The eight sufferings are actually suffering, and suffering is divided into eight categories. "The other eight sufferings are suffering in the human world." This talk is very practical, about our suffering in this world. Which eight? Birth, old age, illness, death, separation from love, meeting of resentment and hatred, failure to seek, and the five yin flaming and strong, there are eight kinds of them. The first one is, "Living in the womb hell is a life of suffering." When a person is reincarnated, during the ten months of the mother's pregnancy, these ten months are like being in hell, with unspeakable suffering. When his mother drinks a cup of cold water, he feels like he is in an icy hell. When his mother drinks a bowl of hot soup, he feels like he is in the eight-hot hell, where he can feel all his mother's thoughts, thoughts and words. Therefore, ancient Chinese people had prenatal education, and anyone who studied ancient rituals would understand it. When a woman is pregnant, during these ten months she must keep her thoughts straight and her words and deeds must be reasonable and lawful. Why? She infected the fetus, which is called prenatal education. If the mind is correct, the fetus will have pure thoughts in the future. This is all taught by the mother. The words and deeds should be dignified and do not violate the ethics. When the child is born, the appearance and body will be dignified, easy to teach, and very obedient. In ancient China, this was called prenatal education. When a child is born, he can see when his eyes are opened, and his ears can hear. Although he cannot speak, he has already begun to learn and imitate. Therefore, the "Disciple Rules" in Chinese tutors are not taught to children. Where did they learn the "Disciple Rules", the basic rules for life? From the moment he was born, the ancient Chinese said, "Teach the baby" right after he was born. As parents, they are his teachers. Parents must be dignified and solemn in their words and deeds in front of their children. Why? A child sees, hears, and learns. Three years, a thousand days, this is called rooted education. As the old proverb goes, "At the age of three, you can see your eighty years; at the age of seven, you can see your whole life." If a child is well rooted in the three years and a thousand days of education at the age of three, he will not change when he is eighty years old. This kind of education, the education of sages, is only available in China, and foreigners don’t understand it. This education in China has been practiced in China for at least 10,000 years, and there are written records for 5,000 years. Before 5,000 years, there were no written records. These Chinese ancestors understood and could teach. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were taught by people, and great sages and great sages were also taught by people. It depends on how you teach.

Now that we have thrown away the education of sages and the best traditions of the ancients, who will teach today’s children? Television taught him. As soon as you are born, you open your eyes and look at the TV. What did television teach him? Teach him violence, pornography, killing, stealing and sexual immorality. When I grew up and went to school, I knew about foreign schools. I had never been to a Chinese primary school. Computers were taught in the first grade of foreign schools. Children are exposed to computers. There are too many game programs on the computer, as well as killing games. He has learned them since he was a child. It is completely contrary to the teaching concepts and teaching methods of ancient Chinese sages and sages, and it has ruined the whole education of people. If human education is broken, it will be like the disaster you see in Japan these days. I heard at least two officials in Japan, both senior officials, who said exactly the same thing, which is what bad karma feels. Disasters are caused by unwholesome karma. This is right. The Buddha said so in the sutras. If people in your community do good deeds, there will be no disasters in this community. I have participated in two United Nations-led world peace conferences in Japan, which are rare. Both times were in Okayama. I formed a deep relationship with the Okayama Prefectural Governor and the mayor of the local town. I like the town of Okayama very much and I respect them very much. The people in this small town are very responsible, have no greed, are always content, and live a very frugal and simple life. People are really polite to each other. They are not fake or perfunctory, but come from their inner respect for others. This small town is actually able to avoid picking up lost items on the road and never close its doors at night. We only heard that this happened in ancient times, but we didn’t expect to see it in Okayama, Japan now. The locals told me that their town has had no disasters in more than four hundred years. I called my friends in Okayama and asked them whether they had experienced this disaster in Japan. People in small areas have good hearts and good words and deeds, but there are no disasters around them. Isn't this obvious? If you don’t believe this, what else do you believe? He made it and showed it to you. A few years ago, we did an experiment in learning the "Disciple Regulations" in Tangchi Town. During those two or three years, there were disasters around the county, but there were no disasters in this area. What the Buddha told us is true.

The most obvious one is the Wenchuan earthquake. This is very obvious. The source of the earthquake is in Sichuan. The earthquake was felt and measured in Shandong. The earthquake was measured in Jiangsu. Our small county should detect it. The people who measured the earthquake in our small county said that there was no earthquake here. This is very strange. . Because from Sichuan to Shandong, he said that he must pass through Anhui. No earthquake has been detected in Anhui county. This is what local officials told me. They did not detect it, but they did detect it in Jiangxi to the south. Blessed are those who believe in what the Buddha said, but it is very difficult to believe. Just as it is said in the Amitabha Sutra, "You cannot be reborn in that country if you have few good roots and merits." If you do not have deep good roots and merits, you will It's impossible to accept it, it's impossible for you to believe it.

The eight sufferings are the sufferings of the world. Living in fetal hell is suffering. You cry when you see a baby being born. Why are you crying? If it is painful, it will cry. If it is not painful, it should be very happy. Have you ever seen a child who is happy when he is born? Have you seen it? If you didn't see it, you would know how painful it was for him to be born. Each of us has experienced hardships in life, but we have forgotten them and cannot remember them. "Being tired of old age is the suffering of old age." Young people don't know the hardships of old age. Look at Hu Xiaolin, who is in his fifties and doesn't know the hardships of his father. He told me that he took his wife and children to San Francisco, not San Francisco, but to Singapore for sightseeing. Visit the Museum of the Elderly, which has many props to show the suffering of the elderly. After he visited, he realized that the old man was in such pain and had difficulty walking, as if he was carrying thirty kilograms of sand. Tie thirty kilograms of sand to your legs and let me see how you walk. People over eighty years old walk like that. Have no idea at all! After understanding it later, I learned traditional culture and went back to fulfill my filial piety, which is very rare. Four months before my father died, he truly fulfilled his filial duty and moved the whole family. My father is an old revolutionary, and so is my mother. Seeing the benefits of learning traditional culture, the children have really turned around, know how to fulfill their filial piety, and take good care of their old father. It is not something that ordinary people can do. Only when his conscience discovers it can he realize the grace of his parents in giving birth. When people get old, their eyesight becomes dazzled, their ears become deaf, and their teeth and organ functions decline. Living in this world is really hard.

After World War II, many countries, rich and powerful, started welfare services for the elderly. Americans took the lead and took good care of the material life of the elderly. After retirement, the state will send you your living expenses every month as a state pension. Many countries around the world have this system. I am spreading the Dharma internationally and I am very concerned about this matter. Every time I go to a region, I will check out the local welfare projects for the elderly. Rather, Australia has done the best. Australia has the advantage of having a large land and a small population. Australia has done the best apartments for the elderly. The environment where the elderly live is like being in a park. It is really rare. I am very happy to see it. The government provides care for the elderly at one hundred Australian dollars per day, so the material life is better than in other countries, but the spiritual life is lacking. It is not as good as the traditional Chinese family in ancient times. The family supports you when you are old, and raising children and the elderly are the two biggest tasks in the family. This is something that foreign countries can never imagine. When Chinese old people get old, they retire and enjoy family happiness. If you tell foreigners about this family happiness, they won't understand. They don't know what family happiness is. It is a big family full of children and grandchildren. There are at least fifty or sixty children in this family, all big and small surrounding the elderly. It is really fun and interesting. Therefore, in a nursing home like Australia, if the nursing home is combined with a kindergarten, the elderly will see the children every day, and the children will see the elderly every day and regard the elderly as their grandparents. The old will love and care for the children, and the children will learn to respect the old. This is a good remedy, so that the old will never leave the young or the children, and they will live happily. Special attention should be paid to spiritual education. Religious education was his favorite subject in his later years. It allowed the old man to spend his old age truly happily and contentedly. In his later years, he was happy and joyful. This merit was incredible and no one knew about it. People who follow Buddhism understand that when an old man is dying, he will feel at peace in his heart, with no worries, cares, or resentments. He will definitely be reborn in a good place, in the realm of human and heaven. If he is full of resentment when he leaves, he has contributed a lot to society throughout his life, and no one will take care of him in his old age. As long as he is resentful, he will most likely end up in the animal realm or the hell realm.

Sure enough, it is clear, that is what the Buddhist scriptures say, everyone is a good person, and everything is a good thing. If you can see this, your realm will be greatly improved. The realm of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is not the realm of ordinary people. In the realm of ordinary people, it is wrong to worry about trivial advantages and disadvantages. Let it go, and you will be enlightened. Let it go, and what you get will be in the void realm of the Dharma Realm.

The last one, eighth, "the five yins are blazing and suffering. "Yuan Zhong Chao" says: The five yins are the color, feeling, thinking, and awareness." These five types. Color is a material phenomenon, and feelings, thoughts, and consciousness are spiritual. You can't let go of material and spiritual things. You have serious emotional attachments to your body and mind. Mind is a spiritual phenomenon. You don't know that these five things are fake and not real. The Heart Sutra is a classic that is most familiar to Buddhist students. It was translated by Master Xuanzang and has 260 words. The first sentence is "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva", which is Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva. "After walking in the deep Prajnaparamita for a long time, I saw that the five aggregates are all empty." The five aggregates are form, feeling, thought, and consciousness. If you are really wise, you will know that it is all false. If you are greedy, you will be miserable. You have to know that it is fake, let it go, and you will be liberated and feel at ease. These five things are called Yin. What is Yin? "The meaning of covering" covers it. Cover what? If you cover up your self-nature, you won’t be able to see your self-nature. Self-nature, self-nature is the true self, form, feeling, thought, conduct, consciousness is the false self, it is not the true self. The only mistake ordinary people make is to take the fake as real, and not to know the truth. It is really an injustice to engage in the six paths of reincarnation.

You see what is said here is good, "It is said that it can cover the true nature and prevent it from being revealed." These five things will prevent you from ever seeing your true nature. If you remove these five things, you will understand your mind, see your nature, and become a Buddha after seeing your nature. "Prosperity means greatness." The following is our explanation. It refers to the "birth, old age, sickness, death, etc." mentioned earlier. "Etc." refers to the seven kinds of sufferings mentioned above, such as love and separation, resentment and hatred, and not being able to seek. "All the sufferings gather together, so it is called the Five Sufferings." The yin is burning and suffering." The eight categories of suffering in the past, including birth, old age, sickness and death, love and separation, resentment and hatred, and not being able to seek what you want, are all concentrated in your body and heart. What you feel in your body and what you feel in your spirit makes you restless day and night. Everyone has these eight kinds of suffering, especially those from rich and noble families. Their five yins are extremely strong and they worry about gains and losses. Those who don’t have it will try their best to get it, and once they get it, they are afraid of losing it. We are getting older year by year, and we are afraid of old age and death. We are greedy for life and afraid of death, so we worry more than ordinary people. I couldn't sleep at night and had to take sleeping pills every day. I have personally seen billionaires taking sleeping pills every night. He had no happiness, ran too many businesses, had no leisure time, and suffered until he died of old age.