Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Peaceful Endurance of Great Vehicle Bodhisattvas (安忍無瞋大乘菩薩)
Date: December.10. 2015
“This Great Vehicle Dharma can deliver infinite beings. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas use the Great Vehicle as the means to deliver and transform the angry and deluded with peaceful endurance and compassion. It is called great because of the great benefits that it brings.”
The Buddha encourages us to, as part of our spiritual practice, benefit ourselves as well as others. We must awaken to the principles and then also share this Dharma so as to give everyone the opportunity to receive it. Everyone has the chance to become enlightened. So, this Great Vehicle Dharma can transform infinite sentient beings; one can give rise to infinity. One gives rise to infinity; infinity arises from one. So, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, all past Buddhas and all present Bodhisattvas, come to this world and all exercise the Great Vehicle Dharma. Thus we say, “The Great Vehicle [is] the means”. They make use of this Great Vehicle Dharma to teach and transform sentient beings. This is the vow of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, to repeatedly return to this world and live among us. So, we must treat everyone with respect.
We constantly talk about gratitude, respect and love. Toward every single person we interact with, we must feel a sense of gratitude. We feel grateful because, regardless of the kind of conditions or people that we encounter, they are all opportunities for learning. Whether people are wholesome or not, they are all spiritual friends to us. So, we must make an effort to mindfully accept [these teachings].
We “deliver and transform the angry and deluded with peaceful endurance and compassion.” The conditions of this world help us to be able to understand what it means to engage in spiritual practice. Sometimes we encounter unreasonable people. It is clear what the principles are, yet they refuse to do what is reasonable; they go against the path. When we encounter people like this, what are we to do? The Buddha taught us to exercise peaceful endurance and compassion.
We must calm our own minds. If we are unable to [influence] others, we must simply calm our own minds. [He pointed out that] those people have their own karmic causes and conditions, and we have our own spiritual path that we must actively and diligently walk.
This is why, “The Dharma is called great because of the great benefits it brings.” When we practice the Great Vehicle Dharma, we must always first open up our hearts and minds. We must be compassionate and diligently and patiently guide others. We must make an effort to counsel them. If they do not listen to our guidance, what should we do? We must be accommodating and understanding. Eventually, the day will come when they realize, “I have been accommodated; I am loved.” One day they will understand this. This is the power of love. Take the lives of Tzu Chi volunteers for example. In the past, they might have faced all kinds of suffering [from their children]. But in the end, they still showed them love, yielded and gave to them. Their connection with Tzu Chi helped them turn around their mindset and transform the suffering they endured, so it became natural for them to give. Once this happened, their family members began to notice, saying, “My mother has changed. My father is a totally different person!” In every way, they suddenly realize, “They were doing this out of love for me. They just wanted the best for me. I now better understand why they were treating me this way; I’m so grateful. In the past, I did not understand so I had a bad attitude toward you.I want to take this opportunity to thank you, father, and you, mother."
We see many instances like this. So as we interact with other people, we must mutually benefit each other, to say nothing of parents, children or our fellow spiritual practitioners. In conciusion, the Buddha taught sentient beings to practice the Great Vehicle Dharma so that we can open up our hearts. When we walk the Bodhisattva-path, we are on the Bodhi-path toward enlightenment. This road is very wide and broad. Just as the road is broad, our mind must be open. Only by learning the Dharma in this way will we be able to shoulder the mission of the Great Vehicle. There is still much we must learn.
The previous sutra passage states, "If you see Buddha-children who uphold the precepts and purity like clean and radiant pearls and seek the Great Vehicle sutras, for people like this, you can teach this sutra."
As we engage in spiritual practice, if we can develop the state we have spoken of, "a heart that encompasses the universe and the boundless worlds within it, " and accept the Buddha-Dharma with reverence and Great Vehicle aspirations, then we are like Buddha-children. When the Buddha teaches the Dharma, Dharma-children are born of the Buddha's mouth; the Buddha shares the Dharma in order to help us develop our wisdom-life. As we said yesterday, when parents have children they do get to choose who their child will be. But we have chosen to follow the Buddha-Dharma so we rely on the Buddha's teachings.
We often hear people share, "The mistakes I made in the past have caused me to waste so much of my life and create so much karma. Now that I underastand the Buddha-Dharma, I am a new person. I apply the Dharma in my daily living, in how I interact with people and matters; I have been reborn." How did they become a new person? By following the Dharma and taking it to heart. Where did the Dharma come from? From the Buddha's mouth, from His realizations from within His mind. This true priciples of all things in the universe are encompassed in His wisdom, in His ocean of enlightenment. Then with the Dharma in His mind, He can teach according to sentient beings' capabilities [Having learned] the Dharma that issued forth from His mouth, we are the "Dharma-children born of the Buddha's mouth."
If we can practice according to the Dharma, we are Buddha-children. If we are Buddha-children, we must make an effort to accept and practice the Buddha's teachings and uphold the Buddha's rules to protect our minds. All things are created by the mind. If we do a good job of safguarding our minds then returning to our pure Tathagata-nature, our intrinsic Buddha-nature, will not be difficult.
We must protect this as if safeguarding a radiant pearl. We must take care to keep our minds, our nature of true Suchness, very clean. Thus we "seek the Great Vehicle sutras". Only with this kind of pure mind can we uphold the true principles of the wondrous Dharma the Great Vehicle teachings. Therefore, we must be mindful in learning the Buddha's way. Only in this way can we accept the Buddha's Great Vehicle Dharma, and only then can we share it with others.
The Buddha's concern was that because of sentient beings' ignorance, they would misunderstand the Buddha-Dharma. If they misunderstand the Great Vehicle Dharma not only would they be unable to save or benefit other people, instead they would create much karma. So, the Buddha was very earnest in protecting the minds of sentient beings.
Now, let us discuss the following sutra passage. The next section is, "If there are people without enger, who are upright and gentle, who have compassion for all things and respect for all Buddhas, for people like this, you can teach this sutra. And if there are Buddha-children among the assembly who, with pure hearts... "
From this sutra passage, we better understand that spiritual practitioners must be without anger. As we just mentioned, if we encounter an angry or a deluded person, we must be able to yield to them. People like this are unable to abide by the rules. And what about us? We must reflect on ourselves. Is there this kind of anger within us? As for delusion, is there delusion of ignorance in our minds? If so, we must quickly change our ways until our minds are pure again. If we are “without anger”, we have completely eliminated it.
“Upright and gentle” means they are people with soft and gentle hearts. What kind of practice do people like this engage in? They [practice] peaceful endurance. To bring peace to our minds, we need patience. One time, at Vulture Peak, Sariputra and Maudgalyayana were staying together. In that place, there were two ghosts. One was called Ghata, and the other was called Upa.
One day, Sariputra was shaving his beard and hair; on the same day all the other bhiksus were cleaning themselves up. When the ghost called Upa saw the bhiksus, a sense of hate and anger arose in him. He said to Ghata, “I really want to punch them”. Ghata said to him, “No, you must not! You cannot; you absolutely cannot! If you do that to these spiritual practitioners, you will suffer negative karmic retributions”.
Ghata stopped him three times in a row, but the other ghost refused to listen to him. So, he stretched his hand out toward Sariputra and hit him very hard on the head. Sariputra was in pain, but he withstood it. Upa hit him like this three times.
When Maudgalyayana heard about this, he quickly came to show his concern. Sariputra replied to him, “Although I’m in pain, I can bear it. I feel peaceful and at ease.
When the Buddha heard this, He was filled with joy. He praised Sariputra, saying, “Sariputra has already attained the state of peaceful endurance. “If he was hit and his mind gave rise to anger, he would not be able to bear it, and this would hurt him very badly. But because Sariputra had already eliminated anger from his mind he could peacefully endure without anger. Thus his mind remains unharmed, and he could bear the pain inflicted on his head. This is because he has cultivated a heart of compassion and peaceful endurance.”
“Those who can endure peacefully without anger have compassion and are able to practice patience”.
Those who can endure peacefully without anger have compassion and are able to practice patience. Taking people, matters and objects as their place of spiritual practice, they face them with gratitude and without resentment or discontent. Upright and gentle, they have the patience of peacefully facing suffering.
This is compassion. People with compassion are able to practice patience. This comes from their spiritual practice. People, matters and things are their places of spiritual practice. When we do things, we may casually complain, “I am so tired. I am so stressed out. I am…”. The list goes on. Even doing small tasks seems like hard work or like a lot of pressure. In this case, how can we accomplish anything?
When we give to others and they do not admire us or praise us, we may become depressed. “Don’t you see how much I have given? Yet you haven’t praised me at all”. If we feel this way, we will constantly feel hurt. Then how can we be considered compassionate? How can we claim to be practicing patience?
Therefore, we must practice patience when dealing with people, matters and thing; these all provide us with a place of spiritual practice. We must always be grateful that there are so many good deeds for us to do and that there are so many people working with us. Working with wholesome people will encourage us. Working with unwholesome people will wear away our bad habits. Thus, we must always be grateful and “without resentment or discontent”. People like this are “upright and gentle. No matter what you do, I will be understanding. I will not feel resentment or hatred toward you”. This is “the patience of peacefully facing suffering”.
When our minds are at peace, no matter what happens in our external conditions with people, matters and things, we will have a way to remain patient. Being patient without feeling we are being patient is true patience. If we are without regret, resentment and worry, our minds are upright and gentle.
As we interact each other, things will pass with time. So, we must not hold on to things that have passed. Only in this way can we feel peaceful and at ease.
Thus, we must “have compassion for all things and respect for all the Buddhas.”
[They] have compassion for all things and respect for all the Buddhas: Those who have practice patience can always have compassion for all things. They are accommodating and sympathetic towards all sentient beings.
When we look at people with a Buddha-mind, we see that everyone is a Buddha. So, we must “practice patience to always have compassion for all things.” We must cultivate the practice of patience. People make mistakes because they lack virtue. So, by being patient and accommodating, we develop our wisdom-life. Taking good care of our wisdom-life makes us true spiritual practitioners. We must be accommodating and sympathetic toward all sentient beings. This is spiritual practice.
So, we must “respect all the Buddhas” and respect the teachings of the noble truths, respect the true principles of the Buddhas. We need “the Dharmic patience of observing truth.
When conditions arise, we must observe them meticulously. We must make an effort to observe everything carefully and open up and broaden our minds to encompass all things.
“For people like this, you can teach this sutra.”
For people advanced in their spiritual practice, we must earnestly share this Dharma with them. Thus, we “comprehend the truth of deliverance.”
If there are those who comprehend the truth of deliverance, who guard and uphold the rules and precepts and practice compassion and patience, for people like this, you can teach this sutra.
“Truth” refers to principles. When our body and mind come contact with people, matters and things, we can truly realize the Dharma the Buddha taught. “By guarding and upholding the rules and precepts, we “practice compassion and patience.” This is a key part of spiritual practice.
We must truly be mindful in order to be able to realize the true principles and apply them in our daily living. For people like this, this sutra can be taught.
This helps us understand that some people form Bodhisattva-aspirations and teach the Dharma to benefit others. If there are people like this we can share these principles with them.
Another name for Bodhisattvas is great beings. their most important quality, as we discussed earlier, is that they can peacefully endure. As they interact with people, matters and things, they can remain understanding and accommodating.
If this is the case, “people liked this,” who have hearts always focused on the Dharma, will be able to “unite with all things.” Thus, they can broaden their understanding of all principles in the world and “put others before [themselves].”
We can yield to others in all respects, lettings them go first. But nowadays, people are unwilling to yield. Their minds are not open, and they do not understand the principles. Therefore, we must broaden our minds. This allows us to unite with all things. By uniting with all things, we will come to understand them.
So, we must “put others before ourselves” and yield to them compassion and patience. This is how we learn the Dharma. People like this can be taught this sutra. Those who comprehend the truth of deliverance, uphold the rules and precepts and practice compassion and patience “can be taught this sutra.”
The Buddha, out of His compassion, constantly reminds us how widely we must open up our minds through spiritual practice. “This Great Vehicle Dharma can deliver infinite beings.” “All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas use the Great Vehicle as the means to deliver and transform the angry and deluded.” Those with anger and ignorance are the people that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. If they cannot be transformed and delivered, what should we do? [We need] peaceful endurance and compassion. We still need to find a way to help them. This is the Great Vehicle Dharma; this is our course as Buddhist practitioners. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
首頁 
