Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: See the Buddha-nature in the Fourfold Mindfulness (觀四念處明如來藏)
Date: May.22. 2015
“The Fourfold Mindfulness teaches four methods of contemplation. Its essence is wondrous and subtle wisdom. With the strength that comes from contemplating the mind with wisdom, we enable our minds to abide on the path. This spiritual wealth is the seed. True emptiness and wondrous existence is the ocean of fruits.”
You all know the Fourfold Mindfulness. We must “contemplate the body as impure, contemplate all feelings as suffering, contemplate the mind as impermanent” and “contemplate all things as being without a self.” We should constantly engage in these four types of contemplation. The body is a most unclean object. Furthermore, if our skin, flesh or bones are damaged anywhere, the wound may give off a foul odor. Therefore, the body is very unclean and filled with many impurities. However, to satisfy the cravings and desires that arise from this body, people take many actions that result in family tragedies. We need to carefully think about how the body is an impure vessel. With our minds, we should “contemplate the body as impure” and “contemplate all feelings as suffering.” When we pursue the things we see and cannot get what we want, it is very painful. When things do not go the way we want in our daily living, we also experience suffering. When we clearly want things to go a certain way but what happens is the opposite of what we intended, it is very hard to deal with. We must also contemplate the mind as impermanent; thoughts arise, abide, change and cease. We can be very happy right now, but if something suddenly changes, our state of mind will change.
We constantly say, “Forming aspirations is easy, persevering in them is hard.” Our minds cannot always abide in the same state and always remain peaceful. This is because the minds of we ordinary people are constantly changing. Due to their impermanent nature, our minds cannot abide peacefully at all times.
Moreover, all things are impermanent, but we ordinary people are confused, mistaking impermanence for permanence. We may not realize that in the universe and in this world, everything in impermanent. So, we must clearly understand the Three Principles and Four States; that is part of spiritual practice. We constantly mention these to everybody.
So, “The Fourfold Mindfulness teaches four methods of contemplation.” We need to earnestly reflect upon ourselves. We must constantly cultivate our minds. The mind is very subtle and wondrous. “Its essence is wondrous and subtle wisdom.” The essence of our wisdom is our nature of True Suchness, which abides permanently; it does not arise or cease and is always present. Unfortunately, we ordinary people have not yet returned to our essence, our nature of True Suchness. Therefore, we must make use of the “Fourfold Mindfulness, [which] teaches four methods of contemplation.” Our every thought must be on what we are doing. So, we must “contemplate the mind with wisdom.” Only by using wisdom to contemplate our minds will we have the strength to pave a smooth road in this world that connects with the Bodhi-path.
We must use the strength of our minds to put the teachings into practice. When the Dharma is in our hearts and there is Dharma in our actions, contemplating our minds with wisdom gives us this strength. We need to be mindful so that “we enable our minds to abide on the path,” on the Bodhi-path we are practicing.
Indeed, in every one of us, “This spiritual wealth is the seed. True emptiness and wondrous existence is the ocean of fruits.”
Recently in the Philippines, after Tacloban suffered a tremendous disaster, Tzu Chi volunteers rushed there right away and exercised the power of their intrinsic compassion and wisdom.
There was a young man who wrote a letter to us, expressing his gratitude to all the Tzu Chi volunteers for helping to stabilize their lives.Not only did the Tzu Chi volunteers help clean up the disaster areas in such a short period of time, they had also inspired hope and love in the survivors.
There was a school there called.Leyte Progressive High School.This was the first site we had helped clean up.
Through the “cash for work” program, we mobilized the local population.
During this process, there were nine teachers who, though they were preparing to start school again, put all of their spare change into bamboo banks.One of the teachers was named Anna.She represented all these teachers in presenting the bamboo banks to Tzu Chi.
In addition to bringing the donation, Anna also picked up the microphone and, over the loud speaker, shared with everyone the spirit of the bamboo banks.This teacher, on her own initiative, in traduced the origins of Tzu Chi, how it started with donations of 50 cents.
After she told this story to the townspeople, she vowed to get involved in Tzu Chi and be a person who spreads the Dharma.She did not say she would become a volunteer, but “a person who spreads the Dharma” to share this spirit of the bamboo banks and the story about the 50 cents, which now allows us today to be able to provide relief and assistance to countries all over the world.
See, isn’t this spiritual wealth?This cause is a “seed”.As for “true emptiness and wondrous existence, “this life is impermanent and the four elements are out of balance.
No one knows when disasters or blessings may appear; everything is constantly changing.
The Philippines suffered this tremendous disaster but it brought everyone’s love together and mobilized their strength.From this cause we can understand that even things that are destroyed can give rise to “wondrous existence,” which is the power of love.
Love is the essence of True Suchness.Our pure intrinsic nature is radiant, wise and everlasting.It is not impermanent; it is everlasting.For a long time it has contained infinite and countless fruits.These fruits were born from the seeds of causes.
We always say, “A seed contains an ocean of fruits”.A thick-trunked tree starts as a tiny seed.Isn’t a giant tree heavy-laden with fruits such an incredible thing?
A giant tree, after 1000 years, can still continue to bear many fruits.However, these end that gave rise to it was so small.Though small, it unleashed a boundless, infinite and inconceivable strength.This is why, as we engage in spiritual practice, we must always be mindful.
The previous sutra passage discussed how the cart drawn by the great white ox was magnificent and could carry many people.Many people also followed the cart as guards.
Pulling these carts were white oxen, their skin completely clean, their figures pleasing, their bodies powerful.They walked straight and smoothly, swiftly like the wind.And there were many attendants guarding each.
As we discussed yesterday, if we can mindfully learn the Buddha-Dharma, then when we accept the Dharma and turn the Dharma-wheel, we will naturally be able to transform many beings.When people in front practice, the people in the back will pass it on.This requires us to shoulder the responsibility for transmitting the Dharma.
So, we must turn the Dharma-wheel.
The next sutra passage states, “Why was this so? This great elder had infinite wealth. All his storehouses were full and overflowing.” “Why was this so? This great elder had infinite wealth. All his storehouses were full and overflowing.”
Because this elder had infinite wealth, how could he just give his children a tiny bit of his wealth? No, he wanted to give them everything. So, he is like the Buddha, who wanted to teach sentient beings that they are all equal to the Buddha. He wanted them to experience their awakened nature, to awaken to the true principles of the universe and to be able to live in this world free and at peace. However, sentient beings are deluded, so they still continue to flounder in the sea of cyclic existence. They still continue to replicate their ignorance and create karma. This ignorance has covered their pure wisdom.
Though the Buddha wanted to explain His state of mind to everyone, their capabilities were so limited that they could not understand at all. This is why the Buddha taught the Three Vehicles. People who only seek to awaken themselves and transcend cyclic existence must also understand why they would want to transcend cyclic existence. They should understand the principles behind it. These are Hearers and Solitary Realizers, who choose the sheep-carts and deer-carts according to the needs of their capabilities and based on what they could pull with their strength. This shows the Buddha’s wisdom, so He is described with the analogy of an elder in the world.
[This elder] had so many valuable things that would meets people’s needs, so the wealth of this elder could rival that of an entire country. He had everything that people need, everything that was valuable. Moreover, his wealth was so abundant, so full and overflowing, that he had enough to meet the needs of everyone in this world.
“The fruition of Buddhahood, the state the Buddha attained, is the state He reached after His enlightenment. This “fruit” also had its “seed”. The causal ground where He engaged in spiritual practice is the seed. A seed like that is very exquisite and wondrous, and there are so many of them; these seeds must come from fruit. You can see that within every fruit is the cause for a great tree to form. The process of the Buddha’s spiritual practice over many lifetimes involved accumulating many seeds. Across those many lifetimes, the causes created by His spiritual practice were very ample.
“That which is valuable is that which can meet all of humanity’s needs. This is like the fruition of Buddhahood. The myriad practices we form are the causes and the myriad virtues these result in are the effects. This is the perfection of blessings and wisdom.”
We are able to engage in spiritual practice in this life because of our karmic conditions. In the past life, we also had this cause. Those causes led to this effect in this lifetime. To be born human, we must have the right karmic conditions. With effects come conditions and with conditions come causes. With the seeds we cultivated in our previous lives, will we be able to bring our practice in this life to fruition? Not yet, we need to do this, life after life. The Buddha had engaged in spiritual practice. [In the presence of] 20,000 Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas. Lifetime after lifetime, He never stopped following Buddhas to engage in spiritual practice. There were countless Buddhas before Him. At the beginning of teaching the Lotus sutra, the Buddha had already explained the state of “a seed containing an ocean of fruits”, that it takes lifetime after lifetime of accumulating the causes for learning and practice and lifetime after lifetime of accumulating their effects. These causes and effects must be endlessly accumulated over a long time. So, “the fruition of Buddhahood” is a fruit that has ripened. The state of Buddhahood is a fruit and a stage that has already [been attained].
In the past we have discussed the stages of the Bodhisattva’s Ten Grounds. In order to attain Buddhahood, we must go through each of the Ten Grounds. Only then can we reach the fruition of Buddhahood. Because he had what was valuable, that which could meet all of humanity’s needs, this elder was like the Buddha. The Buddha was already completely mature and had reached the fruition of Buddhahood. So, “The myriad practices we form are the causes”. In order to reach this state of fruition, we must engage in myriad practices. These are the causes. To engage in myriad practices, we must first know the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links and the Six Perfections. We must thoroughly understand them over many lifetimes. “The myriad practices…are the causes.” To reach the state of fruition, first we need to have “the myriad practices [as] the causes.” We must find a way to give to others and understand the suffering in life, then understand how we came into this world and where we will go after we die. Just how did we write the script for this life in our past lives? And in this life, what do we want to do? How we want to [deal with what we] feel, etc.?
If we can understand these principles, we will be willing to go among the people to practice the Six Perfections. In our daily living, our actions must be in accord with the Dharma. Therefore, we need to first have “myriad practices as causes” in order to have “myriad virtues as effects.” Then we can perfect our cultication of both blessings and wisdom. This is symbolized by wealth.
This great elder had infinite wealth. All his storehouses were full and overflowing: The Four Noble Truths, Twelve Links and actualizing the Six Perfections in all actions are the practices that reveal the Tathagata-garbha. No phenomena exist outside of the Five Skandhas, 18 Realms and so on; this is the principle that reveals the Tathagata-garbha.
So, “This great elder had infinite wealth. All his storehouses were full and overflowing.” This refers to “the Four Noble Truths, Twelve Links actualizing the Six Perfections in all actions.” We just talked about these “No phenomenon exists outside of the Five Skandhas, 18 Realms and so on.” These phenomena we are talking about are all unconditioned Dharma and all conditioned phenomena.
All conditioned and unconditioned Dharma are within the Five Skandhas, 18 Realms. Everyone should know the Five Skandhas. The Five Skandhas are the Five Aggregates. We always chant that “The Five Aggregates are all empty in nature.” Thus we transcend confusion and delusions.” The Five Aggregates are also called the Five Skandhas.
Form, feeling, perception, action consciousness are the Five Aggregates. This is what we experience in our daily living.
The 18 Realms are the combination of the Six Roots, Six Dusts,the Six Consciousnesses. Three times six equals eighteen. This gives us the 18 Realms. These are principles.
Previously, we talked about “actualizing the Six Perfections in all actions. We must unceasingly put them into practice to return to our storehouse consciousness and purify our eighth consciousness. Then we can enter the ninth consciousness, which is the Tathagata-consciousness.Then we will be inside our pure and undefiled Tathagata-garbha.
All Dharma is inseparable from our daily living. We [need] to live in accord with principles. If we do not follow the principles and deviate from them, we will give rise to afflictions. With afflictions, the actions we take will be evil deeds. This means we have degenerated and have created karma that leads to unbearable suffering.
Everyone, in order to learn the Buddha’s Way, we need to learn how to give to others in our living and how to reach the ultimate goal of our spiritual practice. We must constantly practice the Fourfold Mindfulness, The Four Bases of Fulfilling Power and the Four Right Efforts and so on. We must clearly understand the Three Principles and Four State so that we can develop exquisite and wondrous wisdom, which is the essence of our true nature. With our every thought, we must contemplate with wisdom and give out of the strength of our hearts. We must mindfully abide in our aspirations so we can unlock our spiritual wealth.
Only with this seed, this cause, can we thoroughly understand true emptiness and wondrous existence, which is the ocean of fruits. Everyone, learning the Buddha’s Way is simple. However, it requires this correct mindset. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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