Episode 158 – Buddha’s Appearance Transforms Sentient Beings
>> “He reveals His body, 16 chi in size, with purple-gold radiance. His upright demeanor shines with penetrating brilliance. He has a whorl of hair like the moon, with the radiance of the sun. His curling hair is dark blue, and a fleshy protuberance is on His crown.”
>> “Inside and out, His body is crystal-clear, pure and without defilement, like pure water with no contamination, not tainted by dust. Of these physical marks, there are 32, and 80 Excellent Characteristics which seem to be seen.”
>> The previous verses praise the Buddha’s 32 Marks and 80 Excellent Characteristics, from the smoothness of His feet to all the other 80 Excellent Characteristics. The 32 Marks can be broken down into 80 Excellent Characteristics. This shows that the Buddha’s virtue was replete with dignity, perfect and without flaws.
>> “This reveals the places where living beings face the karmic retributions of birth and death.”
>>Suffering, emptiness, impermanence, impurities and about the Three Destinies and Six Realms. [He taught] how the karma we create leads us to our karmic retributions. This was what He taught to transform sentient beings. This is the rarest thing.
>> “Seen, too, were Buddha-lands adorned with a multitude of treasures. The colors of lapis lazuli and crystal were illumined by the Buddha’s light.”
As Buddhist practitioners, in spiritual practice, our mind and body have to be unified. Since we aspire to learning the Dharma, we must realize it in our actions. This is the first condition of spiritual practice. The Buddha came to the world to broaden the minds of sentient beings and purify their hearts. So, the Buddha came to this world for this one great cause. We must make a great effort to accept and practice His teachings and cultivate mind and body according to the Dharma.
As the Sutra of Infinite Meanings states next,
“He reveals His body, 16 chi in size, with purple-gold radiance. His upright demeanor shines with penetrating brilliance. He has a whorl of hair like the moon, with the radiance of the sun. His curling hair is dark blue, and a fleshy protuberance is on His crown.”
This sutra passage continues on until the phrase,
“Inside and out, His body is crystal-clear, pure and without defilement, like pure water with no contamination, not tainted by dust. Of these physical marks, there are 32, and 80 Excellent Characteristics which seem to be seen.”
This passage is very long.
“Of these physical marks, there are 32.” Those and the 80 Excellent Characteristics describe the Buddha’s dignified appearance. These are praises for the Buddha, starting from the fleshy protuberance on His crown. He is 16 chi in size, with a purple-gold radiance. His body is very radiant and magnificent.
The sutras state that an ordinary person is 8 chi, and the Buddha was twice that. Some commentaries describe it this way. But no matter how they try, no one could explain the Buddha’s appearance as being similar to that of other humans. Later, people realized that humans have both height and width. When we extend our arms, that width is the same as the distance between our head and feet. When we open up our hands, When we stretch out our fingers, we can estimate our height by [multiplying our hand-span] by eight. So, it is eight hand-spans from head to toe. Two times eight is sixteen. This is a [standard measure], the normal proportions for a human body.
As for His physical appearance and the clothing He wore, “His upright demeanor shines.” In the past we discussed a monk’s robe. The clothing worn by a monk is very proper. It is simple and radiant when worn. So, [it says] “His upright demeanor shines with penetrating brilliance.” This is praise to the Buddha, His posture, movements, clothing etc. In addition to such an appearance, there is that tuft of white hair between His brows. Moreover, “His curling hair is dark blue, and a fleshy protuberance is on His crown.” This refers to His hair. He was an Indian. Though He shaved His hair, it would grow out again as curly hair. So, “His curling hair is dark blue.” His hair is so dark that it looks shiny and blue.
Also, when we look at statues of the Buddha, there is a protuberance in the middle of His crown. This means that the Buddha did not look quite like a regular person. We call it “a fleshy protuberance on His crown.” Everything from His body, clothing, face and even His hair is described. So, “Inside and out, His body is crystal-clear, pure and without defilement.”
It does not matter how we explain the 32 Marks, the inside and outside. It is not just what is seen from the outside. Actually, the sutra also describes. [His] bones and organs in great detail, all the way down to the feet. His feet, aside from being very smooth, also had a mark that looked like a turning wheel. So, a total of 32 Marks were described. There are also 80 Excellent Characteristics. All this describes the dignity of His virtues, His perfect and flawless appearance.
The previous verses praise the Buddha’s 32 Marks and 80 Excellent Characteristics, from the smoothness of His feet to all the other 80 Excellent Characteristics. The 32 Marks can be broken down into 80 Excellent Characteristics. This shows that the Buddha’s virtue was replete with dignity, perfect and without flaws.
How should we engage in spiritual practice to attain this perfect appearance? This is why when sentient beings see the Buddha, they feel a sense of respect and joy and are willing to accept and practice His teachings. This comes from creating good affinities with sentient beings. When the affinity is good, naturally everything we see is pleasing. He had created many good karmic affinities with sentient beings so He could guide them.
We do not attain Buddhahood for ourselves but for the sake of sentient beings. The Buddha had very clearly stated that our Buddha-nature is intrinsic. Why did the Buddha manifest the Eight Aspects in His spiritual practice over 2000 years ago? The Buddha wanted to explain to everyone that He was just like everyone else. He had parents, a father and a mother. This was the life He led; this was how He became a Buddha after vows and ascetic practice.
He manifested in the world and used His body to educate people. After He attained enlightenment, He explained the principles He realized to us. Those principles were held in His heart. Indeed, all Buddhas share the same path. He has been a Buddha since Beginningless Time. This great teaching was the reason He came to this world to transform sentient beings. It had been over 40 years, so it was time for Him to use the Great Vehicle teachings He originally had to inspire people’s intrinsic Buddha-nature, so everyone can also walk the Bodhisattva-path. Everyone can do this.
Making aspirations is not about seeking protection, [instead] we vow to discover the Three Treasures in our self-nature. Since the Buddha tells us that we intrinsically have Buddha-nature, where is this Buddha-nature? We must quickly return to our [true] selves to discover our Buddha-nature. In order to discover our Buddha-nature, we must first have faith.
Faith is the source of the Way, the mother of merits. When we have an affinity with the Buddha, we willingly believe in the Buddha-Dharma, that we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. We have to believe when the Buddha tells us it is no greater in Buddhas and no lesser in ourselves. We have the same wisdom as the Buddha, so the Dharma is intrinsically in our minds. The Dharma cannot be sought outside our minds. However, our minds are full of afflictions, interpersonal disputes and attachments. These have obscured our wisdom.
Right now, we need to believe what the Buddha tells us, that we originally had Dharma in our self-nature. We also have to believe that the Sangha is in our self-nature. We do not have to become monastics to be blessed-field Sangha.
Lay Bodhisattvas also have great wisdom. If they can accept the Buddha’s teachings and purify their intrinsic nature, their minds can also be free of defilements and attachments. They can be inspired to educate sentient beings. Those who create blessings for the world are called blessed-field Sangha. On the one hand, a lay Bodhisattva can grow in wisdom and have even more opportunities to create blessings. But laypeople are bound by worldly responsibilities and cannot let go of their familial bonds. In this way, they are bound. Monastics set aside limited love for great love. They leave their families and loved ones to fully dedicate themselves to sentient beings. This is the extraordinary thing about being a monastic. They do not have the hindrances of laypeople. There are no emotional ties that bind them. So, they are called blessed-field Sangha. They can dedicate themselves to the mission of helping people.
We all have the Three Treasures in our self-nature. We must be mindful of them. We become Buddhist practitioners to learn to attain His perfect and flawless dignity both inside and outside, not just in our visible appearance. Indeed, this tells us that our internal spiritual cultivation and the karmic affinities we create with sentient beings are very important.
The Buddha brings joy to people’s hearts when they see Him. All His actions seem perfect and replete with virtues. This is attained through spiritual practice. If we want to attain this dignified appearance, we must have virtue. That means we have created good affinities with sentient beings. When we live in harmony with people, matters and principles, naturally our virtue will give us a perfect appearance. If we do not get along with others, if we create bad affinities, if we do not act harmoniously ourselves, how can we do things harmoniously? If people and matters are not in harmony, how can we be in harmony with the principles? As I said earlier, the Buddha’s dignified appearance is perfect and flawless. The 32 Marks are wonderful. [Attaining them] depends on our spiritual practice.
The Sutra of Infinite Meanings says that the Buddha has 32 Marks, and the purpose of the 32 Marks is to guide people. Only those with good karmic conditions can transform sentient beings. The Lotus Sutra also states here,
“This reveals the places where living beings face the karmic retributions of birth and death.”
The Buddha’s one great reason for coming to this world is to open and reveal [the teachings]. But have sentient realized and entered them? I have just said that since we vowed to have faith in the Buddha, we must believe His teachings. We must accept and practice His teachings, so we can comprehend, realize and enter them.
What does the Buddha open and reveal? The karmic retributions of birth and death. The karma we create causes us to transmigrate through the Six Realms, the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost, animal and even asura realms. These are the Six Realms of cyclic existence.
The Buddha tirelessly analyzed for us the reason we must not create karma. If we practice the Ten Good Deeds, we will go to heaven. But when our heavenly blessings are exhausted, we will fall again. Whether we end up in the human or animal realm is uncertain. So, practicing the Ten Good Deeds does not lead to the ultimate. What we want is to transcend the Six Realms. This is not just about doing good deeds without attachments. After we do good deeds, we have to dedicate our merits to sentient beings.
We are practicing for their sake. We are not creating blessings for merits, for our own sake, and so on. Not at all. We are truly attaining Buddhahood for their sake. We create blessings, guide them for their sake. We are not just practicing the Ten Good Deeds to be reborn in the heaven realm. That is not the ultimate. Though there are longer lifespans and more pleasures there, there is no Dharma to hear and no places to engage in spiritual practice.
So, it is better to come to this world. We must take advantage of our time here to listen to the Buddha’s teachings and learn how to do good deeds without attachments. We must aspire to transcend the Six Realms. So at the same time, the Buddha spoke for the sake of humans, heavenly beings and the eight classes of Dharma-protectors.
The Buddha always taught about.
Suffering, emptiness, impermanence, impurities and about the Three Destinies and Six Realms. [He taught] how the karma we create leads us to our karmic retributions. This was what He taught to transform sentient beings. This is the rarest thing.
We must accept and practice His teachings.
Then the sutra states,
“Seen, too, were Buddha-lands adorned with a multitude of treasures. The colors of lapis lazuli and crystal were illumined by the Buddha’s light.”
This tells sentient beings that besides the states of suffering in the Six Realms, the Buddha’s light illuminated all Buddha-lands. Everyone, this means that the Buddha does not only fully understand principles of this world; He also clearly knows about all Buddha-lands. He [shares] His understanding of principles with sentient beings in the Saha World to guide them to magnificent Buddha-lands. The Buddha tirelessly expounds the Dharma and gives teachings for us. So, we must accept and practice His teachings. Everyone, please always be mindful!