Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Conditions for Receiving Predictions (根深緣熟 蒙授佛記)
Date: July.28.2017
“The Great Enlightened One, the Buddha, praised His great disciple Kaundinya, who over dust-inked kalpas had followed his teachers’ provisional transformation. So, his roots were deep, his conditions mature. He followed the Buddha’s responding to the world at Deer Park. After listening to the Dharma, he was the first to comprehend and awaken. Now he is bestowed with a prediction of attaining Buddhahood.”
The Great Enlightened One, the Buddha, praised. His great disciple Kaundinya. Kaundinya is someone most of us should recognize. We should know that Kaundinya was there right after the Buddha’s enlightenment and in Deer Park, when He first turned the Dharma-wheel to teach the Four Noble Truths. Kaundinya was the first to awaken to the suffering of the world. Among the Buddha’s disciples, he was first to awaken after hearing the Dharma and comprehend the truth of suffering. He was a great disciple.
Kaundinya was also royalty. When Prince Siddhartha left the palace, his father was worried. So, he asked five royal relatives, some older and some of his generation, to quickly look for [Siddhartha]. They found the prince, but not only were they unable to persuade him to return to the palace, they were actually moved by his determination to engage in spiritual practice. So, Kaundinya followed Prince Siddhartha and joined him in engaging in spiritual practice.
The process of their practice was very arduous; they engaged in ascetic practice. However, Prince Siddhartha, after a very long time, came to believe that this ascetic practice was not the ultimate. Therefore, he left Uruvilva Forest and washed off the years of dirt from his body in the Niranjan River. When he emerged from the river, because of his long years of ascetic practice, he was physically weak from his bath. So, he fainted by the river. Then he received a shepherdess’s offering [of milk] to recover his strength. Under a great tree in the Bodhi-forest, he began to sit in meditation and contemplate. At that place, for 21 days, he engaged again in calm reflection on his travels seeking answers, his ascetic practice and his journey of engaging in spiritual practice. The universe is so vast and spacious, and the world is full of suffering. He took all of his many experiences in the process of his spiritual practice and brought them all together. Then he gradually organized them into a path. This path of thinking was the path toward awakening. Suddenly, He had a great realization and became one with everything in the universe. His intrinsic ocean of enlightenment opened wide; He completed the great, direct Bodhi-path. His spiritual state was completely enlightened, and He could comprehend all without obstruction. This state of mind is so hard to describe. As He sat in meditation, He began to clear His mind. All of the many things from the past were passed through the filter [of contemplation]. His mind became tranquil and clear. His awakened nature, His ocean of enlightenment, opened up, and the great Bodhi-path manifested. With that tranquil and clear mind, He entered a completely still and silent state.
In this still and silent state, He became one with everything in the universe. With slow contemplation, He understood the principles. This was such a great principles; it turns out everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, and not just humans. All sentient beings, all living, moving beings, have Buddha-nature. So, the first thing He said was, “Amazing! Amazing! All sentient beings possess the Tathagata’s nature of wisdom.” It is just that one thought of ignorance led us to fall into the Three Realms, into the Five Destinies and Four Forms of Birth. This is how suffering in life starts. This is what He understood.
But how could He help everyone experience this? He thought and thought. After 21 days of great contemplation, He wondered, “Can sentient beings really do this? Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature, but how can I help everyone to believe this?” Once they believe it and take it to heart, they must start finding ways to eradicate all the ignorance, afflictions and dust-like delusions. This is difficult! Once He thought of the difficulty involved, at that moment, from all directions, the four intermediate directions, above and below, from the worlds of the ten directions, all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and heavenly beings appeared. In this great state, they comforted Sakyamuni. They started telling Him, “It is not easy for each Buddha to appear in the human realm.” Much time has to pass for just one Buddha to manifest in the human realm. Once He has thoroughly penetrated the principles of the universe, He must quickly, right away, find the way to seize the time and deliver and transform sentient beings. How did he deliver and transform them? All Buddhas share the same path. Sentient beings are foolish, so He had to use all kinds of skillful means as teachings. He opened these doors of skillful means for them. Every Buddha does this same thing.
After earnest contemplation, He reached a decision. He would start from the most fundamental thing which people can realize in their life, the most objectively existent, easy-to-experience thing; this was suffering. So, the Dharma the Buddha taught at Deer Park was the Four Noble Truths, suffering, causation, cessation and the Path. There were only four concepts, yet out of the five people there, [Kaunidnya] was the first to experience and understand the truth of suffering, to understand that suffering come from people’s desires. When we give rise to ignorance and afflictions, we draw external phenomena to us. As external phenomena and mental states converge, the body takes action, resulting in the creation of karma. Once we have created karma, we continue to replicate it in this way. Causes, conditions, effects and retributions will keep coming. [Kaundinya] now knew that it was one thought of ignorance that led them to replicate these many afflictions, causing them to fall into the Three Realms and transmigrate in the Six Destinies, unable to liberate themselves. Kaundinya had already realized and understood this.
What about the rest? They still did not know. No matter, the Buddha repeated it again. The second time He taught, there were still some who did not understand. That was fine, as the Buddha repeated it again. So, this was called the Three Turnings of the Four Noble Truths. This was when the Buddha first became enlightened and taught at Deer Park, He turned the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths three times. Kaundinya was the first to awaken. The Buddha also praised Kaundinya as a great disciple. In the royal palace, he was [Siddhartha’s] elder. But when the Buddha became a monastic, Kaundinya followed Him. After the Buddha’s enlightenment, Kaundinya was also considered the first to awaken to the Buddha-Dharma, so he was called a great disciple. The world is truly full of suffering!
Chi Hui has come back from Jordan. Yesterday, he brought up the situation there. Such suffering! In every word I heard, everything he brought up, here was suffering. These refugees have already left their hometowns and are now gathered in that refugee camp. Cumulatively, they have been [in Jordan] for five years. But at the Zaatari refugee camp in particular, which was where they could settle down, they have been there for three years. These refugees escaped [in 2011] to Jordan; it has been five years altogether. Now, in this location that was set aside for them, they have already spent more than three years. It has already become a new town. Every thought in the minds of the refugees is on returning home. This is because the place they live now is a vast, boundless desert. Right now, an area of about six to seven [square] kilometers had been set aside for them to gather. I heard there were tens of thousands of refugees living in that place. It is the second largest refugee camp in the world. Nearly 70.000 to 80. 000 refugees are gathered there. Some of them live in tents, and some live in temporary houses. These quarters are simple and crude, and furthermore tightly packed together. They lack water; there is no grass or water. It is a very dry and arid place. When the wind blows, the sandstorms are very severe. Yesterday, Chi Hui took out a towel [to show us]. It was stored in a plastic bag. This towel was from another refugee camp, a new one. It was about 400 or 500 kilometers from the capital. It was on the border, even farther away. There were very many refugees there. Some of them came from Afghanistan, some from Iraq and some from Syria. This was another group that had come to the borders but were not yet allowed to cross Jordan’s boundaries. Chi Hui and others went to assess the place. This was because the United Nations High Commission for Refugees requested that Tzu Chi go visit them. Sure enough, they went to see them. The borders were hard to pass through. However, with help from Prince Hassan, they successful crossed into that area, right outside the borders, to visit these refugees. The wind blew the sand everywhere. They used a towel to wipe their faces, and the entire towel was covered with a payer of sand. He took this towel, a pure white towel, which was now covered with a thick layer of sand, and placed it in a plastic bag. This was to help us understand what life in that region was like. The wind blew the sand everywhere. The people in that place who face this end up with their entire head, entire face and entire body covered with sand; from this we can tell [how much] they have suffered. They were born in one country, grew up in that country and established a family and career in that country. But once war broke out there, they were forced to leave their homeland. To save their lives, they had to leave their homes. The course of their flight was tragic and full of suffering! Could their entire family remain safe as they fled on this road [to safety]? The process of reaching the borders of Jordan and Syria, as we often heard these past four, five years, was tragic and heartbreaking! These journeys were covered in bloodstains. We have heard all this before. So0, we can imagine how the survivors simply hope to survive. They only seek to live. But in the life they are now living, in the desert with all its blowing sand, they lack water and food. Every day their entire bodies are covered in sand. Thinks about it; isn’t this suffering? Tzu Chi volunteers gave them water and provisions. How much longer will the children there have their schooling put on the hold? We do not know.
In that place, there are problems with more than just adults and children. There are also babies that have yet to be born. How will they be born? Can they be born safely? Will there be complications? It is very dangerous. Chi Hui and the volunteers placed great importance on this aspect. Even if the babies were born safely, the children face great suffering, as do the adults. What happens if there are complications? They said they need Tzu Chi to help them.
Yesterday, they discussed this too. In such a faraway place, if this happened, how would they handle complications in childbirth? This is all suffering. This kind of suffering truly cannot be described in words. This is truly unbearable suffering! By now, these Syrian refugees have been fleeing for more than five years. The civil war has gone on for five years. The refugees who fled and left their county behind number more than four million. About a third of them are in Jordan. Clearly Jordan has taken in over 1 million people, which is truly a very large number. They were scattered [around the country]. The largest of the refugee camps accommodated more than 85,000 people. This is a huge number; it has become the fourth largest city in Jordan and the second largest refugee camp in the world. we saw how densely packed in they are. There is no even a single blade of grass, let alone a tree. When it rains, they walk on mud, whether inside the tent or out. As it rains outside, there is water inside too. If the weather is clear, the wind stirs up all the sand. How can they live in this way?
In particular, on March1 (2016), we saw the [refugee hospital’s] celebration. They were celebration the birth of the 5000th baby. Their lives are already very harsh. Will these children who were born be able to grow up happily? Among these children, some are already ill. Yesterday, we heard that there is a four-month-old baby girl from Syria born with umbilical hernia, which means her intestines by her belly button are protruding through her umbilical opening. When we went to distribute aid during our regular aid distribution, her mother carried this child to us to ask Tzu Chi volunteers for help. How could we help them? Still, Chi Hui quickly accepted the case. Tzu Ai and Tzu Li immediately looked for a doctor. They found a doctor in Amman. There was a urologist willing to take on this case. However, the medical fee, in Jordanian currency, was more than 500 dinars. 500 dinars is equivalent to 23,000 NTD. This was a heavy financial burden. But to save the child, we knew we had to take it on. So, Chi Hui said that that night when he went home to sleep, he dreamt that I told him, “You have the doctor”. He was so shocked he work up. “I have the doctor? Where is the doctor?” Then it came to him. After he woke up, he recalled, “Yes! I do have a doctor. I have a Syrian doctor named Mohnad “. This doctor helped Tzu Chi before; he saved a five-year-old boy injured by a bomb. This doctor saved his life, and he happened to be an urologist. So, Chi Hui quickly went to find him. This doctor was very kind and was willing to only charge 275 dinars. This was half the cost. Therefore, when they look for doctors there, I helped too! However, this is how inconceivable causes and conditions are. This is the power of love. This child has already undergone surgery.
On March 10(2016), she went back for another doctor’s visit. Her wound was healing nicely. This child is beautiful; truly, this man is a precious benefactor in her life. That is because when this child was brought to this doctor for surgery, the doctor mentioned to Chi Hui that there are children like her in the Zaatari refugee camp right now. In that refugee camp, there were a total of 56 children like her. They ranged from one month old to four years old. 56 children suffered from umbilical hernia and thus required surgery. So, yesterday they came back to ask, “Do we want to accept these cases?” If we do not accept them, what will happen to these children? If we do, it will be a huge burden.
Indeed, this will be a huge burden. But for these children, the lives of 50-60 children, exactly how much are they worth? They are priceless! Since they have come to the world, we cannot calculate how much their life is worth. Moreover, among these 50-plus children, there are 15 children with complicated illnesses. They cannot afford any delay. So, we had to quickly make a decision for [Chi Hui]. Of course, saving lives is the top priority. Though born into these circumstances, though these one- to four-year-old were all born in the refugee camps. I always ask myself if karma is created from a single thought.
A few days ago, we discussed how. Dharma Clarity Tathagata’s land is free of thoughts of sexual desire. So, everyone is pure, and everyone takes the Dharma to heart. In Jordan, when I see these refugees, I truly feel helpless. There are still so many! Isn’t this suffering? [Suffering’s causes] are accumulated. The disasters created in the past. Are being faced by the adults. Now the suffering extends to the next generation, and it will continue. This is truly suffering!
However, spiritual practice requires a long time. “Kaundinya, over dust-inked kalpas, had followed his teacher’s provisional transformation. So, his roots were deep, his conditions mature. As Kaundinya engaged in spiritual practice, he was the first to realize the four Noble Truths. Actually, he had been following Sakyamuni Buddha for dust-inked kalpas just like Purna Maitrayaniputra, since Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha and the 16 princes’ time all the way up until now. So, their roots were deep and their conditions were already mature. Now, they could receive predictions of Buddhahood. “He followed the Buddha’s responding to the world at Deer Park.” At Deer Park, among those hearing the Dharma, he was the first to attain realization; he was the very first. At this time, Ajnata Kaundinya was the next person to receive predictions of Buddhahood. This means we should be happy for him.
The previous sutra passage says, “At that time, 1200 Arhats whose minds were at ease gave rise to this thought. ‘We all felt joy as we never had before.’ If the World-Honored One wouldbestow predictions on all those He sees, like He did for those other great disciples, would it not be joyous!
Everyone was very happy. Now, one by one, their names were being called to receive predictions of Buddhahood. “Maybe I will be next!” it might be very soon. This is why everyone was very happy.
The next sutra passage states, “The Buddha knew the thoughts. The Buddha knew the thoughts these disciples had in their mind. He told Mahakasyapa, ‘For these 1200 Arhats, I now will presently bestow in sequence predictions of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.’”
The Buddha already knew the hopes in these people’s hearts. The hopes in the minds of these 1200 people were all known to the Buddha. so, as for the thoughts in these people’s minds, their hopes, “The Buddha knew the thoughts.” They sought to receive predictions; they hoped the Buddha would bestow. Predictions of Buddhahood upon them. In the past, they dared not accept this, because receiving predictions of Buddhahood meant they had walked the Bodhisattva-path. To walk the Bodhisattva-path, they had to first go among people. Among people, their causes and conditions ripen; then they can attain Buddhahood.
In the past, they did not dare. By now, Sariputra, Mahakasyapa and the others, such as Purna Maitrayaniputra, had predictions bestowed upon them by the Buddha. So, everybody’s confidence grew; they were very happy. They had faith in themselves and were willing to form great aspirations, willing to complete the path to Buddhahood; They sought the path to Buddhahood, so, they rejoiced. The Buddha understood these people’s mentality. “He told Mahakasyapa….” Venerable Kasyapa had already received predictions. the Chapter in Bestowing Predictions shows how, with his comprehension in the Chapter on Parables, in the Chapter on Faith and Understanding, they all expressed their thoughts in this way for the Buddha to understand. The Buddha also said that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. Everyone has a dignified house in their minds. Inside it, there are many treasures. Everyone understands this. Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. They had all comprehended this as well.
Then, in the Chapter on Medicinal Plants etc., we see that this field of the mind has already been nourished by the water of Dharma. It has already been nourished, so the dharma has been taken to heart. Thus the Buddha started to bestow predictions. In the Chapter on Bestowing Predictions, they received predictions. this was when Venerable Kasyapa and rest of the four great disciples received predictions. after this span of four chapters, they had received predictions of Buddhahood.
He told Mahakasyapa: Venerable Kasyapa had already received predictions earlier. Now, the reason that the Buddha told Mahakasyapa is because he was the leader of the Sangha.
Now the Buddha “told Mahakasyapa”. This is because Kasyapa would lead the Sangha in the future. So, he already received predictions of Buddhahood. At this moment, Mahakasyapa was the focus. Therefore, “He told Mahakasyapa”. After Venerable Kasyapa received a prediction, the Buddha called out his name, hoping that everyone would affirm that kasyapa would lead the assembly in the future.
So, Mahakasyapa’s story is pretty much known to everyone. His name is translated as “Great Light-drinker” because his body radiated light. His body was very luminous. He cultivated the “Samadhi of complete cessation”; his mind was in Samadhi. Moreover, he “was able to understand all Dharma”. “For these 1200 Arhats” refers to the 1200 Arhats in the Buddha’s Sangha. There were always 1250 people. It was always roughly this number of people.
For these 1200 Arhats: These 1200 Arhats refer to the 1000 disciples of the three Kasyapas, plus Maudgalyayana’s and Sariputra’s disciples, which totaled 200.
Where did these 1200 Arhats come from? [Most] were from the Three Kasyapas. You have heard the story of the Three Kasyapas. There were three brothers. The oldest brother had 500 disciples. The two younger brothers had 250 disciples each. Between the two of them, they had 500 disciples. The oldest brother had 500 disciples. So, in total had 1000 disciples. The three brothers led a total of 1000 disciples, and each had their own place of practice. After being moved and transformed by the Buddha, they brought their disciples to take refuge under the Buddha. These were the Kasyapas; the Three Kasyapas had 1000 disciples. Maudgalyayana and Sariputra had two hundred disciples combined. So, all these added together was 1200 people. They were those always following the Buddha. Their teachers became a monastic, so they followed them to become monastics. These disciples truly practiced in the Sangha. Did they all properly abide by the rules? Truly, this is not an easy matter. As part of their spiritual practice, they lived as part of the Sangha. So the Buddha said, “I now will presently bestow in sequence predictions of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.”
I now will presently bestow in sequence predictions of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi: He said “presently,” meaning He would presently bestow predictions. He said “in sequence,” meaning the sequence of the past, the present and the future.
This is saying that “presently” means right now. “There are 1200 people at this place of practice, I will bestow predictions upon them because of their spiritual practice in the past.” He saw their past spiritual practice; He saw the aspirations they formed. Now, the front of Him they had already expressed that they were willing to form great aspirations. They had a “tacit understanding,” meaning they accepted the Dharma in their minds. The Buddha understood all this. Yesterday, we discussed “tacit understanding”. Though the previous text was explained, they would be unable to speak it aloud. Maybe they could not immediately draw on unobstructed eloquence. Although they were still unable to do this, with the Dharma they comprehended in their minds, they started to form aspirations. They knew their past process of spiritual practice. Did they have the qualifications to receive predictions of Buddhahood one by one? So, the Buddha began “presently and in sequence” to call their names one by one and bestow predictions upon them. The spiritual practice they engaged in previously is apparent in the results reveled in the present. I have faith that in the future, they will continue this way for a very long time. All this depends on our spiritual practice and the causes and conditions behind our past aspirations. Have we continued to uphold our past aspirations? If we are doing a good job in the present, that means in the future, we can lead people; we can go among people and can do great things for humankind. Doing the work of the Great Vehicle depends on what [the disciples] can express now. How did they form aspirations in the past? How are they expressing this now in the present? Will they be able to take on the responsibility for the work of the Great Vehicle in the future? This is what the Buddha is observing now. “I now will presently” means He started to earnestly observe presently. “In sequence” means to earnestly observe their past, their present performance and the responsibility they can shoulder in the future. The Buddha earnestly sought to understand this. Then, according to their virtues, He bestowed predictions of Buddhahood on them, predictions of attaining Buddhahood in the future.
Indeed! The Buddha appeared in the world for one great cause. The world is full of suffering! In the Lotus Sutra, this is dissected completely. Come, let us open this up like we are dissecting it. We dissect the key source of suffering in the world. This is like asking, for any person, what is the source of their illness? What kind of illness is this that they will surely die? This is the research we do through gross anatomy. The Buddha [broke down] what sentient beings in the macrocosm have accumulated, the karmic forces, painful retributions etc. that they faced. Precisely how did these come about? The Lotus Sutra speaks of so many people’s stories in the world; this is very practical. People’s stories in the present day are like what Chi Hui brought back from Jordan. Jordan is a real country. Five-plus years ago, we first came in contact with these blood-stained refugees on the run. Their situation is tragic and harsh. What they have connected with, what they have seen, heard and described, is the True Dharma. It is the true appearance of suffering in the world. So, as we continue discussing the Lotus Sutra, we must talk about modern-day people and their modern-day lives. Even if they are very far away, they are still within our sight and hearing. In particular, with advanced, modern technology and convenient transportation, to witness and understand is not difficult. So, we must mindfully comprehend this. [Shouldering] the work of the Great Vehicle is the Buddha’s hope for everyone. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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