Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Developing Liberated Understanding and Views (方便妙權解脫知見)
Date: April.30. 2015
“The Buddha, with an ocean of enlightenment and the love of a kind father, contemplated and had thoughts about how to save His children. He established wondrous provisional teachings by teaching the Three Vehicles. Like clouds suddenly dispersing, afflictions will be eliminated.”
This tells everyone that after the Buddha’s enlightenment, His mind encompassed all things in the world. Therefore, we refer to the Buddha as the Great Enlightened One of the Universe. The Buddha’s wisdom encompasses all things in the universe. How could His wisdom possibly be so great? Because His love is limitless. This is why we talk about compassion and wisdom.
[That love] is His compassion. With His compassion and wisdom, He is one with the universe and has the love of a kind father. This “kind father” is different from ordinary parents. Once we make the comparison parents, we think about how parents hearts are such that no matter how badly their children behave, they will generously forgive them, hoping their children can return to a proper path. These parents never stop hoping. But, no matter how great their parental love is, it only lasts for one lifetime, they only have the karmic conditions to be parents to their child in this life. However, the Buddha is a kind father with an ocean of enlightenment in His heart. The love of such a kind father lasts lifetime after lifetime.
However vast the universe is, His heart is just as vast. However long the universe lasts, His enlightened nature will last just as long. The Buddha’s loving-kindness makes Him the father of the four kinds of beings, and this state of mind is everlasting. He is not only our kind father for one lifetime, but will be the kind father of sentient beings forever. His love for all sentient beings in the world is everlasting. This is why we always talk about unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion.
How “universal” is His compassion? He treats all people as He would His own body. With the Buddha’s ocean of enlightenment and His loving-kindness, He treats sentient beings as if they were a part of His own body. This is how much He cares for them. The suffering of sentient beings is suffering that the Buddha experiences as His own. As we live in this world, we unceasingly give rise to afflictions and karma. We have accumulated so much collective karma. The world is already giving us constant warnings. These warnings tell us, “Look at the state we are in!” In the macrocosm of the world, there have been endless disasters of water, fire, wind and earthquakes. See how an imbalance of the four elements results in frequent disasters in this era.
The Buddha sensed this, so over 2000 years ago He made predictions about what things would be like now. He continuously “contemplated and had thoughts about [this].” The four kinds of beings in the Three Realms, are like His children. How could He bear for them to stay in this world, in the Three Realms? All these disasters in the world are caused by the impurity and evil in the human mind. We sentient beings in this world just continue to create karma and do things to harm the land all in order extract the earth’s resources. People continuously mine mountains and dig into the earth. This planet was once very safe, but humans, for their personal gain, unceasingly excavate and destroy the land.
Yet regular people do not care about this and only think about their own comforts, and continue to enjoy themselves and play.Even if a father is anxiously waiting outside, repeatedly warning [his children], they are foolish and “merely look at their father”.They do not know how to react.This is because the world’s sentient beings have let afflictions cover their wisdom; their wisdom has been covered, so their ability to react slows down greatly.They are always greedily attached.This is why the Buddha continued to engage in contemplation, devising many provisional teachings to teach the Three Vehicles.
But sentient beings were still slow to understand.Now, at the Lotus Dharma-assembly, the Buddha urgently called out to them to “tell them of these fearful matters”.He began to tell the people in the world that this world is truly frightening and fearsome.He began to call out to them and also say to them, “Come back quickly. Return to your intrinsic nature of True Suchness. Do not be an unenlightened being any longer, trapped in that burning home, not knowing disaster is closing in from all sides. You must immediately awaken. Ignorance is like a black cloud. Only when that cloud is swept away can afflictions be eliminated.”
So, I hope that everyone will [understand] that the Three Vehicles the Buddha taught are in fact wondrous provisional teachings.These teachings are called “wondrous” because they contain true principles.
It is just that we lack the capabilities to directly accept them.
We also have the intrinsic nature of True Suchness that enables us to attain Buddhahood, but we do not know how to bring it out, so the Buddha taught us various methods.
The best way is to eliminate our sense of self.We must open up our hearts and minds and cherish all things in the world.Only by cherishing all things can we understand their true principles.
The most accessible way for us to experience this is by going among people.We must go among people and experience their suffering.Only by doing this can we clearly understand principles.In this way, “Like clouds suddenly dispersing, afflictions will be eliminated.”
At that time, the elder had this thought, “This house is already burning with great flames. If I and my children do not get out now, we will certainly be burned.”
The previous passage stated, “At that time, the elder had this thought,” that this house already had flames surrounding it on all sides.“If I and my children do not get out now, we will certainly be burned.”
They could wait no longer; time was running out.There was no time to take things slowly, to listen gradually and gradually awaken, no.He was already out of time. It was time for them to awaken right away.
The next sutra passage states, “I should now devise skillful means to allow my children to avoid this harm.”
After the Buddha had attained enlightenment.He wanted to share the state of mind He realized with everyone.
But sentient beings are foolish and dense, so they could not embrace it immediately.Then He had no choice but to use skillful means to save them from their ignorance and habitual tendencies.He taught methods to help them to quickly sweep away their ignorance and afflictions.
So, in over 2000 years, how many lifetimes have we gone through?Have we been able to accept the Buddha-Dharma?If we have accepted the Buddha-Dharma, have we attained any realizations?
So, the Buddha endlessly devised skillful means, and we have accepted the Buddha’s skillful means and have been gradually guided by them.
However, our progress can no longer be gradual; it must happen quickly.So, seven years before He entered Parinirvana, the Buddha gave the Lotus teachings.It took the Buddha seven years just to teach it, to say nothing of us unenlightened beings.The era we live in now and the way people live now are different from the Buddha’s lifetime.
As I expound these teachings every day, have you comprehended them?As disasters occur more frequently, we must immediately discover ways of escaping this burning house and awakening to the Buddha-Dharma so we can still our minds and earnestly consider how we can live in harmony with all things in the world.This is why we must make an effort to reflect on ourselves and awaken.
“I should now devise skillful means to allow all my children to avoid this harm: The elder, in his old age, worriedly thought about how to quickly get the children out, to protect them and help them avoid being injured by the fire.”
“The elder, in his old age”, refers to the master of this burning house. This elder was already advanced in years, so he felt more urgency. Seeing his children becoming more undisciplined, his sense of urgency grew, especially as the house had become older and more dilapidated. “He worriedly thought about how to quickly get the children out”. No matter what the children were like, he just wanted to get them out quickly. This illustrates the Buddha’s thinking. With wisdom, He devised methods for relieving sentient beings from “severe hindrances of attachments and afflictions”.
“This explains how He contemplated the methods for saving sentient beings from severe hindrances of attachments and afflictions: Lethargy and afflictions will disturb our minds and spirits so that we cannot reveal our wondrous and bright nature. This is the obstruction of afflictions.”
What are sentient beings attached to? To our desires. Our ignorance and desires have brought about our state of delusion. With desires come delusions. Look at the many countries which are experiencing natural and manmade disasters. Sentient beings, in their delusion, have brought about many natural and manmade disasters. This is because people’s desires and possessiveness give rise to delusion, confusion and attachments. These are very serious obstacles. Most of us are just like this; we experience “lethargy and afflictions”.
These afflictions cause us to become lethargic so that we cannot awaken. We seem to keep falling asleep. As soon as we listen to the Dharma we nod off. Then we remain asleep until the teaching is over. This is a lethargic and afflicted state. This happens because we unenlightened beings are dense when it comes to pure, wondrous Dharma. Because we lack wisdom, we are slow when it comes to the Dharma, very lethargic and afflicted. These obstructions are afflictions.
These afflictions “disturb our minds and spirits”. They have disturbed our minds so that we are unable to concentrate. Though we listen to the Dharma, our minds are not focused. “We cannot reveal our wondrous and bright nature”. Because we still cannot focus, our precepts, Samadhi and wisdom continue to leak away. So, our practice of the Three Flawless Studies is still not very stable. As soon as we take the Dharma to heart, it quickly leaks out again.
Because of this, “We cannot reveal our wondrous and bright nature”. This is the obstruction of afflictions.
Every morning after listening to the Dharma, we chant, “I vow to eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions. I vow to attain wisdom and true clarity. I universally vow to eliminate all karmic obstacles and life after life follow the Bodhisattva-path”.
For our minds, we “vow to eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions”. In our daily living, are there discursive thoughts in our minds? We are filled with discursive thoughts. Whose discursive thoughts are these? They are ours. Who can eliminate your discursive thoughts? Only you can.
So, if we vow to eliminate them but do not actually make the effort to clear them away, that is like hoping a filthy place will become clean but refusing to pick up any cleaning tools to tidy things up. Who will do it for you? Perhaps a Bodhisattva will come and clean for you. But, a Bodhisattva can only clean the things that are around you. Tzu Chi Bodhisattva [-volunteers] constantly help people clean their house. But now can they clean the inside of someone’s mind? They have to put the Bodhisattva Way into practice and first purity their own minds before dedicating themselves with love to clean other people’s living environments. This is the way they move people and teach them.
So, we vow to “comprehend the great path”, have “wisdom like the sea” and “harmoniously lead the assembly”.
If we do not “comprehend the great path”, we cannot eliminate the Three Obstructions. If we do not have wisdom, then we cannot mature. If we do not penetrate the sutras, there will be no Dharma in our hearts to nurture our wisdom. If we cannot develop our wisdom, we cannot cultivate virtue. If we have no virtue then we will be unable to eliminate our afflictions and will be unable to deliver sentient beings. So, we must “eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions”. We must constantly clear out our discursive thoughts and hold fast to precepts, Samadhi and wisdom in our minds. This is the only way we can go among the people. This is also an analogy for the Boddha’s karmic affinity for being in this world.
We always say that time is running out. Indeed, there is not enough time left.
This is an analogy for how the Buddha’s affinity with the world was almost over. The Three Vehicle practitioners had not fully attained liberated understanding and views, and His only fear was not saving them in time.
The Buddha lived in this world for 80 years. Out of these 80 years, He spend 49 teaching the Dharma. Those 49 years passed quickly and His “affinity with the world was almost over.”
The Buddha taught [the Three Vehicle] because sentient beings’ limited capabilities prevented them from directly accepting that the Buddha’s enlightened state of mind is intrinsic to everyone. He wanted to share this with everyone but there was no one who could comprehend it, so He had to teach the Three Vehicles. He taught with the Three Vehicles for 40 years.
But though they heard the Dharma that was taught, they would take in one part of Dharma but give rise to nine parts of afflictions. This is why they remained in the Six Realms and among the four forms among the four forms of birth, transmigrating endlessly.
This was what worried the Buddha most. Time was running out. We are now in the evil world of Five Turbidities. There are more and more opportunities for us to be tempted to create afflictions. We keep losing the sense of love in our hearts and the compassion in our relationships.This is why the Buddha felt a sense of urgency, especially as He was in His later years, His “affinity with the world was almost over, and the “Three Vehicle practitioners had not fully attained liberated understanding and views.” They still did not clearly understand.
So, He feared “not saving them in time.” This is why the Buddha felt a sense of urgency. He was like the elder who quickly devised more methods to see if he could quickly get everyone out. Only if everyone could escape the burning house would the elder, the father, felt at ease.
Sentient beings had lost focus and were greedy for, attached to and deluded by all the external conditions they connected with. Thus they could not remember their original goodness. They had lost sight of their nature. The Buddha could not bear for this to happen. He compared [the children to] “sentient beings who had lost focus” and were greedy form attached to and deluded by all the external conditions they connected with.”
This is because they come in contact with external conditions. When the Six Sense Organs connect with the Six Sense Objects, the mind takes in external phenomena and begins to engage in thinking, leading us to act and create much karma. This is the mind of unenlightened beings.
If those who hear the Dharma are still attached to their external conditions, if they hear the Dharma but still stubbornly cling to all the external phenomena they have encountered, they cannot remember their original goodness. They have already forgotten that people are inherently good. This is how they lost their intrinsic nature and the Buddha could not bear this.
Everyone, the Buddha is so compassionate that He hoped that His children could quickly perfect all the ways of living in and have the flawless wisdom to transform themselves and all sentient beings. Everyone, time is passing by with every second, yet there is so much Dharma left to teach. Everyone, in this world that we live in, everything is the Dharma. But we are not consciously aware of this, so we treat everything as something separate from and unrelated to us. In fact, we are all part of the same world.
If there is a disaster anywhere, how can we feel at peace? So, we must awaken right away. To transform others, of course we must first transform ourselves. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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