Episode 885 – Hearing Buddha’s Voice throughout the Three Realms
>> All sentient beings in the Six Realms are compassionately transformed by the Buddha. He urges beings in the Three Good Realms to listen to the Dharma and attain its benefits. After the Tathagata attained enlightenment, His voice could be heard throughout the Three Realms. His virtue summons from afar great beings of the ten directions according to their conditions.
>> “In this life and future lives, I am the knower of truth. I am the one with all understanding, the one with all views, the one who knows the Path, the one who opens up the Path and the one who teaches the Path.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 5 – The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs]
>> “You heavenly beings, humans and asuras should all come to this place to listen to the Dharma. At that time, countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 5 – The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs]
>> These sentient beings came because they resonated with the Buddha’s teachings. The feelings that sentient beings had and the Tathagata’s response influenced and affected each other. Heavenly beings and humans arrived at this place according to conditions. Bodhisattvas came from other places no matter the distance.
>> You heavenly beings, humans and asuras: All sentient beings in the Six Realms are those compassionately transformed by the Buddha. He urges beings in the Three Good Realms to come and listen, to hear the Dharma and attain its benefits. The Buddha’s voice of attaining enlightenment is heard throughout the Three Realms.
>> [You] should all come to this place to to listen to the Dharma: These asuras, along with humans and heavenly beings, listened to the teachings diligently without becoming lax. They were able to constantly remember and uphold all the Dharma that they heard and not forget or lose the teachings they practiced.
>> The perfect, immediate teachings of the One Vehicle are wondrously subtle and extremely profound, difficult to understand and enter. For those without sharp capabilities and wisdom, their ears may become deluded and their hearts shocked when they hear it. They cannot faithfully accept the Right Dharma but instead may give rise to doubt and slander.
>> This is like what happened in the Lotus Assembly, when 5000 people left. Though His Brahma-tones filled their ears, they still took their leave and departed. Thus the sutra says: Throughout incalculable, innumerable kalpas, it is also rare that one may hear this Dharma. This is an analogy for the difficulty of hearing the Dharma.
>> At that time, countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma: With this, the Buddha expressed that humans, heavenly beings and others, countless trillions of sentient beings, all came to where the Buddha was to listen to the Dharma.
>> These sentient beings came because they resonated with the Buddha’s teachings. Bodhisattvas came from other worlds, no matter the distance. Heavenly beings and humans arrived at this place according to conditions, like a gathering of wind and clouds.
“All sentient beings in the Six Realms are compassionately transformed by the Buddha.
He urges beings in the Three Good Realms to listen to the Dharma and attain its benefits.
After the Tathagata attained enlightenment, His voice could be heard throughout the Three Realms.
His virtue summons from afar great beings of the ten directions according to their conditions.”
All sentient beings in the Six Realms are beings that the Buddha, in His compassion, wants to save, teach and transform. The Buddha loves sentient beings dearly. Whether they are in heaven, the realm of greatest enjoyment, or in the hell, hungry ghost, or animal realm, the places with the most suffering, the Buddha has the same thought; He hopes that sentient beings can hear the Dharma, that their minds can comprehend the principles and that they accept the Dharma’s transformation.
Of the Six Realms, hell has the worst suffering. The suffering is unbearable; in Avici Hell, the suffering is continuous and unremitting. Therefore, the opportunity to hear the Dharma is very minute and very rare. Do those in the animal realm have a way to listen to the Dharma? We are unable to understand them, either. As for the hungry ghost realm, there is also much suffering there! Every day, they burn with the fire of hunger. In this kind of cruel world, it is difficult to listen to the Dharma. So the Buddha focused on the Three Good Realms, thinking of every way to transform those in the Three Good Realms.
Although those in heaven live in luxury, they have kind thoughts and still have the opportunity to come to the human realm to listen to the Dharma. There are also wealthy people in this world are willing to listen to the Dharma. After listening to and taking the Dharma to heart, they are willing to go among the people to create blessings. This is like heavenly beings who hear the Dharma.
There are also asuras, who have heavenly blessings but lack heavenly virtue. They too are among those who can be transformed. So, asuras are also included as part of the Three Good Realms. “He urges beings in the Three Good Realms to listen to the Dharma and attain its benefits.” We listen to the Dharma to attain its benefits. This is the mindfulness of the Buddha as He repeatedly returns to this world.
“After the Tathagata attained enlightenment, His voice could be heard throughout the Three Realms.” When the Buddha interacts with sentient beings in the Three Realms, He is able to transmit His voice throughout the Three Realms. The Three Realms here can be an analogy for the Three Good Realms, the heaven, human and asura realms. Each has different ways of spiritual practice. The Buddha uses different methods according to their capabilities to teach them. For those willing to engage in spiritual practice, He created the Three Vehicles, the Small, Middle and Great Vehicles, so people everywhere could accept what they hear, take the teachings to heart and put them into practice.
Although it is in this world that He teaches the Dharma to beings of the Three Good Realms, it was not only us in this Saha World [listening]. In fact, the Buddha’s virtue also summoned great beings from the ten directions. Great beings refers to Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas from the ten directions came when the Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra. Together, they followed their conditions to come assist at the Dharma-assembly. In the Introductory Chapter, we already read about this.
In fact, sentient beings suffer in the Six Realms. We suffer so much; this is because our ignorance covers us. We need the Buddha-Dharma to transform, as in this story of causes and conditions, this story of karmic causes and conditions that has been passed down.
In China, in the town of Hankou, there was a man whose family name was Chen. He opened a butcher shop in the town. There was a dog who was famished. When the dog smelled the scent of meat, he went inside the butcher shop. As Mr. Chen was carving the cured meat, the dog kept coming closer to him. Accidentally, with a wave of his knife he severely injured this dog’s head. The dog stumbled and fell into the gutter outside and died where he fell.
Three years passed. One day, when Mr. Chen was coming home, he saw that outside of his store, near the gutter, was an old man sitting down . He asked him, “Are you here to buy meat?” This old man had a very sorrowful face, then suddenly, he disappeared. Mr. Chen thought, “That was very strange.” He was very frightened. When he went into his room at home, just as he was about to lay down, that old man seemed to come into the room and said, “Do you remember three years ago? Your knife slashed me. I was severely injured. I fell into the gutter and died.”
“Not long ago, there was a great rainfall which washed my carcass away to a great river. I was finally able to see the light. I hope that with all the misfortune that I have faced and the affinities that you and I share, you can use the words of your mouth to tell others of my suffering from falling into the animal realm. In the past I had heard the Buddha-Dharma, but it was too late for me to do good deeds. But since I have heard the teachings, I do not want to continue a cycle of revenge. I know you did not intend for this to happen. I only hope that my karmic conditions can be explained to others so they know and can understand the law of karma.” After saying this, the old man vanished.
Mr. Chen thought to himself, “Indeed. Three years ago that event did happen. I did not intend for it to happen, but now I must repent. To repent, the one thing I must do is to quickly tell everyone how the law of karma is a frightening thing, and how this dog turned into an old man to tell me of his suffering. This is karma.”
So [in learning] the Buddha-Dharma, we must be very mindful. In this evil world of Five Turbidities, only the Buddha-Dharma, like water, can cleanse our minds’ afflictions and ignorance.
The previous sutra passage says, “In this life and future lives, I am the knower of truth. I am the one with all understanding, the one with all views, the one who knows the Path, the one who opens up the Path and the one who teaches the Path.”
This is how the Buddha continued after talking about the ten epithets and ten virtues. He wished to further emphasize. “I am the one with all understanding, the one with all views.” Among all the things in the world, He always “knows the Path” and can open up the Path.” Because of this, He expounds the teachings for us. He opens up the road for us and tells us the direction of this path to ensure we do not go astray. Thus, He is called the one who knows, opens up and teaches the Path.
The following sutra passage says, “You heavenly beings, humans and asuras should all come to this place to listen to the Dharma’. At that time, countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma.”
This was the Buddha giving a reminder. Whether they live in heaven in enjoyment, are humans in this world or have heavenly blessings but no heavenly virtues, all should come. In summary, the Buddha called for even more people to come and listen to the Dharma. This was at the Vulture Peak Assembly.
At that time, “Countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma.” This is talking about the heaven realm. In this world where the Five Destinies coexist, there are those in the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, as well as Dharma-protectors and those from other worlds. They all gathered together.
These sentient beings came because they resonated with the Buddha’s teachings. The feelings that sentient beings had and the Tathagata’s response influenced and affected each other. Heavenly beings and humans arrived at this place according to conditions. Bodhisattvas came from other places no matter the distance.
“These sentient beings came” describes how throughout the ten Dharma-realms, sentient beings came “because they connected and resonated with the Path.” So, “The sentient beings connected, and the Tathagata resonated.” Sentient beings felt the Buddha’s call and came in response to the Buddha’s virtues. These “influenced and affected each other.” Bodhisattvas from other worlds came as well. Thus, they “influenced and affected each other.”
“Heavenly beings and humans arrived at this place according to conditions. Bodhisattvas came from other worlds, no matter the distance.” Not worried about the distance, Bodhisattvas from other worlds came as well. Now all gathered at the Vulture Peak Assembly. Thus, the Buddha said, “You heavenly beings, humans and asuras….” This refers to all beings in the Six Realms. The Buddha had great loving-kindness and compassion for all who were within the scope of His teaching
You heavenly beings, humans and asuras: All sentient beings in the Six Realms are those compassionately transformed by the Buddha. He urges beings in the Three Good Realms to come and listen, to hear the Dharma and attain its benefits. The Buddha’s voice of attaining enlightenment is heard throughout the Three Realms.
As the Buddha was in our world, those He faced and had to mindfully persuade were those in the Three Good Realms. It is easier for those in the Three Good Realms to accept the Buddha’s teachings. Having these causes and conditions, they should immediately come and listen. So it says “hear the Dharma and attain its benefits.” By listening to the Dharma, we gain benefit.
“The Buddha’s voice of attaining enlightenment” means that if we want to attain the principles and enter the direct Bodhi-path, we must rely on this voice. This voice refers to when the Buddha “with a single voice perfectly proclaims.” His voice is heard “throughout the Three Realms.” Within the Three Realms, the Buddha’s voice [can be heard]; whether sentient beings in the Six Realms or the Three Good Realms, heavenly beings, humans or asuras, the Buddha’s voice can enter their minds so they receive His teaching and put it into practice. This is how they gain benefit.
[You] should all come to this place to to listen to the Dharma: These asuras, along with humans and heavenly beings, listened to the teachings diligently without becoming lax. They were able to constantly remember and uphold all the Dharma that they heard and not forget or lose the teachings they practiced.
The sutra goes on to say, “[You] should all come to this place to listen to the Dharma”. At the Vulture Peak Assembly, not only did heavenly beings and humans come, but Bodhisattvas from other places came. It was the same with asuras. People and heavenly beings had come. They “listened to the teachings diligently without becoming lax. They were able to constantly remember and uphold all the Dharma that they heard.” Taking in the Dharma, they could faithfully accept and uphold it and “not forget or lose the teachings they practiced.” As long as they could come before the Buddha, earnestly listen to the Dharma and take it to heart, their habitual tendencies could change. Thus, the Buddha-Dharma is like water that cleanses sentient beings of their defilements. We should believe this because the Buddha is replete in the ten virtues. He is the one who knows the Path, sees the Path, opens up the Path and teaches the Path. So, “The perfect and immediate teachings of the One Vehicle are wondrously subtle and extremely profound”
The perfect, immediate teachings of the One Vehicle are wondrously subtle and extremely profound, difficult to understand and enter. For those without sharp capabilities and wisdom, their ears may become deluded and their hearts shocked when they hear it. They cannot faithfully accept the Right Dharma but instead may give rise to doubt and slander.
The Great Vehicle Dharma of the Buddha is the path that leads to Buddhahood. This is a very complete and perfect path. He had spent more than 40 years teaching up to this point; now He opened up the provisional to reveal the true. This is the perfect and immediate teaching of the One Vehicle. Once we hear it, we can immediately understand. This is truly wondrous. So, “difficult to understand and enter” means these kinds of wondrous teachings are actually very hard to understand and enter. “For those without sharp capabilities and wisdom, their ears may become deluded and their hearts shocked when they hear it. They cannot faithfully accept the Right Dharma.” If they are those who lack wisdom, they may listen and on hearing it feel very confused, “Is this possible? Can I too really attain Buddhahood? Is there truly a karmic law of cause and effect? Is this possible?” They doubt many things. When there is doubt and on top of that arrogance, in situations like this, when people listen to the Dharma, “Their ears may become deluded.” How would people with limited capabilities be able to accept the teachings? They cannot accept the Right Dharma “but instead may give rise to doubt and slander.”
This world is like this. Why did the Buddha have to [work so hard] in expounding the Dharma for more than 40 years? At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, when the Buddha was about to expound the Dharma, at that time, 5000 people left the assembly
This is like what happened in the Lotus Assembly, when 5000 people left. Though His Brahma-tones filled their ears, they still took their leave and departed. Thus the sutra says: “Throughout incalculable, innumerable kalpas, it is also rare that one may hear this Dharma.” This is an analogy for the difficulty of hearing the Dharma.
Think about it. The sentient beings in this world are so stubborn and hard to train. The Dharma appeared before them, yet “Their ears became deluded,” and good advice sounded unpleasant to them. They did not accept the true great path. They did not listen and left the assembly. Although “His Brahma-tones filled their ears,” though they heard the Buddha’s wondrous voice, which made everyone who heard it happy, those 5000 people still left the assembly. Thus, in the sutra there is a passage that states, “Throughout incalculable, innumerable kalpas, it is also rare that one may hear this Dharma.” To hear this truly perfect, immediate and wondrous Dharma is not easy. This is an analogy for the difficulty in hearing the Dharma.
Next it says, “At that time, countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma”
At that time, countless trillions of sentient beings came to where the Buddha was and listened to the Dharma: With this, the Buddha expressed that humans, heavenly beings and others, countless trillions of sentient beings, all came to where the Buddha was to listen to the Dharma.
At the time of the Lotus Dharma-assembly, countless trillions of sentient beings, had all come there. So, “These sentient beings came because they resonated with the Buddha’s teachings.” Sentient beings from the Ten Dharma-realms had all gathered at the Vulture Peak Assembly in response to the Buddha’s virtues and according to their capabilities. “Bodhisattvas came from other worlds, no matter the distance.” They had even come from very distant places. With these causes and conditions, they came in response to the Buddha’s virtues, influencing and affecting each other. Even humans and heavenly beings had arrived in accord with their conditions. In the Saha World, all had gathered according to these causes and conditions. This is like a gathering of winds and clouds, that kind of state. When clouds gather in the sky, they display a myriad of changes and form countless different shapes. This also describes the illusiveness of the Ten Dharma-realms. While our eyes cannot see them, the principles are still there
These sentient beings came because they resonated with the Buddha’s teachings. Bodhisattvas came from other worlds, no matter the distance. Heavenly beings and humans arrived at this place according to conditions, like a gathering of wind and clouds.
Therefore, we must be mindful. In learning the Dharma, [we know] all Six Realms are places where the Buddha intends to go to transform and teach. So, when we learn and listen to the Dharma, we must always be mindful.