Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Jing Si Is Like Wondrous Lotus, Pure and Clear 靜思清澄妙蓮華
Date: March. 25, 2013
Time flies, it passes very quickly, so I often tell everyone that we need to seize every minute and second. Now we will discuss teachings from the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is a Mahayana text. During the Buddha’s lifetime, He had to spend seven years explaining it. Moreover, one sentence from the Buddha can encompass principles of all things in the world. For us ordinary people to explain even one of His sentences may take a very long time. So we need to seize the moment and absorb the Dharma-essence of the Lotus Sutra so everyone can realize the spirit of it at taught by the Buddha.
The Jing Si Dharma-lineage is a path of diligent practice. The Tzu Chi School of Buddhism is the road of working with others. What is the spirit imbued in the Jing Si Dharma-lineage? “Jing Si is like the wondrous lotus, pure and clear.”(靜思清澄妙蓮華) The Jing Si Abode is our place of practice. We start by “cultivating the essence of sincerity, integrity, faith, and steadfastness; a practicing kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity.” First we purity our minds by cultivating “sincerity, integrity, faith steadfastness.” Purify to what state? Until they are tranquil and clear. And we do not just practice in solitude to benefit ourselves; we do much more than that.
In 1966, we established the Buddhist Tzu Chi Merit Association, because we hoped to bring the Buddha’s spirit into the world. Though we want to transform and save sentient beings, there are so many sentient beings, with so many different types of suffering. Not only do humans all suffer in different ways right now, we have to consider the future, the far-off future. Because in future generations, human minds and their environments will continuously change. So the Dharma that the Buddha expounded more than 2000 years ago was devised for that era and for all future eras to come. In this boundless universe, foreseeing the changes of human behavior and the increased suffering the future would bring the Buddha first started by proclaiming His original intent. Starting with the Avatamsaka [Sutras](華嚴), He started His spiritual understanding with everyone. But ordinary people could never truly understand. Even heavenly beings do not understand, how could ordinary people? Thus, the Buddha then decided to expound the Dharma that sentient beings can understand, the Agama [Sutras](阿含). The Buddha started teaching the Agama [Sutras] so everyone could understand karmic retribution.
The Buddha spent a long time expounding the Agama Sutras. But did all sentient beings understand completely? It did not happen that easily. But time waits for no one, so the Buddha transitioned into “Vaipulya[Sutras](方等) to slowly guide those with higher capabilities to realize that life is impermanent. After they learned that life is impermanent, [the Buddha] then transitioned into “Prajna” (般若). He opened everyone's door to wisdom and freed their minds from materialistic obstacles and emotional attachments. All passions, cravings, or desires, need to be completely eliminated. Thus, the principles found in the Prajna[ Sutras] can help free our minds from the attachments of passions, cravings, and material goods. But does this lead to a state of true emptiness? No. Because to be truly free from attachments, we need to fully understand the law of karma. Starting from the Avatamsaka, the pure, undefiled, tranquil, and clear state of the Buddha has been difficult for sentient beings to grasp right away.
In the state of Avatamsaka, the Dharma is broad and boundless. How is it possible for unenlightened beings to embrace such a broad, boundless, tranquil and clear state? It is not possible. We need to first understand the law of karma. But as sentient beings, we will continue to be attached to things like creating merits. We have learned about karma and karmic causes. Sentient beings suffer because they have created karmic causes. That is why they suffer painful effects. We know that everyone suffers, but we do not know from which karmic cause. As we experience suffering, we seek to prevent disasters and difficulties. So we seek to create merits to prevent disasters and difficulties. Is this really possible? To put an end to disasters and eliminate suffering, we must return to the source and understand how we have attracted so much suffering.
So if people only learn the Prajna [teachings], some will become attached to emptiness, and thus they will deny the law of cause and effect. This is wrong. The Buddha quickly said that in this emptiness, there is wondrous existence. Wondrous existence is a karmic seed. So, the Lotus Sutra is called the perfect teaching. It is not attached to existence nor emptiness. In emptiness there is wondrous existence. Therefore, our minds need to return to that state of being tranquil and clear. So we must calmly self-reflect, quietly reflect on why our spiritual state has become so complicated. Just one saying from the Buddha can help us thoroughly understand why our daily living is still filled with afflictions and obstructions. Thus, in our spiritual practice, we must enter the perfect, wondrous state of true emptiness, which is complete tranquility and clarity.
This is by no means easy. The Buddha then used the Lotus flower as a metaphor. We are in the Evil World of Five Turbidities, so in this perfect teaching of true emptiness and wondrous existence, what metaphor did He use? A lotus flower. A lotus flower grows out of mud but is undefiled. Because the current era we live in is one of the Evil World of Five Turbidities, in learning Buddhism, we must be like lotuses, which remain undefiled in the turbid environment. This is what we need to practice.
Although the Buddha told us that we intrinsically possess the same pure nature as all Buddha, since Beginningless Time we have lived through life after life of cyclic existence in the Six Realms. Throughout these continuous cycles, we have continuously formed habitual tendencies. Thus, we were all born with those afflictions and habitual tendencies. Therefore in this world, even if we say we want to practice, and we make a vow, develop and aspiration, our habitual tendencies still have not left us whether we are lay or monastic practitioners.
So the Buddha told us that we need to thoroughly eliminate the turbidity in our minds. Starting from the time of the Buddha, up till now and into the future, for lifetime after lifetime, we have continuously transmigrated in the Six Realms and have developed more and more habitual tendencies. What should we do? We now know that maybe in the past, we did not have the opportunity to hear the Buddha-Dharma. Even once we have learned about it, we have not eliminated our habitual tendencies, and we are still defiled by the turbid world. So we have a lot of habitual tendencies.
Now we have the karmic affinity to be in the same community for spiritual practice. This place is called Jing Si, and the state we all aspire to reach is that of tranquility and clarity. At our Jing Si training ground, we need to pass down our Dharma-lineage. Though we live in the Evil World of 5 Turbidities, we still need to be like the lotus flower that rises out of the mud. This means that our minds should not be defiled by the state of the Evil World of Five Turbidities. Now we know that we have intrinsic habitual tendencies, we can no longer wait. How much more time is there for us to enter the perfect teaching? So starting from now, in our daily living and lifestyle, we need to seize the moment to eliminate our remaining habitual tendencies.
Right now, “Jing Si is like the lotus flower, pure and clear. Tzu Chi is the Bodhisattva-path in the world”. We do not practice to benefit ourselves. We need to invite everyone, far and wide, to join us, so that one more person can walk from this turbid world through the Tzu Chi door to develop kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. The Bodhisattva-Dharma taught by the Buddha showed us that to enter the Bodhisattva-path, we need kindness, compassion, joy, equanimity. We develop our innate sincerity, integrity, faith, steadfastness; practice kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. This is the Bodhisattva-path.
In our spiritual practice, we also need to walk the Bodhisattva-path. Besides eliminating our own habitual tendencies, we also have the aspiration to benefit everyone. The current world population has increased a lot compared to the Buddha’s time. During the time of the Buddha, there were a little over 200 million people. Now there are nearly 7 billion. Just think about the effect of breathing; what happens when nearly 7 billion people exhale? Think of how that affects the climate and the air. Moreover, human desires are endless. The industrial world continues to advance the pursuit of our desires.
In this kind of world, think about the polluted land, polluted air, and polluted minds. This is very serious. So we must develop great aspirations and work among all people. We need to widely transform sentient beings so they can all understand that the Buddha came to this world to let everyone encounter Buddha-Dharma and learn these teachings. Therefore we must work among people and walk the Bodhisattva-path.
Everyone “Jing Si is the path of diligent practice. Tzu Chi is the road of working with people.” This is the common direction of everyone here. This is our common goal. With this thought, we need to constantly be self-vigilant. Our minds should always remain in a pure and clear state like a wondrous lotus and we must also walk on the Bodhisattva-path with others.
Everyone, I hope you are Bodhisattvas-practitioners who work among all people. We must create a straight and broad Bodhisattva-path for others, which is also a great Bodhi-path. We all have this responsibility. We need to take upon ourselves. We hope that lay practitioners may extensively invite people in and help them all recognize this.
The Lotus Sutra is very lengthy but we need to adapt it to modern times, modern places, and modern interpersonal relationships. Compare the world population of 200 million people more than 2000 years ago to today’s almost 7 billion people; the levels of complications are exponentially different. But if more people can learn about the wondrous Lotus Sutra, everyone’s minds may remain. Undefiled in the Evil World of Five Turbidities. If this can happen, I believe that this world, society, and people’s minds can definitely be purified. Purifying human minds is the best way to put an end to disasters. So fellow Bodhisattvas, we must have no disputes with the world at large, and no discord over any matters, and definitely no conflicts with other people. We need to follow these principles and walk the Bodhisattva-path. Starting today, we must renew our vows to eliminate our discursive thoughts and tendencies. Remember, our minds need to be pure and clear like the lotus and we must walk the Bodhisattva-path in this world. This is what we mean by following the Jing Si path and the Tzu Chi road. This aims to pave the way for the Lotus Sutra, for us to learn how to penetrate the essence of the Lotus Sutra. Everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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