Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Proclaiming the Dharma According to Capabilities (方便施教 對機而演)
Date: April. 09. 2014
“Various skillful means enable all sentient beings to faithfully accept and practice [teachings] and attain benefits. Using wondrous provisional and suitable teachings, analogies and verbal expressions, He skillfully gives teachings to benefit them with knowledge and views.”
This is tells us again that the Buddha comes to the world to teach and share His enlightened state of mind with everyone, in the hope that we will attain the same awakening. But His task is not easy at all. The Buddha had no choice but to use “various skillful means,” which “enable all sentient beings to faithfully accept and practice [teachings] and attain benefits.” For all sentient beings to be able to realize the Buddha’s knowledge and views and be able to understand His intent is not easy. So, He had to use various skillful means to lead all sentient beings to faithfully accept and practice [the Dharma]. As we have said before, the Buddha’s teachings are very complete. At all times, he hopes that sentient beings can understand the true essence of the Dharma.
But sentient beings can only utilize their unenlightened minds to try to accept His noble teachings. So, the Buddha had to explain the teachings section by section. Whether He is giving immediate, gradual or perfect teachings, He hopes everyone can faithfully accept them. Only by faithfully accepting them can we benefit. If sentient beings reject [the teachings].No matter how perfect the Buddha-Dharma is, it cannot benefit sentient beings,no matter how good the Buddha-Dharma is, if we refuse to listen attentively, if we refuse to think about it carefully and do not put it into practice, even if the best teaching is right before us, we will not be able to make use of it.
So, faithful acceptance and practice are crucial. To help sentient beings attain these benefits, the Buddha used “wondrous provisional and suitable teachings, analogies and verbal expressions.” He used things, interpersonal matters and stories as analogies, as well as teachings from the Buddha’s past lives. The many causes, conditions, analogies and various verbal teachings were all taught solely to help sentient beings attain understanding and awaken their knowledge and views, so they could make use of these teachings.
Therefore, the Buddha still had to use “wondrous provisional and suitable teachings.” “Provisional” refers to provisional teachings, which are skillful means. Skillful means are also true principles; they come from the Buddha’s heart, then are analyzed and contemplated. By observing the capabilities of sentient beings and knowing what [method] is suitable for them, the Buddha will then use that particular method. Therefore, it is said, “He skillfully gives teachings to benefit them with knowledge and views.”
If he “benefits them with knowledge and views,can sentient beings really benefit from this？”If they can believe in and understand the Dharma taught by the Buddha,naturally they will develope knowledge and views.This is how He “benefits them with knowledge and views.”
In the past,when the Buddha was at City of the House of Kings, King Prasenajit listened for truths in the Buddha’s teachings,pondered it carefully and was mindful of it.He was indeed a very good disciple of the Buddha.One day,when he stilled his mind,he thought, “I constantly draw near the Buddha and feel joyful after listening to the Dharma.As a king,I set national policies.My country is truly peaceful,and many people live in harmony.I am even able to listen to the Buddha- Dharma.I feel so blessed in this life.I wonder if, in my next life,I will be able to enjoy the same blessings and the same benefits [when he asked,] ” the Buddha kindly said to him, “If you want to know whether, in your next life,you will be able to benefits in the same way,do as I said;do not be indolent. You govern your people with love,so everyone respects you.You feel very content because you are diligent,never lose focus and take the Dharma to heart.If you become indolent and grow lazy,then the Dharma will disappear.You will no longer govern with virtuous Dharma.You will then be subject to people’s contempt,criticism and hatred.So,you cannot become indolent.If you can refrain from becoming indolent,as you have been diligent in this life and attained this blessings,if you can be just as diligent in the future lifetime,you will sill attain the same great benefit in the future. ”
In fact,when we read this part of the sutra,we wonder, “Why didn’t the Buddha tell him to
not just enjoy the blessing of this world but to have the will to transcend the world？Why did he help him understand only the Worldly Truth,but not also the Absolute Truth？” The Absolute Truth is not concerned with bring the benefit of this lifetime into the next.It is about using this lifetime to truly understand true emptiness and wondrous existence.
Using a world-transcending spirit to work is the ultimate [state] .Why didn’t the Buddha take this opportunity to explain the Bodhisattva-path？
We can see from this that King Prasenajit’s spiritual aspirations were still not very firm.
This was how the Buddha taught according to capabilities.He used virtuous analogies,expressions,and skillful means to benefit people with knowledge and views.
By recognizing the extent of their capabilities,the Buddha could benefit them accordingly.
The next passage of the sutra states,“[with] analogies and verbal expressions,He proclaimed all Dharma.This Dharma cannot be understood through deliberation and discrimination;only Buddhas alone can know it.”
Previously,He used countless skillful means and various causes and conditions to come up with analogies and expressions to proclaim all Dharma.The Buddha says again here that He use various analogies and expressions to give all kinds of teachings.For sentient beings,based on their state of mind, “[this Dharma]
cannot be understood through deliberation discrimination. ”It is not something
that sentient beings,with their capabilities,can understand by listening or
contemplating.
When it comes to this wondrous Dharma, “only Buddhas alone can know it.” Only those in the Buddha’s state can understand. Every Buddha has the same intention and cannot bear to let sentient beings remain lost. All Buddhas are born to certain worlds based on Their karmic connections, but They all have the same goal, to open and reveal teachings to sentient beings, so they can realize and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and views. This is the path shared by all Buddhas.
Every Buddha sees that sentient beings have different capabilities, so They come up with various methods for different eras and environments. Based on that specific place and era, They give suitable teachings for that time. So, in different environments, They manifest different appearances. This is all Dharma.
In fact, the one teaching all Buddhas give is the principle of the ultimate reality of the OneVehicle. This is not something that sentient beings can understand with deliberation and discrimination. Only Buddhas alone can understand it. “He proclaimed all Dharma”. Let us understand how the Buddha proclaimed all Dharma using various means.
“He proclaimed all Dharma:
He skillfully gave wondrous provisional teachings and established different skillful means. [With] analogies and expressions, based on the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle, He explained the ultimate reality of all things.”
He gave “wondrous provisional teachings”. He used subtle and wondrous means to give teachings and “established different skillful means” by observing the capabilities of sentient beings. His establishing different skillful means shows that the circumstances determined the types of teachings He gave. “With the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle, He explained the ultimate reality of all things.” Although He used various wondrous provisional teachings and skillful means, regardless of the method He used to enhance each person’s understanding in His analogies and expressions, He relied on the ultimate truth of the One Vehicle to explain the ultimate reality of all things. What was this ultimate reality of the One Vehicle that He wanted to teach? The Buddha had to adapt this Dharma to tens of thousands of teachings. [This Dharma] is very deep and profound. So what is “the ultimate reality of all things?” Let us put our heart into understanding it.
“The ultimate reality of all things:
The ultimate principle, or what is called True Suchness; the embodiment of Dharma-nature, or what is called ultimate reality; the Middle Way contained in the Two Truths, Absolute and Worldly; all Dharma is inseparable from the law of karma. These are Sakyamuni’s knowledge and views, which He taught according to capabilities, but they are difficult to know and understand. The ultimate reality that the Buddha realized was the ultimate state of cessation in all things.”
This is “the ultimate principle, or what is called True Suchness”. We often say the Buddha [taught] for one great cause, to tell all of us that “everyone has a nature of True Suchness”. [Buddha-nature] is intrinsic to all of us. He hopes that we can all return to our nature of True Suchness. Indeed, True Suchness is “the ultimate principle’. We have heard many, many principles for no other purpose than to [eventually] hear the ultimate principle of reality. We have engaged in spiritual practice for a very long time, for no other purpose than to return to our nature of True Suchness. So, our nature of True Suchness is the ultimate principle of reality. At the core of that principle is “True Suchness”.
This is “the embodiment of Dharma-nature, or what is called ultimate reality”. We often talk about ultimate reality, but what is ultimate reality? Another way of describing ultimate reality is Dharma-nature, the intrinsic nature of the Dharma. The embodiment true principle is also called Dharma-nature “the embodiment of Dharma-nature.” It is like “the ultimate principle,” or what is called True Suchness.
This is the same thing. All provisional and skillful teachings, analogies and expressions, all contain [the same] central tenet. So, “the two Truths, Absolute and Worldly, both contain the principle of the Middle Way.
Whether the Buddha talks about Absolute Truth, Worldly Truth, the Truth of Emptiness or Existence, whether He speaks of emptiness or existence, the true path or the mundane, [His teachings] never deviate from the perfect Middle Way. The principle of the Middle Way teach us about “emptiness” because our attachments are too strong. Since we are attached to “existence,” the Buddha uses “emptiness,” Prajna teachings, to help us analyze how everything breaks down into nothing.
Many things, when analyzed [down to their most basic components], are fundamentally empty.When all these things are analyzed, after the four elements disperse, there is nothing there. So, the Middle Way is the perfect teaching; the most complete principle is the Middle Way He teaches emptiness to people attached to existence, and He teaches wondrous existence to those biased toward emptiness. The Middle Way is not biased toward either emptiness or existence.This is the all-encompassing teaching of the Middle Way.
“All Dharma is inseparable from the law of karma.” All of the Buddha’s teachings, whether about emptiness or existence, are inseparable from the law of karma. Although the Buddha developed various means to teach sentient beings, they still have a long way to go before realizing His core teaching.
“The ultimate reality that the Buddha realized was the ultimate state of cessation in all things.” Indeed, the Dharma realized by the Buddha was the ultimate state of cessation in all things. The ultimate state of cessation, the nature of True Suchness, is the state realized by the Buddha. “This Dharma cannot be understood through deliberation and discrimination.”We can only mindfully and earnestly experience it.
This Dharma cannot be understood through deliberation and discrimination:
Skillful means, causes and conditions and analogies given by the Buddha are all forms of the Dharma. But the True Dharma of the One Vehicle cannot be understood through deliberation and discrimination.
As I just mentioned, what we call True Suchness, or the ultimate truth, the supreme Dharma, teachings on extinction, and so on, is all actually just one [truth], It merely has many labels. These skillful means, causes, conditions and analogies are all Dharma; they are all True Dharma of the One Vehicle cannot be understood through deliberation and discrimination or contemplation. Most importantly, we must put [the Dharma] into practice.
“Only the person who drinks the water knows the water’s actual temperature.” It is that simple. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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