Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Three Insights and Eight Liberations (三明六通具八解脫)
Date: March.20. 2017
“The Eight Liberations are also called the Eight Abandonments. With the pure five desires, we abandon defiled and attached mindsets and uphold the Eight Abandonments. We cultivate dwelling on and contemplating them and give rise to flawless wisdom. We eliminate the Three Realms afflictions of delusions of views and thinking. We abandon ignorance to realize the fruits of Arhatship. To do this is to attain the Eight Liberations.”
For some time we have been discussing the Four Noble Truths and 12 Links of Cyclic Existence. We must understand the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence even more clearly. Starting from one thought of ignorance, the 12 Links continue to give rise to each other, up until the worry, sadness and distress of aging and death. We continue through cyclic existence like this, continually in a state of ignorance, in a state of worries, sadness and distress. With birth, aging, illness and death, one lifetime in the world passes like this, as do countless, immeasurable kalpas. For countless, immeasurable kalpas, this is how we have continued to transmigrate. Is this suffering? It is unbearable suffering! Since Beginningless Time, life has always continued in this cyclic existence. The Buddha, with His wisdom, clearly understood this samsara and came to tell us how we can be liberated from cyclic existence so we can go from being dragged uncontrollably by karma to moving back through returning to cessation. We can be the master of everything in our lives. Being the master means we are in control, no longer led uncontrollably by karma forces.
When we come here in control, it is like how Bodhisattvas come to the world to transform sentient beings. Due to their enlightened nature, they cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer. They come here in order to save transform sentient beings. If we want to transform sentient beings, we must return to our awakened nature. If we still have ignorance [in our minds], then we will never be able to return to our pure enlightened nature. So, the Buddha’s one great cause for coming to this world was to teach us how to return and attain liberation. In this state of ignorance, we have no control, so we need to be liberated from the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence. This is the method of returning to cessation, to go back the other way. In the past, we were led by ignorance. Now, we must eliminate it; we must eliminate these Links. Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation. In our daily lives, we are in a state of ignorance. Under conditions of ignorance we take action. Since we act according to ignorance, eight or nine out of ten actions is mistaken. Our ideas and thoughts are mostly in error. This is how our lives are. Ignorance gives rise to volitional formation; then all of our actions are mistaken.
How do we return to cessation? From worries, sadness and distress, how do we work backwards to eliminate it all? We must eliminate “becoming”. Becoming must be eliminated because we have cravings. That is “craving”. Craving arises because of our feelings. We must go back and remove these one by one until we reach ignorance, the source. Only if we are able to eliminate our ignorance will we be able to return to our pure intrinsic nature. Only then can we be said to be liberated.
“The Eight Liberations are also called the Eight Abandonments.” In our daily living, we follow the five desires, Roots and Dusts. Our Roots are our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, and these senses are directed outwards to connect with form, sound, smell, taste, touch, phenomenon, etc. When we give rise to thoughts, [our minds] will be contaminated, defiled and become attached. We are sentient beings of the desire realm. Everything that we encounter in our daily lives is a defiled attachment. So, we must now experience the way to eliminate this defiled contact. When our Roots come into contact with the Dusts, this contact leads to feelings.
Carrying these defiled cravings, we create all kinds of karmic forces of “becoming”. In this way, we have come to be born and then die. With such defilement and attachment, [rebirth] is beyond our control. We understand that in spiritual practice, we should not be affected by these things. Spiritual practice is very simple, and this way of life is also very simple. The Buddha had three sets of robes and one bowl. This was enough to get Him through His whole life. We must earnestly engage in practice in this life and not allow external objects to contaminate us. This is already a practice in itself. So, we understand the Three Realms, in the Three Realms, in the desire realm, we must eliminate all kinds of desire. In the form realm and formless realm, we must let go of our attachments to things. So, this is called “the pure five desires”. The five desires are all purified. This will be explained later in more detail. “We abandon defiled and attached mindsets and uphold the Eight Abandonment’s.” We have to abandon this defiled attachment. We possess ignorance from the moment we are born. Greed, anger, ignorance arrogance and doubt are all of the habitual tendencies which are beyond our control in this life. We must abandon all of these, abandon al attachments of habitual tendencies. We must be mindful and uphold the Eight Liberations. With the Eight Liberations, we have already, one by one, eliminated these habitual tendencies of ordinary people. We have turned from them and left them behind.
This is like how we often explain “taking refuge”. In the Buddha’s teachings, taking refuge is like turning form the darkness to the light. Most ordinary people turn toward desires. Now we already understand. This is ordinary people’s greed, anger, ignorance. With all of their desires, they give rise to the habitual tendencies of greed, anger, ignorance arrogance, doubt, etc. Now we must turn away from them. This is called abandoning. We must abandon these ignorance and afflictions. We must no longer follow and pursue our ignorance and afflictions. We should turn our backs to them and not follow our ignorance or afflictions. We should abandon them and turn to face the light, this bright and clear path. We must uphold this.
When we abandon our mind of defiled attachments and uphold the Eight Abandonments, this is called “The Eight Liberations.” We should earnestly practice and uphold them, “cultivate dwelling on and contemplating them”. We must uphold the things that are right. As for past mistakes and habitual tendencies, we should abandon them. We must constantly “give rise to flawless wisdom”. If we are able to do this, then we will give rise to flawless wisdom. It is often said that with each measure of ignorance we eliminate, we increase our wisdom by the same measure. Our wisdom-life must come from the Dharma that we cultivate and take in without Leaks; we must not allow it to leak out again. When we always keep in mind all the Dharma we have heard, this is how we “cultivate dwelling on and contemplating them”.
We must always keep this in mind and contemplate it; it should not leave our minds. This way, amidst the five desires, we will not give rise to thoughts of greed, thoughts of anger, thoughts of ignorance, arrogance and doubt. We must abandon all of these one by one and earnestly dwell on [the Dharma]. Then we can attain flawless wisdom. We must form aspirations to cultivate wisdom without Leaks. Only it this way can we be liberated from the Three Realms.
The Three Realms consist of the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. Previously, there was a period when we kept discussing the Three Realms, so we should remember them. Thus, “We eliminate the Three Realms afflictions of delusions of views and thinking”. In the Three Realms, the worst is the desire realm. In the form realm, one’s desires will have diminished, but there are still cravings in one’s thoughts. They are merely in our thoughts. When one reaches the formless realm, there are only small remnants of afflictions that have not been completely eliminated. “We eliminate the Three Realms afflictions of delusions of views and thinking. We abandon ignorance to realize the fruits of Arhatship.”
Hearers and Solitary Realizers must go through this process, and spiritual practitioners must practice these teachings. If we do not practice these teachings, we will follow the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence and thus forever be dragged uncontrollably by our karma. This kind of cyclic existence is so painful and will continue like this ceaselessly. So, with these methods of practice for liberation we must put our effort into being mindful.
Thus, “We abandon ignorance to realize the fruits of Arhatship”. The Eight Liberations are also the Eight Abandonments. We need to extinguish ignorance and afflictions, which is why we call them the Eight Liberations. This is also how we practice.
During the Buddha’s lifetime, there was a bhiksu called Kappa. One day he asked the Buddha a question “The Buddha always hopes that sentient beings’ minds will be able to reach liberation. World-Honored One! How can a bhiksu’s mind be liberated? Just what has to be done in order for liberation to be attained?” He asked the Buddha, and the Buddha was very joyful. Kappa had taken the Dharma to heart. He was unsure, so her knew to ask. This means that the Dharma was in his mind. It was unclear to him, thus he knew to ask. So, the Buddha was very joyful and said, “It is so good that you know to ask.” I will quickly tell you. Kappa, you must earnestly reflect on yourself, ceaselessly contemplate and carefully look upon your own mind, must observe your mind. When your Six Roots are facing external things of all kinds, all of these things are what you must put effort into mindfully observing. You must even reflect on your past, or future, or present, or on your mind and body. You must mindfully observe and reflect. If you are able to earnestly reflect, understand and experience this, then you will discover, in you daily life, [the effects of], feeling, perception, action and consciousness. If you observe outwardly and inwardly and keep reflecting on you mind, you will know to contemplate the body as impure. Then, with all that you make contact with, you will again be able to understand impermanence. With this perspective of impermanence, you can seek to understand consciousness, our mind-consciousness. Within impermanence, we should observe everything inwardly and outwardly, from the smallest to the largest, from the prettiest to the ugliest of things. With your mind constantly linked to these, we then know that in the past, present and future, there is much impermanence. Our mind is also impermanent. It constantly connects to the external states, whether inwardly or outwardly. As for the big, small, beautiful, ugly, etc., are they not all impermanent? When you return to your consciousness, cravings for form, along with feeling, perception, action and consciousness, will all be comprehended. To be able to realize these things is called liberation of the mind. Do you understand?”
The Buddha said all of this to him. In our daily life, we must keep observing everything from our external states all the way down to our own mental and physical states and so on, even to our consciousness and the feelings and cravings, etc. that we experience. If we understand these things, that all things are impermanent, then that is how we take things in. If we are able to understand everything we create, then this is “liberation of the mind”.
Everyone, are our minds liberated? The Eight Liberations are only eight things. Have we fully understood them? As for attachments to the external five desires, have we eliminated them? And the delusions of views and thinking in the Three Realms, do we have a clear understanding of them? These are all very simple; are we able to understand them? The Buddha told Kappa about all the various objects in the world and about our bodies and minds. They are all the same; it is always in our daily living where we connect to these states. So, we must earnestly be mindful.
If we can understand this, then there is a way to return to cessation. There is a way to end these Links. From ignorance, we continue to follow the Links to the worries, sadness and distress of aging, illness and death. Then without any control, we bring karma to be born again. The links in this chain continue on this way. How can we move back through returning to cessation to totally eliminate all ignorance and affliction? We must very mindfully contemplate this.
The previous verse states, “The Buddha taught this Dharma to the assembly of humans and heavenly beings, 600 trillion nayutas of people”. This is a lot of people. “By remaining unaffected by all phenomena, having already abandoned all ignorance, all desires of defiled attachments, “[they] attained liberation from all Leaks and all attained profound and wondrous Samadhi”.
They attained liberation from all Leaks. They had achieved liberation from all Leaks, from afflictions and ignorance. “They all attained profound and wondrous Samadhi.” When we read this verse, we will be more clear about the Eight Liberations.
The next verse reads, “[They attained] the Three Insights, “Six Spiritual Powers and all Eight Liberations”. The Eight Liberations are the Eight Abandonments. The verses further state, “The second, third and fourth time He taught the Dharma, as many sentient beings as the thousands, millions, billions, nayutas of grains of sand of the Ganges…[They attained] the Three Insights, Six Spiritual Powers and all Eight Liberations.” The Three Insights and the Six Spiritual Powers are the virtues that Arhats possess. This is because they have already practiced everything in the past, including the Three Insights and the Six Spiritual Powers.
Do we still remember the Three Insights and the Six Spiritual Powers? The Three Insights are the insight into previous lives, the insight of the heavenly eye and the insight into ending all Leaks. Everyone should remember these. In the past we talked about and explained them. “The insight of the heavenly eye” is when we can understand future matters, whether for ourselves or others. This is “the insight of the heavenly eye”. We are already very clear, having listened to the Buddha-Dharma for so long. We should be able to understand our own or other people’s future matters. As for the insight into previous lives, because we know what our past karma was, when we come to this lifetime, we should clearly understand that there is no need to complain. In the past, we created this kind of karma and formed these kinds of affinities. So, with what we bring to this lifetime, whether our lives are good or bad, whether our lives are happy and free or filled with endless afflictions, is all caused by the causes and conditions we created in our past lives. We know that in our past lives we did this, so we should not complain about our current lives. In this life, we are able to meet the Buddha and have the Buddha-Dharma enter our minds. We have understood all our past karma, so we should eliminate it completely. “I vow to eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions.” Everything that we created in the past has become our obstructions in this lifetime. We must be very mindful to pay back the debts that we owe. When people obstruct us, what kind of demeanor of spiritual practice should we display to pay them back? If someone treats us like this, can we still act proud? With the Buddha-Dharma by our side, can we still act doubtful? We know clearly that we should not harbor greed, anger or ignorance. If we have an arrogant mindset, can we still allow it to exist? When others are not satisfied with us, it is because we are too arrogant; we are too proud. We must earnestly let go of our ego and make good connections with others.
We often speak about greed, anger and ignorance. We know these, but when it comes to arrogance, we are not often aware of it. Sometimes we are not polite when talking to people. We use harsh words and language. In our spiritual practice, don’t we want to use gentle words and kind language?
But we often do not pay attention to this. So, often our attitude or tone will offend people, which will give rise to negative affinities. This all happens without our awareness. This is because our minds’ eye is unclear; we still have ignorance in us. The insight of the heavenly eye is our mind’s eye. When it comes to our mind’s eye, our perspectives, we are still unclear about ourselves and others. Others have habitual tendencies, and we have habitual tendencies as well. Others can choose not to practice, but we still must practice. So, we must know ourselves and know others. We are spiritual practitioners, so we must clearly understand ourselves. We must also clearly understand others. Other people have these habitual tendencies. We are spiritual practitioners shouldn’t we first find ways to change our own habitual tendencies in order to be able to change others? This is how we understand future events.
In this life, if we do not have good affinities with someone, then the future will be the same. So, we must engage in spiritual practice, and thus we need “the insight into ending all Leaks.” We must cultivate the insight of ending all Leaks so that we may approach the Bodhisattvas and follow the Bodhisattvas-path. By following the Bodhisattvas-path, we can return to our intrinsic Tathagata-nature and eliminate all afflictions. Thus we truly walk the path to enlightenment. We eliminate all afflictions in order to approach the [state of] Bodhisattvas and get closer to the teachings of the Buddha. We must put this into action so that we are able to eliminate [afflictions]. With this insight of ending all Leaks, we eliminate all Leaks.
So, these are “the insight into previous lives, the insight of the heavenly eye and insight of ending all Leaks. Only with these does one attain Arhatship. In Arhats they are called the Three insights and in Buddhas the Three Understandings.”
The Six Spiritual Powers and the Three Understandings are the state of the Buddha. If you are an Arhat, then you understand, but you have not yet reached total comprehension. When you arrive at the state of Buddhahood, you will have unhindered comprehension. We have already explained this in detail before; these teachings were explained over this period.
What about the Spiritual Powers? Those are spiritual powers attained by the noble beings of the Three Vehicles, which are the power of the heavenly eye, the same as the insight of the heavenly eye, and the power of the heavenly ear, “the power of knowing others’ minds, the power of knowing past lives, the power of transporting oneself and insight of ending all Leaks.”
To have the power of the heavenly ear is easy. By relying on technology we have a way to transmit what is said here to the rest of Taiwan, to the entire world, without a second’s delay; this is the power of the heavenly ear.
In the Buddha’s time, He had already realized the Three Principles and Four States, the principles of matter, life and the mind. He understood these well, how the world and its matters came to be and how they break apart. Breaking apart, everything is empty; coming together, all things are formed. This is the Buddha’s awakening, what He realized about the universe. The power of knowing others’ minds is specific to the state of Buddhahood, or else it requires great spiritual practice to the point of truly obtaining wisdom and thus being able to understand what another is thinking. But we ordinary people are unable to do this now. Still, medical technology is capable of this. There is a type of hypnosis that puts you in a trance so you say out loud whatever your mind is thinking. Technology right now is approaching this.
Next is the power of knowing past lives, also known as the insight into previous lives. We know the past, present and future; we can understand them. As for the power of transporting oneself, right now do you come here or do I go there? For a period of time, I had video conferences with Nepal everyday. They would “come” or I would “go”. This all relies modern technology. I could see them and hear their voices; isn’t this the power of transporting oneself? From thousands of miles away, they can come and go in a flash. This is how the Buddha’s enlightened nature is able to reach everything.
The power of ending all Leaks is also called the insight of ending all Leaks. These are all called the Six Spiritual Powers, the Three insight and Six Spiritual Powers.
As for “the Eight Liberations, we just mentioned them briefly. They are also called the Eight Abandonments. The Eight Liberations are also called the Eight Abandonments. By abandoning the attachments to the pure five desires, they give rise to flawless wisdom. By eliminating delusions of views and thinking. In the Three Realms, they realize the fruits of Arhatship. To do this is attain the Eight Liberations.
“Abandoning the attachments to the pure five desires….” We ordinary people still have the five desires defiling us and seek to claim things as our own. But now we must abandon this. Not only should we not have the possessiveness of desire, we should not even think of wanting these things. Even in our thinking, we must not give rise to thoughts of craving, those feelings which lead us to grasp and cling. If you give rise to craving from feelings, then you will try to grasp, causing “becoming”. Once there is feeling, then there is craving, followed by grasping and becoming. This continues unceasingly.
So, this contact, feeling, craving, grasping and becoming should not even exist as a thought. This is “attachment to the pure five desires”. We must not be attached to the five desires; they must be completely abandoned. We abandon attachment to the pure five desires. This is in the form realm. Although there are these matters and forms, our minds are not attached to them. There is nothing; they are all abandoned. So, we already “gave rise to flawless wisdom”. In our mind, this flawless wisdom has already started to grow. Naturally, we will be able to “eliminate the Three Realms’ delusions of views and thinking”. Once we eliminate all the delusions of views and thinking, we are without Leaks; we have flawless wisdom.
With flawless wisdom, naturally we will be able to eliminate the Three Realms’ delusions of views and thinking. We will eliminate them completely. Naturally, we will realize Arhatship. The fruits of Hearers and Solitary Realizers are called the Eight Liberations. Once we have abandoned ignorance, we will be liberated.
Let us again explain “the pure five desires”. These is saying that the form, sound, smell, taste and touch of the desire realm are called the coarse five desires; they are obvious. Once I mention them, you know. With greed for form, once you see something, you want to obtain it. If you smell something good, you crave its taste and want to eat it. These are very obvious things. This is the desire realm of ordinary people. These desires are very coarse.
We have spoken of the poor son analogy before. The elder took off his lavish clothing and put on some dirty clothes to approach his son. This means that in the state of Buddhahood, [the Buddha] still returned to the world to live the same life as [everyone else]. This world, similarly, has the five desires. This poor son was greedy for the five desires. The father wanted to find his son, so he had to walk on the same path in order to bring him back.
The principle is the same. Thus, the five desires of form, sound, smell, taste and touch are the coarse five desires. So, “These desires are impure”. In the world, these five desires are impure. In the form realm, in the form realm or formless realm, form, sound, smell, taste and touch are the pure five desires, because these are things that they do not need anymore. The desires between man and woman are no longer needed at all; this is called purity. But in spiritual practice, even the pure five desires are abandoned. Even the thoughts are completely eliminated. So, this is called purity. We abandon all attachment to the pure five desires.
“Flawless wisdom” is that of the “practitioners of the Two Vehicles”. The Two Vehicles, Hearers and solitary Realizers, with this wisdom, “eliminate deluded karma preventing their descent into samsara”. Because they have this wisdom, they eliminated delusions of views and thinking. They do not let their wisdom leak away; naturally their wisdom does not leak away. Leaks refer to all afflictions. Without these afflictions, naturally we will not fall into the cycle of birth and death; there will be no ignorance to make us fall into this cycle of birth and death. We will not be pulled into this cycle of birth and death because of ignorance.
So, the Thee Realms are the desire realm, form realm and formless realm. Everyone is very clear on this. “The second, third and the fourth time He taught the Dharma…” The second, third and the fourth time He taught the Dharma, as many sentient beings as the thousands, millions, billions, nayutas of grains of sand of the Ganges: This is an enormous number, as numerous as the thousands, millions, billions, nayutas of grains of sand of the Ganges: This is an enormous number, as numerous as the thousands, millions billions of grains of sand of the Ganges. This was the assembly listening to the Dharma.
This is saying that when Great Unhindered Superior Wisdom Buddha turned the Dharma-wheel for the first time, there were already thousands, millions, billions of people. Moreover, this was done countless times. First, second, third and fourth represent countless times. After the Buddha first turned the Dharma-wheel, He then expounded the Dharma countless times. So, “This is an enormous number,” as “numerous as the thousands, millions, billions of grains of sand of the Ganges”. These are the people listening to Dharma; there were more and more people listening. As He expounded the Dharma countless times, there were more and more people listening. So, is says the second, third and fourth times, meaning many times. When He started endlessly expounding the Dharma, the people who listened were “as many as the thousands, millions, billions, nayutas of grains of sand of the Ganges”. There were countless sentient beings.
So, “When He first taught the Four Noble Truths and the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence,” there were already “600 trillion nayutas [who attained the truth]”. As He taught this Dharma, “the number of those who attained awakening by listening to the Dharma increased more and more”. The first time He expounded the Dharma, there were 600 trillion nayutas [of sentient beings]. Furthermore, He expounded the Dharma countless times. It is like when I began teaching the Lotus Sutra. From the day we began with “Such I have heard” until now, I have been teaching this way every day. I teach and people listen every day. Every day the number of people increases. The meaning is the same; there were more and more people listening to the Dharma.
As Buddhist practitioners, the Dharma we teach came from the Buddha. The teachings of the Buddha come from countless kalpas ago. How long ago was this? It was during the time of Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. How long ago was this? Dust-inked kalpas ago. The “dust“in dust-inked kalpas is just like the sands of the Ganges River. Before, an elderly Dharma Master went to India. When he arrived, of course he walked on the sands of the Ganges. As he walked by the Ganges, he brought some of the sand back he used a small jar to gather some of these sands from the Ganges River. He told me, “I went to India, to the Buddha’s birthplace. I walked around the Ganges River, and I brought this sand back. I will give you this jar of sand.” As I held the jar, I thought that thought this jar is so small, if I wanted to count the grains one by one it would not be possible. The sand is so fine, how would I count it? Even if I were to stick finger in it so some stuck to my finger, the sand on my finger would be uncountable. How would I count all the sand in this small jar? But the Buddha’s analogy was of dust-inked kalpas. In the sutras, “dust –inked kalpas” refers to a time of as many kalpas as dust [ in the universe]. One dust particle is such a tiny particle of sand or dust. It is s even finer than sand; it is just dust, like what collects on our tables and chairs. After days without cleaning, if we use our hands to wipe it, the table will have a layer of dust on it. This is called dust. Sand is coarser than this dust. So, we when use dust particles as an analogy for the number, there is truly no way to calculate it. So we say, “Even a mathematician and his disciples” are unable to count them. This is what the Buddha wanted to tell us. We all have had the intrinsic Buddha-nature for kalpas as incalculable as dust particles. We all intrinsically have the Buddha-nature of Great Unhindered Superior Wisdom Buddha. We are connected to Great Unhindered Buddha. He can connect to us as ordinary beings, and we can connect of Great Unhindered Buddha. “The mind, the Buddha and sentient beings are no different [in their nature]. There is so much Dharma, where should we begin to learn it? For instance, there are the Eight Liberations. If we are able to understand the Eight Abandonments and abandon all ignorance, then this is the method of returning to cessation; we will be able to return to our intrinsic nature. If we put effort into being mindful, spiritual practice is in our daily living. It is not difficult at all, as long as we are always mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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