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| Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Law of Karma Is True and Unfailing (因緣果報真實不虛)
Date:March.08. 2016
“As are the causes and conditions, so are the effects and retributions; this is truth and is not illusory. Even after attaining Buddhahood, it is the same. Thus, the Buddha suffered the retributions of cold wind and horse fodder; the Tathagata put aside His honored status for a humble one.”
We really must believe in cause and effect. The world is remarkable, and the workings of karma among humans are even more wondrous. We ordinary people are completely subject to the law of karma. In this life, we all have different family backgrounds and different things that happen in our lives. These are [our] causes and conditions. Do the people we interact with bring us happiness? Or do they torment us? The causes, conditions, effects and retributions are different for each person.
We are all “human beings,” but we have different lifestyles, different experiences, different lives and different retributions. Furthermore, we bring different retributions to future lifetimes. Everything we do determines where we are going in the future.
So, as unenlightened beings create such karmic causes and conditions, which we bring to future lifetimes. Where will we end up? We do not know. Even the Buddha, after attaining Buddhahood, still had to face unexhausted karmic retributions. He too was subject to the law of karma.
The Buddha also talked about how in past lives countless kalpas ago, a long, long time ago, He had created karma by being careless in His speech. The karmic causes that He created were then brought into this lifetime; after attaining Buddhahood, the unexhausted karmic retributions still existed. So, even after attaining Buddhahood in this life, “The Buddha suffered the retributions of cold wind and horse fodder.” “The Tathagata put aside.” “His honored status for a humble one.” The majestic Buddha, the Enlightened One, encountered difficulties as well. The Buddha said it was because He had not exhausted His karma.
With these remnants of karma created in the past, His retributions had not been fully eliminated. This was how the Buddha taught with the example of His own life.
Right away [the elder] took off his necklaces, his fine and soft outer garments and his magnificent adornments, changed into coarse and dirty clothing and smeared himself with dust and dirt. With his right hand grabbing tools for clearing excrement, he assumed a frightened look.
So, the previous sutra passage says, “Right away he took off his necklaces, his fine and soft outer garments and his magnificent adornments.” He took off his necklaces and the luxurious clothes he was wearing. He then smeared himself with excrement and dirt. Thereafter, he approached [his son]. He tried to figure out how to approach his child. This is what we talked about previously.
After attaining Buddhahood, the Buddha did the same thing. After His enlightenment, He went among people. Because of sentient beings’ limited capabilities, the Buddha had to approach sentient beings and adapt to their capabilities. So, when He wanted to go among people, He had to dress the same as all bhiksus, in “clothes for clearing excrement.” These were torn clothes that people did not want, throwaway clothes, that they would pick up, re-tailor and wear. These were the “clothes for clearing excrement.”
The next part of the sutra passage says, “With his right hand grabbing tools for clearing excrement, he assumed a frightened look.” He then picked up these filthy [tools] and went to clear excrement.
Thus, “He assumed a frightened look.”They were so dirty that anyone would be afraid.
Holding them, he went to approach [the son].
This is an analogy for how the Buddha “imparted provisional teachings and applied skillful means”.
He used skillful means.What the Buddha originally wanted us to know was the supreme Great Vehicle Dharma.However, we sentient beings could not comprehend, so He had to use simple teachings, very obvious and shallow methods, to approach sentient beings.
Thus, He “Imparted provisional teachings and applied skillful means” is analogous to “tools for clearing excrement”.These were the methods used to clear away and get rid of the filth and defilements.The filth and defilements are our thoughts, our views and thinking and our afflictions.
These dirty things must be eliminated.To clear away such dirty things, we need to use tools; these tools are “tools for clearing excrement,” which is to apply the Four Noble Truths, Fourfold Mindfulness, Four Right Efforts and so on.With these means, He earnestly taught us to understand what “suffering” is.Therefore, we must be earnest and diligent.After diligently practicing, we can experience a state of mind that is cleared of afflictions.
The Four Bases of Fulfilling Power help us to deeply understand how to eliminate very fine and subtle afflictions, how to use the Dharma to clear them away.This is how we treat them.
“Tools for clearing excrement” are “the Dharma that treats afflictions of views and thinking”.
Then, “He assumed a frightened look” means the Buddha wanted to show everyone that.
He was the same as sentient beings.
“It is not only you who faces these afflictions; it is not only you who experiences karmic forces. I do too; I am the same. I am just like all of you.”
He manifested living like sentient beings, with a fear of samsara, and also manifested attaining Buddhahood yet still having to endure cold wind, horse fodder and so on, the nine cases of unexhausted retribution.Thus it says, “He assumed a frightened look.”
In the journey of life, starting from birth, to aging, to illness and then death, over this life journey, we all encounter many adverse conditions.So, “He manifested just like sentient beings, with a fear of samsara”.
This “fear” is of the karma faced on the journey, which the Buddha encountered as well.He manifested, in His lifetime, going through ascetic practices and experiencing many hardships.
For instance, the Buddha attained Buddhahood but still had to endure cold wind, horse fodder etc., the nine cases of unexhausted retributions.So, “He assumed a frightened look.”
This was to let us know the world is full of suffering; everyone is born according to their karma.[Karma] keeps accumulating life after life; to change this lifetime and future lifetimes takes a very long time.This is like how the Buddha had also spent a long time engaging I spiritual practice in the same way.
This was a period of countless kalpas.The Tathagata had already transcended all obstacles.Speaking of the Buddha’s karmic effect of attaining Buddhahood, He had already been eliminating karma for many lifetimes.
Since He constantly engaged in spiritual practice, old karma was eliminated and new merits and virtues were accumulated.He was constantly eliminating accumulated karmic obstacles.He constantly got rid of them, while also continuously creating good karma.
So, “The Tathagata had already transcended all obstacles and attained infinite merits and virtues.”
The Tathagata had already transcended all obstacles and attained infinite merits and virtues.Knowing the truth that He had so many different karmic retributions, He used them as clever and skillful means to let all sentient beings know that by creating good and evil karmic causes, one will inevitably receive retributions of joy and suffering.Thus He manifested the nine ordeals.
Lifetime after lifetime, the Buddha had eliminated His own karma and His own obstacles.He had also attained infinite merits and virtues.Thus, He knew that He had so many different karmic retributions.
Now, the Buddha used His own past lives, the karma He created, the retributions He faced the practices He engaged in, the blessings He attained and so on as teaching materials for this lifetime. He used them as clever and skillful means, hooping to “let all sentient beings know that by creating good and evil karmic causes…”. He let everyone clearly know that creating good karma leads to good retributions and creating negative karma brings about negative causes and retributions.
The Buddha constantly taught us to look at things through the law of karma, even He Himself was subject to it. Therefore, in the Jataka Sutra, there are many [stories] of repaying grace but also many of returning to create obstructions. This continued even after He attained Buddhahood.
So, for “good and evil karmic causes one will inevitably receive retributions of joy and suffering”. Thus, there were the Nine Ordeals.
The Nine Ordeals:
1) Six years of ascetic practice.
2) Slander by Sundari.
3) The wooden spear.
4) Horse fodder.
5) King Virudhaka’s massascre of the Sakya clan.
6) The empty bowl after begging.
7) Slander by cincamanavika.
 Deadatta’s boulder injuring His foot.
9) Searching for robes to block the cold wind.
Of the Nine Ordeals of the Buddha, the first was His six years of ascetic practice. In His journey [towards Buddhahood], He traveled for five years to seek answers and engaged in ascetic practice for six years. These six years of ascetic practice were true suffering. He had one meal a day with little to eat, endured cold wind, freezing snow, hunger and so on. [These challenges of] the natural environment gave the prince determination to advance in his spiritual practice while enduring so much suffering. What were the causes and conditions for this? They were formed during the era of Kasyapa Buddha. In the city of Varanasi, there were two children who were very good friends.
One was a Brahmin child called Jotipala, and the other was a child of a potter, Ghatikara. One day, Ghatikara saw Kasyapa Buddha, and joy arose in his heart. He heard Kasyapa expound the Dharma, and he was very happy. He immediately went to see Jotipala and happily invited him, “Come, let’s go see a Buddha. He is an enlightened person, a Great Enlightened One who has completed. His spiritual practice and attained Buddhahood”. Jotipala responded arrogantly, “What is there to see? He is just a bald monk. What is there worth seeing?” He rejected Ghatikara’s invitation.
The next day Ghatikara again came to find Jotipala and invited him, “Let’s go!” Again, Jotipala responded with harsh and critical words and refused to go. On the third day, [Ghatikara] came again and said, “Do you still not want to go with me?” [Jotipala] again said, “What is there to see of that bald monk?” He still refused to go.
Then Ghatikara grabbed him by the neck and head, pushed him down and said, “Are you going with me or not?” Suddenly, Jotipala had a moment of awakening. He thought, “this person must be an extraordinary person. If this person were not so special, Ghatikara would not be so insistent and keep asking me to see this enlightened person”.
So, he changed his mind and said, “Fine, I’m going with you. Let go of me, I’m going with you.” So, he followed him to the place where Kasyapa was.
When they arrived in front of the Buddha, when Jotipala saw Kasyapa Buddha, with His magnificent appearance, he was so moved and happy that he automatically prostrated on the ground. Thereafter, as he heard Kasyapa’s teachings of the Dharma and took them to heart, happiness arose in him. He immediately said, “I want to leave the lay life. I want to engage in spiritual practice. In the future, I must pass on the Buddha-Dharma to the people of this world. In the future, I must attain Buddhahood”.
He asked Kasyapa to accept him as His disciple and let him become a monastic. So, he became a monastic and was very diligent in his spiritual practice.
Ghatikara became his great Dharma-protector, guarding the Buddha-Dharma, the Sangha and especially his good friend Jotipala. He also kept coming to hear Kasyapa’s teachings. Furthermore, hearing Jotipala share his insights, Ghatikara vowed that life after life, no matter if he was in the heaven or human realm, he would always support the Dharma and be the Dharma-protector for Jotipala.
When He finished telling this part, the Buddha said, “[His vow] was for a period of infinite kalpas.” “Because of this, when I was Prince Siddhartha, when I wanted to leave the palace, it was Ghatikara, reborn in a heaven as Suddhavasa Deva, who protected me and helped me out of the city so I could easily set off for spiritual practice.”
After he left the city, he took off his necklaces and his princely garments and changed into simple clothing. He then walked alone toward his path of spiritual practice. During the next five years, he learned all the different religions in India Encountering these teachings, including heretical and deviant teachings, strengthened his sense of resolve to [find] a way to change human suffering and correct mistaken practices. Thus, he was determined to engage in spiritual practice and went through six years of ascetic practice.
Those six years were really difficult, filled with freezing wind and snow. The Buddha said, “That I experienced six years of ascetic practice was because at that time, when Ghatikara wanted me to see Kasyapa Buddha, I spoke harshly and belittled Him.” “I was disrespectful and belittled the Buddha.Because of this, I went through six years of ascetic practice. In those six years, I suffered terribly.”
There was also the slander by Sundari; this was the second ordeal. After Siddhartha had attained Buddhahood, He widely promoted His teachings everywhere He brought His Sangha with Him as He spread the Dharma, causing many other religious practitioners to be unhappy. So, they made [a woman], Sundari, slander the Buddha.
Therefore, regarding the law of karma, the Buddha constantly used His past lives’ causes, conditions, effects and retributions to illustrate and talk about His experiences in this life; He manifested these appearances to talk about this Dharma. This is “grabbing tools for clearing excrement.” He applied all kinds of methods “He assumed a frightened look” means in the past He had created much [karma] from mistakes and afflictions, so now He needed to earnestly eliminate all the karma from the past and use good karma and virtues to make up for it.
We should heed this story; actually, it is not a story, but the causes and conditions of the Buddha. We need to be very mindful of this.
“As are the causes and conditions, so are the effects and retributions; this is the truth.” “Even after attaining Buddhahood, it is the same.” Even reaching the attainment of Buddhahood, there was still some unexhausted karma remaining.
So, in learning the Buddha’s Way, we must know that for infinite kalpas in the past, we have been accumulating so much karma. In each lifetime, as karmic conditions manifest one by one, we need to eliminate them. We must eliminate our karma ourselves, and we need to create our own blessings. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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