The Ten Evils and Twenty Difficulties of Life

The Buddha said: beings take ten things as good, and also take ten things as evil. What are the ten? Three of body, four of speech, three of mind. The three of body: killing, stealing, and lust. The four of speech: divisive talk, harsh speech, false speech, and frivolous speech. The three of mind: envy, ill will, and delusion. These ten things, not conforming to the noble path, are called the Ten Evil Practices. When these evils are stopped, they are called the Ten Good Practices.

The Buddha said: there are twenty difficulties for people. It is difficult to give while poor and lowly. It is difficult to study the Way while noble and powerful. It is difficult to give up one's life when death is certain. It is difficult to encounter the Buddhist scriptures. It is difficult to be born in the age of a Buddha. It is difficult to restrain sensual desire. It is difficult to see beauty and not covet it. It is difficult to be insulted and not grow angry. It is difficult to hold power and not abuse it. It is difficult to touch affairs without being attached. It is difficult to study widely and investigate thoroughly. It is difficult to eradicate self-pride. It is difficult not to look down on the unlearned. It is difficult to make the mind and practice equal. It is difficult not to gossip about right and wrong. It is difficult to meet a good, wise teacher. It is difficult to see one's own nature and study the Way. It is difficult to guide and liberate others according to their needs. It is difficult to remain unmoved by circumstances. It is difficult to skillfully devise expedient means.

These are the Ten Evils and Twenty Difficulties of life enumerated by the Buddha in the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections. When my son was five, I had him memorize these two passages and explained them point by point, and afterward I had him recite them again many times. Now my ten-year-old son can recite these two passages offhand. Besides recitation, whenever I have time I take him to the temple to learn from the monks, to learn from those practitioners who act in accord with the Dharma how to abandon the ten evils and the twenty difficulties.

I myself have no intention of becoming a monk, a Buddha, or a patriarch, and I certainly do not wish my son to do so in future. But I greatly love this classic human wisdom in the sutras. For us ordinary people, studying such wisdom can at least refine our personal cultivation and make us into people others do not find disagreeable.

At the same time, we can use these ten evils and twenty difficulties to examine those who claim to have attained realization and correct views. If they violate the Buddha's requirements, then however eloquent they are, they are not to be trusted; such a person is not a true teacher (a "good, wise friend") and is not worth our time to follow.

Of the Ten Evils, three belong to body, four to speech, three to mind.

Killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct are the three bodily evils. Those who commit bodily evils have not reached realization.

The bodily evils—excuse me, the verbal evils—include four: divisive talk, i.e., what we call stirring up trouble, the behavior of a gossip who speaks one thing to A and another to B; harsh speech, i.e., uttering evil words—abuse, threats, curses, and intimidation all count; false speech, i.e., lying, saying false things, talking nonsense; and frivolous speech, i.e., flattery, pretty words, and toadying. In short, the Buddha requires human speech to be true, real, straightforward, and good. To violate these is to commit verbal evil. Those who commit verbal evils have not reached realization.

Of the three mental evils: envy is jealousy; ill will is anger; delusion is being besotted. Mental evil actually also includes pride and doubt: pride is arrogance, and doubt is suspicion. These five together are what Buddhists call the five poisons: greed, ill will, delusion, pride, and doubt.

The Twenty Difficulties are also requirements for practitioners, and they are broader in scope.

Difficult to give while poor and lowly: a poor person already lives with difficulty, and giving in that state is hard.

Difficult to study the Way while noble and powerful: the noble and powerful tend to look down on everything; once one reaches that level, letting go of the self and modestly studying the Way is also very hard.

Difficult to face death calmly: in the Han-dynasty translation this phrase appears as "controlling life without killing," meaning to subdue an opponent yet spare his life. Here it is rendered "abandoning life when death is certain," with an entirely changed meaning: that when a person approaches death, it is hard to face it calmly.

Difficult to encounter the Buddhist scriptures: encountering the scriptures is the beginning of drawing near to the Dharma; many people never see them and thus have no chance to learn. Opening a book is beneficial; in fact, it is not only the scriptures—encountering any good book benefits body and mind.

Difficult to be born in the age of a Buddha: meaning it is hard to meet an age when a Buddha lives and to draw near a real Buddha.

Difficult to restrain sensual desire: the Buddha repeatedly emphasized restraining desire; Buddhism regards sensual desire as one of the greatest obstacles to practice.

Difficult to see beauty and not covet it: when people see fine things, it is hard not to give rise to grasping.

Difficult to be insulted and not grow angry: when insulted, not growing angry is also hard.

Difficult to remain clear in disaster: when calamity looms, it is hard to stay clear-headed and not leap into the pit of fire, for this requires great wisdom to see cause and effect clearly. Buddhism says bodhisattvas fear causes while ordinary beings fear results; bodhisattvas see the fruit in the cause and cut it off at the cause, while ordinary beings only understand how terrible the cause they planted was when the fruit arrives.

Difficult to contact the world without arising thoughts: encountering external things without giving rise to thoughts or emotions is hard, for it requires a mind calm as still water and surpassing concentration; one must reach the leak-free (ashrava-free) stage.

Difficult to study widely and investigate thoroughly: it is also hard for a Buddhist to be untiring in learning; wide learning requires diligence, wide reading, serious reflection, and continual growth of wisdom.

Difficult to eradicate self-pride: self-pride is the arrogance born of deeply held ego-view. A person stubbornly opinionated, unable to reflect on himself, and arrogant toward others on that account is a phenomenon we often meet. It is very hard to eradicate this pride from the bottom of one's heart.

Difficult not to look down on the unlearned: it is hard not to despise those who have not yet learned wisdom or who are less learned than ourselves.

Difficult to make the mind treat all beings equally: it is hard to truly treat all beings equally in the heart.

Difficult not to speak of others' faults: not gossiping about others' right and wrong is a hard thing.

Difficult to meet a good, wise teacher: in Buddhism, a "good, wise friend" is someone who inspires our wisdom, i.e., a true teacher. "Meet" some translate as "encounter," others as "associate with." Difficult to meet a good teacher means it is hard to be with an enlightened master and learn wisdom from him. Confucius said: walking with two others, there must be a teacher for me. Enlightened teachers are everywhere around us; a single sentence from someone is enough to inspire us—this is called a one-sentence teacher. Even a single character can inspire us—a one-character teacher. The key is whether we can lay down our pride and learn from others.

Difficult to see one's own nature and study the Way: seeing one's true nature and earnestly studying the Way is hard.

Difficult to guide and liberate others: guiding others requires abilities and insight beyond the ordinary, and the skill to teach beings appropriately; this too is very hard.

Difficult to remain unmoved by circumstances: when objects arise before the eyes, the heart does not stir—the so-called mountain collapsing before one without one's heart moving; this requires great concentration and is very hard.

Difficult to skillfully devise expedient means: it is also hard to rescue people from peril and solve their difficulties.

Above is my own rough rendering of these two classical passages. With limited ability, my understanding may be off in places and the translation may fall short; learned scholars are invited to correct me. But the general meaning is essentially correct.

By nature dull-witted, I prefer the simple and plain scriptures like the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections; practicing with them greatly helps self-cultivation. As a mirror, they can test whether a practitioner's attainment is genuine. Wisdom is hard to judge, but whether a person's words and deeds conform to the Buddha's standards is something we can judge. A practitioner who acts in accord with the Dharma will surely follow these precepts and restrain his conduct. A practitioner whose mind is immature and whose cultivation is inadequate reveals his flaws in every word and gesture.

This is the spirit the Buddha advocated on his deathbed: take the precepts as your teacher and do not prize empty talk. Of course, all these are requirements on oneself—the so-called strictness with oneself. Toward others, one should still maintain the tolerant attitude of being generous with others.