Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Accept the Dharma with Faith and Understanding(深心信受信解諸法)
Date: December.22. 2015
“Faith in and understanding of all Dharma is the source of the Way, of merits and virtues. Those with deep wisdom are able to reach an understanding through parables, like that of the elder, the burning house, the three carts and the One Vehicle; they comprehend true emptiness and thoroughly realize wondrous existence.”
These two words, faith and understanding, are so important to us as Buddhist practitioners. If we have faith in our hearts, we can realize and comprehend all Dharma, [the principles] of all things in the world. This is the source of the Way, of merits and virtues. To walk the Bodhisattva-path, we must begin with faith and understanding. Thus, “Those with deep wisdom are able to reach an understanding through parables.”
Since the Dharma is so profound, for us to comprehend the Dharma, for our minds to become one with all things in the world, is not easy at all. So, in the Lotus Sutra, the Chapter on Parables uses [the parable] of an elder to explain. In the elder’s household, gradually, disasters arose and a fire broke out. When his children saw the disasters and the fire, they did not know to be afraid. So, the elder had to come up with a method. Outside the house, he quickly set out three carts, three kinds of carts, the sheep-cart, the deer-cart and the great white ox-cart, representing “the three carts and the One Vehicle.” Thus the elder could give them what they desired and entice them to leave the house. Once they reached a safe place, the elder began to explain things to them. Then everyone began “to comprehend true emptiness and thoroughly realize wondrous existence.”
Isn’t learning the Buddha’s Way just like this? The Buddha is like this elder. He came to this world for this reason; He wanted us to understand that as we go through birth, aging, illness and death, only if we understand true principles now will we be able to do the same in future lives. Only by forming aspirations in this lifetime will we have the causes and conditions to do so in our future lifetimes.
In the sutras there is a story told about when the Buddha and His Sangha were at the abode in Jetavana. At this time, there was one night when Ananda, around dusk, found a place inside a grove of trees to sit down and earnestly engaged in calm contemplation.
He thought about the Buddha and contemplated how He came to have the causes and conditions, lifetime after lifetime, to form this incredible aspiration to seek the Buddha-Dharma. After thinking about it for a while, he thought it was better to quickly go to Him and ask Him directly. The Buddha described how, countless kalpas ago, during a certain era, there was a great king named Mahaprabhasa. This kind ruled over 500 minor kingdoms; he was a very majestic leader. One day, he and his ministers arranged to tour some scenic spots. A group of elephants was prepared for them.
The king was placed on a beautiful elephant. However, the elephant the king was riding suddenly saw a female elephant in the forest. This elephant was carrying the king, but suddenly his lustful nature flared up, and he chased after the female elephant.He charged forward as if he had gone mad.
The trainer was also riding an elephant. He immediately rushed after them, but he was unable to control the king's elephant. The king was very shocked and frightened. Back at the palace, he was furious. He blamed the elephant trainer and wanted to sentence the trainer to death. The elephant trainter felt helpless; he begged the king's pardon, "This is his lust at work; it cannot be controlled. If you want to sentence me to death, I'm willing to accept it. But can you grant me a three-day reprieve? After three days, the elephant will be back."
Indeed, three days later, the elephant came back. How was the elephant trainer going to prive that this elephant was actually very well-trained? He heated some iron bail in a fire. When the elephant returned, he obediently in front of the trainer. The elephant trainer told the elephant, "Since you made this mistake, neither of us can escape punishedment for it. The only way for us to atone for it is to die. That is the only way for us to show our loyalty to the king."
He was heartbroken to have to do this because of his love for the elephant, but he had no choice. The trainer was very sad, and the elephant also shed tears, showing his remorse. He was very obedient with his trunk he picked up an iron ball, put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Then he picked up a second and a third until he had swallowed all the iron balls. In this way, the elephant died.
As the king witnessed this along with all his ministers, they realized that the trainer had trained the elephant to be very obedient. However, his animal nature also contained these desires within. With these kinds of lustful desires, once they arise, they become uncontrollable. Truly, such desires are very frightening.
The king asked the elephant trainer, "If an elephent experiences such lust, how can you tame him?" The trainer felt this was beyond him. He told the king, "You Majesty, justful desire is a kind of ignorance. Only a Buddha can tame it. In our era, there is no Buddha." "What does it take for there to be a Buddha?" the king then asked. "It requires engaging in spiritual practice for countless kalpas to eliminate all afflictions, realize the true principles of all things in the universe and thus attain enlightenment. So, it takes a very long period of spiritual cultivation."
The king was very moved. He formed an aspiration, "From now on, I, King Mahaprabhasa, will seek the path to Buddhahood until I am able to find a way to completely tame the ignorance and desirous thoughts of sentient beings."
The Buddha paused at this part of the story and turned to Ananda and the group of bhiksus "Do you know now? That King Mahaprabhasa is now I." The experience led the Buudha to from this aspiration so that for countless kalpas, life after life, He constantly had this incredible resolve to seek the Buddha-Dharma. This was why He was able to attain Buddhahood. He "conprehended true emptiness and thoroughly realized wonderous existence." This begins with faith in and understanding of all Dharma, which is the source of the Way and the beginning of our initial aspiration. So, our faith and understanding must never waver.
Faith and understanding: Faith is the Source of the Way and the mother o merits and virtues. It nurtures all roots of goodness and eradicates all doubt delusion. The World-Honored One, for the sake of one great cause, manifested in the world to open up the supreme path.
This is faith and understanding "Faith is the sourse of the Way and the mother merits and virtues. It nurtures all roots of goodness." We need to earnestly nurture our roots of goodness and have deep faith and understanding. This is the direction for spiritual practitioners. Only by doing so are we able to "eradicate all doubt and delusion."
The afflictions of sentient beings are due to their doubts, delusions and ignorance. With such severe ignorance, greed and desire are difficult to eliminate. So, the World-Honored One, for the sake of one great cause, came to manifest in the world.He did this life after life. He spent a very long time engaging in spiritual practice, cultivating Himself and forming good karmic connections with people. He set the conditions so that in future lifetimes we would understand His words accept them and put them into practice. This required that He spent life after life forming good affinities with sentient beings.
So, He constantly manifests in the world “to open up the supreme path”. The Buddha spent lifetimes opening up this road. Thus, in the Chapter of Parables, Sariputra formed [great] aspirations and made vows. He started forming these aspirations, so the Buddha bestowed a prediction of Buddhahood upon Sariputra. This happened in the Chapter on Parables. This was because in the Chapter on Skillful Means, the Buddha praised the pure intrinsic nature that everyone possesses. Everyone has the potential to attain Buddhahood, as well as pure and undefiled all-encompassing wisdom etc. Thus, Sariputra developed faith and understanding. Because of his deep faith and realizations, in the Chapter on Parables, the Buddha bestowed this prediction upon him.
Next is the Chapter on Faith and Understanding. We will see people like Subhuti, Mahakatyayana, Kasyapa. Maudgalyayana and others. One after another, beginning in the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, they will receive predictions of Buddhahood.
“Subhuti and the others had such faith and understanding, thus, speaking in unison, they told the parable of the poor son in response to the Tathagata’s teaching of the parable of the burning house.”
They “had such faith and understanding”. Before being inspired to form Great Vehicle aspirations, they had to have faith and understanding. Now they started to develop deep faith in and understanding of the Great Vehicle Dharma. So, the Buddha bestowed this prediction on them. In response, they spoke in unison, presenting the parable about the poor son. They did this in response to “the Tathagata’s teaching of the parable of the burning house”.
In the Chapter on Skillful Means, they still could not thoroughly understand. Sariputra had understood and believed, but they did not yet have faith and understanding. It was not until the Chapter on Parables, with the story of the elder and the burning house, that they began to truly believe and understand.
“Subhuti and the others were consistently satisfied with attaining the Small, and thus were not earnestly progressing. They had no thoughts of regret or reproach until Sariputra received the prediction of Buddhahood. It was then that doubt and regret arose in them, so they listened closer to the parable. Then they began to have faith and understanding.”
So, Subhuti and the others, in the pats, had all only been cultivating Small Vehicle practices. They were “satisfied with attaining the Small.” “I more or less understand the Dharma. I have attained the [spiritual] fruits, the fruit of Arhatship, so I am satisfied.” They did not want to move forward.”
So, “They had no thoughts of regret or reproach, nor did they reflect upon themselves. To reach our goal as Buddhist practitioners, everyone must form aspirations and vows. It was not until Chapter on Parables that they began to recognize that Sariputra received the prediction of Buddhahood because he had formed great aspirations.
“It was then that doubt and regret arose in them. If we remain at the state of the Small Vehicle, is that the right to do?” They began to reflect upon themselves. This is having “doubts and regrets.” “So, they listened closer to the parables.” Only by listening to the parables, hearing the Buddha make all kinds of analogies, did they begin to develop faith and understanding.
Faith: We must accept the Dharma with deep, sincere faith and cultivate deep roots of faith. Understanding: From our faith, we must attain an actual and deep understanding of the truths and principles. Without deep understanding, this is not truth. By believing in the Dharma and taking it to heart, our ignorance will be subdued.
Having faith means, “We must accept [Dharma] with deep, sincere faith.” This faith absolutely must be sincere. When learning the Buddha’s teachings, the most important thing is to accept [them] with deep, sincere faith.” We must earnestly believe in and accept them. Moreover, we must work to put them into practice and “cultivate deep roots of faith.” Having understanding means, “From our faith, we must attain an actual and deep understanding of the truths and principles.” Regarding true principles, we definitely must have deep faith. We also need an actual, deep understanding. We must understand very thoroughly. We need to have deep faith in order to have a deep understanding of the true principles. “Without deep understanding, this is not truth.” If we do not have deep faith and faithful acceptance, if we do not have a very deep understanding, we have not actually understood the truth.
So, when we have faith in the Dharma, we must take it to heart. After believing in the true principles of the Dharma, we must take them deeply to heart Only by taking them to heart will we be able to tame our ignorance.
Thus we know that when the Buddha was asked to teach the Great Vehicle, those with overbearing arrogance left due to lack of faith and understanding. The assembly of heavenly beings and humans reverently praised the Buddha, seemingly with the utmost respect and faith, yet they were still not able to understand.
In the Chapter on Skillful Means, the Buddha was asked three times by Sariputra before He expounded this Dharma. As He was about to expound the Great Vehicle Dharma, “those with overbearing arrogance” left the assembly. Why did these people leave? Because of their “lack of faith and understanding.” Because of their “lack of faith and understanding.” They did not thoroughly believe, they lacked deep faith and understanding. This was because this group, including laypeople, upasakas and upasikas, and monastics, bhiksus and bhiksunis, had not yet developed a deep faith. Their understanding of the Dharma was very superficial. Thus, with a “lack of faith and understanding, they paid respect to the Buddha and then left.”
However, many heavenly beings and humans were still there. Many of these beings, reverently praised the Buddha.They showed respect and faith in Him put they had not yet thoroughly penetrated those principles. Therefore, they stayed at the assembly to listen to the Buddha expound the Dharma.
When the Chapter on Skillful Means was taught, all the bhiksus and the others had faith, yet did not fully understand. Among the assembly, there were ordinary people with great aspirations who understood much upon listening to the Dharma, yet were not able to have deep faith.
There were also many bhiksus who, when the Chapter on Skillful Means was taught, had already begun to believe in the Dharma that was praised by the Buddha. They had faith in it, but they still could not understand it well. Among them, many were ordinary people who had formed great aspirations. In that assembly, there were many ordinary people who came to listen to the Buddha and respectfully and faithfully accepted the Dharma.
Although they had listened to many teachings, their understanding was still not very deep. They still had traces of doubts. Since their faith was not yet very deep, how could their understanding be? Though they had formed great aspirations, they still had a long way to go.
“Faith is the true substance of all the teachings and is the pure virtue of the Three Treasures”
Faith is the true substance of all teachings and is the pure virtue of the Three Treasures.
We first must have faith in the Buddha-Dharma, because by having faith in the Dharma, we can give rise to Right Thinking. From this, we reach deep faith and understanding.
Therefore, faith is of great importance The Root of Faith must be deeply planted; it is the true substance of all the teachings. Taking the True Dharma to heart in this way is the virtue of the Three Treasures. Only by having deep faith are we able to eliminate our afflictions. Then, those contaminants will no longer cover our minds, and our mind can always remain pure. “We first must have faith in the Buddha-Dharma, because by having faith in the Dharma, we can give rise to Right Thinking.”
Because we have faith in the Buddha and believe in the teachings He gave, we can still our minds. That is called Right Samadhi. Meditation, Samadhi and wisdom are all forms of Right Thinking. “From this, we reach deep faith and understanding.”
Everyone, now we are about to enter the Chapter on Faith and Understanding. We must be very clear on these two words, “faith” and “understanding.” We need to “first have faith in the Buddha-Dharma, because by having faith in the Dharma, we can give rise to Right Thinking. “From this, we reach deep faith and understanding.” We need to know that faith and understanding are the foundation of our spiritual practice. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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