Episode 291 – Teaching the Provisional before the True
>> “The present Buddha described past Buddhas. Sentient beings learn the Dharma by listening to all Buddhas. To attain the fruit of Buddhahood, they have to reach enlightenment through focused, sincere and diligent practice.”
>> “Sariputra, the Tathagata gives only the One Buddha Vehicle as teachings to sentient beings. There are no other vehicles, not two or three.”
>> “Sariputra, the Dharma of all Buddhas of the ten directions is also like this.”
>> The Buddha’s light illuminates 18,000 lands for the sake of teaching the truth through provisional means. Then the provisional is brought back to the true. Thus, Buddhas of the ten directions who come to the world all first teach the provisional, then the true. They all give teachings in the same way.
“The present Buddha described past Buddhas.
Sentient beings learn the Dharma by listening to all Buddhas.
To attain the fruit of Buddhahood,
they have to reach enlightenment through
focused, sincere and diligent practice.”
When the Buddha teaches, He frequently refers to past Buddhas and how They each had the karmic affinities to encounter Buddhas, life after life. In particular, before expounding the Lotus Sutra, He emerged from Samadhi and continuously praised practices He learned from countless past Buddhas. Thus, He cited His experiences prior to attaining Buddhahood. He had drawn near many Buddhas and, over many successive lifetimes, continuously practiced Their teachings.
So, “sentient beings learn the Dharma by listening to all Buddhas.” That is to say, many sentient beings had listened to the teachings of past Buddhas. The sentient beings we speak of are all past Buddhas; They each also lived as sentient beings, as ordinary people, and as ordinary people received the teachings of previous Buddhas. Sakyamuni Buddha was one of these; He also began at the state of an ordinary person. Then as He learned from all Buddhas, He mindfully engaged in spiritual practice.
“To attain the fruit of Buddhahood, they have to reach enlightenment through focused, sincere and diligent practice.” He was able to attain Buddhahood through that same process of starting as a sentient being. This meant He started as an ordinary person and had been focused since He formed aspirations. He diligently practiced with great reverence. As He sincerely practiced the Way, He accepted and acted according to the teachings of past Buddhas. Lifetime after lifetime, He diligently practiced at the practice centers of all Buddhas. He was not the only one. All Buddhas went through the same process, repeatedly learning from past Buddhas and, life after life, engaging in spiritual practice to attain enlightenment.
Now, we know and understand that the Buddha mindfully guided us sentient beings. We all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. Through countless kalpas, who knows how many Buddhas we have met and in how many places we have listened to Their teachings. In this lifetime, we have a special affinity with Sakyamuni Buddha, so we are born on the same planet, Earth, and in particular, at a time when. He is the founder of Buddhism in the Saha World, in the era of His teaching.
Therefore, the Buddha is very compassionate in telling us that He had not always been a Buddha. He tells us all that He used to be just like us, an ordinary person who had also experienced the teachings of infinite Buddhas. Actually, infinite Buddhas have also experienced the teachings of previous Buddhas. So, the continuous cycle of engaging in spiritual practice, attaining Buddhahood and teaching is the state of a Buddha. This is also the state of the Tathagata in each of our hearts; we intrinsically have this pure intrinsic nature.
The Buddha hopes that the state of infinite Buddhas can help perfect the spiritual state of all sentient beings. He hopes that we sentient beings can immediately awaken. So based on the teachings all Buddhas have given us, we must follow His rules and set out on this path to rediscover the Tathagata-nature that we have had since Beginningless Time. This shows the Buddha’s compassion.
So, in the previous sutra passage, Sakyamuni Buddha called out,
“Sariputra, the Tathagata gives only the One Buddha Vehicle as teachings to sentient beings. There are no other vehicles, not two or three.”
The Buddha utilizes the One Buddha Vehicle to get straight to the point, to directly point to our hearts, so we can understand our minds and realize our true nature. His goals are this simple; He comes only for this purpose, to teach sentient beings the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. Due to sentient beings’ different capabilities, the Buddha had to teach the truth through provisional means. He did this to help us eliminate these ignorant thoughts from our ordinary minds, layer by layer, so we can gradually return to our pure intrinsic nature. This is the teaching of the One Reality. However, we cannot understand it immediately, so He has to teach the Small and Middle Vehicles. In truth, the Small and Middle Vehicles can help us eliminate layer after layer of ignorance. Once we have completely eliminated ignorance, the only thing left is our true essence, our great perfect mirror wisdom.
Take many of our Tzu Chi volunteers as examples. These Living Bodhisattvas frequently go to homes of the elderly that have accumulated many old and dirty things. ․Within this mess, there may be many living beings. Within this mess, there may be many living beings such as bugs, roaches, rats and even snakes. These creatures live under the same roof as these people who suffer physically and mentally. Tzu Chi volunteers form great aspirations and work together to clean these homes.
Look at all this trash. Before becoming so dirty, each item had once been new. As time passed, after being used by others, they were thrown out and retrieved by these people. Perhaps these people used the items themselves, then threw them aside after a while. So, new things become old and ragged. Thrown into piles, they become trash.
Then Tzu Chi volunteers come to carefully remove [the trash] piece by piece. They carefully sort out these things; they recycle what can be recycled and dispose of the things that cannot be recycled. As for the things that can still be used, they wash them clean. They also clean the entire house so that it looks brand new. Next, they clean up [the care recipients], giving haircuts to those who need them and shaves those with beards. After these people are bathed and dressed, after the beds are made, [volunteers] help them get situated. Even if [the care recipients] are physically ill, upon seeing the house cleaned up so well and restored so beautifully, they feel very happy as well. Then they realize that there are still many people who care about them.
This is an example to show all of you that, regardless of how old people are, whether they are healthy or ill, we should counsel all of them with the same kind of love to help them take the Buddha-Dharma to heart. Whether we encounter old people or people who are near the end of their lives, we should share pure teachings with all of them. Moreover, we ourselves are very blessed to now be receiving the Buddha-Dharma while we are healthy in body and mind. We must clean out the house in our hearts and not wait until we are ridden with illness or are facing our karmic retributions, already at the point where we cannot do anything and do not have much time left.
We must not wait until that moment. As we hear [these teachings] right now, we must immediately begin to clean that great perfect mirror in our minds. We must immediately clean, wash and wipe away our ignorance, layer by layer. Our basic essence is that perfect mirror, so this wisdom will be revealed. The Buddha comes to this world to guide us so we will work hard and return to our [intrinsic nature] by quickly cleaning out the house of our hearts.
The Buddha taught the One Buddha Vehicle to help us quickly eliminate our ignorance. Our most important goal is to purify our minds until they are clear and radiant. Once our Tathagata-nature manifests, we will not need the Two or Three Vehicles, only the One Buddha Vehicle. This is what I mentioned earlier.
Now let us examine this passage in the sutra. The Buddha said,
“Sariputra, the Dharma of all Buddhas of the ten directions is also like this.”
In truth, the Dharma of all Buddhas is the same. They “open and reveal” [teachings] to sentient beings with the One Buddha Vehicle. To help all of us attain Buddhahood, They utilize this method. So, “The Dharma of all Buddhas of the ten directions is also like this.”
Recall the beginning of the Introductory Chapter. When the Buddha sat in meditation and entered the Samadhi of Infinite Meanings, the light between His brows continuously radiated and illuminated 18,000 Buddha-lands. You probably still remember that passage. Before He gave the Lotus teachings, the Buddha manifested this ultimate reality.
In fact, our minds are equal to the Buddha-mind, so we have the same spiritual powers as Him. However, with His spiritual powers, the Buddha radiates light that is illuminating, whereas our [lesser] spiritual power [causes us to give rise to] discursive thoughts. With our spiritual power, we also travel quickly [but land on thoughts such as,]. “Oh, I remember. Yesterday someone hurt me by saying this, so I am very angry.” The power does not just lead us to yesterday, but last year, or perhaps ten years ago. [It leads us to] a certain place, a certain time, a certain space. Exercising our spiritual powers does not take very long.
The Buddha’s radiance, the light that the Buddha radiates, [illuminates] 18,000 Buddha-lands. The worlds of many Buddhas are pure and bright. These worlds are what the Buddha sees in the hearts of sentient beings, because each of us have that pure Buddha-nature. So, He gave provisional teachings for the sake of the One Vehicle, for the sake of sentient beings. In the Introductory Chapter:
The Buddha’s light illuminates 18,000 lands for the sake of teaching the truth through provisional means. Then the provisional is brought back to the true. Thus, Buddhas of the ten directions who come to the world all first teach the provisional, then the true. They all give teachings in the same way.
“Provisional” teachings are skillful means. For the sake of true teachings, He gave provisional teachings. “Then the provisional is brought back to the true.” During the time that He radiated light, He was [highlighting the provisional] to lead us to the truth. By doing this, He was telling everyone that in the past, He adapted to sentient beings’ capabilities. But now that He saw that their capabilities were almost mature, He gathered those provisional teachings and told everyone that this was not all there was. Within the provisional teachings is a true, supreme, perfect and universal wondrous Dharma. This was what the Buddha stated at the beginning of the Lotus Sutra.
“Buddhas of the ten directions who come to the world all first teach the provisional then the true.” All Buddhas do the same thing, “They all give teachings in the same way.” This was why the Buddha told Sariputra, “The Dharma of all Buddhas of the ten directions is also like this.” They all did the same things as Him because sentient beings, lifetime after lifetime, have always been the same. One aberrant thought led to millions of erroneous thoughts. An ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. Now let me explain that the Three [Evil] Destinies and Six Realms were all created because of that single subtle, ignorant thought. So, how do we now draw in and gather up these ignorant thoughts? We must utilize the Three Vehicle teachings. To teach the One Vehicle, the Buddha utilized the Three Vehicle teachings that suited various capabilities.
Similarly, our land needs the nourishment of rain. With just the right amount of rain, the land can produce a bountiful harvest. But if there is heavy rain, it over-saturates the land and may cause landslides and rockslides. This is because the amount is unsuitable. With His wisdom, the Buddha can perceive the suitable amount. So, in the past, I have discussed “ultimate wisdom” and “relative wisdom.” These help sentient beings gradually accept, understand and even aspire to engage in spiritual practice. These are the Buddha’s skillful means. All Buddhas of the ten directions first gave provisional, then true teachings. They all give teachings in the same way that Sakyamuni Buddha did. So, we must always be mindful.