Episode 3 – Transform Others by Awakening Wisdom
>> “The Dharma is subtle, wondrous and hard to comprehend. The principles the Buddha attained cannot be understood. He awakens and exercises wisdom with expressions and analogies. He applies loving-kindness and compassion to skillfully transform others.”
>> “Sariputra, I do all this so that they may attain the One Buddha Vehicle and all-encompassing wisdom.”
>> The One Buddha Vehicle: It is the only teaching that can guide people to attain Buddhahood. Like the vast universe where all planets and galaxies appear, all things have an intrinsic nature. This pure and clear True Suchness reflects the conditions that arise.
“The Dharma is subtle, wondrous and hard to comprehend.
The principles the Buddha attained cannot be understood.
He awakens and exercises wisdom
with expressions and analogies.
He applies loving-kindness and compassion
to skillfully transform others.”
This is telling everyone that the Buddha continuously tries to awaken the nature of True Suchness in all of us. To do this, the Buddha uses many methods, which are subtle, wondrous and hard to comprehend. They are all different; there are so many appearances and teachings in this world. Yesterday, we talked about natures and appearances. How many appearances are there? In this world, there are too many to speak of. These countless forms and types of appearances each have their own intrinsic natures. Thus, the number of natures corresponds to the number of appearances.
In reality, natures and appearances are inseparable from causes and conditions. [For all things], there is only one ultimate reality, thus there is only one true nature. If we could thoroughly and clearly understand these principles, we would truly praise the Dharma for its wonder and subtlety.
This is the Dharma attained by the Buddha, so we ordinary people cannot understand it. Only the Buddha can penetrate the truths of all things in the universe. He fully understands the one nature and one appearance. However, we ordinary people see many different forms, appearances and natures. For the Buddha, there is only one ultimate reality, one true nature. This is the subtle and wondrous Dharma. The Buddha can understand it; however, ordinary people are still attached to their own state of mind, to the forms and appearances they see. So, they cannot thoroughly understand. True Suchness, which is the ultimate reality. As unenlightened beings, we vary in our particular natures and appearances, so we cannot understand the state of the Buddha. The Dharma He attained and. His state of mind are things we cannot realize.
However, the Buddha has always compassionately [told us] we ordinary people can definitely achieve this because Buddhas were originally sentient beings. Thus, sentient beings are also [future] Buddhas; all Buddhas were enlightened as ordinary beings. The Buddha is persistent, so “He awakens and exercises wisdom.” He utilizes various methods to unlock our wisdom.
Ordinary people only have “knowledge.” We have “knowledge” and “intelligence.” We may know and we may understand, but this is different from having “wisdom.” Wisdom can deeply penetrate; it goes beyond knowing and can discern different natures and appearances. This is “discerning wisdom,” with which we can distinguish between true emptiness and wondrous existence. Discerning wisdom is the wisdom of the Buddha, which can be used to understand the difference between natures and appearances. In truth, there is just one appearance, one nature. This is His wisdom.
The Buddha exercises His “discerning wisdom” to awaken “impartial wisdom.” The Buddha applies His “discerning wisdom” and “impartial wisdom” to teach sentient beings so that we can develop our wisdom. We sentient beings are in a state of confusion, so the Buddha compassionately lifts off our layers of ignorance, one by one. Bit by bit, our wisdom is gradually revealed. From “discerning wisdom,” He guides us to understand that in discerning, we can see equality.
I often talk about loving-kindness, about showing compassion to all equally. If we are compassionate, we will see everything as equal. The Buddha’s wisdom is also impartial, so He has never said that. He is the only one who can attain Buddhahood. Never. He constantly says we can all attain Buddhahood. Buddha-nature is the same in all sentient beings. This is “wisdom”; this is the Buddha’s compassion. He constantly stresses that we too have Buddha-nature and can attain Buddhahood.
With compassion, the Buddha “awakens and exercises wisdom with expressions and analogies.” The Buddha constantly utilizes many methods to draw analogies for everyone, to find ways for us to understand the essence of the Dharma and the truths of ultimate reality. So, He tirelessly teaches the Dharma through “expressions and analogies.”
“He applies loving-kindness and compassion.” He has unconditional loving-kindness, which is expansive and boundless. After the Buddha became enlightened, He realized the truths of all things in the universe and in His realized state observed the Ten Realms. In all the Ten Realms, only Buddhas have completely transcended ignorance and realized all principles. Bodhisattvas, Solitary Realizers, Hearers, and those in the heaven, human, asura, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms are each progressively more ignorant. Thus, the Buddha, in His unconditional loving-kindness, works to spread His state of mind across the Ten Dharma-realms.
So, “loving-kindness” represents the expansiveness of the Buddha’s mind and how, with compassion, He cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. Even those in the state of Bodhisattvas still have slight hints of ignorance. We ordinary people are still ignorant, so the Buddha has to exercise His compassion to awaken our compassion. He helps all of us understand that we are interconnected with everything in the world, so we must have great universal compassion. We are truly one with all sentient beings. We feel others’ pain and suffering as our own. This is the loving-kindness of the Buddha.
So, He applies loving-kindness and compassion. His Loving-kindness is unconditional and very expansive. So, with compassion, [the Buddha] sees that all sentient beings are suffering, have many afflictions and create karma. With His compassion, the Buddha treats the afflictions of sentient beings as His afflictions. Bodhisattvas also treat others’ suffering as their own. The Buddha cannot bear to let sentient beings create karma. Therefore, “He applies loving-kindness and compassion to skillfully transform others.” With various causes and conditions, expressions, He creates analogies to teach sentient beings.
If we want to understand the Buddha’s original intent, we must know that it is truly expansive. These teachings are subtle and wondrous. Since the Buddha’s mind is the Dharma, it is subtle, wondrous and hard to comprehend.
The passage we discussed previously speaks of [teaching] “according to their original nature.” The Buddha comes to this world hoping we can all return to our intrinsic nature. But, we still cycle through the Six Realms, and habitual tendencies are continuously being ingrained in us. He hopes we can all return to our intrinsic nature. As we discussed yesterday,
the Buddha next told Sariputra,
“Sariputra, I do all this so that they may attain the One Buddha Vehicle and all-encompassing wisdom.”
The Buddha wants us all to return to our intrinsic nature. The Buddha establishes teachings according to the nature of sentient beings. Each of their capabilities and ignorant thoughts range from superficial to deep. Some have deep-rooted ignorance. To eliminate the ignorance bit by bit, the Buddha slowly guided them to develop aspirations and make vows, then put them into practice, until they attain the Bodhisattva state of vowing to transform all beings. He not only helps us all walk the Bodhisattva-path, He also helps us attain the One Buddha Vehicle and return to the truths it contains. We all practice the Six Paramitas to transform sentient beings,
so we must return to the One Buddha Vehicle. Thus, the Buddha, to transform sentient beings, utilizes these sincere and skillful approaches so that we can acquire “all encompassing wisdom.” This is the wisdom of the Buddha.
Let us further explore the One Buddha Vehicle.
The One Buddha Vehicle: It is the only teaching that can guide people to attain Buddhahood. Like the vast universe where all planets and galaxies appear, all things have an intrinsic nature. This pure and clear True Suchness reflects the conditions that arise.
The One Buddha Vehicle is the only teaching “that can guide people to attain Buddhahood.” Look at the way the Buddha’s teachings have helped people in the world to eliminate their attachments and superstitions and have guided them to develop right beliefs. They help everybody penetrate the right beliefs and the law of karma.
We all need to know that all of us sentient beings are subject to the karma we created in past lives. Our karma has brought us here. Just having faith in the Buddha will not eliminate all the karma we created nor fix the unpleasant events in our lives. Not at all. We should further understand that the challenges and suffering we face help us practice. We know that those things are due to past causes and conditions. In this life, we must be willing to end the negative causes we created in the past, and end our previous negative karmic connections. Our negative causes and conditions torment us in this lifetime and cause us hardship. So, our spiritual aspirations must be firm, and we must adapt to these conditions to resolve such negative causes and conditions. We must turn negative karmic conditions into assisting and positive conditions.
This is what the Buddha teaches, which shows us the way to resolve our past karmic affinities. Right now our spiritual aspirations are firm, and we can uphold and practice the teachings to attain Buddhahood. These comprise the One Vehicle Dharma. Since sentient beings have countless afflictions, the Buddha opened up countless teachings to educate us, which are the only teachings “that can guide people to attain Buddhahood.”
“Like the vast universe” refers to the endless void, where “all planets and galaxies appear.” When we look up into the sky here, it seems boundless. Before daybreak, before clouds cover it, we see a sky filled with stars. Consider the size of the universe and all the planets and galaxies in it. How big are the planets we see in the sky? We ordinary people have no idea.
For us humans, the world is huge. But when we talk about the “world,” we are only talking about Earth. This world is big, but in the greater universe, it is only one planet [among many]. It is not very big. There are much bigger planets, even in this solar system alone. So, Buddha-nature is what we realize after awakening. It is our nature of True Suchness. So, the Buddha teaches us methods to help us return to our ultimate true nature.
“Like the vast universe, where all planets and galaxies appear, all things have an intrinsic nature.” Indeed, [Buddha-nature] is intrinsic to all. All phenomena in the vast universe, and all worlds are included in “all things”; they all intrinsically have this. “All things” refers to the world’s various appearances. The vast universe, the endless void, is also encompassed in “all things. All things have an intrinsic nature.” The Buddha always talks about the nature of True Suchness, which is intrinsic to all of us. What is it? Our intrinsic Buddha[-nature]. We originally had an awakened nature; it is inherent in us all. This is also like the vast universe, where “all things have an intrinsic nature.” We all intrinsically have this nature of True Suchness.
So, we all have boundless wisdom. These truths are already in our minds, but they have been covered by ignorance. So, “This pure and clear True Suchness reflects the conditions that arise.” We can uphold the Buddha’s teachings and really put them into practice. We can faithfully accept the Buddha’s teachings and use various methods to eliminate our ignorance. With every bit of ignorance we eliminate, we grow a bit in wisdom.
The Buddha comes to awaken our wisdom so we can properly utilize it. Impartial wisdom and discerning wisdom can help us, in modern times, to clearly understand right and wrong. This requires us to awaken our wisdom. With “wisdom,” we can distinguish right from wrong. Thus, our wisdom must be awakened, so we can see these distinctions.
We need to understand that, in the world, the imbalance of the four elements and the lack of harmony between people are causing natural and manmade disasters. In this era of great difficulty, shouldn’t we awaken our compassion? If we can awaken our compassion, then in this era, in this world, when ignorance manifests, we can apply great wisdom.
Our ignorance comes from the karma we created in the past. If we can wash away our ignorance, [we will return] to what is intrinsically there, our nature of True Suchness, “this pure and clear True Suchness.” It is already clean, without any defilements at all. Similarly, if we look into clear and still water, we see the world reflected in it. The principle is the same; our nature acts in the same way. With every bit of ignorance we eliminate, we understand a bit more of the principles.
The Buddha’s principles are deep and boundless. Like the vast universe, they can encompass infinite things and teachings. There are endless sentient beings and boundless teachings. There are many sentient beings, so there are countless teachings to deal with them.
Everyone, we really need to be mindful in learning the Buddha’s teachings. When we think about the Buddha’s wisdom, [Hearer-wisdom] and all-encompassing wisdom, these wisdoms which encompass all phenomena, we should give rise to a sense of joy. We must have the joy of faith and believe in the Buddha’s teachings. To have joy is to be very happy, to happily accept the Dharma. If we have faith and take joy in the teachings, naturally we will earnestly [learn them].
The Buddha does everything He can to awaken and exercise wisdom with expressions and analogies. He utilizes various methods to draw analogies solely to awaken our loving-kindness, so we may exercise our compassion, wisdom and vows. With these skillful means, He transforms us. And by accepting these means, we can also use them to transform sentient beings. The Buddha can do this, and so can we. He teaches us these methods, so we can put them into practice. We do not just listen to and share them. We must listen, contemplate and practice, then actualize the teachings in the world. This is the way to learn the Buddha’s teachings.
The process of the Buddha’s spiritual practice was really unbearably painful. It cannot be understood by us ordinary people. As we mentioned before, He had entered the hell, animal realms, and so on and experienced much suffering. He lived through and learned from all that. We must also do the same and learn what the Buddha knows and understands. So, the Buddha’s understanding and views are what we are now learning. So, we need to always be mindful.