Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Resolving to Seek the Fruit of Buddhahood (長劫循道 志求佛果)
Date: October.31. 2016
“We follow the Path for countless kalpas and resolve to seek the fruit of Buddhahood. By long planting the cause of virtue, the roots go deep and the branches grow strong. With deep aspirations to seek enlightenment, we are eager and careful in our will to practice. We form aspirations of myriad virtues, and our vows are deep and firm.”
I hope everyone can better understand that spiritual practice is not a matter of a single lifetime, but something accumulated over countless kalpas. It takes a very long time, lifetime after lifetime, of following this path, safely, without deviation, constantly moving forward. This is the true path of spiritual practice.
The reason the Buddha attained Buddhahood was because over accumulated kalpas, since Beginningless Time, He had wholeheartedly resolved to “seek the Buddha’s Way and transform sentient beings”. He continued to return to the world for one great cause, to use the Buddha’s Way which He had sought to deliver and transform sentient beings. This was all for the sake of those suffering. This was the Buddha’s, Sakyamuni Buddha’s, course of spiritual practice which stretched over many lifetimes. This is why it talks about countless kalpas.
It took countless kalpas, an undefinably long amount of time, and incalculable amount of time, of Him walking along this path, wholehearted in His single resolve to seek the fruit of Buddhahood.
The fruit of Buddhahood is our goal. This is great enlightenment, great awakening, being one with all things in the universe. This is the great awakening of the Buddha. The Buddha was able to achieve this. He also guaranteed that we are all intrinsically equal to the Buddha and have an intrinsic nature of great awakening. It is just that this greatly awakened nature of True Suchness has become covered.
What has it become covered with? Afflictions and ignorance. Afflictions, ignorance and discursive thoughts constantly keep us from clearly seeing the actual nature of the principles.
In our relationships, we discriminate among people. I dislike this person, so I come to resent and hate them. I love this person, so I want to pursue them. This is the mindset of an unenlightened being. This shows we are covered with afflictions and will, for the sake of fame and wealth, causes many disasters and calamities, both manmade calamities and natural disasters.
The Buddha, the Great Enlightened One, has understood the true principles of all things in the universe. So, He has no conflicts with people nor conflicts over matters. His mind was open and spacious. His open and spacious mind was an encompassing as the universe. This is the result of countless kalpas of following these principles, continually seeking enlightenment. He constantly returned to the world and experienced the ignorance of the world, comprehended the karma created by sentient beings.
All that He had realized, all the Dharma that He sought and attained, was then shared with sentient beings. This took a very long time. So, this is “long planting the cause of virtue.” For a long time, He was just like a gardener. The ground of the mind needs a gardener to tend it.
As we mentioned previously in the Chapter on Medicinal Plants, all of the earth’s plants are things that we can utilize.
But as unenlightened beings, we do not understand that every plant and tree can be used as a medicine and that even the rocks and the soil bring benefits to our world.Yet we do not know how to use them and furthermore destroy them.
Sentient beings only think to benefit themselves, so when we want something, when we wish to attain something, we take the thing that we need and thus destroy many other things.So many of the earth’s planets and trees are arbitrarily destroyed by sentient beings.
Actually, all of them benefit humanity.It is just that a gardener is needed who recognized the uses of these things, who knows how to categorize them and how to cultivate them so as to turn this land into one that follows the order of things and can benefit humankind.
It is the same for the ground of our mind, which has become filled with weeds.Due to our lack of understanding, our minds have become wastelands overgrown with weeds.
We have so many discursive thoughts.In fact, if we were to carefully clean up our minds, all of our thoughts would be on benefiting others.
Take Nepal in [2015] as an example.Many shifts of Tzu Chi volunteers have gone there.
One month has already passed.They do not fear hardship, but are willing to give and suffer along with suffering sentient beings.
Some have put aside their family responsibilities and are still there at this moment.Some have put aside their businesses, so they likewise are still there now, suffering with sentient beings’ suffering.
Every day there, the aftershocks continue.
Every day there, the weather exchanges continually.Every day there, they face the distressing suffering of sentient beings.
Every day, all they see there is broken bricks and rubble.
This is what they are doing daily for the sake of those suffering people there, trying to relieve their bodies from illness, trying to mobilize them, to help them find peace of mind and open the doors to their hearts.
These are Living Bodhisattvas, who practice the Bodhisattva-path and “resolved to seek the fruit of Buddhahood”.They seek nothing else.This is our fundamental responsibility.
To attain Buddhahood, to attain awakening, we must go among people and gain experience while giving of ourselves.It takes a very long time to cultivate a state of mind like this.
The seeds in the ground of our minds are expressed outwardly in or demeanor. Our actions can move people and make them wish to draw nearer to us.Then, in this way we can lead them.This is the cause of virtue.
“The roots go deep and the branches grow strong.”
Our [root of] faith must go deep.In the past I have continually said that we must be firm in our spiritual aspirations.Otherwise, by being in such an environment, by being constantly in a disaster area, post-traumatic stress disorder can afflict us too.
If we hear people voice many different opinions, our minds can become disturbed as well.If our resolve to practice is not firm, such that “the roots go deep and the branches grow strong” without this, the cause of virtue will not go deep.
So, the cause of virtue must go deep for our spiritual aspirations to be firm.We need “deep aspirations to seek enlightenment”.
Where do we go to seek enlightenment?Those people there now have come to understand so much.Those carrying out the mission there all have seen so much.Here, we know only what they report back to us.
They can only generally describe their experiences.Still, we are surprised by what they tell us.Those who care may gain a deeper understanding.Those who do not care just listen for a while and then forget it.
So, we need deep aspirations to seek enlightenment.
Why did this disaster happen?We must trace back the roots, from the Buddah’s era right up to the present.Through video conferencing I told them, “You all can relax a little now. One month has passed. Now you can relax a little. Go look at the historical sites. Why did these buildings last for several hundred or several thousand years? What construction methods did ancient people use such that they have not collapsed until now?
Their collapse shows impermanence, the laws of nature. You have also seen how over 700,000 houses were destroyed in an instantly by the earthquake. How were these constructed?You should go and investigate”. So, although they could relax, I wanted them to go and investigate these things. Then in the upcoming transition period, we will know what materials to us to quickly build safe places for those suffering people to live, know what materials to use to accomplish this, to quickly them out of the tent areas, so they will be safe for a period of time while they gradually begin reconstruction. This is one reason I wanted them to go, to investigate different kinds of materials. Then we could later use them for construction of schools that will last, so that children will soon have a place to study.
More than 24000 [classrooms were damaged]. How many will we be able to help them with? This is how we can deepen our aspirations, by going a little deeper, by more meticulously and mindfully observing, going to see these things. There are the teachings we must use now.
So, “We are eager and careful in our will to practice”. This is the path we must walk upon. We should be sincere in our will to practice and be meticulous and think deeply. We make vows that are deep and great; this is how we seek.
In fact, all of this can lead to realization. This is a “deep aspiration to seek enlightenment, being eager and careful in our will to practice. We form aspirations of myriad virtues”.
We must form this aspiration, to give for the sake of sentient beings. The many ways in which we give are our virtues. “Those who attain are virtuous”.
Our giving is unconditional, but we seek to attain peace and happiness for sentient beings. We do not seek peace and happiness for ourselves. We just want sentient beings to attain liberation; we do not seek peace and happiness for ourselves.
This unconditional giving is “forming aspirations of myriad virtues”. We care for all sentient beings. We hope to liberate them form their suffering. This is the first aspiration we must establish.
So, we “form aspirations of myriad virtues, and our vows are deep and firm”. I hope this is not only short term. We should think how, over the long time, we can give back to the birthplace of the Buddha, how we can return the Dharma to the birthplace of the Buddha, to inspire their hearts. This will take a very long time.
So, the passage before this says, “Then together with the same voice, they spoke this verse”. “The heroic and courageous World-Honored One”.
Then together with the same voice, they spoke this verse. “The heroic and courageous World-Honored One, the Dharma-king of all Sakyas, out of His pity and compassion for all of us, bestowed on us the voice of the Buddha”.
As we just said, the Bodhisattva-path is one of compassion and pity for sentient beings. We must exercise our strength, and our strength should be heroic and courageous, like that of the World-Honored One. The World-Honored One is the Great Enlightened One. The Great Enlightened One is great in compassion; His strength is heroic and courageous. He has the courage to do the things He must do first. No matter how much sentient beings suffer, He has no fear of suffering, but lifetime after lifetime enters this world of endurance.
His vows are not only for the human realm. He makes vows to deliver sentient beings from suffering in the hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, let alone those suffering in the human realm. Thus, He is “the heroic and courageous World-Honored One, the Dharma-king of all Sakyas”.
“All Sakyas” refers to the Sakya clan. Prince Siddhartha was born of the Sakya clan. Through spiritual practice He attained Buddhahood, becoming the Dharma-king. “Out of His pity and compassion for all of us” means although He was born of the Sakya clan, the “we” referred to here in the sutras is not only referring to the Sakyas, but to the Ksatriyas and others as well. There were noble, merchant and servant castes. The Buddha taught all of these four castes. This is why it says, “Out of His pity and compassion for all of us”.
He did not reserve this just for the Sakya clan. The Buddha wanted to save them; regardless of people’s caste, the Buddha wanted to save all of them. Hence, “His pity and compassion for all of us”. This is in the sutra. Now we are promoting this widely. We do not reserve this just for people in India; we have this for all people without exception. We should love them all. This was the Buddha’s [goal]. Not only did He try to destroy the discrimination between the castes, their rejection of each other, He wanted everyone to exercise great love. This is “His pity and compassion for all of us”.
For us, too, by accepting the Buddha-Dharma, we will be able to open our minds so we make no distinctions between nationalities nor between ethnicities. Wherever there is disaster that is where we will go. We have these teachings because of the Buddha’s compassion and pity.
These teachings came from the mouth of the Buddha, were passed on and complied. And now, after more than 2000 years, we can all share these teachings of the Buddha. The principles of all things in the universe can, one at a time, be understood by us.
The relationships between people one by one become clear to us, not to mention birth, aging illness and death. We will see through all human suffering; then we naturally will begin to lose our fear of cyclic existence. These are the teachings of the Buddha.
Ir continues by saying, “If You know the depths of our hearts, [You know] that seeing those who received predictions is like being sprinkled with ambrosial dew, dispelling the heat and bringing coolness.”
“If You know the depths of our heart” means all the others were hoping that the Buddha would understand them too. The disciples also hoped the Buddha would quickly bestow predictions on them too, thinking, “Will also attain Buddhahood in the future?” Everyone greatly looked forward to this.
So, it states, “If only the Tathagata could know our hearts.”
If You know the depths of our heart: If only the Tathagata could know our hearts and our aspirations to attain Buddhahood! Now we resonate with the Buddha’s mind and the Dharma. Thus we turn the Small toward the Great and seek predictions of our fruitions with hearts of the deepest sincerity.
This was what they hoped for. They wished the Buddha understood their hopes, their hearts and “aspiration to attain Buddhahood.” In their hearts that had this hope to attain Buddhahood in the future. “Now we resonate with the Buddha’s mind and the Dharma.” They resonated with the Buddha’s mind, and they resonated with the Buddha-Dharma.
Now these four disciples, Venerable Kasyapa and the others, those four, had already expressed themselves the four resonated with the Buddha’s mind. They had understood the Buddha’s teachings so, “We turn from the Small toward the Great.” They have now formed aspirations to turn from the Small toward the Great. They have been transformed. Before, they only practiced for their own benefit.Now, they have begun to form great aspirations and make great vows. Now, they are wholeheartedly intent on “seeking predictions of our fruitions.”
They hope that now the Buddha will confirm for them that by their forming aspirations and practicing like this, they will attain fruitions in the future in their direct and circumstantial retributions.
So, it says, they “sought predictions of [their] fruitions with hearts of the deepest sincerity.” They were profoundly sincere. This was their hope that the Buddha would bestow predictions upon them.
“Today, seeing Venerable Kasyapa receive the Buddha’s prediction was like being anointed by ambrosial dew.”
So, we must make great efforts to be mindful. They hoped the Buddha would understand that they now sought the supreme fruit. Their mind must resonate with profound principles.
In seeking the supreme fruit of Buddhahood, our minds must resonate with profound principles. Wanting to resonate with profound principles, one must cultivate dense roots of goodness. Deep roots and strong branches will be difficult to pull out. Thus, it says, “If You know the depths of our hearts.”
Our minds must definitely resonate with the Buddha’s profound principles. To resonate with the profound principles, our roots of goodness must be dense. We must plant our roots of goodness deeply so they become dense, for only then will we resonate with the deep and profound principles.
We must cultivate dense roots of goodness. “The roots go deep and the branches grow strong.” Then, no one can influence our minds. Our minds, our cultivation of contemplation, are already pointed in the correct direction, and we are very determined; we practice the Six Perfections in all our actions. We are already very stable.
“The roots go deep and the branches grow strong.” There is no one who can shake our minds. This was the state of their minds then. This was Subhuti, maudgalyayana and the others describing their state of mind then. So, it says, “If You know the depths of our hearts.”
Everyone, this is our profound hope. If we have this hope we must act according to the Buddha’s teachings. If we can do this, it is not impossible for us to attain Buddhahood. It is certainly possible, as long as we are always mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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