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English|Vietnamese
What Causes the
Three Disasters to Occur?
Ven.
Master Hsuan Hua
There are two
versions of the three disasters: great and small. The three great disasters
are fire, floods, and disasters of wind (hurricanes and tornadoes); the
three small disasters are war, famine, and epidemics. This is the time of
disasters. A great eon is composed of four middle-sized eons of formation,
dwelling, decay, and emptiness. Each middle-sized eon contains twenty small
eons. The three small disasters occur at the end of the declining period of
each eon of dwelling. The three great disasters occur during the eon of
decay within each great eon. Let us discuss the causes behind the three
great disasters.
Disasters of floods occur because people are greedy; disasters of fire occur
because people are angry; and disasters of wind occur because people are
deluded. The three disasters have their origin in the three poisons. We all
have these three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion in our mind. They
grow in our minds day by day, and when they have increased to a certain
extent, the age of great disasters comes upon us.
The three disasters occur in a certain sequence based on the seven human
emotions (joy, anger, grief, fear, love, hatred, and desire). These seven
emotions gradually increase. For each emotion, one disaster occurs. So there
will be seven fires. Following the seven fires, one flood will occur. And
since each of the seven emotions can be further divided into seven shares,
this cycle of “seven fires and one flood” will happen seven times. Then
there will be another seven fires. Finally, a disaster of wind will wipe out
the entire world. When a disaster of fire occurs, it will burn all the way
up to the First Dhyana Heavens (which include the Heaven of the Multitudes
of Brahma, the Heaven of the Ministers of Brahma, and the Heaven of the
Great Brahma Lord, in the Form Realm). When a disaster of floods occurs, it
will drown everything up to the Second Dhyana Heavens (which include the
Heaven of Lesser Light, the Heaven of Limitless Light, and the Heaven of
Light-Sound in the Form Realm). When a disaster of wind happens, it will
blow everything up to the Third Dhyana Heavens (which include the Heaven of
Lesser Purity, the Heaven of Limitless Purity, and the Heaven of Pervasive
Purity in the Form Realm). A verse says:
The Five Signs of Decay occur in the Six Desire Heavens,
The disaster of wind strikes the heavens of the Third Dhyana.
Even cultivating to reach the Heaven of Neither Thought nor Non-Thought
Is not as good as going to the West and coming back again.
Where does the disaster of wind come from? It comes from a combination of
the seven emotions. The disaster of wind symbolizes the poison of delusion.
When people are deluded, they forget everything. Therefore, when the
disaster of wind occurs, everything from the Third Dhyana Heaven down to the
hells will be wiped out. However, the disasters of fire, floods, and wind
will not affect the inner court of Tushita Heaven. Why? Because that’s where
a pure land of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas is located. Right now, Maitreya
Bodhisattva is living in the inner court of the Tushita Heaven. He will
descend to the Saha World to teach and transform living beings during the
tenth eon of dwelling in the Worthy Eon. (Presently we are in the declining
period of the ninth eon of dwelling.)
The various violent energies arising from greed, anger, and delusion are as
frightening as the atoms in an atomic bomb. The atoms produced from our own
Samadhi fire are even more frightening. These atoms do not come from
outside; they are inherent in our nature. The true fire of Samadhi within
our nature is originally pure yang. However, due to misuse, it has turned
into the fire of desire. There are fires corresponding to three internal
organs in the human body (the fire of the upper organ, the middle organ, and
the lower organ). The fires of these three organs can develop into the
disaster of fire or turn into an atomic bomb and destroy everything.
It is because we have an internal atomic bomb that there are external atomic
bombs: There is a mutual correspondence. The same principle holds in regard
to the contemporary problems of the world. Whatever is in our minds will
also exist outside. If there are no wars going on in our minds, there will
be no wars outside. As it’s said, “Everything is made from the mind alone.”
A talk given on July 29, 1985

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