Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Long Night of Samsara (生死長夜 長珠相照)
Date: August.28.2017
“Unenlightened beings transmigrate in the daze of ignorance. In the dark and gloomy long night, it is difficult for sentient beings to see the light. Having not yet attained true awakening, they are as if forever in a dream. Thus the Buddha calls it the long night of samsara. It is called the long night of samsara because it is expansive and lengthy. They were unable to understand and illuminate themselves, so it is called the long night.”
Sentient beings constantly transmigrate through the obscurity of a long night. They are in darkness all along the way. How wide is the path before them? How far is there still to go? Is the road smooth? Or is it uneven? We truly do not know, because it is so dark. Aren’t we unenlightened beings just like this? We are always transmigrating. Lifetime after lifetime we are always in darkness and ignorance. This is how we sentient beings are. How can we sentient beings possibly come to comprehend this ourselves and understand our path in this world? How can we walk an even and steady [path] where the darkness quickly clears from the sky? When the darkness clears, the sun will shine forth. It is when the door to our minds is closed that we are in darkness. Once we open the door to our minds, we can see that outside, it was always light. We are in darkness because we have closed ourselves off. We feel that the time is very long and that our path is very long. Actually, we need only open the door of our minds. Once we sentient beings open our minds, if fact, the outside world will be clear; it will appear before our eyes. The reason sentient beings are in a “long night,” filled with a gloomy darkness, is that they keep waiting for a dawn that never comes. We are just the same. “I work so hard to comprehend the principles. I am resolved to do so, but I am still stuck where I started, turning around and around in place. I have not made any progress. How can I thoroughly comprehend the principles?”
This is the long night we sentient beings live in. This in the darkness of our ignorance. We have not been able to open up our minds. Thus, “Having not yet attained true awakening, [we] are as if forever in a dream.” We keep being unable to fully understand. Thus, we spend a very, very long time [stuck] in a dream from which we cannot awaken. We unenlightened beings do not know from where we have come, let alone where we are going. It is like this for us in every lifetime. From previous lifetimes, I believe you too do not know how you arrived in this present life. Right now, in this present lifetime, are we satisfied? Oh no, nine time out of ten, things do not go as planned. We are unsatisfied! Things are not going our way! Even when we have few desires and are content, we still feel we have regrets in life. Our life is filled with regrets. The things we want to know, want to do, want to comprehend still seem very far away. The list goes on and on. In this life, there are things we want to do, things we want to pursue and want to attain. Each person’s idea of what they want to do differs. When it comes to doing or pursuing, what each person seeks is different. There are millions of kinds of people with millions of different inclinations. So, as sentient beings, we have “not yet attained true awakening” and thus, each person has its own orientation and mindset. Those whose minds are aimed in the right direction are those who walk the path of Living Bodhisattvas and seek the Dharma.
When we face in the right direction, we understand how ignorance is created and how it causes us to live in that long night. Once we have understood this, we wish to pursue [this path]. If we do not realize it, we may create ignorance and afflictions for ourselves, and cause ourselves to fall into a trap without even knowing it. We fall deeper and deeper, but we ourselves are unaware.
Once, in the Buddha’s lifetime when the Buddha was in the kingdom of Magadha, there was a group of hunters. These hunters were all very clever. In order to catch their prey very easily, they all put their minds into designing a large number of traps in the forest, with many different pitfalls and holes. So they started digging holes, one after the other. After digging them, [inside] the holes, they placed bamboo stakes, branches and other sharp objects, and scattered tree leaves on top. In this way, they made many pits and holes. One day, a deer stepped onto a trap and fell to the bottom of a pit. The deer cried out in pain, very loudly. The hunters all heard it from very far away and knew that a deer had fallen into a trap. All the hunters scrambled to find the deer. Which hole was it in? Actually, the pitfalls they dug were all in different locations. But when they all heard the cries of the deer, they all rushed in from every direction. The deer continued to cry out, and the hunters continued to run. In this way, they raced without knowing where in the [forest] the pits they had not dug themselves were located. Thus they all, one by one, fell into traps. Inside these traps, some people had placed sharp bamboo stakes and sharp pieces of wood; they sharpened pieces of wood. Some of the people who fell in were injured by sharp bamboo stakes and wooden spears. Some of them were so badly hurt that they died. Others cried out in pain from their injuries. The deer kept bellowing loudly, but the people in the traps cried out even louder. As soon as the villagers heard what happened, they quickly came looking for their next of kin, and one by one [the hunters] were pulled out. Some, as they were pulled up, were already dead, while others were severely injured. Some had minor injuries, and others had serious injuries covering their bodies. Everyone in the whole village [went to work]. Some started to handle funeral arrangements, while others looked for doctors and medicine to apply. So, all the dead and injured from that village had been hurt by traps they had dug themselves. This was because they had each dug their own pits without knowing of each other’s [traps]. So, upon hearing the cries of the deer, when they all came rushing over, it was inevitable that they would suffer such injuries and deaths. After the people who were injured had spent some time to recuperate and heal, a visitor from outside of the village arrived. He asked them, “Since this happened, once your injuries are healed, will you continue digging traps for hunting and harming sentient beings’ lives?” These people emphatically answered, “I wouldn’t dare; when I was injured, I suffered wounds all over my body. Only then did I realize the pain of these injured animals. Their cries of suffering were due to the physical pain of their bodies. After calmly thinking about it, we wouldn’t dare. Never again will we do such a thing as harming sentient beings by hunting using taps.” This man from afar said, “Humans must experience things to personally comprehend them. I once heard the Buddha in the city of Ganliyuan as He taught the Dharma. The Buddha described how our suffering in life comes from our greedy thoughts. Geed leads to ignorance and delusion, which are like a long, dark night. Just like how at night, we cannot see the road, so too have you, for the sake of your livelihood, mercilessly harmed sentient beings. Animals are living beings too. You dug these traps, but as a result, you harmed yourselves.” Each of them listened to this person who had heard the Buddha-Dharma and had come to the village to visit his friend. After he said these things to them, they all came to a realization. So, once they had recovered more, they all decided that they would go to hear the Buddha teach the Dharma. They left for the Buddha’s abode to hear Him teach the Dharma. There, they repented to the Buddha for how they themselves set up these nets and taps to harm living beings. They made a mistake and they knew it, so they wanted to listen to the Buddha teach the Dharma. “From now on, we will never again do things that bring harm to living beings. We wish to turn towards the Buddha.”
The Buddha began telling them, In life, due to a single moment of desire, we set many nets and traps. Actually, the nets were set ourselves are our ignorance that ensnares us. The traps are our lack of understanding. Thus, we keep falling into these traps. This is like making arrows which will harm our own bodies. There are like arrows in our minds. These are the arrows of craving. Craving’ is ignorance and desire. Our ignorance and desire are like arrows which will often harm sentient beings, but which also come back to harm us ourselves. This is like what has happened to you. Life is like a long night spent entirely in darkness”. This was what the Buddha said to them. We are all in the long night of samsara. “The long night of samsara [is] expansive and lengthy”. It is very, very long. When will we ever be able to get through this murky, vast long night? The ignorance of sentient beings knows no bounds! After this was explained to everyone, having heard it, they gained deep realizations and asked the Buddha to let them become monastics and seek refuge with Him. They all wished to become monastics. Before, these people were unable to self-reflect. So, the Buddha told them that everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. Everyone carries a jewel within, and while the jewel is radiant, it cannot illuminate itself. So, this is referred to as “a long night”. Unable to illuminate ourselves, we need some other light to light up our minds. We need to use light from without; this [light] is the Dharma taught by the Buddha. We need to faithfully accept His teachings and practice according to them; we use this light to kindle the light in our minds. Only if we are able to do so can we help ignite the light in every mind. This is the same principle.
In the past, were we not like this? In the long night of our past, throughout countless lifetimes, we were always caught in the net of ignorance. We continually set traps for ourselves by creating our own karma. Each person’s traps are different. I set my own traps, and you set yours. Everyone sets their own traps and unknowingly, others fall into them. If I am unaware, I might fall into your trap and you might fall into my trap. Isn’t this what life is like? We weave our own nets and set our own traps. Our intentions toward each other are muddled by greed, anger and ignorance. In this long night of ignorance, each of us falls into these traps. In our relationships, we draw each t other into our nets of ignorance and into the traps that each of us have set. How dangerous this is! In the long night, we are all truly unaware.
The Buddha placed this bright jewel in the minds of sentient beings, and thus the Buddha-Dharma has been passed on for more than 2000 years. The Dharma has been passed on until now in the hope that all sentient beings will comprehend how “[our] minds, the Buddha and sentient beings are no different [in their nature]”. He hopes that we can all understand that our ocean of enlightened wisdom is equal to the Buddha’s. The Buddha was able to comprehend the universe, how within tangible objects in tangible principles are contained. Actually, not only the Buddha can comprehend this; we can all realize this as well. It is just that we all search outside ourselves and have not focused our minds to comprehend all matters and objects in the universe. The Buddha guided us in how to use the Dharma, this Path, to study all tangible and conditioned phenomena in order to probe the unconditioned. Through these conditioned forms, we learn about the unconditioned Dharma. The Buddha taught us to explore this; it is just that we do not have the patience, the focus or the Samadhi. Therefore, when we hear the Dharma, it leaks away just like that. We must truly be mindful of [all things] in the universe. Then we can bring purity to people’s hearts. When we all thoroughly comprehend the principles, the jewel in everyone’s mind can manifest and their light will illuminate us all. If everyone’s principles can be brought together, wouldn’t that bring the greatest illumination? This world would be the brightest of places. The Chapter on 500 Disciples Receiving Predictions is a chapter we have been reading for a long time. We discussed Purna Maitrayaniputra. The Buddha praised him, and not just for how he helped Sakyamuni Buddha in this era to promote the Buddha-Dharma. Among the disciples of seven Buddhas, he was also the foremost in teaching the Dharma. In the Buddha’s lifetime, he traveled on the Buddha’s behalf to the most vile of places in order to deliver and transform sentient beings. He enabled many people to hear the Buddha-Dharma so they could seek refuge within it. The Buddha praised him and bestowed a prediction of Buddhahood on him. In the future, Purna will attain Buddhahood here in the Saha world. This is because he was willing to go to the worst of places to deliver and transform sentient beings. Sakyamuni Buddha also had such aspirations. He formed His initial aspiration in hell. Life after life, He went among those in suffering, delivering and transforming sentient being. Purna comprehended the buddha-mind and shared the Buddha’s aspiration. Thus, the Buddha bestowed this prediction on him. He said, “in the future, in this very place he will attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. His epithet will be Dharma Clarity. His kalpas will be called Treasure Right His kalpa will be called Treasure Bright. His land will be called Pure Kindness. Everyone [there] will be a Bodhisattva”. When that time comes, everyone will become Bodhisattvas, and everyone will mutually illuminate each other. Whenever people meet, they will teach each other the Dharma. Does everyone still remember. When we discussed how the Buddha best bestowed this prediction on Purna?
After that, he turned to Ajnate Kaundirys. When the Buddha taught the Four Noble truths, Ajnata Kaundinya was the first to comprehend the principles of the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths. Ajnata Kaundinya also received the Buddha’s prediction of Buddhahood. His epithet will be Universal Radiance. At the same time, 500 bhiksus also received predictions of Buddhahood. There were many disciples. Ajnata Kaundinya and others, who all received predictions from the Buddha. In this one chapter, many disciples received predictions. These 500 disciples all received predictions that they would share the same epithet, Universal Radiance. These are so many Buddhas who will all attain Buddhahood one after the next. This indicates that after hearing the Dharma, they understood it. They then expressed their understanding using a jewel as an analogy. Once, a frunk man went to a close friend’s house. This close friend gave him a jewel which he placed inside his clothing. After that, he left. When the drunk man woke up, he went on his way. Only after a long time passed did he encounter his close friend again. “You have an invaluable jewel on you! This is what we have been continually discussing over the past few days. I hope everyone can understand this. This close friend symbolizes Sakyamuni Buddha. A very long time ago, dust-inked kalpas ago, He expounded the Lotus Sutra to us yet, lifetime after lifetime, we have remained in our drunken state. We are drunk, [wandering] in the land of ignorance. When we encounter [Him] again, [He says,] “You all have this jewel on you. You can trade with it. Why do you still [carry on] like this, only seeking to awaken and benefit yourselves? “ When we only seek benefits for ourselves, there will be a time when we fall into a trap dug by others. This is very dangerous. Only benefiting oneself is not the ultimate. We must also benefit other people. We must go among people to truly temper ourselves. We must benefit others and use love to pave a smooth road [in life]. We must take the Dharma to heart. It is like a jewel. Once we uncover it, its light will illuminate us all. Then everyone’s jewel will shine, and our lights will illuminate each other. This is just like Dharma Clarity Tathagata, Purna Maitrayaniputra; he will attain Buddhahood in the Saha world. Sentient beings will be taught and transformed. Everyone’s mind will be pure. Everyone will live according to the Dharma. Everything will be very pure. It will be a world that radiates light. This is the same Saha world [that we live in]. Now, there is so much turbidity here. In the future, if everyone practice according to the Buddha’s teachings, everyone will be Bodhisattvas. Won’t everyone’s path in this world be smooth? If everyone uncovers their jewel, dawn will break and light will shine forth. This is why we must be very mindful.
Today, we will more or less finish the Chapter on 500 Disciples Receiving Predictions. So, we must all be very mindful regarding this part of the sutra.
The next passage states, “We were also like this. This was said by the 500 bhiksus. They expressed to the Buddha that, in the past, they were like that poor man, drunk with ignorance. His friend had given him a jewel, but he was still homeless and impoverished. He was still depressed and unable to find anything that would let him live a life of abundance. This principle is the same, so, [the disciples] said, “We were also like this. The World-Honored One, through the long night, always taught and transformed us out of pity, leading us to form supreme vows. Since we had no wisdom, we were unaware and unknowing. Having attained a small part of Nirvana, we were content and sought nothing further.
We are just like this, [lost] in the murky, long night, with ignorance covering our minds. For life after life, the Buddha had in this way taken pity on us and educated us, hoping we would open the door to our minds and walk onto the broad, great path. He paved a great path to awakening for us, planted roots of goodness in us and called us to form supreme, great vows. However, we all had too little wisdom. We lacked wisdom, so we were unaware. We were still unable to understand. Having attained a tiny bit, we believed we had reached the ultimate. Having attained a little, we thought, “I already know and understand this. I have completely penetrated all Dharma. We unenlightened beings are like this; with the smallest bit of cleverness, we become very arrogant. So, having attained a little, they felt accomplished. It was just a little, but they would say, “I have reached Nirvana. I have understood everything.” Thus they were unwilling to work harder or to advance in their spiritual practice. “We were content and sought nothing further. They were unwilling to seek the great Vehicle Dharma.
The next sutra passage states, “Now the Buddha awakens us, saying it was not true cessation and deliverance. Only attaining the supreme wisdom of the Buddha is true cessation. We now hear from the Buddha the magnificent matter of bestowing predictions and in turn pass this on to others. Thus, our bodies and minds are full of joy.”
They had now come to realize this. “In the past we thought we attained the ultimate, but now the Buddha in His awakening has taught us the Dharma to help us awaken as well and realized we had only attained Small Nirvana and not true cessation. What is “cessation and deliverance”? “Cessation and deliverance” means eliminating our delusion of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusions of ignorance. These are the three kinds of delusions.
Cessation and deliverance: Cessation means to eliminate the three kinds of delusions, delusions of views and thinking, dust-like delusions and delusions of ignorance. Deliverance means to be delivered from the two kinds of samsara, fragmentary and transformational samsara.
As unenlightened beings, we each have our own biases and we each have our own ways of thinking. We all have ignorance covering our minds, like dust and sand. We have discussed this often, but when it comes to understanding this, there are many who do not understand. So, delusions of views and thinking, dust-inked delusions and delusions of ignorance, are the three kinds of delusions. If we can eliminate them all, this is called “deliverance”. What are we delivered from? “from fragmentary and transformational samsara.” True “fragmentary samsara” refers to our successive births and deaths. we must understand that in the Five Realms and Four Forms of Birth, we sentient beings experience life after life in fragmentary samsara without rest. If we can understand this, this is called “deliverance”.
However, while Small Vehicle practitioners can understand “fragmentary samsara,” “transformational samsara” is something they do not yet understand. I often mention how “all is determined in the space of a thought”. We must cultivate the Great Vehicle Dharma and pave this rough path of life so it becomes smooth. We must understand and must help everyone else to also understand. Earth Treasury Bodhisattva said, “Until all have been delivered, I will forego enlightenment.” “It is not enough that I alone understand. I must help everyone understand. I can understand [the Dharma], and so can everyone else. I will teach it and you will all understand it. You will all bring your spiritual practice to completion. Actually, I must still continue [my cultivation].” In summary, [ending] transformational samsara [requires] a firm will to practice so that tiny afflictions in the outside world do not cause our aspirations to waver. Only those practicing the Great Vehicle Dharma can comprehend this and eliminate their dust-like delusions and ignorance. As for “transformational samsara,” we must completely eliminate dust-like delusions to truly end transformational samsara. Only then can we attain true, great Nirvana and realize the truths of everything in the universe. “Now the Buddha awakens us, saying it was not true cessation and deliverance.”
Now the Buddha awakens us, saying it was not true cessation and deliverance: This means that they reproached themselves for how they had practiced in the past. They had now understood and awakened. “Now the Buddha, the World-Honored One, awakens us by clearly saying that the Dharma we practiced and attained in the past was not the ultimate cessation.”
Having reached this stage, this was how they reproached themselves. They had now understood what the Buddha had said. The Buddha told them that they had not attained true cessation and deliverance. Now, they had understood and realized this. “Now the Buddha, the World-Honored One, awakens us.” He used various means to help them awaken. He had already explained this to them very clearly. The Dharma they cultivated previously was not the ultimate cessation and deliverance. It turns out that they had only understood “fragmentary samsara”. “Only attaining the supreme wisdom of the Buddha is true cessation.”
Only attaining the supreme wisdom of the Buddha is true cessation: This means that the jewel has been hidden there for a long time. Only the attainment of supreme perfect and universal enlightenment can be called true cessation and deliverance.
Only when we truly attain the same ocean of enlightened wisdom as the Buddha will we attain true cessation. This tells us that we already have a hidden jewel. The Buddha has told us directly, “You have a jewel on you.” To go out and trade with this jewel means to go among people. Therefore, this is “the attainment of supreme perfect and universal enlightenment.” This is to say, we have had this jewel with us for a very long time and, in fact, we can make use of it [to help] sentient beings. By doing so, we can thoroughly understand all conditioned phenomena in the universe. In the midst of unconditioned phenomena, we can understand all this. In this way, we can have clarity regarding transformational samsara and eradicate dust-like delusions and ignorance. Then we have attained “supreme, perfect and universal enlightenment.” In this way, we can understand everything. Only this is “true cessation and deliverance.” Only this can be considered true Nirvana. “We now hear from the Buddha the magnificent matter of bestowing predictions.”
We now hear from the Buddha the magnificent matter of bestowing predictions: They could take the jewel among people to guide and trade with them. They trade the Dharma for the benefit of sentient beings. Today, all of us personally heard the Buddha bestow predictions of Buddhahood and magnificent future lands upon us.
We all know this. “They could take the jewel among people to guide and trade with them.” [He] urges us to take this jewel among people and trade with them, in order to earnestly guide them all. So, we “trade the Dharma in exchange for the benefit of sentient beings.” By trading with the Dharma and urging others to trade, we are transforming [them]. In one place after another, in this way, their ignorance is transformed to benefit sentient beings; their ignorance is transformed into wisdom. “Today, all of us personally heard the Buddha bestow predictions of Buddhahood and magnificent future lands upon us. We have all heard this now. In front of the Buddha, we directly received His predictions that let us know we can have magnificent future lands. We have understood all of this.” They had received predictions before the Buddha. All of them understood. So, “In turn [we] pass this on to others. Thus, our bodies and minds are full of joy.”
And in turn [we] pass this on to others. Thus, our bodies and minds are full of joy: This was such a magnificent occasion. They received predictions one after another, so their hearts were joyful; joy filled their bodies.
“We have now all realized and understood, and we can pass this on to others. We pass them down from one [person] to another. We all together engage in spiritual practice, so we will attain Buddhahood one after another. This depends on who is more diligent. Whoever goes among people to [share the Dharma], whoever forms more sufficient Dharma-affinities and can use this Dharma to transform beings and whoever transforms their afflictions to Bodhi, this person replete with causes and conditions, will attain Buddhahood first.” So, they received predictions one after another, and their bodies and minds were joyful. At this dignified event, they received predictions one after another. In this way, they mutually became each other’s teachers and accepted the Dharma from one another. “We must understand this clearly. Our minds should be very joyful too. Between us, we must be respectful and grateful to each other. Maybe in the next life, you will be my master, and I will accept your teachings. You will have attained Buddhahood, and I will be in your Dharma-assembly. Maybe this will happen, so we must rejoice for another.” So, “in turn passing this on to others” was following the Buddha’s instructions. “We follow what the Buddha taught us and pass on [the teachings] among the assembly of 1200 people.”
And in turn [we] pass this on to others: This means to follow the Buddha’s instruction and pass on [the teachings] among the assembly of 1200 people who would, one after another, receive predictions. Their determination to abide in the Great Vehicle was even more firm. Thus, their bodies and minds were full of joy.
The Buddha began by giving instructions to Kasyapa. “ I now bestow predictions on these 500 disciples, but there are still people who are not present. All of you must pass on this message you will all be alike. There are a total of 1200 who will share the same epithet Universal Radiance, the same name that Ajnata Kaundinya [will bear]. Thus, you will receive predictions one by one and you will attain Buddhahood in sequence. So, “Their determination to abide in the Great Vehicle was even more firm.” Because this was passed on from person to person, not only the 500 people before the Buddha but all 1200 formed Great Vehicle aspirations and went on to practice the Great Vehicle Dharma. “Their determination to abide in the Great Vehicle was even more firm. Therefore, their bodies and minds were full of joy.” All of them alike passed down the teachings from one person to the next. So, as we learn the Buddha-Dharma, we must have this kind of clear understanding. The Chapter on 500 Disciples Receiving Predictions ends with this passage. We all used to have this jewel without knowing it, but we have now become aware of it. It was not just the 500 people before the Buddha who received predictions that they will all share the same Buddha-name, that in the far future they will all attain Buddhahood one after another. It will not only be these people; there will be [ a total of] 1200. So, we must put our mind into comprehending this. Purna Maitrayaniputra came before the Buddha with this kind of aspiration. Among the disciples of the Seven Buddhas, he was foremost in teaching the Dharma. His aspiration was [to return to] the Saha world. In the same way, we must form aspirations and make vows. In the Saha world, there are suffering sentient beings who need to be taught and transformed by Bodhisattvas. Now, in the evil world of five turbidities, if we can pass on the teachings to one another and bring purity to each other’s hearts, the future will be very pure. In a land of purity and kindness, everyone will speak the Dharma and interact according to the teachings. [We will no longer live] in the dark long night. To have a world that is bright and peaceful, all of us need to take the Dharma to heart and put it into practice on the great, direct Bodhisattva-path. We must pave this road with love, inch by inch. We are all enlightened sentient beings, leading each other to walk the path in this world. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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