Episode 256 – The Nature of True Suchness Is Like the Sea
>> “The Buddha attained self-enlightenment; His nature of True Suchness is like the sea. With compassion, He protects all in the world. His sea of wisdom is boundless, and the virtue of His wisdom nourishes all. Buddha-children seek the Dharma to earnestly attune themselves to the principles.”
>> So, “the absolute nature of True Suchness is as deep and expansive as the sea. Therefore, it is said to be like the sea and is the state of the Tathagata’s Dharmakaya.”
>> For the sake of the ultimate Dharma and for the sake of this path, the Dharma-children of the Buddha, with palms together, look up expectantly.
>> Putting their palms together demonstrated that they were focused and did not dare let [their thoughts] be scattered. This was a way to show respect.
>> Look up expectantly: With sincerity, they looked up.
“The Buddha attained self-enlightenment; His nature of True Suchness is like the sea.
With compassion, He protects all in the world.
His sea of wisdom is boundless, and the virtue of His wisdom nourishes all.
Buddha-children seek the Dharma to earnestly attune themselves to the principles.”
This verse is telling everyone that, after the Buddha attained self-enlightenment, the state of His mind was in the sea of the nature of True Suchness. This is the Buddha’s enlightened nature. In fact, we all intrinsically have this enlightened nature, not to mention a nature of True Suchness, which is extremely profound, subtle and wondrous. This enlightened thought, profound and subtle, is the source of our nature of True Suchness.
When you hear me refer to True Suchness, I am talking about how we must purify our bodies and minds so our radiant wisdom can be revealed and our great perfect mirror can be clean, so it can clearly reflect worldly and world-transcending truths. We hear about this quite often. We know about it, but how can we ordinary people realize it? Is it hopeless for us? No, there is still hope for us. Our hope is that we can also do what the Buddha did.
Sometimes, we see other ordinary people realizing [such a state]. Take our Silent Mentors, for example. After they die, they donate their bodies to. Tzu Chi University [for medical training]. To do so, they must really be able to let go and understand the value of life.
One of the [Silent Mentors] was 70-year-old Jiang Guosheng. Over a decade ago, after his wife joined Tzu Chi, she devoted a lot of her time to. Tzu Chi’s events and activities. Soon, Mr. Jiang felt that his wife ignored her family and spent too much time away. So, he called the Abode to complain. Therefore, we counseled her, “Please spend more time at home. We appreciate your devotion, but you need to maintain harmony at home.”
The wife knew that she was very devoted to doing Tzu Chi work. She felt that this work filled her with joy and such life-saving work must not be delayed. So, her husband’s opposition made her very sad. Consequently, she cried all day and all night. When her husband asked why her eyes were red and swollen, she told him, “I really love Tzu Chi. Devoting my time to helping others makes me very happy, much happier than receiving any gift from you. If you allow me to do Tzu Chi work, I will be very content. That’s all I want.” The husband was very moved by what she said, so he started volunteering with his wife. From then on, he became very supportive.
Later, the husband and wife both registered to donate their bodies. For over 10 years, they worked side by side. He was a good husband to his wife, a good father to his children and a great supporter of Tzu Chi. Then last year (2011), he developed leukemia and became so gaunt that he was just skin and bones. But he knew that to donate his body, he must maintain a certain weight. To fulfill his wish, when he was in the hospital, he had only one request, to get a feeding tube. “Give me enough nutrients, so I can meet the weight requirement.” In the end, he was able to fulfill his wish, and his body was brought to the university.
He was an ordinary person in this world, who lived just like us. Before he understood the principles, naturally he took issue over things when it came to his family and so on. He may have complained that his wife spent too much time away from home. That was what Mr. Jiang was like. He was so agitated that he called the Abode. Then, he was so moved by his wife’s sincerity that he and his wife spent over a decade volunteering with Tzu Chi.
He was very cheerful and said to his wife, “Tell everyone to help me keep my weight up. I must donate this body to the university, so my final wish can truly be fulfilled.” See, this is the way to live a liberated life. This is how we enter the sea of True Suchness. When we speak of our nature of True Suchness,
we mean bringing the principles back to our hearts and then expressing them in our actions, so we can enter and leave this world freely. This is the value of life that we ordinary people can realize. Besides applying this practically in our own lives we can also help society and the world. Isn’t this how we awaken ourselves and others? Doesn’t this come from the realization of the nature of True Suchness in our lives?
Therefore, we must diligently learn to develop a state where our “minds are free of hindrances.” We learn that to freely come and go in this world, we must make good use of our lives. So, we do things not just for ourselves, but also for the sake of others in society. At the end, we can give our bodies to those in the medical field for education and research. They can learn surgical techniques, which will help many others suffering from illness. This is the Dharma.
Every one of us can realize that the Buddha came to this world out of compassion. After He attained enlightenment, with great universal compassion, He cared for sentient beings and could not bear to leave them adrift in a sea of confusion to repeatedly create karma and ignorance. This was how. He was compassionate toward sentient beings. The Buddha was compassionate, so after He attained enlightenment, He guarded and retained the true Dharma of True Suchness. This was what He wanted to share, teach and spread across the world.
He wanted to see the Dharma continuously promoted and the seeds of enlightenment sown across the globe. When we see this, we will also be very happy. This happened because 2000 years ago, Prince Siddhartha aspired to engage in spiritual practice. The true principles He realized have been passed on to today, so now we have the opportunity to learn His teachings and help others do the same. We do not limit [the benefits] to ourselves; we pass this on so it spreads throughout the world.
So, “His sea of wisdom is boundless, and the virtue of His wisdom nourishes all.” This is the Buddha’s wisdom. We use His wisdom to truly nourish sentient beings. The Dharma is like water. The earth needs water to nourish it, so the seeds on the land can sprout and grow. [Dharma-water] nourishes our wisdom-life, so, the virtue of wisdom nourishes the earth and nourishes sentient beings.
“Buddha-children seek the Dharma to earnestly attune themselves to the principles.” As Buddha-children, we must be earnest. Being earnest means being diligent. So, we diligently seek the Buddha’s teachings. After we mindfully listen to the teachings, we must take the Dharma into our hearts. Once the Dharma enters our hearts, we must put it into practice in the world and share it with others, so they can also benefit from it and share it with even more people. This is being attuned to the principles. So, as we deal with people and matters, we must take advantage of modern technology and adapt to the modern way of life and modern-day relationships.
So, what is True Suchness? To understand True Suchness, [we must know] that the nature of True Suchness is as deep and vast as the sea. In fact, True Suchness is very deep and vast. It is as vast as the universe and deep as the sea. Thus, “the nature of True Suchness is like the sea.” This is an analogy for the vastness and depth of. True Suchness because its principles are very expansive and profound. It is everlasting and unchanging.
But our lives are driven by our own karma, similar to the way the earth rotates on its own. Because of our karma, we are continuously influenced by time and relationships. Once we give rise to ignorance, with the passage of time, our ignorance multiplies, growing ever greater. Throughout our cyclic existence in the Six Realms, we are also affected by more and more habitual tendencies. This is why we cannot realize the nature of True Suchness. But then we see people like the Silent Mentors I just mentioned. Because they understood the true principles of life, they came and went peacefully. Only by attaining realizations could they be at peace; without realizations, they could not have done so. Of course, their families also needed to be understanding for them to fulfill their vows.
So, “the absolute nature of True Suchness is as deep and expansive as the sea. Therefore, it is said to be like the sea and is the state of the Tathagata’s Dharmakaya.”
The state of the Tathagata’s Dharmakaya is actually something that we all have. It is called True Suchness. But though we all have this Dharma-nature, we have not yet reached that state of mind. We must now work hard to reach this state. So, we must work even harder and be even more mindful.
Next, we discuss how, “with palms together, [they] look up expectantly.”
For the sake of the ultimate Dharma and for the sake of this path, the Dharma-children of the Buddha, with palms together, look up expectantly.
The previous verse was about them requesting the Buddha to speak with. His subtle and wondrous voice because they hoped He would help them have a better understanding of True Dharma. This was the hope of Sariputra and everyone [at the assembly]. They prayed that Sakyamuni Buddha would promptly express the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle Dharma. This ultimate reality is True Suchness. [They hoped to gain] a deeper understanding of this extremely profound principle. Everyone respectfully put their palms together and looked up at Sakyamuni Buddha.
Putting their palms together demonstrated that they were focused and did not dare let [their thoughts] be scattered. This was a way to show respect.
When we see people putting their palms together, they are showing their respect. They are not just making a gesture; this comes from a focused mind that will not become scattered. Putting their palms together before the Buddha was the way they showed their respect. In fact, when we interact with others, we must also always show this kind of respect.
They “looked up” because the Buddha sat in a higher seat, and they sat lower down. So, to see the Buddha, they had to look up with respect. Looking up expectantly meant they respectfully focused on Him as they made this request. “Please promptly help us understand the practice we previously engaged in and the teachings we must now learn.” They hoped that the Buddha could immediately speak the wondrous Dharma of the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle. This was how they showed their respect.
Look up expectantly: With sincerity, they looked up.
The gazes of all the people there were focused and fixated on the Buddha. As Sariputra spoke on everyone’s behalf, everyone’s countenance and gaze was focused on the Buddha. This demonstrated that, “Indeed, Sariputra’s respectful request for teachings reflects our collective intent.” Fellow Bodhisattvas, to learn from the Buddha, we must try to comprehend the Buddha’s teachings. Indeed, Dharma-nature is like the sea. The nature of True Suchness is like the sea and is an integral part of our minds; it is very a subtle and wondrously profound mind that we all intrinsically have. We can put our talents to good use and extensively apply them in the world and universe. One good teaching can be spread to the world; if it is a negative thought or phrase, it can disturb the minds of many people and create upheaval everywhere. The principle is the same. This was the Buddha’s meaning when He told us that we intrinsically have an enlightened nature. So, we must mindfully comprehend it.
The ultimate true Dharma is very thorough. We must “[work] for the sake of this path” and put these teachings into practice. We must follow the Buddha’s teachings and continue on this path. We are “the Dharma-children of the Buddha,” so we must “put palms together and look up expectantly.” I hope we respectfully accept the Buddha-Dharma and engrave it in our hearts. Therefore everyone, please always be mindful.