Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Three Wisdoms Cannot Arise (諸根暗鈍三慧不生)
Date: April.27. 2015
“The kind father of the four kinds of beings is protective of His children. He cannot bear for living beings to suffer from disasters. The imbalance of the four elements is imminently pressing in on us. The only solution is to purify our minds and turn to goodness.”
The Buddha, the guiding teacher of the Three Realms and kind father of the four kind of beings, has protected all sentient beings with the heart of a kind father. No matter how many there are, He treats them all as if they were His only son, the way a father cherishes his children. This is something we can all feel and understand.
The Buddha loves all sentient beings in this way, lifetime after lifetime. He has cherished and protected all beings by protecting their wisdom-life, not only their physical life. All living beings have Buddha-nature, and they come from the four kinds of birth, womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born and transformation-born.
Sentient beings are always born in one of these four ways. So, the Buddha is considered to be the kind father of the four kinds of beings. Parents in the human realm only love the children who are their own flesh and blood, but the Buddha cares deeply for all four kinds of beings, for all sentient beings. All are loved and cared for by the Buddha. He loved and is protective of His children, the way human parents love and care for an only child. Because of this love, He has compassion for us and cannot bear for us living beings to suffer; this is the Buddha’s heart.
With His whole heart, He hopes that everyone will see [their] intrinsic Buddha-nature. Everyone’s intrinsic nature is pure; we all have a pure Buddha-nature. So, He hopes for everyone to achieve Nirvana. The state of Nirvana is the land of calm illumination. When we return to our pure intrinsic Buddha-nature, we are in a land of calm illumination. When our hearts are pure, we are living in a pure land. This is the state of Nirvana.
Nirvana is a tranquil and pure state, very still, clean and radiant. I often talk about a state that is “tranquil and clear”. This state of mind is very pure, very bright and radiant. Because of His loving-kindness, the Buddha hopes that everyone’s mind will always be in this land of calm illumination. Because of His loving-kindness, His hope for everyone is not limited to their feeling happy and blessed. When it comes to happiness in this world, “External pleasure gives rise to sorrow.”
The Buddha wants everyone’s mind to be tranquil. If everyone’s minds can be clear, this will be everlasting. Think about the sun itself, about its fundamental nature. The sun is always shining. In our [solar system,] our planet goes around the sun and as it rotates, we experience day and night. When we are on the part of the planet facing the sun, we experience day. When we are on the part facing away from the sun, we experience night.
Just because our part of the planet is facing away from the sun does not mean that the sun is any dimmer, not at all. It remains as bright as ever. The Buddha is compassionate; He hopes we can all return to our pure intrinsic Buddha-nature. Then we experience everlasting blessings and joy.This is the intent of the kind father, the intent of the Buddha.
Sadly, we sentient beings are unwilling to learn.When one thought of ignorance arises, we begin to replicate it countless times.With ignorance, we obscure our own minds, so we experience much suffering.
In our insignificantly small lives, the time between our birth and death is short, yet we create limitless amounts karma.
Our karma leads to all kinds of disasters.The Buddha cannot bear to see this.He cannot bear it because of His compassion.
With compassion,“We feel others’ pain as our own.”If someone else is wounded, we feel his pain in our hearts.
When we are hurt, it is hard to bear the pain.In the same way, when someone else is wounded, we feel their pain in our hearts and we cannot bear for them to suffer.
This great compassion is called universal compassion.
When we realize all beings in the universe are actually one, the pain of one is the pain of all.Out of this compassion, we will protect all sentient beings and cannot bear to let them suffer.
However, there is not much that we can do, because sadly, the four elements are imbalanced.We are already in a state of emergency and many disasters are already closing in on us.This is most worrisome to the Buddha.
The only solution is to bring purity to people’s minds.
Everyone, as Buddhist practitioners, we must learn to take the Dharma to heart, then put it into practice and go among people to set an example in order to transform others.We transform ourselves and others so that we can turn peril into safety and suffering into joy.This is why we must, with great urgency, take the Dharma to heart.We must make good use of our body and mind.
The mind refers to our perspectives.We must immediately purify our perspectives and with our body put the Dharma into practice.
Recently, we have often seen that as different countries experience disasters, Tzu Chi volunteers are there to help.
Don’t these images show the body in action?We see how survivors endured the disasters and how our dedicated volunteers went to provide disaster relief.The survivors have limited supplies and food, so the people who benefit them are Bodhisattvas who cultivate both blessings and wisdom by promptly providing supplies and food to them.
Theses Bodhisattvas also guide the survivors to find their own inspiration.By putting the Dharma into practice, [volunteers] give with utmost respect and love.They are Living Bodhisattvas in this world.
The Buddha came to purify our hearts.By teaching the Dharma, He hopes that we can all turn the evil in our hearts into goodness.“Do all good deeds; refrain from all evil.”This is the Buddha’s most fundamental teaching.
So, He turned the Dharma-wheel to help us turn ignorance into wisdom and to turn evil thoughts into good thoughts.
This is the way to purity our hearts and minds.
Therefore, everyone must be mindful and [put this into practice] immediately, instead of saying “Let me take my time”.
Around this great house of the Three Realms, a fire has already begun to burn on all four sides, so the Buddha continuously calls out to us.He has used all of His mental powers to contemplate this situation.What method should He use to teach?What kind of courses and conditions should He talk about?What kind of analogies should He use?Using all of these methods, He kept calling out.Did we hear Him at all?Yes, we heard Him; but were we receptive?
According to the burning house parable, as we repeated earlier, “Moreover, they did not know what fire was.”
This describes a hopeless situation.We have already seen this fire, but we treat it as pleasant scenery, not recognizing that fire can hurt people.If we get burned by the fire, then we will die.
All matters and objects in this world as well as [the pursuit of] fame and profit are potential traps for us. If we pursue material gains, or, for the sake of fame, profit and status, oppose each other and fight openly or in secret, we are playing with fire, which is very dangerous. We may not realize that this is harmful. Not only are we hurting ourselves, we are hurting other people as well. This also disrupts our community ad our society. This is truly like fire; everyone is playing with fire. It is very saddening.
So, “Moreover, they did not know what fire was.”
Next, this sutra passage states, “[Nor did they know] what the house was or what the danger was. They just ran about as they played and merely looked at their father.”
Indeed, people are very foolish! They do not recognize what fire is and treat it as beautiful scenery, wanting to get close and play with it. They have lost their discerning wisdom. Further, they did not know “what the house was”; they had no idea what it was. “House” is also an analogy. Not understanding what the house was means they did not know how they had lost their Dharmakaya.
“They did not understand what the house was. They did not know the reason the Dharmakaya (Dharma-body) was lost. They did not know what the danger was is analogy for cultivating wisdom and then allowing it to leak out, thus being unable to give rise to wisdom.”
We all have a Dharmakaya of wisdom. Dharma refers to truths and universal principles, which is wisdom. But where does wisdom come from? Our nature of True Suchness. Our nature of True Suchness is something we are born and die with, yet we do not recognize its existence. This is how we have lost our Dharmakaya. Why is there so much ignorance in us? Why don’t we recognize the dangers that surround us? We continue enjoying ourselves while in danger because we have not yet recognize our intrinsic Buddha-nature.
Why is our wisdom so limited? What has caused this? We do not know the answer ourselves. This is our ignorance. So, we did not know “what the danger was”. Why has our intrinsic nature been buried so deeply? Where is it actually buried? Where is this True Suchness? This is an analogy for cultivating wisdom. To cultivate wisdom, we must engage in spiritual practice. We do this in order to manifest our wisdom.
We do not know where True Suchness is buried, so now we must try and recover. Our nature of True Suchness. This is why we are cultivating wisdom, but even as we cultivate it, we keep losing it. So, we are cultivating flawed wisdom; it has leaks. Although we listen to the Dharma, even before we fully understand the principles, they will leak out.
“Using a vegetable basket to carry water” is an analogy we often use to describe this. If we pour water into a basket, it will leak out. This is why we cannot give rise to wisdom. Even as we are cultivating wisdom, it continues to leak out. This is the reason wisdom does not arise.
“This explains that with blunted and dull Roots, we cannot give rise to the Three Wisdoms. Then nothing can be done. Those with average and limited capabilities cannot accept the Great Dharma. Bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation can also be considered Hearers with great virtues.”
So, “This explains that [we have] blunted and dull Roots”. This is telling everyone that we ordinary people have been constantly covered by ignorance. This makes all of our Roots blunted and dull; our Five Roots and Five Powers are weak. Our Roots and Powers have become dull. We constantly make use of the physical body and its Five Roots, which are the eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. These things give rise to greed when we connect with conditions. In connecting with the outside world, we have already become defiled; what defiles us is ignorance. Thus, our Roots become blunted and dull.
Therefore, the Three Wisdoms cannot arise. What are the Three Wisdoms? Wisdom from listening, wisdom from contemplation and wisdom from practice. Listening, contemplation and practice can help us grow in our wisdom. We must often listen to the Dharma, contemplate it and put it into practice. Only by doing this can we truly develop our wisdom. This is the only way to give rise to the Root of Wisdom and to our wisdom-life. Otherwise, all we have is flawed wisdom. This is why we “did not know what fire was, what the house was or what the danger was.” We did not understand any of this because we have lost our intrinsic nature, the wisdom-life of our Dharma-nature.
So, how do we help our wisdom-life grow? By cultivating the Three Wisdoms simultaneously. By listening, contemplating and practicing, we will be replete the Three Wisdoms and will have the Three Insights.
With these three powers, everything will be clear. We still must earnestly listen, contemplate and put the Dharma into practice. If the Three Wisdom do not arise, “Then nothing can be done.” No matter how much is explained, it is of no use. People do not want to earnestly listen, or after they listen, earnestly contemplate it and earnestly put it into practice. If they are not motivated to take action, no matter how many teachings they hear, it will have been useless.
Sometimes I feel helpless, but I cannot give up; I must continue calling on people and continue encouraging them. This is because I believe that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature and will certainly awaken one day.
This is why we must work hard to cultivate the Bodhi-seed in our minds. We must be the gardener of our minds and help our Bodhi-seed to sprout. We must bring our wisdom to a higher level. If not, with only average or limited capabilities we “cannot accept the Great Dharma.” We will be unable to accept the Great Dharma.
We must immediately form great aspirations and make great vows develop great capabilities and wisdom. Only then can we accept the Great Dharma.After accepting the Great Dharma, we must put it into practice and turn the Dharma-wheel.
Most of us have average or limited capabilities and wisdom and cannot accept the Great Dharma. Once we have great capabilities and wisdom, we can walk the path of accumulation.We must unceasingly accumulate [good deeds] and “do all good deeds.”
We must do good deeds and benefit others. Recently we have been talking about benefiting others and widely creating good karmic connections. Bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation must ceaselessly accumulate good deeds.
We cannot tell ourselves that small good deeds are not worth doing. We must accumulate then non-stop, so we do good deeds, benefit others and create great karmic connections to be Bodhisattvas on the path of accumulation. We must ceaselessly accumulate good deeds. This is also a way of engaging in spiritual practice. We are of average and limited capabilities so we need to do good deeds, benefit others and create good karmic connections, then we “can considered Hears with great virtues.” If we can listen, even if we cannot yet realize the Three Wisdom and the Three insights, even if we have not yet achieved that state, we must understand now that, after listening to the Dharma, we need to refrain from all evil and do all good deeds.”
So, “doing all good deeds” is the practice of Bodhisattva on the path of accumulation. Then we can be considered Hearers who advance by accumulating virtues.
As people with average or limited capabilities, we cannot realize the Buddha’s state of mind, but we can practice according to the teachings. Indeed, we must practice according to teachings. The fire continues to burn and is coming closer. The Buddha keeps calling [to all sentient beings] just as the elder is calling [to his sons]. The children merely look at their father and ignore what he says. They continue running around and playing their games. When they act like this, nothing the father does. When they act like this, nothing the father does has an effect on them.
Therefore, as Buddhist practitioners, we must pay attention to the Buddha-Dharma and put it into practice in this world. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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