I. Why the Buddha-Dharma Has to Be Taught Again and Again
This is how the Buddha-Dharma is propagated: it has to be explained and spoken of again and again, even though the same principles are being discussed. It isn’t that the principle is especially profound; it’s that our minds are elsewhere.
Our minds are simply… Every person sitting here listening to the Dharma isn’t here for the Buddha-Dharma. Many people sit here listening to the Buddha-Dharma just to hear what is being said—something about cause and effect, perhaps. But their minds are tightly, deeply sunk in worldly concerns. What weighs most on them isn’t the Buddha-Dharma, but the seven emotions and six desires of family life. At that point, all the Buddha-Dharma becomes words passing by their ears; what you explain cannot enter their hearts.
II. Without Renunciation, the Buddha-Dharma Cannot Be Taken In
This is because they have no renunciation; the mind of renunciation has not arisen. They do not want to leave worldly life, so they cannot understand. Forever, forever, all they think about are matters at home; forever, they feel those matters at home are important.
It isn’t that things at home are unimportant—they are important too. But once attachment and concern take hold in their heart, those things occupy the most important place, and nothing else can get in.
But one day, after you have been through enough and come through it, you suddenly emerge. You suddenly feel that the things of worldly life—eating, drinking, urinating, defecating, sleeping; wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep—have no real meaning. You no longer regard them as so important. Matters of emotion do not seem so important either. The ties and entanglements are still there, but they no longer occupy such a weighty place in your heart. At that point, the Buddha-Dharma can enter, and you can take it in; only then do you feel that it makes sense—the Buddha-Dharma can enter.
III. From Burning Incense and Bowing to the Buddha to the Wisdom of the Buddha-Dharma
On one hand, there are obstacles in our own minds. On the other, I think the greater reason is that, in the environment we grew up in, science and materialism were talked about too much. Especially for those of us who grew up in China, our generation simply had no contact with this sphere. While growing up, we had no exposure to faith, nor did we ever discuss faith or the meaning of life.
Many people around us have only a shallow understanding of religious faith and Buddhist learning. Most of the people you encounter are just making pilgrimages and worshipping the Buddha, offering incense. If that is the only level you encounter, it cannot touch you. Burning incense and bowing to the Buddha is unlikely to touch your heart directly. You may feel that the stone Buddha image is cold and says nothing to you. Especially when you are troubled and in pain, when you are suffering desperately, that Bodhisattva is so cold—how could it save you? How could trust in it ever arise?
Yet you don’t realize that what can save you is his wisdom, not that cold Buddha image. You may think that once you put in that stick of incense, a miracle might be on its way; but you can be suffering terribly, and still no one comes to save you.
But you don’t know that something is always there: the Buddha’s wisdom. It can save you, but this requires study and contact with teachers of this kind. What he teaches you is the wisdom of Buddhist learning, not simply to go offer incense. When you are suffering, he explains: What is the nature of suffering? Why are you suffering? What are you attached to? This is wisdom.
This does not mean that, when you are suffering, you can go to a temple, burn some incense, stop suffering, and have the Buddha protect you. You come back just as much in pain. So, little by little, many people feel that there is a gulf between themselves and faith, between themselves and all this—as if they cannot enter, and it has not helped them.
IV. Environment and Faith
A particular time and space—a particular spacetime, I suppose. If, over the next few decades, many people like you emerged and friends gathered together to talk about nothing but the Buddha-Dharma…
If you had grown up at home with your parents talking about these things, your teachers talking about them, and your classmates talking about them, everyone would be saying, “What does the Buddha say?” I think there would be no obstacle in getting this far. Even if you did not study Buddhism, there would be no obstacle; what came out of your mouth would be the Buddha’s wisdom—those very things. How could there be any obstacle?
It’s still the environment. We live in an environment without wisdom, in a very worldly environment centered on satisfying material desires, so everyone pursues material satisfaction. We learn quickly, and we can pursue material satisfaction by any means. We keep going, keep going, keep going until the end, exhausted, and in the end become machines that work, machines that make money. Isn’t that so? You have not lived in an environment, in an atmosphere, where the Buddha-Dharma is discussed every day.
But now, at the level of faith as a whole, people’s understanding of the wisdom of Buddhist learning is still fairly shallow. Many still confine faith to believing in the Buddha: reciting sutras, reciting the Buddha’s name, offering incense, talking about saṃsāra and cause and effect.
But I think these things still cannot shake or touch the deeply entrenched habitual tendencies and desires formed in us over decades. We merely think, “Let’s study Buddhism when we have some free time.” But as soon as something comes up that touches our selfish interests, we immediately put the Buddha out of mind, and stop considering cause and effect. We show up in this world in a very self-oriented way, behaving as selfishly as we can.
Many people who study Buddhism are also very attached and very selfish. This is also why many people later dare not study Buddhism: they say, “Look at what studying Buddhism has made them; we’d better forget it.” That’s how it is.
V. The Greatest Obstacle Is the “I”
The problem is that when everything is about you, there is no Buddha in your heart. You can have the Buddha in your heart—you can. But if you had spiritual powers and could notice every one of your thoughts, from morning to night, at what moment would there be a Buddha in your heart? Every moment, all you think is: “What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?”
Even when you think of the Buddha, it is still: “What am I going to do with the Buddha? I’ll negotiate some terms with the Buddha, ask for something, beg for something, or perhaps I want to realize Buddhahood.” Isn’t that so? It is always this “I” sitting there.
So whether you want to study Buddhism or have faith, the greatest obstacle of all is that “I.” There is a moment when you let go of the “I.” But we have to think about something, don’t we? We can’t just sit there like idiots, thinking about nothing. When you aren’t thinking about the “I,” you can think more about other people; this is also breaking through ego-clinging and practicing the Bodhisattva path. You have to put your heart into something, and benefiting others is a good thing too—it is merit.
Note: This text was prepared from a teaching video by Yang Ning. If it differs from the video, the video takes precedence. Watch the video.