Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Helping Sentient Beings Be in Virtuous Places (說種種法 置之善處)
Date: May.01.2017
“Bodhisattvas understand that sentient beings create all kinds of karma due to delusion and are oppressed by samara, so they sink into the evil realms. They give teachings of all kinds of Dharma in order to eliminate unwholesome ways, help sentient beings be in virtuous places and enable each of them to have peace and stability.”
This world is full of suffering. Only Bodhisattvas and Buddhas understand where the suffering of sentient beings comes from. Bodhisattvas know that sentient beings create all kinds of deluded karma. With delusions, we do not see the world clearly and cannot discern the principles. Thus, when an ignorant thought arises, we become confused and continue to reproduce more delusions. When deluded, we do not know our life’s direction. With delusions and doubts, we have conflicts in interpersonal relationships and hardships continue to be produced. These are the karmic forces created by sentient beings in delusion. Once karma is created, karmic forces will ceaselessly entangle us. As our minds are constantly entangled by karma, things remain beyond our control. In this way, our lives continue to sink deeper into [this entanglement]. Thus, it says that we “are oppressed by samsara, so [we] sink into the evil realms.” We cannot control our birth nor can we control our death. Our birth and death are not things we can decide. Thus, this is the suffering of life; we continue to sink into the evil realms. The many different kinds of teachings we are given show the compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They go among people in order to continuously [teach] according to sentient beings’ capacities and needs. Using all kinds of methods, they continually give us teachings. This is the compassion of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They hope that we can eliminate unwholesome ways by engaging in virtuous practices. Among the Buddha’s teachings to sentient beings, this is the most fundamental. People must abandon evil and take up goodness. “Refrain from all evil and do all that is good.” This is the teaching of all Buddhas. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas teach us in this way. They hope we can begin by doing good in our life and cultivating a kind and loving heart. This is very fundamental and also very simple. Everyone is able to do this. These teachings are not difficult, as long as we put our heart into this and are willing to accept it. Starting with the most fundamental, good thought, we naturally will continue to do good deeds and give rise to good thoughts every day. When we give rise to good thoughts and good deeds, every day will be a joyous day. We will foster this interest in goodness and nurture it into a habit of practicing good deeds.
This also requires some time to develop. As we do more good deeds, naturally we will slowly eliminate evil deeds and will no longer have the habit of doing evil. We will no longer have any interest of being dragged around by bad habits. This is how we nurture our good thoughts while slowly eliminating unwholesome thoughts. This becomes a habit. As we nurture good habits, naturally we eliminate our negative habitual tendencies. This is not impossible. If we are able to nurture this fundamental spiritual practice, naturally we can continue to advance forward. By cultivating a bit of endurance, we can patiently endure our material desires without giving rise to discursive thoughts. “This is so beautiful! I like it a lot.” With our past habitual tendencies, if we like it, we buy it. And when we like another, then we buy that. This becomes a habitual tendency of consuming. So, for small material desires like this, we should be patient and not buy it. As for the craving for taste, the things we usually like to eat are living animals that were slaughtered. They were cooked to satisfy our craving for taste. Now we gradually understand that they are also moving, living, feeling beings. Thus, we should maintain a vegetarian diet. If we always maintain a vegetarian diet, naturally, when we see animals, we will give rise to the thought that all lives are equal and all living beings have Buddha-nature. When we believe this, we will endure this craving for taste. We will not want to eat them; in fact, we will respect them. This is what patience means, we endure [the desire] to do what we should not do. We must suppress and control discursive thoughts of cravings and desire. These discursive thoughts are what we musts gradually [learn to] endure.
We must be able to endure external conditions. When people scold us or slander us or do many other things, it makes us unhappy. “It is not like that. Why would you say this?” Ah, we must be patient; when we hold back, the world opens up. This patience slowly develops from enduring small things into the great practice of patience. Naturally, toward people, matters and things, we can develop great kindness and great patience. We will not only endure greed for possessions, but we will also be able to give up what we love and be willing to give them away. This is how, from small habitual tendencies, we can develop great aspirations. This is all Buddhas’ and Bodhisattvas’ most fundamental teaching. We must learn to accept this teaching and from the Small [Vehicle] gradually enter the Great Dharma. We eliminate our unwholesome ways; even minor negative [acts] must be eliminated. Then, we can start to practice small acts of kindness and continue to develop them into great acts of kindness. We can also practice great patience. This is how spiritual practitioners, those who accept the Buddha-Dharma, begin to walk their path.
The Buddha taught us in this way, hoping that we can reach and “be in virtuous places”. He hoped that with our habitual tendencies, the tendencies of unenlightened beings, we can be shifted toward the most virtuous places. The goodness that is infused into our minds “enables each of us to have peace and stability”. Every day, we can have a peaceful and stable mind, with a clear conscience. Everything that we do is wholesome. When we accept all the Buddha’s teachings and have done what we need to do, done all the things that we should do, our minds can be peaceful and stable. Though we want to reach this place of peace and stability, we are still walking the path; as we take the Buddha-Dharma to heart, we must put it into practice. So, as spiritual practitioners, whether we are lay or monastic practitioners, we must accept the Buddha’s teachings and take them to heart. We must earnestly practice according to teachings; this is the path that we must walk. As it is, this path is truly rocky and dangerous, wild and desolate. It truly is very frightening.
In our lives, it is we ourselves who are born and we ourselves who die. Everyone has their own journey of birth and death. Even if we have a lot of family or relatives, we experience everything by ourselves. We experience our own birth and the process of growing up. Do we live our days with a peaceful, stable mind? Or is our mind all day long full of unstable thoughts? All of this depends on us. Others may think our thoughts are not steady, that we cannot see through things or love getting hung up on them, even if they try to encourage us, we may still be unable to open the doors of our mind. We may remain depressed and let it develop into a mental condition. With this mental condition, who can keep us company? We will still be on our own. With the afflictions in our mind, we will be unhappy every day. Those who encourage us cannot accompany us, because deep inside our mind is a desolate wilderness. We think that we are alone, so we become anxious and depressed. We are by ourselves as we grow old, fall ill and pass away. We also face aging ourselves; no one can stop this process, and we are unable to make it stop either. We continue until we get ill and die. Think about our lives; isn’t coming to this world a lonely thing? Everyone is on their own in the wilderness. We must face everything on our own. When we create karma, we must face the retributions ourselves. In our minds, we are often ignorant and afflicted. We ourselves create this. Once we act and karmic forces are created, we ourselves must face the retributions for this. This seed of karma will never be transplanted to someone else, to someone else’s storehouse-consciousness. Our own storehouse-consciousness is the result of our actions. Those seeds enters our storehouse-consciousness; that is beyond our control. What we experience is the suffering of sentient beings’ collective karma. All sentient beings today have karma.
When these karmic forces converge, they influence the whole world. This is how we sentient beings create individual karma and thus end up living together as a result of our circumstantial retributions. This is sentient begins’ collective karma. This is the case with the refugees nowadays too. Due to each individual’s karma causes and effects from their past lives, they were born in the same time period and lived together on the same land. This land was the fruition of the causes and conditions they created. And in this way, the world cannot find peace and stability, as just a few people whose minds were stirred up, caused so many people to become refugees. The path through this world is very dangerous.
Recently, we have been talking about the turmoil in Syria that has been occurring since 2011. It was the extension of societal problems, which are also from the problems of people’s minds. These extend to society, then to the whole country, thus causing the refugee crisis. Now (2015), it has been over four years already. In that country, the total population was only around 20 million. Because of this wave of turmoil, the death toll is already more than hundreds of thousands. The number of refugees is more than 10 million. Think about it; this population of 20 million is now fleeing everywhere. So, there are that many people, more than 10 million people, with broken families. Some brought their entire family as they fled. This is truly suffering. Every day, the news continually reports about this.
In Syria, originally people in the north had more trade, so their living environment was much better. They lived a good life and often owned a business, [worked] internationally or had relatives abroad. When they fled, they were likely to have someone receive them, so their lives would be a bit easier. Some people who escaped were able to go to metropolitan areas, such as in Turkey. Turkey mostly accepts people who are from the north. The northern Syrians fled toward Turkey and other European countries. However in Jordan, the refugees are those from southern Syria. Southern Syrians are poorer, as most of them were farmers. As farmers, they did not lead a very good life. As the south is closer to Jordan, they fled there. Their situation in Jordan is heart-wrenching. During these three, four years, Tzu Chi volunteers in Jordan have been devoting themselves for a long period of time. Compared to the Jordanian population, the number of refugees is not insignificant. Tzu Chi volunteers who dedicate themselves there have to collaborate with local charitable groups. With this power of love, they meet and work together.
However, Tzu Chi volunteers in Jordan accompany [the refugees] for the long-term. Apart from working with other charitable organizations, this small Tzu Chi group also provides long-term accompaniment. Wherever there is suffering and illness, they help by providing medicine. Some families are truly without a stable home. Even living in the tents, they must quickly migrate. Then we must follow their migration. Tzu Chi volunteers follow these refugees. These families are full of suffering. There are so many children, are sick or suffering. We know this, so we follow those who are especially suffering. Wherever they move, Tzu Chi volunteers continue to follow them and find these families to provide them with long-term support. This is the news we frequently receive. In particular, in the hospital, there was a middle-aged person who was injured. While fleeing, he was shot and his pelvis was injured. Not only was his pelvis damaged, he also injured his ankle. He was in that hospital for a whole year. One good thing about that place is that everyone has a cellular phone. So, when they find a patient who is in a very difficult situation, they would use their phones to contact someone locally to come to help this person who is going through the worst suffering in the hospital. Upon receiving this message, they immediately report the case to Tzu Chi. After receiving the message, Tzu Chi volunteers then go to the hospital. That was how they discovered Ahmed, who was very pitiable. He could only lie in bed, and his wounds were infected. What could they do? They had to go elsewhere to get medicine for him. So, Tzu Chi volunteers went to buy medicine, anti-inflammation drugs, antibiotics and so on. They gave them to the hospital to treat him. They also found that his pelvis was wounded. So, they asked the doctor to replace it with an artificial pelvis. In the end, Tzu Chi volunteers helped him, and the hospital replaced his pelvis with an artificial one. After more than one year of recovering there, he was able to leave the hospital. He missed his wife and children in his hometown very much. As his wife was Pakistani, she was unable to escape across the border. He still thought of his wife and children. After more than a year, he had not heard anything from them. Now he has recovered and is able to stand up. After slowly recovering, with the assistance of Tzu Chi volunteers, he returned home.
Recently, he contacted the Tzu Chi volunteers and sent them a family photo with his mobile phone. He had reunited with his wife and children. Although things are not stable for this family, at least they are together as a family. He can be with his wife and children again. In this refugee camp, there are Tzu Chi volunteers who continue to follow the migration of suffering refugees. They provide relief distribution for them. One day, there was a refugee who saw Brother Chi Hui and said to him, “The man Tzu Chi volunteers helped, Ahmed, was able to return home”. Every day, such messages are passed around. They saw that he was able to return home and also saw how many refugees in Jordan are still suffering. How do Tzu Chi volunteers help them? They cannot only do it once; they provide long-term, continuous support. No matter how busy the volunteers are, they will visit them at least once every two day. When they are very busy, they will go the next day. He said that over this long period of time, [Tzu Chi volunteers] have provided such care, giving medical assistance, medicine and food. As word spreads around, most Syrians know about these charitable organizations, particularly Tzu Chi. The love of these volunteers is long-lasting, and they are always there to help people. These are the words the refugees said to Brother Chi Hui. All in all, there are many dangers in this world. In this time period, in this world, we see much suffering. It is truly unbearable suffering. Fundamentally, our lives are beyond our control. We come and go as we create karma, and always we face the results of our actions. We come and go by ourselves; it is a lonely life. With the karma that we created, many things do not go our way, so we suffer so much torment. We cannot help ourselves; we continue to create karma in delusion. So, we “are oppressed by samsara, so [we] sink into the evil realms. Creating karma in this way is what sentient beings do. Only the Buddha and Bodhisattvas come and go in this world, giving all kinds of teachings. They teach us to eliminate unwholesome ways and nurture us so we walk in a good direction. They help us to be able to manifest our great love in the world. Even if there is suffering in this world, we can be the benefactors of those who suffer and save them, this requires cultivating our mindset. We can help everyone return to a good place, to a peaceful and stable place. Despite [the war] in Syria, this man still returned to Syria. We must also wish him well and hope that their society will be peaceful once again. We hope that his family can be united forever and that they will not be separated again. But this requires Bodhisattvas to help. It will also depend on whether his karmic forces allow him to recover. This hope requires everybody’s effort.
The previous sutra passage states, “The guiding teacher has many skillful means so he gives rise to this thought, ‘These people are truly pitiable. Why do they give up a great treasure and wish to retreat and go back?”
Life is like this. the road used to be safe, but because of an ignorant thought in the past, we have let this road become fraught with danger. we were able to find a teacher who would guide us, yet we choose to retreat, this guiding teacher could not bear to see this. he felt that these people are pitiable. Why is that? “Why, when you are so close to the treasure, do you wish to retreat and go back? In the path of the Three Vehicles, we have already passed through Two Vehicles. After them is the path of the Great Vehicle”. Upon reaching the path of the Great Vehicle, why do you stop, retreat and go back? “That is such a pity”. So, he had to use skillful means in order to draw them back and encourage them.
In the next passage, “having given rise to this thought, means he felt that these people were pitiable why do they stop like this, retreating from the Great toward the Small?
Thus, ”Having given rise to this thought, with the power of skillful means, 300 yojanas along the dangerous road he conjures a city and tells these people, ‘All of you, do not fear. You must not retreat and go back.’”
He quickly tells everyone this the Buddha told everyone to steady their minds, because the Buddha thinks of these sentient beings. The Buddha feels compassion for, consider and contemplate them. His thoughts were all on how to let these people continue to move forward. “He provisionally used the power of skillful means of the Three Vehicles”.
Having given rise to this thought, he applies the power of skillful means: after the Buddha had given rise to such a thought, He provisionally used the power of skillful means of the Three Vehicles. The guiding teacher has this thought of pity. This is his wisdom of skillful means. He teaches how to eliminate delusion, karma, suffering and so on and leads them to escape the Three Realms and attain Arhatship. He then promises that they have already entered the city of Nirvana, this is the guiding teacher’s power of skillful means.
Provisional means still had to be used. Provisional means are the skillful means of using the Three Vehicles, the three carts, to slowly draw in and guide people. He must first help them escape the burning house, then guide them toward the different abilities of the Three Vehicles. This is the compassion of the guiding teacher. “The guiding teacher had this thought of pity”. The Buddha was compassionate and His heart went out to sentient beings.
Every sentient beings is like the Buddha’s child. He is “kind father of the four kinds of beings, not only of people but of all animals, of all things with life. The Buddha treasures all of them. Thus, the Buddha is like the guiding teacher who has this thought of pity. He sees how humans are able to engage in spiritual practice. it is rare to be born human, and it is rare to hear the Buddha-Dharma. Since we have heard the Buddha-Dharma and have attained the human form, why do we want to retreat?
Thus, He “has this thought of pity. This is the guiding teacher’s power of skillful means.” The Buddha used skillful wisdom to skillfully guide us. “He teaches the Dharma of eliminating delusion, karma, suffering and so on.” The Buddha began to transform sentient beings by teaching the Dharma of eliminating delusion, karma, suffering and so on. Sentient beings’ karma is truly like this. Life after life, sentient beings constantly create karmic forces. Every person creates karma, and each faces the consequences. How could He help people to eliminate the karma of ignorance and delusion and stop creating it? The only way was to earnestly guide everyone out of the Three Realms. Thus, “[He] leads them to escape the Three Realms and attain Arhatship”. In the beginning, the Buddha led everyone to renounce the lay life. Only by renouncing the lay life can one be liberated from the path of birth and death, as one will be free of burdens and contrived affinities, in spiritual practice, as we go among people, we should not contrive affinities. We transform sentient beings without being defiled. However, as lay practitioners, even if we liberate ourselves, we still have the burdens of our family members. By becoming a monastic, we have no worries and will not contrive affinities again. Without any worries, we are able to go among people and transform sentient beings. So, we must eliminate afflictions and train ourselves to eliminate ignorance completely. We must eliminate the delusions of our discursive thoughts. Then naturally we will be able to attain the fruit.
Arhatship is a state that is free from ignorance and delusion. So, “He then promises that they have already entered the city of Nirvana”. He said to them, “If you are able to realize Arhatship, you can enter Nirvana. You can come to this place”. This is the Buddha’s compassion. How does He transform myriad sentient beings? He must begin by expounding the Four Noble Truths and other teachings until everyone can understand. When they have eliminated afflictions, they are able to enter the city of Nirvana. People think Nirvana means eliminating all ignorance and afflictions to not undergo arising and ceasing; this is true. Our minds will reach the state of non-arising and non-ceasing. “This is the guiding teacher’s power of skillful means”. But have we really reached the end? “300 yojanas along the dangerous road…”.
300 yojanas along the dangerous road: On the dangerous road of the Five Realms, they have reached the land of remainder of skillful means, outside the Three Realms. This is the land where Two Vehicle practitioners and those who are not yet Dharmakaya Bodhisattvas live. Moreover, practitioners here have passed through the dangerous road of the Five Realms and already crossed over 300 yojanas. This refers to having ended the Three Realms’ delusion, karma and suffering.
In this world, in the Five Realms, practitioners have already escaped danger. Now we all know the Five Realms and four forms of birth. When we create karma in this world, we easily fall downward in the Five Realms. This is a dangerous road. We already know this. We are also engaging in spiritual practice. So, we have already passed through the Five Realms and are now in the land of remainder of skillful means, outside of the Three Realms. We have abandoned the desire realm, understood the form realm and are doing our best to eliminate ignorance. In the formless realm, we still have remainders of delusions. This is the state Arhats reach. Hearers and Arhats are in this state. They have passed through 300 yojanas. Having gone 300 yojanas, they are in the land of remainder, outside of the Three Realms. They still have not transcended, because they still have remaining delusions.
So, this is where Two Vehicle practitioners and those who are not yet Dharmakaya Bodhisattvas reside. As for their minds, they have already passed the dangerous road of the Five Realms. Spiritual practitioners have already understood the principles. They have understood the principles of the Five Realms and four forms of birth. They have eliminated ignorance. These are Two Vehicle practitioners. They are those who practice the Two Vehicles’ path and teachings.
There are also those who form aspirations to walk the Bodhisattva-path. We are all newly-inspired Bodhisattvas. Although we go among people and continuously give, give without expectations, we are still unenlightened beings. There are still many principles which we are still unclear on. Sometimes when we encounter external conditions, we give rise to discursive thoughts and still have layers of afflictions. We are still in an unenlightened state. But we have already understood the principles and dedicated ourselves. We have transcended the Five Realms. “Moreover, practitioners have passed through the dangerous road of the Five Realms and already crossed over 300 yojanas”. This is the spiritual practitioners’ level of cultivation. They have passed the dangerous road of the Five Realms. By passing it, they have attained understanding. This Dharma has entered their minds. They have understood it thoroughly. They have “already crossed over 300 yojanas”. This is an analogy “of having ended the Three Realms delusion, karma and suffering”. Crossing over 300 yojanas is an analogy for ending the Three Realms’ delusion, karma and suffering. When there is delusion, we will still create karma. We must completely eliminate these delusions, which are as intricate and subtle and dust.
We have previously mentioned [the delusions of] views and thinking, ignorance and dust-like phenomena; these are the three kinds [of delusions] Afflictions are in our daily living. “Ah, I feel very afflicted”. Then there is also ignorance that often obscures our mind. When there is constantly ignorance, we cannot see the principles clearly. Ignorance obscures them. When ignorance arises, we can easily do great evil deeds. So now, we have already eliminated afflictions [of views and thinking], but as for dust-like delusions, there are still many, and they are so intricate. We must continue [to engage in spiritual practice]. So, to end delusions of view and thinking, teachings of skillful means must be employed.
He applied the teachings of skillful means to deliver and transform Two Vehicle practitioners. By eliminating delusions of views and thinking, they escape the suffering of the Three Realms. Thus it says: 300 yojanas along the dangerous road.
Similarly, the Buddha guided us, delivered and transformed us this way. Two Vehicle practitioners must advance again to eliminate delusions of views and thinking. With everything we see and think, there are these very intricate delusions, which we must mindfully be vigilant of. By eliminating delusions of views and thinking, we can “escape the suffering of the Three Realms”. When we have desires and thinking or when we give rise to discursive thoughts, we must constantly be careful. This is “300 yojanas along the dangerous road”. By passing the dangerous road of the Five Realms, we also transcend the Three Realms. So, everyone was tired and wanted to stop. To stop is to retreat; they were unable to diligently advance. Thus, “He conjures a city and tells these people. With skillful means, he posits this”. This is the guiding teacher’s wisdom.
“With skillful means, he posits this. This means He provisionally teaches about the Small [Vehicle] fruits. He enables them to realize the limited fruit with provisional teachings. Thus, it says, ‘He conjures a city”’.
The provisional teachings allowed everyone to temporarily attain the small fruit. He tells the Arhats, “You have already attained the fruit of Arhatship. With this first through fourth fruit, now you have attained Arhatship, the supreme fruit of the Small Vehicle. By practicing step by step, you were able to completely eliminate delusions of views and thinking. You have attained this fruit”. This is using skillful means to posit this and thus continually encourage them. “This means He provisionally teaches about the Small [Vehicle] fruits”. Using skillful means, He explains the fruit that they have attained. He helps spiritual practitioners to first attain the small fruit within the teachings of provisional means. He first lets them have a small place to sit. “Thus, it says, ‘He conjures a city’”. This is an analogy for “the three turnings of the Four Noble Truths”.
This is an analogy for the three turnings of the Four Noble Truths. The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle is fundamentally not the ultimate. It is also not a place that Practitioners can find refuge, but the Buddha gives provisional teachings so they can reach this place, which is the state of Nirvana. Thus it says, “He conjures up a city”. This explains that this city is not the ultimate reality.
The Buddha began to expound the Dharma by teaching the Four Noble Truths. He turned the Dharma-wheel three times. When He began, He tirelessly spoke of the Four Noble Truths. He continued to use the limited teachings and repeated this cycle to let everyone understand that life is suffering. For example, in explaining the Lotus Sutra, From the beginning till now, it has continually talked about suffering. Everything in life is suffering. The sutra says this, too. Apart from suffering, there is also danger. In the Chapter on the Conjured City, there are many [ descriptions of] danger, not only suffering. This dangerous path truly is full of suffering. The Buddha unceasingly repeated this teaching. “The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle is fundamentally not the ultimate”. The Nirvana of the Small Vehicle Is not the ultimate. Although afflictions are eliminated and we are transformed, it is not the ultimate. “It is also not a place that practitioners can find refuge”. In this place, they only seek to awaken themselves. Where do they go next? Have they really eliminated samsara? Where will they go next? They have no true way to peace and stability. They still cannot understand where they can safely reside. The Buddha has already achieved Buddhahood, but where can they abide peacefully? The Buddha taught them, “You must continue forward toward the state of Buddhahood”. This is the Buddha’s intent. To continue forward is to continue with the Great Vehicle Dharma.
So, next it says, “But the Buddha gives provisional teachings so they can reach this place, which is the state of Nirvana. Thus it says, ‘He conjures up a city’”. Now that people have reached this place and have already attained the small fruit, the Buddha began to let everyone know, “Where you have arrived is only a conjured city. This explains that this city is not the ultimate reality. As you continue walking into the city, there will be a place for you to stop and rest”. At the end, He will also say, “Where you have stopped is not real”. It was only to help everyone to calm their minds that he says, “There is a city there, do not be afraid. Do not retreat and do not stop. Keep moving forward. See, there is a city over there. When we enter the city, we will be at peace”. So, “All of you, do not fear. You must not retreat and go back”.
All of you, do not fear. “You must not retreat and go back”. All of you with limited capabilities, do not give rise to fear at the great teachings. You must not feel weary tired and along the war retreat and go back. This was the turning of persuasion, he persuaded them to advance and enter the city.
“All of you” refers to those with limited capabilities. “Do not give rise to fear at the great teachings. This is the Great Dharma that benefits everyone. This fear of the great teachings is not acceptable. “You must not retreat and go back. Do not feel weary or tired”. We must raise our spirits and not renounce going among people. We must continue forward. “Along the way, do not retreat and go back”. We must not retreat and turn back along the way. We must not do this. We must pay more attention and move forward. The conjured city in front of us is near. This is beginning “the turning of persuasion,” the turning from the Small to the Great. The Chapter on the Conjured City is “the turning of persuasion” for Small Vehicle practitioners. It persuades them to continue to move forward. The place of treasures is near. We must raise our spirits and continue forward. This is the Buddha’s wisdom, to persuade those in the Small Vehicle to move toward the path of the Great Vehicle. The Buddha put His heartfelt effort into this. We must all understand the Buddha’s intent and take His mind as our own mind. This means we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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