A Parable

Chapter 3

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.

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