Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Making Use of the Precious Jewel (運用寶珠 彼此不窮)
Date: August.16.2017
“Their minds of faith and joy had developed. Their roots of goodness were due to constantly hearing the Dharma. With wisdom and vows as the seeds, they formed affinities and attained perfect understanding. Since Beginningless time, they heard the Dharma that they possessed this jewel, the intrinsic nature of True Suchness within.”
Recently, haven’t we constantly been talking about a drunk man who went to his close friend’s house? Intoxicated, he fell asleep there. His friend saw the sad state he was in, but he was still sleeping, so this friend put a precious jewel in his clothes. Then he left to take care of official business. When this drunken man woke up, he also left that place. After a long time, they saw each other again. The friend saw this man still looking so destitute. Why was he still like that? Clearly, this precious jewel was priceless. There was no way he could have spent it all. So why was it that, when they now met again, he was still in such a sad state? When it comes to this story, we must be very mindful. This is the Buddha teaching the Dharma with an analogy, with a very interesting [story]. This sutra passage comes after the 500 disciples received predictions. They were very joyful, but also very remorseful. They came to express to the Buddha that they were like that drunken man, intoxicated by the wine of ignorance. They had always lived in confusion like this. Although they had encountered the Buddha and, over many lifetimes, formed affinities with Him and received His teachings, still in this lifetime, although they had met the Buddha, they remained stuck in their own limited capabilities and wisdom. The teachings given by the Buddha are meant to guide everyone to form great aspirations and make great vows, [yet] they were still stuck to just wishing to end cyclic existence for themselves. They truly felt very remorseful. “Their minds of faith and joy had developed.” Lifetime after lifetime, they had accepted the Buddha-Dharma and their root of faith had remained unsevered. This mind of faith and joy, faith and joy in the Buddha-Dharma, had continued to develop lifetime after lifetime. “Their minds of faith and joy had developed.” They were still advancing. Their roots of goodness came from life after life of “constantly hearing the Dharma”. They had always been listening to the Dharma. “With wisdom and vows as the seeds….” That wisdom, that cause, is the seed. That seed is the intrinsic nature of True Suchness, the inherent wisdom found in everyone. So, they had been listening to the Dharma. Over a long time, over countless lifetimes, they had constantly listened to the Dharma. Their minds of faith and joy had been developing. With this wisdom, this seed, they continued making vows lifetime after lifetime. They were constantly making vows. Aren’t we too making vows every day? After finishing our recitations, don’t we make these vows? “I vow to eliminate the Three Obstructions and all afflictions. I vow to obtain wisdom and true clarity. I vow to eliminate all karmic obstacles and, life after life, follow the Bodhisattva-path.” These are the vows we make every day.
Thus, “Wisdom and vows [are] the seeds”. But every day, after we make these vows, how much of an effect do they have on us? In fact, we are not being mindful. All we do is care for this seed. We engage in morning and evening recitations, we chant the sutra passages and we make these vows according to the script, but that is all we do. We are not truly very mindful. [This mindfulness] is about forming affinities. The Buddha, since the past eras of the Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas as well as Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha, for such a long time, life after life, had been teaching the Dharma and seeking the Dharma. He sought the Buddha-Dharma and transformed sentient beings. Lifetime after lifetime, in the Six Realms and Four Forms of Birth, He always went among people, going among sentient beings to plant the seeds for paving the road to Buddhahood. He wanted to widely form good karmic connections and enter all the realms of sentient beings to experience and understand all that suffering, how the causes of suffering are accumulated. He spent a very long period of time forming affinities with all sentient beings, teaching the Dharma and delivering sentient beings. This is “perfect understanding”. His causes and conditions had already matured, so He came to this world and attained Buddhahood. In the process of spiritual practice, the final result is manifesting the attainment of Buddhahood. The Buddha then continued to resolve the karmic affinities of the past. Aside from engaging in practice, He continued to transform sentient beings. His difficulty was that while sentient beings formed affinities with Him life after life, they still had not formed great aspirations. So, although these karmic affinities had matured, our listening to the Dharma since. Beginningless [Time] has been like. Him continuously giving us that precious jewel. He is always telling us, “You have a precious jewel on you.” At any time, He is telling us that “The mind, the Buddha and sentient beings, are no different [in nature]”. Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. He wants to let us know this, but we are still drunk with the wine of ignorance. We still have not understood; we have not understood that we intrinsically have this nature of True Suchness. We clearly know this; the Buddha has told us this. We believe it and we understand it; it is just that we are unable to exercise it. Why is that? It is because we have not eliminated our ignorance and afflictions. We have not worked hard enough. Although we listen to [the Dharma] every day, after listening to it, we leave it in the deepest part [of our minds]. We do not take it out and apply it. This is a great pity. Sentient beings live in the world. The world’s sentient beings experience much suffering. We should put our hearts into understanding this. Since ancient times, good people safeguard their thoughts of goodness, while ignorance people for no reason will [negatively] affect the world at large.
This is like the ancients’ notion of ethics, “There are spiritual beings three inches above us.” This describes the perspective of the law of karma. Take for example orangutans, or a gorilla like Koko. These are other types of living beings. They are not humans; they are animals. Yet they also know [to cherish] nature. As for humans and the earth, we are harming the earth, which has resulted in our current abnormal weather.
A very long time ago, during the Han Dynasty, in Donghai County there was a very filial daughter-in –law. Not long after this filial daughter-in-law married into a family, just a few years later, her husband passed away. This daughter-in-law was very filial; she was very filial toward her mother-in-law. Thus, she made a vow to never marry again in order to be by her mother-in-law’s side and serve her until her death. This mother-in-law cherished her daughter-in-law like her own daughter. She knew her daughter-in-law was still young. “My son let you down. You should find another good man and marry again.” But this widow remained determined to preserve her purity and fulfill her filial duties. This made the mother-in-law very troubled. She thought, “Am I, this old person, burdening my daughter-in-law? If I were to die then she would have no worries and would go find a good man to remarry.” So, once this mother-in-law had thought this, she committed suicide by hanging herself. This was what happened. When the mother-in-law’s daughter came back for the funeral, she kept insisting, “This happened because my sister-in-law is still young and wanted to remarry. You only pretended to be filial. You said you would take good care of my mother, but you probably could not remain pure. You manipulated or abused her, [driving] my mother to die like this. This happened because my sister-in-law was unfilial and abusive toward my mother. Even if it was suicide, it was caused by my sister-in-law. She cannot avoid the charge of being unfilial.”
At that time, the county magistrate, based on the case the daughter brought to him, sentenced the widow to death by beheading. Starting from that time, the entire Donghai county did not have any rain for three years’ time; there was a drought. The people in the county felt that this region had always had favorable weather; there had never been a time when it did not rain for three years, so how did this problem come about? A new prefect came to the county and saw how this drought cause the farmers unbearable suffering. Nothing was growing at all. Across the whole county, due to this devastating drought, the people were suffering. What could have happened in this county? Everyone discussed this. There had to be something that had happened. This new prefect came to this place to assume responsibility. He wanted to understand; had anything odd happened in this county? So, he brought tout and reviewed all court cases. After reviewing them, he discovered this case. He quickly brought it up for a retrial. This was because He had heard the local people speak about how filial this daughter-in-law was. There was no way she had abused her mother-in-law. Everyone thought it was impossible. Unfortunately, the previous county magistrate sentenced her to death. So, this prefect, having heard this news, brought the case up for renewed investigation. It turned out everyone in the county said the same thing. This should not have been a matter of the daughter-in-law abusing the mother-in-law. Most likely, the mother-in-law loved the daughter-in-law so much that she ended her own life. The daughter-in-law had been unjustly beheaded. This was a great injustice. Therefore, the prefect quickly gathered people and personally arranged a memorial ceremony for her. They held a memorial ceremony for this widow and erected a monument to her purity. On this day, the people of the county all came together to pay respect to this widow. Seeing a monument erected to her purity made everyone very happy. Incredibly, just like that, dark clouds began to appear. Then it began to rain. This classic story is called “Three Years without Rain”. This happened because an injustice was done. Until this injustice was resolved, heaven and earth remained unforgiving. So, it did not rain for three years. This is a classical story from the past.
Indeed! Why is the weather so abnormal right now? Right now, people’s minds are full of ignorance. The web of ignorance keeps [growing]; people do not know what is real or illusory. Many things happen because people are unable to establish faith in what is true and unable to clearly discern right from wrong. They cannot see this clearly, so they mix up what is pure and what is turbid. So, many people have minds shrouded by ignorance and afflictions. They are enveloped in this [ignorance]. Thus, man-made calamities are now frequent, as are natural disasters. Therefore, we should quickly bring purity to people’s minds and bolster people’s faith. The True Dharma and human morals must quickly be bolstered. Right now, [the lines] are very blurry. This is because people are drunk on ignorance. We must all be mindful in awakening our nature of True Suchness. We must earnestly nourish our minds of faith and joy. We must establish our pure intrinsic nature, earnestly listen to the Dharma and clearly distinguish right from wrong. For a long time already, the seed from listening to the Dharma has been buried deep in our minds. Every one of us has this precious jewel on our person. We must earnestly use this precious jewel to develop our inexhaustible wisdom; the true principles can then manifest in our daily living. This is our goal in seeking the Dharma. As it is, the macrocosm of the world is becoming imbalanced. This is due to ignorance covering the microcosm [of our minds]. So, we must be very mindful.
The Buddha mindfully teaches the Dharma and guides sentient beings. He has accompanied us for a long time. When will we finally recognize that the Dharma is in our nature and in our minds? How long will it be before we are able to find it? This is such a pity. So, it has been a very long time. Isn’t this what the previous sutra passage said?
“On a certain day, month and year, I fastened a priceless jewel inside your clothes, and it is still there now. Yet, you are not aware of it. You work so hard and suffer such afflictions just in order to survive. You are extremely deluded”.
For a very long time, since the Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas’ and Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha’s eras, for dust-inked kalpas, He has repeatedly given this priceless jewel to us. We have it within us, but even now, we still do not know it. It is still like this “[We] work so hard and suffer such afflictions just in order to survive”. We are still working only to benefit ourselves. What we seek in the Small Dharma; [we seek] only to satisfy ourselves. Thus, “We are extremely deluded”. We should all form great aspirations, make great vows and go among people so everyone can understand, so it is not only we who understand. If we are the only ones who understand, we are just benefiting ourselves. People in this world have not yet been transformed. Sentient beings of the world are covered by ignorance, so naturally the world is out of balance. The macrocosm is out of balance and the microcosm as well. So, everyone must quickly form great aspirations and make great vows to go among the people to teach the Dharma, to spread the Dharma. We need to give to help others and comprehend people’s suffering. From amidst ignorance, we seek awakening. This is what the Buddha taught us.
The next sutra passage continues, “Now you can use this jewel to trade in exchange for what you need. Then you will always have what you wish and be short of nothing”.
[The friend said], “Now that I see you again. I am telling you that you have on you a precious jewel. You should know now that with this precious jewel, you can make the most of your abilities. You can be free and at ease. You will not be lacking in anything. You will not lack in clothing or food. You will live you whole life in abundance.” What is meant by not lacking clothing and food is [not lacking] the Dharma. We will be able to freely exercise the Dharma. This passage advises us, “You need to trade with it. Do not keep this thing inside [your clothes]. Take it out and share it with others. It is such a good thing. Go out! By trading, you are giving. After giving, you will obtain great Dharma-joy in return. You need to go out and trade”. This symbolizes being bestowed with a prediction of Buddhahood.
The parable of urging him to trade refers to the prediction of Buddhahood being bestowed. This means that this great Bodhicitta will bring infinite merits and virtues without any shortage.
We need to work hard and truly go among people to transform sentient beings. When we form great aspirations, we will naturally receive a prediction of Buddhahood. This is an analogy for great Bodhicitta. We must give rise to great Bodhicitta. This is “to trade”. When we give rise to Bodhicitta, we must give of the Dharma in order to attain Dharma-joy in return.
So, “[It] will bring infinite merits and virtues.” After we give of ourselves, what we get in return are merits and virtues. Regularly engaging in internal cultivation brings merit. Going out and giving to people brings virtue. Thus we will have infinite merits and virtues. When we trade [like this], what we get in return are infinite merits and virtues. This is “without any shortage”; we will definitely have an abundance. So, “Now you can use this jewel to trade in exchange for what you need.”
Now you can use this jewel to trade in exchange for what you need: “This jewel” refers to the Buddha-nature. “Trade” refers to transforming and transmitting. “What you need” refers to the robe of patience and the food of meditative joy.
Right now we should [know that] this jewel is our Buddha-nature. We must know that to trade means transforming and transmitting. The Dharma we hear must be meticulously understood and taken to heart and then passed on to everyone. According to sentient beings’ capabilities, according to the needs of the times, we can transform and transmit [the teachings]. “What you need” refers to “the robe of patience and the food of meditative joy”. Even though society now is very complicated, we must go among people. Thus, we truly must have patience. We must be gentle, kindhearted, respectful, modest and humble. We must be very gentle and adapt to sentient beings. We must exercise our kindness. No matter what, we must calmly accept adversities and be respectful toward others, we must be humble. Being gentle, kindhearted, respectful, modest and humble, being able to yield to others and not taking issue with others, these are the skills we need to master. This takes patience. In this era, in this society, we must cultivate patience. We must wear the robe of patience. This pearl has been put in our clothes. Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. We must all have the appearance of a spiritual practitioner. To look like a spiritual practitioner, we need to wear this garment. This helps people know that we are spiritual practitioners. This helps people recognize that this is the kind of organization we are. Spiritual practice is internal, but it must also be expressed outwardly. So, we must always [take in] “the food of meditative joy.” This is engaging in calm contemplation. We must earnestly purify our minds and earnestly engage in contemplation to cultivate our minds. Listening, contemplating and practicing, precepts, Samadhi and wisdom are our clothing of gentleness and patience. If we constantly wear this clothing, we will constantly attain many teachings. Only by going among people will we know that, indeed, this is the case, that the joy we feel after taking action is what nourishes our wisdom-life. This is “the food of meditative joy”; it helps our wisdom-life develop even further.
“Though the value of the jewel is immeasurable, it must be traded so as to be useful.”
Though the value of the jewel is immeasurable, it must be traded so as to be useful. They had thoroughly understood the causes in their minds. Even though they had ultimate understanding, their actions had to be in accordance with this understanding.
Though this jewel is very valuable, we must trade it [to bring out its value]; we must give of ourselves. Only by doing this can we benefit sentient beings. It is not enough for us to have a jewel; we must share it with everyone. Just by having the Buddha-Dharma, we cannot mitigate the world’s disasters. We must change everyone’s minds, help all people purify their minds and awaken their love and sincere reverence. Only then will the world be peaceful. The reverence of one person alone is not enough to touch heaven and earth. It will require everyone’s collective reverence to reach the eight classes of Dharma-protectors. Then all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas understand that everyone’s reverence has come together, and we are giving out of the power of love. So, although the newels value is immeasurable, it must be treaded “so as to be useful.” It must be traded “so as to be useful”. This is the only way it can be useful to us. If we are not among people, we will not know that helping people is such joyous thing. If the Dharma can pervade the world, it can bring peace and harmony to the world. Having a peaceful and harmonious world is beneficial to humankind. Thus, the Dharma must be applied in this world. So, “They had thoroughly understood the causes in their minds.” We need to be very clear that these are our causes and conditions. We must thoroughly understand these ourselves. Since dust-inked kalpas ago, we have had the nature of True Suchness. We have had this Dharma. Although we already understand everything, “even though they had ultimate understanding, their actions had to be in accordance with this understanding.” Even though we clearly understand the Dharma, though we have a deep understanding, we must put it into practice. Our inner cultivation and external practice must be in accord with each other. Only then will the Dharma be useful in this world. So, “Then you will always have what you wish.”
Then you will always have what you wish and be short of nothing: This means you can constantly be wealthy and have whatever you wish, lacking nothing at any time.
When the Dharma is applied in the world, we can achieve a world free of disasters. When society is peaceful and harmonious, that is a blessing for all humankind. So, we must be very mindful in taking the Dharma to heart and putting it into practice. The internal and external must be in accord as we [work] in the world. So, “This means that you can constantly be wealthy and have whatever you wish.” If we wish for everyone to be safe, then we must give of ourselves. So, we “lack nothing at any time”. This Dharma is in all places at all times, it [provides us] with great abundance.
So, “The essence of the jewel is inexhaustible. It can be traded endlessly.”
The essence of the jewel is inexhaustible. It can be traded endlessly. Only in this way can the use of the precious jewel be manifested. In cultivating oneself and transforming others, all kinds of immeasurable treasures will be reached without effort. They will be inexhaustible for us and others. Thus it says, “whatever you wish, lacking nothing”.
This jewel is actually the Dharma. When the essence of the Dharma is in our minds, it is truly inexhaustible. We do not need to worry, thinking, “If I share it and others make use of this Dharma, will I have less of it?” This is like when a disciple asked the Buddha, “If I were to pass this Dharma on to others and they make use of it, will my merits and virtues decrease? When others obtain merits and virtues, will I have less?” The Buddha used a candle as an analogy. “Once your candle has been lit, if another comes to be lit [by its flame], if ten candles are lit or even millions or billions of candles are lit, will this affect your candle’s flame?” “No.” “Have your surroundings become brighter?” “Yes” That is right! The principle is the same. If we understand the Dharma and give it to others so that they understand it, will we have any less of it? No. We can unceasingly, by giving to others, attain more realizations and then share them with everyone. So, “The essence of the jewel is inexhaustible. It can be traded endlessly.” We can endlessly continue to share with others. “Only in this way can the use of the precious jewel be manifested.” Only in this way can we manifest the function and use of that precious jewel. “In cultivating oneself and transforming others, all kinds of immeasurable treasures will be reached without contriving”. This is all mutual. It cannot be just for me to enjoy for myself. If I am the only one who enjoys it, then it will not be of any use. It must be [shared] with everyone; we must “cultivate ourselves and transform others. All kinds of immeasurable treasures” do not belong to us alone. If it just belonged to me, it would be of no use. It belongs to everyone. The Dharma is something everyone inherently has. We need to awaken the love in everybody. “For oneself and others without end” [means that] your spiritual wealth, my spiritual wealth, everyone’s spiritual wealth is endless. This is truly “whatever you wish, lacking nothing,” This is the power of love.
The next sutra passage says, “The Buddha is also like this. When He was a Bodhisattva, He taught and transformed us, enabling us to form aspirations of the wisdom of all Dharma. But we soon neglected and forgot this, so we were unaware.”
It is like this. This is the meaning. The Buddha taught us in this way. When He was a Bodhisattva, He likewise “was like a close friend.” He was like that friend. This was “in the casual ground.” In the distant past, when He was a Bodhisattva in the casual ground during the eras of Great Unhindered Wisdom Superior Buddha and the Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas, during those eras in the causal ground, He began to “teach and transform us, enabling us to form aspirations of the wisdom of all Dharma.”
The Buddha is also like this. When He was a Bodhisattva, He taught and transformed us, enabling us to form aspirations of the wisdom of all Dharma: The Buddha is also like a close friend. When He was a Bodhisattva in the causal ground, He taught and transformed all of us, enabling us to form aspirations of the wisdom of all Dharma.
From that time on, He always continued to teach us in this way. He taught us so that we would be able to transform sentient beings. He taught us to form aspirations of the wisdom of all Dharma. This is what all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas did in the past. They used the heart of a Bodhisattva to teach. “But we soon neglected and forgot this, so we were unaware.”
But we soon neglected and forgot this, so we were unaware: Later they soon neglected and forgot this. They were unable to understand it and were unaware of it.
Presently, we are still often [like this]. Lifetime after lifetime, although we listen to the Dharma, we forget about it again. The Dharma was originally firmly in our minds but it has been neglected. We have not put in the work, so it has been neglected. We forgot about it and became unaware of it. “Later they soon neglected and forgot this. They were unable to understnad it.” We are unable to self-reflect. It is as if we are constantly intoxicated. With this wine of ignorance, we spend every day in a state of ignorance. Every day, we seek the Dharma, but every day we do this only for ourselves. We try to understand the Buddha-Dharma because we want to break free of cyclic existence. We want to have the Buddha-Dharma for ourselves and do not want to share it with others. Actually, whether Great or Small Vehicle Dharma, as long as we listen and [realize] principles, once we open our hearts and understand, we must quickly share this with others. We do not say, “Hold on. Wait until I completely understand the Great Vehicle Dharma. Then I will tell you.” This is like the Buddha’s disciples who had listened for 40 years. They were all getting on in years. How long were they going to wait before going among people? Once we hear the Dharma and [understand] it, we must immediately share it with everyone. We should not wait too long. So, faith and joy must forever be nourished in our minds. Our roots of goodness must be endlessly extended. Since we know we have these causes and conditions, we must earnestly apply the Dharma in our daily living. The internal and external must be in accord, then we can spread the Dharma. Only when all sentient beings obtain the Dharma and understand the principles can the four elements be in balance, society be harmonious and everyone live in peace. This depends on whether we can always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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