（一） Dylan‘s Review on Liaofan 5A 20220130《Nothing Happens Without a Reason》

And obviously, this goes beyond just Buddhism. It can be one of those very public health or public decency and all that stuff, like morality and virtues, general decency, all these things can be propagated, the more the better, talk about moderation, we can talk about more modern things, like environmental consciousness, or being more whole-minded, not just focusing on profits or talk about ecology. All of these are very good, because they're protecting our environment in our hearts.

But most importantly, it is the heart because without a clean, purified heart, everything we do will be tainted. No matter how pure the water is, when it goes into a cup full of mud, it will always be muddy. So that's why we need to reform and we need to learn how to accumulate merits.

So other than Dharma we talked about being loving, because we didn't talk too deeply, too much in terms of what good can we do, we talked about what is good and what is not good. So I'll spare a bit of time just to talk about this.

Being a loving heart, in our case, we can say vegetarianism, in the sense, it's coming out of loving hearts.

A lot of people ask me why I am a vegetarian. I'm never a person who sits there and says, I am a vegetarian. I only do that when I eat and I ask for a diet.

A lot of people are curious and ask why, and I just say, because I don't want to kill. That's how simple it is. People might do it for a reason of health, and all that. But this is also a way to show that you're not involved in the killing by adopting a diet that does not involve it.

And everyone has a different level of acceptance to this. Some people just can't (accept it), because of cultures, or religion, or it’s part of their identity and stuff. Master Yin Guang did always advise people to gradually adopt this because it's not a matter of health only. Health is small, because we all will pass away. And no matter how good your health is, (we have) to pass away after 100 years old. It is the thing that awaits you after that, the karma debt that you have to pay. We're talking about Cause and Effect here. I cannot shy away from this topic.

There is (a kind karma) in the middle, (which is not a merit or a fault), in Chinese we call it 無記業. But this(killing) is definitely not in the middle, you either have merit or fault.

We are in a society, at least, in this part of the world, we have supplies. (This is) an agricultural society, we have food, we don't need to do that, hunting, killing and eating (meat). So if you can adopt that. It's good for karma. It's good for your heart.

But in a more broader sense, beyond just diet 愛敬存心 it means that you need to leave a little bit of space for other people. Be considerate, put yourself into other people's shoes. Like at a late night, if you live in an apartment, don’t smoke on the balcony, which is what happened, and don't speak loudly on the phone.

That's also a little bit of empathy. Empathy comes from compassion, which is a loving heart, the basis of all religions and all creeds and Brotherhood's. Without a loving heart, there's no family, there's no friendships, there's no country, nothing. Love for your nation, love for your people, that's why you have a nation, you have a community. So, always have that loving heart, do not get numb by the technologies, desires, all that. In Chinese …, all that impulses, all that sensory indulgence, do not get blinded by that. Keep that pure heart in there.

Also, we talked about Giving. To do good, you need to start with Giving. That's why, in Bodhisattva's Six Parameters, the Giving Parameter is the first step.

1112 You start with giving away what is beyond your (necessary) needs, your basic food, your basic shelter, your basic (clothing), … and all that necessity is covered. What beyond that, we all start learning to give. It's common in all religions and all communities, because that is the first step of how one accumulates merit. They don't do it for the sake of merit, they do it and get merit naturally because of that.

As you can see in a lot of wealthy countries, they usually have a habit of giving, and that's why they are wealthy. There's a reason behind it. They don't just get it from nowhere. Nothing happens without a reason. The reason why you were born in a wealthy country, the reason why this country is wealthy because they give.

So merits are important, it preserves you and it makes your life less miserable. It makes your life better and happier.