Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Deeply Penetrate the Dharma-Essence (深心入法髓)
Date: July. 14. 2014
As we learn and accept the Buddha’s teachings, we are nourished by the Dharma. This profound, wondrous and true wisdom leads us to the Great Vehicle. Dharma-essence enters our minds and nourishes our wisdom-life. Our intrinsic True Suchness is natural.
In order to learn the Buddha’s Way, we must take the Dharma to heart. Not only must we take the Dharma to heart, we must also put it into practice. This is how we learn and accept the Buddha’s teachings so the Dharma can nourish our minds. Listening to the Dharma will nourish our minds. This is how we accept teachings.
When we take the Dharma to heart, we must fully accept it. So, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must accept teachings, take them to heart and develop profound and wondrous true wisdom. So, our spiritual practice now is to eliminate our ignorance, layer by layer, and to unearth the true wisdom that has been deeply buried in our minds. Thought we all intrinsically have it, we must work very hard [to find it].
If we do not diligently eliminate our ignorance, even though we intrinsically have Buddha-wisdom, we will not be able to exercise it. So, we must use the Buddha’s teachings to nourish our minds and begin working hard to eliminate [ignorance]. Whatever the Dharma that we accept teaches us, we must follow it accordingly in order to eliminate the layers of ignorance in our minds. Thus, we must uphold and practice the Great Vehicle teachings. In the past, the Buddha patiently guided us to teach us the law of karma and to help us understand that our minds are the source of suffering.
One ignorant thought gives rise to greed, anger, delusion, interpersonal conflict and issue with others. This leads to much suffering. Thus, the Buddha wanted us to understand that suffering is caused by the accumulation of various causes and conditions. After we understand this, we must always be vigilant of our thoughts [and practice] precepts, Samadhi and wisdom. When we face interpersonal conflicts, how do we decide what to do? If there is something we can do to help others, we must put it into action immediately. This is how we can benefit others. If we encounter negative matters, we must find a way to steady ourselves and not be influenced by unwholesome conditions. This is the teaching the Buddha patiently gave to help us understand.
We already understand His teachings and have already aspired to stay away from erroneous or unwholesome things. We must not be further defiled and must not create more [bad karma]. Now is the time to turn toward virtuous Dharma, which we must promptly cultivate to benefit sentient beings. This is what makes it virtuous Dharma. Virtuous Dharma arises from profound, wondrous and true wisdom. When we cultivate profound, wondrous and true wisdom, we will practice loving-kindness and compassion. With kindness, we exercise compassion. Exercising the Four Infinite Minds as we interact with others is part of the Great Vehicle teachings. In the past, the Buddha used provisional teachings to patiently guide us. He did that until this point in time, when He used the True Dharma, which is the Dharma-essence. This essence is very refined. We use various Dharma to purity our minds, to help our wisdom-life grow and make it healthy.
So, we must take in the Dharma-essence.Every day we listen to teachings, so after a long time we should know that throughout our lives, the Dharma is continuously nourishing our minds.But not only do we need to be nourished by the Dharma, we must also continuously work hard to apply it.If we can work hard to absorb the Dharma and also apply it, the realizations we retain are the Dharma-essence.
Recently, many volunteers from various places have come back to the Abode for a short time to practice and work with us.
I feel very grateful each time I listen to them share their experiences.They learn more from this than they would at a Seven-day Buddhist retreat.Aside from the weeding, they also use hoes to dig into the ground.They do this to create beds of vegetables and create drainage for each bed.When they sow seeds, they also have to sow them in a straight lines, so they will sprout in neat rows.
Why do we need to grow them so neatly?This is also Dharma.There is Dharma of farming, of being mindful, and of respecting nature; these are all Dharma.As we sow the seeds into the ground, we must be very mindful and arrange the fields in very straight [rows].This shows we are engaging in spiritual practice with a straightforward mind.
As each seed is planted in our minds, we must not allow any to deviate.
[In the field,] when weeds grow, people must do some weeding.As they pull weeds, Dharma Masters from the abode accompany them.As they work together, the masters tell them, “These are such-and –such weeds.”“After we pull them, we can bury them and turn them into fertilizer.Some weeds must be uprooted completely.If we do not completely uproot these kinds of weeds, they will grow again very quickly.”
This is how the world is used as an example to expound the Dharma.Diligent practitioners can learn the Dharma from [everything in] the world.This happens when Dharma-essence enters our minds.In this way, we prevent each other from allowing weeds and discursive thoughts to arise in the mind.This is how we can live in harmony.
This is all Dharma.
The Buddha-Dharma is inseparable from worldly phenomena.We must accept the Dharma and apply it in our lives as we [peacefully] coexist with all things in the world.
Then the Dharma is in our hearts.Thus, “Our intrinsic True Suchness is natural.”
Intrinsic True Suchness has always been thus; it is unconditioned Dharma.It has been with us for lifetimes in the past, and is here now and will be in the future; life after life it will not arise or cease.It follows us life after life.Our Buddha-nature is a very natural thing.
Since Beginningless Time, it has stayed with us, lifetime after lifetime.However, life after life, we have been defiled by habitual tendencies and covered by ignorance.The Buddha-Dharma is rarely encountered and human form is rarely attained.
Can we remain in human form, life after life?After we attain, are born into this human form, are we tainted by unwholesome things?Or are we cleansed by virtuous Dharma?
This depends on our past causes and conditions.We have likely created some good ones so that in this life, we can be born human and receive the Dharma.
[To return to] our Buddha-nature, at this time, we must work even harder to eliminate our ignorance and take the Dharma-essence into our minds.This nourishes our minds so our seeds, our intrinsic nature, can be nourished and can grow quickly.This is the nature of True Suchness.
After the Dharma-essence enters our minds we must use it is nourish our wisdom-life.
Our Buddha-nature has always been non-arising and non-ceasing.It is naturally with us life after life.So, a previous passage from the Lotus Sutra mentioned, “In the presence of countless Buddhas.”The Buddha engaged in spiritual practice in the presence of countless past Buddhas.We were probably also in the presence of countless Buddhas in the past. This also shows we are intrinsically equal to Buddhas.
But Sakyamuni Buddha has already attained Buddhahood, while we are still ordinary people. We must look at whether we have truly made great vows. After making great vows, are we diligently practicing without wasting a moment of our time and sustaining this mindset? We must sustain this mindset and not allow it to be disrupted by anything. Then nothing evil can find its way in. The Buddha was able to attain Buddhahood because He firmly upheld virtuous Dharma and did not become defiled by evil things that could disrupt His goodness.
Right now, we must also do the same. In the past, we may have done both good and evil; we created a mix of both. So, we are still ignorant and ordinary people. We must quickly understand what evil is so we will not be defiled by it. Then we will be completely good. Time is like a long river that flows from the past to the present. The Buddha walked this profound, wondrous path.
For the sake of His disciples, His one great cause, life after life, is to give the Great Vehicle teachings. Everything He did paved a road for them. Although they had engaged in spiritual practice in the past, now their causes and conditions had ripened. At the time of the Lotus assembly, the Buddha was about to teach the Great Vehicle. As He began giving the Lotus teachings, He even made predictions for His disciples and told them they would certainly attain Buddhahood in the future. He verified that all of us can become Buddhas. This was stated in a previous passage.
And who, in the presence of countless Buddhas, have walked the profound and wondrous path. For these Buddha-children, I give the Great Vehicle teachings. I predict that people who practice such teachings, in a future life, will attain Buddhahood.
Next we will talk about how, “with penetrating minds, they are mindful of the Buddha and uphold purifying precepts. When they hear they can attain Buddhahood, they are filled with great joy. Knowing the working of their minds, I teach them the Great Vehicle”.
This passage tells us that when causes and conditions ripen, we can all become Buddhas, because we already have the foundation for the Great Vehicle. Now He wants to help us further understand that the Great Vehicle Dharma must be put into practice. So, He began teaching the Bodhisattva-path. Practicing the Bodhisattva-path is walking the great, direct Bodhi-path.
As long as we are diligent, we will ultimately reach the state of the Buddha. Therefore, with a penetrating mind, we must make an effort to find the Buddha of our nature. I constantly talk about the Three Treasures of our nature. We have the Buddha in our nature, the Dharma in our nature and the Sangha in our nature. The Three Treasures are in all of us. It is not only monastics who are in the Sangha. We do not have to be monastics to attain true Dharma. Actually, lay practitioners also grow in wisdom. Lay practitioners also have the Three Treasures in their nature. This is also not just limited to human beings. Every sentient being in the universe has the Three Treasures in their nature. However, we have lost sight of the Three Treasures of our nature. So from now on, our minds must be penetrating.
We really must delve deeply into things and not be like duckweed on the water’s surface. We must plant the seeds deeply in the ground to grow into big trees. They must be planted in the earth and take root. Wasn’t there a period of time when we talked extensively about roots? To have the Root of Faith, our faith must deeply penetrate our minds. Therefore, we must firmly believe that we can attain Buddhahood in the future. However, those who are indolent will quit. Can overbearingly arrogant people attain Buddhahood? They do not have deep faith. At the Vulture Peak assembly those who remained to listen to the teachings had deep faith, giving them penetrating minds.
They all believed that everyone intrinsically has a Buddha-nature the intrinsic Three Treasures. We cannot just say, “I have faith” and let that be it. When we have faith, we must respect the intrinsic Buddha-nature deep within ourselves. We must respect ourselves. If we do not respect and love ourselves, we will easily demean ourselves. We must not demean ourselves because we should know that we each have an intrinsic Buddha-nature that is worthy of respect.
So, with a penetrating mind, we must be mindful of the Buddha of our nature. We must “uphold purifying precepts.” We must be mindful of the Buddha of our nature and not demean ourselves. So, we must uphold purifying precepts. If we uphold purifying precepts, we will not be influenced by evil things. We must guard against wrongs and stop evils. We must avoid dong bad things with our bodies. We must keep erroneous thoughts from arising in our minds. Therefore, we must guard against wrongs.
If something is not right, we must avoid doing it. If something is evil, we must quickly stop it. This is called upholding precepts.Therefore, we must uphold purifying precepts and become very pure. This is how we can be mindful of the Buddha with a penetrating mind and respect our intrinsic Buddha-nature.There is a Buddha in our nature. We must protect this Buddha of our nature and not allow it to defiled.
Therefore we must uphold purifying precepts. “When they hear they can attain Buddhahood.” People like this can take the Dharma to heart after listening to it. Then their Buddha-nature will naturally surface.
So, in “they hear that they attain Buddhahood, “they” refers to the people who stayed in the Buddha’s lifetime to listen to the Great Vehicle Dharma. So, I hope all of you can be like these people. We can all be mindful of the Buddha, with penetrating mind, and uphold purifying precepts. After listening to the Dharma, we can further affirm the Buddha of our nature.Thus, we attain [Buddhahood]. Thus, we are “filled with great joy.” We will be happy and full Dharma-joy. After listening, we feel very happy. But aside from being happy, we must be steadfast. By working hard at our spiritual practice, we can truly transcend this world and all our troubling afflictions. Although we are afflicted, we are like lotus flowers growing out of the mud, pure, undefiled and very happy. If we do not allow evil things to trouble us, we will be happy.
If evil things trouble us or if we are tempted by them, we will become very depressed. Our hearts will be heavy. If we can take the Dharma to heart, regardless of the troubles we face in this world, we can guard against wrongs, stop evils and avoid constantly making mistakes. Then the Dharma can continue to enter our minds, and we will be “filled with great joy.”
“Knowing the workings of their minds” means the Buddha knew that these people’s minds were already very pure. These people had already accepted teachings and used the Dharma to nourish their minds. He also knew that these people had profound and wondrous true wisdom. By accepting the Great Vehicle Dharma, they nourished their wisdom-life with Dharma-essence. As for their minds and actions, once the Dharma-essence nourished them, the activities of their bodies and minds had already been united with the Dharma.
So, He “teaches them the Great Vehicle.” At the Lotus Dharma-assembly, the Buddha began to teach the Great Vehicle to those who had deep faith in the great Dharma. Dear Bodhisattvas, we must be mindful. We are Bodhisattvas and have a Buddha in our nature. We must quickly put the teachings into practice. If we do not [see] this Bodhisattva-path, even if we have a Buddha in our nature, we still cannot reach the state of Buddhas. Therefore, just as the Buddha began to expound Great Vehicle Dharma, people must be mentally prepared to take their first steps on the Bodhisattva-path, the wondrous Dharma that benefits all.
Everyone, we must know that we intrinsically have Buddha-nature and must walk the Bodhisattva-path. Therefore, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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