Episode 315 – The Buddha’s Disciples Must Know His Mind
>> With deep-rooted faith, we believe in the truth without doubts. Arhats have the power of wisdom and ending. Pratyekabuddhas have the wisdom to awaken.
>> “Sariputra, if a disciple of mine calls himself an Arhat or Pratyekabuddha but does not want to hear or know of the fact that all Buddhas, the Tathagatas, only teach the Bodhisattva-path….”
>> “They were not disciples of the Buddha, nor were they Arhats, nor were they Pratyekabuddhas.”
>> “Furthermore, Sariputra, it should be known that those bhiksus and bhiksunis claimed to have attained Arhatship.”
>> These are not disciples of the Buddha: The conjured city is not where the treasure is. Those who are biased toward and attached to provisional teachings and do not have faith in the perfect Dharma claim to have realized what they have not. So, these are not disciples of the Buddha but are people with overbearing arrogance.
As Buddhist practitioners, we must make vows every day, and we must remain unwavering in upholding our vows and following the path. No matter what external conditions we face, our faith must be deep-rooted. The deeper the roots, the more unwavering our faith is. If we wholeheartedly and deeply believe in the teachings and true principles, we will have no doubts. To understand principles, we must have faith. If the roots of our faith can extend deep and wide, we will have no doubts.
With deep-rooted faith, we believe in the truth without doubts. Arhats have the power of wisdom and ending. Pratyekabuddhas have the wisdom to awaken.
We must realize that the reason we cannot focus is that we have doubts. When we have doubts, we think too much, so our faith cannot remain unwavering. Thus our minds are easily tempted to think about other things. So, faith is very important.
When engaging in spiritual practice, we must know what to practice at each stage of spiritual cultivation. As beginners, we consider the karmic conditions that enabled us to encounter the Buddha-Dharma and the timing that enabled us to encounter the Buddha. We can give rise to faith due to our karmic conditions and timing.
At the beginning of the Buddha’s lifetime, there was no Buddha-Dharma. He diligently engaged in spiritual practice and then finally unlocked the profound mystery and principles behind the ignorance of the world. Once He awakened, He established the Buddha-Dharma.
For the Buddha to teach the Buddha-Dharma, the conditions had to be right. Who had the best conditions to receive it? The five bhiksus, Ajnata-Kaundinya and the rest, were the best recipients of teachings and had the best karmic conditions.
These five had engaged in spiritual practice with the prince, but because of a misunderstanding, they lost their confidence in Siddhartha, and parted ways. When these five saw that. He had attained Buddhahood, they shifted from doubting to having faith. With faith, they listened to the Dharma, and according to their capabilities, the Buddha began to teach them the truth of suffering, its causation, its cessation and the path.
These five heard the Buddha’s analyses of the different afflictions of the world and the forms of life’s suffering. They listened to this teaching at the same time, but not all of them awakened at the same time. So for these five people, the Buddha had to give the same teaching three times.
The first time, only one of them could thoroughly understand that life is indeed suffering, which is caused by greed, anger and ignorance that arise from the workings of people’s minds. This causes us to create much suffering and accumulate many sources of hardship. After we realize this, we must resolve to eliminate our suffering at its source, that initial thought of ignorance in our minds. “I understand now, so I resolve to cultivate according to the path of spiritual practice the Buddha taught.” This is what Ajnata Kaundinya realized.
Upon the first teaching of the Four Noble Truths, Ajnata Kaundinya was the only one to awaken. What about the other four? After the Buddha’s teaching, they seemed to understand that life in this world is suffering, but what is the source of suffering? They still did not understand clearly how it all began with the mind. The Buddha said, “Do not worry,” I will say it again.” Then He taught the same Dharma a second time. Afterward, two of them said, “I understand now that the source of suffering is in our minds. If we want to eliminate all suffering, we must subdue our mindset of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt.”
So, did all of them achieve this understanding? There were still two who did not fully understand. So, the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths a third time. Then the remaining two people understood. The Buddha was relieved that they had stepped onto the path. This will take them forward, and it is a very broad and direct path. So, the Buddha allowed these five to take refuge and urged them to focus on their monastic practice. At this time, the Three Treasures were complete.
After the Buddha began to expound the Dharma, the Sangha was formed in the world. Thus, when we have the karmic conditions and aspiration to engage in spiritual practice, we must first understand suffering in the world and seek liberation. Those who saught to be liberated from suffering will join the Sangha.
In the Sangha, those who attain Arhatship are replete with wisdom and have the ability to eliminate afflictions. This is why we engage in spiritual practice. Arhats are not only seeking to benefit themselves. They first understand that the suffering in life comes from afflictions. To eliminate those afflictions, they must have enough wisdom to penetrate all suffering in the world. Thus, they understand that as they walk this path, they must be cautious of
their surroundings and of the course they take. What about Pratyekabuddhas? Pratyekabuddhas have the wisdom to awaken. Their wisdom is one level higher than Arhats because the teachings they have listened to life after life have permeated them. This process of permeation comes from learning.
Haven’t we come across some children who were born very smart? We observed this particularly in our Musical Sutra Adaptations, in which the profound Dharma was expressed through music, lyrics and sign language. There were young, adorable children ranging from two to five years old who watched adults perform the sign language and listened to them sing, and they learned [the performance] even faster than adults. In northern, central and southern Taiwan there were children like this.
Can we say that small children do not really understand things? They actually see things very clearly. When his grandma was not home, one child would secretly turn on the computer. This four- or five-year-old child would follow the video and learn the hand motions. Eventually, the adults had to learn from the child. This is because the child had learned in the past. Thus, in this lifetime, that memory was still deeply imprinted, undefiled by external conditions.
So, we often say that those who left and came back again may have clear understanding. There was a saying in the old days, “Well-read from a previous life.” In Buddhism, we say that his karmic conditions brought him back. When the karmic conditions in his past life ended, the ones for this life manifested. As he was not sidetracked by other defilements, his karmic conditions quickly brought him from his past life to this current one. In this way, his memory was still very fresh.
Thus, Pratyekabuddhas must have listened to and faithfully accepted the Dharma life after life. But they still had not eliminated all afflictions; some ignorance remained, so they had not achieved thorough understanding. However, their potential for awakening was high, so when they came to the world again, they could build on what they learned in the past about the impermanence of life. Therefore, in this life, when they encountered everything from the cycle of day and night to the changes of the four seasons, their minds were led to have a sense of the principle of impermanence. They were Pratyekabuddhas, or Solitary Realizers. When there were no Buddhas in the world, they still realized this state [of impermanence] in people, matters and objects because of their awakened nature. Thus, those with a clear, awakened nature are called Pratyekabuddhas.
“Pratyekabuddhas have the wisdom to awaken.” They can awaken and understand more easily. However, they still have a bit of ignorance, so they still have a ways to go before attaining the state of Buddhahood.
So in this passage, the Buddha said,
“Sariputra, if a disciple of mine calls himself an Arhat or Pratyekabuddha but does not want to hear or know of the fact that all Buddhas, the Tathagatas, only teach the Bodhisattva-path….”
Arhats already have the wisdom and ability to eliminate afflictions, and Pratyekabuddhas can understand the origins of all things in the world. Even though they know this, do they have a direct and thorough understanding of the underlying principles?
Did all of these people actually attain Arhatship? Or, did they just claim to be Arhats? They arrogantly said, “I already know everything. I thoroughly understand everything.” Did all these people simply claim to be Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas? These people “do not want to hear or know of the fact all Buddhas, the Tathagatas, only teach the Bodhisattva-path.” They believed they attained everything, but they did not know that all Buddhas, the Tathagatas, come to the world for one great cause.
If they did not want to hear, know and understand that all Buddhas come to the world to teach the Bodhisattva-path, if they were not willing to hear and know,
“They were not disciples of the Buddha, nor were they Arhats, nor were they Pratyekabuddhas.”
If they believed that they understood everything and have attained the fruit of Arhatship and have attained the fruit of Pratyekabuddhas, have attained the fruit of Pratyekabuddhas, but still did not understand the Buddha’s intent for coming and teaching in this world, they “were not disciples of the Buddha.” If they did not understand Him, how could they claim to be His disciples? At this time, the Buddha began to speak sternly.
Clearly, the Buddha spent over 40 years gradually guiding and patiently teaching according to capabilities. This was all because He wanted to help everyone come in contact with the Dharma and faithfully accept and practice it. But at this point, the Buddha began to say, “If you do not understand that all Buddhas come to the world for one cause, to teach the Bodhisattva-path, if you still cannot understand this, how can you be my disciples? Not only are you not my disciples, are you even Arhats? You have been by my side and worked so hard on your spiritual practice, yet you still do not understand my original intent nor my purpose in coming to the world. So how can you really be Arhats? or Pratyekabuddhas? You are not!”
The Buddha spoke sternly solely because. He wanted them to wake up and not be complacent with their current state. Instead, they should continue to move forward.
We have been saying that in this era in which sentient beings are heavily defiled, they have much turbidity in their views and understanding. So between sentient beings, between people, there is no understanding, respect or love. Therefore, they oppose each other, which creates many disasters that threaten living beings in the world. This is a “time” filled with “difficulty.” A kalpa of turbidity and confusion is “a time of great difficulty.”
Because sentient beings are severely defiled, natural and manmade disasters continuously arise. In this time of great disasters, we must have great compassion. Beyond understanding right and wrong, we must develop great compassion. In addition to great compassion, in times of ignorance and turbidity, we must develop great wisdom. This is the state we sentient beings must move toward, step by step. Only saying, “I know, I know” is not enough. After we “know,” we must put it into practice. When we put the teachings into practice, we can then break through our ignorance. “Without experience, we cannot grow in wisdom.” So, we must go among people to truly learn that “infinite Dharma-doors readily appear before us.” We can unlock our wisdom because “infinite Dharma-doors” are right in front of us. Thus, we can “thoroughly understand all Dharma and attain great wisdom.”
So everyone, we must repent at all times. In this passage, the Buddha taught us that we must be remorseful and repent. We must not be arrogant and “claim to have attained what we had not,” thinking we have already attained Arhatship or the fruit of Pratyekabuddhas, so we already know everything. We absolutely cannot think this way. If we do, the Buddha would say of us, “They are not my disciples, nor are they Arhats, nor are they Pratyekabuddhas.”
Then the Buddha said,
“Furthermore, Sariputra, it should be known that those bhiksus and bhiksunis claimed to have attained Arhatship.”
If these bhiksus and bhiksunis thought that they had attained the fruit of Arhatship and already had the ability to eliminate their ignorance and afflictions, they were not disciples of the Buddha. How could they claim to be bhiksus and bhiksunis? If they were not the Buddha’s disciples, they were not true bhiksus and bhiksunis.
To be a monastic and engage in spiritual practice, we must diligently learn what the Buddha learned, act the way the Buddha acted and realize what the Buddha realized. Only by doing this are we truly learning the Buddha’s teachings. We must adopt the Buddha’s demeanor and awaken to the Buddha’s state of mind.
The Buddha carefully and gradually guides us. In the Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City in the Lotus Sutra, He saw that everyone was tired, so when they reached a stopping point, He said, “We have arrived.” This was a conjured city. After everyone was well-rested, He then said, “This is a place to rest; it is not our ultimate destination. We need to start walking again.” So, “the conjured city is not where the treasure is.” It is not our true destination, so we must keep moving forward diligently.
However, those who are biased toward and attached to provisional teachings cannot understand the perfect Great Vehicle. The Buddha’s One Vehicle, with perfect and complete true principles, is something they still cannot understand. This is because of their biases and attachments. They stubbornly believe that they had attained enlightenment, so they do not feel the need to move forward. These who “claim to realize what they have not” are not the Buddha’s disciples. They are people with overbearing arrogance.
These are not disciples of the Buddha: The conjured city is not where the treasure is. Those who are biased toward and attached to provisional teachings and do not have faith in the perfect Dharma claim to have realized what they have not. So, these are not disciples of the Buddha but are people with overbearing arrogance.
We had talked for some time earlier about “those with overbearing arrogance.” When the Buddha began to teach [the true Dharma], they paid their respect and left. Some of these people were very arrogant, and some still could not faithfully accept it, so their course deviated.
Everyone, our road ahead is still long. It will take a long time to finish the Lotus Sutra. But every day, if we can understand [a little bit], the Dharma is actually very simple. By focusing on the path right beneath our feet, we diligently move forward with every step. Therefore everyone, please always be mindful.