Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Eliminate Delusions to See Truth (破除迷妄 開真實知見)
Date: October. 04, 2013
We must learn the Buddha’s Way with great respect and deep reverence. In every Dharma-assembly, before the Buddha expounded the Dharma, many Bodhisattvas, bhiksus, Arhats, as well as the eight classes of Dharma-protectors surrounded Him and made offerings, scattered heavenly flowers, burned heavenly incense, [presented] heavenly food, heavenly utensils and so on. So before the Buddha expounded the sutras everyone made an effort to make such tangible offerings. But reverence and praise from the heart [represent] greater earnestness. They eagerly expressed their request and prayed that the Buddha could reveal the Dharma. He had long held in His heart and give that teaching to everyone. So, their minds expressed the same thing. With the same mindset and voice, they praised the Buddha and asked the Buddha to expound the Dharma. Before inviting the Buddha to expound the Dharma, they first praised Him by saying, “Supremely great and greatly awakened is the great lord of sages, undefiled, uncontaminated and unattached.” Their hearts united in this praise of the Buddha’s virtues. His virtues are great! Immensely great. Since the Buddha is the Great Enlightened One of the Universe, His greatness is vast and boundless. However immense the universe is, the virtues of the Buddha are just as immense. Therefore, the words “supremely great” represent this very heartfelt praise. “Supremely great and greatly awakened is the great lord of sages” is praising the Buddha’s virtues. Indeed, this expressed their deepest and most sincere respect toward the Buddha and His character.
“Greatly awakened is the great lord of sages.” His mind must be “undefiled, uncontaminated and unattached.” His mind must already be very pure. If His mind was not pure, He could not become the Great Enlightened One. Therefore, His mind was very pure. So, we need to understand the meaning of “great enlightenment,” which refers to “destroying delusions from Beginningless Time, unlocking true views and knowledge to attain non-arising patience.” This is the enlightened state. If we want to reach it， we must destroy our delusions. One ignorant thought creates the Three Subtleties. Therefore, unenlightened beings like us developed greed, anger and ignorance out of our many deluded thoughts. We unenlightened beings can still attain Buddhahood, but we must work hard to destroy delusions from Beginningless Time. In order to attain a great awakening, we need to completely eliminate our ignorance to unlock true knowledge and views.
A thorough understanding of the true principles of all things in the universe, of people, matters, things and objects, is called true knowledge and views.All things in the universe, of people, matters, things and objects, is called true knowledge and views.
The views and understanding of us unenlightened beings may not be true.Only the principle of things perceived by enlightened, holy ones are true.Therefore, right now we need to learn to discern the principles of physical appearances in this realm of material existence.
Furthermore, we must thoroughly understand the origins of life.We also need to self-reflect and realize why our minds are always wavering and can never be settled.
Our thoughts go through states of arising, abiding, changing and ceasing.This is our state as unenlightened beings.Therefore, we start by learning how to become enlightened.Only when we can “destroy delusions from Beginningless Time” will we be able to “unlock true views and knowledge to attain non-arising patience”.
So, “based on principles of true emptiness there is intrinsically no arising and ceasing”.
We need to understand that all things in the world are empty.Yesterday, we experienced many things and spent time on dealing with matters and objects.
Can we actually bring any of that into today?Time just passes; it is insubstantial, so we cannot hold on to it.It slips past us, so we call it “yesterday” or “the past”.
Time that has passed is completely Empty; we cannot bring even a minute, a second, into today.
However, the Buddha’s teachings also tell us not to cling to emptiness.[Some wonder] if they did something yesterday but are empty-handed today, what is the point of doing things?[There is] wondrous existence.The space you swept yesterday is much cleaner today.If you had not cleaned it, it would certainly be a very dirty place today.
The same principle applies to true emptiness and wondrous existence.Although things are [inherently] empty, every day, we need to make an effort to keep them clean.
This also applies to our minds.
[Being] “supremely great and greatly awakened” requires great effort on our part.
And the Great Lord of Sages is an honorable epithet for the Buddha.We revere the Buddha and praise His virtues.In our minds, the Buddha’s virtues are supreme and unsurpassed and make Him the great lord of sages.The Chapter on Skillful Means of the Lotus Sutra also calls Him “Great Sage, Sun of Wisdom”.This means the radiance of His mind can illuminate the appearances and principles of all things in the world.This is what the Great Lord of Sages [can do].
His radiance is illuminating, “uncontaminated and unattached”.Uncontaminated refers to profound discerning wisdom.Our minds, after afflictions and ignorance are eliminated, will be uncontaminated and unattached.If our minds are still contaminated and attached, we cannot attain great enlightenment.We must be uncontaminated and unattached for profound discerning wisdom to manifest.
What is the profound discerning wisdom?The mirror of the mind.If it is very clean and bright, we can then see everything clearly.The Buddha, in His wisdom, can already observe the true principles of all things in the world, even the distances and the environments of the stars in the universe.This is the profound discerning wisdom.
A holy one who has attained great enlightenment must surely reach a state of no contamination for profound discerning wisdom to manifest.With no contamination, there are no attachments “uncontaminated and unattached: a Tathagata is unattached and thus attains supreme, perfect, universal enlightenment. ” This is Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
The state of Buddha's wisdom is incredibly wondrous. Therefore, we say, “Supremely great and greatly awakened is the great lord of sages, undefiled, uncontaminated and unattached”. This is the Buddha's spiritual state, which has true emptiness and wondrous existence, and is the uncontaminated mirror in His mind. His intrinsic, profound discerning wisdom. This is the state of the Buddha and His wisdom. If we can attain Buddhahood, everything will be pure and transparent, especially the subtle beauty of our states of mind. This is really something people yearn for. Don't we Buddhist practitioners aspire to this state?
However, what method can we use? Actually, the method is to be genuine. With a true sense of reverence and respect, we can steadfastly accept the Buddha's teachings. We must interact with people to understand the source of their sufferings, so we can find a way to eliminate the states of confusion, suffering and defilement. This is true Root Wisdom, which is the profound discerning wisdom. So, we need to be mindful.
Next, let us come back to the Lotus Sutra. I have mentioned previously that a dialog to introduce Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddha. This name represented a very long process and a very large number of Buddhas. 20,000 Buddhas had the same name.
The last Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddha had eight sons who became monastics. [In that Dharma-assembly］ there was a Bodhisattva named Wondrous Light who was to pass down the Lotus Sutra. After bestowing predictions of Buddhahood, Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddha entered Parinirvana at midnight. Then the Dharma had to be passed on The Dharma-lineage, these teachings, needed to continue. During this time, Wondrous Light Bodhisattva's 800 disciples, which included the eight princes, attained Buddhahood one after another. Among those 800 disciples was a Bodhisattva named Seeker of Fame. When Manjusri Bodhisattva reached this point in his narration, “Maitreya, it should be know, could Wondrous Light Bodhisattva have been anyone else? I, myself, was him. And Seeker of Fame Bodhisattva was you, yourself!”
At Sakyamuni Buddha's Dharma-assembly, Manjusri Bodhisattva began to tell Maitreya that he should know that Wondrous Light Bodhisattva was not anyone else but him, the present Manjusri Bodhisattva. So, “It was me, myself”. By saying “me,” Manjusri Bodhisattva refereed to himself, “And Seeker of Fame Bodhisattva was you, yourself”. He told Maitreya that the Bodhisattva who craved offerings of wealth was him. “Look, you were one of the 800 disciples of Wondrous Light Bodhisattva. At that time, I had also accepted the task of passion on the Dharma-lineage. I have been handing down the Dharma all along, and disciples I taught have attained Buddhahood one after another. At that time, you were still caught up in seeking fame.” So, we need to be very vigilant.
Though we are all engaging in spiritual practice, respectfully making offerings to all Buddhas and planning roots of goodness, if we seek recognition or offerings of wealth, attaining Buddhahood will drag on for a long time.Look, after such a long time, [Maitreya] was still in the rank of Bodhisattvas. He would not attain Buddhahood until after Sakyamuni Buddha. Moreover, Sakyamuni Buddha had to bestow a prediction on him. This makes us aware that we must diligent and earnest in our practice. If we have eliminated afflictions, why would we still seek fame and fortune?
Therefore, if we still seek them, we cannot eliminate afflictions. The Lotus Sutra then stated, “The auspicious signs now seen do not differ [those in the past], and so, as I surmise, today the Tathagata is about to speak a Mahayana Sutra called the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower. This teaching of the Bodhisattva-path is guarded and retained by the Buddha.”
Manjusri Bodhisattva had uncovered the answer. “I was Wondrous Light Bodhisattva. You were Seeker of Fame Bodhisattva.” Since we aspire to engage in spiritual practice, we must do so seriously. We must recognize that when Sakyamuni Buddha was radiating light and manifesting auspicious signs, He was about to start expounding a Mahayana sutra, namely, the Wondrous Dharma Lotus Sutra. He began to give teachings, to teach the Bodhisattva-path.This teaching had been long guarded and retained by the Buddha, which meant that He had protected it He could remember this Wondrous Dharma forever.
“Infinite Buddhas all guarded and retained these thoughts, not just Sakyamuni Buddha. All Budhas share the same path.”
Look，Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddha was the same, and so was Burning Lamp Buddha. Every single Buddha shares the same path, which to come to this world to teach the Bodhisattva-path. This was His original intent. So, “Infinite Buddhas all guarded and retained these thoughts.” They were all the same. The thoughts they guarded were wondrous, Mahayana teachings.
To guard and retain: preventing invasion by external evils is to guard. Enabling the arising of internal goodness is to retain.
So, “preventing invasion by external by external evils.” These are exceptional and holy teachings, so, they all protected them very well. All Buddhas guarded this Dharma very well and absolutely did not allow external evils, which are evil thoughts and evil views, to contaminate these teachings. So, since this Mahayana teaching is very exceptional, and is truly a pure, wondrous Dharma, external evils must not be allowed to disturb this supreme wondrous Dharma. Then there can be “arising of internal goodness,” which is “retaining.” Protecting it so no external evils can invade allow internal goodness to constantly arise.
So, we all need to maintain this mindset and nurture our wisdom, the profound discerning wisdom. This is called our wisdom-life. We need to continually grow our wisdom-life. This “enables the arising of internal goodness.” This is how we protect our minds. We cannot allow external evil knowledge, evil views and evil things into our minds. We must also continuously give rise to our inner good thoughts. This is the Bodhisattva-path.
So, every day as we interact with people and our thoughts stir, we must guard and retain [these teachings]. The Buddha retained and guard. We must also protect our minds so that evil thoughts and views will not enter our minds. Only a pure mind can accept the pure and great teachings so that our wisdom-life can grow. So everyone, please diligently be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
首頁 
