Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Seek the Dharma with Pure Mind and Body (乞法度眾身心清淨)
Date: September. 27, 2013
Is your mind very tranquil? Our minds may enable us to attain infinite merits and virtues. Once our minds become confused, we will create all kinds of karma. The mind is so important! Earlier I already said that, starting from the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, the Buddha’s original intent was to help everyone reach the state of tranquility and clarity and the perfection of precepts, Samadhi, wisdom, liberation and liberated views and knowledge. As I have continuously explained before, this is all about the mind. When we use our mind to take action, it is called “making an effort”. Making an effort to put something into action is a virtue. What we need to put into practice are things that will benefit this world. To achieve inconceivable merits and virtues is impossible for one person alone. We need a lot of people to accomplish this. Therefore, in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, when the names of bhiksus were mentioned, Sariputra was first. The great teaching the Buddha intended to give can only [be received] by one with great wisdom. Moreover, the Sutra of Infinite Meanings is the essence of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, Sariputra assumed a very important role in both the Lotus Sutra and the Sutra of Infinite Meanings.
At this point in the sutra, the names of these incredible bhiksus who are about to attain Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi are mentioned.
[The list] begins with Sariputra, of great wisdom, Maudgalyayana, of spiritual powers, Subhuti, of wisdom-life, Maha-Katyayana and Purna Maitrayani-putra.
There are still many more after this. Let me first explain the term “bhiksu”.
Bhiksus are called almsmen. They seek the Dharma from the Tathagata to nurture their wisdom-life. They seek food from ordinary people to nourish their physical life.
This is our essence. How do we engage in spiritual practice? What kind of person can be considered one who engages in proper spiritual practice? What is the purpose of spiritual practice? To seek knowledge and understanding. We need to ask the Buddha for the Dharma, for the teachings. However, the Buddha passed away over 2000 years ago. So, from whom can we seek the Dharma now? We still seek the Dharma from the Buddha. Although the Buddha’s physical body had entered perfect extinction and He had finished a lifetime of teaching and transforming, His Dharmakaya is still in the world. We respect the Buddha as if He is still alive. If we truly respect the Buddha, whether or not He is in the world does not matter. So, we need to feel as if the Buddha is still alive, and reverently and respectfully seek His teachings.Only be doing this can our wisdom-life grows.
Life follows the laws of nature and lasts for only a period of time.
The Buddha had a limited lifespan, so we ordinary people certainly do as well.We are the same!We are subject to the laws of nature and will one day age and wither.However, even though the Buddha entered extinction, His Dharmakaya, His Dharma-body still thrives in this world.Our wisdom-life is our Dharmakaya.The Buddha had attained enlightenment, thus His is called the Dharmakaya.Since we have not attained enlightenment, we need to depend on the Dharma to nourish and nurture our wisdom-life and awaken our intrinsic Buddha-nature.
[We are] like seedlings.When a seed encounters many favorable conditions, it sprouts.Fertile soil, nutrients and other conditions must be present for a seed to grow successfully.Similarly, after we have accepted the Dharma, we cannot just know about it, we must also carry it out and apply it to truly experience it.
[For example,] if we feel hungry and there is abundant food before us, we do not become full by complaining of hunger.
We must ingest that abundance of food into our stomachs to have sufficient nutrition.It is the same with the Dharma, which is the food that nourishes our wisdom-life.That is why we “seek the Dharma from the Tathagata to nurture our wisdom-life”.And toward others?”They seek food from ordinary people to nourish their physical life.”
We the Buddha was alive, to make everyone equal and eliminate everyone’s arrogance, every day He went from house to house to beg for alms.The Buddha had a purpose for doing this.When the Buddha’s community was just established, other people were not aware of this new religion.Brahmanism was the mainstream religion in.India at that time.Did they know of the existence of the Buddha?No.So, once the Sangha had been established, the Buddha then asked them all to go door to door to beg for alms.
This showed other people what kind of spiritual practitioners they were, and then they could tell those people, “A Buddha has emerged in this world and now we follow Him in our spiritual practice.”Walking on the streets of a town or a village to beg for alms from house to house every day is called “conditions for transformation,” or “promoting the Dharma”.This was in the era of the Buddha, and He had His reasons for doing this.
In the age we live in now, we do not need to do this.We need to focus on seeking the Dharma to nourish and support our wisdom-life.We must accumulate various causes and confines to benefit all beings.This is why we need to be very grateful for and cherish the present moment.
Bhiksus can also be called “demon-scare” or “evil-destroyer” or “life-purifier” these are three other definitions”.
Everyone already knows about “demon-scare.When one becomes a monastic, one intends to transcend the Three Realms and escape the control of demons.However, for spiritual practitioners to break away from demons requires great effort.
Indeed, demons do not exist outside of our bodies.Realm demons all resides in our minds because greed, anger and ignorance are our mental demons.Therefore, we all need to be focused and make an effort to prevent our mental demons from disturbing us.We cannot [allow this].So, we need to scare demons and use our righteousness to subdue them.This way, demons will fear us.This is what it means to be “demon-scarer”.
The other name is “evil-destroyer”. Will spiritual practitioners still commit evils? They will not. Once all evils have been eliminated from our minds, any tempting evil deeds or thoughts that may lead to bad behavior are completely destroyed when we encounter them.
The most significant name is “life-purifier”. We need to have a pure life and live among others to help them. This is called “life-purifier”. When we help others without expecting anything in return, we are being a “life-purifier”. I often tell everyone, “Not only do we give unconditionally, we must also express our gratitude”. This is how we can live among others in a clean and pure way.
Among the Buddha’s disciples, Great Wisdom Sariputra and Maudgalyayana are known by all. How they became bhiksus is a very interesting story. Sariputra and Maudgalyayana were already very good friends, as well as spiritual friends who led disciples in spiritual practice. They both practiced a branch of Brahmanism. As Sariputra engaged in spiritual practice, his teacher grew old and when he was about to pass away, Sariputra was by his side. With his last breath, the teacher uttered, “How strange it is! Why can’t people see through and overcome their desires?” Sariputra immediately grasped the opportunity to ask, “Teacher, are there still contradictions that you cannot resolve in your final moment?”
The teacher then told a story, “There is a king of a small country who loved his wife dearly. His wife loved him very much, too. The king became seriously ill, and the one who grieved the most was his wife. Throughout her life, she had been most dependent on the king. Therefore, which one fell ill, the other became tormented. After the king died, as he was being cremated, she leapt into the fire and immolated herself.”
After telling the story, his teacher sighed and said, “How sad and lamentable it is that we are unable to transcend our passions”. Sariputra again asked, “Teacher, you have not traveled recently, how do you know these things?” The teacher then said, “I do not need to leave this place to see”. Then, he stopped breathing. Upon hearing this at that moment, Sariputra was very shocked, and he thought, “It turns out that my teacher really had spiritual powers. But why didn’t he pass them on to me?” He began to feel very depressed and regretful. So he thought, “I need to look for another teacher”. Therefore, he worked hard on seeking the way.
One day on the road, he saw a spiritual practitioner who walked serenely and had a dignified appearance and wondered, “How does this person make others so joyous, as if they are seeing the first rays of dawn?” So, Sariputra could not control himself and respectfully asked him, “What practices are you cultivating? What system of religion are you practicing? Who is your teacher?”When this man, Bhiksu Asvajit, heard Sariputra ask him these questions so earnestly, he said,
“Everything arises from causes and conditions. The Buddha, the great Sramana, always teachers such.”
Just by hearing these recited verses, Sariputra suddenly felt as if nectar was poured over his head. His whole being felt happy and peaceful. Even though Bhiksu Asvajit had not practiced the Buddha’s teachings for a long time, he was actually able to share teachings that came from his teacher’s great wisdom. Wasn’t this the mental problem that his teacher was unable to explain before passing away?
Bhiksu Asvajit’s teacher had the great wisdom to speak these words. What kind of a person was this? Sariputra became very joyous. He asked for the current location of the Buddha and immediately went to find Maudgalyayana. This was because they had an agreement “If I can find the best teachings, I will tell you. If you find it, you must tell me”. For this reason, Sariputra rushed to tell venerable Maudgalyayana about the person he met and how the verse he heard made him very joyous.
Maudgalyayana heard Sariputra repeat the words, “Everything arises from causes and conditions, The Buddha, the great Sramana, always teaches such”. Just upon hearing these words, the hairs in the pores all over ［Maudgalyayana’s］ entire body stood up. One was joyous and so was the other. They felt that this was a great teaching and that this Great Enlightened One must become their teacher, so they should bring their disciples to take refuge with the Great Enlightened One, Sakyamuni Budha. This was how they came to take refuge. They rushed to visit the Buddha at His abode and expressed their intentions to take refuge with Him.
“Sariputra and Maudgalyayana were known and recognized among all of the Buddha’s disciples. Their causes and conditions for becoming monastics: They were originally non-Buddhists. When ［Sariputra’s］ teacher died, he wandered to seek the Path. On his journey, he saw Bhiksu Asvajit’s serene and peaceful demeanor and asked about his teacher”.
I am explaining the Lotus Sutra at the moment, but I want to take a moment to discuss the meaning of being a bhiksu. We need to understand that bhiksus must have a spirit of seeking teachings. We must always make an effort to seek the Dharma and be grateful to live in this era. By giving unconditionally, we are purifying lives. We can seek the Dharma, have pure minds and bodies and can benefit all people. If there are no evil thoughts in our minds, naturally, we can scare demons. If we do not commit evil, we are destroying evil. This is a good environment for us to engage in spiritual practice. We just need to focus our minds on the Dharma.
Sariputra only heard the two sentences: “Everything arises from causes and conditions ceases because of causes and conditions”. As soon as Sariputra heard this, Bhiksu Asvajit quickly made it clear that the words were not his, but often said by the Buddha, the great Sramana. When they heard “the Buddha, the great Sramana”, these two sages, one with wisdom, one with spiritual powers, were able to give rise to a sense of great joy. So the virtue ［attained by］a spiritual practitioner can bring joy to others just from someone describing this teachings or introducing him. These are the merits and virtues of practice. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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