Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Fully Attaining the Boundless Fruits (滿慈願力 說法第一)
Date: June.29.2017
“With limitless, deep and distant causes and conditions, he has fully attained boundless fruits. The nature of the Dharma-realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions. He expounds the Dharma to break through the web of foolishness in the world and guides people to enter the great path of noble beings. The good paths respond to each other, and humans and heavenly beings mutually interact to enter Bodhi.”
“With limitless, deep and distant causes and conditions” means that since Beginningless Time, he continually accumulated deep causes and positive conditions. He continually accumulated these, so he “fully attained boundless fruits.” In order to engage in spiritual practice, we must believe, must have deep faith that all of us intrinsically have Buddha-nature, that all have the nature of the Tathagata-garbha. This is something that we must affirm for ourselves. We must have deep faith. With this pure intrinsic nature which we have had since Beginningless Time, if we can always, starting from our aspirations, which are pure and undefiled, awaken our compassion, then we can coexist as one with all of the earth’s sentient beings. All things on earth are equal. In their mind, their Buddha-nature, all are equal. The intrinsic nature of True Suchness of sentient beings is equal in all. This impartiality is love; love is without discrimination. This is the mind of a Buddha. This is intrinsic in everyone! It is just that, as sentient beings, our minds give rise to discrimination. “I love this, I hate that I want to possess this, I want to seize that I reject those other people” and so on. The principles of the mind are wondrously profound. It is in the workings of the mind that we give rise to so much discrimination. So, we create so many things in the outside world, create such a great variety of things, which stir up so much suffering in the world. We must truly believe that our minds are equal to the Buddha-nature. The precious qualities of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are what we should be learning. We should be learning from the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. The Buddha is the Great Enlightened One. How did He awaken to the true principles of all things in the universe? To learn from the Buddha, we also need to awaken. Indeed, we should learn from the Buddha how to [create] the causes and conditions for our awakening and attaining Buddhahood, how to awaken our aspirations, how to activate our nature of True Suchness, how to preserve the love that comes from a heart which treats all sentient beings equally. So, [these are] “limitless, deep and distant causes and conditions.” These are from dust-inked kalpas ago, when we first began forming aspirations. We have kept talking about dust-inked kalpas. Do not forget about the era of Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha. This was an analogy that Sakyamuni Buddha used to help us to understand that everyone’s intrinsic nature is pure. This enlightened nature has existed since long ago. It was in that era that we began. When was that era exactly? The Buddha would not tell us, as He said it was an infinite amount of time ago. What did He use as a comparison for the infinite? He used dust-inked kalpas. This is like if all the matter of the world were ground into a fine dust, and every bit and every particle were then turned into ink. This is an analogy for a very long time. Isn’t this something like that simple phrase, beginningless?
Yes, to put it simply, our awakened nature is fundamentally unhindered. “Great Unhindered Superior Wisdom” means everyone originally had unhindered understanding. Thus, He was named “Great Unhindered”. This intrinsic nature of wisdom replete in everyone has always been there. If we can understand this, then we know that since Beginningless Time, Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior has always been with us. During Great Unhindered Buddha’s era, we were also all there together. We listened to the Dharma at Great Unhindered Buddha’s place of enlightenment, and at Great Unhindered’s place of enlightenment experienced the truth of the principles. If this aspiration still exists inside of us then it is “limitless”; it has been an incalculable length of time. The principles that opened to our understanding are limitless and inexhaustible. They have been preserved in us continually from that time until now. These are deep and distant causes and conditions. For many lifetimes, we seized the present time and preserved the moment forever. We forever maintained those aspirations that we formed, never letting them leak away.
So, in this way, “He has fully attained boundless fruits.” This describes when Purna Maitrayaniputra and the Buddha formed affinities. It was during the era of Great Unhindered Buddha. This was on the level of events. He had listened to the 16 princes and had continually [practiced] until now, so these matters and principle were limitless. Whether we speak of time or space, for so long, he had never let the Dharma leak away. These principles truly are limitless, and the time is incalculable. His attitude in spiritual practice allowed him to, lifetime after lifetime, form aspirations to go among others. With these events, he had the causes and conditions so that over time, he “full attained boundless fruits”.
“The nature of the Dharma-realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions.” The Dharma he attained was all matters and principles of the Dharma-realm. Every matter is actually the Dharma; the principles permeate everything. This is the Dharma-realm. The Dharma-realm contains matters and principles; these are all interconnected. This is called Dharma-nature. “Dharma-nature is ultimately perfect and complete.” In fact, for matters and principles to be in perfect harmony, as we often say, “When our character and conduct are harmonies, we are in harmony with the principles.” When the things were do are perfect and complete, when we are friendly with everyone, when we always create good affinities with others, then this makes others feel like we are good in every way. When we follow the principles in our conduct, everyone who sees it will be joyful. This is how we perfect our character. When we perfect our character, our action and speech become perfect and we get along perfectly with others and so on. When we are good people, people who help others, people who are role models for others, that is how we perfect our character. When we perfect our character, then naturally the thing we do become perfect and complete. When our character is perfect, and our conduct is perfect, aren’t the principles perfect and complete? So, “The nature of the Dharma-realm is ultimately perfect and complete.” When the people, matters, objects and principles in the Dharma-realm are all perfect, this nature reaches everywhere. So, it is ultimately perfect and complete and pervades the ten directions. If all [in the universe] is in perfect harmony, then where is east, west, north or south? Even in the east, there is still a north, south, east, west. Even in the north, there is still a north, south, east, west. In any place, there is always a “north, south, east, west”. Actually, Earth is perfectly round; it is a round planet. All of the planets in the universe are round. Therefore, “The nature of the Dharma-realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions.”
When it comes to direction, space does not move. What is moving is a planet in its orbit; it is not the entire universe that moves. In fact, the universe is peaceful land free. Our day and night are actually the motions of stars and planets. So, we can say that these are all connected, that they orbit smoothly in perfect harmony. Thus, “The nature of the Dharma-realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions.” Everything is taken care of, perfect and complete. This is how spiritual practitioners comprehend the principles. The principles have always been like this, and if we can thoroughly comprehend all of them, how they are “ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions,” what I there we will not understand? Thus, He “expounds the Dharma to break through the web of foolishness in the world and guides people to enter the great path of noble beings.” He taught the Dharma specifically to relieve us of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. A humans, we have five great illnesses; greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt. These five great illness are five kinds of delusions. If we are able to get rid of greed, give up greed and desire, then naturally we will no longer have anything to give rise to discursive thoughts over or get angry over. Since we have no expectations nor grasping, what could be worth getting angry or losing our temper over? There is nothing. When we pridefully compare ourselves with others and feel a little smarter, that is our arrogance arising. When arrogance arises, whatever anyone else does in the world, we are sure to have doubts. This stems from our ignorance, and ignorance I lack of clarity. So, we talk about greed, anger and ignorance, which produce arrogance and doubt. This is like being entangled by a web. The internet is everywhere now. Who has not used the internet and become caught up in it? Often, with our cell phone in hand, our minds are caught up in the phone, caught up in the web. The web has everything; all kinds of attractive things are found there which bring turmoil to people’s minds, disturb our spiritual aspirations and cause deviations from the right path in the world. This is the internet.
However, people now cannot tear themselves from the web, so they have become foolish. Of course technological development is very good. We utilize this technology to understand the workings of the world, expound our knowledge and increase our wisdom. It is also a tool that can help us expand our understanding of things. But for us ordinary people, we can become lot as soon as we step inside. We do not know how to choose. So, all these attractive things on the web, all these various attractions, drag us along and cause us to waste untold hours, entangled in this web. So, it disturbs people’s minds, disrupts our will to engage in spiritual practice. Thus, we should understand very clearly that in our world today that which we need most is to return to our pure intrinsic nature. We must seek the Dharma, the true principles. The Dharma, the path of the true principles must be walked by putting teachings into actions. Only then can we enter the noble and great path. Otherwise, we just remain in this web, the web of foolishness, from which we cannot wriggle free. We should break through this web. We listen to the Dharma to break out of this web. We must quickly enter the noble and great path.
So, “The good paths respond to each other; humans and heavenly beings mutually interact to enter Bodhi”. This is something we must quickly be clear about. We should not let this web of foolishness cover us or ensnare us. By listening to and teaching the Dharma we break through the world’s web of foolishness. If you wish to look at your phone, look at our e-reader instead! There is all sorts of Dharma available on it. We do not need to seek out those attractions. We want to understand the principles, not indulge ourselves with such diversions. We should not waste time in these places. Our e-readers are very simple to use. They are in black and white. When we understand [how to use them], all sorts of teachings are available to us within. We know to choose these simple tools to understand the ultimate reality of the Dharma. If we can do this, our every step naturally takes us onto good paths. As good paths respond to each other, humans and heavenly beings mutually interact and enter Bodhi. This is how we draw closer to the principles of the human and heaven realm. The heaven realm is [the practice of] goodness, where good deeds are done.
Remember at the beginning of the Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City, the Brahma kings from the ten directions kept coming and coming and coming. How did they become Brahma kings? They practiced the Ten Good Deeds to the fullest, upheld the pure precepts to the fullest. They practiced the good deeds and precepts fully. Because of this, they were able to be born in the Brahma heavens. It was just that there were still some principles which they did not thoroughly understand. Nevertheless, they all cultivated pure practices. These were the Brahma kings. So the Chapter on the Parable very clearly that, helps us to understand very clearly that, in regard to the Dharma, we must keep advancing with every step. “The principles of the Dharma-realm” are that “All things are in the Dharma-realm”.
The principles of the Dharma- realm exist here; all things are in the Dharma-realm. The nature of the Dharma- realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions. If people want to understand all Buddhas of the Three Periods, they must contemplate the nature of the Dharma-realms that all things are created by the mind.
When it comes to the Dharma-realms, in our daily living, what is there that does not contain the principles? For us to sit here unmoving for so long is also not without its principles. We must train ourselves. After we sit for a long time, we become used to it. When we get up a little later and begin walking, our every step must be stable and steady. If we are physically healthy, then our every step will be stable and steady. [We will walk] erect and straight; each step will be stable and steady. If we are physically unhealthy, or decline due to old age, our gait will no longer be stable and steady. This can be seen in people’s appearances. People’s appearances are like this; this too is the Dharma-realm. When we eat every day, what part of it is not Dharma? If we do not have the things to put together, like raw vegetables and raw rice, then we will have no way to eat. In order to cook our rice, we need a stove, we need fire; we need a stove or a rice cooker, and we need water. There is so much that we need. We need these objects. Of all these objects, there is not one that does not contain principles. When planting rice, we need methods to grow rice. After growing the rice, we need to harvest it. Once harvested, it must be hulled to become rice. This is always the cycle. The principle is the same; the cycle keeps on going continuously. Where in our daily living is there anything that is not part of the Dharma-realms? What is there that is not a principle? So, in listening to the Dharma, we should not think we need to listen to profound and elegant language, that only words like that are the principles. In fact, the principles are in our daily living. So, “The nature of the Dharma- realm is ultimately perfect and complete, pervading all in the ten directions”. In fact, when we talk about this Dharma, every single matter and thing is different. Each has its own state and principles. These “pervade all in the ten directions”. Ultimately, throughout the ten directions, everything is part of the Dharma-realm. All things contain the principles. This is the Dharma.
So, in the Avatamsaka Sutra, it says, “If people want to understand all Buddhas of the Three Periods, they must contemplate the nature of the Dharma-realm”. We should seek to comprehend the Dharma-realm.
Previously we kept talking about how “the nature of the Dharma-realm is harmonious”. In fact, the nature of the Dharma-realm is harmonious and also limitless. There is no way to calculate when exactly the universe began to have so many matters, objects and principles manifesting. When did human physiology and human psychology first begin to come into existence? Truly, all things are created by the mind. There is no need to think back to so long ago. There are so many things right in front of us that are waiting to be done. Thinking of and pursuing the past is not as good as returning to our present, to start understanding, taking actions and putting the teachings into practice.
So now, we need to understand these things, the precious passage says, “After countless asankya kalpas pass, he will in this land attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. His epithet will be Dharma Clarity.”
Sakyamuni Buddha praised Purna Maitrayaniputra for understanding the Buddha’s intent, for teaching the Dharma the Buddha wanted to teach and for transforming and delivering sentient beings on the Buddha’s behalf.
The Buddha had been praising Purna for decades. At His Dharma-assembly, Sakyamuni Buddha’s place of practice, he had helped the Buddha to teach. He also tole of [Purna’s] past, how he did not just do this now, but had done it in the past as well. Now, Sakyamuni Buddha again said, “After countless asankya kalpas pass….” This is again in the future. After a very long time has passed in the future, “He will in this land attain Anuttare-samyak-sambodhi.” Purna Maitrayaniputra will come again to the human realm but it will not be for a very long time. When he attains Buddhahood in the future, of course, it will not happen until after Maitreya Buddha comes. How long will it be until. Maitreya Buddha comes to the world? It will not happen for billions of years. Of course, Purna’s attainment of Buddhahood would not happen until long after that. So, it says asankyas of kalpas. It would be countless asankyas of kalpas before Dharma Clarity Tathagata would appear in the world.
So, Dharma Clarity Tathagata will be replete with the Ten Epithets. He will be a Great Enlightened One who will attain Buddhahood in the Saha World. His heartfelt vow is to be born in this land.
The Tathagata, One Worthy of Offerings, Completely Awakened One, One perfect in Wisdom and Action, Well-gone One, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed Guide, Tamer, Teacher Of Heavenly Beings and Humans and Buddha, the World-Honered One.
In this evil world of Five Turbidities, this place where the Five Destinies coexist, sentient beings are stubborn and hard to train. Purna Maitrayaniputra nevertheless was willing and made a vow to deliver sentient beings in this world that must be endured.
The next passage says, “That Buddha takes the worlds of a great trichiliocosm, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, as one Buddha-land. The ground will be made of the Seven Treasures and be as level as one’s palm, without mountains, valley streams, ditches or ravines. Terraces and temples of Seven Treasures are everywhere.
This is the state of his attainment of Buddhahood. In this realm at that time, “That Buddha will take the worlds of a great trichiliocosm, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, as one Buddha-land. His realm in the future will be vast. The realm being talking about here is the spiritual realm of the Buddha one great trichiliocosm is one Buddha-land. We will explain after this what a great trichiliocosm is. This is talking about that Buddha’s land.
“And the states in which He will transform are so vast. His heart is broad and open so the realms in which He delivers and transforms, the sentient beings He has affinities with, are vast. They are as open and vast a great trichiliocosm.
That Buddha takes the worlds of a great trichiliocosm, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, as one Buddha-land: This explains that His Buddha-land and the states in which He will transform are so vast.
In the world at that time, in the Buddha-land of Dharma Clarity, “The ground will be made of the Seven Treasures and be as level as one’s palm.” The world of His Buddha-land is full of treasures. In the world of His Buddha-land, everyone’s spiritual state is very even. So, [the land] is like an outstretched palm, as flat as one’s as one’s palm. This is “because the Buddha’s mind is even.” Since the Buddha’s mind is so even, “The ground is also level.” This is the ground of the Buddha’s mind. The landscape of the Buddha’s mind is this even. Moreover, “[The ground] is as level as one’s palm.” It is like the Buddha’s palm, as if He extended His palm. His hand is so flat. It is not the same as ordinary people’s hands. When we extend our palm, there are many creases in it. We have many high and low points. But when the Buddha extends His palm it is so even. Thus, “[The ground is] as level as one’s palm.” This is used as an analogy.
The ground will be made of the Seven Treasures. And be as level as one’s palm: Because the Buddha’s mind is even, the ground is also level. This palm is like that of the Buddha’s hand, not like the palm of people in the world.
Without mountains, valley streams, ditches or ravines is analogy for how flat the land there will be. It is not like our world that curves up and down, with high and low places. Truly, the ground is sometimes hard to walk upon.
Yet, our land is still like this; there are mountains, rivers, oceans and ditches. The mountains refer to both tall and short ones. Valley streams can be very deep. The places between the mountains are deep; they are places you can fall into. These are ditches and ravines. There are many mountains, creeks and gullies. It is so uneven with protrusions and depressions. So, this is an analogy for the human mind.
Without mountains, valet streams, ditches or ravinces: People’s mind which are fierce and arrogant are like high mountains with layers of ridges and high cliffs. The raging of greed and desires is like the streams that swallow all the different flows of [water]. Treachery is like ditches. Deception is like ravines. The Buddha-land is level. It does not have any such treacherous places. This is all in response to His impartial mind.
“People’s minds that are fierce and arrogant are like high mountains.” The ancients had a saying, “Mountains are not as high as the greed in our minds.” As high as mountains may be, people’s greed is even higher than mountains. Aren’t people’s greed as vast as the sky? People’s greed also encompass the mountains, the oceans and the earth. The ancients said this too. Of course, the Buddha also told us, “The mind encompasses the universe and embraces the boundless worlds within it.” It is true; it encompasses the mountains and land. How does it encompass them? The Buddha taught us that our minds should be open and spacious to accommodate all. We must be understanding and accommodating. However, we people, we unenlightened beings have such ferocity and rage in our hearts. This is because our greed is too great. How much wealth is enough? Is this industry satisfactory? People today want more and bigger things. The big devour the smaller, and the small struggle with the greater. People’s minds are like this! They can never be level and even. They are forever so arrogant! “I will not lose out to you. I don’t want to be smaller than you, so I will grow ever larger.” Thus, someone can become vicious and merciless; this is violence of the mind.
It comes from arrogance, the arising of arrogance. This is a sense of “self. I will be even bigger than you, have more than you, be higher than you etc.” It never ends! So, it is like a tall mountain. Mountains are not as high as our list of wishes. The Himalayas, at more than 8000 meters tall, are said to be the world’s tallest mountains. People now go and conquer the world’s highest peaks. They go up Mount Everest; they have ways to conquer it. They do it through physical strength. They say, “It’s not that tall. I can climb it!” That is right! There are now many who spend a lot of time and effort in climbing them. But that is a physical endeavor. It is a physical achievement. We may have the endurance, the strength to climb to the top of a mountain, but we may not be able to overcome our own mind. You may be able to overcome physical limitations, but you cannot overcome mental ones. The [wishes] in our minds will always be higher than the mountains, even bigger, even taller. People always want more. They not only wish to climb [this one], they want ones even higher than it, even bigger ones. “I want them all. I want to carry this back. This is mine.” This is how ordinary people’s minds are. To always want to go higher is exhausting!
“With layers of ridges and high cliffs” means these mountain ridges rise layer after layer. Then it is “the raging of greed and desires.” Our greed and desires are like this, layer after layer. Our greed is forever inexhaustible. We continually swallow, want to swallow more and more. The analogy used is a mountain gorge that swallows all the different flows. Mountains are very high, and when it rains the water runs from the mountaintops through the mountain gorges. The mountain gorges swallow up everything. The mountain gorges swallow up [the runoff]. No matter how high the mountain, the water that runs down is swallowed up in these. The principle is the same. We people are the same.
If we are headed in the right direction in our spiritual practice, we swallow and endure. No matter what kind of violent opposition, we swallow and endure it all. This is spiritual practice. The world is so greedy that it is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. This snake also thinks that it can swallow anything, that it can even swallow an elephant. This is like us people; we truly overestimate our capabilities and do not recognize life’s impermanence. Life is short, but we are unaware of this. So, we continue to strive and destroy etc. These are all the dangers of the human mind. “Treachery is like ditches. Deception is like ravines.” So, “The Buddha-land is level.” The Buddha-land is very level. “It does not have any such treacherous places.” It is so level. It is not taller than a mountain, nor does it swallow more than ditches and ravines. It is not like this. So, everything is level there, and “It does not have any such treacherous places.” Because it is even, everything can be seen at a glance. You can see that it is a very level place. When walking in level places, it feels very safe. So, “It does not have any such treacherous places. This is all in response to His impartial mind.” So, there is no danger there. In the state of the Buddha, in His land, “Terraces and temples of Seven Treasures are everywhere.” Those “terraces and temples for people to wander in” are the fruition of His merits and virtues.
Terraces and temples of Seven Treasures are everywhere: The terraces and temples for people to wander in are the fruition of his merits and virtues. Thus they are called treasures. They are found in all places, thus it says “everywhere”. The Severn Treasures and so on are in response to all kinds of Dharma-treasures that dignify sentient beings’ minds.
This is the joy that comes from serving others, being filled with Dharma-joy. This is all the Dharma, and the Dharma is found in our hearts, not to mention in the Buddha’s. The Great Enlightened One’s mind is like this; throughout the landscape of His mind there are these kinds of pavilions everywhere for playing. Everywhere is very beautiful. The landscape of His mind is very beautiful. This is all a result of His merits and virtues, His accumulation of merits and virtues. “They are called treasures. These are the treasures. “they are found in all places, thus it says ‘everywhere’.” It is like this everywhere there. So, “The Seven Treasures and so on are in response to all kings of Dharma-treasures that dignify sentient beings’ minds. Because of these virtues that He had accumulated through His actions, in the eyes of sentient beings, the Buddha was always the most dignified. Som “All kinds of Dharma-treasures dignify sentient beings’ minds.” He taught and transformed sentient beings, enable sentient beings to accept this Dharma and shared the Dharma-joy of His teachings. If we wish to attain Dharma-joy, in our minds we must accept the Dharma and put ii into practice in order to experience it. This is actually simple; it is not difficult. The Dharma-realm is always found in daily living. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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