Episode 980 – (修因得果劫國莊嚴)
>> They cultivated seeds and attained the fruit of exquisite and wondrous lands in their circumstantial and direct retributions. Those Buddhas’ lifespans in the world are extremely long, and They deliver infinite sentient beings. The Right Dharma abides in the world for a long time, and Their followers are numerous. In accord with Their original vows, merits and virtues, Their kalpas and lands are magnificent.
>> “( As an analogy, take all the grains of earth in the great trichiliocosm) Suppose someone were to grind them into ink. Then, passing over 1000 lands to the east, he inked just one spot, a drop as large as a dust particle. Again passing over another 1000 lands, he would ink another spot, continuing on this way until the ink from the grains of earth was exhausted.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7 – On the Conjured City]
>> “What do all of you think? In terms of those lands, can a mathematician or a mathematician’s disciples ever know the boundary or calculate the number of those lands? No, World-Honored One.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7 – On the Conjured City]
>> By continuing until all the ink from the grains of earth is exhausted, the number of the lands passed would be immense. With great quantities of ink and small drops, the lands covered would be extensive. Continuing on this way until the ink is used up shows how many lands he has passed.
>> What do all of you think?: In terms of those lands, even a mathematician and his disciples could never calculate their amount or know their number.
>> Then he would take the lands inked and the lands where no spot was inked and grind all of them into dust. Each of these particles of dust is like a kalpa. To get to this number, it would be countless and boundless billions of trillions of asankyas of kalpas. Thus, it is said to be inconceivable.
>> Thus it says, ‘Before a dust-inked kalpa ago, though the ink-marked dusts may be exhausted, there are still endless dust-inked kalpas’. The beginning of Beginningless Time or that which begins in Beginningless Time is that which has no end and no beginning.
>> What do all of you think? What do all of you bhiksus before me think about this?>> No, World-Honored One: This number is so large and the amount so great that it is truly beyond the intellectual power of a mathematician to conceive or to explain verbally. The assembly answered the Buddha: No, they cannot know it.
“They cultivated seeds and attained the fruit of exquisite and wondrous lands” in their circumstantial and direct retributions. “Those Buddhas’ lifespans in the world are extremely long, and They deliver infinite sentient beings.
The Right Dharma abides in the world for a long time, and Their followers are numerous.
In accord with Their original vows, merits and virtues, Their kalpas and lands are magnificent.”
Since the Chapter on Bestowing Predictions began, we have seen how the Buddha bestowed predictions on His disciples. In the future, how many Buddhas will His disciples serve and make offerings to? How much time will it take? Each of them has different causes, so the Buddha gave predictions of cause and effect. It will take them a very long time. Whenever a Buddha was born into the world, they are always very reverent in serving and making offerings to Him. They use their entire life to seek the Buddha’s Way.
In Sakyamuni Buddha’s era, His land is our Saha World. This is because of Sakyamuni Buddha’s original vows and His merits and virtues. This was His original vow and. His chosen direction of spiritual practice. This is because sentient beings in suffering are those that He wanted to transform. The place where suffering sentient beings are is His spiritual training ground.
In the end, the Buddha wanted to lead everyone into a very ideal and pure world and back to our nature of True Suchness. In this contaminated society and world, how can we go against the current to return to our nature of True Suchness? The current of ignorance is like a very strong force constantly pushing against us. Our spiritual practice is to put our hearts into advancing forward against the current. This means our will to practice must be firm. We must be diligent, understand what is needed in life and earnestly cultivate these causes.
Returning to our nature of True Suchness will take a very long time. Only then will we attain the fruit. So, our ideals are still very far away; we must return to face reality and honestly, earnestly engage in spiritual practice to cultivate our causes. Facing the myriads of suffering sentient beings, we must mindfully seek to realize the suffering in the human realm.
If we do not put effort into being mindful and do not carefully guard our consciousness, when our Six Roots come into contact with the Six Dusts in the external world, a single thought arises in the mind, and we will be unable to discern right from wrong. Seeing a beautiful state or a pleasurable environment, we will follow it. That is right, we will be led away by it. This is how karma follows us [after death]. After we take our last breath, external states will immediately appear. To entice you, your loved ones will call to you. The states you hope for most will appear, and you will follow them. Once you go, the next thing you will experience is “the pain of your body contacting air,” and you are reborn into this world crying.
This is why we engage in spiritual practice; We must learn not to follow these states and carefully guard our minds. Our minds, these causes, must be earnestly protected.
In this Saha World, we listen to Sakyamuni Buddha’s teachings. It has continued on for more than 2000 years. All of it is about the principle of suffering and the causes of the afflictions we accumulate. We must understand the origin of afflictions so we will know the way to eliminate them. We must clearly understand this suffering. We feel the pain of others’ suffering, so we must go among people to comprehend their suffering.
Recently, isn’t all we have encountered suffering? The earthquake in Nepal was so sudden and strong. It caused so many people to suffer! A few days ago, a group of young people were at Formosa Fun Coast when this colored-powder explosion occurred. Within seconds, so many people caught on fire. Their skin was completely burned off. When something like this happens, what words can be used to describe it? Their revels in heaven suddenly became a fiery hell. There was so much pain.
This occurred at around 8:40 pm. Think about it, the hospital suddenly had so many severely injured patients to deal with. Which hospital would not be overwhelmed? Especially as at that hour in the night, everyone was leaving their shift. We can imagine on the road, so many medical staff were rushing back to their hospitals to save people. In Tzu Chi’s Xindian Hospital alone, when Superintendent Chao heard the news, he also sent out a request, hoping that everyone would quickly return to the hospital to prepare. They were very quick; it was after 9 pm and by 10 all the doctors had returned to our hospital. By 10:40 pm, a Tzu Chi volunteer’s daughter, who was among the injured, arrived at the hospital in a taxi. Beginning with that first person, 13 patients arrived, one after the other.
By the second day, a 20-year-old patient had already passed away. That patient’s mother said, “I have already lost a daughter. I still have my second child, my son.” This [20-year-old] patient had taken her younger brother out to play. The sister loved her younger brother. Although she herself was severely injured, she continuously asked how her little brother was doing. Her brother was also in critical condition. How could a mother bear this?
There was another mother in our hospital whose situation was even more heartbreaking. She was from China, and her husband had [previously] passed away. She was raising two children and hoped to have a stable life in Taiwan. Unexpectedly, her husband, her second husband, also passed away. So, this mother had to find work [to support them]. She knew her daughter’s injury at this time was very severe and there was not much hope. She was already lying intubated in our hospital.
This mother came to us on the second day telling our hospital, “I have to go to work and make a living.” We wanted to give her condolence money, but she said, “No, Tzu Chi has already done enough for me. I only ask that if I cannot make it back in time, since I have to go to work, I beg you to please buy a pretty dress for my daughter to wear.” Our social worker started looking. When he got off work, it was already past 10 pm, but he went to buy an outfit and brought it to the hospital. But it looked like this outfit would be impossible for her to wear because her body had begun to swell.
This incident is the most severe fire disaster in Taiwan’s history. There was such extreme suffering. This is the Saha World, the world of endurance, the place where the Five Destinies co-exist. We must all mindfully seek to realize the causes and conditions of the origin of suffering.
So, we speak of cultivating causes. Just these two words, “cultivating causes,” must be mindfully experienced. The fruits can only be attained after a long time. How do we purify people’s minds? How do we purify minds to make the land pure? It will take a very long time before we can attain “the exquisite and wondrous lands of our circumstantial and direct retributions.”
This will take a very long time. A Buddha’s lifespan in the world is very long, and He transforms infinite sentient beings. Every Buddha that comes to the world must go through a long time of [practice]. But the result is that after a long period of spiritual practice, They attain an exquisite and wondrous land, which is Their transformation land. In attaining Buddhahood, They can have a long life and an exquisite and wondrous land. They must transform many sentient beings to do so.
“The Right Dharma abides in the world for a long time, and Their followers are numerous,” depending on Their process of spiritual practice. “They all follow Their original vows.” All Buddhas follows Their original vows, which are to teach us. Going back to cultivating causes, our goal is to reach this magnificent land, but in the process we must go against the turbid current to return to that beautiful state of mind, to return to our intrinsic nature of True Suchness. We must practice according to the teachings, seek the Dharma and transform sentient beings. It takes a long period of time to attain the fruit of that magnificent land.
The previous sutra passage states, “Suppose someone were to grind them into ink. Then, passing over 1000 lands to the east, he inked just one spot, a drop as large as a dust particle. Again passing over another 1000 lands, he would ink another spot, continuing on in this way until the ink ground from the grains of earth was exhausted.”
To use up all of this ink would take a very long time. Only inking one spot after passing 1000 lands, think of how much ink there is! He will continue to mark spots like this, one drop of ink after passing every 1000 lands. That is such a long time! It is so long.
The next sutra passage says, “‘What do all of you think? In terms of those lands, can a mathematician or a mathematician’s disciples ever know the boundary or calculate the number of those lands? No, World-Honored One’.”
Does everyone understand this sutra passage? What do you think, everyone? “In terms of those lands,” these lands discussed, “can a mathematician” [calculate] all this? He passes through 1000 lands and inks a drop, then goes through another 1000 lands and inks another drop, until all the ink is used up. Can we calculate how many lands there are? So, in the sutra, the Buddha says “a mathematician or a mathematician’s disciples.” A mathematician specializes in numbers. His [ability] alone is not enough, so he gathers all his disciples together. Can they calculate it? The disciples’ answer is that they cannot do it. It really is impossible to calculate. World-Honored One, who can calculate it? It really is incalculable
By continuing until all the ink from the grains of earth is exhausted, the number of the lands passed would be immense. With great quantities of ink and small drops, the lands covered would be extensive. Continuing on this way until the ink is used up shows how many lands he has passed.
This is “continuing until all the ink from the grains of earth is exhausted.” All the grains of earth were ground into ink to mark spots on these lands. Truly, “The number of the lands passed would be immense.” Even with professional mathematicians and their disciples, even after gathering many mathematicians together, they all would be unable to calculate it. This is because, “With great quantities of ink and small drops, the lands covered would be extensive.” The ink drop is very small, like a speck of dust. The previous sutra passage said, “small as a speck of dust”; it is so small. He must ink so many lands and continue until no ink is left. This is to show how many lands he passed through.
“What do all of you think? In terms of those lands, can a mathematician or a mathematician’s disciples [do this]?” These mathematicians “could never calculate their amount or know their number”; it is incalculable.
Then he would take the lands inked and the lands where no spot was inked and grind all of them into dust. Each of these particles of dust is like a kalpa. To get to this number, it would be countless and boundless billions of trillions of asankyas of kalpas. Thus, it is said to be inconceivable.
So, “Then he would take the lands inked and the lands where no spot was inked” ․Then he would take the lands inked and the lands where no spot was inked and grind all of them into dust. Each of these particles of dust is like a kalpa. To get to this number, it would be countless and boundless billions of trillions of asankyas of kalpas. Thus, it is said to be inconceivable. This means every 1000 lands are inked by one drop. So, before, after and in between, there are lands that did not get inked. Spots were inked one by one every 1000 lands. Some are inked, and some lands have not been inked. These are all gathered together and ground again into dust. Each speck of dust is an analogy for one kalpa. So, in this way, how can we calculate this? Thus it says, “countless and boundless billions and trillions of asankyas of kalpas.” These are countless, boundless asankyas of kalpas, billions and trillions of asankyas of kalpas. An asankya is impossible to count, to say nothing of calculating the billions and trillions of asankyas of kalpas. “Thus, it is said to be inconceivable”
>> “Thus it says, ‘Before a dust-inked kalpa ago, though the ink-marked dusts may be exhausted, there are still endless dust-inked kalpas’. The beginning of Beginningless Time or that which begins in Beginningless Time is that which has no end and no beginning.”
The meaning is that this happened a dust-inked kalpa before, a very long time ago. These dust-inked specks were already inked over so many lands. But, “There are still endless dust-inked kalpas.” This time had not yet run out. The ink was used up, but time had not yet run out.
“The beginning of Beginningless Time” means the beginning of Beginningless Time. There is no way to explain its beginning. How can it be described? It cannot. “The beginning of Beginningless Time or that which begins in Beginningless Time.” Think about this, it is the beginning of Beginningless Time, or beginning in Beginningless Time. So, when is the beginning? “This is that which has no end and no beginning”
What do all of you think? What do all of you bhiksus before me think about this?
“‘What do all of you think? What do all of you bhiksus before me think about this?’.” The Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, said this to everyone. “What do all of you think about this?” Could any of the bhiksus calculate it? Could they understand? “In terms of those lands,” these lands that had been inked, they were of a great, incalculable number. “A mathematician or mathematician’s disciples” means despite gathering mathematicians from so many lands to calculate it, including their disciples, no one could do it.
Even if a mathematician is only one person, he had many disciples. So many mathematicians and many mathematicians’ disciples came to calculate. Were they able to measure its boundary? It was still bigger! “They could measure the boundary of the world, but could not know the number of inked lands.” There is still no way to do it. So, the answer was that they could not.
No, World-Honored One: This number is so large and the amount so great that it is truly beyond the intellectual power of a mathematician to conceive or to explain verbally. The assembly answered the Buddha: No, they cannot know it.
“No. No, World-Honored One. It cannot be done, World-Honored One.” This is something that cannot be done. “This number is so large and the amount so great that it is truly beyond the intellectual power of a mathematician to conceive.” They could not figure it out by discussing it. This was everyone’s answer.
These mathematicians would be unable to calculate it with their brains. They would not even be able to imagine this amount. Their brains cannot conceive of it. They cannot figure it out by discussing it. So, it is inconceivable. This was everyone’s answer.
This is truly not easy; in the whole great trichiliocosm, if grains of earth were ground into dust and ink, this would really be immeasurable. “And not all lands were inked.” Not every place was inked. We go through 1000 lands to ink one spot. This is a huge amount of spots. There really are too many. The amount of dust particles cannot be understood. “The number of lands passed would be immense.” Even a mathematician cannot calculate it.
This was what the Buddha said in His lifetime. “Can you do it?” Everyone answered, “We cannot.”
“There is no way.” I often say, “There is no way.” What “way” can we use to transform sentient beings? How do we purify and transform sentient beings to change turbidity into a pure stream? How can we go against the surging, turbid flow? How do we all maintain a firm will to practice and go forward amidst difficulties to feel for those who are suffering? When we give to serve others, we realize the true principles of suffering in this world. How can we describe it? Only by relying on our intrinsic Buddha-nature and wisdom equal to the Buddha’s can we realize it. So, we must return to our nature of True Suchness. We must always be mindful.