The Buddha said, be careful not to look at women, and do not talk with them. If you must speak with them, be properly mindful and think, am a Shramana living in a turbid world. I should be like the lotus flower, which is not stained by the mud.' Think of elderly women as your mothers, of those who are older than you as your elder sisters, of those who are younger as your younger sisters, and of very young girls as your daughters. Bring forth thoughts to rescue them, and put an end to bad thoughts. "

The twenty-ninth section explains that men should stay far away from women, and that women should stay far away from men to prevent any mistakes from happening. This is using the method of ringing forth the good and ending the bad " to combat love and desire. So one is said to be like a lotus flower. This analogy can apply to men as well as to women. The lotus flower grows from the mud, but is not defiled or soiled by it. Think this way and your mind will be proper. This is the way to help yourself out. Men should regard elderly women as their own mothers, and women should regard elderly men as their own fathers. Men should see women who are the same age as they are, or slightly older, as their own elder sisters; and they should see women who are younger than they are as their younger sisters. They should view all children as they would their own and resolve to take them all across. By resolving to cross them over, you are being compassionate, and you are benefiting others. Since you can benefit yourself and also benefit others, the mutually beneficial behavior will bring a response, and your evil thoughts will naturally disappear. You will also have fewer discursive thoughts.

The Buddha said, e careful not to look at women, and do not talk with them. " The Buddha is teaching men how to act towards women. For women in relation to men, he would say, e careful not to look at men, and do not talk with them. " You can get together with members of the opposite sex and chat. Not to mention joking around with them, you shouldn even speak with them. If you must speak with them, be properly mindful and think, am a Shramana living in a turbid world. I should be like the lotus flower, which is not stained by the mud. " Now, if there is a situation where it is necessary to speak with a member of the opposite sex, what do you do? You shouldn have improper thoughts; you should be proper and mindful. A man should think, am a Shramana, a Bhikshu " and a woman should think, am a Bhikshuni " Regardless of whether we are men or women, we are all living in the Evil World of the Five Turbidities. Although this turbid, evil world is an unclean place, we should be like lotus flowers. Men can be compared to lotus flowers, and so can women. The lotus grows in the mud and yet is not defiled by the mud. It is born from the mud, but the mud does not stain it.

Think of elderly women as your mothers. omen who are older than I am are my mothers; men who are older than I am are my fathers. " Think of older people in this way. Think of those who are older than you as your elder sisters. omen who are slightly older than I am are like my elder sisters; men who are slightly older than I am are like my elder brothers. " Think of those who are younger as your younger sisters. hose who are younger than I am are like my little sisters. " That how men should see women. And how should women see men? They should think, hose who are younger than I am are just like my little brothers. "
And think of very young girls as your daughters. You should consider children who are ten years old or younger as your own sons and daughters. Bring forth thoughts to rescue them. So no matter whether it is your father or your mother, your older brother or sister, or your younger brother or sister, you should resolve to rescue them all, so they can leave suffering and attain bliss. And you should put an end to bad thoughts. Then you will be able to stop having evil and deviant thoughts, particularly thoughts of sexual desire.
Section 30

The Buddha said, eople who cultivate the Way are like dry grass: it is essential to keep it away from an oncoming fire. People who cultivate the Way look upon desire as something they must stay far away from. "

The thirtieth section tells people to keep at a distance from all thoughts of desire. Don be burned by the fire of desire. What meant by dry grass? The six emotions and their corresponding six sense organs are like dry grass. The six defiling objects are like a raging fire. Before you have reached the state where both the mind and external states are forgotten, you should cultivate the supreme conduct of keeping your distance. What meant by the forgetting of the mind and external states? Inwardly one contemplates the mind, and there is no mind. There isn any mind at all; it truly empty. Outwardly one contemplates forms, and there are no forms; nor are there any external states. The mind is empty, the body is empty, and both the mind and external states are forgotten. The eyes see everything, but there is nothing. At that point, you are no longer turned by the six sense organs and the six defiling objects.

The Buddha said, eople who cultivate the Way are like dry grass: it is essential to keep it away from an oncoming fire. "You could say eople who cultivate the Way " refers to Bhikshus, Bhikshunis, Upasakas, and Upa sikas; all who cultivate the Way are included. They are like dry grass. What happens between men and women can be compared to dry firewood or dry grass that is brought close to a raging fire. Since it is dry, all you have to do is touch it with just a tiny bit of fire, and the whole thing will ignite and burn itself up.

So when there is fire, people who cultivate the Way should stay away from it. You should avoid it. What is meant by fire here? It means desire and love, emotional desire and the experiences of the six defiling objects. The six sense organs belong to emotion, and the six defiling objects are external states that confuse people. The six sense organs (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind) and the six defiling objects (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles, and dharmas) have confused people to the point that they are born as if drunk and die as if in a dream.

People who cultivate the Way look upon desire as something they must stay far away from. People who cultivate the Way should stay away from desire. You should keep your distance from it. You should see as if not seeing, hear as if not hearing.

The eyes contemplate shapes and forms,
but inside there is nothing.
The ears hear the world sounds,
but the mind is not aware of them.

When you reach that point, there is no need to practice keeping your distance. If you can be around sense objects all the time without any problem, then it is all right. But if you can handle that, then you should practice keeping your distance.
 
 

Section 31

The Buddha said, here was once someone who was plagued by ceaseless sexual desire and wished to castrate himself. The Buddha said to him, o cut off your sexual organ would not be as good as to cut off your mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, his employees will also quit. If the deviant mind is not stopped, what good does it do to cut off the organ? '"
 
 

The Buddha spoke a verse for him:

Desire is born from your intentions.

Intentions are born from thoughts.

When both aspects of the mind are still,

There is neither form nor activity.

The Buddha said, his verse was spoken by the Buddha Kashyapa. "

The thirty-first section explains that when people want to stop desire, they should stop it within the mind. If you want to know the method for stopping the mind, you should realize that desire arises from the mind intentions and that your intentions are produced from your thoughts.

Now, take a look at your thoughts. Are they produced of them-selves? Are they produced from something else? Are they produced from a combination of both? Or are they produced without any cause? You should also find out whether thoughts are internal, external, or in the middle between the internal and external. Do they come from the past, the present, or from the future?

When you try to find thoughts in this way, your thoughts also become still and without any substance of their own. Once your thoughts are still, your intentions also become still. Since your intentions are still, your desires also become still. When your desires are still, you will see all forms and dharmas as images in a mirror. Like reflections in a mirror, they are not real. You will see that all activities are like bubbles: they are also false. All Buddhas successively contemplate and transmit these expedient Dharma-doors that enable one to subdue the mind.
The Buddha said, here was once someone who was plagued by ceaseless sexual desire and wished to castrate himself. "This person couldn stop his thoughts of lust even for a moment. Because his sexual desire was so strong and overwhelming, he tried to do something about it. He finally thought of a method: he decided to cut off his own male organ.
The Buddha said to him, o cut off your sexual organ would not be as good as to cut off your mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, his employees will also quit. " The Buddha said to him, ou say you want to cut off your male organ. It would be better to cut off your false-thinking mind. Your mind is like a supervisor: if the supervisor stops, the people working under him will also stop. " If the deviant mind is not stopped, what good does it do to cut off the organ? You get involved in an activity only because your mind has false thoughts. If your mind didn have false thoughts in the first place, then it wouldn get any help from others, and this kind of activity would stop. But if your deviant mind of lust is not stopped, then what use would it be to cut off your organ? That would be absolutely useless.
The Buddha spoke a verse for him: Desire is born from your intentions. Thoughts of desire arise from your mental intentions. Intentions are born from thoughts. What do intentions arise from? They come from thoughts. When both aspects of the mind are still, / There is neither form nor activity. Your thoughts of desire are made quiet, and your thoughts that contain various kinds of deviant knowledge and views also cease. When these two kinds of thoughts both become still, then there isn sexual behavior, nor are there any remaining thoughts of sexual desire. The Buddha said, his verse was spoken by the Buddha Kashyapa. "Kashyapa Buddha spoke this verse.
Section 32

The Buddha said, eople worry because of love and desire. That worry then leads to fear. If you transcend love, what worries will there be? What will be left to fear? "

The thirty-second section explains why people worry and feel afraid. People feel worried and afraid simply because they have love and desire. If we can put an end to love and desire, then we will not have any worries or fears. From limitless eons in the past up to the present, we have mistaken the four elements for the character-istic features of our body. We have mistaken the conditioned perceptions of the six defiling objects for the characteristics of our mind. As a result, we have become attached to the body and its senses; we crave its pleasures, and we don want to let them go. Because of this, every kind of difficulty arises. Once difficulties arise, then many worries and afflictions arise, and we fall prey to anxiety and fear. You should contemplate the four elements: know that the body is a combination of the four elements and that fundamentally there is no self. Next, contemplate the con ditioned perceptions of the six defiling objects as empty and non-existent, and recognize that the mind is impermanent. Finally, if you can cut off thoughts of love and desire, then all your worries and fears will naturally disappear.

The Buddha said, eople worry because of love and desire. That worry then leads to fear. "Because you chase after love and desire, you have things to worry about; you have worries and afflictions. From those worries and afflictions, fear develops. But if you transcend lovef you can cut off or turn around thoughts of love and desire what worries will there be? What will be left to fear? What will you have left to worry about? What is there to be afraid of? Nothing at all! The reason people have worry and fear is because they have attachments and cannot put things down.

Section 33

The Buddha said, eople who cultivate the Way are like a soldier who goes into battle alone against ten thousand enemies. He dons his armor and goes out the gate. He may prove to be a coward; he may get halfway to the battlefield and retreat; he may be killed in combat; or he may return victorious.

hramanas who study the Way must make their minds resolute and be vigorous, courageous, and valiant. Not fearing what lies ahead, they should defeat the hordes of demons and obtain the fruition of the Way. "

This thirty-third section uses an analogy to show that people who cultivate the Way should follow the three non-outflow studies of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom and should study the Way with single-minded vigor. Consider the example of a person who has various kinds of pretensions, bad habits, and delusionselusions in views, delusions in thoughts, and delusions like dust and sandhich have accumulated since time without beginning. If you can single-mindedly study the Way, you are like a single person. If you have many pretensions, many delusions, and many bad habits, those things are like ten thousand enemies. If you can receive and uphold and cultivate the pure precepts, that is equivalent to donning your armor. If you strengthen your resolve, then you won be cowardly; that the decisive vigor that comes from your precept-power. If you can advance with courageous vigor, not turning back halfway, that is a kind of samadhi-power. If you have samadhi-power, you won quit halfway through. Furthermore, if you don fear any situation, no matter how many enemies are up ahead waiting to attack you, then you won be killed so easily when you go into battle. That is a kind of wisdom-power.

By uniting the threefold powers of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom, you can defeat your beginningless habits, your pretensions, and all your other faults. All these myriads of problems are analogous to the hordes of demons. If you can defeat the hordes of demons, you will be able to obtain the fruition of the Way. If you obtain the fruition of the Way, that means you will return from the battle in triumph.

The Buddha said, eople who cultivate the Way are like a soldier who goes into battle alone against ten thousand enemies. "If you can concentrate your mind to cultivate, you are like a soldier. Countering your bad habits, faults, pretensions, greed, anger, and stupidity is just like going to war against a host of ten thousand enemies. He dons his armor and goes out the gate, just like someone preparing to go to war. He may prove to be a coward. Perhaps your resolve is not solid, and you act like a fright-ened coward.He may get halfway to the battlefield and retreat. Perhaps you cultivate for a while and then stop cultivating. You stop halfway through and retreat. He may be killed in combat. Maybe when you fight against your illusory bad habits and against the demon armies, they defeat you. You fail in your cultivation and die in battle. Or he may return victorious. Perhaps you return in triumph.

Shramanas who study the Way must make their minds resolute and be vigorous, courageous, and valiant. Shramanas who culti-vate the Way should make their minds firm and resolved. Don turn back halfway. Go forward with vigorous courage. Only advance; never retreat. Not fearing what lies ahead,they should defeat the hordes of demons and obtain the fruition of the Way. Don be afraid of how many enemies lie ahead. Defeat the demons, and then quite naturally you will be able to attain the fruition of the Way.
 
 
 
 
 

Section 34

One evening a Shramana was reciting the Sutra of the Teaching Bequeathed by the Buddha Kashyapa. The sound of his voice was mournful as he reflected remorsefully on his wish to retreat in cultivation. The Buddha asked him, n the past when you were a householder, what did you do?" He replied, was fond of playing the lute. "The Buddha said, hat happened when the strings were slack? " He replied, hey didn sound. " hat happened when they were too tight? "He replied, he sounds were cut short. "hat happened when they were tuned just right between slack and tight? " He replied, he sounds car-ried. "The Buddha said, t is the same with a Shrama-na who studies the Way. If his mind is harmonious, he can attain the Way. If he is impetuous about the Way, his impetuousness will tire out his body; and if his body is tired, his mind will become afflicted. If his mind becomes afflicted, then he will retreat from his practice. If he retreats from his practice, his offenses will certainly increase. You need only be pure, peaceful, and happy, and you will not lose the Way. "

The thirty-fourth section explains how people should study the Way. We should regulate the body and the mind in a wholesome way. We should not be too tense or stressed in body and mind; nor should we be too lazy. This same truth is also discussed in Confucianism: If you advance too rapidly, you will also retreat rapidly. When you cultivate the Way, you shouldn forget about the Way, but you also shouldn try to force the Way along. Neither too fast nor too slowhis is a good method for our cultivation. If you don keep to a moderate pace, then you won be able to accomplish the Way. If you don know how to cultivate, then you will either be too hasty or too slow.

If it too tight, it will snap.

If it too slack, it will sag.

If it neither too tight nor too slack,

Then it will work out right.

One evening a Shramana was reciting the Sutra of the Teaching Bequeathed by the Buddha Kashyapa, which is a text passed down from the time of Kashyapa Buddha. As he recited the Sutra, the sound of his voice was mournful as he reflected remorsefully on his wish to retreat in cultivation. His voice was sorrowful, and he sounded distressed. He felt very ashamed and remorseful because he didn want to cultivate anymore. He wanted to retreat.

The Buddha asked him, n the past when you were a householder, what did you do? "He said, hat was your occupation when you were a householder? What kinds of things did you do? " He replied, was fond of playing the lute. "The Shramana said to the Buddha, liked to strum the lute; making music was what I liked most. "

The Buddha said, hat happened when the strings were slack? "h, you know how to play the lute? " the Buddha said. f the strings were slack, what happened to the lute-strings? " He replied, hey didn sound. " If the strings are slack, then no sound comes forth, and the lute can be played. There no music.
hat happened when they were too tight? " the Buddha asked the Shramana. He replied, he sounds were cut short." The Shramana said, hen I strummed, the lute-strings would snap, and there would be no sound. "
hat happened when they were tuned just right between slack and tight? When the strings were neither too slack nor too taut, when they were just right, what was that like? " the Buddha asked. He replied, he sounds carried. "The Shramana said to the Buddha, ll the sounds carried very far, and the music was very pleasant to listen to. "
The Buddha said, t is the same with a Shramana who studies the Way. If his mind is harmonious, he can attain the Way. " If a Shramanane who diligently cultivates precepts, samadhi, and wisdom and puts to rest greed, hatred, and stupidityants to learn the Way, he must also be like this. If your mind is neither too tense nor too lax, then you can attain the Way. Don be in a rush, and don be lazy; then you can attain the Way.
If he is impetuous about the Way, his impetuousness will tire out his body; and if his body is tired, his mind will become afflicted. If you are hasty and impatient in your cultivation, your anxiety and temper will wear out your body. If your body gets tired out, your mind will certainly become afflicted. If his mind becomes afflicted, then he will retreat from his practice. As soon as you have these afflictions, you will want to retreat. Youl want to go back to lay-life and give up cultivating. If he retreats from his practice, his offenses will certainly increase. If you retreat from your practice and are no longer vigorous, your offenses will certainly increase in number and severity.
You need only be pure, peaceful, and happy, and you will not lose the Way. Simply make your mind pure, make your mind peaceful and happy, and you will certainly attain the Way.
Section 35

The Buddha said, eople smelt metal by burning the dross out of it in order to make high quality implements. It is the same with people who study the Way: first they must get rid of the defilements in their minds; then their practice becomes pure. "

In this section, the Buddha said, eople smelt metal by burning the dross out of it in order to make high quality implements. " In forging metal, the dross is expelled before the metal is wrought into tools and implements. That way the tools are of extremely fine quality. If the dross is not first expelled, you can make a good quality tool.

t is the same with people who study the Way: first they must get rid of the defilements in their minds." People who cultivate and learn the Way must get rid of the defilements in their minds. Once you remove the impurities from your mind, you will have a pure mind. If you cannot remove the impurities from your mind, a pure mind will not manifest. It just like the dross in metal: if you don first get rid of it, you can make a good quality tool. If you get rid of the dross, then the metal can be made into good quality tools.

All people can accomplish the Way; everyone is potentially a vessel that can hold the Way. But if you don get rid of your mental defilements, you can hold the Way. You can accomplish the Way. If you want to attain the fruition of the Way, you must first get rid of your defilements.

efilements " here refer to the desires in your mind, most especially to the thoughts of sexual desire. If you don get rid of sexual desire, then the filth and defilements will remain. If you can get rid of your sexual desire, there won be any filth. Then their practice becomes pure. Without defilements, your practiceour method of cultivation will become pure. But if your mental defilements are not eradicated, you will not attain purity in your cultivation. Although sexual desire is the greatest defilement, there are others. Greed, hatred, stupidity, pride, and doubt are all defilements in your mind. You should get rid of them, and then you will have a response in your cultivation of the Way. You will be able to return to the source, go back to the origin, and regain your inherent, pure mind.