Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Third Collection, Part 32

The ancients left behind a verse: "Cultivating wisdom without cultivating merit, an arhat receives only meager offerings; cultivating merit without cultivating wisdom, an elephant walks about hung with fine jeweled ornaments." There are those who cling exclusively to the first half of this verse, spending their entire day busily occupied, devoting themselves solely to fundraising, saying: "I am building a Buddha image; I am constructing a temple hall; I am providing meals for the monastic community." Although all of these are indeed legitimate practices within the vast array of Buddhist activity, two points must be raised in response: first, cause and effect must never be treated carelessly; second, one's own inner spiritual work must always come first.

Someone objected: "If what you say is really true, then who will restore Buddha images once they have fallen into ruin? Who will rebuild pagodas and temples once they have crumbled? Who will feed monks starving by the roadside? If everyone attends only to their own inner work, the Three Jewels themselves will fall into neglect and ruin!" I answered: not so — the only thing truly worth worrying about is the neglect of the Three Jewels understood as inherent within one's own single mind. As for the Three Jewels in their worldly form, ever since Buddhism first came to China, there has never been a shortage of people building Buddha images, constructing temple halls, and feeding monks — such activity continues without pause, visible everywhere one looks. There is no need for you to trouble yourself with such excessive private worry on this account.

What I myself genuinely lament is this: setting aside entirely those monks who handle such projects while concealing their true motives and consequences, unafraid of the moral weight of their actions, skimming from the monastery's permanent assets and hiding away donated funds for their own use — even among monks who otherwise keep to their proper duties, but who have never actually studied the monastic precepts in depth, there are those who think it enough simply that they have not personally pocketed the funds for private use, and so freely shift money from one purpose to another, patching one shortfall with funds meant for something else entirely — repaying an urgent debt here, sending a gift to lay relatives there — without realizing that using money meant for bricks to buy roof tiles instead, or using rice meant to feed the monastic community to build a hall instead, however well-intentioned, brings about painful effort that turns instead into evil retribution. In such cases, the intended heavenly reward never actually materializes, while a hellish consequence arrives first instead — this is precisely what is meant by labor that earns no merit but brings misfortune all the same.

Master Zhongfeng once instructed his own community: "Let the single, unified mind be the foundation, and let every other activity follow only after it — this is precisely what is meant by attending to one's own inner work first. Once that inner work is properly attended to, whatever merit-generating activity follows will naturally turn out well." What a perfect statement this is! Every monk ought to engrave these words upon his own heart.