Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Twofold Truths (真俗二諦)
Date: May. 10, 2013
Day after day, hour after hour, with each passing moment, we draw closer to death. All of us need to cherish [our time]. The Buddha kept reminding us that the afflictions in each of our minds are countless and endless. Have these subtle afflictions been eliminated? Only we ourselves would know. The Buddha taught many methods for us to eliminate afflictions. In the beginning, we need to practice the Three Flawless Studies, which are discipline, Samadhi and wisdom. Since we aspire to learn the Buddha’s teachings, there are specific precepts for the laity and specific precepts for monastic. If every one of us can fulfill our duties and observe the precepts, naturally the mind will regular itself. Lay people observe everyday familial ethics, the mores of the society, etc. By following these rules, they will naturally fulfill their duties as lay practitioners. For those of us who are monastics and live in the monastery, we [attend to] or Four Demeanors. We pay attention to how we interact with people and how we walk, stand, sit, sleep, etc. Are we truly using a pure mindset to deal with interpersonal conflicts and challenges? When we face these conditions, are we able to be self-disciplined and cultivate our minds? What do we need to cultivate? We need to cultivate virtue and self-discipline. Other people cannot see into our minds, only we can. Afflictions are very subtle. That is why we talk about the 84,000 types of afflictions and defilements.
There are many sources of afflictions and karma, so we must begin [our spiritual practice]. First, make haste and practice the Three Studies, precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. When we do so, naturally we can destroy the delusions of views and thinking. As I have often mentioned, when the Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, many people attended the Dharma-assembly. In the beginning, many people’s names were listed. There were 12,000 bhiksus and great Arhats. That many! Of course, many Bodhisattvas were also mentioned later. This part refers just to Arhats and bhiksus who have attained Arhatship.
These people “had exhausted all Leaks and had no further afflictions. Having attained benefits for themselves, they had severed all bonds of existence; their minds have attained a state of freedom.”
These few short phrases have already taught us that, whether we are monastics, bhiksus or Arhats, we must practice the Three Flawless Studies to destroy the delusions of views and thinking. These delusions of views and thinking [include] many subtle afflictions.
We must eliminate them.
Sometimes we make aspirations and eliminate some afflictions, but we quickly lose [that resolve] again.Then we also lose a bit of our wisdom-life.We call precepts, Samadhi and wisdom the Three Flawless Studies.If we practice them, naturally we can eliminate all afflictions and stabilize our wisdom-life so that it will continuously grow.Thus, we begin by making great aspirations.
By practicing the Three Studies, we destroy delusions of views and thinking.When our wisdom-life stabilizes, we can start by making great aspirations.
These past few days, I have been telling you repeatedly that we must make great aspirations.
At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, the Buddha started speaking of turning from Hinayana to Mahayana.He encouraged them all by saying, “You have eliminated all Leaks and even attained benefits for yourselves.”He first praised them.Then He said, “You can shoulder the Tathagata’s mission.”He meant that they need to make further progress.So, we need to turn from Hinayana to Mahayana.To grow our wisdom-life, we must make great aspirations.After we eliminate the afflictions in our minds, we then begin to cultivate virtues.Because we have practiced and attained [virtues], we can then lead the assembly with our virtuous appearance and behavior.Therefore, virtue also originates from the practice of the Three Flawless Studies.If our minds are free and at ease, we can further hone our minds by the power of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.We can also cultivate and perfect our virtues.If our minds are not free and at ease, our cultivation of virtues will not be complete.Only when we have reached a state of complete freedom ad ease can we be complete in our cultivation of virtues.
If our cultivation of virtues is complete, we can freely enter and exit [all circumstances].Spiritual practice is not about cutting off all our connections to others and focusing only on ourselves.Everyone, when we come in contact with external conditions, will our afflictions surface again?We are not to ignore other people and think, “I will just focus on my own practice.”
“Interacting with others gives rise to many afflictions.”“Since I do not want to deal with all that, I will not pay attention to those matters.”“This way, I focus on my own practice.”
We think we have “attained a state of freedom”.This is not so.
When we are among and interacting with people, our minds must be free and at ease.When we are in a very pure place, our minds must also be still.If we can remain free and at ease whether we are among or interacting with others, our state of minds has reached a state of tranquility and clarity.Cultivating virtues guides our minds into stillness and tranquility.Whatever our surroundings are, they will not affect our minds.This is being able to freely enter and exit, a power of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom.
For the mind to attain a state of freedom, use the powers of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom to practice and advance.After one’s cultivation of virtue is complete, one can freely enter and exit.With the power of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom one can attain a state of freedom.
To be able to enter and exit freely, we must understand the Two Truths.With Absolute Truth, we can transcend the world.We must have the world-transcending spirit of noble beings.Absolute Truth is the nature of reality, the meaning contained in true principles.This is Absolute Truth.
It is also the reality perceived by noble beings.It is a spirit of transcending the world and having no attachments to worldly matters.
But thought we are not attached to worldly matters, we still need to have great kindness, compassion and empathy for sentient beings. This is the determination of a hero of the world. So we have to also understand Worldly Truth, which helps us engage in worldly matters.We have to interact with people. If we do not understand worldly ways, how can we teach according to conditions and capabilities? So, we have to understand both truths, not only what the noble beings have realized but also the workings of the world.There are the Two Truths, Absolute Truth and worldly Truth.
The Two Truths are absolute and worldly. First is Absolute Truth. It is the nature of reality, the reality perceived by noble beings. They have complete understanding so they have no bonds or fetters. Their minds have attained liberation. With the power of wisdom, they attained freedom.
Second is Worldly Truth. It is the workings of the world, the reality known by ordinary people.
To engage in worldly matters, we go among others. Absolute Truth liberates us, even when we are among people. We enter world with a spirit of transcending the world; this is what we mean by great aspirations. First we must cultivate our minds, then we can interact with other people and have “complete understanding so we have o bonds or fetters and our minds attain liberation.” When we thoroughly understand Absolute Truth and Worldly Truth, then our minds will no longer be bound. If we can be mindful of the Two Truths, “With the power of wisdom, we attain freedom.”
With the power of precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, our minds will become very firm and free. That is what we all have to work on “The True suchness of all things is intrinsic.”
I often say the nature of every person has the same True Suchness as the Buddha’s. but an ignorant thought arose in our minds, so when we encounter external conditions, our minds continuously produce afflictions. This led to the over 80,000 subtle afflictions we have now.
Think about how tiring this is! We all intrinsically have the Tathagata-nature; we were originally free. But we also have Leaks and bonds. Leaks are afflictions. Bonds are attachments. These afflictions and attachments bind and cover our minds.
Now if we can truly understand this, we have eliminated our Leaks and Bonds. In truth, we were all originally pure, but we have allowed external phenomena to pollute our minds. Otherwise, we would completely manifest our original state in our daily living. Truth has never left our minds nor has it left our immediate surroundings. But we have been obscured, covered and entangled by afflictions, Leaks and Bounds. That is why we cannot attain freedom and ease. The people I speak of now were monastics who traveled with the Buddha. Wherever the Buddha went, they were there. They constantly listened to the Buddha’s teachings so they should “have eliminated all Leaks, have no further afflictions. Having attained benefits for themselves, they had severed all bonds of existence, their minds have attained a state of freedom. How many people purified their minds? 12,000 in all. There were 12,000 bhiksus and Arhats present. we know this from the earlier text.
The True Suchness of all things is intrinsic. Once Leaks and bounds were eliminated, this intrinsic state was completely manifested by all, from Ajnata Kaundiya to “all Great Arhats such as these, whom the assembly knew recognized.
Staring with Ajnata Kaundinya, we can continue reciting a list of names. When we are reciting the Lotus Sutra, we will recite the names of many bhiksus and Arhats. Actually, these are just a few examples of the better known people. These people were all among the 12,000 bhiksus. They were known by almost everyone because they all had special talents and had long been by the Buddha’s side. So, there were many “Great Arhats such as these, whom the assembly knew and recognized. A few of them were raised as an example. Each had his own talents, and as we said earlier, each “had eliminated all Leaks” until “hid mind had attained a state of freedom,” this showed that all these people had already realized the fruit of Arhit.
It did not necessarily mean all 12,000 people had eliminated all Leaks. That might not have been the case. But the ones listed in the Sutra had all purified their minds. The number proved that this many people were at the assembly. This is like asking people to sign in at a meeting so we know whether so-and-so attended. This accomplished the same purpose and showed that these people had all attended the assembly.
Therefore, all these people were those who could realize. What they could realize was the teachings of the Buddha. They had absorbed it all. “I have realized this Dharma. I know it. I understand it. I have participated in this assembly.” Therefore, the realize and the teachings became one. This was why many people’s names were listened.
Earlier I spoke of teachings to be realized. Now these were the people who realized them. Know that these noble beings were replete with all virtues and practices, each with his hidden abilities and specialty. The bhiksus and Hearers listed here were well-known for their virtues. These are the names of the leading disciples.
12,000 people were present. There were too many to list each of their names. So, it was simplified and 21names were listed, each with his specially and each with one of his strengths.For instance, Sariputra was foremost in wisdom. Maudgalyayana was foremost in spiritual powers. Ananda was able to remember all of the Dharma the Buddha had spoken to every individual; so he was foremost in hearing the Dharma, called foremost among those who heard much. In this way, each Hearer was listed as an example 21 bhiksus were named, and they were all leading disciples.
Everyone, we must understand that the most important thing in learning the Buddha’s teaching is to take the Dharma to heart. Only then can we manifest virtue and work with others. Both of the Two Truth, whether the principles of transcending the world or entering the world, have to be understood. We must be earnest in learning the Buddha-Dharma. The Three Flawless Studies are very crucial for us practitioners. Once we can practice precepts, Samadhi and wisdom we can destroy the delusions of views and thinking. Then we can stabilize our wisdom-life and make great aspirations. Then we can fulfill our vows. So when we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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