Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Pure Enlightened Actions Lead to Fragrant Virtue (覺行清淨德香飄)
A thin line separates ordinary people from sages. Ordinary people seek tasty food on a daily basis. When they follow their desires, they consume many lives. Sages and saints seek the fragrance of the Dharma. They are diligent in seeking to learn the Buddha-Dharma. We learn the Dharma to nurture our Wisdom-life, to strengthen our virtues so that the fragrance of our virtue permeates everything.
When we learn Buddhism, we hope to absorb the Buddha-Dharma in order to become more enlightened and cultivate more enlightened practices. With increased enlightened conduct and purity, the fragrance of virtue spreads. So, we will find Dharma-joy and meditative bliss; we will always be happy. This will nurture our Wisdom-life; it is food for our spiritual cultivation.
Yesterday we said, “May the virtues gained through repentance enable my nose to always smell the Fragrant-land and enter the Dharma-stage, to transcend the unclean stench of life and death.”
The greatest liability in life is the fact that we have this body. The body is filthy and impure. Yet for its sake, ordinary people create a lot of negative karma. We wish to transform our Six Sense Organs, transform defilement into purity. What we want to smell is the Fragrant-land. We need to seek and request this Dharma. The Fragrant-land fuels our spiritual cultivation. We await the smell of this food for our spiritual practice, the fragrance of pure Buddha-Dharma.
Then we can enter the Dharma-stage and spread the Dharma so it enters others’ hearts. We practice the Dharma among others to spread the fragrance of virtue.
Buddhist practitioners seek to smell the fragrance of the Dharma and cultivate pure enlightened conduct. We practice the Dharma among others to nurture Wisdom-life and strengthen the fragrance of virtue. We use Dharma-joy and meditative bliss to fuel our cultivation.
Yesterday I said that the lay practitioner Vimalakirti begged the Buddha for the food of spiritual practice to nourish his Wisdom-life. He sincerely begged the Buddha for the Dharma.
So there is a passage of text which reads, The lay practitioner held out his bowl to beg for food from the Tathagata, saying “I only pray that the Tathagata grants me a small amount of food and carries out the Buddha’s mission for the Saha-world.” All the great disciples smelled this most fragrant food. The lay practitioner said that by eating this food those who have not yet reached the state of Never-retreating will reach that state, and those who have not yet attained. Non-arising Patience will attain that patience. Thus this is called the fragrance of entering the Dharma-stage. May we smell it often.
This means that after we absorb the Buddha’s teachings, though we have not attained the state of Never-retreating, which is the highest state of a Bodhisattva, we can at least attain Non-arising Patience. The state of Never-retreating is difficult for ordinary people to attain. We must constantly and diligently listen to the Dharma. Then it can enter our minds and we can use it in our lives.
When we hear the Dharma, we understand, but we keep making the same mistakes in daily living. This is the state of ordinary people. So, ordinary people need to practice.
The Buddha always said that. His practice was accumulated over countless Kalpas. So how could ordinary people attain the Never-retreating State in a single lifetime? It requires having the highest capabilities. Ordinary people cannot attain the Never-retreating state.
But Vimalakirti still begged the Buddha for the Dharma in order to develop his innate wisdom so as to be able to share the Dharma with people in society. Everyone has different affinities and capabilities. The opportunity to hear the Buddha expound the Dharma in person is very rare. Vimalakirti manifested as an elder, someone who had high standing in society. There are many different classes in society, with different living environments so a lay practitioner can easily go among them, especially an elder. Elders are those who have integrity, age, status and wealth, and some run big businesses. They are also educated, so they were called elders.
As an elder, Vimalakirti could go among the people and adapt to many different capacities at all levels of society. The lay practitioner Vimalakirti was very diligent. He often begged the Buddha for the Dharma.
After he received the Dharma, he would share it with many people.
Some people hear the Dharma and gain some understanding. Though they have not fully understood everything, they can at least be slowly nurtured. If they continue to listen, they will understand and let it enter their hearts. Then they can practice, and eventually reach the level of Non-arising Patience.
If we lack patience, or Non-arising Patience, we will have no way to endure. Then how can we persevere in our practice? When we host surgical simulations at our medical school, many doctors attend, including doctors from overseas. With our doctors and the overseas doctors, including dozens from Indonesia, Professor Tseng asked everyone to show gratitude, respect and love. Everyone had to be vegetarian. Everyone was very mindful and followed the rules. Some doctors shared their experience with me. When I asked, “Do you think you can continue being vegetarian when you return home?” it seemed like it was a bit difficult for them. So they replied, “We’ll take it slow.”
While here, they were diligent and ate pure vegetarian food. What about being vegetarian after they left? “We‘ll take it slow.” Clearly, with such a mindset they have not attained the Never-retreating State. It is difficult for them to maintain purity in their diet.
For those of us who are engaged in practice, we are vegetarians for life. Not only should we eat vegetarian food, our minds should also be clean. If we are pure in body and mind, we will not crave the flesh of sentient beings. This is cultivating compassion.
Does being vegetarian mean you are a practitioner? Actually, many people do not eat [meat] because they lack the food to eat. They have been poor all their lives. How could they be picky about what they eat?
However, they do not have a choice. We are practicing mindfully to cultivate our compassion. So, we must have pure bodies and minds.
Besides not eating meat, we have to cultivate patience and Non-arising Patience. In our relationships, when there is conflict, we have to be patient. If we can withstand the conflict, our resolve will remain firm.
Non-arising Patience refers to all phenomena. Through the years, we have to endure harsh winters, icy snow, and other natural elements. We have to bear it all.
Regardless of the environment around us and in our lives, we can maintain firm resolve. Thus we attain Non-arising Patience. As Vimalakirti said, even if we cannot attain the Never-retreating State, we can at least attain a level of Non-arising Patience, a strong resolve to engage in spiritual practice.
This is the fragrance of entering the Dharma-stage. Previously we talked about the 52 Stages of becoming a Buddha. We advance one stage at a time. With virtue comes fragrance. With this fragrant virtue, people will be pleased to see us and able to apply what we share with them.
We will be a benefit to human life. It is called entering the Dharma-stage. When we reach this stage of cultivation we will naturally have feelings towards sentient beings. We hope to always smell the Dharma-stage.
Stage by stage, we will come in contact with all Buddha-Dharma, and be able to absorb it into our hearts. If we can apply it, we have the ability to transform sentient beings. We hope to always smell the fragrance of Dharma.
Hearing Dharma makes us happy. The sound of the Dharma enters our hearts; the taste of Dharma nurtures our Roots of Wisdom. If we can constantly listen to the Dharma, we will always be happy. The sound of Dharma will enter our hearts, and the taste of Dharma will nourish our Roots of Wisdom. It will increase the capacity of our wisdom. That is nurturing Wisdom-life.
So, hearing the Dharma is very important. “May the virtues gained through repentance enable my tongue to always taste the nourishment of Dharma-joy and meditative bliss and not crave the blood and flesh of sentient beings.”
Next we talk about the tongue. The tongue also has to be pure. Because our tongue is unclean, it craves the flesh and blood of other sentient beings. Think about it. This three-inch tongue consumes all living beings. It truly creates karma. So, we have already repented for this. We have repented the acts of killing and eating.
After repenting, we also need to make a vow “May my tongue always taste the nourishment of Dharma-joy and meditative bliss and let us always speak good words. If we always speak good words, we will always hear wondrous Dharma. If we always speak good words, we will attain Dharma-joy and meditative bliss, no matter what we hear or speak. All Dharma will nurture our minds. Every word we speak will benefit sentient beings. This is Dharma-joy and meditative bliss.
We must listen properly. When we speak we must not make mistakes; we cannot just excuse ourselves with “I didn’t mean it, I was wrong.” and only repent afterwards. If we have attained the power of Samadhi, with Dharma-joy and meditative bliss we will absorb the wondrous Dharma. The Dharma will not leak out. If we have Leaks, we have afflictions. I explained all this before Dharma enters one ear and leaks out the other. So we must attain the power of Samadhi.
Since we are seeking the Dharma, we have to listen mindfully. We will be happy after it enters our hearts. This is Dharma-joy and meditative bliss. Hearing Dharma makes us happy. It is happiness that comes from our heart, from listening to the Dharma, not from making money. Don’t we often hear about Tzu Chi volunteers giving to others, how they help people by cleaning their homes? After it is clean, the old people or the family have a pure living environment. We transform an impure land into a Pure Land. After we are done, even though we are dirty, we feel very happy. This is because after we listen to the Dharma, we treat old people as our elders. We treat them like our own family. Listening to the Dharma inspires us to seek the Buddha’s path, and transform sentient beings. With the heart of a Bodhisattva, we view old people as our parents, people of the same age as brothers and sisters, and young people as our children. Everyone is part of our family. We coexist together.
So, we are very happy after we physically help others. “Are you willing to do it again?”
“Yes, you had better invite me！”
This is our resolve. We will not thing, “This is dirty work. Don’t call on me again.” That is not the case. Instead we ask them to call on us again. This is because we gained Dharma-joy. Dharma entered our minds and we acted on it. This is the nourishment of Dharma-joy and meditative bliss. When we practice, do we think every day that we should not “crave the flesh and blood of sentient beings”? We cannot crave that taste again. Whether we talk about our nose or our mouth, we have to carefully purify our bodies and minds. Completely wash away this craving, this filth, so that your bodies and minds are pure and can feel Dharma-joy and meditative bliss. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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