Episode 341 – When Potential and Conditions Mature
>> The Buddha teaches according to the people, place, time and opportunity. When the conditions are ripe, it is time for Him to teach the wondrous Dharma for people to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. With practice and faith, they attain Buddhahood.
>> I have established these skillful means to enable all of you to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. I did not yet tell you all that all of you will certainly attain Buddhahood. I did not say that because the time to speak had not come.
>> For over 40 years, He kept it in His heart because the conditions were not yet ripe.
>> “I did not say that because the time to speak had not come.”
>> “Now is the right time.”
>> So, “Now is the right time to decisively give the Great Vehicle teachings. The nine divisions of my Dharma are taught according to the capabilities of sentient beings.”
>> Because the time to speak had not come: Teaching requires [the right] people, timing and place. If suitable circumstances have not matured, if any of the causes and conditions are incomplete, He is unable to speak.
>> The karmic conditions were not ripe; they had not matured because “those of lesser capabilities are slow to awaken.”
>> Now is the right time: Those of great and sharp capabilities can instantly awaken.
Time passes by with every minute and second, [so] we must seize every moment. I seem to repeat this sentence every day. Still, as we live our lives each day, we cannot escape the passing of the minutes and seconds; everything we do accumulates over time. So, we must take advantage of every second. It is often said, “Time makes all things possible.” Though we frequently hear [these words] and frequently repeat them, it is very easy to forget them as each moment passes. Similarly, when the Buddha came to the world for His one great cause, from birth to spiritual practice to attaining Buddhahood to expounding the Dharma, [every step of] this process happened with the passage of time.
His one hope was for sentient beings to be equal to the Buddhas, to reach the same spiritual state. This was the Buddha’s vow and hope for sentient beings. This thought never once left His mind.
So, we must know that the minds of the Buddha and of sentient beings contain the same universal wisdom. Yet none of us have thoroughly understood this. The Buddha always wanted to share this with us and was waiting for the right opportunity.
But if we have the same wisdom as the Buddha, why was He waiting [to teach us]? He was waiting for people who could truly understand the Dharma in His mind, the views and understanding that. [He] had attained.
The Buddha teaches according to the people, place, time and opportunity. When the conditions are ripe, it is time for Him to teach the wondrous Dharma for people to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. With practice and faith, they attain Buddhahood.
The Buddha was waiting for people who could comprehend His views and understanding and. His state of complete enlightenment. Finding people like this to converse with Him was not easy at all. [It takes the right] people, time and place.
The Buddha hoped to widely spread the Dharma for people to understand, so He waited for those who could accept and comprehend it. But, the timing must also [be right]. Had such people gathered [before Him]? In such a large group of people, were everyone’s capabilities equal? Would all of them be able to accept the teachings? He was [waiting for] the right time. In addition to a time, there has to be a place. How many people could be assembled there? So, I frequently tell everyone that explaining a certain thing requires the [right] people, timing and place, the convergence of these causes and conditions.
So, for the Buddha to expound the Dharma and achieve His one great cause was really not easy.
When the conditions were ripe, then it was time. It was time for Him to freely carry out His original intent. These sentient beings, His disciples, were all more or less [ready], and the 5000 people who could not accept [the Dharma] had left the assembly. Those who remained were all determined [to learn]. The timing was right, the place was appropriate, so the conditions were ripe, and it was time. So, He would teach the wondrous Dharma. He hoped people could follow this Dharma to enter the Buddha’s wisdom and attain the Buddha’s understanding and views.
But how could they enter the Buddha’s wisdom? Through faith and practice.
We have spent some time talking about deep faith. Our faith must be broad and very deep; our Root of Faith must be planted deeply. Roots must be deep and extensive to be strong. We must strengthen our faith, strengthen our vows. We must form great aspirations and great vows. If our Root of Faith is not very deep, very extensive or very strong, then we cannot hold fast to our vows. So, the Buddha’s great Dharma builds upon our faith and practice. Not only must we have faith in it, we must also put it into practice.
“We must keep the Buddha in our minds, the Dharma in our actions and. Samadhi in our practice of the Dharma.” We already know that the Buddha is in our minds; we intrinsically have profound, wondrous wisdom. Yesterday, we spoke of conditioned and unconditioned phenomena. Through the conditioned phenomena in the world, we can enter unconditioned Dharma, which is an intrinsic part of us. It is something natural, not something humans can create.
The universe around us has always been present. There are stars and planets in the sky, and Earth is also included in this space. Modern science hypothesizes that. Earth is several billion years old. As time continuously passes, even Earth will experience formation, existence, decay and disappearance. This [process] is an example of unconditioned Dharma in the universe and in nature. Similarly, our bodies go through birth, aging, illness and death. This is a very natural process, a natural law. It has always existed. And in all of us, there has always existed a pure Buddha-nature. Like the universe, this is everlasting and unchanging.
Within the natural world are the living beings of the Six Realms, which are the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms etc. We all intrinsically have Buddha-nature, but we also have an unenlightened nature. This was not created by other people. It came about when our minds gave rise to an ignorant thought and triggered the cycle of cause and effect. We bring nothing with us when we are born and take nothing with us after we die; only our karma will follow us. The things we cannot bring or take with us are conditioned phenomena. For these conditioned phenomena, we work so hard for our whole lives in this world and create so much karma. Then this karma will follow us [to our next lives].
If we are born in the heaven realm, we created good karma and practiced the Ten Good Deeds. In this world, we can practice the Ten Good Deeds to attain the blessing of becoming heavenly beings. So, where are these heavenly beings? Based on what we know now, we can see people living in heaven on earth. They must have created blessings in past lives. Those who create blessings return to this world to be born into a blessed family. Then their entire lives will be filled with blessings and abundance. For an entire lifetime, from their childhood to old age, everything will go smoothly for them. These are people replete with good karma. This is heaven on earth.
There is also hell on earth. There are also hungry ghosts on earth, as well as asuras and animals. We see them all in this world. Who created these [destinies] for us? No one; we did this ourselves in our past lives with our karmic conditions and habitual tendencies. Our causes and conditions separate us into the poor and the rich. Because of our habitual tendencies, we have different morals and characters. We created all of this ourselves.
This idea is very profound, yet it is simple to explain. But faith is essential. We must have faith in the Buddha-Dharma and [understand] that conditioned phenomena are what we create in this world. Though karma in the world is created by individuals, if many people commit evils, that becomes our collective karma. Then there will be many disasters in this world. If many people create blessings, we will have collective blessed karma. Then the weather will be favorable, the world will be as peaceful as a pure land, and there will be no turbidities. This also happens because of the convergence of the karmic conditions we have created. So, this is something we must believe.
This is why we talk about quickly recruiting Bodhisattvas in this world. If we each recruit one Bodhisattva, the entire world will be full of Bodhisattvas. Then wouldn’t this world be a pure land? This is something we must believe. But just believing is useless, we must also take action. If we can put [the Dharma] into action, then we can attain Buddhahood. To purify our minds, we must cultivate faith, vows and action. With a strong resolve, naturally we can penetrate the Buddha’s wisdom and attain Buddhahood. To do this, we must always be mindful.
Previous passages in the Lotus Sutra [explained that] the Buddha established skillful means to enable all to enter the Buddha’s wisdom, and even many great teachings, such as the subtle and wondrous Dharma of One Reality.
I have established these skillful means to enable all of you to enter the Buddha’s wisdom. I did not yet tell you all that all of you will certainly attain Buddhahood. I did not say that because the time to speak had not come.
The Buddha is still waiting. We previously said that we need to wait for the right people, time and place. When the conditions were ripe, it was time for the Buddha to teach the wondrous Dharma. Now He was telling them that they could all attain Buddhahood.
“I did not say that because the time to speak had not come.” The Buddha’s one great cause was to teach the wondrous Dharma in His heart. He had waited for over 40 years. ․For over 40 years, He kept it in His heart because the conditions were not yet ripe. The time was not yet right. Sentient beings’ capabilities had not matured and still varied. So, “The time to speak had not come.”
It was not yet time to say what He wanted to say because people’s capabilities had not matured. If He said this to those with immature capabilities, they might misconstrue, then slander the Dharma and thus damage the Buddha-Dharma. So, He was waiting for the right conditions.
“I did not say that because the time to speak had not come.” The time to speak had not come.
“Now is the right time.”
The next section of the sutra then states, “Now is the right time.” Right now is precisely the right time.
The 5000 people with overbearing arrogance had left the assembly. Those who did not really want to understand had left. The ones who remained were people with mature capabilities, and the Buddha could not wait any longer. This was the time.
So, “Now is the right time to decisively give the Great Vehicle teachings. The nine divisions of my Dharma are taught according to the capabilities of sentient beings.”
Let us first understand what “the time to speak had not come” means.
Because the time to speak had not come: Teaching requires [the right] people, timing and place. If suitable circumstances have not matured, if any of the causes and conditions are incomplete, He is unable to speak.
Thus, teaching requires [the right] people, time and place. Suitable circumstances must be present. “Circumstances” may or may not be mature, but calling them “suitable” means they are mature. “Can I pick this fruit?” An expert, the fruit farmer, examines it and says, “Yes, it can be picked. [It is] suitable.” It is now “suitable” to be picked. This ripened fruit can now be picked. The underlying principle is the same. If suitable circumstances are not present, we do not have the right karmic conditions yet. We cannot be missing any [necessary] karmic condition.
Take the Lotus Dharma-assembly for example. If those 5000 people had not left, although many were gathered there, the place was suitable and the timing was right, there would still be those who could not accept the Dharma due to their capabilities. In that case, it would not be right to speak. Therefore, the Buddha still had not taught it. They had a time and place, and people had gathered there. After the unsuitable people left, then it was “the right time.”
If they had not left, if people incapable of accepting it remained, the Buddha would have stayed in Samadhi because He would not want to speak yet. Once He began speaking, He kept praising the Dharma, which made some people impatient. They naturally weeded themselves out by leaving. Then it was the right time for Him to speak. Before this moment, the timing was not yet right. “Because the time to speak had not come” means the time was not right.
The karmic conditions were not ripe; they had not matured because “those of lesser capabilities are slow to awaken.”
These people had immature capabilities and could not accept the great Dharma. This was not the time for them to accept it, and their capabilities were insufficient. So, these people were among “those of lesser capabilities [who] are slow to awaken.” If such people remained, with their immature karmic conditions, they might gain only a partial understanding. Then they may go on to incite those who are even less familiar with the Buddha-Dharma, causing them to create bad karma. Because of this, the opportunity was not ripe.
“Now is the right time.” Now was the time, because these people left. The timing was just right. In that place, the Buddha began to speak, because people had “great and sharp capabilities.” Those with “great capabilities,” those who could awaken instantly, would understand it once He taught it. Not only would they understand, they would believe. Not only would they believe, they would put it into practice.
Now is the right time: Those of great and sharp capabilities can instantly awaken.
This is truly having faith and understanding developing in parallel. Those with sharp capabilities can instantly awaken and understand the Dharma taught by the Buddha. So, “Now is the right time.” This was the moment; this was the time. This was when the great Dharma had to be taught.
When conditions, capabilities and timing ripen, people’s faith also solidified. They could understand and cherish the Dharma, and know to mindfully seek to realize it. So, the time for waiting was over; this was the time. This was an excellent assembly; the best place for teaching the Dharma. This was the Vulture Peak Assembly. At this assembly, the Buddha began to teach the great Dharma.
Dear Bodhisattvas, the Buddha is compassionate. From the moment He awakened, the wondrous Dharma had been on His mind. He realized that all sentient beings intrinsically have Buddha-nature and that all things are conditioned phenomena. Amidst conditioned phenomena, sentient beings create karma out of their accumulated afflictions and ignorance. Now, 2000 years later, what the Buddha referred to as the future 2000 years ago is what we consider the present. In this evil and turbid world, sentient beings face unbearable suffering. So, when the Buddha taught in His lifetime, He hoped we could form great aspirations and vow to walk the Bodhisattva-path. Not only must we listen to the Dharma and benefit ourselves, we must widely motivate everyone to transform others and turn evil into goodness, the [spiritually] poor into the [spiritually] wealthy. There are the wealthy among the poor and the wealthy among the wealthy. We must not cling to being the poor among the wealthy and be slaves to wealth. We must also not create bad karma out of poverty.
This requires everyone in the world to make vows; we must promote this and make vows together. This is the Dharma the Buddha taught over 2000 years ago for the future, for us now. The opportunity and karmic conditions are aligned, so we must seize this time and always be mindful.