Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Teaching the Dharma to Transform Bodhisattvas (說法化菩薩)
Date: April.24. 2015
“Create a field of blessings with the pure actions of the body. Form good karmic connections with honest and genuine speech from the mouth. [Perfect] precepts, Samadhi and wisdom with a mind focused on the Path. Reach the land of calm illumination [by cultivating] two Three’s and one Four.”
This is what I want to share with everyone. What exactly is spiritual practice? Spiritual practice is all about our body, speech and mind. This practice takes place in our interactions and in the way we deal with various matters. If the way we treat other people and all the actions we take are wholesome, we will create good karma. Benefiting others, of course, creates blessings. But as we interact with people and handle matters, while we may look fine on the outside, inside, our minds may be filled with afflictions. Someone may appear to be a kind person, but it may be that his heart is filled with hate, jealousy, afflictions and so forth. Then his behavior cannot be considered wholesome.
To benefit others, our intent must be to create blessings; we cannot only appear to create them. Only then can we form good karmic connections. Those good connections are fields of blessings. [We must be mindful of] our actions because our body has the ability to do many things, our Six Roots are all a part of our body. When our actions are pure, the karma our body creates will be blessings. When we engage in spiritual practice among people, we encounter various kinds of impurities. People’s perspectives bring impurity, their afflictions bring impurity and their bodies also bring impurity. This gives rise to much impurity in our lives, which add to the defilements of this era. These are the Five Turbidities. Though we are physically in their midst, it is still possible to maintain the purity of our minds and the purity of our actions.
So, when we go among people, we create fields of blessings. We can sow the seeds of love into the minds of sentient beings and act as the farmers of their fields. This is how we keep our actions pure. As we interact with people, we are constantly expressing ourselves and communicating.
For instance, speaking to you right now is how I express myself. I am sharing with you how we should take physical action in this world and how to benefit people as we interact with them. All this must be expressed through words. So, speaking good words and teaching the True Dharma are accomplished through speech. If we are going to speak, we must be genuine and sincere. We must live up to the things we say and our words must be true. Wasn’t the Buddha like this? What He taught us sentient beings was all to help us to resolve the problems of this world. To solve the problems of sentient beings, the Buddha taught from the depths of His heart.
It is just that sentient beings are foolish. When listening to the Dharma, [they say,] “Very good, after I hear this, I will remember it, and when I see others, I will also tell them, ‘Such have I heard.’” People who hear it will also be very happy. “I am so grateful. So-and-so has truly guided me and thus formed a good karmic connection with me. I feel very grateful to him.” When it comes to our words, people may accept what we say and give us praise and express their gratitude to us, but what about our own minds? Are our minds in accord with the Path? “With a mind focused on the Path” we will cultivate precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.
If the teachings go in one ear and out the other, or if we are just listening to satisfy others, that would really be a pity.If our minds are not oriented towards the Path, if our bodies and minds are not actually pure, we may appear to be engaging in spiritual practice, but in our minds we are not actually cultivating precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.If that is the case, it would be very sad!
We must remember the “”two Three’s and one Four.What are the two Three’s [and one Four]?The three evils of the body, the three of the mind and the four of speech.Isn’t this right?The three evils of the body are killing, stealing and sexual misconduct.When it comes to killing, we spiritual practitioners all think, “I’m very pure; I engage in spiritual practice and I don’t kill anything. When I see an ant I would not think to kill it, so I don’t commit any killing.”
However, we are constantly destroying the life of objects.
As part of our spiritual practice, we must cherish everything.
I often say, “If you are not in the room, why don’t you turn the light off?”Think about how one person wasting electricity consumers and kills something that can be used by others.In this way, we are killing the life of objects.
In addition, take paper, for example.We can actually write on the back of this paper.If we are wasteful with paper, that is as if we are killing it.Everyone holds a cell phone in their hands.Nowadays, everyone is constantly looking down.What are they looking at?
Things that disrupt our resolve to practice.If we pass on one sentence of negative speech, we are transmitting afflictions.
Additionally, by constantly replacing our phones, we are destroying the life of many objects.So, can anyone truly say they are pure?
Following what is popular, people constantly replace what they have.They do not cherish things at all.Sometimes, overuse can cause conflicts.This is very common, too.
This not only destroys material, tangible objects, but is killing people’s wisdom-life as well!.Karma from spreading conflict is even more severe than that of killing tangible objects.So, for our actions to be pure and to constantly create fields of blessings, we must start with our minds.
The three evils of the mind are greed, anger and ignorance.
Ignorance is particularly [dangerous].Clearly, we want to engage in spiritual practice, but we cannot uphold the precepts.Clearly, we want to engage in spiritual practice, but our minds cannot settle down in Samadhi.
Think about it, these three evils of the mind hurt not only our own wisdom-life, but also the wisdom-life of others.Ignorance creates greed and anger, so it is the source of delusion.This is one of the “two Three’s”.
Then there are four evils of speech, lies, flattery, gossip and harsh words.Which of these is not spread though our speech?These four trouble people’s minds.These four agitate societies.These four destroy families.These four disrupt organizations.
Think about it, our body, speech and mind, the two Three’s and one Four, are all ways to create negative karma.By doing the opposite, we can create fields of blessings and form good karmic connections.By cultivating precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, our minds can “reach the land of calm illumination”.
If we can maintain the purity of our body and do not kill, steal or commit sexual misconduct, then we will not create negative karma.
Our minds, in addition to upholding precepts, can also be in Samadhi; this is wisdom.If our speech is proper and we guard against the four evils of speech, we can help others develop their wisdom-life, turn the Dharma-wheel, benefit society and form good karmic connections.These are the four good deeds of speech.
If our minds are focused on the Path, our precepts, Samadhi and wisdom will be flawless.Think about this.Isn’t this state “the land of calm illumination”?
Our pure wisdom-life is our Buddha-nature.Look at Tzu Chi volunteers.Everyone is willing to do good deeds; they treated everyone equally and give out of love.If everyone can be like this, wouldn’t the Earth be a very peaceful place?The Buddha comes to the human realm for this one great cause, to help people to purify their minds.Don’t we all engage in spiritual practice by accepting the Buddha’s teachings, putting them into practice and then transmitting the Buddha’s wisdom in the world?
Earlier we talked about how the teachings of all Buddhas are “for the sake of teaching the Bodhisattva Way”. The Dharma taught by all Buddhas is solely for transforming sentient beings. Next, the sutra text states, “However, Sariputra, I shall now make use of analogies again in order to clarify what I mean, for all those who are wise can attain understanding through parables”.
If people have wisdom, they can achieve understanding from causes and conditions, analogies and expressions. Otherwise, when the Dharma is taught, they would just be listening, and the speakers would just be talking. Then despite having heard what was taught, they would be unable to put it into practice. If so, no matter how much Dharma they listen to, it will all be for nothing. The speakers would also be wasting their breath. All this would be “empty”, without any substance.
We must also constantly reflect on ourselves. “Have I violated this rule?” “Have I said something like this?” “Did this kind of thought arise in my mind?” If the answer is yes, we must immediately repent. Then we can avoid our minds being disturbed, which would cause discord in our relationships. So, we must all be mindful.
The Buddha pointed to Sariputra and said, “I taught him much Dharma, but he did not understand the principles, so I used causes and conditions and analogies”.
“After Sakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment, over many decades, for one great cause. He drew analogies from various causes and conditions. To teach about the Five Turbidities. He gave provisional teachings and explained the ignorance in worldly matters. Through the working of the world, the Buddha taught skillful means. With analogies, He helped further clarify His meaning.”
Over several decades, the Buddha taught only for this one great cause, drawing analogies and teaching the Dharma with various causes and conditions. He did all this to explain the Five Turbidities and to help people distinguish them. The Five Turbidities truly bring unbearable suffering to everyone. This suffering starts with the turbidity of view; it begins with everyone’s perspectives.
Our perspectives may prevent us from accepting Right Views. If we cannot accept Right Views, then we cannot practice the Right Dharma; this creates afflictions. So, the turbidity of views gives rise to the turbidity of afflictions, which causes chaos for sentient beings in their relationships. Children are not filial to their parents. Friends are not kind or layal to each other. People do not benefit each other at all. They fight openly and plot secretly. This turbidity of sentient beings creates so much turbidity in our lives, which has built up in this current era. In this current era, both the macrocosm and microcosm experience the three major and the three minor calamities. These all occur frequently in the present day. All of this is because we humans are constantly giving rise to the Five Turbidities.
Starting with our perspectives, we give rise to afflictions, then among sentient beings, we create turbidity in our lives. This is why in this world and in the era we cannot achieve a state of peace. This is due to the Five Turbidities; this causes us unbearable suffering. The Buddha kept talking about these things, teaching about them with causes and conditions, analogies and expressions. Great Vehicle practitioners hear something once and immediately understand it. But the Middle Vehicle practitioners still clung to [their understanding] of the Dharma. The Small Vehicle practitioners were still confused and did not clearly understand. So, Sariputra hoped that the Buddha would now teach the Great Vehicle Dharma so that He could help the Small Vehicle and the rest of the Three Vehicle practitioners to understand more clearly. Thus, “He requested the Dharma for the Three Vehicle practitioners”.
“Sariputra requested the Dharma for the Three Vehicle practitioners to enable them to more clearly understand their past lives’ causes and conditions. The analogies and expressions, and the complete process of first teaching the Three and then the One, are thus called causes and conditions; All of these teachings are for the sake of teaching the Bodhisattva Way.”
Sariputra, through this interaction with the Buddha, hoped that future sentient beings would receive the Buddha’s teachings of causes and conditions, analogies and expressions, so they could understand more clearly. These methods were again used to teach. This was in order to teach Bodhisattvas and help them to understand more clearly. He hoped that everyone would walk the Bodhisattva-path in the future and that because of their views, they would bring out the full potential of their pure and undefiled intrinsic nature and would go into this turbid world to help people. This would make them Living Bodhisattvas. During the Buddha’s lifetime, this was His ideal. He hoped future sentient beings would purify themselves with His ideals and then go among people to turn the Dharma-wheel.
As the Dharma continues to be shared, we can understand better and better that this world is truly [full of] suffering and we can better comprehend the answer to the question, “What are the causes and conditions of suffering?” they come from the Five Turbidities. These teachings help us to understand.
Not only will everyone understand, they can also take this Dharma and transmit it to countless beings in the future. In addition to understanding [the Dharma], they can deeply penetrate it and also put it into practice among the people. This will make them Bodhisattvas.
Think about it, if we can all do this, won’t everyone in this would be a Bodhisattva? I just heard about a story from the Dominican Republic. I was very moved by it In Haiti, when the earthquake struck, so many people lost their homes and could no longer continue living there, so they went to the Dominican Republic.
In the Dominican Republic, there are many places with tremendous poverty, and there is a lack of medical treatment. What happens if someone has a toothache? There was a man from Haiti who had gone there and now extracted people’s teeth for a couple of US dollars per tooth. This was how he made a living However, after a while, he had a stroke which affected his mobility. So, he lost his source of income. In the Dominican Republic, he had no relatives. All his friends were very poor and were also refugees; they were people who escaped from the disaster. Who could help him?
This case was reported to Tzu Chi. The Tzu Chi volunteers in the Dominican Republic accepted this case and paid him a visit. The place where he lived was very dirty, extremely simple and crude. The volunteers mobilized people to help him clean. At the same time, they gave him free medical care, to help treat his body.
As this was all happening, this person voiced his true wish, “My one wish is to go back to Haiti.” Tzu Chi volunteers exercised their love. They helped him to organize everything. They tried to contact his friends and neighbors in Haiti to tell them, “We want to help this person return to Haiti.” They finally got in touch with his friends.
Tzu Chi volunteers helped him organize and pack, then picked him up in a car to go process the necessary paperwork; after all, he was going into another country. Then they took him to a bus stop. Everyone gave him many reminders and advice. They then asked the driver to help take care of him on their behalf and stay in contact with them. Thus they helped this person to arrive safely back to his home country of Haiti.
Hearing this story [reminds me of] how we do this often in Taiwan. This is unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion. In the Dominican Republic, for the sake of this suffering person from Haiti, a group of people joined together to help.For three or four months, they took care of him and organized everything to help him be able to return to his hometown. See, aren’t they Living Bodhisattvas?
Everyone, if we do not walk the Bodhisattvas-path, we cannot return to our intrinsic Buddha-nature. If we do not return to our Buddha-nature, our Threefold Karma, body, speech and mind, will forever be the “two Three’s and on Four, ” which will give rise to the Five Turbidities. These turbidities will continue to defile the human realm, causing tremendous confusion.
So, we must help people to purify their minds. Many who become Bodhisattvas are able to do so because through teachings of causes and conditions, analogies and expressions, they were able to experience and realize the principles.So, I hope everyone will always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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