A Parable

Chapter 3

 

Sutra:

“All at once, throughout the house, a fire breaks out, setting the house ablaze.”

Outline:

M2. Describing the fire.

Commentary:

All at once, througout the house. “Throughout” means all around, on all sides, everywhere. This refers to the Eight Sufferings. The Eight Sufferings pervade the four elements and the four types of births. The Eight Sufferings have been discussed many times before. They are:

1. The suffering of birth.
2. The suffering of aging.
3. The suffering of sickness.
4. The suffering of death.
5. The suffering of being separated from loved ones.
6. The suffering of being together with those one hates.
7. The suffering of not getting what one seeks.
8. The suffering of the raging blaze of the Five Skandhas.

The Four Types of Births are:

1. Birth by womb.
2. Birth by egg.
3. Birth by moisture.
4. Birth by transformation.

Each type of birth has its own sufferings. However, creatures born from wombs know only the sufferings of womb-birth, and know nothing of the pain involved in egg, moisture, or transformation birth. When you become one of those kinds of beings, you will know of the sufferings that type undergoes. Now, we have not entered the other classes of birth so why talk about their sufferings? Because the greatly wise Buddha has already pointed the Way for us clearly, we know the Eight Sufferings pervade the four births.

“Throughout” means that the sufferings pervade the four births and the four elements.

All at once refers to the four types of birth and the four elements and the eight sufferings as all impermanent. Because they are impermanent, it says, “all at once.” You could also say that the Eight Sufferings exist “all at once,” or that one kind of suffering comes to exist all of a sudden. They are all impermanent.

A fire breaks out. Quite suddenly, a fire arose. Fire refers to suffering. The suffering, basically, does not exist, but because of ignorance various forms of suffering arise. Ignorance is the worst thing. Our tempers are just the fire-energy of our ignorance. Once the fire of ignorance arises, one does not understand anything at all. One has no judgement at all. That is just stupidity, because of stupidity, these sufferings come into being, and the fire of ignorance arises. You might also say that the fire of the Five Skandhas, form, feelings, perception, impulses, and consciousness, arise. The five skandhas are like fires.

Setting the house ablaze. This refers to the five skandhas which burn our bodies. The house represents the body. The five skandhas dwell within the house of the body and they set five kinds of fires which burn the house down. The fires are our tempers. It is said:

The body of a tiger, and ignorance’s blaze,
Are the roots of errors from former live’s days.

The fire of ignorance is as fierce as a tiger and it comes from former lives. In former lives one created too many offenses and so one now has no merit and virtue. Therefore, in this life, one has a big temper. This big temper is terrible! But you might also say it was the very best. How can you say it is both the very best and the very worst? No matter what it is, within the good, there is bad and within the bad, there is good. Things get good bit by bit, and things go bad, bit by bit, too. In what way is anger the very worst thing? After you get angry, you feel uncomfortable all over, even very pained. Wouldn’t you say that was bad? It is very bad for the body.

In what way is anger the very best thing? Once you get angry and realize it is painful, you would not let it happen anymore. Thus, you get rid of your anger. No more tiger; no more fire of ignorance. They are gone, because you have awakened. You know that anger is not good. It is like slapping yourself. If you get angry, you suffer. Realizing it is painful, you quit doing such stupid things as getting angry. Isn’t that the very best? You have escaped from what is not good. If you can fight your way out of the enemy’s trap, you are a hero. Although the fire of your ignorance is fierce, if you can escape from it, you are a Buddhist hero. Students of the Buddhadharma must break through ignorance. How? As I just said: Wake up. If you do not wake up, if you get angry and do not even realize it is a stupid thing to do, you get angry again and again, three times, four, five, up to countless times--ah! Ignorance, ignorance, and--pop! You die of rage!

Buddhists must cultivate patience.

What is patience?

When the most unbearable thing happens to you, you view it as if nothing were happening. You put it down. You cool off your brain and steady yourself. When something happens, do not immediately get angry. Cool off, and approach it in a reasonable manner. Then, you would not set off the fire of ignorance. There is no end to talking about this, but in general, the fire of ignorance can burn our bodies and ruin them. It can burn your house to ashes.

Sutra:

“The Elder’s sons, ten, twenty, even thirty of them are inside the house.”

Outline:

L6. Parable of the thirty sons.

Commentary:

“The Elder” as previously stated, is the Buddha, the Thus Come One. His sons refers to his “true sons,” and “initiate sons.” Ten refers to the Bodhisattvas. Twenty refers to the Hearers, and thirty refers to the Conditioned Enlightened Ones. Others say that the ten are the Hearers, the twenty are the Conditioned Enlightened One, and the thirty are the Bodhisattvas. Either way is all right. This is just an analogy, after all. The Dharma is flexible, not fixed, especially analogies, because they are not real to begin with. Even though they are not true in fact, they are true in principle.

The disciples of the Three Vehicles are within the triple realm, so the text says, are inside the house. They had heard the Buddhadharma in the past. In former lives, for limitless eons, they had listened to the Buddhadharma, and so they are very close, natural relationship, like that of blood relatives, like father and son. Because their affinities were so strong they became the Buddha’s “sons,” Dharma Princes. The Dharma Princes of the Great Vehicle were the Bodhisattvas. The Dharma Princes of the Middle Vehicle were the Conditioned Enlightened Ones. The Dharma Princes of the Small Vehicle were the Hearers. The number in each category is not fixed, however, for some of the Small Vehicle may have gone over to the Middle Vehicle and some of the Middle Vehicle may have gone over to the Great Vehicle. They were all within the burning house. The thirty sons represent the Buddha’s retinue. Other than the thirty sons, there were beings in the five paths, the “five hudred people,” who were not as close to the Buddha. So, the sons represent those of the Three Vehicles.

Sutra:

“The Elder, seeing the fire arise from the four sides, is greatly alarmed and makes the following reflection: ‘Although I have been able to escape safely through this burning doorway, all my children remain inside the burning house, happily attached to their amusement, unaware, unknowing, not alarmed and not afraid. The fire presses upon them and the pain will sear them, but at heart they do not mind it, nor have they any thought to escape.”

Outline:

K2. Specific parable
L1. Parable of the Elder seeing the fire.

Commentary:

The Elder is the Thus Come One. Seeing represents the Buddha’s vision with his Buddha eye, and this is not ordinary seeing. Seeing the fire arise represents the Buddha with his Buddha-eye, viewing the living beings in the six paths.

From the four sides: The beings in the six paths undergo the sufferings of the five skandhas. These sufferings arises from the four directions. The four directions represent the Four Applications of Mindfulness: Mindfulness with regard to the body, feelings, thought and dharmas. This was explained earlier in the passage about “Thus have I heard.” You should know that the body is a very unclean thing, a useless thing. Do not act as a slave for the body, a servant for the body. As the poet Tao yuanming said, “My mind has been my body’s slave.” In his elegant essasy, The Return, he writes,

I am going home!
My fields and gardens are choked with weeds.
Why should I not return?
My mind has been my body’s slave,
But why should I remain melancholy?

Having awakened to the past,
I need not reproach myself.
I know that in the future I can make up for it.
I know that I am not far from the path of confusion,
But I am now awake to the present as “right, and the past as “wrong.”

He says, “I am going home. I want to go back. I should return to my home.” But we shall change the meaning here a bit and say, “I want to return to my Buddha-home.”

My fields and gardens are choked with weeds. We can change it and say, “The field of my mind is choked with weeds.” The mind is like a field, and it has been badly neglected. Why? Because we have not studied the Buddhadharma, and the “grass” has grown up in our minds. The more “grass” there is, the stupider we become. The weeds are choking the garden of our minds, and if we do not hurry up and study the Buddhadharma, our mind will be wild and uncultivated.

“Why should I not return? I should hurry right up and go back. My mind has been my body’s slave. My mind has been working for my body. But why should I remain melancholy? Why should I be so unhappy and so depressed? Having awakened to the past, I need not reproach myself” Awakened means to understand. “Ah! I know that everything I did before was incorrect.”

Tao Yuanming called himself on his own faults. We all make mistakes. The only thing to be afraid of is that you are not aware of them. If you know about your own faults, then you are on your way to being a good person. Knowing that he was wrong in the past, there is no use wasting time in self-reproach.

“But I know that in the future I can make up for it. In the future I can do better.

“I know that I am not far from the path of confusion. I am like a lost sheep on a crooked path. The path of confusion, the stupid things I did, are still close at hand, but “I am now awake to the present as ‘right,’ and the past as ‘wrong’. I know that what I did before was wrong. I plan to do better in the future.”

This essay is extremely good. I like it very much. Later, if you want to learn it, I will explain to you.

The Elder saw the big fire arise from all four directions. The four directions refers to the Four Applications of Mindfulness, the first of which is to comtemplate the body as impure. It is not a clean thing. Knowing this, you will not act as slave for the body, as Tao Yuanming so aptly wrote, “My mind has been my body’s slave.” His meaning was much like that of the Sutra.

Ten Types of Wisdom of Those of the Three Vehicles.

Why does the text say “thirty” sons? Why doesn’t it says “eight” or “nine?” If you add them up, 10+20+30=60. Sixty represents the Six Perfections of those of the Great Vehicle.

Why does the text say “Ten?” This is because the Bodhisattvas, Hearers, and Conditioned Enlightened Ones, these Three Vehicles, all have ten kinds of wisdom.

1. Worldly wisdom. Although it is said to be worldly wisdom, it includes transcendental wisdom, because the sages of the Three Vehicles have used worldly wisdom to enlighten to all worldly dharmas. After that, they seek world-transcending Dharmas. Therefore, although it is said to be worldly wisdom, it is also transcendental wisdom. To put it another way, worldy wisdom itself is just transcendental wisdom. If you do not have worldly wisdom, how could you possess transcendental wisdom? World-transcending wisdom is born from worldly wisdom.

2. The wisdom of other’s minds. Hearers, the Conditioned Enlightened Ones, and the Bodhisattvas all have this wisdom. It is the Spiritual Penetration of Knowing the Thoughts in other People’s Minds. This spiritual penetration is produced from samadhi. The Arhats, that is, the Hearers, find it necessary to “intentionally observe” by means of the “wisdom of other’s minds.” This means that they have to use their minds to observe. If they do not, they would not know what it is someone else is thinking, and what it is they are about to do.

The wisdom of other’s minds which the Conditioned Enlightened Ones possess also involves this “intentional observation.” However, they do not need to be sitting in Dhyana cultivating samadhi to carry it out. They just “intentionally observe,” and, whatever you had it in your mind to say or do, they know. Thus, the Conditioned Enlightened Ones are one level higher in this respect than the Hearers.

At the Bodhisattva level, the wisdom of other’s thoughts does not require them to “intentionally observe.” They can know anytime. Thus, they are one level higher than the Conditioned Enlightened Ones. There are a lot finer discriminations which can be made, if one were to explain it in detail.

3. The wisdom of suffering. What does suffering have to do with wisdom? If you understand suffering, you will want to end suffering. If you want to end suffering, you can be rid of suffering. If you have no wisdom, how can you understand suffering? If you have no wisdom, you will suffer and not even realize you are suffering! If you have the wisdom to understand suffering, you can end suffering.

4. The wisdom of origination. This is the second of the Four Truths. Origination refers to the accumulation of afflictions. What does it have to do with wisdom? If you can know that origination involves affliction, if that is not wisdom, what is it? If you lack the wisdom or origination, you would not even know it is affliction. When affliction besets you, you will think of it as bread and butter and eat your fill! Why? Because you lack wisdom. With wisdom, when it comes, you will be aware: “Ah hah! That is affliction.” That awareness is just wisdom.

5. The wisdom of extinction. What is extinguished? Affliction. With the wisdom of origination, you still need the wisdom of extinction which eradicates afflictions. When afflictions are extinguished, Bodhi is produced and thus you obtain the Four Virtues of Nirvana:

1. Permanence
2. Bliss
3. True self
4. Purity

6. The wisdom of the Way. In cultivating the Way, you also need wisdom. If you have no wisdom, you would not be able to cultivate. You will waste your time all day long, and time will run out on you. In cultivating the Way, you need the wisdom of the Way.

7. The wisdom of Dharmas. Dharma is the Buddhadharma. If you want to cultivate the Buddhadharma, you must have the Selective Dharma-eye. The Selective Dharma-eye is just wisdom, our eyes of wisdom. With the Wisdom-eye, you would not do stupid things. Without it, you will.

What are stupid things? In studying the Buddhadharma, it is of primary importance that you do not commit the Ten Evil Acts. Secondly, you must diligently cultivate the Ten Good Deeds.

The Ten Evil Acts.

Three are committed with the body:
1. Killing,
2. Stealing, and
3. Sexual misconduct

Three are committed with the mind:
4. Greed,
5. Hatred, and
6. Stupidity

Four are committed with the mouth:
7. Abusive speech
8. Double-tongued speech
9. Frivolous speech, and
10. False speech

The majority of our offense karma is created with our mouths. How can the mouth create offenses? By talking. If you say good things, there is no offense involved. Strangely enough, the mouth delights in speaking evil, in gossip, and in slander. That is the easiest place for the mouth to go wrong and create offenses. One gossips, because one lacks the Selective Dharma-eye, one lacks wisdom. No matter what Bodhimanda it is, do not speak of its shortcomings. Their faults and problems are their own. We do not want to go there and put in our two cents. This is because:

Others’ wrongs, others’ obsessions,
Are their bad karma and their transgressions.

It is also said,

Good and evil are two diverging roads.
You can culivate the good, or commit offenses.

If you cultivate the Way, you cultivate it. If you create bad karma, you create it. That is just the way things are. There is nothing strange about it. Those who cultivate the Way should support the Bodhimanda. Then, you will be creating merit and virtue. You should not try to break up the Bodhimanda. If you break up the Bodhimanda, you create offenses. If support it, you establish merit. If you have the Selective Dharma-eye, you will not ruin the Bodhimanda. If you do not have it, you will get involved in various stupid actions.

8. The wisdom of comparison. Like the wisdom of the Dharma in which one uses the Selective Dharma-eye, this wisdom is one of comparing and choosing the superior Dharma-doors to cultivate.

9. The wisdom of the ultimate. Among the Three Vehicles, this is wisdom at its extreme point, exhausting all principles in which nothing is not known and seen.

10. The wisdom of non-production. This is the wisdom of the Patience with the Non-production of Dharmas. If you obtain this patience then, in the Three Realms, you do not see a single dharma produced and you do not see a single dharma extinguished. This experience cannot be fully expressed in words, nor can it be forgotten. You bear it in your mind; you know yourself. It is like a person who drinks water and knows for himself whether it is cold or warm.

These are the Ten Types of Wisdom, and each of the Three Vehicles has these ten. Thus, the text says “ten, twenty, or even thirty.” The people of the Three Vehicles are all in the burning house. The Elder, that is, the Buddha, using the Buddha-eye, sees the living beings in the six paths being burned by the fire of the Five Skandhas, and seeing the fire arise from the four sides.

The four sides, as I mentioned earlier, represent the Four Applications of Mindfulness.

The Four Applications of Mindfulness

1. Contemplate the body and impure.
2. Contemplate feelings as suffering.
3. Contemplate thought as impermanent.
4. Contemplate dharmas as without a self.

Our bodies are unclean things. In what way? Take a look. Perspiration flows from the entire body, and once you perspire, you smell. Tears and matter flow from the eyes. Wax oozes from the ears and mucus flows from the nose. Saliva and phelgm flow from the mouth. These seven orifices are always leaking unclean substances. Then, add the eliminatory orifices and you have nine holes which constantly ooze with impurities.

Everyone is familiar with these impurities. In our flesh and blood, there are many kinds of bacteria as well which are impure. Someone may not believe this at all, but in the future, advances in science will, no doubt, prove that the flesh and blood are unclean. It is all very complex. Especially when people eat a lot of strange things which get into their systems and do strange things. The matter in the digestive system is also unclean. So why should you be so caught up in working for your body? First of all contemplate the body as impure.

Secondly, contemplate feelings as suffering. Pleasurable sensations are enjoyable at first, but one soon grows tired of them, and they become disagreeable. It is a very obvious principle that there is nothing much to pleasure in itself.

Thirdly, contemplate thought as impermanent. Thought after thought changes and moves on. Thoughts are like the waves on the sea. When one thought passes, another takes its place. Produced and extinguished, produced and extinguished, thoughts do not stop. Therefore, contemplate thoughts as impermanent. The Vajra Sutra says, “Past thoughts cannot be apprehended; present thoughts cannot be apprehended; future thoughts cannot be apprehended.” Past, present, and future, none of the three phases of thought can be got at. So contemplate thought as impermanent.

We are never aware of where our thoughts have gone off to. Mencius said, “If people’s chickens and dogs run off, people go after them. But if their thoughts run off, they do not know to go after them.” If someone’s dog runs away, they may even go so far as to put an ad in the paper saying, “I have lost my dog! It is such and such a color and weighs so many pounds, and is of such and such a breed.” If their chickens run off, they look for them everywhere.

But when their minds go running off, they do not go after them. Where did their thoughts run off to? How can thoughts run off? When you have false thinking, that is just your mind running off. You may false think all day long. You think about getting rich, think about being an official, think about seeking fame and profit--these are all false thoughts. If you are destined to become an official, you will quite naturally do so. If you are destined to be famous or wealthy, it will happen according to your fate. You do not need to have false thinking about it and seek after it. Nevertheless, people insist on seeking after fame and profit, wealth and position, and do not understand that they should do good deeds. If you want your future to be bright, you should merely do good deeds and not ask what the future will bring. If you do good things, things will naturally go well for you.

Fourthly, contemplate all dharmas as without self. Not only is there no self, there are no dharmas either! Make empty both people and dharmas. Empty the emptiness as well.

The Four Applications of Mindfulness are very important. If I spoke of them in detail, what with The Dharma Flower Sutra being so long, when would I ever finish? So I have just commented on them briefly.

Seeing the fire break out on all four sides, the Elder is greatly alarmed. What does this mean? Doesn’t the Elder represent the Buddha? How can the Buddha be afraid? The Buddha is fearless. How can he be frightened? His great alarm is a manifestation of his great kindness and compassion. The Buddha is afraid that living beings will retreat from their resolve for Bodhi, and so he is alarmed. If they retreat from their resolve for Bodhi, they will enjoy no bliss. With kindness, the Buddha bestows joy upon living beings. With compassion, he relieves them of their sufferings. The Buddha’s fright represents his kindness and compassion for the living beings undergoing all the manifold miseries they must suffer if they retreat from the thought for Bodhi.

And makes the following reflection: Although I have been able to escape through this burning doorway. “I” is the Elder referring to himself. The door represents the doctrines of emptiness and existence. The four sides of the door represent existence. The center of the door which one goes through represents emptiness. Although we speak of emptiness and existence, originally there is no emptiness or existence, because the Buddha, in the “buring house” relies upon the final principle of the Middle Way to cultivate and accomplish the fruition of Buddhahood. He has escaped the burning house through the buring doorway.

The Buddha has safely escaped, because he is not harrassed by either the Five Skandhas or the Eight Sufferings. Nor is he shaken by the Four Inverted Views. The Four Inverted Views are four types of upside-down understanding and views. Common people and those of external religions take the Four Virtues of Nirvana and wrongly apply them to conditioned existence. Thus, their views are upside-down. The Buddha is not shaken by these four, and so he has escaped safely. He is secure and tranquil, having escaped the Three Realms.

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