning
Caused aquatic poisoning; damned up waters.
Abandoned, forlorn, rejected beings
Were cruel of old, abusing others.
The stature of some is extremely short.
Before, they read Sutras spread out on the floor.
Vomiting blood? Believe it's from first
Eating meat, then reciting the Sutras.
Another deed that determines deafness:
To not listen well to Sutra recitals.
Sore and scabies bother some people
Who gave stinking fish and flesh to the Buddhas.
page 39
People who reek with a terrible stench
Sold inferior scents and phony goods.
Why do some by their own hand hang themselves?
Before they used nooses to capture their prey.
All those widowed, alone, unwed, or orphaned,
Are now paid justly for former jealousy.
Those struck by lightning, consume by fire,
Rigged their scales to better their business income.
Fierce tigers and snakes that feast on people
Are enemies bearing resentments from lives before.
In our myriad deeds, whatever we do,
We reap our own rewards, it's true.
Who can we blame for our woe in the hells?
Who can there be to blame but ourselves?
Don't say that cause and effect is unseen.
Look at you, your offspring, heirs, and grand-children.
If you doubt the good of pure eating and giving,
Look around and find those enjoying fortune.
Having practices of old, they now harvest abundance.
page 40
To cultivate now will bring blessings anew.
Those who slander the cause and effect in this Sutra
will fail and have no chance to be human.
Those who recite and uphold this Sutra
Are supported by Buddhas and Bodhisattva.
Write out this Sutra, study it hard
And in future your families will flourish.
Uphold this Sutra atop your heads
To avert disasters and fatal accidents.
To lecture this Sutra on cause and effect
Is to sharpen your wits in successive rebirths.
Chanting this Sutra on Cause and Effect
Will make one revered, well regarded by all.
Print and distribute this precious Sutra
And reap rebirth as ruler or king.
To verify former cause and effect,
Regard Mahakashyapa's golden body.
A case of future cause and effect:
Bhikshu Good Star slandered the Dharma
And lost his chance for human life.
page 41
If cause and effect contained no truth,
Why did Maudgalyayana seek to rescue his mother
From the hells to save her from suffering?
Those who trust the words of this Sutra as true,
Will all be reborn in the Western Land of Bliss.
To speak of present cause and effect
To proclaim future and past as well,
Is a deed that could never be done to its end.
Join at the door of the Triple Gem
WIth blessings and wholesome belief one can enter
The door, supported by gods and dragons,
Dragons and gods who won't let you down.
For every part of giving you practice,
You'll reap ten thousand parts reward.
Such blessings are stored in a solid treasury,
For enjoyment in future rebirths without end.
If you care to know of past live's causes,
Look at rewards you are reaping today.
If you wish to find out about future lives,
You need but notice what you're doing right now.
END OF BUDDHA SPEAKS
THE SUTRA ON CAUSE AND EFFECT
IN THE THREE PERIODS OF TIME
page 42
THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF THE CHANGES TO COME SUTRA
page 43
Thus I have heard. At one time the Buddha was in Shravasti in the Jeta Grove, in the Garden of the Benefactor of Orphans and the Solitary, together with a gathering of great Bhikshus, five hundred in all, as well as all the Bodhisattvas.
At that time the world honored one told all the Bhikshus," In the future there will be Bhikshus who will fail to be transformed by the Dharma for a set of specific reasons, thus bringing the Dharma to ruin and preventing its increase and growth. What are these reasons? They are: not protecting the prohibitions and moral precepts, not being able to guard the mind, not cultivating wisdom, being lax in thought, only seeking for a good reputation, not following the teachings of the way, and being
page 44
unwilling to diligently honor the deeds which rescue those of the world. All these comprise the first matter which will bring about the Dharma's extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus," In addition, there are two other matters which will cause the Dharma's extinction. The first is not protecting the moral prohibitions, not gathering in the mind, and not cultivating wisdom. Indulging in dissolute attitudes and licentious intentions, Bhikshus will take wives and raise children, and engage in business to male a living. The second is forming sects and parties, giving rise to enmity and competition. and wishing to cause Dharma peers to fall. Abusing proper language and discourses, Bhikshus will indulge in flattery and deceit. Internally creating evil deeds, outwardly they will pretend to be of pure conduct. These comprise two other matters which will bring about the Dharma's extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus, " In addition, there are three other matters that will cause the Dharma's extinction . The first is a failure to protect the prohibitions and precepts, to gather in the mind and to cultivate wisdom. The second
page 45
is an inability to know the proper sequence of sentences on the part of people who read literature of the Dharma. They will put what comes first in the place of what comes later, and will put what comes later in the place of what comes first, and vice versa. By inverting the order of the beginnings and the endings like this, they won't understand where the teachings lead to, yet they will assume that their understanding are correct.The third is a refusal to listen to other people who correct them, but instead they harbor feelings of hatred, resentment, and jealousy toward them. People who recognize the teachings will be few. The majority will be unable to discern the principles, but will simply follow along with the opinion of others. These comprise the three other matters that will bring about Dharma extinction."
The Buddha told the Bhikshus,"There are also four other matters which will cause the Dharma's extinction. What are they? The first is that in the future, there will be bhikshus who, having renounce the livelihood of house-holders, will go to aranya but will fail to cultivate the way. The second is that they will enjoy socializing in noisy places with common people, wandering as they please, and engaging in casual talk. They will seek
page 46
fine clothing and wear precept sashes made of multi-colored cloth. The third is that they will affect the manners of the elite, and make pretense lofty vision and vast knowledge. They will claim high virtue for themselves and consider other people inferior. And though possessing fragmented wisdom, they will compare themselves to the brilliance of the sun and the moon. The fourth is that they will not gather in the three karmas, nor protect the gates of the sense organs.They will travel among women and propogate literature with erudite embroidered phrasing. They will speak much of coupling and marriage in order to move people's minds, thus causing the pure to become defiled. They will practice profligacy and reckless behaviour. thus the proper Dharma will go to ruin. And these are the four matters which will bring about the Dharma's extinction.
The Buddha told the Bhikshus," And furthermore there are five other matters that will cause the Dharma's extinction. What are they? The first is that some Bhikshus who originally left home to cultivate the way because of the Dharma, will subsequently abuse and abolish the teachings of the
page 47
of the profound sutras, such as the twelve links, the thirty-seven limbs, the vaipulya, the deep and wonderful esoteric wisdom of emptiness, the unsurpassed perfection of wisdom, the wholesome provisional devices and expedient means, the empty, markless, and wishless, and the ultimate means of bringing about timely transformations.The second is that they will instead turn to the practices of random phrases, shallow branches, and lesser sutras. Because they mix with the mundane world and lead worldly lives, they will allow the classics and manifestos of kings to become a source of chaos within the way.Bhikshus will enjoy discussing these matters and become skilled at explaining worldly affairs.They will know how to win people's approval by pleasing, thus gaining fame and reputation for themselves. The third is that they will readily employ the ideas of scholars with shallow understanding, including those who have only studied the Dharma briefly, preferring them over those of scholars who possess profound penetration of the teachings. The fourth is that they will displease the gods, the gods will say, "This is the dharma ending age and that is why things are this
page 48
way." Forsaking the teachings of the wonderful Dharma, these bhikshus will only propogate fragmented sentences, all the gods will weep and quickly depart.
The fifth is that from that time on, the proper Dharma will be scarce and no one will cultivate it with vigor. And these comprise the five matters that will bring about the Dharma extinction.
The buddha told the Bhikshus, "After my Nirvana, These deviant deeds and fifteen disorders will bring the Dharma to extinction. How painful it is! If there are Bhikshus among you who are sincerely wish to reverently study the way, you should throw out all embroidered and decoration, and not seek fame or reputation. But with a nature that is straightforward and innocent, you should guard the true and propogate the orthodox Sutras, the exalted Canon of the Buddha, and the profound transformations of the Dharma, but avoid using too many words in explaining them. You should rely on the original explanation in the Sutras ; not abandon the preper phrasings. In using special terms and repetitions, you should not allow the Buddha's intent to become lost. As to food and clothing, you should not be pleased with good offerings nor despise
page 49
mean offerings but accord with the wishes of the donors. You should be neither delighted nor displeased with the quality of offerings of food and clothing, whether fine or coarse.
"You should gather in body, mouth and mind and guard the sense gates. You should not turn from the Buddha's teachings, but be mindful of life brevity, for it's over in a flash. It is like a vision seen in a dream; upon awakening one cannot recall where it went. The suffering of the three evil destinies cannot be reckoned. Diligently cultivate the Buddhadharma as if saving your head!
"The five precepts, the ten good acts, the six paramitas, the ten thousand conducts, the four unlimited minds, the four kind of kindness, wisdom and expedient means must all be practiced with vigor. Then even though you may not meet a Buddha in the world, nonetheless, your leaving home and studying the way will not be in vain. You should make your original mind level and equal. With sympathy, be mindful of all beings and treat everyone with kindness."
After the Buddha instructed them in this way,
page 50
The Bhikshus all felt happy to the point of tears. They submitted to the Buddha, Bowed in ob eisance, and took their leave.
End of the Buddha speaks of the changes to come sutra.
Translated into Chinese
by Tripitaka Master
Dharmaraksha of Kasana of
Western Chin Dynasty
(265-313 A.D)
page 51
*mandarin words*
Verse of Transference
May the merit and virtue accrued from this work,
Adorn the Buddha's purelands,
Repaying four kind of kindness above,
And aiding those suffering in the paths below.
May those who see and hear of this.
ALl bring forth the resolve for Bodhi.
And when this retribution body is over,
Be born together in ultimate bliss.
next page
*mandarin words *
LIST OF DONOR'S
($50.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
*MANDARIN WORDS*
CHAU KOK YUEN AND FAMILY LEE CHOO
YIEW KIM SIONG CHOK PONG WENG YIEW TZE PHIN
(30.60) *mandarin words*
KUO MEE
JOHORE BAHRU WELL-WISHERS - BY Lee Choo $290/=
($30.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
FRANCIS YEW
($20.00)
*MANDARIN WORDS*
CHOK YEN PING SIOW HSIANG
CHAN ENG KIT AND FAMILY
($10.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
NEO LEE HUANG CHAN YOKE PING
DEE LAI SING WONG SOW LENG YAN HUI LAN CHEW
($8.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
NG POO FOCK AND FAMILY
($5.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
JULIE PEGGY LIM PUA TEO HUA
KUAN TECK HENG CHU SU POOH
($2.00) *MANDARIN WORDS*
CHONG AI CHON
next page
DONATED BY:
[$120/=]
Mr. and Mrs. Goh Kah Keng And Family
[$100/=] Tan Cheng Fui C.C.Lai
[$70/=]
Yeo Kuo Moy
[$57/=]
Anonymous
[50/=]
Leow Poh Swee Teo Kuo Shr (Nancy)
[$30/=]
Y.L.Ho
[$20/=]
Mr.and Mrs.Chong Hock AUn and Family
Datin Yeoh Heang Jong
Mr.Teoh Hua Hock and family
Dr. and Mrs.Lee Kok HUat and Family
In Memory of Mr.Yap Thuan Thye
Mr.and Mrs. Lee Keng Hai and family
[$10/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Mah Tuck Chin and family
Loo Kam Choon and family Tan Wee Lian
Mr. and Mrs.Chan Bock Seng and family
next page
[$10/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Khoo Eng Tong and family
Mr.and Mrs.Wong Thean Hock
Chong Ngong Ken Jerry Cheng and family
Loo Yee Loon and family Loo Sau Wan and family
Loo Yee Cheong and family
[$5/=]
Mr.and Mrs. Teh Kok Leng and family Fong
Mrs Irene Cheung Mr.and Mrs. Aw and family
Madam Lee Kook and family Yeo Ban Goh
Tan Siew Luang and family Audry Yong
Tang Hing Chuan
[$4/=]
Dennis Lim
[$3/=]
Wendy Gan Lim Chai Thiam Evelyn L.C.Teh
Mrs.Choo Teck Tong Tong
[$2/=]
Tracy Cheong Ng Wong Chai William Kok Mae
Bellinda Quah Liz Yap Tong Choy Albery Chong
Yap Kien Fung Goh Chee Teng Lee AH Moi
Chu Yoke YIn
[$1/=]
B. K. Chiam Catherine Chee Lai Mei Yoong
Tan Chor Eng Teh May Chin LInda Waybe
Lucy AU P.C.CHew Lim Guat Hoo and family
Linda Tham Yan Kuee Chen Y.S.Lu
L.K.WOng
next page
*all in mandarin words*
next page
*all in mandarin words*
next page
*mandarin words are omitted in this page*
($100)
($75.00)
($20.00)
($21.00)
($10.00)
($5.00)
Tan Bay SIang
Ng Kim Wah Ng Ah Bay Tee Kian Giap Dereen Tan
Deceased Tee Kian Eng
($2.00)
Anonymous
next page
ALAS! MY PARENTS
Alas! My parents who bore me and toiled on my behalf:
The debt of kindness I owe them is higher than the heavens.
from THE BOOK OF POETRY
If you want to be a person, the very first thing you should know is that compared to the sea, your parent kindness is deeper; comp[are to the sky, your parent kindness is higher...If you plan to repay them, you must first learn to have virtue and teach living beings to cultivate the Way. It is said. "If one child obtains the Way, 9 generations will leap over Birth and Death"'
Venerable Master Hsuan Hua
"Record of Water and Mirror Reflections"
next page
*all in mandarin words for the next few pages*
next page
*mandarin words*
Printed by : Majujaya Indah Sdn Bhd
NO.68, Jalan 14, Ampang N/V,
68000 AMpang, Selangor,
Tel: (03) 4566001, 4566002, 4572053.
Res.Tel : (03) 4912797
next page
*mandarin words*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The author got this book from a temple in year 2017.
The capital words are change to small alphabets by author for the content of The buddha speaks of the changes to come sutra due to it is difficult to read in big capital here.
The author didn't include the mandarin names donor here until futher notice .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dedicate the merit of this post to Author parents , author past seven lifetime parents and to all sentient beings wishing that they will meet with buddha teaching, buddha , dharma and sangha.
*this book show the sign of alphabet dissappearing from the word.
Comments
Post a Comment