Episode 860 – Only Offerings of Dharma Can Repay the Buddha
>> To benefit all life, having compassion is the prerequisite. To wade through our existence, being patient is the foundation. To teach the Dharma, this is how we can benefit ourselves and others.
>> “Providing offerings with our hands and feet, fully prostrating to pay respect, all the offerings we make could never repay His grace. If we were to carry Him on our heads or bear Him on our shoulders over kalpas as numerous as the Ganges’ sand, and fully express our respect….” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]
>> “Next, [If we were to] offer wonderful meals, countless articles of precious clothing, and all sorts of bedding, various kinds of medicine, or use ox-head sandalwood and all kinds of treasures to build stupas and temples, or cover the ground with precious cloth….” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 4 – Faith And Understanding]
>> This refers to the offerings of material wealth, which are food, clothing, bedding and medicines. These are the Four Offerings.
>> After the Buddha entered Parinirvana, practitioners used precious sandalwood to build stupas to protect His sariras. Making offerings like this over kalpas numerous as the Ganges’s sand still cannot requite [the Buddha’s grace].
>> Why are we still unable to requite it? Of all offerings, the offering of the Dharma is the foremost. Only the offering of the Dharma. can truly repay the Buddha’s grace.
>> Because all Tathagatas respect the Buddha-Dharma, following and practicing what is taught gives birth to all Buddhas.
>> [If we were to] offer wonderful meals, countless articles of precious clothing, and all sorts of bedding, various kinds of medicine: We may offer fine and wonderful food, countless kinds of expensive and precious clothing and all sorts of beds and mattresses to lie on. Or we may offer all kinds of superior medicine.
>> Ox-head sandalwood: Break-away-from-Defilement Mountain is also called Lanka Mountain. The most precious fragrant wood comes from there. If ground into powder and applied to the body, fire will not burn the body.
>> The [Sutra of] Mindfulness of Right Dharma says: There is a mountain in Uttarakuru called Tall Mountain which produces ox-head sandalwood. The peak of this mountain is shaped like an ox head, and on this peak grows many sandalwood trees.
>> [If we were to use] all kinds of precious treasures to build stupas and temples: They use fragrant woods and all sorts of precious materials to build all kinds of stupas and temples for the Buddha.
To benefit all life, having compassion is the prerequisite. To wade through our existence, being patient is the foundation. To teach the Dharma, as such, we can benefit ourselves and others.
“This is how we can benefit ourselves and others.” We must be mindful! We have been talking about how the Buddha comes to this world in hopes that everyone who hears the Dharma will be able to comprehend. With faith and understanding, we can take the Dharma to heart and turn its principles into something we can apply. This is the Buddha’s greatest hope and. His purpose in coming to this world.
Unfortunately, we sentient beings always have ignorance and afflictions obstructing the path before us. So, the Buddha continues to mindfully [teach] according to sentient beings’ capabilities. Whatever our capabilities, He uses methods and principles suitable for us to teach us the Dharma.
The Buddha spent decades teaching in this way. Look at His disciples; how much Dharma did they actually comprehend? Though they formed aspirations and practiced according to the teachings, the more they listened, the more they felt that the world [was filled with] suffering and worried that people, matters and things would contaminate their minds. So, they became increasingly scared and increasingly only wanted to care for themselves. They did not dare to contrive affinities with sentient beings.
“The Buddha said the Bodhisattva Way is about engaging with worldly matters. He must be teaching it for people in the world to go among the people in order to transform sentient beings. Although the Bodhisattva Way is good, He was not teaching it for me.” The Buddha saw that His disciples remained the same; they had not yet given rise to great aspirations. He was growing old, and His conditions for transforming this world were coming to an end. After He entered Parinirvana, who would pass on the Dharma? It had to be monastic practitioners who would transmit the Dharma-lineage. To do this, without forming great aspirations and great vows and teaching by example, how would they go among people to inspire them to become Living Bodhisattvas? So, the Buddha began to continuously praise [the Buddha-wisdom] at the Lotus Dharma-assembly. In the Chapter on Skillful Means, He continuously praised the Buddha-wisdom.
Everyone including Sariputra felt that the Buddha’s wisdom was profound and unlimited; it includes wisdom of all Dharma, natural wisdom, untaught wisdom, all-encompassing wisdom, wisdom of enlightenment and many other kinds. With this, Sariputra gave rise to a joyful heart. He repeatedly asked the Buddha to explain everything in more detail and analyze the Buddha’s wisdom and the state of the Buddha’s mind to know what state these have reached.
The Buddha then began to make this analysis, and as Sariputra comprehended the Buddha-mind, he began to form great aspirations and make great vows; he was willing to pass on the Dharma-lineage. The Buddha bestowing a prediction of Buddhahood on him inspired many to have confidence in themselves. “If Sariputra can attain Buddhahood in the future, we should be able to as well.” Thus, they began to contemplate. They became repentant. They repented that in the past they had been walking in place on this path. They just continued to practice [the teachings of] suffering, causation, cessation and the Path. Some actually asked, “How will the Bodhisattva-path benefit me? Even if I only seek to awaken myself, at least I will not fall back into the Six Realms and the four forms of birth.” For this reason, they were unable to open up their hearts. Now, they understood. “I should also comprehend, better understand, how to truly realize the Buddha-mind and attain a state equal to the Buddha’s. I should know how to do that.”
“As the Buddha engaged in spiritual practice, life after life His spiritual aspirations never changed. What about us?” Ordinary people form spiritual aspirations and earnestly engage in spiritual practice, then retreat from their aspirations midway, so they fall back [into the Six Realms]. However, for a long period of time, for countless kalpas, Sakyamuni Buddha [practiced] without interruption. By seeking the Dharma and transforming others in this way, He was able to attain Buddhahood. Now we understand that after benefiting ourselves, we must benefit all life; we must also benefit other people. We do not just practice for our own sake; we do it for everyone in the world. We must be concerned with all worldly matters and cherish all life in the world. Benefiting all things begins with compassion.
“To benefit all life, having compassion is the prerequisite. To wade through our existence, being patient is the foundation.” The willingness to give is compassion, as we cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer. We just want them to attain peace and happiness; we do not seek to enjoy anything in return. But, in order to transform sentient beings and go among people, we must go through a lot. “To wade through” means to undergo, to experience, to deal with many worldly matters and things. We must patiently endure so much! People, matters and things are very complicated. When we go among people, when we take on a responsibility, we have to endure many things. Since we formed aspirations to go among people, we face many people, matters and things; this is truly very taxing. Thus, we must have patience as our foundation. Compassion is the prerequisite and patience is the foundation. So, we must have a spacious heart and be able to patiently endure the challenges. This is having patience as our foundation.
“To teach the Dharma, being selfless is the root.” To teach the Dharma, we cannot be attached to ourselves, [thinking,] “I can teach the Dharma. I am so amazing.” Even the Buddha said, “The Dharma teacher has no Dharma to teach,” This is because the Dharma is a natural principle. Where is the Dharma actually stored? It is not stored anywhere. It is a natural principle. It has always been there. The Dharma has always been in our minds. If our minds are open, free of discursive thoughts, afflictions and selfish thoughts about personal gains, we can open up our hearts and not be attached to our limited self. Every corner [of this world] contains its own principles.
This is because everything in the world is Dharma. The universe is filled with true principles. As long as our wisdom is unlocked and our minds are free of afflictions, if we have eliminated our attachment and habitual tendencies, what other Dharma is there to speak of? “To teach the Dharma, being selfless is the root.” Our hearts and minds must be very open so that we can see all things in the world and the principles of the laws of nature. This means we must let go of our limited self. Then we can find principles everywhere. This is what we must learn. Truly, our minds must be open. “This is how we can benefit ourselves and others.” If we can achieve this, then we can benefit ourselves and others.
To benefit ourselves, we must put our efforts into having a mindset and perspective of self-respect. Respecting ourselves means that we must not be influenced by external people, matters and objects. If we allow the slightest affliction to cause us to waver in our perspective, that is ignorance and foolishness. If we do not thoroughly understand the principles, we can be easily influenced. This causes suffering in life. Suffering comes from ignorance and lack of understanding.
As spiritual practitioners, as we listen to the Buddha-Dharma, we think about so many things. We fear that by interacting with others, we will be contaminated by them. Think about it; if doctors and nurses are afraid of being infected by their patients, they would be unable to be doctors and nurses. So, being a doctor or a nurse takes courage. They understand the workings of the illnesses and how to protect themselves against them so they can wholeheartedly help their patients. The same thing applies here. As spiritual practitioners, by understanding many principles, we will know how to protect ourselves. Principles are meant to be applied among people, not just on ourselves. For this reason, we must have compassion as the prerequisite and patience as the foundation. “To teach the Dharma, being selfless is the root.” If we can achieve this, we can benefit ourselves and others.
How can we repay the Buddha’s grace? In fact, we repay the Buddha’s grace by benefiting ourselves and others. This was the Buddha’s purpose in teaching sentient beings. It was also His most important cause for coming to this world. If we want to repay the Buddha’s grace, we must help Him fulfill His vow and His mission. This is truly repaying the Buddha’s grace.
As the previous sutra passage states, “Providing offerings with our hands and feet, fully prostrating to pay respect, all the offerings we make could never repay His grace. If we were to carry Him on our heads or bear Him on our shoulders over kalpas as numerous as the Ganges’ sand, and fully express our respect….”
If we do this for a long period of time, using our physical labor to express our utmost reverence, are we able to repay the Buddha’s grace?
Next, “[If we were to] offer wonderful meals, countless articles of precious clothing, and all sorts of bedding, various kinds of medicine, or use ox-head sandalwood and all kinds of treasures to build stupas and temples, or cover the ground with precious cloth….”
Now, this is using food and other material things to make offerings. This refers to “offerings of material wealth.” First we talked about making offerings with physical labor. Now, we are talking about making offerings with material wealth, which can be “food, clothing, bedding or medicine.” These are the Four Offerings.
This refers to the offerings of material wealth, which are food, clothing, bedding and medicines. These are the Four Offerings.
People’s lives are truly inseparable from these four things. In our daily living, we need to maintain our physical health. Diet is very important in providing nutrition to keep our body healthy. Even as spiritual practitioners, the Buddha and His disciples went out daily to beg for alms. On one hand, it was to obtain food for their bodies’ nutrition, to sustain their lives. On the other, it was to exercise their wisdom-life and transform sentient beings.
We also need to have clothing. We need clothing to cover our bodies. We must have light clothing for summer and heavy clothing for winter. We also need a place to live as well as bedding. We need a place to stay, our own “spot,” a bed to sleep in. We also need medicine. In our daily living, these four things are necessities. These are the Four Offerings.
After the Buddha entered Parinirvana, practitioners used precious sandalwood to build stupas to protect His sariras. Making offerings like this over kalpas numerous as the Ganges’s sand still cannot requite [the Buddha’s grace].
“After the Buddha entered Parinirvana, practitioners used precious sandalwood to build stupas to protect His sariras. Making offerings like this” over kalpas numerous as the Ganges’ sand, over a long time, “still could not repay His grace.”
Even after the Buddha entered Parinirvana, practitioners still made offerings with the best things they had. They used precious sandalwood to build stupas; this was the best building material. They used treasures to decorate them. These grand stupas were built to protect His sariras “[They] made offerings like this.” In this way, they used these precious objects to build stupas as offerings. “Over kalpas as numerous as the Ganges’ sand,” even after such as long period of time, they “still could not repay His grace.”
This means the Buddha’s grace is hard to repay. The Dharma that the Buddha gave us is an intangible treasure. It can transform our mental state, enable our hearts to be open and spacious and prevent us from creating [negative] karma so we can develop our wisdom-life. Thus, the Buddha’s grace is not easy to repay. His grace is immense.
Why are we still unable to requite it? Of all offerings, the offering of the Dharma is the foremost. Only the offering of the Dharma. can truly repay the Buddha’s grace.
So, “Why are we still unable to repay it?” Why is it that we are still unable to repay the Buddha’s grace? “Of all offerings, the offering of the Dharma is the foremost. Only the offering of the Dharma can truly repay the Buddha’s grace.”
If we put our body to work [to make offerings] but have not taken the Dharma to heart, the Buddha would still worry about us. Thus we have not have repaid the Buddha’s grace. No matter how many things we give as offerings, the Buddha would still worry about us. There is only one way to repay the Buddha’s grace. Among all offerings, the offering of Dharma is the foremost.
In the past, we have spoken of offerings of wealth, offerings of reverence and offerings of conduct. Offerings of wealth are material possessions. Offerings of reverence are physical actions such as earnestly prostrating. However, only the offerings of conduct are truly [offerings] of the Dharma. Among the offerings of wealth, reverence and conduct, the most important is conduct. Putting the Dharma into practice is the greatest offering.
So, we must take the Dharma to heart and follow it in our actions. Then naturally, everything we do, every action we take and every word we say, is teaching the Dharma. Everything we do teaches and transforms sentient beings. So, “Only the offering of the Dharma can truly repay the Buddha’s grace.” Thus, we must practice the Dharma and manifest it in our actions
“Because all Tathagatas respect the Buddha-Dharma, following and practicing what is taught gives birth to all Buddhas.”
All Buddhas, from the past to the present, including Sakyamuni Buddha and countless other past Buddhas, respect the Buddha-Dharma. So, it is said, “All Buddhas share the same path.” Each Buddha respects the path to enlightenment. They practice according to the teachings and continuously engage in spiritual practice without interruption or letting anything leak away. They always remain in the Buddha-Dharma. Regardless of which lifetime, Their [practice] was never interrupted nor did They let any Dharma leak away. They did this until They attained Buddhahood
[If we were to] offer wonderful meals, countless articles of precious clothing, and all sorts of bedding, various kinds of medicine: We may offer fine and wonderful food, countless kinds of expensive and precious clothing and all sorts of beds and mattresses to lie on. Or we may offer all kinds of superior medicine.
“[If we were to] offer wonderful meals, countless articles of precious clothing, and all sorts of bedding, various kinds of medicine…”. Delicious foods are part of the four offerings, as are precious and high-quality clothing and bedding or furniture to sleep on, etc. People only used the best things to make offerings to the Buddha. In the end, they even used ox-head sandalwood to build stupas for sariras. These were all material things; they are offerings of wealth
Ox-head sandalwood: Break-away-from-Defilement Mountain is also called Lanka Mountain. The most precious fragrant wood comes from there. If ground into powder and applied to the body, fire will not burn the body.
“Ox-head sandalwood” was named after [the shape of] a mountain. It is from Break-Away-from-Defilement Mountain, which is also called Lanka Mountain. That place is the mountain that the most precious wood came from. The wood from that mountain could be ground into fragrant powder, like what we use today for sandalwood or agarwood [incense] and so forth. The mountain resembled the head of an ox, so it was called “ox-head sandalwood.”
The [Sutra of] Mindfulness of Right Dharma says: There is a mountain in Uttarakuru called Tall Mountain which produces ox-head sandalwood. The peak of this mountain is shaped like an ox head, and on this peak grows many sandalwood trees.
“The [Sutra of] Mindfulness of Right Dharma says, ‘There is a mountain in Uttarakuru called Tall Mountain’.” This mountain was in Uttarakuru. It had “ox-head sandalwood”; this kind of wood was found in that mountain. Its peak resembled the head of an ox. The wood from there was [very precious].
[If we were to use] all kinds of precious treasures to build stupas and temples: They use fragrant woods and all sorts of precious materials to build all kinds of stupas and temples for the Buddha.
So, “[They used] all kinds of treasures to build stupas and temples.” They used this high-quality material. So, they built stupas and temples out of this kind of wood. “They use fragrant woods and all sorts of precious materials” to build all kinds of stupas and temples for the Buddha. They made offerings to the Buddha in this way, but they still could not repay the Buddha’s grace.
In summary, as Buddhist practitioners, to make true offerings we must use the Dharma. Only by earnestly engaging in spiritual practice are we repaying our teacher’s grace, truly repaying the Buddha’s grace. So, to truly engage in spiritual practice, we must mindfully dedicate ourselves. We must have compassion as the prerequisite and patience as the foundation to be able to teach the Dharma and truly repay the Buddha’s grace. Therefore, we must always be mindful.