Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: The Twenty-one Days of Contemplation (三七日思惟)
Date: October. 31. 2014
“The Buddha vowed to sit in mediation under the tree and engage in still contemplation until He attained Bodhi. Then He silently contemplated ways to transform sentient beings according to their capabilities and inspire them with loving-kindness and tremendous grace. He contemplated the tree, walked in meditation, and was grateful for the kindness of the tree and the virtue of the land.”
This tells everyone that when the Buddha engaged in spiritual practice, He waited until karmic conditions had matured, and then sat under the Bodhi-tree. As He began to sit in meditation, He made the following vow. “As I sit upon this Diamond Throne, if I do not achieve perfect enlightenment I will never leave this place.” He made use of every single second to engage in still contemplation of the principles of all things in the world, as well as the phenomena of this world and of the universe. He engaged in silent contemplation, and finally, through wholehearted concentration, He penetrated the truth of all things in the universe.
So, “He engaged in still contemplation until He attained Bodhi.” Bodhi is the path to enlightenment. He connected His mind to the path of the universe and thoroughly understood it. Having attained Bodhi, He understood all truths of the universe. Then He silently contemplated the methods of transforming sentient beings. Upon understanding the truths, the Dharma He realized was so expansive. This is such great Dharma; how could He begin to give this great teaching to sentient beings? How should He teach the Dharma in a way that could be accepted by all beings? This shows the Buddha’s great compassion.
So, He “inspired them with loving-kindness and tremendous grace.” Out of His compassion, the Buddha wanted all sentient beings to realize that they intrinsically have Buddha-nature. If sentient beings could understand their minds and realize their true nature, then there would be no interpersonal conflicts, greed, anger, delusion or various kinds of ignorance and afflictions. We create tremendous karmic forces that disturb the order in the world. This is caused by the ignorance of sentient beings. How could He help them eliminate their ignorance and return to their intrinsic Buddha-nature? What method could He use? Since sentient beings have countless afflictions, the Buddha had to start by opening infinite Dharma-doors.
So, He engaged in silent contemplation. To transform sentient beings, He had to teach in accord with their capabilities. This shows the great compassion of the Buddha. He utilized different means to inspire us. The Buddha was mindful of the grace. He had received from sentient beings, so He continued to work to transform sentient beings. To put it another way, we must be even more grateful for His tremendous grace in transforming us over so many lifetimes. In that lifetime, when karmic conditions matured, He manifested in this world by being born into the palace. Upon experiencing the suffering of this world, He wanted to discover the source of suffering so He could help and transform sentient beings. He became enlightened and engaged in still contemplation, then contemplated the tree and walked in meditation.
He observed the tree, the environment and so on, keeping in His mind a sense of gratitude for the kindness of the tree and virtue of the land. Do you see how the Buddha treated the environment? From the beginning He was filled with gratitude for the virtue of the land. So, we must be mindful of these words. We must remind ourselves to be vigilant. As we engage in spiritual practice in this kind of environment, do we constantly feel grateful?From the beginning He was filled with gratitude for the virtue of the land.
So, we must be mindful of these words.
We must remind ourselves to be vigilant.As we engage in spiritual practice in this kind of environment, do we constantly feel grateful?We are grateful that in this place, we do not need to worry at all about clothing, food, shelter and transportation.We are sheltered from the wind and rain.Since we can live freely upon this land, we must be even more grateful.
Yesterday we discussed how the Buddha said, “When I first sat in this place of enlightenment, I contemplated this tree and walked in meditation.”After the Buddha first sat there and attained enlightenment, for three periods of seven days, He contemplated the tree and walked in meditation.For three periods of seven days, He diligently contemplated.“I thought over matters such as these. The wisdom which I attained is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.”
After He became enlightened and realized true principles, He went back to the original goal of His spiritual practice, which was to transform sentient beings and relieve their suffering.“Matters such as these” refers to bringing the Buddha-Dharma into the world and how to spread and teach it.After He clearly understood the principles, He now wanted to teach them.
Thus He “thought over matters such as these. The wisdom which I attained is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.”The Buddha’s mind at that time was filled with wisdom and the truths of the universe, of people and matters, of the world and so on, all of which were subtle and wondrous, all of which were realized by the Buddha.In this subtle and wondrous state, everything was fully taken in by the Buddha’s mind.But how could these subtle and wondrous truths be shared with all sentient beings?The Buddha spent three periods of seven days to really thing about this.
So, “for three periods of seven days,” He “thought over matters such as these”.After the Buddha attained enlightenment, for three period of seven days, He contemplated the tree and walked in meditation to ponder how to teach the wondrous Dharma to transform sentient beings.He contemplated for three periods of seven days,
In the first period of seven days He thought:My Dharma is wondrous; no one can accept it.
In the second period of seven days He thought:Sentient beings have great, average and limited capacities.
In the third period of seven days He thought:Who should be the first to hear this Dharma?
So, He went to Varanasi to teach the Four Noble Truths and so on to the five bhiksus.
During the first period of seven days He thought, “My Dharma is wondrous; no one can accept it.”He thought about how subtle and wondrous the Dharma was, and based on His observation of their capabilities, He knew that for all sentient beings to accept this teaching would not be easy.It was very unlikely.All living beings intrinsically have Buddha-nature, but this nature has already been deeply buried underneath boundless ignorance and countless afflictions.The layers of afflictions are so thick.How could He use the Dharma to truly awaken their intrinsic nature of True Suchness?He felt like they were such a long way off.
So, “My Dharma is wondrous; no one can accept it.”Even if He wished to give teachings, there might not be anyone who could accept it.Indeed, I often wonder, “How do I transmit this Dharma-lineage?”In order to experience these teachings, we must be in this world.How can we take the Dharma to heart, put it into practice and then lead others onto this path?This is what I constantly contemplate.
Realizing the principles behind worldly matters is already quite difficult, let alone understanding the Buddha’s state of mind.We constantly say it is “tranquil and clear, with vows vast as the universe.This is such a beautiful and wondrous state!We can read about this subtle and wondrous state of mind in the text of the sutras, but can we experience this feeling?Even if we experience it, it only lasts for an instant.
In our daily living, our minds are still covered by tremendous afflictions.So, it is no wonder that the Buddha spent seven days contemplating how to use His enlightened state of mind to fully inspire sentient beings’ intrinsic Buddha-nature to resonate with His. This was what He contemplated over the first seven days. For the second period of seven days, the Buddha contemplated sentient beings’ varying capabilities. So, the Buddha decided to establish skillful means and use wondrous provisional teachings to transform them. This was decided during the second seven days. During the third period of seven days, He wondered where to begin. Who should be the first to listen to the Dharma?
After careful consideration, He concluded that He should begin with those who had stayed by His side during those five years of traveling and six years of ascetic practice. Those five were still engaged in a ascetic practice. They were His relatives, sent by the king to protect the crown prince and they engaged in spiritual practice with Him. This was Kaundinya and the others. This was how He decided to teach these five people first. So, He set out for Deer Park in Varanasi.
When He arrived at Deer Park, those five people saw Him from afar and said, “Look, our prince cannot survive on his own, he is coming back to look for us.” Together, they decided, “A person who has lost his spiritual aspirations is not worthy to be around us. Let us simply ignore him.” But the crown prince had attained Buddhahood and become the Great Enlightened One. From the expressions on their faces, how could He not know what they were thinking? Still, He approached them unhurriedly and His dignified and majestic presence, His virtuous appearance, captivated them in spite of themselves. Seeing their prince’s dignified demeanor and His majestic appearance, it seemed as if His body was radiating beams of light. They could not help but feel respect for him as He slowly approached them from afar. When the Buddha was in front of them, together they spontaneously prostrated to Him.
The Buddha was joyful and sat down. He began to explain to these five the path of His spiritual cultivation, the state of His mind and His realizations about the subtle and wondrous appearances of all things in the world. The five of them quickly made a request, “Venerable Buddha! You have already become the Great Enlightened One. Can you promptly teach us your realizations? Please teach us!” Out of His compassion, He began teaching the Four Noble Truths.
First He asked, “Is life suffering?” “Yes it is!” Through this question He elicited the response that they had all experienced suffering. So, He proceeded to explain to them suffering, its causation, cessation and the Path. This was the first time He taught the Dharma, but among those five people, only one became awakened and realized the principles of the Four Noble Truths. That was Kaundinya.
Though the other four listened attentively, they could not understand those principles. They told Him this honestly. The Buddha said, “That is fine, I will explain it again”. Did they then understand the Four Noble Truths? Two of them said, “I realize now that suffering in life is caused by the accumulation of many afflictions”. The other two people said, “It is still not clear to us. It seems very hazy and indistinct”. Then the Buddha replied, “That is fine, I will explain it a third time”. Did they then understand the Four Noble Truths? The five spoke in unison, “We are very happy. We have attained Dharma-joy”. All of them now understood. This is the Three Turnings of the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths. After the Buddha attained enlightenment, the first to listen to the teachings were these five bhiksus.
The Buddha was enlightened, the Dharma established, and there was a group of bhiksus, so the Three Treasures were complete. After the Buddha’s contemplation over those three periods of seven days, He went into the world and completed the Three Treasures. Upon their completion, the Sangha came into being. Three or more bhiksus is a Sangha. So, from that moment on, the Buddha-Dharma was in this world.
The next sutra passage states, “The wisdom which attained is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.
The wisdom which I attained is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness: The Buddha’s wisdom is subtle and wondrous, as it is supreme and perfect enlightenment. He knows Worldly Truth through discerning wisdom. This Dharma is extraordinary, difficult to understand, and foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.
“The Buddha’s wisdom is subtle and wondrous, as it is supreme and perfect enlightenment.” This describes the Buddha’s wisdom. The wisdom that the Buddha attained is the subtle and wondrous, supreme, universal and perfect enlightenment. In the sutras we recite “Anuttaraa-samyak-sambodhi,” which means supreme, perfect and universal enlightenment. This is the wisdom of Buddha. So when we speak of “knowing,” we are referring to Worldly Truth.
People, matters and objects in the world are part of Worldly Truth. He illuminates Absolute Truth with impartial wisdom. Absolute Truth is the Buddha’s true principles.
Worldly Truth is worldly matters.With discerning wisdom, we can discern right from wrong in all things. This is discerning wisdom.
Impartial wisdom is Absolute Truth, the true principle and unconditioned Dharma. Absolute Truth is impartial so we speak of impartial wisdom. In our spiritual practice, when we attain compassion for all equally, we have manifested impartial wisdom. So, we need to develop wisdom. There is discerning wisdom and impartial wisdom. When we do not discriminate between ourselves and others and see ourselves as one with all sentient beings, we have impartial wisdom.
“This Dharma is extraordinary, difficult to understand, and foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness. The Buddha’s wisdom is extraordinary. It is something we ordinary people can [fully] comprehend. Indeed, the Dharma is foremost in its subtlety and wondrousness.
So, the Buddha-Dharma requires that we be in the world to realize all principles. Therefore, we must learn to cultivate the Buddha’s sense of gratitude.
As I just mentioned, when we begin to engage in spiritual practice we must make great vows and sit in a place for spiritual cultivation. We must all make great vows, “I will engage in spiritual practice. I will never give up until I succeed.” We must be diligent and always remain calm. Only then can we take the Path to heart. If we are calm, we can face people and matters by engaging in true silent contemplation. We must consider things carefully and not react impulsively. We must maintain our determination without becoming too stubborn. We must silently and carefully contemplate what is suitable for people’s various capabilities. Only then can we resonate with and understand the Buddha’s mind.
Look at the mindset of the Buddha He was always grateful for sentient beings. We sentient beings must be even more grateful for His boundless grace. The Buddha, in that particular place, contemplated the tree and walked in mediation. He was constantly grateful to the tree and mindful of the virtue of the land. We can learn a lot from His attitude toward life. Thus, our daily living is inseparable from principles. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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