Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Eliminating All Attachments, Returning to the Path (迷途知返歸正道)
Date: January.05. 2015
“The tiniest deviation in perspective can take us thousands of miles off course. Once we know we are lost, we will try to find our way back. The Enlightened One will guide our return.”
This is sharing with everyone that the tiniest deviation in understanding may take us thousands of miles off course. The slightest deviation in our perspective will take us very far in the wrong direction. So, we must be mindful in our spiritual practice. Our perspective on things matters greatly in our lives. How do we live our lives? For some people, though they live ordinary lives, every day they are in a state where their “mind is without hindrance, therefore there are no hindrances.” Thus “there is no fear”. They are peaceful and at ease. They live ordinary lives; this is how they pass all their days. Some people want to make a big impact and want to do very influential and important things, but every day of their lives they have no way to find peace of mind. They worry about gains and losses and have many afflictions. Though they have many possessions, they feel it is still not enough, or they fear losing what they have. This is the suffering in life. Regardless of how much fame, wealth or status someone has everything comes back to their thoughts. Thoughts cannot be seen or touched, but something as small as one single thought can create [problems] for people, for families, for society, for the world and so on.
Even one thought can lead to a great deviation. Look at the world and see how many people have been forced from their homes to become refugees. When a few people from some of these countries had these deviated thoughts; it resulted in manmade calamities, leaving every single family in the whole country touched by death. Furthermore, innocent people are harmed and have to flee for their lives. The Buddha-Dharma mentions the Five Turbidities, one of which is the “turbidity of view”. It creates a sense of unease in people’s hearts, creates a lack of harmony in society, creates chaos in countries and creates an imbalance of the four elements in the universe, causing [damage] to the planet, and so on. This is all due to humans’ perspective.
How big is this “perspective”? It cannot be seen or touched, but if we want to speak of its size, we would compare it to the most miniscule thing in this world. So, we speak of “the tiniest deviation in perspective.” A perspective has no weight or shape, but if it deviates in the slightest, it can actually lead us far astray. It “can take us thousands of miles off course.” The tiniest deviation in thought can cause our direction to begin to go astray. Where will that course ultimately take us?
Clearly, after making this slight deviation, we will keep going in that direction. So, we are in cyclic existence in the Six Realms. The hell, hungry ghost and animal realms are the Three Evil Realms and full of unbearable suffering. In the human realm, we can be defiled by [desire for] wealth, sex, fame, food and sleep.
These are five things that cause confusion. Once that [desire] stirs, it will be hard to turn back. Thus we are deluded by desire.
So, when a thought of desire stirs, it gives rise to three subtle kinds of afflictions. The three Subtle are very tiny afflictions, greed, anger and ignorance. Once greed arises in a person, his disposition and temper become very bad.
Look, there are so many people, and every person’s temperament is different. They are extremely diverse; people of all different shapes and sizes all have very different temperaments. Many people are quick to find others displeasing, which creates many interpersonal problems and makes it easy to create karma and ignorance.
Ignorance is not understanding the principles. If we do not understand the principles, where will our course take us? In each lifetime, we will deviate a little more and stray a little farther. From the human realm, we can easily enter the asura realm. Then in the asura realm, we always want to argue, quibble and create conflict. So, being in the asura realm may lead us to the Three Evil Realms.
This started with a single thought as a human. If our minds can always be at peace, if we willingly give to and help others, do not cause problems for them and form good afflictions and plant good causes, then we will receive heavenly retributions and be reborn in the heaven realm. Consider the Six Realms Humans can be born into heaven, which is similar to what speak of in this world as “wealth, offspring and longevity.” With money, well-behaved children and a ling life, every day is free of anxieties and worries. There are others who, although poor, also live each day without anxieties and worries, at peace with poverty, taking joy in the Path. They are at peace with their poverty and happy to be on the Right Path. With a heart at peace and a life free of hindrances, they are in heaven on earth.
The paths to Six Realms are paved right here. It is up to us to choose. If we choose the heaven realm, we must broaden our hearts every day and help other people; then we will be happy and be living in the heaven realm each and every day. Of one day we feel irritable when we see others, then we are in the asura realm on that day.
If we form negative afflictions with other people, argue with them or set ourselves against them, we are in the asura realm.Perhaps our afflictions are very severe, or we have physical problems, or impermanence has struck and so on. Then aren’t we in one of the Three Evil Realms, either the hell, hungry ghost or animal realm? We continually talk about the hungry ghost realm. In the world right now, so many people are hungry. How many people literally starve to death? If we understand the principles, we will be naturally be vigilant of all causes, conditions and karmic retributions. We must not create negative causes and effects. In this lifetime, when we understand the principles, we will know we were deluded in our past lifetimes, unable to control where we went in the Six Realms.
Now that we understand, we must turn bach from the path of delusion. Let us think about which road we want to take. This is why I have been discussing Sariputra. Though he was engaging in spiritual practice and was wisest among the Sangha, at times he was still confused by the Dharma. “The Buddha has now explained that past teachings were provisional; they were skillful means. Only now has He begun to guide us onto the true path.” So, Sariputra slowly grew to realize that the Buddha’s intent was solely to show us how to walk the road back to our intrinsic Tathagata-nature. Sariputra knew he had to turn back from delusion; he was searching for the way. So, “day and night, he kept thinking about this.
Wasn’t this part of the previous passage? But, “the Enlightened One will guide our return.” Only Sakyamuni Buddha can do this.
We must simply follow His guidance. The Buddha is the Great Enlightened One. The Buddha came to guide us so we can live a safe and peaceful life. From different deviant paths, He drew us back, one by one. He is the best guiding teacher.
If we rely on this teacher to help move us forward, that will be the safest course, and we will not stra from the principles. The Sutra text from yesterday states,
“But now as I listen to the voice of the Buddha, teaching according to circumstances, the Dharma is flawless and inconceivable, leading all to engage in spiritual practice.”
Sariputra was saying that, at this point in time, everyone’s minds should be focused. Because they had now heard the Buddha’s voice, they could follow what He said and the direction He had indicated to practice the Dharma. By understanding this method, we can practice “the Dharma [that] is flawless and inconceivable”. When we attain this, we can purify our minds. He hoped everyone could let go of all their previous afflictions, not just let them go and eradicate them, but be completely pure and return to their pure intrinsic nature. So, the Buddha was “leading all to engage in spiritual practice ”, so we can all return to our pure intrinsic nature.
Next, Sariputra again described himself and the spiritual practices he cultivated in the past. Sariputra said,
“Formerly, I was attached to improper views and was a teacher to Brahmins. The World-Honored One knew my mind, rooted out my errors and taught me Nirvana”.
We know that before Sariputra joined the Sangha, he was a Brahmin and followed Brahmacarin Saran in spiritual practice. This Brahmacarin Saran was a very famous teacher among the Brahmins. One day, when he was very ill, he shared his final teachings with Sariputra. At that time, Saran had heard news form another country about a king who had passed away. The king and his queen were very close, so loving that they were inseparable. When the king became ill and passed away, the queen could not accept [the situation]. As the king was being cremated, the queen threw herself into the fire. When this news reached Saran, the Brahmacarin, he thought to himself, “Why, when it comes to affection and love, do people seem to be entangled by a giant rope, unable to break free?” What is affection? For the sake of affection, people are constantly troubled; many problems arise out of sexual desire. It can ruin families and kingdoms. What is the reason for this deluded and distorted way of living?
Though he was a widely renowned teacher, he was very confused by emotional entanglements. In the final moments before he passed away, he said to Sariputra, “Though I think I know the principles underlying everything, something as simple as people’s affections is very confusing to me. I have contemplated this issue many times and still cannot comprehend it.
Sariputra, the teacher you are to seek should be able to explain the workings of life and of the mind. That is the teacher you must rely on.” After he finished talking, he passed away. From that moment, Sariputra kept these words in his mind. Brahmacarin Saran also had a group of disciples. Who was to lead them? He entrusted them to Sariputra.
“Sariputra was originally a Brahmin who learned Brahmanism. He learned he Dharma from Saran. Upon the death of his teacher Saran, he led Saran’s students. Therefore he was a teacher to the Brahmins.”
Sariputra began leading his fellow practitioners. Later, he encountered Bhiksu Asvajit, who led him to see the Buddha. After becoming a monastic, he followed and accepted the Buddha’s teachings. But the Buddha taught according to capacities and Sariputra still had remnants of habitual tendencies. So, the Buddha still used ordinary, wondrous provisional teachings to impartially teach the Dharma to the Sangha.
Now Sariputra said, “I sought principles with an erroneous mindset”. In the past, he held deviant views, which means his thinking was incorrect. He accepted these principles with that incorrect state of mind, so he called it “an erroneous mindset”. He had not yet eliminated past habitual tendencies. He had only wanted to be able to understand the workings of affection, to learn how to purify his mind and how to eliminate those emotional entanglements. He was afraid of contriving affinities, so he was attached to the Small Vehicle. Now it seemed Sariputra was repenting by constantly mentioning his own spiritual experience.
So, “Formerly, I was attached to improper views and was a teacher to the Brahmins. I held confused and false views and did not believe in cause effect, thus I eliminated roots of goodness.”
These are deviant views. Now Sariputra completely understood that what the Buddha wanted them to do was walk the Bodhisattva-path. To this group of spiritual practioners who had sought only to awaken themselves, He now gave complete and direct instructions. So, he said, “The World-Honored One Knew my mind”.
“The World-Honored One knew my mind, rooted out my errors and taught me Nirvana: Sariputra shared how the World-Honored One understood the thinking of monastic practitioners who started out by practicing Brahmanism and therefore, with gradual teachings, He rooted out their errors and taught them Nirvana.”
“Knew” means the Buddha understood their minds. He knew the thinking of these Brahmin practitioners who had become monastics. In the past they were attached to these deviant thoughts and views. The Buddha understood this, so, He used “gradual teachings.” “Gradual teachings” are provisional means He taught them slowly, step by step. He did not directly show them their minds and their potential for attaining Buddhahood. He did not us this method. He just taught them step by step.
Sariputra now understood this, thus he said, “[He] rooted out my errors and taught me Nirvana.” Sariputra now understood the Buddha’s mind, the Buddha’s method of teachings.
Previously, when he heard the Buddha speak of Nirvana, he thought if his mind was already pure, he would be free of samsara and cyclic existence in the Six Realms. Because of this, he became attached to and biased toward emptiness. He “grasped the truth of emptiness and thought he had attained realizations.” He mistakenly thought he had realized everything. So, he only looked after himself and did not care about others. He only sought self-awakening.
Now the World-Honored One “clearly explained the Great Vehicle Path.” Now the Buddha had already begun to advocate and advance the Great Vehicle Dharma in the hope that everyone would practice it. On the Bodhisattva-path, we must take good care of our mind and not it be polluted by conflicts with sentient beings in the external environment.
The Buddha “explained the Great Vehicle Path” to help us “eliminate attachments to the Small Vehicle Teachings and biases towards emptiness.” It dissolves our attachment to that bias.
This is what Sariputra learned. Everyone, as we aspire to learn the Buddha’s Way, we may have the slightest deviations in our understanding. We intrinsically have Buddha-nature, so why are we so terribly lost in the cyclic existence in the Six Realms and thousands of miles off course? We intrinsically have Buddha-nature. How did we become ordinary people who are unable to transcend the Six Realm? At this time, we should recognize we are lost and work on finding our way back. Fortunately, Sakyamuni Buddha manifested in the world. As the guiding teacher of the Three Realms and kind father of the Four Kinds of Beings, he used His compassion to draw us in.
So, we should seize the moment, always take the Dharma to heart and manifest it in our actions, then naturally we will not be entangled by conflicted emotions and trapped in mmisery. So, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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