Category: TLS Chapter 4

Episode 828 – Great Vows Transform Sentient Beings

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>> The all-encompassing, vast macrocosm is extensive and embracing. We make great vows to deliver sentient beings and to be awakened beings of the Great Vehicle. Looking through the window at His son’s figure, the Buddha resolved to clearly reveal the Path.

>> ” You will clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and cleanse all rooms and lodgings.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]

>> ” Through the window, the elder often saw his son and thought of how foolish and base his son was, how he delighted in lowly things. Therefore, the elder donned ragged and dirty clothes and, carrying tools for clearing excrement, went to the place where his son was.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]

>> ” Through the window, the elder often saw his son: Peeping at the sun through a window describes how looking through a narrow opening limits one’s views and knowledge, as if one is looking through a narrow window. This is an analogy for how the the Great Vehicle Dharma is difficult to enter. Thus, the Small Vehicle is used to bring them in for them to eventually attain the Great Vehicle. This is like looking through a window at the all-encompassing macrocosm.”

>> He thought of how foolish and base his son was, how he delighted in lowly things. The father knew his son delighted in the small. This is how he was; the son delighted in the small. Foolish and base: In the prose it mentions him being scrawny, haggard and downcast. Lowly things: These are the filthy impurities of excrement, dust and dirt mentioned in the prose. Two Vehicle practitioners delight in cultivating the Small Vehicle Dharma. Thus it says, “He delighted in lowly things.”

>> Therefore, the elder donned ragged and dirty clothes: He took off the precious and donned the ragged. He taught us to renounce samsara and praised the virtuous Dharma of Nirvana.

>> Carrying tools for clearing excrement, [He] went to the place where his son was: Hiding His exceptional reward-body, the Buddha manifested a lowly transformation-body, appearing the same as sentient beings. Thus it says, He went to the place where his son was.

>> Since He was the same as sentient beings, He similarly faced the Three Obstructions. Thus in the prose it says, He assumed a fearful look.

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“The all-encompassing, vast macrocosm is extensive and embracing.
We make great vows to deliver sentient beings and to be awakened beings of the Great Vehicle.
Looking through the window at His son’s figure, the Buddha resolved to clearly reveal the Path.”

Think about it; the macrocosm of the world is infinitely vast! See how the world can encompass all things! In fact, if our nature of True Suchness can be brought forth, won’t it be the same? We can also embrace all things in the world within our nature of True Suchness.

Our ocean of enlightened wisdom can accommodate all things in the world. Unfortunately, we are unenlightened beings, and our nature of True Suchness has been affected by delusions of afflictions and ignorance, and in this way, it remains covered. We continue to live among the myriads of sentient beings with different perspectives, yet we continue to act however we like, [saying,]. “These are my habitual tendencies; change them? It is not that easy!” It is very difficult to change our own habitual tendencies. Don’t we all have these habitual tendencies?

However, how much time do we have left to take our time slowly changing them? Since we have encountered the Buddha-Dharma, we should immediately and without delay put our hearts into rectifying these things. We should immediately clear away our ignorance layer by layer, wash it away. Is it true that we do not want to keep our habitual tendencies and afflictions? In that case, we must quickly bring out the potential of our true nature to be “all-encompassing [like the] vast macrocosm, extensive and embracing.” Only with this spiritual state will we able to truly exercise this potential.

Put your heart into it! It is in fact not that difficult. Ironically, it is our attachment to habitual tendencies that makes it so difficult for us. We must make use of a method to eliminate our habitual tendencies, which is to “make great vows to deliver sentient beings.” We must make great vows, must make the great vows, meaning we must deliver ourselves and others. Every day we diligently transform ourselves, but after understanding the principles, we should also transform others. We must put the principles into practice by walking the great Bodhi-path. Thus, we make the great vows; “We vow to deliver countless sentient beings.” There are multitudes of sentient beings. We cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer or continually create karma. If they do, their collective karma, the energy of collective karma, will be strong; it can easily influence the whole world and cause the four elements to become unbalanced. The karma of afflictions in particular causes discord in people’s minds, so manmade calamities constantly occur in this world. As the flames of war rage continually, this world becomes more and more filled with turbidity. However, we must still begin with our initial aspirations to put the teachings into practice. If everyone can do this, can carry out these vast vows, sentient beings will mutually transform each other and mutually inspire each other. “We can be awakened beings of the Great Vehicle.”

If we can all understand the Great Vehicle Dharma, if we can understand the principles of all things in the universe and be clear on the source of the principles, then naturally, we will not reproduce afflictions. Not only will we not reproduce our afflictions, we will also be able to bring about the causes and conditions needed to transform sentient beings. This is the meaning of an awakened being. After attaining enlightenment the Buddha, for the sake of sentient beings, returned lifetime after lifetime, searching for ways to create affinities with them, to create the necessary causes and conditions. We must do the same thing. When there are sentient beings with affinities, if there is an opportunity, we must create the causes and conditions to transform them.

Wherever there are disasters, we must quickly go and find ways to help them. No matter in what time or in what place [we find ourselves], after understanding the principles, upon seeing myriad sentient beings in suffering, Bodhisattvas will naturally arise [and help]. Without seeking anything in return, we help others with open and spacious hearts. This is ” the vow to deliver all sentient beings, to be awakened beings of the Great Vehicle.”

As the Buddha looked upon all sentient beings as if they were His only son, in the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, first Subhuti and then Venerable Kasyapa used the analogy of a poor son. Now the elder was already inside the house, looking out the window. He saw his child’s figure outside. Although he was looking through a window, nevertheless, upon looking out, the view he saw was a vast and extensive one. He was “looking through the window at his son’s figure.” From inside, he saw the child outside, still doing his tough job of physical labor. So, he had to be thoughtful; he removed his magnificent clothing and began to slowly approach him. The Buddha gradually used different methods, using the Small Vehicle Dharma to gradually and continuously approach them, drawing them near the Great Vehicle Dharma.

This is like how the elder removed his magnificent clothing and went to work with his child in order to slowly guide him and bring him inside. He guided him to see all the many treasures inside. He opened the storehouses, and there were so many things inside. In this way, he used very obvious [methods] so we would all understand this Path. The great, direct Bodhi-path should be right in front of us. This is made very clear to us. “The Buddha resolved to clearly reveal the Path.” In fact, this great, direct Bodhi-path is not hard for us to go out and walk upon, as everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature.

The previous sutra passage says, “You will clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage.” When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and cleanse all rooms and lodgings. Because they had already approached the poor son, they told him, “Come and work with us. You can also do this job. You can do this hard labor of clearing away garbage and so forth. The wage is not bad, and it can give you a stable life.” They slowly enticed him like this. The poor son listened and thought, “I can do this.” And so he went and began to “clear excrement and filth and cleanse all rooms and lodgings.” This was the work he did. This is like Hearers and Solitary Realizers, who practice the Small Vehicle. In order to be liberated from life and death, they practice according to those methods, bringing peace and stability to their minds.

The following sutra passage says, “Through the window, the elder often saw his son and thought of how foolish and base his son was, how he delighted in lowly things. Therefore, the elder donned ragged and dirty clothes and, carrying tools for clearing excrement, went to the place where his son was.”

In this sutra passage, the elder was inside the house, and looking out through the window, he saw his son.

This is “peeping at the sun through the window”; he was looking out the window from inside. So, looking out of the window, he was able to see the sun. The sun is so big, yet it can be seen from a window. This is like our nature of True Suchness. It is hidden inside each and every one of us, yet we ourselves cannot see it.

“Through the window, the elder often saw his son: “Peeping at the sun through a window” describes how looking through a narrow opening limits one’s views and knowledge, as if one is looking through a narrow window. This is an analogy for how the Great Vehicle Dharma is difficult to enter. Thus, the Small Vehicle is used to bring them in for them to eventually attain the Great Vehicle. This is like looking through a window at the all-encompassing macrocosm.”

The Buddha, in His innate enlightenment, understood that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, that wondrously profound principle. This is from the Buddha’s perspective. The analogy for limited views of looking out from a narrow window is used to indicate the Small Vehicle Dharma. Because sentient beings’ capabilities are suited for this Dharma, this is the Dharma He must use to adapt to them.

This analogy illustrates how, “The Great Vehicle is difficult to enter,” so “The Small Vehicle is used to bring them in.” To guide these people and draw them in, the Small Vehicle Dharma is used. So, they “eventually attain the Great Vehicle.”

This is like how when the elder saw his son, he began to use methods of this limited scope to transform him [The Buddha] began with provisional means, using the Small Dharma to gradually approach them and to gradually help them so they could gradually come into contact with the Great Dharma and the state of their minds could become like the “all-encompassing macrocosm,” as vast as the macrocosm of the universe, which is like looking at the outside world from inside a window.

“He thought of how foolish and base his son was, how he delighted in lowly things. The father knew his son delighted in the small.” This is how he was; the son delighted in the small. Foolish and base: In the prose it mentions him being scrawny, haggard and downcast. Lowly things: These are the filthy impurities of excrement, dust and dirt mentioned in the prose. Two Vehicle practitioners delight in cultivating the Small Vehicle Dharma. Thus it says, “He delighted in lowly things.””

This was the father looking out the window, watching his son working to clear excrement, seemingly so at ease in his work, so joyful. He knew that at that moment, [the son] was peaceful and at ease in limited methods. This was like how the Buddha knew that the minds of sentient beings were all still focused on awakening themselves.

“Foolish and base” refers to the son’s resolve. His mind had not yet opened. This is what is expressed in the long-form prose as “scrawny, haggard and downcast.” The elder saw his son, how scrawny and haggard he was. He was scrawny; his clothing was undignified. It seemed he did not have enough to eat. This means that their wisdom-life had not matured, so they lacked that dignified appearance.

“Foolish and base, he delighted in lowly things” means he only wanted to engage in crude labor. It is like us only knowing that we want to eliminate our afflictions and get rid of our ignorance. Actually, we still have very fine delusions, dust-like delusions. We still have not thought to get rid of this ignorance of dust-like delusions. We just want to eliminate afflictions. But this is not enough. We must eliminate our delusions as well, so confusion will not arise again as soon as external conditions appear. That is not the ultimate method of spiritual practice.

So, these “lowly things,” are described in the long-form prose as “filthy impurities of excrement, dust and dirt.” These things are “filthy impurities.” They are very filthy things. Yet, “He delighted in lowly things.” He only wanted to eliminate those afflictions on the surface, but he did not care about the deeper delusions. “Two Vehicle practitioners delight in cultivating the Small Vehicle Dharma.” This was where they wanted to remain. “Thus it says, ‘He delighted in lowly things’.”

“Therefore, the elder,” at this time began “donning ragged and dirty clothes.” He began to put on ragged and dirty clothes. He removed his precious and magnificent clothes and donned coarse and dirty clothes.He taught us to renounce samsara and praised the virtuous Dharma of Nirvana.”

Therefore, the elder donned ragged and dirty clothes: He took off the precious and donned the ragged. He taught us to renounce samsara and praised the virtuous Dharma of Nirvana. This is describing how the Buddha had already attained Buddhahood. He was already very dignified. He had already attained liberation and the honored Dharmakaya. Yet, He had to associate with ordinary people caught up in mundane affairs, living in the same way they did. This describes the attitude of love and caring that the Buddha had for sentient beings, for He was willing to again return to the Saha World. To approach sentient beings, “He took off the precious and donned the ragged.” He took off His magnificent Dharma-clothes and wore coarse clothes like ordinary people.

“He taught us to renounce samsara.” He wanted us to eliminate our attachment to cyclic existence in this world. We are all lost in samsara. He wanted to help us clearly understand that it is because we have all kinds of ignorance, afflictions, transgressions and evils that converge and come together that we remain trapped in cyclic existence, especially in the Five Realms. Below the heaven and human realms are the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, etc., which are realms of unbearable suffering. This is why we should renounce samsara. “Renounce” means we must reject it; we must not have it anymore. We must not again be attached to cyclic existence.

“He praised the virtuous Dharma of Nirvana.” Nirvana is the complete elimination of afflictions and the attainment of spiritual liberation. This state of spiritual liberation is very magnificent. It is the Avatamsaka state, where the mind is tranquil and clear, free and at ease. This virtuous Dharma of Nirvana is what the Buddha continually and earnestly taught us. So, this process of teaching is like how he

“carried tools for clearing excrement and went to the place where his son was”

Carrying tools for clearing excrement, [He] went to the place where his son was: Hiding His exceptional reward-body, the Buddha manifested a lowly transformation-body, appearing the same as sentient beings. Thus it says, “He went to the place where his son was.”

In the same way, in order to teach his son, the elder picked up and carried brooms, dustpans and so on. In order to show him how to clear the excrement, he had to show by example. So, “Hiding His exceptional reward-body, the Buddha manifested a lowly transformation-body.” Hiding His originally pure Dharmakaya, He manifested in a lowly form, so He could have the same appearance as sentient beings. “Appearing the same as sentient beings” means He looked no different from sentient beings. Thus it says, “He went to the place where his son was.” The elder was very willing to draw near to the poor son, just like the Buddha coming to the human realm, to this evil world of Five Turbidities where the beings of the Five Destinies coexist. Whether it is in the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost or animal realm, He goes to all of the four forms of birth and the Five Realms to transform sentient beings. Thus, “He went to the place where his son was”; He went to arrange the causes and conditions in order to transform sentient beings.

“Since He was the same as sentient beings,” being no different than sentient beings, “He similarly faced the Three Obstructions” Since He was the same as sentient beings, He similarly faced the Three Obstructions. Thus in the prose it says, “He assumed a fearful look.”

The Three Obstructions are afflictions, karma and retribution. Because we have the obstruction of afflictions, we have greed, anger and delusion. All kinds of ignorance and delusions have accumulated like this; these are known as afflictions. Afflictions will obstruct our will to practice so we create karma. The obstruction of karma comes from things like the Five Offenses, the Ten Evils and so on. This is the obstruction of karma. When we create the obstruction of karma, then naturally we will receive retributions. These are known as obstructions of retribution. These are the Three Obstructions.

Everyone, in learning the Buddha’s Way, we have this precious opportunity to be able to draw near the Buddha-Dharma. So, since the Buddha manifested in this world and bequeathed the Dharma to this world, we should make the effort to be mindful. Let us open and broaden our hearts, so we can make great vows and practice the Great Vehicle Dharma to transform sentient beings. Because the Buddha showed great compassion, we must not fail to live up to His intent. Therefore, we should always be mindful.

Episode 827 – Transcending the Three Realms

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>>  The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara. The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different. The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.

>>  ” He then used skillful means and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in might and virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]

>>  ” You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]

>>  You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. This is an analogy for cultivating Two Vehicle practices and eliminating afflictions of views and thinking. Thus, transcending the Three Realms and ending fragmentary samsara is called ‘a day’s wages’.

>> Twice refers to transcending the blessings and joy of both the human and heaven realms.

>>  When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully. This is an analogy for Two Vehicle practitioners, who practice according to the teachings.

>> He followed them joyfully means This catered to their liking, for the disciples delighted in lowly things, such as cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas.

>> To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings: This is the analogy of drawing a day’s wages by eliminating the excrement of the afflictions of views and thinking and emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas. The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara. The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different. The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.

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” The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara.
The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different.
The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.”

This seems extremely profound. The fact is, in our daily living, in this lifetime and future lifetimes, we cannot leave the Five Realms. This is the continuing transmigration we face; thus we are unenlightened beings. Therefore, we must be mindful.

The Five Realms are what we often talk about. Recently, I have mentioned the Five Realms daily. Those of us listening may think, “I already understand. We talk about this every day. I already understand it all.” Yes, we may all know. But, which realm will we end up going to? We ourselves truly do not know. We can only try our best to understand, which means we must constantly be vigilant. If we do good deeds, we will be reborn in heaven. If we abide by the Five Precepts, we will not lose our human form [in the next life].

The difference between the human and heaven realms is that in the human realm there is a mix of suffering and joy, whereas in heaven there is only longevity and joy. In heaven, one’s lifespan is very long. There is only joy and no suffering. So, this is the difference between the human realm and the heaven realm. In the human realm, [life] is painfully short. It lasts only a few decades, is gone in the blink of an eye. We continue to change with time. Will we be alive or dead [tomorrow]? Life is impermanent. Thus, we must earnestly seize the time between birth and death. To be able to distinguish between good and evil, we must constantly heighten our vigilance. If something is evil, we must quickly get rid of it; if it is good, we must quickly make use of it and bring it into our lives. This is what we call spiritual practice.

If we can guard against wrongs and stop evil, this is “abiding by precepts.” Between birth and death, we must constantly heighten our vigilance. This is the practice of “Samadhi.” Clearly distinguishing between good and evil requires “wisdom.” Thus, we must make an effort to practice precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.

” The four kinds of beings” are womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born. Life starts in these four different ways. In this lifetime, we are womb-born, from our father’s sperm and mother’s egg. Our mothers gave birth to us, so we are womb-born. In our subsequent lifetimes, perhaps we will be born as fowls, birds, or snakes, or some very frightening creatures. We may be egg-born, moisture-born or transformation-born. All of these are possible. “The appearances of the four kinds of beings are different.”

However, our human lives are no different from any in ” the four forms of birth and Five Realms” ; we still have our habitual tendencies, our state of mind, our “five chronic afflictions.” Thus, “greed and the others” means there is greed and also anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. These are called the “five chronic afflictions.” They are also called the “five chronic agents.”

When we learn the Buddha’s Way, we should always remind ourselves to be vigilant. When ” the five chronic afflictions” flare up when we are among people, the nature of our affinity with someone will be decided. Because of our behavior, speech and demeanor, we may plant a good or evil seed in another, we may plant a good or evil seed in another and thus set in motion these causes and conditions. Hence, we must make an effort to cultivate this state of mind, which is to be grateful whenever we see someone. We had the karmic conditions to meet each other, so we should have mutual respect and love. This way, we all will have the same resolve; we give rise to Bodhicitta, walk Bodhisattva-path and dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to others. If we can do this, we are taking good care of our minds.

Thus, “Different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.” Whether we are animals or humans, we experience both happiness and anger. Sometimes, we will hear cats and dogs making noise, or biting each other. It gets noisy. We know those dogs are losing their tempers. This happens throughout the Five Destinies,

the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt, which our minds give rise to, are all within our thoughts. Thus, the Saha World we live in is where “the Five Destinies coexist.” It is a very complicated place. There are good people, bad people and so on. Everyone’s mindset is different, yet we all live together in the same place. So, “Different mentalities exist together.” We all reside in this Saha World, so “We all exist together in the Five Destinies.”

Everyone, for those who learn the Buddha’s Way, the Buddha is truly educating us, giving us teachings. When we listen to the Dharma, we are not merely listening to stories. Stories are used to describe the principles of absolute truth that we cannot see or grasp. So, every person’s life is a result of the convergence of many causes and conditions. Within causes and conditions we can find wondrously profound stories, and the wondrously profound principles of true emptiness and wondrous existence are also found within causes and conditions. However, we only tend to think that these stories are just nice to listen to, while the Dharma is something very profound. We must understand the Dharma, so we should no treat this as listening to stories. Therefore, we must be more mindful.

The previous sutra passage states, “He then used skillful means and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in might and virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.”

When the father saw his child run away, he quickly dispatched people to bring him back, but it was not so easy. They had to appear to be of similar status to him. People like this could approach the son and say, “Come, let us go and work there.” People like this could lead him in.

The next [sutra] passage states, “You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings”

[He thought,] “What am I supposed to do there? Oh, you will clear up the filth, inside and out. The wages offered here are very good, better than if you went to work elsewhere.” When this poor son heard that it was a stable job, he thought, “Great!” He hurried and happily went to that place. Upon arriving, he was indeed told to work hard to clear excrement. “Clean all the rooms and lodgings.” He diligently cleaned the filth both inside and outside

“You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage.” This is an analogy for “cultivating Two Vehicle practices” and “eliminating afflictions of views and thinking. Thus, transcending the Three Realms and ending fragmentary samsara is called a day’s wages.”

This refers to those who practice the Two Vehicles, such as Hearers and Solitary Realizers. They mindfully listened to the Buddha teach. The Buddha’s voice entered through their ears, so they are called Hearers. The Solitary Realizers had already understood that all the Dharma the Buddha taught and all the external states around them, all this Dharma and all these states, could be brought together to verify each other. By observing the four seasons, they see how the world changes, is impermanent and thus realize the Buddha’s true principles. This is being a Solitary Realizer.

Thus, these sages of the Two Vehicles, Hearers and Solitary Realizers, eliminate afflictions of views and thinking. “Views” are also very filthy. When we ordinary beings see or like something, based on our perspectives, we give rise to desires. Because we have desires, we create many thoughts of greed. With strong thoughts of greed, we create much karma. Karma and ignorance then cover our minds, which leads to resentment when we cannot get what we want, and then thoughts of anger and hate arise in us. This stirring up of afflictions and delusion is called ignorance. This is all called the turbidity of views. These views are caused by craving and arise from thoughts of greed and desire. So, this causes people to remain like this for their whole lifetimes, continually reproducing afflictions, which give rise to ignorance.

However, [delusions of] thinking are more subtle. Because of the subtlety of our thoughts, we need to be more mindful. With every thought that arises, there is so much dust-like ignorance. When discursive thoughts arise, how do we tame our delusions of thinking and our afflictions? We require a deep level of mastery to put a stop to afflictions of views and thinking. This refers to our habitual tendencies, which are not easy to eliminate. Thus, to transcend the Three Realms, we must eliminate afflictions of views and thinking; only then can we transcend the Three Realms. The

” Three Realms” are the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. As we encounter different kinds of material forms, we must not give rise to thoughts of desire. We have to eliminate such thoughts so that no forms or sounds can trouble our minds. Then, in our minds, our afflictions will be completely eliminated, and discursive thoughts will be eliminated. Not only must we eliminate discursive thoughts, we must also transcend the formless realm and completely eliminate defilements of the mind. Then, no matter what state we encounter, we will not have afflictions, hindrances or defilements. This is how we transcend the formless realm, which allows our minds to always be pure, empty and undefiled. This is how we transcend the Three Realms.

However, can our minds stay pure and empty? Even when we sleep, we still dream; our minds connect to those states just the same. There is an ancient saying, “The sages do not dream.” Truly, their minds are so pure that even in their sleep, they do not dream, to say nothing of their minds during the day; would their minds become confused? No. Thus, to transcend the Three Realms requires a lot of effort.

So, speaking of “ending fragmentary samsara, fragmentary samsara” refers to each fragmented life lived in cyclic existence. Our daily living is also carried out in this this fragmentary samsara. Because our lifespans are limited, we must look at each life in fragmentary samsara

“[This] is called ‘a day’s wages’.” If we can thoroughly understand, eliminate delusions of views and thinking and be clear about fragmentary samsara, we will be pure when we return to the human realm again. Furthermore, when we come again, we will be very clear about this principle. Amidst fragmentary samsara, if we can eliminate the ignorance of views and thinking, we can become more pure. We must put in the effort in this life to eliminate afflictions. If we clear away excrement and filth in this life, we will naturally be rewarded for our efforts. When we engage in spiritual practice in this life, we bring what we cultivate in this lifetime to our subsequent lifetimes.

Because of what we have done in the past, we have “a day’s wages.” In our spiritual practice, how much we do and give today will determine how much we will receive. If we feel very satisfied in this life, it is because we have given in a past life. Thus, it says “at twice your normal wage.” If you do more, then of course you receive more.

” Twice refers to transcending the blessings and joy of both the human and heaven realms.”

So, “twice” refers to transcending the blessings of both the human and heaven realms. This is “at twice your normal wage.” We are not merely given [a wage]; we will be given double wages. Because we have been earnest and put in effort, [the Buddha] hopes we do not stay here but are able to transcend the Five Realms. We should not remain lost, following our karma on to the next life. We will be following our vows, not our karma, but our vows. By following our vows, in our subsequent lifetimes we can accomplish our heartfelt aspirations. We should not follow our karma to remain in a confused state. This is “at twice your normal wage.” We are given something more.

“When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully.” This is an analogy for Two Vehicle practitioners, “who practice according to the teachings.”

At the end of each sutra, we see the words, “They joyfully and faithfully accepted and practiced according to the teachings.” When we listen to the Dharma every day, we are filled with Dharma-joy. We follow this Dharma to [transform] our minds and engage in practice. Thus we “practice according to the teachings.”

“He followed them joyfully” means “This catered to their liking, for the disciples delighted in lowly things, such as cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas.”

The Buddha taught according to capabilities. Only when people understand will they be happy and engage in spiritual practice. Thus, it “catered to their liking, for they delighted in lowly things.” If their capabilities were limited, He had to give them limited teachings, which is using skillful means. Everyone was at this stage, so they were joyful.

[Next is] “Cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots.” The Six Roots meeting the external Six Dusts is like a room. We need to clean the rooms of our Six Roots, so our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind will not bring in the various filthy things from the external environment. Therefore, the “rooms of our Six Roots” must be kept clean; we must not store up filthy things in there.

In “the lodgings of the Five Skandhas,” the Five Skandhas are the Five Aggregates, form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. We must constantly make an effort to [contemplate] our experience of external states, the feelings we have, the perceptions we form, the actions we take and so on, and with this careful contemplation, we must always clear all this away. Thus, in our views and thinking, we must always be very clear and mindfully uphold [the teachings].

So, this is “to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings.” To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings: This is the analogy of drawing a day’s wages by eliminating the excrement of the afflictions of views and thinking and emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas. “To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings” means to clear away our afflictions. As things come in from outside, the filthy ones must be stopped and should be cleared away. We should not let dirty things enter.

This is the analogy of “drawing a day’s wages.” Inside, we are very clean and comfortable. Thus, we “eliminate the excrement of afflictions of views and thinking.” The filth of afflictions of views and thinking must be completely cleared away. “Emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots” means the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas have been completely cleaned out. This means that we have fully cleared away “the delusions of views and thinking.”

So, “The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara.” We understand this principle. “The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different.” If we think about it, wherever they are in the Five Realms or four kinds of birth, they are all sentient beings. The Buddha said, “All living, moving beings have Buddha-nature.” They have Buddha-nature, but they have fallen to be sentient beings, so they are afflicted by the five chronic afflictions. They have greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. No matter which state these living beings are in, they have this consciousness and naturally have the five chronic afflictions. So, our different mentalities exist together in the Five Destinies as we [transmigrate through] cyclic existence.

Thus, we must be mindful. When we learn the Dharma, we are not just listening to stories; the stories are used [as analogies]. Because of Venerable Kasyapa’s compassion, he took the story that Subhuti told in long-form prose and repeated it again in verse. This means that there are profound principles here that we need to put in great effort to realize. Therefore, when we listen to the Dharma, we must always be mindful.

Episode 823 – The World-Transcending Kind Father Never Leaves

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>> Those who cannot endure hardship and labor fear suffering upon seeing it and will not make diligent efforts [The Buddha] patiently guides us like a father or a virtuous friend, gradually leading us toward a good path that brings us close to the place of treasures.

>> “The wealth that came in and went out was carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts. The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent, and supposed he was a king or something like a king. Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, ‘Why did I come here?’.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “He then thought to himself, “If I stay here longer, they might see me, seize me and force me to work “. Having had these thoughts, he hurried away from there and asked for the way to a poor neighborhood, wishing to go there and look for work.”      [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> He then thought to himself, If I stay here longer: Two Vehicle practitioners had renounced samsara. The practice of the Great Vehicle would necessitate entering samsara to widely engage in virtuous practices for countless kalpas, which was contrary to their wishes. Thus it says, If I stay here longer….

>> They might see me, seize me and force me to work: I have always delighted in the Small, so when the Buddha wanted me to practice the Great Vehicle, it was not something I took delight in. Thus it says, force me to work.

>> Having had these thoughts, he hurried away from there: Turning left and right, the poor son silently considered and made a firm decision. He decided to go to another place. Thus it says, He hurried away from there.

>> He asked for the way to a poor neighborhood, wishing to go there and look for work: He feared he would suffer under the yoke of hard work for a wealthy and noble person. It would be better to remain at ease in the convenience of being poor and lowly.

>> “At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne, spied his son from afar and silently recognized him. Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back.”      [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne: Elder is a generic term for someone wealthy and replete with virtue, like Elder Sudatta or many others, one even-tempered and upright in character, who is honest and kind. Such a wealthy elderly person is called an elder.”

>> He spied his son from afar and silently recognized him: This is an analogy for how the Buddha used profound observation of the appearances of all phenomena to give teachings that had the function of eliminating doubts. He knew who among sentient beings had already formed great aspirations and silently recognized him.

>> Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back: A father in this world who thought of his son night and day would immediately recognize his son upon seeing him. This is an analogy for the world-transcending kind father who searches for causes and conditions to transform beings. Upon seeing mature capacities and conditions, He does not abandon anyone.

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“Those who cannot endure hardship and labor fear
suffering upon seeing it and will not make diligent efforts
[The Buddha] patiently guides us like a father or a virtuous friend, gradually leading us toward a good path that brings us close to the place of treasures.”

To engage in spiritual practice, we must be able to patiently endure suffering and hardship. If we have decided to engage in practice but are afraid of difficulty and unwilling to work hard, how can we be considered spiritual practitioners? Therefore, to engage in spiritual practice we must be able to endure hardship and labor. We must work hard and also be able to contribute to others. So, we must not look at the painstaking work involved in engaging in spiritual practice and become afraid of it, become fearful and scared, and thus not dare use our strength to help others. In our spiritual practice, if we are afraid of difficulty, what kind of spiritual practice is that?

“[Some] fear suffering upon seeing it and will not make diligent efforts.” When people see how hard everyone here works, they may become scared. Once they know spiritual practice is like this, “In that case I do not dare!” Actually, there are laypeople living in poverty whose power of Samadhi is greater than that of monastics. By giving of themselves among the people, their spiritual practice is in no way inferior to that of monastics and may even surpass that of monastics. They patiently work hard to sustain their living. Yet despite their hardships, they are willing to help others. They are true lay Bodhisattva-practitioners, who inspire people’s respect

“[The Buddha] patiently guides us like a father or a virtuous friend.” As we engage in spiritual practice, it is most important we interact with others and inspire one another. We should treat those younger than us as part of our family’s younger generation and those older than us as our elders or our parents. We should treat everyone like a parent or a close friend.

Recently, I have often said that whether people create favorable or adverse conditions for us, they are all our spiritual friends. They have all appeared before us to inspire us to form spiritual aspirations. Regardless of the state people manifest, we must quickly accept it. If something is negative, we must warn ourselves. If it is positive, we should learn from it. This is how we can be each other’s elders and virtuous friends to mutually guide one another. We are over 2000 years removed from the Buddha. To learn from the Buddha now, it is even more important that we go among people and learn to interact with them without being negatively influenced by them, while still remaining joyful.

This is “gradually leading us toward a good path.” This is what we must do; we must gradually proceed on this good path and mutually encourage one another to walk to a place of goodness. Then, naturally we will gradually draw near the place of treasures.

Now, in the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, the parable of the poor son is an analogy for how we have already left our original home, our nature of True Suchness, to wander through the Five Realms. “For more than 50 years” means that we have endlessly transmigrated in the Five Realms and four forms of birth before we finally had the karmic conditions to encounter the Buddha. The Buddha is like our father, who laid this road for us to walk on. So, we should quickly turn around to walk this great and direct Bodhi-path. This path will lead us to the place of treasures.

The previous sutra passage mentioned how the poor son had returned to his father’s side and had seen his might and dignity

[His father] lived in such a magnificent house and was surrounded by so many people. People moved “wealth that came in and went out.” An abundance of wealth and treasure was coming in and going out, ․”carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts.”

“The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent and supposed he was a king or something like a king. Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, ‘Why did I come here?’.” Seeing this scene inside, he became afraid. “Perhaps this person is a king, a relative of a king, or perhaps someone equal in stature to a king. Look at all this. This place is truly awe-inspiring and is very magnificent. Why did I come here?” He was afraid and blamed himself for taking a wrong turn. He immediately wanted to run away.

Thus, the following sutra passage states, “He then thought to himself, ‘If I stay here longer,’ ‘they might see me, seize me and’ ‘force me to work’. Having had these thoughts, he hurried away from there and asked for the way to a poor neighborhood, wishing to go there and look for work.”

From this sutra passage we know that after he saw this place, he deeply reproached himself. Why did he come here? This was not a place where he could beg, so he wanted to quickly leave. He thought, “I should not linger here for long. I must quickly leave. If they see me, they may seize me and force me to work here. This is very possible.” So, he wanted to hurry away.

He then thought to himself, “If I stay here longer”: Two Vehicle practitioners had renounced samsara. The practice of the Great Vehicle would necessitate entering samsara to widely engage in virtuous practices for countless kalpas, which was contrary to their wishes. Thus it says, “If I stay here longer….”

This is like how the Two Vehicle practitioners “had renounced samsara. The practice of the Great Vehicle would necessitate entering samsara” Two Vehicle practitioners are Hearers and Solitary Realizers. They felt what they were doing was sufficient, so they remained at the state of the Small Vehicle. “By remaining in the state of the Small Vehicle, I am at peace with my spiritual practice. By eradicating my afflictions and ignorance, I will not have to return to this world. But if I cultivate the Great Vehicle practices, I would have to enter this world again. If I again become defiled by ignorance and afflictions, won’t I end up contriving affinities and thus have to enter samsara again?” So, they were unwilling [to advance] because to go among the people, they must “widely engage in virtuous practices.” However many afflictions sentient beings have, they need to apply an equal amount of wisdom to teach according to their capabilities and widely transform them. This would require them to “widely engage in virtuous practices” and go among people.

“But if I keep doing what I am doing, which is practicing the Small Vehicle Dharma, I can escape samsara. I do not need to interact with others.” They feared that once they went among people they would be [trapped] for countless kalpas. “I want to be liberated after this life. If I practice the Bodhisattva-path, won’t I have to ‘widely engage in virtuous practices’ ‘for countless kalpas’? This is contrary to my wishes. If this is the case, I do not want to do it. You want me to practice the Bodhisattva-path but this goes against my original resolve of being liberated from samsara. Therefore, I do not want to do this.”

Thus, it says, “If I stay here longer….” They were very afraid. They thought to themselves, “Practicing the Bodhisattva-path would be contrary to my wishes. I just want to focus on benefiting myself.” Because of this, though the Buddha continually encouraged them to walk the Bodhisattva-path, they were afraid and avoided it.

They might see me, seize me and force me to work: I have always delighted in the Small, so when the Buddha wanted me to practice the Great Vehicle, it was not something I took delight in. Thus it says, “force me to work.”

“They might see me, seize me and force me to work” This means that “I,” the practitioners of the Two Vehicles, have “always delighted in the Small Vehicle. That was all I ever wanted. Yet the Buddha wants me to practice the Great Vehicle.” This is the Buddha’s wish; He hopes that we will continue advancing. Since we have eliminated our afflictions, we should go among people. This “was not something I took delight in.” It is not something we would happily do. This is like being “forced to work.” He firmly pushes us to do this, but we are not interested.

So, “Having had these thoughts, he hurried away from there.” After thinking about it, we think it is better not to do it. We do not want to get involved with people, so we flee. After contemplating this, we only want to practice for our own benefit.

The poor son was “turning left and right.” This is dodging. They were simply unwilling to dedicate themselves to working with people ․Having had these thoughts, he hurried away from there: Turning left and right, the poor son silently considered and made a firm decision. He decided to go to another place. Thus it says, “He hurried away from there.” They had “silently considered” this. The Buddha taught them one way, but the way they thought about it was different. They “considered” what they should do. Then they “made a firm decision” and “decided to go to another place.” They made up their minds that they did not want to go among the people. They would rather go somewhere else. “I had better decide to flee this place.” Thus, “He hurried away from there.” He quickly left.

He asked for the way to a poor neighborhood, wishing to go there and look for work: He feared he would suffer under the yoke of hard work for a wealthy and noble person. It would be better to remain at ease in the convenience of being poor and lowly.

“He asked for the way to a poor neighborhood, wishing to go there and look for work” He was willing to go to a more impoverished place to see if there was any work for him there. “I am willing to do other kinds of work. It is just that I am unwilling to enter this wealthy and luxurious house.” This was his fear. “Fear” means he was afraid of being restricted by this wealth. Living amidst wealth did not mean freedom. He thought he would be forced to work, forced to do hard labor. “If I enter this wealthy household, they will have their rules, their structures and so on. I would be restricted by people. That is not what I want.”

Therefore, “It would be better to remain at ease in the convenience of being poor and lowly.” If he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, he would have more freedom. This is why the poor son was unwilling [to enter the house]. He was like the Small Vehicle practitioners who think, “This is good enough for me. Going among people to help them is not what I want to do. I would have to repeatedly come back and would have to cultivate many practices. I would have to teach according to their afflictions and capabilities. I would have to be with these sentient beings and adapt to them; this is too much trouble! Furthermore, I would have to follow them as they transmigrate through cyclic existence.” Thus, they were very afraid and did not want to do it. They were willing to just stop at this stage of spiritual practice. They refrained from advancing any further.

As we have said before, the Dharma is our spiritual treasure. The Dharma in our hearts is as abundant as the universe. Yet we are satisfied with the little bit we have realized. Having acquired a little bit of knowledge, we do not desire to advance in developing our wisdom. Thus, our understanding remains shallow; we think, “I have eliminated my afflictions. I have already put an end to samsara.”

That is easier said than done! We must still continue to earnestly take the Dharma to heart in this life and stop giving rise to discursive thoughts. This is how we eliminate samsara.

When we truly practice the Great Vehicle Dharma, the Buddha hopes we can reach a level that enables us to live freely and with ease, coming and going without hindrances. We come when we want, we leave when we want. This is coming and going in complete freedom. This is “journeying on the Dharma of Suchness to [deliver sentient beings] in this world.” So, “the Tathagata” means the Thus-Come-One. The Tathagata is an enlightened being who comes and goes freely and never departs from the Buddha-Dharma.

The next sutra passage states, “At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne, spied his son from afar and silently recognized him. Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back.”

From afar the elder had seen his child, that poor son. He recognized him simply by his figure and immediately dispatched people to bring him back. We have discussed this part in the long-form prose

At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne: Elder is a generic term for someone wealthy and replete with virtue, like Elder Sudatta or many others, one even-tempered and upright in character, who is honest and kind. Such a wealthy elderly person is called an elder.

An elder is “someone wealthy and replete with virtue.” A person replete with both wealth and virtue is called an “elder.” Take Elder Sudatta for example. This is a form of address used in ancient times. People with both wealth and virtue who were advanced in years were called “elders. One even-tempered and upright in character, who is honest and kind” means they are always calm and always speak the truth. They are very trustworthy, and their demeanor is very dignified. The things they do are deserving of respect. They are also advanced in years. People like this are called “elders.”

He spied his son from afar and silently recognized him: This is an analogy for how the Buddha used profound observation of the appearances of all phenomena to give teachings that had the function of eliminating doubts. He knew who among sentient beings had already formed great aspirations and silently recognized him.

“He spied his son from afar and silently recognized him.” This is an analogy for the Buddha. The Buddha was dignified by all virtues; thus the analogy of an elder was used ․He spied his son from afar and silently recognized him: This is an analogy for how the Buddha used profound observation of the appearances of all phenomena to give teachings that had the function of eliminating doubts. He knew who among sentient beings had already formed great aspirations and silently recognized him. “The Buddha used [His] profound observation of the appearances of all phenomena.” The Buddha applied “profound discerning wisdom” to determine which teachings to give them so they could resolve their doubts and questions, so they could be convinced. This is profound discerning wisdom. “Among sentient beings.” He had this kind of understanding.

So, this is how the Buddha taught us, hoping to patiently guide us to resolve our doubts and questions and give rise to a sense of conviction, to earnestly accept [the Dharma] and form Great Vehicle aspirations. To do this, the Buddha applied profound discerning wisdom to observe sentient beings and understand their capabilities. This is what “spying on his son from afar” means. He “silently recognized him.” He understood what method should be used in each particular case and which teachings He should give. He only used what was suitable, adapting to their capabilities to give teachings for them.

Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back: A father in this world who thought of his son night and day would immediately recognize his son upon seeing him. This is an analogy for the world-transcending kind father who searches for causes and conditions to transform beings. Upon seeing mature capacities and conditions, He does not abandon anyone.

“Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back.” He immediately sent someone to bring him back ․Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back: A father in this world who thought of his son night and day would immediately recognize his son upon seeing him. This is an analogy for the world-transcending kind father who searches for causes and conditions to transform beings. Upon seeing mature capacities and conditions, He does not abandon anyone. If a father in this world thought of his son night and day, upon seeing the figure of his son, he would pretty much know, “This is my son.” This is an analogy for how the world-transcending kind father searches for sentient beings with the causes and conditions to be transformed. Thus He could immediately recognize that, “These capacities and conditions are mature. I cannot wait any longer.” He would then immediately give to them, quickly find the conditions for teaching them. He never abandons them.

The Buddha, in His compassion, gives for the sake of sentient beings. Thus He waits for [suitable] causes and conditions. The Buddha treats all sentient beings as His only son. But all these sentient beings have many different capabilities and many complicated causes and conditions. So, He had to search for the right opportunities, the right causes and conditions. When sentient beings’ causes and conditions and capacities were mature, He had to quickly take advantage of the opportunity and the karmic conditions to give teachings to save and transform sentient beings. He teaches them by saving and transforming them.

We often see Tzu Chi volunteers give teachings in the same way. If someone is wealthy, we should be a friend to them and introduce them to Tzu Chi so that they might be inspired to do something. This is teaching the rich to help the poor. For those suffering from poverty and hardship, we should immediately find an opportunity to help resolve their difficulties. At the same time, we give suitable teachings to awaken love in their hearts as well.

In this way, the Buddha has the mindset of a world-transcending kind father. He “searched for causes and conditions to transform sentient beings. Upon seeing mature conditions, He does not abandon anyone.” This is very important. We must all be very mindful. This is not only talking about one father and one child. The world-transcending kind father is a father to all sentient beings in the Five Realms and the four forms of birth. He sees all as His only child and is always searching for causes and conditions that will allow Him to save and transform them. This is what we must be mindful to do. As Buddhist practitioners, the Buddha must be in our minds. We must take the Buddha-mind as our mind. This is the level that we need to reach. So everyone, please always be mindful.

Episode 824 – Establish Faith to Do Great Works

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>> The poor son’s resolve was weak; he was not motivated. He lacked the faith to seek to do great works. He was willing to uphold Small [Vehicle] Dharma but took no delight in the Great. With a change in perspective, there is in fact no difficulty.

>> “At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne, saw his son from afar and silently recognized him. Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back.”      [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “But the poor son cried out in alarm. Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground ‘This man has captured me,’ ‘and I will surely be killed!’ ‘For what did I seek clothing and food’ ‘when it has brought me to this?’.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back: When the father ordered his messenger to chase and capture him, the son cried out in alarm. The father had missed his son with all his heart, so upon suddenly seeing him, he urgently sent people after him.

>> The poor son cried out in alarm: Because they chased him with such urgency, the son was at a loss as to what to do, so it says he cried out in resentment and alarm. Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground. Frightened and helpless, he felt terrified like never before, so he fainted on the ground.

>> So, Before, at the Avatamsaka Assembly, it was as if they were deaf and blind. They were confused about matters and principles, so it was of no benefit to them to listen to the Great Dharma. So, They were confused, dazed and ignorant, retreating from the Great and not practicing it, instead seeking to end birth and death.

>> This man has captured me: The messenger, in his urgency to capture him, forcefully restrained him. It did not seem like he was hiring him for a job, but more as if he wanted to kill him.

>> I will surely be killed! is an analogy for being without aspirations or not intending to seek great practices, yet being forced to cultivate them. This would be no different than death.

>> So, For what did I seek clothing and food when it has brought me to this? Was there ever anyone here who could give me food and clothing? Of what use was getting myself into this?

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“The poor son’s resolve was weak; he was not motivated. He lacked the faith to seek to do great works. He was willing to uphold Small [Vehicle] Dharma but took no delight in the Great. With a change in perspective, there is in fact no difficulty.”

What the Buddha teaches us is all about the mind. He teaches us to form aspirations. If our aspirations are aroused, they bring great fortune, wealth and power. No one will be harmed; no one will be lacking. This is subtle and wondrous Dharma.

We ordinary people are all living like “the poor son [whose] resolve was weak; he was not motivated. Poor” means having no money, lacking material resources. In all respects, people like this lack tangible goods. This is what material poverty looks like. When people are impoverished, their willpower will be lesser and weaker. Because of this, they think, “I have these things I wish to do, but without money, what can I do? I am lacking in everything. What can I use to accomplish these things?” So their willpower is diminished. They have no will to work to develop their talents. People like this have little motivation. Because of their lack of material possessions, they do not dare do anything; they are also unwilling to do it. This is the weak willpower caused by poverty.

The ancients said it this way, “One may be poor, yet not lack aspiration.” Everyone possesses a hidden potential. If we have the will, if we make vows, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. We should worry most about having a lack of faith. A lack of material resources is not a problem, but we should worry if we are lacking in faith.

If we lose faith in ourselves, there is no way to “do great works,” no way to form aspirations or accomplish things. This is what happens when we lack faith. If we have simple and pure faith, [we believe] we all have hidden potential. “Is it true? Do I also have it? If I have this potential, I am willing to put it to use and go out and help others.” We just need to have faith that we also have this potential. This potential has long been hidden within us. As long as we are sincere, we can manifest this innate ability.

This is what we need to cultivate in our practice. A lack of tangible goods is called poverty, but intangible faith is what achieves great works. It is most valuable. So, we must not lose faith nor [be attached] to material resources. When we do not have them, we worry about how to get them, and when we do have them, we worry that we will lose them. We should not harbor this way of thinking.

So, if spiritual practitioners uphold the Small and take no delight in the Great Vehicle, they believe that, “I engage in spiritual practice so that I can be liberated from cyclic existence.” Seeking liberation from cyclic existence is a very shortsighted goal for their own sake. This is like the poor son with weak resolve; they only seek their own liberation and have no motivation [to do more] “[His] vows were weak; he was not motivated”; we are placing limits on ourselves.

So “He lacked the faith to seek to do great works.” If we limit ourselves by only seeking to be liberated from the cycle of birth and death, we will not have the greater faith to go among people, and we will not seek to do great works. If we just stay at our starting point, that would be a great pity. “He was willing to uphold Small [Vehicle] Dharma but took no delight in the Great.” If we can have “a change in perspective, there is in fact no difficulty.” Actually, learning the Buddha’s Way and practicing the Great Vehicle Dharma is not hard. We only need to change our perspective and form great aspirations and make great vows. We will live the same way; it is just that we will go among people and use of our strength to help them. If we have the strength, we can use it to help those who do not. So, going among people to transform them is not hard.

Now, let us look at the previous sutra passage “At this time the elder, sitting upon the lion throne, saw his son from afar and silently recognized him. Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back.”

In the earlier passage, the elder had already caught sight of him; the father saw his lost son. Having seen and discovered [him], the elder was anxious, so he sent people to quickly go after him

But the poor son “cried out in alarm. Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground ‘This man has captured me,’ ‘and I will surely be killed!’ ‘For what did I seek clothing and food’ ‘when it has brought me to this?’.”

In this sutra passage, the poor son was already leaving. When he heard people chasing him from behind, he ran even faster, and the people behind him chased him even more urgently. So, when he was caught, “Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground.” He was very frightened, overly terrified, so his legs lost their strength, and he was unable to continue walking. Thus he collapsed and cried,

Thus he ordered a messenger to chase, capture and bring him back: When the father ordered his messenger to chase and capture him, the son cried out in alarm. The father had missed his son with all his heart, so upon suddenly seeing him, he urgently sent people after him.

“This man has captured me, and I will surely be killed! For what did I seek clothing and food when it has brought me to this? If these people are seizing me like this, I am bound to die. Do I really need clothing and food that badly? Why did I come here?” In that place, he was scared, so he cried out in fear. His feet would not move, so his entire body weakened. He was confused and dazed, so he collapsed.

This is explains how, “when the father ordered his messenger to chase, capture and bring him back, the son cried out in alarm.” Alarmed, he cried out This expresses how the elder longed for his child. Suddenly seeing the figure of his son outside, he felt such joy, such excitement. But he feared that his child would be lost again. This expresses how. “The father had missed his son with all his heart. So upon suddenly seeing him, he urgently sent people after him.” He was overly anxious, so he quickly called people to go after [his son] without explaining why or saying who that person was to him. So, the people in pursuit did not know. They just quickly went after him to bring him back.

The poor son cried out in alarm: Because they chased him with such urgency, the son was at a loss as to what to do, so it says he cried out in resentment and alarm. Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground. Frightened and helpless, he felt terrified like never before, so he fainted on the ground.

Thus, “The poor son cried out in alarm.” The people in pursuit moved so urgently, so the poor son was “at a loss as to what to do. What should I do?” He became completely dazed and did not know what to do. “People are chasing me. What did I do wrong? After being captured, what will happen to me?” So, “[He] was at a loss as to what to do” and “cried out in resentment and alarm.” In that place, he kept saying, “I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t do anything to you. I didn’t steal anything. I didn’t do anything to you. So why are you…?” He made a great fuss there, and then. “Confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground.” His legs became weak, and he fainted

“Frightened and helpless, he felt terrified like never before.” This expresses the son’s fear. So, “He fainted on the ground.” He could not catch his breath, his arms and legs became weak, and so he collapsed and fainted. This shows the poor son did not have strength and that his captors were also quite anxious

So, “Before, at the Avatamsaka Assembly, it was as if they were deaf and blind. They were confused about matters and principles, so it was of no benefit to them to listen to the Great Dharma.” So, “They were confused, dazed and ignorant, retreating from the Great and not practicing it, instead seeking to end birth and death.” This is like a person collapsing on the ground.

This [is an analogy] for us ordinary people. When the Buddha first attained enlightenment, His state of mind was one with all things in the universe. At that time, at the Avatamsaka Assembly, heavenly beings, Bodhisattvas and. Buddhas appeared, filling the Dharma-realms of the universe. His spiritual state at that time, such a tranquil and still state, is one with all things in the universe. When this Dharma-assembly began, many heavenly beings were also there to listen. They could not understand; his words fell on deaf ears. “It was as if they were deaf and blind.” It was as if they did not hear it at all. They could not understand; they could not see the magnificence of Buddha’s awakened Dharmakaya.

This refers to ordinary people in this world. The spiritual state of the Buddha forever remains in the state of Avatamsaka Assembly, the state of His mind upon enlightenment. Yet ordinary people remain unenlightened; they need to be patiently guided from a young age. No one could understand the Buddha’s state of mind. No one was able to realize His original intent.

So, the Buddha taught sentient beings by adapting His teachings to conditions. He observed their capacities and conditions; the capacities and conditions should have matured. He had taught the Dharma for more than 40 years, After more than 40 years, [His] time in this world was coming to an end [His] affinity with this world was ending, so at that time He had to teach [His intent]. Thus, at the Lotus Dharma-assembly, He began to reveal the state of His initial enlightenment within this realm of unenlightened beings. Although the Small Vehicle practitioners had heard the Dharma for so long, the Buddha wanted to slowly guide them to return to their intrinsic nature of True Suchness and become one with all things in the universe. Yet there seemed to still be a ways to go. So, although these disciples seemed to attend the Avatamsaka Assembly, where the Buddha expressed His state of mind although they attended the Buddha’s spiritual Dharma-assembly, “It was as if they were deaf and blind.” They were unable to understand it deeply.

Thus He had to speak of many worldly matters as analogies to help them understand the principles. So, using matters and principles to explain the suffering found in the world and so on, the Buddha taught us the Dharma on how to become free of ignorance and afflictions and return to our pure nature of True Suchness. Regardless of the method, everyone had heard the message more or less. After listening, though they said they knew it, it quickly faded from their minds. They had Leaks in their minds; the Dharma they heard leaked away. Or perhaps after listening, “They were confused about matters and principles.” They misunderstood; they were unable to intimately, thoroughly and clearly comprehend, So, they misunderstood [the Buddha’s] meaning. “They were confused about matters and principles.” It was just as if they had not heard it.

“They were confused about matters and principles so it was of no benefit to them to listen to the Great Dharma.” Even after hearing the Great Dharma, they did not accept it into their hearts. This was the analogy made by Venerable Kasyapa. So, “They were confused, dazed and ignorant.” They were so confused and dazed that they could not understand what the Buddha taught.

So, “They retreated from the Great and did not practice it.” Because they could not understand, they retreated from the vows of great aspirations. They felt it better just to end cyclic existence. So, they “sought to end birth and death.” They tried to find ways to end birth and death. Because of this, they collapsed on the ground; their legs gave in, and they did not wish to move forward. Arriving at that point was good enough for them; they did not wish to go further.

This man has captured me: The messenger, in his urgency to capture him, forcefully restrained him. It did not seem like he was hiring him for a job, but more as if he wanted to kill him.

“This man has captured me,” refers to the messenger whom the elder ordered to bring back [the poor son]. This is “the messenger” “The messenger, in his urgency to capture him,” quickly captured him and “forcefully restrained him.” He held on to him very tightly, so. “It did not seem like he was hiring him for a job. This is not someone who wants me to work together with him. He is grabbing me so tightly. I must have done something wrong.” So, he was very afraid. It seemed “more as if he wanted to kill him. He is so fierce, as if he is catching me in order to kill me.” This was a mistaken assumption, a misunderstanding. It previously said, “They were confused about matters and principles.” They could not accept the Great Vehicle Dharma, so they made a mistaken assumption. They thought this Great Dharma was too much for them, so they had no desire for it

“I will surely be killed!” is an analogy for “being without aspirations or not intending to seek great practices, yet being forced to cultivate them. This would be no different than death.”

“I did not want this to begin with. I do not have the aspiration to practice the Great Vehicle Dharma. I only wish to end birth and death.” So, “This would be no different than death. You are forcing me to do this work, I do not wish to go. I do not wish to go among people, yet you are forcing me to go among them. It would be better for me to die. I just do not want to do it. I would rather die, I do not want to do it.” In this way, they were determined to remain in the Small Vehicle.

So, “For what did I seek clothing and food when it has brought me to this? This is not what I want, but they are forcing me to go. This is really not what I want.” This is a person with weak resolve. They truly cannot bear the hard work. They cannot bear to use their strength to work. They fear the path ahead of them

So, “For what did I seek clothing and food when it has brought me to this? Was there ever anyone here who could give me food and clothing? Of what use was getting myself into this?”

“This isn’t a place to seek clothing and food. They will only force me to work here. What benefit can I get from this? I don’t wish to stay here.”

“For what did I seek clothing and food” means, “At this place, I’m being forced to work, but I don’t want that.” So, “They only wanted to seek limited teachings. For what would they seek the clothing and food of the Great Vehicle and be compelled to engage in spiritual practice?”

“I will just practice the Small Vehicle Dharma. Why should I go among people? I do not need the Great Vehicle to dignify me. Being in the Small Vehicle is enough for me.” Do not “compel me to engage in spiritual practice. Why must you force me to practice Great Vehicle? I am fine with where I am.”

The Buddha truly could do nothing about this. To learn the Buddha’s Way, we need to be willing. Being compelled by others is truly taxing. Yet the Buddha was reluctant to just let it go; mature causes and conditions are so precious. It takes so many lifetimes to attain Buddhahood. Starting in Beginningless Time, He had to engage in continuous spiritual practice. He had affinities with the beings in this world, so when causes and conditions matured, He manifested in this world. Since He had manifested in this world, His disciples had the affinities to follow Him. The Buddha of course hoped that these many disciples of His would all be like His one son; He treated everyone as His only child. He treated each one as His only child. With this kind of feeling, He hoped all could understand the Great Vehicle Dharma and that all would make the Four Great Vows.

“I vow to deliver countless sentient beings. I vow to eliminate endless afflictions.” To deliver sentient beings, we must eliminate afflictions at the same time. “I vow to learn infinite Dharma-doors. I vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.” Everyone must open their minds, earnestly accept the Great Vehicle Dharma and work to go among people to form good affinities. By going among people like this, we can understand more Dharma. This is what the Buddha earnestly taught, yet we are unable to comprehend the the Buddha’s way of thinking. We think that the Buddha is compelling us, saying we absolutely must go among people.

Yes, He hopes we will, but He is not forcing us. He hopes that each of us will go among people so that first, we can create blessings, and second, we can grow our wisdom. When we can cultivate both blessings and wisdom, we are engaging in true spiritual practice. As we go among people we eliminate afflictions so we can be free from fear about birth and death and be free and at ease in cyclic existence, coming and going freely. Then, we can return to the world on the vehicle of the Dharma, and everyone will be Tathagatas manifested. So, we all need to always be mindful.

Episode 825 – Understanding the Dharma Brings Firm Resolve

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>> With the virtue of wisdom from previous lives, skillful teachings and provisional means, the Buddha gradually taught and transformed to help us understand all inner and outer Dharma. Always remaining unwavering, He resolutely attained realizations. He established great resolve to teach in accordance with the Dharma.

>> “The poor son cried out in alarm; confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground ‘This man has captured me’ ‘and I will surely be killed!’ ‘For what did I seek clothing and food’ ‘when it has brought me to this?’.”         [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base ‘He will never trust my words;’ ‘he will not believe I am his father’.”          [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base: This means the son would not come even if he called him, so for the time being he left him in peace.

>> Foolish means having severe delusions. Narrow-minded and base means having limited capacities.

>> He will never trust my words; he will not believe I am his father: The father knew the son’s resolve and thinking were narrow-minded and base, so although they were truly father and son, because he had been away for a long time, the son did not recognize his father as such.

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“With the virtue of wisdom from previous lives, skillful teachings and provisional means,
the Buddha gradually taught and transformed to help us understand all inner and outer Dharma.
Always remaining unwavering, He resolutely attained realizations. He established great resolve to teach in accordance with the Dharma.”

“Previous lives” is a term we are still unable to fully understand. As ordinary people, we do not know what we did in our past lives or how we came to this life. This is not very clear to us. But the Buddha told us with certainty that in the past we were likewise living beings. Living beings does not necessarily mean we were humans. In the past, whether in the Six Realms or the Five Realms, among the four forms of birth we were always some kind of living being. In summary, that is our life’s past,

what we accumulated in our past lives. Here, the phrase “with the virtue of wisdom from previous lives” is talking about Sakyamuni Buddha. In life after life, no matter which realm of cyclic existence He was in, the Buddha always went there because of. His great vows to help sentient beings. As He encountered other beings facing their karma, He would mindfully teach and transform them. This kept accumulating for a long time; these lifetimes stretched on a long time. For lifetime after lifetime, He had accumulated wisdom and compassion. With His compassion and wisdom, He went among living beings to help them. So, what He accumulated was the virtue of wisdom.

He had the virtue of wisdom, so He taught with “skillful teachings and provisional means.” He did not do this only in the human realm, but in all the realms of cyclic existence. Because of the Enlightened One’s great vows, whenever sentient beings’ karmic causes and conditions matured, He would go to those realms [to teach]. With the virtues He accumulated, nothing obstructed His understanding. The capabilities of sentient beings in each realm are different. In just the human realm, it is already very difficult to transform both those of great and of limited capabilities, to say nothing of all the other realms. With “skillful teachings and provisional means,” by teaching with all kinds of methods, He constantly accumulated [wisdom and virtue].

“The Buddha gradually taught and transformed.” Teaching sentient beings requires patience; one must be an unsummoned teacher. He could not bear to let sentient beings suffer, So, He had to “gradually teach,” using teachings of skillful means and “gradual teachings. Gradual teachings” means He took things slow and taught according to their capabilities. With patience, He kept them company. With patience, He taught according to capabilities so they could “understand all inner and outer Dharma.”

Inner Dharma helps us understand the workings of life. Life exists within the Five Aggregates. In everyone’s life, beginning from when we were born, from the time we were infants, we have had the Five Aggregates. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes unhappy. When infants are happy, they wave their hands and feet in joy and laugh. In that pure and innocent state, they are happy. When they are unhappy, they cry. How are they actually feeling? If they feel unwell, they cry. From the time they are infants, young children, they experience these emotions and feelings.

They also have eyes. They see external conditions that make them happy so they crawl to their favorite place to grab the thing they want. The same thing happens once they can walk. When they see something [they like], their bodies dash forward to chase after it. This starts from a young age. So, we are born with this inherent ability to feel. The Six Sense Organs and Six Sense Objects give rise to feelings.

This is the workings of the Five Aggregates. As they grow up they gradually become tempted by all kinds of things in society. Their minds begin to discriminate; they have things they like and dislike. If they cannot obtain what they like, they become afflicted. If they encounter what they dislike, they develop resentment, anger and so on. This is the Buddha’s explanation of the workings of our minds, of everyone’s consciousness. These “aggregates,” the Five Aggregates, are how we [experience] life. If we cannot understand ourselves, our own temperament, our own habitual tendencies, how can we understand the things around us?

So, the Buddha helped us to understand inner and outer Dharma. To have a more mature [understanding], we must “contemplate the body as impure.” When it comes to body and mind, form, feeling, perception and action are all related to our minds. Our bodies are impure and the workings of our minds are unhealthy. So, we give rise to many afflictions. The mind is filled with afflictions, and the body is filled with impure things. So, the Buddha taught us the Fourfold Mindfulness. We must contemplate the body as impure, all feelings as suffering, the mind as impermanent and all things as being without self.

With this inner Dharma, we must constantly contemplate ourselves. When it comes to the Buddha’s teachings, have we taken them to heart? Do we have an understanding of ourselves? Have we reduced our habitual tendencies, afflictions and ignorant thoughts? Moreover, are we using our bodies to put the teachings into practice? Although the body is impure, we must make use of our body while it is healthy to seize the moment. Only by giving to others will we reap any benefits. So, we must be mindful and make an effort to be clear on the inner and outer Dharma.

“Always remaining unwavering, He resolutely attained realizations.” Since we have aspired to learn the Buddha’s Way, as we now head for the path to Buddhahood we must have a firm resolve and always remain unwavering. Our minds must remain firm, and moreover, we must genuinely accept the Dharma and take it to heart. “Seeing one corner, we know the other three.” If we are told the method for making one corner [of a table], we should know how to make the second one by applying the same method. This is like how we should take the Dharma we hear in our daily living and put it into practice. I often say, as spiritual practitioners, we must pay attention to our habitual tendencies. For example, we should not always cling to our own ideas. If today we were clearly taught how to make a square shape, we should practice to make this square shape. We practice to make it very square. We should not cling to the idea that. “I want the corners to stand out, so I will make them sharper.” If we do that, we might hurt people with those sharp corners.

So, we need to always be mindful. Once we have formed aspirations, we must mindfully accept and uphold the teachings. We must uphold them squarely, properly, but not in a way that will harm others. This is true spiritual practice. So, we must resolutely attain realizations. Every method has its own underlying principles. There is a way to be rounded and harmonious. There is also a way to be square and proper. Whether we are talking about being rounded or square, there are principles behind them we must realize. We must comprehend these.

If we have wisdom, when we go among people, in whatever we see, there will be no principle we do not understand. Thus, we Buddhist practitioners must be mindful. We must train ourselves so that regardless of what environment we are in, our minds will be able to be in accord with it. In this way we resolutely attain realizations “[We] establish great resolve to teach in accordance with the Dharma.” As Buddhist practitioners, we must always follow karmic conditions and clearly discern right from wrong. We must take the principles to heart so that we can make use of them at any time. This is very important.

The previous sutra passage states, “The poor son cried out in alarm; confused and dazed, he collapsed on the ground ‘This man has captured me’ ‘and I will surely be killed!’ ‘For what did I seek clothing and food’ ‘when it has brought me to this?’.”

This was the previous sutra passage. The poor son stood outside the door and saw how magnificent it was inside. He was afraid, so he turned and ran. The elder saw him from inside. “That person must be my son. Quickly, chase after him and bring him back!” But those who grabbed him were very forceful, so he fainted. He was afraid that. “If these people want to capture me, they surely want to hurt me. They will take my life.” Hence, “For what did I seek clothing and food?” If they took his life, what use would clothing and food be to him? So, he was very frightened. He did not want to be there.

The next sutra passage states, “The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base ‘He will never trust my words;’ ‘he will not believe I am his father’.”

From the inside, the elder saw that as [the messengers] grabbed his child, his son was yelling loudly and struggling mightily. His arms and feet went limp, and he fainted. So, the elder knew that his son still had weak resolve. He was foolish, narrow-minded and base. It would take time to teach him. First he had to find a way to bring him back, then he could slowly educate him. This means that. “The son would not come even if he called him.”

The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base: This means the son would not come even if he called him, so for the time being he left him in peace.

This is like what happened with the burning house where the elder stood outside and yelled loudly. But in the present parable, the elder is the one inside, while his son had been wandering about out there.

At a young age, the son ran away from home and wandered about out there [His father] is an analogy for the Buddha. In our past lives, there is no telling how many times we have lived in the Five Realms and four forms of birth. In the Five Realms, we have suffered all kinds of torment. In the Five Realms, we have been affected by so many afflictions of dust-like [delusions] and ignorance, which come together to form so many karmic forces.

The Buddha wanted us to earnestly eradicate those afflictions of dust-like [delusions] and ignorance. So, He began by using skillful means to gradually approach sentient beings. He expressed His mindset that we are all like His only son. He did not have only one son; all beings in the world are like Rahula in His heart in His heart are like Rahula to Him. We are all like His only son. In this way, His heart encompassed the universe and all of the sentient beings in it. With this mindset, He established all kinds of methods to continuously teach and transform.

So, He is constantly calling to us. This is the meaning of “The son would not come even if he called him, so for the time being he left him in peace.” He let him relax for the time being. He could not instantly tell him that this place was his home. He left at such a young age that he had no memories of his home. So, the elder had to start over. First he had to find a way to bring him back; he had him do some manual labor outdoors. The father took off his magnificent jewels and put on coarse clothing. He went among the people in order to approach the poor son. With love, he comforted him. With great care he approached and taught him, so that the son could, in accord with his wishes, adapt to the environment there.

The elder made himself up as a coworker who would be close to him. This is “transforming by working together.” He went there to work with him and gradually encourage him to understand that. “Other than doing this kind of work, living this kind of life and making this wage, you can actually diligently advance to a state in which work is less taxing yet earns more.” He “gradually taught”; he took it slow. He guided the son in sequence to help him understand the riches inside and outside.

This is similar to how the Buddha taught us. He first helped us understand “suffering.” After we understand life is truly suffering, [we wonder] why there is so much suffering. So, the Buddha explained to us that this is because of causation, because we accumulate causes and conditions. “All our karma will follow us.” This is the karmic law of cause and effect. We undergo the cycle of cause and effect in the Six Realms. If we want to transcend the Six Realms, we must eliminate these kinds of afflictions [to put an end to] fragmentary, then transformational samsara. By eliminating afflictions, we can put an end to fragmentary samsara. By eliminating ignorance and delusions, we can eliminate transformational samsara. All this has to do with the microcosm of our minds, the workings of our minds. The Buddha gradually and carefully explained everything from coarse appearances to the intricate subtleties of our minds to help us understand.

Hearers and Solitary Realizers only understand the coarse appearances, cyclic existence in the Six Realms and the law of karma. They could not yet [eliminate] dust-like delusions. When it came to subtle perspectives of samsara within the mind, they still did not have a thorough understanding. So, for the time being, He had to gradually help them understand. “The son would not come even if he called him, so for the time being he left him in peace.” The elder let him relax.

Foolish means having severe delusions. Narrow-minded and base means having limited capacities.

Being foolish means having severe delusions. Because he was foolish, he was narrow-minded and base ․Foolish means having severe delusions. Narrow-minded and base means having limited capacities. This is because of delusions. Their dust-like delusions were still very severe. Although they had eliminated afflictions, their dust-like delusions were still very severe. So, these disciples were called “foolish” and “narrow-minded and base.” They were very narrow-minded, thus they only wanted to benefit themselves. So, “He will never trust my words; he will not believe I am his father.” If the father told him [at that time], “I am your real father” his son would not have accepted it. Therefore, he acknowledged him, saying, “You are like my son,” as if adopting him. He did not dare say, “You are my son.” We have explained that sutra passage before.

He will never trust my words; he will not believe I am his father: The father knew the son’s resolve and thinking were narrow-minded and base, so although they were truly father and son, because he had been away for a long time, the son did not recognize his father as such.

So, “The father knew the son’s resolve and thinking were narrow-minded and base.” He understood all this. “Although they were truly father and son, because he had been away for a long time, the son did not recognize his father as such.” The father seemed unfamiliar to the son, as the son had been away for such a long time. However, the father still remembered and understood his son. The son left his father such a long time ago, so he did not feel very close. Although the elder acknowledged him as a godson, there was still a distance between them. Thus [the son] still did not realize that the elder was his actual father. He still had not established very firm trust, because he was still very narrow-minded.

The Buddha had helped them to eliminate their afflictions, but all that they hoped for was, “I do not wish to return to the Six Realms.” This is just the coarse appearance; this is fragmentary samsara. They did not want to return to fragmentary samsara which is fragment after fragment of lifetimes. “If I give rise to a delusional thought, won’t I regress again?” So, they stopped at that state where they had not yet eliminated their dust-like delusions.

What we need to do is go among people and train ourselves by learning from everyone. We must train our minds so we will not be led astray by other unenlightened beings. We must strengthen our resolve so that regardless of how complicated things are, our minds will remain pure and our aspirations firm. This is “always remaining unwavering” and “resolutely attaining realizations.” We have not yet achieved this state. Because we still have dust-like delusions, we still easily waver. We have not established great resolve, so we are unable to resonate with the Dharma.

Everyone, we are able to live in this kind of environment, so we must be very content. We can directly understand the Dharma we hear and directly go among people. While working with others, our minds can remain peaceful and calm. So, in this environment, we must always be mindful.

Episode 826 – Purifying the Five Aggregates

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>> Those biased towards the Small only care for their own benefit and their own practice. With their one-eyed view of things, the world looks narrow and limited. Unable to open up their hearts, they view themselves with self-importance so they only uphold their own practice and fear forming affinities with sentient beings.

>> “The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base ‘He will never trust my words;’ ‘He will not believe I am his father’.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “He then used skillful means, and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in awe-inspiring virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> So it says, The Buddha employed skillful means, guiding them with the Small Vehicle so they would eliminate the excrement of afflictions and clean the lodgings of the Five Aggregates. Those with limited aspirations are those who become very happy as they listen.

>> [He then] dispatched some others. These others are those other than Great Vehicle [practitioners], who take the form of Hearers, those who practice the Two Vehicles.

>> He dispatched some others: In terms of people, this refers to Hearers and Solitary Realizers. In terms of the Dharma, it refers to the Two Vehicles, which transform people according to their capabilities and close connections.

>> One-eyed, squat and lowly: An analogy for how Small Vehicle practitioners only realize the emptiness of arising, which is different from the perfect realization of the twofold emptiness of the Great Vehicle. Also known as emptiness of self or of ego, it refers to how sentient beings are temporary unions of the Five Aggregates, without any true substance. All these phenomena arising from causes and conditions are in fact empty.

>> Views biased towards emptiness are narrow and cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time, so it is like they are squat.

>> Squat: Short and small. Ugly: A squat and lowly appearance.

>> Views biased towards emptiness are narrow and cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time, so it is like they are squat. They cannot pervade throughout the ten directions, so it is like they are lowly

>> Lacking in awe-inspiring virtue refers to. Two Vehicle practitioners who never attain the Fourfold Fearlessness. The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle is without the four true virtues of permanence, joy, self and purity,

>> Squat: Short in stature. When the body is short, it can be called squat. This is an analogy for how the Two Vehicle Dharma is limited in reach, unable to completely [realize] the true source of ultimate reality

>> Lowly means narrow in breadth. An ugly and lowly body is an analogy for Two Vehicle practitioners who lack the magnificence of the many virtues of the Great Vehicle.

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“Those biased towards the Small only care for their own benefit and their own practice.
With their one-eyed view of things, the world looks narrow and limited.
Unable to open up their hearts, they view themselves with self-importance
so they only uphold their own practice and fear forming affinities with sentient beings.”

We must understand that in spiritual practice, we must not only work for our own benefit. We must look after others as well. If we only seek to benefit ourselves and only look out for ourselves, we will not think to open our hearts and care for others at the same time we are caring for ourselves. Only when everyone is all right can we truly be at peace. If we only care for our well-being and do not care for others, when others create collective karma, can we really be free of worries and live on our own apart from them? That is not possible.

The Buddha came here to purify human hearts, hoping that everyone could open up their minds and save not only themselves but also others. If everyone can be at peace, everyone’s minds can be purified. Only then will heaven, earth and all people truly be at peace. We must not remain “narrow-minded and engage in spiritual practice solely for our own benefit.” Of course engaging in spiritual practice is good. But we cannot just focus on ourselves. We must broaden our minds and help others to have their own opportunities.

Therefore, it says here, “With their one-eyed view of things, the world looks narrow and limited.” This means that if our world-view is too narrow, the things we see will be very limited. Our world will also become narrow. Thus, we must open up and expand our minds so that they may encompass the universe. We should open our eyes wide and not have such a narrow view of things.

If we are unable to open our minds, we are “viewing ourselves with self-importance;” we care only about ourselves and do not think about others. Once sentient beings’ collective karma looms, it will be very difficult to escape the calamities that follow. Therefore, we need to influence everyone to open up their minds. We must not think ourselves most important.

So, “They only uphold their own practice and fear forming affinities with sentient beings.” If we follow the Small Vehicle Dharma, we only seek our own benefit; we only seek to awaken ourselves and only look after our own spiritual practice. We keep wishing not to create karmic connections, not wanting to go among people. This is to “fear forming affinities.” Not wanting to create karmic connections, we separate ourselves from other people. This is being a Small Vehicle practitioner. Engaging in true spiritual practice requires practicing the Great Vehicle [Dharma]. If everyone had this resolve, it would be greatly beneficial to the world. So, Living Bodhisattvas deserve our respect. They do not seek only to benefit themselves.

The previous passage says, “The elder knew his son to be foolish, narrow-minded and base ‘He will never trust my words;’ ‘He will not believe I am his father’.”

The elder, upon seeing his son, told people to go and bring him back. The son not only refused to come, he even struggled, resisting them. So, the elder understood that he needed to let him go and find other methods.

Thus, the next sutra passage states, “He then used skillful means, and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in awe-inspiring virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.”

Who could he find to get close to his son? Of course the elder not only had to find many people to accompany him, the elder himself also removed his adornments and magnificent clothing, and went to where the poor son was

So it says, The Buddha employed skillful means, guiding them with the Small Vehicle so they would eliminate the excrement of afflictions and clean the lodgings of the Five Aggregates. Those with limited aspirations are those who become very happy as they listen. 

This [explains] how the Buddha used skillful means, used the Small Vehicle Dharma, to gradually draw close to sentient beings. Sentient beings’ capabilities are limited, so the Buddha adapted to our capabilities, using language we could understand. This way, we would be willing to accept the gradual teachings of the Small Vehicle. Thus He taught us gradually so we could gradually accept His teachings

and “eliminate the excrement of afflictions.” Afflictions are like garbage, very filthy things. All of the afflictions and ignorance in our hearts must be gradually cleared away “[We] clean the lodgings of the Five Aggregates.” The Five Aggregates are form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. When our thoughts are set in motion and we connect with external states, these external states entice our minds so we give rise to greed, anger and delusion, entice us so that we take action and create much ignorance and afflictions. Thus “the lodgings of the Five Aggregates” are like a room that has many dirty things collected inside of it. And now, the Buddha is slowly teaching us how we should diligently work to gradually eliminate the ignorance and afflictions that are within us. We must let them go

“Those with limited aspirations” are those who “become very happy as they listen.” They are willing to receive the Buddha-Dharma. In the Small Vehicle, they were only taught, “You ought to look after your own mind. To eliminate your own afflictions, these are the methods to use. If you fear suffering you need to know these principles. With these principles of how causes accumulate, you will understand that you cannot do these kinds of things. Do not contrive affinities with people like this. Do not contrive affinities with evildoers or you may do evil things.” However, this caused us to misunderstand and think we should not create any kind of affinities. Thus, we clung to the Small Vehicle.

The Buddha wanted us to understand the karmic law of cause and effect. When we are serving others and something unpleasant happens between us, we should just let it go. What do we let go of? Our afflictions. We must turn negative affinities to positive ones. However, we have not put this part into practice. We only apply the “letting go” part, not wishing to contrive affinities with others. This is what Small Vehicle practitioners hear. Hearing this part, they only look after themselves. Though they very happily listen to the Dharma, they are not yet willing to give to help others. This is the Dharma of skillful means

[He then] dispatched some others. These others are those other than Great Vehicle [practitioners], who take the form of Hearers, those who practice the Two Vehicles.

“[He then] dispatched some others.” These “others” are those “other than Great Vehicle [practitioners], who take the form of Hearers, those who practice the Two Vehicles.”

This is the Great Vehicle Dharma. But in order to transform. Small Vehicle practitioners, it was necessary to be like them. If you want to sweep up an area, everyone must wear simple clothing and get involved in the cleaning. Everyone must clean together. In this way, no one puts themselves above others because they are teachings the Dharma. No, they join in with everyone. Even this elder himself removed his adornments and magnificent clothing, not to mention the “influencers,” those Dharmakaya Bodhisattvas. In the same way they went among people to guide and teach sentient beings.

So, “[They took] the form of Hearers, those who practice the Two Vehicles.” They went among the Two Vehicle practitioners and practiced in pretty much the same way. Actually, Dharmakaya Bodhisattvas manifest and appear around us. They are also learning in this way. They do this all to assist the Buddha, to help create a spiritual training ground and help teach sentient beings.

He dispatched some others: In terms of people, this refers to Hearers and Solitary Realizers. In terms of the Dharma, it refers to the Two Vehicles, which transform people according to their capabilities and close connections.

Thus it says, “in terms of people,” when taken in regards to people, this refers to Hearers and Solitary Realizers. When it is “in terms of the Dharma,” this refers to the Two Vehicles. Using the Two Vehicles to draw near them, they “transformed people according to their capabilities and close connections.” This is known as “dispatching others.”

In this way, He sent ones who already grasped the principles and were walking the Bodhisattva-path to go among those who had yet to make great vows. Thus, they too went among these people and looked for opportunities to draw near and transform them. This is the effort put forth by the Buddha and also the Bodhisattvas who assist, going among people to transform them.

One-eyed, squat and lowly: An analogy for how Small Vehicle practitioners only realize the emptiness of arising, which is different from the perfect realization of the twofold emptiness of the Great Vehicle. Also known as emptiness of self or of ego, it refers to how sentient beings are temporary unions of the Five Aggregates, without any true substance. All these phenomena arising from causes and conditions are in fact empty.

“One-eyed, squat and lowly,” is an analogy for how. “Small Vehicle practitioners only realize the emptiness of arising” ․One-eyed, squat and lowly: An analogy for how Small Vehicle practitioners only realize the emptiness of arising, which is different from the perfect realization of the twofold emptiness of the Great Vehicle. Also known as emptiness of self or of ego, it refers to how sentient beings are temporary unions of the Five Aggregates, without any true substance. All these phenomena arising from causes and conditions are in fact empty. “The emptiness of arising” refers to how Small Vehicle practitioners think that in spiritual practice, everything is ultimately empty. They understand the principle of “emptiness,” how all things are [temporary] unions, convergences of karma that has been created. Small Vehicle practitioners already know this. Their practice is biased towards emptiness, so they do not want to contrive more affinities. “I practice for my own benefit. I do not want to return to the cyclic existence of the human realm. Everything is empty anyway, so why do I need to return to cyclic existence?” This is being biased towards emptiness.

Although everything is ultimately empty, many things are formed of causes and conditions. This is very clear. But within this convergence of causes and conditions there is a wondrously profound principle that is forever present. This everlasting principle is our intrinsic nature of True Suchness. Among all things in the universe, it can neither be seen nor touched. Yet it leads to the formation of all things. This wondrously profound principle exists, yet Two Vehicle practitioners cannot experience it.

The Great Vehicle Dharma’s “twofold emptiness” is the wondrous existence in true emptiness. Great Vehicle practitioners realize this. They understand there is “wondrous existence and true emptiness.” Because of this “wondrous existence,” we must return to the “wondrous existence” of our intrinsic nature of True Suchness. Thus, [by realizing] the emptiness of the Dharma and the emptiness of self, or the ego, naturally, we can experience wondrous existence and true emptiness. We will also understand that “sentient beings are illusory unions of the Five Aggregates.” Sentient beings are all inseparable from the Five Aggregates, form, feeling perception, action, consciousness. With our physical body of the Five Aggregates, we think that our body is real. In fact, it is an illusory union. It is a “phenomenon arising from causes and conditions.” All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, all Great Vehicle practitioners, can realize this. But Two Vehicles practitioners cannot understand.

Views biased towards emptiness are narrow and cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time, so it is like they are squat.

“One-eyed” is an analogy for being “biased towards emptiness.” It like squinting your eyes to look at something. With this type of “bias towards emptiness all one’s views will be incorrect.” The things that are seen will always be blurry. Not seeing clearly like this is short-sightedness. Thus, this one-eyed vision keeps us from seeing objects and principles clearly, so “All one’s views will be incorrect.”

Squat: Short and small. Ugly: A squat and lowly appearance.

“Squat” is being short and small. This refers to being very short-sighted, someone who cannot see clearly. “Lowly” refers to being ugly, having an unsightly appearance. This refers to how we are not able to thoroughly understand the Dharma. This represents someone whose appearance is like this; they have an ugly appearance, [meaning] our views are biased towards emptiness. Our views are very narrow and small; we cannot see broadly

Views biased towards emptiness are narrow and cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time, so it is like they are squat. They cannot pervade throughout the ten directions, so it is like they are lowly

[Our views] “cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time.” Here, the Three Periods of Time are said to be vertical. We have no way to see this vertical span. We have no way to understand our past, present and future lives. What we know is not the long-term, but only this short [period of time]. We only know the here and now, today. We have already forgotten the distant past, and we definitely do not know the far future. Thus, “[Our views] cannot extend through the Three Periods of Time.” We cannot see into the past, present and future. This is what is known as “squat.” It means short-[sighted].

Horizontally, “[Our views] cannot pervade the Ten Directions.” We cannot see clearly around us. Our view is too narrow; it is limited to our own area. This is expressed as “one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in awe-inspiring virtue.”

Lacking in awe-inspiring virtue refers to. Two Vehicle practitioners who never attain the Fourfold Fearlessness. The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle is without the four true virtues of permanence, joy, self and purity,

If this is the case, our lives are so ugly; we only care for ourselves. We distort right and wrong and get everything mixed-up and misunderstood. We fail to see the principles clearly. So, we are “lacking in awe-inspiring virtue”

“Lacking in awe-inspiring virtue” refers to. “Two Vehicle practitioners” who “never attain the Fourfold Fearlessness. The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle is without the four true virtues of permanence, joy, self and purity,” So, they are without virtue.

Originally, if we attained great Nirvana, which is great liberation, this great liberation meant our minds are without hindrances. Then, permanence, joy, self and purity will be everlasting for us. True principles are everlasting. True Suchness is everlasting. This is “permanence.” We thoroughly understand true principles and the nature of True Suchness. We are very clear about them. We are safe, free, peaceful and happy. “Self” is the greater self, free from the limited self. This is all free from defilements. This is true permanence, joy, self and purity. This is the Great Vehicle Nirvana, not Small Vehicle Nirvana of limited liberation.

So, we need true virtues, the “four true virtues” of permanence, joy, self and purity. If we practice, we attain, and thus gain virtue. Without this, we have no awe-inspiring virtue. If we have it, we are at ease in our awe-inspiring virtue. Yet we are lacking the Fourfold Fearlessness and permanence, joy, self and purity. This is the Dharma Two Vehicle practitioners lack; they do not have full comprehension

Squat: Short in stature. When the body is short, it can be called squat. This is an analogy for how the Two Vehicle Dharma is limited in reach, unable to completely [realize] the true source of ultimate reality So when we say they are “squat,” it means that their bodies are very, very short. This is called “squat.” It is an analogy for the Two Vehicle Dharma, whose “reach is limited and unable to completely [encompass] the true source of ultimate reality.” This shows our short-sightedness. So, we are unable to see from up high. The higher we are, the broader and clearer our view. If we are very short and look from down low, we have no way to thoroughly understand.

Thus, “The Two Vehicle Dharma is limited in reach.” It is unable to reach things, “unable to completely encompass the true source of ultimate reality.” In other words, when we look at things from a low vantage point, they look very unclear; we need to have a broader view of worldly matters. If we look from higher up, we can view worldly matters more clearly and better understand the principles. The lower our viewpoint, the less we can see. This is the principle of “ultimate truth”

“Lowly” means narrow in breadth. An ugly and lowly body is an analogy for “Two Vehicle practitioners” who lack the magnificence of the many virtues of the Great Vehicle.

Because we are unwilling to have an open and spacious heart, unable to be open and spacious, naturally, we will not see the magnificence of the many virtues of the Great Vehicle.

To attain magnificence, we need to form good karmic affinities with people. Horizontally, [we need to pervade through] space, the space of all beings. We need to go among people and form good karmic affinities with them. This way we can truly have awe-inspiring virtue and magnificence. If we are “squat and lowly,” we only focus our narrow view on ourselves and do not dare to go among people. In this way, we will lack the magnificence of the many virtues of the Great Vehicle. The more timid we are, the less we will dare to be around others. Then people will not see us, and it will be harder be for us to spread our love as we go among people.

Therefore, our hearts should be open and spacious; we must not let appearances restrict us. Thus, regardless of how high a realm we are in, we need to open our hearts to embrace everything. If we are narrow-minded, we will naturally only think of ourselves. Then we will often be unable to see beyond [conflicts] or accomplish what we wish to do; we will only look after ourselves. Therefore, I often speak of collective karma. If we want to attain peace, everyone must live in safety. Only when the people around us are at peace can we truly attain peace. Otherwise, as collective karma accumulates and disasters strike, everyone is affected. If Living Bodhisattvas immediately take action, this collective karma can be transformed. When people transform their minds, change their thoughts, there will be hope again. After reconstruction, that [disaster area] will be different.

So, we must form Great Vehicle aspirations. We must open ourselves up, then naturally our world will be wide open. So, we must be mindful. Learning the Buddha-Dharma is about transforming ourselves and others and bringing awakening to both ourselves and others. So, we must always be mindful.

Episode 822 – Our Spiritual Wealth Is Infinite

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>> What virtuous roots, what causes and conditions, did we plant such that when the Dharma-drum begins to beat, we begin to attain benefits? Merely by first listening to the Dharma, which is like sweet nectar, we will be nourished when the Dharma-doors initially open.

>> “At that time, the elder had within his gates put up a great bejeweled canopy. He sat upon the lion throne, with his followers surrounding him, and had many attendants and guards. Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “The wealth that came in and went out was carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts. The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent, and supposed he was a king or something like a king. Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, ‘Why did I come here?’.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> The wealth that came in and went out: Practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself. Forming great aspirations to deliver and transform benefits others. Carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts: This is about receiving a prediction of Buddhahood through spiritual practice.

>> Scrolls are the Four Great Vows. Contracts are spiritual practice. This is an analogy for the great and wide roots of merit and virtue. Contracts refer to practices through the stages that allow us to receive predictions of Buddhahood.

>> The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent, It means He had high position, great authority, noble status, a powerful clan and was especially honored wherever he came and went.

>> [The son] supposed he was a king or something like a king: Having accumulated all kinds of good karma, one can be born as a king among men. One who is the leader of a kingdom is referred to as a king and is safeguarded by many humans and heavenly beings.

>>The analogy of the poor son seeing his father: Doubt and terror arose in his mind, and he ran away in fear.

>> Grand, noble and magnificent refers to the Buddha’s reward-body as He gave the great Avatamsaka teaching. King is used as an analogy for the Buddha, and something like a king is an analogy for Dharmakaya-Bodhisattvas.

>> Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, “Why did I come here?”: Upon seeing such wealth and power, fear arose in the poor son’s heart. He regretted coming to this place, and he ran away in terror.

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“What virtuous roots, what causes and conditions,
did we plant such that when the Dharma-drum begins to beat, we begin to attain benefits?
Merely by first listening to the Dharma, which is like sweet nectar, we will be nourished when the Dharma-doors initially open.”

What are the causes and conditions that have enabled us to assemble in this hall so we can together share our understanding of the Dharma, the ultimate truth? If during the Buddha’s lifetime, we were able to be in the same room as Him, to be in the same place as the Buddha and hear the Buddha-Dharma [from Him], we most certainly would have put our hearts into our spiritual practice over many lifetimes. Perhaps we were there at that time to listen to the Buddha-Dharma and already planted these causes, planted these seeds. For many lifetimes, we have carried these seeds of virtue with us. We have intermittently listened to the Dharma, but we have not been earnest [in practicing]. So, we only rejoiced in listening to the Dharma, but did not truly work hard and dedicate ourselves to putting the teachings into practice.

Although we are now engaging in practice, the Buddha hopes we can go among people to spread the seeds of virtue. The earlier we plant these cause, these seeds, the sooner they will come to fruition. So, we must form aspirations and make vows.

What kind of causes did we plant, what kind of virtuous roots, that we now have these present conditions? We must really cherish this. This is especially the case with the Lotus Sutra. Perhaps all of us had planted a seed at the Lotus Dharma-assembly then. But we did not make great efforts. However, the seed of this cause was slowly cultivated, and now, 2000-plus years later in the present day, we have encountered the Lotus Sutra again. Our causes and conditions have converged again so that we can all chant together and understand the Lotus Sutra’s principles. We should not only understand them, but also accept them, take them to heart and put them into practice. We must have use of them, which means we must apply them, and applying them means to work with people. By doing this, our realizations will be deeper.

For instance, our Education Mission celebrated its 25th anniversary. We can see how our education system is complete. From our kindergarten, there were children as young as four or five, or five or six years old, so small and so adorable. There were also primary school, secondary school and university students, along with professors, principals and so on. They all joined in for the musical adaptation of the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. This sutra is so profound and mysterious. The text is very long, yet throughout the event, the voices of the children were no less loud than those of the adults. Their voices were loud, their enunciation clear, and their chanting produced such a wondrous sound.

It was truly stunning to see. In the Dharma, there are no distinctions of age. Whether four or five, forty or fifty, seventy or eighty, age does not make a difference. Even though the children who joined in the musical adaptation were so young, their voices, movements, steps and attitudes were all in perfect harmony. This is the Buddha-nature intrinsic to everyone. Everyone has this potential, and this latent potential, this intrinsic Buddha-nature, is equal in everyone. We could see that such young children likewise “have the Dharma to transform.” Not only do they know how to chant, not only do they know how to move, all their movements are so orderly. Even children this young have such a deep understanding of the Dharma. One can truly feel how everyone’s wisdom-nature is equal. Thus, listening to the Dharma inspires and benefits us. It does not matter when or how the Dharma-drum

begins to beat. Similarly, in our Jing Si Abode, early in the morning we hear the bell, and our spiritual aspirations awaken. After the bell comes the sound of the drum. Everyone diligently and without delay hurries to the Great Hall and begins to assemble in an orderly fashion. This is the time for us to be diligent. The Dharma-drum has sounded, and it is time to gather our aspirations. “When the Dharma-drum begins to beat, we begin to attain benefits.” Hearing the Dharma-drum early in the morning, all of us listen and take the Dharma to heart, all of which will bring us benefit lifetime after lifetime. If we can do this, no matter what lifetime we are in, the Dharma we hear will be like sweet nectar received in a drought. This is why we must make the effort to be mindful.

The Buddha-Dharma is found in this world. In fact, at all times, all people are people who are teaching us the Dharma. This is what we must practice, to have our minds never leave the Dharma, so that all we encounter is Dharma. This means whatever we see or hear will all be teachings. So, we are talking about “first listening to the Dharma, which is like sweet nectar.” When I saw them, I thought, “Oh, this is life; the Buddha-nature is intrinsic to all!” It is so joyful to see [these children], like receiving the sweet nectar of the Dharma. This too is our spiritual state of mind.

“The Dharma-doors initially open.” Every day we can open the door to our hearts. Whatever it is that anyone has to say, it can always open up our Dharma-doors. This all depends on our attitude. If we can do this, then the sweet nectar of the Dharma-water will forever nourish the fields of our minds. Our Six Roots, our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, will continuously receive the sweet nectar of Dharma-rain. This is what we all inherently receive, because all of our hearts are like this. Of course, only by planting virtuous causes and taking the Dharma-seeds to heart will we be able to attain benefits. So, to learn the Buddha’s Way, we must be truly mindful to look deeper into it.

The previous sutra passage states, “At that time, the elder had within his gates put up a great bejeweled canopy. He sat upon the lion throne, with his followers surrounding him, and had many attendants and guards. Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure.”

This was mentioned previously. Let us try to comprehend what is being said. The elder was inside the gates. The poor son stood outside the gates. We must make the connections. Inside, the elder had “put up a great bejeweled canopy.” He sat upon a very magnificent seat, which is like the lion throne, very stable. In addition, a large retinue of people was surrounding him; there were so many. There were also many people protecting him. The poor son, standing outside and looking in, saw how luxurious and magnificent it all was. There was such wealth inside, and the people who would visit all ran big businesses. This was the scene inside.

The following passage states, “The wealth that came in and went out was carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts. The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent, and supposed he was a king or something like a king. Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, ‘Why did I come here?’.”

The poor son was still standing outside the gates, and he had not yet recognized that this great elder inside the gates was his father. He was still unaware of this fact [He thought,] “This person is so dignified!” So, looking in through the gates, the things he saw caused fear to arise in him, because “The wealth that came in and went out was carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts.” It seemed that everyone visiting was very wealthy.

The wealth that came in and went out: Practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself. Forming great aspirations to deliver and transform benefits others. Carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts: This is about receiving a prediction of Buddhahood through spiritual practice.

This means “practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself.” For us to earnestly accept and uphold the Buddha-Dharma, when we hear the teachings, we must earnestly take the Dharma to heart; what we listen to and take to heart will be ours

“Practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself.” As we engage in spiritual practice, if we absorb the Dharma into our hearts, we attain [the benefits]. We not only attain knowledge, but also gain wisdom. “By grasping one truth, we understand all truths.” This is something that benefits us personally. So, “Practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself.” When we make the effort to practice, we are actually the ones who gain the benefits. When we work hard, we ourselves benefit.

When children study hard and make an effort, their exam scores will be high. So, by making an effort, their power of understanding naturally strengthens. When they take exams, their scores will be high. When one makes an effort, one attains benefit. This is intangible wealth. So, “Practicing and upholding [the Dharma] benefits oneself.” We must constantly put our hearts into absorbing this intangible wealth.

With great aspirations to deliver and transform we bring benefit to others. We absorb all these things, just like earnestly earning money. When we earnestly take these things in, our [intangible] wealth increases. Naturally, if we have love, if we awaken the love in ourselves, then we can give to help others. Let us must make an effort to be mindful; when we take the Dharma to heart and awaken our [loving] thoughts, that is our spiritual wealth. Then when we have a surplus of material wealth, we will know to use it to benefit others.

Of course, wealth can help others, but most important is how we put the teachings into practice and help others in this way. If we listen to the Dharma, the capacity of our minds will naturally increase, and we can help others and promptly benefit them. This is “the wealth that came in and went out”; it goes out and comes in. “Going out” is helping others. “Coming in” is taking the Dharma to heart. Going out is putting it into practice, being willing to give. This is “the wealth that came in and went out”; it is our spiritual wealth.

“Carefully recorded in scrolls and contracts” means if we truly make an effort to be mindful and maintain our resolve to uphold [the Dharma] without seeking anything in return, our relationships with others will be genuine. We will not be wearing any masks. We will treat others sincerely, and when enough time has passed, we will stand face to face with the Buddha and receive a prediction of Buddhahood. This is also what we hope for. This is why we must make the Four Great Vows.

Scrolls are the Four Great Vows. Contracts are spiritual practice. This is an analogy for the great and wide roots of merit and virtue. Contracts refer to practices through the stages that allow us to receive predictions of Buddhahood.

The Four Great Vows are the “scrolls.” As for “contracts, ‘Contracts’ are spiritual practice”
Scrolls are that which we learn from. In the past, things were written on scrolls. Paper was long, so it would be rolled up. Therefore, in our spiritual practice, it is as if within our hearts we have already written everything out and rolled up these scrolls one by one. There are wonderful writings contained within and an abundance of Dharma

“‘Contracts’ are spiritual practice.” A contract is a kind of accord, it is an agreement, so the words that are written are very precious. What we have agreed to for this lifetime is to earnestly bring the Dharma and our minds into accord with one another.

This is an analogy for “the great and wide roots of merit and virtue.” We want our roots and capacities to be great. When we practice giving, we dedicate ourselves to going among people and helping sentient beings. We cultivate inwardly and practice outwardly; we cultivate inwardly in our minds and practice outwardly by serving others. These are the “great and wide roots of merit and virtue.” These are the “contracts.” We must understand our actions. The way we [engage in] virtuous behavior, how we give and engage in spiritual practice, indicates that the Dharma and our minds are in accord. When our hearts and the Dharma verify each other, we can give ourselves predictions [of Buddhahood].

Our hearts and the Dharma must be used to verify one another. We verify them in the world; only by dedicating ourselves to benefiting others will we be able verify the Dharma. If we do not dedicate ourselves or interact with others, we cannot verify anything. So, we give ourselves predictions of attainment; by dedicating ourselves in this way, we know the benefits we attain are our own. “Although I am giving to others, the Dharma-joy I receive is my own.” If this principle is thoroughly understood, then everyone should be joyful every day.

So, next the passage states, “The poor son saw his father, so grand, noble and magnificent,” It means “He had high position, great authority, noble status, a powerful clan and” was especially honored wherever he came and went.

下面再說，「窮子見父，豪貴尊嚴」。這表示位高權重，富貴豪族，往來特別受人尊重。

The analogy of the poor son seeing his father: Doubt and terror arose in his mind, and he ran away in fear.

The poor son stood outside the gates and saw how the elder was of very high status. In the analogy, when “the poor son saw his father,” naturally “doubt and terror arose in his mind,” so he hurriedly left. This indicates that if we only practice the Small Vehicle Dharma, only wanting to awaken ourselves, we will be unwilling to help others. We will fear the Great Vehicle; we will practice only to awaken ourselves and be unwilling to help others.

[The son] supposed he was a king or something like a king: Having accumulated all kinds of good karma, one can be born as a king among men. One who is the leader of a kingdom is referred to as a king and is safeguarded by many humans and heavenly beings.

So, “[The son] supposed he was a king, or something like a king”  What is a king? We have discussed this before. It is one who has accumulated much good karma. “Having accumulated all kinds of good karma, one can be born as a king among men.” To be a leader in this world, in past lifetimes, one must have created many blessings for the world and created much good karma. This is the only way one would have the blessing of being chosen to lead a kingdom. However, for a person to be a king among men, his heart must be upright. Then naturally, he will have heaven’s protection. The climate will naturally be in harmony, and the country will have peace and prosperity. Everyone enjoys the blessings of the king, so he is respected by everyone.

Grand, noble and magnificent refers to the Buddha’s reward-body as He gave the great Avatamsaka teaching. “King” is used as an analogy for the Buddha, and “something like a king” is an analogy for Dharmakaya-Bodhisattvas.

“Grand, noble and magnificent” refers to the Buddha’s reward-body “as He gave the great Avatamsaka teaching” ․ Because the Buddha was already enlightened, His state of mind at the Avatamsaka Assembly would always remain in His heart. His mind had awakened, but when it came to sentient beings, He dedicated Himself to go among people. He taught the Dharma according to capacities, but His heart remained pure and undefiled, as if He had never left the Avatamsaka Assembly. This is what was in His heart.

Thus, the king is an analogy for the Buddha. The Buddha is magnificent, and His spiritual state is dignified. So, “something like a king” refers to. Bodhisattvas at the level of equal enlightenment, the “influencers.” They are Dharmakaya-Bodhisattvas, like Guanyin, Manjusri, Maitreya and so on, who all came to assist at the Dharma-assembly. They are referred to as resembling or almost having the status of a king. In fact, Manjusri Bodhisattva had already been the teacher of seven ancient Buddhas and had come again to this world to transform sentient beings. Thus, it says he was like a king, or “something like a king.”

Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, “Why did I come here?”: Upon seeing such wealth and power, fear arose in the poor son’s heart. He regretted coming to this place, and he ran away in terror.

“Alarmed and frightened, he reproved himself, ‘Why did I come here?’.” Seeing these people, the poor son was very afraid, and so, “Upon seeing such wealth and power, fear arose in the poor son’s heart.” He felt regret [and thought], “Why did I come to this place?” So, he was very afraid. “He regretted coming to this place.” He was frightened, so he left. This was what the poor son did.

You see, in learning the Buddha’s Way, we must hope to take an abundance of the Dharma to heart. After taking the Dharma to heart, we will naturally have infinite spiritual wealth. Only by forming great aspirations to go among people can we further realize that the Buddha-Dharma, everything the Buddha taught, was to get us to return to our pure nature of True Suchness. It is not greater in the Buddha, nor is it less in ordinary people. Our intrinsic nature of True Suchness is equal to the Buddha’s. It is also the same for our wisdom. So, we should have faith in ourselves, and we should always be mindful.

Episode 821 – 知小向大入如來室

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>> The Tathagata clearly understood the wondrous truths of the universe. The Buddha guided sentient beings by opening His understanding and views. We now know we must go from the Small Vehicle to the Great Vehicle, the direct Bodhi-path. Thus we enter the Tathagata’s room, the precious storehouse of myriad virtues.

>> “Starved, emaciated and thin, his body covered in sores and ringworms, he gradually made his way to the city where his father lived. Continually hired for different jobs, he eventually arrived at his father’s house.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “At that time, the elder had, within his gates, put up a great bejeweled canopy. He sat upon the lion throne, with his followers surrounding him, and had many attendants and guards. Some were tallying His gold, silver and treasure.”     [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> At that time, the elder had within his gates: This describes how the son saw the father’s appearance of imposing virtue and magnificence. It described where he was when he saw his father, while standing outside the gates. Now it describes the elder inside the gates, both his appearance and his surroundings.

>> Since the Buddha abided in the Great Vehicle, the Great Vehicle was His home. Those still lacking faith and understanding in the great teaching were all outside the doors of the Great Vehicle teaching. Because of teachings, the Buddha grasps the truth; because of practicing, He attains the fruits of realization. Thus, He is said to be inside the gates.

>> Gate: An analogy for the Great Vehicle teaching Within his gates: An analogy for how the Buddha abides in the tranquil hermitage of no conflict, within the Dharma of the place of enlightenment.

>> He saw that his father had put up a great bejeweled canopy and sat upon the lion throne: His circumstantial retributions covered Him with fearlessness.

>> [He] sat upon the lion throne: The Buddha was like a lion among men, so the seat of the Buddha is always called the lion throne. This is like how the throne of emperors was called the dragon’s throne.

>> With his followers surrounding him: Those who receive the Tathagata’s Dharma and those who help the Tathagata to transform others are all called the Tathagata’s followers.

>> With his followers surrounding him, and [he] had many attendants and guards: With His direct retributions He gathers and protects the hearts of sentient beings. This [reward-]body is karmic retribution bestowed based on past karmic causes; thus it is called direct retribution.

>> Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure: As a Bodhisattva, the Buddha carried out His vows, so He can explain many matters of the past. Thus it says, Some were tallying. The merits and virtues of the Great Vehicle are likened to gold, silver and treasure.

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“The Tathagata clearly understood the wondrous truths of the universe. The Buddha guided sentient beings by opening His understanding and views.
We now know we must go from the Small Vehicle to the Great Vehicle, the direct Bodhi-path.
Thus we enter the Tathagata’s room, the precious storehouse of myriad virtues.”

We need to understand that after the Buddha attained enlightenment, His spiritual state was extremely vast. The wondrous truths of the universe were all taken into His ocean of enlightenment. This state of mind is what we need to learn. We need to move toward this state of mind. The Buddha put in a lot of effort and went among people to guide sentient beings. But have we sentient beings accepted what the Buddha opened and revealed for us? “He opens and reveals the Buddha’s understanding and views for sentient beings to realize and enter.” The Buddha opened and revealed, but have we entered into. His understanding and views? Every day as we listen to the Dharma, we must ask this of ourselves. We must ask ourselves whether we have taken each line of Dharma into our minds. Are we living our lives and performing our work in alignment with the Dharma? This is very important.

Now, all over the world, in more than 20 countries [and regions], including Taiwan, we already have roughly 200-300 spiritual practice centers [Everywhere, we rise] at the same time, before daybreak. Some people will drive for more than one hour to the place where everyone diligently gathers to listen to the Dharma. This is quite difficult. They get up so early, before daybreak, and have to drive. It is worse in this cold weather now. For those who live in cold areas, it is tough. They must be so diligent to overcome the cold and throw back the blankets. Early in the morning, they must quickly prepare to leave the house. This is for the sake of listening to the Dharma. So, they are very diligent and their determination is truly precious. But, after making so much effort to listen to the Dharma, have they taken the Dharma into their hearts? This is also what I am constantly thinking about. How can I help everyone experience the principles in daily living?

The sutras, written down more than 2000 years ago, are the Buddha’s description of. His enlightened state of mind and the principles He experienced. He hoped to help us understand that there is much suffering in life. Due to a single deluded thought, we have been transmigrating through the Six Realms. This is beyond our control, and the suffering is unbearable. The Buddha engaged in spiritual practice for many lifetimes. He had only one purpose. He hoped that in each life, life after life, He could remain on the Bodhi-path. Life after life, He sought the Buddha’s Way and transformed sentient beings. This went on until the karmic conditions matured, and He manifested the attainment of Buddhahood.

Being able to live in the same era as the Buddha is already not a simple matter. Yet in a small city of 90,000 people then, only one-third of the people met the Buddha and listened to His teachings, to say nothing of people living today. It has been more than 2000 years since then. The population is so large now. How many people can take the Dharma to heart? And after we understand the Buddha-Dharma, can we really put it into practice? Transforming sentient beings is very difficult.

Thus, guiding sentient beings is something the Buddha has done since His first aspirations as He endlessly sought the Buddha’s Way and transformed sentient beings. So, by now, the Buddha had already been teaching for more than 40 years. With skillful means, He enticed and educated; He taught people according to their capabilities. By this point, everyone understood that they had cultivated the Small Vehicle in the past. Now they should go in the direction of the Buddha’s Great Vehicle Dharma. It was time to begin the direct Bodhi-path, to walk toward this great, broad path. In the same way, they must gradually enter the Tathagata’s room, and from this magnificent storehouse of myriad virtues they would attain treasures.

This is just like the poor son. While still in a state of poverty, he discovered that his father was actually very wealthy and had so many treasures in his storehouse. He had come to gradually understand this.

So, the previous passage describes again how, “Starved, emaciated and thin, his body covered in sores and ringworms, he gradually made his way to the city where his father lived. Continually hired for different jobs, he eventually arrived at his father’s house.”

After leaving behind his wealthy family, [an analogy for] the Buddha, he wandered outside for more than 50 years. Now he had gradually drawn near to the city where his father lived. Not only was he near the city, but he also gradually approached his father’s house.

The following sutra text says, “At that time, the elder had, within his gates, put up a great bejeweled canopy. He sat upon the lion throne, with his followers surrounding him, and had many attendants and guards. Some were tallying His gold, silver and treasure.”

This description depicts the great wealth of the elder. This also explains how the son in the analogy had gradually approached his father’s house and looked in from outside of the house and saw the great elder inside. There were kings, ministers and great elders all surrounding him. Furthermore, he was adorned in jewels. What he wore was so magnificent and dignified. So, as the poor son stood outside, he did not know that this was his father. He simply felt that the master of this house was so dignified. When he saw this, the son was truly intimidated. He turned around and tried to run away. This is describing how the elder in this house had an appearance of “imposing virtue and magnificence.”

At that time, the elder had within his gates: This describes how the son saw the father’s appearance of imposing virtue and magnificence. It described where he was when he saw his father, while standing outside the gates. Now it describes the elder inside the gates, both his appearance and his surroundings.

There is also a description of the place from where the poor son saw his father. From where did he see his father? He was standing by the side of the gate. “Beside the gate” means he was outside; he looked in from outside the gate. He saw the magnificent and imposing interior. This describes the situation as the poor son approached his father. But, he still did not know this was his father

“Now it describes the elder inside the gates.” When he saw the elder inside the gates, the poor son was still outside. Being inside or outside the gate is like how for us, our nature of True Suchness is now inside our minds, yet we are still outside of it. Although we have gradually realized that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, we ourselves have still not fully discovered it. This is just like standing beside the gates. This is an analogy.

Since the Buddha abided in the Great Vehicle, the Great Vehicle was His home. Those still lacking faith and understanding in the great teaching were all outside the doors of the Great Vehicle teaching. Because of teachings, the Buddha grasps the truth; because of practicing, He attains the fruits of realization. Thus, He is said to be inside the gates.

“Since the Buddha abided in the Great Vehicle, the Great Vehicle was His home” This means that when the Buddha discovered the true principles of the universe, He attained a comprehensive understanding. So, the universe is his spiritual home; the home of the Buddha’s mind is analogous to the universe. All phenomena of the universe are encompassed by the home of His mind. This is an analogy. The Great Vehicle Dharma is the home of our minds. We all innately possess this spiritual home, which is as vast as the universe.

Those who still “lacked faith and understanding in the great teaching were all outside the doors of the Great Vehicle teaching.” If we do not have faith and understanding, we are still lingering outside the gate, for we do not yet believe. So, “Because of teachings, the Buddha grasps the truth.” Because He ceaselessly sought teachings in past lifetimes, the Buddha thoroughly understands the principles. “Because of practicing, He attains the fruits of realization.” Putting the principles into practice resulted in His attainment of Buddhahood. The Buddha has completely understood all Dharma, and all the truths contained within the great house of the universe are encompassed in the Buddha’s spiritual home. Thus, He is “within the gates.” The Buddha was already inside the gates of this great house as its master.

Gate: An analogy for the Great Vehicle teaching Within his gates: An analogy for how the Buddha abides in the tranquil hermitage of no conflict, within the Dharma of the place of enlightenment.

The “gates” are “an analogy for the Great Vehicle teaching.” They are a door. If we can enter this door, we can enter our intrinsic nature of True Suchness. “Within the gates” is an analogy for “how the Buddha abides in the tranquil abode of no conflict.” The Dharma is in this place of enlightenment. The Buddha’s inner place of enlightenment, His mind, is tranquil and clear. He has no conflicts in this world. But due to His compassion for sentient beings, He goes among the people to transform sentient beings.

He saw that his father had put up a great bejeweled canopy and sat upon the lion throne: His circumstantial retributions covered Him with fearlessness.

So, “He had put up a great bejeweled canopy and sat upon the lion throne, with his followers surrounding him, and had many attendants and guards.” This is analogous to the elder who was already very wealthy. His poor son stood outside the gates and saw how wealthy the [elder] was, with an appearance of magnificence and imposing virtue. The elder “put up a great bejeweled canopy and sat upon the lion throne. His circumstantial retributions covered Him with fearlessness.”

[He] sat upon the lion throne: The Buddha was like a lion among men, so the seat of the Buddha is always called the lion throne. This is like how the throne of emperors was called the dragon’s throne.

Circumstantial retributions are one of our two kinds of retributions. The Buddha “sat upon the lion throne.” This shows, “The Buddha was like a lion among men” The “lion” refers to His being the guiding teacher. He is like the lion of the jungle. The lion is the king of beasts in the jungle. He needs only to open his mouth and roar for all beasts throughout the jungle to hear him. This is like the Buddha; the Buddha-Dharma, the Buddha’s teachings, can be spread [everywhere]. These are the true principles that can be taken into everyone’s heart. So, where He sat was compared to the lion throne. This is like the emperors in our world. “This is like how the throne of emperors was called the dragon throne.” This is a name given to show respect. So, it says, “[He] sat upon the lion throne.” His seat was called “the lion throne.”

With his followers surrounding him: Those who receive the Tathagata’s Dharma and those who help the Tathagata to transform others are all called the Tathagata’s followers.

In “with his followers surrounding him,” His followers are those who accept the Tathagata’s teachings. The Dharmakaya Bodhisattvas who assist the Buddha at the Dharma-assembly are also called His followers. Whoever listens to or helps teach the Dharma is called a follower. “With his followers surrounding him” means there were many people surrounding him, “and [he] had many attendants and guards.” These represent direct retributions,

With his followers surrounding him, and [he] had many attendants and guards: With His direct retributions He gathers and protects the hearts of sentient beings. This [reward-]body is karmic retribution bestowed based on past karmic causes; thus it is called direct retribution.

the direct retributions to be able to gather and protect the hearts of sentient beings ․With his followers surrounding him, and [he] had many attendants and guards: With His direct retributions He gathers and protects the hearts of sentient beings. This [reward-]body is karmic retribution bestowed based on past karmic causes; thus it is called direct retribution. The Buddha attained enlightenment in this world solely in order to transform sentient beings. He teaches the Dharma to gather and protect; He helps sentient beings’ scattered minds to be carefully brought back. In the past, He used skillful means. Now He solely uses the Great Vehicle Dharma to help us completely focus on one path. Thus, He “gathers and protects sentient beings.” This is the Buddha’s compassion. He treats sentient beings as His only child with the hope that everyone can realize that we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature.

“This [reward-]body is karmic retribution bestowed based on past karmic causes.” This is the body of His direct retributions. We often speak of two kinds of retributions. We ordinary people are also like this; karma leads us here, beyond our control. The Buddha came here according to His vows. Observing the places where. He had affinities with sentient beings, He was born into a palace in India. He then vowed to engage in spiritual practice and attained perfect enlightenment. This is His direct retribution. This is the Buddha’s direct retribution.

Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure: As a Bodhisattva, the Buddha carried out His vows, so He can explain many matters of the past. Thus it says, Some were tallying. The merits and virtues of the Great Vehicle are likened to gold, silver and treasure.

“Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure” ․Some were tallying his gold, silver and treasure: As a Bodhisattva, the Buddha carried out His vows, so He can explain many matters of the past. Thus it says, “Some were tallying.” The merits and virtues of the Great Vehicle are likened to gold, silver and treasure. “As a Bodhisattva, [He] carried out His vows, so He can explain many matters of the past.” The Buddha attained Buddhahood beginning with one thought in the past. From when He gave rise to Bodhicitta and started walking Bodhisattva-path until now, it has been a very long time. So, He “can explain many matters of the past.” He can retell many of His past experiences. Thus it says, “Some were tallying.” If we try to tally up the past, the duration of time was really long and the space was vast. He experienced endless lifetimes in the four forms of birth and Five Realms. All of these must be tallied. “The merits and virtues of the Great Vehicle are likened to gold, silver and treasure.” Everything He has done has been to go among people with no regard for Himself. What He practices is the Great Vehicle. He saves and transforms sentient beings. He shows us the way. He guides us. The merits accumulated from this are called “gold, silver and treasure.”

In learning the Buddha’s Way, we must always take the Dharma to heart. If the Dharma is in our hearts, naturally we will be able to walk this great path very freely and smoothly. It is not about only us walking the path smoothly; we can also guide others and tell them, “This path is absolutely safe. Walk forward without hesitation!” We must have faith and understanding that this path directly leads to Buddhahood. I hope we do not stick to limited teachings. We should open our minds and let our hearts encompass the universe. The home of our minds is as vast as the universe. Our minds must be as vast as the universe. However many principles there are in the universe, we must thoroughly understand as many teachings.

This is the enlightened state of the Buddha. As Buddhist practitioners, we must be like the Tathagata and thoroughly understand the wondrous truths of the universe. With such broad minds, we can guide sentient beings. We can also open and reveal [teachings]. All the Dharma we have taken in can then be shared with others to help them understand that everyone must keep their minds open and spacious, without any view of self or attachment to self. With a view of self and attachment to self, the door to our minds will remain closed. Even if the Dharma is right next to us, are we inside or outside the gates? We stay outside the gates forever, only able to look inside, to see this person with an appearance of imposing virtue and magnificence. Meanwhile we remain outside, begging for food and clothing. If we do not open the door to our minds ourselves, we cannot go inside.

Thus we have limited understanding and views. Though we vowed to engage in spiritual practice, we are not willing to open the doors to our heart to accommodate more people and walk the direct Bodhi-path together with them. So, we must always be mindful and examine our own mind to see if the doors are open. Are we happy when we see people today? Are we accomodating of others today? We need to earnestly assess our minds to see if we are applying the Dharma after we hear it. Therefore, we must always be mindful.

Episode 820 – Joyfully Nurturing Wisdom-life with the Dharma

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>> If we do not take the Dharma into our hearts, it as if we lack provisions and are starving. Then afflictions spring up like many illnesses. Amidst conditioned phenomena, we give rise to views and thinking. After gradual permeation and practice, we encounter virtuous friends and attain the Buddha-Dharma.    [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food, went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing.”

>> “Thus, Starved, emaciated and thin, his body covered in sores and ringworms, he had gradually made his way to the city where his father lived. Continually hired for different jobs, he eventually arrived at his father’s house.”        [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> Starved, emaciated and thin: This is an analogy for lacking the spiritual provisions of the Great Dharma to nourish our wisdom-life and for how seeds of the Great Vehicle require the nourishment of the soil in order for the Great Dharma to be perfected. Because of such a lack of provisions, it says he was starved, emaciated and thin.

>> Lacking the Dharma-food of the Great Vehicle is being starved, being without great strength is being emaciated and having no merits and virtues is being thin. Emaciated and thin: An appearance ugly to behold, this results from not having

>> With his body covered in sores and ringworms: Being lost in regard to the true principles and giving rise to delusions of views and thinking is like the body being covered in sores and ringworms.

>> Sores and ringworms: This is an analogy for the faults of holding deviant views and not firmly upholding precepts. With sores and ringworms one can see the fetters of illness. Amidst conditioned phenomena, we give rise to delusions of views and thinking.

>> He had gradually made his way to the city where his father lived: Through gradually progressing in sequence and being gradually permeated and practicing, we attain causes and conditions that allow us to fortuitously encounter the Buddha-Dharma and attend the great assembly of Right Dharma in the Buddha’s lifetime.

>> He gradually made his way: An analogy for how those seeking the human and heaven vehicles have the resolve to improve and how those seeking liberation have the resolve to transcend the world. Seeking the Dharma step by step, one heads in the direction of the Great Vehicle Dharma of the Middle Way.

>> Practicing the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind, the Meditation on Universal Phenomena, the Meditation on Specific Phenomena, the Four Earnest Efforts and the Seven Skillful States are called gradually making one’s way. Realizing the emptiness of self and seeing the absolute truth is called reaching the city where his father lived.

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“If we do not take the Dharma into our hearts,
 it as if we lack provisions and are starving.
Then afflictions spring up like many illnesses.
Amidst conditioned phenomena, we give rise to views and thinking.
After gradual permeation and practice,
we encounter virtuous friends and attain the Buddha-Dharma.”

We always hope that when we listen to the Dharma, we can take it to heart. Only when we take it to heart can we put the teachings into action and practice according to the Dharma. This is the goal of true spiritual practice. But, we often have Leaks (afflictions), so we hear the Dharma and then let it leak out. When it comes to the Dharma we hear, how much do we actually internalize and apply in our daily living? So, every day we must remind ourselves to be vigilant. Is our mind focused? Since we are focused on spiritual practice, we should focus our mind on accepting the Dharma.

If we remain indolent, we will be unable to take the Dharma to heart. We will continue to allow the Dharma to leak out. As a result, “It is as if we lack provisions and are starving.” It is as if we have nothing to eat; naturally we will be starving. As we are so thin, we will have no strength.

This is an analogy for how we listen to the Dharma but are not being mindful in taking it to heart. Perhaps we were unable to hear the Dharma, or we heard it but did not take it in. Thus, as far as our wisdom-life is concerned, it is as if we have nothing to eat and are starving. This is what will happen to our wisdom-life. This means if we do not take the Dharma to heart, there will be no nourishment for our wisdom-life.

So, if we are hungry and do not have nourishment for our body, “Many illnesses [spring up].” If our body is in poor health, our immunity will be weak, so we are easily infected by germs around us. The same thing happens to our wisdom-life when we lack the nourishment of the Dharma. Then, the things we see around us, the things we hear and so on will easily delude us. Our minds will easily be disrupted by people, matter and things, giving rise to many afflictions.

It is the same principle. We may have a healthy body, but if we do not engage in spiritual practice we will continue to create karma and live our lives in a state of confusion. In this way, as our life grows shorter, we foolishly create more karma and ignorance. Our wisdom-life will starve. Because we do not absorb the Dharma, the wisdom-life and nature of True Suchness we fundamentally possess will remain wrapped up in these afflictions. Then in our next life, our wisdom-life will still be unable to manifest its illuminating radiance, while we still carry our afflictions and karma. That would be a pity. So, we must earnestly seize the time [to practice] and not wait until afflictions spring up like many illnesses, as we have to bring them with us when we go.

So, amidst conditioned phenomena, we give rise to delusions of views and thinking. We continue to give rise to these kinds of deluded views and thinking. If we connect with external conditions with unenlightened minds, our Six Sense Organs will connect with the Six Sense Objects around us, which entices our consciousnesses. Then, our minds will be endlessly entangled with sense organs and sense objects. This causes the raging of the Five Aggregates; our afflictions and ignorance rage like fire. Thus we give rise to delusions of views and thinking.

If we can make use of our time in this body to understand the Buddha-Dharma, when it comes to our views and thinking we can eliminate the delusions that come from our ignorance and afflictions. We will be able to give rise to Right Views and establish the practice of Right Thinking. We can do this even though we still have Leaks. Right now we are still unenlightened beings, so as we listen to the Dharma, we cannot take 100 percent of it to heart. Yet the things we have heard and applied are the teachings we must safeguard. Then “with gradual permeation,” we can engage in practice. We will gradually be permeated by [the Dharma] and earnestly immerse ourselves.

Right now many people talk about “being permeated by the fragrance of the Dharma,” which is to earnestly accept the Dharma. As spiritual practitioners, we must put the teachings into practice by going among people; this is how we dedicate ourselves. This is gradual permeation and practice. If we do not go through the stage of permeation and practice, we will be unable to thoroughly understand the principles. We will not have internalized them yet.

So, “We [need to] encounter virtuous friends and attain the Buddha-Dharma.” In this life, we have already attained this. Immersed in the Dharma, we are grateful to everyone around us, our spiritual friends and fellow practitioners

who walk this same road through the world. Some have achieved very deep realizations, some have achieved shallow ones. Whether our realizations are deep or shallow, we all can share and discuss with each other what it is we have absorbed and understood. This is learning and practicing the Dharma; through our experiences with people and matters in daily living we can connect to the principles. This makes everyone our virtuous friend. We must be very mindful of this.

The previous sutra passage states, “At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food, went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing.”

This is the process of seeking the Dharma [Small Vehicle] practitioners are likened to the poor son. They are seeking the Dharma, which is like seeking clothing and food. To nourish our wisdom-life and bring dignity to it, so that at any time we can manifest the power to transform sentient beings,

we must seek the Dharma over a long period of time. The disciples who lived during the Buddha’s time expressed that they had been continuously transmigrating in the Five Realms and four forms of birth, attaining bits of the Buddha-Dharma here and there. Now that they had encountered the Buddha, it was time for them to diligently advance.

Therefore, the next sutra passage talks about “[being] starved, emaciated and thin.” Because he was begging for food, sometimes he received something, sometimes he received nothing Thus, “Starved, emaciated and thin, his body covered in sores and ringworms, he had gradually made his way to the city where his father lived. Continually hired for different jobs, he eventually arrived at his father’s house.”

This is a continuous cycle. A person may be thin, but “emaciated and thin” means he is skinny from being starving, someone who is just skin and bones. “His body [was] covered in sores and ringworms” means that as he was lacking in nutrients, he had thus lost his immunity. So, his body was filthy, he was covered in ringworms; he had unclean things growing all over his body. Therefore, He looked very haggard.

Starved, emaciated and thin: This is an analogy for lacking the spiritual provisions of the Great Dharma to nourish our wisdom-life and for how seeds of the Great Vehicle require the nourishment of the soil in order for the Great Dharma to be perfected. Because of such a lack of provisions, it says he was starved, emaciated and thin.

Thus, “Starved, emaciated and thin,” is an analogy for “lacking spiritual provisions of the Great Dharma to nourish our wisdom-life” ․Starved, emaciated and thin: This is an analogy for lacking the spiritual provisions of the Great Dharma to nourish our wisdom-life and for how seeds of the Great Vehicle require the nourishment of the soil in order for the Great Dharma to be perfected. Because of such a lack of provisions, it says he was “starved, emaciated and thin.” We have remained within the Small Vehicle Dharma. We have not reached the stage of actualizing the Six Paramitas; we are not there yet. As we have not put the Great Dharma into practice, we do not have the spiritual provisions of the Great Dharma with which to nourish our wisdom-life.

So, the “Seeds of the Great Vehicle require the nourishment of the soil in order for the Great Dharma to be perfected.” We still do not have the Great Dharma; we have not put the Great Dharma into practice. Although the seeds of the Great Vehicle have been planted, we have not nurtured them by providing them with nourishment. If the soil is dry, the seeds we plant will be unable to grow. So, when we plant seeds in the ground, we must nourish them with water. Many conditions have to come together for them to grow, for the Great Dharma to be perfected, for this seed [to mature]. “Because of such a lack of provisions, it says he was ‘starved, emaciated and thin’.” Although we have sowed the seeds, we have not cultivated them. So, we sowed the seeds but reaped no fruits. Because of this, we will be lacking in provisions and will become “starved, emaciated and thin.” This is what happens to our wisdom-life; it is just like what happens when we do not eat.

Lacking the Dharma-food of the Great Vehicle is being starved, being without great strength is being emaciated and having no merits and virtues is being thin. Emaciated and thin: An appearance ugly to behold, this results from not having

“Lacking food of the Great Dharma Vehicle” is called being “starved.” Our wisdom-life is not nourished by the Great Vehicle Dharma. “Being ithout great strength is ’emaciated’.” We will have no energy at all ․Lacking the Dharma-food of the Great Vehicle is being starved, being without great strength is being emaciated and having no merits and virtues is being thin. Emaciated and thin: An appearance ugly to behold, this results from not having the great strength of merits and virtues. So, it is often said that to exert strength we must exercise. We must often go walking so that our legs will have strength. In “emaciated and thin, emaciated” means that we lack strength. As for “thin,” of course we can see when someone is very skinny. Lacking strength, this person refuses to do anything, refuses to exert any strength, so he loses more and more of his strength. The same applies to wisdom-life. If we do not exert our strength, naturally our wisdom-life will keep getting covered by ignorance. This continuously diminishes the radiance of our wisdom-life.

So, in “emaciated and thin,” lacking merits and virtue is being “thin.” If we absorb no nutrients at all, we will continue to grow thinner. This all depends on us. First, we do not exert our strength, thus we continually lose this ability. If we do not eat, of course we will not get enough nutrients and we will keep growing thinner. That is how our bodies work. Our wisdom-life works in the same way.

Being emaciated and thin “is ugly to behold. This results from not having the great strength of merits and virtues.” This kind of appearance is “ugly to behold.” If a person is just skin and bones, that does not look very nice. Moreover, when people are too thin, just by looking at them we can tell they can barely walk. How can they possibly do anything else? So, “not having great strength” means having no merits and virtues. If they do not give or put in the hard work, how can they attain virtues?

With his body covered in sores and ringworms: Being lost in regard to the true principles and giving rise to delusions of views and thinking is like the body being covered in sores and ringworms.

“His body was covered in sores and ringworms.” If we do not work hard, if our wisdom-life is weak, we will not be able to resist external matters, causing illnesses to develop in our minds. If we develop an illness of the mind, then that will be like “being covered in sores and ringworms.” As we exercise our wisdom-life less and less, we will be “lost in regard to the true principles and give rise to delusions of views and thinking.” When it comes to the true principles, if we do not develop. Right Understanding and Right Views, we will only give rise to delusions of views and thinking.

Some people who fall ill actually dare not take medicine because they know what the [side] effects will be. We must not avoid taking medicine because we know the [side] effects. If that is the case, we will never get well. So, “delusions of views and thinking” are like sores or ringworms growing on our body.

Sores and ringworms: This is an analogy for the faults of holding deviant views and not firmly upholding precepts. With sores and ringworms one can see the fetters of illness. Amidst conditioned phenomena, we give rise to delusions of views and thinking.

“Sores and ringworms” are analogies for the “faults of holding deviant views and not firmly upholding precepts” As we engage in spiritual practice, we must cultivate the [Three] Flawless Studies; precepts, Samadhi and wisdom are what we must firmly uphold. If we do not firmly uphold the Dharma, we will easily act on our faults.

So, the analogy of “sores and ringworms” is used. If we look skinny and weak, if we are covered with skin diseases, we will not look dignified at all. So, we must take in the Dharma like medicine to treat our illnesses of the body and mind. In particular, when we absorb the Dharma we must not allow our worldly knowledge to hinder our world-transcending wisdom-life. This is also very important. Thus, “With sores and ringworms one can see the fetters of illness.” These are “fetters”; illnesses of the mind surround and entangle our minds so that we cannot take in the Dharma but instead continuously give rise to afflictions. With “fetters” like this, “amidst conditioned phenomena we give rise to delusions of views and thinking.” Because of conditioned phenomena in this world, we give rise to greed, anger, ignorance, etc. These are all obstructions for us that lead us to give rise to delusions.

He had gradually made his way to the city where his father lived: Through gradually progressing in sequence and being gradually permeated and practicing, we attain causes and conditions that allow us to fortuitously encounter the Buddha-Dharma and attend the great assembly of Right Dharma in the Buddha’s lifetime.

Thus, “He had gradually made his way to the city where his father lived” This is a gradual sequence. In the past, his body, his wisdom-life, was lacking nourishment. Now, he was gradually beginning to understand; he gradually drew near to his father’s house.

“Through gradually progressing in sequence and being gradually permeated and practicing,” one can move forward with every step. By moving toward good health in body and mind, “We attain causes and conditions that allow us to fortuitously encounter the Buddha-Dharma.” These people truly encountered the Buddha. When the Buddha was in the world, these disciples lived at the same time as Him. Having these causes and conditions, Venerable Kasyapa expressed that they felt very fortunate and happy “[They attended] the great assembly of the Right Dharma in the Buddha’s lifetime.” They had spent countless kalpas transmigrating in the Six Realms. Then finally, the Buddha appeared in the human realm, so they lived in the same era. Thus, Venerable Kasyapa expressed joy at this.

He gradually made his way: An analogy for how those seeking the human and heaven vehicles have the resolve to improve and how those seeking liberation have the resolve to transcend the world. Seeking the Dharma step by step, one heads in the direction of the Great Vehicle Dharma of the Middle Way.

So, “He gradually made his way” is an analogy for “how those seeking the human and heaven vehicles have the resolve to improve” ․He gradually made his way: An analogy for how those seeking the human and heaven vehicles have the resolve to improve and how those seeking liberation have the resolve to transcend the world. Seeking the Dharma step by step, one heads in the direction of the Great Vehicle Dharma of the Middle Way. If those of us in the human realm are doing good deeds, this is seeking to advance. To go even further, we “seek liberation,” which is to eliminate ignorance and have the resolve to transcend the world. In this way, we gradually advance in our spiritual practice. This is “seeking the Dharma step by step.” We gradually head toward the Great Vehicle Dharma of the Middle Way. From the Small Vehicle, we turn to Vaipulya teachings and then enter the Prajna teachings to gradually head toward the Great Vehicle Dharma.

Practicing the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind, the Meditation on Universal Phenomena, the Meditation on Specific Phenomena, the Four Earnest Efforts and the Seven Skillful States are called gradually making one’s way. Realizing the emptiness of self and seeing the absolute truth is called reaching the city where his father lived.

We do this through the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind. As part of our spiritual cultivation, there are the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind ․Practicing the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind, the Meditation on Universal Phenomena, the Meditation on Specific Phenomena, the Four Earnest Efforts and the Seven Skillful States are called gradually making one’s way. Realizing the emptiness of self and seeing the absolute truth is called reaching the city where his father lived. In addition to the 37 Practices to Enlightenment, which we mentioned earlier, we need to continue to gradually experience the sequential steps to spiritual practice. There are the Five Meditations to Quiet the Mind, the Meditation on Universal Phenomena, the Meditation on Specific Phenomena, the Four Earnest Efforts and the Seven Skillful States. We must experience them one by one. This is “gradually making [our] way.” This is advancing with each step.

We must “realize the emptiness of self and see the absolute truth.” In this world, as the Buddha explained in the Prajnaparamita sutras, all things return to a state of emptiness. We must grasp the principle of emptiness so we can see all things clearly. Matters and objects arise through convergence, as do afflictions, so how do we see through these matters and objects? Then how do we get a hold of our nature of True Suchness? Where in our minds do we find this wondrous existence? To do this, we must advance on the Middle Way. So, we “realize the emptiness of self and see the absolute truth.” In this world, after realizing the truth of emptiness, we gradually draw near our nature of True Suchness. This is “reaching the city where his father lived.” We walk forward one step at a time.

Everyone, to learn the Buddha’s Way we must engage in spiritual practice like this. We cannot stop halfway and remain stuck there; we must diligently advance every day. We cannot waste any time and allow ourselves to become “emaciated and thin,” thus lacking the strength to advance. That will not work. We must quickly seize every second and minute; we absolutely cannot waste any time. So everyone, please always be mindful.

Episode 819 – The Practice of Loving-Kindness and Patience

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>> If we lack the virtues of compassion and wisdom, it is difficult to transform sentient beings. Without loving-kindness and patience, it is difficult to achieve peace in the Saha World. A single deviant thought leads one to fall into the Six Realms, focus only on awakening oneself and take no delight in the Great Dharma.

>> “However, as he approached old age, he increasingly worried about his son. From morning until evening he thought, ‘My time of death is drawing near My foolish child left me more than 50 years ago I have all these objects in my storehouses; what can be done about them?’.”       [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> “At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food, went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing.”       [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]

>> At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food is an analogy for seeking to escape suffering through the teachings of the Human and Heaven Vehicles. Practitioners of the Two Vehicles [seek] the clothing and food of Samadhi and wisdom that lead to world-transcending liberation.

>> [He] went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom. This is an analogy for being among the 5 Skandhas, the 12 Entrances and the 18 Realms and thus cultivating the 37 Practices to Enlightenment. So it says, [He] went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom.

>> The Five Skandhas: Form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. Skandha means covering; it is that which covers our true nature so that it is not able to manifest. Raging means something that is powerful, as all the sufferings mentioned above are brought together by the Five Skandhas. This is the suffering of the raging Five Skandhas.

>> The 12 Entrances: Where the Six Roots and the Six Dusts mutually involve each other. For those more deluded and biased toward form, the Tathagata broke down form into eye, ear, nose, tongue and body along with form, sound, smell, taste and touch. He combined feeling, perception, action and consciousness, the four mental functions, and simply called it mind.

>> What the mind connects with is only the phenomenon of the [Six] Dusts. To enable the mind to meticulously contemplate the form, He broke down “form” and connected it with the “mind”. Thus He taught the 12 Entrances.

>> The 18 Realms: For all sentient beings, the inner and outer states of mind and the Roots and Dusts are all encompassed by the 18 Realms.

>> The 18 Realms include the Six Roots, the Six Dusts and the Six Consciousnesses. They are called the 18 Realms because each realm has a boundary.

>> The Six Roots are the inner realm. The Six Dusts are the outer realm. The Six Consciousnesses are the middle realm. When the eye-root and form-object, the inner and outer, connect with each other, eye-consciousness arises between them, thereby creating three realms. The Six Roots and Six Dusts are the 12 Entrances from which the Six Consciousnesses arise, thus forming the 18 Realms.

>> Sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing: When we do not encounter virtuous friends, this is called getting nothing. Being born human, listening to the Buddha-Dharma and encountering true virtuous friends is called getting something. Engaging in flawed good deeds.

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“If we lack the virtues of compassion and wisdom, it is difficult to transform sentient beings.
Without loving-kindness and patience, it is difficult to achieve peace in the Saha World.
A single deviant thought leads one to fall into the Six Realms,
focus only on awakening oneself and take no delight in the Great Dharma.”

We must be very careful. In every thought, we are engaged in spiritual practice. What we seek is to be able to exercise both compassion and wisdom so we can transform sentient beings. This is what we spiritual practitioners must have and what we should diligently seek. However, if there is a “lack, if we lack the virtues of compassion and wisdom,” it is because we are not mindful and are unwilling to help others. A person like this lacks compassion as well as wisdom. Without compassion and wisdom, when he goes among people to help them, how could he transform sentient beings? It would be difficult to transform them; if we cannot even transform ourselves, how can we transform others? So, we should exercise both compassion and wisdom;

we must always remember this. In our daily living, “compassion” is recognizing we are all connected. When we speak to those who we do not like, as we talk to them, we should not purposely say words that will cause them to feel hurt. We cannot do this. We often say, “Every time we open our mouth we create karma.” Every good word we say creates good karma with this person. With every bad word that hurts another person’s feelings, we will have created negative karma of speech. This all arises from a single thought.

If we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes, how would we feel upon hearing something like this? We would feel hurt. If we would feel hurt [ourselves], then we should not hurt others’ feelings. This is compassion. If it was the other way around, and this person did something we do not like, we might think, “He has a bad affinity with me.” Then, since we are unhappy, we make them unhappy too. If we think this way, we truly lack wisdom. So, we will be unable to transform ourselves and also unable to transform others; we hurt other people’s feelings and develop bad relationships. If so, how can we transform sentient beings? Thus, we must be careful with our speech every day

and even more careful with our actions. “Without loving-kindness and patience, it is difficult to achieve peace in the Saha World.” When we engage in spiritual practice and listen to the teachings, we should learn to be compassionate. To be kind and compassionate is to want everyone to have blessings.

This is loving-kindness. For our world to have blessings and for our society to be safe and sound, then we must practice patience in our actions. When people are patient and can endure, naturally, unkind words and unpleasant things will not occur. Then, our society will be harmonious.

What happens if our actions are lacking in loving-kindness and patience? Look at the many countries in this world where people can no longer endure. Unable to patiently endure, we may give rise to a negative thought. If greed, anger, ignorance or evil intent arises, think of the man-made disasters it can cause! In so many countries, people can no longer endure patiently; they are unable to stay due to the danger. This creates a wave of refugees. Look at how many refugees there are today. What created this [situation]? It was a lack of “loving-kindness and patience.” The people and the leaders in that country were not willing to make mutual concessions. Without the virtues of compassion and wisdom, without loving-kindness and patience, it is difficult to achieve peace in the Saha World.

The Buddha said the place we live in is called the Saha World. “Saha” means to patiently endure; this is “the world of patient endurance.” This is why it is called the Saha World. Life is full of suffering to begin with; birth, aging, illness and death are all suffering. The impermanence in life is also suffering. Birth, aging, illness and death, parting with those we love, meeting those we hate, the raging Five Aggregates are all suffering. In addition, there is humankind’s greed, anger and ignorance, which are then put into action. So, “A single deviant thought leads one to fall into the Six Realms.” A small number of people with a single deviant thought have caused great suffering for many people.

Our intrinsic nature of True Suchness is equal to the Buddha’s enlightened nature. But because of a deluded thought, we turned away from enlightenment to connect with objects of desire, falling into the Six Realms. In the heaven realm, one can still enjoy comfort. In the human realm, there is both suffering and joy. In the human realm, it is very easy to create karma; we create so much karma. This has caused great numbers of disaster victims and refugees to endure unbearable suffering. This has already led their whole society and entire country into the asura realm. Therefore, the fighting does not stop. Because of a single deviant thought, we turn away from enlightenment to connect with objects of desire, and our minds become deluded. We are unable to return to our calm and kind intrinsic nature. So, we do not know which of the Three [Evil] Destinies we will end up in.

“We focus only on awakening ourselves and take no delight in the Great Dharma.” Some who engage in spiritual practice are in a place they can live in peace and work happily. We have being born human and can engage in practice, yet “We focus only on awakening ourselves and take no delight in the Great Dharma.” We only focus on ourselves and do not care about others. Thus, we “take no delight in the Great Dharma.”

We must know that in order to learn the Dharma and transform ourselves, we must exercise both compassion and wisdom. This is having virtue. If we lack this, we only awaken ourselves and are unable to achieve great Nirvana and great liberation. If we cannot completely liberate ourselves, then how can we transform others? Therefore, we must be very careful.

The previous [sutra] passage says, “However, as he approached old age, he increasingly worried about his son. From morning until evening he thought, ‘My time of death is drawing near My foolish child left me more than 50 years ago I have all these objects in my storehouses; what can be done about them?’.”

This describes the elder who searched for his son. He had not found him, so he thought of him day and night. He had used many methods to find him. With a worried mind, he was constantly searching for his son. This is just like how the Buddha hopes that all spiritual practitioners will be able to find their way back to their intrinsic nature of True Suchness.

The following sutra passage says, “At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food, went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom, sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing.”

At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food is an analogy for seeking to escape suffering through the teachings of the Human and Heaven Vehicles. Practitioners of the Two Vehicles [seek] the clothing and food of Samadhi and wisdom that lead to world-transcending liberation.

“At that time, the poor son, searching for clothing and food” is an analogy for “seeking to escape suffering through the teachings of the Human and Heaven Vehicles. Practitioners of the Two Vehicles [seek] the clothing and food of Samadhi and wisdom that lead to world-transcending liberation.” How can we escape this suffering? Even if we are in the heaven or human realm, we still cannot escape suffering. Even heavenly beings with their long lives will reach a time when their heavenly blessings end. It is the same even for them; when heavenly blessings end, [heavenly beings] will still fall into the other good and evil realms. This is to say nothing of we who are living such deluded lives. So if we have more evil karma, we will not be able to be born in heaven, and there is no guarantee that we will be born human in a future lifetime. We may end up in the Three [Evil] Destinies. Thus, “If we do not transform ourselves in this lifetime, in which lifetime will we transform ourselves?” Since we have this human body, we should earnestly practice [the Dharma].

“Practitioners of the Two Vehicles [seek] the clothing and food of Samadhi and wisdom that lead to world-transcending liberation.” This refers to Small Vehicle Practitioners. These are Hearers and Solitary Realizers, who are already in the human realm. Though they know that their cyclic existence in the heaven and human realms is impermanent and are retributions received according to karma, they are already practicing the Buddha-Dharma. Whether they are Hearers or Solitary Realizers, they are seeking world-transcending liberation, Samadhi and wisdom. This is like searching for clothing and food, because in “searching for clothing and food,” that was all the poor son asked for; he only asked for warm clothing. For some who adopted the appearance of monastics, they only [adopted] this appearance to say “I’m engaging in spiritual practice.” However, they practiced only for themselves. They only wanted to awaken themselves. So, this is not the ultimate

“[He] went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom.” This is an analogy for being among “the 5 Skandhas, the 12 Entrances and the 18 Realms” and thus cultivating the 37 Practices to Enlightenment. So it says, “[He] went from city to city and from kingdom to kingdom.”

「從邑至邑，從國至國」。就是譬喻「由五陰、十二入、十八界而修三十七助道品」，所以叫做「從邑至邑，從國至國」。

The Five Skandhas are form, feeling, perception, action and consciousness. “Skandha” means covering. This refers to ignorance and afflictions. Our ignorance and afflictions have covered our nature of True Suchness. So, “It is not able to manifest.” Our true nature cannot manifest. These are the Five Skandhas. When we are full of ignorance and afflictions, the Five Skandhas are “raging”; “This is suffering of the raging Five Skandhas.” Here, “raging” means something that is powerful

The Five Skandhas: Form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. Skandha means covering; it is that which covers our true nature so that it is not able to manifest. Raging means something that is powerful, as all the sufferings mentioned above are brought together by the Five Skandhas. This is the suffering of the raging Five Skandhas.

As we exist amidst form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness, as we often say, a single thought begins to arise. Our eye-root connects with external states; we will talk about this later. Thus, thoughts of greed and so on arise, and we create much negative karma of body, speech and mind. With negative [karma], we will have many afflictions that burn like fire. These [afflictions] keep accumulating, so we say they are “raging. Raging” means powerful, which refers to the powerful nature of the Five Skandhas. All the suffering we face has been brought together by the Five Skandhas. Otherwise, why would we suffer?

Suffering arises because we encounter “form.” Then I feel, “I want that.” After this, “I” begin to take action and create a lot of karma and end up taking in great karmic forces. These karmic forces are due to “form,” which begins with the 12 Entrances.

The 12 Entrances: Where the Six Roots and the Six Dusts mutually involve each other. For those more deluded and biased toward form, the Tathagata broke down form into eye, ear, nose, tongue and body along with form, sound, smell, taste and touch. He combined feeling, perception, action and consciousness, the four mental functions, and simply called it mind.

The Six Roots (sense organs) are eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. The Six Dusts (sense objects) are form, sound, smell, taste, touch and thoughts. Together, these two sets of “six” form the 12 Entrances. Our eye-root sees various forms and colors. Our ear-root hears pleasant sounds, unpleasant sounds, sounds of [those] who like me, sounds that entice me and so on. When Roots and Dusts come together, we have all these feelings

“For those more deluded and biased toward form the Tathagata [broke it down].” When we come to the human realm, we may be enticed by this “form,” so we place great importance on “form.” Thus, “The Tathagata broke down form as eye, ear, nose, tongue and body.” All of these are considered “form,” along with “form, sound, smell, taste and touch.” He put together the mental functions of “feeling, perception, action and consciousness.”

What the mind connects with is only the phenomenon of the [Six] Dusts. To enable the mind to meticulously contemplate the form, He broke down “form” and connected it with the “mind”. Thus He taught the 12 Entrances.

There is also the “mind.” The states the mind perceives are only the objects of objects; the mind has sensations of external states. If we can meticulously contemplate form, that is “breaking down ‘form’ and combining ‘mind’.” The outside world is filled with shapes and colors. Then we take these shapes and colors into our minds. This is called the 12 Entrances.

The 18 Realms: For all sentient beings, the inner and outer states of mind and the Roots and Dusts are all encompassed by the 18 Realms.  

Our eyes, ears, nose and tongue connect with all external things, and we let them enter our consciousness. Then as our consciousness functions, what does it contain? It contains all of these things. This is called the 12 Entrances. The 18 Realms are “all sentient beings’ inner and outer states of mind.” The Six Roots, Six Dusts and Six Consciousnesses are called the 18 Realms.

Previously we mentioned the 12 Entrances; now there are the Six Consciousnesses. These six are [part of] our consciousnesses. When our mind sees external states, our eye-root has already seen external form-objects. In fact, once we see it, that is that, but because of our consciousness we get attached to it. When we hear something, it has already passed, but it is our consciousness that then gets attached to it. “I remember something you said many years ago, and it has caused me to hate you until now.” We hold this hatred in our minds. Things like love, hate, passion, animosity, meeting those we hate, [etc.] are all held within our minds.

This all happens because our consciousness connects with external things; via the Six Roots it connects to external things and then takes them all in. These are our Six Consciousnesses. So, the Six Roots, the Six Dusts and the Six Consciousnesses combine together to form the 18 Realms.

The 18 Realms include the Six Roots, the Six Dusts and the Six Consciousnesses. They are called the 18 Realms because each realm has a boundary.

The 18 Realms “include the Six Roots, the Six Dusts and the Six Consciousnesses.” They are called “realms” because each realm has its own boundaries. The eye-root is just the eye-root; form-objects are just form-objects, Mind-consciousness is just mind-consciousness. But once this is set in motion, these three are combined together as one. So, when these three sets of six are combined together, they become the 18 Realms.

The Six Roots are the inner realm. The Six Dusts are the outer realm. The Six Consciousnesses are the middle realm. When the eye-root and form-object, the inner and outer, connect with each other, eye-consciousness arises between them, thereby creating three realms. The Six Roots and Six Dusts are the 12 Entrances from which the Six Consciousnesses arise, thus forming the 18 Realms.

“The Six Roots are the inner realm. The Six Dusts are the outer realm. The Six Consciousnesses are the middle realm.” Our Six Consciousnesses are in the middle. When our eyes look at things, the things are outside, but it is our consciousness that is in the middle and takes them in. Because of this, “The Six Consciousnesses are the middle realm. When the eye-root and form-object, the inner and outer, connect with each other,” eye-consciousness arises between them, thereby creating the three realms. We must make the effort to experience this. So, the Six Roots and Six Dusts are the 12 Entrances from which the Six Consciousnesses arise, thus forming the 18 Realms

Sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing: When we do not encounter virtuous friends, this is called getting nothing. Being born human, listening to the Buddha-Dharma and encountering true virtuous friends is called getting something. Engaging in flawed good deeds.

“Sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing” is “when we do not encounter virtuous friends; this is called ‘getting nothing’.” It is rare to be born human, yet we [might] not encounter good friends. Good friends will help us transform. Good friends will help us succeed. Whether we are right or wrong, they will help us analyze things. This is helping us to “get something,” which is

“being born human, listening to the Buddha-Dharma and encountering true virtuous friends.” If we can meet [people] who lead us to encounter the Buddha-Dharma, they are truly virtuous friends. This is also “getting something.” If we do not encounter good friends, we are “getting nothing.”

“Engaging in flawed good deeds is practicing in order to get something.” Practicing to get something is a “flawed good deed” ․Sometimes getting something, sometimes getting nothing: When we do not encounter virtuous friends, this is called getting nothing. Being born human, listening to the Buddha-Dharma and encountering true virtuous friends is called getting something. Engaging in flawed good deeds is practicing in order to get something. In this life, if we only seek to awaken ourselves, we are still practicing “flawed good deeds.” This is because we are still seeking; we are still “searching for clothing and food.” But we have not yet attained our own true wealth. We are still seeking something external, warm clothes to wear, enough food to eat. We try to use this thing to get that thing. This is all still the basic Small Vehicle Dharma. We still have not developed a mind that delights in the Great Vehicle. In this way, we sometimes get something and sometimes get nothing. We have not yet unwaveringly entered this great Bodhi-path. Therefore, we must always be mindful.