Episode 1363 – The Buddha’s Recent Manifestation as Our Teacher
>> “In the Saha World that must be endured, there is so much suffering. For one great cause, Sakyamuni constantly came and went throughout dust-inked kalpas. He vowed to be a teacher and father to protect and teach [sentient beings] in the Three Realms and Four Forms of Birth. We must pass on the teachings and advance the path, passing the light from lamp to lamp without end. We must carry on our teacher’s mission and uphold our father’s vow.”
>> The Buddha’s recent manifestation as our teacher reveals the distant intrinsic Buddha-land. Those listening to the Dharma at Vulture Peak realized the ocean of their intrinsic enlightened nature. The Dharma-body abides permanently, without end, transforming the world and benefiting all beings inexhaustibly. From distant kalpas and ancient times to now, from source to utmost extent, it is limitless.
>> Going from the infinite past to the present, we must seize the present moment. In the present, we must correct past mistakes and practice for the future. We must make the great vows and uphold the teachings of the sutra. Countless Bodhisattvas advance the sutra and transform this turbid world into a pure land.
>> “We only hope that the World-Honored One will not worry. After the Buddha enters Parinirvana, we will all reverently uphold, read, recite and expound this sutra.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 13 – On Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra]
>> “In the future evil age, sentient beings’ roots of goodness will become few. Many will become overbearingly arrogant and crave offerings of wealth. Their roots of unwholesomeness will increase, and they will stray far from liberation.” [Lotus Sutra, Chapter 13 – On Encouragement to Uphold the Sutra]
>> In the future age of evil, sentient beings’ roots of goodness will become few: This explains that in the era of Dharma-degeneration, the turbid world will be full of many evil people. It is far from the time of the Noble Path, and people with roots of goodness will become rare. [Their] roots of goodness will become few: This means their roots of goodness are weak. Because of this, they lack great resolve. They attain a little and become complacent. Thus they give rise to all kinds of arrogance.
>> Many will become overbearingly arrogant and crave offerings of wealth: During this time, there will be more people who engage in spiritual practice but claim to have attained when they have not. They are often conceited and arrogant and crave things, such as wealth and offerings. In addition, they often become attached to offerings of wealth made in connection with the Dharma. So not only will their roots of goodness grow fewer and fewer, but they will grow more roots of unwholesomeness. They will stray farther and farther away from the great path of liberation.
>> They will grow more unwholesome roots and stray far away from liberation: Because, in their course of spiritual practice, they have created negative karma, they plant the seeds of samsara instead and do not grow roots of goodness. They stray far away from the Dharma of purity and liberation.
>> Their roots of goodness will become few: The turbidity of sentient beings. Overbearing arrogance: The turbidity of views. Craving offerings: The turbidity of afflictions. Unwholesomeness increasing: The turbidity of life. Straying far from liberation: The kalpa of turbidity.
>> The world will continue to degenerate and deviant practices will proliferate. In the world of the Five Turbidities, those with right faith will be few, while those with deviant views will be many. They only seek wealth to indulge their bodies, so how could they aspire to eliminate the Five Desires?
“In the Saha World that must be endured, there is so much suffering.
For one great cause, Sakyamuni
constantly came and went throughout dust-inked kalpas.
He vowed to be a teacher and father to protect and teach [sentient beings]
in the Three Realms and Four Forms of Birth.
We must pass on the teachings and advance the path,
passing the light from lamp to lamp without end.
We must carry on our teacher’s mission and uphold our father’s vow.”
We should be mindful to experience and truly understand that in the Saha world there is “so much suffering that must be endured”! It seems like we are constantly saying this. When it comes to this expression, I am always reminding everyone of it. We should all heighten our vigilance. We must not remain lost in the Saha World. We should not remain attached to this place where we live, because it is a world where there is much suffering to be endured. Isn’t it a world of suffering? By the time we feel it and cry out in suffering, it is already too late.
Do we understand clearly what kind of environment we live in? What kind of essence does it have? What kind of karmic conditions have brought us to live in this kind of environment? How long will we continue to live? When we look back on our lives in the past, have our lives remained the same as they were in the past? Does the past still exist? Are things the same as they were in the past? The world is always changing. The environment of the past is gone. As for our bodies in the past, when we were small, or when we were young, or when we were middle-aged, what are they like now? If we think of the past now, nothing remains. In a few short decades, the environment and our lives have changed greatly. Nothing is permanent; nothing remains permanently. This is the Saha World.
Time is fleeting; we do not have much of it. Are we making use of every moment of the life that remains to us? Our lives last only a few short decades. What will we ultimately leave behind? Will it be joy, happiness and satisfaction, or will it be regret? Will it be resentment and hatred? Will these be the things that we leave behind in this life? When we think back on our past, have the things we have done truly remained in others’ lives or in our own as things worthy of remembering? Were the things we did with our lives beneficial to others? This depends on us. If we seized our time and were earnestly mindful of the present moment, then naturally we will always remember.
“Sakyamuni came for one great cause.” We always think about how the Buddha came to the world for one great cause. This one great cause was to open, to unlock for us a door, a path. This is the path we should walk. When it comes to this path, the one the Buddha opened for us, are we walking upon it? Have we taken hold of this one great cause? This was “Sakyamuni’s one great cause.” His one great cause was due to the great suffering in the Saha World. This was why the Buddha came to the world. Sentient beings are sunk in delusion. The Buddha awakened and wanted us to understand that we should follow this path, follow the path He opened up for us.
The Buddha “constantly came and went throughout dust-inked kalpas.” We have come lifetime after lifetime without any control of our own. Where were we in our previous lifetimes? What did we do in them? We have forgotten everything. Why do the people, matters and objects that we deal with in this lifetime cause us to have afflictions? Or what were the karmic conditions that allowed us to head in the correct direction? What had we done in the past, where did these karmic conditions for us to encounter the Buddha-Dharma come from? With all the people in the world, how many actually encounter the Buddha-Dharma?
So, if we calmly contemplate this, even though we do not know our past lifetimes and understand even less about future lifetimes, we have the karmic conditions in this lifetime, in this present moment, to come in contact with the Buddha-Dharma. We should know that Sakyamuni Buddha went through dust-inked kalpas, constantly returning like this; “He constantly came and went.”
Is Sakyamuni Buddha present in the world now? He most certainly is, because His Dharmakaya is alive and all around us every day, in each and every place, opening up the path for us so we can walk it, guiding us in the right direction. As we go among people, Sakyamuni Buddha may be there as one of them. It is not only Sakyamuni Buddha; Guanyin Bodhisattva, Manjusri Bodhisattva, Wisdom Accumulated Bodhisattva and. Earth Treasury Bodhisattva, all those Bodhisattvas we talked about, can still be found coming and going in the Saha World. So, this is still the era when. Sakyamuni Buddha teaches and transforms. Thus, He comes and goes in the world. Following the ways of life in the world, He will leave and return.
Our lives are merely a fragment a few decades long. This is fragmentary samsara. As for Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, when it comes to “fragmentary samsara,” it is not that they come without any control; they come sailing the ship of compassion. So, we should deeply believe that. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas sail the ship of compassion back to the world, that they constantly come and go freely, all for the sake of one thing, “to make vows in the Three Realms and Four Forms of Birth.” In the desire, form and formless realms, these Three Realms, they come and go freely,
especially throughout the Four Forms of Birth. We have recently kept talking about the Four Forms of Birth, the Four Forms of Birth and the Six Destinies. The Six Destinies are in the Three Realms. It is because of desirous thoughts that we have no way to leave the Three Realms. Through spiritual practice we get rid of desire, and when desire weakens, we enter the form realm. There is no desire, but there are still forms. Consciousness and afflictions still exist there. Through spiritual practice we can transcend desire and eliminate discursive consciousness as well. In the formless realm, the mind’s ignorance and afflictions have been eliminated. Since we are beyond desire and forms, the mind’s afflictions [are gone]. However, there are still subtle dusts; there is still a small measure of dust-like ignorance and delusion.
This is like King Brahma. Although he had cultivated supreme precepts and supreme virtues, he still came to seek the Dharma at. Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha’s. Dharma-assembly. He still came to seek the Dharma and to listen to the true principles, because he still had a small measure of dust-like ignorance. So, he had to come again to seek the True Dharma.
The principle is the same. The Three Realms exist in this sequence. There is the desire realm of unenlightened beings, and there is the state of spiritual practice. In the unenlightened desire realm are all of the Six Realms, the heaven, human, asura, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. So, whatever form of life they may be, everything they are doing creates karma within the Saha world, within the Three Realms.
Sakyamuni and all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas constantly come and go like this in the Three Realms, including the Six Destinies and the Four Forms of Birth. So, in the Six Destinies and Four Forms of Birth, in the Three Realms, the Buddha is the “guiding teacher of the Three Realms” and “kind father of the Four Kinds of Beings.” So, He is both a “teacher and father.” He is both our teacher and our father. This is how He protects our wisdom-life, how He earnestly teaches us.
So, we should “pass on the teachings and advance the path.” We should pass them on! The Buddha recruited people for the Dharma. In the Chapter on Dharma Teachers, He kept on praising the Lotus Sutra. He kept encouraging everyone to accept and uphold, transcribe, teach, read, recite it and so on. In the Chapter on Dharma Teachers, He already explained this very clearly. So, we should pass on the teachings, for the Buddha-Dharma is the wondrous medicine that can save the world, a radiant lamp in the darkness. For more than 2000 years, Sakyamuni Buddha’s radiant lamp has passed its light from lamp to lamp to illuminate the darkened world. The ground of sentient beings’ minds is dark with ignorance. We should pass on our lamp to illuminate them, to illuminate the ignorance and darkness of the ground of sentient beings’ minds. For this we need to pass on our lamplight from “lamp to lamp without end.”
We have the responsibility to “carry on our teacher’s mission and uphold our father’s vow.” Since our karmic conditions are like this, this should be our mission. We benefit ourselves, but we also benefit others. In fact, benefiting others is the true way to benefit ourselves. When we go among people we see people of all different kinds, with their different temperaments, with their different afflictions, with their different sufferings, so many things. [We see] that their ignorance arises from the darkness of the ground of their minds. So, we should be very mindful to pass on the Buddha’s radiant wisdom. We should resonate with the Buddha-mind, understand the Buddha’s intent. We should be mindful to pass down the Buddha’s teachings. This is like an endless lighting of lamps. This Dharma is radiant, a radiant lamp that illuminates the ground of everyone’s minds so ignorance does not again arise in darkness. So, “We must carry on our teacher’s mission and uphold our father’s vow.” We should be mindful to try and understand this.
The Buddha’s recent manifestation as our teacher reveals the distant intrinsic Buddha-land. Those listening to the Dharma at Vulture Peak realized the ocean of their intrinsic enlightened nature. The Dharma-body abides permanently, without end, transforming the world and benefiting all beings inexhaustibly. From distant kalpas and ancient times to now, from source to utmost extent, it is limitless.
The Buddha opened up His “recent manifestation as our teacher.” Sakyamuni Buddha is separated from us by only 2000 years. We are still able to research Him. In Nepal, the Buddha’s birthplace can still be found. The place where He attained Buddhahood, where He first turned the Dharma-wheel, where He began teaching the Dharma, these historical sites are all still clearly left behind. So, we should still be able to research them; they are not considered distant. The Buddhist sutras are always talking about dust-inked kalpas ago; this is what would be considered a distant time period.
The present sites we are still able to research are still considered recent. This is “the Buddha’s recent manifestation as our teacher.” The footprints left by the Buddha are called “the manifest.” The places where the manifest Buddha went can still be found. They “reveal the distant intrinsic Buddha-land.” The traces of the Buddha’s life still remain. These are footprints, the manifestations we still can find, but the Buddha’s spiritual ideals are very distant.
I talk about this every day, how the Buddha has been [coming] lifetime after lifetime for countless kalpas. This is very distant. When we talk about how. Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha existed dust-inked kalpas ago, this was a clearly a distant time, very far off. This is the “distant intrinsic.”
At that time, the 16 princes began teaching the Lotus Sutra. Even if we only look at that time, it was already a long time ago, very distant. Now at the Vulture Peak Assembly, the Buddha was awakened in this lifetime; He had taught the Dharma for more than 40 years, and now at the Vulture Peak Assembly, He taught the Lotus Sutra. This should have been the last period of the Buddha’s teaching of the Dharma. So, by listening to the Dharma we should “realize the ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature.” At the Vulture Peak Assembly, we must experience and awaken to this. The Buddha, in the Lotus Sutra, used all kinds of causes and conditions, all kinds of analogies, all kinds of verbal expressions, all to help our sincere hearts truly resonate with this.
So, in the ground of our minds, the Vulture Peak Assembly should still be there, along with the stupa at Vulture Peak with Many Treasures Buddha inside. We should be able to come together with them inside of our minds. We should be able to experience this ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature.
“The Dharma-body abides permanently, without end.” For all of us, our Dharmakaya always exists. For dust-inked kalpas, since Beginningless Time, our Dharma-body has always been there. This is our ocean of intrinsic enlightened nature. This Dharmakaya abides permanently; we bring these principles with us. What kind of causes and conditions and karmic forces have we created? This is also a principle that we carry with us when we come. So, the Dharma-body abides permanently; our nature of True Suchness is still there. Thus, it is everlasting; “The Dharma-body abides permanently, without end,” lifetime after lifetime.
So, it “transforms the world and benefits all beings infinitely.” If the ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature can manifest, if we can understand that our Dharma-body abides permanently without end, if we can understand all of this, then all the Dharma that we hear will be in our heart so that when we speak, we always transmit the Buddha’s teachings. We can put them into practice and mobilize sentient beings to go among people. This is “transforming the world and benefitting all beings infinitely.” As long as we form an aspiration, we will be able to benefit many sentient beings.
So, from distant kalpas in ancient times to now, from long ago, a very distant time, the Buddha had understood this very clearly. He sought the Buddha-Dharma, delivered sentient beings and attained Buddhahood. This is the Buddha. But what about unenlightened beings? We too, since distant kalpas ago, from ancient times until now, have also been coming to the world like this, but what we have created lifetime after lifetime has been ignorance; we replicate it again and again. Although we have these opportunities, we still remain half-asleep. We too have been coming since distant kalpas ago, from ancient times until now, yet the Buddha became enlightened, while we have remained deluded.
So, “From source to utmost extent, it is limitless.” Our wisdom-life is also like this. It follows us lifetime after lifetime. Our wisdom-life, this wisdom, this ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature, has been covered by ignorance and afflictions. This is because we create ignorance. By this time we should be awake and should have returned to the ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature. So, we must mindfully seek to experience this.
Going from the infinite past to the present, we must seize the present moment. In the present, we must correct past mistakes and practice for the future. We must make the great vows and uphold the teachings of the sutra. Countless Bodhisattvas advance the sutra and transform this turbid world into a pure land.
“Going from the infinite past to the present” means we should look back on the past to see how the Buddha taught us. Since dust-inked kalpas before, over a long time, He has been connected to us. Do we believe this or not? The Buddha is “enlightened.” He continually sought the true principles, accumulating karmic conditions for awakening. From ancient times until today, we have constantly accumulated karmic forces and ignorance. If we are willing now to believe and understand, then we “must seize the present moment.” When we listen to the Dharma, we seize hold of every moment, make the best use of our time listening to the Dharma. In the time we have now, we seize the moment and sustain it forever. This is what we should always be doing.
Thus, “In the present, we must correct past mistakes and practice for the future.” When we listen to the Dharma now we must hasten to make changes. Whatever ignorance or faults we have, we must hasten to change them, correct past mistakes and practice for the future. If we made mistakes in the past, we must not make them again. Starting now, we will not make them again.
“We make the great vows and uphold the teachings of the sutra.” Since the Buddha had begun recruiting people for the Dharma, we need to accept the Buddha-Dharma and pass down the teachings. This shows the Buddha’s heartfelt efforts. So, we should “make the great vows and uphold the teachings of the sutra.
Countless Bodhisattvas will advance the sutra.” Starting from now, there will begin to be many Bodhisattvas who will make vows to advance the sutra, to advance the teachings of this sutra. “The sutras are a path and the path is a road to walk on.” Advancing the sutras is promoting the path. So, we “transform this turbid world into a pure land.” Although we are in the world of endurance where there is much suffering, after hearing the Buddha-Dharma, we should make great vows and go among people. When sentient beings are suffering, we must find a way to relieve their suffering. “Having relieved them from suffering, we then expound the Dharma for them.” We transform their suffering into happiness.
This is “transforming this turbid world into a pure land.” So, we must mindfully seek to experience this. Since distant kalpas before, the Buddha had been seeking enlightenment. He came to the world lifetime after lifetime, seeking enlightenment because He wanted to spread the Dharma to sentient beings. We too have been coming to the world lifetime after lifetime, yet always in our delusion we create afflictions, so we are always in the Saha world where there is much suffering to endure. This is what we should mindfully seek to realize.
The previous sutra passage says,
“We only hope that the World-Honored One will not worry. After the Buddha enters Parinirvana, we will all reverently uphold, read, recite and expound this sutra.”
This was Medicine King Bodhisattva and. Great Joyful Eloquence Bodhisattva, along with the 20,000 Bodhisattvas they led. They had already come to understand. Beginning from the Chapter on Dharma Teachers, they had all already begun taking the Dharma to heart. They clearly knew that the Buddha wanted to recruit people for the Dharma, to earnestly advance this sutra’s teachings. So, after everyone heard the Chapter on Seeing the Stupa of Treasures and the Chapter on Devadatta, they believed even more. They formed even greater aspirations. Thus, they had these made vows before the Buddha. “Please Venerable Buddha, do not worry. After you have entered Parinirvana, we will practice in accord with the teachings.”
The next passage then says,
“In the future evil age, sentient beings’ roots of goodness will become few. Many will become overbearingly arrogant and crave offerings of wealth. Their roots of unwholesomeness will increase, and they will stray far from liberation.”
In this turbid, evil world in the future, sentient beings’ roots of goodness will gradually become few. This is due to desire; these traps are everywhere. People will quickly become enticed by these pitfalls and fall into these traps, into these pits of desire. In this way the roots of goodness will slowly become few.
In the future age of evil, sentient beings’ roots of goodness will become few: This explains that in the era of Dharma-degeneration, the turbid world will be full of many evil people. It is far from the time of the Noble Path, and people with roots of goodness will become rare. [Their] roots of goodness will become few: This means their roots of goodness are weak. Because of this, they lack great resolve. They attain a little and become complacent. Thus they give rise to all kinds of arrogance.
This explains how in this turbid and evil world, in the era of Dharma-degeneration, most of mankind will have evil thoughts of greed, anger, delusion, arrogance and doubt. [They will do] many things that do not benefit them and do not benefit others, do not benefit them and do not benefit others. These things will continually appear. They will stray further and further from the Noble Path. They will turn their backs on the path. “People with roots of goodness will become rare.” Evil will become more and more prevalent. Goodness will become more and more rare. The Buddha, in His era, was very worried about the future, which is our present, this evil world of the Five Turbidities.
“[Their] roots of goodness will become few” means these roots will have already weakened. People’s good hearts will have weakened. “Because of this” they will “lack great resolve.” If you ask them to form great aspirations or to make great vows, it will be very difficult. “If you ask me to donate, then I can do it, but if you want me to live like you for a long time, I cannot do it!” So, their roots of goodness have weakened and they have no great, far-reaching resolve. There will be many people like this, while those who truly form great aspirations and form aspirations and make vows will become fewer and fewer. In attaining the Dharma, in listening to it, “They attain a little and become complacent.” They will hear just a little and think, “I have listened! I do listen to the sutras!” Yet, when they listen, it is very superficial; just a small taste and they claim to have listened. They do not listen for a long time.
I heard from a Bodhisattva from Changchun. She said when someone heard me coughing while I was teaching the sutra, this elderly Bodhisattva just kept on crying. Her daughter told her, “It is useless for you to keep crying like this!” She said, “My master, while teaching the sutra, was coughing and this worried me so. She is so far from me, and I worry.” Her daughter then told her, “You shouldn’t worry; just do a little more. Master wants you to do more. Just earnestly do more.” She said, “Ok! You are right! I must do a little more recycling! This is what Master tells us to do. She tells us when teaching the sutra to do more.” This shows that they are listening!
In such a faraway place, she not only listens to and absorbs the Dharma, she hears everything, even the sound of my coughing. They are really very dedicated there. They are mindful in listening to the Dharma. We all know that it is very cold there. They also never stop to rest. In particular, when I was coughing, during those few days when I was sick, the temperatures were [so cold]. Even here in Taiwan it was cold; what must it have been like then in Changchun? So, we should know that when it comes to earnestly accepting the Dharma, we cannot just listen superficially, we truly must listen mindfully. So, we cannot just listen a little and then start giving rise to arrogance. We cannot be content having attained only a little.
So, “Many will become overbearingly arrogant.” People now, upon hearing just a little of the Dharma, start thinking very highly of themselves; this is how overbearing arrogance arises. Many will “crave offerings of wealth.”
Many will become overbearingly arrogant and crave offerings of wealth: During this time, there will be more people who engage in spiritual practice but claim to have attained when they have not. They are often conceited and arrogant and crave things, such as wealth and offerings. In addition, they often become attached to offerings of wealth made in connection with the Dharma. So not only will their roots of goodness grow fewer and fewer, but they will grow more roots of unwholesomeness. They will stray farther and farther away from the great path of liberation.
Thoughts of greed can arise even in monastics; they may hope people will come to pay respect and make offerings to them. This is incorrect. As monastics we are supposed to cultivate our mind. This is what it means to be a monastic! If we do not cultivate our minds well, then we are still unenlightened beings. How can we enter this pure family then? So, we should be very mindful.
During this time, “There will be more people who engage in spiritual practice but claim to have attained when they have not.” They clearly have not attained anything; their minds are clearly just as confused, yet having heard just a little of the sutras, they think, “I understand it all. Now I understand everything! They claim to have attained when they have not. They are often conceited and arrogant.” They begin thinking they are something special and look down on others. They become very conceited and arrogant. This is really terrible! So, we should constantly heighten the vigilance of our own minds.
They “crave things, such as wealth and offerings.” [Soliciting] offerings of wealth like this or having people come to make offerings to us is not acceptable. The things we are able to do, we must do ourselves. Of course we are always seeing many Bodhisattvas and lay practitioners come to help us and for this we should constantly be grateful. We are grateful for having such a beautiful environment. Besides we ourselves doing the best we can, Bodhisattvas from outside also come to help us with chores here at the Abode and help us to keep it clean.
It is because we receive these people’s help that we are able to engage in spiritual practice. So, do not be arrogant in thinking that people should give us offerings of wealth or that they should make other offerings to us. If we have not engaged in spiritual practice, then how can we have others make offerings of wealth to us? So, we must earnestly wake ourselves up.
In addition, “They often become attached to offerings of wealth made in connection with the Dharma.” Having taught just a little of the Dharma, they become attached to their connection with it. These are called “contrived affinities.” They contrive affinities with others to have them come make offerings. This should not be done either. So, not only will their roots of goodness grow fewer and fewer, “They will grow more roots of unwholesomeness.” If all we do is crave these things, our roots of unwholesomeness will again increase. Our lives are very simple here. We live a collective life here with many people all living under the same roof. Everyone has a bed and
beside the bed is a small bookshelf. Our desires are few, so we should be satisfied. When we look at where we get to live and compare it with refugees who have nothing, who have to brave the elements, we are already very satisfied. We always say that we should be very satisfied, not “crave offerings of wealth.” That is not acceptable! So, when it comes to us spiritual practitioners, there are things that we must do. We should truly cherish this environment we live in, this monastery that we practice in. This is what we must do. We should not crave anything more. As long as we have enough, that is fine. We must not let our roots of goodness decrease. We need to increase our roots of goodness. In the Amitabha Sutra it tells us to recite the Buddha’s name and also tells us, “We cannot [be born in the pure land] if we lack roots of goodness, blessings and virtues.” We want to increase our roots of goodness, not let them decrease.
If we just remain in this state of greed, our unwholesome roots will increase again. “They will grow more roots of unwholesomeness.” This comes from evil and greedy thoughts. If this happens, then “from the great path of liberation” we will stray further and further. If we turn our back on the path, then we will stray further and further.
Originally, countless kalpas ago, since Beginningless Time, we have always had the ocean of our intrinsic enlightened nature. It is just that lifetime after lifetime we have increased our afflictions and ignorance. Now, after great difficulty, we finally have the causes and conditions to enter the Buddha’s door so we should quickly take advantage of them and not allow our roots of unwholesomeness to increase. If we do, we will stray even further; we will stray even further from the Buddha-Dharma.
So, “Their roots of unwholesomeness will increase, and they will stray far from liberation,” This is because, “In their spiritual practice, they have created negative karma.” Over their course of spiritual practice, they have lost their spiritual aspirations and thus again give rise to discursive thoughts; by creating negative karma, “They plant the seeds of samsara instead and do not increase their roots of goodness. They stray far from the Dharma of purity and liberation.”
They will grow more unwholesome roots and stray far away from liberation: Because, in their course of spiritual practice, they have created negative karma, they plant the seeds of samsara instead and do not grow roots of goodness. They stray far away from the Dharma of purity and liberation.
We are already doing the opposite, again planting the seeds that drag us through samsara, so we are constantly ensnared by affinities. The affinities that bind us proliferate and bind us ever more. Thus, “They stray far from the Dharma of purity and liberation.” We continue to remain in the Six Realms and Four Forms of Birth, unable to be liberated from samsara. More and more are like this. So, we must be very cautious not to increase our roots of unwholesomeness more, or stray far from the Dharma of purity and liberation. We must avoid this at all costs. So, we need to put effort into being mindful.
“Their roots of goodness will become few” because of “the turbidity of sentient beings.”
Their roots of goodness will become few: The turbidity of sentient beings. Overbearing arrogance: The turbidity of views. Craving offerings: The turbidity of afflictions. Unwholesomeness increasing: The turbidity of life. Straying far from liberation: The kalpa of turbidity.
We face the Five Turbidities. Sentient beings now have few roots of goodness. Lacking roots of goodness, they act upon the Five Desires and so forth. They fall into the traps of the Five Desires. So, these are “the turbidities of sentient beings.” So, with “overbearing arrogance,” among the Five Turbidities, “overbearing arrogance” is “the turbidity of views.” Having turbidity of views means that our perspectives are not pure. Very severe turbidities will naturally increase our overbearing arrogance. We have pride, we have arrogance, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. This arrogance arises in us. These are sentient beings’ severe turbidities. When our perspectives are impure, the turbidity will increase.
“Craving offerings” is “the turbidity of afflictions.” It is because we crave offerings that our afflictions keep increasing.
“Unwholesomeness increasing” is “the turbidity of life.” Because in our lives we have already done things that were not pure, we keep multiplying our ignorance and afflictions. In our lives , if we lack good and allow evil to increase, then this is “the turbidity of life.”
Then, we will “stray far from liberation.” When we stray far from liberation, this is called “the kalpa of turbidity.” Now, after much effort over the course of many kalpas, we have encountered the Buddha-Dharma in this life. Yet, once discursive thoughts arise in us, our roots of goodness will decrease and our negative thoughts will increase.
This is having few roots of goodness and overbearing arrogance, craving offerings, increasing our roots of unwholesomeness, straying far from liberation and so on. This is because in this time, in this evil world of the Five Turbidities, this is “the kalpa of turbidity.” This is how it is; so much turbidity of sentient beings is created. The collective karma sentient beings have created all arises from “the turbidity of views,” arises from “the turbidity of afflictions” in people’s minds. Thus everything people do in their lives, all the karma they create, is unwholesome. This becomes sentient beings’ collective karma. In this era, at this time, these turbidities have become very severe. This is what we as sentient beings are doing.
The world will continue to degenerate and deviant practices will proliferate. In the world of the Five Turbidities, those with right faith will be few, while those with deviant views will be many. They only seek wealth to indulge their bodies, so how could they aspire to eliminate the Five Desires?
“The world will continue to degenerate and deviant practices will proliferate.” This age will continually become more evil and turbid. So, the world of the Five Turbidities is the severely turbid era we are living in now. Those with right faith have already become few, and those with deviant views are increasing. This is why everyone gives in to these desirous thoughts of wealth and continually cares only about physical pleasure. No one wants to engage in physical work; they are afraid it will affect their hands, afraid it will affect their bodies. So, all they have come to care about is staying beautiful and dainty. They never think that, as humans in this world, our bodies are for working. So, they do not dare to go out and work. Caring only for their own four limbs and bodies, they are not willing to put effort into work or to be of service to the world.
This is because in their minds there is only the Five Desires. They can never escape the Five Desires. This means our minds have become totally bound by sentient beings, by interpersonal relationships, by our perspectives, by our afflictions, by everything we do in life and so forth. All of this comes together. So, in our world now, the turbidities are indeed severe. I hope everyone will be very vigilant of this and always be mindful!