Episode 368 – Aspire to Help Sentient Beings Attain Bodhi
>> “With our initial aspiration, we make the Four Great Vows. We forever aspire to help sentient beings attain Bodhi. By vowing to transform all sentient beings, there is no end to [our work of] benefiting beings in the Three Periods.”
>> The Four Great Vows: I vow to deliver countless sentient beings. I vow to eliminate endless afflictions. I vow to learn infinite Dharma-doors. I vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.
>> They take a tiny form in the womb; life after life, [their karma] continues to grow. Those with little virtue and few blessings are pressured by all kinds of suffering.
>> “They enter the dense forest of deviant views, those of existence, non-existence, and the like. They become dependent on those views, 62 of them in all.” They enter the dense forest of deviant views, those of existence, non-existence and the like: Heretics and unenlightened beings are attached to all kinds of views, as if they are in a very dense forest. They cannot faithfully practice Right Dharma as they are in a dense forest of deviant views.
>> “Those who see me in form, or seek me in sound are on a deviant path. They cannot see the Tathagata.”
“With our initial aspiration, we make the Four Great Vows.
We forever aspire to help sentient beings attain Bodhi.
By vowing to transform all sentient beings,
there is no end to [our work of] benefiting beings in the Three Periods.”
This is when we initially form aspirations. We want to seek the Buddha-Dharma, take it to heart and follow its course to diligently advance. This is inseparable from the Four Great Vows. We have resolved and vowed to benefit people, widely transform sentient beings. I believe this is the vow of every Buddhist practitioner.
To transform sentient beings, we must eliminate afflictions. Without eliminating afflictions, our interpersonal conflicts will never be resolved. To transform others, if we are not broad-minded, how can we connect with other people’s minds?
To connect with others, of course we must be in harmony with them. Transforming sentient beings is not only the work of one person. We need to gather people into a harmonious group. Only then can we truly set an example for society and the world’s sentient beings. Therefore, we must be in harmony. Once our group is in harmony, we can work with concerted effort to help others. This must be our main goal if we want to transform sentient beings and eliminate afflictions.
If we do not interact with people, how would we know that we all have so many afflictions? So when we are among people, we must constantly be vigilant of ourselves, constantly reflect on ourselves and constantly [express our remorse] to others. In this way, our minds can always be pure. Of course, it takes effort to learn the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha-Dharma is boundless and infinite, so we must vow to learn it, to diligently practice and advance. Thus, we “vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.”
The Four Great Vows: I vow to deliver countless sentient beings. I vow to eliminate endless afflictions. I vow to learn infinite Dharma-doors. I vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.
Spiritual practitioners who do not make the Four Great Vows only benefit themselves, so they cannot advance [in their spiritual practice]. Therefore, when we form our initial aspiration and begin to make vows, we must simultaneously put the Four Great Vows into practice. After we make these vows, we must sustain our initial aspiration forever. This is how we “forever aspire to help sentient beings attain Bodhi.”
We must forever aspire to benefit sentient beings. This means we cannot just have one thought and [think,] “I once had a good aspiration.” We may have formed a good aspiration before, but have we continued to sustain it? We must persevere in hoping sentient beings can attain Bodhi. We not only do this for ourselves, we also want to help all sentient beings to attain Bodhi.
What we seek is to transform all sentient beings. We must transform not only humans, but all beings. As we have said before, the four forms of birth are womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born. All beings with sentience are considered sentient beings.
Sentient beings does not only refer to people. Beings of all kinds of different appearances are living beings. Though they look different from each other, they are all sentient beings. So, “We vow to transform all of the infinite sentient beings, Infinite sentient beings” does not
only refer to those living in this present time, but in the Three Periods, past, present and future. In the past, we benefited sentient beings and thus created blessed karma. In the present, we are doing the same and we also vow to benefit people in the future. Therefore, we are “benefiting beings in the Three Periods.” These “beings” refer to all sentient beings. In the past we benefited sentient beings, in the present we are benefiting them and in the future we will also benefit them. “There is no end” because this goes on endlessly. Time is endless and our vows are endless. These are the vows we have made. When we formed our initial aspirations, this was our mindset.
We see examples of this in the stories of our recycling volunteers. Some Tzu Chi volunteers are quite elderly. They never give up on their aspirations and are always the first to step forward, from their internship and apprenticeship to certification and shouldering responsibilities, they have always been this way.
For example, right now (2012) there is a family, a husband and wife, who are over 70 years old, but who still influenced their daughter to become a Tzu Chi Commissioner. Mr. Luo Changmo is over seventy years old. Ever since he was certified [as part of the Faith Corps,] he has always diligently advanced. He was the leader of a concerted effort team and spent many years cultivating their potential. He led them very well and trained many people. He told one of the men he trained, “You are young and very capable. You can shoulder more responsibilities. You should be the leader of this team.”
This shows why he is very well-respected. And though he is already over 70, he never used to tell other people his age. He worried others would think, “He is very old. We need to consider [his age] and not give him too much to do.” Worrying that others would not let him do much, in the past, he never disclosed his age. But now, he has started to say, “I will tell everyone my age, but not because. I am afraid of work. I want to let the younger generation know that despite my advanced age, I can still lead others in doing this work.” How does he lead people?
Everyone is happy to receive assignments from him. He does not notify them by phone; he always rides his bicycle from one house to another to tell them, “Dharma-brother, this is what we are doing now. At this time, on this day, we need to make these preparations.” Everyone was happy to see him. He said, “Relationships are very important. Making a phone call is very quick. But riding a bicycle from one house to another and meeting and talking to them face to face makes them very happy.” This is how he leads people.
Although he is the team leader, he does everything first to set an example for others. He said, “As a leader, I must walk in front and lead by example for everyone to see. If someone needs time, I will not rush them but will let them do things slowly, meticulously and well.” See, his mindset is very encompassing and accommodating. [The harmonious way he works] is an example to many people.
Although he is no longer young, he keeps taking on new tasks and moving forward. From the moment he formed his initial aspiration to become an intern, apprentice and then a certified Commissioner, he has [maintained] that same resolve for decades. Thus, he is a role model.
This is how to learn the Buddha’s teachings. Over our many lifetimes, is the karma we have created [good] or bad? Look at the way things are now. Everyone is so happy to see [our work]. Once called upon, they willingly respond. This proves that we created blessings in the past. Only by forming good karmic affinities is this possible.
However, in the human realm, there are many who do not behave like humans. These are people who created karma in the past and come to this life with good and bad karma. So, we come to this world with all the various causes and conditions we created and in the Four Forms of Birth and Six Realms we are pressured by all kinds of suffering.
They take a tiny form in the womb; life after life, [their karma] continues to grow. Those with little virtue and few blessings are pressured by all kinds of suffering.
Yesterday we also discussed the suffering of the hell realm and even up to the heaven realm. Heavenly beings have a long lifespan but are unable to listen to the Dharma. So, they live idly and indulge themselves. Once their blessings have been depleted, they will fall into hell, into the Three Destinies and Six Realms.
So, this next passage states,
“They enter the dense forest of deviant views, those of existence, non-existence, and the like. They become dependent on those views, 62 of them in all.” They enter the dense forest of deviant views, those of existence, non-existence and the like: Heretics and unenlightened beings are attached to all kinds of views, as if they are in a very dense forest. They cannot faithfully practice Right Dharma as they are in a dense forest of deviant views.
“They enter the dense forest of deviant views [of] existence, non-existence [etc.].” This refers to how heretics and ordinary beings are attached to all kinds of views, There are many kinds of spiritual practice, especially now, in the turbidity of kalpa and the era of Dharma degeneration. There are many teachings of improper understanding and views. People freely establish shrines in the community, or advertise fortune-telling, or believe they have spiritual powers and so on. Right now, things are truly complicated.
Some who wear monastic robes have the wrong perspective and strive for fame and wealth. When many believers respectfully make offerings, they look very successful. Other people do not wear monastic robes, yet they teach the Buddha-Dharma. They take the Buddha’s teachings but explain them in their own way. Though their words come from Buddha-Dharma and they can easily recite the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, knowing that all things are Empty, they do not know the wondrous existence within all causes and conditions.
A person like this may lead a group of people to release living beings for merit and make this a grand event. After purchasing [the animals], there, in the middle of the day they chant many sutras and mantras. But, they caused these fish to be caught. Since kind-hearted people wanted to release them, the fishermen made an effort to catch more.
After the fish were caught, they were placed in buckets. The buckets of fish were weighed and then sent to these Buddhist groups. These Buddhists paid for the buckets of fish and transported them by cars over a great distance. The fish were exposed to the sun and laid out in buckets by the creek. Under the scorching sun, people recited sutras to help them transcend. After these recitations, from high up the fish were dumped into the water. [By this time,] many fish were nearly dead.
Then some said, “Oh no! Teacher, look the fish are dead. Don’t worry, we have helped them transcend, so once they died as a fish, the Buddha-Dharma they attained helped them move on.” Then the teacher also said, “It’s past noon, let’s go to have a meal. What should we eat? Seafood.”
At the seafood restaurant, he carefully selected fish [to eat]. His followers said, “But teacher, we just released fish [for merit].” He said, “Indeed. After releasing them, let’s help them transcend.” He saw this as helping the fish transcend. “By consuming the fish, these fish pass through our belly; This ‘going beyond’ is transcendence.” Then he said, “Bring me some alcohol. Aren’t we taught not to drink alcohol?” He replied, “Alcohol is ‘the soup of prajna.'” Then he started drinking and smoking. “Teacher, aren’t we supposed to not smoke? This is creates a ‘cloud of incense’!”
See, this teacher used Buddhist terms in very [creative] ways. For a period of time, this was very popular. Tzu Chi was starting up around the same time. Some Tzu Chi volunteers were also part of that group. They said, “Our master tells us not to smoke, not to drink and not to kill.” [The teacher argued] “This is not really killing. As long as your heart is in the right place, to truly help these beings transcend, they will attain the power of the Buddha and of the Three Treasures and quickly move on to their next life. This can also protect living beings.”
This may sound very logical, but it goes entirely against the principles.
This truly confuses other people and harms the Buddha-Dharma. Some people use the Dharma for their own benefit. When they teach the Dharma professionally, they will benefit from people’s offerings.
Other people use the Buddha-Dharma to claim, “I can provide you with psychological counseling. I can see the cause and effect of past lives, and who among your current family were your benefactors and who were your enemies.” There are people who claim to have this ability. Consulting them will cost a lot of money.
People who create evil karma, commit evil deeds and have improper knowledge, thinking and actions are very unwholesome. This is like a forest of deviant views. When people are lured into these dense forests, they are confused and there are no paths. So, they are unable to find their way out.
So, heretics and ordinary beings are deluded and attached to their various views. Even though they do not understand things, for their own benefit, such people will delude others into going the wrong way. It is as if people like this lead others into a very dense forest.
We know the law of karma taught by the Buddha. So, we must be even more cautious in this life, and not repay hatred with hatred. “Enmity must be resolved, not created.” No matter what karmic causes and conditions we created in the past, even if the affinity between us is negative, we must resolve it and turn it into good affinity. This is what the Buddha teaches us.
We must love and care for every sentient being. We must aspire to transform them. Look at Tzu Chi volunteers; their families may have once been very unhappy. After connecting with Tzu Chi, they interacted with others and learned that many families had problems. By witnessing the suffering of other families, they reflected upon their own behavior. “Am I also like them? How have others overcome this successfully? I can be like them and overcome this.” This kind of improvement relies on their hard work. It does not rely on the power of a god, or on someone pointing the way out for them. We must make our own observations and put in our own effort.
The Buddha said, “We must not have deviant understanding and views.”
“Those who see me in form, or seek me in sound are on a deviant path. They cannot see the Tathagata.”
Some said, “I have already spoken with Sakyamuni Buddha.” Really? Is He still a human? Truly, after attaining enlightenment over 2000 years ago, even if the Buddha returns to the human realm, we would not know who He is. If He tells you who He is, then He is not the Buddha reborn.
These are all people with overbearing arrogance, who claim to have attained what they have not. They are not truly Buddha, they are impostors. They still have not seen their own nature of True Suchness because they do not recognize their own ignorance. They are completely unaware that they live in the midst of ignorance. Can people who are so unaware have truly seen the Buddha? Can they truly speak with the Buddha? Sadly, these people are very deluded. So, we must be vigilant [of them].
In an era of Dharma degeneration and turbidity, these few, this negligible number of people with improper understanding and views will have an effect on others. The slightest deviation in our views will cause us to end up in the dense forest of deviant views. In regards to the [main] teachings of the Buddha-Dharma, we will be unable to have deep faith. Previously, I said we must have deep faith. But when the Dharma discusses existence and [emptiness], we do not know whether or not to believe in it. Instead, we become deluded by evil practices and teachings. That is actually more worrisome.
Everyone, when we formed our initial aspiration, we had great sincerity. “With our initial aspiration, we make the Four Great Vows.” At this time, giving to others is the most practical way [of carrying out those vows]. Take Mr. Luo, whom I mentioned earlier. He is very advanced in age and his understanding is very correct. He knows we must “forever aspire to help sentient beings attain Bodhi. By vowing to transform all sentient beings, there is no end to the [work of] benefiting beings in the Three Periods.” In maintaining this mindset, we steadily work among people and help eliminate their delusions, not cause them to be further confused. I hope you will maintain Right Mindfulness and always be mindful.