Explanations by Master Cheng-Yan
Subject: Vowing to Cultivate Purifying Practices (立誓願 修梵行)
Date: February.12. 2015
“Four countless kalpas, the Buddha has made the [Four] Great Vows. Having perfectly transcended the world, His intention is to transform all beings. For the sake of all sentient beings, He teaches the Great Vehicle Dharma.”
The Buddha did not appear in this world for only a short period of time or for only one or two lifetimes. For infinite kalpas, He has aspired and vowed to engage in spiritual practice. Over a very long period of time, He continuously accumulated good deeds and good karmic connections. With every good deed He created blessings; He kept accumulating good deeds and blessings. Through His interaction with others, He accumulated positive karmic conditions. When He helped others, His mind was free of afflictions and filled with joy. How long was He doing that? For a very long time. All Buddhas share this same path. Every Buddha that comes to the world must engage in this method of spiritual practice.
Therefore, They make the [Four] Great Vows. The Four Great Vows are made by all Buddhas. Every Buddha that comes to the world never deviates from the Four Great Vows. These are the shared vows of all Buddhas. Once They fulfill the Four Great Vows, then they will transcend the world and no longer have to transmigrate in the Six Realms. However, They come to this world because of Their vows. They cannot bear for sentient beings to suffer, so They journey throughout the Six Realms to give to and save all sentient beings. Therefore, the Buddha comes in response to the needs of the world and for the sake of one great cause.
When He perfected His spiritual cultivation, He completed His awakening; He attained perfect enlightenment. He comes to the world to transform all beings; this is the Buddha’s original intent. His perfect, world-transcending intention is to transform sentient beings. So, “for the sake of all sentient beings, He teaches the Great Vehicle Dharma.” He hopes that they can all return to their Tathagata-nature.
Once, when Sakyamuni Buddha was expounding the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, He told His disciples the following story. In the past, countless kalpas ago, there was a Buddha named Sakyamuni, known as Ancient Sakyamuni. During His lifetime, He taught the Dharma and transformed sentient beings. In that period of time, there was a man who lived in extreme poverty. One day, he encountered a knowledgeable and well-informed friend. His friend gave him a piece of good news. “An enlightened one called Sakyamuni Buddha has arrived in our city. He is going to teach the sutras and the Dharma. If you are free, let’s go listen to Him together.” Hearing this, the poor man was very happy. “This is so rare. If the Buddha is coming to this small town, I should go to listen to His teachings. But, I should make an offering to Him. What can I use to make an offering? I do not have a single penny, so how can I make an offering?” After some deliberation, he realized, “All I have is this body. I can sell myself and use the money I get to make my offering to the Buddha.”
Once he made this decision, he began asking everyone he met along the road. A passerby saw him, approached the man and said, “If you want to sell yourself, I am willing to buy.” The poor man was very happy to hear this, “What do you want me to do for you?” The passerby told him, “I suffer from something no one has an answer for. I have an illness that is difficult to treat. Many well-known doctors have diagnosed me and said it cannot be treated with medicine.”However, they all agree that I must eat three taels (113g) of human flesh each day. If I can eat three taels of flesh each day, I will be able to extend my life. Otherwise, this illness will continue to cause me great suffering.”
Upon hearing this, the poor man was very happy.“To make an offering to the Buddha this is what I’m willing to do. I will sell myself to you. Seeing how much pain your illness causes you, I also cannot bear it. If I give you three taels of flesh every day, how much money will you give me?”
The passerby said, “Five taels of gold. That is plenty,” the poor man said, “Can I begin in a week?If you will advance me the money, I can make an offering to the Buddha and listen to Him give teachings. Can you give me one week?”
The passerby said, “I can’t wait seven days. At most, I can give you one day. I will advance you five taels of gold.”The poor man said, “In that case, one day is fine.”The poor man took the five taels of gold and rushed to meet up with his friend.
Then they went to the place where the Buddha was teaching.
Seeing how magnificent the Buddha was and how dignified the Dharma-assembly was, the poor man felt very happy.He went before the Buddha and made his offering.After offering the five taels of gold, he stepped aside and listened to the teachings.
The principles in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra were so wondrous and profound that this poor man was unable to understand them.
However, he did remember one verse.
This verse stated, “The Tathagata realize Nirvana and forever put an end to His cyclic existence. If you listen to His teachings sincerely, you will always attain infinite joy.”This was the only verse he heard and remembered.
After listening to the teachings, he happily went to meet the man he had sold his body to and finalize the deal.Every day for whole month he cut off three taels of flesh.Every day, his mind was focused on that verse, “The Tathagata realized Nirvana and forever put an end to His cyclic existence. If you listen to His teachings sincerely, you will always attain infinite joy.” This verse was always on his mind, so he felt no pain even though three taels of flesh was cut from him daily.
After one month, the person who was eating his flesh gradually recovered his health.Having fulfilled his responsibilities, the poor man rushed to the Dharma-assembly and told the Buddha that he wanted to become a monastic and engage in spiritual practice.
The Buddha joyfully said, “Welcome bhiksu”.“After countless kalpas, if you attain Buddhahood in the future, your epithet will be Sakyamuni Buddha.”
After Sakyamuni Buddha told this story, He said to His disciples, “Do you know? The man who sold his body is now me, Sakyamuni Buddha. I, the present Sakyamuni Buddha, have followed the teachings passed on by Ancient Sakymuni. I have engaged in spiritual practice for countless kalpas. With my body and mind, I willingly gave to others, so today, I am able to have so many disciples following me, and after attaining Buddhahood, I am able to hold Dharma-assemblies like this where I can teach the Dharma to everyone.”
Everybody was deeply touched after hearing this.The Buddha had always reminded them that spiritual cultivation takes countless kalpas.The amount of time that passed between.
Ancient Sakmuni’s time and this present moment is indescribable.From the moment He formed that aspiration, everything He did was for the sake of His one great cause.He could not bear for sentient beings to suffer, so He spent lifetime after lifetime among people.Even having perfectly transcended the world, He still held firmly to His original intent, to transform sentient beings.
It was solely for the sake of sentient beings that He taught this Great Vehicle sutra.This is what spiritual cultivation requires.We must, with its most reverence, form aspirations and make vows.
Our resolve must be unwavering, pure and simple; we must give unconditionally for all sentient beings. This is such a pure and simple mindset.
The previous sutra passage states, “Whenever they wish to walk anywhere, jeweled flowers spring up beneath their feet. These Bodhisattvas are not newly inspired. For a long time, they have cultivated their virtuous foundation.”
These are not newly-inspired Bodhisattvas. For a very long time, an incalculable number kalpas, they have followed the Bodhisattva-practice. “For a long time, they have cultivated their virtuous foundation.” Ancient sages say, “Wealth enriches the house, virtue enriches the body.” This is because the virtue we cultivate is reflected in our conduct. Our character will lead people to trust us. This is the result of spiritual cultivation.
Speaking of virtues, those who cultivate them will attain them, and those who attain them are virtuous. This is how “virtue enriches the body.” So, these Bodhisattvas have engaged in spiritual practice for a long time.
Next, the sutra passage states, “In the presence of countless Buddhas, they cultivated Brahma-conduct. They constantly received the praise of all Buddhas and constantly cultivated Buddha-wisdom, so they are replete with great spiritual powers and know well the door to all Dharma.
This sutra passage tell us that the previously mentioned Bodhisattvas cultivated their virtuous foundation for a long time. In the presence of countless Buddhas, they cultivated Brahma-conduct, which are purifying practices. “Brahma” means pure. So, “They cultivated Brahma-conduct. They constantly received.” These Bodhisattvas had often been praised by all Buddhas. They are replete with great spiritual powers and already “know well the door to all Dharma.” They had already realized the door to all wisdom.
“Brahma-conduct” refers to purifying practices. These are ways to eliminate sexual desires, so we call them purifying practices. Those who cultivate Brahma-conduct will be reborn in the Brahma Heavens.
Otherwise, why would becoming a monastic be an important part of spiritual practice? Since people can listen to the Dharma, they should be able to understand it. If people can understand the Dharma, can’t they attain realizations? They can! Lay Buddhist practitioners can also realize the Buddha-Dharma through spiritual cultivation. But enough purifying practices. Being responsible for a family makes it hard to keep a pure body and mind. They cannot be completely pure. This is due to their responsibility to their family, having children, raising them and so on. So, lay practitioners cannot attain Buddhahood, but they can still realize the Buddha-Dharma. To truly become a Buddha and attain Buddhahood in the world, one must first become a monastic and engage in purifying practices for a very long time. We have to keep the body very pure, without ever being contaminated by sexual desires. This is Brahma-conduct, which is pure Dharma from the Brahma Heavens. These are teachings of purifying conduct. So, these who cultivate Brahma-conduct will be reborn in Brahma Heaven, where sexual desires do not exist.
Thus we engage in purifying practices in order to clear away the causes of craving and desires. This means nit violating the rules and precepts. The causes of cravings and desires must be complete eliminated.
These causes, these seeds, must be prevented from coming together; the intimacy and afflictive emotions of relationships must be completely eliminated. Then we will remain pure in our precepts; we will not violate the rules and precepts.
Precepts guard against wrongdoings and stop evils. If something is wrong, we should not do it. If we are doing evil things, we must promptly stop. Therefore, we must not violate these rules. For lay practitioners, we hope that Dharma, the seeds of Buddhahood, can pervade the world, so that everyone can attain the cause for approaching the Dharma, practicing it and attaining Buddhahood. Therefore, these seeds of goodness must be spread throughout the world. Lay Buddhist practitioners are also able to engage in spiritual practice.But, they must uphold the Five Precepts and practice the Ten Good Deeds.
The Five Precepts are to abstain from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and alcohol. These are the Five Precepts. Presently, we hope all Tzu Chi volunteers will completely uphold the Five Precepts and practice the Ten Deeds. By doing the Ten Good Deeds, not only will we not violate precepts, we can strengthen the Way we give others and so on. Of the ten Good Deeds, three are of the Body, four are of speech and three are of the mind. The Four [evils] of speech are lying, gossiping, harsh speech and [flattery]. We must look after our karma of speech. [The evils of] the body are killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. Killing is harming sentient beings.Stealing is obtaining wealth through improper means,which is equivalent to taking things from others. If we get things by taking advantage of others, also regarded as stealing.
The body also has desires and cravings. If people are married, they should be responsible to their families. They must not commit ant sexual misconduct. Husbands and wives must be loyal to each other. They must not commit adultery. This is also one of Five Precepts.
What about our minds? We need to eliminate greed, anger and ignorance. If we can abstain from these tem things, we will be abiding by the Ten Precepts. By upholding the Ten Precepts, we can fulfill the Ten Good Deeds. Not only should we not kill, we must also protect lives, and so on. We must speak kind words, share the Dharma etc. As part of upholding the Ten Precepts, we also practice the Ten Good Deeds.
In fact, in the five Precepts and Ten Good Deeds, we can understand that there are also ten precepts. We must be mindful to comprehend this. So, “They constantly received.” In order to achieve this, monastics must engage in Brahma-conduct and cultivate purifying practices.
If lay practitioners can abide by the Five Precepts and practice the Ten Good Deeds, they will always be praised by all Buddhas for “constantly vultivating Buddha-wisdom.” All Buddhas have great impartial wisdom and supreme, universal, perfect enlightenment. “So, the Buddha comes to this world and teaches Buddha-wisdom for this reason, to teach sentient beings to develop Buddha-wisdom.”
When the Buddha comes to this world, whether He is speaking to lay disciples or monastic disciples, He treats them all equally and applies His perfect enlightenment to teach Buddha-wisdom to sentient beings. This means that the true principles the Buddha teaches from His heart, the Buddha’s wisdom, is delivered through the turning of the Dharma-wheel from the mind of the Buddha to the minds of sentient beings. This is why I always remind everybody to “take the Buddha-mind as your own mind”.
The Buddha has already given His mind to sentient beings, so we must accept it so that it becomes our mind. This is the turning of the Dharma-Wheel.
He “teaches the Buddha-wisdom for this reason, to teach sentient beings to develop Buddha-wisdom.” He teaches sentient beings in the hope they will be on the course to right Knowledge, Right Views, Right Dharma and Right Thinking. This is how people in the world can gradually approach the Bodhisattva-path.
Thus they become “replete with great spiritual powers and know well the door to all Dharma.”
They are replete with great spiritual powers and know well the door to all Dharma: The Dharma taught by the Buddha is both for living in and transcending the world. These teachings are for all noble beings to enter the Path and comprehend the door to all Dharma.
Everything the Buddha teaches is for the sole purpose of helping us truly draw near the Buddha-Dharma. The Buddha always leaves the door open in the hope that we can all enter the teachings He has given.
The Dharma taught by the Buddha “is for both living in and transcending the world”. As we are living in this world, [we must know] how to interact with people and deal with matters, as well as how to view worldly matters.
We can also transcend the world. If you are willing to engage in the practices for transcending the world, the method is to become a monastic. The Buddha gives teachings impartially. These teachings are “for all noble beings to enter the Path and comprehend the door to all Dharma.”
The door to all Dharma is the door to His mind that the Buddha opened to deliver the Dharma to everyone. All of us must also open the door to our own minds to accept the Dharma expounded by the Buddha. We must take the Buddha-mind as our mind. The door to the Buddhist teachings is open, so we can enter when we wish. Whether we go in or not is up to us. Are we willing to spend a very long time interacting with a countless number of people to create blessed causes and good affinities? This depends on our patience and love.
How can we eliminate our ignorance and afflictions, how can we completely rid ourselves of our bad habitual tendencies? This is very important, and it is all to us. So everyone, we must always be mindful.
(Source: Da Ai TV – Wisdom at Dawn program – Explanation by Master Chen-Yen)
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