The Five Roots

By Master Cheng Yen
The Thirty-Seven Principles of Enlightenment

I have always believed that faith is indispensable in studying Buddhism. As the saying goes, "Faith is the mother of all merits; it nurtures all goodness." Faith can create the strength with which we can reach buddhahood. Therefore, faith is necessary for us to enter the door of Buddhism.

However, we must have the right faith, because even a little deviation will lead us down the wrong path. If we go down the path of evil, we will have evil thoughts which will cause us to commit evil actions. In order to avoid that, we have to guard carefully against the invasion of evil thoughts.

Many people do not have any idea what real Buddhism is. They think that Buddhism is burning incense before any deities, even non-Buddhist ones, in any temple or shrine. Actually, these people are lingering at the crossroads, not knowing exactly where to go.

A highly-educated doctor told me that a patient once went to his clinic. After he had given him initial treatment, the man left. About two hours later, he came back again and told the doctor that he had gone to a temple to worship a certain deity, who then instructed him to come to that doctor for further treatment. The doctor was very excited to hear that. He thought that all those gods that he worshipped, including the one that this patient had consulted, were taking good care of him. They were even sending more business his way!

I told him that it was a pity that such a highly educated person as himself would be so deeply sunk in the way of the devils. If he continued on like this, he would be lost in temptation with no hope of saving himself.

He was dumbfounded. He admitted that he had already begun to feel that he was being manipulated by the deities. No matter what he did, he always went to consult the gods first, and even then he still felt nervous and afraid. Now he understood how stupid he had been.

My fellow practitioners, that is also a kind of faith, but if our thoughts are even slightly distorted, we will not be able to clearly distinguish the right way between good and evil. Our spirits, minds and hearts will be forever lost in confusion, with no way out. Therefore, it is very important to choose the correct belief.

Better to be a non-believer than to be superstitious

A person must have a religious faith. A person without faith is like a sailor drifting on a vast sea with no compass, not knowing where to go. If the sea is very calm, he can feel that everything is all right; but if there is a storm with heavy rain, he will panic because without a compass, he will not know which direction he should go. A correct belief is like a compass on the ocean. No matter what happens, as long as one knows the right direction to go and can grip the helm steadily, one will be able to sail through the storm safely.

Thus, you know how important it is to have a religious faith. However, different religions may have different objectives. Our society is complicated, and those religious cults which do not have a complete and thorough view of the world may lead you astray. That is why I would rather choose non-belief than superstition. A person without faith is like a piece of white paper, and it will be easy to lead him to the correct way. But if he has already gone astray, it will be very difficult to get him back to the right track.

Some cults force a new follower to make strict vows such as, "Once I join the order, I shall follow all the rules, or else I will be doomed to..." His spirit is then bound up. Even if he realizes that this is not a true religion and that the Buddhist teachings are complete and clear and give the right directions for human life, his heart will still be filled with the poison of that dreadful vow. Although he venerates the truth of Buddhism, he will be afraid to follow the Buddhist way because his heart is bound up by superstition with no possibility of liberation.

So I say that it is better to be a non-believer than to be superstitious. Once a person with no beliefs has accepted the Buddhist teachings, the correct concepts will naturally take root in his mind. It will be very difficult for a superstitious person to turn from his false beliefs to the correct teachings. Therefore, we must be very careful when we choose a faith. We must not let one small error cause all our steps to go astray.

A young couple, from one of modern Taiwanese society's great industrial families, came to the Abode of Still Thoughts. They wanted to study Buddhism but did not know where to start. I told them that they must first understand correctly that Buddhism is a living religion which teaches us how to improve our spirits, purify our minds, and protect ourselves against selfish, impure desires. We must cultivate ourselves first and then inspire our families and all society to become harmonious and peaceful. If we can do this, we will have taken the first step into Buddhism.

I told this young couple that I was most afraid that they might think the Buddhist teachings were too profound for them to understand and that they would be afraid to approach them. Actually, they are not basically so deep and obscure. In his lifetime, the Buddha taught his disciples the standards for behavior in daily life and the basic principles of dealing with people and things. So why do we now feel that Buddhism is so difficult to understand? It is because through all the centuries since then, scholars have worked very hard to express the Buddha's simple teachings through profound treatises, in an attempt to make everyone understand that the dharma is incomparably wonderful and should be cherished and kept forever. Actually, if we trace back to the Buddha's time, his teachings were not so profound. They were clear, easily understood lessons in how to handle our daily lives and how to get along with people. If you think of Buddhism as a spiritual education in daily life, then after you have begun to study it, you will naturally grasp its truth about human life.

Without the root, where is the tree?

A tree grows from its roots. If the roots are strong and healthy, they will absorb water and nutrition and the tree will flourish. With the roots firmly fixed in the ground, the tree will not be afraid of rain or wind.

Faith is the first important Root. When we first begin to study Buddhism, it is difficult for us to understand its deep mysteries. We must believe that Buddhism is a religion suitable for the human world. The foundation for this "Root of Faith" must be correct and without error. Only the correct faith can lead us to the door of Buddhism.

The second Root—perseverance—is also very important. With correct faith but without the will to constantly strive forward, we will always stand at the same place without making any progress. It is a very long way from being an ordinary person to being a buddha. Since we have chosen the objective of our belief, we must not stay put. Otherwise, we will never reach our goal.

Spiritual cultivation is like walking. No matter how far you want to go, you must take the first step. When the first foot has touched the ground, we must lift the other one. If not, we can never move forward. Life is very short, so we have to work harder and walk faster. As time goes by, our merits and deeds will increase. We must make the best use of time and move forward. A seedling depends on its root to absorb water and nutrition in order to gradually grow into a large tree. In the same way, success in any commercial or spiritual enterprise is based on steadfastly moving forward.

The third Root is the awareness of one's correct thoughts. Since we have the correct faith, we must constantly cultivate charitable concepts of virtue, which means that we must cultivate a loving heart. Without love, we can never achieve anything, no matter how much effort we make. The Buddha is a good example. He forsook his personal, small love for his home and family because he had a great love for all living beings. With that thought of great love, he had the persevering courage to build a wide road of truth, goodness and beauty in the human world. Therefore, correct thoughts are very important. We must cultivate this compassionate, correct thought of love.

The fourth Root is contemplation. People are not liberated or at ease because they are constantly distracted by confused thoughts of the past and delusions of the future. Thus, they create bad karma and can never be at ease. The important thing for a Buddhist is to concentrate on the Buddha's teachings. With contemplation, one can be free.

Our faith must be correct, and we must move ahead diligently from being ordinary people to being saints. We must make good use of our time today and move forward. Do not dwell upon things that happened in the past.

The fifth Root is wisdom, which is our pure, undefiled true nature. With wisdom, we can ascertain the truth and will not be confused by the surface appearance of events. When we do things, we will not offend people around us. We can handle everything appropriately with an equitable frame of mind.

In the previous chapters, we analyzed the Four Considerations, the Four Right Efforts and the Four Steps towards Obtaining Supernatural Powers. Following the Four Considerations, we must further cultivate the Five Strengths.

After we have studied the Four Considerations, our goodness will have sprouted slightly, but it will still have no roots.

Without strong roots, the sprout of goodness is easily broken.

Therefore, we should study the Five Methods to make our goodness grow.

Study the Five Methods

The Four Considerations include considering the body as impure, considering the senses as the sources of suffering, considering the mind as impermanent, and considering everything in the world as having no independent existence. Everything in the world either has a form or has no form. If we can detach ourselves from both, we will have learned the Four Considerations and understood that everything in this world is ever-changing. In this way, we will not attach ourselves to the small love for our possessions. Desire is an abyss in which people commit countless crimes. This is because people cannot detach themselves from things visible or invisible. Once they detach themselves from all things in this world, their thoughts of goodness will grow.

"Without strong roots, the sprout of goodness is easily broken." The seedlings are very weak and delicate, and the roots are immature and fragile.

We once planted rice, beans, etc., in our fields and the sprouts were very weak. The mind is like a paddy field. When the seeds of goodness are spread on this field, the roots are not deep enough to grasp the soil and the sprouts easily break.

In order to make the sprout of goodness grow, we have to study the Five Methods, which include the Five Roots and the Five Strengths.