Episode 160 – When the Mind Is in Harmony with Dharma
>> This allows sentient beings to happily pay respect to Him and sincerely express their utmost reverence. Because He has eliminated self-importance and arrogance, He has perfected such a wondrous body.
>> “One could also see Tathagatas naturally attaining Buddhahood, their bodies the color of golden mountains, upright, imposing, very subtle and wondrous. As though within pure crystal, there appeared a real golden image.”
Our True Nature Is Like Pure Crystal.
Every day, as our minds encounter conditions, we have to be in harmony with the Dharma. The Dharma is inseparable from the Buddha. So I often say, “The Buddha must be in our hearts, and the Dharma must penetrate our minds.” We must constantly be self-vigilant and safeguard our minds.
[Teachings from] the Sutra of Infinite Meanings keep inspiring our minds to take something from the external environment into the depths of our minds and then use [what we realized] to deal with our surroundings and all the phenomena and principles they contain.
Principles and phenomena must be in harmony. I have always said that principles remain forever, like the Buddha’s Dharmakaya (Dharma-body). The Buddha’s body will last forever; fundamentally, it does not arise or cease. Principles will always exist, only the external appearances change. These external manifestations are all created. So, everything with form or appearance, the changes we see in the world in different times and environments, are the results of the workings of the mind. When a thought goes astray, that creates a lot of karma. The karma of sentient beings is reflected in the appearances of this world as well as in the time and the different ways of living. These are all created by humans.
All phenomena arise from our minds. The mind is like a painter; all appearances are created by humans. Since these creations have appearances, they go through formation, existence, decay and disappearance. Nothing has fixed form. When something forms, it is new. As this thing slowly becomes old, its appearance changes and it starts to decay. This is why there are no fixed appearances.
But the methods used to create things in a certain way are within human brains. Whatever we think of, we can create. We know to do this because of knowledge, and the source of this knowledge is wisdom. Wisdom is inherently pure and clear, but because our minds create [karma] and are defiled, wisdom is turned into consciousness. There is a difference between consciousness and wisdom.
So, wisdom is everlasting and unceasing, and with it, we can discern the ultimate truth. This is the pure, great perfect mirror wisdom. Wisdom is everlasting and unchanging. Every person and being is inherently equal, whether one is an elephant, a bull, a horse or a worm wriggling on the ground. Every living being inherently has Buddha-nature. With wisdom, we see this equality.
Thus, the wisdom of impartiality and the wisdom to discern true principles come together. This is our intrinsic nature. So, the Buddha tells us that we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. This means we have a pure nature, a pure Buddha-nature.
The amount of good affinities the Buddha has created with all sentient beings determines the kind of appearance He will manifest, such as 32 Marks or 80 Excellent Characteristics. Indeed, if we create good affinities with people, when people see our appearance, they feel joy. Because of this joy, they see this as a “good appearance.” We only feel joyful when we see something good. What we relate to and pursue are things we like and consider good. This is how our minds interact with appearances.
So, the same applies to when we see the Buddha’s appearance, His 32 Marks. The Buddha’s Dharmakaya is ever-abiding, but His appearance is not fixed. The Buddha also goes through the appearances of birth, aging, illness and death. So, this appearance is within our minds. We must make an effort to understand this principle. The Buddha’s intrinsic nature never changed and stayed the same from birth until the end, but His appearance changed. The sincere respect of sentient beings does not change. This respect [comes from] close and good karmic affinities. The reverence that arises does not change. So, here we talk about how “this allows sentient beings to happily pay respect to Him.”
This allows sentient beings to happily pay respect to Him and sincerely express their utmost reverence. Because He has eliminated self-importance and arrogance, He has perfected such a wondrous body.
Everything about Buddha’s appearance is dignified. We can see that “this allows sentient beings to happily pay respect to Him.” Very naturally, people became joyful and paid obeisance very reverently and respectfully. This expresses our earnest, unsurpassed and utmost reverence and respect.
“They sincerely express their utmost reverence.” He has perfected such a wondrous body. Although the Buddha lived over 2000 years ago, we revere Him as if He is still with us. The Buddha is still in front of us and within our hearts. He is in all places. Every day, I talk about people’s major flaws, greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt.
First, doubt means we are suspicious and unbelieving. Our respectful worship expresses our reverence toward the Buddha. We revere the Buddha as if He is still with us. But some think paying respect to the Buddha is about asking for protection.
In fact, we spiritual practitioners, we Buddhists, must believe in His teachings. Based on what He taught and told us, we must believe that we all have a Buddha in our self-nature. But we are hindered by our arrogance and doubt, so we cannot faithfully accept and practice the Right Dharma. Often our sense of gain and loss is what leads us to seek, to pay our respects. We do these things because we think we can receive blessings. Actually, by sincerely paying our respects, we discipline ourselves and subdue our arrogance. We need to eliminate our arrogance completely.
Aside from greed, anger and ignorance, there is arrogance. When we are arrogant, we cannot humble ourselves to respect the Dharma. If we do not have this respect, we will not believe in the Buddha’s teachings. So, we must believe and have Right Faith. At the same time, we must faithfully accept and practice the Dharma. Our own conceit and pride must be eliminated. So, when we make obeisance [to the Buddha], we are not asking Him for something, we are asking to eliminate arrogance in our minds. So, we make obeisance to eliminate arrogance.
People are conceited and arrogant. We fail to see and respect other people’s strong points. When we respect other people’s strengths, we are able to admire and learn from them. I often say that every person is a sutra. When we see ugly and abominable appearances, we must think, “Do I behave that way?” If we do, we must change right away and humble ourselves. We must treat others with respect so they find us very pleasant and want to be close to us and be in our company.
This how we can learn from every person. This is why we say, “In a group of three, I will find my teacher.” Through our interactions with people, we learn intangible and formless principles. We learn that all manifested external appearances come from the workings of our minds. The things we can change are not fixed. The habitual tendencies of others are acquired, and are also not fixed. So, if we can clearly understand these principles, we understand appearance and non-appearance. Then we will not be so attached to our views of appearances.
So this means, “He has perfected such a wondrous body.” As we engage in spiritual practice, if we can completely understand these principles, [we can] thoroughly eliminate our arrogance, conceit and egotism. Because of the Buddha’s appearance, we believe that the Buddha created many good affinities with sentient beings, and that is why they feel respectful when they see Him. Since Beginningless Time, the Buddha has been doing this as part of His spiritual practice. Therefore, He has accumulated so many [good karmic connections] that sentient beings can see His good appearance. Bringing joy to people is something Buddha can do.
Of course, we intrinsically have Buddha-nature, so we can also achieve this. In our spiritual practice, as we encounter external conditions, we must make an effort to recognize and understand everything so that we can transform consciousness into wisdom. Our minds must be impartial toward all phenomena. We must have this impartial mindset toward all sentient beings regardless of their appearance. This is the Buddha’s spiritual state. In His past lives, He went through this process to reveal [teachings] and guide us. When we see the Buddha, we see principles and feel joyful. Then all Dharma has already penetrated our minds.
Next, [the sutra] states,
“One could also see Tathagatas naturally attaining Buddhahood, their bodies the color of golden mountains, upright, imposing, very subtle and wondrous. As though within pure crystal, there appeared a real golden image.”
Everyone, including. Manjusri Bodhisattva and Maitreya Bodhisattva were praising the Buddha. With the light of the Buddha shining everywhere, sentient beings could see the Buddha at the Dharma-assembly. They could understand that all Buddhas, Tathagatas, from the past and present have all naturally attained Buddhahood the same way.
How does one naturally attain Buddhahood? If we can eliminate the false and return to the true, we can return to our Buddha-nature and quickly attain Buddhahood. As long as we can aspire and vow to follow the path taken by the Buddha, we will clearly see our true nature. If our minds are clear, our true nature will emerge. This happens naturally. Buddha-nature is natural; it is not created. When something is created, it has an appearance. It is not a true principle. Something tangible and with an appearance is not a true principle and will go through changes. I always tell you this, and I hope you can clearly understand.
“Their bodies the color of golden mountains.” Our intrinsic Buddha-nature is so pure, and as bright as shining light. It is like golden mountains. This is a way to describe it.
“Upright, imposing, very subtle and wondrous.” Certainly, the Dharmakaya, the true principles, of every Buddha, every Tathagata, are truly magnificent. These are not contrived, but are very natural, truly gracious and magnificent. This subtlety and wondrousness cannot be expressed in words. We use “subtle and wondrous” as an approximation.
“As though within pure crystal.” Actually, the natural state of the universe that we see is like an image within pure, clear crystal. It is free of defilements. The image within a crystal is not tainted by external defilements. Indeed, it is pure like clear crystal. This is why I tell everyone that the Buddha is within our minds; He is within the crystal, pure and without defilement. This is such a subtle and wondrous state.
“There appeared a real golden image.” Within the crystal, there appeared a real golden image. This signifies nobility. The Buddha’s intrinsic nature and appearance and His Dharmakaya’s appearance is so noble and pure, free of defilements. So, the Sutra of Infinite Meanings also speaks of. His 32 Marks and 80 Excellent Characteristics. This same passage also appears in the Lotus Sutra. This conveys that true principles, the ultimate truth, will exist forever and remain pure, dignified and undefiled. If we can all understand this, we must always be mindful.