Chapter 03: A Parable

Sutra:

The Buddha, wishing to restate his meaning, spoke verses, saying:

Suppose there was an Elder,

Outline:

I2. Verse section.
J1. Verse setting up parable.
Kl. Verse about general parable.
L1. Verse about Elder.

Commentary:

The Buddha, having finished speaking the prose sections, and wishing to restate his meaning, spoke verses. Because he was filled with compassion, and afraid that living beings still had not understood his principles, he was not afraid to take the trouble to repeat himself. He spoke verses, saying…Some verses are four characters long, others five, six, or seven. The length of the lines varies, but they elaborate upon the principles set forth in the previous prose passages. Sometimes, they may speak them in a capsule form. The point is that they repeat them so that people who missed them the first time can pick up on them.

Suppose there was an Elder. Suppose, for example, there was an Elder. An Elder has ten kinds of virtuous practices which were mentioned before and which you, no doubt, remember very clearly. If you don’t remember clearly, check back to that passage.

Sutra:

Who had a large house,
Which was very old,
And so was collapsing.
The halls were high and precarious,
The pillars rotting at their bases,
The beams and ridgepoles aslant,
The foundations and stairways crumbling.

The walls and partitions were cracked and ruined,
The plaster flaking and falling off.
The thatch was falling every which way,
And the rafters and eavepoles were coming loose,
The partitions on all sides were bent and misshapen;
It was filled with all kinds of filth.

Outline:

L2. Verse about the house.

Commentary:

Who had a large house, the large house is the Three Realms, the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. Which was very old. It is said,

There’s no peace in the three realms;
It is like a burning house.

And so was collapsing. It was just about to fall apart. We can also use the old house as an analogy for the human body. There is a poem which goes:

Our bodies are like a house.
The eyes are the windows, the mouth a door.
Our four limbs are like the pillars,
and our hair is like the thatch on the top.
Always keep it in good repair.
Don’t wait until it falls apart and then panic.

“Our bodies are like a house. The eyes are the windows, the mouth a door.” The mouth is like a door and the two eyes are like windows. Windows let light in the room, and our eyes allow us to see things. “Our hair is like the thatch on the top.” They do not have such houses in America, but in China some of the houses have grass thatch on the top and it looks like the hair growing on our heads. “Always keep it in good repair.” Keep up with the repairs as necessary. “Don’t wait until it falls apart and then panic.”

When you are young, your house is in “good repair.” Once you are old, then the “house” is about ready to fall over. When you are old and about to die, you will realize that you cannot live in that “house” anymore. You will have to move. You may think to repair your house then but it will be too late. The machine will have been overworked. That is how people’s bodies work, too. They have to be kept in good repair when one is young. “Good repair” means to cultivate the Way. You should sit in Dhyana meditation, bow to the Buddha and to the Sutras or recite mantras. Today I taught you your first Chinese lesson and it was a good foundation for all of you:

“I got up today at four o’clock.” The early morning is the best time to get up. It is said:

The plans for one’s life are made when one is young and strong.
The plans for the year are made in the Spring.
The plans for the day are made in the morning.

During one’s life one must be vigorous. The most important time of the year is the Springtime, when the ten thousand things are blooming. As for the day, the most important time is early in the morning. It is best to get up early and take a walk in the garden, breathe some fresh air. That will give you energy. So, you get up at four and then wash your face, brush your teeth. Then, since there’s nothing much to do, you can sit in meditation….Ahh….At this time there is nothing moving at all. It is the very best time, the most precious time, to work hard. While you are sitting it is easy to get a response with the Way.

Then, after a while when your legs start to hurt, or even if you have gotten past the pain, you may wish to get up and do some exercise. How? Bow to the Buddha. Bow and rise, and your circulation improves throughout your entire body. It is even better than doing yoga! When you have finished bowing to the Buddha and you feel wide awake then you can recite sutras to regulate your breath and then secretly recite mantras. When you recite the mantras, you do not need to recite them out loud.

We recite mantras here out loud but that is for the public ceremonies. In real cultivation you recite them in your mind. This is called vajra mantra recitation. After that, you can go to work. When you get off work at five o’clock you come to the Buddhist Lecture Hall to study Chinese and hear the Sutra lectures. You even skip dinner! The last sentence of the Chinese lesson says, “Are you hungry?” We will have to wait until tomorrow to answer that question.

The halls were high and precarious. The Elder is the Buddha. His great house is the Three Realms in which all living beings live. The Three Realms are so old, we say they had no beginning. The house was just about ready to fall apart. It was already useless. This is speaking externally. If you use your own body as an analogy, you see that the house of the body eventually falls apart, too.

The halls represent the desire realm and the form realm. These halls are said to be high and precarious because it is very easy to fall and lose this human body. Sometimes one falls from the heavens, they are so high. A high place is very dangerous because when you fall, you lose your life. This means that in the desire and form realms, one does not know if one will fall into the hells, become an animal or turn into a hungry ghost. One does not know what path one will fall into and so it is extremely dangerous.

The pillars rotting at their bases. You could say our legs are like the pillars. Our feet are the bases. They are rotting! This is talking about the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness and death. From birth one grows to adulthood, grows old, gets sick and then dies.

The beams and ridgepoles aslant. Beams and ridgepoles are like our backs. They are crumbling and useless.

The foundations and stairways crumbling Foundations refer to, in the analogy of the body, the place where we “sit down.” It also represents our karmic obstacles.

The walls and partitions were cracked and ruined. The walls represent the skin and flesh of our bodies. When we get old, our skin gets cracked and wrinkled.

The plaster flaking and falling off. The plaster here refers to our complexions. The thatch was falling every which way, and the rafters and eavepoles were coming loose, the partitions on all sides were bent and misshapen; it was filled with all kinds of filth. It was twisted out of shape. The thatch falling off is like our hair falling out. The rafters and eavepoles mean our four limbs all falling apart. “Filth” refers to the things in our digestive systems, the urine and excrement inside us. We are entirely filled with these unclean things.

Each one of us has a “house”. It is our own body. The body has “walls.” They are the four elements and the four applications of mindfulness. When the walls fall apart, that is like when the four elements disperse. Earth, water, fire, and air–they all return to their origin. They disperse and the body dies.

As to the problem of human life, everyone should see it clearly. Do not let the mind become the body’s slave, busy serving it all day long with no time of waking up.

From of old few have lived to be seventy.
When you take off years for youth and age,
There’s not much time in between.
And what’s more, half of that is spent asleep!

There have never been very many people who have lived to age seventy. Most people die in their fifties or sixties. Some die in their twenties, some even younger. Few folks live to be seventy, but let’s pretend that someone did. The first ten years of his live is pretty meaningless, because he does not understand what is going on around him. The last ten years he cannot do anything either. That takes ten years off each end, leaving fifty years. Half of that is spent in sleep. That leaves just twenty-five years. There is also time to be taken off for eating, changing your clothes and going to the toilet, drinking tea and chatting about this and that. How much time is left? You have to take off at the very least another five years for that, leaving twenty years. Is that really so long? So what great meaning does human life have?

Yesterday, in Chinese class, I asked you, “Are you hungry.” Today, in your lessons you learned, “I do not feel hungry.”

I asked you, “Why don’t you feel hungry?”

You answered, “Because I get to listen to the Buddhadharma, and understand the true principles of human life.” What I have just talked about here are the true principles of human life. If you understand them, you can be genuinely happy. When you are genuinely happy, you forget about being hungry. Do you see how wonderful this is? It may just look like a Chinese lesson, but it has a great deal of principle, if you look into it deeply. Your study of the Buddhadharma has brought you true peace of mind and real happiness, so you forget all about eating. Do not forget your Chinese lessons. People who study Buddhism should pay special attention to them. You are learning Chinese and the principles of the Buddhadharma at the same time. That is really great!! That is why I told our guest today that I charge a thousand dollars an hour for my Chinese lessons. That is not too much. If you get to end birth and death, that is simple priceless.

Sutra:

There were five hundred people
Dwelling within it.

Outline:

L3. Verse about the five hundred people.

Commentary:

There were five hundred people dwelling within it. There were five hundred people in this big house. Five hundred stands for the living beings in the five destinies–gods, humans, hell-beings, hungry ghosts and animals. It is the same as the six destinies with the omission of the destiny of the asuras because asuras can be found in all of the other five destinies. Five hundred people, then, were living in the burning house of the Three Realms.

Sutra:

There were kites, owls, hawks, and vultures,
Crows, magpies, pigeons, and doves,
Black snakes, vipers and scorpions,
Centipedes and millipedes.

There were geckoes and myriapods,
Weasels, badgers, and mice–
All sorts of evil creatures,
Running back and forth.

There were places stinking of excrement and urine,
Oozing with filth,
With dung beetles
Clustered upon them.

There were foxes, wolves, and Yeh Kan,
Who nibbled at, trampled on,
And devoured corpses,
Scattering the bones and flesh.

Then packs of dogs
Came running to grab them,
Hungry, weak and terrified,
Seeking food everywhere,
Fighting and shoving,
Snarling, howling and barking.

The terrors in that house,
And the sights were such as these.
Li Mei and Wang Liang
Were everywhere.

Yakshas and evil ghosts
Were eating human flesh.
There were poisonous creatures of all kinds,
And evil birds and beasts,
Hatching their young,
Each protecting its own.

Yakshas raced to the spot
Fighting one another to eat them.
Having eaten their fill,
Their evil thoughts grew more inflamed.

The sound of their quarreling,
Was dreadful to the extreme.
Kumbhanda ghosts
Were squatting on high ground,
Sometimes leaving the ground
A foot or two,
As they wandered to and fro
Amusing themselves as they wished,
Grabbing dogs by two legs,
And striking them so they lost their bark,
Twisting their legs around their necks,
Frightening the dogs for their own pleasure.

Further there were ghosts,
Their bodies very tall and large,
Naked, black and thin,
Always dwelling therein,
Emitting loud and evil sounds,
Howling in search of food.

Further there were ghosts
With throats like needles.
Again there were ghosts
With heads like oxen,
Now eating human flesh,
And then devouring dogs.

Their hair was disheveled
They were harmful, cruel and dangerous,
Oppressed by hunger and thirst,
They ran about shouting and crying out.

There were yakshas, hungry ghosts,
And all sorts of evil birds and beasts,
Frantic with hunger, facing the four directions,
Peeking out the windows,
Such were the troubles
And terrors beyond measure there.

Outline:

L4. Verse about the fire starting.
M1. Events above ground likened to the desire realm.
N1. The beings burnt.

Commentary:

There were kites, owls. In The Book of Songs it says,

The owl, the owl–
The unfilial bird…

The owl is said to be unfilial because as soon as it is born, it eats its mother. The owl is hatched out of a lump of dirt that the mother sits on. As soon as it is born, the first thing it does it eat its mother. The mother just sits there and waits to be eaten. She is being very compassionate indeed, giving her life to her child, but you could also call it a kind of retribution. In past lives, the mother bird was unfilial and so in this life she is a bird who ends up being eaten by her child. The head of an owl looks like a cat. They eat mice. In China, these birds are considered very unlucky. Whoever sees an owl is in for some hard times, some inauspicious events. Nothing is going to go right for them. In china there is a saying,

“When the owl shows up in your house,
Hard times is a-comin’.”

If an owl flies into your house, someone is going to die, or else there is going to be a fire, or perhaps thieves will come and rob you–a lot of unlucky things are coming your way. So no one wants to set eyes on this bird.

How did it get to be an owl? When it was a person it was not filial to its parents and was extremely arrogant. “See me? I am bigger than my mom and dad.” At home they acted like the Emperor and outside they acted like the President. Since they thought they were so incredibly fine, they forgot to be filial to their parents and they turned into owls.

Hawks are huge birds and vultures: Vultures and hawks like to eat dead things, human or animal corpses. Why? When these birds were people they liken to look down on everyone and make big plans for themselves. They liked being high, always thinking they were number one. They always schemed about how well-off they were going to be, but they never did anything. They had a lot of fancy plans, all right, but they did things very clumsily. They forgot their plans before they put them into action. They had fine ambitions, but they accomplished nothing. At night they had a thousand schemes going through their brains but during the day they just took a lot of naps. False thinking all night and sleeping all day, they did not benefit the world at all. They were of no use to themselves or to anyone else, but their minds created a lot of offenses. Because of all their wild plans, they turned into high-flying birds. People who like to “fly high” can turn into these high-flying, far-ranging birds.

The birds mentioned here represent arrogance, one of the Five Dull Servants: greed, hate, stupidity, arrogance and doubt. There are eight kinds of birds which represent eight kinds of arrogance. Birds, when they were people, liked to “fly high,” and they were very arrogant and conceited and looked down on other people. They did not think anyone else measured up to them, and they pushed people around. If they had money, they looked down on the poor. If they had some talent, they look down on those less gifted. If they had a tiny bit of wisdom, they felt superior.

In general, they looked on others as very low and upon themselves as very high. Birds swoop down from on high and feel that they are above it all. Yesterday we talked about the kites and owls. Hawks are very large birds and fly very high. They eat small animals, even deer and rabbits. They can swoop down, pick up a deer by the legs and fly up into the sky with it. vultures like to eat rotting flesh, unclean things, like dead mice or dead cats, animals long dead and crawling with worms, terribly smelly.

Crows are the opposite of owls. Crows are very filial birds. Why are they said to be filial? By the time the little crows are hatched out of their eggs and have learned to fly, the mother crow cannot fly anymore. So the little crows go out and get food and drink and bring it back to the old mother crow. Although they are filial, they are still very arrogant. They are conceited.

Crows are black. Magpies are about the same size as crows. Chinese people consider them lucky. If they hear a magpie chattering in the morning, they are happy and think, “Today something lucky is going to happen. Perhaps an important guest will come. Something nice is going to happen.” Everyone likes this bird.

Pigeons: most birds eat bugs, but pigeons just eat grains. They do not eat bugs. Doves think they are very beautiful. Those are eight kinds of birds which represent the –

Eight kinds of Arrogance

1. Kites represent arrogance over one’s prosperity.

2. Owls represent arrogance over one’s name. When they were people they thought that they had the most noble family name.

3. Hawks represent arrogance over one’s wealth. When they were people they took pride in being wealthier than everyone else. You could say that people who are very snobbish because of their wealth are just acting like hawks.

4. Vultures represent arrogance over one’s freedom. They feel totally free and unfettered. They can eat whenever they feel like it, because they just eat rotten stuff anyway; they like it and considered it a practice which gives them a lot of freedom. Actually it is just an unbeneficial bitter practice.

5. Crows represent arrogance over longevity. They feel that they can live for a very long time. Even if they do not they still think that they do because they are conceited about their longevity.

6. Magpies represent arrogance over intelligence. Many people have this type of arrogance. They feel that they are the smartest of all.

7. Pigeons represent arrogance over good works. They say, “See? You are all carnivores and I am not!” and they are arrogant over their good deeds.

8. Doves represent arrogance over beauty. They are always flying around and showing off in front of people. “See how lovely I am?” they say. They do not start flying until you get real close to them because they are waiting for you to get close enough to see how lovely they are when they fly around.

So the eight types of birds stand for eight kinds of arrogance, arrogance being the forth of the Five Dull Servants. Arrogant people feel that when they are at home they are the Emperor and when they step outside, they are the President. They are always better than the next person.

Black snakes, vipers and scorpions, centipedes and millipedes. These are poisonous creature. Black snakes are extremely poisonous, the most venomous of all snakes. Vipers are also a kind of snake. They are about three inches wide and extremely poisonous. Scorpions also sting people. Centipedes have red heads. The ones without red heads are millipedes. They, too, are very poisonous.

On the first day of the fifth lunar month of each year, in Manchuria we go to the mountains to gather mugwort, a medicinal herb. Then we put a tiny bit in our ears. This prevents the millipedes from crawling into our ears. After a long, long time they can turn into strange, weird people. They are afraid of the medicinal properties of the mugwort plant, however. If someone gets one of these bugs in their ear they will die because it will poison their brain. The poisonous bugs represent hatred, which is the second of the Five Dull Servants. Whoever is hateful can easily turn into one of these creatures. So take care not to be hateful or get angry.

There were geckoes and myriapods, weasels, badgers, and mice–all sorts of evil creatures, running back and forth. Geckoes live in the walls of houses. In Chinese their name means, literally, “protectors of the palace.” This is because the old Emperors had many concubines. They would take the blood of the gecko and smear it on each concubine’s arm. If the concubines had not engaged in sexual relations, the blood would stay on their arms even if they tried to wash it off. If they had had sexual relations, then the blood would disappear. The women in the place got smeared with this blood and their arms were checked everyday to see if they had been true to the Emperor. This is what the legend says, but there is no way to know for sure now whether it actually worked this way. Myriapods are creatures with a lot of legs. They are black and about three inches long.

As I said, the fifth month of the lunar year is the month for gathering medicinal herbs. From the first of the fifth month to the fifth of the fifth month, any grass or plant or herb you pick is medicinal. The mugwort gathered on that day is said to be especially potent. That is a legend in China.

In Manchuria, there are two kinds of weasels. One is called “huang-xian” and one is called “hu-xian.” The “huang-xian” is about three feet long, but not very tall, about as tall as a cat. It has a big tail, half as long as its body. They can let off a stink to discourage dogs from chasing them. It is sort of like the mace cans the police use. They set off their “stink bombs” to protect themselves from attack. It stinks worse than anything. Some are yellow, some are black and white. After a thousand years they turn black. After ten thousand years they turn white. After a hundred years they have a certain amount of spiritual penetrations. They are very talented, sort of like foxes.

Badgers eat chickens, cats and ducks; little animals. Mice: These mice are very strange. They are called “sweet mouth mice,” because they can bite you and drink your blood, but you feel no pain.

The geckoes and myriapods represent the third of the Five Dull Servants, stupidity. This is because they have no wisdom. They also represent one of the two kinds of ignorance, “solitary head ignorance.” The weasels, badgers and mice represent the other kind of ignorance, “responsive ignorance,” because they help each other out.

All sorts of evil creatures, those creatures discussed above, representing the two kinds of ignorance, were running back and forth. They ran from north to south, from east to west as the house caught fire. This is talking about the mark of karma in the three realms. The mark of karma cuts in a criss-cross through our lives without any end. It arises very fast, “running” as it were, throughout our lives.

There were places stinking of excrement and urine, oozing with filth, with dung beetles clustered upon them. Excrement and urine are found inside our bodies. No matter how well washed we are on the outside, we are still just as dirty on the inside, just as smelly. You can drink perfume if you want, but you will still smell inside. Why love such an unclean thing as if it were a treasure? That is just being too stupid, really. They represent the stupidity of being attached to states. States are all impermanent, without a self, suffering and impure. In what is impure, we become attached to purity. We greedily attach to this impurity and do not realize it stinks as much as it does.

Dung beetles live in excrement. People think that excrement is unclean, but the dung beetles like it a lot, yes they do. They think, “This is really a fine place I have got here!” Hah! See how they are? Sometimes they offer a piece of excrement to the Buddha. They eat it, I mean, so they think it’s good to offer to the Buddha. Now, does the Buddha get upset over this? No. Even though it is unclean, still they are offering it with respect so the Buddha does not blame them. After all, they do not have anything else. That is as far as their valuable things to offer the Buddha go. Since they made sincere offerings to the Buddha, they can eventually drop their dung-beetle bodies and in their next lives become people. But they are usually poor people, lowly people, or deaf, dumb or blind people because their karmic obstructions from past lives are too heavy.

Anyway, the dung-beetles were all clustered on the excrement and urine in the dirty places in the house. You might try to improve their lot, saying to them “Hey, dung-beetles, it is too dirty there. Come on, I am going to relocate you somewhere else.” So you put them in a bottle of perfume thinking you are being very good to them and what happens? They die in less than an hour. They do not have the blessings to withstand it. They can only live in the excrement and urine. Move them and they die. Last year there were some people from another cultivating group who came here and I explained this principle to them. I said, “Wherever you have affinities, that is where you will go. If you like to study what is false, you will go somewhere where it is false. If you want to study what is true, you will find a true place. If you move the bugs in the toilet to a bottle of perfume, they will not be able to live there, they will feel very uncomfortable.

Hearing this principle, we students of the Buddhadharma should think it over. Do not choose a place that stinks. At the least, burn a bit of incense before the Buddhas everyday. Study the real Buddhadharma. Do not study improper Buddhadharma. Do not run into the pile of shit to stay. If you stay there, it is of no great advantage to you.

There were foxes, wolves, and Yeh Kan, who nibbled at, trampled on, and devoured corpses, scattering the bones and flesh. This section of text represents the last two of the five Dull Servants, greed and doubt. In china, everyone knows about fax spirits. They specialize in confusing people. How do they do this? They confuse people to the point that they do not know anything at all. In China they have an analogy comparing “bad” women to foxes. They say, “She is a foxy lady…” about improper women. Also, foxes have a lot of doubts. When they walk across the ice, no matter how thick it is, they still walk a step and then cock their heads and listen to see if the ice creaks. If it does not they keep walking, take another step and then stop and listen again.

Wolves are sort of like dogs. They are terribly cruel. No matter what kind of small animal it is they kill it; it does not matter whether they are going to eat it or not. They can drag off a hundred year old pig and eat it! They are the most violent of animals. When I was in Nanking I was living in Kung-ch’ing Mountain. I went to Lung-t’an and on the way back the sky suddenly grew dark and a whole pack of wolves descended. They have their own language and when one wolf howls all the wolves gather together and they eat whoever is on the road. They rip them apart and split up the meat. That night I met a lot of wolves. It was about eight or nine o’clock at night, and they were all around in the trees right next to the road. As I walked along they followed me, protecting me. I thought they were protecting me. Of course, they thought they were getting ready to eat me. I thought they were guarding me. We walked along together for five or six miles, but they did not eat me. They were my good friends. In fact I gave them the Three Refuges. You see, I have wolves for disciples. After I accepted them in the Three Refuges, they did not think about biting people anymore. There were over twenty of them.

Yeh kan belong to the fox family. They are not actually foxes, but they are even smarter than foxes, foxes being pretty smart in their own right. They live way out in the wilds where no one at all lives. They live in very dangerous places, places where no human could reach. Even hawks cannot get there. They live high up in caves or atop very tall trees. They do not come out during the day, but roam at night in packs of four or five. They howl with a very strange sound to make all the other animals afraid. There are very weird animals, they yeh kan.

The yeh kan ate the corpses slowly, bit by bit. When there were a lot of corpses, they tramped on them. They ran all over them, wasting them. When there were a lot, they just wasted them, they trampled on them. They devoured the corpses, ripping into the blood and bones with their lips and teeth. Then they scattered the bones and flesh everywhere, leaving everything in a shambles.

Then packs of dogs came running to grab them, hungry, weak and terrified, seeking food everywhere. Once the flesh and bones were scattered about, the dogs came to fight over the leftovers. Hungry represents not understanding the Buddhadharma. If you do not understand the Buddhadharma, you are hungry. When your Dharmabody is not perfected you are weak. So, people who have not heard the Buddhadharma are hungry and weak. Terrified means they were very frightened, very upset, not serene at all, running hither and thither, seeking food everywhere. The dogs came running to the scene greedy for food. This represents greed which is also one of the Five Dull Servants. Because they cannot get any food, they fight for it.

Fighting and shoving, snarling, howling and barking. The terrors in that house, and the sights were such as these. The dogs were fighting, showing their teeth. They were howling and barking. Things were absolutely terrifying in that house of the five skandhas. From the beginning of the verse to this point we have been talking about greed, hatred, stupidity, arrogance, and doubt, the Five Dull Servants. Below, we will be talking about the Five Quick Servants. The Five Dull Servants turn people totally upside-down. They may want to wake up a bit, but it is not easy. They are as if tied up by the Five Dull Servants in this house where it is very dangerous. We better quickly find a way to slay the five Dull Servants. That would not be a case of breaking the precepts, either, so do not worry about that.

Li Mei and Wang Liang were everywhere. Yakshas and evil ghosts were eating human flesh. “Everywhere” speaking in broad terms means the entire three realms. In more specific terms, it refers to our bodies. No matter whether you speak of it in terms of the three realms or the body, there are these creatures everywhere.

Li is a kind of ghost that stays very far away from people. Where are they found? They dwell in the mountains. They are weird creatures in the mountains, also called mountain essences.

The weird creatures you find in your house are called mei, and they play tricks on people. There are many kinds of them. There are very obvious ones; they can play all kinds of uncanny tricks and do thing which ordinary people cannot even perceive.

Wang liang ghosts are transformations of stone or wood. After a long period of time, rocks can come to life. Not very many of them do this. For a rock to come to life it must have been touched with human blood. In fact, anything that touched with human blood, specifically blood from a fingertip, can come to life. It does so by means of the person’s blood and vital energy. The wang liang are the largest type of ghosts. They are as big as mountains. Sometimes Chinese people run into these ghosts while they are out walking at night. They try to walk forward, but it is as if there is a mountain blocking them and they cannot move forward. I remember one of my brothers met one of these ghosts at night. When this happens no matter what you do you cannot walk to any other place. You are stuck right there until dawn when the cock crows and then you can go again.

Li and mei are very tiny ghosts, about three feet high. Wang liang are sometimes thirty, forty, or even three hundred feet high.

These lines represent the Five Quick Servants. Previously we spoke about the Five Dull Servants and now we are speaking about the Five Quick Servants. They are:

1. The view of body.

2. Extreme views.

3. Views of unprincipled morality.

4. Deviant views.

5. Views of grasping at views.

The Five Dull Servants are called “dull” because they come on slowly. Quickly means that they come on very fast and are very sharp. The Five Quick Servants also turn people upside-down. They make them attached. They cause them to do wrong things.

The view of a body. The view of a body means that one is always attached to one’s body. From morning until night one works on its behalf, buying it a little candy or sprinkling it with a little perfume, giving it some nice clothes and a nice place to live. That is called being attached to the body. One thinks “My body is just me!” Actually, that is wrong. How is it wrong? The body can only be said to belong to you. You can say, “It is mine.” But you cannot say, “It is me.” Why not? The body is like a house. When you are living in a house you cannot tell people “My house is me.” You can just say, “It is mine.” Ultimately, you are not your body. Do not mistake the real owner. If you are attached to the body as yourself, you are wrong.

I always say, if you look from the tip of the head to the soles of your feet, your head is called your head, your eyes are called eyes, your ears are called ears, your hair is called hair, your nose is called nose, the mouth is called mouth, the skin is called the skin, the hands are called hands, the feet are called feet. Everything has its name. Which one of them is called “me”? You can look all over your entire body, and you would not find a “me”. It is not you. It belongs to you, that’s all. If you calculate on its behalf all the time, when, as the poet T’ao Yuan-ming said in his poem “The Return,” your mind is acting as your body’s slave. Your mind is your true self, the real owner in charge. They body is just like a house. The owner lives in the body. Here we are talking about the eternally dwelling real mind, the bright substance of the pure nature. That is really you, really me. It is also called the Thus Come One’s Storehouse. It is also called the Buddha nature.

So do not mistakenly think that the body is you. It is yours; it is not you. The real you is not produced and not destroyed, not defiled and not pure, not increasing and not decreasing. That is the real you. But instead of recognizing that real you, you recognize the false self and think that superficial thing, the body, is really you. If it is really you, then when the body dies, will you disappear too? If you disappear, that is really meaningless. That is just a view of annihilation, which brings us to the second of the Five Quick Servants.

The view of taking sides. There are two sides: eternalism and annihilationism. In fact, when people die it is like their house has broken down and they have to move to a new one. They move to a new body. Where do they move to? It depends on what kind of karma they have created. If you create good karma, you move to a nice place. If you create evil karma, you move to an evil place. Death, then, is definitely not annihilation. We should see through the view of a body and put it down. Do not be attached to the view of a body.

To be attached either to eternalism or to annihilationism are the two kinds of attachments of non-Buddhist religions. The view of annihilation states, “When one dies it is like the lamp goes out. It is all over. If you do good, there is no retribution incurred. There is no retribution, either, for doing evil. If you do good deeds, when you die it is all over. If you do evil, again, when you die it is all over. There is no rebirth. So, do not believe in cause and effect. You do not have to because there is no cause and effect.”

These people deny cause and effect. They do not say that if you do good deeds you can become a Buddha or if you do evil things you can become a ghost. They do not believe in ghosts, they do not believe in the Buddha, and in fact, they do not even believe in people! They think of people like grass or trees that get born and then die, and that is it. When one dies, another is born, but there is no rebirth of any specific living thing. One dies and another takes its place, that’s all. What dies is forever dead; what is born is born anew. Because they do not believe in the revolution of the law of cause and effect, they deny the existence of the six paths of rebirth.

On the other side of the coin are those who hold to the extreme view of eternalism. They sat that once you become a person it does not matter whether you do good or evil because you will always be a person. If you are a ghost, you are always going to be a ghost. Buddhas are always Buddhas. There is no change. God is eternal and he will always be god. Horses and cows will always be horses and cows. They said one never changes. Why not? Because you have that seed. People have the seed of people, animals have the seed of animals. Ghosts have the seed of ghosts. If you fall into the hells you will always be there because you have the hell-seed in you. Everything is fixed and absolute.

In reality there is nothing that is fixed for sure. There are no fixed dharmas. But they say that everything is fixes. There are no transformations. It is all ironclad. God is the only god. No one else can be god. That is the view of eternalism. Eternalism and annihilationism are the two views held by non-Buddhist religions. No matter how good you are you will never be god because the whole show is fixed. They say you must believe in god. If you believe in god, even if you do evil, you will go to heaven. See? If you do not believe in god, no matter how many good things you do, you are still going to fall into hells. God! There is no true principle involved here. It does not even make sense! That is the view of eternalism.

Annihilationism and eternalism are both extreme views. They are not in accord with the Middle Way. For example, if someone has extreme views about another person, that is, if he is prejudiced on their behalf, then that other person can do terrible things, but they will overlook it and say that that person is good. There is a person here, in fact, who thinks that way about himself. He makes up principles on the spot to suit his motives, but makes them sound very logical because his views are extreme. This is sophistry. He thinks that his opinions are correct. He thinks, to put it bluntly, that he is better than everyone else.

In China we say that such a person is holding on to a poop and if you offered him a doughnut, he would not trade you. He has got a big poop in his hand, but if you offered him a cookie or a nice piece of pastry, he would not let go of that poop to accept your gift. No way! That is just being extreme. Han! Extreme views, extreme indeed…Extreme views are very difficult to reform because they arise very quickly. They are also entirely unprincipled, and that is why they are called “extreme” views.

Now, people all have within them the cause of realizing Buddhahood. However, you have to go and do it. Eventhough you have causal conditions for realizing Buddhahood, if you do not do the work, you will not arrive at that position. If you do the work, you will naturally arrive at your goal. For example, before studying the Buddhadharma, people may do a lot of confused things. A lot of young people take drugs and turn into “stoned” people. That is one thing when you have not studied the Buddhadharma, because you have no true understanding of what it means to be human.

But after you have studied the Buddhadharma, you have to change. You cannot continue to use drugs. If you do, you are deliberately violating the rules, just like the person I just talked about who is holding on to a poop and will not accept a doughnut. I have brought up this analogy hoping that everyone will quickly wake up. If you have never taken drugs, that is even better. If you are still taking them, then put that turn down right now!! Do not be a dung-beetle, because if you live in the excrement too long you will turn into one for sure. If you get out of there fast, you still have a chance to find out what it is like to be human and have a share in the human race. In fact, you can even set up the causes for becoming a Buddha.

Views of unprincipled morality. This refers to non-Buddhist religions who practice unprincipled morality. They grasp at morality saying that what is not a cause is a cause, and what is not an effect is an effect.

What is meant by “taking what is not a cause as a cause?” They cultivate unbeneficial ascetic practices. They say that in doing this they can attain Nirvana and the fruit of highest bliss. Their asceticism is a side-trip as far as cultivation goes. Because they do cultivate asceticism, some of them may open their Heavenly Eyes. Then, they may see cows or dogs, pigs or chickens who have been born in the heavens. Seeing this, they decide to imitate the cows, dogs, pigs, and chickens. They eat grass along with the cows instead of eating regular food because they think it will get them into heaven with the cows. They think that the reason the cow was born in the heaven is because it eats grass! They think that eating grass is a very pure precept, purer than just not eating meat. They think it is the optimal vegetarian diet! This is called keeping “cow precepts.”

Others imitate dogs. Dogs live outside in doghouses, and they watch the door for people. They think that this gives the dogs merit and that their ascetic practices are real cultivation. They imitate the dogs and live in doghouses! They act like dogs, too. Dogs eat excrement and so do they. They eat what dogs eat. They also imitate chickens and pigs. These are the ascetic practices cultivated by non-Buddhist religions. Because of their asceticism, sometimes they are born in the heavens. Within the framework of their unprincipled precepts they do cultivate the ten good acts. They are attached, though. They are attached to “taking what is not a cause as a cause and what is not an effect as an effect.” Basically, their thinking does not make sense.

Some non-Buddhist religions practice sleeping on the ground like pigs. They roll in ashes until you cannot recognize them at all. Others pound nails in a board and sleep on the nails. Sometimes the nails stick them and they bleed. They claim, “I am really an outstanding ascetic. You all could not do this because you are afraid of pain. I sleep right on the nails and I am not afraid they are going to poke me.”

Others say, “You all sleep lying down. Well, watch this!” and they tie two ropes around their feet and sleep hanging upside-down. It is hart to sleep that way, al right, but they think it is real good cultivation because nobody else can do it. Others do not eat. They do not eat food, that is. Everybody else eats food, but not them. When they are hungry they eat dirt. They say that this is the true, natural, organic way of life. There is so much dirt on the earth; might as well live on it. They do not have to eat very much of it either. A little bit goes a long way. These are all examples of unprincipled morality, unbeneficial bitter practices. What good are they? No good at all. Still, they like to practice them.

Deviant views. Deviant means improper. For example, cultivators of the Way should be filial to their parents, but people with deviant views say it is not necessary. “What good is it? Do not bother. They give birth to children and that is their job. You do not have to be filial to them,” they say.

Killing is wrong, but they say, “The more you kill, the better.” The first of the five precepts prohibits killing, but they instruct people to kill. Would you call that deviant or not? Stealing is also not right, but they use all kinds of methods to teach people how to steal. If someone does not know how to steal, they teach them how.

Sexual misconduct is wrong, too, but they teach people to engage in it. One should not lie, either, but they teach people how to lie. They say, “Do not listen to that stuff about not lying. Everybody lies. Some people just cheat and get away with it. Do not believe in that.” That is a deviant view. Taking intoxicants is against the precepts, but they say it does not matter. Some people like to smoke and claim that in the five precepts, the precept against taking intoxicants does not include tobacco. “Smoking is not breaking the precepts,” they say, but that is a deviant view. Other people say, “You are a vegetarian and do not eat meat? But all the cows and sheep and pigs were made to be eaten. If you do not eat them what use are they?” They have their reasoning, but their views are deviant. In general what is right they say is wrong. They think up ways to say things that will make you go along with their deviant understanding and deviant views.

Views of grasping at views. When they see things they want to take them and make them their own. No matter what kind of finagling they have to go through, they find ways to help themselves out. They are showing their selfishness.

These Five Quick Servants block your genuine wisdom like five servants surrounding you so you cannot do anything freely. They control you so you have to listen to them. They lock you up.

Students of the Buddhadharma, now that you know about these Five Quick Servants, you should pick up your wisdom sword and slay them all. After you have done so you can transcend the three realms.

This has been a general discussion of the Five Quick Servants. If one were to explain them in detail one would not finish to the end of an aeon.

Someone asks, “You say that cows and dogs, pigs and chickens were born in the heavens? How could that be? If they did not cultivate how could they be born there? If it is that easy it is no wonder the non-Buddhists tried to imitate them. Everyone could do it and be born in the heavens.”

That is a good question. The non-Buddhists had the penetration of the Heavenly Eye and they could see these animals had been born in the heavens. What they could not see was the reason why they were born in the heavens. The cows, for example, had been born there because they had worked in the fields of a monastery, pulling carts, plowing fields, and things like that. They established a lot of merit for themselves by working for the Buddhadharma and with that merit and virtue they were born in the heavens. The dogs had saved people’s lives.

One dog really loved his master. One day his master fell asleep in a thicket. Actually, he passed out from having too much to drink. Anyway, he was asleep in the grass and the grass caught fire. The dog starting barking madly, but since the man was so drunk, he did not hear it. So the dog ran to the river and jumped in, got himself all wet and filled his mouth up with water. Then he ran and rolled over and over in the fire and spit out the water and put out the fire. Since he gained merit and virtue from saving his master, he was reborn in the heavens. It was because of the merit he gained that he was born in the heavens. It was not because he watched the door or ate excrement.

And it was not because the cow ate grass that it was born in the heavens. The pigs and the chickens were sent to a temple by people who decided to give them away instead of killing them for food. While they lived at the temple they heard people recite Sutras in the mornings and in the evenings they heard people recite the Buddha’s name. They started reciting Sutras and the Buddha’s name in their hearts along with the people. Because of the merit and virtue they gained by hearing the Sutras and the Buddha’s name, they were born in the heavens.

But those of non-Buddhist religions with their Heavenly Eyes only saw them up there in the heavens and did not know the real reason why they were born there. They simply slavishly imitated their behavior, hoping to be born in the heavens too. They never asked why they were born there. They just copied them and expected to get results. But we have to know the reasons behind things. How do beings get born in the heavens? What makes them fall into the hells? We should understand these things. It is not right just to cultivate in a haphazard manner. You need genuine wisdom. You should look into things deeply and gain a true understanding of them.

From the sentence “Yakshas and evil ghosts eating human flesh” to the sentence “The sound of their quarreling was dreadful to the extreme” discusses the first of the Five Quick Servants, deviant views. Li mei and wang liang and yakshas have a shadow, but no material form. They do things in a very sneaky manner, not out in the open. So they are like people with deviant views who do things in a very shadowy, dark manner. They do not see the sky. They do not see the light.

Yakshas and evil ghosts were eating human flesh. Human flesh represents good retribution. If you do good deeds, you gain good retribution; if you do evil deeds, you gain evil retribution. Eating human flesh represents the denial of cause and effect. People who deny cause and effect say, “You need not be afraid of cause and effect.” In this way, it is as if they were “eating” the good retribution. They eat it all up so there is no more. They say “There is no cause and effect, so do not worry about it. There is no hell. There is no heaven. What is all this about creating offense karma? Do whatever you like! There are no offenses and there is no merit.

The world is a free place. Do what you want to do. If you want to kill, kill. If you want to steal, go ahead. If you like the opposite sex, well, do as you please. Do not worry about it. If you can cheat people and get away with it, more power to you. If you have wine to drink, what is the problem? There is nothing in this world finer that drinking wine, anyway. Why worry about all that stuff?” Hah! This is called “eating human flesh,” taking all the good retribution and eating it right up. Would you say this was extreme or not? These verses represent deviant views.

There were poisonous creatures of all kinds, and evil birds and beasts, hatching their young, each protecting its own. There were snakes, scorpions, etc. and wolves, and all kinds of evil animals. There were fierce birds like hawks who eat deer. The birds protected their young and did not let anyone see them. The animals gave birth to their young and protected them, too. If someone saw them they might steal and eat them. So they hid them. This is also an analogy for cause and effect in the world.

Where there is a cause, there is certainly bound to be an effect. You could say that the effect is hidden in the cause. As you plant the cause, although the effect does not manifest at that time, still it is hidden there and in the future will certainly manifest. Where there is a cause, there will be an effect, and this is what is meant by “hidden.” That effect is certain to be manifested and will not be lost and that is what is meant by “protected.” The cause will not be lost. This is an analogy for cause and effect. If you plant a good cause you will reap good fruit; if you plant an evil cause you will reap an evil fruit. It is for sure. No matter how you try, you cannot get out of cause and effect. It remains, as it were, “hidden and protected.”

Yakshas raced to the spot fighting one another to eat them. Because there were not too many things to eat, and there were a lot of yakshas, they had to fight to get something to eat. This represents the denial of cause and effect. They think that there is neither cause nor effect. So they fight with one another to eat them.

Having eaten their fill, their evil thoughts grew more inflamed. This line represents the accomplishment of their deviant views. Before their deviant views have become a reality, they simply have thoughts of deviant views. Now their deviant views have manifested in reality and so they eat and are filled. Once their deviant views have become realized, then they increase. Day by day their deviant views increase. Day by day they grow larger. The sound of their quarreling, was dreadful to the extreme. They fought and argued. There is a saying,

“Debating, thoughts of victory and defeat
Stand in contradiction to the Way;
Giving rise to the four-mark mind,
How can Samadhi be attained?”

The four marks are the mark of self, of others, of living beings and of a lifespan. Once there is the mark of self, then there is a mark of others. The mark of self plus the mark of others turns into the mark of living beings. Once there are living beings, then there is a lifespan. You cannot attain Samadhi that way. The sound of their quarreling represents the deviant debates carried on by those who deny cause and effect.

Basically, there is no principle in what they say, but they make it sound like there is. The sound was dreadful to the extreme. Terrifying, just horrifying. This line represents people who hearing these deviant debates, become confused. Once they are confused, they create evil karma. Creating evil karma, they fall into the three evil paths. It is really scary. Once you fall into the three evil paths it is hard to get out again. Perhaps some special causal condition will enable you to get out, but still it is very, very hard.

Kumbhanda ghosts, were squatting on high ground, sometimes leaving the ground a foot or two, as they wandered to and fro amusing themselves as they wished, grabbing dogs by two legs, and striking them so they lost their bark, twisting their legs around their necks, frightening the dogs for their own pleasure. These verses represent the third of the Five Quick Servants, that is views of unprincipled morality.

Kumbhanda ghosts are ghosts that look like watermelons. They do not have any head and they do not have any feet. They are round. They are also called yen mei, and they stay far away from people, except at night when they go and sit on them. When you wake up, they run far away. When you go to sleep, they come to get you. They are like great big melons who sit right down on you and make you feel like you can hardly breathe. You cannot talk; you cannot move. You are paralyzed. They have a dharma they do to cause you to be unable to speak. You can stare out into space, but you cannot say anything. Some people even get crushed to death by them. Kumbhandas represent the views of unprincipled morality.

The ghosts were squatting on high ground and this represents the six heavens in the realm of desire. These heavens are like “high places.” In non-Buddhist religions, they keep the cow, dog, pig and chicken precepts and by keeping to their unprincipled morality they cultivate the ten good acts and thereby gain rebirth in the various desire heavens.

1. The heaven of the four kings.

2. The heaven of the Thirty-three.

3. The suyama heaven.

4. The tushita heaven.

5. The nirmanarati heaven.

6. The paranirmitavashavartin heaven.

The ghosts sometimes leave the ground a foot or two. This represents those non-Buddhists, who, relying on unprincipled morality, cultivate the Way. One foot off the ground represents ascending to the form realm to be born in the Four Dhyanas. Two feet off the ground represents their ascending to the formless realm to be born in the four formless concentrations.

They wandered to and fro: “To” represents those being born in the form and formless realms. “Fro” represents those returning to be born in the desire realm again. Within the three realms we are sometimes born in the upper realms and sometimes we fall into the lower realms. People in this world are in an extremely dangerous position. We are like motes of dust suddenly high, suddenly low, suddenly above, suddenly below. In the burning house of the three realms, if you do deeds of merit and virtue, you will be born in the heavens.

If you create offenses, you will fall into the hells or turn into an animal or a hungry ghost. So it is very dangerous. The motes of dust float with the wind. They go where the wind blows, from one place to another. People float with the wind of their karma. The karma you create, if good, will enable you to be born in the heavens. If you create evil karma, you will fall into the hells. That is what is meant by the sentence of text “As they wandered to and fro.”

“Amusing themselves freely” means just doing whatever they feel like doing, that is, not following the rules. Freely means being lazy and doing what you like. They played and sported in the three realms thinking it a lot of fun, when actually it is very dangerous. This line represents people not understanding true principle and having no real happiness. All their happiness is nothing more than a kind of shallow amusement, like going to a play. Is the pleasure of watching a play ultimately real or not? Does it last? It is entirely false.

The ghosts grab the dogs by two legs and strike them so they loose their bark. This represents those non-Buddhist religions who cultivate ascetic practices. They falsely think that their bitter practices will eventually bring about the realization of their karma of the Way. In reality, their ascetic practices are all without benefit. They imitate the dogs, pigs, chickens and cows. What is the use of such practices? Eating grass? Eating excrement? Rolling in ashes? No use. Grabbing them by the two legs represents those who cultivate unbeneficial ascetic practices and falsely think that they will gain the fruit of purity. Striking tem so they loose their bark represents those non-Buddhists who, in cultivating their unbeneficial ascetic practices take what is not a cause to be a cause. They think, “Now I am cultivating ascetic practices and things are certainly going to be good for me in the future. I will not reap any bitter fruit.” That is just taking what is not a cause to be a cause.

Twisting their legs around their necks represents non-Buddhists and their bitter practices, taking what is not an effect to be an effect. They will not gain the result of happiness, but they falsely think that their practices will result in happiness, in the fruit of Nirvana.

They frighten the dogs for their own pleasure. When the dogs are scared they cry out. The ghosts are really happy because the dogs are afraid of them. When the dogs are afraid of them, they are delighted. This represents those of non-Buddhist religions using their unbeneficial bitter practices to temporarily subdue their afflictions. This is like using a rock to smother grass. Their afflictions are like the grass and their bitter practices are like the big rock. The rock may cover the grass, but as soon as you remove the rock, the grass grows right back, even thicker than before because you have not pulled the grass out by its roots. Non-Buddhist ascetics may subdue their more obvious afflictions temporarily, but they do not wipe them out at the root. Sometimes they attain a bit of the flavor of Dhyana. What is the flavor of Dhyana? It is bliss, great happiness. This is the stage where one is just on the verge of attaining the first Dhyana, the stage of the bliss of leaving production.

Further there were ghosts, their bodies very tall and large, naked, black and thin, always dwelling therein, emitting loud and evil sounds, howling in search of food. These lines represent the first of the Five Quick Servants, the view of a body. There were many different kinds of ghosts, fat ghosts and thin ghosts, black ghosts and white ghosts, and naked ghosts. Some were very tall, as big as those wang liang we talked about before. Some had no clothes and some were black, with no flesh on their bones at all. They were all within the burning house.

“Tall” represents the assumption of a self which pervades, vertically, the three periods of time, past, present and future. “Large” represents the assumption of a self which pervades, horizontally, the five skandhas.

“Naked” means that they are very free and do not cultivate good dharmas; they have no shame. They do not feel that they are wrong because they have no shame. People without shame are as if naked. Only a shameless person would run around without any clothes on, someone who did not realize how ugly he was.

“Black” means that they adorn themselves with offense and evil. Because their entire being is pervaded with offense and evil they are said to be black. “Thin” means that they have no merit or virtue whatsoever to help them. One without merit or virtue is as if very thin. They are always within the burning house, in the three realms, and do not think to get out. They never get out. They are always there.

Emitting loud and evil sounds. This represents those of non-Buddhist religions who proclaim their doctrines of various types of marks of self. They never get away from the concept of a self. They cultivate various non-Buddhist ascetic practices and so they are emitting loud and evil sounds because their mark of self is too heavy.

Howling in search of food. Howling, they cry out for food. The black ghosts have nothing to eat. Those skinny, black, naked ghosts with a view of a body are starving! They scream out with loud, evil sounds for people to give them something to eat. This represents their false assumption that there is a self which can attain Nirvana. Having the mark of self, the attachment to self, they think to attain Nirvana. So they howl in search of food, the food, here, being Nirvana.

And what is Nirvana? It is not produced and not destroyed. It is marked with the Four Virtues of permanence, happiness, true self, and purity. With the mark of self, they try to attain Nirvana. This is just false thinking! As long as you have the mark of self you cannot attain Nirvana. If you wish to attain Nirvana, you must break through the attachment to self. Do not attach to self. If you attach to self and try to attain Nirvana, it will be impossible to do so.

Further there were ghosts with throats like needles. These lines represent the fifth of the Five Quick Servants, the view of grasping at views. These ghosts had throats as skinny as needles, but their stomachs, let me tell you, were as big as bass drums! Do you think, with a shape like this, that they could ever get full? No matter how much they ate they would never get full because their stomachs were too big and their throats too small. In fact, it takes a tremendous amount of time for them to even drink a mouthful of water. Would you say that was suffering or not?

Ghosts like these represent the view of grasping at views. With such little needle-throats, their very lives are in danger. They are constantly running around looking for food. This represents those who have attained to the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception and assume that it is Nirvana. Basically, this heaven is impermanent, even though the lifespan of one born there is eighty-thousand great aeons. When that time is up, they still fall. Those in the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception think that they have attained Nirvana. They are like the ghosts with the needle-throats.

Again there were ghosts; from this line to “They ran about shouting and crying out” refers to the second of the Five Quick Servants, that of extreme views. With heads like oxen; the ghosts had heads like oxen, with two horns on top. Their faces also looked like oxen. You may wonder “How can ghosts have faces like oxen?” Well, not only do some of them look like oxen, there are ghosts with all kinds of faces. There are ghosts who look like pigs, dogs and chickens. There are ghosts which look like every kind of animal there is, in fact.

There are tiger-head ghosts and lion-head ghosts. Now, these ghosts have horns on their heads, like oxen, and this represents extreme views. The horns grow on top of their heads in the same way extreme views rely upon the view of a body. Once there is a view of a body, then there can be extreme views. Extreme views and the view of a body give rise to two views of annihilation and eternalism. The two horns, then, represent the two views of annihilationism and eternalism. These two views are very harmful because they can sever one’s transcendental good roots. For this reason the text says, now eating human flesh. The eating of human flesh is like the severing of one’s transcendental good roots. And then devouring dogs. Perhaps they were eating dogs. This represents severing one’s mundane good roots.

Just what are transcendental good roots? They are created by diligently cultivating morality, Samadhi and wisdom and by destroying greed, hatred and stupidity. They are also cultivated by practicing of the Four Truths, the Twelve Causes and Conditions, the Six Perfections and the Ten Thousand Conducts. The merit and virtue gained from cultivating these make up the transcendental good roots. What are mundane good roots? Cultivating the five precepts and the ten good deeds. The extreme views of annihilationism and eternalism sever both transcendental and mundane good roots.

Their hair was disheveled. Basically, One’s hair should be kept neat, but these ghosts had hair going every which way. This represents those of non-Buddhist religions who sometimes put forth views of annihilationism and at other times put forth views of eternalism. Sometimes they say that everything is eternal. “The saints in heaven,” they claim, “are now and ever will be saints in heaven. The human beings will always be people and the animals will always be animals. It is all fixed. It does not ever change.

Gods are gods; ghosts are ghosts; people are always people. Grass and trees will always be grass and trees. There is no possibility for change. “But then sometimes they have reservations about this doctrine, and they switch to a view of annihilationism. “People would not be people forever. When they die they disappear entirely. Horses, cows, sheep, chickens, pigs–all will disappear. It is like cutting down a big tree-there’s nothing left of it. It is gone. “They have a lot of doubts about things, and so sometimes they hold to eternalism and other times they switch to annihilationism.

The two views are directly opposed to one another which put these people into quite a paradoxical situation, but they continue to run back and forth between the two extremes. They never stop in the middle, at the Middle Way. They just go from one extreme to the other. It is like someone trying to go from the West Coast to Chicago and ending up in New York instead. Or perhaps they want to go to the East Coast and think about it all the time but never take a single step in that direction. They never get there. Those attached to eternalism or annihilationism are like that. They go back and forth, and this is like having their hair all tousled, sticking out here and there.

They were harmful, cruel and dangerous. Their hair was a mess, and this means they did not clearly understand the principles the Buddha taught about impermanence and conditional arisal. When they assumed their views of eternalism, they did so to try to destroy the Buddha’s true principle of impermanence. The Buddha taught that everything in this world is suffering, empty and impermanent. Whey they assumed their views of annihilationism, they did so to try to destroy the Buddha’s true teaching of all things arising from conditions.

The Buddha taught that everything comes about through cause and effect. Their view of annihilationism tossed them into the pit of annihilationism, and their view of eternalism tossed them into the pit of eternalism. This is what is meant by the phrase “They were harmful, cruel and dangerous.” Once you have fallen into these pits, it is hard to get out again. In other words, it is hard to understand genuine principle, to become a Buddha. So it is extremely dangerous.

Oppressed by hunger and thirst, they ran about shouting and crying out. Hunger means they had no food. Thirst means–no tea! Is that misery or not? The more they ran the hungrier and thirstier they got. Hunger is a bit easier to bear than thirst. Thirst is terribly hard to bear.

In China during the wars of the Three Kingdoms, there was a famous general named Ts’ao-ts’ao who was remarkably clever. He and Chu Ke-liang were enemies. One time Ts’ao-ts’ao was marching his troops, over a hundred men, through the desert. For a hundred miles, there was no water at all. They had not had any water to drink for several days. All the men were, besides, being hungry, so thirsty they could not even walk. They just lay down, as if sick, to rest. Ts’ao-ts’ao asked them, “Why are you lying down?” They told him they were just too thirsty to go on. He said, “Oh, is that all? Do not worry about that.

About ten or twenty miles up ahead I happen to know that there is an orchard of sour plums. When we get there we can eat them and quench our thirst.” As soon as he said the word “plums,” the soldiers’ mouths started watering. Since their mouths were watering, they were not thirsty anymore, and they started marching again. They marched about twenty miles and kept right on and walked right out of the desert. But there was no plum orchard at all. He made the whole thing up because he knew his “white lie” would enable his men to get out safely. He “cheated” them into forgetting about their thirst and into getting out of the desert. So if you are thirsty, think about sour plums!

When people are really hungry, they like to eat oil cakes. But to make oil cakes you have to have flour. If you have not any flour or oil, what are you going to do? Well, you might get a piece of paper and draw a sketch of an oil cake. Still, since you know it is just a drawing, it is not going to satisfy your hunger. In China we have a saying,

Thinking of sour plums can quench your thirst,
But drawing of an oil cake would not satisfy your hunger.

Hunger and thirst can be extremely fierce. The hunger and thirst referred to in the text here is the lack of the food of wisdom. Those who cultivate the Way must eat the food of wisdom. Without it, one goes hungry. Cultivators need to drink the water of Dhyana Samadhi. This means you need to meditate. When you sit in meditation, quite naturally you will be filled with sweet dew. Then you will no longer be thirsty. Cultivating the Way you need wisdom food and Dhyana Samadhi drink.

But here, there is neither one. Why not? Because they do not cultivate the Way. They do not come to listen to Sutra lectures. Lectures on the Sutras are wisdom food. Having listened to the lectures and understood the principles, you should return and take the time from your busy life to meditate and investigate Dhyana. That is drinking Dhyana Samadhi. If you do not listen to Sutra lectures, you will get no wisdom food; if you fail to sit in Dhyana Samadhi, you have no Dhyana to drink and you will be oppressed by hunger and thirst.

Starving and dying of thirst, they ran about shouting. They were screaming: ‘Arghhhhh! I am staaaaarrrving to death!” They ran about like lunatics. Their shouting and crying out represents broad proclamations of eternalism and/or annihilationism, sort of like that Bob Dylan song where he shouts:

“God said to Abraham, kill me a son.
Abe said, ‘Man, you must be puttin’ me on.’”

They shout, “It is all annihilated; there is nothing eternal! My principles are totally correct!” Or they scream at the top of their lungs, “You are wrong!! It is not annihilated! It is all eternal!” They cry out one or the other of their deviant doctrines, with their deviant understanding and their deviant views. These twisted, deviant doctrines are represented in the text by “shouting and crying out.”

Wheh they are done yelling, they run around. Where do they run to? Right into the six path wheel of birth and death. The phrase “they ran about” represents continuous birth and death in the six paths. They never stop turning in the wheel of birth and death. No matter how hard they run, they never get off the wheel.

There were yakshas, hungry ghosts, and all sorts of evil birds and beasts, frantic with hunger, facing the four directions, peeking out the windows, such were the troubles and terrors beyond measure there. This section represents the appearance of afflictions created by the Five Dull and Five Quick Servants for living beings in the realm of desire.

Living beings in the realm of desire have outflows. Because they have outflows, they cannot obtain the flavor of cultivation of the Way, the flavor of Dhyana. Because they have not attained to the state of non-outflows or to the fruit of the Way or to the flavor of Dhyana’s bliss, they are said to be “frantic with hunger.” They are terribly hungry. The hungry ghosts and evil birds and animals are starving and they “faced the four directions.” What is meant by “four directions?”

Those non-Buddhist religions cultivate deviant contemplations, but they cannot awaken to true principle. They very much long for the fruit of the Way, for the gains of Dhyana, and this longing is like a hunger in them which causes them to look outside, to look in the four directions. They do not realize that all one needs is proper understanding and proper views and the ability to be unmoved by the Five Dull and Five Quick Servants in order to attain the fruit of the Way and the flavor of Dhyana.

Because they cannot attain it, they face the four directions “peeking out the windows.” “Peeking” is a sneaky way of looking at things. It is not in accord with the rules. Even though these evil things try to peek out the windows, they cannot see anything clearly. Those of non-Buddhist religions have many attached thoughts which obstruct their understanding and prevent them from knowing genuine principle. There are panes of glass in the window, but one’s vision through a window cannot be unobstructed; there is always some degree of distortion.

The various difficulties and disasters were frightening to the extreme, to the point that you could not even measure it.

Sutra:

This old, decaying house
Belonged to a man
Who had gone but a short distance
When, before very long,
The rear rooms of the house
Suddenly caught fire.

Outline:

N2. The cause of the fire.

Commentary:

This old, decaying house. The house is in terrible condition. It is about ready to cave in altogether. This decaying house represents the three realms as without peace; everywhere you turn it is very dangerous. It is said to be old because it was not made just recently. The three realms had no beginning and so it is “old”. Belonged to a man. The three realms, the desire, form and formless realms, are where the Buddha, in his Response body, teaches and transforms living beings. The Buddha, from the time he brought forth the thought of enlightenment up until the time he became a Buddha, passed through three great asankheya aeons. He made vows, great vows. His vows were limitless and measureless. These great vows were to save all living beings, to take them from suffering to bliss to help them end birth and death.

For this reason, Buddhist disciples should follow the Buddha’s example in making vows to save all living beings. If you are going to save them, where do you start? You start with the people close to you. If your relatives do not understand the Buddhadharma, you should exhaust your effects to lead them to believe in the Buddha. Since you believe in the Buddha and you know that the Buddhadharma is a good thing, you should first cross over your father and mother and lead them to believe in the Buddhadharma. It is said,

When one’s parents have left defilement,
The child has then accomplished the Way.

If you can bring your parents to believe in genuine principle, then you are truly being filial. Then cross over your brothers and sisters so that they have a proper path to walk down. After you have saved your family, you should save your friends. Work from “near” to “far,” from your inner family circle out to your friends and then out to all living beings. In this way you should teach and transform living beings. Liberate them. In this way you are following the example of the Buddha’s great vows. After he became a Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha went up to the Heaven of the Thirty-three to speak the Dharma to his mother. He spoke The Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra on her behalf.

The three realms are where the Buddha appears in his Response body to teach and transform living beings and so the text says it “belonged to a man.” This man is the great elder, the Buddha. Now, if the elder had been at home in the three realms, he could have told the children not to fool around and play with fire. But he had to go out on business and the children were left there alone. They were actually pretty stupid. They had no genuine wisdom; they did not know what was safe and what was dangerous. They started playing with fire and sure enough, the house caught on fire.

Who had gone but a short distance when, before very long. The elder had just left. This line refers to Shakyamuni Buddha who, during the time of the Buddha called Great Penetration, was teaching all living beings how to subdue to the Five Turbidities. When the karmic influences of those living beings came to an end, Shakyamuni Buddha also entered Nirvana. After the Buddha entered Nirvana, living beings, having lost their “crutch,” fell over. The Five Turbidities arose once again: the turbidity of the aeon, the turbidity of views, the turbidity of affliction, the turbidity of living beings and the turbidity of life.

Although the Buddha had entered Nirvana in that world system, in another world system the causes and conditions for teaching living beings had ripened and he went there to teach them. But he could not stay in that world system forever. So the Buddha had “gone but a short distance.” He appeared again, not very far away.

You could also explain these lines saying that the Buddha had already attained to the patience of unproduced dharmas; that is to say:

He has done what he had to do;
He has established his pure conduct;
He will undergo no further becoming.

He will not again be born in the three realms. He has “gone out.” Although in becoming a Buddha he has transcended the three realms, still, after a short period of time, he comes back. So he has gone but a little ways. In the “Lifespan Chapter” of this Sutra it says that the Buddha has appeared to enter Nirvana many, many times. Many times he has appeared in the world and many times he has entered Nirvana. This means that he has gone out of the burning house of the three realms.

The rear rooms of the house. The house is the three realms. The “rooms” are the Five Skandhas–form, feeling, perception, impulse, and consciousness. He had not been gone for very long when the back part of the house suddenly caught fire. A fire broke out. How did it happen? The kids were playing with fire, and they were careless. What do you think will happen to the children? Will they burn to death? What about us here in the burning house of the three realms where there is no peace, no safety? What about us caught in the fire of the five skandhas?

Sutra:

All at once, all four sides
Were enveloped by raging flames,
The beams, ridgepoles, rafters, and pillars
Shook and split with the sound of explosion,
Snapped apart and fell,
As the walls and partitions collapsed and fell in.

Outline:

N3. The force with which the fire breaks out.

Commentary:

All at once, all four sides. The four sides represent the Four Applications of Mindfulness. The Four Applications of Mindfulness were given by the Buddha as a dwelling place for the Bhikshus after his departure into Nirvana. They are mindful with regard to the body, feelings, thoughts and dharmas.

First of all one must contemplate the body as impure. One should also contemplate feelings, thoughts and dharmas as impure as well. Since the body is impure, one’s feelings are likewise impure and so are thoughts and dharmas.

Secondly, one must contemplate feelings as suffering. All the feelings we experience are involved with suffering. One should also contemplate the body as involved with suffering, and thoughts and dharmas likewise.

Thirdly, one should contemplate thoughts as impermanent. Our thoughts shift and change constantly, like waves on the water. When one thought goes, another takes its place; when that thought goes, yet another takes its place. Likewise one should contemplate the body, feelings, and dharmas as impermanent.

Fourthly, one should contemplate dharmas as without a self. One should also contemplate the body, feelings and thoughts as without self. They body, feelings, thoughts and dharmas should each be regarded in these four ways, making sixteen applications.

One begins cultivating the Four Applications of Mindfulness by cultivating the contemplation of impurity. The contemplation of impurity breaks one’s attachment to self. Why are you attached to your body and always trying to help it out? It is because you think it is a good thing. You want to help out that “good thing.” You feel, “My body is so loveable. I really cannot bear to let it get cold or overheated. I do not want it to be hungry or thirst either. In general, I am always looking out for it.” This is because you do not realize that it is actually impure. If you knew how unclean the body really is, when you put on those fine clothes, eat that fine food, you would know it was unclean.

No matter how pretty the clothes you put on, it is still just like dressing up a toilet. I mean, you can put the most elegant clothing and accessories on the toilet, but no matter how fine you dress it up, it is still dirty. Our bodies are just the same. No matter how nice your clothes, it is just like dressing up a toilet. No matter how fine the food you eat, you are still doing nothing more than making a little more excrement. It is no great use. So you should contemplate the body as impure in order to get rid of your attachment to self. Do not see your body as so precious.

If you follow your body’s insatiable greed and create offenses, then the body is a bad thing, an impure thing. If, on the other hand, you cultivate the Way, then the body is pure and it can help you to become a Buddha. It is the same body; it just depends on how you use it.

How is the body impure? It is a combination of the mother’s ovum and the father’s sperm. Therefore, it is basically impure. We should not look upon it as so very important. If, for example, you do not bathe for a week, the body starts to smell and collects all kinds of unclean matter. From nine orifices the body constantly excretes impure substances. There are tears and matter always coming from the eyes. Earwax is always coming out of one’s ears. That makes four orifices. The mouth has saliva and phlegm which is also unclean. That makes seven orifices. Then you add the eliminatory orifices and that makes nine.

You may think of your body as being very precious, but actually when you get right down to it, it is filled with all manner of unclean substances. Our bodies are nothing more than garbage cans. If you insist on slaving away like mad for the body, what good is it? You work so hard to give it a nice place to live in, a lot of fine clothes, and the best food. You are so good to it, but it shows you no courtesy at all. When the time comes, it is still going to get old. No matter how well you treat it, when it gets old, it gets old. That is all there is to it. No matter how you pamper it, when it gets sick, it just gets sick. When the time comes for it to die, it goes right ahead and dies. It would be hard to discuss fully the impurity of the body as it flows with impurities from nine orifices. The body is impure. Having contemplated the impurity of the body, you should contemplate as impure the feelings, thoughts and dharmas as well.

What does it mean to contemplate feelings as sufferings? Feelings means what one experiences. One usually tries to have good feelings and experiences, and yet all our feelings are involved with some form of suffering. There are three, eight and limitless sufferings. One should also contemplate the body, thoughts, and dharmas as suffering.

One should contemplate thoughts as impermanent. Our thoughts keep changing, thought after thought. One should also contemplate the body feelings and dharma as impermanent.

One should contemplate dharmas as without a self. Contemplate likewise, the body, feelings and thoughts as without a self.

“All at once” is also an analogy. It starts for the sudden arisal of the Four Inverted Views, the Five turbidities and the Eight Sufferings. Those of non-Buddhist religions and inverted living beings reverse the Four Virtues of Nirvana, applying them to conditioned existence. They say:

1. What is not permanent is permanent.
2. What is not happiness is happiness.
3. What is not self is self.
4. What is not pure is pure.

Their views are in direct opposition to that of cultivation, so they are called the Four Inverted Views. Then the Five Turbidities arise. Add the Eight Sufferings: birth, old age, sickness, death, being separated from what you love, being together with what you hate, not getting what you want and the raging blaze of the Five Skandhas. All this suffering arises and so the text says “all at once.”

Were enveloped by raging flames, the beams, ridgepoles, rafters, and pillars. The ridgepole is the main support of the building. The beams support the roof. The rafters and pillars all support the house too. They represent the four limbs, our bones and various other parts of our bodies.

Shook and split with the sound of explosion. What is meant by “the sound of explosion?” When life is cut off, that is like an explosion. “ Split” refers to the force of the wind cutting through the body like a knife. When life is over, energy is cut off and the bones separate from the flesh. This is represented by the line snapped apart and fell. 

As the walls and partitions collapsed and fell in. The walls and partitions referred to here are just the body. The body is a combination of the four elements. At death, the four elements separate and each one—earth, air, fire and water—returns to where it came from. When the four elements scatter that is like the walls and partitions falling apart and caving in. When the four elements in the body scatter, the body disintegrates.

Sutra:

All the ghosts and spirits
Screamed loudly,
While the hawks, vultures, and other birds,
The Kumbhandas, and so forth,
Ran about in a panic,
Unable to get themselves out.

Outline:

N4. The appearance of the blaze

Commentary:

All the ghosts and spirits meaning those ghosts and spirits mentioned before. They represent the Five Quick Servants and the Five Dull Servants. Screamed loudly. They raised their voices in a great, loud bellow. Why did they scream? They saw the walls falling in on them, and so they were all scared. While the hawks, vultures, and other birds. Hawks can eat deer. The vultures like to eat unclean things. The birds represent the Five Dull Servants.

The Kumbhandas, and so forth, Kumbhandas represent the most powerful, the most evil of the Five Quick Servants. By “most evil” and “most powerful” we mean whichever Servant is the most dominant in any particular personality. Basically, the Servants themselves are of equal power but an individual personality may be more afflicted with one of them than another and so, for that person, that Servant is the most powerful. For example, if you are a person with a great deal of greed, then greed is the most powerful servant on your list. Another person may not be bothered by greed, but may have an uncontrollable temper and so hatred is the most powerful servant for him. The same applies to all the other Servants.

Ran about in a panic, unable to get themselves out. They could not get out of the three realms. If it were not for the Triple Jewel, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha and the Four Truths and the Four Applications of Mindfulness, they would never be able to get out of the three realms.

Students of the Buddhadharma should not allow themselves to be controlled by the Five Quick or Five Dull Servants. Do not be turned by them. You should transform them and then they can become Dharma Protectors.

What has just been discussed represents the difficulty of escaping the realm of desire. One must rely upon the power of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in order to escape the three realms.

Sutra:

Evil beasts and poisonous insects
Hid away in the holes and crevices,
While the pishacha ghosts
Also dwelt therein.

Outline:

M2. Verses about the events in the cave as likened to the form realm.
N1. Those creatures being burned.

Commentary:

This passage of text talks about the form realm. Evil beasts and poisonous insects hid away in the holes and crevices. When they saw the house catch on fire, they ran to hide away in the crevices and crannies. The holes and crevices represent the realm of form. While the pishacha ghosts; pishacha ghosts are the ghosts that eat essence and energy. They were also hiding in the holes, in the form realm, that is. This represents people who attain the Four Dhyanas and are born in the form realm heavens. The form realm heavens are like the holes and crevices. Also dwelt therein, there in the realm of form.

Sutra:

Their blessings and virtue scanty,
They were hard pressed by the fire;
They wrought harm on one another,
Drinking blood and eating flesh.

Outline:

N2. Cause of the fire.

Commentary:

Why did the fire start? Why do people get angry? It was because their blessings and virtue scanty, they were hard pressed by the fire. Because they had no blessings, in turn they had no virtue, and so they liked to get angry. In China they say,

“Lacking virtue, one wears a smokestack on one’s head.”

Why do people get angry? It is because they do not have enough virtue. People with virtuous conduct do not get angry. Even if they do get angry, it is not for real. They may pretend to get angry sometimes at people, but they are just using this kind of Dharma-door to subdue that person. This is their way of teaching people. Some living beings, unless you get a bit upset with them, they will think you are joking and they would not take you very seriously. Bodhisattvas may sometimes use this kind of suppressing dharma. When ordinary people get angry it is because they do not have enough virtue. Since they do not have enough virtue, they catch on fire with anger. They had no blessings or virtue and so when the fire started, they were hard pressed by it. This represents the fact that in the three realms there is no peaceful place. The Four Inversions, the Five Turbidities, the Eight Sufferings, and the Five Skandhas press in from all sides like a raging fire.

They wrought harm on one another. Because they are in the form realm, they dislike the realm below, the realm of desire; they like the realm above, the formless realm. They forcefully apply the realms above to the realms below, they suppress the subtle afflictions in the lower realms. This is what is meant by “They wrought harm on one another”. Drinking blood and eating flesh. Drinking blood refers to the attachments of those in the form realm. What attachments do they have? They are attached to not talking. They think that not talking is a form of cultivation. Those, for example, in the Fourth Dhyana are not beset with the evil dharmas found in the realm of desire. They do, however, crave the “flavor of Dhyana” and this is a subtle form of suffering. They are also attached to their merit and virtue, to the good deeds they have done. This is like eating flesh.

Sutra:

As the packs of Yeh Kan
Were already dead,
Monstrous evil beasts
Raced to devour them,
While billows of stinking smoke
Permeated all four sides.

Outline:

N3. The appearance of the blaze.

Commentary:

As the packs of Yeh Kan.These are animals like foxes, but they live out in the wilds and roam at night in packs, wailing with a strange and terrifying sound. They are kind of like foxes, but trickier. They represent greed in the desire realm.

Were already dead. This means that greed in the realm of desire was already dead. But monstrous evil beasts representing greed in the form realm which can swallow the greed of the desire realm: raced to devour them. The greed in the form realm can eat up the greed in the desire realm. So the fire has been subdued to a small “burn.” This is a subtle form of suffering. They have not as much suffering as the desire realm. The suffering is still there in a subtler form. They still have love. If people can get rid of love, they can go to the formless realm. In the form realm one still has thoughts of love and the flavor of states of Dhyana.

In the realm of desire, the Four Inversions and Eight Sufferings are like a blazing fire. In the form realm, they are like billows of stinking smoke. This love attachment is like billows of stinking smoke. It permeated all four sides. This represents the Four Inversions and the Eight Sufferings penetrating the four elements and the body, feelings, thoughts, and dharmas, the Four Applications of Mindfulness.

This ends the verses on the affairs in the holes and crevices representing the form realm.

Sutra:

Centipedes and millipedes,
And various kinds of poisonous snakes,
Burnt by the fire,
Fought to escape their holes.
Kumbhanda ghosts
Grabbed and ate them.

Outline:

M3. Verses on events outside the cave as likened to the formless realm.
N1. Those creatures being burned.

Commentary:

These verses represent the affairs in the formless realm. The formless realm is one level higher than the form realm. Cultivators who attain to the form realm heavens grow to dislike them because in the form realm heavens there is still the mark of form which can be seen. They grow weary of the cage of form. In the form realm living beings are not free at all. Form keeps them locked up, so they decide that they want to go up to the formless realms, like birds flying out of their birdcages. People in the form realm heavens suffer; they have coarse obstacles. They hope to be born in the formless realm where there is no form only emptiness. This is represented by the line of text “Burnt by the fire.”

Centipedes and millipedes, and various kinds of poisonous snakes. Being burned by the Four Inversions, the Five Skandhas, and the Eight Sufferings is like being burned in a fire. Fought to escape their holes. They fought. None wanted to fall behind. They all tried to get in front of each other. The holes represent the form realm heavens. They are trying to get out and get into the formless realm. The Samadhi in the formless realm is one level higher than that in the form realm. Having attained the formless samadhis, they have extinguished the causes and conditions in the form realm.

Having seized the samadhis in the upper realms and extinguished conditions in the lower realm, the text says kumbhanda ghosts grabbed and ate them. The conditions in the lower realms have been extinguished just like being eaten by kumbhandas ghosts. The ghosts also represent the Five Dull Servants and the Five Quick Servants. Basically, if one were to explain in detail, the Five Dull Servants and Five Quick Servants can all attain the formless samadhis. But here in this passage we are only referring to the Five Dull Servants which detest the lower realms and want to attain to the formless realm. The Five Quick Servants have already attained to the formless realm. They have extinguished the lower form realm.

Sutra:

Further, all the hungry ghosts,
The tops of their heads aflame,
Tormented by hunger, thirst, and heat,
Ran about in terror and distress.

Outline:

N2. The appearance of the blaze.

Commentary:

Further, all the hungry ghosts. Hungry ghosts have nothing to eat. Their throats are as thin as needles, and their stomachs are as large as bass drums. They eat all day long but never get full. Hungry ghosts represent the living beings in the heavens of the four Stations of Emptiness: 1) the station of emptiness without limit, 2) the station of consciousness without limit, 3) the station of nothing whatsoever, 4) the station of neither perception nor non-perception. Although beings in these heavens have reached emptiness, they still have consciousness and they have not ended birth and death. They have not obtained the food and drink of non-outflows and so they are said to be like hungry ghosts. They have not eaten of the food and drink of no-outflows.

Although they are at the top of the three realms, in the formless realm, in the highest of the heavens, they still have not ended birth and death. They still cannot avoid impermanence, and eventually they are burned by it. Thus, the text says the tops of their heads aflame. When they have used up all their heavenly blessings, they will fall again into other destinies. In the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception, beings live for eighty-thousand great aeons, enjoying their heavenly blessings, but then they fall–burned by the fire of impermanence.

Tormented by hunger, thirst, and heat. Hunger represents their inability to acquire the Proper Path. The Proper Path means cultivating the genuine Way. Because they do not find the path of cultivation which leads to the end of birth and death, they are hungry. They are said to be thirsty because they have not gained the drink of the aids to the Path. They have not obtained the causes and conditions which aid one in cultivation of the Path, and so they are thirsty.

Although they are at the top of the three realms, they are still vexed by subtle forms of the Eight Sufferings–not a lot, just a little. These sufferings remain in their eighth consciousness and that is what is meant by “heat.”

They are also tormented by subtle forms of delusions which manifest. The delusions are very few and very fine, but they are still present because they have not severed the root of the delusions. In the future when they fall, they will have more delusions.

There are various categories of delusions:

1. View delusions. This refers to giving rise to greed and love for externals.

2. Thought delusions. This refers to being confused about a principle and giving rise to discrimination.

3. Delusion of ignorance. This refers to being stupid about things. For example, one may clearly know that a given action is wrong, but do it anyway. One may know that something is bad, but do it anyway. Why? Because one does not really know that it is bad! One has no true understanding of things.

These delusions tormented them and they ran about in terror and distress. The beings in the formless heavens are still on the wheel of birth and death, but they give no thought to escaping it. They do not look for a method to escape the three realms, to transcend the turning wheel of rebirth. They run about confusedly all over the place in terror and distress. This has been a discussion of the affairs in the formless realm.

Sutra:

So it was in that house:
Terrifying to the extreme,
With dangers and conflagrations–
A host of troubles, not just one.

Outline:

M4. General conclusion: many kinds of difficulties.

Commentary:

So it was in that house. The burning house, as stated above, was a dangerous place. This means that there is no place of peace in the three realms. It is terrifying to the extreme, with dangers and conflagrations, a host of troubles, not just one. Not just one kind of trouble beset them. This represents the fact that when you are in the burning house of the three realms if you do not cultivate the Way and find a way to get out of the burning house, you remain in great danger. It is filled with danger. If you do not run into one kind of disaster, you encounter another. There is not one single happy day. Now, we in this world should think it over. Where is there peace in the world? No place. Everywhere you go, you see a lot of problems. You might say that several thousand years ago the Buddha was addressing us here in the world today where there are a host of troubles, not just one.

Sutra:

At that time the owner of the house
Was standing outside the door
When he heard someone say,
“All of your children
Awhile ago, in play,
Went into this house.
Being young and ignorant,
They delight in play and cling to amusements.”
Having heard this, the Elder
Entered the burning house, in alarm.

Outline:

K2. Specific verses about the parable.
L1. Elder sees the fire start.

Commentary:

At that time the owner of the house was standing outside the door. The Buddha was standing outside the door. What does this mean? “Outside the door” refers to the Buddha as having already certified to the ground of the Dharma body. “Standing” means that the Buddha always keeps a heart of compassion. In his great compassion and kindness he always wishes to rescue living beings. He never forgets living beings; he always works to save them. He does not dwell in the emptiness of the primary principle because he wants to teach and transform living beings.

When he heard someone say. In the previous prose section of the text said, “When he sees….” and this points to the non-duality of hearing and seeing. “Says” refers to Samadhi. The Buddha takes the Dharma as his teacher, the Dharma of Samadhi. When you obtain the Dharma of Samadhi, you can observe the potentials of the beings and dispense the proper teaching to them. Thus, the Buddha’s entering Samadhi enables him to view the potential of beings. His Samadhi enables him to see those potentialities. Therefore the text says, “When he heard someone say” representing Samadhi.

All of your children. This refers to all the living beings in the five destinies. Awhile ago, in play, went into this house. This refers to living beings who have first brought forth the resolve for Bodhi. At this time it is as if they had already gotten out. But before they have ascended to the level of no-retreat, they can still give rise to the view delusions and thought delusions and thus “in play” run back into the burning house. You can also interpret this line thus: All living beings, speaking in terms of principle, are basically pure. In this sense, then, there is no burning house and there are no three realms. The basic nature of living beings is pure of itself, but because of ignorance, they falsely give rise to attachments leading to a continuous round of birth and death. This is like entering the house in play.

Being young and ignorant. This refers to that time in their cultivation when their merit and virtue is not yet perfected and has not manifested. One is then young, not having enough virtue, being, as was said above “of scanty merit and virtue.” “Ignorant” means they are stupid. Being stupid, they are bound up by delusions, view delusions, thought delusions, and delusions of ignorance.

They delight in play and cling to amusements. Hah! There they are! They imagine that they are having a real good time. Who would have guessed that it was really so terrifying?

Having heard this, the Elder entered the burning house, in alarm. The Buddha, seeing living beings undergoing just too much suffering, gives rise to great compassion and comes to teach and transform living beings, to rescue them, and get them all safely out of the burning house.

Sutra:

Intending to save them
From being burned
He warned his children
Of the host of disasters:
“The evil ghosts, the poisonous insects
and the spreading conflagration,
A host of sufferings, in succession
Are continuous, without interruption.

The poisonous snakes and vipers
And all the yakshas,
And Kumbhanda ghosts,
Yeh Kan, foxes and dogs,
Hawks, vultures, kites and owls,
And varieties of centipedes
Are frantic with hunger and thirst,
And terrifying to the extreme.

There are so many sufferings and troubles,
So much increased by this great fire!”
But all the children, without knowledge,
Although they heard their father’s warnings,
Still clung to their amusements
And sported without cease.

Outline:

L2. Casting aside the table to use the carts.
M1. Casting aside the table.

Commentary:

Intending to save them. Just at that time the elder, the Buddha, was preparing to use the Great Vehicle Dharma-door to rescue all living beings. He was intending to save them from being burned. He wanted to keep all living beings from being burned by the blaze of the five skandhas. He warned his children of the host of disasters. He said “This burning house is filled with many terrifying things. There is no peace in the three realms. It is like a burning house.”

The evil ghosts, the poisonous insects. These represent the Five Dull Servants and the Five Quick Servants which are always playing tricks. And the spreading conflagration. The raging blaze of the five skandhas is spreading everywhere. The more it burns, the brighter it gets and the more territory it spreads across, burning through the three realms. A host of sufferings, in succession. These manifold troubles arise in succession, and are continuous, without interruption. They arise one after another without stopping. The fire is out of control; it cannot be stopped.

The poisonous snakes and vipers. Various snakes and venomous creatures again represent the Five Dull and Five Quick Servants. And all the yakshas, and Kumbhanda ghosts. These ghosts are terrifying! Kumbhandas are the ghosts that look like watermelons. They may sit down on you when you are asleep so that you cannot move. Yeh Kan, foxes and dogs, hawks, vultures, kites and owls, and varieties of centipedes are frantic with hunger and thirst. They lack the food of the proper Path and the drink of the Aids to the Path, and so they are hungry and thirsty and terrifying to the extreme.

There are so many sufferings and troubles, so much increased by this great fire! So many strange creatures and this big fire! Hurry and find a way out!

But all the children, without knowledge. All the living beings lack any understanding of what is going on. They lack the disposition or the potential for the Great Vehicle Buddhadharma. Although they heard their father’s warnings. Even though they heard their father tell them of the danger and the fearsome creatures, they still clung to their amusements. They continued to play, imagining the place to be very amusing. And sported without cease. They jumped around having a good time and not listening to their father at all.

Sutra:

At that time, the Elder
Further had this thought:
“Being like this, my children
Add to my worry and distress;
Now, in this house, there is not
A single thing in which to take pleasure,
And yet all these children
Are intoxicated by their play.

Not heeding my instructions,
They will be injured in the fire.”
Just then he thought
To devise expedients.

Outline:

M2. Using the carts.
N1. Suitability of the three carts.

Commentary:

At that time, the Elder, the Buddha, further had this thought: Being like this, my children. They are not very bright, playing here. They add to my worry and distress. Why are the Buddha’s worries and troubles intensified? Because the Buddha’s vows are to save living beings and when he fails to save them, his heart is unhappy.

Now, in this house, there is not a single thing in which to take pleasure. In the burning house of the three realms, there is not a single thing to be happy about. And yet all these children are intoxicated by their play. They are greedy for good times and do not worry about anything at all. Bound by ignorance, we people in the three realms have forgotten everything. We have forgotten to bring forth the Bodhi mind and forgotten to cultivate the Bodhi Path.

Not heeding my instructions, they will be injured in the fire. They would not listen to the Buddha’s teaching. There are people in the world who do not cultivate the Way at all, and who do not believe in the Buddha at all. Today, one of my disciples told me that his parents came to San Francisco. They were very upset when they saw him. They told him he was really confused. Now, look at that! Basically, studying the Buddhadharma is a good thing, but they were upset by it. I said, “Before, when you were really doing bad things, they did not pay that much attention to you. Now, you are doing the best kinds of things and they think you are confused. Just what do people base their judgments on? When their son wants to cultivate the Way, they think it is terrible.

One of my disciples has recently had the experience of seeing everything as moving. This is true. Everything is, in fact, moving, just like the dust motes. When the sunlight streams in the window, you can see the motes of dust dancing in the air. Why can he see everything in motion? The light of his wisdom is unfolding, and so he can see that everything is alive, even the tables, chairs, the whole room is in motion, moving in frames. This is like seeing the dust motes in the sunlight. This experience happens to people just before they are about to open their five eyes. Not only may one have this experience, but it may happen that you cannot see anything at all. You may be as if totally blind. Just before the opening of the five eyes, a special “chemical” or biological transformation takes place. When this transformation takes place, if you get attached to marks and become happy or unhappy or wish to attain the five eyes or wish not to attain them, it is easy to become possessed by a demon.

Once the eyes have opened, it is not for sure they will always remain open. You must still continue to be good and remain in control of yourself. If you fail to do a good job at your cultivation, you can lose the vision in your five eyes. When the five eyes open they can shut again as well, if you start looking at things you should not be looking at, unprincipled things, things that are none of your business. If you start looking at unprincipled things, you can lose those eyes again. If you do wrong things, you can lose them. So this state is one in which you must put your feet firmly on the ground and go forward. Do not start minding other people’s business, taking a look at this and that. You cannot do that.

If you open the five eyes that does not mean you can look into other people’s business, peeping in to see what your neighbors are doing and so on. It is easy to lose those eyes if you do that. Sometimes people open their five eyes, and in the beginning they can see very clearly with them. Later on they cannot see so well with them or they cannot see anything at all with them. I have seen this happen many times. So take special care. If you have this experience, the most important thing is to maintain your Samadhi power. If you have Samadhi power and it becomes perfected, then you can give rise to wisdom power. Having genuine wisdom really counts for something.

They will be injured in the fire. In the future I am afraid they will all be burned in the great fire.

Just then he thought to devise expedients. The Buddha decided to think of a way that they could cultivate expedient dharma-doors. What is an expedient? It is a clever device. Since it would not work to try to teach them with the Great Vehicle Buddhadharma, there is nothing else to do but use the Small Vehicle dharmas to teach living beings.

Sutra:

He said to the children,
I have all kinds
Of precious playthings:
Fine carriages, wonderful, bejeweled
Sheep carts and deer carts,
And great ox carts,
Now, right outside the door.

So come out, all of you,
For I have, just for you,
Had these carts made.
Just as you wish,
You can play with them.”

Outline:

N2. Praising the three carts as rare.

Commentary:

These twelve lines of verse represent the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel of the Four Holy Truths. The first four lines, he said to the children, I have all kinds of precious playthings: fine carriages, wonderful, bejeweled represent the Exhortation Turning. The next three lines, sheep carts and deer carts, and great ox carts, now, right outside the door represent the Demonstration Turning. The following line, so come out, all of you, is again the Exhortation Turning. The last four lines are the Certification Turning: For I have, just for you, had these carts made. Just as you wish, you can play with them. For I have, just for you, had these carts made points to the fact that the Buddha has already certified to the fruition of Buddhahood. Thus, we have the Three Turnings of the Dharma Wheel of the Four Holy Truths.

The Buddha told all living beings, all the children, “You are having so much fun now, but I have some toys that are a lot more fun than the ones you are playing with now. Hurry up and come out. They are the finest toys. What are they? They are the best carts you could imagine. Some are drawn by sheep and others are drawn by deer. Isn’t that great? You have really never seen such neat toys. There are even some great ox carts. They are outside the door right now! So hurry up and come out. Do not hang around in that house. It is not that much fun anyway. I have got the best toys. I have got the carts! I had them made just for you. They are so much fun. You can sit in them and go wherever you like!”

When the children heard this, they came scrambling out of the house.

Sutra:

When the children heard him speak
Of carriages such as these,
They immediately raced
Out in a scramble,
To a clearing where
They were then safe from harm.

Outline:

N3. Granting the children their wishes.

Commentary:

When the children heard him speak. “Children” just means all living beings. “Heard” represents the wisdom of hearing. Of carriages such as these. Good dharmas. Children like to play. If you give them fun toys, they would not cry. They immediately raced. They started running right away to go get the carts. “Raced” represents the two wisdoms of thinking and cultivating. Thus we have the three types of wisdom: hearing, thinking and cultivating. Out in a scramble. This shows their vigor in cultivating the methods of the three types of wisdom. To a clearing where. The clearing represents the position beyond study, that is, fourth stage Arhatship. They were then safe from harm. At the position beyond study one has ended share section birth and death. Change birth and death remains, however. Once they arrived at the clearing, they were safe from sufferings and difficulties. This represents certification to the fourth fruit of Arhatship. This ends the section concerning the casting aside of the table to use the carts.

Sutra:

The Elder, seeing that his children
Had escaped the burning house,
And were standing at the crossroads,
Sat on his Lion’s throne
And rejoiced to himself, saying,
“Now, I am happy!
All of these children
Were hard to bring into the world and raise;
Stupid, young and without knowledge,
They went into this dangerous house,
Swarming with poisonous insects
And fearful Li Mei ghosts,
Ablaze with a great fire,
Raging on all sides.

But all these children
Still clung to their amusements.
I have now rescued them
And saved them from disaster.
Therefore, of all people,
I am the happiest!”

Outline:

L3. Granting all a great cart.
M1. Father sees children avoid disaster and rejoices.

Commentary:

The Elder, seeing that his children. The elder is the Buddha. He has ten kinds of virtuous conduct. When he saw all living beings had escaped the burning house, had run out of the burning house of the three realms and were standing at the crossroads. What do the crossroads represent? The Four Holy Truths. Now the living beings in the five paths and the thirty sons and five hundred people, since they have escaped the burning house and arrived at the stage beyond study, clearly understand the Dharma of the Four Holy Truths: suffering, origination, stopping and the Way.

Sat on his Lion’s throne. The elder had been standing outside the door, not sitting. Now, he sits on his lion’s throne. Why had he been standing outside the door? Because all living beings had not yet been saved. He was worried about them, afraid for them. What was he afraid of? He was afraid that living beings would be burned in the house. He was concerned because he cannot put living beings down. He could not, not try to save them because the Buddha is like a greatly compassionate father and all living beings are like his children. He cannot, not save them. He cannot let them go. He was afraid that unless he tried to save them, they would fall. Now, seeing that all the children had escaped the disaster and gotten out of the burning house, he no longer worries; he has no more concern. Since he is no longer afraid, he can sit down on his lion’s throne. In the previous chapter the text said, “Now I am happy and without fears.” Now the Buddha is really happy. He has nothing to fear. In other words, he can sit down and take it easy.

There is another meaning here. Previously, the Buddha had not encountered beings disposed to the Great Vehicle, and so he was standing. Now, he has finished teaching and transforming living beings of the Small Vehicle. He has finished his work in that regard. He is just about to save Great Vehicle living beings, and so the Buddha can sit down on his lion’s throne.

And rejoiced to himself, saying “Now, I am happy!” Why did he rejoiced? Because he has encountered the beings with the Great Vehicle potential, the beings he is to teach and save. Since they have now been saved, he rejoices. Living being’s have ripened for the Great Vehicle.

All of these children were hard to bring into the world and raise. It is not easy to raise children. Teaching living beings is also very hard. It is hard for the Buddha to teach and transform living beings. Here, we study the Buddhadharma, and I lecture the Sutras to you every day so that you can understand true principle. You are immersed in it, as it were. This work is by no means easy. In the beginning you did not understand any Buddhadharma at all. Now, soon it will have been a year that I have been “raising” you in the Dharma and you understand it to some degree. Even so, you still waver between faith and doubt. See how difficult it is?

During the time of the twenty thousand million Buddhas mentioned previously, Shakyamuni Buddha taught living beings with the Great Vehicle Dharma. The text represents this by the phrase, “bring into the world.” These children who had the Great Vehicle disposition sent down their seeds during the time of the twenty thousand millions Buddhas. Now they have grown.

Would you say this was hard or not? During the time of twenty thousand million Buddhas how much heart’s blood was spent to teach living beings? You should not think that lecturing on the Sutras and teaching the Dharma is an easy thing to do. If you lecture on a Sutra incorrectly, you can fall into the hells! You cannot think that you can say whatever you please. You cannot be casual about it, for if you make a mistake speaking the Dharma you are responsible for it. You will have to take on the burden of cause and effect involved. If you lecture incorrectly on the Sutras, you are in effect “blinding the eyes of people and gods.” If you lecture unclearly, you will put people on the wrong track.

People may start out intending to become a Buddha, but you lecture them into the hells! Not only that, but people who wind up there can drag you there as well. Once they get there, King Yama will ask them what they have come for and they will say, “I listened to the Sutras and was told I do not need to cultivate. I was told all I had to do was take certain drugs and in this way I could obtain emptiness. So I did not cultivate. Now, I know I was wrong. But the mistake was his, not mine and you really should get him down here too.” When Yama hears this, he cannot help but agree and sends for the lecturer as well and drags him into hell. It is not at all easy to lecture on the Sutras.

However, during the time of twenty thousand million Buddhas, Shakyamuni Buddha taught living beings with the Great Vehicle nature and in such a long, time he brought them to maturity. This is represented in the text by the phrase “and raise.” How much time do you think it took to teach these living beings? A long, long time, indeed. In all this time, Shakyamuni Buddha expended so much energy, so much toil to nurture those seeds of the Great Vehicle. It was not easy. It was a lot of hard work. It is like planting a tree, carefully placing the soil around its roots, watering and fertilizing it. It is also like planting a flower. It is a lot of work to take care of it. In today’s Chinese lesson we learned the sentence, “Red lotuses fill the pond.” Do you know how much work it takes to cultivate all those lotuses in the pond? We can imagine how much work the Buddha has to do to teach and transform living beings so that they can leave suffering and attain bliss. Really hard!

Stupid, young and without knowledge. Stupid means that they are not very bright. Young means that they are quite immature. This represents those whose good roots are weak and not very deep. Their virtue is thin and their blessings are few. They do not have much virtue and so they are stupid and young. Without knowledge means that they are covered by false delusions. Because they have no wisdom, the five turbidities arise. Once the five turbidities arise, they must undergo retribution. Their undergoing retribution is what is meant by the line of text they went into this dangerous house. They went into the dangerous house to suffer retribution. Swarming with poisonous insects and fearful Li Mei ghosts. The three realms are marked by the Five Quick Servants and the Five Dull Servants. The three realms are very dangerous, filled with such toxic substances. Ablaze with a great fire, raging on all sides. The fire is an analogy for the eight sufferings and the four inversions which are in the burning house of the three realms.

But all these children, all living beings still clung to their amusements. Some of them give rise to view delusions; others give rise to love’s delusions. They cannot get free of them. They have no way to separate from the delusions of love and views because they are so attached to them. They cling to their amusements. But I have now rescued them and saved them from disaster. All living beings in the three realms, as attached to love and views as they are, have been saved. I have rescued them from their suffering and difficulty. Therefore, of all people, I am the happiest. The elder says that he is the happiest person there is.

Sutra:

Then, all the children,
Knowing their father was sitting at ease,
All went before him
And addressed him saying,
“Please give to us
The three jeweled carts
That you promised to us, saying,
‘If you children come out
I will give you three carts
Just like you wanted.’
Now the time has come,
Please give them to us!”

Outline:

M2. The children demand the carts.

Commentary:

The children had escaped the burning house. Once they had run out, they did not even toss a look over their shoulders to see how high the flames were raging. The first thing on their minds was to go straight to their father and ask for those carts. Their father had told them that the carts were outside. Once they got outside, they did not see the carts and so they decided to ask. Then, all the children, knowing their father was sitting at ease. They saw him just sitting there on his lion’s throne, upright and proper and very happy. They knew it was a good time to ask for the carts. This represents the time when The Dharma Flower Sutra, the Great Vehicle Dharma, was about to be spoken. All living beings had a hope of attaining the Great Vehicle dharma.

All went before him. Previously in the text it said, “All with reverent hearts went before the Buddha.” They were all very respectful as they went to the Buddha. And addressed him saying, “Please give to us the three jeweled carts.” You told us awhile ago that you had small, medium and large carts to give to us. Now, we have come out and want them. That you promised to us. They still had some attachments that they had not broken off. They were attached to the Small and Middle Vehicle Dharma which the Buddha had previously spoken. They had doubts about the Great Vehicle Dharma now being spoken. They clung to the past and had doubts about the present. See? The Buddha had dwelt in the world teaching Dharma for so long. And yet, when at the very end he spoke The Dharma Flower Sutra, all the disciples gave rise to doubts. They did not show them on the outside, of course; but they still had doubts. Small wonder, then, that now as I speak this Sutra you do not believe. It is all very muddled for you although you do admit to it having some meaning, and so you listen.

Basically, you are not sure whether the Buddhadharma is true or false, but there is so much to be said about it that you half believe and half disbelieve. The reason that you do not obtain a response in the Dharma is just because of this doubt which prevents you from entering it deeply, from giving rise to genuine faith. Genuine faith means that you have to reform all your previous views about things. If you continue to have deviant knowledge and views, it does not matter whether you study for one life, or repeatedly through lifetime after lifetime, you still would not understand it. Studying the Buddhadharma means that you must bring forth genuine faith.

If you children come out I will give you three carts. I will give you the Three Vehicle Dharma just like you wanted. The Buddha has said they could choose whatever vehicle they wished according to which fruit they wanted to certify to–Sound Hearer, Pratyeka Buddha, or Bodhisattva. Now, in the Dharma Flower Assembly, the Three Vehicle Dharma is said to be expedient. That means there must be some other Great Vehicle Dharma to be given to living beings.

Now the time has come, please give them to us! It is just the right time because we want to study the Great Vehicle Dharma; so all of us living beings pray that the Buddha will use the Great Vehicle Dharma to teach and transform us.

Sutra:

The Elder, having great wealth,
And storehouses containing much
Gold, silver and lapis lazuli,
Mother-of-pearl and carnelian,
Used these precious things
To make several great carts.

They were decorated and adorned,
Surrounded by railings,
Hung with bells on all four sides,
With golden cords strung about them,
And gem-studded nets
Spread above them.

There were golden flowered tassels
Hanging from them everywhere,
And various multi-colored ornaments
Encircling them.

Soft silk and cotton
Made up the cushions,
And fine coverings,
Valued in the thousands of millions,
Pure white and sparkling clean
Were spread atop them.

Great white oxen,
Plump, strong and powerful,
Of fine appearance,
Were yoked to the precious carts.

They were surrounded by many footmen
Who were attending to them.
Such fine carriages as these
Were given equally to all the children.

Outline:

M3. Giving to all the children a great cart.

Commentary:

The Elder, having great wealth. In all the worlds, the Buddha is the most honored, the most noble, the most “wealthy”. He has the nobility of a king and the wealth of the four seas. He stood to inherit the throne in India. In transcendental terms he has cultivated and attained self-enlightenment, the enlightenment of others and the perfection of enlightened practice.

Having perfected the three kinds of enlightenment,
And complete with the ten thousand virtues,
He is therefore called the Buddha.

And storehouses containing much. Storehouses are places to put valuable things. The storehouses represent our six sense organs. Within the six sense organs the nature of the Thus Come One’s Storehouse is hidden. The Buddhanature manifests as a precious enlightenment nature at the gateways of our six sense organs. They also represent the ten thousand conducts which comprise a precious storehouse. You could also say that they represent the six perfections.

Using the dharma of the six perfections one adorns the virtuous fruition of the ten thousand conducts. Each one of the six perfections contains the ten thousand conducts. Each one of the ten thousand conducts contains the six perfections. Therefore, the six perfections and the ten thousand conducts are interrelated. All dharmas contain all conducts and all the conducts contain all dharmas. This is the limitlessness of both the dharmas and the conducts. Limitless conducts are used to cultivate limitless dharmas; limitless dharmas are used to realize the limitless conducts. The six perfections and ten thousand conducts are represented by this line of text.

Gold, silver and lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl and carnelian. If you consider gold and silver a kind of gem, then there are four types of gems represented here. They stand for the Buddha’s Four Kinds of Wisdom which are priceless jewels:

1. The great perfect mirror wisdom.

2. The equality wisdom.

3. The wonderful observing wisdom.

4. The perfecting wisdom.

Used these precious things to make several great carts. There are more than just four kinds of precious gems in the world and likewise among all the Buddha’s Dharmas there are not just four kinds of wisdom. There are also five roots, five powers, seven Bodhi shares, the eight-fold path, the four applications of mindfulness, the four right efforts and the four bases of psychic power–a great many dharmas. Using these various Dharma-doors, he creates a Great Vehicle Dharma. The Great Vehicle Buddhadharma, the Buddha Vehicle, is comprised of all these dharmas.

They were decorated and adorned, surrounded by railings. They were adorned with intertwining decorations, very beautiful, representing the Buddha’s Great Vehicle Dharma which illuminates heaven and earth. It is extremely beautiful in the world. The carts were surrounded by railings, another kind of adornment. Hung with bells on all four sides. The bells represent the four kinds of unlimited eloquence. With golden cords strung about them, and gem-studded nets. The jeweled cords were strung about the cart in the form of a net or macramé. Would you imagine that such a netting would be expensive? This represents the Buddha’s compassion.

The methods of compassion used by the Buddha are as many as the holes in the netting. He has compassion like a network, like the net in the Heaven of the Great Brahma King in which there is a jewel in every hole in the net. Each jewel reflects the light of all the other jewels, as they shine upon each other infinitely. Such light represents wisdom. The Buddha has many methods of using compassion and just as many methods of using wisdom. Thus the lines of text here represent the Buddha’s compassion and wisdom.

The line “surrounded by railings” also represents Dharani. Dharani, a Sanskrit word which means “uniting and holding,” unites all dharmas and holds limitless meanings. Dharani unites all dharmas, both the Great and Small Vehicle. Dharani holds limitless meanings, all the limitless meanings in all the dharmas. Through the Dharani, one can offer up all good conduct and suppress all evil.

“Hung with bells on all four sides” also represents the four kinds of unlimited eloquence. “With golden cords strung about them” represents the Four Vast Vows:

1. I vow to save the boundless number of beings.

2. I vow to cut off the endless afflictions.

3. I vow to study the limitless Dharma-doors.

4. I vow to attain the supreme Buddha Way.

All the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Sound Hearers, and Condition-enlightened Ones are included within these Four Vast Vows. Therefore, it is not enough just to recite them. You have to return the light and think it over: The vow says that I will save the boundless number of beings. Have I done so? If I have, it should still be the same as if I had not saved them. Why? It is said that the Thus Come One saves all living beings, and yet not a single living being has been saved.

“Well,” you say, “if my saving them is the same as not saving them, then is my not saving them the same as saving them?”

No. You can say that you save them, and yet are not attached to them; not attached means that you are not attached to the mark of saving living beings. But you cannot fail to save them and claim to have saved them. It does not work that way. You can say that you save them without saving them because you are not attached to them. But you cannot say that you have saved them when you have not saved them.

The Buddha leads all beings to Nirvana and yet not a single being is led to Nirvana. We have not yet become Buddhas or saved living beings and so it is not all right for us to say that we have done so.

“Then just what are living beings?” you ask.

Living beings are born from a combination of causal conditions.

“How many?”

Twelve. Twelve causal conditions lead to the production of a living being. They are: Ignorance, which conditions action, action which conditions consciousness, consciousness which conditions name and form, name and form which condition the six senses, the six senses which condition contact, contact which conditions feeling, feeling which conditions craving, craving which conditions grasping, grasping which conditions becoming, becoming which conditions birth, birth which conditions old age and death.

This is not to say that only people are living beings. Why, even the smallest of ants are also living beings. The tiniest mosquito, too, is a living being. Even to all the tiny germs and so forth, all are living beings. Since this is the case, we should not look outwardly in our search to save living beings. Right within our self-nature can be found living beings, limitless in number, for us to save. Right inside our bodies there are limitless living beings. Recent progress in the science of medicine gives proof to the fact that human beings are all like big bugs and within our bodies live countless smaller bugs. How many? No scientific method can count them accurately. Why? Because they are countless! Who knows how many living beings are inside our blood, our flesh and our internal organs? Why are there so many living beings? Some people even eat living beings! They eat the flesh of pigs, cows, sheep, fish, chicken, and ducks.

When you eat the flesh of living beings, inside it are hidden the germs particular to that living being. When you eat it, that kind of living being’s organisms go into you. Whichever kind of meat you eat the most of, you have a majority of that kind of living being’s germs. That makes it very easy to become a member of the family of the kind of living being. You turn into one of his clansmen; because you have causal conditions with him that are just too deep, you cannot get away from him. If you eat mostly pig meat, you have an opportunity to turn into a pig. If you eat mostly beef, you may turn into a cow.

“Gees, I eat rice. Will I turn into a plant?” you ask.

No, because rice is not generally considered sentient in the way that animals are. If you eat sentient beings you can turn into that kind of living beings. If you eat insentient things, you will not turn into plants or grass or anything, but you will be truly helping the wisdom-life of your Dharma body. So do not worry about turning into a rice plant if you eat rice.

Sentient beings have blood and breath, and when you eat them their blood and breath mixes with yours. If you eat a lot of them, you turn into that kind of living being. You could even say that by not eating a particular kind of living being, you are saving that living being! If you do not eat beef, you are saving cows. If you do not eat sheep, you are saving the sheep. By not eating pigs, you are saving pigs.

What is meant by “save”? It means stopping the revolution of the wheel of birth and death by taking a being across the sea of suffering to the other shore of Nirvana.

You say, “Dharma Master, I really do not believe this. How can it be that by not eating something I am saving it? If I do not eat it, someone else will. So how can you consider it saved?”

Well, you should just look after yourself. The other people do not understand the principle, but you do. Those who do not understand will do confused things; those who do understand should not do confused things. You should not look after other people.

While we are on the subject: There once was a meat-eater who died and was sent before King Yama. When he got there, all the pigs, sheep and cows he had eaten when he was alive came to get even. One pig said, “When he was alive he ate a pound of my flesh.” A sheep said, “He ate two pounds of me!” A chicken said, “Two pounds? He ate three pounds of me–my whole body!! Now, I want to eat him!!” The meat-eater tried to “reason” with King Yama by saying, “I did not really want to eat their meat, you know. It was for sale in the store and I figured if they were selling it, I could buy it and eat it. The offense should be with the person who sold it. It should not be my offense just for eating it.”

Then King Yama brought the meat-seller before him and said, “You sell meat? That is an offense, you know.” The meat-seller objected, saying, “Yes, I sell meat, but only because people want to buy it. If no one wanted it, how could I sell it? The reason I sell meat is because people want to buy it.”

The meat-seller piped up saying, “But if he did not sell it, how could I buy it?”

The meat-seller said, “Then it is not my fault and it is not your fault. I sell it because you buy it and you buy it because I sell it, but neither one of us killed the pig. The offense lies with the butcher who killed the animal!”

Then the one who killed the pig was called in.

“Are you the one who kills the pigs?” King Yama asked him. “That is a grave offense.”

The pig-killer said, “Right, I killed those pigs. But if he did not eat them, why would I kill them?”

So, in the final analysis, who do you blame?

If the person did not eat the pig, the pig-killer would not have killed it. If the seller did not sell the meat, the buyer would not have bought it. The pig eater said, “I bought it because you sold it!”

The pig-killer said, “I killed it because you wanted to eat it!”

The pig-eater said, “If you have not killed it, I could not have eaten it!”

What a confusing case! There was no way King Yama could render a judgement. They each presented their testimony quite well, but they had all committed offenses. King Yama said, “Okay, if you ate a pound of pig’s flesh, you have to be reborn as a pig to repay that pound of meat. Since you ate two pounds of sheep meat, you can then be reborn as a sheep to repay that two pounds of meat. Since you ate a whole chicken, you can be reborn as a chicken to pay back your debt.” That is how the case was settled.