Episode 13 – Prajna, True Emptiness, Wondrous Existence
>> “The One Buddha Vehicle, the perfect teaching is complete with infinite skillful doctrines.”
>> It is said the Dharma is not big or small, high or low, deep or superficial. It resonates with the time period and customs. The wondrous Dharma can be applied to all groups of people in this world.
Every morning [our mind is in] “tranquil contemplation, like a wondrous lotus.” At the Jing Si Abode, our spiritual training ground, I often share with everyone that. Jing Si is a path of diligent practice. We must be very diligent. We must diligently practice every day. Diligence means not lax. To diligently practice is to not retreat. We have sincerity, integrity, faith, steadfastness and manifest kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity with our actions. Having sincerity, integrity, faith, steadfastness means that our minds are not defiled by afflictions or interpersonal disputes. This is just like how a lotus flower can grow out of a muddy pond. When we engage in spiritual practice, we must take good care of our hearts and have sincerity, integrity, faith and steadfastness. But we do not practice to only benefit ourselves, we must also seek to benefit others.
We are at the same spiritual practice center and people come from all directions, each with different habitual tendencies. Because so many of us, with our different habitual tendencies, are living together, we have the chance to learn how to be accommodating. If someone gives us a bad attitude, we need to learn to be grateful. If someone says something unpleasant and we hear it, we need to learn to be understanding. We need to be content, no matter what the conditions are or how arduous the work is; we endure it all for spiritual practice. We come together from different environments and with different habitual tendencies, which makes this a very good training ground for us. So we need to be very content and satisfied with just having basic necessities for daily living.
This needs to come from our hearts. When we can broaden our hearts to be content, grateful, understanding, accommodating, naturally we will have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. Tzu Chi volunteers practice internally and externally by walking on the Bodhisattva-path among people. This enables us to discuss the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
Everyone, in the past we have discussed the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. Not so long ago, we discussed a quick summary of it as the talk that preceded the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra. Now if we are mentally ready, we can enter the world of the Wondrous Lotus Flower. So the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra is deemed the King of All Sutras. It reveals that the one vehicle to Buddhahood is complete with infinite skillful means. This is a Mahayana text.
Before the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, the Buddha already expounded the Agama, Vaipulya, and Prajna. In fact, I have always told everyone that before the Agama, for three seven-day periods after He attained enlightenment, in that state of mind, the Buddha expounded the Avatamsaka Sutra. No one understood Him; only Dharmakaya-Bodhisattvas could accept [His teachings]. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, the state of His mind could not be understood by other humans or heavenly beings. So the Buddha started to think of methods to use to go among humankind so that. He could be understood by sentient beings.
At that time, the religions in India were particularly complicated. Brahmanism was very popular. Everyone was classified distinctly into four castes. How was He to help people understand, accept, and then dedicate themselves to actual spiritual practice? So the Buddha put a lot of thought into this and decided to first use skillful means, which meant very gradually educating sentient beings according to their capabilities. Their capabilities determined the type of Dharma He expounded. Therefore He expounded the Agama Sutra, which had four parts. Thus, the Agama Sutra was used to patiently guide sentient beings based on their capabilities. [The Buddha] taught it for 12 years 12 years was a very long time. When He saw that sentient beings were mostly capable of understanding it, He began expounding the Vaipulya Sutra. After eight years, He saw that sentient beings were more capable, so He began expounding the Prajna. The Prajna Sutras analyzed people and matters of this world, starting with “existence.” We all have attachments to the “existence” of things. Thus when the Buddha expounded the Prajna Sutra, He analyzed the “existence” of things to the point of nonexistence.
In our world, many things exist because they are the combinations of various elements; thus they exist and are functional. Simple functional objects are made from simple combinations. As for sophisticated technologies, they are more complicated. If we take them apart and separate the parts, they return to nothing. Consider the current technology; it comes from the most advanced sciences. It is the most sophisticated technology. However, people nowadays keep talking about the greenhouse effect. What causes the greenhouse effect? How does the greenhouse effect create such major natural disaster and manmade calamities? The greenhouse effect causes imbalance of the four elements. When it is time for rain, it does not rain. When it is time for the cold, it is not cold. When it is time for the heat, it is too hot. When it is time for good weather, there is drought.
Our natural seasonal climates are out of order due to the greenhouse effect. It creates such major natural disasters. Scientists kept researching and researching and have now discovered that the source of the problem is lack of environment protection. So we began our environmental protection work. There are too many things; people live too luxuriously, are too wasteful. They throw away things they no longer want to use; all those things are now trash. Just look. If we take them apart and recycle and restore them, what do they become? We return them to their natural state, to become raw materials. What are the raw materials? We can break them down, but actually the names do not matter. What can raw material be broken down into? The energy resources of the Earth. But what comes after that? Nothing; ultimately there is emptiness because sophisticated things are made up of many smaller elements.
So we need to apply wisdom. How do we use Prajna, which is wisdom, to reduce our attachments to material goods that obstruct us? We can also analyze interpersonal relationships as psychological attachments. Therefore, to transform hatred into love is only a matter of a change of heart. That is all. So the Prajna Sutras discuss how we can change our thinking, and how we can eliminate our attachments. By applying Prajna, we can realize true emptiness and no longer have attachments.
I often share the story of a group of lay practitioners who told others, “Go buy fish and shrimp on the first and fifteenth on the lunar month and release them as a work of merit.” After releasing them, one person said, “Let’s go to a seafood restaurant.” Why would they go to a seafood restaurant? Someone asked him, “We just released fish and shrimp for merit; why are we going to eat them now?” He said, “We are helping them transcend.” Isn’t this taking it too far? Then he said, “Bring a few bottles of wine.” A Buddhist asked him, “Didn’t the Buddha say to abstain from alcohol? Hey, wine is the soup of Prajna. Now let’s smoke. But if one smokes, one isn’t much of a Buddhist disciple. Smoke is like a canopy of incense clouds.” Look at how he takes things out of context. This is not what we want, nor is it what the Buddha taught as the meaning of the Prajna Sutras. Some people use the teaching of Prajna to say that everything is empty. These people are very contradictory. Consider this person. Doesn’t he claim to practice Mahayana teachings, which is free of attachments? His way of being free of attachments is to violate many precepts because he is not attached to them. His lack of attachment is not about letting go of cravings and hatred or being open.
Therefore, the Lotus Sutra is the Middle Way. In the Middle Way, there is “existence.” What exists? The Wondrous Dharma, wondrous existence. This “existence” is wondrous existence, a return to the Bodhisattva-path, to the state of Buddhahood. We all have the potential to become a Buddha because we all have Buddha-nature. To return to our Buddha-nature, there must be wondrous existence. Prajna is the process to realize true emptiness. In our relationships we should not be so attached, but we should be accommodating with a spacious heart. By being understanding, we sweep away the afflictions in our minds, so we are not attached to emptiness nor existence. We know that there is wondrous existence in emptiness, true emptiness in wondrous existence. This is all included in the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra. Therefore it is deemed the King of All Sutras.
The Lotus Sutra declares,
“The One Buddha Vehicle, the perfect teaching is complete with infinite skillful doctrines.”
Because there is just One Buddha Vehicle for us to attain enlightenment, it encompasses all sutras and teachings. Thus Dharma is not big or small, high or low, deep or superficial. If we understand just one phrase, our perspectives on life can transform. Consider the promotion of. Jing Si Aphorisms in Taiwan. They are found on taxis, personal vehicles and large trucks. In the news, we saw that Philippine Airlines has introduced Jing Si Aphorisms on their planes.
The president of the airline company said, “If passengers flip through the Jing Si Aphorisms and pick up a short phrase they like, they may remember it and find it useful.” So on the airplanes of his airline, he placed 200 books of Jing Si Aphorisms on each plane. These very short sentences can be applied in our daily living. When we consider it, it seems very simple. As long as the Dharma can be used, it is wondrous Dharma. We can apply it to our daily living as we deal with people and matters. Then our minds naturally will not be occupied or defiled by interpersonal conflicts or afflictions that delude us and lead us to create karma.
Therefore, the Dharma is not big or small, high or low, deep or superficial. It resonates with the different eras. The Lotus Sutra is the same, it resonates with this time period, our lives, our habitual tendencies and our cultural backgrounds. This is the wondrous Dharma. It has to be applied to this world, to be used by all groups of people in this world. Then it is considered the wondrous Dharma.
It is said the Dharma is not big or small, high or low, deep or superficial. It resonates with the time period and customs. The wondrous Dharma can be applied to all groups of people in this world.
Fellow Bodhisattvas, when we learn Buddhism, we walk the Middle Way. The Lotus Sutra is the Middle Way, one that does not cling to emptiness or existence and can help us thoroughly understand true emptiness and wondrous existence and return to the Buddha’s state of mind. We must walk the Bodhisattva-path to attain the state of the Buddha and Avatamsaka. The Avatamsaka state was reached by the Buddha in three seven-day periods, when. He practiced and attained enlightenment. The state of Avatamsaka is indeed a tranquil and clear state.
Everyone, we need to be mindful when we learn the Buddha’s way and when we listen to the Dharma. In daily living, we must be “like the wondrous lotus, pure and clear” so we will not be defiled by various conditions. Even if our external conditions are very turbid, we still need to be grateful because the lotus flower can only grow from mud. So we must treat everyone with gratitude to perfect the wondrous lotus in our minds. Therefore, everyone, please always be mindful.