You can see then that you establish affinities with whatever type of living beings you eat. There is a verse which goes:
There are two people in the word for meat ( 肉 ) :
The one inside pushes the other out.
Living beings return to eat living beings.
Isn’t this just people eating people?
In The Shurangama Sutra, we read, “Sheep return to become people.” So can pigs and cows. But before you have gained the use of the heavenly eye you cannot see clearly and so you think that sheep are just sheep and cows are just cows. In a short time, many changes take place and like a magical transformation, your life force moves on. Hah! From the body of a person, it may move to the body of a pig and from the body of a pig to the body of a cow. One moves around and around without knowing where one will ultimately end up. Would you say that this was dangerous or not? If you expect to save living beings, you must put an end to such an eaten\eating relationship. Whatever type of living being you do not eat, you can consider yourself as having saved it.
The beings in our self-nature are limitless and boundless. In order to save the beings on the outside, you must first save the beings within your self-nature. If you cannot cross over the beings within you, you will not be able to cross over those on the outside. Although you save living beings, you should not become attached to the mark of saving living beings.
The second of the Four Vast Vows is to cut off the endless afflictions. Without intending to, one gives rise to afflictions; without thinking, one gives rise to afflictions. Without realizing how it happens, ignorance manifests. In The Heart Sutra I explained a list of twenty following afflictions. Without reason or cause, afflictions arise. One vows to sever these afflictions, but they are endless. We will be well-off indeed if we had as much money as we had afflictions. We will always have money; no need to go to work for it. Afflictions are endless. Money is not. Use money and it’s gone. But some people think afflictions are the best thing going. They get angry and think it is more fun than eating bread and butter. Is this not weird? Once they give rise to afflictions, they burn off all the Dharma wealth of their merit and virtue. The Buddha taught all living beings to cut off afflictions.
The third vow is to study the limitless Dharma-doors. Last year, you studied The Shurangama Sutra. This year, you are studying The Lotus Sutra, The Heart Sutra, and The Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra. So many Sutras! And now–The Avatamsaka Sutra!! And each Sutra has its own doctrines. How many doctrines would you say there are? There are as many as the grains of sand in the Ganges River, as many as motes of dust. Today we learned that The Avatamsaka Sutra has as many chapters as motes of dust in an entire world! “How many is that?” you ask. It is as many as those dust motes. If you can count them, then you know how many there are. If you cannot, well, do not ask me because I am just like you.
There are so many Dharmas! There are Great Vehicle Dharmas and Small Vehicle Dharmas. There are the Dharmas of the Six Perfections and the Four Truths, the Twelve Causes and Conditions, and the Thirty-seven Wings of Enlightenment. A lot of Dharmas! There are eighty-four thousand Dharma-doors. If we were to study one Dharma-door everyday, we would need eighty-four thousand days. How many days are there in our lives? There are 365 days in a year, 3,650 days in ten years, and 36,500 days in a hundred years. Before we finished we would die. National Master Ch’ing Liang lived to be 101 years old.
How can one ever finish studying something? One can never finish studying. Then should we quit altogether? No. You have to keep on studying. As the vow says, “I vow to study the limitless Dharma-doors.” If you do not study, you will not ever understand even one of them.
By way of elaboration, how many different languages are there in this world? Each country has it’s own language and literature. You may claim that some person has gotten his doctorate at such and such a university, but how many languages does that mean he has mastered? At the most, perhaps thirty or forty or even fifty. But that is by no means all of them. Is there anyone who has been able to learn all the languages in the world? No. To say nothing of other subjects of study, you can see how hard it is just to learn languages. To say nothing of the literature of each land and it’s various styles. They are not easy to learn. It was the Chinese sage Chuang-tzu who said,
“My life has a limit, but knowledge has no limit.
To pursue the unlimited with that which is limited is dangerous indeed.”
Here he is referring to ordinary knowledge, not to real wisdom. There is no way to attain your aim. It is dangerous.
We now study the Buddhadharma, and as we learn a bit, still a lot remains to be learned. Why do we meditate? We meditate in order to learn about those Sutras which are originally within each one of us, to learn about our inherent wisdom. Within the self-nature of each one of us are limitless Sutras, limitless wisdom, limitless Dharma-doors. The eighty-four thousand Dharma-doors are all included within our own self-natures. However, you are unable to make use of your self-nature and so you just search outwardly, not realizing that you have to return the light and reverse the illumination.
So, when I lectured on The Heart Sutra, I said “Turn the light to shine within and contemplate in comfort.” Take a look at yourself to see whether you are in comfort or not. If you are, then you can give rise to profound Prajna wisdom and illuminate the five skandhas all as empty. Once you have seen the five skandhas as empty, you have also exhausted all other Dharmas as well. So you should meditate quietly for a time each day. That is the process of returning the light to shine within. You must diligently study and cultivate the Dharma-doors. You have to cultivate them. You cannot just learn them and then put them away somewhere and pay no attention to them. As you learn the Dharma-doors, you must put them into practice by cultivating them. Cultivate according to the Dharmas. That is what is meant by “I vow to study the limitless Dharma-doors.”
The fourth vow is “I vow to realize the supreme Buddha Way.” In this world, there is nothing higher than the accomplishment of Buddhahood. Becoming a Buddha is the highest and most noble of accomplishments in and beyond this world. That is why the Buddha is also called the World Honored One. He is honored both in and beyond the world. To become a Buddha is the ultimate perfection, the final accomplishment. Before one has become a Buddha, one is simply a confused person in the nine realms. Only after you have become a Buddha are you one who really understands. Therefore, one should vow to realize the supreme Buddha Way. You must make a vow that you are absolutely determined to become a Buddha yourself and to save all living beings as well so that you all become Buddhas together.
Do you see how broad these four vows are? They are truly heroic!
You cannot run around just telling other people that they should cut off their afflictions. You cannot walk up to someone and say, “See how many years you have studied the Buddhadharma and you still have a terrible temper! Just what meaning does all your study have?” You are not supposed to be looking other people. You are supposed to watch over yourself. People who study the Buddhadharma are supposed to take care of themselves and not mind other people’s business. There is a saying,
Other’s wrongs and other’s obsessions,
Are their offenses and their transgressions!
Do not take out stocks in his “Wrong Company.” If you know he is not solvent, why insist on taking a loss? Why insist on doing business in the red? If you see other people getting afflicted, you should stop a minute and think, “Oh, affliction is really no good. I should sever it.” Do not inspect other people’s clothing and find their spots and stains and yet refuse to see that your own clothing is even filthier. Do not wash other people’s clothes for them and forget about washing your own. The Buddha Way is supreme; you should accomplish it. You should launder your minds and hearts. Wash your hearts and purity your thoughts. Sweep out all that false thinking. Do not allow it to run around in your minds.
What is false thinking? Negative thoughts, thoughts about things you do not like, things that upset you. That is all just affliction and false thinking. However, the things that you are “happy” with, is also false thinking. It is all false thinking and when you are caught up in it, if you are not liking something, you are disliking it. Liking is false thinking and not liking is also false thinking.
What is to be done?
What is to be done?
PUT IT DOWN, HEY!
Just let it go and then there would not be any more liking or not liking. That is the ultimate meaning of the Middle Way. You do not give rise to afflictions or worries and you do not go insane and run off to dances and what not. That is insane happiness; it is not in accord with the Middle Way. Every day you should be very calm and even-minded and keep ahold of the Middle Way. Eventually, the day will come when you become enlightened. Enlightened, you can become a Buddha. In this way you will have fulfilled the vow, “I vow to realize the supreme Buddha Way.”
The Four Vast Vows are very important. So they are represented in the text by the phrase “With golden cords strung about them”. Do not ever forget these Four Vast vows. Cultivate in accord with them always.
There were golden flowered tassels. These represent the four Methods of Conversion which are four kinds of forces. The more sincere you are, the more power you have. If you are not entirely sincere, the force would not be as great.
The four are: Giving, kind words, beneficial conduct and cooperation.
The power of giving comes through sincerity. It cannot be forced. Why should one practice giving? Because all living beings are greedy to a degree. You have to give them something that they like and so Bodhisattvas practice giving. What do they give? They give everything. If someone wants your head, you give them your head. If someone wants your hands, you give them your hands. If someone wants your eye, brains, and marrow, you give them away. In giving this way, one must first be free of having a “self”. If you have no self then you can give. Once there is a “you”, you will start thinking, “Gosh, if I give this away, then I would not have it anymore. What will I do?” And you would not be able to give. You must forget about yourself. Forget about others and a self. Think, “Giving is my job.”
Kind words means speaking in such a way that everyone loves to listen to you and feels really happy. It is not to say a single sentence and have the effect of setting off a bomb or slicing through people’s bodies with a sharp knife. You should not make people hurt all over. Kind words mean you make everyone happy. Take care not to say things that will cause people to become afflicted. Those are not kind words. They are harmful words. If you say hurtful things people will point at you and say, “He really does not know how to talk.” Then you will not be able to be a Bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas make people happy and everyone is overjoyed to see them. Those who walk the Bodhisattva Path have affinities with everyone.
Beneficial practice means helping other people. Cooperation means that you first become good friends with whoever it is you want to save. You make them happy, as you work beside them. Bit by bit, you take them across.
Hanging from them everywhere, means that there are none who are not saved. The Bodhisattvas go everywhere to practice these Four Methods and practice the Bodhisattva Path.
And various multi-colored ornaments encircling them. The adornments on the cart were extremely wonderful. Soft silk and cotton made up the cushions, and fine coverings, valued in the thousands of millions. This represents the use of contemplative wisdom in cultivation to attain all the Dhyanas. Pure white and sparkling clean were spread atop them. Pure and white means that they are without evil. This is the cultivation of good on a vast scale. “Sparkling clean” means keeping the precepts. One who breaks the precepts cannot be said to be white and sparkling clean. First, you must keep the precepts. If your precepts are strictly held and you do not break them, they are like a covering for your cultivation. In cultivation, keeping the precepts is always the most important thing.
Great white oxen represent no-outflows, the no-outflow wisdom. Whoever can be without outflows has a great white ox, the wisdom, that is, which the white ox represents. Plump, strong and powerful, of fine appearance. This represents the mind, because the mind is complete with all the ten thousand Dharmas. Were yoked to the precious carts. This represents the use of non-outflow wisdom in the cultivation of the Great Vehicle Buddhadharma. They were surrounded by many footmen. Although one uses the non-outflow wisdom to cultivate the Great Vehicle Dharma, one employs the paramita of expedients. Expedient dharmas aid the Great Vehicle Dharma. Although you cultivate using the non-outflow wisdom, you still must employ many other methods to help it out. What other methods?
If you wish to cultivate the non-outflow wisdom, you must rid yourself of all greed, hatred, stupidity, arrogance and doubt, for they are all outflows. Deviant views are also outflows. Through the application of expedient methods, one gets rid of all one’s faults and afterwards one can attain the non-outflow wisdom.
Non-Buddhist religions and those of the Two Vehicles use the expedient dharmas. “Footmen” also represent the spiritual powers gained on the result ground. When one certifies to the fruit, one attains spiritual powers. They have a miraculous kind of functioning that allows one to do whatever one wishes to do. Who were attending to them. They were protecting and helping them as the expedients aid one in the cultivation of the Great Vehicle Dharma.
Such fine carriages as these were given equally to all the children. The elder gave these valuable carts to all the children. The Buddha gave the Great Vehicle Dharma as a teaching to all living beings because he wanted to lead them to cultivate according to it and in the future certify to the Buddha fruit.
Sutra:
Then all the children
Danced for joy;
They mounted their jeweled carts
And rode off into the four directions,
Happily amusing themselves
In unobstructed comfort.
Outline:
M4. The children obtain the carts and rejoice.
Commentary:
Then all the children, when the children got their precious carts they danced for joy. They were very happy indeed, so happy that they jumped up and started dancing around. They mounted their jeweled carts and rode off into the four directions. They rode off in all directions to teach and transform living beings. Happily amusing themselves in unobstructed comfort. They were in a state of total freedom. When one attains the Great Vehicle Dharma and understands the realm of the Great Vehicle, one wishes to dance for joy. It is inconceivable and ineffably wonderful.
Relying on the Great Vehicle Dharma in cultivation, “mounting their jeweled carts” they rode into the four directions, into all the Buddhadharmas, understanding them all: The Four Truths, the Six Perfections, the Twelve Causes and Conditions, the various Buddhadharmas. They cultivated as well the Four Unlimited Minds, the Four Unobstructed Eloquences, the Four Applications of Mindfulness, the Four Right Efforts. They perfected and understood all these Dharmas, because all dharmas are included in the Great Vehicle Dharma. They are having a great deal of fun here in the Great Vehicle Dharma, happily amusing themselves, and taking these dharmas as provisions for their spirit. “In unobstructed comfort” means they were feeling especially happy and very, very free.
Sutra:
I tell you, Shariputra,
I am like this, too,
The honored among many sages,
The father of the worlds.
Outline:
J2. Correlating the parable with the Dharma.
K1. Correlating the parable in general.
L1. Correlating the elder.
Commentary:
I tell you, Shariputra, the Buddha says to Shariputra, I am like this, too. The Buddha, the World Honored One is like the elder in the parable of the burning house I have just spoken. The honored among many sages. Of all the sagely ones, I am the most revered, the most lofty. The father of the worlds. I am the father of all living beings in the world.
Sutra:
All living beings
Are my children;
Deeply attached to worldly pleasures,
They have no wise thoughts at all.
Outline:
L2. Correlating the five hundred people and the thirty sons.
Commentary:
All living beings are my children; deeply attached to worldly pleasures, to the joys of the world, they take suffering to be bliss. They have no wise thoughts at all. They lack wisdom.
Sutra:
In the three realms there is no peace;
They are like a burning house…
Outline:
L3. Correlating the house and the meaning of obtaining the one door.
Commentary:
In the three realms there is no peace. They do not know that in the realm of desire, the realm of form, and in the formless realms, there is not a single place where there is any kind of security. They are like a burning house, like the burning house described above.
Sutra:
Filled with many sufferings,
And frightening indeed.
Ever present are the woes
Of birth, old age, sickness, death,
Fires such as these,
Raging without cease.
Outline:
L4. Correlating the fire breaking out.
Commentary:
Filled with many sufferings, the three, eight, and limitless sufferings fill the three realms entirely. This is frightening indeed. What is there to be afraid of? It is very easy to fall into the three evil paths.
Ever present are the woes of birth, old age, sickness, death. Let us not imagine that it is such a happy thing to be born as a person. When you are born it is a lot of suffering. As soon as a baby is born, it starts to cry. Yes, it is suffering, but who told you to come into this world in the first place? You created the karma all by yourself which brought you here. In fact, being born is as painful as ripping the shell off a live turtle. Death is as painful as flaying a live cow. When you get old, your eyes and ears will refuse to help you out. Even a good doctor cannot keep you from dying eventually. Doctors can cure illnesses on a superficial level, but they cannot do anything about your growing older; when the time comes for you to die, they have no medicines that will keep you from dying.
“Then what do we have all these doctors for?” you ask.
Doctors can cure illnesses which are not fatal. But fatal illnesses, no doctor can cure. If they could, then nobody in the world would die. But people still keep growing old and dying.
“If people are going to die eventually anyway, then why keep all the doctors?” you ask.
Well, that is just the way the world works:
There is the true & the false
& the false & the true–
true, true, false, false,
false, false, true…
Things are all mixed up together. If you expect things to be a certain way, the unexpected is sure to pop up. If you prepare for the unexpected then everything goes just as expected! That is just the way it is. So someone who is going to die for sure cannot be cured by a doctor. Even though we can transplant hearts and so forth, you can transplant all you want, but at some point, the person is still going to die. Nobody lives forever. If you found a way to keep everyone from dying, then the world would disappear entirely. Why? There would be so many people on the earth that there would not be any place to put them. We could colonize outer space, but that is not easy. It seems to me that if no one died, it would be the same as if everyone died.
Fires such as these, the sufferings of birth, old age, sickness, death, being separated from what you love, being joined to what you hate, not getting what you want, and the fire of the five skandhas, are raging without cease. The more they burn, the higher the flames rise and the bigger the fire gets. The karma of living beings grows greater everyday, and so the fire of the three realms burns higher everyday, raging without cease. It never stops.
The principles I have just spoken are really true. Think about it: Which person can never die? No one.
Sutra:
The Thus Come One has already left
The three realms’ burning house behind.
Quietly I dwell at ease,
In forest and field at peace.
And now it is, that the three realms,
Entirely belong to me,
And in them all the living beings
Are children of mine.
But now, this place
Is filled with calamities,
And I am the only one
Able to rescue them.
Outline:
K2. Correlating the specific analogies.
L1. Correlating the seeing of the fire.
Commentary:
The Thus Come One has already left the three realms’ burning house behind. The Buddha has already left the burning house of the three realms. Quietly I dwell at ease, in forest and field at peace. The Buddha is at ease; he does not need to work. He is quiet and very still. In the forests and fields he cultivates in a “peace garden” far away from the world, in a pure and happy place. And now it is, that the three realms. Although the Buddha has escaped the three realms, the burning house, still they entirely belong to me. They are mine. The text said above, “It belonged to one person,” and that means that it is the Buddha’s. And in them all the living beings are children of mine. They are all like my own children.
But now, this place is filled with calamities. In the three realms there are so many calamities, so much danger, poisonous insects and savage beasts. And I am the only one able to rescue them. Only the World Honored One, can rescue these living beings. The Buddha says that all living beings are his children, but there are some living beings who do not even recognize their own father! Hah! They slander the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Would you say they were unfilial or not?
You say, “Well, the Buddha might say he is our father, but that is not necessarily the case.”
I ask you, “If the Buddha is not your father, ultimately, who is?”
“I already have a father!” you protest. “I do not need another one.”
That father is your worldly father who is related to you through the principle of karmic retribution. The Buddha is your transcendental father, a pure, greatly compassionate father. He is pure and undefiled. If you can recognize your father, then in the future you too can obtain purity and non-defilement and get rid of all filth. So do not run outside and fail to recognize your own father. Later on in the Sutra, it speaks about the poor son who ran away from home and no longer recognized his own father. We are like that poor son. Our father tells us to come home but we do not recognize him as our father.
Sutra:
Although I instructed them,
They do not believe or accept,
Because of their deep attachment and greed
To all the defiling desires.
Outline:
L2. Correlating casting aside table to use carts.
M1. Casting aside the table.
Commentary:
Although I instructed them, although the Buddha teaches living beings using various methods to instruct them, nevertheless, living beings still do not believe. They do not believe or accept. They continue to act as if they had never heard them. Why don’t they believe? Because of their deep attachment and greed to all the defiling desires. There are many kinds of desires. Some people are greedy for wealth; they desire more and more money. Other people are greedy for sex. Still others are greedy for fame and want a good reputation. They want to be famous. This, too, is a form of desire. Some people are attached to eating good food. This is also a desire. Some people want to be leaders of the world; they have the desire for leadership.
Other people want to be heads of state, emperors or presidents. Have you noticed how many people run for office? They all desire to be leaders. The various desires smother one’s wisdom. In every thought, one thinks only of how one can fulfill one’s desire. In every thought one never forgets. They are called “defiling” desires because they cover up one’s wisdom. Because one has all these desires, one cannot have genuine wisdom. One does confused things. One is constantly doing stupid things. Why? Because one is attached to one’s desires, so the text says, “Because of their deep attachment and greed.” They are attached to fame, profit, sex, food, power–all these things. Their desires control their minds to the point that they become extremely dull-headed. So, although the Buddha speaks the Dharma to them, they do not believe it.
This is a bit like all the young people today who are taking drugs. This is a form of desire too. When they take drugs, their powers of reason and all their genuine wisdom gets lost. They live drunkenly and die in a dream; such is their “lifestyle.” They have no idea what they are doing. They have been covered by the defilements of their desires and so their wisdom fails to manifest.
Sutra:
Using these expedients,
I speak to them of three vehicles,
Causing all living beings
To understand the pain of the three realms,
I reveal and extensively proclaim
The Way which transcends the world.
All of these children,
If they fix their minds,
Can perfect the three clarities
And the six spiritual powers.
Outline:
M2. Using the carts.
Commentary:
Using these expedients, I speak to them of three vehicles. Because living beings become attached to the defiling desires and because their greed for them is so deep, the Buddha puts away the genuine Dharma and teaches the expedient, clever dharmas. He speaks to them of the Hearer Vehicle, the Vehicle of the Conditioned-enlightened Ones, and the Bodhisattva Vehicle. This is called casting aside the permanent and using the provisional. One sets aside the eternal teaching and uses provisional dharmas, provisional wisdom, not real wisdom.
I mentioned earlier that young people were taking drugs nowadays. They take them and think, “Ah! I have gone to empty space!” Some people have come here and told me that they have gone into emptiness. Would you say that was stupid or not? They even claim that a teacher has certified to their attainment of empty space. This is truly a case of:
One confused teaches others to be confused.
With one teaching, both misunderstand.
The teacher plummets to the hells
And the disciples follow with their hats in their hands.
To get to empty space, you certainly do not need to take any certain kind of drug. If, in order to get to this “emptiness” you have to ingest a drug and if you cannot get there without it, then ultimately, what kind of emptiness is it? You are just cheating yourself. You are being simply too stupid. People like this, as I have said before, would not believe you if you tell them that they have not made it to emptiness. When the confused teacher tells them that they have, indeed, gone to emptiness, they believe him. Isn’t this pitiful? Is it just as if they were holding onto a big excrement and refusing to let it go when you offer them some fine pastry? They insist that the excrement is tastier than anything. Would you say such a person was intelligent or confused? And this is not an exaggeration. The situation is actually worst than that! Why? Because one is losing control of one’s own humanity altogether. They do not know that, in order to be human, you have to have genuine wisdom. In believing such illusive and false states, they are much to be pitied.
The Buddha had no way to deal with such people. All he could say was, “Ah! The ‘drug’ I am taking is even more wonderful than the one you are taking. Not only can you go to emptiness when you take it and come down when you quit taking it, but, if you believe in my Dharma, you can stay in space forever; you do not have to come down at all.” Those living beings, with their greedy attachments, believed the Buddha. They believed in the Four Truths, the Twelve Causes and Conditions, the Six Perfections and the Ten Thousand Conducts. The Buddha taught the Three Vehicles causing all living beings to understand the pain of the three realms. In the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm there is nothing but suffering; there is not a single good place among them.
I reveal and extensively proclaim, I instruct living beings, speaking to them of the Way which transcends the world. There are three aspects to the world. There is:-
1. the world of living beings,
2. the material world, and
3. the world of proper enlightenment.
What is the world of living beings? This is also called the world of proper retribution. It is the world of all of us living beings. The material world is also called the world of dependent retribution. The world of proper enlightenment is the world of the Buddha.
The Buddha has transcended the world. There are worldly dharmas, transcendental dharmas and dharmas which are both worldly and transcendental. All of these children, if they fix their minds, can perfect the three clarities and the six spiritual powers. The three clarities are:
1. The clarity of the past (the penetration of former lives),
2. The clarity of the present (the penetration of the extinction of outflows),
3. And the clarity of the future (the heavenly eye).
The clarity of the past refers to the penetration of past lives, knowing the affairs of former lives. “Ah, last life I was a student. I got my Ph.D. but was so exhausted I spit blood and died. What a pity. I just got my Ph.D. and then I got sick and died. Just as I was dying I had an enlightened thought: This is too bitter! In my next life I am going to study the Buddhadharma and cultivate. And so in this life I have met a Dharma Master and I listen to the Sutras. That is how this happened! When I understood the Sutra, I decided to leave home.
Someone else gains the clarity of former lives and thinks, “I was a shepherd on the mountains. I felt that my life was not too interesting and it would be better to study the Buddhadharma. But I never met up with the Buddhadharma. As I died, I made a vow that in my next life, when I was still young, I would encounter the Buddhadharma, listen to the Sutras, and cultivate. And so, this life, I have.”
These are just examples. Perhaps someone was a man who liked women and so this life he became a woman. Or perhaps someone was a woman in his last life but now has become a man. These are examples of the clarity of knowing former lives. You know about yourself and about others. It is also called the clarity of the past.
The clarity of the present is also called the clarity of the exhaustion of outflows. This means that one attains the state of no outflows. Those who have listened to the Sutras will know what this means, but others might wonder, so I will give you a simple analogy: It is like a teacup with a leak in it. Whatever you pour in flows right back out. If there is no leak, then it has no “outflows.” People who do not know how to cultivate the Way all have outflows. If you cultivate and attain the Way, then you will have no outflows. When you have no outflows, that is the clarity of the present. This refers to the attainment of genuine wisdom. How can you gain the state of no outflows? You must have genuine wisdom in order to do this. The reason one has outflows is because one is stupid.
What are outflows? Do you like to eat? That is an outflow. Do you like to drink coffee? That is an outflow. Women like men; that is an outflow. Men like women; that is an outflow.
“Well, what is not an outflow?” you ask.
Cultivation! That is simply all there is to it. Number one, you have to cultivate. If you cultivate, you can be without outflows. If you do not cultivate you cannot be without outflows. There is simply no way around it.
“I would rather have outflows than cultivate!” you say.
If that is what you like, go ahead. If it suits you to have outflows, then go ahead and “outflow.” Let us just see where you “flow” to. You could flow out and turn into a pig, or a horse, or an ox, or flow out into the hells, into the path of animals, or hungry ghosts. You pick your own path.
“You mean it is that dangerous?” you say.
You just figured that out? It is still not too late. You can still turn around and cultivate. Then you will not go to those evil places. You will go to the position of Buddhahood, Bodhisattvahood, or to the Vehicle of Hearers or Conditioned-enlightened Ones. There is nothing difficult about it. All you have to do is cultivate and then you can attain the state of no outflows. That is the clarity of the present.
The third clarity is the clarity of the future, also called the clarity of the heavenly eye. With the heavenly eye, you can see the things inside the room you are in and also what is outside of it.
“Dharma Master,” you ask, “do you have the heavenly eye?”
I do not know. You ask me, but who do I ask? I am not asking you if you have it. Why do you ask me if I have it? With the heavenly eye not only can you see what is going on beyond the walls which enclose you, but you can even see right into the heavens. You can see things in other worlds.
The first of the Six Spiritual Penetrations is that of the heavenly eye. With it you can see what is inside your own body, all the living beings within you that you must vow to save. Although scientists cannot count the number of living beings inside the human body, if you have the heavenly eye you can see them, and count them, and take them across.
Most people explain the heavenly eye by saying that you can see into the heavens with it. It is also true that you can see all the beings inside yourself. You can even count up the grains of rice you eat. You can see how your meal is digesting in your stomach, just what is going on. You can know for sure just how good your digestion is.
The second of the Six Spiritual Penetrations is that of the heavenly ear. With the heavenly ear, not only can you hear what the gods are saying, but you can hear all the little bugs inside of you calling out. You can hear the germs talking, the flowers talking and the trees talking. Didn’t someone say recently that when you go to pick a flower it is afraid and lets out a scream? That’s right. “Oh no! This is it!! It is all over. I am going to die!!!” When you start hearing all these sounds, though, you should not dislike it. You can choose not to listen to them, too. It is up to you. The heavenly eye sees more clearly than an x-ray machine and the heavenly ear hears more clearly than sonar equipment.
The third is the penetration of other’s thoughts. With this penetration you can know exactly what someone is thinking before they have expressed their thoughts in words. While their ideas are still just thoughts in their minds, you can know just what they are. With this penetration one can know the thoughts in another’s mind, thoughts which flow like the waves on the sea, one after another.
Long ago there was an Arhat who had the Six Penetrations and could read other’s thoughts. One time he and his disciple went out on a pilgrimage carrying their belongings with them. They bowed to the different monasteries and shrines. The disciple carried the luggage. As they walked along, the disciple thought, “In the future I am definitely going to practice the Great Vehicle Dharma and cultivate the Bodhisattva Path, the Six Perfections and the Ten Thousand Conducts. I will save all living beings.” When the Master saw that his disciple had resolved to practice the Great Vehicle path of a Bodhisattva while he himself was still just an Arhat, he knew that his disciple’s vows surpassed his own, and so he made his disciple give him the baggage. Then, despite his disciple’s protestations, he carried it on his own back.
After they had walked for a while, the disciple thought, “Gosh. The Bodhisattva Path is very hard to practice. Why, even Shariputra could not do it. How much the less will I be able to do it. It would be better to forget it.” As soon as he had the thought to retreat from his Great Vehicle Bodhisattva vows, his master came up to him and handed the baggage to him saying, “Here, you carry this.” The disciple had no idea why he did this. The luggage went back and forth like this several times until the disciple finally asked, “Why do you keep switching the luggage like that? What is going on, anyway?”
“Do you really want to know?” said the Arhat. “When you resolved to practice the Bodhisattva Path, since I am still just one of the Small Vehicle, it was my duty to carry the luggage. After awhile you retreated from your Great Vehicle vows, feeling that if it was too hard for Shariputra, it would certainly be too hard for you. Then I gave the bags back to you.”
How do we know it was too hard for Shariputra?
Shariputra was a Hearer. Once he resolved to cultivate the Dharma of the Great Vehicle Bodhisattva. Now, it so happens that as long as you do not bring forth a resolve for Bodhi, no one will test you. However, as soon as you bring forth the Bodhi mind, especially if you are quite sincere about it, then the gods and dragons and the eight-fold division or the Bodhisattvas will come to test you out. It is sort of like university entrance exams. If you pass, you get in. If you do not, you have to start over again.
Shariputra decided to practice the Bodhisattva path and Bodhisattvas must practice giving. If someone wants something, they have to give it to them. Otherwise, they cannot be called Bodhisattvas. As he was busy practicing the Bodhisattva Path, Shariputra ran into a man who was sitting beside the road, crying. He was sobbing violently, and Shariputra’s compassionate heart–Bodhisattvas must have sympathy and pity for all living beings–was moved. Since Bodhisattvas must find a way to ease the grief and distress of living beings, he asked the man, “Layman, why are you crying?”
“My mother is sick,” said the man, “and in order to cure her illness, I have to find the eye of a living person. Where can I go to find a living person’s eye? Yet without it, my mother will not get well. There is no druggist anywhere who can fill my prescription. What else is there for me to do but cry?”
When Shariputra heard this he thought, “Ah, his mother is sick. He needs a live eye. He is very filial but there is obviously no pharmacy anywhere that is going to have a live eye. I will give him one of mine.” Then, filled with compassion, he reached up and plucked out his own eye with his hand. “Here,” he said, “take this eye and go cure your mother. I have helped you out; now do not cry.”
The man took the eye, looked at it, and suddenly threw it down on the ground in disgust and stomped it to bits.
“Gees, why did you do that?” asked Shariputra.
The man said, “Your old eye is stinky and smelly and just plain useless, you know? Besides, what I need is a LEFT EYE! You gave me a RIGHT EYE!! You did not even ask me which eye, but just gave me the WRONG ONE!!! It is useless, utterly useless. If you really want to help me, then give me your other eye!”
Shariputra’s left eye-socket was hurting quite a bit by this time. If he ripped out his other eye, he will be totally blind. “That sinks it!” he said. “You are not getting any more eyes from me. Go look somewhere else. See you later, man. Have a nice day!
“Ah hah!” said the man, “So your Bodhisattva resolve was just half a resolve, eh? It was not total. You could only give one eye. You could not give them both. Okay. So much for that. We will just have to wait awhile, won’t we? And the man suddenly flew up into the air. He was actually a god who had come to test Shariputra. He flunked of course, so he just has to wait a few years and try again.
So the Arhat said to his disciple, “When you remembered the story of Shariputra, you did not dare to bring forth the Bodhisattva resolve. I gave the bags back to you, then, because we both were Small Vehicle people at that time. Being the teacher, it was not right for me to carry the luggage. If there is work to do, the disciples should do it. If there is good food and drink, the teacher should get it first!”
“In the future,” the disciple thought, “I am certainly going to bring forth the Great Vehicle resolve.”
To continue the discussion of the Six Spiritual Penetrations, the fourth is the penetration of past lives. This means that one knows what one did in one’s past lives. You know if you were good or evil. You know if you were Chinese or not. “Ah! Last life I was Chinese, but I got born in America. What for? Last life I made a vow. ‘There is no Buddhadharma in America. I am going to go there and be reborn so that I will not have to learn English later. I can pick up Chinese real quickly then.’”
So now you have met a Chinese Dharma Master and this is all because of conditions set up in former lives. Bit by bit, you learn the Buddhadharma. Some learn real fast. Some learn very slowly. Some can only listen to it, they cannot practice it. They think, “The Buddhadharma is the Buddhadharma and I am me.” Others can actually practice it, really cultivate. They are not afraid of suffering or hardships in their cultivation.
Perhaps in one’s last life one was an Indian who knew that is was time for Buddhism to move west and so was reborn in America. In general, that is what the knowledge of past lives is like. It just means to know what went on in one’s past lifetimes.
The next penetration is that of spiritual fulfillment, also called the realm of the spiritual, also called the as-you-will penetration. This means that however you think you would like it to be, that is the way it is. If you want to eat an apple–zip!–there is an apple! If you want to eat an orange–zip!—there is an orange. The same applies to pastries and everything! In general, whatever you think you want, there it is. It is as-you-will and auspicious. You can even think, “I would like to have a lot of money,” and a lot of money appears. With this penetration you can go into the water and not drown. You can go into the fire and not be burned. That is really as-you-will. This does not mean just walking on a few coals, either. You can sit right in the middle of the flames and meditate and they would not burn you. Why not? Because you have the penetration of the realm of the spirit.
This does not mean you can just pick up a dharma in Japan and then be able to walk on some coals. That is not so special. If you can sit right in the fire and have a lotus appear beneath you, that is really something. What is the use of just being able to walk across some coals? It is of no great use, really. The world is not covered with burning coals, you know. If it was and you were the only person who could walk on them, that would be pretty meaningful. But this is not the time of Hsuan-Tsang in the T’ang dynasty. He went to India to get Sutras and had to pass through the flaming mountains. If you can get through the flaming mountains, then you have got some talent. People who have the penetration of spiritual fulfillment are not afraid of water or fire.
Some people are not affected by cold, but this is not any great use either. When I was in Manchuria, I could walk around outside in the freezing weather without a coat on. I could walk barefoot in the snow. The snow did not hurt my feet at all. But this is just a minor state, a tiny bit of skill. It is certainly not the penetration of spiritual fulfillment. Anybody can bear the cold. All you have to do is be able to bear it and not be afraid. People are like that. If it is cold and you bear it, and get through it, then after awhile you would not feel cold anymore. Take a look at the birds. They do not wear shoes or socks but they walk around in the snow. That does not mean they have spiritual powers, does it? They all can do it. Being able to bear the cold just means you have entered a bit into the realm of no outflows.
If you have the penetration of spiritual fulfillment, you can walk right through walls. You can go right down into the earth and you can appear and disappear at will.
“I do not believe that.” you say.
Of course you do not believe it. If you did believe it you could do it too.
“You believe it?” you say. “Can you do it?”
Do not ask me. I am lecturing to you. You are not lecturing to me. You do not understand the principle and so I am explaining it to you, but do not ask me. I do not need anyone to give me tests. I do not want to go into any university and so I am not up for any university exams or any tests of my capacity to practice the Bodhisattva Path. The penetration of spiritual fulfillment is miraculous and ineffably wonderful. I have just described it superficially to you because there is not any way to describe it fully. It is too profound and wonderful. With it you can rise right up into empty space and from the top of your body emit fire and from the lower half emit water. Or you can emit water from the top of your body and fire from the lower part. You can manifest the eighteen changes in empty space.
Finally, the sixth penetration is that of the extinction of outflows. This means that there are no outflows into the three realms. The ghosts and spirits have other five spiritual penetrations, but they do not have the penetration of the extinction of outflows. They all have outflows and they have not certified to the fruit. In order to be without outflows one must have certified to the fruit of Arhatship. One then obtains the penetration of the extinction of outflows. Only when one has the six penetrations is one an Arhat. You cannot say that, with one or two of them, you are an Arhat. Arhatship is not that easy to come by. You cannot just open your heavenly eye or obtain some small measure of wisdom and be an Arhat. If you cannot be without outflows, then you are very far away from being an Arhat. However, you should be aware of this point: Even if you obtain the five eyes and the six spiritual penetrations, you cannot use them carelessly and waste them.
“But if I do not use them, then what is the use of having them?” you ask.
I am not telling you not to use them. I am just telling you to use them in a big way, not for petty affairs. For example, if you are being small-minded with them, you might see someone and think, “I will just show off a few spiritual powers for this person.” Then you say to him, “You were just at home and I know what you had to eat and who you made telephone calls to.”
“Strange, indeed.” says the person as he hears you enumerate his lunch and phone calls. “He really does have spiritual powers.”
You must not use spiritual powers for such petty purposes. If you do, your state will be just that small.
How does one use spiritual powers in a big way? Take a look and when you see a place where a great disaster is due, for example an earthquake that will kill hundreds of thousands of people, then think of a way to make the ground undergo a transformation so that it would not quake. That is a big use. Do not use your spiritual powers to determine how many cookies a child ate in one day or how many times the child cried. What is the use of knowing things like that? If you see a disaster due in a certain place and use your powers to save the people there, without them even knowing it, then that is using them in a big way. They will be saved, but they would not even know that a certain Arhat saved them. You should not let people know or encourage them to give you thanks. If people know and start thanking you, then your state once again is very small. There is a saying,
The good which is done for others to see is not truly good.
The evil which is done fearing others will know, is truly great evil.
When one of great goodness falls he becomes one of great evil;
When one of great evil reforms, he becomes one of great goodness.
In the future, when you obtain the five eyes and the six spiritual penetrations, do not use them to satisfy your curiosity. Do not go minding other people’s business either, checking out what the neighbors are having for lunch or what is on sale at the supermarket. That is not what they are for. When you obtain them you must save them for great, important matters, not small, petty ones. Use them when you have no other recourse. If you can handle the problem without using them, then do not use them. They are like jewels. If you leave a pearl on the doorstep, sooner or later someone is going to come along and steal it. If you leave your precious gems out in view and fail to put them in a safe place, they are going to get stolen. Spiritual powers are like gems, too, and you must take good care of them. Put them away in your Thus Come One’s treasury.
Sutra:
Some shall become conditioned-enlightened ones,
And others irreversible Bodhisattvas.
Commentary:
Continuing the last passage on using the carts, the Buddha says that, having gained the three clarities and the six spiritual penetrations some shall become conditioned-enlightened ones, and others irreversible Bodhisattvas. The term “Conditioned-enlightened Ones” here includes Hearers. Hearers are those who awaken to the Way upon hearing the Buddha’s voice. Conditioned-enlightened Ones attain the Way through cultivation of the Twelve Causes and Conditions.
Those of the Hearer Vehicle cultivate the Dharma of the Four Holy Truths; suffering, origination, extinction and the Path. The Conditioned-enlightened Ones cultivate the Dharmas of the Twelve Causes and Conditions, the first of which is ignorance. They observe ignorance. Because of ignorance, there is an improper activity. This false activity gives rise to a false consciousness. With this false consciousness, false name and form arise. The false name and form turn into the false six entrances. With the false six entrances there comes contact. With contact comes feeling. With feeling there is love. Why do you have love? Because you wish to experience certain feelings.
Love conditions grasping. With love, there is selfishness. One selfishly wishes to obtain one’s love-object. You want to appropriate it for your very own. This is all selfish activity. When you get what you were grasping after, then that is the cause of becoming. With becoming there is future birth. Future birth means old age and death as well. Conditioned-enlightened Ones cultivate these twelve. They observe them all the way from ignorance up to old age and death, step by step. “Oh! So all along I was just being turned upside-down by ignorance.”
If one breaks through ignorance, the Dharma nature manifests. Suddenly, they break through ignorance. “Why should I run along after ignorance?” they think, and they refuse to follow it. Not following along with ignorance means not following along with living beings. Instead, living beings follow you. You manifest the Dharma nature, your true, inherent Buddha nature. If you do not break through ignorance, although you have not lost your Dharma nature, still, you cannot use it. Conditioned-enlightened Ones work on these twelve from #1 right up to #12. Then they take them back down the line like this:
When ignorance is extinguished then activity is extinguished.
When activity is extinguished, then consciousness is extinguished.
When consciousness is extinguished, then name and form are extinguished.
When name and form are extinguished, then the six senses are extinguished.
When the six senses are extinguished, then contract is extinguished.
When contact is extinguished, then feeling is extinguished.
When feeling is extinguished, then love is extinguished.
When love is extinguished, then grasping is extinguished.
When grasping is extinguished, then becoming extinguished.
When becoming is extinguished, then birth is extinguished.
When birth is extinguished, then old age and death are extinguished.
They look into these coming and going and get enlightened all by themselves. They are called those of the Conditioned-enlightened Vehicle.
The text also mentions irreversible Bodhisattvas. Some Bodhisattvas retreat, you know. For example, Shariputra: He brought for the Bodhisattva heart, made Bodhisattvas vows and practiced the Bodhisattva conduct. But he met someone who wanted an eye and he gave him the wrong eye. When the man refused to take the eye, he retreated from the Bodhisattva Path. “Ah! It is difficult indeed to practice the Bodhisattva Path. I quit!” he said, and turned back. The Bodhisattvas mentioned in the text here do not retreat.
Technically, there are three types of irreversibility: Irreversible practice, irreversible position and irreversible thought.
If you want to practice as a Bodhisattva, you have better think it over first. Why? The Buddhadharma is extremely difficult to practice. When you do not understand the Buddhadharma, you may think it is very simple to study. Who would have guessed that it is just the hardest thing there is to do! To study the Buddhadharma, you have to be patient. Firmness, sincerity and perseverance are three qualities necessary in your study.
Firmness: You must think, “My wish to study the Dharma is more solid than a diamond. Diamonds may be the hardest things there are, but I am even firmer in my resolve than a diamond.” It should not be the case that today you wish to study the Dharma, but tomorrow you give it up and by the third day you have forgotten it entirely. That is not being firm at all. Sincerity: You must also be sincere. If you are sincere you would not be afraid of any kind of difficulty, suffering or hardship. Perseverence: You cannot give up as soon as the going gets a bit rough. You cannot ever quit. That is being irreversible. In your cultivation you should only go forward vigorously and never turn back and retreat.
The second kind of irreversibility is that of position. The Bodhisattvas give rise to the Great Vehicle Bodhisattva heart and would never retreat to the Two Vehicles. Even if they have to chop up their bodies and grind their bones and give their head, eyes, brains and marrow, they will do so and never regret it. They would never retreat to the Two Vehicles. The third kind or irreversibility is that of thought. Their Great Vehicle Bodhisattva heart never changes. They are constantly giving rise to the Bodhisattva heart. Bodhisattvas benefit all living beings. You must be good to all living beings.
There are several people here who have already left home; there are some who would like to leave home, but have not yet done so. Others are still thinking it over; they have not decided for sure yet. They want to leave home but are afraid to commit themselves. They want to stay at home but are afraid they will fall. They cannot make up their minds and so they have not reached the state of a Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva only care about others. They do not care about themselves. They only care to help others. They do not care about helping themselves. Bodhisattvas help others, but they do not hold on to the thought of having helped them. They do it and forget it. They feel that helping others is just helping themselves. They do not go around bragging about it. It is enough that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas know what they did. It does not matter if other people know.
Further, if you practice the Bodhisattva Path, take special care not to disturb other living beings. If you want to cultivate, do not cause other living beings to have affliction. If you cause one person to have affliction, then towards that person you have not perfectly walked the Bodhisattva Path. If cause two living beings to have affliction, then towards both of them you have not walked the Bodhisattva Path. You must not cause others to become afflicted. Do not hurt other people with your words or deeds.
In general, in every move and word, do not cause others to be unhappy with you. In this way your cultivation will be successful. If you think, “I can ignore other people and do whatever I like, say whatever I please…If you get angry–well, the more the better!” If you think like that you would not be able to cultivate the Way and if you try you will run into a lot of demon-obstacles. If you cause others to have affliction, they will certainly cause you to have affliction so that in the future a lot of demonic obstructions will arise for you. People who wish to leave the home-life and cultivate must take care not to obstruct others. You must always keep a close watch over your body and mind to see if you are doing things wrong, saying improper things, or hurting others and causing them affliction. You should always look within yourself like this. Do not hurt other people. That is the Bodhisattva heart. Bodhisattvas are irreversible in position, thought and practice. They never retreat from the Bodhi mind.
Sutra:
Shariputra,
I, for living beings,
Speak this parable
Of the One Buddha Vehicle.
If all of you are able
To believe and accept these words,
You shall, in the future,
Realize the Buddha Way.
This vehicle is subtle and wonderful,
Pure and foremost.
In all the worlds
It is the most supreme.
The Buddhas rejoice in it,
And all living beings
Should praise it as well.
Make offerings and bow before it.
Limitless Thousands of Millions
Of powers and liberations,
Dhyana samadis and wisdom,
And the Buddhas’ other Dharmas
Are obtained in a vehicle such as this.
Outline:
L3. Correlating giving all a great cart.
M1. Correlating giving to all.
Commentary:
Shariputra, I, for living beings. Shakyamuni Buddha says, “Shariputra, for the sake of all living beings, I now speak this parable of the One Buddha Vehicle. If all of you are able to believe and accept these words, you shall, in the future, realize the Buddha Way. Previously, you were taught the Three Vehicles, but that was only provisional Dharma, provisional wisdom. This, now, is real. Do not think that what you heard before was correct and have doubts about the real wisdom you heard just now. You should listen to what I say, believe and accept it. Then, you can all become Buddhas.
This vehicle is subtle and wonderful. The Buddha Vehicle is especially fine and miraculous. All you have to do is have faith, and you can become a Buddha. You do not necessarily have to do a certain amount of merit and virtue or cultivate like I did in the past for three great asankheya aeons in order to become a Buddha. Now I have taught you the Dharma-door of the One Buddha Vehicle and all you have to do is believe and you have a chance to become a Buddha.
Pure and foremost. This is the foremost of pure Dharmas. In all the worlds it is the most supreme. There is nothing higher than the Buddha Vehicle. It is the unsurpassed Dharma-door. The Buddhas rejoice in it, and all living beings should praise it as well. Make offerings and bow before it. The Great Vehicle’s Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra is the pure and perfect teaching. You should all revere and worship this Great Vehicle Buddhadharma.
imitless Thousands of Millions of powers and liberations, Dhyana samadis and wisdom, and the Buddhas’ other Dharmas are obtained in a vehicle such as this. You have no idea how many offerings you must have made in the past in order to meet up with this Dharma-door now and obtain the Buddha Vehicle. This is a very rare affinity. Do not think it is easy to meet up with.
Sutra:
I cause all my children,
Night and day for many aeons,
Ever to amuse themselves
In the company of the Bodhisattvas
And the host of Hearers,
Riding this precious vehicle
Straight to the field of the Way.
For these reasons,
Though they seek in the ten directions,
There is no other vehicle,
Except for the Buddhas’ expedients.
Outline:
M2. Correlating their rejoicing.
Commentary:
All living beings have been given the Great Vehicle Buddhadharma; it has been spoken equally for all living beings. Now, in this passage, the Buddha tells all living beings they should be happy. I cause all my children, night and day for many aeons. What is meant by “day”? When all living beings obtain the Buddha’s real wisdom, that is like the day. When all living beings have not exhausted their ignorance, that is like the night. Ignorance is the night and wisdom is the day. “Many aeons” refers to a long stretch of time.
Ever to amuse themselves in the company of the Bodhisattvas. Many aeons is a long stretch of time, and it points to the time of the Buddha Sun-Moon-Lamp and the living beings who were transformed by that Buddha. Since then, they have amused themselves by cultivating the Great Vehicle Dharma. And the host of Hearers, riding this precious vehicle straight to the field of the Way, to the stage of the Buddha’s enlightened fruition, to the realization of Buddhahood. For these reasons, though they seek in the ten directions, there is no other vehicle, except for the Buddhas’ expedients. If you found some other vehicle, it would simply be one of the Buddhas’ expedient dharmas set up to teach and transform living beings.
Sutra:
I tell you, Shariputra,
That all of you
Are my children,
And I am your father.
For many aeons, you
Have been burned by many miseries,
And I have saved you all,
Leading you out of the triple realm.
Although earlier I said
That you had passed into Quiescence,
It was only an end to birth and death
And not real Quiescence.
What you should accomplish now,
Is nothing but the Buddhas’ wisdom.
If there are Bodhisattvas
Within this assembly,
They can singlemindedly listen to
The Buddha’s real Dharma.
Although the Buddhas, World Honored Ones,
Employ expedient devices,
The living beings they transform
All are Bodhisattvas.
Outline:
L4. Correlating the absence of falsehood.
Commentary:
I tell you, Shariputra, that all of you are my children. Shakyamuni Buddha continues speaking to Shariputra saying, “All of you living beings, Bodhisattvas, Hearers, Conditioned-enlightened Ones, Bhikshus, Bhikshunis, you study the Buddhadharma and have brought forth the Bodhi heart. You are all my children. And I am your father. Since you are the Buddha’s children, then I am your father.
For many aeons, you have been burned by many miseries. The three, eight and limitless sufferings have scorched you. And I have saved you all, leading you out of the triple realm; the desire, form and formless realms. Although earlier I said that you had passed into Quiescence, it was only an end to birth and death and not real Quiescence. You have only ended share-section birth and death. You have by no means ended change birth and death. Speaking in terms of real wisdom, real Dharma, you have not gained extinction.
What you should accomplish now, is nothing but the Buddhas’ wisdom. Your job now is to study the Buddha’s wisdom and practice the genuine Dharma.
If there are Bodhisattvas within this assembly, they can singlemindedly listen to the Buddha’s real Dharma, the genuine Dharma-door which I am speaking. This is the real wisdom; it is not provisional dharma.
Although the Buddhas, World Honored Ones, employ expedient devices, the living beings they transform all are Bodhisattvas. They bestow the provisional for the sake of the real and set forth the dharma of Three Vehicles. The expedient dharma-doors are taught for the sake of the real Dharma. So all the beings they teach are in reality Bodhisattvas. They should turn away from the small and go towards the great, cultivating the Bodhisattva conduct.
Sutra:
If there are those of little wisdom,
Deeply attached to love and desire,
For their sakes
I teach the truth of suffering.
Living beings then rejoice
Gaining what they never had,
For the Buddha’s Teaching of suffering’s truth
is true, real and not false.
If there are living beings,
Who do not know the origin of suffering,
Who are deeply attached to the cause of suffering,
Unable to leave if for even a moment,
For their sakes
I expediently speak of the Way,
The cause of all suffering
Is rooted in desire.
If one extinguishes greed and desire,
Suffering has nothing to rest upon.
The extinction of all suffering
Is called the third truth.
For the sake of the truth of Quiescence,
One cultivates the Way;
Leaving all suffering’s bonds
Is called the attainment of liberation.
From what is it
That these people have been liberated?
The mere separation from the false
Is called liberation.
In reality they have not yet
Attained total liberation.
The Buddha says that these people
Have not yet truly reached Quiescence,
Because they have not yet attained
The Unsurpassed Way.
It is not my wish
To lead them to Quiescence.
I am the Dharma King,
At ease within all the Dharmas.
I manifest within this world
To bring peace and tranquility to living beings.
Commentary:
This passage is a continuation of the previous one, bearing the outline title “L4. Correlating the absence of falseness.” If there are those of little wisdom. If there are those living beings who do not have any great wisdom, in fact, who do not have any “small” wisdom, either. Deeply attached to love and desire, they are profoundly addicted to love and lust. Here we are referring to the delusions of views and the delusions of thought. View delusions means that when something happens you do not understand it and get confused by it. Thought delusions means that you cannot figure out clearly in your mind what is true and what is false, what is right and what is wrong. Although you cannot tell the difference, you still keep trying to; you keep thinking it over, but you lack the wisdom to decide properly.
For their sakes I teach the truth of suffering. I teach the First of the Four Holy Truths, the Truth of Suffering. Living beings then rejoice. Before, living beings thought that suffering was bliss. Although they were in a state of suffering, they did not realize that they were suffering. Now that I have taught them about the Truth of Suffering, they are extremely happy, gaining what they never had, for the Buddha’s Teaching of suffering’s truth is true, real and not false. They had never heard such a wonderful Dharma. It is real! It is not false. It is really, really true Dharma.
If there are living beings, who do not know the origin of suffering. What is the origin of suffering? It is the Second of the Four Holy Truths, the Truth of Origination. Who are deeply attached to the cause of suffering. Origination is the cause of suffering. Suffering is the fruit. Origination is just affliction. There are six kinds of basic afflictions, ten minor following afflictions, two middle following afflictions, and eight great following afflictions. These twenty-six kinds of afflictions cause suffering.
Unable to leave if for even a moment. They do not want to separate from these afflictions for any length of time. For their sakes I expediently speak of the Way. For living beings like this I speak of the Path which is to be cultivated.
The cause of all suffering is rooted in desire. Suffering comes from origination. The most important factors in origination are greed and desire.
What is greed? It means never being satisfied. No matter how much one gets, one always wants more. Say, to begin with you did not even have a hundred dollars. In your greed you think of a way to get a hundred dollars. But once you get that hundred dollars you feel it is still not enough. “I need a thousand,” you think. When you have got a thousand you still are not satisfied. “I want some clothes. I really need a house and a piece of land. So this is not enough. If I had ten thousand dollars I would be really satisfied. In fact, I would retire. I would never want anything again or be greedy for anything else. That would do it, really.” But then when you get ten thousand dollars, what with inflation and all…“Everything is going up, you know,” you say “I would like to retire, but I have got to have a hundred thousand first.” so you greedily go after a hundred thousand and it is still not enough! Suddenly your greed gets entirely out of hand and you go after a million. But, before you get it, it comes time to die. As you die, you think, “I wanted a million dollars, but I never did reach my aim. I will try again next life for sure.” However, in your next life, you turn into a horse or a cow.
So what advantages does greed have anyway? Greed always brings misery, for greed is the root of suffering.
If one extinguishes greed and desire, suffering has nothing to rest upon. If you have no greed or desire, then there will be no suffering. If you wish to get rid of suffering, first of all you must get rid of greed and desire. If you have no greed or desire, then suffering has no root, nothing to rest on, no place to stay.
The extinction of all suffering is called the third truth. The Third of the Four Holy Truths. For the sake of the truth of Quiescence, one cultivates the Way; if you want to attain the Truth of Extinction, you must first cultivate the Way.
Leaving all suffering’s bonds is called the attainment of liberation. Leaving all those things which bind us in suffering is called liberation from the world. Why is one not liberated? Because one cannot see through the affairs of the world, cannot put them down. Until one can see through everything and put it all down, one cannot be liberated. When you can see through it all and put it all down, that is freedom, that is release.
People are greedy for this and greedy for that. Why? Because they cannot put it down. If, while alive, you can look upon yourself as already dead, then, you would not bother to be a slave for your body. If you can be a “living dead person” you would not be attached to anything. You will see through everything. That is just the attainment of liberation.
From what is it that these people have been liberated? The mere separation from the false is called liberation. Those who have cultivated and put an end to the delusions of views and thought thus ending share-section birth and death may call this liberation. In reality they have not yet attained total liberation. They have not attained ultimate liberation. In order to do this you must see through everything and put it down. I often say to you, “With me, everything is okay.”
This may seem very shallow, but its meaning is quite profound. As long as something is a problem for you, then you have not been liberated. When there are no more problems, then you have been freed. You are just like empty space. Who can bind up empty space? Who can tie it down? When you are no longer greedy for fame, you are liberated from fame. When you no longer seek profit, you are liberated from profit. Freed from fame and profit, what else is there to keep you down? Nothing.
Although the Buddha taught that the Four Holy Truths led to liberation, this is not, in reality, liberation. Why not? Because one only ends share-section birth and death. Change birth and death still persists. As long as you have change birth and death you are still not free because you still have not put it all down.
The Buddha says that these people have not yet truly reached Quiescence. They are not yet truly extinct; they have not been completely liberated.
Because they have not yet attained the Unsurpassed Way. It is not my wish to lead them to Quiescence. It is not my intention, before they have any real attainment, to lead them to extinction.
I am the Dharma King, at ease within all the Dharmas. Among all the dharmas, I am the king. Speaking coming and going, it is the Dharma, broadly and minutely, it is the Dharma. Coming and going, I am at ease within all the dharmas. However I explain it, it is correct. I manifest within this world to bring peace and tranquility to living beings. Why do I appear in the world? I want living beings to be at peace, to attain ultimate happiness and ultimate liberation. That is why the Buddha appears in the world.
Sutra:
Shariputra! This Dharma Seal of mine
Is spoken because I wish to benefit the world.
Wherever you roam, do not propagate it wrongly.
Outline:
H3. The exhortation to faith.
I1. Advice to Shariputra.
Commentary:
Shariputra! Shakyamuni Buddha here is speaking to Shariputra. He is also speaking to you and me and all the living beings of the present. He was then speaking to Shariputra, but he is also speaking to all of us Buddhist disciples right now, all those who propagate this Dharma, Dharma Masters who lecture on the Sutras and speak the Dharma.
This Dharma Seal of mine is spoken because I wish to benefit the world. The Dharma seal of the reality mark, that is, the Dharma seal of the real mark which is unmarked, is what I use to certify all living beings as potentially able to realize the Buddha Path. It is, therefore, most honorable and noble. It is not something to be used casually. I am speaking it now because I want to benefit all living beings.
What is meant by “benefit”? It refers to self-benefit and benefiting others. This Dharma seal is used to help all living beings.
There are three types of worlds, the world of living beings, the world of material objects and the world of proper enlightenment. The benefit here is to the world of living beings. The Buddha says, “I speak The Dharma Flower Sutra in order to benefit living beings in the world.”
Wherever you roam, do not propagate it wrongly. However, this Dharma is the most venerable and noble. Do not propagate it casually. Wherever you go, take care not to speak The Dharma Flower Sutra casually. If you speak the Dharma to those who are not ready to hear it, they will slander it. Then, not only will you have failed to save them, you will have caused them to fall into the hells. Why should you take care not to speak the Sutra recklessly? It is because if you do so people might fall.
Hearing the Sutra, most people would slander it saying, “How can this be? How can it be that, without doing any merit and virtue, we can still become Buddha? That is just too good to be true. People are just people. How can they become Buddhas? The Sutras just cheat people.” By uttering that single sentence, “The Sutras just cheat people,” that person falls into the avichi hells. This principle will be discussed in more detail later. So it was out of fear that people might slander the Sutra and fall into the hells that the Buddha warned Shariputra not to speak the Sutra casually, not to propagate it wrongly. Those with the disposition of the Great Vehicle who hear it once and give rise to unlimited belief–you can speak it for people like that.
Sutra:
If there be those who hear it,
And rejoice, receiving it atop their crowns,
You should know that such people
Are Avaivartika.
Those who believe and accept
The Dharma of this Sutra,
These people have already seen
The Buddhas of the past,
Reverently making offerings,
And hearing this Dharma as well.
Those who are able
To believe what you say,
They then see me,
And they see you,
And also the Bhikshu sangha,
As well as all the Bodhisattvas.
This Sutra of the Dharma Flower
Is spoken for those of profound wisdom;
When those of shallow understanding hear it,
Confused and deluded, they fail to understand it.
The Hearers, every one,
And the Pratyeka Buddhas,
Find the contents of this Sutra
Far beyond their powers.
You, Shariputra,
Gained entry to this Sutra
By means of faith.
How much the more so other Hearers.
Those Hearers,
Because of their faith in the Buddha’s words,
Comply with this Sutra.
But it’s beyond the range of their own wisdom.
Outline:
I2. The explanation.
J1. Explaining the effable and ineffable.
Commentary:
If there be those who hear it, and rejoice, receiving it atop their crowns. Shakyamuni Buddha says, “If there should be those who hear The Dharma Flower Sutra, and who rejoice, praise and receive it with great respect, you should know that such people are Avaivartika. Avaivartika means “non-retreating.” Those who believe in this Sutra have the resolve of a Bodhisattva and attain to the non-retreating position. They do not retreat to the Two Vehicles. They attain to non-retreating practice; they do not retreat to the status of a common person. They also attain to non-retreating thought, because their thought to cultivate the Great Vehicle never retreats.
Those who believe and accept the Dharma of this Sutra, these people have already seen the Buddhas of the past. Those who believe and accept the Great Vehicle Dharma of The Dharma Flower Sutra have in past lives seen limitless Buddhas. Who are “these people”? If you believe in this Sutra, it is you. If I believe in it, it is me.
Reverently making offerings, and hearing this Dharma as well. This is like those of you who now hear this Sutra. In former lives you planted good roots. Consequently, now you can hear the Sutra. Take a look at how many people there are in the world. How many of them have heard The Dharma Flower Sutra? Are the numbers of those who have heard this Sutra in the majority, or are the numbers of those who have not heard it in the majority? You do not have to be a mathematician to figure it out. Those of you who have graduated from college should certainly have no trouble with such calculations, right?
Those who are able to believe what you say. If people can believe in the doctrines of The Dharma Flower Sutra that you preach, they then see me, and they see you. This is Shakyamuni Buddha speaking of himself. “If you can believe in The Dharma Flower Sutra, then you see my complete body.” When Great Master Chih-che was reciting the twenty-third chapter of this Sutra, “The Events of the Past of Medicine King Bodhisattva,” he came to this line:
“This is called true vigor.
This is a true Dharma offering.”
As he read this line, he entered Samadhi. In Samadhi he saw Vulture Peak and the Dharma assembly there which had not yet dispersed. He then obtained the “Dharani of a single revolution,” and entered the Dharma Flower Samadhi, opening limitless, boundless wisdom. So you see, The Dharma Flower Sutra is especially wonderful. Shakyamuni Buddha says, “If you can believe and accept this Sutra, you are seeing me. And they see you too, Shariputra.”
And also the Bhikshu sangha, the assembly of great Bhikshus.
As well as all the Bodhisattvas. Not only do they see the Bhikshus, but they see all the great Bodhisattvas in the Dharma Flower Assembly.
This Sutra of the Dharma Flower is spoken for those of profound wisdom; only for those with genuine, profound Prajna wisdom. When those of shallow understanding hear it, confused and deluded, they fail to understand it. If stupid people hear it, they do not understand it. What qualifies one as “stupid”? People with big tempers are stupid. People with big tempers have the most ignorance. People with great ignorance are on fire all day long. If such people hear The Dharma Flower Sutra, they get angry! “What is this, anyway? What is this Dharma Flower Sutra? If you do not eat, will it make you full? Huh? You lecture on the Sutras all day long. Well, do not eat for a couple of days and we will see how hungry you get, okay?” Very wise, very wise…
The Hearers, every one, and the Pratyeka Buddhas, find the contents of this Sutra far beyond their powers. Those of the Two Vehicles are incapable of propagating The Dharma Flower Sutra. They do not have that much power.
You, Shariputra, gained entry to this Sutra by means of faith. You, the greatly wise Shariputra, you have the most lofty wisdom of all the Hearer disciples. You had to think about it. “I should believe this Sutra. I should not fail to believe in it.” Since you gained entry to this Sutra by means of faith, that implies that, in the beginning, you had doubts about it. If you had not had some doubts, you would not claim to have entered it by means of faith. You finally decided to believe it. Why? Because you have great wisdom. You truly believed the Sutra, without any doubt.
How much the more so other Hearers who do not have as much wisdom as you do.
Those Hearers, because of their faith in the Buddha’s words, comply with this Sutra. But it’s beyond the range of their own wisdom. It is not that they can understand it with their own wisdom. They basically do not have the wisdom to understand the doctrines of this Sutra. But because the Buddha spoke it, even though they do not understand it, they do not dare not believe it. They have got to believe it. The wisdomless Hearers do not dare doubt this Sutra. After all, the Buddha spoke it. Even though they do not understand it, they insist on believing it. This is a kind of mixed-up belief. Mixed-up as their belief may be, in the future they will come to understand. You should know that one is “mixed-up” because of ignorance. After one studies the Buddhadharma and comes to believe in it, then one would not be mixed-up anymore, one will give rise to wisdom.
Sutra:
Further, Shariputra
To the arrogant and lazy
And those who reckon the view of self,
Do not speak this Sutra.
Common folk of shallow understanding,
Deeply attached to the five desires,
Hearing it, will fail to understand;
Do not speak it to them, either.
If there be those who don’t believe,
And who slander this Sutra,
They thereby sever all
Worldly Buddha seeds.
Or if, with a scowl,
They harbor doubts and delusions
You should listen now,
As I speak of their offense-retribution:
Whether a Buddha is in the world,
Or has entered into Quiescence.
If there be those who slander
A Sutra such as this one,
Who, seeing others read or recite it,
Copy it out or uphold it,
Scorn, despise, hate and envy them,
And harbor grudges against them,
As to their offense retribution,
Listen now, once again:
These people at life’s end
Will enter the Avichi Hell
For an entire aeon.
At the aeon’s end, born there again,
In this way they will revolve,
Through uncountable aeons.
When they escape from the hells,
They shall take the bodies of animals,
Such as dogs or Yeh Kan,
Tall and emaciated,
Mottled, black and scabbed,
Repulsive to others.
Further, by human beings,
They will be hated and scorned;
Always suffering from hunger and thirst,
Their bones and flesh will be withered up.
During their lives they will be pricked by poisonous thorns;
When dead they will be buried under tiles and stones.
They suffer this offense retribution,
Because they have severed their Buddha seeds.
They may become camels
Or they may be born among asses,
Always carrying heavy burdens
And beaten with sticks and whips,
Thinking only of water and grass,
And knowing nothing else.
They suffer retribution such as this
Because of slandering this Sutra.
Some may become Yeh Kan,
Entering villages,
Their bodies covered with scabs and sores,
And also missing an eye,
Beaten and stoned
By young children,
Undergoing all this pain,
Even to the point of death.
Having died in this manner
They are then reborn as huge serpents,
Their bodies as long
As five hundred yojanas.
Deaf and stupid, without feet,
They writhe about on their stomachs,
Stung and eaten
By many small insects.
Undergoing suffering day and night
Without respite,
They suffer such retribution
For having slandered this Sutra.
If they become humans,
All their faculties are dim and dull.
They are squat, ugly, palsied, lame,
Blind, deaf and hunchbacked.
Whatever they may say,
People will not believe them.
Their breath ever stinking,
They will be possessed by ghosts,
Poor and lowly,
The servants of others,
Always sick and emaciated,
With no one to rely upon.
Although they may draw near to others,
Others will never think of them.
If they should gain something
They will quickly forget and lose it.
Should they study the ways of medicine,
Following the prescription to cure illness,
They will only make other’s illnesses worse.
Even to the point of death.
If they get sick themselves,
No one will try to save or cure them.
Although they take good medicine,
It will only increase their pains.
If they meet with rebellion,
They will be plundered and robbed.
People with such offenses,
Will perversely be subject to such misfortunes,
Offenders such as these
Will never see the Buddha,
The King among the sagely hosts,
Speaking the Dharma, teaching and transforming.
Offenders such as these
Will always be born in difficult circumstances.
Insane, deaf, with mind confused,
They will never hear the Dharma.
Throughout aeons as countless
As the Ganges river’s sands,
They will be born deaf and dumb,
With all their faculties incomplete;
They will always dwell in the hells,
Roaming there as if in pleasure gardens,
Or born in the other evil paths,
Which they will take as their house and home.
Among camels, asses, pigs and dogs–
These are the places they will walk,
They undergo such retribution,
Because of slandering this Sutra.
If they become humans,
They will be deaf, blind and dumb,
Poor and decrepit,
Yet adorning themselves therewith.
Swollen with water, or else dehydrated,
With scabs and boils,
And other such illnesses,
They will clothe themselves.
Their bodies will always stink
Of filth and impurity.
Deeply attached to the view of self,
Their hatred shall only increase.
Ablaze with sexual desire,
They are no different than birds or beasts.
They will suffer such retribution
For having slandered this Sutra.
Outline:
J2. Explaining when and where not to propagate the Sutra.
K1. The need for great compassion. Do not speak it to evil people.
Commentary:
Further, Shariputra, to the arrogant and lazy. As to arrogance, poor people are seldom afflicted with it. Rich people easily become arrogant. Prideful people think that no one is as good as they are. They treat everyone in a rude manner. Lazy people like to slack off. They are sloppy and indolent. They do not do any work at all, but feel that they are making great contributions and their hearts grow weary; they are not vigorous and they do not go forward. And those who reckon the view of self; they are conceited and lazy because their attachment to self is so deeply rooted. Do not speak this Sutra to them. Do not speak The Dharma Flower Sutra to people like this. Why not? If you speak it to them, they will not cultivate according to the doctrines expressed within it.
Common folk of shallow understanding. Ordinary people have no wisdom. They are simple-minded. Deeply attached to the five desires. All they understand are wealth, sex, fame, food and sleep. These five are the five locks on the gates of the hells. If you commit offenses involving any one of these five, it is easy to fall into hell. If you are greedy for wealth, you will commit offenses. The same is true for sex, fame, food and sleep. If you sleep too much, you will become stupid. You should just eat until you are full and then stop; do not overeat. Do not crave the good food and keep eating and eating it. You will get sick if you do that. You can eat yourself into the hells, in fact. If you stuff yourself until there is no room, then the food will have to “move house”. If it does not move down and give you the runs, it will move up and you will vomit.
Now, if you fast for a few days, then when the fast is over, your desire for food may be extremely fierce. Everything looks delicious! Even the water is very sweet, to say nothing of the food. But you have to be careful then not to overeat, or drink more than you usually do. If you eat too much after a two or three week fast, it is very easy to ruin your intestines, to break them. Then you will have to go to a doctor. If the doctor is good, he can sew you up again. If you meet a bad doctor, he may just give you up as a hopeless case. Even if you do not break your intestines, it is easy to get diarrhea because of the changes in your digestion that has taken place during the fast. This all happens because you are not in control of your eating habits.
As to sleep: Young people like to sleep. When one reaches fifty or sixty, one is not that interested in sleeping anymore. But when you are young you cannot just let yourself sleep all you want to. If you do, you may sleep one day and still feel it is not enough, sleep for two days and it is still not enough…You can waste a lot of time that way. People who sleep too much get stupid. People are controlled by the five desires and turned upside-down by them. Therefore the text says, “deeply attached to the five desires.”
One can also explain the five desires as being sights, sounds, smells, tastes, tangible objects, and dharmas. In general, do not be attached to the five desires.
Hearing it, will fail to understand; because they are deeply attached to the five desires, when they hear The Dharma Flower Sutra, they will not understand it. “Hmm..” they say, “wealth is really fine. How can you say it is not good? Sex is not bad either; it is pretty wonderful, in fact. How can you explain the Sutra as saying that sex is no good?” they do not believe it. “Everybody likes fame,” they say. “Everybody likes the simple pleasure of eating good things. Sleep is not bad either. You say it is not right. I do not believe you.” Because they like these things, they disagree. Do not speak it to them, either. Do not speak the Sutra for people like that.
If there be those who don’t believe, and who slander this Sutra, they thereby sever all worldly Buddha seeds. Severing one’s Buddha seeds means that their karmic offenses are deep and heavy indeed. In cutting off one’s Buddha seeds, the seeds of the hells arise. When the seeds of the hells arise, then one can fall into the hells. Why did I lecture The Shurangama Sutra before lecturing The Dharma Flower Sutra? The Shurangama Sutra is not as stern on this point. So whatever you do, take care not to slander The Dharma Flower Sutra,
Or if, with a scowl, they harbor doubts and delusions. A scowl means that you knit your eyebrows together in a frown. As soon as they hear the Sutra being lectured, they frown. Their eyes and their noses move together on their face to form a corporation. Why do they scowl? Because they have doubts and delusions. Perhaps in their hearts they object to the doctrines being spoken, thinking that they do not agree with them at all. “I really like these things and this person is saying that they are no good. This is just claptrap. What kind of Sutra lecturing is this, anyway? It is confused rubbish!” Their minds give rise to doubts.
You should listen now, as I speak of their offense-retribution. Listen to what I tell you. As retribution for the offenses this person has committed, he is certain to fall into the hells, to undergo limitless and boundless suffering.
Whether a Buddha is in the world, or has entered into Quiescence. If there be those who slander a Sutra such as this one, who, seeing others read or recite it, copy it out or uphold it, scorn, despise, hate and envy them. Whether or not the Buddha has entered Nirvana, if people slander this Sutra or slander those who recite and uphold it, they will certainly fall into the hells. If they say, “That is too superstitious. What is the use of reciting Sutras, anyway? If reciting Sutras enables one to end birth and death, then way back in the old days, what Sutra did they very first Buddha recite?”
They seem to have some principle in their words, but actually they are just ridiculing those who recite the Sutras out of malice. They ridicule those who bow to Sutras even more. “Up and down, up and down…What are they doing? Senseless!!” They heap scorn upon them, despise, hate and envy them. Why? Because these people are different from them. They like to drink wine and take drugs. If you did that with them they would be happy. But they do not like to recite Sutras or cultivate. When people do that, they hate it. They get jealous and harbor grudges against them. For no reason at all, they hate you.
As to their offense retribution, listen now, once again: These people at life’s end will enter the Avichi Hell for an entire aeon. They are certain to fall into the unspaced hells and will be there for an entire aeon. At the aeon’s end, born there again, in this way they will revolve, through uncountable aeons. They will be there for one whole great aeon and when that aeon is over they will be ping-ponged to another avichi hell to do it again. They will spin from hell to hell in this way for countless aeons.
When they escape from the hells, they shall take the bodies of animals. One who slanders The Dharma Flower Sutra or who slanders those who read and recite it, will remain in the hells for countless kalpas. And what happens once they get out of the hells? They turn into animals! What kind of animals? Animals such as dogs or Yeh Kan, tall and emaciated, mottled, black and scabbed, repulsive to others. These animals live out in the wilds or atop tall trees. At night they roam in packs but during the day they hide. They have only one eye, too. Why are they born with only one eye? Because they looked down on the people who read, recited, and bowed to The Dharma Flower Sutra. They hated and envied them, so now they have only one eye. This is after they have escaped from the hells, mind you.
There is no flesh on the bodies of these dogs and yeh kan, and so they are as thin as sticks or firewood. They are spotted and black, covered with scabs that keep falling off and forming again without healing. Nobody wants to get near them. Actually, no one wants to get close to them because they stink. People who cultivate the twelve ascetic practices and who truly cultivate will always emit a fragrance from their bodies. Even their clothes will smell fragrant. They may look bad, wearing rags, so that no one will fall in love with them, but it is not because they do not smell good!
If you stank before you started cultivating, you will become fragrant after you have cultivated for awhile.
“Sure,” you say, “if you are in the Buddhahall all day where the incense is burning you will start to smell like the incense.”
Well, maybe. But if you truly cultivate, you yourself will emit a precept fragrance, a Samadhi fragrance, and a wisdom fragrance, as well as a liberation fragrance and a fragrance of the liberation of knowledge and vision. You will emit those five types of fragrance. If you truly practice the twelve ascetic practices, for sure you will emit a fragrant odor. You would not smell bad.
The animals mentioned here, on the other hand, had slandered the Triple Jewel and the Sutra and so they stink. Nobody wants to get near them.
Further, by human beings, they will be hated and scorned; everybody will hate them. Always suffering from hunger and thirst, their bones and flesh will be withered up. During their lives they will be pricked by poisonous thorns; when dead they will be buried under tiles and stones. Their lives are the epitome of suffering! Their deaths are filled with ignominy. They suffer this offense retribution, because they have severed their Buddha seeds. Because they have cut off their Buddha seeds and let the seeds of the hells start growing, they must suffer this retribution.
They may become camels or they may be born among asses, always carrying heavy burdens on their backs, and beaten with sticks and whips by their owners. Thinking only of water and grass. All they think about is eating and drinking; and knowing nothing else. They suffer retribution such as this because of slandering this Sutra.
Some may become Yeh Kan.They are even more cowardly than foxes. They have more doubts, too. In past lives, they looked down on those who read, recited and bowed to and lectured on The Dharma Flower Sutra. Entering villages, their bodies covered with scabs and sores, and also missing an eye, beaten and stoned by young children. Sometimes, when their karmic obstacles obstruct them, they go into human settlements. Why do they do this? Because they are sick and have nothing to eat. Because their brains get addled and they cannot think clearly, they go into town. The scabs itch terribly. When the children see a sick animal coming into town, they beat it with sticks or throw rocks at it. Undergoing all this pain, even to the point of death. They may hit it on the head with a large rock and kill it.
Having died in this manner they are then reborn as huge serpents, their bodies as long as five hundred yojanas. Deaf and stupid, without feet, they writhe about on their stomachs, stung and eaten by many small insects. On the bodies of these huge snakes are many parasites. These bugs eat their flesh and blood so that they are undergoing suffering day and night without respite. The bugs eat them all day and all night too, to that they never get a break from their torment. Would you say that this was severe punishment or not? Why must they undergo it? They suffer such retribution for having slandered this Sutra, for slandering The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
If they become humans, all their faculties are dim and dull. If they should perhaps become human beings, their eyes, ears, noses, tongues, bodies and minds will all be dim and dull. Their arms and legs will be crippled. They would not be able to see or hear clearly. Their sense of taste will be blunted and their sense of touch inaccurate. Their minds will be extremely stupid. They may also be missing an arm or a leg. All their faculties do not listen to their instructions. They may tell their eyes to look at something but it will be five minutes before they get round to looking at it. The same goes for the ears and nose. This is because they are dim and dull. “Dim” means stupid and lacking wisdom. “Dull” means that they are very slow.
They are squat, ugly, palsied, lame, blind, deaf and hunchbacked. Squat means that they are very short, maybe three feet tall and three feet wide, sort of like kumbhanda ghosts. Ugly means they are hideous. Not only are they very short, but they are horrible looking. Instead of two lips, for example, they might have four! Their lips might be split in the middle. One eye might be as big as a ball and the other as small as a soybean. How could they ever focus them? Palsied means that they do not have control of their limbs. They cannot stretch out their arms or legs or their back may be bent over like a bow ready to shoot an arrow. When you see people like this, you can know that limitless aeons in the past, they slandered The Dharma Flower Sutra. You should be able to recognize them. You would not need the penetration of other’s thoughts, the heavenly eye or the knowledge of past lives. You just need to remember that it said very clearly in The Dharma Flower Sutra that people like this have slandered this Sutra.
Whatever they may say, people will not believe them. No one will even listen to them! When they talk, there will be an edge on their voice. They may sound like a dog barking. Their breath ever stinking, they will be possessed by ghosts, poor and lowly, the servants of others, always sick and emaciated, with no one to rely upon. This bad breath comes, first of all, because they slandered the Sutra. Secondly, it is because they are always sick and their digestion is poor. Whatever they eat fails to nourish them. Sometimes people may have bad breath when they are sick with a cold or the flu. Some people may have a kind of metallic energy which smells like bad breath but which they actually use to subdue heavenly demons and control those outside the Way. They are cultivators of the Secret School. If you always recite The Dharma Flower Sutra your breath will smell like a blue lotus flower. This is discussed later in the Sutra.
They will be possessed by ghosts, such as the kumbhanda ghosts and others, who will cause them to be afraid. Not only will they have all the above-mentioned problems, but they will also always be poor and have no money. Lowly means they will always do the lowliest type of work. They will be used as servants of others, doing their bidding. They will continually be sick and therefore extremely thin. They will have no one to help or protect them. No one will take care of them at all. If they die, even, their corpse will just lay there in the street for the dogs to eat. No one will pay the slightest bit of attention to it.
Although they may draw near to others, others will never think of them. They have no one to care for them, so they may look for someone. They may draw near to someone, being very flattering and buttering them up, but no matter how nice they are to them, the person will pay no attention to them at all.
If they should gain something they will quickly forget and lose it. If they study the Buddhadharma, and recite a Sutra, working very hard until they can remember it, as soon as they quit reciting it, they will forget it.
Should they study the ways of medicine; if they should learn to be doctors…
In Chinese medicine one speaks about the “four energies,” chill, heat for fever, warmth, and coolness. There is also neutral, drugs that do not incline towards warmth or coolness.
Chinese medicine also speaks of diagnosis by means of 1) looking, 2) hearing or smelling (the Chinese term means both), 3) asking, and 4) taking the pulse.
Those who truly understand the science of medicine do not need to do any more than take a good look at the color of the patient’s face to know where the sickness lies. It is said, “To be able to tell just by looking is called the spiritual method.” Hearing is called the sagely method. Perhaps they will listen to the sound of the patient’s voice or smell the patient’s breath. This is the way the sage does it. Asking and knowing is called work. They may ask the patient for symptoms such as, “Do you have a headache?” “No,” the patient may reply, “my stomach hurts.” Then they will know. Feeling the pulse and knowing is called using one’s craft. By feeling the pulse they can tell on which meridian the sickness is located. These are important principles in the study of medicine.
As to the pulse it may be 1) floating, 2) sinking, 3) slow, 4) fast, 5) slippery, 6) still, 7) hollow.
I have studied all the books on medicine, but I was afraid of “curing people to death” so I did not become a doctor.
That reminds me, however, of a story: One day King Yama got sick and wanted to find a doctor to cure him. He sent one of his ghosts to find a doctor. “Which doctor shall I get?” said the ghost. King Yama said, “Well, you are a ghost, so you can see ghosts. Take a look at the doctors’ doors and whichever doorway has the fewest ghosts hanging around it, ask that doctor to come. He is probably the best doctor because he will have cured the fewest people to death.”
The ghost went off and pounded the streets. At the door of every doctor there were many hateful ghosts shouting out things like, “You gave me the wrong prescription and cured me to death!” There were a lot of them. Finally, he reached one doctor’s door and saw only two ghosts there. He invited that doctor to go cure King Yama. King Yama asked him, “How long have you been practicing medicine?”
“I just started today.” he said.
King Yama groaned, “Oh, you started today and you already have two ghosts at your door! Good grief, I cannot use you for my doctor. I had better go find someone else.”
This goes to show you that, in China, doctors who use herbal medicines can cure non-fatal illnesses. If they are inept, then, even if the patient was supposed to get well, they would “cure them to death.” If one uses the wrong medicine, it is very easy to take a person’s life. This is especially true of Chinese herbal medicine. So the test says, “If they study the ways of medicine” to cure someone’s illnesses, they will cure one illness but another will take its place, or other illnesses will arise before the first one is cured until, finally the patient dies. Following the prescription to cure illness, they will only make other’s illnesses worse. Even to the point of death.
If they get sick themselves, no one will try to save or cure them. Although they take good medicine, it will only increase their pains. If they get sick, no one will try to cure them. If they give themselves some kind of prescription, the sickness will get much worst.
If they meet with rebellion, they will be plundered and robbed. If they encounter a time of social confusion and war, all these calamities will befall them. People with such offenses, will perversely be subject to such misfortunes, offenders such as these will never see the Buddha, the King among the sagely hosts, speaking the Dharma, teaching and transforming. The Buddha is the king among all the sages. He speaks all dharmas to teach living beings.
Offenders such as these will always be born in difficult circumstances. Among the eight difficulties we find the difficulty of being born at a time when the Buddha is not in the world. Such offenders will not see the Buddha, hear the Dharma or meet up with the Sangha.
Insane, deaf, with mind confused, they will never hear the Dharma. Throughout aeons as countless as the Ganges river’s sands. They are always plagued with insanity. They cannot hear and they are continually subject to mental disorders. They never get to hear the Buddhadharma. One who slanders The Dharma Flower Sutrawill have no opportunity to hear the Dharma. Even if he does get to hear it, his mind would not be reliable.
For example, people may come here to listen to the Sutra. They hear three or five sentences, they listen for three, five, ten or twenty minutes, and then they run off. Why do they run off? It is because their karmic obstacles are too weighty. Their offense karma is too deep. If you tell them to study something good, to investigate the Buddhadharma, their karmic obstacles will immediately arise and they will run off. Some people do not even understand Chinese, and right after the Chinese, they run off without even waiting for the English translation. You have seen many of these people. They run off because they do not have sufficient good roots; their offense-karma is too heavy. There is a verse which says,
If exhorted to do good, he says he has no money;
He has it, but not for that.
In an emergency, if he needs a hundred thousand,
He might not have it, but he will come up with it.
Perhaps there is a bank robbery and someone is kidnapped. Their ransom is five hundred thousand dollars. Then, even though they do not have the money, they come up with it. But if you try to get them to do something good, saying, “Let us go listen to a Sutra lecture,” what do you think they will say?
“Ah, I’d really like to, but I am just too busy.” They do not have the time.
When his life is over and he is buried in the Yellow Springs,
As busy as he is, he has to go.
When the time comes to die and one is called before King Yama, no matter how busy one is, one has to go. Hah!
So it is not that easy to listen to the Sutra lectures. You must have planted good roots throughout limitless aeons. That you are able to come and listen now to The Dharma Flower Sutra means that you have conditions with the Dharma Flower Assembly. Didn’t the Great Master Huai-tzu say that he was with Great Master Chih-che on Vulture Peak listening together to The Dharma Flower Sutra? So they met together in China. Now, we, too, were all together in the Vulture Peak Assembly listening to The Dharma Flower Sutra. Since you have all now forgotten I am lecturing it over again for you.
They will be born deaf and dumb, with all their faculties incomplete. If they get born as people they will be born dumb, unable to speak, or deaf. They may be missing an eye or an ear, or they may be missing their nose, or their lips would not look anything like lips.
They will always dwell in the hells, roaming there as if in pleasure gardens. They are as happy in hell as one would be in a park. We like to go to the park and play. These people feel comfortable in the hells. They like being there.
Or born in the other evil paths, which they will take as their house and home. Among camels, asses, pigs and dogs–these are the places they will walk. They will behave like camels, asses, pigs, and dogs, liking to be around them. In India there are those who keep to the morality of cows and dogs. In the past they slandered The Dharma Flower Sutra and so now as people they still like to act like animals.
They undergo such retribution, because of slandering this Sutra. If they become humans, they will be deaf, blind and dumb, poor and decrepit, yet adorning themselves therewith. If they get out of the hells or the animal realms they will be crippled and poor. Why are people poor? It is because in former lives they slandered this Sutra and slandered the Triple Jewel. They did not believe in the Triple Jewel or make offerings to it. Even though they had money, they offered none of it to the Triple Jewel. If one does not seek blessings and plant blessings by making offerings to the Triple Jewel, one will always be poor. Decrepit means that nothing goes right for them.
There is a story about a person named Chang T’ai-kung. People said he was jinxed because his fate was no good. It was not because he slandered the Triple Jewel or anything like that. He was the Prime Minister for King Wen of Chou. During the Chou Dynasty he was an official. Later, he quit and took up selling salt instead. Then his salt got infested with bugs. Basically, salt cannot get infested with bugs. However, his did. No one would buy it.
Then he sold flour, taking it out all day on the streets to sell. No one bought any. One evening, a person came to buy a penny’s worth. There was no inflation in those days and so one could probably buy a lot of flour for a penny. Just as he was measuring out the flour, the general and his cavalry galloped by their horses. The general’s horse kicked over his flour container, spreading flour all over the street. They do not have concrete in those days and the flour got all mixed in with the dirt. He picked up what he could of the flour, but people were even less interested in buying it then.
About eight or nine o’clock that night he went home. He called to his wife, but she did not hear him. Just as he was going to knock on the door, a bee flew in between his hand and the door stinging him. He drew his hand back suddenly and slammed the back of it into a nail. Gosh! How unlucky can you get? Why did this happen? It was because in a former life he had been a bear. This bear saw an old cultivator called Yu Hsu-Kung and recognized that he was a high cultivator who had attained the Way. The bear knelt outside the cultivator’s door, seeking the Way. He knelt there for five hundred years. During that five hundred years, he dropped his bear body; the flesh rotted away; the bones turned to dust. He was reborn as a person with a lot of merit.
However, in the more remote past, he had slandered the triple Jewel. Therefore, he had a lot of bad luck. He had bad luck because his wife was not a good person. He received her influence. So he could not sell his flour or anything. Nothing went right. He was very unlucky. That is what is meant by the line of text: “Poor and decrepit.” Such people have a lot of bad luck.
They decorate themselves, as it were, with poverty and misfortune.
Swollen with water, or else dehydrated, with scabs and boils, and other such illnesses, they will clothe themselves. Their bodies are always swollen up or else they are all dried out like a piece of kindling. Their scabs itch all the time. Although the itching is on the skin, their minds find it unbearable. Boils are big sores. Some may be as big as a teacup or a wineglass, or a rice bowl. They hurt unbearably. Do not be afraid of boils which are large, red and swollen or “raised.” Just be afraid of black or purple boils which sink into the skin. They cannot be cured.
They will have these sicknesses on their bodies and their bodies will always stink of filth and impurity. The scabs and sores will stink.
Deeply attached to the view of self, their hatred shall only increase. They have terrible tempers that grow worse everyday. Everyday they have more afflictions.
Ablaze with sexual desire, they are no different than birds or beasts. Thought of sexual desire are constantly on their minds. This is like the great general of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Nien Kung-yao who had to have twelve women to sleep with every night and even sent out for cows, horses and donkeys…
They will suffer such retribution for having slandered this Sutra. Because they slandered The Dharma Flower Sutra, they bring this retribution upon themselves.
Sutra:
I tell you, Shariputra,
Were I to speak of the offenses
Of those who slander this Sutra,
I wouldn’t finish to the end of an aeon.
For these reasons,
I expressly tell you,
Do not speak this Sutra
Among those who have no wisdom.
Commentary:
This concludes the outline section mentioned above: “do not speak for evil people.” I tell you, Shariputra, Shakyamuni Buddha is speaking of the retribution incurred by those who slander this Sutra, were I to speak of the offenses I wouldn’t finish to the end of an aeon. I could speak for several great aeons but would not finish.
For these reasons, I expressly tell you, do not speak this Sutra among those who have no wisdom. Speak this Sutra only to those who have wisdom. You should not speak a Sutra like this to those who have no wisdom because it will only cause them to slander it, creating offenses for which they must suffer retribution. So now the people here in the Buddhist Lecture Hall are listening to the Sutra being spoken because they all have a bit of wisdom. If you were stupid, I would not even speak it. If I did, you would run far away. This is like a person who said that listening to the Sutras was boring. She went off to find a Good Knowing Advisor.
Now, I believe that in this world, if you do not listen to the Sutras or study the Buddhadharma, you can travel the entire world around, but you would not find a Good Knowing Advisor. Why not? Because a Good Knowing Advisor will start out by teaching you the doctrines in the Sutras. Then he will teach you to cultivate and investigate Dhyana and sit in meditation.
There are various preparatory steps to learning to sit in meditation. You cannot just sit in meditation and not have the slightest idea what you are doing. If you do, you may enter a demonic state. You may claim to have certified to that which you have not yet certified; you may claim to have attained that which you have not yet attained. To say that you have certified to the fruit of Arhatship when you have not is telling a monstrous lie. One who does this will fall into the hells. Such a person might claim, “I am enlightened. I am a Patriarch. I am an Arhat. I am a Bodhisattva. I am a Buddha,” claiming to have attained the genuine Buddhadharma when they have not. What kind of a “Buddha” are they?
Someone says, “The Buddha really knows how to hurt people. If he had not spoken The Lotus Sutra, then how could people have fallen into hell? He spoke the Sutra and as a consequence a lot of people have fallen into hell. Why? Because they slandered it! Now, if the Buddha had never spoken it, for sure no one would have slandered it. If no one had slandered it, then no one would have fallen into hell. So it more or less amounts to Shakyamuni Buddha sending people to hell!”
Do you think this person is speaking reasonably? Let us figure it out. This person is arguing his case in favor of living beings and against Shakyamuni Buddha, or so it seems. But the Buddha’s side must be presented as well, so I will dare to do it.
You may say that if Shakyamuni Buddha had not spoken this Sutra no one would have fallen into the hells. On the other hand, if Shakyamuni Buddha had not spoken the Sutra, no one would have become a Buddha. If people have fallen into the hells, you cannot blame it on the Buddha because he very clearly warned us that to slander the Sutra is to commit a serious offense. Since you know already that it is an offense, you should not slander the Sutra. If you do not slander the Sutra, you will not fall into the hells.
The Buddha said a slanderer would fall into the hells, so if you insist on going ahead and slandering it even more, just to spite him, you will then fall even deeper. There is not the slightest doubt about it. He warned us that one who slanders the Sutra would fall into the hells or turn into a hungry ghost or an animal for boundless aeons. So why do you still want to slander the Sutra? If you do, you are just deliberately pitting yourself against the Buddha. If nobody slanders it, nobody is going to fall into the hells. Ah..so you cannot say that people fall into the hells because the Buddha spoke the Sutra. By speaking the Sutra, just think of how many people were caused to bring forth the Bodhi heart and who will in the future become Buddhas.
More will become Buddhas than will fall into the hells. Those who fall into the hells are the stupidest ones; they do not believe in anything at all. They know very well that the Buddha said it was an offense to slander the Sutra. They insist on doing it. Now, who can save a person like this? Well, there is someone. It is Earth Store Bodhisattva. When they have fallen into the hells and suffered enough to learn their lesson, Earth Store Bodhisattva will go there to speak the Dharma for them and wipe away their offense karma so they can be born in the heavens or among human beings. Do not worry about the people who slander the Sutra and fall into the hells. Just pick out a good future for yourself and go forward and make progress. Do not fret about the offenders and get upset about those in hell.
Sutra:
If there are those with keen faculties,
And wisdom which clearly comprehends,
With much learning and a strong memory,
Who seek the Buddha’s Path,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If there are those who have seen in the past
Hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas,
Who have planted wholesome roots,
Who have deep and firm minds,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If there are those who are vigorous,
Ever cultivating minds of compassion,
Not sparing body or life,
For them you may speak it.
If there are those who are reverent,
Without any other thoughts,
Who have left the common stupid folk,
Who dwell alone in mountains and marshes,
For people such as these
You may speak it.
Further, Shariputra,
If you see people
Who have cast aside bad knowing advisors,
And draw near to good friends,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If you see disciples of the Buddha,
Holding precepts as purely,
As pure, bright jewels,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If there are those who have no hatred,
Who are straightforward and gentle,
Always merciful to all beings,
And reverent of all Buddhas,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
Further, if there are Buddha’s disciples,
Who in the great assembly,
With minds clear and pure,
Use various causal conditions,
Parables and phrases,
To speak the Dharma without obstruction,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If there are Bhikshus,
Who, for the sake of all-wisdom,
Seek the Dharma in the four directions,
With palms together, receiving it atop the crown,
Who delight only in receiving and upholding
The canon of Great Vehicle Sutras,
Refusing to accept so much
As a single line from another scripture,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
If there be those who, with mind intent,
Seek the Buddha’s sharira,
Or who likewise seek the Sutras,
And attaining them hold them atop their crowns,
Such people will never again
Resolve to seek other Sutras,
Nor ever have the thought
To seek the writings of outside ways,
For people such as these,
You may speak it.
Outline:
K2. The need for the great kindness heart: speak the Sutra to good people.
L1. Five pairs of good people to whom the Sutra may be spoken.
Commentary:
The previous verses warned people not to slander the Sutra. This was a case of the Buddha opening the door of his great compassion. Fearing that people might slander the Sutra, the Buddha warned them that if they did so they would fall into the hells. This is not a case of the Buddha trying to scare people, either, because it is true. This is the Sutra spoken for the sake of becoming a Buddha. To say nothing of slandering it outright, you should not even have doubts about it in your mind.
The Buddha is being extremely compassionate in warning living beings of this fact. If you clearly know that you will fall into the hells, but insist on slandering it anyway, it must just be that you want to fall into the hells. If you are having trouble getting into the hells, just slander this Sutra and you will go there on an express. But do not think it is a lot of fun and games. When you get to hell you will be crying. It is no daycare center, that is for sure. You will be crying your eyes out.
The verses just read were the Buddha opening the great kindness door telling people to cultivate in accord with the Dharma. For example, those people who come to listen to the Sutra being lectured all have good roots. People without good roots might come to listen, but they will immediately want to run away. They would not come back. They will fly away like birds. They would not even wait for the translation!
In the above passage of text, ten kinds of good people for whom the Sutra may be spoken are listed. They divide into five pairs:
1. The pair of the present and the past: If there are those with keen faculties. People with keen faculties are intelligent. They are not stupid. When you speak principle to them, they deeply believe it and have no doubts. And wisdom which clearly comprehends. They are wise and smart. They believe as soon as they hear it. With much learning and a strong memory. They have read a lot of books and they understand and remember a great many things. Who seek the Buddha’s Path. They singlemindedly seek the Buddha’s Path, looking upon everything in human life as being involved with suffering. Even if a person lives to be a hundred, eventually he is going to die. There is no great meaning to all of it. Thus, they diligently seek the Buddha Path. For people such as these, you may speak it. These lines refer to people in the present who have cultivated.
The following lines refer to people in past who have cultivated: If there are those who have seen in the past hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas, who have planted wholesome roots. I will tell you, if you want to make offerings to the Triple Jewel, do not make discriminations about it. You should just go ahead and make your offerings singlemindedly. The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are one substance. You should not think, “I will give money. What will it be used for?” You should not worry about what it will be used for and you should not pay attention to what the recipients do with it. That is being insincere. You should not try to control the Triple Jewel with your money. That is not helping them out at all. They cannot be controlled by you. If you try to control them then not only do you make no merit for yourself, but you create offenses.
As you plant good roots, just plant them. Do not worry about what the harvest is going to be like.
Who have deep and firm minds, for people such as these, you may speak it. You should have deep wisdom, profound Prajna, and your mind should be firm and solid, not making a lot of discriminations. This concludes the pair of the present and past.
2. The pair of the cultivation of blessings and wisdom: If there are those who are vigorous, ever cultivating minds of compassion, not sparing body or life, for them you may speak it. These lines represent the cultivation of blessings. Compassion means that you do not see the faults of others. Even if they make mistakes, you still do not reject them. You think, “Oh, they are just children and they do not understand what they are doing. That is why they are creating offenses. I should teach them untiringly and distract them from their games. “Here, kids, do not play with that. I have a nice carriage for you. You can go anywhere you like in it.” This is like Shakyamuni Buddha who did a lot of baby-sitting himself. That is being compassionate.
“Not sparing body or life” means that they never rest. Some people do a little something and then feel that it was too bitter. They want to rest. When Bodhisattvas decide to do something, they do not care about their bodies or their lives. They do not spare their bodies or lives to work for living beings.
The following lines represent the cultivation of wisdom: If there are those who are reverent, without any other thoughts. They do not have “two hearts.” Do you see how detailed the Buddha got in this line? There are some people who seem to be reverent on the outside, but inside they are thinking, “Is this right or not? The Dharma Master says one thing, but are things really this way? Probably not. He speaks the Dharma, but he is just like all of us. Nothing special about him. I better take a good look into it myself. I am not going to let the Dharma Master cheat me.” I will tell you, now, people with wisdom cannot be cheated, even if people try to cheat them. People without wisdom always end up getting cheated whether they are afraid of getting cheated or not. Whether or not you get cheated depends on whether you have genuine wisdom or not.
Who have left the common stupid folk, who dwell alone in mountains and marshes, for people such as these you may speak it. This concludes the pair of blessings and wisdom.
3. The pair of reform and repentance. The following lines represent the quality of reforming one’s behaviour, and external operation: Further, Shariputra, if you see people who have cast aside bad knowing advisors. What is bad knowing advisor? One who teaches his disciples contrary to the moral precepts. And draw near to good friends, for people such as these, you may speak it.
The following lines refer to the quality of repentance, protecting one’s internal cultivation through morality. If you see disciples of the Buddha, holding precepts as purely, as pure, bright jewels, for people such as these, you may speak it, you may speak The Dharma Flower Sutra. This concludes the pair of reform and repentance.
4. The pair of self and others. The following lines refer to cultivation of oneself: If there are those who have no hatred, who are straightforward and gentle. If you meet up with a person who has no hateful thoughts…Hate is one of the three poisons. The three poisons are greed, hatred and stupidity. One without hatred is also without greed or stupidity. Their disposition is very straightforward; such people are incapable of being devious. Their minds are straight. Gentle means they are compliant towards living beings. They are not hard to get along with. Always merciful to all beings, and reverent of all Buddhas. Most people do not know how to be reverent of the Buddhas. When one sees the Buddhas, one should bow respectfully to them. Not to bow is to be irreverent. Why should we bow to the Buddhas? The Buddha is the father of all living beings in the world and we must be respectful to our father. When we see the Buddha, we should bow; when we see Buddha images, we should bow. When we see members of the Sangha who uphold the Buddhadharma, we should bow. We must revere the Triple Jewel. The phrase “to be reverent towards the Buddha” includes being reverent towards the Dharma and the Sangha as well. For people such as these, you may speak it.
The following lines refer to helping others in their cultivation: Further, if there are Buddha’s disciples, who in the great assembly, with minds clear and pure, use various causal conditions, parables and phrases, to speak the Dharma without obstruction, for people such as these, you may speak it. They might say, “No killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech and no taking intoxicants. If you keep the five precepts you can be born in the heavens. If you plant good causes you will reap good fruit; if you plant bad causes, you will reap an evil fruit. Whatever kind of cause you plant, you reap that fruit. So be very careful with respect to cause and effect.
This concludes the pair of self and others.
5. The following lines represent the pair of beginning and end, that is, beginning by seeking the benefits and ending by receiving the teaching respectfully atop the crown.
The following lines represent the beginning of the search: If there are Bhikshus, who, for the sake of all-wisdom, seek the Dharma in the four directions, with palms together, receiving it atop the crown. Bhikshu is a Sanskrit word. It has three meaning: 1) a medicant, 2) frightener of mara. Because they cultivate according to Dharma, they cause the demon kings to be afraid of them. 3) Destroyer of evil. They destroy all the evils of affliction. Because it has so many meanings, it is not translated.
The Bhikshus visit good knowing advisors in the four directions, seeking the Dharma. Who delight only in receiving and upholding the canon of Great Vehicle Sutras. The Dharma Flower Sutra, The Avatamsaka Sutra, The Shurangama Sutra–in general they seek the Great Vehicle Sutras everywhere. Refusing to accept so much as a single line from another scripture. Having found a Great Vehicle Sutra, they keep it exclusively. The do not study other Sutras. For people such as these, you may speak it. For people who are intent of their study, you can speak the Sutra.
The following lines refer to the end of the search: If there be those who, with mind intent, seek the Buddha’s sharira, or who likewise seek the Sutras, and attaining them hold them atop their crowns. To receive them atop the crown means to hold them in the highest respect. Such people will never again resolve to seek other Sutras, nor ever have the thought to seek the writings of outside ways, for people such as these, you may speak it. They would not run off to the east or west looking for other texts.
This concludes the pair of beginning and end.
Sutra:
I tell you, Shariputra,
Were I to speak of the Characteristics
Of those who seek the Buddha’s Path,
Exhausting aeons, I would not finish.
People such as these
Can believe and understand,
And for their Sake’s you should speak
The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
Outline:
L2. General conclusion.
Commentary:
I tell you, Shariputra, were I to speak of the Characteristics of the ten kinds of good people for whom the Dharma may be spoken, of those who seek the Buddha’s Path, exhausting aeons, I would not finish. So in general, I have just mentioned the ten above. People such as these can believe and understand the Sutra, and for their sake’s you should speak The Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.
Some people who study the Buddhadharma have come up with doubts about this passage. They recollect that The Avatamsaka Sutra says that if one claims that only one Sutra is correct and the others are wrong, that is the activity of a demon. Here, the Sutra seems to be telling us to cultivate one particular Sutra and not study the other Sutras. Isn’t this a contradiction? In reality, to maintain one Sutra is to maintain them all. The one gives rise to the many and the other Sutras are all included in the one Sutra. The Lotus Sutra does not tell you explicitly to cultivate only one Sutra. It is just that if you really exhaust all your efforts, you can only maintain one. If you are capable of maintaining more, that is fine. The more the better. So do not get attached and say that The Lotus Sutra tells you to maintain just one Sutra. Do not listen to the Sutras and get attached to them. You have to be flexible.
END OF CHAPTER 3