Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Great Samadhi Is the State of True Suchness (大寂定心真如境界)
Date: February. 17. 2014
“The Buddha’s wisdom is vast, extremely profound and far-reaching. He realized the rare One Vehicle Dharma. Ordinary people and even Three Vehicle practitioners cannot yet grasp it. From the past until now, He gave provisional or true teachings according to capabilities.”
We must all understand that the Buddha’s wisdom is vast, extremely profound and far-reaching. He realized the rare and wondrous One Vehicle Dharma. For many days, we have been hearing that even Three Vehicle practitioners, Hearers, Pratyekabuddhas and newly-inspired Bodhisattvas, were not able to comprehend the Buddha’s extremely profound and wondrous original intent. [Even though] they were by the Buddha’s side, they still could not understand Him, let alone us, who live over 2000 years later. So, we still have quite a ways to go to comprehend the Buddha-mind. Yet, I keep reminding everyone that the Buddha had decided to tell us that “[the natures of] the mind, Buddhas and sentient beings are not different.” If we really think about it, regardless of how far apart we are from Him in time or distance, our minds have actually always remained close to His mind because we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. It is just that we were later influenced by society and people to continuously give rise to desires, which took us farther and farther away.
So, a deviated thought will take us thousands of miles off course. This is why we must promptly return to our original nature. If we can all return to our intrinsic nature, then [our minds] will be vast and clear. If we are still ignorant and driven by karmic forces, then our minds will go far astray. An unenlightened mind that has strayed far from its intrinsic nature is very distant from the Buddha-mind. So, after the Buddha realized the rare One Vehicle Dharma, the one thing He wanted to do was to help us understand and respect ourselves, our intrinsic nature. Our intrinsic nature is very clear and bright. The Buddha only had this one goal, which is to help all of us [learn] this.
“Do you know [of it]?” “Yes, I know.” “What is that state like?” “I am just beginning to figure that out.” “How long will it take?” “I don’t know.” What state do we need to reach so that we can be equal to Buddhas? We are still confused; we do not know. So the Buddha had to take us from our past confusion and show us the One Vehicle Dharma. In the past, various limited paths were established by the Buddha in accordance with each of our capabilities.Since He has now established this great path, and we all know we intrinsically have Buddha-nature, we should put it into practice by walking on the broad path of One Vehicle Dharma.
This is how He taught the wisdom He realized according to sentient beings’ capabilities.
“Ordinary beings and even Three Vehicle practitioners cannot yet grasp it.”Of course, ordinary beings cannot understand it, since even Three Vehicle practitioners cannot.
This broad path was established by the Buddha at the moment when He freely carried out His original intent and expressed what He truly wanted to say.This helped people get close to the Buddha-mind and opened up the true principles of the universe.The Buddha had already finished paving this path that extends from His mind.He hopes we can all follow this clear and smooth path from [the stage of] ordinary beings to Buddhahood.
This is the Great Vehicle, the One Vehicle.So, we should set aside the Three Vehicles and return to the One Vehicle.Although Hearers, Solitary Realizers and newly-inspired Bodhisattvas all have different attachments and doubts, at this time they must let go of their attachments and open their doubtful minds.In order to believe, they must “give rise to great Power of Faith”.This is what the Buddha said to them when He first began to give this teaching to help eliminate their questions and doubts.
From the past until this moment, for over 40 years, the Buddha had continuously given “provisional or true teachings according to capabilities”.To people with limited capabilities and wisdom, He gave limited teachings with skillful means.For those with greater capabilities, He could use profound and true Dharma to teach them.
The Buddha had taught according to capabilities, but now H suddenly changed to another method to continuously guide people from the narrow path to this broad great path.Thus, at this moment He expounded the True Dharma of the One Vehicle.
So, the next passage of the sutra states, “The Buddha spoke of one meaning of liberation , so we obtained this Dharma and thought we had arrived at Nirvana.But now, we do not understand His intention.”
In the past, they listened to the Buddha explain the Four Noble Truths.They had also learned about the Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence.They thought they understood and comprehended all these teachings.They believed this Dharma had trained their minds, that they had already reached a tranquil and still state with no arising and ceasing of thoughts.They all believed this.
Therefore, what is the meaning of liberation?In complete liberation, the Buddha’s knowledge and views are bright and clear, and He can discern all without obstruction.This is the meaning of liberation.It is escaping entanglements, attaining freedom and it is also another name for Nirvana.
Liberation means that, “in complete liberation, the Buddha’s knowledge and views are bright and clear”.They all thought they knew and had seen the Buddha’s teachings.
By realizing His teachings, they had [developed] His views.His knowledge and views were bright and clear as they fully comprehended and realized them.“[They] can discern all without obstruction”.They knew how to teach the Buddha’s principles because He encouraged everyone to share them with others after listening [to His teachings].
Therefore, many of them went out and shared them with all Buddhist practitioners. So, they could “discern all without obstruction”. After understanding these teachings, they could them share them with others. They believed that by doing this, they had already attained liberation. They thought they were already liberated. Thus, they were attached to the Small [Vehicle]. Clearly, they only understood and realized of Four Noble Truths and Twelve Links of Cyclic Existence. They thought they saw things clearly and understood that the law of karma leads to frightening results. Therefore, they engaged in spiritual practice with firm resolve and believed that they had attained liberation but actually they had not. If we understand the law of karma, our minds can be pure and strong. Then we must head toward this great path and begin our journey to the state of Buddhahood. We have not yet really attained thorough understanding, so now the Buddha began to speak of the One Vehicle Dharma.
So, the sutra states, “We obtained this Dharma and thought we had arrived at Nirvana. But now, we no longer know where His meaning is headed”.
They thought they had attained liberation. Nirvana is tranquil extinction, perfect rest and Samadhi of tranquility. These are all names for Nirvana.
Nirvana does not mean to pass away. We ordinary beings have no control over our death. Once we relinquish this life, “we bring nothing with us, except karma”. Our karma will lead us to our future environment. This is because we ordinary beings have not reached perfect rest, or the Samadhi of tranquility. If we attain perfect rest or tranquil extinction, our minds will no longer go through transformational samsara.
As I have explained before, ordinary beings go through fragmentary samsara, and spiritual practitioners of the Three Vehicles have [eliminated] fragmentary samsara, but they still go through transformational samsara because there are still traces of ignorance that have not been completely eliminated. What does “transformation” mean? We all know our minds go through four states, arising, abiding, changing and ceasing. This is because our minds are constantly changing. When a good thought arises, we do good deeds. We abide in a state of good deeds and thoughts, but when challenges arise, our mindsets change. Perhaps our good deeds will cease, and our minds will give rise to bad thoughts.
I always tell all of you, “Our values in life can easily become obscured”. This is all because we cannot control our unenlightened minds. We have not eliminated our unenlightened minds. Before eliminating this unenlightened mindset, we continue to transmigrate based on our karma. We are led by causes and conditions we created to face retributions of suffering in the future. This is the samsara of ordinary beings, fragmentary samsara. It is beyond our control. When this lifetime, this fragment, is over, we begin our next fragment. Perhaps this next life will be filled with a lot of suffering. No matter what, we always die in the end.
Therefore, our samsara is fragmentary. All this is beyond our control because we have not reached tranquil extinction, our perfect rest. Here, perfect means harmonious. I often say we must learn to be a good person. When we are harmonious in our relationships, we will do things harmoniously.
When our character and actions are harmonious, we are in harmony with the principles.
Unfortunately, we just do not know how to be good people. When we are not harmonious in our interactions, we have a lot of afflictions. We engage in spiritual practice to cultivate a calm mind; this is called “tranquil.” I often talk about “tranquil and clear.” The state of our minds must constantly remain “tranquil and clear,” so our “vows can be as cast as the universe.” The Dharma that we practice strengthens our resolve, so we will not be tempted by world desires. We will no longer be affected by chaos in society and thus give rise to afflictions.
Therefore, our minds must be tranquil so that we can eliminate these external temptations. Then we are in a state of “tranquil extinction.” Then we are in a state of tranquil extinction.” Then, we can be in harmony with others and will act according to our vows.
Since we have made our vows, we must firmly abide by them to live harmoniously. When we are in harmony with people and matters, we will be in harmony with the principles. This state of perfect calm is called “perfect rest.” How do we want to come to this world? How do we want to leave? After we leave, how do we come again? All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas return to this world on the ship of compassion. They know when their work is done, when to leave and when to come again. The Buddha was making His final preparations. He revealed the One Vehicle Path to everyone because His life was ending and He was about ti enter Parinirvana.
The Fundamental Teacher of our Saha World is still Sakyamuni Buddha because He still continuously returns out of compassion. Previously, we spent some time analyzing [the conversation between] Maitreya Bodhisattva and Manjusri Bodhisattva. Because the Buddha wanted to give this teaching, these two Bodhisattvas began to explain. Maitreya, who will be the next Buddha, asked Manjusri, who was once a Buddha and a guiding teacher of all Buddhas, to explain the past.
So, there was a future Buddha and a past Buddha who were paving the way for this Dharma-assembly. This was like a prelude to the Buddha giving teachings at this Dharma-assembly. See, this was how Bodhisattvas returned on the ship of compassion to help Sakyamuni Buddha at this Dharma-assembly.
They returned out of their compassion, not because of their karmic retributions. So, Skyamuni Buddha also continues to return to this world. that is why we constantly say, “When we look at others with a Buddha-mind,” everyone is a Buddha.” Perhaps, the Buddha is among us because. He has returned on the ship of compassion. So, we must be respectful [to others].The Samadhi of tranquility is a state of. True Suchness that transcends time and space.
Indeed, the Samadhi of tranquility is very vast. It is a state of great enlightenment. This is why I constantly say that the Buddha is the Great enlightened One of the universe. He transcends time and space. The state of mind of the Tathagata transcends time and space. This is the state we seek.
Every, to really seek the Dharma, we must always use a mind that is very pure and reverent and in the Samadhi of tranquility to accept everything the Buddha taught. Only then can we truly realize the state of True Suchness that transcends time and space. This is the True Suchness of our intrinsic nature. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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