Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Endure Evil with the Armor of Patience (為法忍惡 著忍辱鎧)
Date: July.02.2018
“’We all honor the mission the Buddha entrusted to us, so we will endure all evils. We work to reverently take up the Buddha’s right teaching and help it abide forever in the world so it may continue to transform and deliver. Because of this, we will be ridiculed and insulted to our face with words of mockery.’ These Bodhisattvas revered the Buddha, so they were willing to sacrifice themselves and endure hardships to spread the sutra. Whether or not these Bodhisattvas would hear [these insults], they would silently endure them. They saw right and wrong as one and the same. They did not recognize that they had a self, let alone take issue over right and wrong.”
This verse is relatively long, but we must mindfully seek to comprehend it. Right now in the present, we all must seek to emulate these dedicated Bodhisattvas who were here when the Buddha was in the world. When the Buddha was in the world, these dedicated Bodhisattvas made their vows before Him. They were not afraid of the various dangers and evils of the world. They were not afraid of the evil bhiksus in the future and their various insults and slander. They were not afraid. So, they were willing to accept the Buddha’s [mission] that He entrusted to them. In [the face of] the various evils of the future world, they were all willing to accept it.
This was the vow these Bodhisattvas made before the Buddha. Referring to themselves as “we all,” these numerous Bodhisattvas all made vows before the Buddha at the same time. They also wanted to comfort the Buddha. “Please put your mind at ease. Once you enter Parinirvana, we will continue to constantly protect all of the sentient beings who you care about. We will keep the Buddha-Dharma in the world so that everyone will have the opportunity to accept it. No matter how dangerous and evil our world will become in the future, we will always revere the Buddha. Because we revere the Buddha, when it comes to the duties that the Buddha has entrusted to us, we will certainly carry them out according to the Dharma. We will also be willing to endure these hardships that are difficult to endure.” So, they said, “We work to reverently take up the Buddha’s right teaching and help it abide forever in the world, so it may continue to transform and deliver.” So, “In order to ensure that Your teachings and the Right Dharma You have entrusted with us will continue to abide in the world for a very long time to teach and transform sentient beings, we are willing to [endure these hardships].” They did not fear hardship and would overcome all kinds of difficulties. They were all willing to keep protecting and upholding Right Dharma so that in the future era of Dharma-degeneration, the Dharma would continue to live on. This was the vow of those Bodhisattvas. “Because of this, we will be ridiculed and insulted to our face with words of mockery. In the future era of Dharma-degeneration, there will be evil bhiksus with deviant knowledge and deviant views, arrogance and pride. Bhiksus like these will say all sorts of things directly to our face to ridicule us, use all kinds of hurtful words to harm us, belittle us with words of mockery and abuse us with insulting language. Even if they do this, we will not be afraid.” This was the great vow of these Bodhisattvas. Because these Bodhisattvas “revered the Buddha, they were willing to sacrifice themselves and endure hardships to spread the sutra.” We must admire the spirit of these Bodhisattvas.
Just look; when the Buddha was still in the world, He taught sentient beings the world’s various principles of suffering, causation, cessation and the Path. Once they all listened to, realized and understood [these principles], they began harbor fear toward the Saha World. They all knew they had to escape from these stubborn and hard-to-tame people. Spiritual practitioners must have no conflicts with the world, people or matters. Since they had no conflicts with matters, why would they have to remain in this world where sentient beings are so stubborn and wicked?
Therefore, once the Buddha’s disciples understood these principles, they also knew they had to form aspirations. However, they were afraid and did not dare to remain in this place. They feared that if their mind went astray, they would be overwhelmed by temptation and commit intentional or unintentional wrongdoings. This Saha World is very treacherous, so they were afraid. This shows how dangerous and evil this world is. These dedicated Bodhisattvas saw how everyone failed to live up to the Buddha’s intention behind teaching them. The Buddha came to the world for the sake of the sentient beings in the Three Realms. Deluded by afflictions and ignorance, sentient beings create so much negative karma. So, lifetime after lifetime, the Buddha returned to the world, all for the sake of helping everyone to understand these principles and transcend interpersonal conflicts so that they could truly “be without hindrances”. “Without hindrances,” they would come back to the world to transform sentient beings.
However, the more the Buddha’s disciples understood the Dharma, the more they began to fear the law of karma. As a result, they did not dare to remain within the Saha World. However, the Buddha will continue to return here. Due to the laws of nature, His conditions were soon to be exhausted. However, the Buddha still has another set of conditions [for this world], so He will return yet again. [He has] conditions that have yet to be fulfilled. What are the Buddha’s unfulfilled conditions? So many sentient beings are still [lost] in the sea of suffering, due to their afflictions and ignorance. The Buddha could not bear this, so once He let go of His retribution in this life, He followed the laws of nature and His karma. Once He let go of this life, He would again return to this world so He could return to this world again, journeying upon the Dharma of True Suchness to return to this world. “This Come One” means that He comes to this world upon the Dharma of True Suchness. When His karmic conditions have been fulfilled, He will leave [this world]. When conditions for the Dharma are fulfilled, He will return. This is how He comes and goes. He comes and goes freely, thus He is called. “Thus Come One”.
However, when He comes to the world to transform sentient beings, if He only relied on His power alone, He would have “no way”. He needs more people to form assisting conditions and closely interweave them. They must be closely interwoven within time, space and among people. Moreover, after entering Parinirvana, once the Buddha returns to this world, He will have to go through many, many years again before He can then gather an assembly and carry out this mission of guiding them. So, where in time and space will all of this be? Because of His karmic conditions with everyone, He will still return to this world. In the meantime, He still needs Bodhisattvas to continue to pass down [this mission]. If no one dared to come [to this world] after the Buddha left it, then what would happen to this world? We must continue to maintain the Buddha-Dharma. So, even when the Buddha is not here in person, His Dharmakaya is still present. Although He had let go of His reward-body, His Dharma-body continues on. Yet, the Dharmakaya requires Bodhisattvas with eh aspiration to continue to pass down the Dharma so that the Buddha’s Dharmakaya will forever abide in the world. This is extending His wisdom-life.
In order to extend the wisdom-life of the Buddha’s Dharmakaya, many Bodhisattvas are needed. So, these numerous Bodhisattvas revered the Buddha and were willing to get involved in the future evil world. Even if they had to give up their lives for the sake of the teachings, they would still be willingly, they were willing to endure all kinds of hardships. [The world] is full of ignorance and the arrows of ignorance cause great harm; they understood this, yet they were unafraid. They were willing to endure it. These were Bodhisattvas who had formed great aspirations. So, “Where or not these Bodhisattvas would hear [these insults], they would silently endure them.” We have discussed this before. “No matter how they curse me to my face, no matter how they openly ridicule me and insult me, I will be able to endure it patiently. This is to say nothing of what they do behind my back that I cannot hear. However, these kinds of slanderous remarks can spread very quickly and I might hear them indirectly. Still, I will silently endure them. I will not respond to these words. Instead, I will silently endure them. I will endure all these rumors about me, regardless of whether I hear them directly or indirectly. I will completely endure all of them.”
So, in this way, “Whether it is direct and indirect, I can endure all of it.” So, we should all break away from the Four Views. They are the view of people, the view of self, the vies of sentient beings and the view of a lifespan. When we have eliminated all of these views, we will not have any more interpersonal conflicts. Once we have no interpersonal conflicts or conflicts over matters, how could we [discriminate] over anything tangible or intangible in this world? Once we broaden our mind, as we face all kinds of conditions, our only intention will be to help the Buddha’s teachings continue on. This was the vow of those Bodhisattvas. They were willing to endure all kinds of [mockery].
In the sutra passage, [they said], “As for these disrespectful words of mockery, we will patiently endure them all.” As for these disrespectful words of mockery, we will patiently endure them all. When it comes to this kind of mocking language, we will patiently endure it all for the sake of the Dharma.
“When faced with slander and disparagement, when they insult us to our face, we will endure it all. No matter what kinds of words people use to belittle or insult us, we must endure them. Because the Dharma must be passed down, we must endure this.” They have to endure so many things.
So, previously, in the Chapter on Dharma Teachers, we discussed the Three Directives. “Great compassion is the room. Gentleness and patience are the clothing. The emptiness of all phenomena is the seat”. With a mind of great compassion, we must enter the Tathagata’s room. To enter the Tathagata’s room is to resonate with the Buddha-mind. Our minds and the Buddha’s mind need to resonate with one another. Since we are learning the Dharma from the Buddha, we should understand the Buddha’s intent.
Therefore, we must resonate with the Buddha-mind. Resonating with the Buddhas-mind is just like entering the Tathagata’s room. The Buddha’s mind is a heart of great compassion. Therefore, “Great compassion is the room. Gentleness and patience are the clothing”. In this world, sentient beings are stubborn and difficult to tame. What methods should we use in order to tame them? Gentleness and patience. We must be gentle and patient, just like these Bodhisattvas who had already made vows to spread this wondrous Dharma throughout the Saha World. We must patiently endure all hardships. It is not enough to just have patience. We also need a very sincere, steadfast strength, because the Dharma must continue to be spread. So, this is the so-called “power of gentleness”. “The power of gentleness” means we must be very gentle. Although it is gentle, this power has its strength. This is something we must learn, something we must train ourselves in we need this spirit and ideal. Over the past few days, I have been continuously talking about how [we must engage in] “the Four Practices”. We must practice continuously, over a long period of time. We must have a reverent mind. For a long time, we must continuously practice, through practice with nothing further, uninterrupted practice, extended practice and practice with reverence. In this way, we will realize the Buddha’s intent. We will be willing to spend a long time, in any space and in any world, helping others. This is what we must do. As soon as we don the clothing of patience, we need to completely understand that “the emptiness of all phenomena is the seat. Then, all that “exists” will become illusory; it will all become “non-existent”. [If we do this], what kind of words could possibly damage our aspirations or overpower our vows? Our vow is to continue to pass down the Buddha’s Right Dharma. The power of evil cannot subdue us. We must use our right mindfulness and Right Dharma to tame deviant arrogance and stubbornness.
Therefore, we often talk about “the tug-of-war between good and evil”. Will good win or will evil win? Those who evil use crude and despicable methods to harm others. Those who are good use harmony, understanding, and tolerance to tame and transform them. These are the two extremes. It is gentle love versus stubborn evil. If we can strengthen the power of goodness a bit, this power will be able to purify the evil turbidities. This means we need to be very mindful as we transform sentient beings. We need to convince them so that they can understand Right Dharma and advance in the right direction. Then right thinking, right views, right mindfulness, right understanding and right actions can be put into action. This requires us to work very hard.
So, he previous sutra passage states the following, “They will constantly seek to disparage us before the multitudes. Before kings, ministers, Brahmins, lay people and other assemblies of bhiksus as well, they will slander us and say we are evil. They will say we are people of deviant views who teach heretical doctrines”.
Those evil bhiksus will constantly seek to disparage us before the multitudes. Also, when we are clearly spreading Right Dharma, they will say, “These teachings are not in accordance with the Dharma. These teachings are just for the sake of fame. Therefore, these are all heretical doctrines”. They will twist this Right Dharma and slander it as heretical teachings. This is a tug-of-war between good and evil. The evil will say that the good are wrong. They are in a tug-of-war like this, and the good must stand firm. The principles exist inherently in people’s minds. We need to patiently seek to awaken these true principles within peoples’ minds. So, we want to help people return to their intrinsic nature. When they awaken to the true principles, they will be able to understand that this is Right Dharma. Thus, there is a tug-of-war between good and evil. “Because we revere the Buddha, we will endure all of this evil”.
Because we revere the Buddha, we will endure all of this evil. For this they will mock us, saying, “You are all Buddhas!” All these words of mockery and arrogance we will endure and accept.
“Because we all revere the Buddha” was what the Bodhisattvas said to the Buddha then. “Although they will slander us and say that what we teach is evil, deviant, and heretical, we will still remain firm in upholding this Right Dharma. This is because our hearts have the power. We revere the Buddha, have faith in the Buddha. We have reverent faith in the Buddha, so we will endure all of this evil. Because we trust the Buddha, we are willing to endure all kinds of slander”.
Therefore, “For this they will mock us. No matter how these people mock us, insult us, belittle us, ridicule and curse us, we will not worry about it”. They will say all sorts of things to ridicule us, “All these words of mockery and arrogance we will endure and accept”. We are willing to endure all sorts of mockery. Here we can see that safeguarding and upholding. Right Dharna is easier said than done. It is not easy at all. So, we must always remain firm in our spiritual aspirations.
The following sutra passage states, “In the evil world during the kalpa of turbidity, there will be much to fear. Evil ghosts will enter people bodies to abuse and slander us. But we who revere and have faith in the Buddha will don the armor of patience. For the sake of teaching this sutra, we will endure all these difficulties.”
The Chapter on Dharma Teachers talks about “wearing the clothing of patience”. Now, this chapter talks about ”wearing the armor of patience”. “The clothing patience” is very soft and gentle. “Gentleness and patience are the clothing”. However, “the armor of patience” is different. We need to wear this suit of armor. Do you know what a suit of armor is for? When we enter the battlefield, we need it to protect our bodies. It must be made of metal, impervious to sword or spear. We need to this kind of equipment. It is clear that the future world of turbidity will grow more and more turbid and evil.
Therefore, we need to be mentally prepared for this kind of wicked world. The Bodhisattvas said, “But we who revere and have faith in the Buddha will don the armor of patience. They will carefully prepare themselves as if they were about to enter a battlefield. “For the sake of teaching this sutra, we will endure all these difficulties.” Because we live in such an evil world, we must mindfully seek to protect ourselves so that we do not lose our spiritual aspirations, so our wisdom-life will remain unharmed. We must also be willing to endure difficulties.
“In the evil world during the kalpa of turbidity, in the evil world during the era of Dharma-degeneration, in the future, the principles will continuously disappear from the world. “There will be much to fear. As I mentioned preciously, it is not just ordinary people who will do harm to the Buddha-Dharma. Even some who have become monastics and are known as sramanas and bhiksus lack the genuine aspiration. They lack the true principles, but in pursuit of fame, wealth and offerings, they use all kinds of methods to slander those who uphold Right Dharma. This is the future evil world of turbidities; it is very fearsome. We need to mindfully guard ourselves against wrongdoing and maintain constant vigilance, because this is a very scary thing. No wonder these spiritual practitioners who had already received predictions were so afraid and did not dare to remain in the Saha World. This is why they were like this. So, the Buddha spoke to them very gently, saying, “Great compassion is the room. Gentleness and patience are the clothing. The emptiness of all phenomena is the seat; here at this place, one expounds the Dharma.”
When the Buddha used such gentle words, these Bodhisattva realized and understood that the future evil world of turbidities would be very wicked indeed. How could the “clothing of gentleness and patience” be enough? It is not! We also need to “wear the armor of patience,” because the [dangers] of the future evil world will be everywhere, they are hidden and hard to guard against. Therefore, we need to work hard to heighten our vigilance so that our wisdom-life will not be harmed. So, we need to safeguard Right Dharma and refrain endangering our wisdom-life. Our aspirations must remain firm, so we must protect them carefully.
The following sutra passage says, “Evil ghosts will enter people’s bodies to abuse and slander us.”
Evil ghosts will enter people’s bodies to abuse and slander us: Once these wicked ghosts enter their bodies, they will constantly be seen abusing and slandering us. Evil ghosts will enter their bodies: This is likens the way evil people will abuse us derangedly to being possessed by demons.”
Those who have deviant views act like they have been possessed by demons. They lose control of themselves and cannot distinguish right from wrong. This is how they act, as if wicked, evil ghosts had entered their bodies. We can also see many examples of this in the world. Once someone’s mind is disturbed, it is like there is someone next to them, inciting them [to do wrong]. They cannot control themselves, so they continue to harm others.
I still remember several years ago, there was a mother whose child had to take the [school entrance] exam. So, she was constantly worried about her child. She kept praying to the gods and begging them, praying to them, begging them and making offerings to them, hoping that her child would study hard enough and would be able to make it into the ideal college. So, because she was worried about her child, she sept walking upon the wrong path, always caving in to superstition. One time, she told her husband that he absolutely had to take her [to the temple] to pray and make offerings again. She wanted her to be child smart enough to test into [the best] school. Her husband also could do nothing in the dace of her constant arguing. Wherever she wanted to go, he would take her there. One day, her husband drove her out, and on the way back, she suddenly asked her husband to stop the car. Her husband quickly stopped the car. What did she get out to do? She began to pray and pray she suddenly stuck two fingers into her eyes and gouged her eyes out. This is a true story that happened in Su’ao.
Once, our Tzu Chi volunteers accompanied this mother and her daughter. The mother’s eyes had been damaged so badly that she could not see, so her daughter accompanied her [to see me]. [The mother] said her son’s academic performance had deeply worried her, so she sought help from deviant paths, which led her to develop psychological issues. Her husband wanted to take her to see the doctor, but she refused to go. She just kept making offerings and praying. The incident that occurred that day blinded her for the rest of her life. However, she was still unable to find peace. So, [her daughter] brought her here. Later on, I had a conversation with her. She said her mind was at peace as she left. Was her mind truly at peace or not? It has been many years [since then].
“Once these wicked ghosts enter their bodies” people no longer have control of themselves. So, they have this kind of “deranged” thinking. Because their minds are deranged, they lose themselves. “They will constantly be seen abusing us.” They do not know who they are; they just want always to malign and destroy others. It is like wicked ghosts entered their bodies, so they constantly curse and malign other people. In this way, those who insult us seem to have evil ghosts inside their bodies. Without reason, they continuously curse others. This likens the way evil people will deranged abuse us to being possessed by demons. We can see it this way, as if they were possessed by demons. [The demons] are not actually real. So, “We who revere and have faith in the Buddha will don the armor of patience.”
But we who revere and have faith in the Buddha will don the armor of patience: We all revere and have faith in the Tathagata, so we must constantly practice loving-kindness, patience and great compassion. We must wear the armor of patience to transform those how are difficult to transform.
We are all already able to “revere and have faith in the Buddha,” so we must put on “the armor of patience”. We must wear this clothing of patience. First, we need to strengthen our faith. We must not let this evil harm our faith. Therefore, to strengthen our faith and protect our wisdom-life, along with Right Dharma, we must have a method, and that is to “revere and have faith in the Tathagata”. We all have the Buddha in our hearts. The Buddha lives within our hearts. So, our minds resonate with the Buddha-mind, and we must protect the Right Dharma. We all revere and have faith [in Him], so “we must constantly practice loving-kindness, patience and great compassion”. We have faith in the Buddha, the Thus Come One, who journeys upon the Dharma of Suchness to come to this world as well as leave the world. Then He journeys upon it to return to this world again. At this time, we all must ensure that across time and space, Right Dharma will always abide in the world. With all these evils, we must be able to constantly endure. We need compassion and patience. “Great compassion is the room.” We have already entered the Tathagata’s room. This is the first [step]; by having faith in and revering the Buddha, we have entered the Tathagata’s room. With great compassion, we enter the Tathagata’s room [for the sake of] transforming sentient beings and passing down the Buddha’s teachings. Therefore, we need to wear the clothing of patience.
We have already accepted the Buddha’s teachings about true emptiness and the emptiness of all things. We fully understand the wisdom of prajna and wondrous existence and true emptiness. With “the emptiness of all phenomena as our seat,” no form of slander will hinder our spiritual aspirations. This was how these Bodhisattvas comforted the Buddha and made vows before the Buddha. They would wear “the armor of patience” so they would not get hurt. Moreover, they would also be able to spread and advance Right Dharma. Thus, “We must wear the armor of patience to transform those who are difficult to transform.” We need to transform these stubborn and hard to tame people.
It is these people whom we are willing to help change, [so we must] “transform those who are difficult to transform”. Although these people curse and abuse us, we must still work hard to help them change. To “transform those difficult to transform” means to help these people change. So, “For the sake of teaching this sutra, we will endure all these difficulties.” In order to expound this sutra, we must endure so many difficulties. We must be willing to overcome these difficulties one by one. “In order to widely spread this sutra,” for the sake of widely spreading this sutra, we must overcome all [hardships]. There is only one way to overcome all [hardships], and that is “patience”. When it comes to “patience,” we must wear “the clothing of patience” and “the armor of patience”. We must wear them both to be safe and protect ourselves. So, “We must endure that which is hard to endure”. We must be able to endure. We must transform those who are difficult to transform and endure that which is difficult to endure.
The next sutra passage states, “We care nothing for our own lives; we only treasure the unsurpassed way. In the ages to come, we will protect and uphold what the Buddha has entrusted to us.
“We will not just care about our own lives. We are willing to give up our lives,” because “we only treasure the unsurpassed way. We will diligently protect this true and wondrous Dharma. We care nothing for our own lives. We will not act out of love only for ourselves. We do not have small love; we only have great love. We do not care for our own lives. We are willing to give up our lives for the path; we are willing to serve others. We only treasure the unsurpassed way.”
This was the vow made by these Bodhisattvas. “In the ages to come, we will protect and uphold what the Buddha has entrusted to us.” Here, “we” refers to these Bodhisattvas. “In the ages to come, we will all protect and uphold the principles the World-Honored One has entrusted to us. We are all able to understand them. So, World-Honored One, please put your mind at ease. We are all willing to help others.”
Indeed! We must endure. The Saha World is the world that must be endured. Peoples’ hearts are wicked and arrogant, and the world is full of so many treacherous and unpredictable things. We need to be very vigilant and guard ourselves. To pass down this wondrous Dharma is not easy at all. There are many tangible and intangible obstacles. Sometimes, the obstacles are not just outside us. When we give rise to discursive thoughts, we may also cause great obstacles for ourselves. Therefore, engaging in spiritual practice is truly difficult! It is very hard! Spiritual practice is difficult on its own, and dealing with people makes it even more difficult. The world is a very difficult place. It is like this right now. In the future, it will be even more difficult. So, we must mindfully seek to comprehend this. Not only is it hard to gauge people’s minds, not only is the danger in human relationships difficult for us to fathom, the world itself is also full of natural disasters.
Therefore, we need to be very mindful as we seek to bring purity to peoples’ hearts. Only then will we be able to eliminate the Five Turbidities. So, as Buddhist practitioners, we need to constantly apply the teachings in our interpersonal relationships. Sometimes, I see how we are giving to help others, doing what is right, undergoing this very difficult process, and what are the results? When we get favorable results, this makes us very happy.
Take Superintendent Lin for example, who brought a young man named Wu Xiaodong from Shanghai in mainland China to see me. Wu has Parkinson’s disease. So, his entire body was out of his control. If he did not take medicine, he could not stand up. He had spent many years rolling on the ground, unable to control himself. Our commissioner had found out about this and brought the case back for us to study. We asked him to bring this young man here. After they brought him here, the medicine did not work. They kept making adjustments until they installed a chip in him. Using modern technology, this chip was surgically installed in him. They kept adjusting the chip for him until they could bring him back to the Abode. He is a very handsome young man. He graduated from Fudan University, and is a very well-educated person. His mother, in order to take care of her son, had gone through such great hardships. At this time, his mother was also ill. So, both mother and son came. Since the mother was here with us, we also made sure to give her medical treatment. We also carefully treated her son. He was able to walk into the Abode. They gently supported him. Actually, he did not need any support; he walked [without support] like this to show me. We could see him smiling, and he was very articulate in speaking to us. Like always, I took one copy of the Sutra of Infinite Meanings and said, “This is for you. [Try] to recite it.” He then began to read and recite it. Because they use simplified characters, he had a bit of difficulty with our traditional characters. I said, “It doesn’t matter. Just put effort into reading this mindfully.” Then, he also gave me a book to look at. He had copied the sutra by hand. I said to him, “Your writing is so neat!” He answered, “In the past, I could not write. So, I lost my ability to write characters. Now, I can write the sutra very neatly.” I said, “Please continue to write. In the meantime, continue to recite the Sutra of Infinite Meanings.” Seeing him accomplish this made me very happy.
So, they were able to treat this patient that currently no drug [can cure] to the point that he was able to stand up, keep his balance while walking and speak clearly. This was no easy task. We had to go through so many processes, so much hard work and many setbacks to build this hospital with [medical] professionals and technology like this. With the loving dedication and the companionship of these medical professionals, these patients were able to recover their health. This is not an easy thing to do.
In summary, if we want to do what is right, if we want to do something to help others, it will never be easy. We must work very hard to help others. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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