Lecturer: Master Zheng-Yan
Subject: Repay the Four Kinds of Grace (上報四重恩)
We cannot live without feeling gratitude. Think about it. From the moment we were born, we have been constantly receiving nourishment and life-supporting necessities, so that we have had everything we need in life. Moreover, there have been many people who have protected, guided, and taught us. We have so much to be grateful for. Shouldn’t we be grateful to our parents, teachers, and sentient beings for their grace?
As we are spiritual practitioners, we should be grateful for growing up safely and having this opportunity to listen to Buddha-Dharma. As we listen to Buddha’s teachings, we can realize so many truths！ We can comprehend the truths of the universe, we can realize the wonders of life, how material things undergo formation, continuation, decay, annihilation, how thoughts arise, abide, change, and cease, how humans go through birth, aging, illness, and death. These principle allow us to understand that we should be grateful to Buddha and the 3 Treasures.
The core responsibility of a Buddhist practitioner is to repay these Four Kinds of Grace: the Grace of Parents, the Grace of Teachers, the Grace of Sentient Beings, the Grace of the Three Treasures.
The Buddha did not live in this world for one lifetime, but for infinite, Asankya Kalpas.
For an infinite period of time, life after life He has returned to the Saha World. This Saha world is Sakyamuni Buddha’s land of transformation, the place where He taught.
So the Buddha has never left us. That is why, to this day, we can still learn His teachings. Next we will talk about how we must repay the Buddha’s grace.
“Throughout countless past Kalpas, the Buddha has given away heads, eyes, marrow, brains, hands, feet, kingdoms, wives, and material possessions. For us and all living beings, He cultivated all ascetic practices.”
This passage should make everything clear. This is shown in the Agama and Jataka Sutras which speak of the Buddha’s previous lives. We can see that while He was engaged in spiritual cultivation countless Kalpas age, He gave away everything, be it His kingdom, His wife, or His material possessions. In the Sutras, there are many tales of His practice of giving. He even cultivated ascetic practices. To teach and guide sentient beings and help them achieve enlightenment, the Buddha continuously gave Himself to this world. Therefore, we should express our gratitude.
Buddha’s grace and virtues are hard to repay. Thus the Sutras state: Were we to carry Him on heads or shoulders for countless Kalpas, we still could not repay Him. “Buddha’s grace and virtue are hard to repay.” How can we repay Him? In the Sutra of Profound Gratitude to Parents, we see, “Even if the flesh of our shoulders was worn away (from carrying our parents) we still couldn’t fully repay our parents’ grace.”
We cannot even adequately repay our parents of one lifetime, let alone the Buddha’s grace. The Buddha nurtured our Wisdom-life. We do not know how many lifetimes we have lived at the same time as the Buddha. The Buddha has never left the Saha world. He has continually manifested human form like ours and lived like us so that. He could educate and guide us life after life. We are simply unaware of this. He did all this solely to nurture our Wisdom-life. For countless lifetimes, He has been the mother of our Wisdom-life. How can we repay the Buddha? Such grace and Virtues are difficult to repay.
Thus the Sutra says, “Were we to carry Him on our heads or shoulders for countless Kalpas, we still could not repay Him.”
It is like repaying our parents grace. It will “take countless Kalpas, a very long time, to repay them, even if we carried them our whole life till our shoulders wore away, we still couldn’t repay them. So the passage states, “We who wish to repay the Buddha’s grace must dedicate ourselves with vigor & diligence, labor, endure suffering, give ourselves fully to establish the Three Treasures in the world and spread the teachings of the Great Vehicle. Transform sentient beings so that we may all attain enlightenment.
Fellow practitioners, after reading this passage, we know how we can repay the Buddha’s grace. Beginning right now, in this moment, we must practice with vigor and diligence. We must never be lax. If we are lazy, we will damage our Wisdom-life. Our Wisdom-life, like our physical life, needs to be nurtures our bodies constantly undergo metabolism and deteriorate with the passing of time. So we must work very hard to maintain the balance in our bodies. We need a harmonious, healthy body to truly lead a happy and blessed life.
We must always remember that the same applies to our Wisdom-life. Our Wisdom-life also requires us to be active. Nowadays, you may have heard of a saying, “To continue to live, you must be active.” Indeed, to stay alive we must constantly move. If we simply eat refuse to active, we will not be healthy. That is not a healthy way to live. People nowadays are less active, so I encourage you all to move around and exercise first thing in the morning. Even if you do not do any physical labor, you still need to get some exercise so that your body can remain healthy. Our Wisdom-life is even more precious. Once our wisdom-life is awakened, it will remain so evermore.
Whether we are old or young, poor or rich, noble or lowly, our Wisdom-life will last forever. It will always be lively, endearing and bright. If will not go through birth, aging, illness, and death because it is ever-abiding. Wisdom-life has no beginning or end. It will not change or deteriorate with age. When our Wisdom-life develops, it will not suffer from illness. Thus, it is vibrant, ever-abiding and unchanging. Unlike our physical body, which will age, our Wisdom-life is actually ever-abiding. So we must be grateful to have this Wisdom-life.
It is awakened by the Buddha. Because of the Grace of the Three Treasures, Buddha’s teachings have always been passed down. Thus in this lifetime, we can still encounter Dharma and be inspired to practice. So we must work hard in this lifetime. Perhaps we were diligent in a previous life, so in this lifetime we can encounter Buddha’s teachings and resolve to practice. We may have been diligent in a past life. But, as the Buddha said, spiritual practice is not the work of one lifetime. It takes countless Kalpas. So we must quickly work hard to manifest the Buddha-land in this world.
As we have said before, we want to “realize the pure Buddha-land,” Our future Buddha-land awaits the ripening of proper karmic conditions, as does our attainment of Buddhahood. So we must seize this opportunity to practice. We practiced diligently in a past life, perhaps for many lifetimes, and we have encountered Buddhism again in this life, so we must seize this opportunity to be vigorous and diligent in our practice. No matter how painstaking the process is, we must “labor and endure suffering” and persevere. We must continue no matter how difficult it is.
Seize this lifetime to be diligent and vigorous, to labor and endure suffering. When we awaken Wisdom-life and attain enlightenment, we are repaying the Buddha’s Grace.
We often say, “serve willingly.” Who does not experience hardship in this world? Even if we are not doing anything strenuous, on a hot day, simply standing, sitting, or walking around is tiring. But if we dare not go outside because of the heat, we will always be in the same place. We will never make any progress. If we feel that just moving a little and sweating is unbearable, and we choose not to do the work, the unfinished work will still be there. Similarly, if we have afflictions within us and do not work to eliminate them, how can we walk among others? How can we make a contribution to the community? If we are afraid of hard work, we will never be able to create good karma affinities.
If we stay inside because of the heat, if we do not walk this path, we will never reach our destination. Thus if we do not put in the effort, we cannot establish good affinities with others. We have many afflictions and doubts. If we do not deal with them because we are afraid of hard work, then these unresolved afflictions will accumulate and pile up. Like unfinished work, that pile will grow. We must know this and be diligent, we must also labor and endure suffering. The Saha world is a place difficult to endure. If we cannot bear it, we will find it hard to be a good person, let alone a Buddha. So we must train ourselves to cope with is taxing. This is called laboring and enduring suffering.
Every time I see the elderly recycling volunteers on the Da Ai TV program “Grassroots Bodhi,” this verse surfaces in my mind, “laboring and enduring suffering.” Look at those elderly Bodhisattvas. They have already lived through a life of hardship and worked on behalf of their family and children. Now they are old and no longer fit and healthy. When they walk they are bent over with age. Yet they answer my appeal to care for and protect our planet, by collecting and sorting recyclables. To cherish natural resources and to help with Tzu Chi’s Four Missions, they turn trash into gold and then donate that money. The accumulation of their efforts contributes to the success of Tzu Chi Four Missions. Isn’t this to labor and endure suffering?
Some of them are well-off and have filial children and grandchildren. They can enjoy a comfortable life at home, watch TV, turn on the air conditioning, and enjoy the devotion of their family. But they are reluctant to waste their time. They make good use of their lives and work diligently and vigorously. Thought collecting recyclables is tiring work, they patiently labor and endure suffering. So, we “labor, endure suffering, give ourselves fully to establish the Three Treasures in the world and spread the teachings of the Great Vehicle. Transform sentient beings so that we may all attain enlightenment.”
Fellow practitioners, we need to labor and endure suffering. Only then can we truly and fully devote ourselves. If we are unwilling to give ourselves completely, then we definitely cannot attain enlightenment. So we must give everything. Do not hold back and be unwilling to work hard. How can we practice like that? So we must devote ourselves unstintingly to “establish the Three Treasures in the world.” With the collected energy of everyone’s practice, we are promoting the Three Treasures and “spreading Mahayana teachings and transforming all beings so we are all enlightened.”
Everyone, repaying grace is very important. Without gratitude, we will not realize how our Wisdom-life awakens. Then we will be unable to utilize it to achieve the mission of the Three Treasures. Even if we take up the Buddha’s mission for countless Kalpas, we will still be unable to repay His grace. Realizing a pure Buddha-land is our task, and so is attaining Buddhahood. If we can follow and uphold the Buddha’s teachings, that counts as repaying the Grace of the Three Treasures & Buddha. So everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV 靜思晨語 法譬如水)
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