Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Teach This to Those Who Vow to be Diligent (誓願精進乃可為說)
Date: December.04. 2015
“Deep resolve is our place of spiritual practice where merits and virtues are developed. The Buddha-wisdom is deep and far-reaching, so we must have the resolve to earnestly seek equal enlightenment. Our resolve in listening to the Dharma is deep and solemn. We vow to seek the Buddha Vehicle and deeply plant the virtues of Bodhi-seeds; thus we reap conditions of purity.”
Learning the Buddha’s Way requires deep resolve. Deepening our resolve requires deepening our roots. As we often say, when it comes to faith, we must have deep faith, when it comes to vows, we must have deep vows; this is the only way to deepen our roots and capabilities. As Buddhist practitioners, having a deep resolve is very important, as it is our place of spiritual practice.
If we have this place of practice of deep resolve, naturally we will grow in merits and virtues. Merits come from internal cultivation. Virtues manifest through external practice. We must constantly keep our minds on the Dharma and manifest this Dharma in our actions. This comes from having a deep and firm resolve, our inner spiritual training ground. Both internal cultivation and external practice help us grow in merits and virtues.
Therefore, we must always be mindful. The mindset we must have is one of seeking the Buddha’s wisdom. The Buddha’s wisdom is deep and far away! Achieving it depends on the vows we make. When making vows, we must make great vows and develop firm resolve. When our vow to seek the Buddha-Dharma is firm, we have deep resolve. With this deep resolve, we vow to achieve the Buddha’s wisdom, to achieve all-encompassing wisdom. This is what we are striving for.
As we often say, “The mind, the Buddha and sentient beings are no different [in their nature].” Everyone intrinsically has a nature of True Suchness. It is actually already within our minds! The Buddha wanted us to awaken and wanted to help us understand that all sentient beings are equal. The Lotus Sutra is constantly telling us to walk the Bodhisattva-path and all become Bodhisattvas.
To become a Bodhisattva, we must first awaken. We must be awakened sentient beings. We need to spend a very long time on transforming sentient beings. Not only do we need to transform people, we need to transform and save all sentient beings. If we wish to save them, how can we still kill them and eat them? So, we must not do that! We must nurture our Bodhisattva-minds and save and transform sentient beings. Our resolve must be very deep and long-lasting.
The Bodhisattva-path is very long, so we must create many affinities with sentient beings; saving and transforming them is what we vow to do. With this mindset, we earnestly seek equal enlightenment. Thus, “Our resolve in listening to the Dharma is deep and solemn.” We must certainly work to deepen this resolve. Our goal are [given by] our vows.
We vow to practice the Four Infinite Minds. When we make the Four Great Vows; we vow to deliver all sentient beings and learn all the Buddha-Dharma. With the Four Infinite Minds, we can deliver all sentient beings by going among people with loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. These are our vows, our great vows.
So, “we vow to seek the Buddha Vehicle”.When we learn the Buddha’s Way, our goal is to attain Buddhahood so “We vow to seek the Buddha Vehcile.”
Since we want to seek the Buddha Vehicle and attain the State of Buddhahood, we must “deeply plant the virtues of Bodhi-seeds”.We must constantly makek an effort to plant Bodhi-seeds.Moreover, these seeeds must be plant deeply.Once their roots extend deeply and widely, the seedlings will sprout and slowly grow into trees.We must deeply plant the virtues of Bodhi-seeds; we must cultivate this virtue.Then we “reap conditions of purity”.
Everyone, learning and cultivating the Dharma is very important.We must place great value on the law of karma.The Buddha condstantly used examples of karmic retribution from the past, present and futrue to teach us.
During the Buddha’s lifetime, in the city of Sravasti, there was a well-known elder who just had a child.While he was still a baby, he was able to speak.The first thing he said was a question; he asked, “Is the Buddha still in this world?”
His parents replied, “Yes, He is.”
The baby continued to ask, “Are Sariputra, Ananda, Maudgalyayana, all those people, still present? ” “Yes.”
His parents felt that this was so strange, so they quickly and reverently went to Jeta Grove to consult the Buddha.
The Buddha said, “This child is not a bad omen. He has great blessings and great capabilities.”
The parents heard this and went home relieved.
The child then asked his parents, “If the Buddha is still in this world, shouldn’t we make offerings to Him and the Sangha?”
The father replied, “Makign offerings is not as easy as just saying that we want to. We need to make preparations.”
The child said, “Actually, it is very simple. We just need to reverently tidy up the surroundings and then set out the best foods. If we make preparatios with utmost sincerity, naturally the Buddha will come.”
The child also made another request.As preparations were beings made, he asked for three seats to be set higher than the others.
The parents asked, “There are so many people in the Sangha. Why are you only asking for three special seats?”
The childl said, “The first seat is obviously for the Buddha. The second seat is for my mother from my past life. She is still alive now and lives in the kingdom of Varanasi. I wish to ask you, my present parents, will you allow me to make an offering to my mother from my past life?” “The last seat is for my mother in this present lifetime.”
Indeed, at the location the child had specified, they found his mother and invited her to come. After everything was prepared, the Buddha indeed came with the Sangha. The boy’s [past] mother from Varanasi, who was invited, sat in one of the elevated seats. The present mother also sat in one of those seats. When the Buddha taught the Dharma, everyone became very happy. This way of making offerings was wonderful.
After this occasion, the child gradually grew older. He asked his parents to let him be a monastic. He left the lay life and joined the Sangha. When they met this young man joining the Sangha with such an acute understanding of the Dharma, they were all very curious about him. So, they asked Ananda to ask the Buddha.
The Buddha began to explain. Not long ago, in Varanasi, there was a prominent family. This family was once very wealthy, up until the time of this particular elder.
After he passed away, his family fell into a steep decline and faced difficult circumstances. The elder’s son grew up in those conditions. At that time in the kingdom of Varanasi, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha flourished. When he saw others making offerings, he wished to make offerings when he was older too. However, he did not have the ability to do so. He decided to go to another elder’s family and earnestly plead with them, “I offer myself to you for one year. You can ask me to do anything. I will do it. But what I want to ask in return is 1000 taels for this one year of service.”
The elder thought, “This child, this young man, has delicate features and looks very clever, but he is willing to spend one year giving his life over to my work in exchange for 1000 taels. Thus, the elder agreed to this request. One year later, the young man received the salary of a year’s work. The elder asked him, “What do you want to do with the money?” The young man said, “I have a wish. I want to make offerings to the Buddha and Sangha”.
The elder then said, “That is a very good wish. I will give you the money to fulfill your wish. You can also hold the ceremony at my home.”
The young man was filled with joy and accepted the elder’s offer. In this way, he fulfilled his wish. But not long after, this young man passed away. After he passed away, the wife of the elder in Sravasti became pregnant. Almost ten months later, the child was born.
At this point of the story, the Buddha said, “Do you know? The young man in this Sangha was that young man [who made the offering]. He is now this young bhiksu in our Sangha”. See,this is indeed the law of karma at work.
When we look at the past and present life, we can recognize [the connections]. What about the next life? We can comprehend this too, so we must deeply believe in the law of karma.
Thus, the previous passage we discussed states, “If there are people who have seen countless Buddhas in the past, have laid all foundations of goodness and are firm and stable in their deep resolve, for people like this, you can teach this sutra.”
For someone to listen to this sutra and comprehend this Dharma, they must be this kind of person. Having seen countless Buddhas in the past shows that they have done this for a long time and have already deeply taken the Dharma to heart. Over this long period, they have engaged in spiritual practice and constantly planted seeds of goodness. Thus, they developed this foundation of goodness. People like this are said to be “firm and stable in their deep resolve”. It is only this kind of person who is able to accept the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.
The following passage states, “If there are people who are diligent and constantly cultivate loving-kindness, unsparingly dedicating their lives, you can teach them this sutra.”
In the story we told earlier, that young man was willing to devote his life for that one year in order to make offerings to the Buddha and Sangha. Isn’t he “unsparingly dedicating [his] life”? To make offerings to the Buddha and Sangha, he worked with such determination. Wasn’t this being diligent? Hadn’t he, for a long time, “constantly cultivated loving-kindness”?
In order to realize the Buddha-Dharma, he made offerings to the Buddha and the Sangha. To make these offerings, he unsparingly dedicated his life. For people like this, “you can teach this sutra”.
So, “If there are people who are diligent, these people have Great Vehicle aspirations, practice the paramitas of diligence and walk the Bodhisattv-path”.
“These people have Great Vehicle aspirations, practice the paramitas of diligence and walk the Bodhisattva-path. If there are people who are diligent and constantly cultivate loving-kindness, from their initial aspiration to now, they remain diligent and never retreat.”
These people are very diligent. They have this mindset; they formed aspirations and are firm in their vows. They have made the Four Great Vows and aspired to practice the Four Infinite Minds. This is forming Great Vehicle aspirations and “practicing the paramitas of diligence”; they advance and never retreat. When we learn and practice the Buddha-Dharma, we must continue to advance. We cannot take one step forward, two steps back. We must be earnest and attentive. “If [people] are diligent and constantly cultivate loving-kindness”, those people must have formed that aspiration. Not only do they want to transform themselves, they also want to transform other people too.We must transform ourselves and others.
People who walk the Bodhisattva-path are ones who are actually diligently cultivating their loving-kindness. From their initial aspiration to now, they remain diligent and never retreat, unsparingly dedicating their lives. For such people, we can teach this sutra.
From their initial aspiration to now, they remain diligent and never retreat. They joyfully give away wealth and practice generosity. For the sake of respecting the Dharma, they unsparingly dedicating their lives, and with all other difficult and ascetic practice, they resolve to learn them as they can.
Starting with our initial aspiration, we must remain diligent and never retreat. We must all ask ourselves, as we interact with people, matter and things, are we applying common sense? Are we applying knowledge? Or are we applying wisdom?
Everyone, common sense is an ability we learn in our normal lives. Knowledge is being clever and adaptable, but wisdom comes from our nature of True Suchness. It is pure and undefiled; it goes beyond both common sense and knowledge. Common sense is acquired; knowledge is cleverness. Those are both temporary and contaminated. What we need is wisdom.
So, what mindset are we using as we vow to engage in spiritual cultivation? How many of our past habitual tendencies have we eliminated? When we listen to the teachings every day, how much do we lose? Shouldn’t we constantly reflect upon ourselves? We must reflect so that we will not regress as we advance. If we regress as we advance in our practice, our efforts will have been in vain.
Apart from happily letting go of material goods as we practice giving, it is most important that we “respect the Dharma.”Thus, we will “unsparingly dedicate our lives.” If we have truly learned the Dharma, we must happily let of of our material wealth and completely let go of the past. We must respect the Dharma from now on. When we respect the Dharma, we transform ourselves as well as others. We must be willing to work hard, not try to spare ourselves. It is more important to cherish our wisdom-life. We must earnestly seize each day and apply the Dharma we hear in our daily living. This is how we develop our wisdom-life.
“All other difficult and ascetic practices are achievable. Abel to practice all of them, they make vows to learn them as they can.” In this case, since we have made the vows we should go along with this environment this place of spiritual practice, and make an effort to learn the Dharma at all times. I hope everyone will be mindful.
Beginning with our initial aspirations many, many kalpas ago, we have already aspired to unsparingly devote our lives to charitable giving. Practicing the Four Great Vows is a way of giving; to transform all sentient beings we give up everything. In seeking the Dharma, we must give with our body and mind.
This is how we respect the Dharma, by “unsparingly our lives.” Through “all kinds of difficulties.” In this way, we are “able to practice these difficult practices.” This is making the vow to constantly learn. “For diligent Bodhisattvas such as these, you can teach this sutra.”
For this kind of Bodhisattva, we can teach this sutra, as they are able to accept it. Those who “constantly culticate loving-kindness do not seek peace and happiness for themselves, but wish for liberation from suffering for all sentient beings.”
They do this continuously in every thought, they thus transform themselves and others and apply the Dharma in the present moment. Thus, in actions of body, speech and mind, they will never quit from being tired.
We must constantly be learning, constantly dedicating our lives to this. This is how we respect the Dharma and take the Buddha-Dharma to heart. Every day, we advance for the sake of the Dharma. Thus, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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