Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Buddha’s Great Heroism and Strength (大雄大力長劫精修)
Date: October.28. 2016
“The Buddha has mercy for all and vows of great compassion. His great heroism, great strength and vast loving-kindness are infinite. The Tathagata deeply understands how they diligently practiced over many kalpas. They cultivated contemplation and the Dharma, hoping the Buddha would give them a prediction.”
Over many kalpas, the Buddha constantly exercised a heart of mercy. The Buddha had vows of great compassion, so before He attained Buddhahood, for a period of countless kalpas, He repeatedly returned to this world to benefit sentient beings and go among the people to teach them. Everything that He gave and taught was in the hope that everyone could accept the Buddha-Dharma. He did not do this for just one life, but lifetime after lifetime, for countless kalpas. This is Sakyamuni Buddha’s mercy for all and vows of great compassion.
Life is full of suffering. Look at the Buddha’s birthplace, Nepal. There are so many suffering sentient beings there. On April 25, 2015, around noon, the earth suddenly shook. From that time onward, every day, the land that we see there is all broken pieces of rubble. This is true everywhere in that country. Life there, for those people, was [changed forever] at that time. They are living in tent areas. There are so many people like this! A burst of wind blows the tents down. Heavy rains flood the tent areas, filling them with mud.
Tzu Chi volunteers, these Living Bodhisattvas, on the day after the disaster, quickly prepared to go in [and help]. This is because of their feeling of mercy. They could not bear for people in a distant place, the Buddha’s birthplace, Nepal, to suffer a great disaster. We went there because we have mercy and vows of great compassion. If we only had great compassion but no power of vows, we would have no way of going there.
But Tzu Chi volunteers, Bodhisattva-volunteers, all had the resolve to go there, again and again. There were doctors and [other] volunteers. Every day, they face suffering sentient beings. Every day, they see the environment in rubble. Every day they live with frequent aftershocks. Every day in that place is terrifying and gut-wrenching. Why were they willing to go there for a month? Vows of great compassion. They not only have mercy for the local people, they also have vows of great compassion. Isn’t this the Buddha-mind?
Otherwise, could we really say we are conducting relief work? This is a time of great suffering and great crisis. Bodhisattvas learn the spirit of the Buddha and thus form great vows. “I vow to deliver countless sentient beings.” Wherever there are suffering sentient beings, we should be willing to go there. “We feel others’ pain and suffering as our own.” Having vows of great compassion is known as spiritual practice.
Not only must we dedicate ourselves through our actions, we must also have an inner willingness. This “willingness” means we go there voluntarily, without thinking it is difficult or frightening. This requires great heroism and great strength. This is not only saying, “I have compassion.” [Volunteers] must also have that willingness. “I am willing to dedicate myself. I am not afraid. I will heighten my vigilance and maintain a reverent heart as I go among people.” Such great power requires “vast loving-kindness [that is] infinite.” We must have a vast heart to be able to embrace everyone.
For instance, in each shift of volunteers, every person has his own habitual tendencies. Just among those who say they want to go, they must have great heroism, great strength, great compassion and great vows. They have no problems forming aspirations, but eliminating habitual tendencies is not so easy. The people in this group, while in that environment, can mutually accommodate each other. Even with their habitual tendencies, they can respect each other. They mutually respect and accommodate each other. If they did not have open minds and pure thoughts, this would not be possible.
So, their “great heroism, great strength and vast loving-kindness are infinite.” This is spiritual practice.
If you ask me how to engage in spiritual practice, it is to practice like this. The Buddha came to this world over and over; what was He doing? He was doing work just like this. When He went among people, what did He do? Whatever people needed, He would promptly go among people [to help them]. This has been the Buddha’s vow for so long.
“The Tathagata deeply understands how they diligently practiced over many kalpas.” In this world, the Tathagata was constantly coming and going and helping sentient beings to reach fruition. When His affinities with sentient beings matured, He would be born in the world. Having been born in the world, He shared these affinities with them.
Now, Nepal has suffered such a great disaster, and a group of Bodhisattvas has entered that country. This is because of past affinities. They had the blessings to learn the Buddha-Dharma. Now they are retiring the Buddha’s teachings to the Buddha’s birthplace. How long ago were these affinities created? The Buddha must have deeply understood this. They diligently practiced over many kalpas.
We should also thoroughly understand this. We must understand that the Buddha’s teachings are for us to extend love to everything in this world. We already understand that this world is full of suffering and impermanence; the earth is fragile, and transforming sentient beings is the process of how Bodhisattvas practice to attain Buddhahood. So, although we are now still ordinary people, we already deeply understand all the Buddha’s teachings. We use the Buddha’s teachings to go to His birthplace and provide relief to suffering sentient beings.
In a word, this is amazing. This is deep in our nature of True Suchness. Everyone intrinsically has this enlightenment. Everyone has great loving-kindness and compassion. So, we must earnestly “cultivate contemplation and the Dharma.” We must earnestly cultivate contemplation.
Thus, in this sutra passage, what it is actually trying to explain is that the Buddha’s three great disciples, Maudgalyayana, Katyayana and Subhuti were mindfully waiting. It was not only the three of them; there were many others who looked forward to the Buddha calling their names and bestowing predictions of Buddhahood on them.
This is stated in the sutra. Actually, we today are also hoping for this. We hope that we can earnestly practice and that we can quickly manifest great loving-kindness, great compassion, great heroism and great strength so we can sincerely go among people to help them. We also hope that we can have this kind of mindset. This is the previous sutra passage, which we have already discussed for several days.
“Then together with the same voice, they spoke this verse. The heroic and courageous ‘World-Honored One’.” We talked about this before. “The Dharma-king of all Sakyas, out of His pity and compassion for all of us, bestowed on us the voice of the Buddha.”
This describes how they praised, the Buddha’s wisdom. “The Dharma-king of all Sakyas” refers to the Dharma. The Buddha is at ease with the Dharma. The Dharma is already in His heart. Thus, He can be called the Dharma-king. The Buddha completely understands the principles of all things in the universe. Moreover, He continuously analyzed in detail, the principles in all of these things to explain them to us unenlightened beings. Although we have delusions and ignorance, we can understand this clear and intricate Dharma. This is all due to the Buddha’s mindfulness. Thus He can be called the Dharma-king.
There is no principle in the world that the Buddha does not completely understand. There is nothing that the Buddha is unclear about. So, He is called the Dharma-king, the king of the Dharma. This is also mentioned in the Chapter on Parables. “I am the Dharma-king, as I am free and at ease with the Dharma”. Also, “The Tathagata is the king of all Dharma.” These words all come from the sutra; they appear in the text. So, we must realize and further understand that the Buddha wholeheartedly helped sentient beings “out of His pity and compassion for all of us.”
“Pity” is compassion. With such great compassion, He shows pity for suffering sentient beings like us. Although we are in the human realm, there is still a lot of suffering. The most severe suffering is ignorance. The rich also suffer from this. Those with children also suffer from this. Those with status also suffer from this.
All in all, to “have” is to suffer; those who “have” worry about loss. They are worried about losing their recognition, their position or their property. They are worried about personal gain and loss.
Those who “do not have” worry about gain. Those who “have” worry about loss. These are sources of suffering for sentient beings. “Other people can grow their business and run it very well. Why don’t I have that? I’m going to fight to get it”. People who feel they do not have enough are worried about gain. They really wish to gain, so they are willing to fight for it. This struggle and greed is worrying about gain.
What about those who already “have?” They still worry about loss. “Having” is an affliction. “Not having” is also an affliction. These are all the suffering of the world! There is a lot of suffering, so it forms an inescapable net. It is a web of ignorance that has already caused our hearts to suffer greatly over gain and loss. It has caused a lot of greed, anger, delusion, ignorance and so on. This is an inescapable net. This web has already captured many people’s minds in society. This is why the Buddha took pity on us.
So, He used the Dharma to let us know not to get ourselves trapped in an inescapable web. We must hurriedly free ourselves of it. So, they were showing gratitude to the Buddha and praising His great compassion.
“‘Out of His pity and compassion for all of us’ is parsing the Buddha’s great compassion.” We are praising the Buddha’s great compassion, His pity and compassion for all of us. With the Buddha’s compassion and awakened mind, He has pity for all sentient beings.
With this mindset, “He extensively applied skillful means to benefit all through captivating them.” This is “pity and compassion for all of us.” This was because of His great loving-kindness and the great awakening of a great awakened being. That is the Buddha.
So, “He extensively applied skillful means.” Sentient beings were caught in a web of ignorance, so the Buddha “extensively applied skillful means.” He went among people “to benefit all through captivating them.” How could He use the Dharma to eliminate sentient beings’ ignorance? When ignorance is eliminated, the mind will be joyful and at peace. We will be willing to help others. This is the Buddha’s compassionate vow. “[He] bestowed on us the voice of the Buddha.”
[He] bestowed on us the voice of the Buddha: This is praising the Buddha’s great wisdom. We pray that He will honor us by bestowing the subtle and wondrous voice of the Buddha. Our minds are captivated, and we listen with utmost sincerity. Through the Buddha’s spoken teachings, we are captivated with compassion and wisdom. Those who listen give rise to Dharma-joy due to His infinite merits and virtues.
In this way, the Buddha’s voice can permeate this world. This requires us all to be mindful. After the Buddha attained the Dharma, after He became enlightened, He began to teach the Dharma, Teaching the Dharma meant that with the awakening of His mind, He would use His speech to describe the principles He had realized. Through the sounds leaving His mouth, He shared His realizations and understanding, using His voice [to teach] so we could understand and experience the Buddha-Dharma. This is how we praise the Buddha’s great wisdom.
“We pray that He will honor us by bestowing the voice of the Buddha.” This is what we all await and also what His disciples looked forward to. We hope the Buddha can share even more Dharma. From His ocean of enlightened wisdom, we hope He can share more, so everyone can understand more. This is everyone’s wish. “We pray that He will honor us.”
We hope the Buddha can teach more Dharma to us. Through His voice, He will bestow the subtle and wondrous Dharma. So, they were Hearers. What the Hearers wanted was, through the Buddha’s voice, to experience the teachings taught by the Buddha. In the Buddha’s teachings, the principles of heaven and earth, people, matters and objects, were all taught through the words coming from His mouth.
As we come into and leave our lives, it is also from the Buddha’s voice teaching the law of karma that we can untie the knots of torment tying people together. Why do I have such a bad relationship with him? Why do we mutually torment each other? If we understand the Buddha-Dharma, we will know it is past causes and conditions that have resulted in this life’s retributions. Since [we know] it is due to past cause and conditions that we have this life’s retributions, [we will think], “I understand now; I must repay him! Since our past lives’ were like this, in this life, I must have an open mind and accept it. I must not continue to oppose him or create negative causes conditions. I now understand.”
This is the subtle and wondrous Dharma that came from the Buddha voice. “Our minds are captivated, and we listen with utmost sincerity, because we seek more of the Buddha’s teachings. Our minds have already received His voice and been captivated by His subtle and wondrous Dharma. This power captivates us, so we will never be tired of hearing it. Whatever the Buddha taught, everyone listens to it joyfully.
“Through the Buddha’s spoken teachings, we are captivated with compassion and wisdom.” The Buddha had many virtues and wisdom. He taught so much and had to do it very mindfully. As for the Buddha’ spoken teachings, after we listen to the Buddha’s spoken teachings, we are captivated with compassion and wisdom. He hoped that after everyone has listened, they will have Dharma-joy, that they will joyfully listen to the Dharma. After listening, they can truly experience the merits and virtues the Buddha cultivated over many kalpas. This was why He was able to teach the Dharma using such subtle, wondrous and perfect teachings. As time passes, they do not change, the teachings stand the test of time.
The Dharma He taught is impossible to explain exhaustively. It is the true principles of all things in the world, which can eliminate ignorance in people’s minds. So, after we listen, we must not only be joyful, but must immediately eliminate our ignorance. Those who listen must do this.
Actually, I am also always doing this. Every day, I am reflecting in myself. Today, have I eliminated my ignorance? If I can eliminate even one bit of ignorance, my wisdom-life can develop a bit more. Therefore, every day, I reflect on myself. We should all encourage each other to do this. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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