Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Understand the Ultimate Reality of All Things(究竟諸法實相)
Date: December. 26. 2013
“Teachings of the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle are realized by all Buddhas. So, They return to people in the Saha World to skillful and carefully guide and instill the Dharma into their hearts. With great patience, they never abandon sentient beings. They connect them to the True Dharma of the One Vehicle.”
This tells all of us that the Buddha comes to this world for one great cause. This great cause is very closely related to our physical- and wisdom-life. But we sentient beings have always neglected and looked down on ourselves. We ordinary beings are constantly lost in the world around us, so we keep degenerating and indulging ourselves. This is why we ordinary beings are forever trapped in the Six Realms.
The Buddha comes to this world, not for anything else but this one great cause. He hopes we can all comprehend His intention and understand the teachings of the Path to the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle. He helps us understand that we must immediately break free from our confusion. This is the Buddha’s compassionate original intent. To transform sentient beings, He continuously gives teachings and tells all of us that He had also worked very hard in the past. During the time of other Buddhas, He continuously engaged in spiritual practice. He placed great importance on the Dharma, so He faithfully accepted and practiced the teachings of all Buddhas. Therefore, He accomplished the teachings of all Buddhas. This is why He returns to the Saha World to interact with people.
In this Saha world, humans are the most stubborn and hard to train. Often, as they begin to be diligent, they quickly degenerate into indolence. This is a form of stubbornness, so He has to use skillful means to transform their minds. But as sentient beings, have we truly taken this Dharma into our hearts? If the door to our heart is not open, regardless of how good the Dharma is, it is blocked and remains outside; it will not be able to enter.
So, we need to open the door. If we do not, the Dharma cannot enter our minds. But the Buddha still has “great patience, so He never abandons sentient beings.” He exercises great loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity as He deals with so many stubborn and difficult-to-train sentient beings. He has to have great patience, which comes from the unwillingness to abandon sentient beings.
Regardless of how stubborn sentient beings are, the Buddha continues to be broad-minded and patient with them, [though] they are lax, stubborn and degenerate. So, He “connects them to the True Dharma of the One Vehicle.”
For their sake, He still holds on to this connection and is reluctant to let go because sentient beings have not yet connected to the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle, have not yet realized the Buddha’s principles and has not yet attained a luminous mind.
Because our minds are not yet illuminated, our intrinsic Buddha-nature has not yet manifested.So, the Buddha cannot bear to see sentient beings constantly degenerate.
Everyone, the Buddha has compassion for sentient beings, so we must all be grateful to and repay Him.
The Buddha does not ask for anything in return, He only wants sentient beings to be transformed.To be transformed, we must bring the Dharma into our hearts.This is how we repay all Buddha’s grace.So, I hope we can genuinely self-reflect and be vigilant.
Why is it that when we become even slightly tried, we stop and cease to progress further?This is something we have to constantly ask ourselves.
The Dharma that the Buddha attained was most extraordinary and difficult to understand.
Only Buddhas can thoroughly realize the ultimate reality of all things.
Despite the various methods the Buddha taught, sentient beings remained very stubborn.Furthermore, the Dharma He was about to teach was the “most extraordinary and difficult to understand”.Could everyone accept it?Did he need to teach it?The Buddha was compassionate, so He continued to remind and teach us.So, He was indicating to everyone that the Dharma He was about to expound was extraordinary and difficult to understand.It would require us all to be diligent because rare and difficult-to-understand Dharma could ultimately only be thoroughly realized by Buddhas.
The Dharma taught by all past Buddhas was accepted by Sakyamuni Buddha.So, the teachings given by Sakyamuni Buddha now must also be accepted by future Buddhas.This is because “all Buddhas share the same path.”I constantly [remind you of this].None of the Buddhas of the past, present or future can deviate from the “extraordinary and difficult-to-understand Dharma”.We must understand that this is “the One Vehicle Dharma”.
Why is it difficult to understand?
Because it is difficult to know.If we do not know it, how can we understand it?
Why don’t we ordinary people know the Buddha’s Dharma even though.He has been teaching it for so long?When we do not know it, we cannot understand it therefore, we must seek knowledge; only when we “know,” can we have realizations.
So, what “knowledge” should we seek?The Buddha’s knowledge and views.We must know what the Buddha knows, have the same understanding as the Buddha.This is what we must know.So, when we realize the Buddha’s teachings, we have His “knowledge and views,” and naturally there will be no difficult-to-understand Dharma.
Thus if we do not know, we will not realize.
If we do not know, having realizations will be particularly difficult.How can we attain realizations?After we “know,” we also need to “understand”.So after we “know and understand,” we can then “realize and enter”.“Realizing and entering” is even more difficult than “knowing and understanding”.Thus, this is called “difficult-to-understand”.
Because this is so hard to understand, this is considered “extraordinary”.
This is the one and only teaching, that of the ultimate reality of the One Vehicle.
The Buddha taught for over 40 years solely for the True Dharma of the One Vehicle
So, this is “extraordinary” and hard to understand.
The Chapter on Skillful Means sated earlier that, “The wisdom of all Buddhas is extremely profound and unlimited. This Wisdom-door is difficult to understand and enter.”
This explains that the wisdom-door of all past Buddhas is extremely profound and unlimited. However, we all still think of ourselves as ordinary people, and we willingly degenerate because we are not willing to be diligent. So, this wisdom-door is hard for ordinary people to understand and enter. If we want to learn the Buddha’s Way, if we do not want to remain in the Six Realms and have no control over our transmigration, then we must seize the opportunity now to progress diligently in learning the Buddha-Dharma. Otherwise, the Buddha’s wisdom-door will always be had for us to understand and enter.
So, what is the ultimate reality of all things? It is Nirvana-illumination. “Nirvana” means tranquil and still. The Sutra of Infinite Meanings states, “Tranquil and clear, vows as vast as the void. “Tranquil and clear” is a state within our minds. We understand that our intrinsic Buddha-nature is tranquil and still, or still and tranquil. If our minds can be still and tranquil, we can attain Nirvana-illumination. When the mind is pure, naturally it has a great perfect mirror. This great perfect mirror is perfectly round, a clear and bright state of mind. Thus, naturally it can illuminate the truths of all things in the universe. This is called Great Enlightenment. Thus, the ultimate reality of all things is called “Nirvana-illumination”, “Nirvana” means tranquil and still.
“The ultimate reality of all things is also called Nirvana-illumination. Nirvana means tranquil and still. Illumination shows something with clarity. This reveals the virtue of the ultimate reality of the Middle Way, which are principles of innate enlightenment.”
Are our minds really always pure? Aren’t we always tempted by fame and wealth? Don’t our minds often give rise to ignorance because of our greed? We must constantly self-reflect and illuminate our minds. Does it contain defilements? Does it contain ignorance? Thus, “illumination” shows something with clarity. This is a form of self-reflection. This reveals the virtues of the ultimate reality of the Middle Way, which are true emptiness and wondrous existence. With “true emptiness,” we cannot be attached. With “wondrous existence,” we diligently practice. Since, when we break down everything in the world, everything is ultimately empty, why should we take issue over anything? Everything we take issue over will eventually became non-existent.
So as we take issue over things and create karma, time still keeps passing by. Birth, aging, illness and death are also empty. But as we go through the [cycle of life, ]we create karma, and the resulting karmic retribution still exists. This is “wondrous existence.” Thus, between “true emptiness and wondrous existence, we must take the Middle Way and truly realize “ultimate reality of the Middle Way.” So as we deal with things, we must promptly let go of greed, anger, delusion, arrogance and doubt. So, sentient beings in the world face unbearable suffering because of the cycle of karmic retributions. When we understand this, we must form great aspirations and be diligent, liberate ourselves and guide others to enter the Bodhi-path. This is called the “Middle Way.”
We cannot be attached to “emptiness,” but must practice the teachings of True Suchness in “wondrous existence.” Wondrous existence also refers to our true nature, which is also our Buddha-nature. Because of His nature, the Buddha cannot bear to let sentient beings suffer. He has not attachments to things in the world, but He will never abandon sentient beings. This is “wondrous existence.” Hopefully, we can all learn “the ultimate reality of the Middle Way” and practice it. So, “virtue” comes from internal cultivation and external practices.
Similarly, in the past, Sakyauni Buddha diligently practiced [the teachings of ]countless Buddhas and eventually attained Buddhahood. Once He was replete with all virtues, He became a Buddha. By the same principle, when we understand the Dharma, naturally we will manifest the Middle Way, and our minds will become tranquil and clear. This is how we can be on the Middle Way.
“Tranquil and still” is a state of emptiness. “illumination” clearly shows true principles of all things in the world. With this illumination, we can also help people attain liberation. Otherwise, living in this world, we will endlessly create karma. So, this is called the Middle Way.
First,we must understand tranquil and still prinicples.Second, we must illuminate the ultimate reality of all things in the universe. This is called the “Middle Way.” This is the principle of innate enlightenment. “Innate enlightenment” depends on us. Have we attained realizations? So, ultimate reality transcends original illusory and false appearances.
We do not know how much karma we have created since Beginningless Time. Because of our ignorance over countless lifetimes, we do not clearly understand and cannot help but repeatedly become entangled by karmic conditions. We have continuously been ordinary beings since we formed an ignorant thought in the past.
Since Beginningless Times we have been in a constant state of delusion. Now we are beginning to transcend illusory and false appearances and return to our innate enlightenment. This is “the ultimate reality of all things,” or “all-encompassing wisdom.”
Ultimate reality means to transcend the original illusory and false appearances. And such ultimate reality of all things is all-encompassing wisdom.
When it comes to all things, the illusory and false are what we must sat aside. When we have all-encompassing wisdom, our minds are clear as we interact with people and matters. This is “all-encompassing wisdom,” which is also “ultimate reality,” the principles of the One Vehicle.This is the “extraordinary Dharma.” Can everyone understand this? This Dharma can only be understood by Buddhas. Where are these Buddhas? They are within us. All Buddhas’ Dharma was passed to Sakyamuni, and His teachings are passed on to those who will attain Buddhahood in the future.
So, all Buddhas share the same path and pass down teachings in the same lineage. What is being passed down? The ultimate reality of the One Vehicle. So, I hope everyone can clearly understand this passage of the sutra. “Extraordinary and difficult-to understand Dharma [can only be thoroughly realized by Buddhas]. Past Buddhas, Sakyamuni Buddha and future Buddhas all have the same Buddha-nature, and we can thoroughly understand it as long as we are always mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV - Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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