Episode 722 – Upholding the Dharma and Understanding the Truth
>> Listening to the Dharma we must accept and uphold it with faith and respect, contemplate and carefully understand the truth. Then we are supplemented by vast principles while not losing sight of our compassionate vows.
>> Introductory Chapter: The Three returned to the One to teach the Bodhisattva Way.
>> In the Chapter on Skillful Means, the Buddha emerged from Samadhi and told Sariputra: The wisdom of all Buddhas is infinitely profound. This door of wisdom is difficult to understand and enter. No Hearers or Pratyekabuddhas are able to understand it.
>>Why was this the case? Because in the past, the Buddha had drawn near countless Buddhas.
>> He earnestly praised the supremely skillful, extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand. Dharma of all Buddhas.
>> After Sariputra requested this Dharma three times, 5000 members of the assembly paid their respects to the Buddha and left. >> The Chapter on Parables: Sariputra received a prediction of Buddhahood. The Chapter on Parables cites the parable of the elder, the burning house, the three carts and so on. Many different situations are used to reveal the Dharma through parables.
>>”Listening to the Dharma” we must “accept and uphold it with faith and respect,
contemplate and carefully understand the truth.
Then we are supplemented by vast principles
while not losing sight of our compassionate vows.”
We listen to the Dharma and learn the Buddha’s Way; we listen to the Dharma to learn from the Buddha. What do we want to learn from the Buddha? We are learning to develop His compassion and His wisdom.
Out of compassion, the Buddha worked to save all sentient beings; this was His vow. Engaging in spiritual practice was difficult, yet He never retreated from. His spiritual aspirations. He wholeheartedly sought out Buddhas to listen to the Dharma, for the sole purpose of being able to transmit the Dharma to people in this world. He hoped that everyone could faithfully accept it, put it into practice and thus return to their intrinsic nature. This is the Buddha’s compassion. So, if we want to learn from the Buddha, we have to listen to the Dharma.
Listening to the Dharma does not mean just listening casually. It does not mean if we have time, we listen to it, and if we lack time, we forget about it, [saying]. “I just don’t have time.” In fact, the Dharma is just like time. It slips by in a flash; we wink and it is gone. So, we must always be vigilant and be mindful of impermanence.
Only by taking every word of the Dharma to heart will we be able to make this Dharma forever remain in our lives. Then, when we face people, matters and things, we will have “the Dharma to transform them.” We will have a way to work with them, because we have already accepted the Dharma. By taking the Dharma to heart, we can promptly apply it in our interactions with the people, matters and things around us.
Since the Dharma we take to heart is of such great help to us, we must treat it with respect. We “accept and uphold it with faith and respect.” If we do not have this sense of respect, we will not succeed in learning the Buddha’s Way.
We show this respect through our focus and reverence. Our attitude should not be, “I’ll learn it, more or less.” Saying “more or less” shows a lack of focus. Saying “more or less” shows a lack of reverence. If we take in more Dharma only to end with less, this is the Dharma leaking away. We take in the Dharma, then it leaks out. Thus, as we learn the Buddha’s Way we must definitely have respect, a respectful faith. Only with this kind of faith can we take the Dharma deeply to heart.
After believing in the Dharma and making vows, we must be very careful and earnestly contemplate it. There is Dharma for transcending the world and Dharma for abiding in it. “World-transcending” and “world-abiding” [must be carefully distinguished]. Dharma for transcending the world Dharma for transcending the world is how we understand what the Buddha taught about liberating ourselves from the Six Destinies and the Three Realms. The “Three Realms” refer to the afflictions in our minds. We must find a way to eliminate these afflictions and dust-like delusions so that we will not remain in a confused state where we create karma and fall into the evil destinies beyond our control. Even if we come back to the human realm, in our circumstantial and direct retributions, we still want to have room to make choices.
So, we form aspirations and vows. What are our aspirations and vows? To find a way to take control of our lives and repeatedly return to this world with absolute confidence in our direction. This is world-abiding [Dharma]. With a world-transcending spirit, we carry out our missions in this world. This is what happens after we “listen to the Dharma and accept and uphold it with faith and respect” and then “contemplate and carefully understand [it].” We must be very mindful in contemplating it and very careful in understanding it; we should not deviate from it. We must completely “understand the truth” and be very clear on the principles. The “truth” is the principles. The way we live is inseparable from these very clear principles.
As Buddhist practitioners, we should learn to deal with matters calmly and resolutely. When complications arise, we must know how to calm our minds and how to deal with matters in a steady manner. This is to “understand the truth.” When facing people, matters and things, we must handle them without allowing afflictions and dust-like ignorance to cover our minds. This takes contemplation; it takes very clear thinking and very careful understanding. We must always keep the principles in our minds. This is our goal in learning the Buddha’s Way.
If we can accomplish this, “We are supplemented by vast principles. Vast” means very extensive. These far-reaching principles are in our minds. And at the same time? “[We do] not lose sight of our compassionate vows.” We must “seek and transform.” To “transform” is to deliver sentient beings. What we seek is the Buddha-Dharma being held clearly in our minds. What we put into practice is our compassionate vows. We cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer. For this reason, we aspire and vow to help and deliver them. These are the Buddha’s aspirations and vows, and they are also our aspirations and vows.
From the beginning of the Lotus Sutra, in the Introductory Chapter, through the dialogue between. Manjusri and Maitreya, It became very clear to us that the Buddha spent countless kalpas seeking the Buddha-Dharma. So, the Buddha-Dharma did not have its beginnings 2000-plus years ago. That was just when, in the Saha World, Sakyamuni Buddha manifested as a Buddha to explain the Buddha-Dharma anew with the realizations He attained at that time.
He had personally experienced being one with the truths of all things in the universe, and His original intent has always been to explain this to us. Thus, the Buddha gave the Lotus teachings, starting with the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. After teaching the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, He entered the Samadhi of Infinite Meanings, thus teaching the unspoken Lotus Sutra. While in the Samadhi of Infinite Meanings, He radiated light that reached 18,000 Buddha-lands. Many beings saw the light radiated by the Buddha and became very curious. “The way the Buddha expounds teachings today is completely different from before.” Everyone at the assembly began to discuss this.
Among the Bodhisattvas, Manjusri, foremost in wisdom, understood what was happening. He saw that everyone had questions. Maitreya Bodhisattva, who will be the next Buddha to teach and transform sentient beings in the Saha World as Maitreya Buddha, also realized what was happening. They wanted to help dispel everyone’s doubts. So, the two of them engaged in a dialogue and described how, a very long time ago, there were 20,000 Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas who expounded the Dharma and bestowed predictions of attaining Buddhahood for each other. This helped everyone understand that the Buddha-Dharma had always been there.
“All Buddhas share the same path.” They must go through countless kalpas of spiritual cultivation and countless kalpas of practice. Regarding cultivation and practice, cultivating is seeking the path, and practicing means putting it into action. Those vast principles, countless in number, must be absorbed. As for all suffering sentient beings, we must spend life after life transforming them.
Thus, in the Introductory Chapter we already saw that after teaching for more than 40 years, when it came to the Lotus teachings, the Buddha made a big shift. He smoothly moved to teaching the Bodhisattva-path and “returned the Three to the One” in order to “teach the Bodhisattva-path.” In the Introductory Chapter, this is an important point that we must understand.
Introductory Chapter: The Three returned to the One to teach the Bodhisattva Way.
This is just a brief and simple review of the Introductory Chapter.
Next is the Chapter on Skillful Means. When the Buddha emerged from Samadhi, He called on Sariputra as the recipient of the teachings. When He spoke, He wanted to be speaking to someone who had the capabilities to realize the Dharma. He was now teaching the Bodhisattva Way especially for the sake of His monastic disciples. Since they had aspired to leave the lay life and not cling to personal gain, the next step was to form great aspirations. So, designating Sariputra as the recipient of the teachings was a way of reminding all spiritual practitioners to pay attention and understand.
The Buddha began by offering His praise. “The wisdom of all Buddhas is infinitely profound. This door of wisdom is difficult to understand and enter.” In particular, “No Hearers or Pratyekabuddhas are able to understand it”; they are unable to comprehend it.
In the Chapter on Skillful Means, the Buddha emerged from Samadhi and told Sariputra: The wisdom of all Buddhas is infinitely profound. This door of wisdom is difficult to understand and enter. No Hearers or Pratyekabuddhas are able to understand it.
These monastics were by the Buddha’s side every day, but the Buddha’s state of mind, His original intent and His wisdom, was infinitely profound. So, they were unable to realize the Buddha’s mind, unable to enter the door of the Buddha’s mind ․Why was this the case? Because “in the past, the Buddha had drawn near countless Buddhas.”
Why was this the case? Because in the past, the Buddha had drawn near countless Buddhas.
Sakyamuni Buddha has already mentioned that. He was able to attain Buddhahood because He had spent countless kalpas, lifetime after lifetime, drawing near countless Buddhas. It is difficult for us ordinary people to encounter a Buddha. Why is that? Because we are selfish and pursue things out of desire and personal gain. Thus, we unceasingly give rise to ignorance and replicate karma. Then, how can we possibly purify our minds or draw near Buddhas life after life?
However, Sakyamuni Buddha, from the very beginning aspired and vowed precisely to draw near Buddhas in life after life, without turning away from Them. Having a resolve this firm is not easy at all. How can we unenlightened beings achieve this? The Buddha repeatedly and continuously “earnestly praised the supremely skillful [means of all Buddhas]”
He earnestly praised the supremely skillful, extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand. Dharma of all Buddhas.
Though the door to the Buddha’s wisdom was always open, not even the disciples by His side could enter this door to wisdom.
The Buddha, considering that they were still unable to understand, worried that people would give rise to unwholesome thoughts and distort the true principles of ultimate reality, thus giving rise to a slanderous mindset. He felt this would be a bad thing, so He established all kinds of skillful means in the hope that everyone would understand.
Although these were skillful means, they were “extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand Dharma.” The subtle and wondrous was taught with all kinds of analogies and expressions. This was how there came to be the 12 divisions of the Tripitaka. In the Chapter on Skillful means, the Buddha unceasingly praised the all-encompassing wisdom of all Buddhas, Buddha-wisdom, untaught wisdom and natural wisdom. He endlessly and constantly praised Buddha-wisdom. Eventually Sariputra was able to understand. Admiration arose in his heart, and he was ready to form great aspirations. So, he asked the Buddha to expound [this Dharma]. The Buddha stopped him three times. “Stop, stop; there is no need to speak further.” This was because sentient beings still could not understand. Only Sariputra could understand; the other people still could not.
When Sariputra asked a second time, the Buddha again said, “Stop, stop; there is no need to speak further.” When Sariputra asked [a third time], the Buddha finally saw true admiration in people. He saw that the minds of a majority of the people seeking the Dharma had begun to mature. When causes and conditions were finally present, the Buddha seized the moment, saying, “You have asked three times; how could I not give the teachings?” Sariputra had already asked three times. Since he had asked for teachings three times, how could the Buddha not tell him?
Just as He was about to speak, 5000 people, including upasakas, upasikas, bhiksus and bhiksunis, paid their respects to the Buddha, prostrated and left.
After Sariputra requested this Dharma three times, 5000 members of the assembly paid their respects to the Buddha and left.
These people were “overbearingly arrogant people.” Thus, the Buddha said of them, “It is better that they left.” Since these people still could not develop faith and understanding, it is better that they were not there to listen. This prevented them from slandering the Dharma out of lack of understanding. So, “It is better that they left.”
The Buddha gave the Lotus teachings in hopes of helping everyone develop faith and understanding. However, is it really that easy for people to believe and understand? Thus, starting with the Chapter on Parables, the Buddha used all kinds of analogies to help people understand worldly phenomena and how to use the Dharma to deal with all these phenomena. In the Chapter on Skillful Means, Sariputra formed [great] aspirations. In the Chapter on Parables, the Buddha began by bestowing upon Sariputra a prediction that he would attain Buddhahood. This was also to help the monastic disciples at this assembly to strengthen their faith. It turned out Sariputra was actually able to receive a prediction of Buddhahood; since Sariputra could receive such a prediction, there was hope for the rest of them.
Next, the Buddha gave many parables, such as that of the elder and the burning house
The Chapter on Parables: Sariputra received a prediction of Buddhahood. The Chapter on Parables cites the parable of the elder, the burning house, the three carts and so on. Many different situations are used to reveal the Dharma through parables.
The elder was originally very wealthy. He was constantly travelling, and when he came back, he saw that this family had become corrupted. The children had lost their manners and only wanted to have fun and enjoy themselves. This is an analogy for how, in this world, no Buddha had appeared for a long time, so the sentient beings of this Saha World were unceasingly creating karma and afflictions. They would harm each other and create negative karma.
The elder had to think of all kinds of methods to find a way to get these children to come out, so he set up three kinds of carts outside the door. This describes how, after the Buddha attained enlightenment, He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer, but He could not directly call on everyone to come out of the Three Realms and leave the burning house. So, He had to use skillful means, the Small, Middle and Great Vehicles, to teach according to sentient beings’ capabilities. This is just like the elder setting up three carts outside the burning house, the sheep-cart, deer-cart and great white ox-cart.
We spent a long time discussing this text. This describes how, because sentient beings had different mindsets, the Buddha taught them through the Three Vehicles. Now that the causes and conditions had matured, He could no longer wait. After 42 years of teaching, the Buddha began to teach the Lotus Sutra. He encouraged everyone to move from the sheep-cart and deer-cart to the great white ox-cart, because this great white ox-cart contained so many treasures inside and was adorned so beautifully. He persuaded them to set aside the Small for the Great.
So far we have discussed the Introductory Chapter, Chapter on Skillful Means and Chapter on Parables. It has taken a very long time. Today, I have spent less than an hour going over the essence of each chapter; I hope you will bear all of it in mind so that you can enter the Chapter on Faith and Understanding. Thus, we must always be mindful.