Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Lotus Sutra Preface(3) 法華經序(三)
Date: March. 20, 2013
千里之路始於初步
方向對錯毫釐之差
發一念心立一弘願
認真戒慎虔誠守志
A journey of 1000 miles begins with on step.
A slight discrepancy makes the difference between going in the right or wrong direction.
Form an aspiration, make a great vow.
Commit to maintaining discipline, reverently maintain resolve.
Everyone, if every day we hold these words in our hearts, we will not go astray in our daily living; our direction will not be mistaken. “A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.” If we want to walk a journey of 1000 miles, we must take the first step. If we only hear about the world that exists 1000 miles away rather than going there on our own, it will be impossible to experience that world. No matter how much you listen, the first-hand experience will still be absent. This is like not carefully listening to the Dharma and being unwilling to make an effort. The real wonders of the Dharma are quite profound, yet we do not fully understand them. Real Buddhist practitioners must surely begin with the first step. So it is said, “A journey of 1000 miles begins with one step.” Spiritual cultivation is practicing the Path, and the Path is a road to be walked on. So, we must take the first step on this road, and moreover we must seize each moment. Taking the first step requires orienting ourselves accurately. When we are solving a trigonometric equation, if we start drawing with even with a slight bit of deviation, then the x and y axes will be askew. Whether or not our direction is correct varies by just a tiny fraction. What starts as a slight deviation will grow exponentially over a long distance. After 1000 miles, the difference grows 1000-fold. So the first step is very important, as is the direction.
Developing aspirations and making great vows is the start. If we do not take the first step and refuse to walk, we will always be standing at the starting point. We just need to point our first step in the right direction and not stray from it. We start by developing aspirations and making great vows with commitment. Life is short, lasting only some decades. I have often cautioned everyone that one day in the Four Heavens of the Four Deva-kings (四天王天) equals 50 years in the Human Realm, and one day in the Trayastrimsa Heaven (忉利天) equals 100 years here. A lifetime of a few decades is very short, so no matter what we would like to do, once we are pointed in the right direction we must be committed. Do not say, “It’s not possible today; it’ll have to be tomorrow! It’s not in the plans for this year, it will happen next year. I’m still young, and now is the time for earning money, volunteering is a waste of time. I’ll wait until I’m retired.” This exemplifies a lack of commitment, a lack of recognizing the impermanence of life, a lack of recognizing that we should seize every moment to do good. Once an opportunity is missed it will not be offered again. Each lifetime happens only one time.
Saying “one time” refers to each person’s one-time journey. What is “one time?” In them time of Ancient Greece, there was a philosopher, Socrates(蘇格拉底). This philosopher had many students. One time, a group of students went to seek advice from their teacher, hoping for guidance. How can a teacher, help his students comprehend true principles? So one day, Socrates told his students, “Come, I will help you to understand through experience. He took them to an orchard and said to these students, “Start from the entrance of the orchard and walk all the way to the end. From within the orchard, carefully choose the most beautiful fruit, the best fruit, the one that is your favorite, and pick it. You can only choose one fruit. You have one chance only, you cannot walk back”.
These students then began to walk into the fruit-filled orchard. Which was the most beautiful, the best fruit? From the entrance, the students walked all the way to the end, where they saw their teacher standing. The teacher asked, “So have each of you picked the most beautiful, the best fruit?” One of the students said, “My teacher, please give me another chance.” Socrates then said, “No. There are no more chances. Why is it that you did not pick a single fruit?” The student said, “As soon as I entered, I saw a beautiful, big fruit. But, I thought that farther inside, there must be bigger, more beautiful, better fruit. I was afraid that if I picked the first, it would not be as good as another later on. Since I could only pick one fruit, I decided not to pick that one.” Some students then said, “Yes, exactly. Can't you give us another chance?” Socrates said, “No more chances. We only have once chance to live this life. We only live through our youth once. Our life at 20 years old is something we will only experience once. We can never go back.”
The principle is the same. People say, “If I had known it would come to this, I would have acted differently.” So we must live earnestly. If we do not seize the opportunity to do good now, we will have no way to carry it through. Just look at the history of Tzu Chi. Although it has been 40-plus years, if it had not been for that first thought, which we seized without deviating in direction, who knows whether Tzu Chi would exist today, 40 years later? If, on the 8th day of the 2nd lunar month, before daybreak, Sakyamuni Buddha had not formed that aspiration, if He had not taken action to leave home and the secular world to become a monk, where would Buddhism be, 2000 years later? So, “A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” We must walk, no matter how far or for how long. But our direction must be correct. Let us develop aspirations and make great vows and be committed to them. We cannot say, “If I cannot do it today, I will do it tomorrow. This is a life lacking in commitment.
We must not only be committed, but also very vigilant. When we believe in and study Buddha's teachings, upholding the precepts is very important. In the practice of precepts, Samadhi, wisdom, just think, without precepts, how could there be Samadhi? Without precepts and Samadhi, developing wisdom is impossible developing wisdom is impossible. We must live according to the rules so that we can establish a state of Samadhi, commit to maintaining discipline, and be reverent. Reverence I a state of mind. Where we can maintain resolve. “Abide by your resolve, follow the Way, and your Path will be wide.”
Haven’t I shared that with everyone before? So, if we can truly uphold our mission and make great vows, without any deviation, we can take the first step and walk diligently. If we can do this, be diligent, avoid going astray, have great vows, and uphold our mission, isn’t this when we are at our most reverent? In our spiritual state, things are just that simple. We have been talking about the Lotus Sutra Dharma-assembly. It was held on Vulture Peak. Where is Vulture Peak? Actually, we have already spoken about this. We each have a pagoda on our own Vulture Peak. We can each practice at that pagoda. This tells us that we all have the Three Treasures in our nature, in our pure intrinsic nature that has not and will not grow nor disappear in the past, present, for future. It has only been shrouded by ignorance.
The mirror of our heart was originally pure and clear. Then at some unknown point in time, it was covered by dust. We have been lazy and have not carefully cleaned it daily. Look at a glass mirror. If, after a while, it has not been wiped, it will be covered by dust and become hazy. You will not be able to see through it. This is a similar concept. Therefore, we must diligently polish the mirror of our heart by wiping it regularly. So, our reverence helps ensure that the mirror of our heart is clear, that the Three Treasures of our nature will be revealed. To manifest the Three Treasures of our nature, we must maintain discipline and reverence.
In the past, when I lectured on “Dharma as Water”, I kept talking to everyone about repentance. After repenting, we must correct all our past wrongdoings and erroneous perceptions. Our habitual tendencies and direction all need to be correct. I have shared this with everyone in the past. Right now, we are beginning to walk in the right direction. This is dependent on our reverence. With reverence, we can begin to make vows. When we make vows, we must dedicate merits. Today, let us consider “dedicating merits and making vows.” Making vows requires dedicating merits. So, we must “vow to repent”. This vow encompasses what we said about being committed, vigilant, reverent, and maintaining resolve. This is our “vow”. To develop aspirations and make great vows, we must be very committed, have no other thoughts, be of one mind, one mission, and abide by our great vows. So, we must repent. Some people think that after speaking about Dharma as Water every day, now that we have finished talking about repentance it is the time to make vows. So they wonder why we are still talking about repentance. We cannot just talk about it or listen to it, we must sincerely repent.
So I constantly tell everyone, “the Sutra is a Path, the Path is a road to follow.” I have already finished lecturing on that text. You now know the course of the road. Whether or not you walk it depends on you. So, to make vows is to no longer deviate. Let us not deviate. Let us constantly be vigilant. If even the subtlest thoughts arise, though we do not act on them, as soon as these thoughts stir, we must quickly repent them. We should not have these thoughts. Even if we do not act on them, it is not right to even have them. So no matter what, we must quickly repent those thoughts that arise. We should not have them. Since we have already formed aspirations and made vows, we must repent. We should not have these thoughts. So we should “vow to repent.” Repentance should always be on our mind. Then in our daily living, we will not make mistakes.
So the passage says,
【法華經 序品第一】
志心懺悔
弟子眾等
與一切眾生
從無始以來
We vow to repent.
We disciples and all sentient beings from Beginningless Time until now.
Everyone is clear about this part. I keep telling everyone that we have to repent, and not just on our own. We must also guide others to repent with us. Hence, “we disciples.” See how each morning, when we pay respect to the Buddha, there is not just one person, but hundreds gathered in our Great Hall, in our Guan-Yin Hall. This is “we disciples.” Is this enough? It is not. In our normal, everyday living, we must endlessly recruit Living Bodhisattvas, be able to share what we have learned at any time, and guide others to “vow to repent.”
So “all sentient beings” includes ourselves. “From Beginningless Time until now” refers not only to the now, but to our unknown number of past lifetimes, up till now and on into future lifetimes. Previously I shared with everyone that the Buddha often said His spiritual practice had been going on for countless eons. Countless eons is a very long time. That is why we often say “from Beginningless Time until now.” From the past and continuously until now,
【法華經 序品第一】
迷失真心 流轉生死
六根罪障 無量無邊
圓妙佛乘 無以開解
一切所願 不得現前
[We] have lost our true nature and transmigrated through cyclic existence.
The transgressions of the Six Roots are boundless and hinder us from understanding the perfect and wondrous Buddha-vehicle.”
Every day, we recite these words. But each day, are we really taking them to heart? Have we realized, “We have lost our true nature and transmigrated through cyclic existence”? our minds were originally Buddha-minds. Why is it now we have ordinary minds, minds focused on gain and loss? Only a person with a mind focused on gain and loss would enter an orchard where the first thing he sees is a very beautiful, big fruit, yet still wonder if there might be another that is even bigger and more beautiful. This is the mindset of ordinary beings, of comparing, of focusing on gains and losses. So even though we began with a pure nature, in this way it was lost. So, if we are like this, we can walk through an entire tangerine orchard without obtaining anything.
Where did our true mature go? It “transmigrated through cyclic existence.” This cycling through life and death is due to “the transgressions of the Six Roots.” Our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body engage with the Six Dusts of our external condition. This rouses the Six Consciousnesses: Eye-, Ear-, Nose-, Tongue-consciousness, etc. The Six Roots are attracted by external conditions. This confuses our Mind-consciousness, so we make many mistakes. So the “transgressions of the Six Roots are boundless.” They are truly many and “hinder us from understanding the perfect and wondrous.
“Buddha-vehicle.” This vehicle is wonderful, but we have strayed from the Buddha’s teachings and from his directions. We are unable to really comprehend them. We often talk about working together like a perfect translucent sphere of crystal. Actually, something this perfect, a principle as harmonious as this, is often missed by us. So, we are unable to understand it. Even though every day, I sit here and talk to you all, will you all remember? Will you all understand? I do not know. You alone know the answer for yourselves. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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