Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Enduring the Evil World of Five Turbidities (五濁惡世 當忍諸惡)
Date: June.25.2018
“On the path of the True Vehicle, those who already awakened then awaken others. They constantly beat the Dharma drum to rouse and inspire the deluded multitudes. Once awakened, they will practice the great path accordingly. We must uphold the teachings of the sutra to advance the wondrous Dharma, comprehend the great path, form great aspirations and enter the sutra treasury’s ocean of wisdom.”
We must be mindful. In fact, every day, in all we do, we want to awaken to the Dharma on this path and then achieve realizations through the Dharma. Every moment is a good opportunity for spiritual practice. Today is the 8th day of the second month in the lunar calendar (2017). We should all be aware that the 8th day of the second lunar month is a joyous occasion in Buddhism, for this is the day that Sakyamuni Buddha left the lay life to become a monastic. Were it not for this day when he left lay life, how would He have a path of spiritual practice? Without His path of spiritual practice, how would He have had His moment of awakening? Without His moment of awakening, how would there be anyone to teach the Dharma? Without anyone to teach the Dharma, how would sentient beings ever be transformed?
So, the day the Buddha left the lay life is a very joyous occasion. He awakened to the true principles of all things in the universe and experienced the path of the True Vehicle. After the Buddha left the lay life, He spent more than 10 years undergoing great difficulties, His mind focused on both conditioned or unconditioned phenomena, or patiently enduring the heat and the cold of the climate and so on. He had to endure these natural phenomena. This spiritual practitioner did not [live] like we do now. We have houses with walls to protect us from the elements. If it is cold, we can shut the windows, or put on some warmer clothes.
Spiritual practitioners then had none of these things; when Sakyamuni Buddha in particular left home, He lived outdoors in nature. He slept beneath a tree at night. Wherever He went, that was where He slept. Regardless of whether it was winter or summer, whether it was raining or stars filled the sky, it was always the same; whatever the natural conditions, He had to patiently endure them. These are not things people can prevent; when facing the natural world, He had to endure the cold and heat, endure the mosquitos and the [lack of] sanitation and so on. This was how He got to where He was. He had the great resolve of a practitioner. For more than ten years He continued like this, engaging in ascetic practice for five years and spiritual practice for six years. In this way He settled His mind; this was truly not a simple matter. We should understand that what the Buddha wanted to attain was “the path of the True Vehicle.” Once He awakened, He could then awaken others. Having already awakened Himself, He still wanted to then go and awaken others, because in the moment He attained Buddhahood, [He attained] “the path of the True Vehicle”.
These principles were now in His mind, and He became one with the universe. He discovered that the world’s sentient beings all possessed Buddha-nature. The Buddha-nature is equal in all. Humans are like this, and all things are like this. Things both tangible and intangible are all a part of the Dharma of the True Vehicle. This is what the Buddha realized, what He awakened to He had awakened, had become an Enlightened One, because of that aspiration He had at the start to leave the lay life and become a monastic. It was because of this action that He went through this process, that He achieved these results, that He attained this fruition. So, what came to fruition was “awakening Himself” and then “awakening others”. After He had awakened Himself, He quickly put His ability to deliver and transform sentient beings into action. He began to give of Himself.
Of course, He had to deeply contemplate this. After contemplating, He decided on a direction. He would teach those five bhiksus about “suffering, causation, cessation and the path,” the Four Noble Truths. This is how He began transforming the world. As spiritual practitioners, we all know that life is filled with suffering. We know when dealing every day with people, matters and things that most things will not go as we wish. Having understood this, we can let things go with a smile. This is the way things are; the laws of nature have always been like this, so we can let go. This is what people who have engaged in spiritual practice can understand. They do not allow the suffering of the world to stir up feelings of long-lasting depression. They can quickly see past this and let go. They can let go of these afflictions and decrease their ignorance. This comes from the principles. Having discovered these principles, we should proclaim them at all times. We cannot see the principles. Although we say the tangible things in the world, all contain principles within them, the intangible things are full of principles as well. In this great space, the four elements are all contained within this great, invisible space. Among earth, water, fire and wind, earth is tangible, but it also has intangible principles within. They are not the tangible earth that we see. Within this tangible earth, infinite principles are contained. Every kind of material substance has different principles of its nature. The principles hidden in the earth are unlimited; they manifest in every kind of way. Even just the principles of earth alone are impossible for us to analyze fully. We will never be able to finish analyzing the principles that are hidden within it. So, in summary, when it comes to the Dharma, the principles, we must constantly, at all times, seek to develop them, so these intangible principles can give rise to something tangible and we can them analyze and understand these countless intangible principles. So, when He was in the world, the Buddha would often say, “It cannot be conceived, cannot be imagined, cannot be explained or analogized with language.” “Cannot” does not mean He was not able to do it, it means it would be impossible for each of them to all be explained fully at one time. It would take ages to do this. After spending a long time discovering the principles, there will still be many new ones that we have yet to discover. So, the principles are infinite; we can never finish teaching them, nor ever finish counting them.
This is like how the Chapter on the Parable of the Conjured City used the time period of dust-inked kalpas; every speck of dust is equal to one kalpa. Think about it; with numbers like this, is it possible for anyone to clearly analyze them? This is why the Buddha said, “Neither a mathematician nor a mathematician’s disciples” would ever have any way to calculate these. So, the true principles of all things in the universe could never be explained even in 10,000 years. Thus, if we engage in spiritual practice in order to thoroughly grasp all these principles, of course this will take a very long time. The Buddha had already become awakened in past lifetimes. It took Him a very long time to do this, countless lifetimes of thousands of lifetimes of continually investigating the true principles, continually going among people to discover the principles of human nature, to discover the afflictions and ignorance which our human nature creates and the suffering to which this gives rise. This is why the Buddha’s spiritual practice took such a very long time. He had to investigate these principles. So, we should continually seek the principles. “They constantly beat the Dharma drum.” Lifetime after lifetime, He constantly sought the Dharma. Every principle He discovered was profound and moving. To “constantly beat the Dharma drum” is to alert and rouse people. Likewise, we can see this in our world. There are scholars who have been researching and investigating ceaselessly for who knows how many decades. They are constantly doing research, analyzing things through tiny microscopes. After who knows how long, “Wow!” They suddenly discover a new world one of very tiny microorganisms with earth-shaking principles contained within. This principle is the same. Plants, minerals and animals all contain many mysteries that have yet to be unlocked. Through continual and incessant research, they discover things that are completely resounding, that are stunning, that shake people to the core. This is like the beating of a drum; when the drum resounds its sound is starting. A few years ago in Singapore, volunteers arranged a sutra adaptation performance and were practicing drums. They borrowed a factory to practice in; one of our honorary board members provided it. Fearing people would protest at the sound, they closed all the windows. They beat the drums there and when the drums sounded, when so many people beat those large drums and the sound rang out, what happened? It shock the ground and it broad glass. Really! It shattered some windows!
They experienced this. So, it says that when “we constantly beat the Dharma drum” it alerts and rouses everyone. This is because people are still asleep. Sentient begins are still sunken in delusion, so we should hasten to awaken them by constantly beating the Dharma drum. This way we can help sentient begins by “rousing and inspiring the deluded multitudes.” We can help everyone awaken, for only by awakening can they “practice the great path accordingly”. Otherwise, they will just nod off. When reading a book, the words are in front of us in black and white; the Dharma is there in every sentence.
However, someone may nod off. Then, an outside sound can startle him and enable him to awaken so that he will sit up and quickly begin reading again. This is also the same principle. So, we beat the drum to awaken our own minds, to encourage ourselves. So, we should uphold the sutra and know to “practice the great path accordingly”. We should “uphold the teachings of the sutra”. If we uphold the sutra and wish to accept the teachings, then we can also spread the Dharma and will be able to teach it to others. We accept the teachings ourselves, then we go on to teach them to others. This is “advancing the wondrous Dharma”. When it comes to the Buddha’s teachings, they can truly be advanced and promoted when we put our hearts into it. So, to uphold the sutra’s teachings and advance the Great Dharma we must “comprehend the great path, from great aspirations” and “enter the sutra treasury”. Then we can have wisdom as vast as the ocean. This is what we must understand.
We must shoulder this heavy burden without fear. We must make great vows to widely transform [sentient beings] and undertake the Tathagata’s mission. Each of those sages protected one place. There is no one in the world that cannot be transformed nor any place where the path cannot be practiced.
So, we should “shoulder this heavy burden without fear. We should not be afraid. Although this Saha World is one to be endured, we should have no fear, because we have made great vows. With these great vows we can widely transform sentient beings. We vow to “undertake the Tathagata’s mission”. Then, “Each of those sages protected one place”. We can see how now there are so many [volunteers] in different countries, so many Bodhisattvas protecting these places. When we look at the news, if we see strong winds and rains in some country, if we see there has been a natural disaster, we can quickly pick up the phone and ask, “Have there been great winds and rain there? They will report back to us, “We are safe here, but in such-and-such a place, the effects of the disaster were severe. We are already preparing to go and assess the situation there”. After this, we will have peace of mind. So, wherever in the world. Tzu Chi volunteers may be, they take responsibility for the place they are in. They protect and safeguard that place. Wherever they may be needed, they go to provide care. So, “There is no one in the world that cannot be transformed”. The world is so vast and those we have affinities with, those waiting for us to rescue them, those waiting for us to go and help them, those waiting for us to deliver them are so numerous! So, there are many whom we have affinities with who need us go and guide them. Similarly, “There is no place where the path cannot be practiced”. There are many people in the world, but there is no one who cannot be transformed. There are also many places that we are able to reach but have not yet been to we are able to reach but have not yet been to. So, despite the Saha World being so vast, so big, with so many people who have affinities with us, we should never be afraid. We should not be afraid of this place. The Saha World’s sentient beings are stubborn, so this is why we should make vows.
In the Buddha’s time, although His disciples, those bhiksus and bhiksunis, had already formed Great Vehicle aspirations, they still were not brave enough. This is because the Saha World’s sentient beings were so stubborn. They were afraid of them. The Buddha truly felt lonely, and He was quite worried. “Why can’t anyone comprehend my aspiration? I bestowed predictions on you. I confirmed that you will attain Buddhahood in the future. Why don’t you have the courage to make great vows and overcome the difficulties in transforming sentient beings in the Saha World? Why are you all still so lacking in courage?” So, He looked at everyone, hoping for someone else [to make vows]. These monastics still did not dare to make great vows. His hopes were on these other Bodhisattvas who had formed great aspirations. These Bodhisattvas with great aspirations were not necessarily monastics. “Lay Bodhisattvas have great wisdom”. So, as He looked at them like this, these Bodhisattvas with great aspirations began rousing themselves. They waited for the Buddha to instruct them. “We are willing to accept [this mission]. Where others are unwilling to go, we will willingly go to protect those places”.
So, those Bodhisattvas began making vows to the Buddha, vowing that in the Saha World they would “transcribe this sutra, accept, uphold, read and recite it, expound its meaning, practice in accordance with the Dharma and rightfully keep it in mind. All this will be done through the mighty power of the Buddha. We only wish the World-Honored One, from other places, will watch over and protect us from afar.
Because these Bodhisattvas, both lay people and monastics, all had great causes and conditions from the past, they were willing to prepare all of the teachings the Buddha had given so they could read and recite the sutra, explain and teach it, and constantly keep its meaning in their hearts. They prepared everything fully. They were all very clear on the Dharma. In particular, when it came to the direction of their heart, they “rightfully kept [the sutra] in mind”. The right path, right thinking and right views were all kept in their memory.
The Buddha’s teachings had already been returned to their place inside their hearts. The Buddha’s manifestations had returned to their place inside their hearts. So, they had to “rightfully keep it in mind”. “All this will be done through the mighty power of the Buddha”. In the Chapter on Seeing the Stupa of Treasures, His manifestations had returned to their place. These were the teachings. Whenever we listen to the Dharma, we should remember it and return the Dharma to its place. This is what I always keep telling everyone. This is “rightfully keeping it in mind”. We remember it. We take the Dharma the Buddha taught and keep it carefully written in our hearts. This is the mighty power of the Buddha.
So, “We only wish the World-Honored One, from other places, will watch over and protect us from afar”. After the Buddha entered Parinirvana, He would then respond to conditions to transform people in other places. “It doesn’t matter where we are. Venerable Buddha, all we need are your blessings and protection”. They had great aspirations, had made great vows. They were very brave, but truly they still needed to keep engaging in the spiritual practices they already had absorbed. In their mind they had already established great vows, and they were already at the stage of the [Great] Vehicle, but they still had to engage in practice further.
So, as for these Bodhisattvas, the next passage says, “Right away, all the Bodhisattvas joined their voices together and spoke this verse”. These Bodhisattvas were now expressing the intentions they had in their hearts. They willingly accepted the sutra’s teachings, whether transcribing it, reading and reciting it or so on. They were all willing to go among people. This shows they were determined in their resolve. So, they now spoke in verse, expressed themselves again in verse.
“Right away, all the Bodhisattvas joined their voices together and spoke this verse, ‘We only wish for the Buddha not to worry. After the Buddha enters Parinirvana, in this terrifying and evil world, we will all widely teach [this sutra].’”
Everyone had already made vows like this, but they repeated them again. To make their intentions even clearer, they repeated themselves, making their vows out loud. “World Honored One, there is no need to worry. We are all already in accord with the Buddha’s noble intention, so we give the Buddha our guarantee. We have already made such vows, so Venerable Buddha, we hope You can put Your mind at ease. You need not worry about sentient beings in the future. Please, Venerable Buddha, put Your mind at ease. You can enter Parinirvana without worrying. So, “After the Buddha enters Parinirvana, in this tarrying and evil world, we will all widely teach [this sutra]. Buddha, when it comes to your teachings, we have already taken all of them to heart. After the Buddha entered Parinirvana, the future world would be terrifying and evil. After the Buddha enters Parinirvana, we are very aware that in the future, the world will become more and more evil and turbid. So, the changes of this era are terrifying; people are very afraid. In the future it would become a turbid, evil world. This is what the Buddha told us with the Dharma. “We understand. Although the Buddha told us that it will be an an evil world of Five Turbidities, we are not afraid. We have made vows for lifetime after lifetime.” In the future we will remain in this Five Turbidities. No matter the changes of the times, no matter long it may take, no matter how many lifetimes we return to the world, we will stay the same; we will remain in this evil world of Five Turbidities. We are not afraid. We all vow to teach the sutra right here. Because the Buddha has already helped us to understand, we too should give voice to the Buddha’s teachings, as if we were beating the Dharma-drum. We will always beat the Dharma-drum and will pass down the Dharma this way. Please, Venerable Buddha, do not worry.”
In the era of Dharma-degeneration, noble beings will grow fewer while those with negative habitual tendencies. And negative karma will become more numerous. There will be no one to save and correct them. There will be many who violate morals and ethics. So it says, “this terrifying and evil world.” With the noble path, they can instruct the world, help people to avoid evil, pursue goodness, respect virtue, refrain from all evil and do all that is good. Therefore, they must widely teach it.
In the era of Dharma-degeneration, noble beings will gradually grow fewer, while those with negative habitual tendencies, and negative karma will increase in number. They will be on the rise, because good people will continually grow fewer. This is due to the laws of nature. Having attained the Buddha’s teaching in that lifetime, for their future lifetimes they all vowed to go to other places, so these sages would steadily decrease in number. In an evil and turbid world like this, people’s habitual tendencies would become more and more evil. They would keep creating karma and the force of karma would continually increase. Those in the future would have no one to “save and correct” them. There would be no one who could save them, no one to get them back on the right track. It was because no one dared to return there that the numbers of good people would decrease, while evil people would become more numerous. Amidst evil, no one would go there to save them. No one would go there to correct them, in this way, in this world in the future, people who have lost their morals and traditions will be more and more numerous. Because of this,it will be a “terrifying and evil world.” This is what the future will be like, so we should be worried as well!
So, “With the noble path, they instruct the world, help people to shun evil, pursue goodness, respect virtue, refrain from all evil and do all that is good. This is what we should continually proclaim. Otherwise, this noble path will decay. In this world, it is only with the noble path that we can teach people, that we can rectify their hearts, that we can help people to avoid these evils. We need the precepts because the precepts guard against wrongs and stop evil. We should be able to tell people, “This is evil; you should not do it. This is good, so di it diligently.” So, we should put effort into teaching them, helping them to avoid evil, helping them to move in a good direction, to esteem and admire morals and ethics. We cannot allow people’s morals to be destroyed. So, the noble teaching is needed in the world. Without the noble teaching in the world, evil will always be on the rise. So, we need to teach people to “refrain from all evil and do all that is good.” If evil arises, then we hasten to eliminate it. We “swiftly eliminate evil already arisen” and “prevent evil not yet arisen from arising.” We “swiftly give rise to goodness not arisen” and “nurture goodness that has already arisen.” This is what we teach people, to increase their goodness and not to do evil. If they are about to give rise to evil we quickly warn them not to let it arise. If evil has already arisen, we think of ways to help them rectify it. If goodness has yet to arise in them, we should teach and inspire goodness in them, help them give rise to good thoughts. Id their thoughts are already good, then we should encourage them further, so their good thoughts increase and they advance. This is our noble teaching for the world.
The next sutra passage then goes on to say, “if there are ignorant people who cruse and criticize us with harsh words and attack us with knives and sticks, we will all endure them.”
In an evil world, there will not only be those whose actions are evil, but there will be ignorant people as well who will curse and reprimand others. Not only will their own conduct be evil, but they will be the first to reprimand others, they will be the first to scold others.
If there are ignorant people who curse and criticize us with harsh words: There will be unkind and ignorant people who do things like curse and criticize us with harsh and filthy words. Directly reprimanding someone is cursing. Indirectly reprimanding someone is criticizing.
There will be evil people like this. “There will be unkind and ignorant people
who do things like cursing and criticizing us with harsh and filthy words”. When we “curse” others, it means that we directly abuse them. Or, we may mock them from the sidelines. When people treat others like this, if they see them doing something good, all they talk about is what they do wrong. While others do good deeds, they make sarcastic remarks from the sidelines, or they slander them using harsh speech. Whether people directly curse them or slander them from the sidelines. Will the good they do be brought to a halt? If we know it is good, we must remain diligent. If we know it is evil, we must mindfully teach and transform them. This is something we must be very mindful of. Some will always curse others to their face, while some even hit others. This is a terrifying and evil world. They not only use their fists, but even use knives and sticks and so on. This is horrible indeed. It is like how when Purna Maitrayaniputra was going to spread the Dharma; the Buddha first told him, “That is a horrible place! You can never teach the Dharma to them there. Should you wish to teach them the Dharma, those people there will abuse you”. Purna replied, “It doesn’t matter! Since I am determined, even if they curse me I won’t mind. I will still teach them the Dharma and I will be grateful”. “What if they beat you?” “If they beat me, I will still be grateful that they beat me with just their bare hands. I was not injured, so I will still be grateful.I will be able to endure it”. “What if they should use knives and sticks?” “I will still be grateful!” Look at Purna Maitrayaniputra, he willingly went to such stubborn places, such horrible places, to transform the sentient beings there. That was how determined he was in his aspirations. So, this group of Bodhisattvas now was the same. The sentient beings in that future world would be so terrifying, so horrible. They would not only curse people, they would even hit them, even use knives and sticks and so on. “We all are willing to endure all these things!” If Purna Maitrayaniputra could do this, then we can do this too.
[If they] attack us with knives and sticks, we will all endure them. This means that even if they were attacked with knives, swords, sticks and stones, for the sake of advancing this sutra, they vowed to endure all evils.
So, “[If they] attack us with knives and sticks. Whether they use knives, swords, sticks and clubs, if they use stones or something else, we will endure all of it”. In order to speared the sutra, to provide the Buddha’s teachings for future generations, we must practice the noble path in this world. To put the noble path into practice, we must endure everything. So, they made this vow. “For the sake of advancing this sutra, they vowed to endure all evils”. Whatever kind of evil it would be, they could patiently endure it all.
People of limited wisdom and no faith regard what is right as their enemy. They envy right teachings and hate people who uphold it. It is not enough for them to disparage these people with harsh words; they even hurt them with knives and sticks. Bodhisattvas treat friend and foe impartially. They do not take issue or retaliate. They fault themselves based on the principles and forgive themselves based on their dedication. The path is their only duty, so they must endure all [these evils].
It says “People of limited wisdom and no faith” because in the future, the evil in the world would be so terrifying. This is because people will have lost faith. They will lack right mindfulness, so they will have “limited wisdom”. They will have limited capabilities and be foolish. Greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt are all fiercely gathering together in them. People of limited capabilities are like this; they have no faith. They have no thoughts of proper beliefs, so they “regard what is right as their enemy”. When they see people doing upright things, they resent them. When they see good people, they cannot stand that these people are doing good deeds. They are “people of limited wisdom and no faith”. They cannot stand good people or good deeds, so they try to harm them in any way they can. This is because their minds harbor jealousy, because they are foolish, greedy, angry, ignorant, arrogant and doubtful. In their ignorance, they are jealous. So, they envy the Dharma; towards the Dharma they feel envy and resentment. People like this are so unhappy that they display a very negative appearance with harsh words and speech. They treat good people with negative attitudes, as well as those who teach and proclaim this sutra. They just do not like them. So, “It is not enough for them to disparage these people with harsh words”. This is not enough for them. It is not enough that they curse them. “They even hurt them with knives and sticks”. These are people with inferior wisdom and no faith. “[They] regard what is right as their enemy”. Seeing those who are upright, they regard them as if they were enemies. They resent them, and even wish to put them to death. This is how fierce and cruel they are. “Bodhisattvas tread friend and foe impartially. They do not take issue or retaliate”. They do not take issue with others, nor do they wish to do anything to them. They let go of the past. “You cursed at me, but it doesn’t matter. Let go of the past!” We requite resentment with virtue. If they hit us or harm us in any way, we do not make an issue of it, do not continue the cycle of revenge. We should respond to them in a way that helps them to transform, helps them to accept the Right Dharma. So, we requite them with the Right Dharma. Thus, we “fault ourselves based on the principles”. Although they may yell at us, we should not, due to someone picking a fight for no reason, allow our minds to be troubled. We must do our best to be understanding of them. If they are so cruel to us, it is probably because they have their own view. They probably mean us well; “The deeper the love, the more earnest the scolding”. Perhaps this is what is happening. So, we should be understanding of them. Thus, we “fault ourselves based on the principles”. We focus on ourselves and do not take issue with others. We must carefully reflect on ourselves. “Have I made a mistake in some way? Is that why they are so angry? Perhaps we did something that made them angry.” So, we “fault ourselves based on the principles and forgive ourselves based on our dedication.” Since we are already doing this, we must endure the difficulties and the criticism. No matter what happens, we do the best that we can do. Since it is the right thing to do, we just do it. “I am dedicated to the work, to my faith, to the principles, so I should earnestly keep on doing what I am doing. The direction I am heading in is correct.” I must not hinder myself.”
So, we “forgive ourselves based on our dedication.” We should not, after faulting ourselves, think, “I have offended them. Maybe it is better if I turn around.” This is like when the Buddha bestowed predictions upon them. Afterwards they thought, “This place is do difficult; people are stubborn. I will just let them be” “I will just leave.” This is not how it is. So, we “forgive ourselves based on our dedication.” We may fault ourselves, thinking it is our karma that led us to be in this place, to have circumstantial and direct retributions here in such a horrible place. We criticize ourselves like this, thinking “I may have this fault.” But although we may criticize ourselves, we should still work to help this place. We must be dedicated to the work. So, we should also go easy on ourselves. We should not merely fault ourselves and let others do whatever they want. In this place, we should still try to earnestly transform them, to earnestly protect them. So, we “fault ourselves based on the principles and forgive ourselves based on our dedication.” We should not misunderstand this.
So, “The path is their only duty.” This is the path we have formed aspirations for. This is the path that we want to walk. So, because of this, we “must endure all [these evils.]” We must do our best to patiently endure these.
If noble beings leave the world, no one will be left to save and correct people. Many will lose their morals and traditions. So, it says “this terrifying and evil world.” The noble path is used to instruct the world, to lead people to pursue goodness and respect virtue, so they must widely teach it.
In summary, since we have formed aspirations and made vows to help the noble path circulate forever in the world, although noble beings may slowly disappear, the noble path will still remain in the world. This noble path depends upon us. What we learn as the disciples of the Buddha is that we should form aspirations and make vows, for this is how we transmit the Dharma. Even if this is a terrifying and evil world, we still have to help transmit the noble path. Only when people avoid evil and pursue goodness will our morals and ethics continue on. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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