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There was once an old man who lived next door to a pigsty in his village in which a piglet had just been born not too long ago. Each time the old man passed by the pigsty, the pig would behave savagely and attempt to attack him. Seeing the ferocious behaviour of the pig, the old man was very terrified. As he had no choice but to pass by the pigsty on his way out, whenever he needed to go out, he would first peer at the pigsty to check if the animal was asleep.
One day, the old man thought to himself: “What enmity do I have with the pig? Every time I pass by, it would display such animosity and obstruct my way.” Then, an evil thought entered his mind: “Alright! I’ll buy that pig, kill it and devour it with relish!”
The old man proceeded to buy the pig, but subsequently had a change of heart and thought: “The Dharma teaches about cause and effect; every thought that arises in one’s mind is a karmic seed. That pig is savage to me, but docile to everyone else.
The Buddha said that whatever karmic seeds one has sown, the right karmic conditions will come together for them to bear fruits and one thus experiences the karmic consequences of one’s thoughts and actions. Perhaps I had sown bad karmic seeds between the pig and I in a past life, thus we have such a negative karmic connection now. As the saying goes, ‘one should resolve enmity and not create it’, I should set the pig free!”
After that, the old man had the pig sent to a temple, where it could live out its days freely.
A few months later, the old man paid a visit to the temple grounds to see how the pig was doing. Upon seeing him, the pig behaved as though it was meeting a great benefactor and circled closely at the old man’s heels, expressing the gratitude it felt.
Deeply moved by this, the old man reflected: “It was fortunate that I could banish those thoughts of hatred and revenge, and replace them with kind ones. In doing so, our enmity has been resolved.”
Take hold of every present moment
This is a simple story yet embedded within it is a deep philosophy worthy of contemplation. If we can promptly give rise to a tolerant and understanding mind, and transform evil into goodness, then we are creating blessings. In this world, there are many instances of regrettable actions that arise from one deviant thought to the extent that one creates a lot of obstacles on one’s life path.
While it is inevitable that afflictions can arise between people, if we can simplify our lives and matters in daily life, we will be able to progress further in our spiritual development and eliminate our afflictions.
We should not keep afflictions in our hearts. Just as time passes by without us realising it, our afflictions should also lessen and disappear with the passing of time. This is known as the “cessation of afflictions”. On the other hand, if we allow our time to pass by emptily and allow our afflictions to grow at the same time, then we are creating karmic obstacles for ourselves.
Many people have this thought—how can one be diligent and what constitutes real spiritual cultivation?
To make it simple, seizing the time we have now to do good, defines true diligence in spiritual cultivation. When we encounter adversities in life and spend time feeling troubled over them, we are in fact just wasting our time.
(Time passes by quickly,) and all spiritual attainments require time to achieve. If we hope that all things would go smoothly, we must seize the time and promptly give of ourselves and improve on ourselves. Only by doing so can we continuously be diligent in our spiritual practice.
Extracted from a Tzu Chi newsletter
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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