Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Ground Split Open to Reveal the Intrinsic (地皆震裂 開跡顯本)
Date: October.19.2018
“The Buddha’s disciples must spread His Dharma and pass it down forever. They form affinities in the Saha World. With deep causes and extensive affinities, they will certainly gain tremendous benefits. They deeply cultivate the fields of blessing and sow the seeds [of Bodhi]. With Bodhi, one gives rise to infinity. They open the nearby fruits to reveal the distant causes, thus giving rise to infinity from one.”
Dear Bodhisattvas, we must mindfully seek to comprehend this. We must truly seize the time we have in this life. Time is continuously passing by, while every bit of causes and conditions accumulates in our storehouse consciousness, following us as we come and go. Everything we create becomes causes and conditions that lead to karmic retributions that we bring lifetime after lifetime. This is something we must very mindfully seek to comprehend. The Buddha taught the Dharma because He wanted us to thoroughly understand these principles, hoping that we will return to our nature of True Suchness. The myriad sentient beings have many sufferings. They come and go amidst their ignorance. We must give rise to a mind in which we cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. We must form aspirations to go among people. Moreover, our spiritual training ground is among people. We must experience and understand that our best spiritual training ground is among people.
The Buddha taught us to put effort into mindfully comprehending the great path. “The Buddha’s disciples must spread His Dharma and pass it down forever.” That is right! We are all the Buddha’s disciples. We must accept the Buddha’s teachings and pass down the Buddha’s aspirations. So, we should spread this Dharma that the Buddha has passed down to us. We must go among people and take on this responsibility. The Buddha’s one great cause is to save sentient beings. We are just individuals among sentient beings; there are still myriad sentient beings around us. We are simply very fortunate to be able to encounter the Buddha’s teachings before others; we have these causes and conditions. Though we say we are before others, those who received [teachings] even before we did, the disciples who lived during the same time as the Buddha, were even more fortunate. Since then, it has been over 2000 years. Perhaps over 2000 years ago, we lived during the same time as the Buddha and listened to the Buddha teach the Dharma. [Perhaps] we also made vows, but we did not earnestly uphold our vows and practices. So, we fell again into the Six Realms. Or perhaps, for several lifetimes, we encountered the Buddha-Dharma and listened to the Buddha-Dharma, but our affinities were shallow.
At this point, we still have the causes and conditions to listen to the Dharma. So, now that we have already heard [the Dharma], we should earnestly seize the causes and conditions in this lifetime and make sincere vows. We must take the Buddha-Dharma to heart and put it into practice in our lives. Every action we take becomes causes and conditions. When the seeds mature, they enter our consciousness. In the field of our eighth consciousness, we have abundant seeds of the Buddha-Dharma. In our future lifetimes, when we again encounter the Buddha-Dharma, these causes and conditions will be very mature. Then, “With deep causes and extensive affinities, we will certainly gain tremendous benefits.”
These are the result of being tempered in our spiritual training ground, among people. So, we must “deeply cultivate the fields of blessings and sow the seeds [of Bodhi]. With Bodhi, one gives rise to infinity.” We must simply earnestly form aspirations and cultivate the field in our minds, growing our seeds so that they reach maturity. Naturally, with these seeds of awakening one will give rise to infinity. When it comes to the Buddha-Dharma, we must have firm [resolve] and make vows. With this seed, for people around us, for the myriad sentient beings, we can influence their aspirations so that they will also learn the Buddha-Dharma and become awakened. So, they will “learn by doing and awaken by learning.” We must guide people in one by one, helping them experience and understand the Buddha-Dharma in their daily living, the Dharma and matters, people, matters and principles. By doing this every day, by experiencing this Dharma daily in our work, we comprehend profound principles through people and matters. This is the Buddha-Dharma. This is bringing together matters and principles. So, we must “open the nearby fruits to reveal the distant causes, thus giving rise to infinity from one.” [In terms of] “opening the nearby fruits,” we bring our past causes into this life. What are these past causes? Although we do not know what they are, we are clear about the results we experience in this life. In this lifetime, [we know about] our parents, our family and the journey of our lives. How did we encounter the Buddha-Dharma? How did we form aspirations? How did these causes and conditions all converge together? We are very clear about theses.
In this lifetime, no matter what causes and conditions we encounter, in this spiritual training ground, every day we are listening to the Dharma. Every day we can clearly see this world.
The matters in this world allow us to encounter people every day. These are all effects. Everything happening in this world is effects. In this evil world of the Five Turbidities, the climate is extreme. When summer arrives, every single day is very hot. Earth, water, fire and wind are all out of balance. One country has floods, and another country has hurricanes or typhoons that bring disasters. One country has huge fires, and yet another country has earthquakes. Isn’t this the case? We see this in the world every day; the media reports on matters of the world every day. And in this spiritual training ground of ours, I also tell everyone every day about how yesterday, in the past, the imbalance of people, matters and things resulted in certain events. All these things that happen are the “fruits,” the outcomes. Where did these outcomes originate? They came from “distant causes”. Don’t we talk about this every day? [We did] these things in the past, including [created the causes for] the imbalance of the climate. After talking about it, I would say, “Our present living environment [is due to] the causes we created in the past for destroying the earth and polluting the air. The imbalance in people’s minds has created manmade calamities and [natural] disasters.” Very clearly, the accumulation of distant causes created the present karmic retributions of the macrocosm and microcosms of the world. For us individuals, indeed, every one of us has these distant causes and nearby fruits. Everyone has them. As for our nearby fruits, we are already engaging in spiritual practice. As you are sitting here in front of me today, you are facing me, while I am facing all of you. Those to your left and right and in front of you are all spiritual practitioners. Does everyone have the same state of mind in their practice? There are different feelings and capabilities but the Dharma is the same; it constantly teaches us to eliminate ignorance. In life, there is so much ignorance. There is this kind of Dharma, and there are these matters in life. When we encounter these situations, how do we resolve them by applying this Dharma? So, [we need] practice with nothing further, uninterrupted practice and extended practice. Everything in this world, every action, [results in] either good or bad conditioned phenomena. When we face harsh situations, we must quickly apply the Four Practices. We must constantly practice with reverence and also engage in uninterrupted practice and practice with nothing further. In this way, we will engage in extended practice.
In engaging in extended practice, we must remember to [practice] with body, speech, mind and vows. If we can do hits, then naturally, although we are now facing these fruits in this greater environment, we will individually have ways to deal with this world and people’s attitudes. [These ways] are the Four Practices and the four methods [for bringing peace and joy]. We need to employ the Three Directives. This is a series of things that provides us with all [the methods] we need to be able to “open the nearby fruits to reveal the distant causes”. Realizing that it is what we created in the past [that led to] these fruits we face in the present, we must also bring this spiritual practice close to our everyday life so it provides our present causes. [We must use] the Three Directives, the Four Practices and the Four Methods, the “one three” and the “two fours,” in our everyday lives. Isn’t this how “one gives rise to infinity”?
We must earnestly engage in our own spiritual practice. When people have issues with us, we must put effort into improving ourselves. If people show unpleasant expressions toward us, we must put effort into cultivating ourselves. We must put in effort to improve ourselves. We must not just think of changing others. We must improved ourselves. When we improve ourselves, naturally we will be able to influence others. This is the most correct principle. So, I ask everyone to understand this.
“They deeply cultivate the fields of blessing and sow the seeds [of Bodhi]. With Bodhi, one gives rise to infinity. They open the nearby fruits to reveal the distant causes, thus giving rise to infinity from one.” When we go among people, we must put effort into facing sentient beings. This is our spiritual training ground. Our spiritual training ground is among people.
So, we must form great aspirations and great vows to engage in the Bodhisattva-practice. The Buddha has one great cause, to teach the Bodhisattva Way; He came to teach us the Bodhisattva Way. We are the Buddha’s disciples. So, we must spread the Buddha’s teachings and reverently follow the Buddha’s will. The Buddha has one great cause.
We are the Buddha’s disciples. The Buddha came to teach and transform sentient beings. We are among those sentient beings. We have special causes and conditions in that we accept the teachings. So, as the Buddha’s disciples, we should pass down the Buddha’s teachings. We must have this everlasting aspiration to earnestly engage in practice that is extended, uninterrupted and with nothing further and to respect the Buddha-Dharma. This is “reverently following the Buddha’s will”.
So, “Bodhisattvas reverently follow the Buddha’s will, making vows to remain in the world of endurance. They travel back and forth in the Six Realms and patiently endure hardships to uphold the sutra. They say they have attained non-arising patience and are thus able to endure all hardships”.
This is the direction we must take. Why? This is because the Bodhisattvas from other lands heard that this world of endurance, this Saha World, has much suffering and that the Buddha was worried. His disciples in the Saha World had not yet expressed [a wish to] make vows. Those from other lands had already come and begun to express that they were willing to come to this Saha World and again learn the Dharma, to read, recite, uphold, transcribe [the sutra] and so on. They wished to make offerings to the Buddha and to accept and uphold the teachings of the sutra. They were willing to spread this sutra. We had already talked about this.
They were willing to do this in the Saha World. So what about us? We are [the Buddha’s] disciples in the Saha World. We should even more reverently follow the Buddha’s intent. We must take on this responsibility and likewise earnestly engage in spiritual practice. Since we have received the Buddha’s teachings in the Saha World, we must also form affinities with people in the Saha World and sow seeds of goodness, forming affinities with sentient beings. When we earnestly engage in spiritual practice, we will also be able to bring great benefit to sentient beings. This is what is important to us.
So, “In the Saha World, there are many things that must be endured”. In the Saha World, there are many things that must be endured. We must earnestly train ourselves to be ale to bear and patiently endure them. Whether they are the natural environment or people’s actions, all these matters are hard to bear and endure.
However, as Buddhist practitioners, we must endure challenges. We must be able to be patient and endure. So, there are many matters that must be endured. There are many things that test us. This is how, “In the Saha World, there are many things that must be endured”.
So, “For the sake of teaching and transforming sentient beings, Bodhisattvas must be able to endure fatigue. This is why it is called the world of endurance”.
Things can be very difficult and very tiring, and we may be very tired. [People] often say, “You work so hard!” [But we say], “Not at all! We are blessed! This is wonderful! This is when we are serving others, when we are very tired, but we [work] very willingly. This is because we have made profound vows. We do not say it is difficult. We say, “I am blessed, because by serving others. I am creating blessings among people. I am blessed! Even though it is tiring to serve with our bodies, we feel very blessed in our hearts. We are willing; we are willing to serve, so we endure. “Bodhisattvas must be able to endure fatigue. This is why it is called the world of endurance”. We must be mindful.
These passages [of the sutra] are all telling us about our state of mind. In the “teachings of the manifest”, we talked about matters, about the Buddha’s and His disciples’ journey, how He engaged in spiritual practice and manifested in this world. Throughout those [first] 14 chapters, it discussed the past and the present. Now, [the sutra] will be talking about how we need to return; in our spiritual practice, how we must cultivate so that we understand the principles. Once we understand the principles, we can return to our nature of True Suchness.
Lifetime after lifetime, we are in this turbulent world of temptations. Just like a snowball, afflictions and ignorance add up layer by layer, constantly turning over and over. What we must know now is that of these past matters that have accumulated, in addition to our own ignorance and afflictions, we can see that all sentient beings in the world are in this turbulent world of temptations. As a result, there is so much suffering. Little by little, we awaken; inch by inch, we draw nearer to the path to return to our Tathagata-nature.
So, we use love to pave the path we walk as we return to out Tathagata-nature. This path of love is the Bodhisattva-path. Bodhisattvas engage in myriad practices; this is how they walk the path.
So, in the previous sutra passage, we saw great numbers. These great numbers describes the ground of our minds. Everyone, each of us sitting here has a piece of land in our own mind. We all have our own piece of sky. We all have our own world. However many people there are, there are just that many lands and skies; there are just that many worlds. So, if we can earnestly and clearly understand these principles, as soon as we hear the sutra, we will easily understand it let us now look at the previous sutra passage.
“Why is this so? In my Saha World, there are already Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas as numerous as the sands of 60,000 Ganges Rivers. Each of those Bodhisattvas has a retinue as numerous as the sands of 60,000 Ganges Rivers”.
Do we remember what came before this passage? Bodhisattvas from other worlds came to make a request to spread and pass on this sutra in the Saha World. They were also willing to learn again. The Buddha then said, “Stop! There is no need for all of you”. There was no need. Why was that? Because “In my Saha World, there are already Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas the sands of 60,000 Ganges Rivers”. For these Bodhisattvas, has a retinue as numerous as the sands 60,000 Ganges Rivers. He already had people who had formed great aspirations and made great vows. These Bodhisattvas all had people they had affinities with. There were so many people they could transform. This is also to let everyone know that “Before attaining Buddhahood, we must first form affinities with people. Wherever there is a need, Tzu Chi volunteers continue to form aspirations to connect with people’s families. This is like Guanyin Bodhisattva, who appears wherever people pray for her to come. Isn’t this how each of [these Bodhisattvas] were able to have such a large retinue? These were all people they were transforming now, people they were forming affinities with now.
So, “All of these people, after I enter Parinirvana, will be able to safeguard, uphold, read, recite and widely teach this sutra.
Those from other worlds wanted to come to our Saha World to safeguard and uphold and at the same time read, recite and widely teach this sutra. But the Buddha told them, “It is not necessary. I already have people here. There are so many people who are willing. They have already formed great aspirations. Each of those Bodhisattvas who has formed great aspirations also has a retinue as numerous as the sands of 60,000 Ganger Rivers. They also have a great retinue of people with affinities with them, who are waiting to be transformed by them. So, we do not need people. If we are able to clearly understand this passage, we will be clear on the following numbers. We do not need to wait for someone to tell us. As we are learning, listening and practicing here unbeknownst us, we are already forming connections. We already have so many affinities. This is the Saha World.
In this place, the Buddha’s disciples have unknowingly formed so many connections.
The next sutra passage goes on to say, “As the Buddha said this, throughout the lands of the great trichillocosm of the Saha World the ground quaked and split open. From it, countless trillions of Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas emerged simultaneously.”
I just told everyone that we all have a world in our minds. Everyone likewise has the sands of the Ganges River in their minds as well. It is a very large number. We must all be very mindful of this.
We have countless numbers of thoughts in our minds. We must put effort into understanding this. Throughout the great trichillocosm, “the ground quaked and split open. These Great Bodhisattvas were about to emerge from the ground, thus this appearance manifested”.
Throughout the great trichillocosm, the ground quaked and split open. These Great Bodhisattvas were about to emerge from the ground, thus this appearance manifested. The ground covered the retinues originally there like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic. Now He wished to open the manifest to reveal the intrinsic, so the ground split open as a manifestation of this appearance.
This is when the Buddha was about to say to those [Bodhisattvas] from other worlds, “I already have so many people, not just those you see now, there are others too. In my Saha World, in the lands of the great trichilocosm, [we are] waiting.
So, “The ground quaked and split open. It is not just those you see; people can also emerge [from the ground]. Those who can suddenly emerge are still very many. You have not seen this appearance yet. Starting when the ground split open, these Bodhisattvas will emerge. So, this is a description and an analogy. Everyone should be mindful of this.
Do you remember? What year did the 921 Earthquake occur? It was in 1999. The 921 Earthquake was a huge earthquake in central Taiwan. In that earthquake, the earth shook violently, mountains collapsed and the ground split open. We could really describe it like this. On Jiujiu Peaks, the surface of the mountain peeled off. Looking back on that on that time, it really was a very frightening event. At that time, before the crack of down, a huge earthquake occurred. Also before daybreak, volunteers in blue and white, Tzu Chi volunteers, had already arrived. There were even local Bodhisattva-volunteers whose homes had been severely [damaged] by the earthquake. Their houses were also slanted, walls tilting. At that time, they changed into their blue and white uniforms and quickly rushed out. They were not the only early ones. There were others who had arrived even earlier. They all gathered together, coming in one after another. From near and far, they arrived one after another, [these volunteers in] blue and white uniforms. Early in the morning, they began serving hot meals, hot congee and hot soy milk. This was how they emerged from the ground. Of course, that is a tangible appearance. This appearance of the ground splitting open was a very tragic disaster. I just told everyone that [in our minds], we all have a piece of sky and a piece of land. We all have this thought, an infinitely [broad] mind. Do we have thoughts of goodness? Or [do we have] thoughts of evil? When the Buddha-Dharma moves the ground of our minds, the ground of our minds should move [with it] and quake and split open.
Look at seeds, for example peanuts. In the past, I planted peanuts. After I planted the peanuts, when I went to look at them the next morning, the ground was still flat. This is because when people plant peanuts they must stomp them down with their foot to compact and flatten the soil. The next morning, I looked and it was still level. The following morning, when I went to look. It split open two days [after planting], and when I checked again the next morning the sprouts of the peanuts had begun to emerge. This is how it is with the earth. After we sow the seeds in the earth, when the seeds are starting to sprout, the earth must split open for the sprout to emerge. When seeds of goodness are planted in the ground of our minds, for the seeds of goodness to sprout, the ground of our minds must split open. Only when the ground splits open will the sprout emerge. We are constantly sowing seeds in the ground of our minds. Are our seeds evil? [Seeds] of anger and ignorance, such bad temper splits the ground of our mind open. So, when we sow the seeds of evil, these seeds of evil will sprout, and we will have a long string of afflictions. When we sow seeds of goodness, the ground must also split open for the sprout to emerge. Seeds of goodness, seeds of Bodhi, will then sprout.
So, our seeds of goodness are also buried in the ground of our minds. So, “The ground covered the retinues originally there”. We must form aspirations before we can transform people. The principle is the same. When we continuously have good thoughts, naturally, when we see people, we speak good words to them. If their minds are confused, we use the Dharma to exhort them. These are the people who have affinities with us. They are all people we need to transform. So, “The ground covered the retinues originally there”. Every one of us has a retinue, people waiting for us to transform them. So, “The ground covered the retinues originally there like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic”. We have talked about external principles and listened to the Dharma coming from the outside. In this way, the Buddha told us about His many appearances in the world, these “manifestations,” the footprints from His travels, so we would know about them. We all understand that this is where the Buddha-Dharma came from, from the Buddha forming His aspiration and manifesting His appearances of engaging in spiritual practice and attaining enlightenment. We know about this. This is “the manifest”. For the Buddha, these manifestations served to reveal “the intrinsic”. We also have this intrinsic [nature]. It is our awakened nature. The Buddha’s awakened nature has already matured. His seeds of goodness have broken out of the ground to become a great Bodhi tree. Our seeds of goodness are still covered underground. So, when we listen to the Dharma, a seed of goodness will sprout. Once we inspire goodness in our hearts and let our hearts be open and understanding, once we understand, this Bodhi-sprout comes out. This is our nature of True Suchness; our awakened nature begins to emerge. So, [it is] “like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic”. We already know about “the manifest” [It covers] what we innately have. It “concealed the intrinsic,” what was always there. The Buddha has His enlightened nature; He is already enlightened. He has manifested its appearance, but we have not.
So, our [Bodhi seed] is still underground. So, “like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic” refers to how everyone’s Buddha-nature, our awakened nature, is concealed. “Now He wished to open the manifest to reveal the intrinsic.” Now, He had now already opened up the manifest. In the last 14 chapters, [He taught] the Dharma that He needed to talk about, His manifested appearances in the world and so on, His past, present and future lifetimes. He taught us all this Dharma with analogies. Starting from now, He wanted to “open up the manifest to reveal the intrinsic”. Now He opened up the methods used in the past to reveal everyone’s intrinsic nature. The Buddha wanted to help everyone understand. His original nature, His innate enlightenment. So, “The ground split open as a manifestation of this appearance.” This is the analogy that was used. Just now, I used the physical ground as an analogy.
But in fact, we should return to the ground of our minds. Hopefully, for the seeds of goodness buried in the ground of our minds, that we listen to the Dharma like this will facilitate our conditions. This way, these seeds will be able to sprout in the ground of our minds. In this way, we hope to “open the manifest to reveal the intrinsic”.
So, “As the Buddha said this, throughout the lands of the great trichiliocosm of the Saha World, the ground quaked and split open. Thus, “As Sakyamuni Tathagata said this, when these words were spoken, the spiritual powers of the Buddha moved the world, and the ground split and cracked”.
This shows that when the Buddha was teaching the Dharma, Bodhisattvas in the Saha World were very touched. The ground of their minds opened; their minds became open and understanding. So, [what about] “the great trichiliocosm”?
The great trichiliocosm: 1000 small chiliocosms are known as one medium chiliocosm. 1000 medium chiliocosms are known as one great chikiocosm. Trichiliocosm: This represents all phenomena and is also an analogy for an infinite amount.
1000 small chiliocosms form a medium chiliocosm. 1000 medium chiliocosms form a great chikiocosm. Just planet Earth alone is already very big. In fact, there is not just this planet. To explain the chiliocosm takes a very long time. Now we know that 1000 small chiliocosms form a medium chiliocosm. 1000 medium chiliocosms form a great chikiocosm. Three factors of thousand [worlds] are simply called “a trichiliocosm”. In a more simple analogy, the trichiliocosm represents the Dharma, many, many teachings. This incalculable Dharma is compared to a trichiliocosm. If we explain it [in detail], it would be endless; there are so many worlds. So, there are so many, like the sands of the Ganges River. It is incalculable. Let us think about how “the ground split open. The ground covered the retinues originally there below like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic”.
The ground split open: The ground covered the retinues originally there below like how the manifest concealed the intrinsic. Now He wished to open the manifest to reveal the intrinsic, so the ground split open to show that the path of all sages would be revealed and spread. To benefit all beings, He must use both compassion and wisdom.
This is to tell us again that we must understand; we must all be very clear. The seeds that are buried in the ground are also our nature of True Suchness. We have layer upon layer of afflictions and ignorance that cover us up. So, that the ground split open means that our hearts are open and understanding. Furthermore, we know that “the ground splitting open” represents how it is the time for the path of all sages to be revealed and spread. In the past, ignorance kept it trapped inside just like how the ground had always buried [the seed]. Now that the ground had split open, [the sprouts] should be emerging. This is like a seed. The genes in the seed are covered up by the hull. Now the ground has quaked and split open, and the seed is in the ground. With soil and moisture, the hull is about to split open. The ground has also split open, so the sprout emerged. It is the same thing. People are like sages that are concealed, crouching underground. Now this path should be paved. When the direction is right, we can pave the path; [the path] can be spread and revealed. We should reveal the path of these sages. “To benefit all living beings” is [the mindset] we should have.
So, “From it, countless trillions of Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas emerged simultaneously.” Because of this, when [the path] is spread, it is just like how many, many Bodhisattvas emerged from the ground. So, “From the empty space below, those Bodhisattvas, upon hearing the Buddha’s words, came forth from there.” Those people in the Saha World had already heard it from below. Countless trillions of Bodhisattvas were touched. “People from other worlds are touched; their hearts are open and understanding. So, how can we not understand this? Those in other worlds are all willing to receive the teachings of our Buddha and spread them in the Saha World.”
“They are all willing to endure. So, how can we just sit around waiting?” Thus, at this time, [people in the Saha world] also formed aspirations. So, “From it, countless trillions of Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas emerged simultaneously.” Everyone had already formed aspirations.
Dear Bodhisattvas, we truly must form aspirations. This world is a world that must be endured; there is much to be endured. We must endure suffering and hard work to be able to go among people and use it as our spiritual training ground. We truly must begin to reveal our intrinsic [nature], “open the manifest to reveal the intrinsic.” In the past we were like this, covered by ignorance. We have heard so much Dharma. We must believe in our nature of True Suchness. This is the time for us to see our intrinsic nature. So, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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