Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Enticing Them From the Small to the Great (隨順根機誘小入大)
Date: February.24. 2016
“The Buddha, in His wisdom, gave teachings that were partial or complete. He divided the teachings into the Great and Small. The Great Dharma gives the true teachings, so it is complete; it is the retaining and upholding of all Dharma. The limited teachings of the Two Vehicles are the partial teachings given according to others’ capabilities. To freely express His original intent in accord with His own words and wishes, He would explain the principles completely.”
It seems that when everyone reads these words, they look quite unfamiliar. This is indeed so because I have not shared this teaching before. But actually, this is something we regularly discuss. In His wisdom, the teachings the Buddha gave were either “partial” or “complete”. “Partial” and “complete” teachings correspond to the division into Small and Great Vehicle teachings.
“Partial” refers to Small Vehicle teachings. “Complete” refers to Great Vehicle teachings. These are special terms used in the Buddha-Dharma.
The Buddha taught sentient beings according to capabilities. Upon enlightenment, the Buddha’s heart held the hope that the state to which He awakened would be something we could all comprehend. However, that was not possible. So, if He had been able to freely express His original intent, those would be complete and perfect teachings.
But sadly, sentient beings were unable to realize this state. So, He used “partial” teachings, meaning He gave the Small [Vehicle] teachings. He could not just give them the complete and perfect teachings right away, so he had to move from the Small to the Great. In this way, He gradually educated us “The Great Dharma gives the true teachings.” These teachings are what is called “complete”. From beginning to end, when put together, these teachings only express the hope that we can return to our pure nature of True Suchness. This is the most perfect and complete teaching.
This perfect and complete teaching is the retaining and upholding of all Dharma. We must uphold all worldly and world-transcending virtuous Dharma; we must retain and uphold it all. Thus we must benefit ourselves as well as others and awaken ourselves while also awakening others. This is the Dharma we have recently discussed. It is the perfect and complete great teaching, which is also retaining and upholding all worldly and world-transcending virtuous Dharma. This is the Great Dharma.
However, the limited teachings of the Two Vehicles are called “partial” teachings. This means that after the Buddha first attained enlightenment, He wanted to share His state of mind with everyone and freely carry out His original intent. But He understood that sentient beings lacked the capacity to accept it. So, He reverted to “speaking according to their dispositions.” He spoke to them in ways they could understand, according to their capabilities. Thus it says, “according to others’ capabilities”; He taught according to others’ capabilities. Most important were the perfect and complete great teachings, how He would freely express His original intent. “To freely express His original intent in accord with His own words and wishes, He would explain the principles completely.” This was what the Buddha truly wanted to say and wanted to freely express to sentient beings. This is “in accord with His own words and wishes.”
Whether it is ignorance, afflictions or dust-like delusions that are covering us, we intrinsically have the nature of True Suchness, a beautiful state of mind.
In fact, our mind [is inherently] tranquil and still. When it becomes one with the universe, it is in the Avatamsaka state.
However, we are now merely unenlightened beings who are being pulled by both good and evil.
The Buddha-Dharma can continuously guide people’s minds toward goodness.If, in our daily living, we all orient ourselves toward goodness, we will gradually return to our intrinsic nature.
So, for a period of time, I often told everyone that the road through this world must be paved smoothly.
That means that when we interact with people, we must carefully adjust our minds.As we adjust our own minds, we must also help to adjust other people’s minds.If we help each other pave the road in our minds, we are paving a road through this world.
If we can pave the roads in our minds to be smooth by mutually benefiting and giving to each other, then we will already be approaching the Bodhi-path.So, practicing goodness in the world is practicing the Buddha-Dharma.
The messenger said to the son, “I now set you free. You can go where you wish.”
The poor son was joyous, having attained what he had never had before.He picked himself off the ground and returned to a poor neighborhood in search of food and clothing.
At that time, the poor son was outside, having already come back to his home.The elder saw him right away, but his son had already run away; he quickly ordered people to bring him back but his son kept on resisting.They could not bring him back.The elder let him go and then devised skillful means.This was the previous passage in the sutra.
Now, the elder began establishing skillful means.
“At that time the elder wanted to entice his son, and thus he devised skillful means. Secretly, he dispatched two men who were lean, haggard and unimposing in appearance.”
This is today’s text.He devised means because.
“At that time the elder wanted to entice his son.”
With difficulty, he had finally found his son; how could he let him stay outside and return to a poor neighborhood?The father could not bear this, so he devised [certain means].These represent the Buddha’s teachings.With perfect and complete teachings, the Buddha hoped that we could quickly catch sight of our Buddha-nature.That was the Buddha’s state of mind.
After His enlightenment, He hoped we could quickly experience the Buddha-nature we all intrinsically have.But not only were we unable to experience this, we became scared as well.This was because our capabilities were not in harmony with the teachings.
This explains that since their capabilities were not in harmony with the teachings,.He immediately had to thoroughly consider how to entice them according to their capabilities.He slowly ceased transforming with Great Dharma.He could not abandon them, so He instead devised skillful means to entice them from the Small to enter the Great.
How can the capabilities of ordinary people be in harmony with those of someone who has already awakened?The capabilities of sentient beings and the teachings He wanted to expound were truly not compatible with each other.
So, “He immediately had to thoroughly consider.”
He had to mindfully, thoroughly contemplate this.
Thus, for three weeks’ time He considered how to give teachings to sentient beings.
For instance, after attaining Buddhahood, Sakyamuni Buddha went to Deer Park.He chose theses fire people, who had the appropriate capabilities, to be recipients of these teachings.As He walked towards them from afar, before He approached them, while still far off, these five people saw the Buddha’s figure, and they became afraid.
They channeled this fear into rejection, for they felt that the prince had abandoned ascetic practices and was therefore no longer a spiritual practitioner.It was with this sense of suspicion that they faced one who had attained enlightenment.With suspicious minds, they faced this enlightened person.
However, the Buddha had the virtues of both wisdom and of blessings.With His perfect virtues of wisdom and blessings, as He came closer to them, the five of them could not control themselves.They had agreed to avoid and ignore Him, but as He came closer and closer, the five of them spontaneously did the same thing; they bent their knees and knelt before Him.It turned out that His appearance was completely different from before.He inspired respect from deep in their hearts.
Then the Buddha sat down.“Come here, come here. I want to take my recent mindset and experiences on the path of spiritual practice and share them with you”. He used such an everyday tone of voice to address these five people. After the five sat down, He began He taught according to their capabilities and enticed them to [acknowledge] their suffering. They were able to comprehend “suffering”, but as they understood the truth of suffering He spoke of, they realized it was not just limited to suffering that comes from spiritual cultivation.
Rather, this suffering is a true fact of life. The working of our body and mind result in the suffering we face, not just in this lifetime, but in past and future lifetimes as well, not just as humans, but in the four forms of birth and the Five or Six Realms as well.
After listening, some understood, some partially understood and some did not even have a partial understanding. So, the Buddha had to explain it three times. This is called the three turnings of the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths. He started with gradual teachings for these five.
Thus it was said, “He slowly ceased transforming with Great Dharma. He could not abandon them”. “He slowly ceased transforming with Great Dharma” means He had to take His true intent, His enlightened state of mind, and temporarily conceal them. He gave “gradual teachings” to sentient beings, meaning that He taught gradually.
When He expounded the Four Noble Truths, He had to teach these five people three times. When even one person did not understand, He would not give up or become annoyed. That is because “He could not abandon them”.
So, “He instead devised skillful means to entice them from the Small to enter the Great”; He would entice them. He started with the Small Vehicle teachings to approach and entice them.
“This explains how in Deer Park, He had already ceased transforming with the Great Dharma”. The Great Dharma was temporarily concealed. So, “He stated from the Four Noble Truths, wanting to establish skillful means He could not abandon them”. As we just discussed, it says that “He wanted to entice his son”. So, he “established skillful means”. These were [the Buddha’s skillful means.
Abiding in Dharma, He recalled how past [Buddhas] practiced the power of skillful means, the skillful means outside the true essence.
“Abiding in Dharma, He recalled how past Buddhas practiced the power of skillful means”. After He attained Buddhahood, how could He widely spread the Great Dharma in the world? People’s capabilities were limited and they were unable to accept it, so what should He do?
For three weeks, He contemplated how past Buddhas had also decided to make use of skillful means. Thus, “All Buddhas share the same path”. “He recalled” means he contemplate how past Buddhas practiced the power of skillful means. These are “the skillful means outside the true essence”. In fact, skillful means can be divided into those inside and those outside the true essence.
Skillful means can be divided into those inside and those outside the true essence. The skillful means taught in the perfect teaching are the skillful means inside the true essence. The skillful means taught in other teachings are the skillful means outside the true essence.
The skillful means inside the true essence are “skillful means taught in the perfect teaching”. These are teachings from the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence up to the Six Perfections, which comprise the perfect and complete teachings. For limited capacities, He use the Small Vehicle to teach them to develop great capacities for using Great Dharma to walk the Bodhisattva-path. These are skillful means inside the true essence.
“The skillful means taught in other teachings” are the skillful means outside the true essence. These are other teachings that use worldly phenomena as analogies to convey the Buddha’s wondrous teachings.
An example of this is something we have discussed, the parable of the “three carts”. Previously we talked about the elder outside the burning house where a few of his children were still inside playing with fire. Since they would not come out, he had to set up three kinds of carts outside. This is like the skillful means outside the true essence, because the Buddha had to use many worldly skillful means to create analogies. Thus, the Chapter on Parables includes many forms of life as analogies. Those are also skillful means outside the true essence.Because of sentient beings’ [immature] capacities, the Buddha had to teach in this way. So it is said, “Wanting to entice his son, he established skillful means”.
This helps to explain the previous description using the analogy of the three carts. Thus it is says: Wanting to entice his son, he established skillful means. Teaching the Three for the sake of the One is establishing skillful means. “Teaching the Three for the sake of the One.”
Clearly there is the One Vehicle Dharma, but the Buddha had to establish the Three Vehicle Hearer, Solitary Realizer and Bodhisattva, these were the Three Vehicle He devised”.
Clearly, the teaching is very simple; everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. Yet He had to teach it with so many methods, such as analogies, expressions, etc.
So, “He secretly dispatched two men.” The two men that were secretly dispatched are like the principles permeating the One Vehicle. But this was not yet clearly stated at the start. This had not yet been clearly expressed. This was hiding the true to give the provisional.
He concealed it, while teaching skillful means outside. So, these two people are the analogy for the doctrine of the Two Vehicles.
Two men: An analogy for the doctrine of the Two Vehicle.When speaking of the people, these are the Hearers and the Solitary Realizers. When speaking of the teachings, these are the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links.
In terms of the Dharma, these two men represent the teachings of the Two Vehicles Originally, there was only the One Vehicle But since we were unable to realize it, He had to teach with the Two Vehicles instead. “When speaking of the people, in terms of people, they refer to Hearers and Solitary Realizers.” They can accept this kind of Dharma, the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links. These are the teachings they can accept, so they can be patiently guided with them.
Secretly dispatched two men: Also, secret is an analogy for the True Dharma of the One Vehicle, the Bodhisattva-practice kept secretly inside. Dispatched means the outward appearance was of the Small Vehicle Dharma for Hearers.
Another analogy is that , “Secret is an analogy for the One Vehicle Dharma, the Bodhisattva-practice kept secretly inside.” This is the “secret.”Actually, Subhuti and the others already understood. They also understood the Bodhisattva-path, yet they were still concealing it. This is like how after the Buddha’s enlightenment, He concealed the True Dharma in His mind.
“Secret” means it was concealed “Dispatched means the our ward appearance was of the Small Vehicle Dharma for Hearers”.
“Dispatched” means “to make use of.” When the elder made use of people to bring his son back, it was like the Buddha making use of the Dharma to teach and transform sentient beings. The underlying principle is the same. This is “secretly dispatching two men.”
“Lean and haggard in appearance” means that those “practicing the Two Vehicle teachings do not cultivate [dignified] marks or characteristics for they only speak of suffering, impermanence, no-self and impurity.”
This is the Dharma cultivated in the Two Vehicles. They have not cultivate the perfect marks. As I have just said, after Sakyamuni Buddha became enlightened, He was perfectly replete with blessings and wisdom. So naturally, His marks and characteristics, His pleasing appearance, could subdue people. These are what Hearers lack. So, “They were not replete in blessings, wisdom or the Fourfold Fearlessness.”
They had not yet cultivated blessings nor attained wisdom in order to cultivate both blessings and wisdom, as I have been saying, we must go among people and benefit them. Wisdom comes from experience. Only by going among people can we truly become replete with both blessings and wisdom.
They were not replete in blessings, wisdom or the Fourfold Fearlessness, so it says they were unimposing in appearance. Lean, haggard and not imposing are describing the merits and virtues of the Small Vehicle. They lack the magnificent marks.
The Fourfold Fearlessness comes from thorough understanding of the Buddha-Dharma and being clear on the principles it contains. Then all the words and expression we use will be in accord with the principles, and we continue to speak of them joyfully. They did not have these, and they did not have good affinities with sentient beings, nor had they completely taken the Dharma to heart.
For this reason, they were described as “lean, haggard and not imposing.” This is an analogy for the lack of merits and virtues in Small Vehicle practitioners and how they therefore lack a dignified appearance.
In conclusion, as Buddhist practitioners, we must mindful. Whether He used complete teachings or partial teachings, the Buddha was replete with skillful means both inside and outside of the true essence. Therefore, we should always mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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