Episode 284 – Awaken to the Buddha’s Understanding and Views
>> Eliminate Defilements and Attain Purity. “The Buddha had remained silent for a long time; now He gave the teachings. Two Vehicle practitioners had difficulty believing and understanding the depth of all He had learned and practiced, the depth of the vows He courageously made and the depth of the virtues He diligently cultivated and accumulated.”
>> “All Buddhas, World-Honored Ones, want to enable sentient beings to be open to the. “Buddha’s understanding and views” and attain purity. Thus They manifested in this world.”
>> He must be replete with all virtues and be the most honored one in this world. Thus Buddhas are called by another name, World-Honored One.
>> “The Buddha’s understanding and views” will “enable sentient beings to clearly understand and illuminate the ultimate reality of all things, which is the wisdom of His Dharma-nature.”
>> [Help them] attain purity: Transcending the wrongdoings of evil actions and eliminating the defilements and contamination of all afflictions leads to purity. Eliminating hindrances, they attain liberation. Transcending defilements, they attain purity.
Eliminate Defilements and Attain Purity.
“The Buddha had remained silent for a long time;
now He gave the teachings.
Two Vehicle practitioners had difficulty believing and understanding
the depth of all He had learned and practiced,
the depth of the vows He courageously made
and the depth of the virtues He diligently cultivated and accumulated.”
This is telling everyone that “the Buddha had remained silent for a long time” about this most important of teachings. From the moment the. Buddha attained enlightenment, He had wanted to share this insight with everyone. But He understood that sentient beings could not accept it based on their capabilities, so He remained silent for a long time and safeguarded this Dharma in His heart. He could not help people understand it right away because they were not capable of doing so.
Perhaps you still remember that, after the Buddha emerged from Samadhi, He continuously told everyone that the Dharma is very profound and vast. He spent infinite kalpas in the past drawing near countless Buddhas. ․All He had learned and practiced was profound. Because He had drawn near so many Buddhas over a long time and in many places, of course the Dharma He learned was very deep.
In particular, the vows He courageously made were profound. He was able to accept many Buddhas’ teachings and stay courageous and diligent, life after life. After He established His vows, He remained firm and never deviated from them. This was “the depth of the virtues He diligently cultivated and accumulated.” He was very diligent and mindful in His spiritual practice. His did not only practice for personal gain; He walked the Bodhisattva-path, life after life. This was how He accumulated virtues. He benefited the people, drew near infinite Buddhas and absorbed much Dharma. Life after life He continued to help others. Thus, the virtues He diligently cultivated and accumulated are very deep.
He accumulated [virtues] for such a long time, put many Buddhas’ teachings into practice and transformed sentient beings life after life. Consider this unsurpassed, subtle and wondrous Dharma of the One Vehicle. Can it truly be accepted by Two Vehicle practitioners? Though the Buddha clearly knew that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, if He told them that directly, they would find it hard to understand and believe. Thus, the Buddha remained silent on this and kept [the teachings] in His heart for a very long time.
However, more than 40 years had gone by; “now” refers to this moment. The Lotus Sutra must be taught, so “now He gave the teachings.” The Lotus Sutra fully describes the Buddha’s causes and conditions that He accumulated through lifetimes of spiritual practice in order to teach sentient beings. “Now He gave the teachings” means He was about to teach this sutra to everyone.
This next passage speaks of all Buddhas and how.
“All Buddhas, World-Honored Ones, want to enable sentient beings to be open to the. “Buddha’s understanding and views” and attain purity. Thus They manifested in this world.”
The earlier passage said, “What is meant by ‘All Buddhas, World-Honored Ones for the cause of this one great cause, manifested in this world’?” This passage is His response to His own question. He said all Buddhas, World-Honored Ones, wanted to enable sentient beings to be open to the Buddha’s understanding and views. This is because the Buddha came to the world for one great cause, to teach them His understanding and views. This was His main goal. So, He “wanted to enable sentient beings to be open to the Buddha’s understanding and views,” to help them open their minds and understand. He wanted us to understand that we intrinsically have the same nature of True Suchness as the Buddha.
The Buddha’s understanding was [very deep,] so of course He had to patiently and compassionately explain things to us in detail, hoping we would comprehend. His understanding and views,
what He could see and understand. Over 2000 years ago, the Buddha said, “Within the universe, there are infinite worlds.” No matter what worlds [He was referring to], we can now use science to prove [this concept]. When the weather is nice and we look at the sky, we see many points of starlight; each may have its own worlds and its own lands. However, they may not be suitable for people. The atmosphere may be too thin, and there may not be any water; it may not have the necessary conditions to support life. But modern technology has been able to verify this. In the Buddha’s time, technology was not very advanced, but the Buddha was already saying, “Within the universe, there are infinite worlds, countless trillions of worlds.” So, the Buddha had this wisdom; His understanding and views were at this level.
Thus, the Buddha came to help all sentient beings because. He wanted them to attain the same understanding. This was His only wish. [In this passage,] the word “want” expresses His wish. His wish was to enable all sentient beings to open up and comprehend the Buddha’s understanding and views. These are not only limited to Buddhas. I always say, “The mind, Buddhas and sentient beings are no different in their nature.” The more our minds are like the Buddha’s mind, the better we can understand. His understanding and views, the things that He sees. Thus, we can draw near the principles within them. This is being “open to the Buddha’s understanding and views.” The Buddha’s wish was for all sentient beings’ understanding and views to become equal to His
and thus they would “attain purity.” How can we be open to the Buddha’s understanding and views? All sentient beings have afflictions, which are ignorant thoughts. If [our minds] are covered by ignorance, how can we become open to the Buddha’s understanding and views? In order to have the Buddha’s same understanding and views, we must attain purity. Our minds must be pure, and our ignorance must be eliminated. If there is still ignorance in our minds, drawing near the Buddha’s understanding and views will be very difficult. This task is not impossible; it is just that we have not yet cleared away our ignorance. As soon as we clear away our ignorance, we will certainly draw near the Buddha’s understanding and views. So, this is a state of purity.
The Buddha utilizes various teachings all for only one goal, in hopes that we can eliminate afflictions and wash away the defilements in our minds. Through cleansing these defilements, we change our habitual tendencies. Changes in our habitual tendencies show that our defilements have been eliminated. The number of habitual tendencies we change is equal to the amount of ignorance we eliminate. Thus, [what we do] in our daily living is truly very important.
We previously talked about the. World-Honored One’s goal for coming to the world. We constantly use the term World-Honored One; as if it is the Buddha’s name. The Buddha is the Great Enlightened One. If one does not attain great enlightenment, one is not qualified to be called “Buddha.” A Buddha enlightens Himself and others and already has perfect enlightened conduct. So, He is called the Buddha. In addition to being known as a Buddha,
He must be replete with all virtues and be the most honored one in this world. Thus Buddhas are called by another name, World-Honored One.
As the most honored one in this world, He is thus called World-Honored One.
Next comes being “open to the Buddha’s understanding and views.” The World-Honored One came to this world for only one great cause, “to enable sentient beings to be open to the Buddha’s understanding and views.” This was the Buddha’s, the World-Honored One’s, purpose for coming into the world.
“The Buddha’s understanding and views” will “enable sentient beings to clearly understand and illuminate the ultimate reality of all things, which is the wisdom of His Dharma-nature.”
He wanted us to be “open to the Buddha’s understanding and views.” He hoped sentient beings could have a very clear understanding, so the light of their wisdom could illuminate the ultimate reality of all things. He wanted us to eliminate our ignorance because only then could the light of our wisdom illuminate all things. For example, night is when [our side of Earth] faces away from the Sun. When we rotate to face the Sun, [it becomes] daytime. The same principle applies to our minds when we turn away from the path [to enlightenment]. Why would we turn our backs on the Path? Because we have covered the light of wisdom. ․Why would we cover the light of wisdom? Because we have ignorance in our minds. Thus, only by eliminating ignorance can we see the ultimate reality of all things.
To clearly understand is to know things very clearly and thoroughly; only then can we see the ultimate reality of all things. What is the ultimate reality of all things? Do you still remember? It is our nature of True Suchness. So, “the wisdom of the Buddha’s Dharma-nature” is the ultimate reality of all things. If we attain the wisdom of His Dharma-nature, we will know the ultimate reality of all things.
Thus the Buddha came into this world to enable everyone to understand that the Dharma is ours to [realize]. However, if we are not mindful, no matter how many teachings we listen to, we will still be unable to realize or understand them. So, He spoke of opening sentient beings to the Buddha’s understanding and views. The Buddha came for this one great cause, this very important task, to inspire sentient beings to understand. His understanding and views. To “attain purity” [is to] “[transcend] the wrongdoings of evil actions.”
[Help them] attain purity: Transcending the wrongdoings of evil actions and eliminating the defilements and contamination of all afflictions leads to purity. Eliminating hindrances, they attain liberation. Transcending defilements, they attain purity.
How do we attain purity? We must all reflect on ourselves. We listen to teachings like this and cultivate spiritual practices like that, but have we transcended [our tendencies]? What is considered an evil action? Giving rise to discursive thoughts. In our relationships, when we feel an aversion toward someone, that is an evil action. When we feel a sense of ill will, that feeling is an evil action; it is an evil action of the mind. If the mind gives rise to a sense of ill will toward anyone, that action taken by the mind is an evil action.
When we feel ill will toward someone, we will take issue with them over every single thing. “I’m going to teach you a lesson, let’s see what you can do about it.” With this attitude, before we even teach the person anything, we have already developed ill will and taken that evil action. So, as we interact with people, how do we transform and teach them? No matter how stubborn they may be, we must not develop ill will or take evil actions. If that negative feeling arises, our minds have taken action, and we have committed a wrongdoing.
Let us all think about this carefully; have we done this? As we interact with people, have we committed this kind of wrongdoing of evil action? If so, we must “eliminate the defilements and contamination of all afflictions.” To attain purity, all these afflictions and defilements must be eliminated immediately.
There is contamination and there are defilements. “Defilements” have already been accumulated. “Contamination” is new; it was not there before, but now it exists; this is called “contamination.” So new and old together are known as “defilements and contamination.” We must eliminate them immediately; we must quickly “eliminate the defilements and.” ․”contamination of all afflictions. [This] leads to purity,” [a state where] “eliminating hindrances, they attain liberation; transcending defilements, they attain purity.” If we can constantly repent and immediately eliminate our afflictions, then we will no longer be affected by afflictions of the Three Obstructions, or hindered by our greed, anger, ignorance, etc. If we are hindered by these afflictions, we will easily develop overbearing arrogance. Those with overbearing arrogance cannot accept the Dharma. So we must purify ourselves.
We must eliminate afflictions. Thus, we must constantly repent. In this way, we will be able to remove these obstacles, so we can attain liberation. If not, our minds will always be entangled by these afflictions. We must transcend defilements and become pure. This is the greatest purpose for which the Buddha came to the world.
So, dear Bodhisattvas, we truly have to be very mindful in learning the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha [came here] for one great cause, to open and reveal, so sentient beings could realize and enter. His understanding and views. He put his heartfelt effort into this, so everyone, please always be mindful.