A disciple envied us monastics' life. She asked me that after I had become a monk, did I feel very pure and happy every day, with no afflictions? I said, "You are too optimistic, you are too idealistic." The hope is always beautiful and always desirable, but the reality is so cruel and so tough. I told her no. As long as one is an ordinary being, one will have afflictions, it's just our degrees of afflictions are different. Buddhist monastics are also human beings, they have not yet become saints and are still cultivating. Of course, they are no exception. I told her that I was just one suffering being, I suffered every day, I was suffering at the moment, and she had better stay away from me. Everyone is far away from me, don't worry, don't worry about being burned by me. Fellow practitioners, let me get back to the topic, what should I say about this question? Let me put this way, fellow practitioners, after we monastics have left home, when we stay away from the world and right and wrong, when we don't have to worry about or take care of our families, when we don't need to struggle hard for work, when we don't have the desire and pain of the urge to make money, then let me tell you, naturally, your afflictions will be much less, and this is an indisputable fact. For many of us, including many of our fellow Buddhist practitioners here, do you know how sufferings come? What are the sources of our afflictions? Why are we all afflicted? In fact, to put it bluntly, most of them are the pressure brought by work, conflicts between family members, complicated personnel relations, and the ambition that "the mind is higher than the sky, and life is thinner than paper". Things like that are the causes of our afflictions and sufferings. Relatively, we monastics have no desire and pursuit in this area, so naturally we have very few afflictions in this area. But everyone has afflictions, and we monastics are no exception. As long as you are a human being, how can you have no afflictions? If you had no afflictions, why would you cultivate? Then there would be no need for you to cultivate, then your cultivation is meaningless, and you don't need to cultivate. That's why I often tell fellow practitioners: As Buddhist practitioners, including us monastics, it's not necessarily that we have no temper or anger at all. That is impossible. We monastics may also be angry and have afflictions. Monastics have monastics' own afflictions, but we get rid of afflictions more carefully, treat them more calmly, and deal with them more wisely. We always keep a good mindset, face them optimistically and positively, and try our best to make our minds correspond to the Path. We will use the wisdom of Dharma to treat it calmly, see through it, deal with it, and finally let go of it. Do you know? Those who have a certain degree of Buddhist cultivation and achievements, including many of our fellow Buddhist practitioners here, have been learning Buddhism for a long time. When we encounter afflictions, we think about problems from different angles, we are different from those who don't learn Buddhism. And, relatively speaking, we are not so easily afflicted. What is very bad in the eyes of many people is nothing in the eyes of us monastics. Of course, we monastics may also get afflicted and angry, but in the process of getting angry, we know that we are getting angry, so we have more righteous thoughts and views and more rational thinking. We will observe the arising of anger, the antecedents and consequences of anger, the cause and effect of anger, the movement and thoughts of the heart, the arising, the dwelling, the change, and the cessation of the inner heart. With adjustments through inner observations and wise insight, these afflictions and anger are subdued, and this is a process of our cultivation. Fellow practitioners, let me give you a simple example: We have all been learning Buddhism for a while. In the past, when you hadn't learned Buddhism, when you got angry, you became furious and would beat and curse people. When you scolded people, you could scold them for hours, endlessly; when you get angry, you can be angry for a few days and feel unhappy. Now that you have started to learn Buddhism, you have a little bit of awareness and some ability to think rationally, you can check and reflect on yourself, and you can think rationally. As a result, you scold people for a short time and then you stop; you get angry for a little while and then you lose your anger. Then this is stopping making mistakes and cultivating for the future, this is a change after starting your cultivation and an improvement after starting your cultivation. Buddhism often states that in order to solve afflictions, we must find the root of afflictions and eradicate them from the root. We monastics deal with them from the root. So, how do we deal with afflictions? When our afflictions arise, when our afflictions present, we will rationally righteously observe, we will reflect on our minds, and check and reflect on ourselves. In this way, the harm caused by the afflictions to us can be minimized, and the afflictions will not burn out our merit forest. Fellow practitioners, as Buddhist disciples, including our monastics, our wisdom is not necessarily greater than others', and our afflictions are not necessarily less than others'. It's just that we minimize our own afflictions and magnify the afflictions of sentient beings, infinitely magnify them. When you rationally and righteously observe your afflictions, when you have awareness, those afflictions become Bodhi, and afflictions are Bodhi. "The former thought attached to the environment is the affliction, and the latter thought detached from the environment is the Bodhi." It depends on how you observe, how you cultivate, and how you transform afflictions into Bodhi. This depends on your cultivation, your inner transformation ability, and of course your own aspirations and vows. When we monastics face afflictions and anger, we will think rationally and observe the afflictions rationally. When you have enough aspirations and vows, when you are not for your own happiness, but for beings to be free from sufferings, when your aspirations are strong enough, when you do not focus on yourself, then your own problems are not problems at all, then your own little afflictions are nothing at all, and then they begin to transform into Bodhi on your cultivation path. Let me ask you fellow practitioners, how does Bodhi come about? Let me ask everyone, how does Bodhi become accomplished? How do you get the Dharma body? Every share of achievement on Bodhi or every share of gain on Dharmakaya cultivation comes from awakening afflictions and observing afflictions. When you have this observation power, all afflictions can be transformed into Bodhi. Without afflictions, we will never have the opportunity to cultivate Bodhi, let alone a pure Dharma body. Therefore, on the way of cultivation, don't be afraid of afflictions. The most fearful thing is that we do not have the ability to perceive. What are afflictions most afraid of? They are most afraid that we know they are afflictions, most afraid of our powers of insight and observation, and most afraid that we have insight and observation. When you have insight and observation, then afflictions become Bodhi right away, and afflictions are Bodhi. Namaste, Amitabha!
