Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Guide Sentient Beings to Transcend Attachments (引導眾生離諸著)
Date: December. 17. 2013
“The Tathagata compassionately teaches by freely discussing teachings of the Path. Using various causes, conditions and analogies, He extensively proclaims teachings.”
The Buddha has great compassion, so He cannot bear to see how sentient beings in the Saha World are immersed in desires and create so much karma. The collective karma of sentient beings creates many disasters in this world. The Buddha is very compassionate and cannot bear to see them so lost and confused. Therefore, He comes to this world to teach sentient beings. They are stubborn and difficult to train because of their ignorance. So, eliminating ignorance is not that easy. Thus, the Buddha compassionately uses various methods to guide and teach them.
Indeed, He used various causes and conditions and various analogies solely to help us recognize suffering and know where the causes of suffering come from. The Buddha is very mindful in helping us all understand that a single thought can give rise to countless afflictions. Certain kinds of afflictions will lead us to create certain kinds of causes and bring about certain kinds of effects. The Buddha is very meticulous and mindful. With great patience, He continuously returns to this world just to transform sentient beings.
So, He “extensively proclaims teachings.” He uses many methods to teach according to the capabilities of sentient beings. Therefore, He uses countless skillful means for only one purpose, to guide sentient beings. He tries to guide people toward achieving the same understanding, to help them know that this path before them is the correct one. This is how He provides guidance. He guides and leads us in the hopes that we sentient beings can transcend all attachments.
[They] extensively proclaim teachings. With countless skillful means, They guide living beings, enabling them to transcend all attachments.
He “enables them to transcend all attachments” because sentient beings have [many] attachments. What are they attached to? We ordinary people may crave wealth. We have attachments in our minds, in our daily living and in our surroundings. As for the people we love, we are willing to do anything for them. We may even willingly commit crimes for the sake of another person. For sentient beings, sexual desire may result in terrible things.
Ever since ancient times, countless families and nobles have been torn apart and destroyed by lust.This happened very often and was the result of attachments to sexual desires.Next is attachment to wealth, recognition, etc.These are also ordinary people’s attachments.If we have no attachments, we can engage in spiritual practice by changing our minds.By turning around our stubborn mindset, we can engage in spiritual practice.Engaging in spiritual practice does not necessarily mean becoming a monastic.It is about cultivation our minds and refining our character.If we can all eliminate our attachments and change our ways to take good care of our minds, we can focus on maintaining our morals and refining our character.“Human nature is inherently good,” so we all have the potential to cultivate our minds and refine our character.And then we can take “action,” meaning we will engage in proper behavior.
If we act properly, we will do the things we are supposed to do.
If it is the right thing, just do it.Being able to do the right thing is to have wisdom.
So, this is a practice we can all engage in as long as we eliminate attachments.
Our attachments can really ruin our lives and reputations, destroy families and bring chaos to society.They also lead us to create strong collective karma by polluting the air and damaging the earth.These are all caused by sentient beings.Individual, tiny come together and become a great karmic force.This is what the Buddha cannot bear, so He comes to this world and hopes to teach and help people understand how they can really engage in spiritual practice to cultivate their minds and refine their character.
Cultivating the mind is having Dharma in the mind.Refining our character is focusing our actions on the Dharma.We all inherently have this ability to practice this in our daily living, but we still cannot achieve this state. Thus, the Buddha “extensively proclaims teachings” solely to guide all sentient beings to transcend all attachments.
All attachments refer to clinging.“Ordinary people cling to recognition, wealth and living necessities.”“They seek physical comfort and cling to desires and sensory pleasures.”
Recognition and wealth are what we constantly crave.We crave materials goods in our daily and when it comes to “living necessities,” we never feel like we have enough.
We seem to never have enough to use and enjoy.Because societies and industries are continuously developing, they constantly promote exchanging older products for newer ones.This is the mindset of ordinary people.As new products are introduced, people constantly exchange the old for the new.They cast off old things to stay on trend for “living necessities”.Indeed, this happens because we cannot control our minds.
As a result of the way we live, we can never collect all the recyclables.Why is that?Because people continuously throw away old things in exchange for new things. These things are not even old or broken; we exchange them while they are still fairly new. This is also a kind of desire or attachment in our daily living. So, we must engage in spiritual practice. So, people practice by listening to and understanding the Buddha-Dharma. Thus they know that cyclic existence and transmigration in the Five Realms are very taxing. Therefore, they focus on spiritual practice to reach the state of Nirvana, which is crossing into extinction. They think that by crossing into extinction, they will never return to this world to face suffering in this world.
The Buddha comes to teach us about cyclic existence in the Five Realms, heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal. Among them, there is also the Asura realm, which is spread among the other five. If we consider it as an individual realm, then there are six realms. Whether there are five or six realms, they all help us understand our minds and our original nature. [Then we will try to] figure out how we can actually cleanse the mind, so we will not transmigrate in the Five Realms or Six Realms. Thus, we can return to our pure Buddha-nature.
According to the Jataka Sutra's stories of the Buddha's past lives, the Buddha sometimes went to the animal realm. He went there to transform sentient beings in that realm. Sometimes He even went to the hell realm, also to transform suffering sentient beings there. Not only did He go to the animal and hell realms, He also went to the hungry ghost realm. Actually, the heaven, human, hell, hungry ghost and animal realms are all the same; they are all in our nature. In our human nature, one ignorant thought will create the cause for us to be in the Five or Six Realms at this very moment. Therefore, we need to understand that entering Nirvana means returning to our pure, intrinsic nature, so our minds will not constantly be disturbed by challenges and interpersonal conflicts.
Because of this karmic affinity, the Buddha comes to this world so we can receive the Buddha-Dharma. His teachings have been passed down until now, 2000 years later, and we still have the karmic affinity to listen to it. After we hear the Buddha-Dharma, we become joyful, and we accept it. Then we begin to form aspirations and vows. We must diligently practice according to the Buddha's teachings.
Two Vehicle practitioners refer to Hearers and Solitary Realizers. They understand, “The impermanence of life brings suffering and so on... Then this leads us to create a lot of karma. Therefore, we must focus on our practice. We do that because we do not want to be human again. We want to cross into extinction forever”. Two Vehicle practitioners are only concerned with their own hardships. They wonder if they created bad karmic affinities with people in their families or society. Basically, they [worry] that they created bad causes and conditions with others in the past. Therefore, they feel very afflicted every day as they deal with people and matters. Thus, they engage in spiritual practice solely to awaken themselves and are not concerned about what happens to others. They only care about themselves and doing a good job in their spiritual cultivation so that they will not be reborn as human.
We must know “we cannot lack roots of goodness, blessings and virtues, causes and conditions, in order to cross into extinction. We must know that when we lack roots of goodness, we have no blessings and virtues. Without them, how can we have the causes and conditions to cross into extinction?
So, we must understand that when we cross into extinction, or enter Nirvana, thoughts will not arise nor cease in our minds. Our minds go through four states of existence: arising, abiding, changing and ceasing. This is how our minds work. A good thought may arise in our minds, so we want to do good deeds. We form great aspirations and vows, but when something in our external conditions. Tempts us even a little bit, our resolve and good intentions change. And after they change? After they change, they will cease.
Two Vehicle [Practitioners] cling to Nirvana. Bodhisattvas exercise compassion and wisdom and are impartial toward enemies and loved ones. They extensively gather all causes to realize the fruit of Bodhi and head toward attaining Buddhahood. [Clinging to Nirvana] is part of “all attachments.”
Therefore, as we engage in spiritual practice, we must have great roots of goodness and great blessings and virtues. The practice we want to cultivate is the Bodhisattva-path.“Bodhisattvas exercise compassion and wisdom and are impartial toward enemies and loved ones” This means they treat everyone equally “They extensively gather all causes to realize the fruit of Bodhi” Thus, the Bodhisattva-path heads toward attaining Buddhahood.This is their determination, but some people consider this an attachment. Actually, it is better to strengthen our faith, so we can walk on the correct path. But we also need to go one step further, which is to give unconditionally and with only gratitude in our minds.Thus, we can be a Bodhisattva, one who is without attachments and give unconditionally with no thought of reward. They just feel one thing, gratitude. If we can all practice this, we are walking the Bodhisattva-path. We may be Bodhisattvas who do many things to benefit ourselves and others.
However, we may still attachments to attaining the Buddha’s state to enter extinction attaining the Buddha’s state to enter extinction the Buddha comes and goes in the Saha World and is the founder of a religion in this world. Over 2000 years ago, He manifested the Eight Aspects of Attaining the Way. Through His lifetime in this world, He [demonstrated] the eight aspects.The last was entering Parinirvana.
The Eight Aspects are His manifestations and His demonstration to teach all of us. Indeed, the Buddha comes and goes in the Saha World. Every day we chant the epithets, “Guiding Teacher of Humans and Heavenly Beings Compassionate Father of the Four Forms of Birth”.
The founder of a religion of the Saha World is Sakyamuni Buddha. Thus, though He comes and goes in this world, He has always been focused on benefiting others. He “extensively proclaims teachings” and patiently explains to everyone how they can become awakened.
We must look at our lives and how more disasters are occurring In this world, the air has been polluted and the Earth has been damaged. Scientists keep discovering that in this universe, among the starts, the Earth has already reached a state of constant danger. Therefore, this is the time for us to awaken. We must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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