Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Mara Cannot Teach the True Path (實道非魔)
Date: January.21. 2015
“We establish faith to sustain our initial aspirations. With great vows, we bring Samadhi to our nature. We guide people to the right course by going among them. This is how we walk the Bodhi-path to perfect enlightenment.”
For us to believe in the Buddha, we must establish Right Faith. It is easy to have faith, but very difficult to sustain it. So, when we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must sustain our aspirations. We must have that perseverance to sustain even our initial aspiration. Why do we want to be Buddhist practitioners? The main goal in being Buddhist is to learn the Buddha’s Way. And what is our goal learning the Buddha’s Way? We hope to attain Buddhahood. Whilst among unenlightened beings, we must “turn from the dust toward awakening.”
Ordinary people have severe afflictions. Once a thought stirs in our minds, bringing our minds back to a peaceful state is not easy at all. Every day we face interpersonal conflicts as well as our own greed, anger, delusion, arrogance and doubt. Think about this, aren’t they like dust? After we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must turn away from the “dust”. Then what we are seeing will be pure, pure and undefiled, like the blue sky and white clouds, like a vast sea and spacious sky. This state of tranquility and clarity is a mind [turned] “toward awakening”. We turn around to face the pure Dharma.
Then we not only awaken ourselves, we can also share our experiences with other people. “My past afflictions were unnecessary. My past afflictions were not beneficial to me at all.” According to the Buddha-Dharma, all conditioned phenomena are impermanent.
In life, all living beings are suffering. Because we want to understand suffering, we seek out the origin of suffering, which has its “causation” in accumulating afflictions. The better we understand these principles, such as the Five Aggregates being empty in nature, what will there be for us to take issue over? There is no “I”; there is nothing that belongs to us forever. Our lifetime lasts for several decades and we come and go with empty hands. So, what is there for us to be attached to, for us to take issue over? Once we understand all these things, naturally our minds “have no hindrances; there are no hindrances.” Thus, there are no afflictions; “there is not fear.” This is why we must learn the Buddha’s Way and “turn from the dust toward awakening” to awaken ourselves as well as others. This pure and undefiled mind comes from learning the Buddha’s Way.
And as we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must sustain our initial aspirations; we must safeguard the first aspirations we formed. We must recall this aspiration in our daily living. Everything we do, we do willingly, with the goal of understanding that all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, so there is nothing to take issue over. To seize the impermanent, the time that is constantly passing by, we must take advantage of the present and not let any second or minute slip by. So, we must seize each moment. In this space, we must be grateful that we can be focused [on our practice], without the afflictions or hindrances of family.
We have simply established this resolve, formed great aspirations and made great vows. So, we must act for the sake of all sentient beings. However, for us to guide people, we must also take the Dharma to heart. We must use our own lives as an example to guide people. This is part of our great vows.
“Bringing Samadhi to our nature” means that in our nature, we must be calm. When we interact with people, we must not be influenced by worldly matters and various interpersonal conflicts or be tempted to enjoy [empty] pleasure.Our minds must be unwavering.Not only must we “bring Samadhi to our nature,” we must also take good care of other people’s spiritual aspirations.
Then we must help the multitudes who only pursuer pleasure and are afraid of hardship to understand how they can, in their daily living, conserve [resources] and engage in spiritual practice.
Lay Bodhisattva-practitioners can also make society their place for spiritual cultivation.Family and society are where lay Bodhisattva engage in spiritual practice.
“With great vows, we bring Samadhi to our nature. We guide people to the right course by going among them.”To guide people onto the right course, in the right direction, we must engage in spiritual practice among people.
I often tell you that every person is a sutra.However, people in the past said, “Bystanders can see clearly.”So, when we are by people’s sides, we can guide them in how they can read this “sutra,” how they can understand this “sutra”.By being understanding of the sutra of their lives, we can counsel them.
We can counsel them so when they face serious difficulties in life, they know how they can resolve them.Then we guide them to go among people again.Think about it, isn’t this “guiding people to the right course by going among them?”
So, “this is how we walk the Bodhi-path to perfect enlightenment.”
We walk on the Bodhi-path.“Bodhi” is enlightenment.We seek and learn the Buddha’s Way so that we can draw closer to the Buddha’s wisdom.This is known as learning the Buddha’s Way.
So, we Buddhist practitioners [must recall] our initial aspiration.
Why did we become Buddhist practitioners?Why did we want to learn the Buddha’s Way?We learn the Buddha’s Way to attain Buddhahood.Learning a skill is about mastering it.It is not that we cannot learn it, we simply must be focused on learning it.If we can master it precisely, then we can teach others.
So, we must “establish faith to sustain our initial aspirations. With Great Vows, we bring Samadhi to our nature. We guide people to the right course by going among them. This is how we walk the Bodhi-path to prefect enlightenment.”
This is so simple, we all should be able to do it.So, the Buddha constantly gave simple teachings, but He always taught true principles.
In the previous sutra passage, Sariputra was saying, “Similarly, at this time the World-Honored One, from His birth to leaving the lay life, attaining the Way and turning the Dharma-wheel, has always taught by using skillful means.”
This is the earlier sutra passage.The World-Honored One, Sakyamuni Buddha, was also born to parents.Like other humans, he experienced childhood and adolescence.When he was young, he saw suffering in the world, and made a great vow to save the world from its delusion and confusion.
We face the suffering of afflictions, of cyclic existence, of parting with those we love, not getting what we want, meeting those we hate and so forth.Our bodies go through birth, aging, illness and death.Where do we go after we die?Where were we before we were born?
When he was very young, Prince Siddhartha was already thinking of these things.Because of this, he made great vows and left the lay life.He went through an arduous period of practice.
He was not intimidated by hard work, so he underwent five years of traveling and six years of ascetic practice.He absorbed over 90 different kinds of teachings to understand others and himself.
What was it that he wanted?
After learning all those other spiritual practices, he knew they were not the Dharma that he wanted.“I need to find a teaching that truly comes from my own realizations.”Finally, He attained enlightenment, and all things in the universe were instantly clear within His mind.
The Great Dharma of the universe became one with His enlightened state of mind.Thus, among the principles underlying all things, there were none He did not fully understand.Hence, “from His birth to leaving the lay life, attaining the Way and turning the Dharma –wheel…”
When the Buddha observed the capabilities of these sentient beings, He knew they would not immediately understand, so He had to teach with skillful means.With skillful means and simple principles, He earnestly guided sentient beings.He wanted us to first understand the suffering in the world, so the Buddha began by revealing to people the principles of the truth of suffering and the methods of spiritual practice to go from the causation of suffering to delight of attaining the Path.
So, we must eliminate afflictions in order to enter the path to enlightenment. This was [the path of] all Buddhas in the past, the present Buddha, Sakyamuni, and an infinite number of Buddhas in the future; all share the same path. They go through the same process of begin born into this world, engaging in spiritual practice in the world, awakening and teaching the Dharma in this world. This is known as leaving the lay life. “From [Their] birth to leaving the lay life, all Buddhas share the same path. The way They expound the Dharma goes from the simple to the profound. Simple Dharma is skillful means. Profound Dharma is the True Dharma, which helps us return to the Buddha-nature that we all intrinsically have. So, in the next passage, Sariputra said,
“The World-Honored One preaches the true path, Papiyas would not do this. Therefore I know for certain this is not Mara posing as the Buddha. But I had fallen into a web of doubts, so I said it was the doings of Mara”.
Sariputra was still saying that the World-Honored One taught True Dharma from the very beginning. “Papiyas” was King Mara. Actually, Mara is generated by our minds; he is the illusory thinking and perceptions that our minds generate. There is no Mara in the outside world. This means Mara is our afflictions.
Our afflictions contains many unreal and illusory thoughts. So, “Papiyas would not [teach the true path]”. When Sakyamuni Buddha taught the Dharma, everything that He taught was the principles of the one ultimate reality. This was in accordance with His own intent. The Buddha was beginning to share the Dharma He had awakened to and directly turn the Dharma-wheel to deliver it to every sentient being and every disciple. He delivered the Dharma from His mind into the minds of sentient beings.
“In accordance with His own intent, He taught the true path of the One Vehicle that He had safeguarded in His mind”. This was the true path. “Doesn’t the Diamond Sutra say the following? The Tathagata “speaks the truth, what is real. He does ont speak falsehoods or what is not so”.
This is the Dharma taught by the World-Honored One. Even when adapting the teachings to others, the principles came from His heart. This was how He patiently guided people. During the Lotus Dharma-assembly, the World-Honored One, Sakyamuni Buddha, further revealed what He had been safeguarding in His mind, which was the state of mind He had when He first attained enlightenment over 40 years ago. So, “the World-Honored One preached the true path”.
“Papiyas” is King Mara. He represents evil. He is one who kills, who constantly tries to end people’s wisdom-life. With evil intent, he fosters evil ways. So, “Those who kill and harm virtuous Dharma are without virtuous Dharma”.
Are maras the people around us who treat us [badly]? Oftentimes, because we are not in Samadhi, because our minds and nature, cannot remain unwavering, we give rise to doubts and do not accept the True Dharma. Instead, we pursue erroneous teachings and walk a deviant path. This is all because of our minds. So, Papiyas, maras and evil ones do not refer to other people, they are in us. If we can have Samadhi in our nature and calm our minds, we will have proper faith. If our minds are unwavering, even if external things are tempting us, we will not be enticed. So, Mara, this evil demon, tries to end people’s wisdom-life. If we give rise to the slightest thought, or if we follow those who tempt us, we may end our wisdom-life. If our minds are in Samadhi, then we will have no illusions or hallucinations. Our minds will not deviate. We must prevent ourselves [from deviating].
So, I have always taught everyone the Three Flawless Studies, precepts, Samadhi, wisdom. Precepts guard against wrongs and stop evil. We must abide by them in order to protect our wisdom-life. If people with evil intentions tempt us, our minds must remain unmoving. “One who kills and harms virtuous Dharma is without virtuous Dharma”. He is called “Papiyas”. At present, our minds are already free from discursive thoughts. So, “Papiyas would not [teach the true path]. Therefore I know for certain”.
Now Sariputra understood that once he calmed his mind, external phenomena would no longer cause it to waver. His faith was also firm. So he said, “Therefore I know for certain that this is not Mara pretending to be the Buddha”.
“From this I know that the Buddha taught with the Dharma of the true path. Therefore I know for certain this is not Mara posing as the Buddha. With solid faith in profound and wondrous True Dharma, wisdom-life will develop.”
Sariputra clearly understood that the Buddha speaks the truth, what is real; He does not speak what is not so．So, he always believes in what the Buddha says In his heart he believed this was the Buddha teaching True Dharma and that he was not hallucinating this Dharma.Sariputra was certain of this.From this point on, he understood that the way the Buddha taught, the process, was to first teach simple Dharma, limited teachings to suit people’s capabilities.But within these limited teachings are true and wondrous principles.Now, He was opening up the provisional and setting aside skillful means for the direct to teach the True Dharma.So, Sariputra should believe in it even more now．
Thus he said, “Therefore I know for certain that this is not Mara pretending to be the Buddha.” With a solid faith comes great certainty in this profound and wondrous True Dharma.We should believe in this profound and wondrous True Dharma.This is wisdom-life. If our faith is firm and we wholeheartedly penetrate these subtle and wondrous true principle, then we can help our wisdom-life grow.
Sariputra himself then said, “But I had fallen into a web of doubts, so I said it was the doings of Mara.” In the past, he had fallen into a web of doubts and could not calm his mind.He thought everything was empty [in nature], so what else there to cultivate? When he heard about attaining Buddhahood, he did not think that he could attain Buddhahood He had no faith in himself.He thought this Dharma was illusory and not real.“So, I said it was the doings of Mara.” He thought this Dharma was illusory. Because he clung to his bias toward emptiness, he had this kind of mindset.
In the past I did not understand that with compassion and wisdom, the Buddha gave provisional teachings, which not deviate from the path of the wondrous Dharma of One Reality．
Therefore I had doubts and delusions, as if I had fallen into a web of doubts. Thus, I said it was the doings of Mara.
In the past, he did not understand this, so he said he “had fallen into a web of doubts.” At the time, he was still in a web of doubts and clug to his bias toward emptiness. He did not know about the principles of true and wondrous existence.So, he said about himself, “My mind seemed to have been obstructed by Mara.”
At that time, he lacked confidence in himself.
Everyone, we must all have confidence in ourselves and believe in what the Buddha taught us, the genuine Dharma of True Suchness.Everyone intrinsically has True Suchness, and everyone can attain Buddhahood.
In the past, there were countless Buddhas, and there will be countless Buddhas in the future, so why can’t we believe that we may also become one of the countless Buddhas in the future? We have now attained a little bit of awakening.We have already begun to see the Buddha’s mind, so we must have confidence in ourselves.
Everyone, as we learn the Buddha’s Way, we must take very good care of our minds and our pure intrinsic nature.We must not allow our mind to become scattered. Even Sariptura, who was foremost in wisdom, was trapped in a web of doubts for several decades.Only now was he beginning to break through it and truly connect with the [Buddha’s Way] to begin to develop wisdom-life.So, we must always be mindful．
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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