Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Dharma is Given Equally to All (說法平等一心無差)
Date: September.21. 2016
“The Buddha teaches equally to all yet can nourish the vegetation, trees and medicinal plants in their different ways. The Tathagata’s merits, virtues and wisdom are vast and boundless like the great ocean. This is an analogy for the many ways in which He expounds the teachings; these ways of teaching are inexhaustible.”
The Buddha teaches the Dharma equally to all. Everyone must listen and take it in. The Buddha, starting from His very first thought upon initially attaining enlightenment, hoped to take the state He had attained and the principles He had realized and help everyone understand them He wanted us to understand we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature and that it is through causes and conditions that we reproduce afflictions and thus drift through the Six Realms. In this way, we keep transmigrating endlessly.
There is one method that can help us return to our nature of True Suchness. He hoped we could all comprehend it and take it to heart. Actually, to mindfully contemplate something is not that easy, which is way He had to observe sentient beings’ capabilities and karmic conditions. Based on the scope of what they could accept, the Buddha expressed His wisdom, and with [methods] that contained the impartial Great Vehicle Dharma, He established ways of teaching everyone.
So, in the Chapter on Medicinal Plants, the Buddha uses rain as an analogy. Rain is able to nourish everything on the earth. Whether they are big trees or small plants, they all take in the same rain. The only difference is in how much each absorbs; the amount depends on the individual, depends on the type of vegetation.
By the same principle, some people have sharp capabilities. They understand immediately upon hearing. Once they hear, they know right away that they should serve others and turn their own mindset around. Thus, they can benefit countless sentient beings. If someone has limited capabilities, the Dharma he accepts will be limited. As the Buddha transformed sentient beings, rich and poor, noble and lowly, all were treated with the same impartial mind because everyone is equal; everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. The Buddha-nature is equal in all. Even though we are equal in our Buddha-nature, there are many different types of sentient beings and people.
Take [our volunteers] in Mozambique for example. There is a local volunteer there named Paula. This woman, Paula, has been poor all her life. Her husband, [Omar], is of Indian descent and used to be very rich, with wealth in the millions. He lived in a big mansion. This lasted until his old age. The children grew up and left home. Then, [his wife] wanted to separate from him. The wife and children divided the property and they all left. This businessman, Omar, lived in this luxurious house alone. One day, a painter came to paint the house and after understanding the layout of house, gathered a group of bandits to rob him. They even took over the house, dividing it among themselves.
Omar wandered outside; he did not dare go back, and he had no strength to resist them. So, he went to live in housing provided by an Islamic [congregation]; it was a house in the slums. Then with certain causes and conditions, he married Paula. The people of Mozambique, upon seeing Paula and Omar’s marriage, perhaps due to their age difference and especially because of their different ethnicities, treated them with contempt and rejected them. So, Paula also did not dare to go out and constantly remained in the slums.
On time, one of our Tzu Chi volunteers, Denise, was leading a group of Tzu Chi volunteers and brought them to this area. They likewise used a computer to first start by playing one of my video broadcasts talking about the “Three No’s,” about loving everyone equally. Paula was there listening. Then a volunteer explained more to her and told her [about Tzu Chi]; using love, she sincerely invited her to take part. In this way, she opened Paula’s heart. So, Paula joined the Tzu Chi volunteers and began approaching people to raise funds, began vesting the needy and helping others. This made her feel very happy. This is how she started. Her life totally changed and she proactively devoted herself to this volunteer group. Simply transforming her thoughts allowed her to help others. This is receiving the nurturing of the Dharma.
[Only] people can propagate the Dharma. So, the Tzu Chi volunteers in Mozambique formed a group to spread Tzu Chi’s love. They are able to use their native language, so others understand what they say. Thus, the Dharma is impartial. No matter the ethnicity or the language, it is all the same Dharma. No matter what language you speak, the Dharma is all the same. It has been over 2000 years ago since the Buddha first taught this Dharma, and it has continued on until today. No matter which language is used, it is all transmitted from this same Dharma.
So, the Buddha-Dharma can nourish all equally, just like the rain nourishing the earth, whether vegetation and trees in the high mountains or the medicinal plants on the flatlands. Though all are different, everyone can accept great or limited teachings depending on their great or limited capabilities. This is to say, “The Tathagata’s merits, virtues and wisdom are vast and boundless like the great ocean.” They are just like a great ocean. “This is an analogy for the many ways in which. He expounds the teachings; these ways of teaching are inexhaustible.”
His giving so many teachings is just like an ocean; all these drops of water are given [to nourish] yet the ocean always has so much water in it.
So, we must listen very mindfully. The previous sutra passage says,
“The Buddha teaches equally to all like the rain of one flavor. According to sentient beings’ capacities, what they receive is different. This is like those plants and trees, which each receive a different amount.”
This passage is reminding us again of how the Buddha taught impartially. Based on sentient beings’ varying capabilities and what they experienced, He would explain in different ways for each. Nonetheless, regardless of how it is explained, the principles are the same; these principles are impartial.
The next passage of the sutra says, “The Buddha uses this analogy to skillful open and reveal; I use all kinds of expressions to expound the One Dharma. Within the Buddha’s wisdom, these are like drops in the ocean. I let fall the Dharma-rain, filling the world.”
This passage is repeated verse, which carries on the earlier long-form prose. The principles in the Chapter on Medicinal Plants are very important, so He hoped we will are review it over and over and take this Dharma very clearly into our hearts. So, things are repeated again in verse. This is revealing “merits, virtues and wisdom,” explaining how the Buddha’s merits and wisdom “are vast and boundless like a great ocean.”
This verse shows that His merits, virtues and wisdom are vast and boundless like a great ocean. In this analogy, all His ways of teaching are like drops of rain entering the ocean. This is exactly what the previous text means: “You would still never finish describing them.”
In what the Buddha said, “the Buddha’ refers to an Enlightened One.” He is not engaging in self-praise, He is describing the merits and wisdom of an Enlightened One, how they are vast and boundless like a great ocean. This is truly great wisdom.
Each of us has only a single head, but as for the neurons in our brain, do you know how many brain cells there are? There are countless numbers of cells. The Buddha was the same, just like all of us. But with His wisdom, the way the Buddha uses His brain cells, for countless kalpas He has been able to uphold a single aspiration. This is [a result of] ceaseless training.
He has trained His brain cells so that they can remember everything He has done. He has taken it into His mind and His nature, not just into His mind, but also into His nature. This nature is the Buddha-nature. In this way, He accumulated [merits and wisdom] throughout countless lifetimes, exercising His transformation-body in the world.
So, “His merits, virtues and wisdom are vast and boundless like a great ocean. In this analogy [for] all His ways of teachings,” He uses this method to make an analogy that [these ways] “are like drops of rain entering the ocean.” Just like the previous [sutra] passage says, “You would still never finish describing them.”
The Buddha possesses so much wisdom that of all the things contained within the universe, of all observable phenomena and all general principles, there are none that are unknown to the Buddha. Thus, with all the sentient beings on earth, whether human or animal or [even] plants, the different teachings He gives are so numerous that one could truly “never finish describing them.”
His wisdom is as vast as the ocean. It is so wide and boundless. Is it only the ocean that is this vast? Not at all. In the Dharma-realms of the universe, in the vast void of the universe, there are so many [things].
Thus, “The Buddha uses this analogy to skillfully open and reveal. Understanding the True Dharma of the One Vehicle is called true wisdom. Understanding the provisional and transformational teachings of the Three Vehicles” is called provisional wisdom.
The True Dharma of the One Vehicle is a universal principle. “[This] is called true wisdom. This is true wisdom. It is not just knowledge; it is not saying, “I know, I know.” It is not just about knowing. This wisdom has already penetrated down to our nature of True Suchness; it has returned to our nature of True Suchness. The Dharma of the One Vehicle comes from our nature of True Suchness. All that is realized and taught from it is true wisdom.
For more than 40 years, the Buddha, whether teaching the Three or the Five Vehicles, constantly responded to the capabilities of sentient beings. He understood the capabilities of sentient beings, so this was how the Buddha gave teachings, universally teaching and transforming. This is all called skillful means. “The Buddha uses plants and trees as analogies for sentient beings.”
The Buddha uses plants and trees as analogies for sentient beings to skillfully teach the confused. The Buddha taught the Chapter on Medicinal Plants as skillful means to open and reveal that His intent was singular, with no differences, yet He established different methods of practice.
Whether with great or limited capabilities, there are many different sentient beings. Thus they are likened to all the different kinds of plants and trees. When we step outside and look at the carious flowers and plants, we cannot even recognize them all. This is why [the Buddha] used plants and trees as an analogy for all sentient beings. This is an analogy for their numbers and variety. The Buddha taught the Dharma according to their different capabilities. Thus, He would “skillfully teach the confused.” Sentient beings are lost and lack clarity; this is the ignorance of sentient beings. Therefore, the Buddha must come to guide lost sentient beings from confusion to awakening. This is the Buddha’s one great cause. There are many sentient beings in the world, and sentient beings’ capabilities are very uneven. There are truly vast differences between them.
However, the Buddha’s loving kindness is impartial. Therefore, “The Buddha taught the Chapter on Medicinal Plants to open and reveal that His intent was singular, with no differences”. The way the Buddha treated all sentient beings, who are lost in so many types of afflictions, and His intent as He reveals the Dharma to them, has no differences, it is always equal. The Buddha-mind is impartial; He views all sentient beings as His only child. But He “established different methods of practice. Since sentient beings’ capabilities are different, He used different teaching methods.
“He uses many kinds of verbal expressions to teach in various ways so that those who hear can together understand the One Dharma.” Accommodating their capabilities, He helped the listeners to accept and understand the One Dharma. Thus it says, “All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas follow the course of the Dharma of True Suchness. They practice it to attain perfect enlightenment.”
All Buddhas of the past, present and future, the countless numbers of enlightened past Buddhas, as well as the Bodhisattvas who have transcended the eighth ground, and even wondrously awakened Bodhisattvas who have completed the tenth ground, are all the same; they all stay on the path and follow this course. This is the path to enlightenment, the Dharma of True Suchness. This is what all awakened beings must follow; no matter who is walking the Bodhisattva-path, everyone must walk this same path to arrive at the state of Buddhahood “They practice it to attain perfect enlightenment.”
They use all kinds of expressions, including those taught previously in the Chapter on Skillful Means and the Chapter on Parables. “They are all using different things to teach that His intent was singular with no differences.” These teachings arise from the differences among sentient beings.
Thus, the Chapter on Medicinal Plants connects with what was taught previously, whether the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, the Chapter on Parables or the Chapter on Skillful Means; these teachings are all connected. This includes the Chapter on Parables, where there are many birds and beasts and such; all these different things are used as different analogies. “[This was] to teach that His intent was singular with no differences.”
He taught this way, but “His intent was singular”; the Buddha taught impartially. Whether in the Chapter on Skillful Means, the Chapter on Parables or the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, He always expressed a single intent. However, there are conditions, these teachings arise from the differences among sentient beings. Since no two sentient beings are the same, every person’s causes and conditions are different. Even their capabilities and natures are different.
“Within the Buddha’s wisdom, these are like drops in the ocean” The Buddha’s essence, as the Great Awakened One, is replete with wisdom. “The Dharma He teaches now is like a drop in the ocean.” When a drop of water enters the vast ocean, it will never dry out. “The wisdom of the Buddha-mind is like the great ocean.” The Buddha’s mind and the Buddha’s wisdom are just like the great ocean. Just as a drop of water in the ocean never dries up, neither does the Buddha’s wisdom.
“I let fall the Dharma-rain, filling the world.” The Buddha says, “I let fall the Dharma-rain.” This is an analogy for how once dense clouds cover all, the rain falls and everything in the world receives nourishment.
“I let fall the Dharma-rain, filling the world.” “The Buddha let fall the Dharma-rain, filling all the world in the Three Realms.” We all know the Three Realms are the desire, form and formless realms. “The world” refers to the worlds of sentient beings in the Ten Dharma-realms. The Dharma-rain can reach everything, all the minds of sentient beings.
Whether filled with desire, forms or formless thoughts, these afflictions and ignorance, they can all receive the Dharma-rain. As for “the World of Perfect Enlightenment,” this world of physical existence, it contains all tangible things. All of this is encompassed in the Dharma of one mind and one flavor.
Everything we can see contains within it a portion of the principles He [realized]. So, no matter what it is, His Dharma remains the same. “This is what we call the mind encompassing the universe and embracing the boundless worlds within it.”
The world of perfect enlightenment and the world of physical existence are all encompassed and supported by the Dharma of one mind and one flavor. Thus it says “filling all worlds.” This is what we call the mind encompassing the universe and embracing the boundless worlds within it.
The Buddha hopes we will exercise the love of parents for their children and extend it to see all beings as our children. The heart of a parent is also the heart of the Buddha. Everyone must have this boundless love. It is like the rain falling down after the dense clouds cover everything.
Wherever the rain is needed, [the rain] will provide moisture there. This is the Buddha’s impartial teaching.
The Buddha taught impartially so all sentient beings on earth were nourished. If our hearts become dried up, if our hearts are dry, it is due to lack of Dharma. So, we must mindfully nourish the ground of our mind. Only then can the seeds of the Dharma begin to sprout from the ground of our mind. Little trees can grow into big trees, and small plants into great plants.
We can respond to sentient beings’ capabilities and the illnesses in their minds by giving of ourselves and spreading the Dharma. This requires that we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
首頁 
