Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Diligently Transforming and Benefiting All Beings(常勤精進 饒益眾生)
Date: June.27.2017
“All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, with great compassion, protect, uphold and help to promote the Tathagata’s Dharma so that no maras or heretics will be able to disturb sentient beings. Sentient beings will take joy in hearing Right Dharma and making the great vows and over dust-inked kalpas will practice the Four Infinite Minds.”
Dear Bodhisattvas, we are Buddhist practitioners and form aspirations. Since we are Buddhist practitioners, we must maintain firm spiritual aspirations until we attain Buddhahood. “Until all have been transformed, I will forego enlightenment.” Which Bodhisattva made this vow? It is the great vow of Earth Treasury Bodhisattva. Among Buddhist practitioners, how could it only be Earth Treasury Bodhisattva who has made this kind of vow? Since we call ourselves Buddhist practitioners, the purpose of learning the Buddha’s teachings is to attain Buddhahood. Otherwise, why go to the trouble of learning the Buddha’s teachings? In learning the teachings, we must endure hardship in our place of practice and in our lives. We do this in order to attain Buddhahood, in order to experience the truth of Right Dharma. In this world, we live in a state of confusion. People do not understand one another. In our relationships with each other, we create entanglements of ignorance. In this way, we form one entanglement after another, creating a great web of ignorance. If we live our entire lives in confusion, when will we ever be able to truly see through conflicts and people problems? How can we completely break apart all these entanglements to be without hindrances and afflictions? Then, the world opens up and with wisdom we can penetrate [all things]. This is our goal as Buddhist practitioners. How do we attain this penetrating wisdom? We must learn the Buddha’s teachings. Learning the teachings is learning to have our nature of True Suchness and the principles of all things in the universe come together as one. This is enlightenment.
One who is enlightened is a Buddha. This is what we seek as Buddhist practitioners. As it is, life is filled with suffering! Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, so why must Earth Treasury Bodhisattva go to such trouble to remain in hell to deliver sentient beings? There will never be a time when hell is empty. This is because sentient beings have such deep afflictions, ignorance and entanglements, and they continually reproduce them. How can hell ever be empty of suffering beings? So, the vow that Earth Treasury Bodhisattva made truly has no end. That is why we must [start with] this world, must change this world. Once people’s minds, perspectives and direction have changed, naturally their minds open and they understand. Everyone will be enlightened right where they are. So, why would they need to go to hell to experience all that suffering? Thus, we often say that helping the Buddha promote the Right Dharma is, in fact, also helping Earth Treasury Bodhisattva to quickly empty out hell so that he can attain Buddhahood. Are we doing this just to help the Buddha and Earth Treasury Bodhisattva? To bring everything back, we are helping ourselves so that we can open our minds and understand, so that we can truly avoid living in this world without any control. So, we must try bring ourselves, in this time of great change and great matters of right and wrong, to fully attain great awakening. This is for our own sakes.
Therefore, we must learn the Buddha’s teachings. So, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, with hearts of great compassion, “help promote the Tathagata’s Dharma.” It says “help promote the Tathagata’s Dharma,” but in fact there is a Tathagata in each one of us. The Right Dharma within us is something we should strive to experience and awaken to more. We make use of this place of practice to train our nature so that with our enlightened Tathagata-nature, we can quickly attain realizations and awaken. Thus, we use term “help the Buddha,” but in fact this is our own place of practice. If we think of it as our own place of practice, we will feel more intimately connected to it. Of course, the process of forming aspirations and engaging in spiritual practice, as we discussed yesterday, is our spiritual training ground. We must give rise to great compassion. We must help the Buddha. If we say we are helping the Buddha, that is to motivate us to deeply immerse ourselves amidst the people, forming more good affinities with them and benefitting them. This world is truly filled with unbearable suffering. This world is beyond our control. How did we come here? Which place did we choose to be in? What kind of circumstantial and direct retributions do we have? This is truly unbearable suffering beyond our control. This is all because we deviated from the path.
We have deviated from the path because of our own ignorance. External conditions have enticed us and led us off the right path. Thus, we follow maras and heretics and deviate from the path, veering off our great, direct Bodhi-path. We derailed ourselves from this path. When we strayed from the rules, we deviated. Did powers outside ourselves entice us to go astray? Or was it our own ignorance that led us astray? In any case, this happens when our spiritual aspirations are not firm. So, we enable all maras and heretics to have the causes and conditions for enticing us away. Thus, I hope we can strengthen our spiritual aspirations and even more mindfully actualize the Tathagata’s teachings. Only when we have the conditions to learn them can we avoid being disturbed by maras and heretics. They disrupt the minds of practitioners. They disrupt the minds of us ordinary people. Ordinary beings’ minds are naturally filled with ignorance and lack direction. If, on top of this, maras and heretics stir things up even slightly, then ignorance will flare up again, disrupting sentient beings’ minds. So, we must earnestly safeguard this world. Since we are Buddhist practitioners, we must seek to attain Buddhahood. The Right Dharma of the Bodhisattva-path on the way there is what we must persist in to establish aspirations. We must firmly form our aspirations. When we listen to the Dharma, we must take it in; we must not allow it to leak away. We must earnestly “take joy in hearing the Right Dharma and making great vows”. We make the Four Great Vows. “I vow to deliver countless sentient beings. I vow to eliminate endless afflictions. I vow to learn infinite Dharma-doors. I vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.” We must be very mindful.
“Take joy in hearing” means we must joyfully listen to Right Dharma and take good care of our hearts. By safeguarding our thoughts and unlocking our wisdom, we can discern what is mistaken and what is true. We must be able to discern between right and wrong. Even after passing through “dust-inked kalpas,” because we have made the Four Great Vows, we must practice the Four Infinite Minds of “loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity” among the people this is something we should all do.
There is much suffering in this world. A few days ago, Bodhisattvas from the US returned. Among them was a man named Stephen. Stephen [Fomba] is an African, with very dark, luminous skin. He is very kind-hearted. His skin color may [differ from ours], but the love in his heart [is the same]. As a child, he left Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is in West Africa. West Africa is made up of 16 countries. Seirra Leone is, among the 16 countries in West Africa, a relatively small and very impoverished country. After leaving this country, Stephen was able to pursue studies in the US and graduate from college. Now he is studying for his PhD. He has established a family in the US; he has a wife and children. Yet with his loving heart, he came to know Tzu Chi. We understood that in his country, in 2014, there was an Ebola outbreak. This disease continuously spread; it had already spread to several countries. The loss of life was severe. Medical resources were lacking in that country. During that time, we often saw images like that; people were dying every single day, and hospitalized people were not treated with dignity. They lay on the ground and…. In short, it looked like a scene from hell. There was such suffering and tragedy there. These tragic images were displayed before us; we felt so helpless.
After this, we felt we must do something to help. But how could we help? We searched; what kind of causes and conditions would enable us o go and help them? Where there is a will, [there is a way]. In America , there was an entrepreneur who was building a factory in Sierra Leone that produced intravenous (IV) drips, because his organization saw that this country was so impoverished that when the sick needed medication, it was too late to ask for help from abroad. There were so many illnesses, and their bodies lacked sufficient hydration to maintain their health. So, this organization was Healey [Foundation], is that right? This organization wanted to build a factory there. This factory was built to produce IV fluids so if someone became ill, they could provide the IV drip to rehydrate them to help maintain the body’s health. This was a charity group. Because we had the causes and conditions to get to know them, there was this thread connecting us and enabling us to go into Sierra Leone. In the beginning of the following year (2015), we quickly provided disaster relief supplies. We saw that the patients were lying on the ground; they were in great need of foldable beds. We quickly prepared to sent Jing Si foldable beds, blankets, instant Jing Si rice and all kinds of daily necessities. We provided nutrition, patient beds and blankets. All this filled up four 40-foot containers. We used large containers, four 40-foot containers and one 20-foot container. We shipped these relief goods by sea, then they distributed them there. This man, Stephen, formed aspirations and vows to return to his homeland and shoulder responsibility for this project.
Of course, before going back, he had to undergo training. He learned how to interact with patients, how to distribute the supplies and, once arriving there how prevent against [becoming infected] himself. After he received this training in the US, he shouldered this mission. We saw how, when he did relief distribution there, the way he interacted with people and the way that he gave things to people in need was filled with such reverence and respect. Everyone in that place was ill, and when he interacted with them, his own people, he expressed this love. From that moment on, he vowed to remain part of Tzu Chi Foundation and willingly serve others. So, he had already made that decision.
On this trip to Taiwan, he volunteered at the hospital in Hualien and also followed our Bodhisattva-volunteers to visit the poor and do home visits and such. He learned so much, how to draw near to the poor, how to draw near those who are suffering. He mindfully learned; he absorbed so much. He decided to bring his wife and children back to Sierra Leone from America. I was so touched when I heard this. Many in that country want to leave but are unable. Who is willing to live in that impoverished place with such bad sanitation and such difficulties in life? No one wants to live in a place like that. However, Stephen had been able to leave at young age. Now he was studying for his PhD. He had begun his graduate studies, but he was willing to put all this aside and move his entire family to Sierra Leone. He wanted to help everyone have faith and also bring his wife and children to their homeland to serve the people. This was truly remarkable.
It was not only he who formed this aspiration; even his wife was willing to support and accompany him. The whole family was willing to go back. This is truly amazing. We continually collected donations for them. In addition to shipping material goods to them, they also needed medical consumables, such as protective gloves and so on. Beyond this, they also needed shoes and clothing. Everyone walks barefoot there, which increases the risk of infection. So, they needed shoes to wear; they needed clothing. The weather was cold; their clothes were worn out. Thus, they needed second-hand clothing; they were very happy to receive this. We began to spread the word that everyone who has old clothing should sort through it. Once word of this spread, we heard from factories and agents of major clothing labels. They were all willing to donate. They donated a huge amount of clothing. They sent entire shipping containers, a whole procession of them. When US Tzu Chi volunteers came to Hualien, I said, “You have shipped too much over there. Sierra Leone does not have a huge population. You have shipped so many shoes over there”. Shoe factories in the Philippines and shoe factories in Malaysia devoted their entire assembly line to this. Some cleared their warehouses, shipping everything over there. I said, “It is too much. Can the volunteers there go to neighboring countries, impoverished places, to support them with some of these goods?” Volunteers from Tzu Chi USA quickly studied the situation. There are small countries nearby that are also very impoverished. In all, they made distributions in three countries. Of the things we shipped over there, there was second-hand clothing and completely new brand name clothing as well as shoes. This was a great amount all together. They divided them up among Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. They allocated the materials among these three countries. It required a lot of labor to distribute to those places.
So, Stephen planned to stay there to oversee the long-term distribution of these goods to those with the greatest need. That is why his entire family moved back there. They needed to take care of all these impoverished families living in difficulty. Many suffered from illness, without a doctor or medicine. They also needed someone there who could distribute these goods as they arrived and carry out life-saving work.
In summary, when loving people are willing to give material goods, locally there needs to be this kind of seed there, someone who could understand local needs, receive and distribute material goods and mobilize others in that place. I feel that Stephen is a true manifestation of Living Bodhisattva and a role model for this world. This is truly very touching.
The Bodhisattvas we mention are all from infinite kalpas ago. In fact, now there ae many Bodhisattvas right before our eyes. They work together with us. Helping us to go even further, to even more remote places, to help all suffering beings. This is truly remarkable. After great difficulty, he had been able to leave that impoverished place. It had already been many decades, and now he was willing to return. Truly, I feel that this person is so exceptional. So, I really admire this person before me. He has a different skin color from me and speaks a different language than I do, yet his heart is so close to our hearts. He helps us to make such a big difference, to be able to help three countries. Now that he has returned [to his homeland], these three countries are sure to receive so many useful supplies to alleviate their suffering.
So, “All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, with great compassion, protect, uphold and help to promote the Tathagata’s Dharma.” What we have received are the Buddha’s teachings of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. We must have a heart of loving-kindness, and with compassion for sentient beings, we are willing to help others. This is what the Buddha had taught. Even if we are willing to give material things, we must strengthen [our aspirations] and make the Four Great Vows. “I vow to transform countless sentient beings. I vow to eliminate endless afflictions.” We must learn to do all these things. “I vow to learn infinite Dharma-doors. I also vow to attain unsurpassed Buddhahood.” We must always strengthen our faith. Whether making great vows of practicing the Four infinite Minds, we must always put the teachings into action.
The previous sutra passage states, “Bhiksus, Purna also, in the times of the Seven Buddhas, was foremost among those who taught the Dharma. Today among those who teach the Dharma with me, he is also foremost. During the Bhadrakalpa, among those who teach the Dharma in the times of all future Buddhas, he will also be foremost.”
We spoke about this yesterday Purna, as the Buddha mentioned previously, helped to promote the Buddha-Dharma in the assemblies of 9 billion Buddhas, and was also foremost among those who taught the Dharma. Now, it speaks of more recent times, the [preceding] Seven Buddhas or even more recently in the Bhadrakalpa. Under the 1000 Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, he was still foremost among those who taught the Dharma. In the past, he was like this, and he is still this way now. In the future, he will also be like this. So, this is Purna Maltrayaniputra. He was one of the disciples the Buddha praised. He was the closest to the Buddha’s mind. He taught the Dharma the Buddha wanted to teach and did the things the Buddha wanted to do. He was very close to His heart. Thus, he was praised by the Buddha.
The next sutra passage says, “He always protects, upholds and helps to promote the Buddha-Dharma. In the future he will also protect, uphold and help to promote the teachings of countless and infinite Buddhas, teaching, transforming and benefiting countless sentient beings.”
In the past, he did this, helping to promote the Dharma in the presence of all Buddhas. Now, in Sakyamuni Buddha’s place of practice, he did the same. In the future, he will also continue doing this, continuing to protect, uphold and promote the Dharma of many future Buddhas. This is how Purna Maltrayaniputra is in the [ears] of past, present and future Buddhas, he always does the same. So much time has already passed, yet his aspirations have never changed; he has never wavered from the great vows. He puts the [Four] infinite Minds into practice. Though such a very long time has passed, he remains like this now and will not change in the future. He will remain the same.
So, “He always protects, upholds and helps to promote the Buddha-Dharma. In the presence of all Buddhas of the past, present and future….” In the past, present and future, in the places of all Buddhas, he is the same. “He is always like this, helping to promote the teachings of the Buddha.” “In the future he will also protect, uphold and help to promote the teachings of countless and infinite Buddhas.” He did this not just for countless Buddhas in the past and not just during the Bhadrakalpa or the times of the Seven Buddhas of the past. We have said, “In future lifetimes. in the presence of infinite Buddhas, he will also always protect, uphold and help to promote the Right Dharma.” Just the time of the Seven Buddhas is incalculable. For one Buddha to attain Buddhahood already takes countless kalpas. Countless kalpas is an incalculable time, to say nothing of the fact that there are 1000 Buddhas in the Bhadrakalpa.
The Bhadrakalpa and Suddhavasadeva: In our present era, the present time is the Bhadrakalpa. When the great trichillocosm of this kalpa first began to come into being, a great flood covered all. Then 1000 lotus flowers appeared, and their golden radiance illuminated universally. Suddhavasadeva saw this and said, “This auspicious sign is extremely rare 1000 Buddhas will arise in the world.” Bhadrakalpa: This kalpa was called Bhadrakalpa (kalpa of sages). Sakyamuni Buddha is the fourth Buddha of the Bhadrakalpa.
So, why did Suddhavasadeva call this kalpa the kalpa of the sages? This is “In our present era.” Our present time, this period of time, is called the Bhadrakalpa. It is the era of Sakyamuni Buddha. This period of time is called the Bhadrakalpa. In other words, this kalpa is a period of time, “When the great trichilocosm of this kalpa first began to come into being is what happened a very, very long time ago, at the very beginning of the Bhadrakalpa.” The Buddha was the fourth Buddha; Sakyamuni was the fourth. So, at the beginning of the Bhadrakalpa, as the great chilocosm was coming into being, there was a great flood. All worlds experienced arising, ceasing and then began again. After ceasing, everything begins again. All that could be seen at that time was a vast body of water. We often speak of the imbalance of the four elements. The four elements undergo a continuous cycle; in the end, fire destroys everything, the wind blows everything away and all things become empty. At the beginning of this kalpa, there was a great flood. The great chiliocosm was a vast ocean. In the midst of this, “1000 lotus flowers appeared, and their golden radiance illuminated universally.” This is what Suddhavasadeva saw. He saw that the great chiliocosm was completely covered in water. In this vast ocean, there suddenly appeared nearly 1000 lotus flowers. One by one, they emerged from the water. At this time, Suddhavasadeva saw them and offered this praise, “This auspicious sign is extremely rare.” This world, this great chiliocosm, is truly special. Why were there these 1000 lotus flowers that suddenly appeared out of the water? This meant that, in the future, 1000 Buddhas would appear in this world. This kalpa, the Bhadrakalpa, will last for a very long period of time. Throughout this long period of time, 1000 Buddhas will appear. This is what Suddhavasadeva saw.
So, “Because of these causes and conditions, this kalpa was called Bhadrakalpa (kalpa of sages).” So, for this reason, this long period of time is called the Bhadrakalpa. Of these 1000 Buddhas, Sakyamuni was the fourth in the Bhadrakalpa. So, when the Buddha came to the world, Purna Maitrayaniputra had also gone through infinite kalpas of transforming sentient beings. Sakayamuni Buddha also attained Buddhahood during the Bhadrakalpa. During this period, Purna also lived at the same time as the Buddha. This is all causes and conditions. For a very long time, over many lifetimes, he engaged in practice in this way. He had been doing this. Now, in Sakyamuni Buddha’s Dharma-assembly, he was likewise “teaching, transforming and benefiting countless sentient beings.” In His interaction with sentient beings, “He patiently and skillfully guided, taught, delivered, transformed and benefited all living beings.” There are so many sentient beings, and he had to accommodate their capabilities. Sentient beings are always very stubborn. So, the Buddha and all Bodhisattvas had to patiently guide them like this, transforming them according to their capabilities. They taught them as well as disciplined them. They transformed them in this way, benefiting sentient beings, teaching and transforming them. “His being able to benefit others is merits and virtues to benefit him.” In this way, though we say we are teaching and transforming sentient beings, in fact, for teachers to be qualified, to teach sentient beings, they must firs understand some principles. We are able to understand so many principles because we want to go transform sentient beings. So, our benefiting others is actually merits and virtues that benefit us. We give to others, but actually, in the process of giving to others, we are accumulating merit and virtues ourselves. When we are teaching others, we are developing our own wisdom-life. So, I often call this a spiritual training ground.
Next, “He will enable them to establish Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. In order to purify the Buddha-lands, he always advances diligently and rigorously, teaching and transforming sentient beings so that they gradually perfect their practice of the Bodhisattva-path.”
By helping the Buddha teach and transform, “He will enable them to establish Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.” This means that “He enabled sentient beings to comprehend, form aspirations and make the great vows to seek supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment.”
his is how Purna taught sentient beings. He also hoped that sentient beings would all not only have an understanding but also establish their resolve. This resolve is to make the great vows so everyone truly can together reach the level of universal, perfect enlightenment. This was “in order to purify the Buddha-lands.” It was to purify and benefit all sentient beings. We must always be diligent if we want to be able to tach and transform sentient beings. In order to purify the Buddha-lands, his spiritual practice and demeanor had to always be upheld well. He had to always teach and transform sentient beings earnestly and diligently. “He is always rigorously cultivating diligent practice to transform all living beings.” This was how Purna Maitrayaniputra persevered. “They gradually perfect their practice of the Bodhisattva-path.” He unceasingly accumulated this over lifetimes numerous as dust. “A seed contains an ocean of fruit. This way, over accumulated kalpas they gradually practice until they perfect their practice on the path that Bodhisattvas walk.” This means accumulating many seeds. Through continuous accumulation, they have merits and virtues like the ocean, wisdom as vast as the ocean. This has been accumulated over time. “This way, over accumulated kalpas,” dust-inked kalpas, they constantly accumulated these things. Through this very long time, they continue to “gradually practice”. Thus “A seed contains an ocean of fruit”. From all the good seeds they created, so many fruits have come to fruition. This came from [Purna’s] wisdom and his courage and diligence in helping to promote the Buddha-Dharma. Thus, he gradually accumulated [these seeds] over a long time. So, “They perfect their practice on the path that Bodhisattvas walk.” This is Purna Maitrayaniputra’s way. He helped others in this way for such a long time.
Dear Bodhisattvas, as Buddhist practitioners, we must be consistent from start to finish. We learn from the Buddha to attain Buddhahood. Otherwise, why go through the trouble of learning the Buddha’s teachings? We learn the Buddha’s teachings to put an end to our delusion in the world. In this world many things are beyond our control, and life is full of suffering. Suffering sentient beings are the spiritual training ground for Bodhisattvas. If Bodhisattvas do not go among the suffering, how can they truly become Bodhisattvas? Without becoming a Bodhisattva, how can they awaken to the true principles of all things in the universe? So, when we benefit sentient beings, we are actually benefiting ourselves. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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