Episode 161 – Perfect Wisdom-Life by Transforming Consciousness into Wisdom
>> “All of us together, an assembly of 80,000, make prostrations to and take refuge in Him.”
>> “He has skillfully eliminated thinking, perceiving and consciousness, the noble being who has no attachments and is like a trainer of elephants and horses.”
>> We need to turn thinking, perceiving and consciousness into pure and undefiled wisdom.
>> Precepts, Samadhi, wisdom, liberation and liberation’s understanding and views are the Fivefold Dharmakaya.
>> Next, “[He is] the noble being who has no attachments and is like a trainer of elephants and horses.” This praises the Buddha’s perfect virtues.
>> The World-Honored Ones began “expounding the principles of the profound Dharma. In all Buddha-lands, one after another, there were countless assemblies of Hearers. Dharma refers to teaching methods. Principles” refers to the meanings they contain.
>> “Out of great loving-kindness, the Tathagata expounded such subtle and wondrous meanings of the Dharma.”
The mind can create all phenomena and bring into existence all appearances. This is why I often say, “All things are created by the mind.” The power of the mind creates the appearances in this realm of physical existence. Take this space as an example. When I think about how my ability to speak every morning depends on having a place like this, I feel very grateful. A stable spiritual practice center and surroundings bring peace to our bodies and minds. For this, we are very grateful to the countless Bodhisattvas who created, constructed and completed this magnificent spiritual practice center. Therefore, we need to always feel grateful.
The Sutra of Infinite Meanings also taught us that we, the assembly, need to help fulfill [the conditions]. In particular, we need to be of the same mind and reverently believe in the Buddha’s teachings and sincerely accept and practice them. So, let us now discuss the Sutra of Infinite Meanings.
Yesterday, I mentioned that everyone became very happy when they saw the Buddha. His 32 Marks and 80 Excellent Characteristics make everyone happy. Therefore, every person reverently and sincerely paid their respects. Since every day we prostrate to the Buddha and learn the Dharma, naturally, our pride and arrogance are eliminated. With humility and compliance, we have faith in the Buddha and learn His teachings. Then we can attain the 32 Marks. This is also how the Buddha practiced to attain them. So, as we learn from the Buddha now, we must engage in the same spiritual practices.
The Buddha taught us how to engage in spiritual practice, how to form good karmic affinities with others. By forming good karmic affinities, we can bring happiness to others. As Buddhist practitioners, we must completely comply with the Buddha’s teachings.
Great Magnificent Bodhisattva, in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, began to speak on behalf of everyone,
“All of us together, an assembly of 80,000, make prostrations to and take refuge in Him.”
In the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, Great Magnificent Bodhisattva spoke on behalf of others, saying, “All of us.” This refers to an assembly of over 80,000. Bodhisattvas alone numbered 80,000, and he represented them all. Therefore, the 80,000 Bodhisattvas “make prostrations and take refuge in Him.” These 80,000 Bodhisattvas were happy and were already [waiting] neatly and respectfully at this Dharma-assembly. To “prostrate” is to touch the head down and cast the four limbs to the ground. They all neatly prostrated, kowtowed and paid their respects. This is how they respectfully took refuge, which means with body and mind, they will rely on the Buddha’s wisdom to guide them in the right direction.
“He has skillfully eliminated thinking, perceiving and consciousness, the noble being who has no attachments and is like a trainer of elephants and horses.”
They came to request teachings, to ask the Buddha to point out the right course. The course of spiritual practice for sentient beings is to learn “skillful elimination.”
This means that since some unknown point in time, our mind, thinking and consciousness have been defiled by ignorance. Now we know that the Buddha said we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. But how can we return to this intrinsic nature? Our minds, consciousness and thinking have been scattered among external [phenomena]. How do we reel in our scattered minds, thinking and consciousness? We need to have a method. This is why I often tell you to turn consciousness into wisdom.
Our thinking, perceiving and consciousness are scattered everywhere and [are influenced by] greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. [With minds] scattered in the world around us, we create karma of affliction. Therefore, if we do not quickly engage in spiritual practice and turn things around, the world will be in chaos.
Because people’s minds are troubled, the world is troubled. This is why we need Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come to this world to transform all beings. We are considered fortunate and blessed to be among those whom all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas aspire to transform in this world. Therefore, every one of us needs to believe in the Buddha’s teachings with utmost reverence and sincerity. We need to quickly turn our consciousness, thinking and perceiving around. As we come in contact with external sense objects every day, thoughts arise. So, when sense objects [give rise] to thoughts, we need to turn that consciousness into wisdom, fast.
With our consciousness, we [superficially] know things without recognizing their underlying principle, which is that all things are impermanent and ever-changing, unreal and illusory. Many things in the world are illusory. Sometimes we sit down and close our eyes because we want to focus. However, many illusory appearances still arise in our hearts and minds. We do not know where our thinking has led us. We clearly want to focus, to sit down and quietly contemplate [to attain] [a state of] tranquility and clarity, with vows as vast as the endless void. This mindset is pure and free of appearances and attachments. We obviously want to attain this purity. But whose mind can be free of thinking and illusory thoughts?
Therefore, the Buddha explained that instead of thinking so much, we just need to deal with reality. Even though the things we deal with are all impermanent, if we can fully understand them, we will not be attached to the illusory appearances in our minds nor to what we encounter in this physical world. Whether good or bad, whatever stirs our thoughts, we will not be influenced by those external conditions or get attached to them. This enables our bodies and minds to thoroughly understand principles.
So, “skillful elimination” is how we can manage the ways in which external conditions influence how we think. Thinking happens in the brain; we can take what is in the mind, the brain, and turn it into wisdom. Wisdom is used to clearly discern right from wrong in this world. This is called discerning wisdom. We all intrinsically have impartial wisdom. All living beings are equal. Anything that moves and is sentient is living. So, wisdom inspires us to exercise compassion and wisdom. If we have wisdom, our boundless and limitless great love, which has no attachments, will spontaneously arise. When we exercise compassion and wisdom, we are walking the Bodhisattva-path.
This is “skillfully eliminating mind, thinking and consciousness.” If we eliminate internal and external attachments, our wisdom will grow. Therefore,
We need to turn thinking, perceiving and consciousness into pure and undefiled wisdom. Each sentence in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings has very profound meanings.
Next, we take refuge in the Buddha’s Dharmakaya. “Making prostrations and taking refuge” earlier is actually about giving our bodies and minds something to rely on, a method of spiritual practice. We take refuge in the Buddha’s Dharmakaya. This means we take refuge in the Dharma, in the true principles the Buddha teaches.
Since we have taken refuge, we need methods for spiritual practice. These include precepts, Samadhi, wisdom, these three things, as well as liberation and liberation’s understanding and views.
In other words, we will turn the previously mentioned thinking, perceiving and consciousness into liberation’s understanding and views. With wise views and understanding, we see things differently from ordinary people.
All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have true views and understanding. They teach us to develop perfect virtue, which means to have perfect character and to cultivate in the same way the Buddha did. By practicing the Bodhisattva-path, we will attain perfect wisdom and virtues. Then we can see all worldly appearances in the same way as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and will naturally take this path.
We are obviously unenlightened beings right now; how can we be equal to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas? The Buddha taught us to follow the examples of Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas can attain Buddhahood, and since we are now learning to be Bodhisattvas, we can attain Buddhahood as long as we are able to keep up with Bodhisattvas.
Therefore, the Buddha’s Dharmakaya guides us to take the first step of upholding precepts. We must be determined not to be affected by external conditions. We need to grow in wisdom. Then naturally our minds can be free of hindrances and can attain liberation and attain understanding and views equal to. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This is called the Fivefold Dharmakaya.
Precepts, Samadhi, wisdom, liberation and liberation’s understanding and views are the Fivefold Dharmakaya.
This is what we need to work on when we take refuge with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We must cultivate the Fivefold Dharmakaya, which are the true principles that we must accept and practice.
Next, “[He is] the noble being who has no attachments and is like a trainer of elephants and horses.” This praises the Buddha’s perfect virtues.
Once the Buddha attained enlightenment, He still returned to this world to train stubborn sentient beings.
No matter how stubborn sentient beings are, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have loving-kindness and exercise compassion. Because of the Buddha’s loving-kindness, He wanted all beings to be happy and at peace. So, He developed methods to help them relieve everything from their endless mental sufferings to sufferings from their surroundings in this impermanent and ever-changing world. This is the Buddha’s kindness and compassion. He exercised compassion to awaken His wisdom to save and transform sentient beings. This is what the Sutra of Infinite Meanings encourages everyone to mindfully understand.
The following passage in the Lotus Sutra reiterates that all Bodhisattvas showed respect and love, and all heavenly beings and dragon-gods were already happy and making offerings to the Most Honored Among Humans. Under these conditions,
The World-Honored Ones began “expounding the principles of the profound Dharma. In all Buddha-lands, one after another, there were countless assemblies of Hearers. Dharma refers to teaching methods. Principles” refers to the meanings they contain.
Dharma refers to principles and methods for teaching sentient beings. Principles are intangible and have no appearances, so they need to be demonstrated through methods. Thus, [Dharma] is called teaching methods. “Meaning” refers to the principles they contain. Every single thing contains principles. Physics is the principles of objects, physiology, the principles of human [bodies] and psychology, the principles of our minds. Therefore, everything has to work according to the principles they contain. This is the definition of meaning.
Therefore,
“Out of great loving-kindness, the Tathagata expounded such subtle and wondrous meanings of the Dharma.”
The Tathagata was very kind and compassionate, and expounded many subtle and wondrous teachings.
This subtle and wondrous Dharma is mentioned in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. The essence of the teachings in the Lotus Sutra contains infinite meanings. And now, the many and expansive teachings in the Lotus Sutra must be captured here so people can understand very profound things.
Therefore, the Sutra of Infinite Meanings along with the Lotus Sutra and the Sutra of Meditating on Samantabhadra Bodhisattva are called the Threefold Lotus Sutra.
The [last sutra in the series] teaches us how to repent. For the Dharma to penetrate our hearts, we must first repent everything. We must constantly maintain purity in our minds. If we do not clean out the ignorance and defilements from the spiritual training ground of our mind, it cannot accommodate magnificent, subtle and wondrous true principles. Those cannot enter our minds. Therefore, we must constantly be mindful so afflictions will not disturb or contaminate our pure minds. So, we must always be mindful.