Episode 270 – Vow to Transform Sentient Beings
>> The Buddha “attained Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings and manifested the attainment of perfect enlightenment. He vowed to transform sentient beings, so they could attain the joy of peace and safety.”
>>”Supreme Two-Footed Honored One, I pray You will expound the supreme Dharma. I, as a senior disciple, sincerely implore You to explain it in detail.”
>>”The countless beings assembled here will respect and have faith in this Dharma. For You have, life after life, taught ones such as these. With one mind, with palms together, we all want to receive Your words.”
>> [He] taught ones such as these: After the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment, He only hoped to transform sentient beings, so they could reach a refuge of safety and happiness. With great compassion, He observed all suffering and afflicted beings. With the power of His original vow, He completed His spiritual practice in order to teach sentient beings.
>> So we have to, with one mind, put our palms together. “One mind” is a mind that is focused in one place, and putting palms together shows respect. This means that they dared not have discursive thoughts. This shows faith and respect.
The Buddha “attained Buddhahood for the sake of sentient beings
and manifested the attainment of perfect enlightenment.
He vowed to transform sentient beings,
so they could attain the joy of peace and safety.”
This is telling everyone that the Buddha had already attained enlightenment. Countless kalpas ago, He had already reached Buddhahood, but for the sake of sentient beings in the Saha World, He came to manifest His spiritual practice and the attainment of enlightenment. He did this for sentient beings, to teach sentient beings and help them find their way.
Thus, He appeared [to be born as the prince] of the Kingdom of Kapilavastu in India, which is in present-day Nepal. At the palace, he witnessed various aspects of life, so in his heart, he had already charted the course for his life. This was always his direction. When he was growing up in the palace, his wisdom differed from that of other children.
In his youth, he felt that all humans are equal and wondered why they were divided into four castes. This kind of system seemed to cause the poor and the suffering to stay that way, lifetime after lifetime. This seemed wrong. So, he wanted to proclaim the inherent equality of people’s nature and from this profound principle manifest a simple and obvious change in the world. Then he became a monastic,
which was a manifestation [to teach us] that when a person has a family and a career, he has many burdens. He wanted to help us understand how [these things limit us]. Even though he was a crown prince who could rule an entire country, he did not long for the power, benefits, fame and wealth that came with that life. So, He manifested this appearance of leaving his family, then the appearance of engaging in spiritual practice.
These manifestations show us that spiritual practice is not that easy. We must first know others to know ourselves. So, he took five years to meet all the spiritual practitioners in India, who taught the 96 kinds of [religious practices]. He did this to show us all the incorrect ways of engaging in spiritual practice. This was also a manifestation [to teach us]. “Know others” means that he first had to know how other people engaged in spiritual practice. Then the six years of [ascetic] practice was for him to “know himself.” We must rediscover our intrinsic nature.
We all intrinsically have Buddha-nature, which is one with heaven and earth. So, after six years, karmic conditions finally matured, and upon seeing the morning star, he was enlightened and became one with the universe. After He announced He was the Great Enlightened One, He started working toward His goal, which was to transform sentient beings. This is detailed in the Buddhist sutras.
So, He physically manifested for the sake of the sentient beings who lived at that time, and [then the stories] were recorded in the sutras for the sake of future sentient beings like ourselves. All this was recorded for us to learn from, Actually, His only wish was to teach and transform sentient beings guide them to eliminate their afflictions and return to their intrinsic nature. Then all could “attain the joy of peace and safety.” They could reach a place of safety and happiness.
Ordinary people inevitably have afflictions, which lead them to create karma and cause them to become more confused. The more confused they are, the more karma they create and the more suffering they accumulate. So, the Buddha wishes to transform sentient beings and help them return to their intrinsic Buddha-nature. Thus, they “reach a place of safety and happiness.” To reach this place of great safety and happiness, they must eliminate all their afflictions to discover their own intrinsic Buddha-nature. This is His wish.
The sutra text we discussed earlier mentioned that the Buddha had always wished to proclaim the most important teaching, but the timing was not right, and people’s capabilities still varied greatly. At the Dharma-assembly, there were still people who did not have faith and respect for the Dharma. Because the Buddha felt sympathy for those who could not accept [this teaching], He kept it guarded in His heart. In this way, He also protected those who had not given rise to faith from creating karma. So, Sariputra was very anxious and sincerely made his request again and again.
“Supreme Two-Footed Honored One, I pray You will expound the supreme Dharma. I, as a senior disciple, sincerely implore You to explain it in detail.”
At that time, Sariputra announced his position [to explain] why He continued to ask for teachings. It was because he was representing the wish of all these spiritual practitioners. Because he was their representative, he felt a sense of responsibility to keep asking the Buddha to verbally teach the Dharma that was in His heart.
The next verse states,
“The countless beings assembled here will respect and have faith in this Dharma. For You have, life after life, taught ones such as these. With one mind, with palms together, we all want to receive Your words.”
This was what Sariputra expressed on behalf of everyone at the assembly. There were many people at the assembly, and they had, lifetime after lifetime, faithfully accepted and practiced the Buddha’s teachings. Their connection [to Him] was not solely formed in this lifetime, but in many past lifetimes. They were part of His retinue and had stayed by His side to receive teachings. So, the Buddha had already been teaching them, lifetime after lifetime. Now these people [waited] single-mindedly, with palms together. They were very reverent and respectful as they waited for Him to give teachings. This was Sariputra’s description of that moment,
Actually, Sovereign Sakra also waited respectfully to listen to teachings. He told his retinue in Trayastrimsa Heaven, “Hurry up and make preparations for me to go to the human realm to listen to the Buddha teach.” They quickly decorated his horse and carriage to make them more magnificent. Among his retinue, there was one called Matali. After he heard the command and quickly made the preparations, he informed. Sovereign Sakra that the carriage was ready. He watched as Sovereign Sakra walked out and saw him put his palms together very respectfully, staying like that as he climbed into the carriage.
So, Matali witnessed how, to listen to Sakyamuni give teachings, Sovereign Sakra began showing his respect as soon as he walked out of the palace and climbed into the carriage. He was very amazed. Originally, he was going to whip the horse to command it gallop, but now he could not even hold on to the whip,
Sovereign Sakra asked, “Matali, why are you acting this way?” After Matali picked up the whip, he respectfully said, “Sovereign Sakra, seeing you show such respect as you are heading to the human realm to listen to teachings really amazed me. You are the lord of Trayastrimsa Heaven. Even the kings of the four heavens of heavenly kings and of. Trayastrimsa Heaven must respect you. You are respected by all heavenly beings. So, why do you need to be so respectful as you go to Vulture Peak to listen to teachings?”
Sovereign Sakra explained, “I am respected by those in Trayastrimsa Heaven, the four heavens of heavenly kings and all heavenly beings because. I respect the Dharma. The Buddha-Dharma can teach everyone to be reverent, eliminate afflictions and ignorance, and cleanse and purify their minds. Those are all results of the Buddha’s teachings, so I must respect the Dharma. I respect the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.” Thus, Sovereign Sakra also wanted to listen to teachings, and he did so with such great reverence, not to mention those at the Dharma-assembly. Sariputra described how those at the assembly, with one mind, placed their palms together.
So, thinking of how Sovereign Sakra came to listen to the teachings with great respect, heavenly beings also came with palms together and great reverence to listen to the teachings. So, since they “wanted to receive His words,” they [waited] respectfully.
Next, we must understand how the Buddha taught. After the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment, His only wish was to teach sentient beings and help them reach a place of safety and happiness. This was because of His great compassion. He observed all suffering sentient beings, so He knew that the Saha World was a world of endurance. As the name suggests, suffering must be endured in this world. But sentient beings are lost and afflicted; they do not realize they are suffering, because they are the source of their own suffering. That is where their afflictions come from. Since sentient beings do not feel like they are suffering, they do not seek to be liberated from suffering. So, they continue to multiply the causes of suffering. This is how sentient beings’ afflictions continuously multiply.
The Buddha sees wealth as passing clouds. He treats fame, fortune and status as entanglements, [sources of] suffering. But sentient beings see those things as [sources of] great happiness. They do not understand how short life is, so they fight for and grasp at fame, wealth and status and continuously create karma and multiply their afflictions. This is what the Buddha sees in sentient beings. They are unaware of their suffering and afflictions, so they continuously create karma. So, with the power of His original vow, He completed His spiritual practice in order to transform sentient beings.
[He] taught ones such as these: After the Buddha attained perfect enlightenment, He only hoped to transform sentient beings, so they could reach a refuge of safety and happiness. With great compassion, He observed all suffering and afflicted beings. With the power of His original vow, He completed His spiritual practice in order to teach sentient beings.
We just discussed how the Buddha saw the great disparity between the four castes and how those who suffered were in great pain. So, he wanted to help the suffering use worldly Dharma to attain liberation. He did this out of compassion. Also, people could not eliminate their afflictions, so the Buddha put His heart into purifying their minds. So, we must have great respect for the Dharma. Even Sovereign Sakra was so respesctful; how much more so should we be?
So we have to, with one mind, put our palms together. “One mind” is a mind that is focused in one place, and putting palms together shows respect. This means that they dared not have discursive thoughts. This shows faith and respect.
We listen to the teachings as we sit here, but if our minds are not focused and keep thinking about other things, how can we take the Dharma into our hearts? This means that we are undisciplined. So, the Buddha was about to give teachings. Everyone had to give rise to faith, so they could take the Dharma into their hearts.
Fellow Bodhisattvas, as we learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must think about how difficult it is to encounter it. To listen to the Dharma is not easy, especially if it is what is in the Buddha’s heart. For Him to teach this True Dharma is even harder. We must be grateful that Sariputra was so persistent and diligently asked the Buddha to give this teaching. Thanks to Sariputra’s selfless great love and his sincere requests, we can learn this teaching today. So, we must always be grateful and have respect. Therefore, we must always be mindful.