Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Turning the Dharma-wheel to Crush Afflictions (佛轉法輪碾摧惑障)
Date: January.11. 2017
“The Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, [Twelve] Links and Six Paramitas. Like the turning wheels of a cart, they can turn the unenlightened into the noble, crush and destroy all afflictions and eliminate all ignorance and delusions. The Buddha teaching the Dharma to transform sentient beings is called turning the Dharma-wheel.”
When the Buddha taught the Dharma, from the beginning, He constantly taught according to sentient beings’ capabilities. All the Dharma He expounded was none other than the teachings of the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence and the Six Paramitas.
The Four Noble Truths include all the various principles of these truths. For Hearers, He expounded the Four Noble Truths. For Pratyekabuddhas, He expounded the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. For those with Great Vehicle capabilities, He expounded the Six Paramitas. This how the Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, came to the world and taught the Dharma for more than 40 years. Over this long time, His teachings never deviated from these principles.
Actually, all Buddhas share the same path. Sakyamuni Buddha was like this, and of course, in the past, countless dust-inked kalpas previously, Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha must have also been like this, because though Their process of spiritual practice differed in length, Their methods were the same.
This is because all sentient beings share the same afflictions, afflictions and ignorance. Yet they have an infinite [variety], all called afflictions, ignorance and delusions. These three things are the common ailment, the spiritual ailment, that sentient beings have had since ancient times. They are called affliction, ignorance and delusion. Since ancient times, sentient beings have been like this.
It was also like this during the process of the Buddha’s spiritual practice. People with ignorance continue to reproduce ignorance; He formed aspirations to transform sentient beings. The Buddha, the Great Enlightened One, had formed aspirations and made vows because He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer. He engaged in spiritual practice for a long time, seeking the Dharma and transforming sentient beings in every lifetime. He constantly sought the Dharma and constantly gave to help sentient beings.
It is just like the wheel of a cart. It must be set in motion, and it must constantly turn, turning the unenlightened into noble beings. This requires constant spiritual practice, like a turning wheel. Among the Six Paramitas, the [paramita] of diligence has the same meaning. We cannot stop; we must constantly go forward. Continuing on like this without stopping is like a cart’s wheel turning. What are we turning? What do we need to be diligent with, and what should we cultivate? What we must cultivate and be diligent with is something like the process of milling rice. Rice is planted by farmers working hard, but when they cut it down and harvest it, the rice is still in the husk; it is not edible. It must still be milled to break apart the husk. It must be freed from the husk, that outer layer.
In the same way, we sentient beings have layers upon layers [of afflictions]. Isn’t this like the rice that is wrapped in the rice husk? Our nature of True Suchness has been covered by the husk of ignorance. So, we must break open the husk of ignorance in order to be able to reveal our nature of True Suchness. So, we must be like a cart’s wheel that is constantly turning. This is also like a milling machine, which must constantly be grinding so we can remove the husk of afflictions.
“Eliminate all ignorance and delusions” means once we remove the husk, we will get the seed. This is brown rice. When we grind it a little bit more, we will be able to remove the bran. Once the bran is removed, it will become white rice. In the same way, when we grind our ignorance a little more [we are] “eliminating all ignorance and delusions.” Once the husk is removed, it is ground a little more to get rid of any defilements. Our ignorance will all be eliminated, and our nature of True Suchness will manifest. So, we “eliminate all ignorance and delusions.” Once we start to grind away our afflictions, we are able to remove the husk of ignorance. When we clean up outer defilements, even if they are as small as the rice bran, we still get rid of them all; this is “eliminating all ignorance and delusions.”
The Buddha came to the world and taught us the Dharma. By letting us listen to His voice, we can understand the suffering in life. He taught the principles of how we come to the world, the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. The origin of birth, aging, illness and death is the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. These principles let us understand that because of suffering and ignorance, we repeatedly create many causes and conditions. When negative causes and conditions combine, we are entangled in love, hate, passion, animosity. He wanted us to understand that all these are due to causes and conditions combining together.
Once we understand the principles, we will understand that we must engage in spiritual practice. As we engage in spiritual practice, we do not only do so for our own benefit. The Buddha also taught us that we must walk the Bodhisattva-path and go among people.
Every day we say that we truly must go among people. It is people who must be Bodhisattvas. If we form the aspiration, we can become Living Bodhisattvas, just like Faith Corps members and Commissioners. There are many loving people in the society. By gathering them into teams such as the Faith Corps team or Commissioner team, whatever there are places that need assistance, someone with a good heart refers the case to us. Once we receiver the case, we will quickly go to understand the situation.
For example, in Tainan, we had encountered a family that was suffering. In fact, this family faced this combination of causes and conditions. The father was over 80 years old. Though he had a place to live, he was old and ill and suffered a stroke. When Tzu Chi volunteers received this case, they went for a home visit; it was so sad. Starting from early 2013, we began to work on this case. Our Faith Corps Living Bodhisattvas invited Commissioners [to come on home visits]. Mr. Wang, who lived close by, came to visit him often. He would bring food to this elder almost every day. [Mr. Wang] would slowly feed him and treated him as a filial son would treat his own father.
After a period of time, we received another case where the care recipient was related to this elder. This care recipient was the elder’s son. He was some than 50 years old. This person did not live with his father because he had his own family. However, he had divorced a few years ago. He suffered from very severe diabetes. Though he had two sons, one had formed his own family, and the other worked as a delivery man. The relationship between this man and his sons was not very good. Though his youngest son lived with him, the son went out early and returned late. They did not have a very good relationship.
This Mr. Wang was over 50 years old. One day, he fell due to low blood pressure. He injured his neck and spinal cord. When others found out, he was sent to a big hospital in Tainan. After the surgery, he could not move his legs or one arm. He was only left with one arm that could move. Because of this, he stayed in bed.
Someone also referred this case to us. So, Tzu Chi volunteers went to visit him. Starting from that time, [volunteers] would change his diaper for him and feed him every day. In this case, because the son did not care for his father, the house was very dirty. The father had not taken a bath for five months. As they walked in, there was a very foul stench. Tzu Chi volunteers came to help him clean and changed [his diaper]. They felt the son did not take care of his father, so Tzu Chi volunteers were mobilized. In such hot weather a few days ago, the volunteers mobilized. Three or four volunteers brought him into the very small bathroom. Three or four Faith Corp volunteers put soap on him and used the luffa to wash his entire body, hair and face. Mr. Wang held him up. As the space was very small inside, all three or four people could not hold him up at the same time. So, only one person could hold him up. Outside, they quickly [cleaned] his head, face and combed his beard and hair.
Once this was all taken care of, they cleaned him one more time. In the end, this patient finally smiled [at the volunteers] and said, “I am grateful to all of you. The Tzu Chi volunteers cleaned the entire house for him. They changed the bed sheets so everything would be very clean. As [the volunteers] gathered around him, the whole house had been brightened up. But they felt this was not a workable solution. After a few days, it would become dirty again. The volunteers helped him find a convalescent home and apply for the national social welfare program, so it would be free of charge. They did all they could to help with the process. However, because his father had house, he had to pay NT$6000 out of pocket. So, Tzu Chi volunteers helped pay for it. This way he was able to stay there. The care recipient’s two sons did not have much connection with their father. So, a volunteer from our Faith Corp Team, another Mr. Wang, used his phone to write to them about the [volunteers’] interaction with their father and their heart-warming conversations to try to touch the hearts of his sons.
In the end, the sons realized that they should visit their father and were willing to pay a portion, NT$3000, so their father could have some money of his own. This is how life is.
With these causes and conditions, in one family, there were two patients. Though the care recipient had two sons, this third generation did not have good relations with their elders. We can see these kinds of causes and conditions in the world. How do these afflictive emotions, these good or bad affinities, end up coming about? They used to be one family, but then they divorced. The two sons had little affinity with their father or their grandfather. He was over 80 and no one cared for him. This is the story of one family.
See, this is our world. What kind of thing is love? With all of these afflictive emotions, we cannot understand what is really going on. Now, we understand that it all due to causes and conditions. When we come to the world, we suffer and create ignorance. Thus karmic retributions of suffering appear. So, we must quickly engage in spiritual practice. We do so not to only benefit ourselves; we must also benefit others at the same time, walk the Bodhisattva-path. Without these Living Bodhisattvas in society, how many families would be living in piles of garbage? How many would live alone, sick and suffering? How do they make it through the day? It is because there are Living Bodhisattvas who cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer and dedicate themselves to help. These are Bodhisattvas who go among the people. This power of love is what the Buddha taught us.
He taught us that we must be earnest. We must be diligent. We must be like a cart’s wheel or a rice mill. We must break out of our husk of ignorance and constantly extend the Dharma to others. We must quickly transport the Dharma to other people’s hearts, like a cart’s wheel, like turning the Dharma-wheel. We must eliminate our own ignorance and then use the true principles to transform sentient beings.
So, the Buddha taught the Dharma and transformed sentient beings all in the hope that we too would transform sentient beings. It is not the Buddha alone who comes to transform sentient beings. With just one Buddha, His time in the world is limited. How can He transform all sentient beings? He teaches the Dharma to His disciples. His disciples all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. We can hold on to our Buddha-nature and then make use of relationships to train ourselves. Then it is like we are milling rice to remove the husk; as we walk the Bodhisattva-path in this way, we are refining ourselves. To do this we must constantly give of ourselves among the people. This is also turning the Dharma-wheel.
It is not only the Buddha turning the Dharma-wheel. In fact, we must also constantly be diligent. We must also constantly spread the Buddha-Dharma in the world. Otherwise, as the previous sutra passage states, “From this darkness, they enter into darkness and will never hear the Buddha’s name. Today the Buddha has attained the supreme peaceful and flawless path. We and the heavenly beings are those who attain the greatest benefit, therefore we all prostrate and take refuge in the supremely honored one.”
Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha had attained Buddhahood. Heavenly beings and humans were very happy, because had the Buddha not been born in the world, had He not awakened, then the minds of sentient beings would have continued to head into greater darkness. In the darkness, they create more negative karma. They will never see the Buddha and will never be able to discover their own intrinsic Buddha-nature. So, a Buddha must be born in the world and teach, must serve as a role-model for the world to teach us how to engage in spiritual practice. These heavenly beings and Dharma-protectors were very happy. They prostrated to the Buddha and took refuge with the supreme Great Enlightened One.
The next sutra passage states, “At that time, the 16 princes, having praised the Buddha with this verse, implored the World-Honored One to turn the Dharma-wheel. They all spoke these words. If the World-Honored One teaches the Dharma, many will attain great peace and stability.”
This was after a period of time. After the Buddha attained Buddhahood, heavenly beings were happy and praised the Buddha. They began to take refuge with the Buddha. At that time as well, the 16 princes began to renounce the lay life. After they became monastics, they continued to listen to the Buddha teach, from the Four Noble Truths and the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence to actualizing the Six Paramitas in all actions.
So, they 16 princes diligently practiced under Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. They were diligent and renounced the lay life to become novices. They listened to the Dharma taught by the Buddha, especially that of actualizing the Six Paramitas in all actions. What they needed more was for the Buddha to explain in more detail, so they could hear Him teach the way to Buddhahood. That would be a very clear teaching.
So, the 16 novices asked the Buddha to turn the Great Dharma-wheel the Dharma-wheel of attaining Buddhahood. In the past, He gave the teachings of actualizing the Six Paramitas in all action. This is actually the path to Buddhahood. But to help everyone gain a clearer understanding, the 16 princes repeatedly requested that He teach the Lotus Sutra. It speaks of the Lotus Sutra, but actually, before teaching the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha taught the Bodhisattvas Way. These 16 princes wanted to help those who had not heard, those who came later, to also understand. So, they implored the Buddha to teach the Lotus Sutra. He taught it for a long time, too. For 8000 kalpas.
This was a very long period of time. At that point Buddha entered Samadhi. Only then did the 16 princes begin to teach the Lotus Sutra in different places. They hoped the Lotus Sutra would be [taught] again and again. The Buddha taught it, then the novices taught it, so it could continue to be repeatedly taught. Thus the Lotus Sutra could be widely transmitted around the world so people who had not heard it could hear it.
Thus, Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha taught the Lotus Sutra for 8000 kalpas. He taught for 8000 kalpas on just the Lotus Sutra. Sakyamuni Buddha taught the Lotus Sutra for only seven years, but Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha taught for 8000 kalpas. 8000 kalpas is a very long time. He took 8000 kalpas to expound the Lotus Sutra. After He expounded the Lotus Sutra, He entered His meditation room. How long did He stay there? He was in His meditation room for 84,000 kalpas.
The Buddha, for 8000 kalpas, taught the Lotus Sutra, then entered His meditation room. For a period of 84,000 kalpas, He sliently practiced Samadhi. During this time the 16 princes each ascended to the Dharma-throne. Over a period of 84,000 kalpas, for the fourfold assembly, they repeatedly taught the Lotus Sutra. Now, each has attained Buddhahood and is a Tathagata in the Eight Directions.
During this time, He silently entered Samadhi; in His [meditation room] He remained in Samadhi. During this time, this 84,000 kalpas, during this long time, the 16 princes, in different places, each ascended the Dharma-throne. They also used the period of 84,000 kalpas to repeatedly teach the Lotus Sutra for the fourfold assembly. Since Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha had used 8000 kalpas to teach the Lotus Sutra, during these 84,000 kalpas when the Buddha entered Samadhi, it was up to the 16 princes to repeatedly teach the Lotus Sutra. They also used this period of 84,000 kalpas to repeatedly teach the Lotus Sutra. They did so in all eight directions. Now they have all attained Buddhahood.
This was after the 16 princes requested that the Buddha turn the Dharma-wheel. Why did they implore Him? Though He had attained Buddhahood, some had not yet heard the Dharma. “So, they greatly implored Him.” At this time there were many people there. Some people were outside and had not yet heard the Dharma. Though they knew that the Buddha had already attained Buddhahood in the world, they are unwilling to listen to the Dharma and unwilling to meet the Buddha.
Haven’t we talked about this story before? In a small village of 90,000 people, 30,000 people had met the Buddha and listen to the Dharma. Another 30,000 people had heard the Buddha’s name, but they had not met the Buddha nor had they listened to the Dharma. The remaining 30,000 people had not even heard the Buddha’s name, so how could they have met the Buddha and listened to the Dharma?
This was such a pity! “Though He had already attained Buddhahood, there were still people who had not met Him and people who had not listened to the Dharma.” So, they “greatly implored Him.” They requested that He teach the Dharma.
“The Buddha, due to His great loving-kindness, bring great peace and stability to all heavenly beings and humans.” Due to His great compassion, He takes pity on them and benefits them all.”
He used these kinds of causes and conditions. This is like how Sakyamuni Buddha was always praising the Buddha-Dharma and [Buddha-] wisdom. Sariputra understood the mind of the Buddha, so he asked three times, asked the Buddha to teach in more detail about the state of True Suchness. “How do we return to our nature of True Suchness?” He requested that the Buddha explain this clearly. So, he requested three times before the Buddha began to teach, to formally teach the Lotus Sutra. After all, before teaching the Lotus Sutra, He already taught the Sutra of infinite Meanings. But for people in the future to understand better, in Sakyamuni Buddha’s time, during the Dharma-assembly, Sariputra requested that the Buddha teach in greater detail. This is the Lotus Sutra we have now. It was the same in the era of Great Unhindered
Wisdom Superior Buddha. It was the 16 novices who requested that the Buddha teach the Lotus Sutra. So, the 16 novices already asked the Buddha, and He taught the Dharma for a long time, then entered Samadhi. The 16 novices then repeated what He taught. They were the Buddha-children spreading the Buddha-Dharma. Intrinsically, everyone is born to their father. We all intrinsically have the Buddha within us. The Buddha within us still exists. So, we must awaken our great compassion and great loving-kindness to bring peace to all, to take pity on and benefit sentient beings. This all comes from the bottom of our heart, from our nature of True Suchness, our Buddha-nature, the Buddha within us.
“With the wisdom of all Dharma, He is able to know all of sentient beings’ capabilities.” The Buddha’s wisdom allowed Him to understand sentient beings’ capabilities their desires and the causes and conditions of the Three Periods. Knowing the things they wanted to hear, He knew which Dharma these sentient beings could accept and believe in. He thought the Four Noble Truths and turned the Dharma-wheel for them. From the era of Sakyamuni Buddha, we can trace back to dust-inked kalpas ago. People hoped that in Sakyamuni Buddha’s time, the Dharma could continue to be passed on.
Now, we must also continue to pass it on until the era Maitreya attains Buddhahood. The Dharma-wheel must always continue to turn. The Dharma-wheel must always continue to turn. We need the Dharma-wheel to continue to turn.
So, we must constantly have people who implore the Buddha. These are the causes and conditions. It is like [Sakyamuni] Buddha and Sariputra; if Sariputra did not ask three times, how would we have the Lotus Sutra today? So, we must implore the Buddha [to teach].
“They had come and praised His virtues and congratulated themselves.”
Implore: They had come and praised His virtues and congratulated themselves. They must desire to hear the Dharma in order to attain the noble fruit. Therefore, they implored Him.
We praise the past virtues of Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. We must also congratulate ourselves that we have heard the Sutra. When the 16 princes repeatedly taught the Lotus Sutra, we may have also been one of the listeners so we should congratulate ourselves. In this lifetime and at this moment, we are able to listen to the Lotus Sutra and are also able to [hear] the Dharma within so we can repeatedly study and understand it. Thus, we must “congratulate ourselves.”
“Must desire to hear the Dharma” means we must listen to the Dharma. “They sought to attain the noble fruit.” When we are listening now, we hope that we can return to our nature of True Suchness, “seeking to attain the noble fruit.” When we listen, we are in the process of cultivating causes. In the past, we have mentioned that it will require a long time to cultivate causes. We hope that with Dharma, our feet will remain grounded on the path as we go among people and put the teachings into practice. Then we can attain the noble fruit.
Therefore, we must implore Him. As for the Dharma-wheel, this analogy for the Dharma has two meanings.
The Dharma-wheel: This analogy for the Dharma has a double meaning. It is a wheel like the wheel of a cart, which can carry as well as crush. The teaching of the Tathagata can carry sentient beings from an unenlightened state to a noble state; it can also crush and tame all of sentient beings’ hindrances of delusion.
It is a wheel like the wheel of a cart, which can carry as well as crush. When the wheel is turning, it can crush those things. When the wheel is turning, it can carry things as well as crush things it can carry things as well as crush things. When the wheel is placed on a cart, things can be carried. If the wheel is placed on a machine, it can crush rice and many other things. This is the meaning of a wheel.
The teachings of the Tathagata “can carry sentient beings from an unenlightened state to a noble state, turning unenlightened beings into noble beings. If we apply it in another way, just like a wheel, “It can also crush and tame all of sentient beings’ hindrances of delusion, their deluded karma.” This is like a machine milling rice; the husk of ignorance will be crushed and thus removed. Even less pure things like the bran can be crushed. This is just like our afflictions and ignorance; through the use of a wheel [they are crushed]. On a car, the wheels can carry people around, and in a machine, a wheel can crush the all of the stiff husks. This is an analogy.
“When a cart moves along,” as it continually moves along, it constantly goes on without stopping. This is an analogy for great teachings spreading. They will continue to spread. Then, maras cannot stand in the way of the Dharma. The Dharma that we have can certainly crush maras.
No matter what kind of principles they are, the principles of the Buddha-Dharma are the utmost truth. So, there are many husks of [ignorance], and there are many maras.
But “while 30 spokes join one hub, only when the [hub] is empty can they be used to move the cart.” When [the spokes] radiate this way, it can turn and is able to crush many husks of ignorance.
“The teachings of the Buddha are like drawings in the air. Thought spoken, they are as if not spoken, thus they can be used to benefit all things.” The Dharma, once spoken by the Buddha, is then gone. The teachings are like drawings in the air, like drawing a picture in the air. Though spoken, they are as if not spoken. The Dharma is something that has always been intrinsic to all things in the world. Since it is intrinsically there, why do we need the Buddha to expound it for us? Teaching it and not teaching it would be the same.
But, we must listen. Sound is naturally [intangible]. It exists in empty space; I have asked, what exactly does a sound look like? It simply enter into our ears but once it does, will be able to make use of it? It is because it has no form that we are able to take it in. If it was tangible, it would crash into our ears. Then how would it enter [our mind]? From our eyes? Or from our nose? Or from our ears? It is intangible but it has sound. So, this is “like drawings in the air. Though spoken, they are as if not spoken.
Teaching and not teaching will be the same, but these principles do exist. It is through these intangible sounds that they enter through our ears. So, “They all spoke these words, ‘If the World-Honored One teaches the Dharma, many will attain great peace and stability.’” The Dharma taught by the World-Honored One can bring peace to the sentient beings.
If we are all mindful, the Dharma taught by the Buddha can be engraved in our minds. [It will be] a part of our daily living, as we go among people and to places of suffering. All places of suffering require the Dharma. Only those who have accepted the Dharma, those who take the Dharma and principles to heart, are willing to go wherever there are people who are suffering. Some people ask, ”Where are Tzu-Chi volunteers?” All Tzu Chi volunteers should be able to answer “I am here. I am helping people clean and wash up. Come, please come join us to help.” If we are able to do this, we can grow. From being asked, “Where are you?” we can extend our hand to bring them along as well. Everyone can contributes some of their strength to help people who are suffering. In this way, Tzu Chi volunteers are everywhere.
Everywhere Bodhisattvas go, they teach the Dharma through their actions. They use their lives to teach the Dharma. Instead of using their voices, they are using their body to put the Dharma into practice as a teaching. So, this is like the wind in the air; it can go everywhere. It is like a drawing in empty space. Let us take a tree for example. Here is a space with a tree that is trimmed very beautifully. The flowers and grass are all trimmed in round or rectangular shapes. One day, when I walked in from the outside, I said, “A-xi, you are very good at this! The plants are very neatly trimmed. It is very beautiful!” He was very happy.
Actually, at noon, he was squatting there carefully and slowly shaping the tree. He made the Tzu Chi logo very beautiful. The half circle was very round. This is like a drawing in the air, a drawing within this great space. This drawing was created by someone putting teaching into practice and very carefully trimming it into that shape, making a real picture.
So, this is the Dharma. It is expressed by people putting it into action, using their bodies to teach the Dharma. When Bodhisattvas go among people, to places of suffering, they can turn a dirty house into a clean and beautiful house. A body that has not been washed for months was able to be clean again so everyone else could approach him. Everyone was able to touch his body; it was very clean and dry. This was done by a team of Lining Bodhisattvas who were not afraid of hard work, being dirty and bad smells. They went and helped him be purified of this filth. This shows the Dharma is in their hearts. it is like a drawing in the air.
Though spoken, the Dharma is as if not spoken. They have already taken the Dharma to heart and put it into practice to benefit sentient beings. We must truly have the Dharma to transform others. Thus we can “transform with the Dharma.” So, since the Buddha was born into the world, they wanted to implore Him to teach.
“They all spoke these words,” these heavenly beings and humans said this “If the World-honored One teaches the Dharma, many will attain great peace and stability.” If the Dharma is in the world, then all sentient beings can benefit from it. It can bring peace to all sentient beings. If everyone can take the Dharma to heart and all put it into practice, wouldn’t everyone in this world be a Bodhisattva? So, let us always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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