Episode 278 – Teaching with Suitable and Skillful Means
>>”The wisdom of all Buddhas is extremely profound and infinite. The door to Their wisdom is difficult to understand and enter.”
>> Perfect teaching: Illuminates inconceivable causes and conditions, the Two Truths, the Middle Way and the workings and principles of things completely and without differentiation. Suitable for those with superior capabilities, it is called the perfect teaching.
>>”Sariputra, all Buddhas teach according to what is appropriate, but Their intent is hard to understand. What is the reason? I give countless skillful means according to various causes and conditions.”
>> Countless skillful means: It is said that Bodhisattva-practitioners guide all sentient beings and those who have not penetrated noble teachings to help them enter [the teachings]. Various causes and conditions: Enable those who have not matured to mature. Enable those who have matured to enter the teachings of the path, so they can uphold all rules and precepts to prevent wrongdoings and stop evils. Various skillful means enable all sentient beings to attain benefits. Thus they are skillful and suitable.
“The wisdom of all Buddhas is extremely profound and infinite.
The door to Their wisdom is difficult to understand and enter.”
Do you remember that, in the Chapter on Skillful Means, this verse appears repeatedly? Truly, if we think about it, this world is where the Five Destinies coexist. The Five Destinies are the five realms of heaven, humans, hell, hungry ghosts and animals. In this world, on Earth, though the human realm is one of those destinies, all [of the Five Destinies] are mixed together. This is because human minds are very complicated. Among five people, there can be six different mindsets. So, because our thinking is so complicated, we are filled with ignorance and afflictions. The Buddha came to guide us onto a simple course, which is to return to our pure intrinsic nature. So, [though we say] “five people have six minds,” actually, five people have one mind, which is the Buddha-mind.
We often [forget about] the Buddha’s mind, His thoughts and His intent. We forget about these completely. Once we forget about it, we each return to our own state of mind where we each return to our own state of mind where the Five Destinies coexist. This creates complications. We must realize that, as Buddhist practitioners, the most important thing is to understand the Buddha’s intent. However, His intent is hard to comprehend. This was what we discussed yesterday. Before the Buddha agreed to give the teachings, He kept praising the subtle and wondrous Dharma of the One Vehicle.
This True Dharma is the wisdom of all Buddhas; it is extremely profound and infinite. “The door to Their wisdom is difficult to understand and enter.” The door to wisdom is [to understand] the Buddha’s intent, the direction of His mind. If our direction is not right, how can we enter this door? To enter a door, we must be walking in the right direction.
Yesterday, we also discussed how the Buddha taught according to sentient beings’ capabilities and that His words were not unreal [or false]. The teachings He taught were perfect, immediate or gradual. Everything suited sentient beings and guided them to be more open and understanding, so they could open the door to their minds and understand the workings of His mind. This was what the Buddha intended. But we sentient beings have minds that are covered by ignorance, so we are unable to attain this realization. So, the Four Teachings include
partial, perfect, immediate and gradual teachings, or collected, interrelated, differentiated and complete teachings. These terms embody the way which the Buddha taught according to capabilities. Among them, the perfect teaching is the most complete. The Buddha teaches it “when it is time.” He constantly gives everyone this complete teaching.
Here, “complete” refers to something that is unbiased. This describes the meaning of His teaching as truly perfect, like the moon on the 15th, 16th of a lunar month, which is very round and full. So, the complete and perfect teaching illuminates incredible causes and conditions.
Perfect teaching: Illuminates inconceivable causes and conditions, the Two Truths, the Middle Way and the workings and principles of things completely and without differentiation. Suitable for those with superior capabilities, it is called the perfect teaching.
As the Buddha gave teachings, He always taught that “such is the cause, such is the condition, such are the karmic retributions,” and so on. This is the foundation of the Buddha’s teaching and is also a true principle. So, I often tell everyone that even when we speak, we must find the right time, right place and the right people to gather together. Then we have the required causes and conditions. So, when the Buddha gives teachings, everything is related to “causes and conditions.”
Then there are “the Two Truths,” which are the absolute truth and the nominal truth, the truth of emptiness and the truth of existence. No matter which of the Two Truths He spoke of, He never left the Middle Way. Is the Middle Way about true emptiness? Some may misinterpret it and become “biased toward emptiness.” What about existence? Some people are so deluded they become too attached to existence and cannot let go. So, when the Buddha teaches the Dharma, even the Two Truths, He never deviates from the Middle Way. When the Absolute and Nominal are combined, this is the Middle Way. It is used to talk about both the workings of things and the principles behind them, so it is complete.
This is how the Buddha taught throughout His life. This is called the “perfect teaching.” At all times, the Buddha is teaching the Dharma, which is inseparable from these inconceivable causes and conditions, the Two Truths, the Middle Way, and the workings and principles of things. It is complete with all of these.
However, sentient beings’ capabilities [vary]. Figuring out which teachings are suitable is indeed very challenging. But those who can completely [understand] cause and conditions, the Two Truths, Middle Way, and workings and principles of things can penetrate the workings of the Buddha’s mind and completely accept all teachings. These are people with the highest capabilities. Indeed, the difference is not in the principles but in how sentient beings receive them. When they can accept [the teachings] completely, it is called perfect teaching.
We also discussed the following verse yesterday. Let us look at it again.
“Sariputra, all Buddhas teach according to what is appropriate, but Their intent is hard to understand. What is the reason? I give countless skillful means according to various causes and conditions.”
This passage and the previous one are discussing the same principle.
All Buddhas, not just Sakyamuni Buddha, all Buddhas of the past and the future, “teach according to what is appropriate.” They teach according to capabilities to enable sentient beings to understand [the Dharma]. However, they still could not understand the direction of Their minds. No matter how suitable what They teach is for sentient beings’ capabilities, no matter what They say, people only grasp a part of it. So in that passage, people only grasp a part of it. He still said, “Their intent is hard to understand.”
In the next part of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha wanted to pass on the great Dharma to His disciples in the Saha World, but no one dared to accept it. They said, “Venerable Buddha, we know Your hopes, but we do not dare [accept].” Why didn’t they? Because sentient beings of the Saha World are stubborn and difficult to train. Since we frequently read the Lotus Sutra and prostrate to it [in our morning recitation], we have probably come across this passage.
Consider how the Buddha spent His lifetime diligently teaching sentient beings in this world. He hoped that everyone could simply understand His intention and the workings of His mind. After over 40 years had passed, when He decided to give the Lotus teachings, there were still many with overbearing arrogance who “claimed to have attained what they had not.” Then the Buddha officially announced that after Sariputra made three requests, He felt He had to give these teachings, so everyone must listen for truths, ponder carefully and be mindful. At that moment, over 5000 people left.
You see, after the Buddha taught in the world for over 40 years, the result was still that 5000 people left the assembly. For those who stayed, the Buddha praised them as “steadfast and true. [The assembly] is free of branches and leaves; only the steadfast and true remain.” The Buddha then said, as He was about to finish teaching, “Does everyone understand that to teach the Bodhisattva-path is to shoulder the responsibility of [teaching] sentient beings? Does everyone understand that this teaching is to be entrusted to all of you?” But everyone there remained unresponsive. No one willingly said, “I understand; I accept.” Not at all.
This passage often lingers in my mind as well. Yes, indeed. Exactly who is willing to accept all the responsibility? Because of their capabilities, people are unable to expand their minds and completely purify themselves. Therefore, they still had the timid mindset of thinking sentient beings were stubborn and difficult to train. So, they were attached to the extremes.
“Countless skillful means” is how the Buddha uses many methods to teach people to walk the Bodhisattva-path. When people are willing to form aspirations, they see the Buddha as a role model, understand the teachings he gave by example, and begin to cultivate the Bodhisattva-path.
“Countless skillful means: It is said that Bodhisattva-practitioners guide all sentient beings and those who have not penetrated noble teachings to help them enter [the teachings]. Various causes and conditions: Enable those who have not matured to mature. Enable those who have matured to enter the teachings of the path, so they can uphold all rules and precepts to prevent wrongdoings and stop evils. Various skillful means enable all sentient beings to attain benefits. Thus they are skillful and suitable.”
Such Bodhisattva-practitioners “guide all sentient beings” and go among people to spread the Buddha’s noble teachings. The Buddha was a great sage, who passed on His teachings to others.
“Those who have not penetrated noble teachings” may still share the Buddha’s teachings with other sentient beings, but some of them may not have penetrated or understood [the Dharma]. Not only did the Buddha use many methods in His teachings, the Bodhisattvas He taught also went among people to give teachings and used many different methods to guide people.
The methods they used depended on the causes and conditions when they talked to others. But some people “have not matured,” so [Bodhisattvas] “enable them to mature.” As for those who have already matured, [Bodhisattvas] still had to be persistent in guiding them to enter the teachings of the path.
So, we said earlier, the world is where the Five Destinies coexist. Everyone wants to penetrate the Buddha’s wisdom. Some individuals with superior capabilities have already matured. However, they are not yet determined to really enter the Buddha’s understanding and views. Thus, they had to be diligently guided,
so “they could uphold” all “rules and precepts.” What is the way to guide them to enter [the path] smoothly? By using the Buddha’s teachings of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. Precepts are the foundation. Thus, they must “uphold all rules and precepts,” so they can “prevent wrongdoings and stop evils.” They use various skillful means to stop evils, and use “various skillful means to enable all sentient beings to attain benefits.” Those are the results of using skillful means.
Consider Tzu Chi volunteers. Even though they came in through the door of charity, we still need to guide them through the door of the Buddha’s [wisdom]. “Without experience, we cannot grow in wisdom.” Wisdom is essential to this Dharma-lineage. So, the Tzu Chi School of Buddhism is about going among people and cultivating the Four Infinite Minds. [To be aligned with] the Jing Si Dharma-lineage, we must make the Four Great Vows and cultivate sincerity, integrity, faith and steadfastness
in our spiritual practice. We must uphold “all rules and precepts” to open [the door]. We must utilize various skillful means to enable all sentient beings to attain benefits. We do good deeds and form good affinities. Throughout all time, space and relationships, we benefit other sentient beings. This is how we use skillful and suitable means.
Dear Bodhisattvas, the Buddha’s teachings are indeed profound. But if we are mindful of the Buddha’s teachings, whether He is giving perfect, immediate, gradual and partial teachings or collected, interrelated, differentiated and complete teachings, [we realize] they encompass the same principle, the same perfect and complete Dharma. This all depends on the mindset we have when we accept the Buddha’s teachings. So everyone, please always be mindful.