Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Eight Princes (八王子)
Date: September. 04, 2013
Are we taking good care of our minds? The fundamental duty of spiritual practitioners is to take good care of the mind every day.
With meditative, tranquil and silent minds, they remain constantly in the state of Samadhi. Peaceful, undisturbed, and unattached without contrivance of desires, they are free from all delusions and discursive thoughts.
Can we experience this state of mind every day? This is what we call spiritual practice, which is different from secular living. Secular people live in a society of complications. Spiritual practitioners live in tranquility and within a monastery. Though those in monasteries interact more with society today, the spiritual training ground of their minds will always remain very quiet and pure. Right Knowledge, Right Views and Right Mindfulness constitute Samadhi. Our minds must constantly have Right Views and Understanding, and thus our lives can be very peaceful and undisturbed. We must live in true purity and simplicity and without contrivance or desires. A state of non-contrivance is the most natural state. So, if we can live in accord with nature every day have no mental contrivances and do not take issue with others, just live naturally delusion and discursive thoughts will not arise. This is what we call spiritual practice. Previously I talked about the eight princes. These eight princes all have the word “intention” in their names. These eight intentions are produced from one entity, the “mind-king”. This mind-king can inherently connect with and generate all things. Everything is created by the mind. When an ignorant thought stirs, the mind connects with various conditions. If we become awakened, we can turn evil conditions into good ones.
So, the mind-king guides our Eight Consciousnesses. If we do not violate the precepts, we can then become awakened and return to our intrinsic nature. We can be “without contrivance or desire” and “free from all delusions or discursive thoughts”. Then our minds can always be pure, peaceful and undefiled. We have discussed the “consciousnesses” before, starting with the eye, nose, and tongue, and stopped at the fourth prince, Precious-Intention. We said that the food we need enters our mouths and [connects with] our tongue-consciousness. The mouth and tongue can create karma, but they can also speak infinite Dharma.They can create conflicts, but can also spread the Buddha’s teachings.This depends on how we use our Six Roots [to connect with] the Six Dusts.So, we have to pay close attention.
The fifth prince is called Increasing-Intention.This is the body-consciousness, the feelings of the body when it comes in contact with something.This leads to increases or decreases.An increase in desire brings suffering.
A decrease in afflictions brings joy.“Increase” refers to an increase in desire.“Decrease” refers to a decrease in all the of these disruptive a afflictions of desire.Then we naturally attain a state of non-contrivance, a natural kind of joy, the joys of Nirvana.This is a state of non-arising and non-ceasing, tranquil and pure, This all depends on how our body makes contact.Our body connects with external conditions to feel.
In this [state of] increases or decreases, among the sights and sounds of the world, our body is tempted to take action.Our forbearers say that our greatest liability is this physical body because the body gives rise to feelings upon contact.How else is karma created?It is created through actions.
No matter what our minds see in our external conditions, no mater how our minds are moved by what we see, as long as our bodies do not act, no karma will be created.So, we must use precepts to discipline our bodies.“When the body-consciousness feels upon contact,” when the body experiences feelings, “it leads to increases or decreases”.
Do you want to increase the karmic force of afflictions?Or create blessings and eliminate karma?To create blessings and eliminate karma, we must destroy our ignorance and afflictions.An increase in karma is directed by the mind.The body then begins to contrive and act, increasing the suffering.So, the sufferings in the world come about because we have this body.So, we must use good of our body as vehicle for spiritual practices.
We hear and absorb the Dharma every day.“The Dharma, the sutra, is the Path; the Path is a road to be followed.”Hearing the teachings helps us see the Path.
Now that we can see the road, we must physically practice the Dharma.
“When the body-consciousness feels upon contact,” eyes, ears, nose, and tongue connect to external conditions.Forms, sounds, smells, tastes and touch are the sense objects that our consciousnesses discriminate in the world.Have we turned consciousness into wisdom?Have we aroused our wisdom?So, this is called “turning consciousness into wisdom”.
The names of the eight princes who became monastics all include the word “intention”.
This implies that when we encounter external conditions, we can intentionally transform our root-consciousnesses.The eye has eye-consciousness.The ear has ear-consciousness.The tongue has tongue-consciousness.The nose has nose-consciousness.The body has body-consciousness.
As ordinary people, we rely on our five roots and five consciousnesses to connect with the five sense objects.The feelings of the body are easily triggered when the body-consciousness comes in contact [with sense objects], then it acts to create good or bad karma.To create good karma, we turn the consciousness the five roots and sense objects into wisdom.When we exercise both compassion and wisdom we use our bodies to do good deeds and use our wisdom to discern worldly phenomena.
To create good karma, we turn the consciousness of the five roots and sense objects into wisdom. When we exercise both compassion and wisdom, we use our bodies to do good deeds and use our wisdom to discern worldly phenomena. So, “in this era, we must know right from wrong”.
If we use consciousness to connect with external conditions, naturally we will be influenced by it, which is “wrong”. Then often we end up doing the wrong things. If we can turn consciousness into awakened wisdom, we can inspire the body to do good deeds. So, when the body's consciousness feels upon contact, this lead to increase or decreases. “Increase” means an increase in afflictions and negative affinities. “Decrease” means elimination of attachments to the external conditions so we can be peaceful and at ease. Then we have attained joy from non-contrivance, and we will feel peaceful and at ease. This is a very natural, tranquil and pure state.So, this is the “body”.
Then, “the sixth was named Resolving-Doubts-Intention, the seventh, Resounding-Intention, and the eight, Dharma- Intention”
We will explain them next. The sixth was named Resolving-Doubts-Intention;
the sixth prince was Resolving-Doubts-Intention. This refers to mind=consciousness and how it understands the Dharma and eliminates doubts to achieve understanding.
The mind-consciousness knows the Dharma. We have already turned consciousness into wisdom, so a mind-consciousness with wisdom thoroughly knows and understands the Dharma. It knows that all the suffering of the world comes from accumulating causes of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance and doubt, followed by repeatedly acting on these countless afflictions. We already know this, so we can eliminate doubts.We can clearly analyze what is wrong. Then we can eliminate doubts and afflictions, resolve questions about principles and matters. We are inseparable from people and matters. We have to deal with people every day. In our space and environment, in addition to being with ourselves, we will certainly be with other people. We need to constantly feel respect toward other people.
In the Lotus Sutra, isn't Never Slighting Bodhisattva always respectful to others? So, we never dare to slight anyone. By doing so, we create good connections. Because everyone is a future Buddha, we have to be respectful to other people.When we are all of the same mind, everything we do is good. So when we are in harmony with others, our actions will be harmonious. Naturally, we will be in harmony with principles, people matters and principles are in harmony. If we doubt someone, do we feel good about that person? If we still have questions about them, how can we respect them? So, we have to resolve our questions about people. However, we must differentiate right from wrong. This is called wisdom.
Some people are hard to change; they still have habitual tendencies. Even though we know what people say may be untrustworthy, because of our wisdom, against them we harbor no resentment, no hatred and no enmity. We accommodate them, but we must know what work they are suitable for based on their habitual tendencies and transform them by working alongside them.We can get along with them happily and find a way to change them gradually.when we engage in spiritual practice each of us have various capabilities and various habitual tendencies.We cannot discriminate against or feel aversion toward anyone. We need to transform those we work with or engage in spiritual practice with. We have to develop an expansive mind through our practice and remember to be accommodation. We have to transform them and not reject them. This is very important. So, Resolving-Doubts-Intention means to live every moment in harmony with people, matters and principles by first resolving our questions.Once those doubts are eliminated, we can perfect many things so, this is Resolving-Doubts-Intention.
The seventh was named Resonating-Intention. Seventh consciousness responds to the “self”, ignorance and the four states by constantly reviewing and then connecting to the eighth consciousness. This self-reflection is like an echo following a sound.
The seventh was named Resounding-Intention. The seventh consciousness responds to the “self”, ignorance and the four states. The “self” refers to our view of self, that everything is about us, a very arrogant way of thinking. We always see ourselves as the important one, as the center. It is truly taxing if we think this way.
All these self-centered thoughts will easily lead to ignorance, which will continue to grow. Because we do not know any better, we think we are really great. So, we must have a deep desire to make an effort to engage in spiritual practice and to respect the heavens, love the earth, accumulate good connections and eliminate delusions, etc. when we have not yet awakened, we have delusional thoughts.We have not realized that we are not in control of our minds, which always goes through the four states of arising, abiding, changing and ceasing. After we aspire to do good and make the great vow, those thoughts quickly go through the four states, and we continuously advance, then regress on this path. This is the great ignorance of spiritual practitioners.
When this doubt and ignorance are in our hearts, we are subject to the four states of the mind as thoughts increase and decrease, go through arising, abiding, changing and ceasing.So, this is how the seventh consciousness responds. We need to mindfully contemplate how our minds function and “constantly review and then connect to the eighth consciousness.” There are six consciousness in the beginning, and the seventh consciousness is in middle. It thinks about how to do things. In short, it thinks and drives the body to act.This kind of thinking and doing reflects the shift between the four states of the mind. This is the seventh consciousness.
It may not think carefully, but if we can turn consciousness into wisdom, it will “constantly review, continually examine and assess what is right and wrong. So, we need [the seventh] consciousness to differential right from wrong. Everyone, we must mindfully take external phenomena into our minds and examine them with the seventh consciousness. We must be very mindful!
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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