A Parable

Chapter 3

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.

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