In order for the masses to understand the profound teachings of the four sacred philosophy of Buddhism, Grandmaster Song Da Feng simplified it into the five-word golden rules, namely Birth, Age, Illness, Death and Agony.
BIRTH
Life begins with birth. For the senior to the junior, it is to raise, and for the junior to the senior, it is to serve. One is benevolent when he is able to serve the senior, and it is a love when he is
able to raise the junior. Benevolence and love will pass on from generation to generation, and to impart and to learn them, and vice-versa, one learns to cherish life and get good life, thus, reproducing cleverer new life.
AGE
In the secular world, things change constantly and ceaselessly with the ups and downs in fortune taking place alternately. Nobody can stop a person from ageing. From macro point of view, one should care of the old and young as though he is taking care of his own old and young. They will realize the responsibilities of taking care of the old, providing them with food and accommodation. This is how the benevolent people spreads the good deeds.
ILLNESS
Illness arises from self-cognition, physiology gives rises to five roots of cognition (eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin),five roots of movement(hands, legs, tongue, genitals and excretory organs), together with the root of heart, they make a total of eleven roots. Self-cognition includes five senses (colour, sound, smell, taste and feeling), they are also known as five-greatness (earth, water, fire, wind and space). Together they make up the human body and it is vulnerable to infection, affection, injury, hurt and fatigue, leading to illness. Therefore, medical cure should be given according to different causes.
The Temple employs competent physician with benevolent heart to diagnose, prescribe and give medication to the patients in order to achieve recovery. It is a charitable deed in accordance with the teaching of Buddhism.
DEATH
Death is an end of life and is in accordance with certain ways. Life ends in emptiness. But emptiness is actually a substantiality because a good ending is a return to truthfulness. A high monk will expiate the sins of the dead and relieve him of earthy vexations and achieve eternal tranquility. From death to life and life to reincarnation.
The Temple offers prayer service for the dead and helps the destitute family to purchase coffin and arranges burial for the dead.
AGONY
Human beings are unable to understand the three bewilderments with their wisdom, these are the confused thought, earthly thought and ignorance. It is even more difficult for them to sever and break the three bewilderments of empty-view, false-view and middle-view. Human beings are born out of ignorance and not equipped with virtue, therefore, they are bound by the three bewilderments. Human beings are disturbed when troubled by personal matters and anxiety. To sum up, agony is the culmination of mental anxiety, vexation and sadness, so is physical injury, handicap and pain. In conclusion, a fortunate man should sympathise with those unfortunate people who are in agony. He should also help by actual action in order to restore the esteem and confidence of those in agony. This is the essence of bringing relief agony and helping those in danger.
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