Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Five Spiritual Roots and the Five Powers. Reverently Upholding Faith and Understanding (五根五力信解奉持)
Date:March.16. 2016
“Fathers in this world pass the family business down to their sons. The Tathagata, who transcends the world, passes on His mission to His Dharma-children. As there are infinite sentient beings, there are infinite teachings to suit their capacities. He first taught the Three Vehicle Dharma, then later brought all back to the one true path.”
We can all understand how fathers in this world, regarding their family and their business, share the same expectation. They hope that, from one generation to the next their family lineage and their business will be passed down continuously. This is common practice in the world.
It is the same for us with the Buddha-Dharma. We must place great importance on the transmission of the Dharma-lineage. Our Dharma-lineage needs to be passed on. So, “The World-Transcending Tathagata passes on His mission to His Dharma-children.” When a father in this world passes on the family business, it is his son who will take over.
The same principle applies here; worldly practices and world-transcending teachings follow the same principle. The only difference is that humans are born out of the lustful union of their parents, while world-transcending teachings are the pure and undefiled Dharma. This Dharma comes from forming aspirations. Thus we need to form aspirations. I truly hope that we can all be sincere in transmitting the world-transcending mission of the Tathagata; it does not matter if we are lay or monastic.
In particular, the Sangha is essential to the transmission of the Buddha-Dharma. This is why, after becoming enlightened, the Buddha came to Deer Park. There, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, the Three Treasures, became complete. From then on, the Buddha started widely transforming sentient beings, teaching the Dharma on both banks of the Ganges.
Actually, with India being so large, could the Buddha really visit the entire country? How wide of an area could He possibly cover in a little over 40 years? How many people were actually able to hear these teachings?
During the Buddha’s lifetime, the population was not concentrated in cities. Actually, back then it was not that large at all. In particular, during that era, during the Buddha’s lifetime, there were 96 types of religious teachings. What could He do to reach more people? How would He convince people from more than 90 different kinds of teachings? This would be quite difficult indeed.
How would He transmit the Buddha-Dharma to both lay people and monastics so everyone could take the Dharma deeply to heart? Now, the human population is very large, so in this era, spreading the Buddha-Dharma widely depends on all of us promptly transmitting it. We are now in the evil world of Five Turbidities, so the need to purify people’s minds is even more urgent than during the Buddha’s lifetime. Therefore, being born in this era, we should form great aspirations and make great vows. We need to truly and thoroughly understand this Dharma-lineage and put in effort to grasp the spirit and principles of this Dharma-lineage and build up this school of Buddhism. This school was established so that we can go among people and invite everyone to [join us] in practicing according to the teachings. We go among people to transform them; whether we are lay practitioners or monastics, we all share this same mission. But it is the mission of monastics to help the Buddha-Dharma flourish and spread; this is our responsibility.
We must teach lay practitioners so that they can mindfully accept [the teachings].People from different walks of life have different capacities [for accepting the Dharma].They take the living, applicable teachings that they can accept and bring them into their lives.
Understanding the Dharma benefits everyone; it lets people transform their minds, turns evil into goodness and so on.This is what the Buddha-Dharma can do.
So, “As there are infinities sentient beings, there are infinite teachings to suit their capacities.”These teachings must be developed and expressed in society, among people, among all these sentient beings.
Besides the world-transcending Dharma, we also need to spread worldly Dharma.To make use of the worldly Dharma, we must see much, hear much, understand much and do much.
Only then can we utilize the worldly Dharma to each according to capacities.
So, “As there are infinite sentient beings, there are infinities teachings.”We must use all kinds of methods to spread the Dharma.
During the Buddha’s lifetime, He “first taught the Three Vehicle Dharma, then later brought all back to the one true path.”
He initially used means of transforming people, of bringing them in.He taught them to do this first, to have an understanding of the law of karma and how the suffering of the world is a result of the workings of the law of karma.We must first understand this and thoroughly accept this Dharma.We must earnestly seek to understand the 37 Practices to Enlightenment.
It is only when we have completely taken these teachings to heart that we are able to go further and understand how to put them into practice and eliminate our afflictions, practice the Right Path and teach the Right Dharma.Then, our bodies will manifest all kinds of dignified demeanors.
Moreover, as we interact with people and matters, we will not make any mistakes; we can be very tactful and well-rounded.Being tactful and well-rounded is called being harmonious; this is also a way of transforming others.
To speak in a way we could understand, the Buddha used the Dharma of the Three Vehicles as He patiently taught us and guided us.
If He had taught directly, we would not have understood.So He used people, matters and objects as analogies for the purpose of teaching.He repeated [these teaching] again and aging; something is said once in the prose and is then repeated again in the verse.One teaching is repeated again and again, to help the Dharma penetrate everyone’s mind and help us remember.
Hearing a lot of Dharma is of no use if we cannot remember it; we would get nothing from it.This is the same as not hearing the Dharma.
Therefore, we must be very mindful; we must listen patiently to the Dharma, mindfully accept it and put it into practice.
For a long time, we have been teaching the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, but the story is not yet over.The poor son left and had been wandering about; it was not easy for the elder to bring him back.
Once he was back, he gave him work to do.To ease his mind, he worked together with him, and others around worked with him as well.
Already, he had drawn close enough that he could speak his heart, for now his son trusted him.
We already spoke about this previous passage; “I am like your father, so you need not worry anymore. ”He said, “do not wander outside anymore; just settle down here. In this place, I am like your father, so you need not worry. You can work here, and I will teach you, so you can be at ease living here. You have nothing to worry about. Why do I say this? I am well along in years, while you are young and strong.”
This is the wisdom of the elder.[At this stage] of mutual recognition, in this kind of environment he could say this.He still refrained from directly saying to him, “You are my son, and I am your father.”He only said, “I am like your father; you are like my son. Because I am older, you can look upon me as your father. You are younger, and I wish to pass my skills down to you.”
This is the method he used.
So, transforming sentient beings us really not all that easy.He put much thought into how to bring his child home.
The following passage begins like this, “When you work, you are not deceitful, idle, angry, hateful nor resentful in speech. I do not see these faults in you like I see in other workers. From today forward, you will be like my own son. The elder then promptly gave him a name, calling this man his son.”
This part of the passage begins with“When you work,” He was older, like a father,so he could speak to his child like this, saying, “I am often with you, and you are hard-working. I never see you engage in conflict with others. You are earnest and do not have any bad habits. You are neither deceitful nor indolent. You are very earnest in your efforts always honest and sincere. You are also even-tempered and do not get upset over little things. You have a good temper; no matter how others treat you, you never are hateful and never speak any words of resentment. You are truly a person of good character”.
So it was in this way that the father began praising and complimenting him. What this means is that he had “the power of faith”. The power of faith had already arisen. The first thing the elder praised him for was his root of faith. He already had the power of the root of faith, so he was not deceitful.
When you work, you are not deceitful, idle, angry, hateful, nor resentful in speech: With the power of faith, one is not deceitful with the power of diligence, one is not idle. With the power of thought, one is not angry. With the power of Samadhi, one is not hateful with the power of wisdom, one is not resentful.
Having faith, he is not deceitful. Not only is he trusted by others, he also trusts others. Since he is without deceit and does not deceive others, people trust him.
So, “[faith and lack of] deceit”, is an antidote for those who are untrustworthy, for those who cannot be trusted. If people have no faith in us, if we are not trustworthy, then we have poor character.
I often tell everyone that we should treat people with sincerity, integrity, faith and steadfastness. This is an important foundation for our spiritual practice.
So, this is being without “deceit”. We furthermore need the power of diligence. Not only should we not deceive others, if we already have the power of faith, we need the power of diligence at the same time, so that we are never indolent.
“Not being idle” means that we are not indolent. Since we have the power of faith, we will be able to be diligent. Being diligent means that we are not indolent.
Then, “with the power of thought, if we are without indolence, all of our thoughts will be in line with the Path. The Dharma we hear is a road. When we take the Dharma to heart, we are quickly able to pave our road.
When we are diligent, our thoughts are always diligent. This is the power of thought. With the power of thought, we never get angry. Our thoughts of faith are continuous. In dealing with people, matters and things, regardless of how others treat us, we are already very diligent; we have accepted the Buddha-Dharma so we already understand that we must be open-minded, with pure thoughts. When we experience interpersonal conflicts, we heighten our vigilance so we are not influenced by the environment nor the tone of voice or expressions of others. We absolutely do not allow these to influence us, so we do not become angry.
“With the power of Samadhi, one is not hateful”. If we do not allow our minds to be influenced by the outside world, that means that we have the power of Samadhi. Having decided to engage in spiritual practice, with our every thought we must never forget that we are spiritual practitioners. We must not take issue with others. Then, our minds must be in Samadhi, so that we will not be disrupted by other people. Thus we must be very mindful. We must be diligent and never indolent, and we must never lose our temper or harbor hatred or resentment inside of us.
If we can do this, if we have the power of faith, power of diligence, power of thought and power of Samadhi, then naturally. “With the power of wisdom, one is not resentful”. We already have the power of wisdom, so what is there to be resentful of? If, in our interpersonal relationships, there is mutual resentment like this, it means that our spiritual practice is lacking.
If we created negative affinities in the past, then we must put an end to them right now and create no further negative affinities through our actions and thoughts. Thus, we will be without resentment.
If we want to be without deceit, idleness, anger, hate or resentment, then in our spiritual practice, we must have the powers of faith, diligence, thought, Samadhi and wisdom.
We must earnestly cultivate the Five Spiritual Roots and the Five Powers, because only by doing so can we be without deceit and idleness.
“Internally, he has no fault of self-deception”. I will explain this for you again. We must be without deceit or idleness. We must be without deceit, for if we are not honest in our speech, people will doubt our character.
We should not be deceitful; even in trivial matters, we need to be truthful and without deceit.
Not deceitful, idle and so on: internally, he has no fault of self-deception. Externally, he is never seen to be idle In his speech, he is never angry or resentful.
So, inside the mind, “Internally, he has no fault of self-deception.” We knew clearly that something is a certain way, but in covering up the truth, we are first deceiving ourselves, we are fooling ourselves. Then, when we say it out loud, we are deceiving others. This is called the “fault of self-deception.”
You clearly know the truth, but what you are saying is something different. This is not right This is how we normally speak, how we converse.
Of course, we also must keep things in perspective. Sometimes, in order for things to be harmonious, we refrain from disclosing some facts. This is not deception, it is preventing conflicts. Some people feel that for the sake of honesty, they must disclose who said what about whom. To demonstrate how upfront they are, they say, “People are talking about you, I won’t hide it.” “When I hear something, I tell you right away who says what about you” Is this right? Isn’t it? Isn’t this “not being deceitful”? isn’t this right? No, it absolutely is not. These conflicts between people in the world are the result of gossip, people talking about others [behind their backs]. Of course people have faults, but to help others address their faults, we need methods that are based on love if someone is like that, we need to figure out how to help him.
What is the cause of this incident? If someone has caused this incident, how can we deal with it?If someone is talking about something, we need to focus on the matter itself and figure out how to resolve it harmoniously. If we just hear something that we only half understand and begin to spread rumors about it, that is certainly not the right thing to do. It may just be a small thing, but once it is spread about, there will never be a day of peace. This is truly frightening.
When people talk, they speak without thinking, so in our minds we must not “have the fault of self-deception,” and we must remember, “Externally,[we should] never be seen to be idle.” “In speech, we [must] never be angry or resentful.”
If these behaviors appear in our actions, then we really need to work hard on our minds. We must not speak without thinking first and not deceive others. We should work hard on our actions; we must never speak words of anger or start yelling at people for no reason. We Should not be resentful, hateful or filled with complaints, for this reveals resentment and hatred within. We cannot allow any of that. Now, because he was older years, he was an elder after all. He drew near to his child and was able to observe him; he saw that he had none of these faults but was already a person of good character, for he had taken the Dharma to heart.
So, when speaking of deceit, if we have deceit, idleness or any of these five things, we will bring down upon ourselves the Five
Transgressions or the Five Hindrances.
When it comes to these five kinds of obstacles, if we are careless and commit the acts mentioned before, the things like deceit, idleness, anger, hate, or resentment, if these things are in our minds and then manifest in our actions, they will create karma that will hinder us. Then, we will face many hindrances in the future.
Every morning, don’t we always “vow to eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions”?There are not only Three Obstructions, there are also the Five Hindrances. Where do the Five Hindrances come from? They come from deceit, idleness, anger, enmity and resentment. These five create karma we will carry with us and result in our constantly encountering hindrances.
So we must be very mindful. [We need] faith, “Faith is the source of the Way, the mother of merits.” We must believe in the teachings of the Buddha that have been passed down to the present and put our hearts into accepting them. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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