Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Transcend Afflictions with Flawless Studies (離煩惱修無漏)
Date:August.28. 2015
“The four elements, the Five Skandhas and the Eight Sufferings rage furiously. The flawless Dharma-essence is the nourishment for wisdom and understanding. We must look, listen, contemplate and practice among the people.”
The four elements are earth, water, fire and air. Every material thing in this world arises from the convergence of these four elements; this is how all the various things we see come into being. The Five Skandhas, also known as the Five Aggregates, are form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. Our daily living is inseparable from them. As we go through birth, aging, illness and death, the major stages of our lives, in this lifetime we have already accumulated a lot of both good and bad karma. Perhaps we have the karmic conditions to train our minds to gradually eliminate afflictions and return to the Bodhi-path of awakening.
By clearly understanding the principles of life, we can already eliminate many afflictions and exhaust the karma we brought from our past lives. With others, we can take a step back and be a little more accommodating. If we formed [negative] connections with people in a previous life, by accommodating them and giving way in this life, we have the causes and conditions that allow us to reduce the balance of our negative affinities.
By being broad-minded in our treatment of others, we can develop more positive karmic conditions. By reducing negative [karma], good karma grows. This may be because we came into this life with the good fortune and good karmic conditions to be able to hear the Buddha-Dharma. However, the majority of people have not heard the Buddha-Dharma, so they follow the seeds of karma that they brought from the past, and as they interact with other people, there is no telling how much more negative karma and mutual negative affinities they will create. These karmic connections, these karmic seeds, will be planted in our karmic consciousness, and we will bring them into our future lives.
Our future lives will be based on the karma we bring from this one. Thus life is inseparable from the Eight Sufferings. In this lifetime, we experience the Eight Sufferings. Birth, aging, illness and death are four of these sufferings. Not getting what we want, meeting those we hate and parting with those we love are also sufferings. Then, the raging Five Skandhas come together to enter our karmic consciousness. If we cannot escape them in this lifetime, our habitual tendencies will continue to remain in our mind-consciousness. In the past and in this lifetime, we have also brought karma with us; we followed [enticing] conditions to come and face our direct and circumstantial retributions.
This is the way life works; we are amidst “the four elements, Five Skandhas and Eight Sufferings.” Oh, how unbearable these sufferings are!
Next, “The flawless Dharma-essence is the nourishment for wisdom and understanding.” We can thoroughly understand that life moves in cycles affected by the workings of the four elements and the Five Skandhas. The courses of our live are inseparable from “the Eight Sufferings raging furiously”; these are inseparable, plus we incessantly create more karma and give rise to discursive thoughts.
We already know these things, and since we do, we must be resolute in our aspirations. We must aspire to engage in spiritual practice, to listen to the Dharma and take it to heart. We must earnestly listen, contemplate and practice. How we can continue in a wholesome direction and avoid going down an unwholesome direction?We must cultivate precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.
When we hear about things we should not do, we cannot feel the slightest temptation to do them.We must truly take the Dharma to heart.
Once it is in our hearts, we must not allow it to ever leak away again, for the Dharma nurtures our wisdom-life.This is what the “flawless Dharma-essence” does “Leaks,” or flaws, as everyone knows, are afflictions.
If we have afflictions, we have Leaks.Because we have afflictions, we cannot concentrate on listening to the Dharma, and even if we have heard the Dharma, we do not retain it in our minds.This means we have Leaks; the Dharma is leaking out.Because we have afflictions, we will be unable to take the dharma to heart.Even if we can, it will leak out.
Right now, we must listen to the Dharma.
We see in communities all over Taiwan, at this very moment, that many people are listening to the teachings.Everyone gets out of bed at 3 or 4am, when it is still dark outside.No matter if it is very windy or raining hard, or if there is a wintry chill, they still leave their house early in the morning to listen to the Dharma.After listening to the teachings in the morning, do they keep the Dharma in mind?
I really believe that since everyone is willing to get up so early to continue being diligent, this group of Bodhisattvas can listen to the Dharma without it leaking away.Moreover, the Dharma will remain in their minds.
When we have taken the Dharma to heart, it is the Dharma-essence.When this happens we have “nourishment for wisdom and understanding”.When the Dharma-essence is in our mind, we can develop our wisdom-life.
Our wisdom-life can help us understand all worldly matters, and we will be able to become omen with the entire universe.Since we understand this, we will be able to eliminate our desires.
Without a desirous mind, material objects external states will be unable to entice us.
Our minds can even become one with the macrocosm of the world and thus become open and spacious.Then we will no longer be hindered by afflictions and ignorance.We will have “wisdom and understanding”.
When we thoroughly understand material things, the workings of all things in the world will be encompassed within our minds.So, we will have “wisdom and understanding”.
What nourishes our wisdom and understanding?The Dharma.Therefore, we must take the Dharma to heart.
“We must look, listen, contemplate and practice.”By listening, contemplating and practicing, we see how our daily living is related to “the four elements and the Five Skandhas”.
Our body connects with all kinds of sense objects in our external environment.Right now, as I am speaking, your ears are the sense organs that take in the sound of my voice.
Once you understand, you will take the Dharma to heart.
First, you must look and experience.Once you have looked, you must listen.When you can see and verify for yourself, that is truly the time when you can take in the things that I am saying.When we listen to the Dharma, we must earnestly accept it in order to “look, listen, contemplate and practice among people.”
In this way, as we interact with each other, we will place more importance on the Dharma.Only then can our interactions with each other reveal how the Dharma can improve this world.
Therefore, we must be mindful.
This earlier sutra passage states, “The jackal and his ilk had already died. All the large vicious beasts were contending to eat them. The stinking smoke permeated all four directions.”
Everyone knows the jackal.They are similar to foxes.The jackal is clever and is used as an analogy for people who know they should engage in spiritual practice.They know that, in this world, pain and suffering are caused by desires and that, to transcend this, they must engage in spiritual practice.
In India, there were religious teachings that taught improper spiritual practices.Though people who followed them could transcend the six desires, they were biased toward seeking the form and formless realms.Even if they achieved that state, they had not completely eliminated afflictions because they were still selfishly pursuing liberation for themselves only.
So, the teachings they practiced were deviant, as were the teachings that they pass on.
So, “The [jackals] have already died” means that they have already put the desire realm far behind them, but in the form and formless realms they have deviated from the true principles. This is why the word “already” is used.
“Already” is a reference to the desire realm. They have completely transcended the desire realm, but regarding the form and formless realms, they have not yet penetrated their principles, so they seek the Dharma outside of themselves. “All the large vicious beasts” are our many cravings, and because of them, “The stinking smoke permeates all four directions”. While we are still within the Three Realms, we are pressed by the Eight Sufferings. We still face the oppression of the four elements and Eight Sufferings. We are still unable to leave the form and formless realms because we are not abiding in the Right Dharma.
The next sutra passage states, “Centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes were burned by the fire and struggled to get out of their holes”.
This is about “centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snakes”. What are centipedes? They are many-legged creatures. Centipedes are arthropods, animals with many legs. Their body is made up of segment after segment. Take our hands for example; our fingers have many segments. It is because they have all these segments that they can bend. Our spine works the same way; it is made up of many segments so it is easy for us to bend over.
Centipedes are segmented, with many, many individual segments. “Their entire body is segmented”, and each segment has a set of legs. The smallest centipede is 1 cm long and has 13 pairs of legs. There are two legs in each pair, so 13 pairs means he has 26 legs. The bigger ones can grow up to 30 cm. A 30 cm centipede has 177 pairs of legs. That is more than 300 legs.
The kinds of places they live in are holes in rotten wood, or in the seams of rocks. These are the kinds of places they live in. so, it is said that animals live in suffering. They may have to live in the seams of rocks or inside wood that is already rotten.
Their first pair of legs contains venom. Thus, centipedes are poisonous. They use their venom as a defense by shooting it against attackers. This is a weapon they use to defend themselves.
Their last pair of legs are especially long so that they have the power to propel themselves and run forward very quickly. Since animals like these are constructed in such incredible ways, we must respect all the world’s creatures all the four kinds of beings, all of these lifeforms and the ways they live.
The house centipede and the centipede are almost the same, but differ in that the legs of house centipedes are thinner and longer. They have 15 pairs of legs, which means they have 30 legs total. Unlike normal centipedes, house centipedes catch harmful insects, so they are beneficial to agriculture.
The wondrousness of the world lies in this. When it comes to our crops, we are afraid of harmful insect infestations, but there are creatures in the fields that protect the crops. Around the crops there are birds and insects that counter one another.
When Sakyamuni Buddha went to His travels, He observed the fields in the countryside and saw how the strong preyed on the weak. He saw how the birds pecked at live worms. They will stab them in the middle, and while the worms continued to struggle, the herons wolfed them down. When He saw this scene, He lamented, “Humans [discriminate between] the four castes; among animals, the strong also prey upon the weak”. He had experienced the relationship between the strong and the weak and the inequality between the four castes and further saw the impermanence of life.
Thus, he wanted to investigate the truths of life. So, as we said, these kinds of insects, these house centipedes, are helpful to the crops because they eat harmful insects.
The centipede is an analogy for anger in the desire realm. As I was just saying, their first pair of legs contains venom. If you touch them, they will shoot out that venom. This is why they are used as an analogy. The form realm is free of desires. To distance themselves from desire, spiritual practitioners try to reach the form realm. In that state, they do not greedily pursue material things; however, they still have afflictions and are still thinking about many things. When in the state of the form realm, we are not like centipedes. We do not have so many desires, like all the legs on a centipede.
But there are poisonous creatures in this state. What kind of poisonous creatures? Snakes. We can be like poisonous snakes. See, there are no legs on a snake, but they are more poisonous than centipedes.
In the desire realm, the centipede is an analogy for anger. The form realm is free of desires; though there are no reference to centipedes, it speaks of poisonous insects. There is no anger in the upper realms, and no intent towards mutual harm.
“There is no anger in the upper realms.” Regarding the desire realm, they have no greed, but these afflictions still have not been eliminated from their thinking. This describes the process of spiritual practice. These “centipedes and house centipedes and varieties of poisonous snake” are all analogies for the process of spiritual cultivation.
“Burned in the fire, they struggled to leave their holes.” This refers to afflictions.
All Three Realms have the fires of afflictions, but we take action only in the desire realm.As they move toward the form and formless realms, practitioners renounce the crude phenomena of form and contemplate the formless Dharma. This is the poisonous snakes that were burned and struggled to get of their holes.
In the state of the form and the formless realms, afflictions still have not been eliminated are also states of our mind. If we have not eliminated our afflictions, they will start fires. “All Three Realms have these fires but we take action only in the desire realm.” We only take action “in the desire realm. In the desire realm there are material rewards such as fame profit and status that people fight over.
In the desire realm alone, we take action and fight to obtain things. When fighting we have an opponent. When fighting we get into confrontations, etc. These [actions] are quite obvious. The afflictions of the desire realm, arise forms, objects and people, so we end up causing harm. All of this happens in the desire realm.
Spiritual practitioners move toward the form and formless realms. They have already renounced the desire realm and visible and tangible things fame and profit. These things are coarse and extremely crude. They have no desire for these things any longer.
The Drama they seek is to “contemplate the formless Dharma.” Having “renounced the crude phenomena of form, they have relinquished form, fame and wealth. These are all crude and not worth fighting over, so they do not struggle to obtain them. Instead, they “contemplate the formless Dharma.” They carefully contemplate the formless Dharma, but still they have afflictions. They carefully contemplate this Dharma,but in reality,this is not the Right Dharma, so there is no way [to escape from afflictions]. They are like poisonous snakes that are burned and struggle to leave their holes. Like these poisonous snakes, they are suffocated. Although they do not act with their body, inside their minds they are suffocated by the oppressive heat of afflictions.
So, “They struggle to leave their holes.” They still dace many mental struggles.In summary, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must be mindful. In our daily living when we awaken and open our eyes, our body comes in contact with the external environment. Thus, “the four elements, Five Skandhas and Eight Sufferings rage furiously. We must always hold this firmly in our minds. We must earnestly take in “flawless Dharma-essence [as] nourishment for wisdom and understanding.” We should make an effort to absorb the Dharma.
In our daily living, we must be able to discern between and “look, listen, contemplate and practice among the people.” It is among people that we can properly engage in spiritual practice. Everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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