Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Striking the Dharma-Drum to Deliver the Drowning (擊法鼓度沉溺)
Date: March.07. 2017
“Suffering is caused by the accumulation of all sentient beings creating all deluded karma and thus undergoing the oppression of samsara, drowning in the cycle of suffering. Bodhisattvas practice loving-kindness to inspire compassion and eliminate unwholesome phenomena. They guide sentient beings to good places and enable their spiritual aspirations to be peaceful and stable.”
Suffering! Is life full of suffering or not? It is truly full of suffering. Suffering is caused by accumulation, and this accumulation comes from sentient beings, from many sentient beings creating deluded karma. Delusion is ignorance. Much ignorance comes from a single deluded thought. Because we are not clear about the principles, we engage in many evil deeds. Because of this, we undergo the oppression of samsara and drown in the cycle of suffering. Truly, this cyclic existence is beyond our control.
How do we come to this life? We do not know where we came from. When will our life end? We also do not know where we will go then. Since we do not know the future, we do not know where we will go. In the meantime, we experience love, hate, passion and animosity in our interpersonal relationships. When we love someone, we unfortunately face the suffering of parting. When we hate or resent someone, we unfortunately find ourselves together with them. These are all afflictive emotions. We give rise to these feelings and because of these feelings give rise to animosity and seek revenge. Thus we give birth to and kill each other. There are so many conflicting things in life! These many conflicts and difficulties are beyond our control. We call this delusion. Because of ignorance and delusion, we undergo the oppression of samsara; it is very painful. We cannot help but continue to drown. The places we drown in are the places where things are most unsatisfactory and where there is the most suffering, the places we least wish to be, yet unfortunately karmic forces drag us there like this.
Look at the Middle East and Northern Africa. Once manmade calamities occurred, they have continued on without end. Refugees face all kinds [of suffering]. There are thousands of people fleeing over land, so many people, supporting the elderly and carrying the young. Some are led by the hand, some are carried. Some of the elderly need support. Many lose their lives on route. There are also many who lose their lives due to the torment of pain and illness. Why do they have to go through this? They are so helpless, because their nation no longer has a place for them. With gunfire and the chaos of war all day, if they were to remain there, they could only die. So, despite the dangers, they still have to leave. They escape on land or over the sea. Many have died while traveling by land, and others drowned in the sea. The number of the dead is immeasurable. Some people smuggle themselves out on trains; others [are smuggled] in shipping containers. In this scorching weather, even before reaching their destination, when the door to the containers are opened, a dozen people will have already become corpses. You see, in life, who hopes to be forced their land of birth? Who is willing, due to an unstable nation, to flee? They must walk such long roads and put their lives on the line; who does this willingly? Many of them do not do this willingly, but despite this, they must flee.
Is this not because there are some sentient beings who are deluded? With a single thought of madness, loss of reason, they bring harm to humanity. Due to a single thought of anger and rage, so much hatred is accumulated. What exactly is it that is accumulating? What type of desire caused this to happen? There are already millions of people in the world suffering from these hardships. Isn’t this the causation of suffering? This suffering is the accumulation of all kinds of afflictions and ignorance and creates so much hardship in this cruel world. This is deluded karma. With sentient beings’ collective karma and sentient beings’ delusions, they do not know they themselves are suffering, nor do they know how they create the sources of suffering. With this one point, they do not understand why; initially, it was their greed, desire and possessiveness that created these destructive wars that continue on without ever stopping. This has caused so much suffering. What is the result of creating suffering? Isn’t it that everyone is still “drowning in the cycle of suffering?” So isn’t life full of suffering?
This is why we need Bodhisattvas. The world needs Bodhisattvas because “Bodhisattvas practice loving-kindness to inspire compassion.” They carry out the Buddha’s teachings of compassion. They understand that in this world, we must use the power of love to transform sentient beings. They hope that everyone can awaken their resolve to create blessed karma in the world, that everyone will create blessings. This requires education, so they practice loving-kindness.
Look at all of the Brahma kings. From the eight directions and above and below, they came to the Buddha’s Dharma-assembly to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. They hoped the Great Enlightened One could teach the Dharma of how the suffering of the world originated. They hoped He could clearly [point out] how to eliminate this kind of suffering. When it came to accumulation and the causation of suffering, they hoped to learn how to eliminate suffering. So, the Buddha began to analyze for everyone that the causation of suffering is accumulation, and this accumulation arises from our thoughts. “Everything is created by the mind,” by our mind-king and our mental objects, which are the mental phenomena in everyone’s mind. In our mind, our mind-king, once thoughts arise, connects to conditions, then it absorbs all desires. When thoughts of desire arise, we began to form a very possessive [attitude]. If we do not get what we want, we become angry. Then all kinds of afflictive emotions arise. As this suffering has already been created, we must “inspire compassion.” We must inspire everyone’s compassion and thoroughly “eliminate unwholesome phenomena.” How do we eliminate unwholesome phenomena? This also begins with our mind.
So, our minds need the Great Enlightened One to teach and transform us. Only by “eliminating unwholesome phenomena” are they able to guide everyone “to good places and enable their spiritual aspirations to be peaceful and stable.” This all requires the Great Enlightened One, the Buddha, to turn the Dharma-wheel. Otherwise, sentient beings’ good thoughts will keep on diminishing, and their evil thoughts will grow. Sentient begins in good realms will decrease; heavenly beings will decrease while sentient beings in evil realms will increase. These sentient beings are oppressed by samara, drawing in the cycle of suffering. The number of sentient beings in evil realms keeps growing. Therefore, Bodhisattvas are needed.
Bodhisattvas must keep seeking the Buddha-Dharma and transforming suffering beings. This is what Bodhisattvas do; they seek the Dharma and transform others. Bodhisattvas who seek the Dharma and transform others must carry out the Buddha’s great compassion. They must listen to the Dharma, teach the Dharma and transform sentient beings. They must go among people. For those who are suffering, they must awaken compassion. Only after Bodhisattvas’ compassion is inspired can they go among people with the power of vows. Otherwise, they might believe, “I practice to benefit myself. I understand the Buddha-Dharma. I will end my own cyclic existence.” If they are like this, the myriad sentient beings will continue on, those in the evil realms increasing and those in the good realms diminishing. That kind of world is too terrible to imagine. Thus, it is because of the suffering in the world that the Buddha came to the world.
Beginningless kalpas ago, there was Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. This was before Beginningless Time’s beginning. In fact, everyone intrinsically has had this kind heart since Beginningless Time, but our deluded karma has distanced us from it. We are now beginningless kalpas away from it. Now, we have to rely on Sakyamuni Buddha to re-inspire us. So, we must inspire compassion; we must carry out the Buddha’s loving-kindness to inspire compassion, walk the Bodhisattva-path and go among people to eliminate unwholesome ways. People’s minds have deviated and gone astray. If we can use the Dharma to go among people, we can first relieve their suffering, then teach them the Dharma. Only then can we lead them to good places and help everyone to “follow the path to rectify oneself.” Confucius said this; everyone must be led toward the path, toward walking in the direction of morality. The path is our “luminous virtue.” These are the spiritual aspirations we talk about. We must direct ourselves toward our intrinsic nature and our spiritual aspirations. Having walked this road to the end, we will be peaceful and stable. We will have returned to our intrinsic nature of True Suchness.
The Dharma is just this simple. Since beginningless dust-inked kalpas ago, we have always had this; we just lost our way, thus dragging out this period of time. Now, we must take the Dharma taught by Sakyamuni Buddha and mindfully and faithfully accept it. This is the only way we can “follow the path” and rectify ourselves, correct our direction. So, “Follow the path to rectify yourself.” These are Confucius’ words.
The Buddha-Dharma guides us toward good places, allowing us to step onto the right path and walk on a peaceful and stable road. After reading this text, I cannot help but be reminded of these refugees. As they travel on their road, are they truly safe and headed in the right direction? They have to sneak across borders; what does the road ahead hold for them? This is truly heartbreaking. The ones we can help are in places such as Jordan and Turkey. Having fled to these places, although they are refugees, we know that there are at least people who care about them. We know that some of them have already settled down. However, their future is still uncertain. They still live in tents in the desert and are still illegal immigrants with unstable lives. This suffering still remains. Their lives may have settled down, but their daily living is still full of all kinds of suffering and hardship. So, as I just said, these thoughts constantly in my mind remind me of the suffering in life. Suffering comes from accumulation; so what methods can we use to eliminate their suffering? How can we help them settle down in a safe place so they can feel stable and at peace? All we can do is sigh in helplessness. The best thing to do is to constantly plant seeds of love, constantly guide them in the right direction and, in all our interactions with people, constantly spread the power of love. Other than this, there truly is no other way. Therefore, the Dharma-wheel must be turned.
The previous verse states, “And with the rest of the assembly, we joyfully praise what never happened before. All of our palaces were magnificently adorned by the radiance. Now we present them to the World-Honored One, only wishing that You mercifully accept them.”
In this verse, all the Brahma kings had already gathered therefore, they came to ask the Great Enlightened One to turn the Dharma-wheel was to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. If a Buddha did not manifest in this world, the world would be full of darkness. Without an awakened one to turn the Dharma-wheel, many sentient beings would fall into evil realms. Therefore, continuously, all Brahma kings harbored this kind of wish, hoping for the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. If the Dharma-wheel was turned, everyone would be joyful. So, not only would the heavenly beings and all the Brahma kings be happy, the eight classes of Dharma-protectors and the sentient beings of the Five Realms and four forms of birth would also all be joyful. This is because it is as if the Buddha is here to open the eyes of the world to see worldly appearances clearly. For us ignorant sentient beings, it is as if our eyes are covered. The Buddha, the Great Enlightened One, came to the world to help us open our eyes so that we can see through the world’s matters and appearances. Didn’t Brahma King Great Compassion request that Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha use the matters and appearances of the world to guide sentient beings?
So, this is what all heavenly beings and humans, what all sentient beings, hope for the most. Therefore, everyone was very joyful. Everyone praised the Buddha for appearing in the world to turn the Dharma-wheel. So, the Brahma kings, as the “we” here refers to all Brahma kings, brought many valuable objects. They scattered flowers along the way and prostrated reverently, then made offerings. This expresses the most reverent offering. With this most reverent offering, they sincerely requested that the Buddha [teach].
This was their merits and virtues. “May these merits and virtues universally reach all. May we and all sentient beings attain Buddhahood together.”
This was what Great Brahma King Sikhin and all the other Brahma kings said. All the actions they took, their reverence, their offerings and their sincerity, were for the sake of asking the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. If the Buddha could turn the Dharma-wheel, this would create infinite merits and virtues. They prayed that these merits and virtues could universally reach all sentient beings so all could listen to the Dharma, practice in accord with the Dharma and all attain Buddhahood together. This was Great Brahma King Sikhin’s and all the other Brahma kings’ hope.
The next sutra passage says, “At that time 500 trillion Brahma kings, having praised the Buddha in verse, each spoke to the Buddha. We only pray that the World-Honored One will turn the Dharma-wheel to bring peace and stability to many, to bring liberation to many. Then the Brahma kings spoke in verse.
All these heavenly beings came for this purpose, to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. How many of them were there? 500 trillion Brahma kings, and with one heart and one voice, each praised the Buddha in this way. We have already spent a long time on this. The Brahma kings from all directions had arrived and those from each direction had sincerely made their requests and praised the virtues of the Buddha, the Great Enlightened One whom heavenly beings and humans needed.
So, they again expressed this to the Buddha, showing their sincerity and respect, asking Him to accept their offerings and their request. This was the intent expressed by all Brahma kings.
At that time 500 trillion Brahma kings, having praised the Buddha in verse, each spoke to the Buddha: With utmost sincerity and reverence, they implored Him to accept their offerings.
Their intention was, “We only pray that the World-Honored One will turn the Dharma-wheel.” They gave with so much reverence and respectfully prostrated, all for this sole purpose. For what reason? For the World-honored One [to accept] their prayers for Him. “We only pray” shows their earnestness. They earnestly implored Him hopes of receiving the Buddha’s honoring them with love. The Buddha was supremely noble, the Great Enlightened One, so they hoped the Buddha could be like a compassionate father, like the guiding teacher of the world. Whether like a teacher or a father, what He give to His disciples is love. So, they wished this love could be bestowed universally on everyone by [the supreme Buddha]. This is called “honoring with love.” To “give teachings” is to give and to teach. His methods of teaching are used to transform sentient beings. Sentient beings truly suffer greatly and need the Dharma in order to be delivered. The Dharma is like the ship of compassion; the sea of suffering is vast, so there needs to be this ship of compassion to deliver sentient beings. What again appears in my mind is that large group of refugees amidst the vast sea. The boat became overloaded, capsized and sank, and many lives sank to the bottom of the ocean.
For those that were saved, where could they go? The sea of suffering is vast, so we truly need the Dharma to purify and transform people’s minds. Then, sentient beings of the world can be at peace and be blessed. What is needed is the principles, the Dharma. Because of this, all Brahma kings “implored the World-Honored One to turn the Great Dharma-wheel.”
We only pray that the World-Honored One will turn the Dharma-wheel. We only pray: “They sincerely requested that the Buddha honor them with love and give the teachings to transform and deliver them.” They implored the World-Honored One to turn the Great Dharma-wheel.
This is just like when Sakyamuni Buddha first attained perfect enlightenment. When He began to attain Buddhahood, He understood the true principles of all things in the universe; He completely understood them. How wondrous these principles are! Look at the Six Realms or the Five Realms and four forms of birth; these sentient beings are so stubborn, so foolish and dull. How can sentient beings accept such subtle, wondrous and profound Dharma? So, for a period time, the Buddha struggled with this dilemma How would these subtle, wondrous and profound principles be accepted by these afflicted, ignorant and deluded sentient beings, who were so stubborn?
At that time, He gave rise to a thought of letting it all go. In the nick of time, “All heavenly beings emerged.” This was His mindset when He first attained enlightenment; this was what He contemplated. Then heavenly beings emerged to “request that the Buddha turn the Dharma-wheel.” They were also very respectful. Just like the Brahma kings we just talked about, they came to His place of enlightenment to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. This is the etiquette for when a Great Enlightened One attains Buddhahood.
When a Great Enlightened One attains Buddhahood, heavenly beings will always come to request the turning of the Dharma-wheel. This expresses reverence. These Brahma kings were also very reverent. So with diligence, they “requested that the Buddha turn the Dharma-wheel and transform and guide sentient beings, enabling them to cross to the other shore. In the vast sea of suffering, in the midst of ignorance and afflictions.” He can help sentient beings become liberated so they can step onto the right path and safely cross to the other shore. In this way, He can “bring peace, stability” and “liberation to many.” This was all heavenly beings, as well as the Brahma kings, reverent request. So they kept saying, “We only pray.”
This was the most reverent wish in their hearts, for the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. If the Buddha can turn the Dharma-wheel, then sentient beings can have “peace and stability.” Not only heavenly beings and humans, but all sentient beings can be delivered. Only having peace and stability can bring happiness and “tranquility and wondrous permanence.” Brahma king still have subtle afflictions that have not been completely eliminated, not to mention us sentient beings of the world who are covered in layers of afflictions. These Brahma kings still had subtle delusions they could not yet see through. We ordinary people are full of afflictions. Whether they are mild or severe afflictions, they require the Dharma-wheel to be turned and the Dharma to be completely understood. In this way, the Brahma kings can attain “tranquility and wondrous permanence”. Once their lifespan ends, they too will fall back into cyclic existence, so they hope to be able to attain “tranquility and wondrous permanence”. Then in this world, “Conflicts over worldly affairs forever cease.” Only by attaining the Dharma can they “forever cease”. Unenlightened beings in the world are ignorant; we continue to create karma. Only by bringing purity to people’s minds can “conflicts over worldly affairs forever cease”. Only in this way can we completely eliminate our mindset of contriving affinities.
To bring peace and stability to many, to bring liberation to many: With peace, stability and happiness, they attain tranquility and wondrous permanence. Conflicts over worldly affairs forever cease, so their mindset of contriving affinities will be eliminated.
We sentient beings seek to contrive affinities. We continue to drag out so many negative affinities. Entangled in these affinities, we remain ignorant lifetime after lifetime. How can we work with and transform sentient beings, without becoming entangled by their affinities, without contriving to form karmic affinities? Bodhisattvas can form good affinities with sentient beings without being affected by sentient beings contriving negative affinities, nor contriving to form affinities with them. Instead, Bodhisattvas transform them, leading them to form good karmic conditions and eliminate their contrived affinities. Thus, worldly conflicts can be eliminated forever. To eliminate a mindset of contriving affinities is to go among people without being defiled by them. This is the mindset of Bodhisattvas. “Then the Brahma kings spoke in verse.”
Then the Brahma kings spoke in verse: They still had not yet eliminated their subtlest delusions, and their mental phenomena had not yet reached a state of peace and stability. Therefore, they had not attained ultimate deliverance through the teachings and were not yet liberated from samsara.
The Brahma kings at the time “still had not yet eliminated their subtlest delusions, and their mental phenomena had not yet reached a state of peace and stability.” Because of this, they still gave rise to discursive thoughts. Their thinking still connected to external states. In the form realm, although they had created enough blessings to be born as Brahma kings, how could they eliminate their “mental phenomena?” Their minds still contrived affinities. This is what we call the subtlest afflictions. It says, “They still had not eliminated their subtlest delusions. Therefore, they had not attained ultimate deliverance through the teachings.”
This is because for a very long time in the past, no Buddha was born, so they had not attained ultimate deliverance through the teachings. Thus “They were not yet liberated from samsara.” This was what the Brahma kings had in their hearts.
The verse then continues “World-Honored One, turn the Dharma-wheel and beat the Dharma-drum of ambrosial dew to deliver suffering, afflicted sentient beings and open and reveal the path to Nirvana.”
This verse is explaining what the Brahma kings from before really felt. So, they requested the turning of the Dharma-wheel because the subtlest afflictions of their mental phenomena had not yet been completely eliminated. Therefore they still had subtle afflictions. So, they sincerely asked the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. Once their lifespans come to an end, they will fall again. They were very worried about this. Since they still have this kind of thinking, still had an uncertain direction [in the future] and had not attained the ultimate [deliverance], they worried that their thinking would deviate. This was what they worried about; therefore, they came to ask the Great Enlightened One to turn the Dharma-wheel. Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha had attained Buddhahood and turned the Dharma-wheel in this world. Since He attained Buddhahood, a very long time has passed. This was countless kalpas ago. Attaining enlightenment is very difficult. It has been a very long time, dust-inked kalpas, since Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha had attained Buddhahood. So, it is clearly difficult to become a Buddha. “It is difficult to attain the Way, hence Brahma kings from the ten directions wished for the turning of the Dharma-wheel.” This was their wish. They asked the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. So, in each [sutra] passage, they all said, “We only pray.” This was their wish. They only had this wish in their hearts; they wanted to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. With these “diligent requests,” many people made the same request. 500 trillion Brahma kings [from the ten directions] came to ask the Buddha to turn the Dharma-wheel. “World-Honored One, turn the Dharma-wheel and beat the Dharma-drum of ambrosial dew.”
World-Honored One, turn the Dharma-wheel and beat the Dharma-drum of ambrosial dew: When the Buddha turns the Dharma-wheel, it crushes and extinguishes afflictions. That which can eradicate the scorching heat is called “ambrosial dew”. Spurring on and alerting confused people is called “striking the Dharma-drum”. The Dharma-drum of ambrosial dew enable those who are dying, upon hearing its sound, to escape death, and those already dead to come back to life. Those about to die are unenlightened beings, and those already dead are the icchantika.
Only with the turning of the Buddha’s Dharma-wheel, can afflictions be crushed and extinguished; only the turning of the wheel can crush the shell of ignorance, crush it completely. Only then can the seeds of ignorance be destroyed. The only way to crush and extinguish afflictions is to turn this wheel, only then can these seeds be crushed and destroyed. In this way these seeds will no longer reappear. “That which can eradicate the scorching heat” is what can be used so the afflictions of the mind are eliminated.” [It] is called ‘ambrosial dew,’” Our wisdom-life, because of being burned by the fire of ignorance and afflictions, is no longer able to develop and grow.
Now, attaining the Dharma which is like the medicine of immortality. It is just like drops of dew. This is alerting us that sentient beings are deluded and dazed. This dew can be used to wake us up; it is called “the Dharma-drum of ambrosial dew.” [It] “enables those who are dying, upon hearing its sound, to escape death, and those already dead to come back to life.” Our intrinsic nature of True Suchness and our wisdom- life can hopefully come back to life; then, our wisdom-life can grow. “Those about die are unenlightened beings, and those already dead are icchantika.” “Icchantika” are those who created much evil karma.
This can also save them. “Deliver suffering, afflicted sentient beings and open and reveal the path to Nirvana.” They can be saved from the suffering of hell. Those who violated many precepts and committed many evil deeds can be saved by teaching them, so He earnestly opened and revealed this to them.
“Deliver suffering, afflicted sentient beings and open and reveal the path to Nirvana.” Thus, “Turning the Dharma-wheel and striking the Dharma-drum are both opening and revealing for sentient beings the path to tranquil extinction for heavenly beings.”
This path is a road; we hope the Buddha can open and reveal this road. Through His teachings for sentient beings, they, along with heavenly beings, can attain tranquil extinction. Tranquil extinction is the ending of samsara. We often talk about “tranquil extinction. It is the ending of samsara. For the sake of sentient and heavenly beings, “He beat the Dharma-drum od ambrosial dew to wake everyone up and to let everyone know that they must develop their wisdom-life and thoroughly understand the Dharma. Only this can eliminate sentient beings’ suffering. There is so much Dharma, so we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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