Episode 815 – Protect Sentient Beings with Loving-kindness
>> With great loving-kindness, sentient beings are in our thoughts and under our protection. With great love, our hearts will encompass the universe and the world will be like one great house. By compassionately viewing all equally, everyone is like our child.
>> “We are like a child, young and ignorant, who abandoned his father and ran away to far-off foreign lands, wandering through many countries for more than 50 years.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]
>> “His father worried for him and searched for him in all directions. As he grew tired in his search, he stopped in a certain city. There he built a house, where he amused himself in the five desires, for his household was very wealthy.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]
>> His father worried for him and searched for him in all directions: This is an analogy for observing the four forms of birth to the opportunity to be delivered.
>> The womb-born develop inside their mothers’ wombs, and after they are fully formed, they are born and after they are fully formed, they are born.
>> The egg-born develop inside a shell and are born after being fully formed. Examples are birds.
>> The moisture-born must physically develop in humid places,. Examples are insects.
>> The transformation-born do not depend on anything [external]; they are born spontaneously based on karmic forces. Examples are those born in heaven and in hell.
>> His father worried for him: With His original vow of delivering all living beings and unwillingness to let sentient beings suffer, the Buddha gave rise to a heart of great compassion. This is described as worrying.
>> As he grew tired in his search, he stopped in a certain city. There he built a house: To deliver sentient beings, the Buddha in His loving-kindness entered the Saha World together with sentient beings. Thus, this is an analogy for[the Buddha] manifesting in the womb.
>> He followed sentient beings in suffering from the Five Skandhas and entering into the city of the womb.
>> He stopped: The Buddha’s mind abides forever in the Avatamsaka state, the perfect and immediate Great Vehicle teachings, which is also called His original intent. He continually explained this Dharma-realm, the source of absolute truth.
>> A certain city: This is the conjured city of the Great Vehicle and a place of enlightenment.
>> He stopped in a certain city is an analogy for there being further lands before reaching pure Nirvana with skillful means.
>> That which guards against wrongdoers and protects against enemies is called a city. It is like the great precepts. They can guard against wrongs and stop evils just as the city walls guard against enemies.
>> There he built a house: He raised the abode of compassion and built the house of the nature of emptiness. Making wondrous use of the Five Dusts is called the nature of Dharma-joy. This is why the skillful means in which the Buddha abides are called the true reward[-land] and the state of calm illumination.
>> Where he amused himself in the five desires: Ordinary people crave and are attached to forms, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations, the objects of the five desires. They wallow in this filth as if in the mud. Because their bodies and minds are impure, they are unable to accept the Dharma and thus do not turn the Dharma-wheel.
>> The Buddha was clearly free and at ease with His direct and circumstantial retributions, making use of His karmic causes and effects. Thus it says, “He amused himself in the five desires”.
>> So, His household was very wealthy, is an analogy for His wealth of myriad virtues. He let go of His worldly family and entered the very wealthy family of the Tathagata. He was born into a very wealthy family. How did He come to enter the Tathagata’s family? He renounced family ties and became a monastic to uphold the Great Dharma and spread the seeds of Dharma, for one seed can give rise to infinity. This made Him very wealthy.
“With great loving-kindness, sentient beings are in our thoughts and under our protection.
With great love, our hearts will encompass the universe
and the world will be like one great house.
By compassionately viewing all equally, everyone is like our child.”
Spiritual practice is this simple; with a heart of great compassion, naturally we will love and care for all the world’s sentient beings.
With great compassion, which is great love, our minds will naturally open up. This open and spacious mind is vast as the sea and sky. Being in this state of mind is also a kind of enjoyment. We will be able to accommodate sentient beings without limits. Everyone will be part of our family and the world will be like one great house. With the same sky over us and the same earth supporting us, the whole world is like one great house. When we exercise compassion to view all sentient beings impartially, we see all as children who share a father, all as brothers and sisters. We can all get along harmoniously and happily. Coexisting with the world in this way and peacefully interacting is so enjoyable. This is happiness. To live a blessed and happy life, we must live a life of love.
This is like what happened in Zhejiang, China. There was once a government official who had a 17-year-old son. The fortuneteller took a look at him. “You have a fortunate life. But your life will be short; you will live for about 18 years.”
Not long after that, his father was transferred and reassigned to another county. In order to welcome their new official, some people prepared a banquet for him. This young man saw that in the area right outside the kitchen, there were eight cows. What were they doing there? He went into the kitchen and asked. The chef said, “This is for a banquet dish. This is for making a dish called Jade Hairpin. Why is it called Jade Hairpin?” The chef then explained that it was made with sharp metal chopsticks. First, they would start a fire on the stove, then heat the metal chopsticks in the fire until they were red hot. “All of these cows are lactating.” These sharp chopsticks are stuck into their udders so that the milk inside them coagulates on the tip of the heated chopsticks before they are removed. This dish is called Jade Hairpin. These eight cows are for making this one dish.
When he saw and heard this, he could not bear it. “Think about that; how cruel!” So, he went to his father and made a request. He hoped that his father would issue an edict forbidding people in the entire county from making the dish called Jade Hairpin. His father did this immediately, so not only were these eight cows saved, the entire county received this edict. After this incident, the young man had a dream. He dreamt of eight cows bowing to him in gratitude and it seemed in the sky there were some dignified heavenly beings coming to wish him well. Among them was an old man who said, “Your lifespan was originally 18 years, but because of your thought of kindness and your virtue of respecting all life, you will be given another 80 years. Thus your lifespan will be 98 years.” Indeed, he was blessed with wealth and children and also became a government official. He lived into his 90s and died of old age. This is an old story from China.
Humans are the most intelligent of all beings; by giving rise to compassion, we can protect all life in the world. If everyone has this kind of love, won’t the whole world be harmonious and peaceful? Look at how the Buddha, in His compassion, repeatedly returned to this world to deliver sentient beings. He was not willing to lose even a single one. He treated sentient beings as His only son. Thus, He searched for them as He would His son, making such a great effort.
So, the previous passage states, “We are like a child, young and ignorant, who abandoned his father and ran away to far-off foreign lands, wandering through many countries for more than 50 years.”
This is the previous sutra passage [It has been] “more than 50 years.” For how many lifetimes have we wandered about in this way? We have turned away from our innate enlightenment. The karma we create and the suffering we face are unbearable! Meeting the Buddha again in this lifetime and receiving the Buddha’s teachings are opportunities we must earnestly seize.
The next sutra passage states, “His father worried for him and searched for him in all directions. As he grew tired in his search, he stopped in a certain city. There he built a house, where he amused himself in the five desires, for his household was very wealthy.”
“His father worried for him” means that after the son left, the father remained in a state of unease. Where could his son be? What was he doing? How was he surviving? These were the father’s worries. He looked everywhere. This is an analogy for “observing the four forms of birth to look for those with the opportunity to be delivered.”
His father worried for him and searched for him in all directions: This is an analogy for observing the four forms of birth to the opportunity to be delivered.
The Buddha, in His compassion, continued to search for opportunities to deliver sentient beings. He not only went among humans, He also searched among all the four forms of birth. “Searched for him in all directions” refers to going among the four forms of birth.
The womb-born develop inside their mothers’ wombs, and after they are fully formed, they are born and after they are fully formed, they are born.
Among the four forms of birth, the womb-born develop in their mother’s womb before being born. This makes them womb-born. Humans are not the only beings that are womb-born; so are oxen, horses, sheep, dogs, pigs and so on. There are many others that are womb-born. They all take shape inside a mother’s womb before being born; thus they are called womb-born.
The egg-born develop inside a shell and are born after being fully formed. Examples are birds.
The egg-born develop inside a shell. Only after they become fully formed do they break out of the shell. This makes them egg-born.
The moisture-born must physically develop in humid places,. Examples are insects.
The moisture-born depend on moisture. They are born in humid places. Examples are insects and fish, which live in water. This makes them moisture-born.
The transformation-born do not depend on anything [external]; they are born spontaneously based on karmic forces. Examples are those born in heaven and in hell.
Then there are the transformation-born. They are born depending on the karma they created. Those with good karma are born in heaven. Those who create the karma of the Ten Evils are born in hell. Without depending on anything [external], they follow their karma as they leave this life and go to the next. This depends upon the [mix of] good and bad karma. We are born in heaven if our good karma is strong, or born in hell if our bad karma is strong. That is called transformation-born.
His father worried for him: With His original vow of delivering all living beings and unwillingness to let sentient beings suffer, the Buddha gave rise to a heart of great compassion. This is described as worrying.
So, “His father worried for him.” This goes back to “His original vow of delivering all living beings.” No matter which of the four forms of birth or the Five Realms sentient beings were in, His original vow was to completely transform and deliver them all. Unwilling to let sentient beings suffer, “The Buddha gave rise to a heart of great compassion.” All of this began with His great compassion. “This is described as worrying”; [this process] was described as worrying.
As he grew tired in his search, he stopped in a certain city. There he built a house: To deliver sentient beings, the Buddha in His loving-kindness entered the Saha World together with sentient beings. Thus, this is an analogy for[the Buddha] manifesting in the womb.
So, “As he grew tired in his search, he stopped in a certain city. There he built a house.” This is an analogy for the way the Buddha delivered sentient beings. He likewise “entered the Saha World together with sentient beings. Thus, this is an analogy for [the Buddha] manifesting in the womb.” He came to and remained in the Saha World. “He stopped in a certain city” refers to the place where He lived together with sentient beings. He descended from Tusita Heaven and was born into the palace. After taking shape in the womb, He was born in the world and lived in the same way we do. Yet, in some ways He surpassed ordinary people. He was different from us in that He worried about the suffering in the lives of sentient beings.
The suffering of birth, aging, illness and death was not something ordinary humans could resolve or save themselves from. Only by realizing the principles did He have a path with which to deliver sentient beings. He had to first create this path so that He could give sentient beings a path to walk on. Thus, He manifested the appearance of engaging in spiritual practice and of attaining enlightenment in order to deliver sentient beings.
He followed sentient beings in suffering from the Five Skandhas and entering into the city of the womb.
So, He likewise “manifested in the womb”; He manifested this appearance ․”He followed sentient beings in suffering from the Five Skandhas and entering into the city of the womb.”
Like us, He also had the Five Skandhas, the Five Aggregates, and the suffering of the Five Aggregates. He also had form, feeling, perception, action, and consciousness, the Five Aggregates. In the world, with this “form,” the Buddha lived in the same way we do. He too had to eat and drink, and He too fell ill as He aged, requiring treatment with medicine. Likewise, when His illness ran its course, He passed away and entered Parinirvana. This was the same as the way we live in every single respect. He did this for the sake of delivering all beings; that is why He came.
He stopped: The Buddha’s mind abides forever in the Avatamsaka state, the perfect and immediate Great Vehicle teachings, which is also called His original intent. He continually explained this Dharma-realm, the source of absolute truth.
This is an analogy. “He stopped” is also an analogy for something else. The principle behind “he stopped,” can be explained in another way, namely, “The Buddha’s mind abides eternally in the Avatamsaka state, the perfect and immediate. Great Vehicle teachings”. After the Buddha’s enlightenment, that awakened spiritual state forever remained with Him. Although He went among the people to transform sentient beings and. His physical form resembled theirs, in fact, He maintained the Avatamsaka state in His mind. Out of His great compassion, He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer, so He returned to go among the people. He did this solely to make the Dharma-realm known. “He continually explained this Dharma-realm, the source of absolute truth.”
A certain city: This is the conjured city of the Great Vehicle and a place of enlightenment.
“A certain city” is a place of enlightenment, the conjured city of the Great Vehicle. When He manifested this appearance, He had already awakened His nature of True Suchness. So, this was in His every thought. His original intent was to teach the One Vehicle, the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. But He had to continuously find methods to teach according to the capabilities of sentient beings; this is a conjured city. The Buddha hoped everyone would return to their nature of True Suchness. However, sentient beings had to be transformed by stages so that we could, stage by stage, experience the states of spiritual practice. This is like a place of enlightenment
He stopped in a certain city is an analogy for there being further lands before reaching pure Nirvana with skillful means.
“He stopped in a certain city” is an analogy for “there being further lands before reaching pure Nirvana with skillful means.” This is how the Buddha transforms sentient beings.
“There being further lands” means we must go beyond this place. We must continue to walk forward. In this way, “There [are] further lands.” They are known as skillful means. The Buddha hopes everyone can reach the state of pure Nirvana and great liberation so that we can be free from samsara and without hindrance as we return to this world to transform sentient beings. This is the compassion of the Buddha
That which guards against wrongdoers and protects against enemies is called a city. It is like the great precepts. They can guard against wrongs and stop evils just as the city walls guard against enemies.
So, “That which guards against wrongdoers and protects against enemies is called a city. It is like the great precepts. They can guard against wrongs and stop evils just as the city walls guard against enemies.” This is like upholding precepts, which can also guard against wrongs and stop evils. This is the teaching the Buddha gave us on the path of our spiritual cultivation.
There he built a house: He raised the abode of compassion and built the house of the nature of emptiness. Making wondrous use of the Five Dusts is called the nature of Dharma-joy. This is why the skillful means in which the Buddha abides are called the true reward[-land] and the state of calm illumination.
“There he built a house.” In this city, within the boundaries of this kingdom, within the city, “He built a house.” This is like giving rise to compassion; compassion is like a house, our spiritual home ․There he built a house: He raised the abode of compassion and built the house of the nature of emptiness. Making wondrous use of the Five Dusts is called the nature of Dharma-joy. This is why the skillful means in which the Buddha abides are called the true reward[-land] and the state of calm illumination.
“He raised the abode of compassion.” With compassion in our hearts, we “build the house of the nature of emptiness.” Compassion is our abode. The nature of emptiness is our house. That is our wisdom. With our compassion and wisdom,
we “make wondrous use of the Five Dusts.” It is as if we are playing in the world among these Five Dusts. As we interact with people in the Saha World, we can make use of [this opportunity]. Through this space and these relationships, we [learn to] play in this place, among people, without becoming contaminated. So, this is “the nature of Dharma-joy.” By giving without expectations, we will always be very happy.
This refers to the skillful means in which the Buddha abides. It is with these skillful means that the Buddha delivers sentient beings. This is not the Buddha’s state of mind. The Buddha’s mind is in the Avatamsaka state. Nevertheless, He seizes His karmic affinities with sentient beings. In this way, He goes among the Five Dusts and the evil world of Five Turbidities to deliver sentient beings. So, this is the Buddha’s land of skillful means. Though the Buddha abides in skillful means, it is in fact the true reward-land. This was His true reward. It is also a state of calm illumination, as His mind is forever radiant and clear.
Where he amused himself in the five desires: Ordinary people crave and are attached to forms, sounds, smells, tastes and sensations, the objects of the five desires. They wallow in this filth as if in the mud. Because their bodies and minds are impure, they are unable to accept the Dharma and thus do not turn the Dharma-wheel.
So, “[The father] amused himself in the five desires.” Ordinary people greedily cling to form, sound, smell, taste and touch, the five desires. This is what ordinary people do. When ordinary people encounter the five desires, they become immersed in them, as if in mud. “Their bodies and minds are impure. They are unable to accept the Dharma and thus do not turn the Dharma-wheel.” Because ordinary people still have the five desires, they are unable to accept the Dharma. So, the Buddha has to return to the Saha World. In the Saha World, He sets an example for everyone in the way He was born, the way He engaged in spiritual practice, the way He attained enlightenment and so on. He helped everyone understand that the end goal of spiritual practice is to transform sentient beings so that we can then reach the state of awakening.
The Buddha was clearly free and at ease with His direct and circumstantial retributions, making use of His karmic causes and effects. Thus it says, “He amused himself in the five desires”.
“The Buddha was clearly free and at ease with. His direct and circumstantial retributions.” He too had circumstantial and direct retributions. He “made use of His karmic causes and effects.” This means He remained in this place.
After the Buddha had attained Buddhahood, He would also sometimes say, “My karma and retributions are not yet exhausted. Treat suffering like [spiritual] nourishment”; this is something Tzu Chi volunteers say. Thus, “He amused himself in the five desires” means that though the Buddha had to work very hard to transform sentient beings, He was very willing
For his household was very wealthy: This is an analogy for His wealth of myriad virtues. He abandoned His worldly family and entered the very wealthy family of the Tathagata. This means He renounced His family ties, took monastic vows, upheld the Great Dharma and spread seeds of Dharma, for one seed can give rise to infinity. Thus it says “very wealthy”.
So, “His household was very wealthy,” is an analogy for “His wealth of myriad virtues. He let go of His worldly family and entered the very wealthy family of the Tathagata.” He was born into a very wealthy family. How did He come to enter the Tathagata’s family? He renounced family ties and became a monastic to uphold the Great Dharma and spread the seeds of Dharma, for one seed can give rise to infinity. This made Him “very wealthy.”
If the Buddha had never left His family and His loved ones to engage in spiritual practice, how could He have become enlightened? Without the Buddha’s enlightenment, there would be no Great Vehicle Dharma with which we can teach and guide sentient beings to help everyone awaken to their nature of True Suchness. Everyone has the same wisdom as the Buddha and is thus able to understand the true principles of all things in the world and able to guide others to discover them. This is sowing the seeds of Dharma. As one seed gives rise to infinity, this makes [us] “very wealthy.”
So, as we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we truly realize that each of us possesses a shining pearl. We all have an abundant storehouse of treasures. It is just that we are not aware of it. Therefore, as long as we compassionately view all beings equally, we are upholding the Great Dharma and are spreading the seeds of Dharma. One seed can give rise to infinity, if we are willing to form the aspiration. This is not difficult, so let us always be mindful.