Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Five Periods of Teachings Based on Capabilities (五時設教應根機)
Date: March. 28, 2013
諸佛世尊
出現於世
唯為一大事因緣
開示悟入
一切眾生佛知佛見
“All Buddhas, the World Honored Ones, appeared in the world for one great cause: to help all sentient beings realize and enter the Buddha’s wisdom and view.”
This is the cause of the Buddha appearing in this world. Let us think about why the Buddha came to the human realm. From the sutras, we can learn that the Buddha has been enlightened since Beginningless Time. Beginningless Time is the limitless past. He has been Buddha since Beginningless Time, so why would He descend once again from Tusita Heaven into that earthly palace? This shows us that before becoming a Buddha, we each have to go through this spiritual training ground, which is the world of Bodhisattvas. Due to everything He saw and experienced in the human realm, including humans’ states of being, He decided to become a monk, to study, and to thoroughly understand the principles of the human realm to teach them to sentient beings. Did He need to study them? He had already attained Buddhahood. He already had a clear enlightened nature. This is another one of His manifested forms. If we want to become enlightened, we must go through this type of cleansing. After experiencing the delusions of the material world, we must then work hard and attain realizations. This passage teaches all of us that if we walk the same path as the Buddha, we can have the same spiritual state and also attain enlightenment. This is how the Buddha leads by example. He does not only use words to teach; rather, He teaches by example. So this is the great cause for which he came to the human realm.
How could He teach sentient beings? He must demonstrate that His life and their lives are no different, no matter the time period, no matter how people think, no matter how complex the mind. He must accommodate each time period so as to break through the contradictions of that era. So, this why He comes. That type of contradiction is actually passed from generation to generation in the human realm. During the time of the Buddha, people were divided into four castes. Do these no longer exist? Today we still have divisions in class and wealth. There are the unresolved afflictions that prevent the mind from being liberated. So the Buddha manifests Himself according to the sentient beings and afflictions of the time. His methods were to “open, reveal, realize, enter”. The doors to sentient beings’ hearts are closed and their minds are darkened, so clear, bright wisdom cannot penetrate them. In each of our minds, there is Buddha-nature. That is why He first “opens”; the Buddha wants to open the door to our minds so we can all recognize that we each have an intrinsic Buddha-nature. Then we can realize the principles of the world and enter the Buddha’s spiritual state.
So, the Buddha “opens and reveals”, and sentient beings “realize and enter.” This refers to all sentient beings. Every shingle one of us has Buddha-nature. We are deluded so we do not realize or know it. The Buddha wants to help people realize that “all sentient beings possess the Buddha's wisdom and view,” that everyone inherently has such wisdom and view, they just do not realize or know it.
蓋此知見
眾生等有
迷不自知
故淪落生死
Such wisdom and views are possessed by all sentient beings. But they are lost ant unaware, and thus fall into cyclic existence.
Such wisdom and views are what the Buddha wants to open and reveal so we can realize and enter them, so we know that his is common to all sentient beings. “Sentient beings” does not only refer to humans. Any being that is alive, no matter its size, shape, or form, as long as it is alive, it has Buddha-nature. All sentient beings have Buddha-nature. Don't often say, “All beings, no matter how small, have Buddha-nature,” even ants, mosquitoes, bees. I have also said that in one life, the Buddha appeared in the form of a queen bee. Even in that form, He possessed Buddha-nature. Whether ant or insect, what being does not have it? So, as long as a creature has awareness, it knows, “This is pain. I need to quickly flee for my life. There is a human disturbing me. This is a bad for me. I need to run away!”
Look at an ant hill. Thousands of ants live inside it, but if you disturb it just a little, the ants disperse in all directions. They also know to run for their lives, just like people. As soon as there is unrest in a country, there will be a wave of refugees because they also want to flee immediately. Even the smallest animals are just like humans. They are living beings, just like us. So sentient beings, humans and other beings, are all living creatures, and all have a nature equal to that of the Buddha. However, sentient beings are born into different physical realms based on their karma and according to their circumstantial retribution. Humans are more blessed than other beings. Therefore we must uphold precepts and create blessings. Because we have slightly more blessed retributions than other living beings, we were reborn as humans. No matter how painful things are, as long as we are in the human realm we will have a chance to repent, a chance to repay the debts we owe, a chance to see the human realm's good and evil. Those with limited capabilities and poor causes and conditions will be influenced and tempted by evil. If they practice doing small good deeds, and have a small amount of merits, a benefactor will naturally appear. So even after a lifetime of wrongdoings and evil, they may still meet a benefactor and experience blessed conditions. Naturally, no matter the circumstance, because of this karmic connection, they can be guided onto the right path.
At Tzu Chi, don't we often hear of cases in which a person who has done a lot of evil in the past had to first experience a period of hardship to before eventually encountering the good cause and conditions that brought him here? These conditions allowed him to transform his heart and behavior, and guided him toward blessings and doing good deeds. So to attain enlightenment, we need to be in the human realm. In this world, there is good and evil, blessed and negative retributions. Negative retribution is pain and suffering, such suffering is unbearably painful and continues lifetime after lifetime. To be reborn as a human does not mean that we will necessarily have the chance to repent. Without the right conditions and opportunity, we will continue to do evil. Then accordingly to circumstantial retribution, we may be reborn as other living beings. If a person has a tiny bit of goodness, he has a chance to be reborn as a human and may attain deliverance.
Therefore, we sentient beings all have Buddha-nature, but we are deluded and do not know it. Because we are all lost, we do not know this. We have already heard the Dharma. We know and believe that everyone as Buddha-nature, including ourselves, including every person we encounter. We know that that everyone has Buddha-nature. But despite this knowledge, we still have not rid ourselves of habitual tendencies. Each of us know we have Buddha-nature, but we have not eliminated our habitual tendencies.
When we listen to the teachings, we understand the principles. But people “are lost and unaware”. Not only do they not have faith in others, they also slander them. So, because they do this, they “fall into cyclic existence”. Where does this transmigration take place? Is it only transmigration through human lives? Not necessarily. In this world, people must repay evil karma, evil affinities. To repay them in this world, they return to this world and have to suffer much pain and torment. They may even have to face other types of circumstantial retribution. Falling into cyclic existence is being immersed in the Six Realms, where the suffering is unbearable.
This was the cause that led the Buddha to His realizations and resolve to attain Buddhahood. He became enlightened among humankind by manifesting a form in this world. His Buddha-nature is intrinsic and has existed since Beginningless Time, but the Buddha manifested among humans to show that
佛於因中悟此
發願成佛
普示眾生
The Buddha realized this cause and He resolved to attain Buddhahood, to reveal all teachings to sentient beings.
The cause is that multitudes of sentient beings are deluded by suffering and remain unenlightened. So the Buddha continues to return to this world to teach us how to become awakened, and how to transform other sentient beings after we are awakened. It’s said, “He resolved to attain Buddhahood to reveal all teachings to sentient beings” (發願成佛，普示眾生). The Buddha manifests in this world to teach sentient beings with many kinds of methods. Because sentient beings have limited capabilities, the Buddha established Five Periods of Teachings. In those periods, there is the provisional and the real. The provisional refers to skillful means. The real refers to the ultimate truth, the true Dharma of Buddha’s original spirit. The Buddha always expounds the same Dharma, but sentient beings encounter the Dharma with varying capabilities. Thus, it is called, the “Five Periods Based on Ability” (五時施教).
故今五時設教
雖言有權實
顯有遲速
原其本意
唯為此一大事因緣也
He established the Five Periods of teachings.
Though He spoke of the provisional and the real, manifested the slow and the quick methods, His original intent has always been to reveal the Dharma to sentient beings.
There are “Five Periods Based on Ability”. When the Buddha began expounding the Dharma, He taught the real teachings, the Avatamasaka(華嚴). The Avatamsaka teachings were expounded for only 21 days because they were only understood by Bodhisattvas with superior abilities and six spiritual powers. Heavenly beings, humans, etc., did not understand. Therefore he spent 21 days to transform those with superior capabilities and wisdom, the Bodhisattvas who already had clear and superior capabilities and wisdom. But because He saw that sentient beings could not understand this, after 21 days, He began to expound the Agama teachings (阿含經). He expounded the Agama teachings for 12 years. And after that, He expounded the Vaipulya(方等) for eight years, and afterward, the Prajna teachings(般若) for 22 years, following them with the Lotus teachings (法華). He spent eight years on the Lotus Sutra. These are the Five Periods of Teachings (五時設教).
Indeed, we sentient beings are incapable of comprehending His kindness and compassion and His great effort to teach each level and establish the different kinds of teachings. He did this out of kindness and compassion. In conclusion, though we are all human, the same Dharma expounded by the Buddha may be understood quickly by some people. Not only do they resonate with the Buddha’s heart and His original intentions, they can also put His Dharma into practice. This process happens quickly, very fast, showing their very high capability. After they believe in them, they can put the teachings into action. Some have average capabilities. They believe but their habitual tendencies are hard to eliminate. Consider disciples such as Sariputra(舍利佛); though he knew what the Buddha said was good, he was worried that sentient beings were too stubborn and obstinate so he had not dare approach them. He focused only on his own self-enlightenment. If a being of inferior capability hears the Buddha’s teaching and gives rise to doubts, he may wonder, “Is that right or wrong?” Not only does he have doubts in his hearts, he has no trust or faith. When doubt exists, there is no faith. In addition, he will commit evil deeds. This is how one with low capability behaves. Sometimes he will fluctuate. He has already encountered the Buddha-Dharma, but he is still unstable and fluctuates between belief and doubt. A person like this has inferior capabilities, a dull, limited aptitude.
The Buddha says that because sentient beings have superior, average, and inferior capabilities, the Buddha had to use Five Periods of Teachings; so it was very taxing to come to this world for the sake of this great cause. The Buddha expounds teachings for sentient beings to realize. But because they are lost, He has choice but to use both “skillful”(方便) and “true”(實) means, the Small and Great Vehicles, adapting to sentient beings’ varying capabilities, from superior to average to inferior. So, this was His one great cause. Let us all hope that we all have high capabilities. Or, we should at least strive to be average. Otherwise, if our capabilities are any lower, we may fluctuate for a very long time. Do we really have time to wait in this life? The human realm is impermanent, fast-changing, so let us not be people of inferior capabilities. I hope we can be like Never-Slighting Bodhisattva(常不輕菩薩), have wisdom and become awakened, protect our intrinsic nature and respect others. If we can do this, this process will be faster. Everyone, please always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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