Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Acting with Dignity in the Nine Dharma-realms (萬行莊嚴 遍九法界)
Date: January.22. 2016
“Through the cause of faith and understanding, we enter the Buddha-Dharma’s ocean of teachings. By engaging in spiritual practice we uphold infinite Dharma-doors. If we desire to go from an unenlightened state to the state of noble beings, faith will first guide us until we give rise to aspirations.”
The Buddha’s wisdom is like the ocean. To enter this ocean of enlightenment, we must earnestly advance. But if we do not have faith and understanding, we will not know which direction to advance in. To develop faith and understanding, we need to [sustain] our initial aspiration. We must have all of this for our minds to be focused in one place. Only with wholehearted focus can we enter the Buddha-Dharma’s ocean of enlightenment.
“By engaging in spiritual practice we uphold infinite Dharma-doors.” To truly enter the Dharma’s ocean of teachings, [we need to learn] innumerable teachings. Thus we call it an ocean of teachings. Our minds must be focused and our resolve firm; we must earnestly engage in spiritual practice and remain steadfast. If we do not earnestly practice or hold fast to our resolve, after a while we will become tired. Our minds will give rise to a sense of irritation. If we can sustain our original aspirations and continue to maintain them firmly, then we will be able to earnestly uphold infinite Dharma-doors.
Thus it says, “We desire to go from an unenlightened state to the state of noble beings.” When we engage in spiritual practice, we hope to [transcend] our unenlightened minds. From our unenlightened state, we admire the state of noble beings, the state of the Buddha. Thus, we really want to enter the state of noble beings.
Of course, this road is very long. As we are walking this road one step at a time, if we wonder how long it will be before we arrive, weariness will arise in our minds. Thus, we must quickly give rise to faith again. “Faith will first guide us.”
We just need to have faith that each step is taking us closer to our goal; this is faith. So, our faith muse be firm. It does not matter how far we have to go; we just need to keep moving our two feet forward. With each step, we advance one step. Our two feet are blessings and wisdom.
We must cultivate both blessings and wisdom; only then can we walk steadily on this path. During the Buddha’s lifetime, once, as He was traveling and teaching, He reached a kingdom called “Southern Mountain” and found Himself at a settlement. On the day that the Buddha arrived, He saw everybody celebrating happily. It was a holiday, and everyone was celebrating.
People were drinking themselves into a stupor. As everyone was feeling happy, enjoying themselves and getting drunk, suddenly a spark escaped the bonfire and ignited the surrounding grass. Everyone was still enjoying themselves in their state of drunkenness.
Some people though, were sobered up by the fire. They began shouting, “Look! A fire is spreading [to the forest]! It is about to reach our houses!” They yelled this loudly.
Those who were drunk realized what was going on. What should they do? Where should they run to? They were still in a stupor. Though they saw the fire and were afraid, they were still in a drunken state.
They began shouting,
As they were panicking, the Buddha, looking peaceful, happened to arrive at this place.A person saw the Buddha and shouted loudly, “Look! The Buddha is in front of us. Let us quickly, with great reverence, ask the Buddha to help us find a way out of this burning forest.”
The Buddha was still standing far away, but they reverently implored Him to lead them out of this place.
The Buddha slowly approached these people and told them that in life, this is not the only kind of fire they will experience.There are three kinds of fires.
What are the three kinds of fires?The fires of greed, anger and ignorance.
A single spark from the fire of greed may ignite a prairie fire.An ignorant thought may easily kindle a fire that burns our body.
An angry thought can [also] start a fire, but in our arrogance, we are unable to distinguish between a fire and a plaything.With these three kinds of fires internally, externally we may easily kindle fires that can destroy everything.
To escape these fires, the only way is to calm our minds.That is the course we follow to avoid these fires.As the villagers heard the Buddha say this without realizing it, their minds became calm.The fire in the forest also gradually died out.Everyone’s minds became still as they calmly listened to the Buddha’s words.Without them noticing, the fire had gradually ceased burning.Luckily, it had not reached their village.
When everyone saw that the fire was out and their houses were undamaged, they felt a sense of joy.
With gratitude and joy, they prostrated to the Buddha.
The Buddha then encouraged them to uphold the Five Precepts to extinguish those three fires.
Everyone happily and faithfully accepted this and took refuge with the Buddha.
Ananda and other disciples following the Buddha had seen how big that fire was.How was He able to remain so composed and calm everyone’s minds?
Those people were in a drunken state, and when they saw the fire they panicked.They pushed against each other to escape.
But the Buddha was able to calm them all down.
As they became calm, the fire also gradually died out.
This was inconceivable.They asked the Buddha about this.
The Buddha told everyone that spiritual practice takes a long time, and that in our spiritual practice, we must not overlook the virtue of speech.We must not treat it lightly; we must cultivate the virtue of speech.Actions are of great importance in spiritual practice.Our actions must always be in accord with the great and direct Bodhi-path.
To have a [dignified] demeanor, we must constantly extinguish the greed, anger and ignorance in our minds and not overlook the slightest thought that arises.
The most recent [sutra] passage expresses the same concept.In the parable that Subhuti is telling, the poor son who had been wandering about was slowly making his way home.The elder had been searching for his son, and he was now slowly drawing near.
When the son entered the city, the elder was already there.The elder was very wealthy.
“He had many servants, stewards, assistants and attendants. ”There were many people who served as the elder’s stewards, assistants and attendants.
There were also “elephants, horses, carriages, oxen and goats beyond number. His trade brought in profits and even reached other lands. His merchants and vendors were also many in number.”
In this city, this elder was very rich.In addition to being surrounded by people, he also had much visible wealth, elephants, horses carriages,oxen and goats beyond number”. He also had much wealth coming in and going out; he was involved in trade and was doing business on a large scale.
Likewise, this is also an analogy .“Elephants and horses” are animals with great power. This is an analogy for how the Buddha turns the wheels of Threefold Karma, body, speech and mind, in order to teach. The carts which elephants and horses pull are very heavy, and the wheels of such a heavy cart must be very big. These wheels can also be used for crushing.
This is like the Tathagata, who displays understanding through karma of body, expounds the Dharma through karma of speech and discerns capabilities through karma of mind. With these He crushes the afflictions and deluded karma of sentient beings. This is why they are called the three wheels.
A wheel can be used to carry away many things. What is it used to carry away? This is a metaphor for how the Buddha displays understanding through His actions. The Buddha can make use of body, speech and mind. With the karma of speech, He can expound Dharma.
Look at what happened in the story you just heard. By expounding the Dharma through speech, the Buddha could soothe and comfort people. This is expounding the Dharma with speech. He was able to help these drunk people, these people panicked by the fire, to calm down. This is the power of the Buddha’s speech, or rather the power of speaking the Dharma with the virtue of speech.
The karma of the mind is used to discern. The Buddha can understand and discern the capabilities of sentient beings. Do we have great capabilities? If we do, He will teach us the Great Dharma.
If we have limited capabilities, He will give us corresponding teachings. To teach in this way, according to capabilities, the Buddha discerns our capacities. This is the wisdom of the Buddha. Moreover, He is able to make use of His body to manifest a dignified appearance. Thus He can crush the afflictions of sentient beings. In this way, He can push away their afflictions and crush their deluded karma.
The karmic forces created by sentient beings are truly powerful. Without the great power of elephants and horses, without great wheels, it would not be possible to crush our ignorance into pieces.
To crush our ignorance He had to use the wheels of the Threefold Karma, His body, speech and mind.
So this is a cart; “carriages” refers to carts. This is an analogy for the Three Vehicles and the teachings of the Five Vehicles.
We know the Three Vehicles are Hearers, Solitary Realizers and Bodhisattvas. To have the Five Vehicles, we add the heaven and human realms.
The Buddha taught the Three Vehicles to His monastic disciples. He also expounded the Dharma to heavenly beings and humans. To be born in heaven, we must practice the Ten Good Deeds. To be human, we must uphold the Five Precepts. These are the Five Vehicles.
This was how the Buddha expressed the power of His love. In, “oxen and goats beyond number”, the oxen and goats beyond number, are an analogy for how, with worldly forms and appearances, [the Buddha] can display great wealth. This is like shepherds, who consider oxen and goats their wealth.
Thus, “oxen and goats beyond number” is an analogy in the Buddha-Dharma for the Buddha’s “magnificence in myriad actions”.
Also, oxen and goats beyond number is an analogy for His magnificence in myriad actions. The Buddha had 84,000 Dharma-treasuries and treasuries of practice.
The Buddha’s wisdom [manifests in] His conduct. By applying His wisdom, He is dignifies in all respects. How great is the Buddha’s wisdom? How magnificent is He? This is immeasurable.
As this is immeasurable, we use the number 84,000. 84,000 is a descriptor for a very large number. In ancient Indian custom, a number that is so large that it cannot be calculated is expressed as “84,000”. This indicates a very large number.
Thus, in the Buddhist sutras, we often see the number “84,000.” In fact, I commonly use this number as an analogy. How much time is there in a say? There are 86,400 seconds. In a normal day, we give rise to [many] thoughts, and the span of a thought can last a lifetime.
A single thought that arises may determine the rest of our lives, and we give rise to so many thoughts each day. In one second, we may have gone through many thoughts, to say nothing of so many seconds. As spiritual practitioners, every thought and every second must be spent on our practice.
If we do this the entire day, that is equivalent to 86,400 kalpas in which our every thought is on our spiritual cultivation. So, we should be mindful.
“His trade brought in profits and even reached other lands.” His trade was extensive and even reached other kingdoms. He is like businessman. A businessman will have money that goes in and money that goes out. He did not only do business in the same place; he engaged in trade in other places. Don’t we see people like this now? when a person’s company has branches in countries all over the world, that means this person has great worldly wealth.
However, the Buddha’s great wealth lies in sentient beings in this world.
This is like “bringing to fruition [the virtues of] benefiting oneself.” In coming and going, we bring to fruition the virtue benefiting ourselves and others. Does transforming sentient beings benefit us or does it benefit other people? Actually, coming and going in this world is benefiting oneself and then others. This is how we go “throughout the lands of the nine Dharma-realms.”
The Buddha transforms sentient beings throughout the lands of the nine Dharma-realms. We should be clear about nine Dharma-realms. They come from the Ten Dharma-realms, the Four Noble and Six Unenlightened Realms. Do you remember them? The Four Noble and Six Unenlightened Realms are the realms of Hearers, Solitary Realizers, Bodhisattvas and Buddhas; these are the Four Noble. Then there are the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost, animal and asura realms; these are the Six Unenlightened Realms. The Buddha is in the Buddha realm, and He teaches and transforms beings of the other nine realms.
For different sentient beings, He teaches according to their different capabilities. “His merchants and vendors were also many in number.”
Merchants: These are itinerant businessmen who take what one place has and sell it in other places that do not have it.
Vendors: These are shopkeepers whom customers visit to purchase goods.
With such a big business, inevitably, there will be many people involved. Merchants engage in trade, and vendors are shopkeepers. They are people who buy and sell.
Merchants and vendors are analogies for those who spread the Buddha-Dharma, “the sages of the Three Vehicles who promote the Buddha-Dharma.”
The Three Vehicles are those of Hearers, Solitary Realizers and Bodhisattvas. The Buddha uses the Three Vehicles to teach sentient beings, and the Three Vehicle practitioners should spread the Buddha-Dharma. Everyone who has heard the Buddha-Dharma should promote it.
“There were locals” and “those from abroad.” When both people locally and from abroad come to a place to seek teachings, it is like people coming from all directions to engage in trade. People come here from “abroad” or perhaps people here go abroad to promote the Dharma they know.
Thus we must be mindful. After we listen to and take the Dharma to heart, we must spread this Dharma to other places.
So, we must be steadfast here, in our own place of practice. From our own place of practice, we spread the Dharma to other countries. In those countries, there must be dedicated Bodhisattvas to receive it or come here for teachings; they come here on a pilgrimage for teachings, then bring them back and promote them. This is how we can spread the Dharma. So everyone, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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