Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Thirty Sons of the Elder
(長者三十子)
Date: April.10. 2015
“Tathagata-nature is in the minds of sentient beings, but subtle ripples in their karmic consciousness arise when the wind blows. Dispositions and desires differ and are divided into the Five Destinies. Therefore, the metaphor of 30 sons is given.”
To reiterate, “The mind, the Buddha and sentient beings are no different [in their nature].” We all intrinsically have a pure Tathagata-nature. It is just that for us ordinary people, “subtle ripples in [our] karmic consciousness arise when the wind blows.” You see, if water is very clear, then it is like a mirror. If we disturb the water a little, then there will be ripples in the images we see; thus the reflections are unclear. Isn’t this what the karmic consciousness of ordinary people is like? We all have these ripples in our karmic consciousness. How did there come to be ripples in our karmic consciousness? There is a saying, “Without wind, there are no waves.” Our karmic consciousness was originally calm, but the wind of ignorance arose, so our karmic consciousness began [to have ripples]. “Ignorance” leads to “volitional formation,” which leads to “consciousness,” which leads to “name and form.” Beginning with these conditions, the process of the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence continues, eventually lead to aging, illness and death. After we die, we bring our karmic consciousness and follow where it leads to return to where the beings of the Five Destinies co-exist. Will we come back to the human realm, or will we end up in hell? Or will we be in the animal or hungry ghost realm, or in a mental hell on earth? Will we behave like an animal? Or will we helplessly starve? This depends on our past lives, on what the wind of ignorance led us to do.
The Five Destinies correspond to our different “dispositions and desires”. So in the next sutra passage, there is the analogy of the 30 sons. We had talked about how, inside this great house, there is a head of the household. In the sutra, he is referred to as the elder. The elder made use of his virtue and his time to lead others. However, the elder had become old and frail. Although there were many people inside, the house had become rundown with age. As the house was in the process of falling apart, there were so many people inside who were still unaware of this. This is also an analogy for all the karma sentient beings have created. Their collective karma in this world has caused the four elements to become imbalanced. We talked about this yesterday. From all four sides, “All at once, a fire broke out.”
All at once, throughout the area, a fire broke out, setting the house ablaze.
In this current age, we see how the elements are constantly imbalanced. We frequently experience disasters, like a fire coming at us from all four sides. This is such a dangerous and critical age. So, more than 2000 years ago, the Buddha came to this world to help everyone understand this. People’s morals and the principles of the world have gradually deteriorated. This world is just like the great house; after years of disrepair, all the beams and columns were decaying, but there were still many people inside.
Due to sentient beings’ desirous minds, in this place where the Five Destinies co-exist the principles are no longer in peoples’ hearts.
This is why we now need everyone to form great aspirations and make great vows.We must quickly strengthen our resolve to carry out the Four Great Vows.
“The 30 sons” tell us to learn the Buddha’s Way.From the beginning, we must put our hearts into shouldering the Tathagata’s family duties.
The sons are described thus.“The elder’s sons, 10, 20, even up to 30 of them, were still in the house.”
Fire had already broken out on all four sides of the great house, “setting the house ablaze”.Inside the house were the elder’s sons, 10, 20, even up to 30 of them.All were in this house.These “30 sons” fully received the Buddha’s compassion.He could not bear to abandon sentient beings.
In the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, anywhere in the Five Destinies, the Buddha was unwilling to give up on any being.The Buddha sees them all as His only son.
Sentient beings in the Five Destinies are all Buddha-children.The Buddha sees them equally as the one and only.Thus they are all considered the sons of the elder.They were those who were replete with world-transcending flawless seeds.
So, who are the “30 sons”?They have resolved to transcend the world and engage in spiritual practice; people with this kind of seed are the 30 sons of the elder.Heavenly beings and humans may not necessarily accept the Buddha-Dharma, not to mention those in the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, the places without the Buddha-Dharma.But these 30 sons are those who have already accepted the Buddha-Dharma.Their acceptance is split into three stages.[In this verse,] “10” symbolizes people with “the all-encompassing wisdom of the Great Vehicle”.
10:
This symbolizes people who have the all-encompassing wisdom of the Great Vehicle, one of the Three Kinds of Wisdom.
This means they are Bodhisattvas who understand all Buddhas’ teachings of the Path and also know the causes and seeds of all sentient beings.
All-encompassing wisdom is one of the Buddha’s Three Kinds of Wisdom.Having all-encompassing wisdom means one can “understand all Buddhas’ teachings of the Path”.
Therefore, the first number mentioned, 10, refers to the Bodhisattvas who have thoroughly understood the principles taught by the Buddha.They understand that, in addition to cultivating their minds, they must also put the Dharma into practice and go into the world to give to people.They are the Buddha-children with the greatest capabilities, who walk the Bodhisattva-path.
They are among “the 30 sons” mentioned in this passage. “20” is also an analogy; this one is referring to Solitary Realizers.
20:
This symbolizes Solitary Realizers.
Seeking permanent bliss and tranquility, they cultivate on their own.
When they accomplish their spiritual practice, even in an era without Buddhas, they can awaken themselves and transcend cyclic existence.
Solitary Realizers know that everything happens because of the mind.Understanding this, they have awakened.With this “permanent bliss and tranquility,” they enjoy cultivating by themselves, so “they cultivate on their own”.They want to avoid coming in contact with the afflictions of sentient beings.Therefore, they only seek to awaken themselves.
The pure seed for awakening is planted deeply in their minds.
Even if they come to this world again, they will continue to have a pure awakened nature.So, in an era without Buddhas, they can “awake themselves, transcend cyclic existence”.Thoughts will no longer stir in their minds.These are Solitary Realizers.
Do we engage in spiritual practice only for the sake of transcending cyclic existence?In particular, the cyclic existence the Buddha spoke of is the arising and ceasing that takes place in the mind-consciousness.So, as Solitary Realizers, though their awakened nature is very bright, they cannot awaken others, so they lack the karmic conditions attaining Buddhahood.
There is a story in the sutras about something like this. There was once a remote mountain, and more than 500 people lived in the forests of this mountain. They were engaging in spiritual practice there. Among them, there was one Solitary Realizer. There was a monkey in these mountains who saw that this Solitary Realizer was different from the others in the group. So, this monkey followed this Solitary Realizer in everything he did and imitated his actions.
After the monkey followed him for a long time, he learned the behaviors of this Solitary Realizer. Despite this, this monkey could not truly awaken to the Bodhi-path. This is describing the state of Solitary Realizers. Even animals can imitate humans, working and resting like them and behaving in the same way as them. They can act the same [as one who is awakened] yet still lack Bodhicitta. If I only keep to myself, then I will never be able to transmit the Dharma to others. This is not engaging in the ultimate spiritual practice.
The third stage is that of Hearers. “30” symbolizes Hearers.
“30:
This symbolizes Hearers. All of these people live in this house. This like the capabilities of those in the Three Vehicles who practice the Dharma and abide in accord with their fundamental consciousness.”
Hearers take in the Buddha-Dharma with their ears. Perhaps they hear it taught 1000 times to realize it once. The Buddha has to say it 1000 times for them to understand just one thing. There are many with such dull capabilities. After hearing it, do they clearly understand? Can they take the Dharma to heart? If they can, can they put it into their actions? Each of us must reflect on ourselves. “Only the person who drinks the water” knows the temperature of the water.” Are we among “the 30 sons”? Are we Hearers, Solitary Realizers or Bodhisattvas? After realizing all-encompassing wisdom.
Bodhisattvas do not just awaken themselves or realize it for themselves. After we realize it, we must share it with others. When sentient beings are suffering, we willingly devote ourselves to helping them.
Several days ago, Chi Xu (Johan Alwall), who is a Pure Practitioner, reported that he was going to the United States. Once of the things he wanted to do was to meet up with US Tzu Chi volunteers and go to Haiti with them. US volunteer Si Cheng (Jams Chen) was Haiti, preparing for the distributions. When Johan and the others arrived there, James met them at the airport. Then they could begin their work of planting seeds of goodness in Haiti. However, the first thing Johan and James did was to pay a visit [to the UN peacekeepers]. To carry out the relief distributions, it was necessary to have a peacekeeping force, there had to be troops to help us maintain order. In Haiti, this was part of the routine of making distributions. They had to first meet with the peacekeepers.
This time, it was the peacekeepers form Jordan. When Johan and Sin Yuan (Henry Hsu) arrived, they were responsible for communicating with the military commanders and asking them if they could protect the volunteers during the distributions. From the beginning of the meeting, Johan told them about Tzu Chi and the spirit of the bamboo banks. He started with the beginning of Tzu Chi’s story as he spoke with the military leaders. At the same time, he wanted to let them know about Tzu Chi’s connection with Haiti. Because the peacekeepers stationed in Haiti were constantly changing, our volunteers always told the Tzu Chi story from the beginning.
They were all moved by what they heard, and [Johan] gave them our English quarterly journal. The commanding officer of these troops was very moved when he read it, so he began telling others about Tzu Chi. Because our doctors in Haiti were preparing to hold a free clinic during the relief distribution, the officer introduced the medic from his troop and told them, “When the time comes, the military doctors can also participate and treat people in the free clinic”. This is an example of how the Dharma must be spread by people.
Haiti is a country of great suffering. They do not have their own military. The United Nations deploys different troops there in rotation. In this way, they take turns protecting Haiti. This time, when we wanted to distribute rice from Taiwan to Haiti, Tzu Chi volunteers from Canada and the US came together to hold the distributions. They also wanted to hold a free clinic. But their most important mission was to go and conduct volunteer training for them and share the principles of being Living Bodhisattvas. The Dharma-lineage of Jing Si and the Tzu Chi School of Buddhism also had to established in Haiti.
There were already seeds there, one, two, three local volunteers. And now, even more people want to be trained. Are the people who attend these trainings symbolized by the “10”? Do they have the capabilities to suddenly accept the practice of the Bodhisattva-path? Those who understand the Dharma and willingly benefit others are considered Bodhisattva.Maybe during this training, the local volunteers can realize that, “The Buddha-Dharma is great, I’m willing to accept it. I’m willing to re-focus my mind and not do improper things.” Can they be taught realize this? Perhaps when they hear the Buddha-Dharma, a seed is planted. “I realize now that the Buddha-Dharma is great. Thus they may come to learn Buddha-Dharma.
No one in Haiti had the Dharma before. It was after the major earthquake there, after the Tzu Chi volunteers went there, that they began to encounter the Buddha-Dharma.Therefore, they are Hearers who have karmic conditions to encounter the Dharma. It is because of these causes and conditions that the Buddha-Dharma was able to reach Haiti.
In Haiti, for these seeds to be planted, there needed to be suitable causes and conditions. Bodhisattva who had formed great aspirations had to make use of this opportunity to bring these seeds to Haiti and teach the Dharma by putting it into action. They are symbolized by the first “10” sons.They are walking the Bodhisattva-path.
Solitary Realized by “20.” Next, there are the Hearers who hear the Dharma taught by Buddha and accept it and practice it according to their capabilities. Hearers are the people who “practice the Dharma.” These people are symbolized by “30.”Within the Five Destinies, only these three kinds of people have been born from Buddha’s speech. These are true Buddha-children.
So, within the Five Destinies are “the 30sons” of the elder. The “10, 20, even up to 30 of them” all have affinities with the Buddha. If “this [fundamental] consciousness is not covered over by manas consciousness,” which is the seventh consciousness, “then it is not called alaya consciousness.” No seed had been created to be stored in the storehouse. The storehouse consciousness in our minds entirely stores the [seeds] of manas consciousness.
However, if this consciousness is not covered over by manas consciousness, it is not called alaya consciousness, but is amala consciousness.
The Six Consciousness take in the Six Sense Objects from the outside. These external images are brought into the means consciousness. After the seventh consciousness [contemplates them] and gives rise to thoughts, these seeds are all brought back to the alaya consciousness.
If we do not create seeds under external influence, then there will be no alaya consciousness. Then what consciousness do we have? The amala consciousness, which is the pure nature of True Suchness, the pure nature that everyone intrinsically has.
In summary, if we can understand this, we will work to keep all the consciousness before the amala consciousness from being defiled. Then the house will not go up in flames and there will not be a fire in the Three Realms.
If there is no wind or fire ignorance, then this will be a peaceful home of True Suchness.
So, dear Bodhisattva you must form Bodhisattva-aspirations. Among the Five Destinies, the fortunate ones can be born from the Buddha’s speech and transformed by the Dharma. This depends on our capabilities for accepting it, so we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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