Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Practice Wondrous Dharma to Enter Bodhi (勤修妙法菩提)
Date: July. 16. 2014
Diligently cultivate joy and plant blessings. Listen to and take the Dharma to heart to develop wisdom-life. Uphold precepts and rules to protect life. With wondrous Great Vehicle Dharma, enter Bodhi.
In learning the Buddha’s Way, we must nurture a sense of joy every day. Our lives are actually very short. Within this short lifetime, we must understand well the principles of life. What is there to take issue over? We must seize every moment, live joyfully and find ways to help others. If we can help others every day, we will live a most joyful life. So, spiritual practice requires us to “diligently cultivate joy” and “plant blessings” by helping others. This is what we need to work on. Every day we must practice this. How do we engage in this spiritual practice? If we feel joy no matter who we see and are willing to give to and help everyone, we are continuously planting blessings. This is a method of spiritual practice.
I often say we must form good and joyous affinities. This comes from following the Buddha’s teachings. Knowing the karmic law of cause and effect, we cultivate good causes and form good affinities. So, spiritual happens in daily living. When we hear the Dharma ,we take it to heart to develop our wisdom-life. We must place great value on growing our wisdom-life. Our life in this world is very short. Our wisdom-life has been with us since Beginningless Time. It is our intrinsic nature of True Suchness, something we have always had. We have just lost sight of it, so now we must find it again. To do this, we must “listen to and take the Dharma to heart.”
If Dharma-essence enters and nourishes our minds, our wisdom-life can be reawakened and our nature of True Suchness can be roused. So, we must practice diligently. “Uphold precepts and rules to protect life”.
Actually, in everything we do every day, we must “uphold precepts and rules to protect life.” Lay practitioners who join our practice here often share, “When we were working [in the fields], the Dharma Masters taught us many ways to protect the plants and care for the land. When planting [seedlings] and digging up soil, we must be careful because there are tiny beings.” Look at how we maintain the beauty of this landscape, even planting vegetables and trees help create this nature landscape. Do vegetables contribute to the landscape? Yes, before we harvest them, people can see how beautiful an entire field of vegetables can be. Since tending to vegetable fields contributes to creating the landscape of the countryside, there is joy farming.
Although we are working outdoors and planting crops, we can still derive joy from this process. Take a look at our Dalin [Tzu Chi Hospital]. We encouraged our doctors, nurses and staff of the hospital to plant rice. One time they planted the rice in a pattern, so when it reached a certain height, it displayed the Tzu Chi logo. When this Tzu Chi logo was photographed from a great height, it looked as if the earth was imprinted with a giant Tzu Chi logo. The lotus flower and seedpod [of the logo] were formed by rice stalks.
When they saw this image a few months later, they were very happy.This is how people can shape the land.People can cultivate grains.Grains can provide those who plant them with so much happiness.This is also a way for us to protect the land while using it to help others.The land can be very vibrant.To achieve this, we must plant in an organized manner.If we are organized in certain this image, the rice stalks will grow in this image.So, “the mind is like an artist”.We must be very meticulous.The image we want to create determines the way we plant [the rice], then the rice will grow and generate that image.This then inspires a sense of joy in everyone.
So, “diligently cultivate joy”.When we “diligently cultivate joy and plant blessings, with wondrous Great Vehicle Dharma, [we] enter Bodhi”.Isn’t this what Great Vehicle Dharma is about?We benefit ourselves and others.When we are happy, everyone is happy.With a healthy body and mind, we take joy in this land.
In our lives, we seize every moment to create [good karma].This is how we must act.
In Vancouver, Canada, Tzu Chi volunteers held a very special celebration.They were celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tzu Chi in Canada.Back in 1992, they established a Tzu Chi regional office there and began to learn about the people there and that vast land.Then, with others who immigrated from Taiwan, since they shared a common language, they began to tell them about Tzu Chi and sowed the seeds of love.
In the eastern part of Vancouver, there was a care home called Little Mountain Place.
Many of its residents were from China; they accounted for 30 percent of the residents.
These seniors were very lonely because there was a language barrier and they were not used to foods like toast and bread.
So, the Tzu Chi volunteers began to talk to the staff at the home about allowing them to cook a meal for these seniors once a week.The director of the home happily agreed.
So once a week, the volunteers cooked Chinese food there, all vegetarian.They really put their hearts into cooking for the seniors.The seniors really enjoyed the food, and those who cooked were also very happy, so they kept doing it.
In 2012, on September 20th, they served their 1000th meal.So, they held a “Little Mountain Place Thanksgiving Feast.”They said they served about 50 people each time, so 1000 times equals 50,000 meals.Everyone was very happy, and the staff also gave Tzu Chi an award to express their gratitude.There was also an 80-year-old Bodhisattva named Le-xin（Joyful Heart）.
She went with Tzu Chi volunteers to the home.Besides knowing English, she speaks Mandarin as well as Cantonese.She depending on which language these seniors understand, she speaks to them in that language.When shares many Jing Si Aphorisms with them and explains them using the Bible and sutras.This woman is over 80, and she is fluent in several languages.She even understands both Christian and Buddhist scriptures very thoroughly.So, she uses these scriptures to explain the principles of life contained in Jing Si Aphorisms.By doing so, she brings happiness to the seniors.
Since she is advanced in age, she is even helping people younger than her.These volunteers are truly people who “diligently cultivate joy and plant blessings”.Every day, they are very happy because they are serving others.Having an agile mind makes them happy.Being physically energetic makes them happy.Helping people and seeing their satisfaction also makes them happy.
In summary, this kind of spiritual practice in the world can be very meaningful as long as we are mindful.So, previously we mentioned that we should have penetrating mind and take the Buddha-mind as our own mind to uphold purifying precepts.We must mindfully listen to the Dharma. When the Dharma enters our minds, we can apply it in many ways. As long as we listen carefully to the Dharma, we can “grasp one truth and understand all truths”. One Dharma can apply to thousands of matters.
Aren’t the elderly Bodhisattvas [in Canada] serving the senior residents and example of this? So, they are very happy when they serve others and feel at ease and free afterward. This is how they are “filled with great joy”. The Buddha “knows the working of their minds”. With the mindset they had, the Buddha is in their minds, and the Dharma is in their actions. When the Buddha-mind is in the workings of their minds and the Dharma is in their daily living, the Buddha knew that these people could accept the Great Vehicle Dharma. They already have a Buddha-mind and have cultivated Bodhisattva-practices.
So, the Buddha began to teach the great Dharma. Now we will continue to discuss, “When Hearers and Bodhisattvas hear the teaching I will give, from a single verse, they will become Buddhas, without a doubt”.
We can clearly understand this [sutra] verse. Since the Buddha patiently guides sentient beings according to their capabilities, He helps them understand that there is only the One Vehicle Dharma. So, they must listen carefully to this One Vehicle Dharma to learn how to enter the great, broad Bodhi-path. In their midst, there were both Hearers and Bodhisattvas. Let us understand “Hearers and Bodhisattvas”. What is the difference between them? Hearers were Small Vehicle practitioners. By listening to the Buddha’s teachings, they realized the Four Noble Truths.
We have always said that when the Buddha began to give teachings, He started by teaching the Four Noble Truths, to help them understand that life is suffering and that nine out of ten things will not go their way. This helps them to first realize the world is impermanent and full of suffering. Then they will delight in seeking true principles. After they understand them, they can eliminate the delusion of views and thinking.
“Views” can also mean perspective. We all have different perspectives. Sentient beings each have different views, so their perspectives are also different, and [their actions] may be good or evil. When we see something and become greedy, our minds give rise to ignorance. This comes from “thinking”, from the infinitesimal changes in our minds. External phenomena enter our minds through “views”. They causes thoughts to arise in our minds; thus our minds become calculating. Then because of our ignorance, we create karma. These are “delusions of views and thinking,” which is ignorance.
So, Small Vehicle practitioners eliminated their “delusions of views and thinking”. Unwholesome things such as ignorance will cause us to create afflictions and evil karma. This is wrong, so we must quickly stop it. By doing this, Small Vehicle practitioners can enter into Nirvana. This comes from purifying their minds.
I often tell everyone that Nirvana is not the same thing as death. It is a state of tranquility in our minds. By eliminating afflictions and discursive thoughts we can return our minds to a state of tranquility. This is Nirvana. Then we will not give rise to so many discursive thoughts. This is done by Buddhist practitioners with limited capabilities who are Small Vehicle practitioners, or Hearers.
“Hearers: Hearers are Small Vehicle practitioners. By listening to the Buddha’s teachings, they realize the Four Noble Truths, eliminate the delusions of views and thinking and enter Nirvana. Among Buddhist practitioners, they are the ones with limited capabilities”.
What about bodhisattvas? They are beings with great spiritual aspirations. Those with “spiritual aspirations” are “people with great aspirations to seek the Path”. They sincerely seek to practice the Path; they are not casual about it. They truly want to practice and make the [Four] Great Vows, “to deliver countless sentient beings” and so on. Sentient beings with great spiritual aspirations truly have the intention to seek the Path.
So, they are “beings with great spiritual aspirations”. To seek the Path is to seek great awakening, not just a limited awakening. They do not only seek for recognize afflictions. Recognizing and eliminating afflictions and then diligently doing what should be done is what it means to have great spiritual aspirations. The Buddha wants to widely transform sentient beings, so Buddhist practitioners must emulate Him in this. Therefore, they “cultivate teachings that benefit themselves and others”. Thus they are Bodhisattvas.
“Bodhisattvas: are beings with great spiritual aspirations. They have great aspirations to seek the Path, so they are beings with great spiritual aspirations. Those who seek the path to great awakening cultivate teachings that benefit themselves and others.”
“Hear the teachings I will give” means, “The Tathagata gave great and small, perfect and partial, teachings. All of them enable sentient beings to realize and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and views.”
The Great Vehicle is perfect teaching. The Small [Vehicle] is a partial teaching. Sentient beings are still not capable of entering the great Bodhi-path, so they were guided along side roads. The Small Vehicle is like the small roads, which are more gradual was of guiding people. The Buddha teaches in this way, so that everyone, whether they practice the Small or Great Vehicle, have limited capabilities or great aspirations, can all be guided. Naturally, all these teachings then “enable sentient beings to realize and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and views”.
Actually, if we are Small Vehicle practitioners, the Buddha hopes that we can enter the great path. The Buddha hopes, in His heart, that everyone can attain Buddhahood. So, when it comes to Small Vehicle practitioners, the Buddha still guides them with compassion. For those who formed great aspirations and vows, the Buddha has the same hopes. Whether He is giving great, partial, small or perfect teachings, it is all for the sake of giving complete teachings, so they will not always be walking the side roads and will eventually enter the great path, the path to perfect enlightenment. Therefore, when the Buddha teaches the Dharma, He hopes everyone can “realize the enter” His knowledge and views. To realize the Buddha’s knowledge and views is a bit difficult. Yet the Buddha did not give up on sentient beings. He still used various means to guide them. Sentient beings with sharp capabilities, upon hearing one verse or one sentence, can attain clear understanding. But those with limited capabilities and wisdom need more time and guidance [to understand]. This comes “from a single verse”.
This comes from a single verse: The verse states that the Sanskrit word gatha means “hymn”. Sutra verses can have lines that vary from five to seven characters, but a single verse is always made up of four lines.
One of the Nine Divisions of Teachings that I mentioned previously is gatha, which are verses.Some people can be awakened with just one verse. So, those who hear one thing and realize 1000 are people with great capabilities. Some sutra verses have four or five characters, up to seven or eight, per line. But whenever four lines are assembled together, that is considered a verse. “Hearing a verse,” something as short as a verse or phrase, can lead to thorough understanding. So whether the Buddha taught great Dharma or limited teachings, some people have to listen to very long teachings and then progress slowly, step by step.
Some can learn short teachings and fully comprehend all the principles. They are Bodhisattvas with sharp capabilities “With penetrating minds,” they are always “mindful of the Buddha,” so the workings of their minds do not deviate from the Buddha or the Dharma.
We are on the Path, so we will “become Buddhas, without a doubt” To attain Buddhahood, Bodhisattvas must cultivate the Six Paramitas. By ultimately perfecting their myriad actions, they can become Buddhas and “attain supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment”. This is becoming a Buddha.
When we listen to the Dharma, we must have faith and not doubts. If we have faith and not doubts, then our minds can directly penetrate the Buddha’s original intent. How can we understand the Buddha’s knowledge and views? The Buddha’s knowledge and views allow sentient beings minds to reflect His mind.
Then the Buddha can enter our minds, and the Dharma can enter our actions. In the workings of our minds, we must believe these principles. When we have faith and not doubts, naturally we can easily enter the Path. The Bodhisattva’s spiritual practice requires single-minded commitment. We must diligently practice and never become lax. All this arises from our minds, so we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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