Episode 386 – Be Gentle and Accommodating
>> The mind is the Buddha. The Buddha in our hearts is never extinguished. Great compassion is gentle like pure water. By exercising both compassion and wisdom, we hold fast to our vows and practice.
>> [Those who] heard the Dharma practiced giving, upholding precepts, patience, Samadhi, wisdom and so on, and cultivated blessings and wisdom. People such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.
>> “After Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana, there are those with virtuous and gentle minds. Myriad living beings such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” In, “after Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana,”
>> After Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana: “Parinirvana” refers to the extinction of the Three Delusions, delusions of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusion of ignorance. To cross is to transcend the two kinds of samsara, fragmentary and transformational. It is the everlasting extinction of great troubles.
>> There are those with virtuous and gentle minds: Those who are gentle will follow the path of upholding the Buddha’s teachings. They faithfully accept them and are flexible, willing and harmonious, not rude and coarse. Thus, they are considered gentle.
>> Myriad living beings such as these: Also known as sentient beings, this is referring to all animals with sentience and consciousness. They arise out of myriad accumulated conditions, so they are called myriad living beings. They also experience myriad births and deaths, so they are called myriad living beings.
>> [They] have realized the path to Buddhahood: A path refers to something that leads somewhere. The Buddha’s wisdom can lead us perfectly and without obstructions, therefore it is called a path. There are three kinds of paths: 1. The path attained by Hearers 2. The path attained by Solitary Realizers 3. The path attained by Buddhas.
The goal of learning the Buddha’s teachings is to attain Buddhahood. To attain Buddhahood, we must first draw near to the Buddha. He is actually not far away from us; He exists in our nature. Therefore, “The mind is the Buddha. The Buddha in our hearts is never extinguished.”
The mind is the Buddha. The Buddha in our hearts is never extinguished. Great compassion is gentle like pure water. By exercising both compassion and wisdom, we hold fast to our vows and practice.
When I prostrate to the Buddha in the morning, after bowing down, as I stand and look up, [behind] the Buddha statue I see the image of a vast and expansive universe filled with twinkling stars. Then suddenly I think of the Buddha-nature within all of us as I bow to the Great Enlightened Buddha.
We all intrinsically have this [Buddha-]nature. We know that the Buddha has said that all of us intrinsically have Buddha-nature. We must believe what He told us and respect our Buddha-nature. If we do not respect our own Buddha-nature, then we are only paying respect to a physical, manmade statue of the Buddha. Isn’t that Buddha statue carved by humans? We have reverence for a manmade Buddha statue but [are we reverent of the Buddha] of our minds? Our Buddha-nature will never be extinguished. Have we manifested our Buddha-mind, our Buddha-nature? Are we using our Buddha-nature to help manifest reverence for external Buddhas?
Everyone, to truly engage in spiritual practice, we have to love ourselves. There is a story about this.
One day, King Prasenajit, after settling his mind, suddenly thought of the Buddha’s teachings on adjusting the mind and loving oneself. What does it mean to love oneself? He contemplated this silently. Does truly loving oneself mean creating positive karma with body, speech and mind? Is this loving oneself? Does creating negative karma with body, speech and mind mean we do not love ourselves? Is that correct? So, he went to ask the Buddha for teachings.
The Buddha smiled, “You’re correct, King Prasenajit, very good. You took my words to heart, so you are asking yourself how to love yourself; this is very praiseworthy. When our body, speech and mind are pure, we speak kind words and do good deeds because the thoughts in our mind are good. With good thoughts in our minds, our words and actions will be wholesome. When we are wholesome, we will be respected and loved by all. This is a way to love ourselves. If our minds are not well-adjusted, if our minds are scattered, everything we say and do will be negative. Then we will be disparaged, rejected and disrespected. This is not the way to love ourselves.” This is the dialogue that took place between the Buddha and King Prasenajit.
This is a very short story, but it inspires us to think about how we spiritual practitioners must constantly reflect on ourselves. Do we really believe we have [a Buddha-nature]? Do we have faith in the Buddha-Dharma, and if so, have we accepted it?
“The Buddha in our hearts is never extinguished.” In the past, before we were born into our lives, we already intrinsically had Buddha-nature. Yet, before each of our lives, what positive or negative [karma] did we create? Did we create a mix of both? We return to this world through our karmic connection with our parents and the causes we created in the past. Because of this “circumstantial retribution,” we come to this world. Because of our “direct retribution,” we can engage in spiritual practice. The workings of karma are truly inconceivable.
Our [Buddha-nature] has always existed. “The Buddha in our hearts is never extinguished.” The Buddha in our hearts is not extinguished at all. Even if in this life, some people still refuse to hear the Dharma, or will not practice it even after hearing it, their Buddha-nature has not been extinguished. They will still bring it into future lifetimes. But in future lifetimes, will they encounter the Buddha-Dharma so easily? We do not know. Although we bring our Buddha-nature with us, lifetime after lifetime, we unceasingly create afflictions. As our [layers of] ignorance grow thicker, our Buddha-nature is buried more deeply and we have fewer opportunities to recognize it.
We can eliminate our ignorance layer by layer. If we spend this life [immersed in] the Buddha-Dharma, listening to the Dharma, practicing the Dharma and adjusting the karma of our body, speech and mind, we can eliminate layers and layers of ignorance. If we cannot attain Buddhahood now, we may still do so in a future lifetime because in this lifetime, we have already eliminated many afflictions and our awakened nature is slowly emerging. We hope, with our present causes and conditions, in future lifetimes, our circumstantial retribution and direct retribution can lead us again to the Dharma. Whether we hear one thing and realize ten, or realize 100, or realize 1000, or hear one thing and attain great realizations, this all depends on whether we can reduce our afflictions and ignorance. If we unceasingly create afflictions, our layers of afflictions will grow thicker. When we bring greed, anger and ignorance with us into our future lifetimes, we will become more and more deluded; that would be a pity. For the Buddha to keep teaching us is also a lot of work for Him.
Therefore, “great compassion is gentle like pure water.” What is great compassion like? It is as gentle like water, which takes the shape of all vessels. When poured into a long vessel, water becomes long. When poured into something square and short, water becomes square and short. In a round vessel, it is round. When our mind is like water, it is in perfect harmony [with all things].
Water takes the shape of its vessel. This describes the harmony of the mind, which comes from perfect awakening. When we awaken, as we are in this environment, we must adapt to the way of life here so we can be free of afflictions and be happy. Only then can we be “gentle like pure water.”
When dealing with the myriads of stubborn and hard-to-train sentient beings, we must look to ourselves, not others; it is our own mind that is stubborn and hard to train. What should we do? We must learn [the Dharma]. When we feel an aversion toward others, we ourselves tend to be the ones causing this feeling of aversion. When we become afflicted by the sight of others, we are the source of our afflictions. Others are not provoking us; we are provoking ourselves. This is because we lack wisdom and are not understanding or accommodating toward others. This is why we are filled with afflictions. Since we aspire to engage in spiritual practice, we must always have compassion for all sentient beings.
They do not know better, so their minds are covered by afflictions. We have to teach them by exercising our wisdom. This is how we transform others by working or practicing alongside them. We must “exercise both compassion and wisdom,” and “hold fast to our vows and practice.” Since we have formed aspirations and vows, we must firmly uphold them. This is the most important method for learning and practicing the Buddha-Dharma.
[Those who] heard the Dharma practiced giving, upholding precepts, patience, Samadhi, wisdom and so on, and cultivated blessings and wisdom. People such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.
The earlier sutra passage stated, “[Those who] heard the Dharma practiced giving.” After we hear the Dharma, we need to apply it. How can we help everyone apply it? We must put it into practice ourselves. With the Dharma we practice, we can exercise both compassion and wisdom to give to others, to teach, inspire and transform others. This is “hearing the Dharma and practicing giving.”
If others have strayed, we must have patience. We ourselves must follow precepts and be patient. We should not speak of other people’s mistakes, or our mistake would be worse than theirs; that would be wrong. As part of our spiritual cultivation, we must focus on our own practice. So, we must uphold precepts and practice patience, diligence, Samadhi and wisdom. Through these kinds of practices, [we attain] blessings and wisdom. As we interact with people, we must train our minds well. Only then are we truly cultivating blessings and wisdom.
So, “People such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” They are able to practice giving, upholding precepts, ․patience, diligence, Samadhi and wisdom and constantly create good affinities with others and are of benefit to them. If we are always in perfect harmony with all things, we have wisdom. People who can do this “have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” This is how we attain Buddhahood. To walk the Bodhi-path without deviating at all, we must always be mindful.
The next sutra passage states,
“After Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana, there are those with virtuous and gentle minds. Myriad living beings such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” In, “after Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana,”
“Parinirvana” refers to the extinction of the delusion of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusions of ignorance.
After Buddhas crossed into Parinirvana: “Parinirvana” refers to the extinction of the Three Delusions, delusions of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusion of ignorance. To cross is to transcend the two kinds of samsara, fragmentary and transformational. It is the everlasting extinction of great troubles.
“Delusions” are afflictions. Afflictions and ignorance arise from views, understanding, and thinking. Our understanding and thinking give rise to dust-like ignorance. This is why we are suffering, why we create karma, why we accumulate many negative [causes] that cause our wholesome thoughts to be constantly buried underneath negative thoughts. Thus our wholesome thoughts lose this tug of war and negative thoughts win. Following the same principle, in our own minds, the delusions of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusions of ignorance are endlessly multiplying. The Buddha comes to teach us about the cessation of suffering along with the truth of suffering and its causation. Its causation is the accumulation of many dust-like ignorance and afflictions. Now we must bring these to cessation. If we want to eliminate afflictions, we must begin with our perspective and thinking.
“Crossing” is to transcend both fragmentary and transformational samsara. I have discussed this in the past. Ordinary people go through “fragmentary samsara.” Arhats and Solitary Realizers go through “transformational samsara.” Thus we ourselves must quickly transcend and [transform] how we come to and leave this life. We must not go down the wrong path. This is what we must start doing right now. If we find it hard to end our fragmentary samsara, how can we discuss transformational samsara?
The arising of the slightest thought [traps us] in “transformational samsara.” This arising of subtle thoughts still occurs in the minds of Pratyekabuddhas. So, we must learn to eliminate them. But to really eliminate them is not easy. If we can eliminate them, “it is the everlasting extinction of great troubles.”
So, “those with virtuous and gentle minds” means that people’s minds must be gentle and follow the path.
There are those with virtuous and gentle minds: Those who are gentle will follow the path of upholding the Buddha’s teachings. They faithfully accept them and are flexible, willing and harmonious, not rude and coarse. Thus, they are considered gentle.
Since we have aspired and vowed to walk the path to enlightenment, as we walk the Bodhi-path, which is clearly a direct path, we must follow it carefully and upholding the Buddha’s teachings. We must continue to move forward. As we advance through our environment, we must have virtuous and gentle minds.
We must be like water poured through a small hole into a square vessel. Water is poured through a small, round hole, yet it will take on the full square shape. It can actually take on any shape. As long as our minds are gentle, we can be in perfect harmony with anything. This is what the Buddha teaches us. As we deal with many stubborn sentient beings, how can we train our own minds, as well as the minds of others? Doing this requires gentleness.
Our minds must be gentle, and we must get along with others as we follow the teachings of the Dharma. “Upholding the Buddha’s teachings” [means we] follow the Buddha and draw near to the Dharma. In order to do this, we must accept the teachings. So, we must be “flexible, willing and harmonious, not rude and coarse.” Our mind has to be very gentle, so flexible that it becomes very willing. We constantly ask, “Are you willing?” If we willingly do something, we happily accept what happens. If we are not willing, we will be rude and coarse. We must be willing to be in harmony with people. We must not be rude and coarse. This is known as being flexible. If we are rude and coarse, then we are making our own life difficult, and making things difficult for others as well. This fills our minds with afflictions. Thus, we have to be flexible and gentle. Then other people will find us pleasing and be happy to see us. If we find a way to perfectly accomplish something that is not easy, then we will be very happy too.
So, “myriad living beings such as these” refers to sentient beings, as I have previously said.
Myriad living beings such as these: Also known as sentient beings, this is referring to all animals with sentience and consciousness. They arise out of myriad accumulated conditions, so they are called myriad living beings. They also experience myriad births and deaths, so they are called myriad living beings.
All animals have sentience and consciousness. We humans are also animals. We have life and we can move, so we are also considered animals. However, we are labeled “human.” A pig is an animal and is labeled “pig.” A dog is an animal and is labeled “dog.” A worm is an animal and is labeled “worm.” If we try to catch any animal, or try to drive it away, it will struggle. If we catch it, it will keep struggling because it has sentience and consciousness. It has feelings, which is a form of sentience and consciousness. So, we should know that myriad living beings are alive.
“They arise out of myriad conditions accumulating.” Why were we reborn as humans? Because in the past, we created these causes and and formed these conditions. Our past and present causes and conditions have converged, thus our parents gave birth to us and we can now live in these surroundings. There are all kinds of life in this world; they are all considered myriad living beings.
All the myriad living beings have the potential of attaining Buddhahood. So, we say they “have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” They can draw near the Buddha-Dharma to feel this. Previously I have told the story of how, while sutras were being aired outside a cow came by and sniffed at the Diamond Sutra a bit. She will also be able to attain Buddhahood. Just by smelling the Buddha-Dharma, she will also be able to attain Buddhahood.
The sutras contain many stories like this. They “have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” A path is something that leads somewhere. If it can take us somewhere, it is a principle; if it goes nowhere, it is not a principle.
[They] have realized the path to Buddhahood: A path refers to something that leads somewhere. The Buddha’s wisdom can lead us perfectly and without obstructions, therefore it is called a path. There are three kinds of paths: 1. The path attained by Hearers 2. The path attained by Solitary Realizers 3. The path attained by Buddhas.
“The Buddha’s wisdom can lead us perfectly” and there is nothing obstructing it, “therefore it is called a path.”
There are three kinds of “paths,” the path attained by Hearers, the path attained by Solitary Realizers and the path attained by Great Enlightened Buddhas. So, to learn the Buddha’s teachings, we must be on the Bodhi-path. Whether we are Hearers, Solitary Realizers or Buddhas, we are all on this path to enlightenment. Small Vehicle practitioners, the Hearers, will take the small side roads. If their minds are not straightforward, if they are not on the right road and their spiritual aspirations are not yet firm, it will be easy for them to go astray.
“There are those with virtuous and gentle minds. Myriad living beings such as these have all realized the path to Buddhahood.” The Buddha has always given us this blessing. As long as our minds are wholesome and gentle, we can all attain Buddhahood. The Buddha has always given us His blessing, so we must promptly accept it. After accepting it, we must put the teachings into practice. So everyone, please always be mindful.