Episode 107 – Evoke Sincerity to Have Faith in the Great Dharma
>> Buddha-virtues are inconceivable. The enlightened ones of the past, present and future work together to help transform all beings by evoking their sincere faith in the great Dharma. They praise and promote each other’s virtues. So, we must model Right Mindfulness in this era of delusion and be the stream of water that purifies people’s minds.
>> Therefore, all sentient beings in the world and the Small Vehicle sages find this great Dharma difficult to believe. So, this [was] the Dharma of liberation the Buddha taught the practitioners of the. Two Vehicles, the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas.
>> “This was the Dharma of liberation the Buddha taught the practitioners of the. Two Vehicles, the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas.”
>> “The skillful means of the. Great Vehicle Bodhisattva teachings.”
>> “Because He wished to lead all living beings to hear and understand this Dharma that is difficult for those in all worlds to believe, He manifested auspicious appearances.”
>> “It was stated, ‘The Tathagata’s Nirvana is not for one to attain Nirvana, but for all to attain it.’ This was difficult for people to believe.”
>> “[The Buddha] opened and revealed [His wisdom] for us to realize and enter. This enables all sentient beings to understand that their mind is the Buddha-mind.”
I have been sharing the virtues of the Buddha with everyone. We all have to first believe in the Buddha; only then can we comprehend the Dharma and penetrate His teachings. So, we must have faith and reverence.
Though Buddha-virtue is difficult to conceive of, we ordinary people must understand the virtues attained by the Buddha. This is truly not easy. It is difficult to conceive of and comprehend. Though Buddha-virtue is difficult to conceive of, we have to first establish this faith and believe that past Buddhas have come to this world too and made great efforts to transform [all beings]. All Buddhas share the same path. This is the case for past Buddhas, and it is now the case for Sakyamuni Buddha. In the future, it will be the same for those who qualify and receive predictions to become Buddhas. This requires a very long period of time.
But it also depends on our capabilities. Some realize ten things from hearing one thing, while others realize only one thing. Some people, upon hearing something ten times, still cannot truly realize even one thing. This depends on our capabilities. Whether one’s capability is high or low, the important thing is to have faith and sincerity and practice [the teachings] to figure out how we can [walk this path]. Then the Dharma and our actions become one. This is the way to practice. This is what each of us needs to believe.
In the Lotus Sutra, we have already seen that all Enlightened Ones from past, present and future work together to help transform all beings. I have also mentioned this before. Maitreya Bodhisattva and Manjusri Bodhisattva were past and future Buddhas. Everyone shares this great cause of manifesting all subtle and wondrous Dharma. So, they came to help Sakyamuni Buddha. For the sake of transforming sentient beings, they worked together to help each other.
Buddha-virtues are inconceivable. The enlightened ones of the past, present and future work together to help transform all beings by evoking their sincere faith in the great Dharma. They praise and promote each other’s virtues. So, we must model Right Mindfulness in this era of delusion and be the stream of water that purifies people’s minds.
So, everyone works together to help transform all sentient beings by evoking their sincere faith in the great Dharma. They praise and promote each other’s virtues. This is how they help each other. They help each other succeed [in their practice].
Past and future Buddhas must praise the present Buddha. I have often said that for Buddhism to prosper, monastics must praise each other. This was said by a great practitioner in the past. If we are to praise one another, then we must all accept and practice [the teachings]. We have to maintain our own virtues and believe in all Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ teachings. We also must vow to transform all sentient beings. To transform them, there is a prerequisite, our organization must be completely flawless to be able to transform sentient beings. In the Hualien Jing Si Hall, the Great Enlightened One of the Universe is a mosaic, made up of very small pieces. There are millions of pieces in this mosaic, different colors assembled carefully and laid out to form this image. When we see it from afar in the Jing Si Hall, this picture is very beautiful.
Similarly, in our spiritual practice, our [inner] world is like that of the Buddha. We all have the same perfect and radiant nature. But when a Bodhisattva has affinities with sentient beings of a certain era, he will be put forth to manifest and attain Buddhahood. Now, sentient beings in this era, which began over 2000 years ago, all have affinities with Sakyamuni Buddha. Therefore, this Saha World is. Sakyamuni Buddha’s to transform. So, in this time period, many enlightened ones of the past, future and present all gathered together to form this magnificent image of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This image appeared at the Vulture Peak assembly. They motivated and helped one another to achieve this magnificence to inspire devotion in all. So, we “evoke sincere faith in the great Dharma.”
The Buddha’s wisdom does not just explain the way things are on Earth. It encompasses the true principles of all things in the universe. So, we have to be sincere to be able to comprehend the great Dharma of the Buddha, the Great Enlightened One. Because we praise one another, as we are praised, we must quickly perfect our virtues. So when we praise others, they quickly perfect their virtues. When others praise us, we ourselves must also quickly perfect our virtues. In other words, mutual praise and encouragement [lead to] mutual success. Our perfect radiant nature is very important.
So, the Buddha-Dharma has been passed down to this day. But now, at this time, sentient beings are deluded, so we have to continue this work. Because we are all disciples of the Buddha, we vow to follow the Bodhisattva-path and to transform all sentient beings. Therefore, in this deluded era, we must bring about right mindfulness. Truly, how do we guide people to practice right mindfulness? Not only must we awaken ourselves, adjust the course of our minds and have right mindfulness, we must be like a stream of water and bring purity to people’s minds.
We must be like a current of purity. We use the teachings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to cleanse our minds first. After we cleanse our minds, we have to then bring forth a stream of water from it so that we can also purify others. This is what I want to share with everyone. I hope that all our minds will follow the path of true enlightenment of all Buddhas. Though the Buddha-virtue is so profound that it is difficult to conceive of, we must have faith in order to enter the essence of the Lotus Sutra. If we can fully understand it, then we can comprehend the true principles of the Lotus Dharma. So everyone, please be mindful.
Therefore, all sentient beings in the world and the Small Vehicle sages find this great Dharma difficult to believe. So, this [was] the Dharma of liberation the Buddha taught the practitioners of the. Two Vehicles, the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas.
Ordinary people in the world and. Small Vehicle sages find this great Dharma difficult to believe. Actually, the great Dharma was expounded to us because the Buddha wanted everyone everywhere to understand it. So, He manifested light and auspicious signs. This auspicious light was radiated while He waited for people to awaken their faith and patience for thoughtful reflection first. Then the Buddha began to teach the great Dharma.
This great Dharma, for those of our present world and even for. Small Vehicle sages, is difficult to believe. “The world” refers to the limited state of our minds. The state of ordinary people is the world of ordinary people. The mindset of sages of the Two Vehicles is the world of sages of the Two Vehicles. A “world” is where time, space and people converge. The world of us ordinary people refers to our mental states; how we, as spiritual practitioners, spend our time together, how we live together in this space, and the level of comprehension of our spiritual state.
So, this is the great Dharma. Before the Buddha opened His mouth to speak, Manjusri Bodhisattva told everyone at that assembly, “Though this Dharma is very profound, you must believe it. I will be a witness. I verify that past Buddhas did this, and the present Buddha is doing the same. So, everyone must believe.” This came from the wisdom of Manjusri Bodhisattva and the compassion of Maitreya Bodhisattva. Compassion and wisdom were exercised together at that assembly to help establish people’s faith.
Actually, the Buddha’s teachings were directed toward the world of ordinary people and sages because He came here in order to teach the Dharma of liberation to the. Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas of the Two Vehicles. He had to tell the sages of the Two Vehicles, “What you believed and practiced before was based on your capabilities. I carefully and thoughtfully guided you. Now, everyone must believe that there is another way. What you are now able to receive is the ultimate Dharma.”
“This was the Dharma of liberation the Buddha taught the practitioners of the. Two Vehicles, the Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas.”
What He would teach now was.
“The skillful means of the. Great Vehicle Bodhisattva teachings.”
In the past, the path He taught us to walk was the skillful means of the past. Now we enter the Great Vehicle Bodhisattva teachings. So the sutra states,
“Because He wished to lead all living beings to hear and understand this Dharma that is difficult for those in all worlds to believe, He manifested auspicious appearances.”
He did this for everyone. Everyone falls into one of three categories. Whether we are of inferior capabilities, average capabilities or superior capabilities, skillful means were used to patiently guide us in the hopes we could all be closer to the Buddha-Dharma and accept it. The ways of the past were gathered and set aside before the true Dharma was proclaimed. Now the Buddha was going to freely carry out. His original intent. But we must know that this teaching is difficult to believe. This Dharma is difficult to believe.
His original intent and His virtues are hard to conceive of, so of course His teachings are hard to believe. But this difficult to believe Dharma is the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle. So, the Buddha-virtue and the intrinsic nature of ordinary people are actually completely identical; both are the One Vehicle.
I often say that we have a nature equal to that of the Buddha. But the Buddha used certain methods to keep His intrinsic nature clear, bright and perfect. Our intrinsic nature is like a large mirror. All sort of colors have stained our perfect and radiant intrinsic nature, the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle. So, what we are talking about now is the need to be truly sincere. When I say the Dharma is difficult to believe, you may think that I keep circling back to the fact that this great Dharma is difficult for those in this world to believe even though you already know it. You may understand it but still do not comprehend exactly how important this great Dharma is to us. That it is hard to believe does not mean we can just believe it up to a point or as much as we can. This is not the case. So, the Buddhist sutras repeatedly stated that this great Dharma is difficult to believe. So, we cannot help but spend a lot of time to raise everyone’s awareness about this great Dharma which is difficult to believe, because this is very important to us. Therefore, this is the Dharma that is difficult for all in the world to believe.
From the previous sutra passage we can tell that almost all from the Six Destinies were represented. All sorts of demons and monsters were also there. So, this difficult-to-believe Dharma [was to be taught] in such a big Dharma-assembly. Not only do sentient beings in evil realms, who have not been tamed by the Dharma, find it hard to believe, humans and heavenly beings find it hard to believe. Therefore, even unenlightened people and heavenly beings who practiced the. Ten Good Deeds find it hard to believe. However, heavenly beings and those in this world are all still in an ordinary state. Not only do people in ordinary states find it hard to believe, even practitioners of the Two Vehicles, Hearers and Pratyekabuddhas, find it hard to believe.
“It was stated, ‘The Tathagata’s Nirvana is not for one to attain Nirvana, but for all to attain it.’ This was difficult for people to believe.”
This passage appears in the sutra because the Buddha hopes that everyone can believe that we, too, can become Buddhas, that we are equal. The Buddha does not wish for anyone to say, “I have attained Buddhahood, but you will never become a Buddha.” This is not the Buddha’s hope. The Buddha hopes for the. Ultimate Truth of the One Vehicle [to be realized] that everyone can clearly become a Buddha. So, He confirmed that everyone has the opportunity. The rest depends on people’s effort, the perspective of their minds.
So, I hope everyone can understand this.
“[The Buddha] opened and revealed [His wisdom] for us to realize and enter. This enables all sentient beings to understand that their mind is the Buddha-mind.”
This is what the Buddha wanted to reveal, to let everyone enter His wisdom. So, I keep telling everyone that the Buddha opens and reveals, so how long will it take for sentient beings [to realize and enter the Dharma]? Truly, we must wait patiently for all sentient beings to hear and understand, to know that the Buddha is the mind, and that a sincere mind is the Buddha.
Fellow Bodhisattvas, everyone is inherently a Buddha, so we should call everyone Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Each of us is truly equal to the Buddha. We each have the great Dharma of the One Vehicle; this perfect and natural intrinsic nature is surely within everyone. Everyone must believe they have the Buddha-mind. So, believe in the Buddha, believe that each of us is a Buddha. Everyone, please always be mindful.