20161211 一生無量菩提萌Sprouting Bodhi Seeds in China
Volunteers, we see that every one of you in China mindfully accompanies one another. Each of you is like a stem of mature rice plant bearing grains of rice seeds. These seeds have produced more seeds which have started taking root and growing. I am truly grateful that throughout the training courses.
Tzu Chi volunteers have accompanied all trainees persistently with love and care so that they nurture compassion in them and grow in wisdom-life. This is truly remarkable.
We hear that some have to travel to Sichuan to attend the training courses. The distance they travel is really far and each journey usually takes them more than 10hours by train, so the round-trip journey will take more than 30 hours. They seized every moment and utilized their time well.
During the 15-hours train ride, they spent their time in holding meetings or sharing and listening to each other’s experiences, without wasting any second. The way they make use of time is truly inspiring and moving.
One time, I even saw a report about volunteer from Northeast China traveling to Beijing for training classes. The more I saw, the more heavyhearted I felt from the bottom of my heart. They could not even sit up straight in their seats on the train for 10 to 20 hours, such a long period of time, just to attend training classes. They have to make such roundtrips periodically for about two years. This shows their diligence.
I often hear these kinds of report. Each time, I am touched. I hope everyone cherishes your affinity with Tzu Chi. Everyone shares the same mission and the same teacher. To emulate the Buddha’s heart and follow my mission is the vow shared by everyone. Everyone joins together for the same vow and mission and cultivates their spirituality.
When everyone’s mind is together as one, we are all walking on the same path and following the same Dharma lineage. I really look forward to everyone staying committed forever and making good use of this opportunity. Coming to Taiwan is for everyone to know each other better and to share one’s Tzu Chi experience with others.
I heard that everyone listens to my live morning Dharma talk. Lotus Sutra teaches the Dharma that we can’t live without in our time. The Dharma in this sutra is very important to the Buddha and all other Buddhas, so that the Buddha came to this world to teach us this sutra. Before the Buddha passed away, he had to expound the Lotus Sutra and pass it on. This is the Buddha’s spirit and also his goal for coming to this world.
The Dharma is eternal; however, time and environment has changed and will keep on changing. Dharma is eternal but it explains the constant changes. The Dharma in the Lotus Sutra remains the same and never changes. However, as time changes, we find an abundance of Dharma in the sutra for us to use to respond to the changing times. The Lotus Sutra provides good prescriptions and wonder medicine to fulfill spiritual needs of our times.
Therefore, the Buddha truly cared about this sutra and hoped everyone can practice this sutra. However, it is not easy for people to uphold the sutra by listening, reciting, lecturing, and practicing this sutra. I hope that everyone is sincere, upright, honest, and has faith as we “vow to help all living beings with sincerity.” This is what everyone should aspire to do.
“Eliminate our afflictions with an upright mind” is to uphold a righteous mind with wisdom to eliminate afflictions. We eliminate our afflictions when we give of ourselves to serve others. We must have a right mindset in serving and interacting with people, so that we won’t be tainted by afflictions.
I hope, even with impurities in our world, we can still purify people’s heart. We must also have faith. Having faith is important, as we vow to “learn all the Dharma with deep faith.” Some of you listen to my morning Dharma talks; with Dharma, you have the way to eliminate afflictions. Not listening to Dharma talks leaves you without the Dharma and as we say in Taiwanese, “no way.” You will have no way to eliminate afflictions.
When you listen to the Dharma talks, then you’ll learn the Dharma and use it to eliminate afflictions. So, have faith; we must vow to “learn all the Dharma with deep faith,” only with the Dharma can we help all living beings and not get entangled in their afflictions; this requires us to be firm in our faith.
We also need to “have a true heart” “and vow to attain Buddhahood.” Before I went on the tour, I had kept on stressing in my Dharma talks on the chapter of the Jeweled Stupa about how one attains Buddhahood; we have to practice the six paramitas and form good affinities by being a bodhisattva. We are all walking the Bodhisattva Path and planting seeds for Buddhahood.
To plant seeds for Buddhahood, we must practice the six paramitas to cultivate both blessings and wisdom. We have to engage in spiritual cultivation on the Bodhisattva Path. The Bodhisattva Path is a very broad and straight bodhi path, a very straight path for us to walk on. In grogressing on the Bodhisattva Path, we’ll arrive at the destination of Buddhahood.
A seed will grow and bear fruit when conditions are right. When we sow the seed of bodhisattva, we’ll reap the fruit of bodhisattva. If we plant a bodhi tree, it’ll produce bodhi seeds. When we plant a bodhi seed, which is also a bodhisattva seed, the fruit it bears is the Buddhahood, in which we return to o9ur true, pure nature.
This true, pure nature is our Buddha nature. Our pure Buddha nature emerges when we switch our consciousness from the eighth to the ninth which we are free from ignorance and afflictions. Our heart becomes very pure and clean, where we return to our pure Buddha nature.
To achieve this, we must nurture a heart of sincerity, uprightness, faith, and honesty. We must have a heart of sincerity, a heart of uprightness, a heart of faith, and a heart of honesty. We must harbor all these in our heart.
In addition, we have to practice the four immeasurable minds: great loving-kindness has no regret, great compassion has no resentment, great joy has no worries, and great equanimity seeks nothing in return. This is the spirit in which we give of ourselves selflessly and earnestly.
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