Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Transform Others with Initial Enlightenment (道場始覺悟道化他)
Date: October. 30. 2014
“Initial enlightenment is intrinsic and everlasting. By sustaining our initial aspiration, we see our nature. By deeply contemplating and carefully practicing according to the Dharma, we can realize the path to awakening and transform others.”
I want to share with everyone, initial enlightenment is intrinsic and everlasting. So, Buddha-nature is something we have always had. But being lost in cyclic existence in the Six Realms, we have forgotten this. Our intrinsic enlightenment has become covered by our ignorance and afflictions. The Buddha began His manifestation in this world by being born into the palace and [later] engaging in spiritual practice. After a period of tough spiritual practice, He eventually attained enlightenment. That enlightenment was His “initial enlightenment.” This initial enlightenment is intrinsic to every one of us, but we have lost knowledge of it for a very long period of time. Therefore, to teach this to sentient beings, the Buddha manifested in the world. He was born and raised by parents, and grew up observing people, situations, objects and so on until He finally realized why there is birth and death in the world. And in between birth and death, the people and situations He saw were filled with suffering. To teach us about these things, the Buddha lived in this world as we do.
In this way, He led us on the path of spiritual practice. Because this was His process of spiritual practice, and because He realized the suffering of life, He sought out the path to enlightenment, and eventually, He became enlightened. This was His “initial enlightenment.” After He became enlightened, He realized that we all intrinsically have an awakened nature.
Thus, “initial enlightenment is intrinsic everlasting.” This [initial enlightenment] has always existed. And it has always existed not only in the Buddha, but also in every one of us. All Buddhas were once human beings. If They can become enlightened and attain Buddhahood, as long we aspire to engage in spiritual practice, we can also attain Buddhahood. Therefore, “By sustaining our initial aspiration, we see our nature.”
If we can develop our aspirations, we can be like the Buddha and attain sudden enlightenment. We have that same [potential] within us. So I often say, “If we sustain our initial aspiration, we will surely attain Buddhahood.” We will absolutely reach the state of the Buddha. Therefore, we must “deeply contemplate and carefully practice according to the Dharma.”
Since we want to engage in spiritual practice, we need to put our hearts into it and have faith in the teachings of the Buddha. We believe in the Buddha, so we need to think about how, in this world and in our own lives, we can follow in His footsteps with the same firm resolve as Him. We must contemplate this with deep faith.
In our daily living, we must be vigilant, self-disciplined and reverent. Every single day, I appeal to all of you to be self-disciplined and reverent. This is called “deeply contemplating and carefully practicing.” We must follow the Dharma. In our daily living, we need to follow rules and abide by the Dharma. If we can follow the rules, in our daily lives we can “realize the path to awakening” and can also “transform others.” Not only can we awaken ourselves, we can thoroughly understand principles, as well as transform others. We must be mindful about this.
We must realize the Buddha’s care for us.Indeed, He had already attained Buddhahood, but when causes and conditions matured, He manifested the attainment of Buddhahood.He had to spend a period of time to lead us to follow in His footsteps.So, the previous sutra passage explained that because we sentient beings transmigrate endlessly in the Six Realms, we have lost awareness of our pure intrinsic nature.This pure intrinsic nature is covered by ignorance and afflictions.Knowing that life is suffering, we want to engage in spiritual practice.
However, a tiny deviation can lead us far off course.Thus we develop and “are deeply immersed in deviant views”.This is what we discussed yesterday.People want to transcend the suffering in this world.However, planting causes of suffering in order to reap the fruits of blessing is impossible.This is why the Buddha came to guide all beings.He helped us realize that we cannot receive blessings by causing [ourselves] suffering.Our of His great compassion, He used various methods in coming to this world to transform sentient beings.
Instead they are immersed in deviant views, hoping to shed suffering through suffering.For the sake of these sentient beings, I give rise to great compassion.
In the following passage, the Buddha stated, “When I first sat in this place of enlightenment. I contemplated this tree and walked in meditation. Of three periods of seven days, I thought over matters such as these. The wisdom which I achieved is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.”
For this passage, we need to understand that the Buddha said when I first sat in this place of enlightenment.So, “I” was the Buddha referring to Himself first sitting in this place of enlightenment.This was the start of His “initial enlightenment,” which began at this place.
“When I first sat” sets a time, yet there is no beginning or end to ultimate truth.This illusory concept of time is used to transform others.
Actually, we should say it is without beginning or end.We cannot say when it began, or when it will end.Nobody can say exactly when it began because it was too long ago.
If we were to analyze the word “kalpa,” which is a very long period of time, it is impossible for us to say when it began.
But this passage states, “When I first sat in this place of enlightenment” which implies that the principles are also endless and limitless.Similarly, we all have intrinsic Buddha-nature.When did our Buddha-nature arise?The Buddha tells us we all have it intrinsically.As for when it began, there is no way to give a specific time.The Buddha repeatedly comes to this world, and no one knows how long this has been happening.
Even with the Buddha’s Jataka Sutra, we are still unable to determine how much time He has spent here in past lives.We do not know.Basically, there is no beginning or end to this.
However, worldly things have beginnings.At our birth into this world, the moment our mothers felt the first contraction signaled that we were about to be born.This is how we entered this world.The Buddha had already attained enlightenment, thoroughly penetrated the nature of enlightenment.However, in order to help we follow Him, He purposely came back and became like us, and started from the state of unenlightened beings.Just like us, He was born to His parents and then raised by them.
Later, He left to engage in spiritual practice and then came back to share His experiences.This began at that moment of enlightenment.Thus He could say, “When I first sat in this place of enlightenment.”Time has no beginning and no end.The same applies to principles.The true principles of all things in the universe have always existed; we cannot say when they began.
However, we do need to use this illusory concept of time to transform others.By describing how causes and conditions [converged] at a certain time, we can transform sentient beings.Where is this place of enlightenment?“When I first sat in this place of enlightenment.”Where is this place of enlightenment?In the Kingdom of Magadha.
His place of enlightenment was in the Kingdom of Magadha, not far from the Niranjan River.At the beginning He sat in spiritual practice here and attained Bodhi under the tree.He was grateful for the kindness of the tree and the virtue of the land, thus He said “When I first sat” and “contemplate this tree”
Everybody knows that the Buddha engaged in ascetic practices. Then He realized that His six years of ascetic practice did not help Him in penetrating the true principles of the universe. He still could not clearly understand them. So, He felt that to engage only in ascetic practice was not right, and He needed to turn to another method of spiritual practice. Therefore, He left Uruvilva, but still remained in the Kingdom of Magadha. Soon after He left Uruvilva, the Buddha bathed in the Niranjan River. Because He had long engaged in ascetic practice, the Buddha was malnourished. Therefore, after He finished bathing and came ashore, He was not able to remain standing. Because He was human, being malnourished made Him light-headed and He fainted there. A shepherdess whose sheep were grazing nearby, saw this practitioner who had collapsed. She approached Him and saw a very thin person. She realized that His hunger and thirst must have made Him physically weak.
So, she quickly milked some of the sheep and fed Him their milk. After the Buddha awoke, He was very grateful. Thus His strength was restored, and He walked toward the Bodhi-tree and sat on a rock beneath the tree. After sitting down He vowed, “If I cannot attain enlightenment at this place. I will never leave here”.
Then He began to practice under the tree. The shepherdess came at mealtimes to offer Him milk from the sheep. After seven periods of seven days, He gradually recovered His physical strength and spirits and gradually realized things about the world and the universe. He realized things about His surroundings and people, matters and objects in the world. Eventually, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, He saw the morning star at night and thus attained enlightenment.
This is the place the Buddha engaged in spiritual practice. He practiced sitting meditation. He silently engaged in contemplation in that place until He attained Bodhi. Afterwards, He was grateful to the tree for providing shelter from the sun and the wind so He could practice in peace at this place for spiritual cultivation. It allowed Him to focus on His practice. Therefore, He was grateful for the grace of the tree and the virtue of the earth, as well as for the offerings of the shepherdess. All of these allowed Him to peacefully engage in spiritual practice. Thus, in this place of enlightenment, He mindfully focused on contemplating the tree.
As He sat, He engaged in silent contemplation. He was not sitting for the entire 21 days. Just like other people, He engaged in sitting and walking meditation to contemplate the tree and its surroundings. This brought peace to His mind, so He was in a tranquil and clear state. At that time, in that state, this was the Buddha’s place of enlightenment. Thus He said, “When I first sat in this place of enlightenment, I contemplated this tree and walked in meditation”. Where is the true place of enlightenment? Actually, it is not just in Magadha at the Bodhi-tree by the Niranjan River. Actually, right now any place,
“where we make offering to Buddhas and Sangha, and where the Dharma is transmitted and accepted is called a place of enlightenment. Also, a place where monastics engage in spiritual practice together and lead the assembly in discussion of the Path is also called a place of enlightenment.”
For us as monastics practitioners, the place where we advance the Buddha-Dharma and guide the assembly is called a place of enlightenment. It is our spiritual training ground of compassion. Any place with the Buddha, Sangha and Dharma is a spiritual training ground. After the Buddha attained Buddhahood, at the place of His enlightenment, “for three periods of seven days, [He thought over matters such as these”.
“For three periods of seven days, I thought over matters such as these: After the Buddha attained enlightenment, for a period of 21 days, He contemplated and walked in meditation, thinking about how to teach the wondrous Dharma to transform sentient beings”.
At this place of enlightenment, the Buddha spent three periods of seven days, 21 days, in deep contemplation. What exactly was He thinking about during these 21 days? At that place, He “contemplated this tree and walked in meditation”. He looked at this tree and engaged in deep thinking. For a period of 21 days, He repeated these actions. He was very mindful and calmed His mind. As He sat in mediation, He engaged in deep and silent contemplation. Then He stood up and walked around. He looked at His surrounding. He looked at the tree. There were sounds of birds chirping. There was sun and rain; sunny days and rainy days. And there were also moments where the spring breeze blew gently. Sometimes the wind was strong and the tree rustled loudly, and so on. He experienced all kinds of states in 21 days. In that place, He mindfully contemplated the natural laws of the universe.Then He thoroughly understood the true principles of all things in the universe. All this penetrated His mind and was etched into His heart. The Dharma of all things entered into His deep contemplation.
After thoroughly understanding everything, while He was in this tranquil state, He thought, “After gaining understanding of so many principles and penetrating the subtle and intricate Dharma underlying all things, how can I transmit this Dharma to others? How do I teach the Dharma in order to transform sentient beings?” This thought occurred after He attained Buddhahood. Indeed, His state of mind “truly encompassed the universe and all the worlds within it.” All the worlds were completely open to Him. This state of mind is truly hard to describe.
The Buddha felt that there were so many principles in the universe. How could He help all these sentient beings who were so filled with afflictions to realize their intrinsic enlightened nature? How could He explain this so that they could comprehend it? This is what He contemplated for 21days.
Indeed, it is very hard to analyze His state of mind at that time. What causes and conditions allowed the Buddha to fully awaken His enlightened nature? This is not something that can be described in words because we have not pulled back our [layers of] ignorance; we remain covered by them. So how can we possibly realize that state of tranquility and clarity? That is very difficult.
Therefore, the Buddha established means. How did He come up with these means? He contemplated for 21 days. The principles He came up with were very profound, so we need to seize the moment to understand His thinking from this period. At this moment, we need to think carefully about why the Buddha put aside the ascetic practices He had engaged in and how, after He bathed, His body could not physically support Him and He fainted by the river. We may ask how this could happen to the Buddha. The Buddha was a human being and so He needed nutrients.
During this period of spiritual practice, the Buddha was grateful to the tree and the land. Of course, He was grateful for the sheep milk that was provided so that He could recover a bit of strength every day.
Only after He was [healthy] could His wisdom be gradually unlocked. This is what things were like for the Buddha before He attained enlightenment. The Buddha was grated for the tree’s grace and the land’s virtues. What about us? Shouldn’t we should also always feel this sense of gratitude? Everyone, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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