Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: One Who Is Diligent Quickly Attains Buddhahood (精進者得早成佛)
Date: October. 02, 2013
Every day, as time keeps passing, we must constantly protect our minds. Our thoughts must constantly protect our inner spiritual training ground. We must not allow our minds to wander; instead we must be singlemindedly focused. The Dharma-assembly for the Sutra of Infinite Meanings was very grand. Other than bhiksus and Bodhisattvas, there were also kings, ministers and the citizens of entire countries. They shared a common resolve to pursue the Dharma and true principles of the Mahayana. The Buddha had been giving teachings for over 40 years. In the 42nd year, He completely changed course. Before, He patiently taught with skillful means, but now He set these aside for True Dharma. Before, He taught in accordance with sentient beings’ capabilities, but now He freely carried out His original intent. As I mentioned previously, these bhiksus and Arhats had all attained the mental state of true liberation. Among them was Great Magnificent Bodhisattva, a representative of the assembly, who was, of course, a great Bodhisattva. [He] saw how they had all become quiet, with their minds focused on one resolve, to seek the true principles. This was the mindset they had. So, it appeared that the time had come. Therefore, [Great Magnificent Bodhisattva] led all 80,000 Bodhisattvas to rise. When he saw their minds were focused enough, he asked for teachings.
[He] rose up from his seat and approached the Buddha with all 80,000 Bodhisattvas-Mahasattvas in the assembly. They bowed, with their heads at His feet, and circumambulated the Buddha hundreds and thousands of times. They scattered heavenly flowers, burned heavenly incense and presented the Buddha with heavenly robes, heavenly garlands and heavenly treasures of priceless value, which came twirling down from the sky.
This is from the Sutra of Infinite Meanings. Naturally they followed the right etiquette, so they “bowed, with their heads at His feet.” There was one Buddha and more than 80,000 people, as well as bhiksus. How could they all bow to His feet? In their hearts, they prostrated with their whole body. This signified the respect and admiration in their hearts. They visualized the Buddha in front of them, put their head and hands, then their full body to the ground, and then touched their hands to His feet. This was a form of visualization. So, they “bowed, with their heads at His feet.” This is a very sincere way to pay respect. Then they “circumambulated the Buddha hundreds and thousand of times” and “scattered heavenly flowers”. After bowing at His feet, they were very joyful. Then they circumambulated the Buddha. It seems like they all passed in front of Him. This is called “circumambulating the Buddha”.
Whether we are reverently prostrating or circumambulating the Buddha according to the rules and the teachings, we are turning the Dharma-wheel.This shows our respect.Respect is an offering.
What do we do to make an offering of respect?We scatter heavenly flowers and burn [incense].Because that place in India was in the middle of the wilderness, there were lots of trees and grasses.There were also many mosquitoes and insects.Perhaps because of this, they burned and scattered things to repel those mosquitoes and insects.Those things also emitted a very fragrant, grassy scent.This was a way to cleanse the Dharma-assembly and allow fragrance to disperse.The “heavenly flowers” created a very pleasant atmosphere in this spiritual training ground.
At the assembly, they “burned heavenly incense” and presented the Buddha with “heavenly robes, heavenly garlands, treasures of priceless value, which came twirling down from the sky”.It was like this; when they all looked up, all the offerings came down from the sky.
Perhaps this expresses that.“Offerings come from the six desire heavens.Flowers fall randomly and ubiquitously.”
Reverence does not only come from this world.Heavenly beings from the six heavens of the desire realm also made offerings out of joy, respect and sincerity.This describes the magnificence of the assembly.Bhiksus, Bodhisattvas, humans, heavenly beings all waited at the assembly with such sincerity for the moment when the Buddha would expound His teachings.This was such a wondrous assembly.
In truth, our internal spiritual training ground is the same.We also look forward to coming in contact with the Buddha-Dharma which one of His teachings will touch and move our hearts and be practiced for the rest of our lives?With the Buddha in our hearts and the Dharma in our actions, we can practice [His teachings] for a lifetime.This is what we all look forward to in our hearts.
At this time, the Buddha saw the opportunity, that it was the time for Him to expound the true Dharma, which was what He originally intended to teach.So, the Sutra of Infinite Meanings described people’s mental state at this time, their sincerity as they were about to come in contact with the Dharma.
From the Lotus Sutra, I already mentioned the passage, “The last to become a Buddha was named burning Lamp.Among the 800 disciples was one named Seeker of Fame, who was greedily attached to offerings of wealth.”Although he read and recited many sutras, he did not comprehend them.”
We should know that there are 20,000 Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas.They shared the same name and surname.Thus, we can see how all Buddhas’ spirit and principles were passed down continually.
These 20,000 (Buddhas) also came in a sequence.One was the first of the 20,000 and one was the last.During this process, the diligent attained Buddhahood first.They were the first, second and so on, depending on their diligence.
So, “one who is diligent quickly attains Buddhahood, one who is lazy eventually becomes a Buddha, but is delayed by many kalpas”.
The diligent ones attained Buddhahood quicker.The lazier ones were slower.Actually, this is telling us that we all inherently have Buddha-nature.If we can be more diligent, we can more quickly realize the Buddha within. I often say that Buddha-nature is in all of us. If we can discover our intrinsic Buddha-nature earlier we are clearing our minds and seeing our true nature. Our unelightened minds lack clarity. The mirror in our mind is blurry. Therefore we must work hard. We must wash away our inner defilements, greed, anger, delusion, arrogance and doubt. All these impurities and afflictions must be completely swept out of our minds. This is called clearing our minds. With clear minds, we can see our true nature and the Buddha can enter our hearts.
I often say that we need to take the Buddha's mind as our own. Indeed, the Buddha-mind is our intrinsic Buddha-nature. If our intrinsic Buddha-nature emerges, the true principles of all things will be in our minds and in our lives. So, by being diligent we can attain Buddhahood quickly.
If we are diligent and can quickly eliminate ignorance and afflictions from our minds, we will truly become liberated. What if we become lazy? Well, we can still attain Buddhahood someday. Because we have intrinsic Buddha-nature, that day absolutely will come, but it will come much later. So, “One who is lazy eventually becomes a Buddha, but is delayed by many kalpas”. A “kalpa” is very long time, so [Buddhahood] will come slower. How much slower? If we are counting in “kalpas,” we are talking about a very long [time]. We must quickly remind ourselves to be vigilant, to eliminate ignorance from our minds. Then we can attain a clear mind and see our true nature more quickly. Then we can truly become liberated.
In the time of Sun-Moon-Lamp Radiant Buddhas, when the last of the 20,000 attained Buddhahood. His children also became monastics.As this was happening, He transmitted the Dharma to Wondrous Light Bodhisattva, who had 800 disciples. His disciples included the eight princes. This shows the Dharma-lineage being passed down. Among these 800 disciples, there were also lazy ones. The lazy ones will still attain Buddhahood in the future. So, among these earlier and later Buddhas, among these 800 disciples, there were also lazy ones. Actually, among these 800 disciples, that lazy one is now Maitreya Bodhisattva, the initiator at the Lotus Dharma-assembly. Was Maitreya Bodhisattva really lazy?
Actually, he and Sakyamuni Bodhisattva both lived in the time of Amoghasiddhi Buddha. At that time, Amoghasiddhi Buddha bestowed predictions for these Bodhisattvas to become Buddhas. He assessed them and [felt that] although Maitreya Bodhisattva was replete with wisdom, he had not yet created enough affinities with sentient beings. So, although he was wise, that did not mean he was very diligent. True diligence involves interacting with people and creating good affinities with them. In addition to wisdom, he also needed blessings. Blessings come from good affinities with sentient beings.
So, [Maitreya] had to spend a long period of time on creating good affinities with sentient beings. He did this for a very long time, so after Sakyamuni Buddha became a Buddha, He then bestowed a prediction upon him to become the future Buddha of this world.
“The 800 disciples.” The lazy ones who will become future Buddhas were among the 800 disciples mentioned earlier. Here it clearly states that Maitreya was one of the 800.
In the time of Wondrous Light Bodhisattva, he was a disciple named Seeker of Fame. This name represented his character, which craved recognition and wealth. If we desire recognition and wealth, we will have many afflictions. We have one, but lack nine because, although we have things, we still feel like we lack a little something more. This [craving for] fame and wealth is constantly on our minds. So we are “driven by the seeking of fame and wealth.” Our minds are bound and restricted fame and wealth. Because we crave recognition and are attached to wealth, though we should give away many things, we are reluctant to let them go. This happens because of greed.So, fame and wealth driver our minds, so we “become districted and lose [our] will if we are still greedy, we will not be able to make the resolve and will become distracted and lose our will. Our minds will still be ensnarled in the desire for wealth.So, Seeker of Fame Bodhisattva had this problem.
The Seeker of Fame is one driven by the seeking of fame and wealth; thus He is distracted and loses his resolve.
So, Seeker of Fame craved offerings of wealth.We may seek fame because we crave offerings of wealth. We want these offerings of wealth. Respect from others is also something we want. We want all kinds of things. This is craving offerings of wealth. Even if we become a monastic, we may still crave offering from people. This can also be very exhausting.
To truly eliminate afflictions and ignorance is also very difficult. Transcending the mundane is already difficult, thus transcending afflictions is even more so. Although we are monastics, if we crave fame and offerings of wealth, we have not yet transcended the mundane if we still seek pleasures, this is very exhausting.
One who seek fame and craves offerings of wealth cannot comprehend the meanings in sutras. Then one may be called Seeker of Fame.
So if we crave offerings of wealth, we will not be able to “comprehend the meanings in sutras”. Every day, our minds are calculating what we are gaining or losing. How can we get more people to make offerings?If our mindset wanders, it will be very difficult to refocus. Then how can we understand people, matters and principles in the world? All we think about is flattering people to get more and more. If we do not think about how we can give, then how will we understand people, matters and principles?
If we cannot even clearly understand people, matters and principles, we will not understand that the status is the Way. We will not clearly understand the principles in sutras. Although we can recite the words easily, we do not understand their meaning.
Fellow Bodhisattvas, if we crave recognition and offerings of wealth, we will not comprehend the meanings of sutras.So, if we have this kind of habitual tendency, we must eliminate it as soon as possible. Then we can clear our minds and return to our true nature. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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