Episode 10 – Five Periods of Teachings Based on Capabilities
>> All Buddhas, the World Honored Ones, appeared in the world for one great cause. It is to help all sentient beings realize and enter the Buddha’s wisdom and views
>> Such wisdom and views are possessed by all sentient beings. But they are lost and unaware, and thus fall into cyclic existence.
>> The Buddha realized this cause and. He resolved to attain Buddhahood so to reveal all [teachings] to sentient beings.
>> He taught in five periods. Though He taught using the provisional and the true and manifested the slow and the quick methods, His intent with this was always solely this one great cause.
All Buddhas, the World Honored Ones,
appeared in the world
for one great cause.
It is to help all sentient beings realize
and enter the Buddha’s wisdom and views
and enter the Buddhas wisdom and views. This is the cause of the Buddha appearing in this world. Let us think about why the Buddha came to the human realm. From the sutras, we can learn that the Buddha has been enlightened since. Beginningless Time. Beginningless Time is the limitless past. He has been the Buddha since Beginningless Time, so why would He descend once again from Tusita Heaven into that earthly palace? This shows us that before becoming a Buddha, we each have to go through this spiritual training ground, which is the world of Bodhisattvas. Due to everything He saw and experienced in the human realm, including humans states of being, He decided to become a monastic, to study and to thoroughly understand the principles of the human realm to teach them to sentient beings. Did He need to study them? He had already attained Buddhahood. He already had a clear enlightened nature. This is another one of His manifested forms. If we want to become enlightened, we must go through this type of cleansing. After experiencing the delusions of the material world, we must then work hard and attain realizations. This passage teaches all of us that if we walk the same path as the Buddha, we can have the same spiritual state and also attain enlightenment. This is how the Buddha leads by example. He does not only use words to teach; rather, He teaches by example. So this is the great cause for which. He came to the human realm. How could He teach sentient beings? He must demonstrate that His life and their lives are no different, no matter the time period, no matter how people think, no matter how complex the mind. He must accommodate each time period so as to break through the contradictions of that era. So, this why He comes. That type of contradiction is actually passed from generation to generation in the human realm. During the time of the Buddha, people were divided into four castes. Do these no longer exist? Today we still have divisions in class and wealth. These are the unresolved afflictions that prevent the mind from being liberated. So the Buddha manifests Himself according to the sentient beings and afflictions of the time. His methods were to open, reveal, realize and enter. The doors to sentient beings hearts are closed and [their minds are] darkened, so clear, bright wisdom cannot penetrate them. In each of our minds, there is Buddha-nature. That is why He first opens; the Buddha wants to open the door to our minds so we can all recognize that we each have an intrinsic Buddha-nature. Then we can realize the principles of the world and enter the Buddhas spiritual state. So, the Buddha opens and reveals, and sentient beings realize and enter. This refers to all sentient beings. Every single one of us has Buddha-nature. We are deluded so we do not realize or know it. The Buddha wants to help people realize that all sentient beings possess the Buddhas wisdom and views, that everyone inherently has such wisdom and views, they just do not realize or know it.
Such wisdom and views are possessed by all sentient beings. But they are lost and unaware, and thus fall into cyclic existence.
Such wisdom and views are what the Buddha wants to open and reveal so we can realize and enter them, so we know that this is common to all sentient beings. Sentient beings does not only refer to humans. Any being that is alive, no matter its size, shape or form, as long as it is alive, it has Buddha-nature. All sentient beings have Buddha-nature. Dont I often say, All beings, no matter how small, have Buddha-nature, even ants, mosquitoes, bees. I have also said that in one life, the Buddha appeared in the form of a queen bee. Even in that form, He possessed Buddha-nature. Whether ant or insect, what being does not have it? So, as long as a creature has awareness, it knows, This is pain. I need to quickly flee for my life. There is a human disturbing me. This is bad for me. I need to run away! Look at an ant hill. Thousands of ants live inside it, but if you disturb it just a little, the ants disperse in all directions. They also know to run for their lives, just like people. As soon as there is unrest in a country, there will be a wave of refugees because they also want to flee immediately. Even the smallest animals are just like humans. They are living beings, just like us. So sentient beings, humans and other beings, are all living creatures, and all have a nature equal to that of the Buddha. However, sentient beings are born into different physical realms based on their karma and according to their circumstantial retribution. Humans are more blessed than other beings, Therefore we must uphold precepts and create blessings. Because we have slightly more blessed retributions than other living beings, we were reborn as humans. No matter how painful things are, as long as we are in the human realm we will have a chance to repent, a chance to repay the debts we owe, a chance to see the human realms good and evil. Those with limited capabilities and poor causes and conditions will be influenced and tempted by evil. If they practice doing small good deeds, and have a small amount of merits, a benefactor will naturally appear. So even after a lifetime of wrongdoings and evil, they may still meet a benefactor and experience blessed conditions. Naturally, no matter the circumstance, because of this karmic connection, they can be guided onto the right path.
At Tzu Chi, don’t we often hear of cases in which a person who has done a lot of evil in the past had to first experience a period of hardship to before eventually encountering the good causes and conditions that brought him here? These conditions allowed him to transform his heart and behavior, and guided him toward blessings and doing good deeds. So to attain enlightenment, we need to be in the human realm. In this world, there is good and evil, blessed and negative retributions. Negative retribution is pain and suffering; such suffering is unbearably painful and continues lifetime after lifetime. To be reborn as a human does not mean that we will necessarily have the chance to repent. Without the right conditions and opportunity, we will continue to do evil. Then according to circumstantial retribution, we may be reborn as other living beings. If a person has a tiny bit of goodness, he has a chance to be reborn as a human and may attain deliverance. Therefore, we sentient beings all have Buddha-nature, but we are deluded and do not know it. Because we are all lost, we do not know this. We have already heard the Dharma. We know and believe that everyone has Buddha-nature, including ourselves, including every person we encounter. We know that that everyone has Buddha-nature. But despite this knowledge, we still have not rid ourselves of habitual tendencies. Each of us know we have Buddha-nature, but we have not eliminated our habitual tendencies. When we listen to the teachings, we understand the principles. But, people are lost and unaware. Not only do they not have faith in others, they also slander them. So, because they do this, they fall into cyclic existence. Where does this transmigration take place? Is it only transmigration through human lives? Not necessarily. In this world, people must repay evil karma, evil affinities. To repay them in this world, they return to this world and have to suffer much pain and torment. They may even have to face other types of circumstantial retribution. Falling into cyclic existence is being immersed in the Six Realms, where the suffering is unbearable. This was the cause that led the Buddha to His realizations and His resolve to attain Buddhahood. He became enlightened among people by manifesting a form in this world. His Buddha-nature is intrinsic and has existed since Beginningless Time, but the Buddha manifested among people to show that.
The Buddha realized this cause and. He resolved to attain Buddhahood so to reveal all [teachings] to sentient beings.
The cause is that multitudes of sentient beings are deluded by suffering and remain unenlightened. So the Buddha continues to return to this world to teach us how to become awakened, and how to transform other sentient beings after we are awakened. It is said, He resolved to attain Buddhahood so to reveal all [teachings] to sentient beings. The Buddha manifests in this world to teach sentient beings with many kinds of methods. Because sentient beings have limited capabilities, the Buddha gave his teachings in five periods. During these five periods, He taught both the provisional and the true. The provisional refers to skillful means. The true refers to the ultimate truth, the true Dharma of Buddhas original intent. The Buddha expounds the same Dharma [to all], but sentient beings encounter the Dharma with varying capabilities. Thus, it is called the Five Periods of Teachings.
He taught in five periods. Though He taught using the provisional and the true and manifested the slow and the quick methods, His intent with this was always solely this one great cause.
There are Five Periods of teachings. When the Buddha began expounding the Dharma, He taught the true teachings, the Avatamsaka. The Avatamsaka teachings were expounded for only 21 days because they were only understood by Bodhisattvas with superior capabilities and wisdom. Heavenly beings, humans etc., did not understand. Therefore the Buddha spent 21 days to transform those with great capabilities and wisdom, the Bodhisattvas who already had clear and great capabilities and wisdom. But because He saw that sentient beings could not understand this, after 21 days, He began to expound the Agama teachings. He expounded the Agama teachings for 12 years. And after that, He expounded the Vaipulya for eight years. After, it was the Prajna teachings for 22 years following by the Lotus teachings. The Buddha spent 8 years on the Lotus Sutra. These are the Five Periods of Teachings. Indeed, we sentient beings are incapable of comprehending the Buddhas compassion and great effort to teach different kinds of teachings according to different capabilities. He did this out of compassion. In conclusion, though we are all human, the same Dharma expounded by the Buddha may be understood quickly by certain people. Not only do they resonate with the Buddhas heart and His original intentions, they can also put [His Dharma] into practice. This process happens quickly, very fast, showing their very high capability. After they believe in them, they can put the teachings into action. Some have average capabilities. They believe but their habitual tendencies are hard to eliminate. Consider disciples such as Sariputra; though he knew what the Buddha said was good, he was worried that sentient beings were too stubborn and obstinate so he did not dare approach them. He focused only on his own self-enlightenment. If a being of limited capability hears the Buddhas teaching and gives rise to doubts, he may wonder, Is that right or wrong? Not only does he have doubts in his heart, he has no trust or faith. When doubt exists, there is no faith. In addition, he will commit evil deeds. This is how one with low capability behaves. Sometimes he will fluctuate. He has already encountered the Buddha-Dharma, but he is still unstable and fluctuates between belief and doubt. Someone like this has dull, limited capabilities, The Buddha says that because sentient beings have great, average, and limited capabilities, the Buddha had to use Five Periods of Teachings. So it was very taxing to come to this world for the sake of this great cause. The Buddha expounds teachings for sentient beings to realize. But because they are lost, He has no choice but to use both skillful and true means, the Small and Great Vehicles, adapting to sentient beings varying capabilities, from great to average to limited. So, this was the Buddhas one great cause. Let us all hope that we all have great capabilities. We should at least strive to be average. Otherwise, if our capabilities are any more limited, we may fluctuate for a very long time. Do we really have time to wait in this life? The human realm is impermanent and fast-changing so let us not be people of limited capabilities. I hope we can be like Never-Slighting Bodhisattva, have wisdom and become awakened, protect our intrinsic nature and respect others. If we can do this, this process will be faster. Everyone, please always be mindful.