Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Eliminate Dust to Reveal the Light (真如性顯 塵去光現)
Date: April. 12, 2013
Enter True Suchness via the proper path. Faithfully accept and follow the Bodhisattva-path. Awaken faith in the undefiled Great Love of the world. With love and compassion, save all sentient beings.
This says to us that since we believe in the Buddha-Dharma and choose to engage in spiritual practice, we must, “enter True Suchness via the proper path.” In these past few days, I have been speaking about faith. Faith is very important. Faith in what? Faith in the Truth, in True Suchness. So truth is indistinguishable from True Suchness. True Suchness is True Dharma, and we enter it through the correct route. Thus we enter True Suchness via the proper path and faithfully accept and uphold the teachings. Now that we have faith and have chosen the right path, we are receiving the Buddha’s teachings. So, we must have faith, accept this proper guidance, and put these teachings into practice by walking this broad Bodhisattva-path. Next we should mindfully awaken faith in the world. Once we have faith, we should then inspire others. So the Earth Treasury Sutra discusses the states of saved, being saved and not yet saved. Those who are already saved must quickly guide those with the affinities who are waiting to be saved. So, we must strive to awaken faith in the world. Those who are saved help those being saved, then they can all save the not yet saved. This is awakening faith, continuing the Dharma-lineage. We follow the direction of this path, continuously guide others and pass down teachings. What we come to spread in this world is Great Love, which is selfless and undefiled. With love and compassion, we can save all sentient beings. To learn Buddhism, we must walk the Bodhisattva-path, enter the essence of Buddha-Dharma to accept the Buddha’s Dharma-lineage of wisdom. So we must walk the Middle Way. The Middle Way is the True Dharma, as in the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra, the complete and perfect Dharma of the Middle Way. If we do not first establish faith, we cannot smoothly walk onto this broad path, this perfect True Path. Therefore it is written in the Sutras, “Faith is the source of the Way, mother of merits. It nurtures all roots of goodness.” All goodness grows from the root. What root? The Root of Faith. Earlier I talked about the Five Spiritual Roots and the Five Powers. Only when we have fundamental faith can we make strong vows.Only with faith and vows can we take action.Our faith must be Right Faith, so Right Faith is the source of the Path and merits.All things begin with faith. I often tell you that merits and virtues are cultivated inwardly, practiced outwardly.Only people with faith can accept the true Dharma.
We must cultivate spiritually and strengthen our will.Our faith must be strong to work with other people.Practicing internally and externally creates merits and virtues.
“Such is the true nature of sentient beings; it is buried and hidden under afflictions.”We all have a Tathagata-nature equal to the Buddha’s.But we are unenlightened beings, so we are continuously tarnished by external defilements.Because we have many interpersonal disputes, many desires and afflictions, we give rise to delusions and create karma.In this way, our intrinsic Tathagata-nature is constantly beings buried and hidden.So we have always been in the Three Realms.We have often spoken of the desire realm.There is no need for a profound explanation; we can just speak of our desires.When our roots, our senses, interact with external conditions, our minds give rise to ignorance and desires.Consider all the shapes and colors in the world; our Six Roots seek to connect with those external objects and conditions.When our Roots converge with Dusts, with those objects, how can we be at peace and not give rise to greed and thoughts?We should be free of greed and thoughts, but we also need to have kind thoughts, and give with loving-kindness and compassion.Not only must we not become attached, we must be able to let go.
Besides overcoming attachments, we must also give.This is how we transcend the Desire Realm.
We can learn the workings of nature so that we will not give rise to thoughts,.Which lead to afflictions?Since this is the case, if we can see through form and desire, naturally our afflicted views and thoughts can become tranquil and clear, and we can make vows as vast as the endless void.When we do not give rise to thoughts, we are in a state of tranquility and clarity.
If we can maintain such a state even in the Formless Realm, we can transcend the Three Realms.
When our Buddha-nature manifests, Dust is eliminated and light will shine.We all have Tathagata-nature equal to the Bdudha’s.Originally the light of our Wisdom shone brightly, so why are we in the dark spiritually?This is due to Dust.We are buried under Dust.So much ignorance, so much accumulated Dust has covered us.This happens because in the Three Realms, thoughts of desire and objects with form have confused our minds.Or perhaps our thinking is not correct, and so on, so our minds are confused.This is like being in a dusty haze.This Dust, this accumulated Dust, has defiled and buried our intrinsic nature.
So as part of our spiritual practice, we work hard to clear away that dusty haze in our minds so our True Suchness is not buried.Naturally, if we can sweep away the Dust, we can find our intrinsic nature, we can find our True Suchness, and we can find that radiant Buddha-nature within.
“Let our true nature manifest. When Dust is eliminated, light will shine.”
Such is the true nature of sentient beings: buried and hidden under Dust, submerged in the Three Realms. To be freed from the Three Realms, we must let our true nature manifest. When Dust is eliminated, light will shine.
Therefore, “sages expound the Dharma to reveal Suchness. Since the Buddha’s time and afterwards, all masters and sages have worked to reveal everyone’s intrinsic Buddha-nature. Whether they expound Sutras or write discourses, it is to help everyone understand how to prevent afflictions from arising and obscuring the mind. so all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, patriarchs, and sages expound the Dharma solely to manifest our suchness, which is our intrinsic Buddha-nature. Outside of this true nature, everything is illusory and false. Only the Suchness of this innate Buddha-nature is “true” and real. So we believe in the original nature of True Suchness.
Sages expound Dharma to reveal Suchness. Outside of Suchness, everything is illusory and false. Only what is such is true, thus is it called True Suchness.
The Buddha and sentient beings have the same intrinsic nature. We are the same as Him; there is no difference. So “the true nature of cause and effect is indistinguishable from Suchness.” If we are truly practicing, we can return to our True Suchness, our intrinsic nature.True Suchness is a cause. If we want to return to our pure intrinsic nature, what should we do? This depends on causes and conditions.
Since, in the past, this pure seed was obscured by external circumstances, now we must follow these conditions to return to that state of purity. How do we return to our True Suchness, our intrinsic nature? By eliminating delusive afflictions, these delusions of views and thinking. If we eliminate all these subtle afflictions caused by deluded views and thinking, we can eliminate all greed, hatred and ignorance, and return to the intrinsic nature of our True Suchness. So we must clear away this dusty haze for the light of our True Suchness to manifest and shine through.
Therefore, we speak of the true nature of cause and effect, which is True Suchness. Earlier I spoke of the true nature of True Suchness. That is no different. No different from what? From the True Suchness of Buddha-nature. So, Buddhas sentient beings and minds are the same. Our minds may return to a state of purity. So mental activities are not different from this. From what? From True Suchness, intrinsic nature. So we must always mindfully discover our True Suchness, our intrinsic nature.
The True Nature of cause and effect is no different from Suchness. All things in our mental states are also thus.
There are many inspiring stories in the Buddhist Sutras. For instance, there were two boys in Magadha who were very good friends. These young friends played together. One day, these two boys were piling up sand. They said, “Let’s make a city. Let’s make a tower and a bridge. Their thoughts were pure. They wanted to make a castle, a tower, a bridge, and a road. They wanted to make many things out of sand.
Suddenly, the Buddha led a group of Bhiksus before these children. They raised their heads, saw such a dignified group and the Buddha’s auspicious and luminous appearance. Naturally, they reverently felt a sense of joy. Then they grabbed a handful of sand, quickly made the action of stir-frying rice or noodles, and quickly made an offering to the Buddha. They imitated the action of cooking quickly, then held the sand in both hands, and very reverently offered it to the Buddha. The Buddha smiled as He extended His alms-bowl to accept it.
Ananda saw this and quickly seized the opportunity to request a teaching “Venerable Buddha, there must be a reason for your smile, please give us a teaching.”The Buddha replied, “I am happy that these two innocent boys are so reverent, especially Jaya. Seeing the sincerity of this child, this genuine selflessness and pure aspiration, I believe that in the future a benevolent king will appear in Magadha. He will help the Buddha-Dharma prosper, and support and protect the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha-Dharma will thrive during this period.”
Indeed, after 100 years passed, such a king appeared in this country. In the recorded history of India, this was 100 years after the Buddha entered Parinivana. The Buddha-Dharma greatly prospered in that place. After the Buddha enter Parinivana, the king also built many stupas. King Ashoka was the most reverent Buddhist king. He also made offerings to the Three Treasures and built many temples. After the Buddha entered Parinivana, the built 84,000 towers for the Buddha’s sarira. Later many archaeologists discovered stupas and sarira of the Buddha from King Ashoka’s era. This is true story.
Everyone, a pure and selfless thought with faith can yield such great merits and virtues. The sincerity and reverence of offering a handful of sand to the Buddha differs greatly from decades of material offerings that come from minds filled with afflicted prayers. Such unconditional reverence and pure innocence are the same as intrinsic nature of the Buddha. Therefore [this boy’s] vows were fulfilled and he passed down the Buddha-Dharma. This is faith.
Everyone, in learning Buddhism, we must give rese to that reverence. We must be pure and undefiled; that is indeed the teaching of True Suchness. So everyone, please be reverent and mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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