Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Abandoning Our Father to Stay in the Three Realms (捨父逃逝常在三界)
Date: January.15. 2016
“With the accumulation of karma, we will experience rebirth in the Five Destinies. Ignorance keeps us trapped in the Three Realms. With good and evil [karma], we rise and fall with no stability. In a flash, with one thought, the Five Aggregates are set in motion at once, altogether resulting in 50 evils.”
In this life, our minds are constantly fluctuating. Let us reflect on ourselves and assess what it is we are thinking about each day. Everything we do, the thoughts we give rise to and the karma we create, continuously accumulates over time. If we were to divide our karma into good and bad, in the end, would we have more good karma or would we have more bad karma? The different kinds of karma we have accumulated have led us to experience rebirth in the Five Destinies.
The Five Destinies are the heaven realm, the human realm, and the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms. Altogether, these comprise the Five Destinies and are inseparable from the karma we have created. When our karma is categorized into good and bad, we can see the conditions we have for entering one of the Five Destinies. This is how unenlightened beings transmigrate among the Five Destinies. This is because of ignorance.
Ignorance keeps us in the desire realm, amidst our desirous thoughts. When we give rise to desirous thoughts and have desires for everything, one deluded thought will give rise to the Three Subtleties, [and elicit] greed, anger, ignorance and arrogance and doubt. Moreover, we also have dust-like delusions; within our minds there are still many subtle delusions, like grains of sand. It is for this reason that we remain in the Three Realms. This all comes down to good and evil. So, we can be born in the heaven realm to enjoy heavenly blessings because we created much blessed karma as humans.
However, once we deplete our blessings, we still fall into one of the other four realms, the human, hell, hungry ghost or animal realm. Therefore, with good and evil karma, we rise and fall [between the realms]. Being born in heaven does not mean that we will be able to remain there forever. Once we deplete our blessings, we will fall again. “In a flash, with one thought…”
Goodness or evil leads us to rise or fall in an instant. A person might have been good friends with you, but then someone asked him, “Why are you so close to that person?” He says, “Because that is my good friend.” “Really? Well one time I heard him say that you did this or that to him though he did so many nice things for you,” etc. Hearing this, in the instant of a thought, that person forms an aversion towards his good friend. From then on he feels resentment and hatred. Though the two of you had a good relationship, after hearing only a few sentences, his mind changes in a flash.
Likewise, people who were doing good deeds may, because of a few critical comments, change their mindset, stop doing good and start committing evils. All of this happens in an instant, in the span of a single thought. This is why I say that we must take good care of our minds. “The Five Aggregates are set into motion at once.” We all know the Five Aggregates of form, feeling, perception, action and consciousness. These are the Five Aggregates. When a thought of goodness arises, with our [physical] “form” we do good deeds; we put the Ten Good Deeds into practice. If we allow an evil thought to arise, with this same [physical] form, with our body, we commit the Ten Evils. Thus, when one thought arises, one aggregate leads to one of these sets of Ten. This is so, whether it is “form” or “feeling”.
I may be feeling happy. Benefiting others feels great. But if an evil thought stirs, “Why do I have to give to others? Why should I let others take advantage of me?” When this evil thought stirs, this feeling also leads us to commit the Ten Evils.
In summary, when it comes to good and evil if a good thought stirs, the Five Aggregates are oriented toward goodness and if an evil thought stirs, the Five Aggregates are oriented toward evil.Therefore, these Five Aggregates result in 50 good deeds or 50 evils.
This depends on our minds.
Thus we must earnestly learn the Buddha’s Way.
We must know that we have to constantly observe our minds carefully.In our minds, our innate enlightenment is considered the “father”.This is an analogy for something we intrinsically have in our minds; we intrinsically have a nature of True Suchness.This is like a father, something we all have.
Then “initial enlightenment” is like a seed.
But if we “turn our backs on awakening,” rejecting our innate enlightenment we will give rise to ignorance.
When ignorance arises instead of enlightenment, this means we are not awakened.
Not awakening is like “abandoning our father”; we cannot see our original, intrinsic nature, nor our own innate enlightenment.
So, as the previous sutra passage states, “There was a person who while still small and young, abandoned his father and ran away, living a long time in foreign lands, for perhaps 10, 20, or even 50 years.”
This is an analogy for how, although we form a spiritual aspiration our will to practice may not be very mature.Sometimes our initial aspirations, when they go up against external challenges, are quickly wiped out.If our spiritual practice is limited only to our own immediate situation, we are like a seed that stopped just after sprouting into a tree. Like a small tree, it is still unable to be healthy and strong.It is still immature.
It is for this reason that it is described as “young and small [He] abandoned his father and ran away”
describes the way we humans are.When we are undisciplined and desire to have fun, we leave our home and do not think of returning.Once we leave, we do not know the way back home.
Thus, “living a long time in foreign lands, for perhaps 10, 20, or even 50 years.”
Next we will talk about this passage.The father is an analogy for the Tathagata’s reward-body.In the presence of 20,000 Buddhas past, we were taught the supreme path, so the father-child relationship was established.
After the Buddha’s reward-body had ceased the work of transforming beings, we retreated from our great aspirations and were influenced by limited teachings.
This is the meaning of “abandoning the father”.
Yesterday, we talked about “abandoning the father.”
[The father] is an analogy for the Tathagata’s reward-body.The Buddha has three bodies, the Dharma-body the transformation-body and the reward-body.
He manifests the transformation-body in the human realm.This reward-body is a response to the maturing of causes and conditions in this-world.Thus, He descended from Tusita Heaven into the palace and manifested in this world; he used the Fight Aspects of Attaining Buddhahood to transform sentient beings.
In response to the maturation of causes and conditions in the world, the Buddha came here to be born.So, He came to the world in His reward-body.
As we saw in the Introductory Chapter, there were Sun-Moon-Lamp-Radiant Buddhas, 20,000 Sun-Moon-Lamp-Radiant Buddhas.Sharing the same name, these 20,000 Buddhas manifested in this world.
For one Buddha to manifest is a rare occasion, so for 20,000 Buddhas to come to the world, we can see that this time was truly very long.Over that lengthy period of time, the present Tathagata, the reward-body in this world, Sakyamuni Buddha, had already engaged in spiritual practice in the presence of those 20,000 Buddhas.After each Buddha’s lifetime, after listening to the Dharma, he would respond to the need to go among people and likewise expound the Dharma.
Bodhisattvas must be like Buddhas and steer the ship of compassion back to this world, life after life.
Thus they walk the Bodhisattva-path and form affinities with many sentient beings.This is how he [practiced] with 20,000 Buddhas.
During this whole time, he lived among the people, teaching and transforming them.For these past 2000-plus years, although we say the Buddha entered Parinirvana, He has not abandoned sentient beings.There is no telling how many tens of lifetimes He has spent in the human realm or how many hundreds in the Six Realms in order to teach and guide us.So many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas manifested transformation-bodies in this world; they do this life after life.
Sakyamuni Buddha has been in this world for countless lifetimes, an incalculable number.He has lived through the lifetimes of so many Buddhas; He appeared in a transformation-body in each of those lifetimes to teach us. Thus, “The father-child relationship was established”.
Perhaps in the past we have been Sakyamuni Buddha’s parents. Perhaps we have also been Sakyamuni Buddha’s children or grandchildren. He made use of different causes and conditions to save us.
Thus, the father-child relationship is used as a simple analogy for the closeness of this connection. So, “After the Buddha’s reward-body had ceased the work of transforming beings…”. More than 2000 years ago, His conditions for transformation ended, so He entered Parinirvana. Sentient beings from that time until now have “retreated from [their] great aspirations and been influenced by limited teachings”. After the Buddha left this world then, when He returns to this world, we have lost the great aspirations we once formed and started from the Small [Vehicle] again. This is “abandoning the father”.
[It means] we have abandoned our intrinsic nature of True Suchness again; therefore, we have to rediscover our innate enlightenment. Thus, we always say that life is painfully short. Before our spiritual practice is complete, impermanence strikes at some point, and we stop halfway. Then when we are reborn, we must begin all over again, as we are once again covered by delusion. This goes on, lifetime after lifetime. So, I hope everyone [seizes] this lifetime; if we do not transform ourselves in this life, in which life will we transform ourselves? So, we must take good care of our minds, otherwise we will constantly be “running away” and turning our backs on our innate enlightenment. Thus, we run away “and cover ourselves in ignorance”.
[He] ran away: Running away means covering oneself in ignorance and following cyclic existence in the six Destinies. It means deviating from the teacher’s teachings while indulging in one’s own desires. It is turning one’s back on awakening to meet with objects of desire.
We originally had a pure nature of True Suchness, but we continually gave rise to ignorance, covering our pure Buddha-nature. This is “running away”. This is turning our backs on awakening and walking further and further away. Where are we heading? To “follow cyclic existence in the Six Destinies”.
We still experience cyclic existence in the Six Destinies because we have turned our backs on awakening to meet with objects of desire. Because of this, we become muddled in ignorance, so everything we do is done out of ignorance. This is “running away”, far away [from the right course]. So, we “deviate from the teacher’s teachings” while “indulging in our own desires”.
We simply pursue our hearts’ desires. “I do what I want; whatever I want to do, I just go do it”. In this way, we “turn [our] backs on awakening” and “meet with objects of desire”. We are thus entangled in ignorance once again. When we “turn our backs on awakening and meet with objects of desire” we go against the teachings and commit mistaken actions, so we end up “living for a long time in foreign lands”. We remain forever outside our home. From the time this person was young, he left his family. He did not know how to come back. He spent decades wandering about, suffering many hardships and becoming filled with afflictions and defilements.
This kind of life is an analogy for how we have left our home and abandoned our father and are thus wandering around in cyclic existence in the Three Reams; we are transmigrating in the Five Destinies. We wander through the Three Realms, trapped by our ignorance and afflictions. We have no control over this; we cannot peacefully abide in Great Vehicle aspirations to purify Buddha-lands.
Therefore, the Buddha constantly emphasized that He was simply teaching us how to rediscover our innate enlightenment, how to find our pure nature again. If we want to find our innate enlightenment, the only way is to earnestly practice the Great Vehicle Dharma among people, without becoming negatively influenced by interpersonal conflicts. Thus, our essence, our intrinsic nature can remain in a state of true purity. This is means it is very healthy.
The next lines mention how long this person had been wandering, “for perhaps 10,20, or even 50 years”.
For perhaps 10, 20, or even 50 years:
10 years is an analogy for the heaven realm. 20 years is an analogy for the human realm. 50 years is an analogy for the Five Destinies.
“10” refers to the heaven realm; to be there we must practice the Ten Good Deeds. When a thought of goodness stirs, we practice the Ten Good Deeds and are then born in the realm.
In heaven, after we deplete our blessings, we will fall again into the other four realms. In the human realm, the rise and fall of good and evil [thoughts] occur within the working of the Five Aggregates, form, feeling, perception, action and consciousness. When a single thought of evil arises within us, our “form” is replete with the ten kinds of evils. Thus, the Five Skandhas give rise to 50 Evils.
So, regarding form, feeling, perception, action and consciousness, the Five Aggregates, if we open our minds and see that all are empty, then “The Five Aggregates are all empty;” we will not take issue over anything. Once we stop taking issue over things, we will not give rise to interpersonal conflicts.
If our minds are open and our thoughts pure, this gives rise to 50 good deeds. So, this is where spiritual practice takes place. It is inseparable from the Five Aggregates.
“Sentient beings create countless varied karma.” Thus, “We experience rebirth in the Five Destinies;” we constantly rise and fall in the Three Realms with no stability. “The thoughts of all Buddhas are constantly with sentient beings.” However, “The thoughts of sentient beings are not with the Buddhas.” Thus, they “abandon the father and run away.”
Some people say that, “The father abandoned His work of transformation” meaning that after [the Buddha] left the world sentient beings gave rise to delusions, so we should say that the father left his children. They mean that the father left his children, because the Buddha left the world after his conditions for transformation ended. We should say that the father left his children.
So, why did Subhuti say that they “abandoned the father and ran away?” The answer is that the Buddha transforms in response to conditions; it was sentient beings that were not being earnest.
Some ask: When the Buddha left His work of transformation, sentient beings gave rise to delusions. So, it was the father who left his children. Then why does it say that it was the children who abandoned their father?
Answer: the Buddha transformed and delivered according to the conditions of the world. Because sentient beings did not respond by accepting and applying [the Dharma], the Buddha’s conditions for responding to the world were extinguished. Thus, it was the children who abandoned their father.
I recall telling you that the Buddha once said to Anada, “As long as sentient beings feel a need, the Buddha can abide here for an entire kalpas. But if sentient beings do not feel a need, His lifespan will last 80 years.”
But Anada did not promptly urge the Buddha to remain in this world. The Buddha continued to ask, “Do sentient beings need the Buddha to remain in the world?” He asked thrice, but Anada gave no response. Thus, the Buddha said, “If this is so, I will stay for only 80 years.”
Later on, Kasyapa asked, “Ananda, when the Buddha said this to you, why did you not urge Him to remain in the world?” Ananda replied, “Because when I heard Him say that He could abide here for an entire kalpa, I was overjoyed. All I wanted to tell Him was that of course sentient beings needed Him. But it felt as if I was held back by a demon. I could not give the response I wanted.”This was because sentient beings did not feel a need for the Buddha to remain. “Thus, it was the children who abandoned their father.”
In conclusion, we have left the seed of our innate enlightenment behind. If our seed begins to grow but we are still small and young, that is just our initial aspiration. That resolve has not yet matured. I hope that we will all be mindful of this precious Buddha-Dharma. “An ignorance thought creates the Three Subtleties. External states lead to the Six Coarse Marks.” When we give rise to a discursive thought, ignorance will manifest again. When ignorance manifests, our external states will contribute to this state of mind so that we create many afflictions.
In summary, when learning the Buddha’s Way, we must return to our innate enlightenment. We need not search far away for it; it is in our own minds. So, please, every day, always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)