Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Gathering the Hearers to Teach the One Vehicle (集諸聲聞 為說一乘 )
Date: June.02.2017
“With a mind of loving-kindness, He thinks of sentient beings as relatives and dearest loved ones. With a compassionate heart, He gives to them without resentment or regret. When He is able to see sentient beings in a state of peace, stability and joy, His heartfelt joy cannot be described with words.”
The Buddha’s compassion is such that He thinks of sentient beings as if they were His own dearly beloved ones. There is no sentient beings He does not love. Every sentient beings is His most beloved. If we think about it like this, we sentient beings should also have the greatest respect for the Buddha, who is like a teacher and a father. The Buddha treated His disciples as both their teacher and their father. In the way He views the world’s sentient beings, over dust-inked kalpas and unlimited rounds of birth and death, He looks upon all sentient beings equally, all in the same way. He feels loving-kindness for them as if they were family or dearest loved ones. Thinking in this way, He is never willing to abandon anyone and is thus called guiding teacher of the Three Realms, kind father of the four kinds of beings. This was the Buddha’s loving-kindness. He hoped all sentient beings would be able to create and attain blessings. This is loving-kindness.
“With a compassionate heart, He gives to them without resentment or regret.” This is the Buddha’s compassionate heart. With His universal compassion, “When others hurt, He aches; when others suffer, He grieves.” This is the way a mother treats her child; if her child is sad, or if her child is in pain, as a parent, she will certainly feel, “I would willingly suffer in my child’s place. I would willingly suffer his pain for him.” With the heart of a parent, one is willing to give everything for one’s child without any regret. This is great loving-kindness without regret, great compassion without resentment. A heart without resentment or regret like this, is known as a heart of great compassion. The Buddha’s heart is also like this. To give for sentient beings’ sake, He continually comes and goes, never giving up even over dust-inked kalpas. He never abandons sentient beings in any lifetime. Lifetime after lifetime He remains the same. He thinks of sentient beings as His most beloved family. He takes them as His own children. With thinking like this He serves others, without either resentment or regret. This is the heart of the Buddha.
When the Buddha sees sentient beings in a state of peace, stability and joy, sees them enjoying peace and stability sees them joyful and happy, without afflictions, without suffering, having already attained peace and stability, this is what make His most joyful. The happiness He feels inside is indescribable. It is impossible to describe His joy. When sentient beings enjoy peace, when they are safe and stable, when they are liberated from suffering, these are the things that bring the greatest joy to the Buddha. So, we should know that the Buddha’s resolve is to give for the sake of sentient beings. Our relationship with our parents is for this one lifetime. In this lifetime, our mother and father gave birth to us. However, time is short. By the time they have raised us, we quickly leave our parents to establish a family of our own. Life is short. No matter how obedient a child is, no matter how filial, the time spent together with parents will always be limited. No matter how parents feel about their children, sometimes if their child does bad things, if their child does not behave, parents have been known to give up on them. They no longer want that child. This is not unheard of either.
But the Buddha was quite clear. He follows sentient beings life after life, coming and going like this for dust-inked kalpas. He always looked upon sentient beings as His most dear and beloved ones. He was willing to give for sentient beings’ sake without resentment or regret, for endless amounts of time. He has only one objective, for sentient beings to be delivered, for the Dharma to enter our hearts, for us to escape the Three Realms and eradicate our dust-like ignorance. When we have completely eliminated afflictions, we can abide in the safe and stable true Dharma. Only then will the Buddha’s mind be at ease. Then the Buddha will be at ease and joyful. This is the Buddha’s aspiration.
The Buddha comes to the world life after life through the Dharma of True Suchness. What the Tathagata teaches us never strays from this Dharma. What He taught us was to practice giving; those practicing giving attain great wealth. This is loving-kindness. He hoped for us to create blessings in the world.
The Tathagata says that those practicing giving will attain great wealth, those upholding precepts are like pure pearls, those maintaining patience can be free from all anger and hatred, those with diligence are replete with all merits and virtues, those cultivating Samadhi can put an end to all scattered thoughts and those exercising wisdom can let go of all afflictions. These ways of transforming sentient beings are all for enabling one to transcend the cycle of suffering and attain all Dharma-joy and great freedom of mind.
If everyone created more blessings in the world, if everyone was someone who benefited others, then wouldn’t the world be filled with abundance? But how do we create blessings? Do you all still remember? The Brahma kings cultivated supreme good deeds; this kind of goodness transcends that created by ordinary people in the would. Good deeds are blessings, and blessings are wealth. The causes of wealth lie in doing good, in creating blessings. Then what is attained is wealth. These are the karmic causes and conditions. As is the cause, so is the effect. When causes are blessings, the effects are wealth. This is goodness.
So, the Brahma kings practiced supreme good deeds, and what they enjoyed as a result was the wealth of the pure Brahma heavens. Those Brahma kings had also listened to the Buddha-Dharma, so they understood that they should create blessings and do good. Thus, they practiced supreme good deeds. We must not merely practice supreme good deeds. When the Buddha was in the world, He also constantly taught us to uphold precepts. If everyone can uphold precepts, they will be like a pure and radiant pearl. A pure and radiant pearl remains unblemished while giving to help others. They do good deeds and create blessings while remaining undefiled by the world’s afflictions. They are like precious pearls. Though a pearl may be immersed in filth, if you pick it out of the filth, it still remains pure. If you just rinse it off a little, naturally this bright pearl will return to its shiny and brilliant luster.
He also taught us patience. He not only taught us to uphold the precepts like a pure pearl, He also taught us that “those maintaining patience can be free from all anger and hatred”. He taught that we must know how to be patient, to get rid of our aura-like habitual tendencies. Auras willfully misinterpret others’ intentions. They become angry and lose their tempers. Someone may say something without any bad intentions, but they misinterpret those intentions and become angry. The karma sentient beings create with each other all arises from a single angry thought.
As humans, if we want to get along peacefully, patience is the only way. For there to be harmony among people, patience is also the way. This is the method Buddha taught us for how to pass our days peacefully in the world. He taught us to be accommodating, to be patient. Then, naturally we will gradually eliminate our afflictions of anger.
He also taught us to be diligent. Every day we say that we should be diligent. “With each passing day, we draw closer to death.” This is the way the world is. In time, space and our relationships with others, everything depends on time to come to fruition; it brings to fruition people benefiting and doing good deeds for one another. It is time that brings any environment to fruition. So, we must always be diligent. Those with diligence are replete with all merits and virtues. Those with diligence will definitely be replete with all merits and virtues. All goodness, all blessed karma, is attained through being diligent. If we only think, “It want to do good, I want to create blessings,” but are unwilling to take action, unwilling to give of ourselves, then how can we attain these? So, we must be diligent, earnest and diligent in putting teachings into action. Wherever there is disaster, wherever there is difficulty, we will certainly be un-summoned teachers and very happily get involved in order to help resolve sentient beings’ difficulties and help them free themselves from troubles. This requires diligence; we must be un-summoned teachers. The world’s sentient beings truly face much suffering. There are also many in the midst of afflictions that they cannot resolve or escape from. Those are the people who really need earnest and diligent Bodhisattvas to be un-summoned teachers who proactively go to help them. This is how they are “replete with all merits and virtues”. They are replete with all merits and virtues. This requires diligence, since sentient beings’ sufferings are many. Whatever their kind of suffering, we are always willing to help them, so we become “replete in all merits and virtues”. This is what we can attain. We become replete in merits and virtues.
Next, “Those cultivating Samadhi can put an end to all scattered thoughts.” All of us have scattered thoughts. See, we form aspirations now, but then quickly, when circumstances arise, those thoughts of diligence or patience very quickly become scattered. So, we need to cultivate meditative concentration, cultivate Samadhi. We need to have Samadhi. Meditative concentration is right mindfulness. Samadhi is remaining unwavering. Then our aspirations are firm and we have right mindfulness. With right mindfulness and a firm resolve, we naturally put an end to all scattered thoughts. We can calm our scattered minds. Yesterday we talked about fluctuating, about rising and sinking. With our afflictions of samsara, sometimes we rise and sometimes we sink. With the teachings of diligence, sometimes we are diligent and rise, sometimes we are indolent and sink. So, when diligence increases, our afflictions of samsara are eliminated. If our ignorance increases, our afflictions of samsara and our suffering begin again. So, as sentient beings, our minds are rising and sinking like this, always fluctuating. This is because we are scattered. We must get rid of this scattered mind. Only through right mindfulness and firm aspirations will we be able to do this and put an end to all scattered thoughts. This requires us to be diligent; only then can we be firm in our right mindfulness and strengthen our aspirations.
He also taught us wisdom. Wisdom is letting go of afflictions. Only through wisdom can we let go of afflictions. What is true and what is illusory? We must be very clear about this. True Dharma is able to help us. We can see worldly Dharma very clearly. We understand world-transcending Dharma as well. Only wisdom enables us to clearly understand this. In times of great change, we must clearly discern right from wrong. We must be able to clearly understand what right and wrong are and distinguish them clearly. “These ways of transforming sentient beings were what the Buddha used to transform beings when He came to the world. So, He is called the guiding teacher. He wanted to lead us across that dangerous, evil path, to teach us how to get rid of ignorance, stabilize our resolve and actualize the Six Paramitas in all of our actions. These were the ways the Buddha transformed us. Like a guiding teacher He led us.
So, [these] “are all for enabling one to transcend the cycle of suffering”. The Buddha came to the world for one great cause, for one thing only, so sentient beings would not have to remain in the Six Realms, would not have to remain in samsara, in the cyclic existence of the four forms of birth. He hoped we would quickly transcend these. So, the Buddha led sentient beings. His goal in teaching us over many lifetimes is entirely in the hope that we would all “attain all Dharma-joy and great freedom of mind”. He hopes that all of us every day will be immersed in the Dharma and a happy life, will be free from all afflictions and pass each day with great freedom of mind. This is His loving-kindness and compassion. With a mind of loving-kindness, He thinks of sentient beings as His dearest loved ones, his closest and most beloved people. He gives willingly without resentment or regret. This is how He comes to teach us, hoping sentient beings can be peaceful and stable, can be happy, joyful and free. This is what brings the Buddha the most joy.
Everyone, what the Buddha mindfully taught was inseparable from the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence and actualizing the Six Paramitas in all actions. This is the Buddha’s compassion. If we can comprehend the Buddha-mind, we understand that the Buddha guided us to cross over each stage of this bumpy road. Since we know this, we should form aspirations to follow the Dharma the Buddha taught and earnestly take the Dharma to heart.
The previous verse says, “I am also like this”. Sakyamuni Buddha taught for a long time on the Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City. He kept explaining what had happened from dust-inked kalpas ago until now. He told of the guiding teacher, how he led sentient beings who lost their way so they could cross this treacherous path safely and reach the great, direct, level Bodhi-path.
You see, he taught this for a long time, and now the Buddha was saying, “I am also like this, being the guiding teacher for all. I see al these seekers of the Path become indolent and weary along the way. They cannot be delivered from samsara nor from the dangerous paths of afflictions”.
The Buddha told them very transparently, “I am also like this. I am just like a guiding teacher for everyone. I see how everyone has for dust-inked kalpas been lost in samsara, lost in the Six Realms. After much difficulty, you were able to listen to the Dharma and seek the Path. You have walked this path, but you became indolent along the way and wanted to abandon what you practiced in the past. You were willing to just stop like this and not move forward any more”. Some had already gotten lost in samsara again. Over these dust-inked kalpas, these were the people, the sentient beings He saw. If, through all of those dust-inked kalpas, everyone had truly been mindful, and remained in the Dharma throughout all of those many lifetimes, then how would there be people like we have now, whose minds are so imbalanced, whose minds have so many afflictions, whose minds have much danger and evil in them, whose minds are like ferocious and evil poisonous beats? This is life.
After engaging in practice for a short time, people retreat and become lax, abandoning all that they practiced before. Thus, they “cannot be delivered from samsara”. Lifetime after lifetime they are in “dangerous paths of afflictions”. Because in our relationships we are constantly creating karma, constantly incurring resentment and anger, with these afflictions of resentment and hatred, our next life will be a treacherous path. Sakyamuni Buddha saw how all sentient beings were like this, so He felt great pity for them.
So, the next passage then says, “ Thus with the power of skillful means. I expound Nirvana, for them to rest. I say to you that all of your sufferings have been eliminated and the things you must do have all been done. Since I know they have reached Nirvana and have all attained Arhatship, I will thus gather the assembly to teach the true Dharma.”
This means that they already had the causes and conditions. thought they were on the dangerous path of samsara, the Buddha by then had already been continually going along with sentient beings, guiding them in this way. Some had already accepted the Dharma and had engaged in spiritual practice. their limited, average or great capabilities had all gradually developed. Because of this, the Buddha used methods to transform them. He used the power of skillful means.
This is what this section talks about. In order for us to extinguish our afflictions and ignorance, the Buddha taught us about Nirvana, which is the state of tranquility and stillness. If we wish to put an end to samsara, we must reach a state of tranquility and stillness. “Come, I will teach you the Four Noble Truths, suffering, causation, cessation and the Path.” Because you are suffering, you must understand how your suffering comes to be. “Oh, I understand! It is the accumulation of both subtle and coarse [afflictions].” Some are subtle and intricate. Others are coarse and heavy. These kinds of ignorance accumulate like this. they accumulate over many lifetimes, and this is where the suffering we face comes from. “So, if you know this, you earnestly try to extinguish these filth and defilements.” We know whether great or small, all of these things are rotten. Since these things are all rotten, we must immediately clear them all out.
Have you seen our Tzu Chi volunteers? They often go to clean [houses]. In Chiayi, we saw a large group of commissioners and Faith Corps who went to help a mentally challenged man. He was in his 30s and in good health, but he was mentally challenged. He had no understanding of keeping clean, so the place he lived in was very dirty. Even hos own excrement and urine were defiling his “nest”. Our volunteers could not bear to see this. just like a kind father with his child, they could not bear this, so they incited a group of people to go and help clean out his house.
They had cleaned out the inside of the house, but the drainage ditch outside was clogged. The drainage ditch was deep and it was clogged in a place under where it was covered, a place they could not reach with tools. Someone had to crawl on their belly and, while holding a metal wire in his hand, reach deep inside to get hold of the things clogging it. They dug out all these dirty and fetid things until the drainage pipe was cleared. Then they flushed out the remaining dirty water until the water ran clean. When I saw a video of this, my admiration for them was profound.
I had never seen anyone, even in the sutras, treat anyone else like this. They were unrelated to him in any way and were never asked to help, but they went there voluntarily. Those Bodhisattvas went there voluntarily and with the strength of many quickly cleaned for him so that his house would be tidy. They cleared out all the dirty things. They even cleared out the fetid drainage pipe. Those are Living Bodhisattvas indeed! Similarly, there was also a mother and son. The mother is seriously overweight to the point it is difficult for her to walk. Her son was also mentally challenged. That mother and son constantly picked up things and brought them inside the house. They brought these inside the house until the house was quite messy and filthy. There was not even any place to sleep. Even when the weather was cold, they would sit outside and sleep. The son would go and sleep in a cave. In the early days, people made caves for air raid shelters. He would go and hole up in one of these caves. These are present-day people! They live in a village. When Tzu Chi volunteers received this news, they went quickly and washed and cleaned thoroughly as always. When the mother saw this she said, “I’m grateful! I couldn’t do it; I cannot move.” When the son saw, he also thanked them. There is so much suffering in life. Why were they suffering so? it was not that he was physically unable, it was just that his karma was like this. resentment and hatred create karmic causes and conditions like this. this is how sentient beings are; we carry these things from the past. Our afflictions now, whether subtle or coarse, accumulate like this. to be completely rid of them, to not bring in any more garbage nor allow dust-like ignorance to enter again, the only way is to use methods like these. On the one hand we clean for them, while on the other we teach them. This takes a very long time. It is not completed in a single day or visit. We must keep accompanying them, keep teaching them. This is called the power of skillful means.
We teach them gradually. If they learn to give back, they will be like that old woman’s son who has already joined in at the recycling station, or like the mother who said, “Though it isn’t easy for me to move, if someone teaches me, I will also do recycling” See? They could not even clean their own home! Now they will volunteer to do recycling. The woman’s son we just talked about now always works at the recycling station. He can also now live independently. You see, after accompanying him for so long and caring for him like this, his life has completely turned around. So, this is why, “Thus with the power of skillful means. I expound Nirvana, for them to rest.” This was the stage that they had already reached. This is life.
However, through the Buddha’s teachings, we come to understand the mind’s garbage through the help of the Four Noble Truths. We know how all kinds of afflictions accumulate and pile up into so much garbage of ignorance. We understand how to get rid of these and bring them to cessation. Next comes the method we use, which is the Path. We must quickly enter this broad and great path. So, we must know the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence, how we come, how we are born and how we die. We know this, so this is another stage. Can we just stop here? The coarse things are now all cleared away. Though we may not bring dirty things in again, with our dust-like ignorance, if we do not constantly clean, do not constantly give with diligence, do not guard against these things, filth and subtle dust will somehow enter again. We do not have the ability to understand this.
So, for our sake, the Buddha [created] another conjured city, which was the Six Paramitas. I just talked about these with everyone. From giving, precepts and patience to diligence, He continually used all kinds of methods like these. The Buddha helped us understand by teaching us carefully, stage by stage along the way. This is how He led us, continually hoping that we would reach a place of utmost freedom, peace and happiness.
So, “I expound Nirvana, for them to rest. I say to you that all of your sufferings have been eliminated.” Their sufferings were already eliminated, especially since they had already understood the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence. “The things they had to do had all been done. I know they have reached Nirvana.” They understood the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence, so they “had all attained Arhatship. I will thus gather the assembly.” They had all already attained Arhatship and understood the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence well. They knew the origins of samsara. So “I will thus gather the assembly to teach the true Dharma.” Because of this, He now gathered the assembly at Vulture Peak to begin teaching the true Dharma. If we can understand these things, we know that skillful means are to give us spiritual practitioners a rest, so that our minds can become tranquil, become settled and still, no longer constantly fluctuating, rising and falling; we cannot do that anymore. Now we must be able to calm and settle our minds. This is why the Buddha taught the two kinds of Nirvana, the Four Noble Truths and the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence stage by stage, to give us places to rest, places where we can find refuge.
I say to you that all of your sufferings have been eliminated and the things you must do have all been done: He told them that all of their sufferings had already been eliminated and the spiritual practice they cultivated had reached the ultimate fruit of the provisional teachings, the sage beyond learning. The things that they needed to do had all been completed and done.
“Your sufferings have been eliminated and the things you must do have all been done.” So, He told them, “You have eliminated all of your sufferings.” This is what the Buddha said to everyone. “You have already eliminated the sufferings of samsara as well as the suffering of afflictions. You no longer have any afflictions, nor involve yourselves in worldly affairs.” In regard to worldly desires and pleasures, they had already completely gotten rid of them, so their minds were free from afflictions. They were without desire or attachment, free from afflictions. This is why it says, “All of your sufferings have been eliminated.” They had no more interpersonal conflicts. These had eliminated all of these. With “the spiritual practice they cultivated,” by earnestly engaging in spiritual practice, their spiritual cultivation had reached the “ultimate fruit of the provisional teachings, the stage beyond learning.” This was the ultimate fruit of the Small Vehicle. “You already understand the Four Noble Truths and the 12 Links of Cyclic Existence as well. You understand the Vaipulya teachings too and have begun to enter the Prajna teachings, where all is empty.” With everything they saw, they understood that all people, matters and objects in the world are illusory and impermanent. Having understood all of these things, they had reached the stage beyond learning. They had understood all of these things. They already understood all of the terms that they need to speak about or hear. They already knew the teachings that they needed to understand. So, “The things you must do have all been done. They have done everything they needed to.” They had already reached the end of that stage. What is the stage beyond learning? “If in connecting to the mind of True Suchness, we still have the intent to advance, we are at the stage of learning.”
Regarding the stage beyond learning: If in connecting to the mind of True Suchness, we still have the intent to advance, we are at the stage of learning. If in connecting to the mind of True Suchness, we are satisfied and seek no further, this is the stage beyond learning.
When speaking of our nature of True Suchness, our intrinsic nature of True Suchness, actually, if we have attained Arhatship, this means we already understand the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence, how samsara arises from a single thought. We have already understood these, but does that mean we can always maintain the purity of our intrinsic nature of True Suchness? We must know that although we are now tranquil, like still water when there is no wind, if the wind blows, then the water will move. So, though we have become still, because we have ignorance, there will be waves that arise. Those waves can reach great heights, just like a tsunami. This is how they will be when more sever. This is our state of mind. Now, because of the Dharma, we have come to understand. We have completely cut off worldly affinities and no longer scheme with people in the world. We no longer want this. We already know how once a single thought of ignorance arises, the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence continue to drag us down. So, we no longer want affinities like these. Our minds are now tranquil. We now engage in spiritual practice, and we are very tranquil and serene, yet dust –like ignorance still remains. So, the Buddha wanted us to keep tempering ourselves, to keep entering the furnace, to be constantly heated red-hot, then hammered, then heated and hammered again. This is what it means to be diligent. We must maintain our desire for learning and not think that we have reached the ultimate, the stage beyond learning. Actually, this stage beyond leaning is only the stage of the two Nirvanas, the ultimate fruit for the Arhat. Does it mean that we should stop there?
Actually, we have not yet eradicated dust-like ignorance. Even for the Brahma kings, dust-like ignorance still remains. So, they had come again to request the Dharma. Arhats are the same. Although they have ended their affinities with sentient beings, dust-like ignorance and delusions still remained. So, the Buddha wanted them to again to begin moving forward. “If in connecting to the mind of True Suchness, we are satisfied and seek no further, this is the stage beyond learning.” They thought they were satisfied like this, that they had already seen their nature of True Suchness. They thought this was the case, so they said, “Now I no longer need to learn. I will stop here.” This is known as the stage beyond learning, and is the ultimate fruit of the Small Vehicle. We think we no longer need to learn. “Since I know they have reached Nirvana and have all attained Arhatship…”.
Since I know they have reached Nirvana and have all attained Arhatship: This is like knowing they had stopped and rested. He knew that all these people had already realized Nirvana and at that time all attained the fruit of Arhatship.
This is saying they wished to stop and rest, that they had gone as far as they wanted. Having gone that far, they wanted to stop halfway. “He knew that all these people had already realized Nirvana and at that time all attained the fruit of Arhatship.” He knew that these people has already attained the stage of Arhatship, had already reached that ultimate fruit. They all thought that this was correct, that they could stop there and rest. They began to become lax. “It would be fine if I just stopped here.” They had attained Nirvana. They all, at that time, had attained Arhatship. This was at that time “I will thus gather the assembly to teach the true Dharma.”
I will thus gather the assembly to teach the true Dharma: This matches his extinguishing the conjuring so they could reach the place of treasures. At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, He gathered all Hearers in order to teach the true path of the One Vehicle.
This is trying to tell us that “this matches his extinguishing the conjuring so they could reach the place of treasures.” They had already begun to stop and rest. They had all eliminated their past afflictions, but to stop and rest there would not have been correct. So, He began telling them again, with a change in direction, to reach cessation, to eliminate their past attachment to the Dharma. They thought that they had already arrived. They thought this was all there was. However, it was not. The Buddha, “At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, gathered all Hearers in order to” expound the True Dharma of the One Vehicle. This was not all there was. Actually, there still was a place ahead. At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, this is what He told them. He wanted us to enter the truth, the true path of the One Vehicle. So, having reached the Prajna teachings, He changed directions at the Lotus Dharma-assembly.
Thus, this section is something we should understand clearly. The Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City is now gradually coming to a close. In the past, the Buddha had made great efforts for such a long time. We should mindfully seek to comprehend all this, so let us always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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