Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Middle Way, the View of Ultimate Reality (中道實相 真實法輪)
Date: July.04.2019
“We must practice the Middle Way, the view of ultimate reality. This will obliterate our karma from ignorance and afflictions. Then, we will awaken to the great Bodhi of the One Vehicle. This is the extremely wondrous true Dharma-wheel.”
We must be mindful! We listen, then engage in spiritual practice. What we need to practice is the Middle Way. When it comes to the Middle Way, we often speak of the view of illusoriness, the view of emptiness and the middle view. Or we speak of the truth of illusoriness, the truth of emptiness and the truth of the Middle Way. This means we need to ask ourselves if we practice the skillful teachings of illusory existence or the true teachings. Is it the teaching of emptiness? Is it the teaching of illusoriness? We really need to understand that we should not be practicing illusoriness or emptiness. What we really need to practice is the teaching of the Middle Way.
It is true! The world is ephemeral, its existence merely temporary. No matter the thing, its appearance is always temporary. All of us are called people. We are people; there is John Smith and Jane Doe. When referring to someone, we say, “That person”. All of us are people, so how do we distinguish among one another? We reply on people having names so that we can call out to them. We look upon a person as being “real”. A certain name refers to a particular person. So, people are real, but their names are provisional. However, are people really real? At what point in time is a person the one we say he is? “John Smith is a baby! John Smith is not! He is an old man.” For someone [we know], several decades ago, we saw him as a baby, but when we look at him now, he is an old man. Over the course of these decades, is he the old person or the young one? There is time that has passed in between. Over the course of that time, a process occurs with its passing so that at one time he is young; he is a child, then middle-aged, then elderly. At each stage, he is different. So, John Smith and Jane Doe are [just] names. There is infancy, childhood, early youth, young adulthood, middle age, then old age. A person’s appearance is never fixed throughout this entire process. Since one’s appearance is never fixed, which of those appearances is ultimately John Smith? Which is Jane Doe? Their appearances are never fixed. In the end, after old age, one world still remains, and that word is “death”. Since people become old, sick and die, their names are provisional. A person makes only provisional use of their name. “I am so-and-so.” During the time [people are alive], we never know when [they are going to die]. Will they die while still in infancy? Perhaps they will die during youth? Perhaps they will die after growing old? When it comes to the time, we can never know. There will always come a time when the body reaches its limit, and then it ceases to exist. This is all a matter of worldly illusory appearances. What else is there to study while we are here? When it comes to the laws of nature, what should we study? The most important thing is how we live our lives while we are here. Do we pass our lifetime in a state of confusion? Perhaps during the course of our life, we will encounter the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha-Dharma helps us understand that, over the course of this lifetime, there is one thing that we can understand and that is that there is a path that leads to eternal life. That is “the view of ultimate reality.” Ultimate reality is the Middle Way. The Middle Way is ultimate reality. All of us are given provisional names during the time we spend in this world.
Even in ancient times, the Buddha also had a name. When He was little, He was called Siddhartha. After He had attained Buddhahood, everybody called Him the Buddha or the World-Honored One. Throughout our lifetimes, we always have a name. Furthermore, these names are provisional, for we are still subject to the law of nature. You see, the Buddha was called “the Buddha”. The Buddha had become one with the true principles of the universe. When He became enlightened during His lifetime, there was nothing in the world He did not know. He understood everything. So, when it came to wisdom-life, the Buddha grew in wisdom-life. This wisdom-life was inherent in Him from the start. So, He awakened His wisdom-life, meaning He attained Buddhahood. When He attained Buddhahood, [He realized that] our wisdom-life is non-arising and non-ceasing. This is what we would like to familiarize ourselves with, the Middle Way, ultimate reality.
If, during our lifetime, we never get to know it, nor ever put effort into being mindful in trying to understand it, then our lives will pass us by emptily. Then our lives will end. We use our provisional name, even though time is passing according to the law of nature. Whether we are in our youth or are passing through middle age, when we discover these true principles, we must quickly begin to investigate how to navigate the Middle Way and what the landscape of the Middle Way looks like. As for ultimate reality, if we can come to comprehend it, what does the state of ultimate reality look like? The Buddha was the only one who learned to comprehend it and awaken to it. It was only the Buddha who learned to walk the path of the Middle Way. He came to comprehend and awaken to the truth so that when He observed anything in this world, He could understand its true state. The Buddha wished to use these principles to teach sentient beings according to their capabilities. Only the Buddha was able to understand the ultimate reality of the Middle Way. Furthermore, what we wish to do now is to pursue the Buddha’s sprit and ideals so that the Dharma will remain in the world. This means the Dharmakaya will remain in the world. These true principles are what we wish to pursue.
The Buddha understood these principles, but how did He come to understand them? It was through spiritual practice that “He obliterated His karma from ignorance and afflictions.” Before we began to engage in spiritual practice, we were not much different from the way we are now. Because our practice had been insignificant, we never really made any great improvement. Why is this? It is because we are still ignorant; we still have afflictions. We need to obliterate our ignorance. We need to immediately rid ourselves of our ignorance. Everyone is still like this, stuck in their interpersonal conflicts; they are confused about cyclic existence and are still living under circumstances like these. So, how do we learn to obliterate ignorance? It means we need to begin putting effort into our spiritual practice. Hard work is very important. As for the people, matters and things in our daily living, ignorance is like the ocean’s waves that break one after another. When it comes to dealing with people and matters, they are apt to easily cause us afflictions, and if they do not cause us afflictions, they can easily cause us to become angry or to have cravings and attachments. Or perhaps when they disturb us, they cause us feelings of love, hate and anger that tie us up, that entangle us. This is what happens to us in our daily living. This is what is meanest by ignorance. It means even our slightest thoughts can all become colored by ignorance. We accumulate layer after layer of ignorance. Ignorance provokes afflictions in us, and as soon as that ignorance arises, letting it go is easier said than done. Because of our ignorance, we go on again to create even more ignorance. In this way, we can never obliterate it; we can never put it aside. Ignorance turns into afflictions because our shadows are still there, so our inherent nature of True Suchness has no way to manifest itself. The principles still remain very obscure. They remain covered up; they remain unclear. We cannot see things in their true [state]. There is no way for us to clearly understand the principles. This is what we mean by ignorance and what we mean by afflictions. How do we learn to obliterate ignorance? How do we eliminate our karma due to afflictions? The only way to do this is to “awaken to the great Bodhi of the One Vehicle.” The Buddha used the Middle Way. He used the Middle Way, ultimate reality. He understood this road, this path, and came to teach us how to walk it. As we begin to walk it, as unenlightened beings, we start to cultivate the path. Our improvement depends on the efforts we make. Some people have sharper capabilities; they can understand as soon as they hear something. Some have duller capabilities; they may hear something 1000 times before they change even one thing; it is hard for them. So, He wanted to teach us. With so much ignorance and so many afflictions, He had to give us so many teachings for us to cure ourselves of them. Are we using these teachings to cure ourselves of [ignorance]? If we are, then we naturally will awaken. As for curing ourselves of something, when we cure ourselves of something, then we still come to understand that thing. So, we will understand it. Beyond understanding it, we will have realizations. Beyond realizations, wisdom will arise from our realizations. When it comes to a particular thing, you may see it one way, but when I see it, I say, “That’s not how it is! There is still another principle involved here.” One of us may say, “Don’t worry about it. The other says, “This is something we must pay attention to.” Our viewpoints are different. A person who is not really awakened may say, “Oh! I already know that! That’s how it is!” while a person with great awakening says, “Oh! That is not all there is to it. Although you are generally correct, the principles we must employ here are much deeper and further afar than that. We must not be neglectful. We must pay attention.” This is awakening. “We will awaken to the One Vehicle.” We must not deviate from this path, for if we deviate even slightly, then it may take us far off course. During our process of spiritual practice, we will still encounter ignorance. We know about the true teaching of the Middle Way, but during our process of spiritual practice, we must always be on the lookout for ignorance. If we overcome ignorance and afflictions, then we can awaken to and achieve realization of the One True Vehicle Dharma.
However, even though we know the Dharma, do we know our direction? If our direction is off by even a little, then we may deviate again. This is where the difficulty lies in our spiritual practice; it lies in our inability to settle ourselves down. So, we easily deviate and end up becoming attached. If we deviate by becoming attached like this, then this can take us far off course. So, [it speaks of] “great Bodhi.” If we truly wish to realize great Bodhi, then we still have some distance to go. We hope to be able to obliterate our afflictions, obliterate our ignorance, for only by ridding ourselves of our karma of afflictions will we have a way to “awaken to the great Bodhi of the One Vehicle”. This is what we should be paying attention to. “This is the extremely wondrous true Dharma-wheel”. If we wish to turn the Dharma-wheel, then we must be certain to “awaken to the great Bodhi of the One Vehicle”. Only if we can succeed in doing this will we able to truly grasp the most subtle and wondrous Dharma. The Buddha completely rid Himself of all ordinary beings’ views on people, maters and objects, while condensing the true principles of all things in the universe [in His mind]. He wanted to be able to apply them freely, to easily teach the Dharma to sentient beings. He wanted to be able to know how to move in the direction of the principles so that He could teach the Dharma to us at will so that we could understand it. While the Buddha was able to help us very quickly understand, as unenlightened beings, are we able to quickly accept and comprehend [these truths]? This all depends on whether we ourselves are able to comprehend the extremely wondrous True Dharma. Only by comprehending it will we be able to turn the Dharma-wheel ourselves. So, that passage of the Lotus Sutra being by teaching us that we should spread the Dharma. By absorbing the sutra when we hear it, we can then try to understand it. After understanding it, we should then go on to expound the Dharma for others. We expound it for others, teach the Dharma and go on to spread it. If we can spread the Dharma, we will go on to open our hearts even further. It is not just we who are teaching the Dharma. There are also others who are teaching it and who have excellent comprehension of it, [who understand] the Great Vehicle Dharma. When we encounter such people, we should introduce and encourage others to listen to them. Anyone who explains the sutra passage by passage is someone we should rejoice for and always help to succeed by getting more people to listen to it. In this generation, there are a lot of people who say, “I can understand [the Dharma], I can teach it, and I am also able to spread [the Dharma]”. Besides myself, when everyone spreads the Dharma like this for generation after generation, that is called selflessness. When it comes to true awakening, as vast as the sky is, as vast as the universe is, our awakening and comprehension of the principles should be equally vast. This is what we mean when we say “the heart encompasses the universe”. If, in our heart, we are only concerned with ourselves, then this is no long-lasting compassion toward a world of kindness. “[Unite in] great love toward a world of kindness”. Haven’t I told you this before? Everyone needs to [unite and] accompany each other. When we have attained the Dharma, we must then transmit it to other people so that everyone can accompany one another. So, we should pave the way with great love, accompanying each other for a world of kindness with long-lasting compassion. With this great love and long-lasting compassion, the universe becomes even more open and spacious. It will not work without you, and it will not work without me, either. We can only attain enlightenment when everyone embraces the greater self. Otherwise, if we make distinctions between ourselves and others, then ignorance will continue to exist, and so will the karmic power of afflictions. So, as we engage in spiritual practice here, we should not seek to just awaken ourselves, or practice only for our own sake. The Middle Way, ultimate reality, is what we all must understand so that we can all succeed in expanding the breadth of our mind. In its expanse, the Buddha-Dharma is boundless. Awakening to its principles requires collective awakening to the great self. Only then can we “awaken to the One vehicle” and bring great and auspicious blessings to the world. For us at this time, Sakyamuni Buddha is the source of the one true principle. We all at this time beseech the Dharma from this source. Like when lighting a candle, only if everyone lights a candle does this room truly become very well-lit.
If we light one candle and keep on lighting them until the end of our lives, then how many candles will we ultimately light? We should not worry about that, for as long as we light a great many candles, then that room we are in will be very well lit. So, the source of the principles is the principle that everyone is looking for. We never need be afraid. If I teach to you the principles that I know so that you then know them, does it lessen the amount I know? Is this the way it is? It absolutely is not. So, the Dharma is something that we should spread, that we should continually spread from person to person. We have discussed this, rejoicing in others’ accomplishments. We spread the Dharma widely, in our era and down through the generations. We talked about passing the Dharma down through the generations, passing it down through 50 generations. 50 generations is a very long time. So, for what we spread widely and over a long period of time, we must make sure that it is the Middle Way. If we can understand how to awaken to ultimate reality, sweep away ignorance and become familiar with the great awakening of Bodhi, this is what is true and wondrous. We must engage in spiritual practice in order to turn the Dharma-wheel.
So, in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings, there is a passage that goes, “Good man, after six years, sitting properly in my place of practice under the Bodhi tree, I attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Then, as I observed with my Buddha-eye, I knew that not all Dharma could be proclaimed”.
What the Buddha is describing here is the period of six years that He went through before He attained Buddhahood, not counting the time when He traveled in search of answers. This was the time He spent examining His own mind, the six years when He sat beneath the Bodhi-tree while engaging in earnest contemplation. When He entered this state of contemplation, He very gradually contemplated the natural world and then awakened. During those six years He spent in nature, how did the Buddha find the way to awaken? We ourselves are still very far from understanding the state of mind that He had attained then. The state of awakening the Buddha attained then is called “Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment”. “Supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment” is the awakened state of mind attained by the Buddha, which no one else has been able surpass. So, as “the guiding teacher of the Three Realms” and “the kind father of the Four Kinds of Beings, this state is what the Buddha wanted to give to sentient beings, the true principle He wanted to teach them. So, after the Buddha attained Buddhahood, He began to see the world through. His awakened spiritual state of mind. You see, the principle that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature had become so clear to Him.
Everyone is like this; all have Buddha-nature! Why then are people so confused? They are confused and suffer so much! This suffering is due to causes and conditions. Why is it that the causes and conditions they create turn to suffering that is beyond their control? The afflictions of these sentient beings are already so severe because their ignorance is so great. “Teaching these sentient beings the Dharam that I have attained is very, very difficult”. Their afflictions and ignorance are already so numerous; they are like dust particles. Their delusions are particularly severe. This is such good Dharma, but how was He to adapt it to these sentient beings whose ignorance is just like dust particles?
So, it says, “Not all Dharma could be proclaimed”. For Him to teach it to those people all at once would have been very, very difficult indeed.
Why is this so? Because the natures and desires of sentient beings are varied. Because their natures and desires are varied, my teachings have also been varied. Expounding various teachings with the power of skillful means for more than 40 years, I did not reveal the true meaning. Therefore, sentient beings attain different truths; they do not readily attain unsurpassed Bodhi.
“Why is this so? Because the natures and desires of sentient beings are varied”. It is because those sentient beings already have so many afflictions. The principles each person wishes to pursue, their natures, the desires they pursue, indeed are all different. “Because their natures and desires are varied, my teachings have also been varied”. He “expounded various teachings with the power of skillful means”. So, the Buddha began to consider what to do. Since sentient beings’ desires are all different, He had to use all kinds of different means to suit all these different kinds of sentient beings whose pursuits are different in order to teach them.
So, He used “varied teachings”. What are these teachings called? They are called “teachings of skillful means”. He used the power of skillful means to deliver and transform sentient beings. After the Buddha became enlightened, He observed their capabilities. “What I have is so good. I have awakened to the true principles of all things in the universe, but if I were to tell them, they would not understand. So, I must devise skillful means for them”.
So, “for more than 40 years, He did not reveal the true meaning”. How many years exactly were these more than 40 years? 42 years. To help these sentient beings, with their desires thoughts and principles that they wished to pursue, [to understand], He had to teach according to their capabilities. He spent 42 years using teachings of skillful means, telling them, “Life is suffering! It is suffering. All the different kinds of sentient beings all experience suffering”.
[In 2018] we heard Faisal Hu share Mr. Hu said a group of people is now in Turkey. It is a very large group that has suffered untold hardship getting out of Syria, making a blood-soaked escape to Turkey. These people were truly suffering. He was wondering, were there any means we could use to help them in their suffering? For people in this world to help others, we cannot help everyone at the same time, or use the same method to help all of them. Some of the children wanted to study. As for just their studies, what method could we use to help those children have some stability so that they would be able to study? There are several thousand children there. As for the backgrounds of those children, some of those families had completely got out, while other families had lost several members. What were the circumstances behind this? Did they get lost while making their escape? Or were they killed? It took some a long time, and others a short time. Isn’t this suffering?
When you listened to their stories, they were all stories of suffering. They occurred in different times and under different circumstances. Different families had different kinds of suffering. This is a matter of “causation”. Moreover, the causation of this suffering is due to an underlying principle. What is this principle? That [suffering] was brought about by the greed, anger delusion, arrogance and doubt of sentient beings. When we create these, the afflictions that accumulate result in us committing even more [negative] karma. The karma created results in karmic conditions of endless grievances and mutual revenge. These are actually the principles involved. Yet, the Buddha needed more than 40 years to help those who had affinities with Him hear this [and realize]. “Oh! This is what it’s like!” They then sought to awaken themselves through spiritual practice. Since they understood that there was a path called spiritual practice, [they thought], “I want quickly make use of this path of spiritual practice”. However, they only sought to awaken themselves. Since the Buddha had helped them understand “suffering, causation, cessation and the Path” and realize they needed to engage in practice, He quickly changed His direction because there was not much time. He wanted to use the One Vehicle Dharma, the extremely wondrous One Vehicle Dharma, to help everyone know that the principles do not apply only to people as individuals, or to individual practice, but that they apply to all sentient beings together as a whole.
It is like this when we breathe. Although we breathe as individuals, the space containing the air we breathe is vast. The air we breathe does not belong to any one individual in particular, but belongs to all of us. He wanted us to know that all life is interconnected and that we all create karma together. So, as we engage in spiritual practice, we must definitely bring purity to ourselves. It is not necessary to believe a certain religion can surely resolve all these problems, but we absolutely need to adapt to sentient beings’ capabilities. in the end, it does not matter what religion we belong to; the point we have in common is that we all go among people to teach people about the love we all share. This kind of great selfless love is pure and undefiled. It is pure and undefiled since we have done away with ignorance, and when we can obliterate ignorance, we will not keep creating karma of afflictions. If we have great love, great selfless love, then we will naturally obliterate our ignorance. We naturally will no longer continue creating karma of afflictions. This is entering into the Great Vehicle Dharma. We always [need to practice] the One Vehicle. If we truly wish to be able to return to our original Tathagata-nature, then we must use the One Vehicle.
Take a look at either Faisal Hu or Chen Chiou-hwa. They are in different places, but both save people in suffering. There is no selfishness in their hearts. They are serving others, giving of themselves for those who suffer. In the terminology of local people, they were sent by Allah to do what they do there. [In their words], they are “angels,” but in ours, they are “Bodhisattvas,” meaning that they are enlightened beings. Since all of us are striving toward awakening, we have come to learn the Buddha’s teachings. So, if you think about it, their goal of saving people is the same. The great aspirations they form and their selfless great love is still the same. It is just the terminology that is different. If we clearly understand this, then we will know why Buddha did not reveal the truth for more than 40 years, and why He used skillful means. It was because people pursue their own desires, and because people themselves are all different, He had to use different teachings. So, this is why “sentient beings attain different truths”. The path each sentient beings attains is different, thus there are the Four Fruits. We have already talked about this before.
It is like the education [system] we have now. We have universities, technical colleges [etc.] which are all different. You can pursue advanced studies or perhaps technical skills. Everyone is different. So, “They do not readily attain unsurpassed Bodhi”. Each person practices in their own way, which means there is no way to understand all at once.
The Sutra of Infinite Meanings was taught before the Lotus Sutra. This means that before He taught the Lotus Sutra, He had yet to reveal the true meaning. He did not say that the Two Vehicle practitioners could attain Buddhahood. It is the Lotus Sutra’s teaching of the manifest. [When it discusses how] the Tathagata attained Buddhahood a very long time ago, this is the Lotus Sutra’s teaching of the intrinsic. This is nothing like what He taught before when. He gave provisional teachings via skillful means. In accordance with sentient beings’ capabilities, He imparted the perfect teachings all the same.
The Sutra of Infinite Meanings is like a preview sutra for the Lotus Sutra. It lets people know that the Lotus Sutra’s ultimate aim is to practice the Bodhisattva-path. So, as a preview, you will find that the Sutra of Infinite Meanings has many examples of worldly suffering and ways to go about giving of oneself to help [those in suffering]. These tangible representations are all in the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. And the principles? Those are what are contained in the Lotus Sutra. So, without actual tangible examples, we have no way to talk about the principles. What we need are actual tangible examples. To practice and teach the Bodhisattva Way, it is most important that we go among people. It is the same principle.
So, “The Sutra of Infinite Meanings was taught before the Lotus Sutra. This means that before He taught the Lotus Sutra, He had yet to reveal the true meaning”. It was before He revealed the true meaning that He taught the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. So, before, in the past, “He did not say that the Two Vehicles practitioners could attain Buddhahood. Actually, everything we talked about until the Chapter on the Practice of Bringing Peace and Joy was all considered the teaching of the manifest. The teaching of the manifest [describes His] footprints. It teaches how to pave the way and walk that path. Having walked it, we leave footprints. This is the karmic law of cause and effect. It first lets us know about this. [It discuses how] the Tathagata attained Buddhahood a long time ago. So, in the Chapter on the Tathagata’s Lifespan, it keeps on telling us that the lifespan of the Tathagata is very long. It is infinite, limitless and incalculable, lasting for asankyas of kalpas. So, when we read the sutra, if we can still it, then we should be clear that this now is “the teaching of the intrinsic. “[When discussing how] the Tathagata attained Buddhahood a long time ago, this is “the teaching of the intrinsic.” This was not the previous teachings using skillful means. This was the True Dharma. The teaching of the intrinsic is the True Dharma. It was not the previous teaching of the manifest, of skillful means. So, “In accordance with sentient beings’ capabilities, He imparted the perfect teachings all the same”. He wanted sentient beings to be able to perfect and complete their capabilities. That is the only reason why. He previously used skillful means. Later, since His time was so limited, He really had to hurry in order to completely finish [teaching] the True Dharma. He spent His last seven or eight years teaching the Lotus Sutra. This was the True Dharma. So, we should all be very mindful to comprehend what the True Dharma is.
So, from the text that was taught previously, we know that the Buddha wanted us to be able to promote the Buddha-Dharma. He even taught us that as we promote the Buddha-Dharma ourselves, we must rejoice when others are able to listen to the sutras; we must also rejoice in the merits of others. So, if we wish to know about these phenomena, we must dig up past principles and bring them to the fore. We must call upon our memory to understand even more deeply, otherwise we will forget them and they will be gone.
Let us turn to the sutra, where it preciously said, “At that time, the World-Honored One, wishing to restate His meaning, spoke in verse. ‘Suppose that people in a Dharma-assembly are able to hear this sutra. Even if all they hear is a single verse, they take joy in it and teach it to others.
This describes how we are the first to hear the sutra at the Dharma-assembly and continually pass it down until it reaches the fiftieth person. “…until it reaches the fiftieth person. As for the blessings that last person will attain, I shall now distinguish them. Suppose there is a great benefactor who provides countless sentient beings with everything they desire for a full 80 years.
We continually pass the sutra down in such a way that it never differs in the slightest, never deviating from Right Dharma. So, these [past] few days, I have kept reminding everyone, for the principles are not simply words written down on paper. What we really need to do is understand what the content of the principles is. Perhaps we memorize them. All of this is very important. If we want the text of the sutra to never deviate and the principles to remain accurate so that we listen with full retention, then we need to continually memorize them and continually reflect upon them.
The next passage goes on to say, “He watches them grow old and feeble. Their hair turns white, their faces wrinkle, their teeth grow sparse and their bodies wither. He thinks, ‘They will die before long; I must give them the teachings to help them attain the fruit of the path.”’
Let us discuss this passage again. Look at them, see how they grow old and feeble with white hair. They have already grown old and their hair is white. Their facial features have coarsened and wrinkled, and their bodies have dried up. [Their bodies] have lost vitality, so they wither as well. They are like a tree; a time will come when a tree also withers. So, their image is like that of a withered tree, and “their teeth grow sparse.” Their teeth will also fall out. This is what happens to people.
He watches them grow old and feeble. Their hair turns white, their faces wrinkle, their teeth grow sparse and their bodies wither. He thinks, “They will die before long”: He watches the people before him grow old and feeble with white hair, wrinkled faces, withered bodies and lost teeth. They are not long for this world; their time of death is soon approaching.
Our body’s form keeps incessantly changing over time, and these people, John Smith and Jane Doe, the ones we just talked about, with the passage of time, will also inevitably die in the end. As humans, this is our true appearance. Our appearance is ephemeral. What we now want is to choose the Middle Way, to make use of this time between birth and death. We want to use this time before our death as best we can. [We use] the Middle Way, the True Dharma, to make the best use of our time. So, as Buddhist practitioners, we should be very mindful. Otherwise, in the world, in time and in space, we will continue our inevitable decline. So, we need to be very mindful. [The Buddha] said, “I must give the teachings to help them attain the fruit of the path.” So, the Buddha was very active during this time. He was continually contemplating. This was because He had become old, for when the Buddha reached 80, He would enter Parinirvana. So, because He was old, He would practice “calm contemplation.” He wanted to keep on contemplating, “How can I get the Right Dharma to abide forever in the world?” “By upholding the Dharma of perfect enlightenment,” it would long abide. Everyone would be able to maintain it, preserve it and receive this perfect enlightenment. “We must cultivate ourselves and teach others.” He helped everyone cultivate the Dharma. Everyone also needed to know the importance of teaching the Dharma to others. Beyond practicing ourselves, we must teach others, spreading the teachings. This is the way that we can “help them practice and attain the path.” We can help all to practice and attain the fruit of the path.
I must give them the teachings to help them attain the fruit of the path: Through calm contemplation, [the Buddha] realized how to get Right Dharma to last forever in the world. By upholding the Dharma of perfect enlightenment, we must cultivate ourselves and teach others to help them practice and attain the path.
Everyone, we truly need to be mindful. The Dharma is in our lives. We live in time and we grow old with the passing of time. From childhood, we grow into adulthood, then into middle age and then from middle age into old age. So, we must immediately seize the moment. In the Middle Way, in the True Dharma, we should put effort at once into being mindful.
During the Buddha’s later years, He began teaching the Lotus Sutra, since He was preparing to enter Parinirvana. When He began teaching the Lotus Sutra, He was already almost 80 years old, so He needed to engage in right thinking about how He could make the Dharma abide forever in the world to the point where anyone would be able to uphold the teaching of perfect enlightenment, where anyone could recognize this Dharma. So, while cultivating ourselves, we also need to go on to teach others. To do this, we need the power of love to earnestly guard our selfless great love. So, please, we must always be mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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