Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Realizing the Vaipulya with Faith and Vows (信願力行悟方等)
Date:April.08. 2016
“With unfailing faith and great vows, we receive a wage of the value of Nirvana. We face physical hardship and torment without anger and do not consider it suffering. With determination, we put the teachings into action without doubles; this mind is pure and skilled. From the Four Noble Truths we enter the Agama teachings then come and go through the Vaipulya teachings.”
The Buddha taught us in order to awaken our hearts and help our minds become open and expansive. We must trust that we are all intrinsically pure and have the Tathagata’s nature of wisdom. Being equal to the Tathagata, we are also one with the universe. The more expansive our minds are, the more extensive a state we can experience. We must have faith in this. If we can do this, we will be able to eliminate our afflictions, layer by layer.
After we have eliminated these afflictions, our minds open up, and our wisdom is like the ocean. At that time, our state of mind will be so tranquil, as if we had entered Nirvana. Nirvana is a state of stillness, in which all of our worldly afflictions, ignorance and dust-like delusions have been completely eliminated. It is a state of purity. Our state of mind upon entering Nirvana is where we find the value of our engaging in spiritual cultivation.
In the course of our spiritual practice, we must “face physical hardship and torment without anger.” No matter how much difficulty we face, we do not consider it suffering. We spiritual practitioners should be like this. We clearly know that this world is filled with unbearable suffering, and our lives are limited in years; however, our wisdom-life is endless. Thus, we need to make use of this life and aspire and vow to go among people [to help them].
Thus, most important in our spiritual cultivation is to be determined and clear. So, “With determination, we put the teachings into action without doubt.” Since we have chosen this direction of spiritual practice, since our minds are set on this, we must diligently advance in this direction. We must not harbor any more doubts, but keep advancing forward. Our mind must be simple and pure and very skilled. Our spiritual cultivation starts from the Four Noble Truths and enters the Agama teachings. This was what the Buddha did in His lifetime. The Four Noble Truths was what He taught first. With the Three Turnings of the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths, the Sangha came into being.
Then He traveled the world to teach and transform. He taught the Agama sutras for 12 years. The Agama teachings cover a very wide scope. He taught according to each person’s capabilities; to each person He taught a [different] sutra, so there are countless teachings. Over a period of 12 years, He patiently guided everyone.
After these 12 years passed, the Buddha felt that everyone in the Sangha clearly understood the Buddha-Dharma. Furthermore, they had already faithfully accepted and practiced the teachings. So, it was time to take them to the next level. In the Vaipulya sutras, He taught both the Great and Small Vehicles.
Thus, another eight years passed. With the Great Vehicle Dharma, those with great capabilities could accept it, form great aspirations and make great vows; they were willing to do good deeds and benefit others. Mostly it was the lay practitioners who were receptive to it and were willing to dedicate themselves, to give of themselves to help others.
After the Vaipulya period, the Buddha took the next step of teaching them to give unconditionally. With the Prajna sutras, He began to discuss emptiness. In life, everything is empty in nature. The principles before us and the people, matters and objects before us all stem from a single thought. When a single thought arises, whether it is of blessings or evils, that is the kind of karma we will create. When we can analyze the workings of our minds with great clarity, [we realize] all principles are empty in nature.
Once we clearly break down matters and objects, everything returns to the [underlying] principles. For example, as humans, before we were born, there was no such person. But because of karmic entanglements, [conditions] came together. So, the karma we created in the past brought us to our parents. This is how we came into being. When causes and conditions mature, we were born.
Once we are born into this world, the karmic conditions we created in past lives will determine our experiences in this lifetime. Will the first half of our life be pleasant and the second half filled with suffering? We do not know. Or will we start out in a state of suffering? We may be born into an impoverished family and face many obstacles, but then through our own hard work become very successful in this life. Even if we achieve success, will we retain all of our possessions forever? Not necessarily.
In this impermanent world, we go through birth, aging, illness and death. This is impermanence. Will our success in life also follow us over the course of birth, aging, illness and death? Is it that simple? Not necessarily. If we are successful when middle-aged, we may fail in our old age. This is a possibility.
Perhaps we will undergo further torments and in the end carry our karma to the next life. Even if we end our lives as wealthy people, we still cannot bring anything with us. We only bring our karma with us. When we think in depth about our lives, we find suffering and no [lasting] joy. Even a person who has been very fortunate has had ups and downs in life.
Therefore, we should know how to come and go freely in this life. By the time we come to the Vaipulya sutras, we more or less know that we must give without expectations and that, because life is impermanent, we must act with urgency. We basically understand this by now. So, we need to make good use of this life; we must seize the time to develop our wisdom-life.
The previous sutra passage states, “World-Honored One, the elder of great wealth is the Tathagata, and we are all seemingly Buddha-children. The Tathagata constantly told us that we are His children.”
The Buddha had already begun to proclaim that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. The Tathagata’s nature of wisdom is in everyone. Thus, our nature of True Suchness is our [spiritual] home of great wealth. We are our own mind-king. In terms of taking in what is outside of us, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, the way that we realize the Buddha-Dharma is by being “born of the Buddha’s speech, transformed by the Dharma.” We must take the Buddha-Dharma to heart and gradually practice it in our lives. By taking the Dharma to heart, we develop our wisdom-life. So, this is how we return to our nature of True Suchness, gradually drawing near our mind-king.
Then Subhuti continued to speak in the following sutra text. “World-Honored One, because of the Three Sufferings, in the cycle of birth and death we have suffered all kinds of fiery afflictions. Confused, deluded and ignorant, we delighted in and clung to limited teachings.”
Subhuti began to speak about their past, before they had engaged in spiritual practice. “In the past we experienced the Three Sufferings. Before we heard the Dharma, we experienced many sufferings. Life after life we experienced these three kinds of suffering.” What are the Three Suffering? They are the suffering of suffering, the suffering of decay and the suffering of action. These are known as the Three Sufferings.
World-Honored One, because of the Three Sufferings: The Three Sufferings are the suffering of suffering, the suffering of decay and the suffering of action. These are the pressures caused by either, our body or our conditions going against us.
These Three Sufferings “are the pressure caused by either our body or our conditions going against us.” The body refers to our physical body. When conditions do not go our way, so that we feel dissatisfied or find things unpleasant, that causes us to give rise to afflictions. When our bodies suffer from illness or when all kinds of external conditions are not as we like, we suffer the pressure of them going against us. All this falls under the Three Sufferings.
“Suffering of suffering” means that we were fundamentally already suffering; this suffering comes from painful matters. We have so many afflictions when things do not go our way or when illness causes us physical pain and so on. These all give rise to painful afflictions. This is the suffering of suffering.
In addition to this type of suffering, there are also the Eight Sufferings.
The first of the Three Sufferings is the suffering of suffering. It comes from painful matters, and causes us to give rise to painful afflictions. In addition, there are the Eight Sufferings. The suffering of birth, aging, illness and death, parting with those we love, not getting what we want, meeting those we hate and the raging Five Aggregates are the Eight Sufferings.
The Eight Sufferings are the four sufferings of birth, aging, illness, death as well as suffering of parting from loved ones, from not getting what we want, from meeting those we hate and from the raging Five Aggregates. These are the suffering of life.
Some people, when their love is not returned, create severe negative karma. There are many examples of this. When people do not get what they want, their minds become unbalanced and they become ill in body and mind. This is also very painful. On top of these are the raging Five Aggregates. The raging Five Aggregates are form, feeling, perception, action, consciousness. This is all because we have this body; thus after we are born, we experience the Eight Sufferings.
Only by engaging in spiritual practice are we able to see through them. Then naturally we can gradually eliminate our afflictions and ignorance. “Realizing the Five Aggregates are all empty,” we can be “delivered from all suffering.” We can do good deeds and avoid committing evils. If we do all good and refrain from all evil, every day we will feel peaceful and at east.
But if we do not engage in spiritual practice, if we do not truly put our hearts into it, afflictions will remain in our minds, and we will continue to experience suffering. This is the suffering of suffering.
The second suffering is “suffering of decay”. We face this suffering because “We are born with a mix of negative and blessed karma. Because the state of happiness changes, we give rise to distress and afflictions.”
What kind of karma have we brought with us? If in our past life we created blessings, we bring blessed karma with us. If in our past life we created negative karma, we bring negative karmic conditions with us. Then, though we have blessings, we have these negative conditions, so we will be born to experience a mix of suffering and joy.
Because we are happy, we face distress and affliction arise when this changes. This is called “transformational samsara.” Moreover, our thoughts arise, abide, change and cease. We might form an aspiration to earnestly practice and benefit others but are tempted by something in our surroundings and thus fall into a trap. In this way, our minds cannot be stable. Clearly we were doing something good, but we are tempted by other conditions. This causes the “suffering of decay.” The suffering from the constant changes of birth, aging, illness and death is still present. Perhaps we were determined to go in the right direction, but circumstances dissuaded us, so we regressed. Being unable to continue on the path of purity is also a type of affliction.
The third is the “suffering of action.” “The suffering of action” is that being “born to a state of neither suffering nor happiness, we still experience the passing and constant infinitesimal changes of all things.”
These infinitesimal changes, which are the aggregate of action, happen continuously and without our noticing. Though we are earnestly engaging in spiritual practice and there may be no adverse conditions in our bodies or our environment, we continuously undergo infinitesimal changes. Time passes very quickly; our thoughts constantly change and pass.
This constant change is time; time is continuously passing. So, we need to seize the moment and not waste a single thought or second. All of this leads to suffering, to the Three Sufferings.
“In the cycle of birth and death, we have suffered all kinds of fiery afflictions.” Because of the Three Sufferings we remain in this evil world of Five Turbidities, in this cycle of birth and death. When can we finally escape this cycle? These are “fiery afflictions torturing the mind, which prevent us from being peaceful and at ease. This is because we are confused about the noble teachings.”
We know about the noble teachings but we are unable to choose which path we want to walk. When a thought goes astray, we will idle away our time. We mat walk toward a deviant path or cling to the Small Vehicle without realizing it.
In this way, we are “deluded about our minds.” Thus “We are covered by the darkness of ignorance.” We continue to allow ignorance to cover our minds. “Devotion to the Great Dharma is difficult; this is like being forcibly pursued, seized and held, being confused, distressed and pressured.”
To truly form Great Vehicle aspirations is very difficult. Should we focus on benefiting ourselves? Or should we go among people? I f we go among people won’t we be contaminated by their afflictions? This was how Subhuti expressed their thoughts.
“This is like being forcibly pursued, seized and held, being confused, distressed and pressured.” Cultivating Great Vehicle practices felt like the Buddha was forcing them to go among people. “We only want to benefit ourselves, yet He tells us to practice the Great Vehicle Dharma.” Practice the Great Dharma seemed difficult, and they were unwilling to do so. This is also [a kind of] fiery affliction.
With these kinds of fiery afflictions, we “return to transmigrate in the Three Realms.” Unwilling to practice the Bodhisattva-path, we simply allow time to continuously pass. If we do not earnestly make the most of time, when impermanence strikes, we “return to transmigrate in the Three Realms;” we continue in the cycle of birth and death. We are pressed by afflictions of the Three Sufferings and the Eight Sufferings. These are all fiery afflictions.
If we do not earnestly walk the Bodhisattva-path, even if we are working toward our own awakening we will still regress and face extreme suffering in the Three Realms. Therefore, “Confused, deluded and ignorant, we delighted in and clung to limited teachings.”
In the past, these disciples let time pass idly, “delighting in and clinging to limited teachings.” “Confusedly clinging to limited teachings, they were unwilling to practice great teachings.” This is how they used to be.
Thus, “Confusedly clinging to limited teachings, they were unwilling to practice great teachings.” So, “Foolishness is called confusion; indecisiveness is called delusion.” “Not accepting exhortation or admonishment is called ignorance.” Everyone should be clear on this. They delighted in clinging to the Small Vehicle Dharma. “Since they only had limited resolve, they could not accept the great transformation.”
Seeking only to awaken themselves, they clung to the Small Vehicle Dharma and could not accept the Great Vehicle Dharma. This is what we recounted previously. The story of the reunion of father and son in fact contains so many principles. The father called for the son to return but he refused.
This shows they were “lacking in capabilities” and “delighted in and clung to limited teachings.” The son being unwilling to return shows that they “delighted in and clung to limited teachings [so] they only accepted limited transformation.” The father temporarily left him [to his desires]. He temporarily let him go, so he could go back to a poor neighborhood. Then he found ways to bring him back.
This also aligns with the previous description of how the father and son saw one another and how he called the son to no avail. Since they lacked great capabilities, they delighted in and clung to limited teachings and could accept only limited transformation. So, He left them temporarily to their desires.
We have experienced many sufferings, and suffering brings fiery afflictions. Facing suffering and fiery afflictions, we are in a state of confusion. Confused, we lack understanding. Lack of understanding is ignorance. We keep going through life in this manner. So, we must earnestly be mindful and remember that “With unfailing faith and great vows, we receive a wage of the value of Nirvana.” We must truly be mindful so we are able to broaden our minds and become on with the Dharma. Only in this way can we be liberated from the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, in this life, we must be mindful; only then can we forge our own future. So, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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