Lecturer: Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Essence of Dharma Nurtures Wisdom-life (法髓潤慧命)
Each morning when I leave the dorm to enter the main hall, I automatically look above the foyer. There are always two birds sitting quietly there. Sometimes when I pass, they chirp softly, as if they were greeting me or saying good morning. Although they are birds and we do not know what they are trying to express, if we are mindful in covering with them, we will feel that they are greeting us. There is a sense of joy and diligence. Each day the two birds come here, while inside, a group of people also diligently come every day. They sit in front of me to listen to the Dharma. They also pay respect to the Buddha.
All beings possess consciousness. Other animals are all so loveable. How much more so are humans! Because of love, because we give out of love, we ask for nothing in return. All people contribute to one another. Teachers should be grateful to students. Without students, how could one be a teacher? Kind-hearted individuals should be grateful toward those who suffer and thus give them a chance to contribute. How do we show that we have a kind heart? We give out of love. We do not seek fame or benefit. We must be grateful; we can never be grateful enough. We learn compassion and wisdom among people.
Spiritual practice is not to benefit oneself. We must carry out our practice among people. If we can teach others, we must be grateful. If we can care for the ill and suffering, we also must be grateful. We must apply compassion and wisdom as we live and work in this world with others. When interacting with sentient beings, we should always be compassionate, wise and grateful. Then, we are joyful each day.
I hope every day that a stream of purity enters your heart. Then we can take the things we think about, together with the Buddha’s teachings and all of the experiences of our daily living and drop by drop bring this stream of purity into other people’s minds and purity them. May the essence of Dharma nurture our Wisdom-life.
With love, we give without expectations, practice compassion and wisdom among people and hope that a stream of purity enters people’s minds. May the essence of Dharma nurture our Wisdom-life.The 2,000-year-old wisdom of the Buddha has been passed down from generation to generation. In this present era, if we can take the Buddha’s teachings into our hearts and transform them into pure Dharma-essence, we can develop our Wisdom-life. Then, we can pass this essence on to help others.
In the same way, with a bone marrow transplant, a healthy person’s marrow can be given to the ill. After the transplant, new marrow will be produced. So, we transform purity into Dharma-essence. If this occurs universally, the Wisdom-life of all beings can be nurtured. We pass each day like this. Though tomorrow may be similar to today, will tomorrow arrive first or will today? Today, of course. But will tomorrow arrive first or will death? Only if we safely live through today will there be a tomorrow.
Life is so impermanent, and each day passes with the change of day and night. However, if we are engaged in spiritual practice, we must harmonize ourselves with space, time and relationships so that we do not live this life in vain.
We are very fortunate to be born human and to hear Buddha-Dharma, so we should have reverence for the Buddha-Dharma. Faith is the source of the Way, mother of virtue. Since we call ourselves Buddhists, we should always have faith in our teacher, Sakyamuni Buddha.
Faith requires respect. To do so, we must praise the virtue of the Buddha. His virtue is that, “With great loving-kindness and compassion, He feels for sentient beings. With great joy and equanimity, He assists them. Towards His auspicious appearance and light, we respectfully bow and take refuge with Him.”
We always recite these verses in the Repentance of the 88 Buddhas. So, we should praise the virtue of the Buddha. What virtues does the Buddha possess? Great loving-kindness and compassion. He feels for sentient beings and engages in spiritual practice for them, not for Himself. He sees beings of the Saha World filled with serious afflictions and constantly creating karma. Thus, they create grudges and enmity. The Buddha cannot bear to let beings of the Six Realms suffer through reincarnation. So, with great loving-kindness and no regrets, He continues to return to this world. He has great compassion with no complaints. Sentient beings are stubborn and hard to train. But the Buddha has great compassion without complaints. With great loving-kindness and compassion, there are no regrets or complaints. All that the Buddha seeks is for sentient beings to be happy and free from the bonds of ignorant afflictions. Regardless of how stubborn they are, He continues to return without complaint. This is because He feels for sentient beings. The Buddha “assists them with great joy and equanimity.” Great joy is willingness. Regardless of how stubborn or hard to train beings are, He is hopeful, willing and joyous as He walks among them. He gives Himself as an example of great equanimity for sentient beings. He gives His life for their benefit. No matter what negativities He faces in this world, He continues to give with compassion. This great equanimity is all to assist sentient beings.
“Towards His auspicious appearance and light.” We should know that all sentient beings are alive and possess consciousnesses. If a mosquito lands on me and I lift my hand, it will fly off. Whether one is trying to swat it or gesturing for it to leave, it flies off right away. Mosquitoes and other bugs are so tiny. There are bugs everywhere. There are bugs in the water, and if you move the water slightly, they start moving. These are also sentient beings. Though they are so small, they still possess consciousness, regardless of their physical form, their outer appearance. So, they are also called sentient beings.
The Buddha loves all sentient beings. In addition to humans, this includes all forms of life, regardless of their shape or size. He uses great joy and equanimity to guide and deliver all sentient beings. The Buddha began His spiritual practice immeasurable Kalpas ago. When the causes and conditions ripened, with a suitable time, place and people, the causes and conditions come together and the Buddha was born in India or Nepal, in a place called Kapilavastu, over 2000 years ago. He was born in a palace. In India there is a custom of religious teachers telling the fortunes of newborns. There was a sage named Asita, and many people said he could see the future and tell people’s fortunes.
The king asked him to tell the prince’s fortune. Upon meeting the prince, Asita cried. The king was worried. He had already waited so long for a son, and now Asita had cried when he met him. Would something unfortunate happen? Asita said to the king, “No, I cry for myself because I lack blessings. The prince is truly precious; when he grows up if he takes up politics, he will be a sagely king who benefits his people. If he resolves to take up spiritual practice, he will become the Great Enlightened one whom no one in this world can surpass. I am so old and do not have the blessings in this life to hear the teachings of wisdom of the Enlightened One. I am lamenting my lack of blessings. Nothing bad will happen to the prince.”
The king was both joyful and worried. He was happy that his son would be unsurpassed in the country and in the world. Yet he worried about him leaving home to
become a spiritual practitioner. So, he was joyful and worried.
In order to lead the prince to become ruler of the country, he could not be allowed to have thoughts of leaving home and taking up spiritual practice.
So, the king built three palaces where the whole year round it felt like spring. In the winter, there was no sense of cold. In the autumn, there was no feeling of decay. And in the summer, it still was nice and cool. Within these palaces, it always felt like spring.
The king was very mindful. During that time, the prince received the love of this father as well as the love of all his people.
However, could such palaces constrain the wisdom of the Great Enlightened One? When he ventured outside and saw the changes of the four seasons, he comprehended impermanence. When he saw people suffering from birth, aging, illness and death, he made a discovery. His sharp awareness prompted him to leave home. He was born with a very dignified appearance, but after engaging in spiritual practice, He manifested the 32 Marks, and was even more dignified. As He worked among people to guide them, they naturally felt joyful upon seeing Him. Sentient beings were joyful to see the Buddha and were willing to follow His teachings.
So He had an “auspicious appearance and light.” With a dignified appearance, the Buddha created good affinities with the sentient beings He guided. So, this is all praising the Buddha’s wisdom and dignified appearance.
Therefore, “we respectfully bow and take refuge with Him.” We must constantly take refuge with the Buddha; it is not something we do only on one day. Not only do we take refuge, we return our lives and Wisdom –lives to reside in the wisdom of the Buddha. So, we must resolve to always respect and take refuge with the Buddha. There are so many different Sutras because sentient beings have different dispositions. Beings are stubborn and require the Dharma to
repeatedly remind them. So, we should be patient and mindful and Immerse ourselves in the Dharma. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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