Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Entire Assembly Sees Many Treasures Buddha (一切眾會 見多寶佛)
Date: February.27.2018
“To reveal the Dharma-body, which is neither arising nor ceasing, [the Buddha] needed transformation-bodies that come and go, bodies that arise from the Dharma in response to the world. They respond universally to all things and return to the One Dharma. A single thought of goodness can give rise to infinite [good], and infinite virtuous Dharma can arise from one. With each act of our body, speech and mind, we create infinite karma according to the good or evil actions we take.”
Fellow Bodhisattvas, please be mindful; we must understand more. To understand, we must begin by safeguarding our every thought. We must take the Dharma to heart; only then can we thoroughly comprehend it. “To reveal the Dharma-body, which is neither arising nor ceasing, [the Buddha] needed transformation-bodies that come and go.” We must be able to comprehend that the Buddha, Sakyamuni Buddha, for the purpose of conveying this Dharma, His one great cause in life, opened and revealed His understanding and views for sentient beings to awaken to and enter. When it comes to this one great cause, He was always trying to help everyone understand it clearly. Everyone intrinsically has Buddha-nature. Our Buddha-nature and Dharma-body, since Beginningless Time, have neither arisen nor ceased. This is our everlasting Dharma-body, which is also the true principles. Since ancient times, the true principles have always existed. The true principles have existed in this universe forever. The universe is a macrocosm, while the human body is a microcosm. The true principles of the macrocosm are everlasting. As for us humans and the microcosm of the human body, our [nature of] True Suchness is also everlasting. We need to understand these principles clearly.
So, we need to understand that there is the macrocosm and the microcosm. This microcosm, our human body, is invariably in the human world. We come in response to this world. When we come in response to this world, we will come and go. We have [a body] that comes and goes. Because of the microcosm of our human body, as we live in this world, we will face birth, aging, illness and death. The macrocosm is [measured in] dust-like kalpas; we use kalpas to measure its great lifespan. [The cycle of] formation, existence, decay and disappearance takes place over a very long period of time, and is measured in kalpas. However, our microcosm is measured by our age in years; these are the numbers that measure our lifespan. Thus, the universe, when compared to human life on Earth, is everlasting. This is about [outer] space. But what about the small space of our lives? Our lives are short. However, our transient lives also contain the everlasting and unceasing true principles.
So, we all come and go [from the world] according to our lifespan in the world. There is a limit on our lifespan; this lifespan can be long or short. When the Buddha came to the world, He was the same as us. In order to transform people, He had to live the same way as humans. Therefore, the Buddha responded this world’s causes and conditions and the causes and conditions of sentient beings. The circumstances of His direct and circumstantial retributions determined which places He would be born. This is what it means to have transformations-bodies that come and go. It is not that He came here for one lifetime and, having entered Parinirvana, will never return again; no. [The Buddha] comes and goes. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas continually return on the ship of compassion and are always coming back in order to teach and transform sentient beings.
Thus “[The Buddha] needed transformation-bodies that come and go, bodies that arise from the Dharma in response to the world.” As for the Dharma and the true principles, the principles of the world are in place and the cycle of the four seasons is in harmony. What about us as human beings? Our lifespan is short, but the true principles still exist [inside us]. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas understand the true principles clearly. They are clear on the nature of True Suchness. Their minds are free of afflictions, ignorance, dust-like delusions and various hindrances.
For us humans, as unenlightened beings, our minds are not in harmony. Our minds are constantly disturbing us, disrupting our thoughts and disrupting our actions. This is why our minds are in disharmony. When the true principles of the world are in disharmony then the four elements will be imbalanced. This also applies to us human beings. When our minds are in disharmony, our bodies will cause disasters. Ignorance, afflictions and disaster all originate within our bodies and minds. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas arise from the Dharma in response to this world. Because they arise from the Dharma in response to this world, They cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. So, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to this world in accord with the Dharma. So it says [the Buddha needs] “bodies that arise from the Dharma in response to the world.” [The Buddha’s] one great cause was to “open and reveal” His Dharma, in hopes that sentient beings can “realize and enter” it. This is the Dharma.
Among all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Sakyamuni Buddha in particular is “the guiding teacher of the Three Realms” and “the kind father of the Four Kinds of Beings”. The Saha World is the transformation-land of Sakyamuni Buddha. Therefore, lifetime after lifetime, He must constantly return to this world. Thus, He must have “bodies that arise from the Dharma in response to the world”. “They respond universally to all things and return to the One Dharma.” All phenomena throughout the universe are stored within His mind.
“Universally” in “respond universally” means that universally, all things return to the One Dharma. When the Buddha taught the Dharma to us, all His teachings examined how in life, all appearances of arising and ceasing will return to the true principles, which nether arise nor cease. All forms must have the appearance of arising and ceasing. This is [the nature of] form. However, the true principles contained within are free from arising and cessation. This is just like us human beings. Humans have “birth, aging, illness and death”. However, the true principles and True Suchness are everlasting. This applies to all things [in the universe]. The Buddha wanted to help us to understand that all things in the universe, all objects that we can see, are all subject to [the cycle of] “formation, existence, decay and disappearance”. All are appearances of arising and ceasing. Thus, they are illusory and impermanent. The Buddha continuously made use of various kinds of matters and appearances to help us understand these principles and to comprehend how the true reality of these principles is like this; it is both emptiness and existence. Is it existence or is it emptiness? Though we are discussing emptiness and existence, there is “true emptiness within existence” and “wondrous existence within true emptiness”. This is the wondrous profundity of the Dharma.
It is profound because we do not understand it yet. If we can understand this, then all the principles will be plain and simple. They are all within our daily lives, it is just that we do not completely understand. Once we can thoroughly understand that the principles are fundamentally this way, once we can see them clearly with complete comprehension, we will be free of any kind of attachments, afflictions and ignorance that hinder us.
Therefore, we must “respond universally to all things and return to the One Dharma”. This is within a single thought. “A single thought of goodness can give rise to infinite [good].” Infinite virtuous Dharma also arise from one. Once we understand it all depends on our thoughts, once we thoroughly understand our thoughts, “By grasping one truth, we understand all truths.” The principles are just as simple as this. However, unenlightened beings complicate them. Then, everything becomes complicated. This will come back [to affect] our body, speech and mind. With a single thoughts, our body takes action. In all the actions our body takes, a single thought of goodness can lead all the actions we take to benefit others. With a single thought of goodness, everything we speak will be Dharma. Our body and speech follow our minds. Our karma of mind connects with our surroundings. With the external conditions of the Five Dusts, in a single thought, we give reset to discursive thoughts.
The mind-root, [though] the eye-root, ear-root, nose-root, tongue-root and body-root, our Five Roots, connects to the external conditions of the Five Dusts. Once a thought of goodness arises, we will cherish all things in the world. With the Five Roots and the Five Dusts, once we give rise to a thought of goodness, we will cherish all things in the world; we will be able to understand this. Take a look at our recycling Bodhisattvas. How many things have they seen?
Whether they are natural objects or man-made objects, we recycle them all. This is virtuous karma of body and mind. When we see the world outside us, we will cherish it. This comes from one thought of goodness with our body, speech and mind. This means that with each act, whether we create good or evil depends on our thoughts. This is how goodness is created. If we have a single evil thought, our bodies will commit evil deeds, and our speech will be harsh. With harsh speech, lies, flattery and gossip, just through our speech alone we can sow discord and undermine ethics and reason. This is all a product of our karma of speech, which creates so much ignorance, leaving people unable to discern what is true from what is false. This all comes from our karma of speech. This is what negative karma looks like. This is all within our mind; our body and speech depend on our thoughts.
With a thought of goodness, all of our actions will be good and will benefit others. With a thought of evil; each one of our actions will harm sentient beings and disturb people’s minds. This will create immeasurable negative karma. This is why we must maintain constant awareness, awareness of ourselves. The Lotus Sutra contains the teachings the Buddha gave throughout His lifetime. By gathering the Dharma together, His goal was to help us clearly understand our mind and our actions. If we can understand this clearly and be a decent person in life, then, as we come and go, we will continuously create good karma, blessings and wisdom and accumulate them throughout lifetime after lifetime. If we do this, we will [form] good affinities; throughout lifetime after lifetime, we will form good affinities, seek the Buddha-Dharma and increase our wisdom. Then we will understand more and more clearly. We will eliminate our afflictions and reduce our ignorance. We will not create any negative karma; we will accumulate positive karma. If we do this, these causes, our impure causes will become pure causes. We will gradually approach the Dharma, which will become more and more clear to us. Our intrinsic nature of True Suchness will gradually become clear, and the principles will become clearer and clearer.
So, the Buddha constantly returns to the world. In every lifetime, He follows sentient beings in the Six Realms to teach and transform them, until He manifests [as the Buddha]. He needs “bodies that arise from the Dharma in response to the world”. We have mentioned before how the Dharma arises in response to the world. Wherever He goes, He responds to the causes and conditions there. The Buddha’s direct and circumstantial retributions in that place are in response to the world; He takes advantage of these causes and conditions to transform sentient beings. He engaged in the causal practice of Bodhisattvas throughout lifetime after lifetime until. He reached the state of Buddhahood.
So, right now, also in response to the world, He attained Buddhahood in the world and taught the Dharma in the world. He taught the Dharma in this world for 49 years, for nearly 50 years. From the Small Vehicle Dharma, He gradually led us to the Middle Vehicle and then the Great Vehicle Dharma. When He began to expound the Lotus Sutra, the stupa of treasures appeared to affirm that the principles of the Lotus Sutra expounded by Sakyamuni Buddha are true and not false, to prove that all Buddhas share the same path. Now, the stupa had appeared and the Buddha’s multiple manifestations had gathered. They arrived in groups and had fully assembled. Now He began to open the doors of the stupa.
The stupa of treasures opened, and the past and present Buddhas both shared one seat. Since [everything] arises from the Dharma, we must start to collect our minds and return to the Dharma-nature of True Suchness. All Dharma arises from one. The infinite Dharma is also the One. In His appearances of coming and going, the one and the many do not obstruct one another; the empty and the true are united as one. Thus we can see the essence of the Dharma-body, which is eternal, without beginning or end.
As we had discussed yesterday, the Buddha had risen up into empty space. Because the stupa was in the sky, the Buddha also needed to rise into the sky. With the touch of His finger, He opened the stupa of treasures. The Buddha began to completely open and reveal the ultimate reality of the true principles. The Buddha began to open the stupa. So, once the stupa of treasures opened, “The past and present Buddhas both shared one seat”. At this point, we can see this. So, “Since [everything] arise from the Dharma, we must start to collect our minds and return to the Dharma-nature of True Suchness”. Now we must work hard to [collect] our minds. The many manifestations of the Buddha returned to their places. We must collect our minds. Now we must begin to collect our minds. Our minds must return to our Dharma-nature of True Suchness. We must thoroughly realize and understand the Dharma-nature of True Suchness. All Dharma arises from one.
In the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, this was already made clear to us. One gives rise to infinity; infinity arises from one. The infinite Dharma also arises from one. In short, infinite Dharma arises from a single thought; it begins in the Dharma-nature of True Suchness. So, “In His appearances of coming and going, the one and the many do not obstruct one another. The empty and the true are united as one”. Most of the sutra is like this. He wanted to explain this to us. This is because one can give rise to infinite Dharma. Infinite Dharma arise from one. So, are [His] appearances of coming and going from one lifetime or many lifetimes? Was the Buddha in the world just for one lifetime? He was in the world for many lifetimes! He did this from Beginningless Time until now, when He attained Buddhahood in the world.
After attaining Buddhahood, He still has a long way to go in the future; He still has many lifetimes. As a microcosm within this vast universe, lifetime after lifetime, in this world, in this time, He still comes and goes at will.
So, “In His appearances of coming and going, the one and the many do not obstruct one another”. Since Sakyamuni Buddha was here 2000 years ago, for how many more lifetimes will He come to this world? There is no need to obsess over how many lifetimes [He will come to this world]. “The one and the many do not obstruct one another. The empty and the true are united as one”. This is Prajna, wisdom. We will comprehend the great path and form supreme aspirations. Our supreme aspiration is free of appearances. Since it is always free of appearances, isn’t this what it means to be unobstructed? “The one and the many do not obstruct one another. The empty and the true are united as one”. This true principle is “the true”. That which is non-arising and non-ceasing is the true. Therefore, whether it is emptiness or existence, they are both united as one in the Buddha-Dharma. So, “We can see the essence of the Dharma-body”. We need to understand that “In His appearances of coming and going, the one and the many do not obstruct one another”.
If we can understand and realize this, we will see the essence of the Dharma-body, “which is eternal, without beginning or end”. It is forever without beginning or end. We need to comprehend and understand this. Think about the Dharma we discussed yesterday.
The sutra passage says, “Then Sakyamuni Buddha used His right finger to open the door of the stupa of Seven Treasures. It made a great sound as if removing the bars and locks and opening the gates of a great city.”
The next sutra passage says, “At that time, everyone in the assembly saw Many Treasures Tathagata in the stupa of treasures sitting upon a lion’s throne. His entire body was undivided as if He had entered Samadhi”.
The door of the stupa was opened. At that time, everyone in the assembly looked up at the Buddha in mid-air. The Buddha opened it with just one finger. In the meantime, the members of the assembly could already see Many Treasures Tathagata inside the stupa sitting upon the lion’s throne. Truly, “His entire body was undivided as if He had entered Samadhi”. They were able to see this Buddha so quickly at this assembly, so everyone was very happy, as if they were joyfully scattering flowers. They were so joyful it was as if flowers were blooding in their hearts.
At that time, everyone in the assembly: This refers to those in the assembly at that time. This explains that when the assembly saw the Buddha’s body, they scattered flowers and praised Him. Everyone was able to see the ancient Buddha, Many Treasures Buddha, inside the stupa of treasures. His entire body was undivided as if He had entered Samadhi. Everyone saw that His entire boy was unmoving, as if He had entered Samadhi.
They saw Many Treasures Tathagata in the stupa of treasures sitting upon a lion’s throne. His entire body was undivided as if He had entered Samadhi: This revealed the Tathagata’s everlasting Dharma-body, the perfect and complete appearance of Nirvana.
So, as He was “sitting upon a lion’s throne, His entire body was undivided”. This revealed “the Tathagata’s everlasting Dharma-body”. This passage emphasizes again to us all that the Tathagata’s Dharma-body is everlasting. We often talk about how “Tathagata” means to come to the world in response to the Dharma of Suchness. Those who manifest in response to the world are called “Thus Come One [Tathagata]”.
This means They come to the world in response to the Dharma of Suchness. Enlightened Ones who have engaged in spiritual practice and attained Buddhahood are called “Tathagata”. They respond to the Dharma of Suchness. This means that the Dharma, the everlasting True Dharma, is our intrinsic nature of True Suchness, the everlasting true principles.
So, this is “the perfect and complete appearance of Nirvana”. The Buddha manifested in this lifetime. He came to the world in response to this Dharma. He [came] for the sake of His one great cause, and like all human beings, His lifespan was limited. Like all human beings, He also went through the cycle of birth, aging, illness and death just like we do in this world. But the Buddha’s teachings are unchanging. The appearance of His body changed; from childhood, He went through early youth, the prime of His life and old age, all the while, His body underwent infinitesimal changes. Human bodies, these appearances, are constantly changing like this. However, the Dharma is everlasting and unchanging. In the Buddha’s lifetime, He had taught all the Dharma He needed to teach. [The teachings] were complete. However, He had the appearance of Nirvana. Although the Buddha taught the Dharma for more than 40 years, He was always in a tranquil and clear state. This True Dharma continues even today, helping us all understand clearly. The world is full of many appearances; they are all the Dharma.
However, people are still debating which is really the True Dharma. In fact, the reason why the Buddha-Dharma came to this world was to benefit people and bring purity to the minds of sentient beings. To help others while remaining undefiled is the true Buddha-Dharma. It was for this reason that the Buddha came and manifested in the world. Thus, [He needed] “bodies that from the Dharma in response to the world”. They respond universally to all things and return to the One Dharma. They must encompass all things, all kinds of things in the world, all people, matters and objects. Human suffering comes in many different forms. How can we respond to the suffering in the world and eradicate the hardships of sentient beings? We need to go universally throughout the world, respond to all things and return to the One Dharma. This is what it means to save and transform sentient beings. So, from this single thought, the Buddha came to the world like this for His one great cause. This was now completed as well. While expounding the Dharma, His mind was still tranquil and still. The Dharma itself is tranquil and still. No matter how much people debate about it, no matter how much people disagree about it, the Dharma has the intrinsic nature of True Suchness and the appearance of tranquility and stillness. Regardless of how we debate about it, the Dharma itself, the essence of the true principles, is everlasting, tranquil and unchanging. Everyone needs to be able to see this.
Everyone in the assembly saw Many Treasures Buddha: The people in the assembly all saw the Tathagata touch it with His finger. The stupa of Many Treasures opened, and everyone saw Many Treasures Tathagata.
“Everyone in the assembly saw Many Treasures Buddha”. Everyone had seen [Many Treasures Buddha]. Actually, we have previously discussed that the Buddha inside the stupa should represent everyone’s intrinsic nature, the intrinsic nature of True Suchness. [The Buddha] hoped we all will be able to see our nature of True Suchness.
So, continuing on, “The people in the assembly all saw the Tathagata touch it with His finger. The stupa of Many Treasures opened”. The entire assembly saw the Buddha. Truly, with the touch of a finger, He opened the door of the stupa like opening the gates of a new city or the gates to a [new] world. Thus, “The stupa of Many Treasures opened, and everyone saw Many Treasures Tathagata”. When the door of stupa was opened, everyone saw [inside].
In each person there is a stupa on Vulture Peak. In this stupa, we all have a Many Treasures Buddha. It is just that the Buddha in our mind now is not responsive, so we cannot simply press with our finger. Thus, the door of our stupa has not opened and the Many Treasures Buddha of our self-nature has also not been revealed.
“In each person there is a stupa on Vulture Peak”. There is a stupa on Vulture Peak in each of us. Everyone should memorize this verse. “In each person there is a stupa on Vulture Peak. We can practice at the foot of that stupa”. This is something we all intrinsically possess. In each person there is a stupa on Vulture Peak. “In this stupa, we all have a Many Treasures Buddha. It is just that the Buddha in our mind now is not responsive”. As we discussed yesterday, right now, as unenlightened beings, we have just begun to form great aspirations. Once we begin to form great aspirations, how much farther do we need to walk on this path? We have just begun to engage in the causal practice of Bodhisattvas. Therefore, we have not yet reached the level of attaining Buddhahood. So, “It is just that the Buddha in our mind now is not responsive”. We ourselves are still unable to open the stupa with one finger. We are still unable to do this. Thus, “We cannot simply press with our finger”. Since we are unable to do this, “The door of our stupa has not opened”. So, right now, we know we have a stupa on Vulture Peak inside us. It is just that we are still unable to open the door to this stupa. Thus “The Many Treasures Buddha of our self-nature has also not been revealed”. Because our door has yet to open, Many Treasures Buddha is still unable to manifest. This means we have yet to truly comprehend our intrinsic nature of True Suchness. We are still unable to thoroughly understand it because we still have afflictions and ignorance.
So, we are still covered by our afflictions and ignorance. We also have our doubts and delusions, therefore, we still have no way to open the stupa. We still lack the necessary conditions to be able to, with a touch of our finger, have [Many Treasures] appear and the door of the stupa to open. Yesterday, we used electricity as an analogy. We were talking about how when [our electronics] have power, all we need is the touch of a finger. With these touchscreen devices that everyone is holding in their hands, with the touch of a finger, if I wanted to see how big the world is, how big the area of a certain country is or scenery from around world, this can all be displayed with just a touch of a finger. The images will appear and we will be able to see everything. However, right now, although we are able to see these things appear before our eyes, we still cannot actually enter into these places.
The other day, two days ago, there was a (Tzu Chi) forum in Taipei. With the touch of a finger, we turned on the video and [it was as if] we had gone to Taipei. In that place, we were able to see people talking. We heard their voices. The scene from that place was right before us. However, we were still in Hualien. We still could not really walk into that place and sit down there. That is still impossible. But a person who was sitting there has returned here. We asked him, “Which person said what? What does that place actually look like?” He had been there before. Once we mentioned that place, it was as if everyone’s state of mind and the place his body had been immediately came together as one. For those who had yet to enter this place yet, they merely had superficial understanding of it. They have just seen this person there and heard this voice. But if we ask them what the real place is actually like, they would have no idea. Thus, their understanding is superficial. This is just like how we hear the Dharma nowadays. When we listen, it is as if we only understand half of what we hear, or we just let all of it leak away. This is why we need take Dharma to heart. It is not easy at all.
Next, [the sutra passage] states, “Again, they heard Him say, ‘Excellent, excellent! Sakyamuni Buddha, quickly teach this Lotus Sutra. For the sake of hearing this sutra, I have come to this place’”.
Many Treasures Buddha was sitting inside the stupa of treasures, and Sakyamuni Buddha had opened the door for Him. Many Treasures Buddha began to talk again and said, joyfully, “Excellent, excellent!” He said, “Excellent, excellent! Sakyamuni Buddha, your multiple manifestations, the Dharma, have all been gathered together. For the sake of listening to this Dharma, I have come to this place.” “This is all for the sake of hearing this sutra.” Thus, He requested that Sakyamuni Buddha quickly teach [the Lotus Sutra].
Again, they heard Him say, “Excellent, excellent! Sakyamuni Buddha, quickly teach this Lotus Sutra”: He voiced His praise when the stupa first appeared. Now when the door of the stupa opened, He voiced His praise again. Thus it says they heard Him again. He praised the Buddha so that He would quickly begin to teach the sutra.
So, “when the stupa first appeared,” [Many Treasures Buddha] began to praise it. Then, the door opened and “He voiced His praise again." “Thus it says they heard Him again.” This is because Many Treasures Buddha arrived in the stupa in order to hear the sutra. Now, in order to affirm [the sutra], He said, “Excellent, excellent!” from inside the stupa. This was for the sake of listening to the sutra. Now that the door was opened, He praised it again. Thus they heard Him praise the Buddha and request that He quickly teach [the sutra]. Hence it says, “quickly teach.” First, He was affirming that the time for Sakyamuni Buddha to teach the Lotus Sutra and freely express His original intent had begun. Second, “After the door to the stupa opened,” once the door to the stupa was opened, “in that instant, He also needed to quickly express the intent in His mind.” As He freely expressed His original intent, He hoped that our True Suchness, our stupa of treasures, would open immediately. Once we open this door, we will be able to listen; we will be able to truly and thoroughly understand. So He said, “For the sake of hearing this sutra, I have come to this place.” Therefore, “I have come to this place” for the sake of listening to this sutra. This shows that He came to this place, hovering in the air, for the sake of listening to the sutra. Actually, when it comes to our own intrinsic nature of True Suchness, we also need an enlightened being to open the door of the stupa for us; we also need an enlightened being to use his voice and to quickly awaken us, so that our nature of True Suchness will finally become completely clear to us.
This is the ancient Buddha, which is our nature of True Suchness. The ancient Buddha has always been with us. However, He was locked inside the stupa. Now, Sakyamuni Buddha had come in response to the world and attained Buddhahood. He expounded the Dharma for sentient beings for the sake of His one great cause. We must let this Enlightened One open the door of our hearts, which has been closed for so long. We do not know if Sakyamuni Buddha can open the door of our hearts so easily, as if at the touch of a finger. It all depends on whether we constantly accumulate Dharma over a long time. The Buddha’s many manifestations are the Dharma the Buddha taught. He constantly taught and transformed us. Wasn’t He always teaching and transforming us? Throughout lifetime after lifetime, didn’t the Buddha teach and transform us? When it comes to the past Dharma, do we have the causes and conditions now to gather it all together? As we continue to accept the Buddha-Dharma in this lifetime, have we gathered the teachings we heard in the past? Have we returned them to their places? If all is returned to its place, it will be just like electricity. With the touch of a finger, the door will open. At the touch of a finger, this screen can show us so many images of the world; they will appear right before us. Are we able to do this? This all depends on our minds. Therefore, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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