Episode 331 – All Conditions Protect the Mind and Consciousness
>> Good and bad karma determine positive and negative retributions. We follow our karmic conditions, with no control over the retributions we face. With ignorance and a desirous nature, we are immersed in suffering. The Buddha kindly gives wondrous, provisional teachings according to capabilities.
>> “The thoughts in the minds of sentient beings, the various pathways they have walked, the nature of their various desires, their karma, good and bad, from former lives, are fully known to the Buddha.”
>> “With all conditions, analogies, expressions and skillful means, I enable all to rejoice. Perhaps I may speak of sutras, gathas, previous lives of disciples, previous lives of Buddhas, or things that have never been.”
>> With all conditions, analogies: The Buddha, with His wisdom, knows everything about the countless variations of all kinds of worldly phenomena. Basically, these are the conditions that the mind and consciousness cling to. Per the true teachings of the Great Vehicle, all conditions arise when the mind and consciousness converge. These are called “all conditions.”
>> This is because. “People of average capabilities could not attain full realization, thus, the Buddha talked about the three carts and the one cart.”
>> In the beginning, He offered three carts, which were provisional teachings. Later, He granted the great cart, which revealed the true teachings. This is what the Chapter on Parables discusses.
>> Verbal expressions and skillful means: Born in this current world, by drawing near wholesome and virtuous friends, upon hearing their suitable, skillful teachings, we will develop Bodhicitta. This is the power of skillful means.
The changing of seasons allows us to adjust the way we live. In making adjustments to the way we deal with matters and objects, we must be in accord with conditions and timing and always be mindful in our daily living. So, if we can adjust ourselves well, everything will go smoothly. What is it that we must adjust? The mind.
It determines the karma we create, good and bad. If we know how to earnestly adjust ourselves, then [in response to] everything from the weather to people, matters and things, we will always begin with the mind. If we adjust our minds well, everything we do will tend toward goodness; everything will be headed in the right direction. If this is the kind of karma we create, if we do this now, our future will be good.
Though we keep talking about our previous lives, we must pay even more attention to the present. The present [affects] our future. The karma we create now determines our future, just as the [retributions] we face now are results of the karma we created in the past. As we face retributions, we can learn to really understand the law of karma and thus accept [everything] with joy. As we deal with people, matters and objects, we must willingly benefit others. This will determine our karmic retributions.
Good and bad karma determine positive and negative retributions. We follow our karmic conditions, with no control over the retributions we face. With ignorance and a desirous nature, we are immersed in suffering. The Buddha kindly gives wondrous, provisional teachings according to capabilities.
In our past lives, if we did good deeds, we created good karma. If we committed evils in our past lives, of course we will face negative retributions. These are laws of nature. Since these are the workings of nature, naturally we must accept them. At the same time we must diligently [work to] accept all that happened in the past, willingly and happily, and diligently [work] toward the future. How do we change our lives for the future? Our future is determined by what we do now, whether we do good or evil. It all depends on what we do right now, so we must be careful in the present about what we are creating for our future.
In this lifetime, though we may encounter adverse conditions, we can shift our mindset to see adverse [conditions] as favorable ones. “Grievances must be resolved, never created,” so if we created bad karma in the past, we must willingly accept [the retributions]. Because things are beyond our control, we end up with these parents, these siblings, these friends, this spouse, these children and so on. Whether the relationship is good or bad depends on our past karmic affinities. Just like this, we follow our karmic conditions with no control over the retributions we face. So, we must be [diligent]; now that we clearly understand how future karmic retributions come about, we must start [changing] now. This is the right way [to act].
So, “we follow our karmic conditions with no control over the retributions we face.” This is an important lesson for us to learn. No one born into the world can escape good and bad karma or positive and negative retributions. Since we are already here, let us be at peace, because these things are beyond our control. Now that we are learning from the Buddha, we know we need to take control of our lives. We call this engaging in spiritual practice. Those who do not practice have no control over themselves. They repay resentment with resentment, enmity with enmity. This tooth-for-a-tooth cycle of vengeance just keeps going. This is how ordinary people [behave].
Since we know that we cannot change what happened in the past, we realize we must quickly make amends, feel remorse and repent, so [the cycle of] of resentment, hatred and enmity will end here, in this lifetime. Then in future lives, we will have good karmic conditions. This is something we can learn and immediately accept and practice. In dealing with people and handling matters, if we understand these principles, we will be happy in all our interactions and can willingly accept the way things turn out. Then naturally, we will not create negative conditions.
These negative conditions originate from our ignorance and desires. Once ignorance arises, people are mutually pulled toward each other in by their positive and negative karmic conditions, and naturally this traps them in the sea of suffering. The Buddha is compassionate. For the multitude of sentient beings, “the Buddha kindly gives wondrous, provisional teachings according to capabilities.” This is the Buddha’s goal in coming to this world. But we humans only focus on how we can satisfy our desires right this moment, on what can make us happiest now. We do not see how [fulfilling] this desire will affect our future and our relationships. We have no idea. In learning from the Buddha, we must use our pure and simple hearts to follow the course of nature and accept the law of karma. By understanding [these concepts], we can protect ourselves.
We said before,
“The thoughts in the minds of sentient beings, the various pathways they have walked, the nature of their various desires, their karma, good and bad, from former lives, are fully known to the Buddha.”
The Buddha knows all.
Because of sentient beings’ ignorant behavior, the karma they create and their various desires, the Buddha, according to these conditions, utilizes various analogies and expressions to give teachings.
Now this passage states,
“With all conditions, analogies, expressions and skillful means, I enable all to rejoice. Perhaps I may speak of sutras, gathas, previous lives of disciples, previous lives of Buddhas, or things that have never been.”
These are all names of teachings and methods from the sutras. “With all conditions, analogies,” What does “all conditions” mean? We must understand this better. With His wisdom, the Buddha can understand “conditions,” the karmic connections between sentient beings. That is the Buddha’s wisdom.
With all conditions, analogies: The Buddha, with His wisdom, knows everything about the countless variations of all kinds of worldly phenomena. Basically, these are the conditions that the mind and consciousness cling to. Per the true teachings of the Great Vehicle, all conditions arise when the mind and consciousness converge. These are called “all conditions.”
“Know everything” means understand everything, all the variations and so on. These “variations” are countless. The desirous nature of sentient beings is very strong. Aside from giving rise to one ignorant thought, [the mind] creates the three subtle afflictions and opens 80,000 doors to afflictions. This is truly very many. So, “countless variations” refers to all kinds of worldly phenomena. Worldly phenomena arise because of sentient beings’ afflictions. This is how the world became filled with very complicated worldly phenomena.
Their conscience and sense of remorse became weaker over time as their will to satisfy their desires strengthened. Thus they created more and more karma. So, at the present time, in this space that is our vast planet, there are so many kinds of worldly phenomena. They arise because the mind and consciousness cling to conditions.
For each of us, the consciousness of our minds connects with external conditions, to forms, sounds, smells, tastes and touches, to these worldly things. This is how our Six Consciousnesses connect to objects of desire. Then we cling to karmic conditions and attract many defiled causes and conditions. These are “all conditions.” So, we must be vigilant. Exactly when will we encounter these conditions? At what times do we cling to these conditions despite ourselves? We do not know.
So, we must engage in spiritual practice by upholding vows and following the path to “purify our own minds.” If we can safeguard our minds and our mind-consciousness, we will not cling to those kind of conditions. Only in this way can we sustain the health of our bodies and minds. Else we will be entangled by karmic conditions and our bodies and minds will not be healthy or pure.
Therefore, we must really understand the law of karma. Everything happens because of our minds, because consciousness clings to conditions. Yesterday we talked about “the workings of the mind. The mind-king” clings to conditions. This has to do with the mind and consciousness, so we must take good care of our minds.
We must [be mindful of] the true meaning of the Great Vehicle. We must not cling to conditions. Since we already engage in spiritual practice, we must follow the true meaning of the Buddha’s. Great Vehicle teachings. With these methods, all conditions that arise when the mind and consciousness converge will be “purifying conditions.”
Due to His affinities with sentient beings, along with their various desires, the Buddha comes to this world to teach them according to their capabilities. Although He began with the provisional teachings of the Three Vehicles, by utilizing skillful means, He gradually guided everyone to return to the true meaning of the Great Vehicle, which is that “all conditions arise when the mind and consciousness converge.” Thus, “all conditions” have to do with the mind and consciousness. Our mind and mind-consciousness have the conditions, these affinities, to converge with the Dharma. So, we must take advantage of our karmic conditions and be grateful for our affinity with the Buddha.
As I said yesterday, we must be grateful for the Four Graces. [We are grateful to] our parents for giving us this body, grateful to the Three Treasures for teaching us, and grateful to sentient beings for the clothing, food, shelter and transportation that makes us feel safe and content. We also must be grateful for this peaceful environment, the balance of the four elements and so on. We must be very grateful for all this. When various causes and conditions converge, we must really seize these opportunities.
The Buddha used various analogies.
This is because. “People of average capabilities could not attain full realization, thus, the Buddha talked about the three carts and the one cart.”
This is an analogy.
The Buddha utilized analogies in His teaching solely to help everyone understand the truth of suffering, its causation, its cessation and the Path, as well as the impermanence of life and the law of karma. After we understand these principles, we must take the next step of practicing the Six Paramitas, so we can cross to the opposite shore.
Even if we understand everything from the principles of the Four Noble Truths to the law of karma, we must still promptly cross from this shore to the opposite shore. We must cross to the other shore, otherwise we will forever remain in the state of unenlightened beings. After the Buddha has helped us understand, we must immediately take the next step to cross from this shore to the opposite shore. To do so, we must practice the Six Paramitas,
which is the Bodhisattva-path. But those with average or limited capabilities do not understand this. Solitary Realizers, Pratyekabuddhas and Arhats still cannot understand this. They think, “I fully understand the Dharma. I know to not cling to conditions because it brings suffering. I will not cling to conditions again.” But they did not learn to have “unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion,” so they do not fully understand.
The Buddha hoped to guide everyone to return to the True Dharma of the One Vehicle, so He utilized various methods. For example, in the Lotus Sutra, He used the analogy of a burning house. He offered three carts to appeal to people.
In the beginning, He offered three carts, which were provisional teachings. Later, He granted the great cart, which revealed the true teachings. This is what the Chapter on Parables discusses.
He loves everyone in the Three Realms as. His own children and looks after them. This big house of the Three Realms was already in shambles, [yet] the children were in this garbage pile, a place not worth lingering in. They were totally absorbed in playing there. As they played, a fire started. They were told to hurry and get out, but they were completely mesmerized. They thought the fire was very beautiful, so they played among the fire. The elder had to find a way to draw them out. “This place is a lot of fun, but not as fun as the many carts outside. There are all kinds of carts, big and small. Inside these carts are all kinds of treasures. Take your pick, choose wherever you want to go. You can go anywhere in the four directions.” This shows the elder’s wisdom.
The elder is an analogy for the Buddha. Like that elder, the Buddha cannot abandon His children to suffer in the burning house. So, He uses [His] wisdom, methods and wealth to create many carts of treasures. All these carts were used to draw people to leave the Three Realms. The Buddha came up with many analogies, and this is one example.
In the Lotus Sutra, He used many analogies and methods. In the beginning, there were small carts. “In the beginning, He offered three carts.” These were provisional teachings. Later, He gave them the great cart. “You want this small cart, but what about taking this big cart? Small carts transport fewer things, so you should use the big cart.” This is an analogy.
If we use a small [vehicle] to cross from this shore to the opposite shore, we can transport only a few people. To reach the other shore, we use a boat. A small boat can only carry one, two or three. A bamboo raft transports very few people. Since we are crossing anyway, why don’t we use a bigger boat that can take thousands of people across at the same time? This is the analogy for transforming people.
So, analogies were used as teachings. The Buddha exercised His wondrous wisdom to use different analogies to teach the Dharma. So, “with expressions and skillful means” refers to the way the Buddha used various expressions and skillful means. “Born in this current world” means we happen to be born in this era. By “drawing near good and virtuous friends,” if we can really be mindful, naturally “upon hearing their suitable, skillful teachings, we will develop Bodhicitta.” These are “skillful means.”
Verbal expressions and skillful means: Born in this current world, by drawing near wholesome and virtuous friends, upon hearing their suitable, skillful teachings, we will develop Bodhicitta. This is the power of skillful means.
We must pay attention to what others say. We can learn from every single person [we meet]. Everyone is our spiritual friend. Then in examining ourselves, we can also put what we learn into practice. Then people can accept the things we say, and we will all be each other’s spiritual friends. We will guide each other and help each other develop Bodhicitta. This is “the power of skillful means.”
It is not enough to be skillful; we must have the power to transform each other so that our negative habitual tendencies can be corrected. If the other person has not yet eliminated all afflictions, desires and habitual tendencies, how can we patiently guide them and transform them? If we have not changed our habitual tendencies, when others guide us, we must accept their guidance with gratitude. This is the power of mutual influence.
So, we must always be mindful when dealing with things in the world, whether the laws of nature, worldly matters, or objects and so on. How can we go along with conditions, how can we deal with change, how we can exercise the power of skillful means and stay on the right course without deviating? These are all things we must learn. Since the mind and consciousness cling to various conditions, we must safeguard our minds and consciousness. We cannot let negative external conditions invade our minds. Changing negative karmic conditions into positive karmic conditions depends on us taking good care of our minds in our daily living. So, we must always be mindful.