Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Attaining Realizations after Long Practice (久修證悟契悲運智)
Date: December.29. 2016
“Wanting to help sentient beings awaken to His views and understanding, the Buddha appeared in the world. After long practice, He attained realization of the true principles of pure and wondrous wisdom. Sitting upon the Vajra throne beneath the tree of enlightenment, He comprehended the great path. With His innate ocean of enlightened wisdom, He embraced compassion and exercised wisdom in perfect harmony.”
We engage in spiritual practice in order to comprehend the great path. Do we comprehend the great path for ourselves or to transform all sentient beings? The Buddha’s goal is to help sentient beings awaken to His views and understanding. That is why He manifested in the world.
As I have often said, He manifested in the world for one great cause, to open and reveal the Buddha’s understanding and views for all sentient beings. His greatest hope is for all sentient beings to accept, comprehend, awaken to and enter the Buddha’s understanding and views. This requires interaction! When the Buddha gives [teachings], sentient beings must learn to experience them. If we sentient beings do not experience what the Buddha has given to us, we will forever be deluded and lost. The Buddha came to this world to guide us away from our delusion toward the path to enlightenment. This is the Buddha’s compassionate goal.
So, the Buddha manifested in the world for sentient beings. “After long practice, He attained realization of the true principles of pure and wondrous wisdom.” This means that it has been very long time since the Buddha attained enlightenment. How long ago was it? Countless kalpas ago. How long is countless kalpas? This is referring to dust-inked kalpas. This Buddha had awakened after such long practice.
Actually, so long ago, the Buddha had engaged in spiritual practice with Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. He listened to the Dharma taught by Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. Back then, Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha had already begun to teach the Lotus Sutra. There were 16 novices in His spiritual community. Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior’s teaching was completely realized by the 16 novices. After Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha entered Samadhi, the 16 novices started to travel to different places to propagate the Lotus Sutra; they likewise taught the Lotus Sutra.
Among these 16 novices, the last one, the 16th novice, was our Sakyamuni Buddha. We can see that Sakyamuni Buddha, for a long time, since beginningless, countless kalpas ago, had already comprehend the Lotus Sutra and awakened to and entered the wondrous and great principles of the path to Buddhahood. Think about it; the Buddha came to the Saha World where the Five Destinies coexist, this world of endurance, in order to deliver all sentient beings. His vow was to stay for a long time in Saha World. This was His goal, and this is the place where He dedicated Himself to transforming sentient beings.
Look at how long it has been. Have sentient beings been decreasing in numbers? No, sentient beings grow in numbers every year. Think about it; the population continuously grows. Every day new babies are being born. When these new babies grow up, what will their life’s direction be? Will it be to benefit people or will it be to harm the world? We often hear about natural disasters and manmade calamities. Manmade calamities have caused ceaseless warfare in our world. These battles have resulted in waves of refugees.
Why does this happen? Ignorance and afflictions are multiplied more, and people are entangled in karmic retribution. The cycle of retributions grows increasingly worse. The human population grows on this earth, and karmic forces increase as we bring karma with us. This collective karma of endless retributions result in many manmade calamities.
Then there are natural disasters. How do natural disasters develop? There is an overpopulation of humans. For [the comforts of] life, natural resources are continuously extracted from the earth. As the mountains are constantly dug out and mined, the surface of the earth is destroyed. Have we taken enough resources? Not yet. We dig deeper into the ground. We should know we have destroyed the earth, the place where humans reside. This environmental destruction is caused by humans.
Humans were born in the world with impure hearts. When we are born in this world, if we can respect heaven and earth and follow the natural cycles of the seasons, we will be grateful for the planet and its climate. The earth provides us with grain for food and cotton for clothing. The earth contains an abundance of things. In ancient times, people planted cotton and hemp for weaving cloth, etc. Thus the land provides clothes to keep us warm and keeps us well-fed with the grains. This should be sufficient.
But humans have a [different] mindset. We continuously destroy the earth. Let us think about [more] humans being born, is it benefiting or harming humanity? Honestly speaking, how can the Buddha teach sentient beings? After a long practice, He attained realization of the true principles of pure and wondrous wisdom. How could He provide and give [these teachings] to humankind? There are so many humans. How many will be able to accept His teachings?
The Buddha, over this very long period of time, still continuously came to the world. This is the power of His vow. It was not His karmic forces but the power of His vow. This is why He manifested in the world, stinting upon the Vajra throne beneath the tree of enlightenment.
The tree of enlightenment refers to the Budhi-tree. Upon the Vajra throne under the Bodhi-tree, upon this rock, [the Buddha] contemplated earnestly. 5 years of travel, 6 years of ascetic practice, then contemplating for 21 days, He finally comprehended the great path. One the Vajra throne, He comprehended the great path. Seeing the morning star, the Buddha awakened. In the vast universe with so many sentient beings and their endless afflictions, how could He transform people?
Therefore, “With His innate ocean of enlightened wisdom, He embraced compassion and exercised wisdom.” He was fundamentally already awakened; He intrinsically has Buddha-nature. And from His past practice, He had accumulated this innate ocean of enlightened wisdom. Finally, He awakened His compassion. He resonated with and embraced compassion. With this perfect harmony, He embraced compassion and exercised wisdom, becoming one with all sentient beings. He exercised His wisdom this way, so He was in harmony with all. With both compassion and wisdom, He realized universal compassion. With compassion and wisdom in perfect harmony, the Buddha attained Buddhahood. This is merely the method the Buddha used in order to teach us. So, we must be very mindful.
The previous sutra passage says that it had already been such a long time of Him sitting at the spiritual training ground. After awakening, He transformed sentient beings for such a long time. This went on until this Buddha’s long life [was over], until His Parinirvana, “until He entered Parinirvana. They constantly rained down these flowers. All in Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings constantly beat celestial drums as an offering to the Buddha, while other heavenly beings played celestial music.” “For a full ten small kalpas, until He entered Parinirvana,” they continued making offerings in the same way.
After the Buddha sat under the tree, [heavenly beings] kept joyfully making offerings. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, they were even more joyful and continued to make offerings in this way all the way until the Buddha entered Parinirvana. Imagine this union of heavenly and human beings; how beautiful it must have been.
The next sutra passage states, “Bhiksus! Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha went through ten small kalpas until the Dharma of all Buddhas finally manifested before Him, and He attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”
This is the Buddha, with an earnest voice, calling on us again, “Those listening to the sutra! Disciples! Practitioners! Bhiksus! Everyone must be mindful!” This was the Buddha’s sincere intent. Imagine, at this late stage of the Buddha’s life, how earnest His hopes for His disciples were! So, when He started teaching the Dharma, He called out again and again. In the past He had called out, “Sariputra! Maudgalyayana!” He called everyone through these representatives. At this moment, Buddha called on all bhiksus with such earnestness. We can see the earnestness of the Buddha’s heart.
Bhiksus! Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha went through ten small kalpas: He earnestly called out, saying, “Bhiksus!” He told them that dust-inked kalpas previously, before Great Unhindered had attained Buddhahood, He sat for ten kalpas.
So, “He told them that dust-inked kalpas previously.” Sakyamuni Buddha earnestly told us that a very long time ago, a very long time in the past, before Great Unhindered [Wisdom Superior] Buddha attained Buddhahood, He sat for ten small kalpas. Once He sat down in the place of enlightenment, such a long period of time passed. This was all to transform all sentient beings. It took such a long period of time “until the Dharma of all Buddhas manifested before Him.”
Clearly, attaining the wonders of Buddha-Dharma is not so simple. It requires “extended practice,” meaning that it takes a very long time, it must be a long time of “uninterrupted practice” and “practice with nothing further.” Not even one tiny bit of the Dharma can be missing.
Thus, the passage speaks of “after ten kalpas.” Such earnest practice takes a very long time. So, “After ten kalpas, He embraced compassion and exercised wisdom.”
The Dharma of all Buddhas finally manifested before Him: With extended practice, after ten kalpas, He embraced compassion and exercised wisdom, allowing Him to attain the fruit of enlightenment. The Dharma of all Buddhas appeared before Him. Awaiting the causes and conditions of being replete with compassion, wisdom bright illumination of His great perfect mirror, the Buddha-Dharma would then appear before Him. This is the realization of all-encompassing wisdom.
With His universal compassion, He became one with all sentient beings. This is how He awakened His wisdom to discern all sentient beings’ capabilities and teach them accordingly. This is how He “embraced compassion and exercised wisdom.”
“Embracing compassion” is having universal compassion. With universal compassion, He embraces compassion. As for “excising wisdom,” He applies this wisdom, which “allows Him to obtain the fruit of enlightenment.” At this moment, He truly [attained realization]. Apart from fully knowing the Dharma and the principles of the universe and all Dharma-realms, at the end, He had to embrace compassion and exercise wisdom.
Only when His universal compassion was awakened could he attain the fruit enlightenment. “The Dharma of all Buddhas appeared before Him.” In this way, all Buddhas share the same path. All Buddha’s teachings appeared readily before Him. This is how, “Awaiting the causes and conditions of being replete with compassion, wisdom and the power of cows along with the bright illumination of His great perfect mirror” the illumination of His perfect mirror wisdom, the “Buddha-Dharma would then appear before Him.” “This is the realization of all-encompassing wisdom.” Wisdom of all Dharma, wisdom of enlightenment and all-encompassing wisdom, these wisdoms, were perfected in Him.
In the era of Great Unhindered Buddha, [that Buddha] gave teachings in this manner. When Sakyamuni Buddha appeared in the world, He also manifested and taught in this way. He manifested guide us, so He had to follow the same courses.
Great Unhindered Tathagata sat upright in the place of enlightenment for ten small kalpas. “After this time passed, the Buddha-Dharma finally appeared before him.” This is how Buddha-Dharma started to manifest. This was to manifest an appearance of the great path being very difficult to attain.”
Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior taught this way, and Sakyanuni Buddha taught in this way too. This is to show us that, truly, the great principles are very intricate and subtle. When we take them in, they are very subtle, but when we expand them, they encompass the universe.
So, from dust-inked kalpas ago all the way until now and on into the future, to fully comprehend all principles of the world is not that simple.
This shows that this is a very rare and precious path that requires a great amount of time, resolve and effort to understand. Only then can we attain thorough comprehension and supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. “He attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.” This is the state all Buddhas realize Themselves. How could sentient beings fathom it?” Supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment is “Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”
For ten small kalpas, for such a long time, He sat under the Bodhi-tree and engaged in contemplation until embraced compassion exercised wisdom. Then the state of great mirror wisdom manifested. The principles of the mountains, rivers, land and the whole universe were completely taken into His heart, and He thoroughly understood them.
“Supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment” is a state on understanding that is unlike the partial understanding ordinary people, who focus on and specialize in only one area. Supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment encompasses everything in the entire universe. Throughout all the world across space and across all time in the Dharma-realms, there is nothing Buddhas do not understand and no principle They do not comprehend.
“This is the state all Buddhas realize Themselves. How could sentient beings fathom it?” How would we ever be able to fathom it? That is why it is called “supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment.” That is a realization we ordinary people cannot relate to. So, we must work even harder in our practice, with uninterrupted practice, extended practice, practice with nothing further and practice with reverence. We must actualize the Six Paramitas in all actions. Only then can we achieve such a state of mind. So, all of us must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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