Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: With Solid Faith, Fear Nothing(信心堅固 施無畏)
Date: December. 23. 2013
“All Buddhas have long cultivated all practices to enlightenment with diligence, courage, vigor, power and fearlessness. When among people, They expound the Dharma fearlessly. They practice precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, so They are liberated and at ease.”
The Buddha intrinsically has an enlightened nature. From Beginningless Time till now, the Buddha drew near to countless Buddhas, so He has constantly been diligent. As He practiced all teachings of the Path, He did so with diligence, courage, vigor, power and fearlessness. Because He was diligent, He was very certain of and never doubted those Buddhas’ teachings of enlightenment. This kind of faith is very steadfast. As ordinary people, our faith and beliefs cannot be steadied, therefore our powers are insufficient. Sometimes we believe and practice only because we seek things! We seek blessings from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Actually, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas come to the world to teach us various methods to help us reflect on our own nature and discover our pure intrinsic nature. This is why the Buddha and Bodhisattvas come to the world. The Buddha gives many teachings to help us achieve understanding. If we believe Him, we can search within ourselves for our enlightened nature. We should not have faith in Him only to seek protection from Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. If we do, we are still Small Vehicle practitioners, unenlightened beings. When we believe in the Buddha, He can help us strengthen our powers of understanding and comprehension, so we strive to faithfully accept and practice [the teachings].
Therefore, when He goes among people to teach, He is absolutely fearless. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, His Power of Faith was solid. So He preached Dharma fearlessly in the world. When non-Buddhists raised difficult questions, He was very courageous and vigorous. He was very certain and brave, like a warrior entering the battlefield. In order to promote Right Dharma in the world, He had to be replete with the strength gained from His courage and vigor and go among people to give teachings without fear. Then of course, the practices of precepts, Samadhi, wisdom and liberation will lead to a sense of freedom.
Precepts, Samadhi and wisdom are the Three Flawless Studies that we spiritual practitioners must cultivate [to eliminate Leaks]. Wisdom comes from seeking the Buddha-Dharma. Once it enters our hearts, we cannot allow it to leak out. When the Dharma is in our hearts, it should increase and never decrease. Then [our minds] can be considered flawless. When we forget the Dharma we heard yesterday, it has leaked out.It has leaked out.We may listen to the Dharma in the morning, but soon after, when challenges emerge, afflictions arise again.When this happens, we cannot attain liberation.When precepts, Samadhi, and wisdom are not in our hearts, afflictions will enter very quickly.
Whenever we encounter challenges, we feel troubled and worried, as if afflictions are binding us and we cannot be liberated.We are all still learning so the Buddha is our ideal and.[Buddhahood] is our goal.Outwardly, we must emulate the Buddha, and inwardly, we need to find our Buddha-nature.Although we are unenlightened beings, our wisdom and enlightened nature is not inferior to the Buddha’s.But our minds have been covered by afflictions.When we brush aside afflictions, we are awakened beings.
Then no matter what challenges arise, we can remain peaceful and at ease.Thus, we must uphold precepts and be in Samadhi so that our wisdom will grow, and we can be liberated and at ease.
This is why we Buddhist practitioners must constantly heighten our awareness.
We learn from the Buddha; He gives us teachings that we must faithfully accept and mindfully practice.
Next, let us discuss “powerful and fearless, with dhyana, liberation and Samadhi”.
To be powerful and fearless, we must be replete with “dhyana, liberation and Samadhi”.Then we can be “powerful and fearless”.This means that [the Buddha] is strong and powerful, and fearless.
So, He has Ten Powers:
1.knowledge of right and wrong in all conditions.
2.Knowledge of karma
3.Knowledge of Samadhi
4.Knowledge of [relative] capabilities
5.Knowledge of desires
Ten Powers (cont.):
6.knowledge of the nature of each individual
7.knowledge of the consequences of all paths
8.knowledge of past lives
9.knowledge of he heavenly eye
10.knowledge of elimination of Leaks
we need to know that power is in all teachings given by the Buddha.If we can practice them all, then we will be feeless and [develop] the Fourfold Fearlessness.The Fourfold Fearlessness [tells us] of the Buddha’s fearlessness in expounding the path of ending suffering.Sentient beings in the Saha World face unbearable suffering, so the Buddha comes ot the world for this one great cause and expounds the Dharma.When the Buddha teaches, He speaks the most about suffering.
When He first turned the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths, His first teaching was about suffering.
So, “the Buddha is fearless in expounding the path of ending suffering”.“Among the assembly, the Buddha taught precepts, Samadhi and wisdom and other noble paths and did so fearlessly.”
This is the Buddha’s power.He came to the world to declare that everything in the world [leads to] suffering, to teach people to recognize that suffering is caused by the accumulation of various afflictions.With these afflictions, a single deviated thought can give rise to 1000 erroneous thoughts.Once an erroneous thought arises, we will naturally act on it.Wrong thoughts cause wrong actions.So, He teaches us to uphold precepts.When we engage in spiritual practice, our first step is to uphold precepts.
When we first entre the door to His teachings, we learn the Five Precepts and Ten Good deeds.
If we can start from the first precept, we gradually realize that because there is so much suffering and wrongdoing in the world, we must cultivate the Path.The more we comprehend this teaching, the firmer we will remain.The more we comprehend this teaching, the firmer we will remain. If we uphold precepts, naturally we will be less likely to commit wrongs. So, the Buddha comes to this world and goes among people for one great cause, to fearlessly expound the path to ending suffering and to tell the world about suffering.
“The Fourfold Fearlessness:”
Fearlessness of all-encompassing wisdom.
Fearlessness of ending Leaks.
Fearlessness of explaining the hindrances of spiritual cultivation.
Fearlessness of explaining the paths of ending suffering.
I will share the Fourfold Fearlessness with you. The first is “fearlessness of all-encompassing wisdom”. With His all-encompassing wisdom, He understands all things in the world. And if He understands everything, what is there to fear? So, “among the assembly, the Buddha taught about all-encompassing wisdom, and He did so fearlessly.” The Buddha gathers all sentient beings to explain this Dharma to all of them in the hopes they can gain all-encompassing wisdom of all things in the world.
Discerning wisdom means we can clearly discern right from wrong. Things can be proper or deviant, and if we can tell them apart, we have discerning wisdom. So, in this times, in the midst of complicated people and interpersonal conflicts, we must strive to be discerning. The Buddha tells us about fearlessness of all-encompassing wisdom. Because of His wisdom, He hopes we can be His equal and attain fearlessness of all-encompassing wisdom.
Second is “fearlessness of ending Leaks”. “The Buddha taught them to eliminate all afflictions and He did so fearlessly.”
We have fear because we cannot clearly discern right from wrong. We are afflicted because we have endless cravings and desires. These are all afflictions. The Buddha teaches us with various ways in hopes that we can comprehend the impermanence of life. At any instant, impermanence can suddenly manifest, and we face unbearable suffering and endless worries.
There was a great earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia. Do you still remember it? The second before that moment, everyone was filled with sweet dreams, everyone was filled with happiness. Perhaps they had very many hopes. But in an instant, impermanence stuck the world. So indeed, life is impermanent. We should understand that the Buddha has been teaching this for a long time. In the future, sentient beings will create more and more karma. So, the principles of formation, existence, decay and disappearance keep vanishing from people’s hearts.
This road was originally very broad and straight. These principle have always existed, but people do not clearly understand them so they create more karma. Therefore, the collective karma of sentient beings leads to more frequent disasters; this is very worrisome. Does worrying do any good? The best thing to do is to be more diligent. We must quickly recruit more Living Bodhisattvas and find ways to change and to help our world become more stable. To stabilize the earth, protect its resources and not cause more damage, the four elements must be in balance. The balance of the four elements depends on the way we live. We must get our lives on track and be more frugal, and we must strive to recognize, cherish and create more blessings. If we can keep these things in mind and apply them in our daily living, naturally the world will be more peaceful. So, the Buddha teaches many principles about how we can eliminate all afflictions. Ending all afflictions begins with our daily living.
Next, the third is “fearlessness of explaining hindrances of spiritual cultivation.” Fearlessness of explaining hindrances of spiritual cultivation: Among the assembly, the Buddha taught how to overcome delusions and other hindrances, and He did so fearlessly.
The Buddha tells us about the obstructions of our spiritual practice that keep us from achieving anything, from understanding principles. This is because we still have delusions, which are ignorant thoughts.
Delusion is lack of understanding. We have dust-like delusions. Our delusions and ignorant thoughts number as many as particles of dust. Because we are so ignorant, we attract karma. So, the karma we have created will obstruct our practice of the teachings of the Path. When we do not know the methods, the Path will be difficult.
Therefore, the Buddha comes to us to explain ways to eliminate obstacles, so we can understand the teachings. This is what all of us must mindfully comprehend.
So, the Buddha taught us to “overcome delusions and other hindrances to.” He clearly explained that certain karma we create will lead to certain consequences. This karmic law of cause and effect pervades our lives, so the causes we create will lead to the effect of hindering our path to enlightenment. So, the Buddha expounded the Dharma fearlessly.
The fourth one is “fearlessness of explaining the paths of ending suffering.” Similarly, this explains precepts, Samadhi and wisdom and helps us recognize suffering.
Now the Buddha tells is how to transcend suffering. For us to transcend suffering, we must engage in spiritual practice.To begin cultivating [the Four Noble Truths], we must have precepts, Samadhi and wisdom to “eliminate all suffering.”
Next is dhyana, tranquil contemplation. Dhyana is about careful contemplation. When the mind is still, tranquil and clear, it is in the state of dhyana. So, if we are tranquil, “the mind remains still, in a meditative state.” We must not think discursive thoughts about the past or delusional thoughts of the future. We need to eliminate all of this. Our hearts need to be still, in a meditative state. This is dhyana.
Dhyana: dhyana is a way of thinking. With tranquility, the mind remains still, in a meditative state. This is called dhyana.
What about liberation? Ordinary people are trapped by cyclic existence, so they cannot attain liberation. But Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have already attained liberation and will never experience cyclic existence again.
He came to the world solely because of [His connection] to sentient beings. He returns on the ship of compassion not because of the influence of karmic forces. Not at all.So, all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are in a state of dhyana and liberation. My fellow Buddhist practitioners, our goal is to attain Buddhahood. But we must self-reflect to discover our intrinsic nature, therefore, we must really work on practicing precepts, Samadhi and wisdom, and we must not allow even the slightest affliction to trouble our minds. This is why we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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