Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: With a Clear Mind, Have Faith in the True Dharma (心念清澄深信實法)
Date:November. 17. 2015
“If our minds are not clear, we take no joy in true virtue. Lacking faith in the True Dharma can obstruct our pure mind. Giving rise to indolence and deluded karma, we take joy in desire, and our mind is defiled. Because we do not believe, we have many doubts that obstruct our spiritual cultivation.”
Do we all reflect on our own nature every day? Each day, as we take the way we see the world around us to shape our perspectives, we must earnestly ask ourselves, “Was my mind pure today? Have afflicted thoughts occupied my mind today?” This is how we engage in self-reflection.
Why do we so often allow afflictions to remain in our minds? Because “We take no joy in true virtue.” We have not cultivated in ourselves the qualities that we are seeking. We have not cultivated self-reflection to look within for our nature of True Suchness. Thus our mind is always scattered and clings to external states. Why does this happen? Because we do not believe the True Dharma.
If we merely say, “I know, I have heard this before; this is the True Dharma of the One Vehicle,” we remember the words but we have not taken the True Dharma to heart. That is because our faith is insufficient. As we discussed in the Introductory Chapter, we must develop extensive and deep [faith]; we need the roots of goodness of an extensive and deep faith. Only then will we have the means to truly realize the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. If we do not have deep faith in this True Dharma, we will constantly be hindered; this can “obstruct our pure minds.”
Why have [our pure minds] been covered? Why is it that we have these afflictions? Because we gave rise to indolence and deluded karma. With indolence and deluded karma, we become lazy. Since we know that the Buddha-Dharma is helpful and that it can help us return to our nature of True Suchness, knowing this, we should diligently practice it. We must not fail to keep moving forward. With “indolence and deluded karma,” we may become lax.
Clearly we are spiritual practitioners, clearly we have understood the Dharma, but our minds are still influenced by dust-like afflictions, and the seeds of ignorance are still present. So, “We take joy in desire, and our mind is defiled.” We retain our dust-like afflictions and seeds of karma.
“Because we do not believe, we have many doubts that obstruct our spiritual cultivation.” Thus we must constantly heighten our vigilance. Once, Sakyamuni Buddha was at Jeta Grove. One day, after the Buddha emerged from Samadhi, He said to everyone, “Each of you went out begging for alms today. What kinds of situations did you see out there? Think about how all the households in the city go about their lives or how people interact with others outside of home. Have you paid careful attention to this?”
Before anyone answered, the Buddha continued speaking, “I went out today and observed city life, people of all walks of life working steadily. I also saw housewives cooking at home. As I prepared to beg for alms from door to door, looking for someone who would give to me, I saw a group children outdoors, happily playing games.It looked like everyone's mind was peaceful. They were reverent and willing to make offerings."
"This made me think of a time countless kalpas ago. There was a Buddha called All-Transforming Buddha." This Buddha traveled and taught around the world, with two attendants at His side. From afar, they saw three children. The children were playing but when they saw these three spiritual practitioners walking towards them from far away, these three children stopped their playing these three children stopped their playing. The one in the middle said, "Look, it is the Buddha and His disciples. We should reverently and mindfully make offerings right away."
The children on either side of him asked, "What can we use to make an offerings? Right now we have neither flowers nor fruits. What can we use to make an offering?" The children in the middle felt his head and then look off the hat he was wearing. He said to them, "Look! On top of the hats we wear there are white pearls. We can take off these white pearls and use them to make offerings to the Buddha."
Those other two children said,"Yes! We can use them as offerings for the Buddha." So, the three children all took off their hats and removed the pearls. When the Buddha approached them, the three children revently offered these pearls. Each of them, with many pearls in their hands, came before All-Transforming Buddha. With utmost reverence, they scattered them. The pearls from the child in the middle landed on All-transforming Buddha's head, while the pearls from the other two children landed on His shoulders.
Then they reverently prostrated to this Buddha. All-Transforming Buddha asked them, "You three children, what do you wish for the future?" The child on the right pointed with his finger and said, "I want to engage in spiritual practice and be like the practitioner on your right, who is always by the Buddha's side." The child standing on the left also pointed with his finger and said, "I too hope to become a spiritual practitioner so I can be like the venerable one to Your left and constantly hear a Buddha teach the Dharma." The child in the middle said, with great reverence and respect for the Buddha, "In the future, I want to be just like You, dignified, wise and a teacher of the Dharma, so that I can teach and transform many sentient beings." All-Transforming Buddha was very happy, and He blessed the three children, saying, "If you have faith that this will happen, you must constantly protect your pure minds and make these vows lifetime after lifetime, while remaining steadfast."
Sakyamuni Buddha ended the story here and said, "You should know that the child on the right is now Sariputra, and the child on the left is now Maudgalyayana. The child in the middle was me, Sakymuni Buddha. This happened because, countless kalpas ago, even though I was only a child, I already had firm faith and a steadfast resolve. With a pure heart, I made an offering to the Buddha and received a prediction of Buddhahood from All-Transforming Buddha many lifetimes ago."
From this story, we can recognize that learning the Buddha's Way is not the work of just on lifetime. It takes causes and conditions from over a long period of time. With shared karmic causes and conditions, we receive the Dharma together and offer each other our encouragement.
So, we must constantly engage in self-reflection and ask ourselves, "Have we taken the Dharma we heard to hear?" If we have taken it to heart, have we applied it to our daily living? So, we must always be mindful. We should have deep faith, and we must not have doubts. Otherwise, we may easily obstruct our pure minds and hinder our own spiritual cultivation.
The previous passage states that, when people do not clearly hear the teachings, they may “scowl with knitted brows as they harbor doubts inside. Now listen to the retributions that they receive for their transgressions. Whether while a Buddha is in the world or after He has entered Parinirvana, those who slander this sutra…”
If we do not clearly hear the teachings, a slight deviation may lead us afar off course. Aside from doubting the Dharma, we may transmit teachings, mistakenly or even intentionally distort the Dharma. Everyone, you must listen carefully. Such people already suffer a great loss by failing to understand. What is worse is if they intentionally distort it. Then they will face many negative retributions.
The following sutra passage states, “When they see those who read, recite, copy or uphold this sutra, they disparage, loathe, envy, and thus bear hatred towards them. Now listen again to the retributions they will suffer for these transgressions.”
“When they see those who read, recite, copy or uphold this sutra…”If we do not understand this sutra but we turn around and see people who are reverently reading and earnestly upholding it very diligently, then we may not only doubt [the teachings], then we may not only doubt [the teachings], but many also slander these people. Not believing and slandering, we give rise to four kinds of evil thoughts.
When they see those who read, recite, copy or uphold this sutra: When seeing people diligently accept, read, recite, copy or uphold this sutra, some people, due to a lack of faith, give rise to the four evil practices of disparagement, loathing, envy and hatred.
Of these four kinds of evil thoughts, the first is disparagement. Not only do they not respect them, they disparage them and loath them as well. They feely an aversion and turn their back on them. “They are not doing honest work. They are just sitting there copying this text”. This is how they feel. Then there is envy; because they themselves cannot write, when they see how neatly others copy [the sutras], they become envious.
Then, they even give rise to hatred, which keeps accumulating. When they see others prostrate before the Buddha, they feel unhappy. When they hear others recite the sutras, they become annoyed. When they see others copying the sutras, unable to do so themselves, they feel a deep sense of unhappiness.
[These negative emotions] continue to accumulate, causing them to develop resentment, which is a sense of dislike. This dislike can then deepen into hatred. They is how they feel. They, “disparage, loath, envy and thus bear hatred toward them”.
They disparage, loath, envy and thus bear hatred toward them: To disparage others is to look down on and belittle them and hold them in contempt. To detest others is the meaning of “to loath”, and the intent to harm the virtuous comes from envy.
“Disparage” means to look down on and belittle. When they see someone who is very earnest, these arrogant people will disparage them; that is their mindset. In addition to not having respect for them, they feel revulsion towards them. These kinds of people feel “loathing”. When they see others being diligent, they have no respect for them. They detest it when people read and recite sutras. With unhappiness and loathing in their hearts, they desire to harm the virtuous. When people can copy the words neatly and explain the sutra very clearly, they become very envious. Not only are they unable to accept and understand the content of a sutra, they are unable to explain it to others. When they see others who understand the sutra and can explain it to other people, they become very envious. When they see the respect these people receive, they feel very unhappy.
Because of this, they “bear hatred towards them”. With this mindset, they constantly harbor resentment and hatred. Such resentment and hatred can be very unyielding, like a knot, and very deep, like the ocean.
With this kind of resentment and hatred, they are unable to free their minds.
Moreover, “to disparage, loathe and envy” means that when they see others upholding sutras, they begin to think, “Why does a sutra have any value?!” Thus, they disparage the sutras too, as if they were dregs or useless residue.
[They] disparage, loath and envy: seeing those who uphold this sutra, they disparage them as useless residue, as useless as rubble; they despise when others listen to them, and are envious of their success. Looking upon them as thorns and thinking of them as hated enemies, they want to be rid of them but cannot. Then, this turns into hatred that they harbor.
When people see soybean dregs, they disparage them. They do not think about how they produced the soybean milk that provides nourishment to our body. We can actually put all these things to good use. All things have their value. If we do not know how to make use of things, we will look down on them as waste, as things that are used up and have no value [We see them] as “useless as rubble”. When roof tiles are broken, they are thrown on the ground and kicked about. In the same way, these people never consider how sutras help us absorb and make use of teachings that guide us to be good, to be courteous and to have a conscience, all these moral principles that are learned from the Dharma. Thus they start to give rise to negative thoughts.
So, they “despise when others listen to the [teachings].” Seeing others listening happy to the teachings, they also feel very envious.When they see others listening to and sharing the Dharma with each other with a sense of happiness and respect, they feel unhappy and very envious too.
Thus, “They are envious of their success.” They do not have the ability, but if other do, that makes them angry and unhappy. So, “They look upon them as thorns, like a thorn in their side.” “They think of them as hated enemies.” They treat them like enemies, hoping to get them out of nice picture. These vicious, poisonous thoughts come from disrespecting and disparaging the Dharma.
So, “Now listen again to the retributions” “they will suffer for these transgressions.”People who constantly have negative thoughts about diligent people will face retributions.
Now listen again to the retributions they will suffer for these transgressions: There will be severe karmic retributions for not having faith in this sutra and for giving rise to these four evil practices. These four seeds of arrogant karma will spread and increase until they incite fighting, cursing, murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Again, it is mentioned, “By not having faith in this sutra, they give rise to these four evil practices.” These four seeds of arrogant karma are the seeds of the karma of disparagement. “Will spread” means that when they see [diligent practitioners] and feel unhappy, they will tell other people. They spread negative things about diligent people, and [this sentiment] gets passed along. These are the seeds of the karma of disparagement, which “will spread and increase.” Thus, this attracts even more people to show hateful contempt for these diligent practitioners.
The Lotus Sutra mentions the diligence of Never-slighting Bodhisattva. But many people who saw him disparaged him. They surrounded him and threw rocks at him. They used sticks to beat him, and yet, he said, “I do not dare look down on you.You can all attain Buddhahood.” On the other hand, when negative thoughts of disparaging the sutra are spread from one person to another, that is very worrisome. Therefore, the Buddha reminded all of us that we must be diligent and not envy or disparage people who are diligent.
Otherwise, we may incite others to beat, curse, kill, etc. When all kinds of negative thoughts arise, society will not be at peace. Therefore, we often say that we must purify people’s minds. The next [transgression] is slander.
Not only do they “disparage, loath and envy, because their minds gives rise to hatred, they will slander, falsely accuse them and spread rumors, using all kinds of ways to harm those who are diligently practicing.” Of the many seeds of evil, slander is one of them. It is a seed of severely negative karma. “Since they have seeds of negative karma like this, they will face all kinds of negative retributions.”
This principle is certain. So, we must often ask ourselves, “Are we acting according to the Dharma?” “If I gave rise to afflictions today, my minds has been defiled today.” This means we are still indolent. Although we say we have no desires, the seeds of our dust-like afflictions remain. We take joy in desire, and our minds is defiled. When our mind clings to external states, it becomes defiled by them. So, when we listen to the Dharma, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)