Episode 296 – The Extensive Proclamation of All Dharma
>> “The path of spiritual practice has a starting point. The goal must be correct, and the course must not deviate. The Buddha compassionately opens and reveals. His understanding and views. The Buddha-mind is inside us, so we must look within.”
>> “With various causes and conditions, analogies and expressions, [He] proclaimed all Dharma to sentient beings. These teachings were all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.”
>> [He] proclaimed all Dharma: [He] extensively proclaimed all Dharma and its profound meanings to reveal the One Buddha Vehicle. With such true teachings, according to their capabilities, He skillfully and patiently uses virtuous Dharma to gradually guide them on the path to Buddhahood.
>> These teachings are all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle: The Buddha manifests in the world for the sake of the one great cause, to teach sentient beings to return to their intrinsic Buddha-nature. This is the way to Buddhahood. The One Vehicle Dharma is the teaching that enables all of us to attain Buddhahood. So the One Buddha Vehicle was taught as three.
“The path of spiritual practice has a starting point.
The goal must be correct, and the course must not deviate.
The Buddha compassionately opens and reveals. His understanding and views.
The Buddha-mind is inside us, so we must look within.”
How exactly do we walk the path of spiritual practice? I often say, “If we maintain our initial aspiration, we will surely attain Buddhahood.” That inspiration to engage in spiritual practice is our starting point. Are we heading towards the correct goal? I often say, “A slight deviation causes a great divergence.” If we deviate from the course in the slightest, we will end up thousands of miles away from [our goal]. Thus, we must carefully sustain our spiritual aspirations.
The Buddha is compassionate and will not abandon sentient beings. He returns to the world over and over for one great cause, to open and reveal His understanding and views, so sentient beings can realize and enter them. The Buddha opens and reveals with compassion. After listening to His teachings, we must contemplate them carefully to realize that within the Dharma, there are true, subtle and wondrous principles. Actually, “the Buddha-mind is inside us, so we must look within.” To realize the Buddha’s understanding and views, we must draw near the Buddha-mind. But understanding His understanding and views is really about understanding ourselves. If we cannot understand ourselves, how can we understand the Buddha’s understanding and views? Realizing and entering them depends on us because we intrinsically have Buddha-nature.
So, we must “look within.” The Dharma can only guide us so far; we must walk the path ourselves and take steps with our own two feet. I often speak of “the two feet of blessings and wisdom.” With these two feet, after we take the first step of creating blessings for people, we must take the next step, which is developing wisdom. By doing good deeds, we create blessings; with wisdom, we contemplate worldly matters. This is how we exercise both compassion and wisdom. The Buddha exercises His compassion and wisdom to come to this world. Out of compassion, He will not abandon us; with His wisdom, He gives suitable teachings. We must emulate the Buddha’s mindset and cultivate both blessings and wisdom. We cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer, so we create blessings for humanity. We will not abandon any of them and must patiently guide them. The methods we use to direct them are very important.
So, these few days, the passage we have discussed says that the Buddha uses various skillful means.
“With various causes and conditions, analogies and expressions, [He] proclaimed all Dharma to sentient beings. These teachings were all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.”
These repeated verses help us understand how the Buddha targeted different sentient beings’ capabilities. Every day we talk about various causes and conditions, analogies and expressions. Are there really that many causes and conditions? Can the Buddha find so many worldly matters to draw analogies from? There are indeed very many. From worldly matters alone, there are many things that can become analogies. The stories of people’s lives can be teachings.
For example, last year (2012), a senior executive came to join Tzu Chi and get involved in our missions. He was brimming with ideals and goals. After he joined us, he put his heart into understanding how to get involved and how to lead. After a period of time, he came to the Abode and said to me, “I have been here for some time and. I have been very mindful and worked very hard, but I still find it very different from the typical workplace. I feel like I don’t know how to lead people, how to work together with them as one.” He was feeling a bit helpless.
I said, “No matter what, as long as you are truly inspired and your starting point, direction and goals are all correct, nothing will be difficult for you. Avoid overcomplicating things by thinking too much.”
Then I told him a story about a monastery that existed over 1000 years ago. This monastery was in the mountains and housed a group of novices led by an elderly monk. Based on their capabilities, he assigned them certain tasks.
Among them, there was a 12-year-old novice, to whom the elderly monk said, “Every day, you must leave the monastery to travel from here to the market by hiking over those two mountains. You must walk that road to buy rice and oil. You must buy these two things every day.” The young novice followed these directions. Early every morning, he happily left the mountains. By noon, he would already have returned with his purchases, with this heavy load.
Day after day, month after month, year after year, he continued until almost ten years had gone by. One day, when he came back at noon as usual, the elderly monk saw him at the entrance. The elderly monk smiled and said gently, “Follow me, let’s walk around outside the monastery.” So, the novice followed him. Once they were outside, [the elderly monk] said, “Let’s sit here.” The two of them sat down, one behind the other. They watched the sun slowly set and heard sounds of laughter from below the mountain, coming closer and closer. A group of flighty young bhiksus, talking and laughing, were walking in their direction.
As they came closer, they saw the [elderly] monk sitting there and quickly settled down. The [elderly] monk asked them, “To make your purchases, you took a very easy path to a nearby market. So why, for the past ten years, have you always left early in the morning but not returned until dusk?” They answered, “Every day, we enjoy the scenery as we go down the mountain. As we [climb] back up, we take frequent breaks to admire our surroundings and the scenery.”
The [elderly] monk turned the [young] monk and asked, “What about you? For almost ten years, you have carried very heavy objects, oil and rice, up the mountain. How are you able to return to the monastery before noon? The young novice said, “Every day I feel. I need to uphold this heavy responsibility. So, I am very focused. My only goal is to go down the mountain to purchase the things I need to buy.”
The elderly monk asked, “How do you feel as you travel down and then back up the mountain?” He happily answered, “Every morning, I feel relaxed as I go down because I carry nothing with me. So, with a relaxed and grateful heart, I walk this road to the market. And coming up the mountain? Coming up the mountain, though I am carrying very heavy things, I feel happy because. I am accomplishing my task. Although my burden is heavy, I really feel at ease. My only wish is to quickly bring this heavy load to its destination. So every day, I feel grateful when I leave and at ease when I return.” The elderly monk said, “Do you think about anything else? No, just my responsibility.”
He was the same age as the others, but was single-mindedly focused on his mission. With gratitude and great ease, he traversed the mountains over 3000 times so the people at the monastery never had to worry about having food and warm clothing and could focus on their spiritual practice.
I told this story to the senior executive who had recently joined us. After hearing the story, the senior executive said, “That’s right, we must be grateful for our responsibilities. As we fulfill our mission, naturally we will feel at ease.” I said, “To reach your ideal goal, you still must make adjustments to your course. Remember to emulate the Buddha’s mind, to take the Buddha’s mind as your own. All Buddhas care for sentient beings, so the Buddha comes to this world to teach sentient beings. This is the Buddha’s mindset.” Then, he told me, “I understand now.”
“The idea behind the Buddha’s teaching is the same.” Based on various capabilities and various causes and conditions, He utilizes certain methods and analogies to enhance people’s understanding. Thus, it is inevitable that we see similar texts again and again in the sutra. He wants people to truly understand His meaning. This is the purpose of the prose, as well as the verses. As we listen to teachings, we must patiently and carefully consider the meaning of the Dharma. The Buddha proclaims all Dharma for sentient beings’ sake, so. He utilizes various causes and conditions, analogies and expressions to give teachings. “These teachings are all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.” Though He proclaimed many different teachings, they are all to teach the One Buddha Vehicle.
[He] proclaimed all Dharma: [He] extensively proclaimed all Dharma and its profound meanings to reveal the One Buddha Vehicle. With such true teachings, according to their capabilities, He skillfully and patiently uses virtuous Dharma to gradually guide them on the path to Buddhahood.
We know that to “proclaim all Dharma” means to “extensively proclaim all Dharma” by using expansive and numerous principles. For different people and environments, He utilized different methods. So, [the Dharma] is very expansive. The Buddha used very wide and open methods to expound the One Dharma through analogies and expressions. To “proclaim” may signify a large [audience], teachings given at large assemblies, or it may be teachings to individuals who are suffering, troubled or lacking understanding. These are all proclamations of the Dharma.
The Dharma that is taught to one person is still very profound Dharma. For a large crowd, He also analyzes very profound principles, all of which comes from the One Buddha Vehicle. The principles of the One Buddha Vehicle are all teachings of the true nature of things. He hopes all sentient beings can hear this and return to their intrinsic nature. This is the One Buddha Vehicle, the True Dharma.
“According to their capabilities, He skillfully and patiently uses virtuous Dharma to gradually guide them on the path to Buddhahood.” According to sentient beings’ capabilities, He gave One Vehicle teachings; He gave them according to sentient beings’ capabilities. So, we can see how. “For the true, He gave provisional teachings and opened the provisional to reveal the true.”
These teachings are all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle: The Buddha manifests in the world for the sake of the one great cause, to teach sentient beings to return to their intrinsic Buddha-nature. This is the way to Buddhahood. The One Vehicle Dharma is the teaching that enables all of us to attain Buddhahood. So the One Buddha Vehicle was taught as three.
“These teachings are all for the sake of the One Buddha Vehicle.” The Buddha manifests in the world solely for the sake of this one great cause, teaching sentient beings to return to their nature of True Suchness, which is the way to Buddhahood. Every day we hear these same teachings, the One Vehicle Dharma that enables all of us to attain Buddhahood. This is the Buddha’s goal, so He still teaches the One Vehicle as three.
Everyone, to learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must listen to the same principles every day though we deal with different people and matters. The Buddha spoke of previous Buddhas and how people from Their eras requested teachings and gave Them opportunities to give specific teachings and personal guidance. He taught people methods to develop a perspective on their suffering and to resolve their problems. The Buddha utilizes universal teachings, which everyone, whether with limited or great capabilities, can accept and happily put into practice. This is the mark of True Dharma. So everyone, we must always be mindful.