Episode 827 – Transcending the Three Realms
>> The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara. The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different. The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.
>> ” He then used skillful means and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in might and virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]
>> ” You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith and Understanding]
>> You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. This is an analogy for cultivating Two Vehicle practices and eliminating afflictions of views and thinking. Thus, transcending the Three Realms and ending fragmentary samsara is called ‘a day’s wages’.
>> Twice refers to transcending the blessings and joy of both the human and heaven realms.
>> When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully. This is an analogy for Two Vehicle practitioners, who practice according to the teachings.
>> He followed them joyfully means This catered to their liking, for the disciples delighted in lowly things, such as cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas.
>> To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings: This is the analogy of drawing a day’s wages by eliminating the excrement of the afflictions of views and thinking and emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas. The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara. The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different. The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.
” The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara.
The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different.
The five chronic afflictions, greed, arrogance, doubt and the others, and different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.”
This seems extremely profound. The fact is, in our daily living, in this lifetime and future lifetimes, we cannot leave the Five Realms. This is the continuing transmigration we face; thus we are unenlightened beings. Therefore, we must be mindful.
The Five Realms are what we often talk about. Recently, I have mentioned the Five Realms daily. Those of us listening may think, “I already understand. We talk about this every day. I already understand it all.” Yes, we may all know. But, which realm will we end up going to? We ourselves truly do not know. We can only try our best to understand, which means we must constantly be vigilant. If we do good deeds, we will be reborn in heaven. If we abide by the Five Precepts, we will not lose our human form [in the next life].
The difference between the human and heaven realms is that in the human realm there is a mix of suffering and joy, whereas in heaven there is only longevity and joy. In heaven, one’s lifespan is very long. There is only joy and no suffering. So, this is the difference between the human realm and the heaven realm. In the human realm, [life] is painfully short. It lasts only a few decades, is gone in the blink of an eye. We continue to change with time. Will we be alive or dead [tomorrow]? Life is impermanent. Thus, we must earnestly seize the time between birth and death. To be able to distinguish between good and evil, we must constantly heighten our vigilance. If something is evil, we must quickly get rid of it; if it is good, we must quickly make use of it and bring it into our lives. This is what we call spiritual practice.
If we can guard against wrongs and stop evil, this is “abiding by precepts.” Between birth and death, we must constantly heighten our vigilance. This is the practice of “Samadhi.” Clearly distinguishing between good and evil requires “wisdom.” Thus, we must make an effort to practice precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.
” The four kinds of beings” are womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born. Life starts in these four different ways. In this lifetime, we are womb-born, from our father’s sperm and mother’s egg. Our mothers gave birth to us, so we are womb-born. In our subsequent lifetimes, perhaps we will be born as fowls, birds, or snakes, or some very frightening creatures. We may be egg-born, moisture-born or transformation-born. All of these are possible. “The appearances of the four kinds of beings are different.”
However, our human lives are no different from any in ” the four forms of birth and Five Realms” ; we still have our habitual tendencies, our state of mind, our “five chronic afflictions.” Thus, “greed and the others” means there is greed and also anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. These are called the “five chronic afflictions.” They are also called the “five chronic agents.”
When we learn the Buddha’s Way, we should always remind ourselves to be vigilant. When ” the five chronic afflictions” flare up when we are among people, the nature of our affinity with someone will be decided. Because of our behavior, speech and demeanor, we may plant a good or evil seed in another, we may plant a good or evil seed in another and thus set in motion these causes and conditions. Hence, we must make an effort to cultivate this state of mind, which is to be grateful whenever we see someone. We had the karmic conditions to meet each other, so we should have mutual respect and love. This way, we all will have the same resolve; we give rise to Bodhicitta, walk Bodhisattva-path and dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to others. If we can do this, we are taking good care of our minds.
Thus, “Different mentalities exist together, as we all exist together in the Five Destinies.” Whether we are animals or humans, we experience both happiness and anger. Sometimes, we will hear cats and dogs making noise, or biting each other. It gets noisy. We know those dogs are losing their tempers. This happens throughout the Five Destinies,
the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt, which our minds give rise to, are all within our thoughts. Thus, the Saha World we live in is where “the Five Destinies coexist.” It is a very complicated place. There are good people, bad people and so on. Everyone’s mindset is different, yet we all live together in the same place. So, “Different mentalities exist together.” We all reside in this Saha World, so “We all exist together in the Five Destinies.”
Everyone, for those who learn the Buddha’s Way, the Buddha is truly educating us, giving us teachings. When we listen to the Dharma, we are not merely listening to stories. Stories are used to describe the principles of absolute truth that we cannot see or grasp. So, every person’s life is a result of the convergence of many causes and conditions. Within causes and conditions we can find wondrously profound stories, and the wondrously profound principles of true emptiness and wondrous existence are also found within causes and conditions. However, we only tend to think that these stories are just nice to listen to, while the Dharma is something very profound. We must understand the Dharma, so we should no treat this as listening to stories. Therefore, we must be more mindful.
The previous sutra passage states, “He then used skillful means and dispatched some others, one-eyed, squat and lowly, lacking in might and virtue ‘Speak with him and’ ‘tell him that he can work with you’.”
When the father saw his child run away, he quickly dispatched people to bring him back, but it was not so easy. They had to appear to be of similar status to him. People like this could approach the son and say, “Come, let us go and work there.” People like this could lead him in.
The next [sutra] passage states, “You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage. When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings”
[He thought,] “What am I supposed to do there? Oh, you will clear up the filth, inside and out. The wages offered here are very good, better than if you went to work elsewhere.” When this poor son heard that it was a stable job, he thought, “Great!” He hurried and happily went to that place. Upon arriving, he was indeed told to work hard to clear excrement. “Clean all the rooms and lodgings.” He diligently cleaned the filth both inside and outside
“You can clear excrement and filth at twice your normal wage.” This is an analogy for “cultivating Two Vehicle practices” and “eliminating afflictions of views and thinking. Thus, transcending the Three Realms and ending fragmentary samsara is called a day’s wages.”
This refers to those who practice the Two Vehicles, such as Hearers and Solitary Realizers. They mindfully listened to the Buddha teach. The Buddha’s voice entered through their ears, so they are called Hearers. The Solitary Realizers had already understood that all the Dharma the Buddha taught and all the external states around them, all this Dharma and all these states, could be brought together to verify each other. By observing the four seasons, they see how the world changes, is impermanent and thus realize the Buddha’s true principles. This is being a Solitary Realizer.
Thus, these sages of the Two Vehicles, Hearers and Solitary Realizers, eliminate afflictions of views and thinking. “Views” are also very filthy. When we ordinary beings see or like something, based on our perspectives, we give rise to desires. Because we have desires, we create many thoughts of greed. With strong thoughts of greed, we create much karma. Karma and ignorance then cover our minds, which leads to resentment when we cannot get what we want, and then thoughts of anger and hate arise in us. This stirring up of afflictions and delusion is called ignorance. This is all called the turbidity of views. These views are caused by craving and arise from thoughts of greed and desire. So, this causes people to remain like this for their whole lifetimes, continually reproducing afflictions, which give rise to ignorance.
However, [delusions of] thinking are more subtle. Because of the subtlety of our thoughts, we need to be more mindful. With every thought that arises, there is so much dust-like ignorance. When discursive thoughts arise, how do we tame our delusions of thinking and our afflictions? We require a deep level of mastery to put a stop to afflictions of views and thinking. This refers to our habitual tendencies, which are not easy to eliminate. Thus, to transcend the Three Realms, we must eliminate afflictions of views and thinking; only then can we transcend the Three Realms. The
” Three Realms” are the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. As we encounter different kinds of material forms, we must not give rise to thoughts of desire. We have to eliminate such thoughts so that no forms or sounds can trouble our minds. Then, in our minds, our afflictions will be completely eliminated, and discursive thoughts will be eliminated. Not only must we eliminate discursive thoughts, we must also transcend the formless realm and completely eliminate defilements of the mind. Then, no matter what state we encounter, we will not have afflictions, hindrances or defilements. This is how we transcend the formless realm, which allows our minds to always be pure, empty and undefiled. This is how we transcend the Three Realms.
However, can our minds stay pure and empty? Even when we sleep, we still dream; our minds connect to those states just the same. There is an ancient saying, “The sages do not dream.” Truly, their minds are so pure that even in their sleep, they do not dream, to say nothing of their minds during the day; would their minds become confused? No. Thus, to transcend the Three Realms requires a lot of effort.
So, speaking of “ending fragmentary samsara, fragmentary samsara” refers to each fragmented life lived in cyclic existence. Our daily living is also carried out in this this fragmentary samsara. Because our lifespans are limited, we must look at each life in fragmentary samsara
“[This] is called ‘a day’s wages’.” If we can thoroughly understand, eliminate delusions of views and thinking and be clear about fragmentary samsara, we will be pure when we return to the human realm again. Furthermore, when we come again, we will be very clear about this principle. Amidst fragmentary samsara, if we can eliminate the ignorance of views and thinking, we can become more pure. We must put in the effort in this life to eliminate afflictions. If we clear away excrement and filth in this life, we will naturally be rewarded for our efforts. When we engage in spiritual practice in this life, we bring what we cultivate in this lifetime to our subsequent lifetimes.
Because of what we have done in the past, we have “a day’s wages.” In our spiritual practice, how much we do and give today will determine how much we will receive. If we feel very satisfied in this life, it is because we have given in a past life. Thus, it says “at twice your normal wage.” If you do more, then of course you receive more.
” Twice refers to transcending the blessings and joy of both the human and heaven realms.”
So, “twice” refers to transcending the blessings of both the human and heaven realms. This is “at twice your normal wage.” We are not merely given [a wage]; we will be given double wages. Because we have been earnest and put in effort, [the Buddha] hopes we do not stay here but are able to transcend the Five Realms. We should not remain lost, following our karma on to the next life. We will be following our vows, not our karma, but our vows. By following our vows, in our subsequent lifetimes we can accomplish our heartfelt aspirations. We should not follow our karma to remain in a confused state. This is “at twice your normal wage.” We are given something more.
“When the poor son heard this, he followed them joyfully.” This is an analogy for Two Vehicle practitioners, “who practice according to the teachings.”
At the end of each sutra, we see the words, “They joyfully and faithfully accepted and practiced according to the teachings.” When we listen to the Dharma every day, we are filled with Dharma-joy. We follow this Dharma to [transform] our minds and engage in practice. Thus we “practice according to the teachings.”
“He followed them joyfully” means “This catered to their liking, for the disciples delighted in lowly things, such as cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas.”
The Buddha taught according to capabilities. Only when people understand will they be happy and engage in spiritual practice. Thus, it “catered to their liking, for they delighted in lowly things.” If their capabilities were limited, He had to give them limited teachings, which is using skillful means. Everyone was at this stage, so they were joyful.
[Next is] “Cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots.” The Six Roots meeting the external Six Dusts is like a room. We need to clean the rooms of our Six Roots, so our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind will not bring in the various filthy things from the external environment. Therefore, the “rooms of our Six Roots” must be kept clean; we must not store up filthy things in there.
In “the lodgings of the Five Skandhas,” the Five Skandhas are the Five Aggregates, form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. We must constantly make an effort to [contemplate] our experience of external states, the feelings we have, the perceptions we form, the actions we take and so on, and with this careful contemplation, we must always clear all this away. Thus, in our views and thinking, we must always be very clear and mindfully uphold [the teachings].
So, this is “to clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings.” To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings: This is the analogy of drawing a day’s wages by eliminating the excrement of the afflictions of views and thinking and emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas. “To clear excrement and filth and clean all the rooms and lodgings” means to clear away our afflictions. As things come in from outside, the filthy ones must be stopped and should be cleared away. We should not let dirty things enter.
This is the analogy of “drawing a day’s wages.” Inside, we are very clean and comfortable. Thus, we “eliminate the excrement of afflictions of views and thinking.” The filth of afflictions of views and thinking must be completely cleared away. “Emptying and cleaning the rooms of the Six Roots” means the rooms of the Six Roots and the lodgings of the Five Skandhas have been completely cleaned out. This means that we have fully cleared away “the delusions of views and thinking.”
So, “The sentient beings of the Five Realms go through fragmentary samsara.” We understand this principle. “The appearances of the four kinds of beings are all different.” If we think about it, wherever they are in the Five Realms or four kinds of birth, they are all sentient beings. The Buddha said, “All living, moving beings have Buddha-nature.” They have Buddha-nature, but they have fallen to be sentient beings, so they are afflicted by the five chronic afflictions. They have greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. No matter which state these living beings are in, they have this consciousness and naturally have the five chronic afflictions. So, our different mentalities exist together in the Five Destinies as we [transmigrate through] cyclic existence.
Thus, we must be mindful. When we learn the Dharma, we are not just listening to stories; the stories are used [as analogies]. Because of Venerable Kasyapa’s compassion, he took the story that Subhuti told in long-form prose and repeated it again in verse. This means that there are profound principles here that we need to put in great effort to realize. Therefore, when we listen to the Dharma, we must always be mindful.