Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Plant the Root of Great Faith to End Doubts (深植大信 斷疑契悟)
Date: February. 19. 2014
“The resolve doubts, we need to be diligent, deeply plant the great Root of Faith and vows, internalize and understand the Buddha’s wisdom, and deeply penetrate the Dharma-sea to realize the Great Vehicle of the true and wondrous Dharma.”
This is telling everyone that if we wish to resolve doubts, we must have utmost sincerity. “Faith is the source of the Way, mother of merits.” Doubt greatly hinders spiritual aspirations. If we have faith, we will not have doubts. If we have doubts, we will not believe the true and extremely profound wondrous Dharma.
Therefore, doubt obstructs the Way, so we cannot have doubts in our minds. If we want to resolve our doubts, from the bottom of our hearts, we must be focused, reverent and diligent. That is, we must very reverent and diligently practice. Therefore, we must deeply plant the great Root of Faith and vows.
Our Root of Faith must be deep and extensive; it must open up and spread out. Only then will we allow the Buddha’s profound, subtle and wondrous principles to enter our hearts. Then, we can comprehend the Buddha’s wisdom. If we can comprehend the Buddha’s wisdom, naturally we will deeply immerse ourselves in the Dharma-sea. When we take refuge in the Three Treasures, we vow to “comprehend the great path.” To “comprehend the great path,” we must deeply immerse ourselves in the Buddha’s sea of wisdom. This is what we seek when we take refuge in the Three Treasures, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. We do this to comprehend the great path and form the supreme aspiration, which is one of great Root and Power of Faith.
When we take refuge in the Dharma, we must deeply immerse ourselves in the Buddha’s sea of wisdom. Only then can we truly accept the Buddha’s teachings completely. Only with faithful acceptance can we have “wisdom like the sea.” The Sutra Treasury contains so much, how can we absorb all of it? Only through “faith”. Only with great Root and Power of Faith can we absorb the Buddha’s teachings of wisdom.
The Dharma is as vast and deep as the sea, and upon entering it, we must absorb extremely profound, vast and wondrous teachings. We cannot waste any time, so [the Path] we walk must be that of the ultimate, true, wondrous Great Vehicle Dharma, which is also called the One Vehicle Dharma. Hopefully, we can all comprehend it. Previously, I said that everyone had doubts. At that time, Sariputra also knew that all who were present, the fourfold assembly, were filled with doubts. “For over 40 years, we have followed the Buddha and fully accepted His teachings.”
“What is this difficult-to-understand and extremely profound, wondrous Dharma He is now teaching?”They had these doubts, so Sariputra stepped forward on their behalf to request teachings from the Buddha.
At that time, Sariputra, Knowing the fourfold assembly’s doubts, and his own lack of understanding, addressed the Buddha, “World-Honored One, for what reason do You earnestly praise the supremely skillful, extremely profound and difficult-to-understand Dharma of all Buddhas? ”
“[He] addressed the Buddha” means he requested the Dharma on their behalf.So, “addressed” is respectful way of asking He stepped toward the Buddha and asked, “World-Honored One, for what reason do You earnestly praise the supremely skillful means of all Buddhas?”
Why was the Buddha constantly praising the supremely skillful Dharma of all Buddhas?
In the past, Sakyamuni Buddha used skillful means to teach sentient beings according to their capabilities.The Buddha wanted to show that He was not the only one to use skillful means to teach according to capabilities; past Buddha also did the same.
They also used skillful means to transform sentient beings.
These means were provisional teachings. Sakamuni Buddha repeatedly praised them, citing past Buddhas to affirm that, like Them, He also used skillful means to teach according to capabilities.So, Sariputra asked the Buddha why He was praising all Buddhas for their supremely skillful teachings.So, what is this extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand Dharma?
In the past, I have never heard the Buddha speak in such a way.Presently, the fourfold assembly all have doubts.I only pray that the World-honored One can expound upon this subject of why He is earnestly praising this extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand Dharma.
“In the past, I have never heard the Buddhas speak in such a way.”In the past, he had never praise past Sakyamuni Buddhas praise past Buddhas for using supremely skillful, extremely profound, subtle, wondrous and difficult-to-understand Dharma.He had never heard the Buddha talk about it.“Presently, the fourfold assembly all have doubts.”This was the first time he heard this.
Indeed, this was also the first time everyone else had heard.Sakyamuni praise the skillful, profound and difficult-to-understand.Dharma of past Buddhas.Not only did he have doubts, in fact, so did everyone else.This was their first time hearing this, so they could not understand it.
“I only pray that the World-Honored One can expound upon this subject.”He hoped the World-Honored One would now speak to them very openly.We must understand what kind of teaching this is “Difficult-to-understand Dharma” means it is difficult to know and learn.Realizing and entering it is also very difficult.We cannot comprehend it because we still do not know it.If we do not know it, we cannot understand it.And because we do not understand it, we cannot comprehend His knowledge and views.
If we cannot comprehend it, realizing it would be even more difficult.Their minds all fell short right here; it was difficult to know and learn, to realize and enter.This is where they were lacking.
So, a passage also states, “The wisdom of all Buddhas is extremely profound and far-reaching.This wisdom-door is difficult to understand and enter”.
I have already talked about this. The Buddha’s wisdom is very profound. Not only is it deep and vast, there are infinite wisdom-doors. We still cannot open this wisdom-door, thus it is difficult to understand and enter. When the Buddha said He “opened and revealed,” that meant He wanted to open people’s minds, so they could understand these principles. We ordinary people shut the door to our hearts very tightly. We use this door to close off the True Suchness of our intrinsic nature. The Buddha came to open this door so we can all see that behind this door is the True Suchness of our intrinsic nature. So, the Buddha came to the world for this one great cause, to open this door. Thus, He “opened and revealed” to help us all understand that we originally had the Tathagata’s wisdom. The Buddha has opened this door in Himself, but others have not opened their wisdom-door. So, we find [this Dharma] difficult to understand and enter. This wisdom-door is very difficult to comprehend because we are all looking outward to seek the door in the Buddha’s mind.
Actually, the Buddha has come to open the door in our minds. So, this is where we fall short. If we reflect on our own nature, we can see our intrinsic Tathagata-nature. However, we have all been unable to contemplate our own nature and keep looking outwards. So, the Buddha opened His own wisdom-door, thus He achieved full understanding. After He Himself understood, He knew how to do so. Therefore, He can teach us to open our own doors. But we do not know how to turn inward to open the door in our own minds, so, we find [this Dharma] difficult to understand and enter. “The fourfold assembly all have doubts”. Here, Sariputra was saying that because the Buddha said His wisdom-door was difficult to understand and enter, everyone still had doubts.
“As for true principles, they felt hesitant and uncertain. Therefore, without realizing the Absolute Truth, they could not eliminate their doubts”.
We may be hesitant because the Buddha told us that we all intrinsically have Buddha-nature. However, we have not clearly realized this, so we still do not have great Power of Faith. We still do not believe that we have this intrinsic nature of True Suchness. Therefore, when it comes to seeing these true principles, we still hesitate to open the door. We cannot fully accept that, “Yes, I am the same as the Buddha. I just need to open this door to see my intrinsic nature of True Suchness within”. What is this door made of? It is made of ignorance and obstruction. We are still unable to open this door. We cannot open it because we feel hesitant and indecisive.
“Therefore, without realizing the Absolute Truth, they could not eliminate their doubts”. We must realize what the Buddha told us to believe. To awaken our Buddha-minds, we must have great Power of Faith. Only when we really have faith in the Buddha can we realize the Buddha-mind.
The Buddha-mind holds the principles of Absolute Truth. What the Buddha guards and retains in His mind, what He protects with His every thought, are the principles of Absolute Truth. If we do not comprehend how comprehend the Buddha used these principles of Absolute Truth, then we cannot attain realizations because we cannot end or eliminate our doubts. So, having great Power of Faith is paramount. We must have great faith to be able understand His principles. Only when we have faith we have faith in the Buddha’s principles can we completely eliminate our doubts.
So, to enter the Buddha-door and realize His principles, we must first completely eliminate our doubts. In order to do so, we must great Power of Faith. And, we need great capabilities in order to have great Power of Faith. If we are Small Vehicle stream-enterers, which means we have just, started practicing the Small Vehicle, then we and people beyond the initial fruit or the first Bodhisattva-ground must put even more effort into eliminating doubts.
At this assembly, many people still had doubts. They were Small Vehicle practitioners who had just aspired to walk the Bodhisattva-path, disciples of the fourfold assembly. Therefore, they still had doubts. Sariputra, on their behalf, asked the Buddha these questions.
What are doubts? When it comes to Absolute Truth, people are hesitant by nature. They obstruct virtuous Dharma and create karma. Therefore, those who are hesitant find it hard to give rise to goodness.
“What are doubts?” What does it mean to have doubts?“When it comes to Absolute Truth, people are hesitant by nature.” These are people who are indecisive. We may ask, “Why do they constantly waver like that?” They are just hesitant and indecisive; that is one of their habitual tendencies. But those who are unable to make decisions are hindered [in learning] virtuous Dharma. If they have doubts, they cannot be firm in their faith.
People like this hinder themselves from [learning] all virtuous Dharma, This is karma. By hesitating, they find it difficult to give rise to goodness, they find it difficult to give rise to goodness, to do good deeds. We ordinary people are indecisive like this. When it comes to virtuous Dharma, we find it hard to seize and sustain it forever, and we cannot be resolute in our determination.
Therefore, our minds constantly waver. This is what ordinary minds are like. At this moment, Sariputra, on behalf of everyone, sincerely asked the Buddha to give extensive teachings. He asked the Buddha to more broadly teach and help everyone understand the skillful teachings He gave in the past and how those doors suited the capabilities of sentient beings.How do sentient beings relate the skillful means of the past to the wondrous One Vehicle Dharma? They were all wondering about this, so [Sariputra] appealed to the Buddha’s compassion to resolve their doubts, to help them have faith and understand.This also [showed] Sariputra’s compassion.
On everyone’s behalf, he said, “I still do not understand.” “Everyone still has doubts, so venerable Buddha, please teach us”. In the end, we must mindfully listen to the Dharma Listening, contemplating and practicing are very important. Helpful and virtuous friends are also very important; they can help and benefit us. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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