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The Buddha propagated the Dharma among the masses, with the hope that his followers would understand and attain his enlightened knowledge, and practise the teachings from his heart. Among the Buddha’s numerous disciples, some would benefit from the teachings while some did not appreciate his guidance and gradually degenerated. Seeing the latter group, Venerable Ananda felt sad for the Buddha, who took pains to expound the Dharma to them.
A lesson of riches from a garbage pile
The Buddha told Ananda that eons ago, there was an elder who promised to take care of his friend’s son after his friend had passed away. Though his friend was once wealthy, he had lost everything when his son ran up an enormous debt. The elder gave his friend’s son a thousand taels of gold and advised him to use them wisely.
At first, the young man had good intentions and wished to use the money to set up a business, but temptation soon got the better of him and he squandered all of it. He approached the elder again, whereupon he was given a lecture and another thousand taels of gold.
However, the young man squandered all his money again and again in the same manner, and on the sixth time that he approached the elder, the elder pointed to a dead rat on a rubbish pile and told him that if one was truly determined to turn his life around, he could build wealth with even just a dead rat. Conversely, if one lacked the will, even a thousand taels of gold in hand was useless.
A beggar child who was passing by at that moment heard these words and ruminated deeply on them. He buried the dead rat solemnly and then carefully washed the items that he had accumulated from begging or had found in the rubbish pile. These, he later sold off for money. As time went on, he saved up a small capital which enabled him to start up a trading business.
Living by the principles of hard work and thrift, his business prospered and he was able to buy land and build houses, becoming one of the richest businessmen in that area.
With a heart filled with gratitude, the businessman who was once a poor beggar commissioned a silver plate with a silver rat mounted on top to be made. The silver rat was surrounded by pearl and agate beads and its belly too, was filled with precious stones. He respectfully delivered the artefact to the elder’s house, explaining how, years ago, he was inspired by the elder’s words.
“The precious stones by the side of the silver rat symbolise the pile of rubbish that I saw years ago. In fact, if one is determined enough, a rubbish pile can become the capital used to build one’s wealth.”
The elder was delighted at this; he saw how the young man had taken his words of advice to heart, and was even grateful to him after he had attained success. He betrothed his daughter to the man, and bequeathed to him too, his family business, hoping that he would abide by the Dharma and live out the spirit of the Four Infinite Minds by showing loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity towards all living beings.
The Buddha then revealed to Venerable Ananda and the rest of his disciples that the elder in the story was none other than the Buddha himself in a past life, and the young beggar was now Bhiksu Panthaka, and the prodigal son, Devadatta. Though Devadatta had received the numerous teachings of the Buddha, just like how a villain’s heart is always clouded by darkness, his thoughts, words and actions were always at odds with the Dharma principles.
Applying compassion and wisdom to doing what is right
Master Cheng Yen has said that Buddhist principles are not complex—if one is willing to live by them, one will reap great benefits, and if we harbour a pure and simple mind in whatever we do, we will be able to carry out the task easily. Yet the minds of people are often stubborn and unyielding, and are thus difficult to tame. Consequently, many matters cannot be carried out easily in a straightforward way. Hence, we may feel helpless or resigned.
However, we should bear in mind that no matter how much resistance or opposition we face, we should persevere on if we firmly believe that it is something right that we should do.
Our modern society sees an increasingly wider gap between the rich and poor, while occurrences of disasters are frequent. In addition, with modern developments, it seems our desires can only multiply in number. Therefore, we must guide everyone to return to the core of Buddhism and exercise both wisdom and wisdom. We must mindfully work to accomplish a task (if it is something that we should do), no matter how difficult it may be.
Excerpted from Tzu Chi Monthly magazine, Issue 550
Translated by the Tzu Chi Singapore translation team
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