6Master Xue Wu《Knowing the Cause and Effect can prevent yourself from falling into suffering》

Of the Four Great Bodhisattvas, Ksitigarbha(or Dizang) Bodhisattva is the first in line, because this is what Buddhism is founded upon and the name is already telling us this, Earth Treasure.
4733 Buddhism is built on discipleship, we all know that. Teacher and student relationships are educational relationships, rather than religious relationships, because we must be aware: if it becomes a religion, it is superstitious by nature because it is all based on blind worshiping. If you look at the worldly religions, if they're not using education, it becomes superstitious.
4807 When we become superstitious in a sense, we are blind. Well, look at our current situation, we are already lost in our wandering thoughts, because we have so many wandering thoughts. We got confused with so many things happening around us. Are we going to add another layer of confusion to us, another layer of superstition to confuse ourselves further? There's no need for that.
4838 The purpose of Shakyamuni Buddha's Dharma is to help us to break through delusions and be awakened to the truth, because only when you're awake, knowing what is the Cause and Effect, what to prevent, when to do it, can you have real happiness, preventing yourself from falling into sufferings. Having a peaceful mind and a fulfilling life is the discipleship of Buddhism.
4908 Now that we know the foundation of Buddhist education is built on discipleship, but discipleship, Buddha also told us is built on filial piety, without love and respect towards your parents, how can you be respectful towards your teacher basically?
4933 Without this as a call, we can’t grow. For a person who disrespects the ones we should love the most, which is our parents, how can they be respectful towards the teacher? Impossible!
Basic logic, when you look at students in the school nowadays, the way their disrespectful attitude shows towards teachers, then you understand that there is something lacking at home.
5017 It's not easy for a teacher because parents' home education has issues, teachers can only do so much. If they can't even respect their teacher, how can they learn anything? That means how can they be awakened to the truth?
Say, if you are disrespectful towards Amitabha, your teacher, how can you gain enlightenment?
How can you be liberated, without this awakening, how can you be liberated from suffering because you're not listening to anything he says?
5050 Like Shakyamuni Buddha, everything he taught us, every single word is not there just for the sake of it, everything is coming out from the True Nature. Buddhism relies on your respect in order to dig up the treasure of our True Nature, without that, how can we be awakened?
5113 If there is a lack of discipleship, it represents a lack of respect in general towards your own teacher and that means you lack love and respect towards your own parents.
That means if you're not listening to anything because of a lack of respect, you just let it be, you don't even take in what they said, how can we achieve anything, how can we learn anything? That's why Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, everyone knows him already at this stage, represents filial piety. The sutra about him, Ksitigarbha Sutra, is like Buddhism's doctrine of filial piety.
5216 A person who is filial to his parents and respectful to his teacher is given the title Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
It's a title given if you are being respectful and loving towards your parents and teacher, if you treat your parents with a loving heart, if you treat your teachers with reverence and respect towards the teaching, then you are Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, (Dizang Pusa). This is the way you enter, this is how you begin your journey.
5244 Not just the parents of this life, the parents of past lives, many many past lives, that means all beginnings in general. You need to expand this loving heart from the people close to you towards everyone else, expand. With this foundation in your character, if you are like that, truly like that, then when you want to learn further and get better and more sophisticated in your learning, you progress very quickly.
5320 That's why all the Bodhisattvas or the Buddhas, when they try to turn the Dharma Wheel, are all born into the family of Emperors and Kings. You can imagine how big their merit and fortune is because they all cultivate this filial piety. In our case, if you want to have a good family or be born into a happy family or you want to have your children to be loving and respect towards you, then you need to start doing it towards your own parents. If we can't even be respectful and loving towards our elders, how can you expect, when you become an elder, to be respected by your youngest?
5414 So as young people, we must understand that. No matter how smart we are, how capable we are, never fall into the trap of arrogance, always remember your roots, only then can you grow very far. As a Buddhist, we need to learn how to love people, how to respect people. Especially in modern times, we need to learn, because it is unfamiliar and even unknown to people, how to be loving people.
Next week, we'll talk about that in detail: How do we be filial? So that's it for today.
5502 So to recap, this was a basic introduction on where to start in learning Buddhism, explaining why we need to be respectful towards our elders, our parents and not just parents of this life, parents of many, many lives in the past.
If your understanding is clear about these teachings, this principle, you will understand that all beings are your parents at one point in time and how can you harm your own parents, knowing that they are your parents.
Even if they harm you, you will not have the heart to retaliate, because you are one. It's like the left hand harming the right hand basically. You can't. If you have this foundation of filial piety in your character, your cultivation, say, chanting Amituofo, the speed of your progress is very quick. Every day you improve. So this is the basic introduction we learned today: Where do we start in learning Buddhism? Filial piety. Where do we start from filial piety? How do we perform filial piety or love and respect towards our parents? We'll talk about it next week.
So today we stop here. I hope that everyone could honestly chant Amituofo and be healthy so that you all can be peaceful and prosperous. Okay? Also, let's go to the Pure Land. Amituofo!