Asuras Have a Violent Nature by Venerable Master Hua

Asuras Have a Violent Nature

By Venerable Master Hua

Verse

Asuras have a violent nature,

Laden with blessings, lacking power,

Absolutely determined to fight,

They bob along in karma’s tow.

Commentary:

Asura is a Sanskrit word that means “ugly.”  Male asuras are extremely ugly; the females are beautiful.  It is the nature of the male asura to initiate fights.  The female asura is also naturally fond of fighting, but wages covert war, unlike the overt physical battles of the males, using weapons of the mind such as jealousy, obstructiveness, ignorance, and affliction.

Sometimes this realm is included in the Three Good Realms -- gods, humans, and asuras.  At other times they are classified as one of the Four Evil Realms -- hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras.

There are asuras in the animal realm, in the human realm, in the heavens, and among the hungry ghosts.  Although the asuras are an individual Dharma Realm by themselves, they appear in the other realms as well.  In general, regardless of what realm they are in, they like to pick fights, and have bad tempers.  They enjoy bossing others around and like to be supervisors, but they can’t stand supervision.  They won’t be controlled by others.  These are the characteristics of asuras.

If you haven’t noticed the asuras, I can tell you more about them.  Among people, asuras can be good or bad.  The good asuras include military officials and troops, and bad asuras are bandits, thieves, robbers, thugs, murderers, and the like.  We can see these asuras in the world of men.

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In general, asuras are utterly unreasonable and have huge tempers.  They are constantly blowing their tops.  Too much temper!

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Asuras are so belligerent that they can keep fighting for one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand years.  They could fight for a thousand years without getting tired of it!

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Asuras may be born in the heavens, in the human realm, or in the realms of animals and hungry ghosts.  Dragged by the force of their karma, they become deluded, create more karma, and undergo the retribution.  The force of their karma pulls them to undergo retribution in various realms.  Cultivators should take care not to be belligerent and hot tempered.  Then they won’t get dragged in the asura realm.

If we study them in detail, we find that there are asuras in five of the nine Dharma Realms of living beings.  In the animal realm, there are asuras among creatures that fly in the air, those on the land, and those in the water.  Crocodiles are an instance of asurasin the water.  Wild stallions are asuras among horses.  They bring trouble and disturbance to the herd.  Most bulls are asuras, too.  They butt their two horns against things to show their tough asura disposition.  Bulls are asuras by nature.  Dogs have even more of an asura nature, so people who own dogs are in close association with asuras.  If you hang around asuras, you become closer to them.  And getting close to them is dangerous; you might just fall into the realm of asuras.  Everyone should pay attention to this and be careful not to run into the realm of asuras!

Excerpt from: “The Ten Dharma Realms Are Not Beyond A Single Thought” by Venerable Master Hua, Buddhist Text Translation Society, Dharma Realm Buddhist University, Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, California 94010-4504, 1996, pp 71-79