Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Transform All with a Meditative Mind of Samadhi (三昧禪心娑婆度眾)
Date:September.01. 2015
“With the concentration of Samadhi and careful cultivate of contemplation, we can reach the clear and tranquil state that comes from the nature of True Suchness. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, for the sake of one great cause, return to the Saha World to save sentient beings.”
Life is filled with so much suffering. We have been born human in a place where we can listen to the teachings and engage in spiritual practice. Shouldn’t we cherish this opportunity more deeply? In an environment like this, how can we calm our minds?
Samadhi is Right Concentration, Right Thinking, Right Mindfulness and a power mindset. All of these are part of the state of Samadhi. So, Samadhi lies in single-minded concentration. We must concentrate, follow the right teachings and not allow our thoughts to deviate. These are all a part of being in Samadhi, which is also a state of concentration.
If we can concentrate, then we can very prudently “cultivate contemplation.” We all know that “cultivating contemplation” is. What is it? A meditative state.
Indeed, many different words are all used to describe this meditative state. In fact, being in a meditative state means that our minds are pure, our thoughts are proper and we are concentrating on setting our minds. This is called “the concentration of Samadhi”. Carrying firewood and water is also meditation. Our every word and action can be meditation.
So, the way we live must not be removed from the meditative state of “the concentration of Samadhi”. Even though we are in a constantly troubled world, if we can apply “the concentration of Samadhi” to contemplate earnestly and carefully, we can still reach that pure, clear and tranquil state that brings us near our nature of True Suchness.
Everyone has this nature of True Suchness. When in this state of clarity and tranquility, won’t we feel peaceful and at ease? Then what suffering is there? Actually, all suffering is within our minds. The mind is the burning house of the Three Realms; and everything is amassed within it. When a desire arises, desirous thoughts rage like fire. A single spark can ignite a prairie fire. This is how life’s sufferings arise from the mind. The karma our minds create leaves us afflicted; we are still far from our nature of True Suchness.
So, for us to attain a clear and tranquil state, we must draw near our nature of True Suchness by getting rid of desires and deluded thoughts and aspiring to walk the Bodhisattva-path.
So, “All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas [come] for the sake of one great cause”. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are the same; to attain Buddhahood, they had to walk the Bodhisattva-path and suffer the suffering of all sentient beings. Feeling the suffering of all sentient beings is called “universal compassion.” So, the Buddha had already been in the state of the Bodhisattvas; for lifetime after lifetime, He went among suffering sentient beings and guided them, drawing them close to Him. With many different methods, He formed karmic connections with sentient beings and created blessings for them.
For countless lifetimes, the Buddha came to the world for one great cause, which was to “open and reveal”. This was the Buddha’s task, His mission and His vow. The Buddha came to this world to “open and reveal” His understanding and views for sentient beings to “realize and enter”.This is why the Buddha came to this world and why all the Bodhisattvas came to assist at the [Dharma-assemblies].They shared one cause, which was the one great cause.
This is why they “returned to the Saha World”.
The Saha World is the world of endurance.
Saha means hard to endure.
We must be able to patiently endure what happens in this world.Because this world is indeed full of suffering, we must patiently endure all of it to go on living.
On one return visit, Mr. James Chen, Si Cheng, said to me, “Haiti is full of suffering”.He showed me some pictures.The hospitals in Haiti are full of suffering.
When people in Haiti go to the hospital, there are no beds available for them.So, there are always people there waiting for medical treatment and waiting for beds.The people there were all skin and bones.Some people’s skin had blackened and dried up.Some people’s had become swollen all over.Some had parts of their body that were putrefied.
Seeing hospitals and patients in these states made me very sad.
I said to him, “Go back quickly to check on the hospital. Perhaps we should send them some beds first?”In an [unstable] environment like Haiti, that situation made me very uneasy.
I saw some other pictures that were very moving.Some of the volunteers, after having had their loving hearts awakened, were helping [the patients] to freshen up, helping clean them up and providing them meals.There was an old who was very thin.He could not even raise himself up to eat.So, one of the volunteers helped this man up, held him against his body, and fed him with a spoon.He was like a mother holding her child in her arms.Every one of those volunteers is a Bodhisattva.
See, the Saha World is one of endurance.The scenes we see in Haiti are like what we would see in hell.This is hell in the Saha World.
The Bodhisattvas in Haiti help one sentient being after another.There are truly no words to describe this.I am grateful that Tzu Chi volunteers have been caring for them for such a long time.
Now, the previous sutra passage states, “This house is like this; it is deeply terrifying. In this toxic and harmful burning fire, the difficulties are many, not one.”
When we read this sutra passage, don’t our thoughts return to Haiti?We can imagine that the suffering there is [as bad as] a burning house.It is frightening to see.It is indeed fearsome; “It is deeply terrifying.”
That “toxic and harmful burning fire” means it is as if that environment is filled with a toxic and harmful burning fire.“The difficulties are many, not one.”There are many suffering people.
The following sutra passage states, “At that time, the master of the house stood outside the door. He heard someone say, All of your children, because they wanted to play, have entered this house.”
The master of this large house had left home for some time.When he returned, the children were inside, immersed in playing.Fire was closing in from all four sides, but these children went on playing.
When the elder saw this, he felt anxious.
“Children, you need to get out quickly!”None of the children heeded his cries, so he placed three carts outside the house.The prose section already explained this.
Here, these verses reiterate, “At that time, the master of the house,” the owner of this house, “stood outside the door” and looked in “He heard someone say,” and thus knew that, “all of your children,” all of his children, were playing inside the house.Foolishly, they did not realize that they must leave immediately.Because they were playing in the house, the children were all still inside.
“Because they wanted to play, [they] have entered this house”.The master of the house is an analogy for the Buddha.This is the Buddha’s spiritual home; we often talk about the mind as a home.This is something we all inherently have.
Our mind is like a house, and the master of this house is our nature of True Suchness.The Buddha, the master of that house, is replete with loving-kindness.With loving-kindness and compassion, He is able to patiently endure the Saha World and always remain in it.
The master of the house:
With His loving-kindness the Buddha can endure, so He always abides in the Saha World. This is analogous to the master as one who can see.
Stood outside the door:
Having left through this burning door, he had attained peace and safety.
The Saha World is a place that is hard to patiently endure.It is hard to endure, but the Buddha has already escaped from this burning house. By engaging in spiritual practice, He was liberated from cyclic existence and left the Saha World. But with His loving-kindness, He had great patience and endurance. So, He constantly returns to the Saha World and always abides here. Because He always abides in the Saha World, He is the guiding teacher of the Three Realms and the kind father of the four kinds of beings.
For more than 2500 years, the Buddha’s teachings and His loving-kindness have lived on in our minds. Thus, the Buddha always abides in the Saha World. So, the Buddha is analogous to the elder. The elder can see the Saha World [for what it is] and the myriads of beings in the burning house who are deluded and immersed in the desire realm.
So, he was “one who can see”. [Likewise,] after the Buddha awakened, He saw how sentient beings were deluded and unable to awaken. So, “He stood outside the door” means that He stayed safely outside the door. This is expresses how the Buddha, though coming to the Saha World to transform sentient beings, kept His mind outside the burning house, so His mind was not constantly disrupted by troubling afflictions. So, “He stood outside the door”
In this way, “Having left through this burning door, he had attained peace and safety”. He had already engaged in spiritual practice and attained enlightenment. He had already gone out through the door, so He was safely on the other side. However, He was still concerned with those inside. “The body of the Tathagata is the Right Dharma”.
The Tathagata had awakened to everything, so His Dharma-body is ever-abiding. Thus, “He always harbors great compassion”. The Buddha is of one body with sentient beings. After we understand the Dharma, we can also awaken our unconditional loving-kindness and universal compassion. We can likewise “feel others’ pain and suffering as our own”. Consider the Bodhisattva [-volunteers] in Haiti. They are surrounded by suffering, yet they are still willing to give of themselves to those who suffer more than they do. This is great compassion. These Bodhisattvas have accepted the Dharma and have become completely one with sentient beings, so they will not abandon those who are suffering. “They feel others’ pain as their own” and are willing to give to them. This was the Buddha’s goal in coming to this world. He hopes we could awaken our loving hearts, form great aspirations and make great vows.
Thus, He was willing to devote Himself repeatedly so the teachings could remain in this world in order to transform sentient beings. So, it is said, “He does not remain in the Buddha-realm, [sitting] on the seat of ultimate emptiness”. He could have peacefully occupied the Dharma-seat; there was no need to get involved. But He could not bear for people to suffer. Thus He was willing to leave “the seat of ultimate emptiness, which was a safe and stable place. He was willing to devote Himself in this way. Why was that? It was because in His compassion, “He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer”. Thus it says He “stood outside the door”.
The body of the Tathagata is the Right Dharma. He always harbors great compassion and wants to save sentient beings. He does not remain in the Buddha-realm, enjoying the fruits of virtue on the seat of ultimate emptiness, for He cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer. Thus it says [the elder] stood outside the door.
Life is full of suffering. “He heard someone say, “All of your children”. When we discussed the prose section from earlier, we already spoke of this. That sutra passage stated, “The elder saw all his children”. We should remember that sutra passage. Not it says that he “heard”. The previous prose section said, “[He] saw all his children”. Here it states, “He heard someone say “All of your children” refers to the multitudes of suffering sentient beings. Nowadays, some people say that “hearing” is actually like seeing. Hearing about something is like seeing it, because when we hear about it, we know about it.
So, “When we hear something, it must come from others”. It is through what others tell us that we hear. “Therefore, from a state of Right Thinking, He compassionately views those who are suffering in the burning house”. It is in this state of Right Thinking that He compassionately viewed sentient beings”. He felt the sentient beings in the burning house were indeed suffering unbearably.
In the prose section it said: “The elder saw all his children”. Here it says: “He heard someone say”. Hearing takes the place of seeing. When something is heard, it must come from others. Therefore, from a state of Right Thinking, He compassionately views those who are suffering in the burning house. This is the analogy of the children.
This thought led them astray, so they ended up in the Saha World. By “entering Samadhi, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas knew that because of a single ignorant thought, these sentient beings entered the burning house.” This state of Samadhi is a state of Right Thinking. The Buddha is in a state of Right Thinking and has Right Concentration, Right Views, Right Understanding and perfect enlightenment. With eyes of loving-kindness, they eyes of His heart, He observed sentient beings’ capabilities. What methods could He use to save them? These sentient beings were in the burning house lingering inside. What methods should He use to help them?
So it says, “He heard someone say.”This means He was contemplating each of these things. The Buddha’s spiritual home is one of compassion and benevolence; with this mind and this power of love, how was He going to establish teachings for sentient beings? So, He “carried the power of compassionate vows to enter the realm of sentient beings.” He had to exercise compassion and great vows; by using great compassion and the power of great vows, He returned to the Saha World of sentient beings.
Sentient beings are the “four kinds of beings.” The Buddha could not bear to let them suffer in the burning house, so He was willing to return to it. Because He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer, He was willing to endure all this suffering. So, it is said, “He carried the power of compassionate vows to the realm of sentient beings.” He embraced all universally and kept al under His protection and in His thoughts. He showed compassion to all equally and encouraged everyone to form a resolve of great compassion. All sentient beings are equal, so He hoped we would all form the aspiration to guard and care for all sentient beings.
Entering Samadhi, He compassionately observed sentient beings’ capabilities. Thus it says, “He heard someone say.”
If the one who sees or hears carries the power of compassionate vows to enter the realm of sentient beings, He can embrace all beings universally and keep them under His protection and in His thoughts. Thus, He enters this house.
The Buddha used the Dharma to teach and guide every one of us. Whether the teachings are seen or heard, we must practice in accordance with them. This is the Buddha-mind The Buddha’s mind and the mind of sentient beings are the same in essence. So, the Buddha’s teachings [we given] in the hope that we would see and hear and exercise great compassion and the power of vows to likewise go among the people.
“He can embrace all beings universally and keep them under His protection, in His thoughts.” Thus He “enters this house.”
We constantly talk about how Sakyamuni Buddha came to this world with His Dharma-body to teach and transform us. When each one of us accepts the Dharma, we will all have the Buddha in our minds.
The Buddhas is the master of the house, the master of the mind’s house. In everyone of us, there is a master of the house. With the master of our mind, we are getting closer to the Buddha.
So, “We carefully cultivate contemplation.” We must try to carefully contemplate and earnestly practice. Our minds must be very focused to achieve “the clear and tranquil state that comes from the nature of True Suchness.” Only then can we draw near the Buddha’s nature of True Suchness.
“All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, for the sake of one great cause, return to the Saha World to save sentient beings.” In fact, we are equal to the Buddha, and all sentient beings are equal to us.So, if we can open our minds so that they can encompass the universe and become one with it then helping sentient beings will be the goal we devote ourselves to, our greatest goal. So, we hope that everyone will always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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