Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Peacefully and Patiently Transport Heavy Burdens (自利利人安忍運載)
Date:July.10. 2015
“We seek the teachings to benefit ourselves and at the same time to benefit others. This is the Great Vehicle of the Mahasattvas. A Bodhisattva uses compassion and wisdom to transform sentient beings, like the ox who peacefully and patiently transports heavy burdens. Thus the ox-cart is an analogy for Bodhisattvas.”
I want to share with everyone that we learn the Buddha’s Way in the hope of attaining Buddhahood. Will we attain it by continuously praying, “Venerable Buddha, please help me attain Buddhahood”? Is this how we attain Buddhahood? No. We need to put the Dharma into practice. We must vow to seek the teachings. To be like the Buddha, of course we need to learn from the Buddha.
So, seeking the teachings depends on our own efforts, on whether we are willing to elevate the aim of our aspirations. We must learn to be like the Buddha and attain His level of compassion and wisdom. Since we are learning, we must practice according to the teachings and listen to the Buddha-Dharma.
In the Buddha’s mind, He hoped that after everyone understood, they would then go among people and put the teachings into practice. Then the Buddha-Dharma can be spread widely and sentient beings can actually be saved. This is not illusory; people are truly saved. This was the Buddha’s intention. Therefore, we should now understand that we must “seek the teachings to benefit ourselves.” We must look to the Buddha. We must follow the Buddha’s spiritual practice and what He manifested in this world to teach us. We need to realize that His goal in attaining Buddhahood was to save people. If we understand this goal, we must immediately aspire to be like Him. This is what it means to “seek the teachings.”
We should have the same mission as the Buddha. We are not seeking only our own understanding, to simply hear and understand. No,what we must understand is how to put these teachings into practice. “[Seeking] the teachings to benefit ourselves” is what we can do for ourselves. If we attain realizations, then benefit others, we are truly benefiting ourselves and others.
We benefit ourselves by developing our wisdom-life. To develop our wisdom-life, we must go among people. By interacting with people, we gain a lot of information about the world, we learn about many ways of life and we learn about suffering, causation, cessation and the Path in the world. These many principles can be learned by going among people. So, this is also how we “benefit ourselves”.
When we go among people and gain something, naturally we will want to give to others. This is called “benefiting others.” We always wonder, when we help people, are we benefiting ourselves? If we have the ability to help others, do we benefit as well? When we help others, while they are helped, we have also attained happiness and joy, which help our wisdom-life grow. So, when we give, we actually reap the benefits. When we are able to give something tangible, it is the work of many people coming together to be able to give. In the end, we actually reap the benefits. We attain joy and a sense of peace. This happiness when we seek the teachings and enable our wisdom-life to grow. It is because we help others at the same time. We benefit ourselves and others. This is what it means to “seek the teachings”.
By understanding the teachings and putting them into practice, we attain a sense of Dharma-joy and a deeper understanding of the world around us. This is how we develop our wisdom-life. If we do not give to others, and just say, “know, I know,” then how much do we really understand?
If we do not give of ourselves at all, we do not actually understand anything.If we do not have the experience, we will not attain any realization, so we will not understand anything.Therefore, to benefit ourselves, we need to benefit others at the same time.To benefit others, we go among people and gather everyone’s strength to give to others.This is how we reap the greatest benefit.For our wisdom-life, helping others is indeed very beneficial.
So, “We seek the teachings to benefit ourselves and at the same time benefit others. This is the Great Vehicle of the Mahasttvas.”
This is the Great Vehicle Dharma.“Maha” means great, “sattvas” refer to Bodhisattvas, to sentient beings.So, Mahasattvas means “great sentient beings”.They follow the Great Vehicle Dharma.
“A Bodhisattva uses compassion and wisdom to transform sentient beings.”Mahasattvas are great Bodhisattvas.Great Bodhisattvas exercise their compassion and their wisdom “to transform sentient beings”.This is their vow.
All Bodhisattvas have made a vow to learn from the Buddha’s mind and go among people to transform them all.They are peaceful and patient like an ox.
There is so much suffering in this world.So, we need to be peaceful and attaint to stay in this world of endurance.
If we have the patience, we can get through things safely, “like the ox who peacefully and patiently transports heavy burdens”.Not only is an ox patient he can also transport heavy burdens; he can shoulder heavy responsibilities.This is his virtue of beings peaceful and patient.
The ox has virtues, too.He is able to patiently endure this kind of life.Because he had created the karma to be born as an ox, he accepted his fate and patiently endured this.“Thus the ox-cart is an analogy for Bodhisattvas.”
There were three kinds of carts, the sheep-cart, deer-cart and ox-cart.When sheep eat grass, they do not care about anything else, but just focus on eating the grass before them.As for the deer, when they are eating grass, they pay attention to their surroundings.
What about the ox?They not only eat the grass, they also have a sense of mission, which is to help humans; they have this sense of responsibility.So, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, “We seek the teachings to benefit ourselves and at the same time to benefit others.”
When we give to other people, we are actually seeing the suffering in the world.The Buddha talked about “suffering,” but “suffering” comes from “causation”.How did we accumulate this “causation”?When we go among people and see how they suffer in this world, amidst this suffering we will naturally realize the principles behind “causation”.Thus we will be more committed to our aspirations.
By comprehending “suffering” and “causation,”.
We can develop our wisdom-life.We will know how to walk “the Path” and achieve the “cessation” of afflictions.By going among people, we understand this.The world is filled with suffering; to avoid triggering this “suffering,“ we must guard against wrongdoings and stop evil to close the door to “causation”.
Thus, we cultivate precepts, Samadhi and wisdom because we know how suffering is accumulated.
With precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, we can protect ourselves from being affected by negative causes and conditions.This is what we must understand.
When we go among people, we must be grateful.This is how we can be great Bodhisattvas.This is how we practice the Great Vehicle Dharma.
Great Bodhisattvas exercise both compassion and wisdom to transform sentient beings.They are like the ox, who is peaceful and patient and is able to transport heavy burdens.
So, the ox is an analogy for Bodhisattvas.If everyone understands this, our spiritual practice will not be difficult.
The previous sutra passage states, “Out of sympathy they bring peace and joy to countless sentient beings. They benefit heavenly beings and humans and liberate all. This is the Great Vehicle.”
If we clearly understand the previous passage, we understand that Bodhisattvas are not only peaceful and patient, they also have sympathy for sentient beings.
Bodhisattvas who seek this Vehicle…“.
Bodhisattvas seek the power of these great vows.They “seek the Buddha’s Way” and “transform sentient beings,” so “They are called Mahasattvas”.This was the aspiration they formed.
“They are like those children who left the burning house to seek the ox-cart”.
Bodhisattvas who seek this Vehicle are called Mahasattvas.They are like those children who left the burning house to seek the ox-cart.
This sutra passage is about wisdom. “With wisdom, they seek Bodhi”. When we learn the Buddha’s Way, we “seek the teachings”, which means we seek the Bodhi-path to awakening. We must use wisdom to choose the path we are going walk. “With compassion, they transform sentient beings”. With our compassion, we help and transform sentient beings. So, Bodhisattvas must constantly “seek and transform”.
“To seek” requires wisdom and “to transform” requires compassion. “Thus they form great aspirations [and engage in] causal practice”. When we form aspirations, they must be great. To plant these seeds in our minds, we must earnestly form aspirations.
These aspirations are causes. We start to think about helping others, instead of just saving ourselves. As we save ourselves, we must also save others. This is our first thought of forming great aspirations. This is the cause. We must then act on this cause.
Putting it into action means we “seek the Buddha’s Way and transform sentient beings”. Speaking of it this way, it is the Bodhisattva Vehicle.
We are willing to make aspirations so we then put them into action. This is the Bodhisattva Vehicle. When speaking of the fruits attained, it is called the Buddha Vehicle.
With wisdom, they seek Bodhi. With compassion, they transform sentient beings. Thus they form great aspirations. When speaking of the causal practice, it is called the Bodhisattva Vehicle. When speaking of the fruits attained, it is called the Buddha Vehicle.
We start with the “cause”. If we want to attain Buddhahood, we must form great aspirations and practice the Bodhisattva-path. This is called the causal ground. If we engage in spiritual practice and attain the state of Buddhahood, we have attained the “fruit”. Sakyamuni Buddha had already attained this “fruit”. Sakyamuni Buddha had already attained this fruit. As for us, we are forming aspirations. We aspire to attain Buddhahood. We are now at the state of “causes”. At the causal ground, we start to engage in spiritual practice. The process of our spiritual practice is to walk the Bodhisattva-path. This takes us to the state of Buddhahood, which is the fruit we attain.
Thus, walking the Bodhisattva-path is the cause and attaining Buddhahood is the fruit. So, both the cause and the fruit are part of the Great Vehicle. If not for these causes, how could we attain these fruits?
Bodhisattvas are “sentient beings”. They are “enlightened sentient beings”. “Maha” means “great”, so Mahasattvas are great sentient beings.
Bodhisattvas are also called great sentient beings. “The practice of benefiting oneself and others is called the Great Vehicle of the Mahasattvas”. This is the Great Vehicle Dharma.
Bodhisattvas “transform beings with compassion” they are like the ox who peacefully and patiently transports his burden. Even if the load is heavy, the ox is still willing. He walks forward with steady steps, uncomplaining. No matter how heavy the load, he is willing.
Thus those who left the burning house for the ox-cart are an analogy for Bodhisattvas. In order to obtain the ox-cart, they left the burning house; these are Bodhisattvas.
“The practice of benefiting oneself and others is called the Great Vehicle of the Mahasattvas. Bodhisattvas transform beings with compassion; they are like the ox who peacefully and patiently transports his burden. Thus those who left the burning house for the sake of the ox-cart are an analogy for Bodhisattvas.”
We understand the world is filled with suffering. So, we must mindfully seek the true principles of the Buddha-Dharma. We must not think of spiritual practice as just cultivating ourselves. No, we must also benefit others.
From the beginning I talked about the practice of benefiting oneself and others. In fact, as we give to others, we are also reaping great benefits.
Every day, we feel that we are very busy. What we are busy doing? Understanding. We try to understand how the world works, because in the Tzu Chi School of Buddhism, we have to understand the affairs of the world. We must know what is happening in the world, then our outlook will extend further and broader, and we will be able to realize the way of life of people around the world.
Without the ways of practice laid out by Tzu Chi, we may just focus on our own spiritual practice and only awaken ourselves. How would we know about what is happening around the world? Many people have vowed to me, “Wherever there is a disaster, Master, give me a chance to help. I want to sign up to go”. No matter how far it is or how difficult it is, they are willing to go. Travelling 10,000 miles benefits a person more than reading 10,000 books. The feelings they experienced by going there lead them to further exercise their great love.
Because they have already developed their wisdom-life, they will utilize their strengths. See, so many people are giving unconditionally and shouldering heavy responsibilities. They are taking on responsibilities for the world. This is the aspiration to walk the Bodhisattva-path.
This is why we researched how, after a disaster strikes and homes are destroyed, we can quickly provide the survivors with a safe refuge to protect them from wind and rain where they temporarily rest their bodies and minds. We researched how to immediately ship shelters to disaster areas and right away provide the people with simple shelters to rest their bodies and minds. We call them prefabricated shelters.
Over these few years, we have been developing ways for people to have a safe refuge for at least a few years so that they would have time to focus on building lives and restoring their homes our emergency disaster relief does not only provide them food so they do not go hungry, we also give them a few years to rest their body and mind.
Our Bodhisattvas work earnestly in healthy competition to develop and use a method of construction and materials that can be easily transported at once to build a large number of units in a short time.
Every time I see a prototype, I am very moved. So, once Bodhisattvas form aspirations, they began to take action accordingly. We understand worldly matters, understand the suffering in the world and how the causes of suffering are accumulated. Suffering caused by accumulation, but actually, to attain Buddhahood, various causes and conditions in order to complete the Bodhisattva-path and relieve the suffering in the world.
So, the ox-cart is an analogy for the Buddha’s teaching of the Bodhisattva Way, and the practice of the Six Perfections. “They only seek to deliver all people.” The Buddha has one goal, to deliver everyone from the Three Realms. He does not seek His own escape; it is not enough if He is the only one who escapes He also calls on everyone to escape. He is like an ox who shoulders a heavy burden.The ox must be peaceful and patient and endure the challenges in this world in order to deliver so many things. So, as we engage in spiritual practice, we must feel a sense of responsibility like the ox. Even when he is pulling a very heavy cart, he is willing to continue walking forward.
We have been discussing this previous passage, “They are like those children who left the burning house to seek the ox-cart.” This is the Great Vehicle, the great ox-cart.
The ox-cart is an analogy for the Buddha’s teaching of the Bodhisattva Way and the practice of the Six Perfections. They only seek to deliver all people from the Three Realms and do not seek their own escape. They are like an ox who shoulders the burden to peacefully and patiently deliver all. Thus the ox-cart is used as an analogy.
Dear Bodhisattvas, as Buddhist practitioners, we cannot only seek the Small Vehicle Dharma. We must “seek the Buddha’s Way and “transform sentient beings.” “Seeking the Buddha’s Way” is to benefit ourselves and others. What we must seek is the Great Vehicle Dharma. What we must apply in the world is both compassion and wisdom. To deliver all sentient beings, we must be like the ox who peacefully and patiently transports heavy burdens.
So, these are the Three Vehicles that the Buddha talked about. Even when the Buddha was entering Parinivana, He still taught the Four Noble Truths. He still had to remind them to return to suffering, causation, cessation and the Path so that all His disciples would remember. In conclusion, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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