Episode 339 – Provisional Teachings Guide People to Truth
>> The Buddha’s heart is filled with loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. To speak of conditioned phenomena, He uses analogies. To give profound and wondrous teachings, He uses provisional wisdom. He teaches and guides people onto the path to Buddhahood.
>> “I established these skillful means to enable all of you to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. But I have not yet told you that all of you will attain Buddhahood.”
>> I established these skillful means: The Buddha established teachings with provisional wisdom. This is the wisdom that leads to true wisdom through skillful means. The small side street that leads to the great path is the wisdom of practicing skillful means.
The Buddha’s heart is filled with
loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity.
To speak of conditioned phenomena, He uses analogies.
To give profound and wondrous teachings, He uses provisional wisdom.
He teaches and guides people
onto the path to Buddhahood.
The Buddha’s heart is filled with loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. He comes to the world to give teachings; in accord with the world’s conditioned phenomena, He uses various skillful means to make analogies. Otherwise, with our dull capabilities, understanding the Buddha’s state of mind and the true principles of the universe would not be easy. We must have the Buddha’s compassionate intent and exercise loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity to see all sentient beings as we see ourselves, or as we see our own children or our own family. This will lead to a sense of closeness.
Since He can comprehend the true principles of all things in the universe, and can realize that the true principles of all things come from our nature, that the intrinsic Buddha-nature we all have gives rise to the true principles of all things, He can bring those true principles back together in people’s minds. Thus, “to speak of conditioned phenomena” is to use all phenomena of the world, conditioned, tangible or contrived, as analogies for our non-arising and non-ceasing pure intrinsic Buddha-nature. This helps us return to it. So, in order to “speak of conditioned phenomena, He uses analogies.” He uses worldly phenomena as analogies for intangible and unconditioned Dharma.
The Buddha gives “profound and wondrous teachings” by using “provisional wisdom.” His words are so very profound and wondrous. But teaching us about our intrinsic pure nature of True Suchness so we can understand it is very difficult. This is what the Buddha wants to teach us. “To give profound and wondrous teachings,” to teach us such true, profound, subtle and wondrous principles, He has to use provisional wisdom,
because ordinary people really cannot understand. There is no way they can understand the Buddha’s wondrous Dharma right away. So, He has to exercise provisional wisdom to “teach and guide people onto the path to Buddhahood.” Thus He patiently guides us, mindfully teaches us and gradually leads us onto the path to Buddhahood, to walk this broad and direct path to awakening. This is how the Buddha mindfully, lovingly, compassionately and patiently [teaches us]. He is the great teacher over these vast kalpas, so He must return again and again to continuously guide us.
When some people stray from the path, He has to make the effort to find them. He is just like a cowherd. He finds lost cows and reunites them with their herd, as they head toward pastures filled with grass and water, places with plenty of food. This is the responsibility of the cowherd. The Buddha takes on this kind of responsibility. Because the Buddha cannot bear to abandon sentient beings, as long as He has a chance to awaken them, He is willing to go, even to the animal realm. This is the Buddha’s compassion. He continuously transmigrates within the Six Destinies based on the power of His vows. Because of His compassion, He comes to the Three Realms to guide sentient beings.
Even by simply encountering a blade of grass or a tree, He can attain realizations, which He then uses to inspire others. People can be inspired by grasses and trees to attain realizations. This also teaches us that all conditioned phenomena in the world are encompassed by the Buddha’s wisdom and heart. Indeed, if we are mindful, we can constantly receive teachings.
To enter the Buddha-path, we need teachings; we must properly take in and practice these teachings. Thus we enter the Buddha-path. So the Buddha, at all times, is expounding profound and wondrous Dharma. In this world, amidst the conditioned phenomena, He uses provisional and wondrous wisdom to manifest all kinds of appearances. This helps our causes and conditions ripen, so we can awaken. This is the Dharma. All analogies are wondrous Dharma. He hopes everyone can truly attain realizations.
Thus, the earlier sutra passage said that sentient beings cling to cyclic existence and cannot realize the impermanence of life in the Six Destinies. We ordinary people do not recognize the depths of suffering in this world. We complain about it, but we do not seek to discover its source. We only complain about it; we only know to be resentful and greedy, to take things for ourselves. When we do not get what we want, we become angry, make poisonous vows, have poisonous thoughts and commit poisonous actions. This is what we ordinary people do. We do not realize that our suffering in the Three Evil Destinies comes from [the karma we created] in the human realm.
After we accept the Buddha-Dharma, we may try to awaken only ourselves. We do not understand that the afflictions reproduced by sentient beings and this defiled world we live in make it hard for us to awaken ourselves alone. We do not know this, so there is no way we can understand the concept of the Buddha’s “conjured city.” These limited, provisional teachings allow us to rest our minds. This allows our minds to fully recover from the fatigue of samsara. We can purify our minds and avoid developing entanglements. This is Small Vehicle Dharma.
But actually, the Buddha said that once we are freed from entanglements, we must begin to move forward. We are only at a conjured city [on a long road], so we must keep moving forward to walk the Bodhisattva-path of widely transforming sentient beings. This is the broad Bodhi-path. This is the path that truly and thoroughly eliminates the afflictions of samsara.
In this earlier passage, the Buddha showed His concern and care for all. Therefore, He pointed out how sentient beings are still clinging to samsara. People have formed karmic connections with countless Buddhas. As I mentioned before, they were associators or influencers, adopters and so on. Though they could now listen to the Dharma and encounter the Buddha in this lifetime, they still have “dull capabilities” and “delight in Small [Vehicle] Dharma.” In the presence of countless Buddhas, they have remained associators who only listen casually without being mindful.
So, we must be adopters. If we feel that the Buddha is [directly] teaching us and thus mindfully accept His teachings, we will find them applicable. To apply them, we must put them into practice. To put them into practice, we must not simply stop there and “refuse to walk the profound and wondrous path.” We must put [the Dharma] into practice.
We sentient beings must first realize that the world is full of suffering. So, the sequence of the Buddha’s teachings starts with “suffering.” After understanding suffering, we can prevent it from troubling us again. We will know the causes of suffering. The countless minds of sentient beings have countless, incalculable afflictions. When accumulated, those afflictions will truly trouble the people in this world.
So, the Buddha used all kinds of methods to first help us eliminate greed, anger and ignorance from our minds, to eliminate desires. He first led us to leave our family and loved ones and cut off entanglements, so our minds can be pure. By transcending cyclic existence, we leave behind the turbulent river of samsara. Not only must we eliminate our own afflictions of samsara, but also the afflictions of our family and the entanglements of many kinds of relationships. These are all part of our cyclic existence, so we talk about “the turbulent river of samsara.”
I talked about this yesterday. The afflictions in our own lives are already very troubling. We already have many of our own afflictions; on top of that, we worry about the afflictions of aunts, uncles, children and spouses, all our loved ones. We are all in “the turbulent river of samsara.” And when countless beings come together, we create social unrest and disturbances, in addition to natural disasters. Think about it, won’t this bring suffering?
With all this suffering, we must do more than leave our loved ones to eliminate our emotional entanglements and purify our minds; that is not enough. We cannot ignore the suffering of others. Is leaving our families and loved ones so that we do not need to worry about our kin all we need to do? The Buddha said, “No.” We must continue to move forward by caring for people who are unrelated to us. These sentient beings have actually formed karmic connections with us in our past lifetimes. Thus, the Buddha told many stories about causes and conditions.
In the Sutra of Profound Gratitude toward Parents, the Buddha paid His respect to a big pile of bones. Ananda asked Him why. “Why are You prostrating to this pile of bones?” The Buddha answered, “These bones in this big pile belonged to my parents from many past lifetimes; they were once my loved ones.”
Consider the Buddha’s state of mind. He sees all sentient beings in the world, whether in the past or future, even countless lifetimes ago, [as His family]. So, the Buddha sees all sentient beings as. His loved ones. Leaving our loved ones in this lifetime does not mean we will have nothing to do with others; we have this kind of [affinities] from past lives. Moreover, we do not know how much time we still need to transform sentient beings. So, we must aspire to return to the Saha World. We still have to form many connections; we cannot stop here.
Previously, I have told this story. [A bhiksu asked a woman,] “Why are you crying?” [She said,] “[Terrible things] happened to my children and husband.” He said, “This is how life is; why cry about it?” Then he walked on. Later, another [bhiksu] saw her and asked, “Ma’am, why are you crying so miserably?” [She said,] “My husband, my child suddenly….” [He replied,]. “This is very sad; you are truly suffering. You grieve for them, you ache for them and you suffer for them, but ultimately, they will never come back. You have to take care of yourself. Here, take this handkerchief and wipe your tears away. Let it go; life is inherently full of suffering. This is what [the Dharma] tells us.” The woman’s heart opened up and she understood. She let go of her afflictions and began engaging in spiritual practice.
Then during the Buddha’s lifetime, there was an old woman who felt an aversion toward the Buddha and avoided Him whenever she saw Him. However, when she saw Ananda, she felt happy and would always follow him. The Buddha said, “In her past life, the first bhiksu who walked by was I. I was followed by the bhiksu who comforted her. He took out a handkerchief for her to wipe her tears away. His teachings led her onto the Buddha-path. This old woman has a karmic connection with the Buddha-Dharma, but not with me. She has a connection with Ananda and follows him to listen to the Dharma and to practice.”
Thus, we cannot only benefit ourselves. We have to return in future lifetimes to transform sentient beings. We hope sentient beings will be happy and follow us when they see us. So, we must form good connections for the future. “Before attaining Buddhahood, we must first form good connections with others.” Thus, the Buddha worked hard in this world. In the next sutra passage, the Buddha said,
“I established these skillful means to enable all of you to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. But I have not yet told you that all of you will attain Buddhahood.”
In this sutra passage, the Buddha said, “I established all kinds of skillful means.” In order to guide everyone to a pure and undefiled state, He had to establish and teach skillful means. How did the Buddha establish skillful means? With teachings of provisional wisdom.
I established these skillful means: The Buddha established teachings with provisional wisdom. This is the wisdom that leads to true wisdom through skillful means. The small side street that leads to the great path is the wisdom of practicing skillful means.
I have previously explained that “provisional” teachings, or skillful means, are wondrous. There are very subtle and wondrous truths in them, passed on as part of a continuous lineage, that do not deviate from profound, wondrous Dharma. So, this comes from “provisional wisdom,” which is the use of simple principles to teach.
This is unconditioned Dharma; something that has always existed. It is an intrinsic part of us; no one else created the Buddha-nature and. True Suchness within us. Similarly, no one can destroy our pure intrinsic nature of True Suchness. It is unconditioned Dharma, which is intrinsic, fundamental truth. This is wisdom that leads to true wisdom. True wisdom is True Dharma of the One Vehicle. And “provisional [wisdom]”? Provisional wisdom is skillful means that utilize various analogies.
This green thing [in front of you] was cut from a tree. But a tree is not just made up of this green thing. A tree comes from a seed. That is a blade of grass, and grass comes from grass seeds. This entire bunch of grass came from that seed. This is part of a tree, a cutting from a Juniper tree. That is all. Thus, all kinds of appearances are created through various phenomena. Each phenomenon arose from a different cause. These are like provisional skillful means, which are taught according to capabilities. So, this is provisional wisdom.
True wisdom helps us to thoroughly understand the original source of these appearances and forms. So, the “provisional” is such in relation to the “true.” The True Dharma is incomprehensible to us, so He uses analogies and skillful means to help us understand. If we can understand [skillful means], we will realize the wisdom behind them.
So, “a small side street leads to the great path.” This small winding road will lead us and bring us to this place. If we keep walking, we will reach a broad path. So, “a small side street leads to the great path.” Though skillful means are limited teachings, they connect directly to the wider road. This is why the Buddha utilizes skillful means and exercises skillful wisdom. This is how He gives teachings. Thus, we must be mindful, so we can “comprehend the great path.”
In order to “comprehend the great path,” we must “bring forth the unsurpassed Bodhi-mind,” not just focus on our own understanding. “I know. I know that cyclic existence in the Six Destinies is suffering, so I just want to benefit myself and not seek karmic connections with anyone. Not only will I leave my loved ones behind, I will not seek karmic connections with anyone.” If someone asks you, “Where should I put this thing? I don’t want to force connections with you. Figure it out yourself.” Would that be your answer?
We come into contact with people every day and are constantly forming karmic connections. If you tell him [where to put it,] he will say, “Thank you.” This creates a good karmic connection. If you tell him, “Figure it out yourself. I don’t want any connection,” then when he sees you again, he will ignore you. This is like what happened with the Buddha and. Ananda and that woman.
In conclusion, if we want “to comprehend the great path,” we must “form the supreme aspiration.” Limited teachings can lead to great Dharma if we keep moving forward. Thus, we must always be mindful.