The Buddha said, "Buddha originally has no form, no form of man, no form of self, no form of living beings. Buddha has no Discriminative Mind."
That meant there had never truly been any distinction between good and bad, kindness and evil in this world. Good and bad, kindness and evil were all distinctions made by the human heart.
And so, there was no longer such a thing as what was good and what was evil.
Look at Lu Zhishen in Water Margin. Before he left, he wrote a poem:
"I never cultivated good karma in my life, only loved killing and setting fires. Suddenly, the golden rope snapped; here, the jade lock was torn apart. The tide rose over the Qiantang River; today, I finally knew who I was."
This poem referred to Lu Zhishen enlightening the Mind and seeing the True Nature. After attaining enlightenment, he saw the "self," meaning the "Innate Nature," the "original face."
Buddhism held that the "self" perceived by ordinary people who had not attained enlightenment was actually impermanent and illusory, just as the Heart Sutra said: "The five aggregates are all empty."
Opinions on Lu Zhishen varied wildly. Many people could not understand it: Lu Zhishen drank wine, ate meat, killed people, and set fires, so how did he become a Buddha in the end? Didn't Buddha say that one could not kill? Everyone's assessment of Lu Zhishen was mixed, some praising him and some condemning him.
In truth, Buddha had never said such things, much less said one could not kill. Otherwise, where had the phrase "Buddha's wrath descends upon demons" come from?
Were demons not also one state of living beings?
Here, refraining from killing meant not casually harming living beings. But there was also a saying: eliminate one evil and save a hundred good.
These things were inherently contradictory; they were distinctions.
Nothing Lu Zhishen did in his life went against his heart for his own sake. He seemed reckless, yet he was filled with great righteousness.
You can all contemplate that for yourselves.
When a tiger ate a deer, could you call the tiger evil? That was the law of nature.
The same was true when people ate chickens, ducks, geese, or even plants.
There was originally neither good nor evil. It was all caused by one's own understanding, by ideas other people had instilled in you.
Look back at our forebears. Which one of them had not gone to battle and slain enemies to carve out a land of peace for us?
And in the end, look at this: you could be afraid when you went to a graveyard, yet feel nothing but warmth when you went to Martyrs' Park.
Because acting without self was Buddhahood; acting for oneself was evil.
Here, acting without self meant acting without mixing in personal feelings or understanding. It meant acting without the perspective of "I."
But why did cultivators promote the idea that killing created karma and should not be done? If they taught you that whenever something was unfair, you had to enforce Heaven's justice, would the world not fall into chaos?
"The blue sky is dead; the yellow sky shall rise. This poor Daoist, Zhang Jiao, asks the Great Han to die?"
Was that what they were supposed to teach you? Wouldn't that make you die even faster, damn it?
You had not even figured out who you were, so how were you going to enforce Heaven's justice?
Enforce Heaven's justice with your ass?
The good and evil you spoke of were merely distinctions made by your own thoughts. They were neither a fair heart nor a correct heart.
Because the human heart was impermanent, the evil you saw in someone at this moment did not mean that, at some other moment, you would not see his kindness.
Saying that everyone was selfish was likewise nothing more than a distinction.
Therefore, aside from patriotism, which was etched into the bones and blood of Huaxia's children and could not change—
People could act as willfully as they pleased.
Look at those people online who made mistakes yet still flourished like fish in water.
As long as you had not committed some grave mistake and were willing to bear responsibility, then your mistake was not a mistake. Sometimes, it could even help you.
This human world was not simply black and white. It was constantly transforming into its opposite, just like yin and yang.
Justice today did not mean one would not commit evil tomorrow, and evil today did not mean one could not abandon evil and return to righteousness.
How did capital operate? I robbed you of your money today, then gave back to you in the future. Because I took responsibility, I did not fall.
Today I harvested the chives; someday, I wanted to throw down the burden and quit, preparing to run away. In the end, I was taken down, because I was irresponsible and had no damn virtue.
That was why people needed to cultivate their own moral character.
Do not go on about how hard it was when you ate sweet potatoes back then, while saying not one word about the times you enjoyed good fortune.
And do not think you were so glorious today. Others had not seen your hardships either.
Keep your head down and work. Be worthy of Heaven, worthy of the people, worthy of your own sincere heart and Innate Nature, and all things could be done.
Even plagiarism could be called imitation and reference, while imitation and reference could likewise be deemed plagiarism. It only depended on whether you knew how to handle it.
What people wanted to see was the result after all your hardships. They would not care about the process of your growth.
As long as the heart beat, love could blaze like fire. When you smiled, that madman was me.
Only the shameless could succeed; those who cared about face were all working for others.
Those who sold ugliness gained wealth, while those who followed the rules became chives.
As long as people could communicate with one another, there would inevitably be worldly relationships and social customs.
The so-called jianghu, the so-called dance of immortals and demons, were all roads the heart had to walk through in this long yet fleeting life.
The exhaustion of spirit Qi in the Dharma-ending Age merely described the state of people's hearts. Yet at the same time, once a certain point was reached, it would also be reversed.
The Manifestation of Buddhas referred to awakened people beginning to help others' hearts gain liberation. This was also the key to the revival of spirit Qi.
There was no injustice. The only thing unfair was one's own unbalanced heart.
If your heart was upright and level in every matter, then nothing would count as a problem.
If you weighed every matter by gains and losses, lengths and shortcomings, then in the end, the one being tormented would be your own heart.
Some people spoke of exploitation, saying that the essence of human relationships was mutual exploitation.
Ordinary people were indeed like that. Even if you got along well with someone and sought nothing from him, was wanting to get along well with him not itself something you sought?
That was the essence.
A cultivator should possess an absolutely correct heart. After seeing this essence clearly, he would not fuss over gains and losses, nor would he fuss over people leaving and the tea growing cold.
Because he knew it was all temporary. If someone came, someone would inevitably leave; if someone left, someone would inevitably come.
People came and went, flowers withered and bloomed. It was all a natural law.
Just like birth, aging, illness, and death.
That was the law of nature. What was there to feel unbalanced about?
Put another way, a cultivator did not use gains and losses to obtain happiness, but obtained it directly from the heart.
Then, if human relationships were all relationships of benefit and harm—that was, mutual exploitation—did cultivators also exploit others?
No. What cultivators made use of was exactly the opposite of what ordinary people made use of.
What cultivators made use of were their own patterns, or rather, they made use of themselves.
Or rather, they deceived their own hearts to achieve their goals.
If you could even deceive yourself, what could you possibly fail to do?
Quit smoking and drinking. If you could deceive yourself into not smoking or drinking and believe it without the slightest doubt, then you could quit in an instant.
If you could not deceive yourself, then deceive yourself slowly. Whenever you had the chance, suggest it to yourself: "Ah, I don't want to smoke anymore. These cigarettes are so bitter. They're boring, they make my mouth stink, give me more phlegm, and sometimes even make me nauseous."
"This alcohol is no good. After drinking it, I get all muddleheaded, and my brain becomes sluggish. I can't stay muddleheaded like this for my whole life, can I? What would be the point?"
As long as you absolutely believed in yourself, you could deceive yourself and gain the ability to change everything.
If you could not deceive yourself, then someone else would need to deceive you, telling you that smoking and drinking would keep you from becoming a Buddha, and that smoking and drinking would send you to hell.
You would be afraid, and once you believed it, you would naturally change. Haha.