Episode 222 – Eliminate Afflictions to Be Flawless
>> “The Buddha-mind is vast. His boundless
mind encompasses the universe. His compassion, wisdom and Dharma-essence
nurture the wisdom-life of sentient beings.”
>> “Suppose that non-retreating Bodhisattvas, who numbered as many
as the Ganges’ sands, wholeheartedly sought that wisdom together; they also
would not understand it.”
>> “And what is more, Sariputra, that flawless, inconceivable,
extremely profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is what I have perfectly
obtained. And I alone know its nature, as do all Buddhas of the ten
directions.”
>> Leak is another name for affliction. Afflictions such as greed and
anger [arise] day and night from the six senses, such as eyes, ears and so on,
and [wisdom] leaks out continuously without pause.
>> Next, afflictions will cause us to fall into the Three Evil Realms.
This is also considered a “leak.”
>> Methods for transcending afflictions are called the Flawless Studies.
>> Inconceivable: surpassing our conceptions and language, subtle,
wondrous and extremely profound, it arises from spiritual cultivation and
awakening. It is not something that can be described with the words of this
world. It is said that a Tathagata’s understanding and views can perfectly
accomplish all things and are replete with all Dharma. Hearers,
Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas could not understand the slightest bit.
Therefore, it is inconceivable.
>> Extremely profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is the most supreme
Dharma. Because it is inconceivable, it is called subtle and wondrous Dharma.
With this wondrous Dharma, He helps all beings.
>> He told Sariputra, this “flawless and inconceivable extremely
profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is what I have perfectly obtained.”
Because the Buddha had already attained all Dharma, He “alone knew its
nature, as do all Buddhas of the ten directions.”
“The Buddha-mind is vast.
His boundless mind encompasses the universe.
His compassion, wisdom and Dharma-essence
nurture the wisdom-life of sentient beings.”
Everyone, the Buddha’s original intent is vast, boundless and endless. Because of His compassion and wisdom, “His boundless mind encompasses the universe.” His mind can encompass the universe and embrace everything. Thus, He uses His compassion and wisdom to nurture the wisdom-life of sentient beings. He hopes to transform His wisdom into an essence that nourishes the wisdom-life of sentient beings.
Fellow Bodhisattvas, we must put our hearts into comprehending the Buddha’s compassion and original intent. Only then can we realize how His wisdom converges with the universe. Only then can we sentient beings experience that innate enlightenment of the Buddha’s mind.
So, where do we start looking for the Dharma? Our daily living is inseparable from the Dharma, and our hearts intrinsically have Buddha-nature. If we can put our hearts into realizing the Buddha’s mind and intention, how vast and boundless it is, our minds can mirror His mind. Then our minds can also be broad. If we can open up our mind, it can be spacious enough to embrace everything. We can do this, too, not just the Buddha.
We need to realize that the Dharma-essence of the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom is nurturing us. Our minds are equal to the Buddha’s mind, thus we can accept His Dharma-essence and use it to nourish ourselves. If we do not have faith, then our minds will always be very distant from the Buddha-mind. We must believe that our minds and the Buddha-mind are in sync, are very close. Only then can we be nourished by the Dharma-essence and grow our wisdom-life. This is something we must all believe.
So, previously I kept talking about the Buddha’s understanding and views and the wisdom and wondrous Dharma He realized. But most people have not quite reached [this state]. Everyone from Sariputra and. Pratyekabuddhas to newly-inspired Bodhisattvas are constantly drawing near to His wisdom, but they still cannot thoroughly understand it. So, the previous verse states,
“Suppose that non-retreating Bodhisattvas, who numbered as many as the Ganges’ sands, wholeheartedly sought that wisdom together; they also would not understand it.”
This passage of the sutra is something we must understand even more clearly. Level by level, section by section, He drew these comparisons for us. The noble beings of the Three Vehicles cannot even equal the Buddha’s wisdom, much less us ordinary people. Therefore, we still need to work hard.
The following verses state,
“And what is more, Sariputra, that flawless, inconceivable, extremely profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is what I have perfectly obtained. And I alone know its nature, as do all Buddhas of the ten directions.”
The Buddha, once again, called to Sariputra and talked to him about “flawless and inconceivable.” What does it mean to be flawless, without Leaks?
Another name for affliction is Leak.
Leak is another name for affliction. Afflictions such as greed and anger [arise] day and night from the six senses, such as eyes, ears and so on, and [wisdom] leaks out continuously without pause.
Afflictions allow our [wisdom] to constantly leak out, so we lose our pure intrinsic nature and our original wisdom, which were equal to Buddhas.’ This leads to more afflictions and ignorance. Therefore, we constantly lose [wisdom and purity].
Isn’t this the way life works? Beginning the moment we are born, the habitual tendencies brought from past lives will influence our original pure, intrinsic nature. In our past lives, we have already been permeated by them, so we have brought these causes, conditions and defiled nature into this lifetime.
Though [these tendencies] already permeate us, after we are born to this family, as we grow up and encounter things our natures continue to be influenced. In this lifetime, we bring our past habitual tendencies and are influenced by our present ones. Therefore, our afflictions continuously grow, and our pure intrinsic nature is covered by yet another layer of ignorance. So, our intrinsic nature is pure, and our wisdom is illuminating, but they have been covered by by layers of afflictions. And as our wisdom is covered, it also slowly leaks out.
Thus, our karma increases each year. Every day, thoughts arise and negative thoughts keep accumulating. Think about it, aren’t these afflictions causing our wisdom to leak out? Even the knowledge and physical strength we gained in this lifetime will leak away as we age, let alone what we have accumulated in lifetimes since Beginningless Time. How many afflictions do we actually have covering our minds?
As afflictions and ignorance have caused us to lose much of the radiance of our wisdom, these Leaks are indeed the most poisonous to our wisdom-life. They are the afflictions of greed, anger, ignorance. Day and night, things leak out from the six senses, from our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. When our eyes see something, greed arises. Whether our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body or mind comes in contact with the six sense objects, the door to the mind, which is our consciousness, our eye-, ear-, mind-consciousness and so on, will be opened. When we open this door, our wisdom leaks out.
Whenever we grow in greed, we diminish in wisdom. So, our wisdom flows out through the six senses. It “flows out continuously without pause.” Every day, our wisdom keeps leaking out.
Yesterday, we discussed the Ten Grounds of Bodhisattvas, from the ground of joy to the ground of blazing wisdom to the ground of Dharma-cloud, which is so beautiful and brilliant. If we do not aspire to practice, our wisdom cannot be radiant or illuminating.
Next, afflictions will cause us to fall into the Three Evil Realms. This is also considered a “leak.”
Leaks also lead to falling. These afflictions will cause our wisdom to keep leaking out until, in the end, we are filled with afflictions, so we create much bad karma. With this bad karma, we cannot help but fall into the Three Evil Realms. This is what happens with Leaks.
Methods for transcending afflictions are called the Flawless Studies.
If we can immediately eliminate afflictions then we can be considered “without Leaks.” So, to eliminate afflictions, we have to work very hard to reach the state of
being “flawless and inconceivable.” We must know that the Buddha’s wisdom cannot be understood by ordinary people. Even Bodhisattvas at the tenth ground still have the slightest afflictions, so they still cannot yet stay in contact with the Buddha-mind. There is still some distance. So, [His wisdom] is “inconceivable.”
To be “flawless” means to be very pure. We must practice this wondrous Dharma in the hopes of reaching a “flawless” state, so when wisdom enters our hearts, we will not allow it to leak out. All kinds of subtle and wondrous Dharma are in our hearts. We must keep it there, not let it leak out. This is a very inconceivable matter.
Inconceivable means it is beyond conception and language.
Inconceivable: surpassing our conceptions and language, subtle, wondrous and extremely profound, it arises from spiritual cultivation and awakening. It is not something that can be described with the words of this world. It is said that a Tathagata’s understanding and views can perfectly accomplish all things and are replete with all Dharma. Hearers, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas could not understand the slightest bit. Therefore, it is inconceivable.
When we are in the Six Unenlightened Realms, we definitely cannot realize [His wisdom]. The inconceivable thing the Buddha realized was the understanding and views. He attained upon enlightenment. For us ordinary people in the Six Realms, we are fundamentally very far away from that state. Even if beings in the other noble realms, Hearers, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas, make the effort to contemplate this together, after they gather to ponder it and try to express it in words, they still find it very difficult. Since this surpasses our conception, we just keep looking for it.
In fact, where should we look? “There is no need to go far to seek the Buddha on Vulture Peak.” But though all of us are trying to return to our intrinsic nature, we still do not know how. So, we keep looking outwards. This surpasses our conception, so we look around us for words [to explain it]. But we still cannot comprehend it. Thus, [the Dharma] is “subtle and wondrous.” It is extremely profound, so we must cultivate it internally. We cannot look for it outside of ourselves. We all need to cultivate our minds, so we can attain this fruit and fully comprehend all these karmic causes. Only then we can attain this fruition.
“It is not something that can be described with the words of this world.” So, when we try to describe it, we have to speak for a long time. What do we compare it to? Something very simple. We cannot just look outside. More importantly, we must reflect on our nature. Because the Buddha contemplated His self-nature, He realized the truths of all things in the universe. This also means that a Tathagata’s understanding and views can perfectly accomplish all things.
Tathagata refers to Sakyamuni Buddha. Since the distant past, He has drawn near countless Buddhas. He spent a very long time continuously searching [for the truth]. In the end, He still had to engage in self-reflection. Then He became perfect, inside and out. This is what it means to “perfectly accomplish all things.” The Buddha’s understanding and views can perfectly accomplish all things and “are replete with all Dharma.” When it comes to this perfect enlightenment, Hearers, Pratyekabuddhas, Bodhisattvas definitely cannot fathom it, even slightly.
This is like how, at the tenth ground of Bodhisattvas, there are still traces of Dharma-clouds. There are none in the Buddha’s state at all. In the Buddha’s state, there is not even the slightest wisp of a cloud; it is already bright and clear. This is the Buddha’s wisdom. This is His understanding and views. Thus, this is the most extremely profound subtle and wondrous Dharma. This wondrous Dharma is “the most supreme Dharma because it is inconceivable.” So, the Buddha’s wisdom is “subtle and wondrous Dharma.”
Extremely profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is the most supreme Dharma. Because it is inconceivable, it is called subtle and wondrous Dharma. With this wondrous Dharma, He helps all beings.
With His wisdom, He had already fully understood the nature of all things in the universe. Thus, this can be called subtle and wondrous. This Dharma was already extremely profound, subtle and wondrous. So, He utilized that wondrous Dharma to help all living beings. He used His wisdom and thinking to extensively help sentient beings. Let us think about this. When such subtle and wondrous Dharma is used to extensively help sentient beings, do they comprehend it? Indeed, the Buddha’s Dharma, for us ordinary sentient beings, is truly difficult to conceive.
Therefore, in this passage of the sutra,
He told Sariputra, this “flawless and inconceivable extremely profound, subtle and wondrous Dharma is what I have perfectly obtained.” Because the Buddha had already attained all Dharma, He “alone knew its nature, as do all Buddhas of the ten directions.”
“I alone know its nature,” this “nature” refers to the Ten Suchnesses we discussed earlier. He completely, thoroughly understood them, “as do all Buddhas of the ten directions.” Only Buddhas of the ten directions can comprehend them,
because the Buddha’s mind is so vast that it can encompass the universe. This was the Buddha’s original intent, to show us that we can have a mind as broad as His. So, we must enter this door. The Buddha has already opened up His mind to [show us] the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle, which has been stored in there. He opened His mind for us to mindfully enter. Therefore, we must be mindful and not just search outwardly. Very importantly, we must reflect on our nature to see if our minds are also as vast as His. Therefore, we must always be mindful.